The Patriot Post Digest 08-28

[nChrist]

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The Patriot Post Digest 08-28
From The Federalist Patriot
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THE FOUNDATION

“National defense is one of the cardinal duties of a statesman.”  - John Adams

PATRIOT PERSPECTIVE
Obama, the national security neophyte

By Mark Alexander

This week, Iranian Islamist Mahmud Ahmadi-Nejad tested his new ballistic missile, the Shahab-3 - range 1,250 miles. Next door in Iraq, 550 metric tons of “yellowcake” uranium ore, which Saddam intended to weaponize for use in his non-existent WMD program, were removed from Tuwaitha. (That’s enough for more than 100 medium-sized nuclear boomers.) And while al-Qa’ida has been routed in Iraq, there was plenty of evidence this week that jihadis are putting up fierce resistance in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Seems like this is as good a week as any to pause and ponder, “Who should be our next commander in chief?”

The most important constitutional role of our president is that of commander in chief - which is why every Patriot, every American, every human on the planet, should be deeply concerned about the prospect of a “President Obama.”

If Barack Hussein Obama, the most liberal member of the U.S. Senate, persuades voters that he is a “centrist candidate” and parlays that deception into defeating John McCain, there will be plenty of “change” in the coming years - unpleasant at best and catastrophic at worst.

Arguably, since our nation’s founding, no candidate has been less qualified than Obama to be his political party’s nominee for president of the United States. And nowhere is Obama more ill prepared than in matters of national security.

Obama responded to Iran’s missile tests this week, saying, “Now is the time to work with our friends and allies, and to pursue direct and aggressive diplomacy with the Iranian regime backed by tougher unilateral and multilateral sanctions. It’s time to offer the Iranians a clear choice between increased costs for continuing their troubling behavior, and concrete incentives that would come if they change course.”

“Incentives”? Mahmud Ahmadi-Nejad has vowed to destroy Israel and create another Holocaust. How about this incentive - a paraphrase from JFK during the Cuban missile debacle: “It shall be the policy of this nation to regard any missile launched from Iran against any ally of the United States as an attack by Iran on the United States, requiring a full retaliatory response upon Iran.”

Further, Obama insists, “I trust the American people to understand that it is not weakness, but wisdom to talk not just to our friends, but to our enemies, like Roosevelt did, and Kennedy did, and Truman did.”

Come again? A quick fact check and one finds that Franklin Roosevelt did not hold direct talks with Adolf Hitler or Hideki Tojo. Harry Truman’s “pre-conditions” for peace negotiations with Japan were two atomic bombs, and Truman didn’t talk with North Korean dictator Kim Il Sung after his invasion of South Korea in 1950. Instead, he sent troops, and we are still there, as we are in Japan and Germany. As for John Kennedy, he did meet with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev in 1961. But Khrushchev knew, after Kennedy’s Bay of Pigs fiasco, that he could outflank Kennedy.

Elie Abel, who authored The Missile Crisis, the definitive text on Russia’s placement of long-range nukes in Cuba, said, “How close we came to Armageddon I did not fully realize until I started researching this book.” In it, he wrote, “There is reason to believe that Khrushchev took Kennedy’s measure in June 1961 and decided this was a young man who would shrink from hard decisions. There is no evidence to support the belief that Khrushchev ever questioned America’s power. He questioned only the president’s readiness to use it. As he once told Robert Frost, he came to believe that Americans are ‘too liberal to fight’.”

When Obama was asked if he would meet with North Korea’s Kim Jong-il, without preconditions, he responded, “I think it’s a disgrace that we have not spoken to them.”

Well heck, Ted Turner went to North Korea and did some negotiating. Perhaps Obama plans to appoint Turner’s ex, “Hanoi” Jane Fonda, his ambassador there.
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[nChrist]

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The Patriot Post Digest 08-28
From The Federalist Patriot
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Talk aside, we have boots on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan, and in regard to Operation Iraqi Freedom, Obama’s abject nescience is readily apparent.

“Let me be as clear as I can be,” says Obama. “I intend to end this war. My first day in office I will bring the Joint Chiefs of Staff in and I will give them a new mission and that is to end this war - responsibly, deliberately, but decisively.”

The only way to end a war “responsibly, deliberately and decisively” is victory.

On retreat from Iraq, Obama says, “What’s important is to understand the difference between strategy and tactics... I am not somebody - unlike George Bush - who is willing to ignore facts on the basis of my preconceived notions.”

I have been through 16 national-security programs for senior tacticians and strategists, and I do not recall ever coming across any alumni reference to “Barack Obama.” I would suggest that Obama take a short course on The Long War.

Of course, Obama announced this week that he plans to visit Iraq for a “fact-finding mission,” in order to make “a thorough assessment” [Read: “Change my policy”]. Here is a fact he might consider: Attacks in Iraq are down more than 90 percent over the previous year.

Regarding al-Qa’ida strongholds in Afghanistan or Pakistan, Obama says, “I think it would be a profound mistake for us to use nuclear weapons in any circumstance.” Rule number one - NEVER take any option off the table, EVER.

Most stupefyingly, Obama has pledged to revitalize the Clinton Doctrine for dealing with terrorists - treat terrorism as a criminal matter.

In regard to Obama’s plan for overall military preparedness, it just gets worse.

“I will cut investments in unproven missile defense systems.” This year, both our sea-based SM-3 and ground-based midcourse defense system missiles proved to be successful. The U.S. Bureau of Arms Control concluded in May, “The ballistic missile danger to the US, its forces deployed abroad, and allies and friends is real and growing.” (See Obama’s pledge to abolish missile defense).

“I will not weaponize space.” Memo to Senator Obama: Our current policy is not to weaponize space.

“I will slow our development of future combat systems...” The average service age of our frontline fighter aircraft is 23 years. The Army’s Future Combat Systems is the first full-spectrum modernization effort since the 1960s. Of course, the Marines, who are still using some hardware from long-ago wars, have always improvised, adapted and overcome.

“I will set a goal of a world without nuclear weapons... I will seek a global ban on the production of fissile material and I will negotiate with Russia to take our ICBMs off hair-trigger alert and to achieve deep cuts in our nuclear arsenals.”

Well, I’m all for no nuclear weapons. However, until the other guys are willing to give up their 4,162 nukes, we had best maintain a deterrence strategy, and since most nuclear weapon components have a shelf life, we must continue to update our weapons for them to be functional. And what’s this nonsense about U.S. nuclear forces being on “hair-trigger alert”? Apparently, Candidate Obama has been watching reruns of “Dr. Strangelove.”

In his first annual address, President George Washington declared, “To be prepared for war, is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.” Apparently, Obama, and the rest of his far-Left cadre, missed that memo.

In 1994, Ronald Reagan observed, “The Democrats may remember their lines, but how quickly they forget the lessons of the past. I have witnessed five major wars in my lifetime, and I know how swiftly storm clouds can gather on a peaceful horizon... In the end, it all comes down to leadership, and that is what this country is looking for now.”

Indeed, it is.
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[nChrist]

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The Patriot Post Digest 08-28
From The Federalist Patriot
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Quote of the week

“The disconnect between what Democrats are saying about Iraq and what is actually happening there has reached grotesque proportions. Democrats won an exhilarating electoral victory in 2006 pledging withdrawal at a time when conditions in Iraq were dire and we were indeed losing the war. Two years later, when everything is changed, they continue to reflexively repeat their ‘narrative of defeat and retreat’ (as Joe Lieberman so memorably called it) as if nothing has changed... Obama and the Democrats would forfeit every one of these successes to a declared policy of fixed and unconditional withdrawal. If McCain cannot take to the American people the case for the folly of that policy, he will not be president. Nor should he be.”  - Charles Krauthammer

On cross-examination

“[W]hen I hear people say let’s bring the troops home and end the war...it’s not going to end the war. I think it’s going to give you a war of significantly increased proportions. I remember how we reacted to Rwanda. How could we have let that happen? Why didn’t we step in? Why didn’t we get the international community engaged? Well, you know, what if you have a humanitarian catastrophe in Iraq and it’s not a question of why didn’t we step in, it’s we stepped out. How is that going to affect people?”  - Ryan Crocker, U.S. ambassador to Iraq

The BIG lie

To review all the BIG lies on Iraq, revisit Alexander’s essay Demo-gogue traitors.

GOVERNMENT & POLITICS
News from the Swamp: Wiretapping bill

The Senate voted Wednesday, 69-28, to approve a major revamping of federal surveillance laws sought by President George W. Bush, which includes legal immunity for telecommunication companies that have assisted the NSA with terrorist surveillance. The bill is essentially a compromise, granting immunity for telecoms, but adding greater judicial oversight. In December 2006, the editors at The New York Times decided, with their public disclosure of the NSA program, that they were to be the arbiters of which national security secrets the public should know about. Since that time, wiretapping has been the source of much consternation for Leftists, who confuse civil liberties of law-abiding American citizens with those of terrorists aiming to kill law-abiding American citizens.

Many congressional Democrats still adamantly oppose this national security program, but two particular votes caught our attention: those of Sens. Barack Obama (D-IL) and Hillary Clinton (D-NY). As Obama runs as fast as he can to the political center for the general election, he voted for the bill he had long opposed, calling it “improved but imperfect.” Clinton, on the other hand, now free from the constraints of the campaign trail, voted against the bill. Alas, John McCain (R-AZ), who supports the bill, was too busy campaigning to make the vote. The House passed the bill in June and President Bush signed it Thursday.

New & notable legislation

The Senate aims to pass Friday a mortgage bailout for hundreds of thousands of homeowners facing foreclosure. The bill designates $300 billion for a new Federal Housing Administration program for homeowners who don’t qualify for normal government-backed loans to be able to refinance. Meanwhile, Bush administration officials are contemplating either a government takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two largest mortgage companies in the country, or an explicit guarantee on the $5 trillion in debt owned by the companies. That should fix everything.

Speaking of housing, Barack Obama is under fire for his support of federally financed housing projects such as those of Grove Parc Plaza in Chicago - a neighborhood that Obama represented as a state senator for eight years. Grove Parc is a collection of 504 apartments subsidized by taxes. Now, 99 of the units are vacant, and the complex was given an 11 on a 100-point scale by federal inspectors. The buildings now face demolition, and yet Obama still supports such waste, as evidenced by his $500-million-a-year proposal for the creation of an Affordable Housing Trust Fund.

In other news, Rasmussen Reports measures congressional approval at a whopping nine percent, the lowest ever, while 52 percent say Congress is doing a poor job, tying a record high. Yet Democrats are expected to increase their majority in November. Go figure.
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[nChrist]

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The Patriot Post Digest 08-28
From The Federalist Patriot
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Campaign watch: McCain’s new operations manager

John McCain’s presidential campaign has hired its part-time counselor Steve Schmidt as its full-time operations boss, signifying a shift into high gear as the convention approaches. McCain’s campaign has taken some justified criticism recently for being lackadaisical and muddled, and it is believed that Schmidt will turn that around with his hard-charging style. He comes with an impressive rèsumè, having worked for Vice President Dick Cheney, guided the Supreme Court nominations of John Roberts and Samuel Alito, and saved California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s languishing re-election campaign. His focus for McCain will be on policy positioning, campaign ads and scheduling, as well as get-out-the-vote efforts.

As for policy positions, McCain pledged last week to balance the federal budget by the end of his first term as president, a promise that critics say runs afoul of his earlier proposal to make significant cuts to corporate and income taxes. McCain, a consistent opponent of earmarks, noted that cutting spending, not raising taxes, will be key to balancing the budget, which is an admirable position. Unfortunately, it’s hard to take his pledge seriously. He will need the help of Congress to make it happen, and few members of Congress have proven willing to give up their precious entitlement programs and pork-barrel spending.

From the Left: Obama’s sweet home loan

More press Barack Obama doesn’t want: It turns out that Illinois’ man of the people secured a juicy loan deal to purchase his $1.65 million Chicago mansion. The loan from Northern Trust bank came with an interest rate below the average for jumbo loans at that time, and Obama paid no origination fee. The deal was sweet enough to save Obama about $300 a month, or $100,000 over the life of the loan. To be fair, there is nothing unusual or even fundamentally wrong with banks adjusting their mortgage rates when they compete for wealthy homeowners; however, Obama’s recent pronouncements about the subprime mess paint him as hypocritical on the issue. Like fellow Democrat senators Kent Conrad (D-ND) and Chris Dodd (D-CT), who received nice loan deals in return for working on lender-friendly legislation, Obama rightly has been accused of quid pro quo, thanks in large part to his relationship with Chicago slumlord Tony Rezko and his one-time campaign consultant James Johnson.

Obama tried to make a positive splash this week by announcing that he will give his convention speech in Denver at Invesco Field, home of the Denver Broncos. The stadium holds 75,000, a far cry from the Pepsi Center, which holds 20,000 and will feature the balance of the Democrat National Convention. “Spectacle” is the key word here, with Obama planning to pack the stadium with a crowd of cheering supporters so he can show the world just how many people he’s brainwashed with his teleprompted oratory. We can also expect an ad nauseam play on the fact that the day of Obama’s speech marks the anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

Of course, the week wouldn’t be complete without a gaffe from the Obama campaign. At a fundraiser meant to help pay the debt of former rival Hillary Clinton, Barack nearly forgot to mention her (or is that, “forgot”), taking the stage again only after his remarks were concluded and he had said goodnight to the audience. His donors aren’t exactly anxious to help, either. So far, less than $100,000 has been given to Clinton. At that pace, retiring $23 million in debt could take a while.

Limbaugh’s big payday

Radio shock jock Howard Stern used to proclaim himself the king of all media, but that title more deservedly belongs to conservative talk-show host Rush Limbaugh, who just signed a $400-million deal to keep his radio show syndicated through 2016. Limbaugh’s show, the highest-rated radio show in the business, pulls in some 14 to 20 million listeners every week and features some of the most lucrative advertising slots in all of media. All of Air America radio never pulled in as many listeners as Rush gets each and every week. With such stunning success, it is no wonder that liberals want to revive the “fairness doctrine.” Limbaugh, whose show will have been on the air for 20 years come 1 August, arguably has become the leading voice of conservatism in America. This deal ensures that he will remain at the forefront for some time to come.

Jesse Helms, 1921-2008

Speaking of conservative icons, five-term North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms died on the Fourth of July at the age of 86. One of the most vocal and controversial politicians of our time, Helms championed conservative causes resolutely, sometimes to his own detriment. His somewhat callous views on AIDS sufferers - mainly homosexual men and intravenous drug addicts - caused an uproar in the 1980s when the disease was still new. He came to regret the rigidity of his position in later years. Helms was, in fact, a highly successful legislator, and he never bowed in his unwavering commitment to the defeat of communism or in his strong stand in defense of liberty. In fact, his staunch positions in this area persuaded Ronald Reagan to make foreign policy more of an issue in his presidential bids in 1976 and 1980.
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[nChrist]

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The Patriot Post Digest 08-28
From The Federalist Patriot
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NATIONAL SECURITY
Warfront with Jihadistan: Saddam’s yellowcake

The latest chapter of Saddam Hussein’s nuclear program came to a close on Saturday when 550 metric tons of Iraqi “yellowcake” uranium arrived in Canada on a U.S.-flagged ship. In a secret operation that lasted several weeks, U.S. and Iraqi authorities removed the uranium from the Tuwaitha nuclear complex 12 miles south of Baghdad. A Canadian uranium producer purchased the yellowcake from the Iraqi government for “tens of millions of dollars.” Once enriched to a sufficient level, the uranium will be used to generate electricity, which is not exactly what Saddam Hussein had in mind for it. The uranium removed from Tuwaitha was enough to build approximately 142 nuclear weapons.

Critics of the Iraq War have been quick to point out that the UN already knew about Saddam’s yellowcake, and that it was purchased before the 1991 Gulf War, but such arguments are meaningless in view of the Duelfer Report’s conclusion that Saddam was trying to get sanctions lifted in order to resume his WMD program. In addition, there was Saddam’s penchant for throwing out UN weapon inspectors. Had sanctions been lifted with Hussein still in power, no honest person can dismiss the likelihood of a nuclear arms race between Iraq and its primary enemy, Iran. Moreover, British and U.S. intelligence agencies still maintain that Iraq was interested in buying more yellowcake from Niger in 1999, despite the denials of Leftist celebrity Joseph Wilson.

Speaking of Wilson, his lies were further exposed this week with the release of a formerly classified CIA document. According to the document, “super secret agent” Valerie Plame did in fact suggest that the CIA send her husband to Niger to sort out what she called “this crazy report” about Iraqi efforts to buy uranium. Under oath, Plame told Congress that she made no such recommendation, and Wilson himself has insisted that Valerie had nothing to do with his little excursion. Somehow we doubt that the Democrat-controlled Congress will call Plame back in to explain herself. But no matter: The world is safer without Saddam Hussein and his nuclear ambitions, and America is no doubt safer without Valerie Plame at the CIA or Joseph Wilson at the State Department.

The media abandon Iraq

A popular Leftist bumper sticker during the Vietnam War read: “What if they had a war, and no one came?” An appropriate sticker for today might ask: “What if the U.S. won a war, but the media didn’t report it?” Despite a plethora of good news about the Iraq war, news outlets are reporting everything except the coalition’s great success. The Iraq War no longer follows the narrative that Leftists and defeatists (but we repeat ourselves) believe it should, and so they have decided that our heroic efforts there are no longer newsworthy.

A case in point is the 18 benchmarks that Congress set last year for Iraqi progress. As of last week, Iraq had met 15 of those benchmarks, but only Fox News Channel saw fit to report it. Fox anchor Brit Hume even predicted as much, saying he doubted that “word of this progress is going to get through. I suspect that this broadcast tonight - and maybe some others on this channel - are the only ones who are going to make a headline out of this.” He was right. While Fox cited the progress in Iraq, most of the Leftmedia outlets were reporting that U.S. troop deaths in Afghanistan had risen.

Also ignored is the fact that al-Qa’ida in Iraq has been driven from its last stronghold in Mosul and that attacks by insurgents and militias are down 90 percent from one year ago. Conditions on the ground have improved to the point that the last of the “surge brigades” will leave Iraq by the end of this month, and more than 300 soldiers who were supposed to deploy last month were turned around. But it’s not likely that we will hear any of this on the nightly news. According to American Journalism Review, 23 percent of last year’s news coverage was about Iraq. This year, it has fallen to three percent. One could be forgiven for coming to the conclusion that, so far as the Leftmedia is concerned, winning isn’t news.

In the Senate, at least, winning means something. Gen. David Petraeus was confirmed almost unanimously Thursday as the new commander of U.S. Central Command, and Gen. Ray Odierno was confirmed as the new top U.S. commander in Iraq.
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[nChrist]

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The Patriot Post Digest 08-28
From The Federalist Patriot
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Missile defense agreement and Iranian tests

The United States and the Czech Republic signed a pact Tuesday to build a missile defense system on Czech soil aimed at defending the U.S. and NATO allies against missile attacks from countries such as Iran. Reuters reports, “Under the proposed $3.5 billion system, sensors and radar would detect an enemy missile in flight and guide a ground-based interceptor to destroy it without explosives.” A similar deal with Poland is still in the works.

As they have all along, Russian leaders expressed vehement objections. “If the real deployment of an American strategic missile defense shield begins close to our borders, then we will be forced to react not with diplomatic methods, but with military-technical methods,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry said.

Apparently, Russia paid little heed to Iran’s test of several long-range missiles Wednesday, although the tests offer Exhibit A for the necessity of our defense system. One missile tested, the Shahab-3, has a range of 1,250 miles - far enough to hit Eastern Europe or Israel. Additionally, as The Wall Street Journal notes, “it’s not hard to imagine a scenario whereby Tehran shares a missile - and perhaps a nuclear warhead - with its brother Muslims in Chechnya.”

FARC hostages rescued

Colombian soldiers staged one of the greatest hostage rescues in history last week, all thanks to a little acting. A disgruntled member of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) decided to help the Colombian army rescue three American contractors, former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and 11 others held captive in the Colombian jungle. The double agent convinced the commander in charge of the hostages that FARC leaders wanted the 15 hostages transported to another location. The rescue crew of 12 Colombians - some dressed as FARC members and others wearing Che Guevara T-shirts and pretending to be part of a fake group called the International Humanitarian Mission - had a helicopter waiting to transport the hostages to their next destination. Everyone, including the hostages, was fooled until the Colombians revealed themselves once they were safely in the air.

Ironically, it was the Che T-shirts that were the most convincing part. “They were wearing Che Guevara shirts, and I thought: It’s the FARC!” said Betancourt. The Associated Press couldn’t bring themselves to mention that fact, calling the apparel simply “white” shirts. As Betancourt’s story is told, however, it will serve to bring down the myth that Che was a romantic hero instead of a terrorist thug. Indeed, Investor’s Business Daily notes, “In reality FARC is Che in action. No group has more right to claim the Guevara legacy than these jungle terrorists who actually have been at it since the days of Che.” The story also is damaging for FARC in that even Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez are distancing themselves from the terrorist group they have long supported.

As a thank you for Colombia’s daring rescue of three American citizens, we suggest that Congress pass the free-trade agreement currently being held hostage by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). Maybe if Republicans wear Che T-shirts, they can trick her into it.

BUSINESS & ECONOMY
Outlook on gas

With gasoline at $4 per gallon, basic economic principles have become the core curriculum at the school of hard knocks. Indeed, some are predicting $6 a gallon by the end of the year. Demand for gasoline was strongly inelastic at $2 and $3 per gallon, but the current price has caused consumers to change their consumption habits, reducing demand. Drivers are slowing down, carpooling is gaining in popularity and employers are structuring their work schedules to utilize public transportation. Telecommuting, once limited to the information and financial industries, is on the rise as employers attempt to restrain travel and transportation expenses. But these changes are not without cost. The SUV that was purchased two years ago for $30,000 to $40,000 is now worth $12,000. A generation that fled the social decay of the city in pursuit of open spaces and low-cost housing in the suburbs is spending the price difference on gasoline.

Then again, many pensions are funded by oil investments. The world’s largest pension fund, that of California’s public employees, has gained 68 percent since last year by investing in oil and other commodities.
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[nChrist]

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The Patriot Post Digest 08-28
From The Federalist Patriot
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Ultimately, ours is an economy that relies on a stable energy supply, and this volatility in fuel prices is a reflection of the instability of our present supply. Classic economics teaches that an increase in price will foster investment to increase the supply in order to capture potential profits. That investment is taking place right now and is evidenced by the increase in the stock price of energy companies and the oil-trading activities in the futures markets. To the extent that investment has been curtailed, it has not been because of the market, but regulatory burdens that restrict market options. It seems even some Democrats are figuring that out. Sen. Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) conceded this week, “I’m open to drilling and responsible production.”

In a related story, a report by the World Bank estimates that biofuels have driven up food costs by 75 percent over the last six years, contrary to the U.S. government’s assertion that biofuels have caused only a three-percent increase in prices.

Regulatory Commissars: A future blueprint

Sacramento, California, is on the forefront of a large-scale social experiment, one that largely has gone under the radar until recently. In the Golden State’s capital, the “blueprint” for new development is one of more density and more mixed-use communities - ideally one can live, work and shop within a neighborhood. While many suburbs were built with this thought in mind after World War II, more recent suburbs have houses spread out from one another on large lots some distance away from schools and services.

Sacramento’s plan is part of a larger “smart growth” movement, which has called for a return to the days of smaller living quarters bunched more tightly in an effort to create a density to attract retailers who would also locate nearby. While “smart growth” has its proponents, what remains to be seen is if the closer quarters will make for better neighbors, or if it just forces those who would like to have more to live with less.

Also in California, newly passed legislation mandates that, beginning in 2009, all new-model cars be labeled with global-warming scores. Ranging from 1-10, the scores will be based on emission calculations and will join vehicle smog scores, already required by law. New York is slated to follow suit with a similar law in 2010, and the European Union is considering taking it a step further by actually putting a price on emissions. Nothing like new taxes to make government salivate.

Furthermore, at this week’s G8 Summit in Japan, President Bush acquiesced to a communiquè pledging to consider a minimum 50-percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. This is a marked shift from last year’s summit, at which the United States was the sole country not to agree to the reduction, perhaps due to the decided lack - which persists today - of significant evidence connecting greenhouse gas emissions and global warming.

Georgia energy plant blocked

Environmentalists are gleeful over their success in blocking the creation of 100-plus jobs and millions of dollars in revenue for one of Georgia’s poorest counties. Well, they wouldn’t quite put it that way, of course. But according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, such would have been the benefits of a coal-fired power plant, construction of which State Superior Court Judge Thelma Wyatt Cummings Moore injudiciously blocked last week.

Citing the Supreme Court’s decision requiring the EPA to regulate the emission of CO2, which, incidentally, is both botanically necessary and harmless to humans and animals, Moore nixed the 1,200-megawatt plant in Early County, leaving many to wonder how the state will meet its rising electricity needs in the future.

To make matters worse, the rewards of bowing at the altar of global warming are guaranteed to be virtually nonexistent. Patrick Michaels, senior fellow for environmental studies at the Cato Institute, notes that even if every nation adopted the Kyoto Treaty, the world would rein in global warming by a mere seven-hundredths of a degree Celsius.

So while the Sierra Club elitists herald “a new day,” Georgia’s workers are left to live that day facing continued economic difficulties, thanks to global warming’s mindless minions and one duly-deluded judge.

This week’s ‘Alpha Jackass’ award

“Coal makes us sick, oil makes us sick; it’s global warming. It’s ruining our country, it’s ruining the world. We’ve got to stop using fossil fuel.”  - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Searchlight)
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[nChrist]

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The Patriot Post Digest 08-28
From The Federalist Patriot
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New Jersey health issues

New Jersey’s government health insurance system is working wonders with uninsured people and the hospitals that serve them. The numbers of uninsured are rising rapidly as overregulated health insurance prices many consumers out of the market. Cutbacks to state-funded hospitals that treat uninsured patients have forced many institutions ever closer toward bankruptcy. In the last year and a half, six hospitals have closed, and many others are operating in the red. Thanks to shortsighted legislative meddling in the healthcare market, the state can now expect many thousand new uninsured patients concentrating unreimbursed costs in fewer surviving hospitals. In their zeal to place blame, self-appointed community activists have yet to realize that hospitals with income streams from wealthier communities and patients covered by private insurance remain solvent, while hospitals relying upon government payments eventually must close due to lack of funding.

At the federal level, Congress approved another bill to prevent an 11-percent reduction in provider payments for services by attempting to force seniors to leave the private-insurer Medicare Advantage programs through reducing reimbursements to the insurers. Apparently, Democrats see any privately funded medical care as inimical to their interests, so they are working to get rid of it. They want us to have but one choice: Medicare, which is rapidly careening toward bankruptcy.

With the seemingly endless political rhetoric devoted to changing America’s healthcare system, voters should demand that politicians fix their mistakes first. If they don’t, then as Will Rogers once observed, voters will be unlucky enough to receive all the government that we’ll be paying for.

CULTURE
Around the world: Sharia in Britain

Lord Chief Justice Lord Phillips, the most senior judge in England, lent his support this week to the use of sharia law to resolve disputes among Muslims. “Those entering into a contractual agreement can agree that the agreement shall be governed by a law other than English law,” he said. He added that punishments and divorce rulings would still have to comply with English law and insisted, “It was not very radical to advocate embracing sharia law in the context of family disputes.” Islamic Sharia law is not exactly known to place women on equal footing with men, which makes Britain’s acceptance of the alternative law ironic. Phillips is not the first Brit to embrace the change, either. Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams said earlier this year that sharia law would be suitable for governing marital law, financial transactions and arbitration in disputes. Western civilization certainly has come a long way.

Climate change this week: No AC

Time magazine’s Joe Klein offered a proposal this week that is sure to go over well with Americans of all stripes, particularly middle-age women. Speaking of climate change, Klein wrote, “How hot is it? I will confess a bias here. I love warm weather, even when it slouches toward humidity. I detest the harsh, slightly metallic quality of the air forced through even the fanciest AC systems. The only air conditioner I own sits, unused, in my car; my home is happily unrefrigerated. But given the energy mess we’re in, I can now gild my personal preference with a patina of high-mindedness: air-conditioning is bad for the planet, and for national security, and for our balance-of-payments deficit. Unfortunately, it is not as bad as I’d like it to be - in part because not all of our electricity is provided by fossil fuels (although coal does predominate). And also because air-conditioning represents a relatively small slice of our energy use, an estimated 4%.” Thanks Joe, for stepping up to save the planet.

In related news, Australian psychiatrists reportedly have detected the first case of “climate change delusion.” Joshua Wolf and Robert Salo of the Royal Children’s Hospital wrote, “A 17-year-old man was referred to the inpatient psychiatric unit at Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne with an eight-month history of depressed mood... He also... had visions of apocalyptic events.” They continued, “The patient had also developed the belief that, due to climate change, his own water consumption could lead within days to the deaths of millions of people through exhaustion of water supplies.” The obvious conclusion is that the 17-year-old has been listening to Al Gore, who thinks the planet has a fever.
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[nChrist]

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The Patriot Post Digest 08-28
From The Federalist Patriot
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Court Jesters: Suing God

A Michigan man suffering from gender-disorientation pathology is suing two Bible publishers, Zondervan and Thomas Nelson Publishing, for violating his constitutional rights because their versions of the Bible call homosexuality a sin. He claims that he has endured periods of “demoralization, chaos and bewilderment” due to these translations, and is seeking $60 million from Zondervan and $10 million from Thomas Nelson. No word on his position on the original Hebrew and Greek, which say the same thing. The Wall Street Journal’s James Taranto notes, “The Bible publishers are likely to prevail in this case, and they have pornographer Larry Flynt to thank for it. In the 1988 case of Hustler v. Falwell, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the First Amendment protects speech against claims for intentional infliction of emotional distress, unless that speech fails to meet the very permissive standards of U.S. libel law.” How’s that for irony?

Non Compos Mentis

Political correctness knows no bounds, including those of pretty basic knowledge of the world (and universe) we live in. As evidence, we submit the recent altercation at a meeting of Dallas County commissioners regarding traffic tickets. The Dallas Morning News reports, “County commissioners were discussing problems with the central collections office that is used to process traffic ticket payments and handle other paperwork normally done by the JP Courts. Commissioner Kenneth Mayfield, who is white, said it seemed that central collections ‘has become a black hole’ because paperwork reportedly has become lost in the office. Commissioner John Wiley Price, who is black, interrupted him with a loud ‘Excuse me!’ He then corrected his colleague, saying the office has become a ‘white hole.’ That prompted Judge Thomas Jones, who is black, to demand an apology from Mayfield for his racially insensitive analogy.”

Merriam-Webster defines a black hole not only as a “celestial object that has a gravitational field so strong that light cannot escape it,” but also simply “an empty space.” That simultaneously describes Commissioner Price and political correctness in general. No wonder he was upset.

And last...

Speaking of black holes, Barack Obama needs more than just a better national-defense plan - he needs a better self-defense plan. The Rev. Jesse Jackson was caught on tape making a vulgar threat to Obama because “Barack been, um, talking down to black people.” Obama has recently been giving lectures about black culture that are in some ways reminiscent of Bill Cosby - greater emphasis on fatherhood, stay in school, and the like. Jackson has a financial interest in keeping black Americans down, so he was understandably peeved. What he wasn’t prepared for, however, was the hot mike into which his voice carried as he whispered to Reed Tuckson, an executive vice president at United Health Group, that he wanted to “cut [Barack’s] nuts out.” Funny that, coming from the father of an illegitimate love child. Jackson, of course, is no stranger to controversial remarks - he once referred to Jews as “Hymies” and to New York City as “Hymietown”  - and he issued a hasty apology when Fox News ran the comments. “My support for Senator Obama’s campaign is wide, deep and unequivocal.” Support? As the old saying goes, with friends like these...

Veritas vos Liberabit - Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus, et Fidelis! Mark Alexander, Publisher, for The Patriot’s editors and staff. (Please pray for our Patriot Armed Forces standing in harm’s way around the world, and for their families - especially families of those fallen Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen, who granted their lives in defense of American liberty.)