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Common Sense For Common People


Archive for November, 2009

ERIC THE BEHOLDER

November 19th, 2009 by Rich Szabo

Attorney General Eric Holder announced Friday that five Guantanamo Bay detainees with alleged ties to the 9/11 conspiracy, including accused mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, will be transferred to New York to go on trial in civilian court.

So now we have a corrupt, plastic neophyte of a president, a secretary of Homeland Security employed because she “can see Mexico from her house,” a Treasury Secretary who is guilty of tax fraud, and an anti-Gitmo Attorney General who worked for a firm who will directly benefit from the closing of Gitmo, which is a blatant conflict of interest.

The prestigious D.C. law firm where Attorney General Eric Holder is a senior partner, Covington & Burling, just happens to represent 17 detainees at Guantanamo Bay.

From the firm’s web site:

Guantanamo Bay Detainees

* We represent sixteen men detained at the United States Naval Station at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Most of the men have been detained for approximately seven years. None have been charged with any crimes, and none have been accorded the protections of the Geneva Convention. In Boumediene v. Bush, 128 S. Ct. 2229 (2008), where we were co-counsel for eleven of the detainees, the Supreme Court held that the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus extends to detainees held at Guantánamo Bay. Following that decision, we have been preparing for habeas corpus hearings to be held in federal district court Washington, DC, for eleven of our clients.

* The firm has been involved in the Guantánamo related litigation for the last five years. In addition to the on-going habeas corpus proceedings, our efforts have included: bringing cases for review of enemy combatant classification decisions in the D.C. Circuit under the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005; challenging the destruction of CIA torture tapes in federal court; filing amicus briefs and coordinating the amicus effort in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, 548 U.S. 557 (2006); filing amicus briefs in support of Supreme Court review in Moussaoui v. United States, 382 F.3d 483 (4th Cir.), cert denied, 544 U.S. 931 (2005); challenging the government’s practice of redacting information from documents given to security-cleared habeas counsel; and challenging the abusive medical and living conditions that the detainees experience at Guantánamo.

Just the latest disturbing development regarding a guy who lobbied for pardoning convicted FALN terrorists against the judgment of the FBI and U.S. attorneys.

No wonder he is not in favor of Military Tribunals. During his Senate hearing Holder was steadfast in his decision, saying he was confident his choice of venue was legally sound and would produce a conviction. He denied that his Justice Department was going soft on terror and cited a number of arrests in cities nationwide.

Holder’s main refrain, however, was that the decision to hold the trial in civilian court rather than a military commission was not political and was instead based on where he thought his best chance for conviction was.

Holder should recuse himself from any participation in any case involving detainees.

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OBAMA STILL UP IN THE AIR OVER TROOPS

November 18th, 2009 by Rich Szabo

BEIJING (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama said in an interview with CNN on Wednesday he is “very close” to a decision on boosting troop levels in Afghanistan and would make an announcement “in the next several weeks.”

In a transcript of the interview seen by Reuters, Obama said he did not want his successor as president to inherit the Afghan conflict, adding that a “multi-year occupation” would not serve the interests of the United States.

Barry has now been dragging his feet since August. On
August 30, 2009 General Stanley McCrystal submitted his Commander Initial Assessment

You can view it here:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/19995042/Commander-Initial-Assessment-McCrystal

General McChrystal shocked and angered presidential advisers with the bluntness of a speech given in London the last week of September.

The next day he was summoned to an awkward 25-minute face-to-face meeting on board Air Force One on the tarmac in Copenhagen, where Barry had arrived to pitch Chicago’s unsuccessful Olympic bid.

Remember that back in March Obama unveiled his “comprehensive new strategy . . . to reverse the Taliban’s gains and promote a more capable and accountable Afghan government.” The Dimwit in Chief pledged to properly resource this “war of necessity,” which he also called during the 2008 campaign “the central front on terror.” Barry then sacked his war commander, who had been chosen by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, in favor of General McChrystal, an expert in counterinsurgency.

In June, General McChrystal launched his assessment of the forces required to execute the Obama strategy. His confidential study was completed in August and sent to the Pentagon. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Michael Mullen told Congress that more troops would be needed, and a figure of 30,000-40,000 was bandied about.

The figure has clearly spooked the Administration. Soon after, General McChrystal’s confidential report was leaked to the Washington Post The report said that the U.S. urgently needs to reverse a “deteriorating” security situation. Soon the full retreat began in Washington, led by a vocal group within the Administration that wants to scale back the mission. The White House told the Pentagon to hold off asking for troops and General McChrystal not to testify to Congress. Obama asked on the Sunday talks shows, “Are we doing the right thing?”

So now we are coming up on November and Barry is still thinking about it. What more is there to think about?

By the time this week is over, Barry will have visited twenty countries.
Exotic destinations across four continents. War zones. Palaces and ancient wonders of the world. So many invitations, so little time.

Instead of playing rock star, maybe Barry should think about BEING a president and staying home and taking care of the country.

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LOU DOBBS IN HIS OWN WORDS

November 17th, 2009 by Rich Szabo

Lou Dobbs resigned from CNN this week. Here in his own words he explains as to why:


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SOCIAL SECURITY FACTS

November 16th, 2009 by Ted Silberstein

Just in case some of you young whippersnappers (& some older ones) didn’t know this. It’s easy to check out, if you don’t believe it. Be sure and show it to your kids. They need a little history lesson on what’s what and it doesn’t matter whether you are Democrat or Republican.

Facts are Facts!!!

Franklin Roosevelt, a Democrat, introduced the Social
Security (FICA) Program. He promised:

1.) That participation in the Program would be
Completely voluntary,
No longer Voluntary

2.) That the participants would only have to pay
1% of the first $1,400 of their annual
Incomes into the Program, Now 7.65% on the first $90,000

3.) That the money the participants elected to put
into the Program would be deductible from
their income for tax purposes each year,
No longer tax deductible

4.) That the money the participants put into the
independent ‘Trust Fund’ rather than into the
general operating fund, and therefore, would
only be used to fund the Social Security
Retirement Program, and no other Government program, and, Under Johnson the money was moved to The General Fund and Spent

5.) That the annuity payments to the retirees
would never be taxed as income.
Under Clinton & Gore Up to 85% of your Social Security can be Taxed

Since many of us have paid into FICA for years and are
now receiving a Social Security check every month —
and then finding that we are getting taxed on 85% of
the money we paid to the Federal government to ‘put
away’ — you may be interested in the following:

Q: Which Political Party took Social Security from the
independent ‘Trust Fund’ and put it into the
general fund so that Congress could spend it?

A: It was Lyndon Johnson and the democratically
controlled House and Senate.

Q: Which Political Party eliminated the income tax
deduction for Social Security (FICA) withholding?

A: The Democratic Party.

Q: Which Political Party started taxing Social
Security annuities?

A: The Democratic Party, with Al Gore casting the
‘tie-breaking’ deciding vote as President of the
Senate, while he was Vice President of the US

Q: Which Political Party decided to start
giving annuity payments to immigrants?

AND MY FAVORITE:

A: That’s right!
Jimmy Carter and the Democratic Party.
Immigrants moved into this country, and at age 65,
began to receive Social Security payments! The
Democratic Party gave these payments to them,
even though they never paid a dime into it!

Then, after violating the original contract (FICA), the Democrats turn around and tell you that the Republicans want to take your Social Security away!

And the worst part about it is uninformed citizens believe it!
If enough people receive this, maybe a seed of
awareness will be planted and maybe changes will
evolve. Maybe not, some Democrats are awfully
sure of what isn’t so.

But it’s worth a try. How many people can YOU send this to?

Actions speak louder than bumper stickers.

AND CONGRESS GIVES THEMSELVES 100% RETIREMENT FOR ONLY SERVING ONE TERM!!!

A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have.
-Thomas Jefferson

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Barry Bows Again…This Time In Japan

November 15th, 2009 by Rich Szabo

The Groveler in chief strikes again.

Obama Bows To Japanese Emporer

Will this man ever stop bowing and scraping to foreign leaders? What is wrong with him? Wait I know, he is a narcissistic, psychopath with delusions of grander and bent on destroying the United Sates of America as we once knew it: a free country.

Remember Barry bowing to the Saudi King? Remember the big hoopla around that one? The Whitehouse Court Jester Booby Gibbs said “oh no, he didn’t bow”. I can’t wait to hear what little Booby has to say about this one.

Obama bows to Saudi King

America should bow to no nations or people, neither should Michelle touch the queen of England. Both seem to appear as uncultured buffoons.

For the President, WHO REPRESENTS ALL OF US, to place himself in such a humbling position, reflects badly on the entire nation. We fought a REVOLUTION to break clear of royal tyranny and MOST presidents have displayed the independence and dignity of a proud Republic ever since.

Obviously, this jerk in the Whitehouse has no problem with assuming the subservient position. The first thing he should do upon his return to the USA is bow low (very low) to the American people.

Contrary to some claims, the video shows no reciprocal bow by the emperor, who traditionally bows to no one. And we’ve added a file photo from 2007 of Vice President Dick Cheney greeting the Japanese Emperor at the same residence in a different fashion.

How low will the new American president go for the world’s royalty?

This photo will get Barry a lot of approving nods in Japan this weekend, especially among the older generation of Japanese who still pay attention to the royal family. Very low bows like this are a sign of great respect and deference to a superior.

Standing upright and shaking his hand would have sufficed as when Dick Cheney then Vice President met with him.

Cheney meets Japanese Emperor

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Who’s Really Running the Country?

November 12th, 2009 by Rich Szabo

I did not write this and I give no opinion other than to share it for opinions.

    Who is Really Running the Country?

I have been having a nagging intuition lately that something is not quite right about Barack Obama. I am not suggesting there is something wrong with the man, per se. Nor am I talking about the crazy, even dangerous, policies coming out of the White House. No, lately, I have been wondering if Barack Obama is, in fact, the person who is actually functioning as President of the United States.

I mean, there’s no doubt that he fills the position of POTUS but is he really the one in command? The man actually seems lost at times. He seems to be reacting to ideas about which he does not really have a clue. He has left the writing of this health care bill to Nancy Pelosi’s House of Representatives and she, in turn, has farmed the writing out to several fairly radical community action groups. When questioned about health care, he seems not to know or understand the details and even with his silver-tongue seems unable to demonstrate any leadership on the issue.

With respect to Afghanistan and the rest of our foreign policy, he seems equally lost. Especially when it comes to dealing with other world leaders. He makes beautiful speeches but seems to be unable to cut deals which benefit our nation. He seems to be acting as a pawn of much more clever world leaders.

The more I watch the man, the more I see a person who appears to be the “face” of some other entity or group. He seems like a “front man”. And it is becoming clear that his strings are being pulled by someone else. He does not appear to be the man in command of the ship of state. At least, he is not in the driver’s seat.

You might recall that people said about Bush that he was a front man for the neo-cons and that it was really Dick Cheney that was running the show. It turns out that Dick Cheney was not as influential in Bush’s second term as many thought but, perhaps it is true that the neo-cons, whoever they may be, were pulling some of Bush’s strings.
On the other hand, with Obama, it does not appear that there is anyone who is visible to ‘we the people’ or the media who is pulling the strings. If they are there, they are not in elected positions as Cheney was. They are better hidden than that.

We know that he has been and remains surrounded by life-long radicals, professed communists and anti-capitalists, some of whom he has even appointed as czars in his administration. Thirty six czars, to date. But is it Obama who is picking the czars or is it the czars who are running the show and propping up Obama as their front man?

I know all this may sound crazy but, really, when you look at the man without the idolatry and media worship, does he really look like he knows what he is doing? Does he seem to have a direction? Firm convictions? Something he deeply believes in? The more he talks now, the more his words seems empty of content. Platitudes about America and the American people which, when he says them, simply do not ring true. They are words being mouthed but not believed by him.

Okay, so maybe he is really clever, is firmly moving the ship to the left while mouthing the words of a centrist but I don’t think so. What I used to think was that he was a really slick conman who was making us watch his left hand while he was manipulating us with his right. But, now I don’t think that so much. I think the man is more plastic than real. Now I begin to see him as the “Great and Powerful Oz”: a fearsome presence who is being manipulated by men behind the curtain. And while Obama does not have strong convictions, the men behind the curtain do. And they are moving this country down a dangerous path. All the while, we are being distracted by Obama and what he says and does.

Okay, maybe I am simply a mildly paranoid conspiracy theorist. Why, you might ask, have Obama up there? Why not have one of the actual people behind the curtain run for President. Well, being a paranoid conspiracy theorist, I can come up with an answer to that question. Those other people behind the curtain have backgrounds that are so radical that they would never have made it past the first few days of a campaign. Additionally, they are life-long community organizers and they know what kind of face can be effective if you wish to radically change the nation. First, you need a black man to gain the support of the vast black minority. Second, you need a pale skinned black man so as not to be too much of a threat to white Americans. For the same reasons, you need a mixed race man who allies himself with the poor and down-trodden.

And you need someone who speaks well enough to co-opt the language of the right and appear to be a uniter, not a divider. Someone who sees, or at least can articulate, both sides of an issue. This is the kind of man you would pick to be your front man so that while you move things drastically and dramatically left, the vast majority of Americans will not believe that was the intention of the moderate appearing front man.

Yes, Obama was a community organizer. Yes, he could be clever enough to have this all be his idea. But he really wasn’t a community organizer for that long. And when he was, he didn’t do anything truly radical. It was more a time during which he was being trained than a time when he was driven by a personal sense of commitment to anything in particular. There are people who are now in his government who have been community organizers and radical left wing activists for 20-30 years. These people have deeply ingrained commitments to changing the system and have been actively trying to do so for all that time. Obama is not one of them.

In my view, Obama has been trained and used as a puppet by others for a long time. His successes seem to have come too easily, as if they have been orchestrated. His life appears to have been pre-planned. I mean, Harvard Law Review without publishing a single paper of note. That is unusual. A community organizer for a short time, a State legislator for a few years, a freshman US Senator, a convention key-note speaker, and then POTUS. How does that happen? A person with zero governmental administrative experience is running the entire government of the United States.

How do 1,017 page documents get developed and put out in such short order? Who is writing all these proposals? Does it not seem that something is just not quite right here? Forget about the specifics of the policies for the moment. Have you seen this level of activity in the first few months of any other administration in your lifetime? Does Obama seem like the kind of person that could manage this level of activity in so short a time? Too much does not make sense here.
So, slowly but surely, I am becoming convinced that it’s not Barack Obama who is running the show. The White House has been captured by a group of people who are using Barack Obama as their front man. He is nothing but an articulate but empty suit. We have to start looking behind the curtains to find out who is really controlling the “great and powerful Obama.”

Something to think about….

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The Daley Backwords

November 11th, 2009 by Ted Silberstein

Well Chicago’s Mayor Daley has marginalized himself once again with his verbal bilge that the Fort Hood massacre was caused by Americans’ love of guns. No Mayor Daley you have it backwards, the Fort Hood massacre was caused by Islamic extremist’s love of guns!

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It is every American’s duty to drink the Kool Aid

November 10th, 2009 by Rich Szabo

The Domestic Tranquility Act of 2010 has passed. It is every American’s duty to drink the Kool Aid.

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FT HOOD & POLITICAL CORRECTNESS

November 8th, 2009 by Ted Silberstein

THE FORT HOOD MASSACRE: MUSLIMS IN THE US ARMY or HOW POLITICAL CORRECTNESS KILLS

When the news first broke about the Fort Hood massacre, it is pure denial not to admit that deep down even before the name of the suspect was released, most Americans expected the inevitable revelation that the shooter was a Muslim. Sorry to call out the elephant in the room, but there have been enough incidents of violence against our military by the enemy within not to say it.

It is not difficult to understand the shooter Nidal Malik Hasan’s inner torture over his impending deployment. But he is not emotionally unstable, he is not crazy, and to say he is, is a copout in the name of political correctness. Hasan is not merely Muslim, he is a Muslim extremist who was about to be deployed to a region where he would be called upon to fight Muslims. For Hasan there was no conflict, his Muslim extremist id won out. Faced with the decision whether to kill Muslims or to kill Americans he made his decision. He would kill Americans.

It is easiest to blame Hasan but in the end he did what obedient Muslim extremists do, kill Americans. Hasan carried out the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil since September 11, 2001. Understand this clearly and make no mistake. It was a terrorist attack by a Muslim extremist doing what Muslim extremists are sworn by their faith to do, right down to the shouts of Allahu Akbar as he carried out his murderous act. The fact that Hasan may have acted alone also makes no difference, it was a terrorist attack which will no doubt soon be followed by the obligatory audio tape from Bin Laden or Zawahiri praising their brave jihadist brother Hasan. Fittingly this also gives us an excellent opportunity to honor our own brave soldier, Fort Hood Police Sgt. Kimberly Munley. For Muslim extremism who consider women a sub class, who customarily kill or maim women in the name of honor, it is sweet irony indeed that Hasan was taken out by Sgt. Munley, a woman who is far braver than he is and did her job better than he did. Nothing could hurt a Muslim extremist worse.

But while Hasan was the instrument of this terrorist attack, it is the orchestra pit of political correctness which allowed him to take the stage. As we have learned, Hasan demonstrated more than enough Muslim extremist behavior with his rants and internet postings which were known to the military for some time. Why then didn’t the military act sooner to stop him? Perhaps they tried. Recent history is replete with examples of our military leaders in the field who face our enemy every day, beating their heads against the political wall, handcuffed literally to death by our controlling liberal politicians, politically correcting innocent Americans into the grave. Since the Army was aware of Hasan’s Muslim extremist bent, it is difficult to believe they did not seek to take steps against him, and very easy to believe they received marching orders from on high to let him be.

While it is unthinkable to give in to over-the-top panicked methods like the herding of Japanese Americans into internment camps in 1942, it is not unthinkable, and looks more and more like simple common sense to intensify the vetting of those wishing to join our military. Terrorist attacks like Hasan’s at Fort Hood prove that the time has arrived to protect American troops by denying Muslim extremists the opportunity to become embedded in our military. Hasan was an easy spot considering his openly declared extremist behavior. One of Hasan’s classmates quoted him as saying “I’m a Muslim first and an American second. And Hasan’s closest friend whom he was mentoring in the ways of Islam said that Hasan told him not to join the army. He quoted Hasan as saying “Muslims shouldn’t be in the U.S. military because obviously Muslims shouldn’t kill Muslims.” Agreed. Hasan is correct, the time has come for the difficult decision that everyone knows must be made. Let us spare future Hasans the angst of the prospect of battling other Muslims. Hasan backed up his extremist words with actions, and showed us it is too deadly a risk when that conflict burns too deeply, pushing those who may begin as peaceful Muslim members in the American military into become our enemy within.

To understand, approach this from the other side with a little quiz:

A gentleman named Moshe Goldberg attempts to enlist in the Iranian army:
a. Moshe is welcomed in
b. Moshe is told “No Thanks”
c. Moshe is shot in the head as a spy and infiltrator right there in line

We all know the answer. RIP Moshe!

Our enemies would never take the chance of being infiltrated and neither should we. Of course in America we would never lower ourselves to the level of the lunatic regimes by choosing solution “C”. But is solution “B,” simply telling them “No Thanks” really so bad?

It is time for America to take Hasan up on his recommendation that Muslims should not serve in the U.S. military. As he showed us, political correctness kills. This is harsh. It is not nice and by no means sensitive. But the time for nice and sensitive is past. Political correctness is the handcuffs which cost American lives, and it is far better to apologize later, than to lose American lives now. For President Obama who has already made a full time occupation of apologizing for America protecting Americans, it is right up his alley anyway. Let’s make it worth his while.

Ted Silberstein
Florida Cop

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