Lose Afghanistan, Lose Pakistan, Lose Iran, Lose it All; Gov imposed salary cuts; New VA Tax; Mobs in Detroit

1) Lose Afghanistan, Lose Pakistan, Lose Iran, Lose It All The gangster regimes of the world are on the march, and they've got our number. They know how to squeeze more civilized nations. Our weakness is cowardice, and that goes double or triple in the face of nuclear weapons. That's why all the rogues are trying to get nukes as fast as they can. They know it's the perfect blackmail weapon, and it makes them invulnerable to attack.  That is also why President Obama's public rejection of General McChrystal's advice on Afghanistan affects your personal safety and mine. Gen. McChrystal wants more troops. Obama doesn't want to send them because he needs the money to promote his socialist take-over of America. You can't have both. Look at Europe, where the military have become pathetic social welfare programs. All the air is sucked out by bigger and bigger victim programs. Obama must be realizing by now that the chance of a major war in the Gulf next year is rising to 100 percent (emphasis mine). Ahmadinejad will have nuclear weapons too, and he already has enough radioactive materials for a dirty nuke, a low-tech weapon that can spread terror everywhere in the world. The Left always puts the burden of proof for WMDs on America, which can never prove their existence because the CIA rarely can penetrate totalitarian regimes. You can't prove a negative. Ever. So the Left is always asking the impossible. It makes them sound reasonable when they are just sabotaging common sense. But Saddam had a warehouse full of yellowcake uranium, as we now know, and to make a terror weapon all he had to do is load a plane full of that stuff and crash it into the LA Library Tower (emphasis mine). You don't need a nuclear explosion to spread terror. All you need is a lot of radioactive stuff thrown together with explosive; agricultural fertilizer will do. For radioactive material you could use the Cesium in your local X-ray unit. Saddam did not do that because he feared our inevitable retaliation.  If Israel attacks Tehran, the Iranians will try to retaliate, either by a missile strike or by local attacks using Hezbollah and Hamas. If Israel does not attack Tehran, the Iranians will try to attack Tel Aviv anyway, because it is the key plank in their ideological doctrine, the one they have been chanting about for thirty years. For Israel it's just in the difference in the timing of an inevitable war. It's damned if you do, damned if you don't. So it makes more sense for Israel to attack first, and expect to defend immediately against Iranian retaliation. It is far, far better to do that before the Iranians get actual nukes. …So everything depends upon vigorous American action. That's what McChrystal has undoubtedly been telling Obama behind the scenes. We know that the General decided to go public at the risk of his career. That means Obama was resisting the iron logic of reality (emphasis mine). …There is no substitute for successful preemption. Bush and Cheney tried to point out those harsh realities, but they were shut out by our fantasy-driven media. The Left chose to close its eyes and ears to the plain facts.  Now Obama is in charge.  We're waiting for the answer. So are the gangster regimes. See: http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/10/lose_afghanistan_lose_pakistan.html 1a) 'US may be planning to bomb Iran' The US could be in the process of accelerating provisions for a possible attack on Iran, according to an ABC News report published Tuesday. The report cited a recent Pentagon decision to push for funding to build a "gargantuan bunker-busting bomb called the Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP)," originally planned for use in Iraq and Afghanistan.  The Pentagon's 2009 request, which was approved last week, was published by ABC, as well as the previous 2007 request. To explain why the bomb was needed at this juncture, the Pentagon only said, "The Department has an Urgent Operational Need (UON) for the capability to strike hard and deeply buried targets in high threat environments. The MOP is the weapon of choice to meet the requirements of the UON." ABC noted that the departments which requested the MOP had responsibility over North Korea and Iran.  The report also stated that this weapon would be "ideally suited" for a strike on Iran's uranium enrichment plant at Natanz, or the recently revealed plant at Qom.  US aerospace manufacturer and defense contractor McDonnell Douglas received a $51.9 million contract to build the four MOPs, the report said. See: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1254861887735&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull 2) Pay Czar Targets Salary Cuts RUSH: Now, look, here's a story. In all of my days I never, ever thought this would actually happen. I knew there were people who wanted to make it happen because they've been shouting and screaming about it my whole life but I never thought we would elect 'em. This is in the Wall Street Journal: "The Obama administration's pay czar is planning to clamp down on compensation at firms receiving large sums of government aid by cutting annual cash salaries --" we're not talking bonuses here "-- for many of the top employees under his authority, according to people familiar with the matter. Instead of awarding large cash salaries --" award salaries! "-- Kenneth Feinberg is planning to shift a chunk of an employee's annual salary into stock that cannot be accessed for several years, these people said. Such a move, the most intrusive yet into corporate compensation, would mark the government's first effort to curb the take-home pay of everyone from auto executives to financial traders (emphasis mine)."  …"Mr. Feinberg is expected to issue by mid-October his determination on compensation packages for 175 of the most highly compensated executives and employees at the seven firms he oversees. The companies are AIG, Bank of America, Citigroup, General Motors, GMAC Financial Services, Chrysler, and Chrysler Financial. The move will further reshape pay at those firms and could complicate efforts by some of those seven companies to attract top executives and employees." Hell, yes, and don't tell me they're bumbling idiots and don't know that. They know exactly what the outcome of this will be.   This is not constitutional, folks. See: http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_100609/content/01125104.guest.html And: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125478783753066235.html 3) Pelosi says new tax is 'on the table' A new value-added tax (VAT) is "on the table" to help the U.S. address its fiscal liabilities, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Monday night. Pelosi, appearing on PBS's "The Charlie Rose Show" asserted that "it's fair to look at" the VAT as part of an overhaul of the nation's tax code. "I would say, Put everything on the table and subject it to the scrutiny that it deserves," Pelosi told Rose when asked if the VAT has any appeal to her.  The VAT is a tax on manufacturers at each stage of production on the amount of value an additional producer adds to a product. See: http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/61783-pelosi-says-new-tax-is-on-the-table 4) Kevin Jenning’s Vision of Public Education Breitbart.tv has linked to a YouTube audio clip where Obama’s Safe School Czar Kevin Jennings mocks the idea of prohibiting the promotion of homosexuality in public schools by saying heterosexual promotion already exists. In a speech in 2000 Jennings said: “First of all, we all know what’s really promoted in our schools: Heterosexuality is promoted in our schools. Every time kids read Romeo and Juliet or they’re encouraged to go to the prom or whatever is it is, kids are aggressively recruited to be heterosexual in this country.  And you know what? It doesn’t work. The reality is that if schools could affect your sexual orientation there would have been no gay people in the first place. But there [are] still people out there who believe that myth, because you know what? It’s easy to panic people if you make them think that they’re after you’re kids.” …While Jennings is spouting an obvious logical fallacy, perhaps the more import issue is to ask how someone like this has so much power. How can someone like Jennings have authority from the White House to exercise control (on some level) over every single public school attending child in America? The process of controlling children through school has come about as follows: 1. Change schooling from a familial and community responsibility to a local governmental responsibility. 2. Give government the power to levy the taxes on the public to educate the public’s own children. 3. Change the objective of schooling from the preservation of freedom and moral order to the vehicle whereby people are made equal. 4. Confiscate and control so many resources via taxes so as to enable public sector schooling to maintain a near complete monopoly on pre-secondary education. 5. Change schooling from a local government responsibility to a state government responsibility. 6. Slowly outlaw any form of moral or religious speech in schools under the pretense that such speech violates the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause. 7. Change schooling from a state responsibility to a federal responsibility. 8. Use the previously established notion of equality, combined with the erasure of Judeo-Christian values to introduce a parallel value system supposedly based on “equality." 9. Use the politically and monetarily isolated position of government bureaucracy to indoctrinate impressionable minds in value and belief systems the students would never accept as adults. NOT MY CHILDREN! OH NO YOU WON’T! See: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/10/kevin_jennings_vision_of_publi.html 5) Ceding the Internet to “Global Governance” Well, we can add another dubious decision to the list of sacrifices the Obama Administration has made to alter of international engagement. Today it was announced that the Obama Administration had agreed to cede much U.S. control over the non-profit Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) that regulates and manages the Domain Name System under which Internet Protocol addresses and registration of top-level domains like .org and .com are assigned. According to a story in the Guardian: “The deal, part of a contract negotiated with the US department of commerce, effectively pushes California-based Icann towards a new status as an international body with greater representation from companies and governments around the globe. Icann had previously been operating under the auspices of the American government, which had control of the net thanks to its initial role in developing the underlying technologies used for connecting computers together. But the fresh focus will give other countries a more prominent role in determining what takes place online, and even the way in which it happens – opening the door for a virtual United Nations, where many officials gather to discuss potential changes to the internet.” …Quite simply, the decision of the Obama administration increases the vulnerability of the Internet to political pressure, censorship, and strangling regulation and taxation. Welcome to “responsibility and leadership in the 21st century” under the Obama Administration. See: http://blog.heritage.org/2009/10/05/ceding-the-internet-to-“global-governance”/ 6) Firefighters stood to lose grant to ACORN Nearly $1 million in Homeland Security funding typically earmarked for fire departments has been awarded to ACORN before Congress signaled that it intended to cut off federal funding to the embattled group.  The grant to ACORN's Louisiana office became public in September before the House and Senate voted to cut off ACORN funding after employees were caught on video advising a fake prostitute and pimp on scams.  It was one of only three such grants issued to the state and made up almost 80 percent of the firefighting money earmarked for Louisiana, prompting one of the U.S. senators from the state to demand that the funds be taken back. See: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/oct/07/firefighters-lose-large-grant-to-acorn/ 7) Oil pricing will remain in dollars, Emirates says  Denies report that Arab states mulling an end to pricing oil in dollars The head of the United Arab Emirates' central bank said Tuesday the Gulf nation has no plans to stop pricing oil in dollars or tying its currency to the greenback.  UAE Central Bank Governor Sultan Nasser al-Suweidi told The Associated Press in a statement that "there has been no meeting ... whatsoever" to discuss ending the U.S. currency's role in the pricing of oil. …Hans Redeker, global head of foreign exchange strategy at BNP Paribas, said Saudi Arabia, which has the biggest oil reserves, will be the key country when discussing which currencies oil should be factored in. "What investors should not forget is that Saudi Arabia has an interest to keep the U.S. strong and involved in the region," he said. "Switching the dollar for a basket of currencies for commodity factoring would weaken the U.S. additionally, which would be against the interest of Saudi Arabia," he added. See: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33190017/ns/business-stocks_and_economy/ 8) Thousands mob Detroit center in hopes of free cash DETROIT – Scuffles erupted as several thousand Detroit residents jockeyed, pushed and shoved Wednesday to get free money being offered to only 3,500 of the city's recently or soon to be homeless. Several received medical treatment for fainting or exhaustion while frantically trying to obtain the applications for federal housing assistance. The long lines and short tempers highlighted the frustration and desperation that Detroit residents feel struggling through an economic nightmare. The line around Cobo Center, a downtown convention center, started forming well before daybreak. Anger flared within a few hours as more people sought out a dwindling number of applications for the program. Members of the Detroit Police Department's Gang Squad and other tactical units were called in for crowd control. Several people reportedly passed out from exhaustion and had to be treated by emergency medical personnel. Some minor injuries were reported, and no arrests were made. …The city distributed more than 50,000 applications for the Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing program over the past several days before running out Wednesday morning. Only 3,500 people who qualify will receive the money — a maximum $3,000 per applicant, Dumas said. See: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091008/ap_on_re_us/us_detroit_stimulus_scuffle 9) Obama picks openly gay lawyer for ambassadorship WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama said Wednesday he planned to nominate an openly gay lawyer as the U.S. ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa. If confirmed by the Senate, David Huebner would become the third openly gay ambassador in U.S. history and the first pick by this administration. In a statement released from the White House, Obama said he looked forward to working with Huebner and is confident he will represent the United States well in the Pacific region. Huebner is based in Shanghai, where he handles international arbitration and mediation cases for a U.S. firm. A graduate of Princeton University and Yale Law School, he is also the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation's general counsel and previously served on the group's board. …Obama's announcement is a gesture just days before he speaks to a gay rights fundraising dinner on Saturday and gay activists march on Washington on Sunday. See: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091008/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama_gay_ambassador 10) SWAT raid on food storehouse heading to trial Family sues over confiscation of supplies, computers A lawsuit brought by an Ohio family whose children were held at SWAT-team gunpoint while their food supplies were confiscated is scheduled to go to trial this week.  John and Jackie Stowers are suing the Ohio Department of Agriculture and the Lorain County General Health District over the raid on their "Manna Storehouse," an organic food co-op that operated in LaGrange.  The Stowers and their 10 children and grandchildren were detained in one room of their home for six hours while sheriff's officers confiscated 60 boxes of fresh farm food, computers, phones and records, including USDA-certified meat from the children's mini-farm, according to lawyers for the plaintiffs.  The state and county are accused of 119 counts, including unlawful search and seizure, illegal use of state police power, taking of private property without compensation, failure to provide due process and equal protection and a multitude of constitutional rights violations, including the right to grow and eat one's own food and offer it to others. …David Cox, an attorney for the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund, confirmed that nothing ever resulted for the family after the confiscation of the food.  There were no charges, "civil, criminal or otherwise," he said. See: http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=112110