Columnist.
On Monday, the New York Post reported on a website where would-be jihadists have been "meticulously dissecting" convicted terrorist Faisal Shahzad's failure to detonate a car bomb in Times Square in 2010. The purpose of this dissection is to improve the chances of the next bomber's ability to carry out a mission of destruction. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), who has distributed these analyses to law enforcement officials, consider them critical in understanding violent jihad. Thus, it is a little more than ironic that the New York City Police Department (NYPD) has been brow-beaten by the American left and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) to stop showing the anti-extremist film, The Third Jihad to police personnel. Thankfully, some Muslims have seen through the political intimidation. Enter Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, president of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD).
If two recent court decisions are any indication, technology and privacy are at increasing loggerheads with each other. Last Monday, the Supreme Court of the United States (SOTUS) ruled that attaching a Global Positioning System (GPS) device to a suspect's vehicle cannot be done without first obtaining a search warrant. But in another ruling on the same day, Colorado U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn ordered a Colorado woman to decrypt her own laptop computer so that prosecutors may use any evidence produced against her in a criminal case. The judge dismissed the defendant's contention that doing so would constitute a violation of the Fifth Amendment's protection against self-incrimination.
Apparently a better relationship between Democrats and Republicans is in the eye of the beholder. One day after his State of the Union speech, where he told Americans that genuine reform can't happen unless we "end the notion that the two parties must be locked in a perpetual campaign of mutual destruction; that politics is about clinging to rigid ideologies instead of building consensus around common sense ideas," president Barack Obama had what might be charitably described as a less than cordial encounter with Arizona's Republican governor, Jan Brewer. "He was a little thin-skinned," Brewer said during a later interview on local radio station News/Talk 92.3 KTAR. "I was a bit taken aback by his stance and his attitude [on the tarmac]," she added. noting that Obama walked away from her "[as] I was trying to make a point that I thought that my book was right and correct." The book in question is "Scorpions for Breakfast: My Fight Against Special Interests, Liberal Media, and Cynical Politicos to Secure America's Border," about Brewer's approach to dealing with Arizona's illegal alien problem. According to the governor, the president was "a little disturbed" regarding her description of a previous meeting between the two in the Oval Office on June 3rd, 2010.
The seemingly endless saga pitting public service employees and their Democratic enablers against Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has taken its latest turn. A coalition known as United Wisconsin, in coordination with the Democrat Party, has reportedly turned in petitions containing nearly one million signatures to the state's Government Accountability Board (GAB) in an effort to oust the governor. The number far exceeds the total of 540,208 valid signatures, or 25 percent of all the votes cast in the 2010 election, required to engender a recall election. The petitioners also submitted approximately 305,000 more signatures than were needed to trigger a recall election against Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, and claimed they had sufficient numbers to force recall elections of four Republican state senators, including Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald.
While there were many lively moments during Monday night's Republican debate in Myrtle Beach, there was one that resonated with the residents of South Carolina more than others. With Republican Governor Nikki Haley applauding and nodding in agreement, Texas Governor Rick Perry declared that "South Carolina is at war with this federal government and with this administration." Three issues have roiled many residents, all of which center around the idea that the federal government has over-stepped its bounds: a lawsuit filed by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against aerospace manufacturer Boeing; a federal judge's ruling blocking part of a new law to combat illegal immigration; and the Justice Department blocking a law requiring voters to show government-issued photo identification in order to vote.
On Friday the 13th, ratings agency Standard & Poor's (S&P) downgraded the credit status of nine European nations. The ratings of Cyprus, Italy, Portugal and Spain were lowered by two notches while Austria, France, Malta, Slovakia and Slovenia were lowered by one. Italy's rate cut from A to BBB+ reflects the second S&P downgrade since September 19th, and Portugal's debt has now reached "junk" status. "Today's rating actions are primarily driven by our assessment that the policy initiatives that have been taken by European policy makers in recent weeks may be insufficient to fully address ongoing systemic stresses in the euro zone," said S&P in a written statement.
For those wondering where the permutations of progressives' infatuation with government-enforced moral relativism lead, Greece is a bellwether. Despite teetering on the brink of national insolvency, Greece's Labor Ministry has decided to expand its list of state-recognized disability categories. The latest additions? Exhibitionism, kleptomania -- and pedophilia. "What's happened is incomprehensible. I think there is some big mistake. The ministry should have a different policy on disability," said Yiannis Vardakastanis, leader of Greece's National Confederation of Disabled People (NCDP). "The list contains major changes to disability quotients, which could effectively remove many people from access to benefits." The NDCP itself called the ruling "incomprehensible" and noted that pedophiles will now be awarded a greater level of disability payments than some people who receive organ transplants. "It's really not serious to grant Peeping Toms a 20-30 percent disability rate, and 10 percent to diabetics, who have insulin shots four or five times a day," fumed Vardakastanis.
Nabil Shaath is a senior Palestinian leader who has held several positions in the organization: chief negotiator, cabinet minister, Palestinian International Co-operation Minister, Planning Minister for the Palestinian Authority (PA), and Acting Prime Minister of the PA. Born in 1938 in Safed, British Mandate of Palestine, Shaath joined the terrorist Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1970. He became head of the PLO Planning Center from 1971-1981, and in 1974 he accompanied Yasser Arafat in the first PLO delegation to the United Nations. He is currently a member of the Fatah Central Committee in charge of International Relations, where he often is portrayed as a "moderate." Evidence presented here demonstrates he is not.
On January 3rd, President Obama released his vision for military expenditures going forward. It is a plan that calls for reducing troop strength by tens of thousands because, Mr. Obama contends, "we've succeeded in defending our nation, taking the fight to our enemies, reducing the number of Americans in harm's way, and we've restored America's global leadership." An integral part of the new strategy? Abandoning the capability to fight two major ground wars simultaneously. "Yes, our military will be leaner, said the president, "but the world must know the United States is going to maintain our military superiority with armed forces that are agile, flexible and ready for the full range of contingencies and threats." Rep. Buck McKeon (R-CA), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, cut right through the rhetoric. "This is a lead-from-behind strategy for a left-behind America," he contended. "The president has packaged our retreat from the world in the guise of a new strategy to mask his divestment of our military and national defense."
The Obama administration, fresh from abandoning Iraq at a critical time in its post-war development, is apparently preparing to do the same thing in Afghanistan. According to a report published late last month in The Hindu, radical Islamist cleric Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi is serving as a "key mediator in secret talks between the U.S. and the Taliban." Unnamed government sources assert that Qaradawi helped in putting together a "road map" whose purpose is to provide America a "face-saving political settlement ahead of its planned withdrawal from Afghanistan which is due to begin in 2014." Once again, for an Obama administration concerned with the 2012 election, a "political settlement" becomes a viable substitute for victory.
While social ills continue to plague American society, the manifestations thereof among black American youths never cease to sadden. The latest examples are daunting. In several cities around the nation, the release of Nike's Air Jordans, a pair of sneakers that retail for $180, precipitated a series of fights, vandalism, riots and arrests. Even more daunting? A "game" called "Knockout King," where gangs of black youths surround a random victim, punch him to the ground, film the attacks and post them on social network sites. First the sneakers. In suburban Seattle, police were forced to pepper spray youths who started fighting at the Westfield Southcenter mall. A crowd of more than 1000 were subjected to fights, resulting in several people getting cuts and bruises. Two doors were broken down. In Jersey City, a man was stabbed when a brawl broke out among those waiting in line. In Taylor, Michigan, more than 100 people broke into a shopping center at 5:30 a.m. Decorations were damaged and benches were overturned. Three people were arrested in Toledo, Ohio when a crowd once again surged uncontrolled into a mall.
Seven long years after he allegedly committed "premeditated murder," Iraq war veteran Ilario Pantano, who gave up a comfortable life on Manhattan's Upper West Side to fight for his country following the September 11th attacks, has been thoroughly vindicated. Thus ends a saga highlighted by an unconscionable rush to judgement by the military, and the subsequent trashing of Mr. Pantano's reputation by leftists who never miss an opportunity to denigrate American soldiers based on nothing more than unproven allegations. By any reasonable measure, Mr. Pantano is an American patriot. A man born to poverty in New York's Hell's Kitchen, Pantano managed to win a partial scholarship to Horace Mann, one of the top private schools in the nation. Students from Horace Mann routinely qualify to attend some of the best colleges in the nation and Pantano was no exception. Yet he made himself an exception, putting off college to join the Marines to fight in the first Gulf War against Saddam Hussein.
A coordinated wave of bomb attacks has rocked the Iraqi capital of Baghdad. At least 69 people have been killed and more than 185 injured in a series of 14 explosions, consisting of four car-bombs and 10 improvised explosive devices (IEDs). This is the worst violence to besiege Iraq in months, and it puts an exclamation point on the daunting reality that America may have prematurely left a nation whose government remains ruptured by sectarian divisions. Divisions that may ultimately undermine the enormous sacrifices made by American troops, and plunge the country into sectarian turmoil.
Once again, the farce of so-called SEC "prosecutions" reveals itself. Last Friday, the financial watchdog agency charged six former top executives from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with securities fraud for deliberately misleading the pubic about how much money they had invested in high-risk, subprime mortgages. The farce? From the SEC's website: "Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac each entered into a Non-Prosecution Agreement with the Commission in which each company agreed to accept responsibility for its conduct and not dispute, contest, or contradict the contents of an agreed-upon Statement of Facts without admitting nor denying liability."
In his latest book, Blue Collar Intellectuals, author Daniel J. Flynn reminds us of a time when Americans engaged in far more elevating pursuits than they do today. "For much of the twentieth century, there was a concerted effort among intellectuals to spread knowledge and wisdom far and wide," Flynn writes. "Correspondingly many regular people took full advantage of the great educational effort." That effort was led by Flynn's "blue-collar intellectuals," people from working-class backgrounds determined to make great works and high-minded concepts accessible to mass audiences. The book focuses on six such people, all of whom left an indelible mark on the American landscape.
One of the oldest economic maxims, "if you subsidize something, you get more of it" has created the next trillion dollar-plus bubble for which American taxpayers will be on the hook. The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education discovered that published college tuition and fees increased 439 percent from 1982 to 2007, while median family income rose 147 percent. What is driving those costs? The idea that every high school graduate should attend college, and that government -- meaning taxpayers -- will guarantee loans made to those students.
In the end, last week's meeting of Eurozone leaders produced nothing more than an agreement to produce an agreement. Such sophistry, as has been the case several times before, was more than enough to send the stock market soaring. Yet amidst the general ineptitude, there was one defining moment: British Prime Minister David Cameron rejected the deal. Apparently one leader in Europe still believes in the idea of national sovereignty.
Yesterday, in testimony before Congress, former MF Global CEO Jon Corzine attempted to insulate himself from the firm's massive bankruptcy and the potential fraud associated with $1.2 billion of customer funds that remain missing. "As the chief executive officer of MF Global, I ultimately had overall responsibility for the firm. I did not, however, generally involve myself in the mechanics of the clearing and settlement of trades, or in the movement of cash and collateral," Corzine testified. Thus begins the long process of determining Mr. Corzine's guilt or innocence. Yet if a recent court case is any indication, a paradigm shift away from an odious status quo may have occurred -- and Mr. Corzine may be the first major financial figure prosecuted in this new legal environment.
As the European Union debt crisis moves towards an ostensible resolution on December 9th, complications arise. Ratings agency Standard & Poor's has warned that the failure to reach an agreement may result in an unprecedented downgrade of as many as 15 EU countries simultaneously. "Systemic stresses in the euro zone have risen in recent weeks to the extent that they now put downward pressure on the credit standing of the euro zone as a whole," S&P said in a statement. Cutting through the economic jargon, a "resolution" of the crisis comes down to a single choice: there will either be a European Union, or individual countries will retain some semblance of national sovereignty.
On Wednesday, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, in coordination with five of the world's largest central banks, initiated a plan that will make it cheaper for European banks to borrow U.S. dollars. The central banks of the United States, Europe, Japan, Canada, United Kingdom and Switzerland agreed to cut the costs of reciprocal currency arrangements by 50 basis points, or 0.5 percent. The money will be lent to the European Central Bank (ECB), which will in turn lend it to the EU's commercial financial institutions. Unsurprisingly, the stock market rose nearly 500 points. Equally unsurprisingly, excess cheap dollars will raise prices for American consumers. Bottom line? This is nothing more than the latest effort to kick the EU debt-bomb can further down the road.
