Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) won re-election Tuesday in a runoff against Democrat Jim Martin. While Chambliss failed by two-tenths of a point to reach the required 50 percent for victory on 4 November, he won resoundingly by 57-43 in the runoff. Perhaps the prospect of Democrats owning a filibuster-proof 60-seat majority in the Senate was more than Georgians could stomach.

Meanwhile, in Minnesota, Republican Norm Coleman is still holding on to a slim lead in the recount versus Democrat comedian Al Franken. At latest count, Coleman led by just 316 votes. The Associated Press reports that “the state canvassing board scheduled a meeting for Dec. 12 to consider options for absentee ballots wrongly rejected.” It may be some time before a winner is declared.

Judge throws out charges against Cheney, Gonzales

Two weeks ago, we reported that Vice President Dick Cheney and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales were indicted in Willacy County, Texas, on rather strange charges filed by disgruntled and defeated district attorney Juan Angel Guerra. Vice President Cheney was charged with “engaging in an organized criminal activity” for the 2001 beating death of a prison inmate because he invested in a company that operates the detention center where the death occurred. Administrative Judge Manuel Banales dismissed the charges, adding that Guerra might want to exercise caution as his term in office expires.

Why support The Patriot’s Military Outreach?

The Patriot has countless thousands of readers who wear the uniforms of America’s Armed Services. Our most important mission is advocating for the defense of our nation’s critical security interests, as well as for the uniformed Patriots who remain steadfast on formidable fronts far away upholding that defense. We owe immeasurable gratitude to these (mostly) young Americans who stand post in harm’s way in order to preserve liberty on the home front. We never take their service for granted, and they regularly let us know how much The Patriot’s voice of reason means to them.

Army CO: “Thank you Patriots for your support to our Soldiers. You have greatly contributed to both troop morale and the spiritual growth of our young people. Your dedication to our Armed Forces, and selfless service, are a true credit to the great Americans who support The Patriot and your efforts.” –OIF

Marine CO: “As a long-time Patriot Post subscriber, I just wanted to thank you. I appreciate your support and all the great articles and resources on your site! The Patriot is read by many of my Marines, and I can’t express well enough how much your words mean to our young people over here, particularly in recent weeks when some politicians back home sound like they have joined forces with al-Qa'ida. Thank you Patriots for holding faith and speaking the truth.” –OIF

USAF aviator: “Make no mistake about it, The Patriot’s words of support and excellent essays definitely help sustain morale here. We never miss an edition, and there is actually a ‘Patriot Culture’ that has grown up around your publication.” –OIF

Navy Chaplain: “A special note of thanks to Patriot readers who support The Patriot Post. It is a great source of encouragement for all of our sailors and Marines. Thanks again for supporting us!” –OIF

Marine mom: “The Patriot espouses all the ideals held by my son, a USMC corporal, who is currently fighting to expand these ideals in Iraq. My son has taught me how important it is to be a strong Patriot and your publication helps me to be an effective one. Thank YOU!” –Dallas, Texas

There are only 26 days left in the campaign to meet our 2008 Annual Fund budget, and we still must raise $213,932 before year’s end.

If you have not already done so, please take a moment to support The Patriot’s 2008 Annual Fund today with a secure online donation – however large or small. Every dollar you contribute provides a free subscription for someone serving our nation, or a young person who will fill a family, community or national leadership role in the next generation.

If you prefer to support The Patriot by mail, please use our printable donor form.

I thank you for the honor and privilege of serving you as editor and publisher of The Patriot. On behalf of your Patriot Staff and National Advisory Committee, thank you and God bless you and your family.

Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus, et Fidelis!

Mark Alexander, Publisher

(The Patriot is not sustained by any political, special interest or parent organization, nor do we accept any third-party online or e-mail advertising. Our mission and operations budgets are funded by – and depend entirely upon – the voluntary financial support of American Patriots like YOU!)

“Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigues of supporting it.” –Thomas Paine

NATIONAL SECURITY

Warfront with Jihadistan: Mumbai terrorist attack

The Religion of Peace™ bared its fangs once again last week. Ten Islamic militants struck the city of Mumbai, formerly Bombay, on India’s west coast, killing nearly 200 people. Using tactics not seen before, the heavily armed jihadis hit the Indian coast in a small boat, slowly fanned out through the city, then cased their targets, including a railway station, two hospitals, a municipal facility, a cinema and cafe, a bank, and – naturally – a Jewish community center, as well as two hotels frequented by Westerners, the Taj Mahal and Oberoi Trident. After setting themselves up, the jihadis struck. Over a period of nearly 60 hours, they methodically murdered their victims, at least some of whom were tortured first. Nine militants were killed, and one, a 21-year-old Pakistani, was captured. In October, the U.S. warned India of just such an attack on Mumbai, but apparently the warning went unheeded.

It appears that some of the motivation for the attack involved the usual bad blood between India and Pakistan, with India claiming that two senior leaders of a banned Pakistani militant group with al-Qa'ida connections designed the attack. But make no mistake: This attack was another battle in the Long War between militant Islam and the infidels, i.e., the rest of the world. We can only hope that the incoming Obama regime understands what is at stake. The militants would like nothing better than to see regional war erupt between India and Pakistan, as a result of their terror strike.

Because these terrorists were so successful using minimal manpower and materiel to devastating effect, it could easily be repeated almost anywhere in the world, including here in the U.S. Barack Obama may want to review carefully the successes of the Bush administration over the past seven years in keeping America safe.

Even liberals warn Obama on Iran

With just seven weeks until Barack Obama is sworn in as President of the United States, a new report from a pair of leading think tanks warns that his greatest foreign policy challenge will be Iran and its pursuit of nuclear weapons. The lefty Brookings Institution and the Council on Foreign Relations, noting that Iran could have a nuclear weapon during Obama’s first year in office, advised the president-elect to engage in direct talks with Iran, in keeping with Obama’s naive and flippant campaign statements, as though the regime in Tehran is interested in anything the United States might want to talk about.

Five years ago, President George W. Bush was lectured by just such “experts” in the diplomatic world that Old Europe, with its belief in soft power, its more nuanced understanding of diplomacy, and most of all its generally amicable relations with Iran, should lead the way on the nuclear issue. Surely, these experts explained, the Iranians would respond to this diplomatic approach and agree to come clean with the International Atomic Energy Agency. Surely, they explained, Jacques Chirac’s France and Gerhard Schroeder’s Germany could convince Iran to change its ways, if only the Americans didn’t try to force the issue.

Well, five years and five UN Security Council resolutions later (1696, 1737, 1747, 1803, and 1835), we can see the results of Europe’s diplomatic skill. Iran has installed and tested 5,000 centrifuges at Natanz and has been enriching uranium there for the last four years. This summer Iran refused a proposal merely to stop installing new centrifuges – not to stop enrichment work, just to stop installing new machinery – in exchange for new discussions with the European-led G-8. And Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad remains as defiant as ever: “You may pass all the resolutions you like and dream on, but you cannot stop the Iranian nation’s progress.” The new Brookings-CFR report did not explain why Iran would suddenly be receptive to a neophyte American president with no implied threat of force backing up his diplomatic efforts, but hey – they’re the experts. Just look at the last five years.

Publisher’s Note: Remembering Pearl Harbor

“December 7, 1941 – a date which will live in infamy – the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan. … Always will we remember the character of the onslaught against us. No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might, will win through to absolute victory. … With confidence in our armed forces – with the unbounded determination of our people – we will gain the inevitable triumph – so help us God.” –Franklin D. Roosevelt, a Democrat far removed from today’s crop of defeatists

Having just visited the USS Arizona Memorial two weeks ago, and then the Mighty Mo, the USS Missouri (site of the signing of the Japanese surrender), which is docked just behind the Memorial, it is with honor and respect for those who died or suffered terrible injuries that day, that we should never again fall into the slumber that allowed such a tragedy as Pearl Harbor, and the attack on our homeland 11 September 2001, again.

Department of Political Correctness: No God in security

“A group of atheists filed a lawsuit Tuesday seeking to remove part of a state anti-terrorism law that requires Kentucky’s Office of Homeland Security to acknowledge it can’t keep the state safe without God’s help,” the Associated Press reports. In 2002, Kentucky passed a law that stresses the role of God in security measures prompting American Atheists, Inc., to sue. Further perturbing the atheists is a plaque at the Office of Homeland Security, which says that security “cannot be achieved apart from reliance upon almighty God.” It also includes Psalm 127:1, which says, “Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.” According to Edwin F. Kagin, national legal director of American Atheists, “It is one of the most egregiously and breathtakingly unconstitutional actions by a state legislature that I’ve ever seen.” State Rep. David Floyd, R-Bardstown, insists there is no constitutional violation and points to the preamble to the Kentucky constitution, which references a people “grateful to almighty God.” He added, “God help us if we don’t.”

Postcards from Jimmy Carter

Sometimes it amazes us that in just four short (or rather long) years, Jimmy Carter managed to have quite an impact on America’s future. One of Jimmy Carter’s most famous signatures was on the 1977 agreement ceding control of the Panama Canal to Panama, a transition that took place nearly a decade ago. The result? This week, a Russian warship sailed through the Panama Canal for the first time since World War II. The destroyer Admiral Chabanenko arrived Friday at a former U.S. naval base in Panama’s Pacific port of Balboa. Rodman naval base was once critical for U.S. naval maneuvers in South America. The Admiral Chabanenko and the nuclear-powered missile cruiser Peter the Great joined Venezuelan ships for exercises – another sign of strengthening ties between the two nations.

BUSINESS & ECONOMY

Income Redistribution: Bailout total balloons

Not surprisingly, the $700 billion originally promised in the federal economic bailout soon became $800-plus billion by the time Congress finished larding it up. But then total rescue projects reached $1.4 trillion and could reach many trillion more. Really, no one knows what the actual number is. With little or no accounting for this unconstitutional spendapalooza, it’s possible that we will see numbers in the gazillions.

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson announced more money to be thrown at the problem, including $600 billion to lower mortgage rates, and $200 billion more to get consumer loans going again. Furthermore, $300 billion will go to bail out Citigroup – because don’t we all feel sorry for credit card companies? Meanwhile, Congress is considering another “economic stimulus” package of $500 billion that Reuters reports would include “a middle-class tax cut, billions of dollars for road, bridge and mass transit construction, expanded aid to states and investments in renewable energy.” In February, Congress passed an economic stimulus of $168 billion that focused on tax rebates to families and small businesses.

States are trying to get in on the federal goodies as well. The nation’s governors intend to ask for a total of $176 billion in federal aid. “Without immediate action, our state is headed for a fiscal disaster,” said California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who replaced the previous governor by promising to bring fiscal responsibility back to government and dig the state out of its $3 billion hole.

Not all governors are on board with the proposal. South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford and Texas Gov. Rick Perry had strong words for it: “Washington has thrown bailout after bailout at the national economy with little to show for it,” they wrote in The Wall Street Journal. “In the process, the federal government is not only burying future generations under mountains of debt. It is also taking our country in a very dangerous direction – toward a ‘bailout mentality’ where we look to government rather than ourselves for solutions.”

More changes for Big Three automakers needed

Detroit automaker executives traveled to Washington again this week, this time in their hybrids, for more congressional hearings. The CEOs of GM, Ford and Chrysler continue to make their case for receiving part of the federal bailout. GM is seeking $18 billion and Chrysler is looking for $7 billion, while Ford is seeking a credit line of $9 billion that it would tap only if the economy worsens or its rivals fail. The total sought is now $34 billion, up from $25 billion one week ago.

Pundits have generally agreed that the Big Three and the United Auto Workers need to hash out concessions that will save some of the built-in expenses on each car produced – including those associated with providing paychecks and health insurance for employees who have been laid off or retired. According to The Wall Street Journal, “the union would allow the companies to delay billions of dollars in payments into funds that will cover health-care costs for retired workers. The union also will suspend a ‘jobs bank’ program under which workers continue to collect most of their wages after they are laid off.”

Overlooked for the most part, though, is a simpler streamlining the Big Three could achieve – without government help – by reducing the number of models available to the traveling public. While American automakers build 15 different brands with 112 different models, their three largest Japanese counterparts make just seven different nameplates with 58 models. For decades, the Big Three have sent similarly designed cars under different badges – such as Ford and Mercury, Dodge and Chrysler, or Chevrolet and Pontiac – to a vast network of dealers who sometimes received two or three different models that looked the same except for the nameplate on the trunk and other minor cosmetic changes.

Dealers may also have to make sacrifices as well, particularly some of the many multi-line outlets that could see one or more of their products eliminated. On average, GM dealers support two or more of their brands for a total of more than 14,000 franchises for 6,700 allied dealers. By contrast, Toyota has just 1,200 dealers selling from 1,600 franchises. Being considered for the chopping block via sale or simply ceasing production are venerable badges such as Ford’s Volvo and GM’s Pontiac, along with two newer GM nameplates, Hummer and Saturn.

Congress should also consider that the constitutional phrase “promoting the general welfare” does not mean propping up businesses considered “too big to fail” by lending them billions of dollars. Without changes in both the business model and regulatory policies from Washington, the potential for a taxpayer boondoggle is considerable. Indeed, it’s a brightly flashing yellow light on the road to socialism.

So we’re in a recession – now what?

“It’s official: The United States is in a recession – and it started a year ago,” trumpets The Washington Post. The National Bureau of Economic Research, a private, nonprofit group based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, released its report this week that indicates the recession began in December 2007. The group’s Business Cycle Dating Committee defines a recession as “a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in production, employment, real income, and other indicators.”

Analysts have been debating whether or not the U.S. is in recession for some time – notably, before December 2007. Democrats and their accomplices in the Leftmedia were drooling at the prospect, seeing it as an opportunity to win the 2008 election. To a certain extent, their cries became self-fulfilling prophecy, and Democrats proceeded to win a big victory on Election Day.

Two observations: First, it could take equally long to declare that the recession is over. Second, government intervention is not the prescription for what ails us. Recall that it took 12 years to break free of the Great Depression, and after five years of Franklin Roosevelt’s unconstitutional New Deal, the Depression only got worse. No less than FDR’s Treasury Secretary, Henry Morgenthau, testified to Congress in 1939, “We are spending more money than we have ever spent before and it does not work.” What was that adage about learning from history or being doomed to repeat it?

CULTURE & POLICY

Faith and Family: eHarmony loses big

The Christian-targeted dating Web site eHarmony recently succumbed to a shakedown by a disgruntled New Jersey homosexual who decided that matchmaking sites geared to his preferences were not sufficient. The man filed suit in 2005 with the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights. eHarmony fought the suit for three years before finally giving up and settling out of court. The company agreed to offer same-sex dating services on its site, as well as free subscriptions to 10,000 homosexual users, $5,000 for the plaintiff and $50,000 to New Jersey’s Civil Rights division. Beyond that, eHarmony will advertise using same-sex couples and revise their anti-discrimination policy to include “sexual orientation.”

Blogger Michelle Malkin notes, “Neil Warren, eHarmony’s founder, is a gentle, grandfatherly businessman who launched his popular dating site to support heterosexual marriage. A ‘Focus on the Family’ author with a divinity degree, Warren encourages healthy, lasting unions between men and women of all faiths, mixed faiths or no faith at all.” Unfortunately, this wasn’t acceptable for one man suffering from gender-disorientation pathology. Now, eHarmony and all its customers are worse for it.

Climate change this week: International court jesters

A lawyers’ group in the United Kingdom has called for the establishment of an international court similar to the International Court of Justice at The Hague. This tribunal, however, would be the supreme legal authority on issues regarding the environment because, well, look at how well the ICJ has done in bringing us international peace, justice and cooperation. The idea, called “innovative” by some press accounts (and “nuts” by some readers), is to create a new international body to enforce international agreements on cutting greenhouse gas emissions, currently set to be agreed next year. Theoretically, the court would also fine countries or companies that fail to protect endangered species or degrade the natural environment, but its main role will be “declaratory rulings” that influence and embarrass countries into upholding the law.

So let’s see here. Set up a court to enforce agreements that have not yet been signed and empower that court to fine violators and embarrass countries… What if the fines are not paid? What if a country decides not to be embarrassed? What if a country pays the fine – is that sufficiently embarrassing? And finally, what will be the environmental impact of this much hot air being released into an unsuspecting world?

Meanwhile, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change is taking place from 1-12 December, and the proposed court will be discussed. The convention will put out some 13,000 tons of carbon dioxide. Naturally, they promise to purchase offsets.

Around the nation: Culture of dependency

After Hurricane Katrina, no fewer than seven U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) reports detailed the gross mismanagement by FEMA of billions of dollars in “relief” funding. Now, nearly three months after Hurricane Ike slammed into the Gulf coast, FEMA is again under fire – only this time not for too little oversight, but for too much.

According to the Associated Press, state and local officials are complaining of FEMA’s slow response, claiming “red tape” has delayed “both the cleanup work and the release of millions of dollars.”

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal cited FEMA’s improvements since Katrina but believes the agency is “looking for reasons to say ‘no.’ ” He stated, “[T]here’s such an emphasis on filling out paperwork. They need to have a focus on results.” Meanwhile, Texas Governor Rick Perry threatened to have his state clean the mess itself and then pass the bill to FEMA.

For its part, FEMA holds that it’s working as quickly as possible while adhering to regulations and ensuring taxpayer dollars are not again wasted. Yet, it seems neither the agency’s prompt wastefulness following Katrina nor its deliberate accountability since Ike is sufficient to satisfy the culture of dependency that awaits Uncle Sam’s remedy for all ills.

And last…

As the inauguration of our nation’s 44th president looms on the horizon, the DC Council in Washington has approved legislation that will allow bars, nightclubs and restaurants in the District to serve alcohol until 5 a.m. instead of only 2 a.m. between 17 January and the morning of the inauguration on the 20th. This is noteworthy because DC estimates that the crowd for the inauguration will be somewhere between four and five million Obamaphiles. Which means the mall could be teeming with inebriated Democrats already drunk with joy from having won the White House. So while conservatives may be tempted to use alcohol to drown their sorrows, somebody had better keep an eye on Ted Kennedy or this could really get ugly.

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.)