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SEARCHING FOR MR. GOOD-WAR
– By Resa LaRu Kirkland

And I Do Mean Searching

“We feel the mainstream media,” she tells Newsmax, “is focusing on the negative stories coming out of Iraq and very rarely highlighting the good news.”

WHAT??? American journalists, lying about a war? I’ve never heard of such a thing, except in Vietnam, Lebanon, Desert Storm, Iraqi war. Yeah…except for those wars, I’ve never heard of such a thing!

The above statement was made by Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman, Chairman of the Kurdistan Development Corporation and Kurdistan’s High Representative to the UK, after their group decided to make commercials thanking America for delivering them from Saddam Hussein. Haven’t heard of it? Big Surprise! They had first approached CNN, offering to buy commercial time for their gratitude, and were turned down.

After all, we can’t have good news about America or our warriors, now can we?. ………
Click HERE To Read On

We hear a lot of talk about aspects of the Patriot Act expiring, but what are they? Listed below are the sxteen provisions of the USA Patriot Act that expire December 31 if not renewed by Congress:

Section 201: Gives federal officials the authority to intercept wire, spoken and electronic communications relating to terrorism.

Section 202: Gives federal officials the authority to intercept wire, spoken and electronic communications relating to computer fraud and abuse offenses.

Subsection 203(b): Permits the sharing of grand jury information that involves foreign intelligence or counterintelligence with federal law enforcement, intelligence, protective, immigration, national defense or national security officials

Subsection 203(d): Gives foreign intelligence or counterintelligence officers the ability to share foreign intelligence information obtained as part of a criminal investigation with law enforcement.

Section 204: Makes clear that nothing in the law regarding pen registers — an electronic device which records all numbers dialed from a particular phone line — stops the government’s ability to obtain foreign intelligence information.

Section 206: Allows federal officials to issue roving “John Doe” wiretaps for spy and anti-terrorism investigations.

Section 207: Increases the amount of time that federal officials may watch people they suspect are spies or terrorists.

Section 209: Permits the seizure of voicemail messages under a warrant.

Section 212: Permits Internet service providers and other electronic
communication and remote computing service providers to hand over records and e-mails to federal officials in emergency situations.

Section 214: Allows use of a pen register or trap and trace devices — a device that records the originating phone numbers of all incoming calls on a particular phone line — in international terrorism or spy investigations.

Section 215: Authorizes federal officials to obtain “tangible items” like business records, including those from libraries and bookstores, for foreign intelligence and international terrorism investigations.

Section 217: Makes it lawful to intercept the wire or electronic communication of a computer hacker or intruder in certain circumstances.

Section 218: Allows federal officials to wiretap or watch suspects if foreign
intelligence gathering is a “significant purpose” for seeking a Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act order. The pre-Patriot Act standard said officials could ask for the surveillance only if it was “the” sole or main purpose.

Section 220: Provides for nationwide service of search warrants for electronic evidence.

Section 223: Amends the federal criminal code to provide for administrative discipline of federal officers or employees who violate prohibitions against unauthorized disclosures of information gathered under this act.

Section 225: Amends FISA to prohibit lawsuits against people or companies that provide information to federal officials for a terrorism investigation.

NRO-The Corner

Saudi prince donates $40 million for Islamic studies

BOSTON — A Saudi prince believed to be the wealthiest businessman in the Muslim world has donated $40 million for Harvard and Georgetown to expand their Islamic studies programs, the schools announced yesterday. Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud, who gave $20 million to each university, is a nephew of the late King Fahd and worth upward of $20 billion, according to Forbes magazine, which ranked him fifth its 2005 list of the world’s richest billionaires. Harvard and Georgetown officials said they will use the gifts to add faculty members and scholarships and expand their Islamic studies curricula.

“Bridging the understanding between East and West is important for peace and tolerance,” Prince Alwaleed said in a statement issued by both schools.

Harvard, which is naming its newly created program after Alwaleed, already has nearly two dozen faculty members researching or teaching in the field of Islamic studies.

MilfordDailyNews.com

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So does anyone think this program will be anything other than Wahhabi propaganda funded by the Saudi Royal Family? It’s a shame when our AMERICAN schools are funded by foreign sources that are antithetical to our best interests. Harvard and Georgetown should be ashamed of themselves.

Part of JFK’s legacy lingers in Baghdad
– By Michael M. Bates

t’s not surprising that former U.S. attorney general Ramsey Clark is defending the monstrous Saddam Hussein. If Clark’s ever met an enemy of the United States he didn’t like, he’s managed to keep the fact a secret.

We owe it all to John F. Kennedy. Ramsey was toiling in Texas in well-deserved obscurity when Kennedy appointed him assistant attorney general.

The next step was promotion to attorney general under Lyndon Johnson. Since then, he’s racked up a record of anti-American activism few can match.

In 1972, he journeyed to North Vietnam to participate in the Communist-front International Committee of Inquiry into U.S. Crimes in Indochina. Not that the forum’s designation suggested any prior conclusions had been reached or anything. ………………..
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Who Stands With The American Citizen?
– By David Tatosian

According to the Denver post, we’re to be presented with some political theater in the House of Representatives. If the President has his way, (a virtual certainty given the Parisian metro sexuality of our elected Republicans) there will be much bluster and coo over the enforcement measures in an upcoming immigration package (in the House) while our President twists arms behind Senate doors for his amnesty program.

This play-acting will, according to Rep. Tancredo, enable our anointed ones to return home for the holidays claiming they have taken bold steps to fix our broken immigration system.

To assure a smooth and orderly surrender, the oleaginous Grover Norquist will stop handing the nation over to the Muslims long enough to hand some of it over to the illegal aliens………..
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George Will reports a most amusing bit of irony about our wonderful, caring Unions…

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Newsweek

Onward and upward with progressivism: In a Las Vegas suburb, the United Food and Commercial Workers union hired temp workers at $6 an hour to picket a nonunion Wal-Mart, where wages start at $6.75 an hour.

Ah, multiculturalism.
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Yep, supreme Irony that a union is paying less than the Corporation they feel it their duty to picket over low wages!

If You Still Believe The MSM Is Unbiased…
– By Resa LaRu Kirkland

It’s Official…You’re Retarded Or In Denial…Get Help!

There are people out there who cheer when America loses, think that Christianity is a cult, and who want Islammunism-Islam and Communism-to take over the world. No, it’s not some enemy group trying to invade us…it’s our own MSM.

I’ve noticed similarities between the writings of our press and those of enemy nations such as North Korea and Al Jazeera. Go ahead…peruse the New York Times, and then go read the leftist, anti-American evil poison spewed from these media allies. The similarities are scary. All are against religion, freedom, and individuals thinking for themselves. And all of this can be traced back to the lost generation of the 1960’s. ………
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Anti-Chavez union boss jailed for rebellion

Story By Patrick Markey

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) – A Venezuelan labor leader who helped organize a strike against President Hugo Chavez three years ago was sentenced on Tuesday to more than 15 years in prison for civil rebellion.

Carlos Ortega, one of Chavez’s fiercest opponents during months of political turmoil, is the first top opposition leader jailed for the two-month-long strike that failed to topple the president.

Hundreds of business and political figures are under investigation for supporting the failed 2002 coup against Chavez that preceded it.

Reuters.com/Source

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You know, it’s amazing that the anti-American and anti-Bush zealots out there want to call Bush the “fascist” and “Nazi”, but how many opposition leaders has Bush put in jail? Let’s see… NONE is the answer!
-WTH

From theNew York Daily News–

Jamie Foxx is breaking down racial barriers – starting at his front door.

The actor, who has been campaigning tirelessly to get reformed gang leader Stan (Tookie) Williams off Death Row, admits he once refused to let more than one white man into his house.

“When I was 15, I went to play the piano for this white guy’s Christmas party” in Texas, Foxx says. But when he and a friend showed up at the client’s mansion, the host stopped them, saying, “I can’t have two niggers in my house at one time.”

Foxx says he was forced to send his friend home, even though his pal had given him a lift to the party.

The “Ray” star was so rankled by the experience that, once he hit it big in Hollywood, he instituted a similar quota system.

Whenever two white guys came to party at his pad, Foxx tells Oprah Winfrey in December’s O, he’d tell them, “You all will have to make a decision between you two.”

Foxx adds that his friends “had to counsel me and say, ‘Don’t fall into that same trap.’ ”

The Oscar winner later changed his entrance policy – though, he points out, he never set a limit on white women.

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Why should this not surprise us? After all, the first thing a more “sensitive”, more “civilized”, more “enlightened”, much “smarter”, more “tolerant” Leftie does is get EVEN when they get in power, isn’t it?

And, gee, I wonder why he “never set a limit on white women”?

-WTH

O Friendship Tree, O Friendship Tree
– By Christian Hartsock

When they’re not thinking up laughable euphemisms for the mythological “penumbra emanation” of an alleged entitlement to commit ruthless infanticide against helpless infants such as “a woman’s right to choose,” liberals are scratching their heads in a desperate effort to think up alternative names for those unidentified ornament-adorned objects that normal people tend to refer to as “Christmas trees.” Some ingenious appellations have sprung up, including “giving trees,” “paradise trees,” “world trees,” “friendship trees,” or the most popular candidate, “holiday trees,” while those who obstinately insist on calling them what they are are rightly deemed primitive and intolerant.

During Christmas season one year, a father was bewildered to find a watercolor painting his four-year-old son had done in school of a menorah and seven candles painted green, red and black representing Kwanzaa, yet there was no inclusion of a Christmas tree. When he inquired of his son as to its absence, his son replied, “We have the friendship tree.” Puzzled, the father decided to take his son to school the next day only to find hallway bulletin boards adorned with menorahs and the words “Happy Hanukah,” as well as green, red and black candles with letters announcing “The Miracle of Kwanzaa,” but when he got to the end of a long hallway he found a pine tree on a table. After asking the principal of the school what it was, the principal replied, “That is our friendship tree.” As any reasonable person would do, the father asked why it was not called a “Christmas tree,” to which the principal responded, “Oh, we’re trying to make sure we don’t offend people.” ………..
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Who Watches The Watchers? – A Comic Book As Political Commentary
– By Warner Todd Huston

Why do contemporary artists all seem to think the end of the world is nigh? Why has art become a thing of ugliness, instead of light? With all the beautiful things we see every day, the delicacy of a flower, the turn of a woman’s arm, the grace of a bird in flight, we are treated only to the bizarre and horrid by our artists. These days we see sculptures that look like molecular mistakes writ large. We live in architecture that appears like a jumble of blocks thrown to the ground in the midst of a temper tantrum by a gigantic, petulant child. We view paintings that appear more accidental than planned. We have movies full of violence and anti-social behavior. On the radio we hear music that celebrates all the worst in man. We even have comic books that belittle heroism, that deconstruct the good and exceptional turning their heroes as cartoonishly flawed as the most obscene head case on the Jerry Springer Show.

When did entertainment turn so dark?

In the field of comic books, a 12 part series called Watchmen, created by the writer as a political commentary on its time, was hailed as having ” transcended its origins”, becoming a watershed in comics entertainment. This series, published in 1986, was at the front edge of a wave of comics in the early and mid 1980s that attempted to demolish the heroes of the past and replace them with a post-hero world of darkness and pessimism……….

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Defending Christmas
– By David Huntwork

All the Whos down in Whoville liked Christmas a lot, but the Grinch, who lived just north of Whoville, did not.

-Dr. Seuss

It is the Christmas season and once again Christmas itself is the target of a secular and atheistic jihad. If you didn’t know better you might think that the word ‘Christmas’ was the dirtiest of dirty words and one not worthy of being uttered in public.

This year Target continues the ban on the famous Salvation Army bell ringers while the ACLU threatened to sue school districts over such carols as ‘Jingle Bells’. Celebration of the ‘holidays’ abound but to actually spot the word ‘Christmas’ is rare and far between. Both Corporate America and government institutions have abandoned the spiritual, cultural and traditional celebrations of Christmas.

Instead, the Winter Holiday PC police prowl the nation threatening public schools who might dare to have red and green napkins at their annual ‘holiday party’ during the ‘Winter Break’. Anything that might remotely trigger the word ‘Christmas’ or conjure up images of a baby in a manger has become a target ripe for extermination. No longer are we treated to ‘Merry Christmas’ at retailers but are forced to settle for a fuzzy ‘happy holidays’ as we rush to pick up our ‘holiday tree’ at the local haven of mass consumption. Of course it would appear that the fact that the word ‘holiday’ is a shortened version of ‘holy day’ has escaped those seeking to purify the public spaces from the evils of Christianity. Just wait until they figure out that the fat, jolly man in the red suit is loosely associated with a 4th century bishop and saint. What a mess that will turn out to be……………
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Dean Spills Anti-War Beans … AGAIN
– By Warner Todd Huston

I hate to say it but I love Howard Dean. Oops, I mean DOCTOR Howard Dean. We must give him his due, of course. He is exactly what everyone imagined he would be as the DNC chairman; a lose cannon, an out of control demagogue, and slightly loopy to boot.

In an interview on WOAI Radio, San Antonio, Dean has said it is impossible for the US to win in Iraq. No, I am not misinterpreting his words to suit my “right wing, neo-con” ends, he really said we cannot win.

“(The) idea that we’re going to win the war in Iraq is an idea which is just plain wrong,” the good Doctor opined. Yes, he said it just that way. He thinks that we cannot win no matter what we do. Amazing, no?……….

Click HERE To Read On

Thin Veneer
– By David Tatosian

If one begins enumerating the many acts of murder, mayhem and destruction justified by Koranic verse, Muslims will, without exception, defend these acts and decry any skepticism as a basic misunderstanding of Islam. They’ll helpfully point out that the true meaning of Islam is peace.

Perhaps the victims of Islamic jihad, the dead, are now at peace.

Is that the true meaning of Islam?

Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammad, responding to the Beslan slaughter of children snarled, “…there is no restriction on place (it could even occur in Mecca)-so schools are legitimate targets of jihad, but it is up to local mujahedeen [those who engage in jihad] to decide the best strategy…”. And from the same interview, “…Speaking objectively as a Muslim scholar…jihad can be effected outside the battlefield-it is not restricted by time, place, building, event, people, transport, food, water (both of which may be legitimately poisoned in jihad), or by clothing-there is no need to wear a uniform. Any weapons are legitimate in jihad. Even animals may be used as “suicide bombers”! It is not restricted by target-even Muslims or children…”

Is that closer to the true meaning of Islam? ………..
Click HERE To Read On

“Your Papers Please”: American Cities On The Verge Of Becoming Police States
– By Frederick Meekins

Miami Police have announced plans to conduct what they are calling “high profile ID sweeps” where they intend to check the identification of everyone entering a public building.

Officials claim in doing so, no one’s rights are being violated; but what if one does not want to show police their driver’s license or happened to have forgotten to bring it with them that day?

If one refuses to participate by suddenly getting out of line and not entering the building, will that now be deemed enough probable cause to get maced in the face and a billy-club across the back of the knees?

And what if authorities deny citizens access to food in supermarkets, to buy and sell as alluded to in Revelation 13, unless they comply with draconian identification measures?

Unlike a roadside stop, one does not need government authorization to perambulate down the sidewalk. It’s called a DRIVER’S LICENSE, not an authorization to leave your house permit……..
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Extremism and the American Left
– Eric Reikowski

In spite of all its anti-American tantrums and tirades, the political Left always seems to be first to defend the American populace from the perceived “extremism” of Supreme Court candidates. When President Bush nominated John Roberts to replace Sandra Day O’ Connor back in July, the mudslinging Moveon.org immediately issued a statement saying that “in nominating John Roberts, the president has chosen a right-wing corporate lawyer and ideologue for the nation’s highest court instead of a judge who would protect the rights of the American people.”

The People for the American Way commented that “the Radical Right is overjoyed by the nomination of John Roberts because they believe Bush kept his promise to his right-wing base and given them exactly what they demanded: a Supreme Court nominee in the mold of Scalia and Thomas.”

Such organizations were hardly alone. The nation’s most prominent GOP-hating politician, Howard Dean, warned that “President Bush should not try to use the nomination of an extreme conservative to distract from the ethical problems his White House is facing.” Dean went on to accuse the president of “playing to his right-wing political base in times of political trouble.”…………
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We Must Remain Stoic
– By Greg Stewart

As some of you know, I am attending a local community college here in Denver for my core requirements for my eventuated master’s degree in International Business Relations. Part of that requirement is a taking humanities course in World Literature; and so it goes, elements of the paper require me to follow a certain criteria: revealing of personal narrative, compare present and past cultural or social events, and at least two quotations from media events as well as at least two text quotes from class readings assignments. I have also noticed, if the paper has a slant to the left better the grade; and, so it goes, my latest musings…

I have a catch phrase, “It just another day in paradise,” when I am asked how am I doing. Granted it is also a sappy Phil Collin’s song, but the meaning of my moods, attitudes, and perspectives are communicated quite well. Sometimes, when asked by perfect strangers the aforementioned question and my previously report response, our eyes will meet, and nothing more needs to be said. It is not a code phrase for a liberal, or a conservative, or even an empathetic minority. No these words go beyond contrivance, they are understood, and are at the deepest of level, that I, and we are to appreciate what we have in the here and now. In many aspects, my friends often hear this off the cuff response, and they know I am doing “fine,”—well even. That I am taking the world day by day; neither good or bad; it is what it is; the nature of things ; and, this by definition, they know that I am being stoic ; at least on a base level anyway. … ………
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The culture war knows no season
– By Michael M. Bates

It’s that time of the year again. No, I’m not referring to trampling other store customers to get to the doorbusters. I mean that time of the year when anything relating to the birth of Jesus Christ seems to provoke controversy.

There’s a term that, within the past few years, has increasingly offended some folks. It’s the c-word: Christmas.

Spurred on by the American Civil Liberties Union, atheists, pagans, secularists and sundry others devoted to erasing any public vestige of Christianity, the anti-Christmas movement has garnered victories. This is particularly true in the public schools.

Nativity scenes, discussions about the birth of Jesus, carols, images of Santa Claus and anything else even remotely associated with Christmas are often whisked away quicker than you can say we’re suing the school board for violating the separation of church and state.

Ironically, these removals are not necessitated by the Supreme Court, which has ruled the Constitution permits considerable latitude in such areas. ………………..
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This Grisly Horde
– By David Tatosian

Recently, three Christian girls were beheaded in Indonesia while our President and Secretary of State reaffirmed Islam is a “religion of peace”. As this grisly horde perpetrates new horrors, our president continues to kiss the Saudi hand that would slaughter us. Every day we are subjected to the vile machinations of Grover Norquist, CAIR and elected officials who demand we accept the bespattered malignancy of Islam as religion.

Perhaps in Ari Fleischer’s “Bush Country”, that parallel universe of knee-jerk republicans and deluded, dissimilarly prefixed conservatives, Islam IS a religion of peace.

(Of course there are a number of ill-conceived strategies and edicts spawned in “Bush Country” that make life very unpleasant for rank and file Americans forced to live with those grandiosities).

That our President refers to a depraved ideology as a “religion of peace” is folly, or something more sinister………..
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Famed Hat Not The Only Yellow Thing About The New Curious George
– By Frederick Meekins

For decades, children have enjoyed the antics of that inquisitive simian Curious George. Leave it to Hollywood to think it can improve on an author’s creative genius by altering the original work to bring it in compliance with asinine politically correct assumptions.

Integral to the Curious George mythos is the character referred to as “The Man In The Yellow Hat” who takes care of George and helps him out of all the mischief the rambunctious primate happens to get into. But in this era where it is said traditional values no longer exist and the worth of one’s character is determined by what trendy progressive causes one might happen to support, the kindness he bestows upon his furry companion is no longer enough to demonstrate his compassion and understanding. Now in order to be categorized as an appropriate cinematic protagonist or figure worthy of admiration, the back story of The Man In The Yellow Hat must be altered to placate the sensitivity sentinels…….
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The Amazon.Com Conspiracy
– By Warner Todd Huston

I am an Op Ed writer. This being true we know that my ego far outpaces my place in the great, wide world. I am also an Op Ed writer whose work appears mostly on the internet. That means that it is widely assumed that I am an egoist on the edge of sanity. That I am now sitting at my computer, in my underwear, in a room empty of furniture other than the desk upon which my computer sits, and swinging over my head is one lone light-bulb illuminating the cramped room. I must be in the basement, too.

But, being an egoist I am constantly on the lookout for more ways to get my hackneyed opinions disseminated worldwide. Having common cause with other egoists throughout time and interested in their paths to stardom, infamy, and notoriety I have had occasion to notice that the one sure way to become a thorn in the side of any casual reader (not to mention other writers and their publishers) is to write a book review. Some of man’s most famous literati were book reviewers.

Now, we have the investigative portion of this little odyssey, the search for a book review outlet. As mentioned, we are in an electronic age. The fall of the Newspaper is imminent with circulation numbers falling faster than Paris Hilton’s fashionable blue jeans at a rave party. So, where might I find such an outlet? The answer is obvious for any well-traveled netrat who has spent even the shortest amount of time running the back alleys and byways of the great information super-highway.

Amazon.com!……….

Click HERE To Read On

Keeping John Lennon in perspective
– By Michael M. Bates

It has already started. With the 25th anniversary of John Lennon’s death approaching, the adoration of the rocker has begun anew.

I was a Beatles fan like just about everyone else. Bought all their albums and have many of their tunes on CD today. I preferred their earlier stuff and didn’t think Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, while an innovative concept album, was as good as what they’d been doing.

The release of the White Album, which included barkers like “Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey, “Savoy Truffle” and “Revolution 9,” made it evident the magic was fading.

I thought it was interesting that John, who was often viewed as the “smart Beatle” and the musical driving force behind the group, had a rather mediocre solo career. Maybe it was changes in his personal life or drugs or boredom or something, but the quality of most of John’s work after the Beatles’ breakup was unexceptional.

Lennon became active in the antiwar movement. His liberal views conferred on him an intellectual patina as well as a widespread sense that he spoke for most, if not all, young people. ………………..
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Every Vote Must Count, Unless the Liberals Win
– By Justin Darr

Every have that feeling there is something missing, but you cannot quite remember what it is? The weather is getting colder; did I forget to check my washer fluid? No. Check the tire pressure? No, it is fine. Any anniversary, birthdays, or doctor appointments I might have missed? No, all are up to date. Oh, now I remember, we just had an election cycle and I am still waiting to hear the hysterical screams of the left claiming that voters were disenfranchised by the cruel and heartless Republicans.

So where is it? Where are the wild conspiracy theories? Are you trying to tell me the oil industry was not purposely inflating the price of gas to make it harder to reach the polls? Every single voter in the United States knew exactly where their poll site was located and its hours of operation? Every poll opened and closed on time with adequate staffing, no chads where found to be hanging, every voter clearly understood the ballots and filled them out in an unambiguous manner? And, what about absentee and provisional ballots? Are you actually trying to say that the Republicans let a chance to thwart the will of the people through fraud and intimidation slip by? ………….
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King Of Fools The Easily Led Should Never Lead!
– By Resa LaRu Kirkland

We have a contingency of hippy hold outs who believe that surrender and the subsequent slavery to totalitarians is preferable to fighting for freedom. I know, I know, they are a smelly, ridiculous bunch…trouble is, they are in positions of power called Congress, and backed by another position of power called Main Stream Media.

It is very hard to overcome these groups when you have no power other than logic, reason, and truth. After all, they can’t be expected to waste their time with such nonsense.

We have that waste of DNA Bill Clinton who has stated that “the war was the right thing to do” but also claims it “was a mistake.” To those of us who think first and feel second, this makes no sense. How can something be right and a mistake? And why the 180 degree change in direction?

Oh wait…it’s Bill Clinton. OK, that explains the “blow with the breeze” change in direction, but still leaves unanswered the “right thing and mistake” comment ………
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Chicken-hawk talk is UnAmerican – Murtha’s Astonishing Lack of Knowledge
– By Warner Todd Huston

On November 17th, Representative John Murtha (D, PA) called for the USA to prove that Osamma bin Laden is right with his contention that Americans are cowards. He proposed that the US immediately pull its troops from Iraq.

Shocking as it may seem, Murtha was not only in the US military himself, but he served during the Vietnam War. Earning a Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts in Vietnam, you’d think he would know better than to propose that we turn tail and run from battle today. Especially when, after having done so in 1975 at the end of our involvement in Vietnam, so many millions of the Vietnamese people were slaughtered with even more imprisoned by the Communists we left unopposed. And it happened just as anti-Communists here then warned, just as Conservatives warn that a pull out of Iraq would doom many to unnecessary death today. It is one of the few true parallels between Vietnam and Iraq.

Apparently, however, Murtha is not very well informed about history, even that through which he lived……….

Click HERE To Read On

No new Op Eds today as we take the holiday off.

But, here is a little essay on the day we celebrate…

Though the “First Thanksgiving” by name was in the Virginia Colony in 1607, our Thanksgiving heritage has its roots with the Pilgrims’ three-day feast in early November of 1621.

After years of their colony failing and families suffering in want, the colonists made a radical change in their philosophy. Instead of the communal arrangement they originally thought would work, an arrangement where everyone contributed their work and crops to the the colony as a whole, they parceled out the land to each family allowing them to keep their own crops and, thereby, work for their own betterment and support.

The Plymouth Colony’s first Thanksgiving to God was celebrated during the summer of 1623, when the colonists declared a Thanksgiving holiday after their crops were saved by much-needed rainfall. The reorganization of their labors toward ownership and property rights set them on the proper path to reaping continual rewards. Families working together primarily for their own betterment were freer—and were better able to pay off the investors.

By the mid-17th Century, the custom of autumnal Thanksgivings was
established throughout New England. Observance of Thanksgiving Festivals spread to other colonies during the American Revolution, and the Continental Congresses, cognizant of the need for a warring country’s continuing grateful entreaties to God, proclaimed yearly Thanksgiving days during the Revolutionary War, from 1777 to 1783.

Our new nation’s first official Thanksgiving Proclamation, issued by the revolutionary Continental Congress on 1 November 1777, expressed gratitude for the colonials’ October victory over British General Burgoyne at Saratoga. Authored by Samuel Adams, the man the other Founders turned to for reasoned statements of liberties as God’s blessings, it read in part: “Forasmuch as it is the indispensable duty of all men to adore the superintending providence of Almighty God; to acknowledge with gratitude their obligation to Him for benefits received…together with penitent confession of their sins, whereby they had forfeited every favor;
and their humble and earnest supplications that it may please God through the merits of Jesus Christ, mercifully to forgive and blot them out of remembrance…it is therefore recommended…to set apart Thursday the eighteenth day of December next, for solemn thanksgiving and praise, that with one heart and one voice the good people may express the grateful feeling of their hearts and consecrate themselves to the service of their Divine Benefactor…acknowledging with gratitude their obligations to Him for benefits received… To prosper the means of religion, for the promotion and enlargement of that kingdom which consisteth ‘in righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost’.”

Washington set his signature to the first day of thanks for the liberties enshrined in our new Constitution, by writing as follows:

“Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor…

“Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the Beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted; for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us.

“And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplication to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations, and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our national government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a government of wise, just and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have
shown kindness to us), and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally, to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best.

“Given under my hand, at the city of New York, the 3d day of October, AD 1789.”

After 1815, there were no further annual Thanksgiving proclamations until our country was imperiled from the Civil War, when Abraham Lincoln declared 26 November 1863 a Day of Thanksgiving, calling for prayer and thanksgiving for the nation, and saying in part, “[It is] announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord… It has seemed to me fit and proper that…[God’s blessings] should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people.”

For the following 75 years, every subsequent president repeated that proclamation, until 1939, when Franklin D. Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving Day to a week earlier than had been tradition, to lengthen the growing pre-Christmas consumer frenzy. Two years later, Congress returned the celebration to its traditional date and permanently set the fourth Thursday of each November as our official national Thanksgiving. Alas, we’ve come to commemorate the holiday with a near-perfunctory acknowledgment.

As this season comes upon us, we have one more thing to be thankful for; that our men and women in the armed forces are once again there to protect our freedoms and assist the downtrodden of the world.

Have a happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

(edited from the Federalist Patriot email message)

Chavez and Venezuela
– Krystle Russin

Venezuela used to be famous for oil, tourism and Miss Universe contestants. Now it is known for its communist wannabe leader. A frequent critic of American politics, Chavez has an obsession with wearing the socialist color red, provides financial backing for Fidel Castro now that Cuba isn’t receiving anything from the USSR, and according to televangelist Pat Robertson, he should be assassinated. I suggest that everyone who thinks President Bush is the worst thing to happen to the United States should be forced to stay in Venezuela for the remainder of Chavez’s term.

Last week at the Summit of the Americas in Argentina, Chavez held a protest attended by 20,000 people to explain why he is better than President Bush, or as he refers to him, “Mr. Danger, the owner of the world.” He said that all of South America should undergo socialist revolutions and kept his same old theme about the war in Iraq and how “imperialist” America is economically unjust. He also claims Mexico’s Vicente Fox acted like a “puppy of the empire.” Most importantly, who is Hugo Chavez to criticize Americans, President Bush, fellow Latin leaders and just about everyone?…………
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How To Save North Korea – Guns, Guns, and More Guns
– By Resa LaRu Kirkland

One of the most inspiring aspects of history is the way ordinary human beings are able to overcome and defeat evil…whether that evil is in the form of individuals, groups, or regimes. We have seen it over and over again, and even participated in such defeats. We have faith in it…it is the one hope we cling to should we ever need to do the same thing again. And we know we will have to again…and yet again. History has proven that it is inevitable so long as mortals are-well, mortal.

Until recent history, the ability to overthrow wicked leaders has been an even proposition; that is, the farmer fighting could reasonably expect to have the same weapons that the army they were trying to defeat had: shields, spears, arrows, clubs, slingshots, horses, etc. What they didn’t have they could make. So it was with both sides-an army supporting a wicked regime could go up against its own countrymen and expect them to be fairly equally equipped. This meant that the final deciding factor in battle was the determination of those fighting. It could go either way.

Then entered the gun. Wicked governments instantly recognized the potential for a massive power shift. If they legislated it so that only THEY could possess guns, it would end the ability of the average man to stop them from any of their designs-wicked and otherwise-thus ensuring their total and complete reign. No matter how committed the people were, there was simply no way they could expect to defeat a system armed with guns when all they had were spears and shields. Wicked governments know that people don’t like them, and WILL fight them. Denying them the right to guns insured leaders of their brutal and iron grip, and the people with no choice but to accept it ………
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Murrow, McCarthy and the media
– By Michael M. Bates

Last week’s Reporter Newspapers carried a column titled “Where is Edward R. Murrow when you need him?” Written by Donald Kaul, the piece extolled “Good Night, and Good Luck,” a film described by the columnist as “a stylish recreation of the time, 50 years ago, when the greatest of all broadcasters, Edward R. Murrow, played St. George to Joe McCarthy’s dragon and saved the Republic, more or less.”

Make that less. Much less ………………..
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A Review Of The Mind Siege Project By Tim LaHaye
– By Frederick Meekins

Christian Author Tackles Moral Tale Set On Ethically Turbulent Seas:
A Review Of The Mind Siege Project By Tim LaHaye

In proclaiming truth, Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias has suggested that the principles and concepts postulated on the level of more formalized expressions of thought must often be exhibited in a more literary or artistic manner in order to permeate the broader popular culture. Tim LaHaye attempts to accomplish this by taking the ideas he first elaborated in Mind Siege: The Battle For Truth and translating them into the novel The Mind Siege Project.

The Mind Siege Project, a group of high school social studies students set on a boat trip on the Chesapeake Bay for a lesson in diversity and moral relativism. The class ends up learning that these ideas have dire consequences not considered in the more sedate setting of academic discussion…….
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