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Point and counterpoint in Salisbury: some observations
Earlier today I spent a little time at the "No Ban No Wall No Registry" rally in downtown Salisbury, which was countered by a (more or less) silent protest on the outside. I was only there about 45 minutes, since I had more pressing family business to attend to, but I think my stint there gave me the flavor of the event. So I have some pictures and quotes I jotted down from representative speakers.
My obligatory crowd shot. I believe the event was supposed to begin at 1:00, so I took this about a half-hour into it.
On such an event as this my basis of comparison is the Tax Day TEA Party I attended at that very same location in 2009. Considering that prior event was held on a rainy, chilly weekday afternoon and this one was on an unseasonably warm February weekend (a holiday weekend to boot) the turnout seemed rather small – maybe 300 people. Also note that perhaps 75 of these people were there for the "Resist the Resistance" counter-rally, so my estimate is of about a 3:1 ratio of rallygoer to protestor.
This second crowd shot above came about 20 minutes later, from across the street. Notice the police car parked there, as there were perhaps 4 or 5 pairs of Salisbury police officers surveying the group from different vantage points. Overall, the gathering was rather peaceful and the event organizer only chastised the counter-group once when I was there for being disrespectful. This is a sampling of the counterpoint; however, they were more scattered around the outside. The cheers and chants weren't coming from them.
As with any protest worth its salt, there were signs expressing a variety of points of view.
I'm surprised the bearer wasn't asking for the birth certificate. Oh wait, wrong president. But this wasn't necessarily supposed to be an anti-Trump rally.
Well, then again… but to be fair, this was spotted on a car in the nearby parking lot. I would presume the person who slapped it on wasn't at the library, though.
True, but many do illegal acts, and in the case of our subject matter crossing the border without permission, identity theft – which many "undocumented migrants" do in order to secure work authorization – and overstaying visas are criminal acts.
I agree with this one as well, particularly with regard to the below sign.
Radical Islam is more of a threat to that light than a temporary pause in accepting refugees and immigrants from particular nations. Shari'a law is not compatible with our Constitution. And looking at the other sign in the top photo, I didn't think global warming was a concern with this one. Today's global warming feels pretty darn good, actually. And, by the way, spellcheck is your friend.
Rather than take a photo of the kids drawing on the posterboards (making more signs?) I took this shot. They're not old enough to know better, although I fear that what they are exposed to isn't going to lead them in a positive direction.
I did not write down the names of the speakers, so forgive me on that. More important than the names, though, was their sentiments. One high-school age girl who claimed she was brought up in a mixed home (Muslim and Catholic) was afraid she would be "hated and harmed by those misinformed" and that with continued scapegoating of various groups America will unmake itself.
I recall this girl talked about the internment of the Japanese in America during World War II, which was primarily because FDR considered them a threat as we were fighting their homeland. Yet no one is talking about rounding up Middle Eastern males and putting them in a camp – the idea is just to have more "extreme vetting" of a group which has been proven to have a propensity toward committing acts of terror both here and elsewhere.
Another woman (most of the speakers I saw were women, particularly college-age and below) exhorted the audience to educate themselves and not to believe various news sources, including blogs. Hey, I resent that remark – come tell me I'm lying. I certainly will cheerfully admit my bias toward limited, Constitutional government, and I believe Trump's action regarding immigrants is within his purview. (The Washington judge and Ninth Circuit got it wrong. The law – which dates from the 1950s – clearly states Trump can take this action, just as the last six presidents have.)
I'm not sure if it was the same speaker, but it was noted as well that the Likovich family (the organizer is local college student Molly Likovich) has received "a lot of hateful words." I don't condone that tone, either, but please remember hateful words aren't the exclusive province of the Right.
Something I noticed in further remarks was when a speaker was talking about having respect for all religions, including those who choose not to follow any religion, that last part got the loudest cheer. What someone does with their immortal soul is between them and God, but I found, sadly, I wasn't surprised by that sentiment there.
I also heard the opinion that we all have blanket stereotypes of people as human beings. But by the same token, this speaker said "Ignorance is not bliss, and knowledge is power." We had to admit to ourselves these stereotypes and try to change our behavior. The question I have, though, is change it to what? Should we just accept the false notion that all cultures are equal and just let things go? That's not possible in a civilized society. And while she asked us to "never stop fighting for humanity," the question becomes which behaviors and cultures are assets to humanity and which are detrimental.
But the last speaker I heard before I departed the scene took the cake.
Thanks to my erstwhile fellow WCRC officer Jackie Wellfonder, I found out this speaker's name is Amber Green, and yes she is sporting a BLM shirt. Jackie had a video of Amber's whole speech up on her social media, so I listened again.
Amber was very riled up, which is fine, but when she told the older generation "it's time for you guys to sit down" and let the younger generation take over because "we have a lot to say," well, from what they had to say I don't think they have the maturity or common sense to take over yet.
To show how naïve these people are, remember that one of the speakers said humans have "blanket stereotypes" about each other. Young lady, that cuts both ways. Unfortunately, there is a group of relatively young humans out there who use the blanket stereotypes given to them by their religion as an excuse to murder and maim people, in the belief that dying themselves in the act is their surest way to 72 virgins in paradise. Again, I will admit that I heard only a portion of the remarks but I don't recall any of the speakers condemning that behavior. Instead, we had to be tolerant of their beliefs because they have the notion that there is moral equivalence between all cultures and religions. So if someone came to the event with a Confederate flag, would they be as forgiving because – remember – all cultures are equal?
I also recall one of the speakers revealing that Molly and several of the other event organizers participated in the Women's March last month. At least this rally didn't feature the pink hats, which did little but make those women look foolish.
Good thing there was a little levity about the place, not to mention the bottled water on the table above the sign.
Maybe what we need is a beer summit, and apparently from what I read on social media several of the pro-Trump people went to this establishment to have a few adult beverages. Yet it's the organizers who need it so they will figure out a little bit of common sense. Lord knows they need something to get through the next four to eight years because they'll have to deal with Donald Trump and Mike Pence for that long. Despite Michael Moore's fantasy, Hillary Clinton is nowhere on the succession list.
But do you know what was most silly about this rally? These people have already forgotten something I observed during the 2016 campaign: the more extreme the rhetoric and vitriol toward Donald Trump, the more people embrace him. All this affair did was sow the seeds of division in our nation deeper, but that may have been the goal all along. And despite the glowing coverage in local media, it will just take one terror attack in the name of religion to obliterate the points made today.
Earning my presidential vote: foreign policy
One of the most important functions for a President is that of spearheading our foreign policy. So what would I think a sound foreign policy consists of?
Well, in five bullet points or less, here you go:
- America is the world leader, or perhaps one can call it a first among equals. So act like it rather than "leading from behind."
- By that same token, though, we don't have to be involved everywhere. There are certain places where it is our national interest to intercede (such as the threat from radical Islam) and others we have no business dealing with.
- Nations that are our friends and have been for decades should be treated as such. No returning Churchill's bust or snubbing Israel.
- If we are to go to war, let Congress declare it. To me, boots on the ground engaging an enemy in anything aside from isolated incidents equals war.
- We should leave the UN and they can go over to Switzerland for all I care. If we are to be united with other nations, it should be our peer group of industrialized republics which have governmental styles similar to ours. Tinhorn dictatorships and nations with missiles pointed our way need not apply.
This, though, is one of my more flexible issues because there are good arguments to be made for several approaches outside of strict isolationism and continual intervention in dozens of nations to spread our military resources too thin without the declaration of war or compelling national interest.
As always, if you wish to follow the series from the beginning start here. This particular category is worth 12 points.
Update: It occurred to me just now that I should re-introduce the candidates: Darrell Castle of the Constitution Party, Jim Hedges of the Prohibition Party, Tom Hoefling of America's Party, Gary Johnson of the Libertarian Party, and independent Evan McMullin. Johnson is on the Maryland ballot; the rest are write-ins but their votes will count.
Castle: He firmly believes in upholding Article I Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution, which makes it clear that only Congress can declare war, and that those powers are not granted to the president. He left the Marine Corps a very different person than when he went in. (website)
"We need to secure our borders before we talk about going after the terrorists overseas…In general, I favor the policy of nonintervention in foreign affairs, just as the Founders did."
"I believe that the United States (U.S.) should regain its sovereignty and chart its own course. This is not isolationism. The U.S. cannot remain isolated from the forces agitating today's world, which is so interrelated in trade, finance, instantaneous communications, etc.
How does America deal with other nations while keeping our sovereignty, our freedom, and our independence intact? Can the U.S. keep its own laws and Constitution, set its own policies, or do we surrender to the decisions and dictates of an international collective of nations?
Many people, including many in our own government, would love to see American nationhood fade into history. They fear not only the power of America, but also the ideas that still make us the most powerful nation on earth. Those ideas serve as a contradiction to the way the rest of the world operates, and would serve us even more if we were once again an independent nation."
"The ideas of America are not compatible with membership in the United Nations (U.N.). The U.N. is world headquarters for the church of unbelieving humanism. The fundamental doctrine of the U.N. is that the world should be a global collective, redistributing shares of material prosperity to every human on earth. That is a religious and not a political idea. Faith in God is replaced by faith in Humanity. The U.N. is the sanctuary of the idolatry of Man."
Would not intervene in Syria, it's their business who runs the country. (YouTube)
Opposed to foreign aid, but supports Israel. (YouTube)
Don't go sticking our noses into every rattlesnake nest. Absence of war is not isolationism, but he would not shrink from a battle when our interests are threatened.
Brexit was "one of happiest days of my recent life."
President has authority to make war, though. Grenada was an example – wrapped up well within 60 day authorization. May not be Syria situation without Iraq/Afghanistan. (Iron Sharpens Iron radio show)
Hedges: opposes Democratic policy of giving away sovereignty to the United Nations. Would not give aid to nations which mistreat women as slaves or concubines.
"We will conduct foreign affairs with the preservation of American liberty and independence as our chief objective. We are jealous of American sovereignty; we are opposed to the interference of America in the like sovereignty of other nations. American garrisons in foreign countries should not exceed the level required to protect American diplomatic missions unless specifically authorized by Congress. We support volunteer armed forces, well trained and highly motivated; we oppose conscription except in time of Congressionally declared war." (party platform)
Hoefling: We believe in a supremely strong, prepared, and well-equipped civilian-controlled United States military, and a bold, visionary and intelligent program of principled constructive engagement with the rest of the world. For us, "peace through strength" is not a mere slogan. It is the means of survival for our country in a very dangerous and often hostile world. Our friendship should be a sought-after possession of all men and women of good will everywhere in the world. Our enmity should be something that all rightfully fear.
As Ronald Reagan opposed and defeated the designs and desire of the Soviet Union to dominate the world and place it under the tyranny of their Evil Empire, we stand unalterably opposed to all who approve of, plan or commit terrorist acts. Since the first principle of America is the protection of innocent human life, any who would use acts of terrorism targeted at innocent civilians to forward their political, ideological or religious aims incur our effective and determined enmity. (party platform)
We completely oppose any action that surrenders the moral, political or economic sovereignty of the United States and its people, and demand the immediate restoration of that sovereignty wherever it has been eroded. (party platform)
Johnson: No Nation Building. No Policing the World. More Security Here at Home.
The objective of both our foreign policy and our military should be straightforward: To protect us from harm and to allow us to exercise our freedoms.
Looking back over the past couple of decades, it is difficult to see how the wars we have waged, the interventions we have conducted, the lives sacrificed, and the trillions of tax dollars we have spent on the other side of the globe have made us safer. If anything, our meddling in the affairs of other nations has made us less safe.
Many senior military and foreign policy analysts have concluded that the rise of ISIS can actually be traced back to instability created by our meddling in the affairs of others. This is because the last several administrations, both Republican and Democrat, have used our military resources to pursue undemocratic regime changes, embark on impossible nation-building exercises, and to establish the United States as the policeman of the world.
This imperialistic foreign policy makes it easier for ISIS, Al Qaeda, and other violent extremists to recruit new members. We need to build a strong military. But we should not use our military strength to try to solve the world's problems. Doing so creates new enemies and perpetual war.
Besides, we have enough problems to solve right here at home.
As President, Gary Johnson will move quickly and decisively to cut off the funding on which violent extremist armies depend. He will repair relationships with our allies. And he will only send our brave soldiers to war when clearly authorized by Congress after meaningful, transparent deliberation and debate.
The idea that we can defeat terrorism by simply putting more boots on the ground or dropping more bombs ignores the reality that this expensive tactic simply hasn't worked. In fact, it's made the situation worse. (campaign website)
McMullin: Before World War II, many Americans fell prey to the delusion that if we pull back to our own shores that the world's troubles will pass us by. After the war, Americans came together in agreement that only our leadership could prevent another catastrophic conflict, while promoting liberty and economic growth as well.
Thanks to our parents' and grandparents' generations, there has been no great war for 70 years, and prosperity and freedom have spread around the globe. Americans have served and sacrificed to maintain our security in those decades, but the horrors of a global conflict have been avoided.
Evan McMullin will continue this tradition of leadership that has made America the world's indispensable nation.
Alliances with other free nations have long been one of the most important sources of American power in the world. Real leadership is not a protection racket or a mercenary army where the United States charges others for providing security. Rather, it is about building long-term partnerships with nations that share our values.
In these security partnerships, the U.S. has and will continue to speak candidly about the need for allies to shoulder their share of the burden. In contrast, suggestions that the United States may abandon its allies in the face of foreign threats is an open invitation for China, Russia, Iran and others to expand their spheres of influence, and to provoke dangerous conflicts that may drag us into war.
Opposing brutal dictatorships and speaking out on behalf of democracy and human rights are also essential to American leadership. Other nations follow our lead because they understand that we pursue the collective good, not just our own narrow self-interest. While American soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and intelligence officers have borne the cost of this leadership, the pursuit of common interests has enabled us to build a network of democratic allies across the globe.
After eight years of weak leadership under President Obama, we deserve a President who knows what it's like to fight terrorists on the front lines, rather than making excuses for his failures.
Evan McMullin will provide the leadership America needs in the world. He will pursue the defeat and destruction of the Islamic State and al-Qaeda, rather than dismissing such threats as "the jayvee team" or saying they are "already contained." He will punish Iran for violating the nuclear deal, rather than ransoming American hostages with stacks of foreign currency. He will stand with Israel, rather than blaming a loyal and democratic ally for instability in the region.
Evan will impose tougher sanctions on Russia and increase America's military presence in the Baltics in order to deter and reverse Putin's aggression, rather than pretending that he is a partner for peace in Syria. Evan will stand up for the rights of American and allied ships to sail freely in international waters, rather than letting China dominate the Western Pacific.
Finally, he will reverse the reckless cuts that have brought the size, strength, and readiness of the U.S. military to a dangerous and historic low.
When America ignores rising threats to peace and stability, they don't go away—they just get worse. "Leading from behind" isn't leading at all; it only ensures that by the time we need to get involved, the situation is worse, the risks and costs are higher, and the world is on the brink of a crisis.
America can and must do better. We must strengthen our alliances and put our friends, not our enemies, first. We must renew our focus on human rights, including the genocidal persecution of civilians in Syria and elsewhere.
Americans never shy away from a challenge, and we have stood and sacrificed for our ideals in the face of Nazism, Communism and Islamic terrorism. The failed leadership of Barack Obama has left the world on fire, and (his) disastrous judgment has fanned the flames. We need a president who has the integrity, the wisdom, and the courage to lead.
Evan McMullin will be that President.
America's men and women in uniform are the pride of our nation. Their sacrifices and hard work keep us safe day in and day out. Yet increasingly, we are failing in our obligation to provide them with the training and equipment they need. The number of planes, ships, and soldiers in the Armed Forces is falling toward levels not seen since before World War II, even as the world grows more dangerous. President Obama's reckless leadership, aided and abetted by Congress, has put the military on a path to almost $1 trillion in cuts compared to projected needs.
The consequences of this neglect are all too real for American service members. Both the Marine Corps and the Air Force have stripped spare parts from museum planes to keep their aircraft flying. Last year, the Air Force's top general told Congress, if his airplanes were cars, there would be "twelve fleets of airplanes that qualify for antique license plates in the state of Virginia." Meanwhile, only one third of active Army combat brigades are ready to fight. The Navy is wearing down its sailors and ships with extended deployments, because the fleet is too small to carry out its missions.
There are strong advocates for the Armed Forces on both sides of the aisle, yet President Obama insists that he will only spend more on defense if every dollar for the Pentagon is matched by a dollar for domestic programs. In short, he is holding the military hostage to his domestic priorities.
Our troops deserve better. Evan McMullin believes that what we spend on the military should reflect our country's strategy and the threats to our security, not domestic political goals. He will never ask our men and women in uniform to compromise their honor, and he most certainly will never dismiss the expertise and advice of our senior military leaders. Rather, when Evan is President, American service members will know they have a friend and advocate in the White House.
The Department of Defense must be a responsible steward of taxpayer dollars. Far too often, the cost of major weapons programs has greatly exceeded projections, while the programs fall years behind schedule, depriving the troops of the cutting edge equipment they deserve. Evan McMullin supports bipartisan efforts in Congress to reform and rethink the weapons development and acquisition process. Above all, there is a need to establish clear lines of responsibility so that senior officials can no longer pass the buck when explaining what went wrong.
The Pentagon also needs to bring the ratio of troops to civilians —or "tooth to tail"—back into balance. The number of troops has fallen by more than 100,000 since 9/11, yet the number of civilians has risen by 50,000. While DOD civilians serve with commitment and pride, the Pentagon does not even have the ability to fully track its manpower requirements and decide which positions are necessary and which are duplicative. No profitable business would run this way, and we should expect and demand more from our government.
Similarly, the Pentagon has a poor understanding of its contractor workforce, whose size is comparable to its civil servant workforce of about 750,000. While focusing on the challenges to efficient weapons buying, the Pentagon has made far too little effort to monitor spending on everyday goods and services, on which it spends tens of billions of dollars every year.
Finally, the Pentagon must complete its efforts to trim the excess facilities that still remain from the Cold War era, when the force was 50 percent larger. Many of these facilities are partially shuttered, so they serve little purpose while consuming maintenance dollars.
A President's most solemn responsibility is to the men and women under his command. Evan is the only candidate in this election who will take their needs seriously. Under Evan's leadership, we will rebuild the military and give our service members the tools they need to defend our freedoms and our way of life—while also protecting Americans' hard-earned dollars. (campaign website)
I tend to agree with practically everything Darrell Castle says. If this is a Constitution Party foreign policy, you can count me in. 12 points.
Jim Hedges and his Prohibition Party are fairly similar to Castle, but not quite to the degree of detail. 10 points.
My one question of Tom Hoefling regarding that statement: how far do you take protection of innocent human life? One could interpret that as passing up the opportunity to engage the enemy at the risk of civilian casualties, while another argument would have this statement be our justification for being the world's policeman. Neither of those is helpful to our aims. 7 points.
The overarching question about Gary Johnson's foreign policy is that of abandoning those fights we have stepped into. We have no true way of knowing if we are not safer than we would have been had we not intervened in Iraq and Afghanistan because there's no guarantee that the Taliban or Saddam Hussein would not have facilitated a 9/11-style attack. After all, what was the motivation for the first WTC bombing in 1993? We are dealing with people who aren't forgetting the Crusades hundreds of years ago.
So as tempting as it may sound, I'm not into an isolationist foreign policy. Unfortunately, we need to subdue our enemies, not give them free reign. Other candidates seem to understand this distinction rather than throw shade on preceding presidents. 4 points.
Evan McMullin has a very good background for this aspect of the presidency – if he doesn't win, he could certainly make a valid case for being Secretary of State or perhaps Secretary of Defense in a conservative administration. Obviously there will be a group who considers him a neo-con but since we have put ourselves into these conflicts, there is an argument that we should play to win. He also pays a great deal of attention to the military, more so than any other candidate. This is his strongest category by far, and he hits on a lot of good aspects – just hold back on the world policeman tendencies as human rights enforcer and deal with the more pressing national threats first. 10.5 points.
We are getting down to the final two categories as well as the intangibles. Next I tackle the ticking time bomb of entitlements.
Is America forgetting 9/11?
Since the inception of this website I have written a 9/11-themed piece almost every year (I skipped 2006, which was the first year monoblogue existed.) If you're interested in my personal 9/11 story I wrote it back in 2007.
But now that we have made it to year 15, I think the more apt paragraph is that which I wrote a year ago for the Patriot Post. This was part of my original submission but edited out for length. It's still the truth, though.
As time passes away from the 9/11 attack, we tend to forget that those who best recall the horrific day as working adults are becoming less and less a part of the prevailing culture. The fall of the World Trade Center occurred just before my 37th birthday; in a week I turn 51. On the other side, those entering college this year were toddlers at the time and may not recall the shock we felt as adults.
Add another year to those totals (since I'll turn 52 in a couple weeks) and realize that a child born on that date is most likely a high school sophomore now. Those in our high schools and college now were probably too young to remember their experiences that day – maybe the college seniors will think about how it affected their nap time in kindergarten (if they still do that anymore.) For them, the link is now their history books or their parents, not personal experience.
And as that generation comes to adulthood, they have also been soured on the patriotism and purpose that accompanied our fight against radical Islam, to the point where neither Hillary Clinton nor Donald Trump wishes to commit a great deal of resources to the effort; rather they would use surrogates to do the actual fighting. It's a far cry from the thousands who signed up for the military to take the fight to Osama bin Laden in the weeks after the World Trade Center and Pentagon were targeted. Rather than patriotism, kids now emulate the custom of kneeling during the National Anthem as a form of protest.
While we haven't had an attack equivalent to 9/11 recently, the threat from radical Islam is still there. Since our last observance of Patriot Day Americans were gunned down by Islamist radicals in San Bernardino and Orlando, with other major incidents abroad in Paris, Indonesia, and Istanbul, just to name a few. The world remains a dangerous place and we live in interesting times.
The fact that Pearl Harbor Day and 9/11 occurred almost sixty years apart provides the opportunity to make one direct parallel. While Islamic terrorism is still a campaign issue 15 years after 9/11, we expended a lot of blood and treasure over the following four years after Pearl Harbor, with one of those war heroes successfully being re-elected President in 1956. There was a finality to World War II because the opponent was a governmental entity – once the regimes in Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany surrendered, the war came to an end. But in this case there may not be an end for generations. A decisive military defeat could hasten the process, but subduing this threat isn't solely a military process, just a piece of the puzzle. By definition, terrorist attacks aren't conducted by military forces but by civilians who may use military-style tactics.
So we once again come to the anniversary and remembrance of 9/11, an occasion that almost 1/4 of our population (73.6 million) has little to no memory of because they are under the age of 18. Some of the timeless images will remain, but the actual memories of how Americans were affected will be lost as those who were of Social Security age back then are passing away – this was the generation that fought in Korea and World War II, and we are losing them by the hundreds daily. The rest of us are getting older too.
Let's just hope that we aren't simultaneously losing our collective identity as a liberty-loving nation thanks to the threat presented by the terrorists. In the end, that may be the legacy of 9/11 we have to reject.
Stand up and legislate!
By Cathy Keim
Congress headed back to work right after the Labor Day weekend. This will be the last opportunity for the Republican controlled House and Senate to finally find their legs and stand up to President Obama's out of control executive overreach. Sadly, I do not expect them to even try based on their previous performances.
With the presidential election looming in November, wouldn't this be a great time for the House to remember that they control the purse strings? If they do not put the money in the budget that they will be approving in September, then they can bring programs to a screeching halt. Their fear of a government shutdown renders them incapable of using the only instrument left to stop a president run amok.
Our national debt is now over $19.5 trillion, but still our Congress cannot find it in themselves to defund anything that the president demands.
Obamacare is collapsing, as it was meant to do from the beginning, to force us into a single-payer national health scheme. Watching the United Kingdom struggle with their broken system should give our leaders the encouragement to stop this, but instead they have funded the demise of our health care.
The Iran deal has been shown to be a disaster with our government trading money for hostages and Iran increasingly ready to harass our Navy ships.
Or how about the president's giveaway of our internet to China, Russia, and Iran!
Ann Corcoran has released a new video called "Changing America by Changing Its People." In under five minutes, Ann explains the Refugee Resettlement Program and how it can be stopped. You guessed it! This program that was started by Joe Biden and Ted Kennedy could be halted by defunding it. All the Voluntary Agencies (VOLAGS) that are bringing in the refugees are funded with your tax dollars.
Many of the VOLAGS have religious names, but they are not allowed to speak the name of Christ to the refugees they import. They are on the government payroll as private contractors and thus are prohibited from proselytizing. Why would Christian and Jewish groups bring in thousands of Muslims who are bound by their religion to make every effort to institute sharia law instead of living under our Constitution? People whose religion teaches them to hate Jews and Christians and to subjugate or kill them? I have not been able to come up with a reasonable explanation for that.
Since the Democrats cannot get Americans to willingly agree to their progressive Utopian scheme, then they will overwhelm the current Americans with imported people that they hope to keep voting Democrat forever.
If our Congress would defund some programs, another one that could bear careful scrutiny would be the food stamp program. Once again, Ann Corcoran on her blog Refugee Resettlement Watch pulls together the information that is out there, but that our Congressional watchdogs don't bother to notice. Baltimore, Maryland gets unflattering attention again for a huge food stamp fraud bust. Buffalo, New York, makes the news with this convenience store operator getting charged with fraud. The local convenience store operators buy the EBT cards from the food stamp recipients for 50% of the face value. Instead of food, the customer gets cash and the owner takes the other 50% to buy items to resell at his store. Sweet deal if you can get it, right?
I do not know if any of the convenience store owners are refugees, but Ann points out that their clientele most likely includes refugees: Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama stated on his website last September that more than 90% of recent Middle Eastern refugees are on food stamps and almost 70% are on cash welfare.
Put these statistics together with this interesting statement:
[T]he Koran encourage Muslims to collect jizya – blood tax – from kafirs, the non-Muslims, and welfare is looked upon as jizya. Collecting money from non-Muslims is considered a legal entitlement since the kafir is not entitled to any land or laws of their own anywhere, meaning their presence on a land or country of their own is a "theft" of "occupation" of what should be Muslim land.
Defrauding the welfare system becomes a type of jihad against the welcoming host country.
The list could go on and on with all the missed opportunities to block an imperial presidency and to recalibrate the separation of powers equation. What better time to grandstand against the president's failed policies than the last session while the GOP still has control of both houses of Congress? Use every platform available to broadcast the deficiencies of the current administration that would be continued by the next Democrat president. Give speeches, hold hearings, give interviews, and hold the failed policies up to the public view during the entire budget process instead of acquiescing to the agenda and rubber stamping another omnibus spending bill.
Unfortunately, Paul Ryan and the House leadership don't see the situation like I do. According to The Hill:
Members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus are pushing to extend government funding into early 2017, wary of a massive bipartisan spending deal in the lame-duck. But GOP leaders and House Democrats are already laying the groundwork for a short-term continuing resolution, or CR, that will set up a vote on a catch-all spending bill right before the holidays.
Once again, the GOP will cave, even if it means passing the omnibus bill with Democrat votes just like the last CRomnibus budget vote. And when they cave, they will not show the fortitude to fight to cut the funding for refugee resettlement, or any other item that President Obama desires.
The GOP leadership is already signaling defeat when "Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), a senior appropriator and leadership ally, dismissed the Freedom group's approach, saying it's backed by Republicans who would rather create 'some sort of massive showdown crisis.'"
We don't even try to mount an offense. The House leadership has already begun attacking the conservatives in their own party before the session even opens. The leadership seems to think that the election is going to be a disaster, so they need to do the best deal now. It appears that they have already given up on maintaining control of the Senate and winning the presidency.
It is interesting that Paul Ryan would think that he can get a better deal with a lame duck President Obama rather than Trump or Clinton. Let's see where Andy Harris goes on this budget vote.
What is particularly galling about this whole sham of not passing budget bills until the last minute so that they can all be rolled into one huge omnibus bill and rammed through is that the American people are being played by their elected representatives. This process of not functioning in order to push through a monstrosity has been perfected by our Congressional leaders as a means to keep the status quo. Since everything keeps being funded at previous levels, nothing ever changes. The American citizen is being played. This is why there is a revolt brewing. There is discontent on every side. The leaders will not be able to keep this scam going forever.
The totalitarian religion of peace?
By Cathy Keim
Of, relating to, being, or imposing a form of government in which the political authority exercises absolute and centralized control over all aspects of life, the individual is subordinated to the state, and opposing political and cultural expression is suppressed: "A totalitarian regime crushes all autonomousinstitutions in its drive to seize the human soul" (Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.)
Totalitarian government. (n.d.) American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. (2011).
We are used to thinking of totalitarian ideologies as the two horrors that the United States fought in the 20th Century: Nazism, which we defeated in WWII, and communism, which we supposedly defeated through the Cold War. We now face a third form of totalitarian ideology, but due to our advanced immersion into politically correct thinking we are no longer able to mount a coherent defense. The new threat is Islam – not radical Islam, but Islam.
As I was researching this piece, I was looking for people that were willing to state that Islam is a totalitarian ideology equal to, but not the same as, communism and Nazism. What I found was that when these two ideologies first popped up, they were compared to Islam to explain their totalitarian thrust.
In an excellent article, Geert Wilders, Western Sages, and Totalitarian Islam, Andrew Bostom, who I had the pleasure of meeting last January at a conference, shows that contemporaneous with the advent of Bolshevism and Nazism, people were making the connection. I find this interesting because due to the PC mindset we are currently controlled by, you don't see many of our political leaders or media personalities being willing to admit to this rather obvious connection.
Why do I find this connection so important? Because this gives us an historical precedent for resisting a totalitarian ideology. Our current leaders are unable to state the truth. The George W. Bush administration hid behind the Radical Islam moniker, stating that Islam was a religion of peace and the radical jihadists were not reflective of the great world religion, Islam. Under President Obama, this concept has morphed into the more ridiculous position that we cannot even call terrorist attacks perpetrated in the name of Allah, Islamic terrorism. Jihad is transformed into an internal spiritual battle rather than the violent struggle to subdue the kafir that it really is.
The distinction as to whether Islam is a religion of peace being perverted by evil men or whether Islam is a totalitarian ideology committed to subduing the entire world to a one world government (caliphate) under sharia law makes a huge difference in how you deal with practical matters, particularly immigration.
If it is the former, then you can try to screen out potential terrorists by checking on their backgrounds like you would a criminal. If it is the latter, then you have a much different problem on your hands. Would it be wise to bring in thousands and thousands of adherents to this totalitarian ideology and hope that they will become peaceful Americans?
First, let's look at a lengthy quote from Dr. Bostom's article where Karl Jung and then Karl Barth compare Nazism to Islam:
[D]uring an interview conducted in the late 1930s (published in 1939), Karl Jung was asked: " … had [he] any views on what was likely to be the next step in religious development?" Jung replied, in reference to the Nazi fervor that had gripped Germany:
We do not know whether Hitler is going to found a new Islam. He is already on the way; he is like Muhammad. The emotion in Germany is Islamic; warlike and Islamic. They are all drunk with wild god. That can be the historic future.
Also published in 1939 was Karl Barth's assessment (from The Church and the Political Problem of Our Day) of the similarity between Fascist totalitarianism and Islam:
Participation in this life, according to it the only worthy and blessed life, is what National Socialism, as a political experiment, promises to those who will of their own accord share in this experiment. And now it becomes understandable why, at the point where it meets with resistance, it can only crush and kill — with the might and right which belongs to Divinity! Islam of old as we know proceeded in this way. It is impossible to understand National Socialism unless we see it in fact as a new Islam, its myth as a new Allah, and Hitler as this new Allah's Prophet.
Next Dr. Bostom presents the contemporary comparison between Communism and Islam:
Jules Monnerot's 1949 Sociologie du Communisme was translated into English and published asSociology and Psychology of Communism in 1953. Monnerot elaborated at length upon a brief but remarkably prescient observation by Bertrand Russell, published already in 1920, which compared emerging Bolshevism to Islam. Russell had noted in his The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism:
Bolshevism combines the characteristics of the French Revolution with those of the rise of Islam. … Those who accept Bolshevism become impervious to scientific evidence, and commit intellectual suicide. Even if all the doctrines of Bolshevism were true, this would still be the case, since no unbiased examination of them is tolerated. … Among religions, Bolshevism is to be reckoned with Mohammedanism [Islam] rather than with Christianity and Buddhism. Christianity and Buddhism are primarily personal religions, with mystical doctrines and a love of contemplation. Mohammedanism and Bolshevism are practical, social, unspiritual, concerned to win the empire of this world.
These quotes show that prior to our politically correct environment, Islam was viewed as a totalitarian ideology on par with fascism and communism. So, how did we deal with them?
We fought WWII to crush the evil of fascism and we waged the Cold War for decades to curb the expansion of communism, declaring victory with the dissolution of the USSR and the fall of the Berlin Wall.
After the 9/11 attacks, the United States attacked Afghanistan and Iraq to destroy the governments that were giving shelter to terrorists. Due to our need for oil, we never identified the correct problem, nor the correct solution. Instead our leaders spoke of bringing democracy to the Middle East. We ousted the governments of Afghanistan and Iraq and installed new governments with constitutions based on sharia law.
If our leaders had bothered to understand the problem, they would not have ever uttered the words democracy and sharia law in the same sentence. Next came the Arab Spring, which was hailed as a breaking out of democracy all over the Middle East. In the ensuing years, the chorus of joy on the parts of our elites has changed to the cry to bring in refugees by the thousands as they flee the war, chaos, and starvation that has followed.
Libya is a dysfunctional state now controlled by terrorist factions. Syria is rent by a brutal civil war. Iraq is being ravished by ISIS with its Christian and Yazidi populations facing genocide. Egypt was sinking under the control of the Moslem Brotherhood until the military seized control. Turkey is faltering as Erdogan pushes it ever closer to sharia fundamentalism. Iran has made kidnapping pay and is released from any restraints on its rush to nuclear weapons.
Islam, like the Nazis and the communists, is never content to peacefully coexist with its neighbors. Its only mandate is to conquer, kill, subjugate, and then move on to the next territory until the entire world is prostrate beneath them.
Dr. Bostom continues with a quote from Bernard Lewis explaining the goals of Islam and Communism.
Quite obviously, the Ulama [religious leaders] of Islam are very different from the Communist Party. Nevertheless, on closer examination, we find certain uncomfortable resemblances. Both groups profess a totalitarian doctrine, with complete and final answers to all questions on heaven and earth; the answers are different in every respect, alike only in their finality and completeness, and in the contrast they offer with the eternal questioning of Western man. Both groups offer to their members and followers the agreeable sensation of belonging to a community of believers, who are always right, as against an outer world of unbelievers, who are always wrong. Both offer an exhilarating feeling of mission, of purpose, of being engaged in a collective adventure to accelerate the historically inevitable victory of the true faith over the infidel evil-doers. The traditional Islamic division of the world into the House of Islam and the House of War, two necessarily opposed groups, of which the first has the collective obligation of perpetual struggle against the second, also has obvious parallels in the Communist view of world affairs. There again, the content of belief is utterly different, but the aggressive fanaticism of the believer is the same. The humorist who summed up the Communist creed as "There is no God and Karl Marx is his Prophet" was laying his finger on a real affinity. The call to a Communist Jihad, a Holy War for the faith – a new faith, but against the self-same Western Christian enemy – might well strike a responsive note.
Now that the Middle East is in shambles and hordes of refugees are overwhelming Europe and heading towards the United States, it would be helpful if our leaders would find the backbone that our forefathers had and would come up with a strategy based on the reality before them to deal with Islam, rather than continuing to murmur lies about a religion of peace and how we should welcome the stranger.
Immigration: the downstream problems
By Cathy Keim
The whole immigration debate is being presented by the elites and the media as a simple choice: The big hearted Americans should open their cities and homes to welcome the underprivileged, needy people from around the world, but especially from areas like Syria that are wracked by war. Liberal churches jump on the bandwagon preaching the need to love the stranger and welcome him.
If anyone tries to mention any concerns or ask for caution, they are shouted down and denounced as racists, bigots, haters, un-Christian, and selfish. The debate is especially problematic for Christians, as Christians in America are under attack on every front. The conservative Christian's stance on abortion, marriage, and gender ensure that he is already classified as a hypocritical, bigoted hater. The politically correct war on religious speech is in full attack mode to silence anybody who dares to resist the prescribed agenda.
Due to this tenuous position, Christians are leery of pointing out that Islam is not compatible with American principles. Although America was founded on Judeo-Christian principles, the elites in control now prefer to reject that information. The new attitudes on gay marriage, gender identity, and the sanctity of life are being used to portray Christians as dangerous right-wing kooks capable of blowing up buildings and people. At the same time those same elites are pushing Islam on America in the form of immigrants and refugees. This doesn't make a lot of sense, since the Sharia adhering Muslims are against gay marriage and transgender individuals. It does begin to fit together when you realize that the elites are not concerned with the welfare of the gays, transgenders, or the Muslims. They are merely using them to gain positions of power by destroying the existing social order.
Since this nation was founded on Christian principles, then it follows that to destroy our nation the Christian foundation must be destroyed. While the number of gay and transgender people is relatively small, I think that the elites may be making a strategic error in their importation of Muslims to change America by changing her people. Muslims show no sign of assimilating and becoming decadent progressive westerners.
Christians know that religious liberty is under assault. They realize that if they make any moves to restrict the growth of Islam, the elites will be all too ready to try and restrict the liberties of the Christians. The key difference that needs to be repeated and repeated is that Islam is a totalitarian political ideology not a religion, a subject I will address in my next blogpost.
Until the elites notice their error, the rest of the country must live with an increasingly belligerent Muslim population. There are two factors which the elites may be missing or ignoring:
- Muslims are commanded to migrate to spread Islam. This is called the hijrah.
- Second generation Muslims, even though assimilated more so in America than in Europe, are still more likely to become radicalized than the first generation Muslims.
All of the talk about vetting the Syrian refugees to screen out ISIS plants is not going to solve the bigger issue of the hijrah. The FBI has already acknowledged that they cannot screen the refugees well since they are refugees. They have fled cities that were razed, bombed, and burned and they didn't bring their birth certificates with them as they fled for their lives. However, they do bring their belief in sharia law and their centuries old prejudices against Christians, infidels, women, and homosexuals.
The first generation of refugees or immigrants may be happy to have escaped from the terror and deprivation that was their homeland, but many in the American-born second generation show a distinct desire to embrace radical jihadism. The FBI has over 900 active cases of people they are watching, and we don't know how many more need to be watched. The Orlando nightclub killer was a second generation Muslim. The San Bernardino killer was a second generation Muslim. One of the Garland, Texas attackers was a second generation Muslim. The Ft. Hood massacre was perpetrated by a second generation Muslim.
Clearly, just vetting the people that we let into the country does not prevent the second generation from becoming jihadists. Since we can show that in America we have not forced the Muslims into ghettos and not allowed them to partake fully in our society as is the excuse given for the Muslim attacks in France, then what are we to do to protect ourselves?
First, our elites need to educate themselves on what is really happening and quit believing that since their hearts are pure and they want to feel good about themselves and how generous and unselfish they are that it will all turn out well. The progressives that think that their generous thoughts are all that matter and the catastrophic consequences that follow their foolish policies are not their problem, need to wake up. Equally guilty are the other elites who believe that crony capitalism is their ticket to power. They facilitate the influx of Muslims as cheap labor for industry. This group really irritates me because they are selling us out for money and power while lying to us that they are pro-Constitution and will fight for American values.
These two groups of elites have flooded our country with illegal immigrants, legal immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers since 1965. We are a big country, but we cannot absorb all the illiterate, unhealthy masses that have been flooding the USA for decades when the elites are tearing down all American patriotic beliefs. The invaders are not asked to adhere to the principles that define America. We are a diverse people, but we are united by our belief in the American Dream, the laws of the land, and our founding documents. This is being replaced by the centuries-old ethnic, racial hatreds that separate us into warring tribes.
We need to halt immigration until we can assimilate those that are here. We need to enforce our immigration laws that are on the books. We need to revise the refugee system. Currently, the UN is picking our refugees for us from their camps. The Christians that are fleeing from ISIS do not go to the UN camps because they are persecuted there by the fleeing Muslims. Since the Christians do not go to the UN camps, the UN doesn't pick them to come to America.
Now you know why hardly any Christians have been amongst the refugees that have arrived already and why there will not be any in the future unless our politicians wake up. Politicians never wake up until they are forced to do so. Our political system has succumbed to crony capitalism and progressive utopian schemes. There are very few leaders in DC speaking for the common man.
Building mosques to establish dominion
By Cathy Keim
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Obama used to be best friends, but this week when Erdogan invited President Obama to join him in Lanham, Maryland, for the opening of the $100 million mosque that Turkey paid for, he was rebuffed.
In fact, this very week all Anerican military and diplomatic dependents were pulled out of Turkey in a mandatory evacuation.
The Pentagon is ordering nearly 700 military family members to leave Incirlik Air Base and two smaller military installations in Turkey because of concerns over the deteriorating security environment there.
The dramatic move to get families out of Turkey comes several weeks after Americans at Incirlik were put on base lockdown, when the force-protection level was raised to the military's highest threat condition.
The situation in Turkey has been tense for months, but our State Department didn't want bring attention to it by pulling out the dependents so they just locked them down on base since last fall. Finally, after not allowing the children to attend the DOD school for two weeks because of concerns with having almost 300 children in one convenient location for an attack, the State Department did the right thing and pulled out all dependents.
This is the same Department of State that is responsible for Benghazi. While the dependents are now out of Turkey, our military personnel are still there. Flights take off from Incirlik Air Base, a Turkish base that has American, British, and Saudi forces stationed there, to attack different groups in Syria. The Americans attack certain factions and the Turks attack others. The only agreed-upon goal is to remove Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The multiple jihadist groups that are fighting are difficult to follow and the end game for who gains control of Syria is uncertain.
While President al-Assad is undoubtedly a horrible person, responsible for much death and destruction, under his secular regime many minority groups such as Christians and Druze were able to live safely. Much like the other secular monsters that the USA has brought down including Saddam Hussein and Moammar Qadhafi, the so called Arab Spring that President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton supported has resulted in the toppling of secular regimes only to be replaced by jihadist terror groups, mass slaughter, and anarchy.
President Obama's biggest foreign policy "success" has been in destabilizing the Middle East through his support of the Arab Spring. The realignment that is occurring in the Middle East may be beyond the ability of the United States to have much influence at this point.
The current shifting of alliances between Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt will not change the hijra or mass exodus of Muslims from the Middle East, North Africa, and the Far East. In fact, immigration is a method of spreading Islam which dates back to Mohammad's flight to Medina.
Saudi Arabia has been funding the building of mosques and schools for decades to ensure the dominance of their brand of Islam around the world. Turkey has entered the mosque building project worldwide to enhance their claim as the leader of Islam.
Why would Turkey pour $100 million into building a huge mosque and Turkish Cultural center close to DC? As Daniel Greenfield wrote at FrontPage Mag, it's part of a nationwide trend:
Erdogan had made his agenda clear when he recited the Islamist poem proclaiming, "The minarets are our bayonets, the mosques are our barracks, the believers are our soldiers."
The secular West is being swiftly Islamized. Vacant churches become mosques. The barracks of Islam fill with believers who batten on the hate and go out one day to behead a soldier or shoot up a recruiting office. Minarets hatefully thrust their bayonets at the sky warning of a larger war to come.
Our "leaders" have lost their confidence in our culture. President Obama denies at every opportunity that the United States is unique among nations for subscribing to founding beliefs that are based on inalienable rights from our Creator. Furthermore, "Mr. Obama recalled the opening lines of the Arabic call to prayer, reciting them with a first-rate accent… Mr. Obama described the call to prayer as 'one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset.'"
Mr. Obama may find the sound pretty, but having been in Turkey and hearing the prayers blasted out from mosques on loudspeakers, I find it to be the sound of an alien culture that demands to be heard. The use of loudspeakers to force the sound as far as possible is a way of claiming dominance over the area where the call to prayer is broadcast. The building of the mosque itself is a claiming of the land for Islam. It is like an embassy whose soil belongs to a foreign power, not to the country where it is located.
For centuries, Islam has converted churches to mosques or built mosques wherever they have conquered territory. Look at the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem built on the Temple Mount or the Hagia Sophia, built by Justinian I, that was converted to a mosque after Constantinople was conquered.
As Greenfield pointed out, all over America and Europe churches are being converted to mosques as immigrants are pouring in and displacing the locals. Sadly, many of these churches became vacant because the westerners have lost their faith in God, leaving them ready to be colonized by a new people who are not plagued by cultural doubt.
We as a nation need to realize that we are being colonized.
Jan Willem van der Hoeven, Director International Christian Zionist Center, gives a brief history to explain how Muslims see the world.
Islam has conveniently divided the whole world into two spheres: 'Dar al-Harb' and 'Dar al-Islam.' Dar al-Islam being the house or region of peace that means all lands and peoples already conquered by Islamic forces; and Dar al-Harb being those lands and people in the world that still need to be conquered by Islam which is therefore the whole remaining world.
In The Dhimmi Bat Ye'or writes (page 45):
The jihad is a global conception that divides the peoples of the world into two irreconcilable camps: that of the dar al-Harb, the "Territory of War," which covers those regions controlled by the infidels; and the dar al-Islam, "the Territory of Islam," the Muslim homeland where Islamic law reigns. The jihad is the normal and permanent state of war between the Muslims and the dar al-Harb, a war that can only end with the final domination over unbelievers and the absolute supremacy of Islam throughout the world.
Once the forces of Islam conquer a land or territory, it is to remain under Islamic dominion forever ('for generations'), and it is a mortal affront to the supremacy of Islam when such territories would ever be lost to the dominion of Islam and revert to previous – infidel – ownership as was the case in Palestine.
Our muddled Middle East policy has helped cause the immigration tsunami that is overwhelming the West. Whether Muslims arrive by refugee status or other visas, we must face the fact that we are being colonized. The president of Turkey came to Maryland to celebrate the opening of a mosque that his country funded. He would not have paid out such an enormous amount of money unless he was getting something for it. That something is that he is claiming dominion over the land that the mosque is built on is as a beachhead for Islam.
We need for our "leaders" to wake up and stop these immigration policies. Unfortunately, unless we can find some leaders that understand the problem and are willing to say that our culture is superior to Islam, then we will only get more of the same pusillanimous pandering that we have seen for decades.
Islam: A totalitarian ideology spreading destruction globally
By Cathy Keim
Enough about Islam being a religion of peace. Islam means submission, not peace. Islam is a totalitarian ideology that demands that all people be brought into submission to Sharia, the immutable law handed down from Allah to Mohammed. Mohammed is the perfect man and all Muslims look to him as their example in every area of their lives.
Our Western elites pretend that they understand Islam better than the adherents to Islam. They lecture us on how this religion of peace is not the reason for the terror attacks even as the jihadists scream "Allahu Akbar," which translates to "Allah is Greater."
At this very moment, while survivors of the jihadist terror bombings in Belgium are still screaming in their pain and the families of the dead are crying in their sorrow, our brilliant elites continue to castigate anyone who says stop the influx of Muslims into this country as bigots and stupid.
We are bringing in our own destruction. Every country that has tried to coexist with Islam has eventually become an Islamic country or has fought a bloody war to cast them out. It may take years and generations, but countries like Turkey that were Christian eventually became Muslim and stamped out the last few Christians with episodes like the Armenian genocide. Spain fought for 770 years to oust the Moors from the Iberian Peninsula.
Instead of listening to our elites, it is time for them to listen to Americans who are concerned that our country, founded on our Judeo-Christian heritage, is being sabotaged from within by the increasing number of Muslims being brought in as refugees, students, family reunification schemes, lottery visas, and simply overstaying their tourist visas.
The FBI is overwhelmed with the need to monitor so many people that are legally in our country. They know that ISIS is working to radicalize Muslims that are already here, as well as slipping jihadists in amongst the refugees.
Here is a simple plan: stop bringing in Muslims. Since we cannot know which ones are of a jihadist persuasion or will become radicalized, then just don't bring any Muslims into the country.
This is not as "radical" a concept as it might sound at first. As stated previously, Muslims are expected to support sharia. Sharia is incompatible with our Constitution. Sharia does not allow for freedom of speech, freedom of religion, equality of women, equality of people that are not Muslims, and on and on. We should not be bringing into our country people who cannot assimilate because their core beliefs are antithetical to our core beliefs.
Sadly, our elites are convinced that our core beliefs do not matter and are not worth defending anymore. If you try to defend the Constitution, then you are mocked as stupid, racist, and the worst insult of all: a patriotic jingoist.
However, we can go back to World War II to see that our country knew how to face down a totalitarian ideology not that long ago. The Nazis were a supremacist ideology that taught that the Aryan race was superior and all others were inferior. The USA had no problem identifying this horrific ideology as worth defeating completely. Nazism was named and defeated.
Then came the Cold War against communism. Once again, the USA named communism as the evil that it is and fought to contain it and eventually we saw the Berlin Wall come down.
Communism was not as thoroughly defeated as Nazism was, though, so the communist threat lives on in countries like China and Cuba and continues to spread its false promises in Central and South America.
Indeed, we have the Democratic Party presidential nomination contest being fought between Bernie Sanders, an avowed socialist who honeymooned in the USSR, and Hillary Clinton, a radical progressive. When you study their positions, you cannot find a hair breadth's difference between them and communist ideology.
It would seem that the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave has become the Land of the Entitled and the Home of the Blind.
The Progressives (Communists) have a long history of deception and using other groups to achieve their means. At the moment, it seems that the Progressives have joined hands with the Muslims to weaken America from within. Hillary Clinton's top aide, Huma Abedin, has worked for Islamic organizations that promote Islamic ideology. Her parents moved to Saudi Arabia when she was a child. Her father is deceased, but her mother still teaches at an Islamic Women's College in Saudi Arabia and her brother is in Islamic leadership in London.
If we elect Hillary Clinton as our president, we will be installing Huma Abedin at the right hand of power, just as she was while Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State.
The rioters that are currently disrupting Donald Trump's political rallies consist of anarchists, Black Lives Matter, Islamic groups that are supporting the Black Lives Matter movement, La Raza, and other disaffected troublemakers.
We have imported the seeds of our own destruction in the form of La Raza which means the Race. The more militant of the Hispanic activists use the motto: "For the race, everything, outside the race, nothing." Unite that toxic brew with Black Lives Matter and now add in the Islamic groups that are joining ranks and you have a completely anti-American mix of racial supremacy and grievances boiling over. Never mind that their ideologies would have them at each other's throats if they ever came to power. For now, like all good Communist pawns, they will work together to disrupt and fray the American fabric even more.
Sadly, they cannot see that the uniting principles of the American experiment were to bring all people together through the God given rights of Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Any person embracing the American principles can assimilate and become an American, but people that refuse to embrace these principles and who seek to destroy them and replace them with totalitarian ideologies have no place in this country.
At this time, we need to stand for our principles and defend our country by placing a moratorium on immigration. Let us work together to assimilate the millions of immigrants that we have accepted in the last fifty years. Let us embrace our national heritage and work to ease the mounting tensions fed by the race baiting tactics and economic disruptions foisted upon us by our "leaders" who use these lies to manipulate us while they stay in power.
It will take time and effort to wrench back our institutions from the elites who despise us and our American principles. The first step is to be willing to state the facts instead of being shut down by the fear of being called a racist, bigoted jingoist.
Start reading history and learn your facts. Do not be cowed by the media and the elites. Closing our borders to assimilate our current immigrants is perfectly legal and constitutional. Continuing to overwhelm our society with indiscriminate immigration, both legal and illegal, is what is anti-American.
Immigration: the concern about security
By Cathy Keim
Editor's note: Not only is this a second installment of coverage of last weekend's Turning the Tides Conference, but it resumes her occasional series on immigration. Here are the earlier installments on immigration and the previous coverage of Turning the Tides.
Clare Lopez gave a riveting presentation on Saturday morning under the National Security Concerns segment, along with Ann Corcoran and Jim Simpson. I want to focus on Ms. Lopez's talk first because she set the stage for understanding many of the security concerns that face our nation.
Lopez was an operations officer for the CIA for twenty years, serving domestically and abroad. She is a private consultant now specializing in Islam, counter-terrorism, Iran, and the Middle East.
In her remarks, Lopez noted that Islam is a complete way of life, a totalitarian socio-political system governed by a strict juridical framework called shariah. It has a religious component and relies on force to convert and expand. Islam means submission and Muslim means one who submits, said Lopez. stressing that the whole system hangs together on the individual submitting to shariah.
As I see it, it's not just a metaphysical contemplation of eternity as we traditionally think of religion. The religious component of Islam adds to the intensity of some of its adherents.
To me, Allah is not a loving personal God who sent his son Jesus Christ to redeem the lost; rather, Allah is an impersonal, detached deity and the only way for a person to be sure of paradise is to die as a martyr for the cause. Now that is a powerful motivator.
The secular elite in our government refuse to acknowledge that Islam is a political system and prefer to call it a religion of peace, thus compounding the lie that it is only a religion and that it is peaceful. The elites are importing Muslims just as fast as they can, despite the obvious contradiction between the concept of free citizens and submission to shariah. These two ideas cannot be forced into the same framework. They cannot coexist, no matter how many Priuses drive by with "Coexist" bumper stickers.
Our First Amendment right to freedom of religion is being misused to protect the importation of shariah as a religious "right." Communism was not protected under the First Amendment as a religion because it is a totalitarian system of government. Back in the 1950s and 1960s our public schools taught courses to explain the differences between communism and our values. Sadly, now Islam is being taught in our schools as a religion of peace rather than the vile totalitarian repressive system that it is.
Returning to Ms. Lopez's presentation, she noted many of our progressive leaders search for the answer as to why they hate us. The answer is clear, although they carefully avoid it: free societies stand in the way of a caliphate under shariah law.
"An Islamic Caliphate in 7 Easy Steps," a slide presented by Ms. Lopez, is based on a must-read article that was written in 2005 on the future of terrorism. The article is a review of the book al-Zarqawi – al-Qaida's Second Generation, by Jordanian journalist Fouad Hussein.
Hussein writes, "I interviewed a whole range of al-Qaida members with different ideologies to get an idea of how the war between the terrorists and Washington would develop in the future." The resulting seven steps are prescient when viewed from 2016.
- 1st Phase: 2000-2003 – "the awakening"
- 2nd Phase: 2003-2006 – "Opening Eyes"
- 3rd Phase: 2007-2010 – "Arising & Standing Up"
- 4th Phase: 2010-2013 – collapse of hated Arab governments (Arab Spring)
- 5th Phase: 2013-2016 – Declaration of the caliphate
- 6th Phase – Total confrontation
- 7th Phase – Definitive Victory, predicted by the year 2020
Remember this article was written in 2005, so the terrorists were able to assess the first phase which was already completed at that point.
Hussein then states:
"The aim of the attacks of 9/11 was to provoke the US into declaring war on the Islamic world and thereby "awakening" Muslims. The first phase was judged by the strategists and masterminds behind al-Qaida as very successful. The battle field was opened up and the Americans and their allies became a closer and easier target."
Lopez noted the network is banking on recruiting young men during this period. Iraq should become the center for all global operations, with an "army" set up there and bases established in other Arabic states.
Phase 3 may have not occurred exactly on schedule, but certainly seems to be happening now.
"There will be a focus on Syria," prophesies Hussein, based on what his sources told him. The fighting cadres are supposedly already prepared and some are in Iraq. Attacks on Turkey and — even more explosive — in Israel are predicted. Al-Qaida's masterminds hope that attacks on Israel will help the terrorist group become a recognized organization. The author also believes that countries neighboring Iraq, such as Jordan, are also in danger."
The Arab Spring was the name the media gave to Phase 4 which resulted in "the creeping loss of the regimes' power (that) will lead to a steady growth in strength within al-Qaida."
Phase 5 will be the point at which an Islamic state, or caliphate, can be declared. ISIS declared the caliphate in June of 2014.
That brings us to the present day of total confrontation.
Jihad is being waged physically with attacks all over the globe, continued Claire. A subtler approach is the infiltration of our culture by hijra, or immigration.
This is a concept deeply embedded into Islam, one that I believe actually works quite well. The Muslim armies wreak havoc displacing people who flee to other lands bringing Islam with them. The "refugees" currently are thousands of young men who are invading western countries. They then set up "no go zones" in their new countries to serve as the beachhead for the new caliphate. They provide manpower for attacks locally and subvert the government by bankrupting it through the use of welfare and social services. Widespread corruption in our welfare system has been reported. The Muslims see it as a form of tax, jizya, that nonbelievers must pay to Muslims. So naïve western countries are paying the jizya to their superiors (or so the Muslims see it). As they increase, they then demand accommodation to their beliefs, thus introducing shariah law into the society.
Finally, Lopez noted that anywhere that a Muslim pledges allegiance to the caliphate becomes a beachhead for ISIS. Mosques are the command and control centers for this total confrontation.
The plan to defeat America is not through terrorism but to build a domestic Muslim movement that claims adherents, occupies territory, and challenges the existing government and society for authority.
The three stages of jihad according to Lopez are:
- Immigrate into western nations.
- Infiltrate western governments.
- Establish the Caliphate and implement shariah law.
The mosque is the nerve center of a Muslim community. It is a house of prayer, worship, ceremony, and for collecting the zakat (required contributions). It is also an Islamic beachhead in enemy territory, a recruitment, indoctrination, and training center. It is the command and control center for jihad. Raids on Paris mosques as of December 2, 2015 resulted in French authorities seizing 334 weapons, including 145 long guns and 34 "weapons of war" (military-grade weapons), jihadist literature, and IS videos.
It was a sobering presentation of facts we all had seen, but hadn't been presented in such a manner. Given the roadmap that's been placed in front of us and the progress radical Islamists have made on their plan, it's more clear to me that we need to halt immigration now. Just as it would have been insanity to import adherents to the Nazi ideology during World War II, it is insanity to import adherents to Islam now.
Immigration: a continuing series
By Cathy Keim
I wrote a couple of weeks ago about the need to pause our immigration programs due to the many problems associated with them. It is such a complex issue, with so many areas to address, that I decided to start a continuing series where I can look at some of the more pressing problems in more detail.
We do not have an immigration problem; it could more accurately be called an invasion. Armed with Ted Kennedy's immigration reform of the 1960s, our elite political class has decided that America needs a remake and one of their methods to achieve this is to bring in immigrants, refugees, illegal aliens, and foreign students by any means available.
For over thirty years we have been experiencing increasing numbers of people flooding into the country, but we have not been making an effort to assimilate them. The government school system does not even try to teach our own children the core beliefs upon which our country was founded or what it even means to be an American, so why would we make an effort to teach these newcomers our unique American heritage?
Immigration without assimilation equals invasion (to quote Bobby Jindal – ed.) and spells the end of America as we know it. There are many agents pushing for this expansion of our population from corporations wanting cheap labor to politicians wanting sure votes to refugee resettlement agencies (VOLAGS) that get paid by the head to bring in refugees. Obviously the motivations and methods vary, so I will address different issues separately instead of trying to cover it all at once.
One of the extremely frustrating aspects of this invasion is that ordinary Americans can see very clearly the negative effects of the masses of mostly poorly educated immigrants flooding our communities, but our elites, buffered by their upscale communities and private schools, refuse to heed the calls for halting immigration.
The Syrian refugee issue has been dominating the immigration discussion recently. It is troubling because these refugees cannot be vetted to insure that there are not jihadists hiding amongst the thousands of people fleeing the fighting. I have already touched upon some of the relevant issues, so today I will concentrate on the question of why are so many people are fleeing the Muslim crescent from Libya to Afghanistan?
The United States government has to accept responsibility for their part in the crisis through their destabilizing various governments in the area during the Arab Spring. Once the dictators were toppled, the vacuum led to an increase in fighting and chaos causing people to flee to safer areas. Some of the people came from areas that are not more chaotic than usual, but are joining the masses as economic immigrants hoping for a better life elsewhere.
When hundreds of thousands of people are on the move fleeing from war, terror, and economic chaos, it is impossible to check their credentials or vet them for security risks, disease, or criminal behavior. While our government helped create the mess, we do not have to bring them into our own country to pay penance. As pointed out before, it is much more cost effective to help them in safe places nearer their homelands so that they can return when the situation permits.
But what if there is a bigger plan behind the forced immigration? The Koran calls for hijrah, or the emigration of Muslims to other lands based on the original hijrah when Mohammad fled Mecca for Medina in 622 AD. This is the date which is used as the beginning of Mohammad's revelations and when he became a military and political leader, not just a religious leader. Islam is a total package of political thought with military force and a religious component. It is not a just a religion. It was in Medina that Mohammad became a warlord who wreaked havoc on all those around him who didn't conform to his ideas. Writer and expert on Islam Robert Spencer pointed this out recently:
"And whoever emigrates for the cause of Allah will find on the earth many locations and abundance," says the Qur'an. "And whoever leaves his home as an emigrant to Allah and His Messenger and then death overtakes him, his reward has already become incumbent upon Allah. And Allah is ever Forgiving and Merciful." (4:100)
ISIS published an article calling for Muslims to flood into Libya where arms are plentiful and then make the voyage to Europe. The USA made sure that Libya collapsed and this is the result.
While we are certain that a percentage of the emigrants coming from the Middle East and North Africa are jihadists, what of the others that are simply fleeing the violence? ISIS has a plan for that too. The ISIS view of the world is a dark one, for they are sure that they are ushering in the end times and the return of the Mahdi.
Unlike Christian sects that have fled to the hills to await the return of Christ, ISIS takes a more forceful view. They intend to usher in the end times with murder and mayhem. They take a dim view of wishy-washy Muslims or Muslims that live in the gray zone. This would be people that just live their lives, work hard, pay their bills, and don't give much attention to religion or don't practice Islam according to ISIS standards. I would guess that the vast majority of mankind falls into this gray zone. While they may be called Christian, Muslim, Hindu, or some other sect, they probably don't really pay much attention to their religious condition. In the West, this would include the secular people that do not give any credence to any deity.
ISIS has a strategy to push the West through terrorist attacks into retaliating against their Muslim populations, thus causing the non-engaged Muslims to feel a grievance against their government and move from the gray zone into active ISIS activity.
This cycle of terrorism by an ISIS-inspired Muslim living in the West, the government's crackdown on Muslims as we are seeing in France, the resulting reaction against being treated as guilty by association, and the resulting increase in violence is exactly what ISIS desires. They want all of us to move from a gray zone, which allows for people of different faiths or no faith to live together, to a black zone where you are either for us or against us.
I will take up this development in the next installment of the series.
No matter what ISIS is doing, the first step we need to do is secure our borders and stop the influx of immigrants until things can be sorted out.
There is an opportunity to use the power of the purse to halt the Refugee Resettlement program by refusing to fund it in the omnibus spending bill that must be passed by December 11. Please call your Senators and Representative in Congress at 202-224-3121 to encourage them to not fund this program.
9/11: The varsity team is back
Instead of a post here to commemorate 9/11, I was asked by the Patriot Post to write a piece on it, tying in the intelligence burnishing that's been in the news lately. (Just as a little blowing of my horn I have an original piece there most Fridays, today being one.)
But there was one thought I had, a reference which was edited to be shorter. So I will expand on it briefly here.
As time passes away from the 9/11 attack, we tend to forget that those who best recall the horrific day as working adults are becoming less and less a part of the prevailing culture. The fall of the World Trade Center occurred just before my 37th birthday; in a week I turn 51. On the other side, those entering college this year were toddlers at the time and may nor recall the shock we felt as adults.
My point is that the passage of time and world events change our perspective. I see the world quite a bit differently now just before my 51st birthday than I did at 36. Part of that comes from the school of hard knocks, but the passage of 14 years changes almost everything.
Most of my readers can't do this from actual experience because they weren't around, so imagine the world of December 7, 1955 – fourteen years after Pearl Harbor. Our nation fought (and won) one world war but we existed in an uneasy truce from a more recent fight at the time over in Korea. There was also the "Cold War" going on between the United States and Soviet Union, with rumors rampant of Communist enemies at the highest levels of government.
In many respects, the unfinished business of confronting radical Islam is similar to what we faced with the Soviet Union. It took nearly 50 years to eradicate the old Soviet Union and free Eastern Europe, but the Russian bear now shows signs of coming out of hibernation. We may have that same timeline with radical Islam, but the kids of today exist in a world where everything is relative. America is often portrayed as the bad guy, and to a certain group of people we are to blame for the problems of the world.
If there's anything different about the post-9/11 era compared to that of a generation ago, it's the perception that America isn't always right. Even if the cause is just, too many assign ulterior motives to our actions and this confusion is why we can't all get on the same page. It will take a leader to restore our faith in the idea of America before we can get serious about winning the Long War.
2016 dossier: Foreign Policy
As I work my way up to the most important aspects of deciding on a Presidential candidate to back, I come to foreign policy which will be worth 12 points.
In doing this part, I'm going to make the assumption that, by and large, these candidates will represent a sharp turn from the disastrous direction our foreign policy has taken under our current President and (for one term) his presumptive Democratic replacement. So since these candidates will represent a sea change, I also want to know how much of a priority they place on it. This will actually make my research easier since I will do it specifically from their campaign websites, including their position papers and news they link to.
For various reasons, I'm ambivalent about certain aspects of foreign policy but I want those who oppose our nation treated as enemies and those who back us to be embraced as friends. I'm no longer convinced we can build nations as we tried to do in the Middle East but regard radical Islam as a threat which will require a Long War to neutralize and contain.
Thus, it's time to see how they do.
Not only does Jim Gilmore have a comprehensive approach to foreign policy on the website, in all aspects save one it is spot on. My lone quibble would be the wisdom of creating a NATO-like defense pact with Middle East nations against Iraq, one which would include Israel. Aside from that, he has charted an impressive course that tops the field.
Total score for Gilmore – 11.5 of 12.
Lindsey Graham is basing his campaign on being the national security hawk, so you better believe he has a plan. Parts of it may be a difficult sell, but it's combined with some ideas on the domestic front as well, Overall, a great effort.
Total score for Graham – 11.0 of 12.
In establishing the "Rubio Doctrine," Marco Rubio has hit on many key points and included others, such as our relationship with Europe. But to me it may be a little too interventionist because we don't need to be the world's policeman and that's how I interpret the statement. Nor do I support making Section 215 of the Patriot Act permanent. It's why Rubio doesn't have a higher score.
Total score for Rubio – 9.0 of 12.
Focusing more on national defense and the failures of the Obama administration, it seems that Bobby Jindal is a firm believer in the old Reagan-era "peace through strength" doctrine. Some will certainly call him a neocon, but he presents a compelling case for returning to that brand of thinking. However, he doesn't consider the civil liberty aspect of his ideas, and that drops him slightly.
As he did on energy, though, he presents a very comprehensive plan.
Total score for Jindal – 8.4 of 12.
Jeb Bush stresses three things when it comes to foreign policy: the war on radical Islam, our friendship with Israel, and the mistake we are making in normalizing our relationship with Cuba without demanding democratic reforms first. He has a very detailed plan to address radical Islam, but it may be a tough sell to the American people because surely the Democrats and the media (but I repeat myself) will be talking down those efforts.
Yet there is an elephant in the room ignored – or perhaps a bear and a dragon. Admittedly, Bush's website is a little frustrating to navigate but I found no mention of Russia or China and how he would address those nations. Overall, though, his effort is solid.
Total score for Bush – 8.0 of 12.
Eight years ago, the thing that sank his father's campaign with me was an unrealistic, isolationist view on foreign policy. Rand Paul is a little more flexible in that regard, and is hesitant to return to the Middle East because of it. He believes that we should not go it alone in that theater, and to that extent he is correct. I'm not as certain how he would deal with other enemies in a Cold War-style situation, though, which is why I hesitate to grade him higher.
Total score for Paul – 7.5 of 12.
Scott Walker is set against radical Islam and the Iranian deal, but I'm not as certain how he will react against others who threaten us. He seems to want to follow a Reaganesque path, but it's worth noting that we withdrew from the Middle East under Reagan. Will Walker buckle under that pressure?
Total score for Walker – 7.0 of 12.
The conventional wisdom was that Ben Carson would be weak on foreign affairs as a political neophyte. So while he is for keeping Gitmo open, noting plainly that we should be a friend to Israel, warning about Russian aggression, and decrying the poorly thought-out Iran nuclear deal, it's done as a broad statement rather than a detailed approach. It may be fleshed out in coming months, but for now it isn't as strong as some others.
Total score for Carson – 6.0 of 12.
Similarly to Carson, Carly Fiorina had spoken in broad, big picture terms on her foreign policy. But she vows on day one to reassure Israel about our friendship and tell Iran that their deal is going to change to allow more surprise inspections. She's also vowed to send a message to Vladimir Putin through various strategic moves like reinstating an Eastern European missile defense system and rebuilding the Sixth Fleet. It's a promising start.
Total score for Fiorina – 6.0 of 12.
Chris Christie has a relatively comprehensive foreign policy vision which is global as it mentions both friends and foes. However, there are two issues that I have with it. One is the civil libertarian aspect of continuing Patriot Act provisions, which Chris avidly supports, and the other is about not treating China as an adversary. Until they stop pointing missiles at us, threatening the sovereign state of Taiwan, and manipulating currency to benefit their economy at our expense, I consider them a foe. Communism and Constitutional republics are mutually exclusive.
Total score for Christie – 5.5 of 12.
Ted Cruz seems to have his head on straight regarding foreign policy, but the information is so piecemeal I had a hard time digesting it all. A for effort, D for presentation.
Total score for Cruz – 5.0 of 12.
I have much the same problem with Rick Perry. For example, he did a major policy speech last year that was warmly received – but it's hard to tell how he would react to newer crises. Aside from immigration, he seems more a domestic policy president.
Total score for Perry – 5.0 of 12.
With Mike Huckabee, as I read through his site I get the sense that we will have a reactive foreign policy more so than a proactive one. For example, he decreed that we should hack China back after they hacked into our computer systems. It seems to me that would be an expected move but not necessarily strategic. While he stresses Israel a lot, he seems a little simplistic so I don't get that great of an impression.
Total score for Huckabee – 4.8 of 12.
John Kasich seems to want to tie the extent of his foreign policy to the extent of the economy, noting we can afford enhanced defense spending as we improve the economy. But I don't really see what he would do in terms of relationships.
Total score for Kasich – 4.8 of 12.
With a foreign policy primarily focused on the Iranian deal and using Kurdish proxies to subdue ISIS, there's a lot I'm left wondering about when it comes to George Pataki. So he doesn't score very well.
Total points for Pataki – 4.0 of 12.
I can tell you that Rick Santorum doesn't like the Iran deal and wants to bomb ISIS back to the 7th century. As for China, Russia, and how to pick up the pieces afterward, who knows?
Total score for Santorum – 2.0 of 12.
After doing well on immigration, Donald Trump falls again on foreign policy. There is rhetoric and there is a plan, and Trump has plenty of former and not much on the latter.
Total score for Trump – 0.0 of 12.
My next part is worth 13 points; however, I suspect scoring will be low because my view on entitlements is decidedly more libertarian than the field will likely present.


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— The cliche thing for me to do is to say I don't even know where to start after a game like that. But I do. I'd hope you'd be proud of the Trenton Devils tonight. Dan Charleston's actions at the end of regulation aside, this team came back four separate times to tie the game. When the biggest complaint you can have is that a team looks like they've given up — and it sure looked like that Wednesday — this team absolutely did not say die tonight.
— Kevin Dean's comments were very pointed tonight. I will get them to you immediately after this.
— Dean told us that he snapped and kicked some things around in the locker room and so on. That would explain why the door was locked when I first tried to enter. It was an interesting scene in there after the game. For starters, Ryan Ginand flung the door open to the locker room and angrily walked out, not even ten minutes after the game had ended. After a few of the scratched or injured players started walking out, I attempted to open the door again, only to see members of the equipment staff vacuuming the red carpet inside…likely cleaning up whatever Dean had destroyed.
After speaking with Kevin, I hung around to try to speak to Dan Charleston. While all the other players were in the shower or in various stages of dress, Charleston was sitting at his locker in full gear. He put his head into his hands and sat there for a while. I approached his locker, stood there for a minute, and then walked away. I couldn't tell you if he was upset that he got kicked out of the game. Couldn't tell you if he was mad his team lost. Couldn't tell you if he couldn't believe what he'd done after the whistle blew in the third period.
After a few teammates tried to lift his spirits, Charleston got up and walked towards the training room, which is off-limits to the media. While I'm certain that there's a laundry list of guys on that team who don't much like me at the moment, it's not worth it to me to chase down a good guy like Charleston and stick my recorder in his face after a night like that. He made a mistake. One of the best nights of his career was ruined because he made a mistake. A costly mistake, as it certainly ruined the night of whoever he hit. But hopefully this isn't something that sticks with Charleston.
I did end up speaking with Trevor Kell. You'll see that shortly as well.
But I did not see what Charleston did. That was a hectic night for writing, and my head was down after I saw there were only a few ticks left in regulation and they wouldn't get another shot off.
— What an outstanding game that was. Reminded me a lot of the 9-7 game on Bertoli Night in both the scoring and the atmosphere at the arena, with all the people there. Great crowd tonight, both in numbers and enthusiasm. Hopefully some of those people come back. They won't all be like that one…
— Chippy game for one between two teams who don't see each other all that much. The line brawl of sorts was particularly entertaining. Videos of all that can be found below this post, of course.
— Thought the goaltending at both sides was poor. Dean did not agree with that assessment when it came to Shane Connelly.
— I made a mistake in the paper. I reported their record as 13-19-0-3 and said they were eight points behind Cincinnati pending the results of their game. Their record is 13-18-1-3 and they're seven points back. My fault.
— Trevor Kell shouldn't miss any significant time after getting dinged up in the second period. Jeff Lerg is several days away from a possible return.
Mike Ashmore, mashmore98 AT gmail.com

subset: commoncrawl


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When the 2020 edition of Trivial Pursuit comes out with the question, "Who won the 2007 Tour de France?" no one will remember. They will recall that this tour was shaken to its core by the expulsion of Vinokourov, Astana, and Rasmussen.
That will be a shame. Saturday's time trial is shaping up to be fantastic as a little more than two minutes separate the top two riders. For Cadel Evans, this may be his only chance to win a Tour. His gritty performance has earned him this opportunity. Alberto Contador carries on his shoulders the hope of the next generation. Both of these men do not deserve to have this happen during their opportunity at greatness.
With absolutely no air left in this Tour, one might want to pack it in. I say no. This Tour is cracking on the biggest hors categorie climb it has ever faced. Like its riders, it needs to settle into its own pace and soldier on.
While you think that no one cares, take stock in the fact that you are paving the way for the sport to survive and ultimately thrive once again. The road up to that goal will not be easy. There will probably be more steep sections that will come but they too can be overcome.


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In Reply to: Radar Detectors posted by John on September 15, 2000 at 00:00:16:
Until I bought an M3, I had no pressing need for a detector. Then I got a V1 + remote diaplsy. I really like the directional indicators, and the remote display helps to keep you from picking up trailing drivers. Plus, the unit is factory-upgradeable, and somewhat user programmable.
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