U.K: Analysts find new culprit for "radicalization": Old people

from Jihad Watch

Don't trust any imam over 30. That'll fix it, right?

Once again, a theory that attempts to explain away the obvious nexus between Islamic teachings and violence in the name of Islam simply puts a spotlight on the elephant in the room: The matter of where all these "extremists" keep coming from, and how resilient their "misunderstanding" of the Religion of Peace continues to be. "Young Muslims at the mercy of extremists because of out-of-touch Imams," by Duncan Gardham for the Telegraph, February 24:

Mosques dominated by elderly foreign clerics are leaving young Muslims at the mercy of extremists, a study has found.

The Quilliam Foundation, an Islamic think tank, has found that 97 per cent of imams in Britain's mosques are from overseas, although the majority of Muslims in Britain were born in the UK.

The study also found that forty-four per cent of mosques do not hold their sermons at the main Friday prayers in English.

Nearly half of Britain's mosques do not have facilities for women, "depriving half the community of access to public spaces," the study said.

It added: "Foreign imams, poorly paid and with limited proficiency in English, are ill-equipped to navigate Britain's complex, liberal and multi-faith society.

And from that, we're to infer that the social ills of Muslim communities can all be attributed to "cultural" issues, and not anything contained in Islamic teachings.

"They have neither the freedom, being at the mercy of mosque management committees dominated by first generation elders, nor the capacity to promote a British Islam informed by British values.

"By failing to reach out to young British Muslims, radical Islamists have the upper-hand. Britain's young Muslims, without a voice in mosques, are looking elsewhere for religious guidance and will continue to be drawn in by young, articulate extremists who offer an alternative narrative, cause and social space."

Quilliam's director, Maajid Nawaz said: "These findings are deeply disturbing. Our first line of defence against terrorism is the ability, commitment, and confidence of mosques and Muslim communities to root out extremism. Currently, we are failing.

"With foreign imams who are physically in Britain, but psychologically in Pakistan or Bangladesh, mosques lack the requisite resilience to challenge Islamist extremists. We cannot continue to ignore the malaise in our mosques."

The report's author, Anya Hart Dyke, a senior research fellow at Quilliam, said mosques needed to include women and young people in running mosques, make use of government support from funds aimed at preventing violent extremism, and take advantage of training opportunities as well as sharing their space with community organisations and schools, and opening their doors to non-Muslims.

She said the mosques could learn from some local initiatives introduced in some mosques as well as the way churches and synagogues operate.

Why, exactly! That must be why you don't see their youth carrying menacing placards and calling for the overthrow of governments. Not to mention the dearth of bombings.

"There are signs of hope. I have found some locally-led initiatives in mosques across the country, but this needs to become the norm amongst our mosques," she added.

Quilliam attempted to contact over 1,000 mosques by using researchers who spoke Urdu or Bengali during Ramadan in late 2008, a busy period in mosques.

Due to lack of resources at most mosques and after repeated phone calls they successfully polled 512 mosques, although not all mosques responded to every question posed.

As usual, there's not really a problem, except when there kind of is, even though there really isn't. It's complicated:

Seyyed Ferjani, chairman of the Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board, admitted there was a problem in mosques but said it was not on the scale suggested in the report.

"The imam in the mosque only leads prayers," he said. "We have a problem in our mosques that most, the bulk of our youth, they don't seek advice from imams, they seek advice elsewhere."

Referring to the July 7 bombers, he added: "The problem that we've got, like the people who are in Leeds and elsewhere, they are outside of mosques, who are grooming them."

An increasing trend. Where jihadists organize doesn't answer questions about their ideology.

We're Losing Our Country – But What Can We Do?

(Compiler's note: A must read article.)

by Joan Swirsky

From the moment Barack Obama was inaugurated on January 20th, the leftists who control Congress have – at his behest – gone on a drunken binge of runaway spending vis-à-vis an $850-bilion faux "stimulus" program that rewards failure and punishes success. It is already clear that The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act should be renamed The American Relapse-And-Needs-Resuscitation Act, as is evidenced by both the simultaneous plunge of the Dow and the president's polling numbers, as well as an epidemic case of buyer's remorse.

As Oklahoma Republican Senator Tom Coburn has written, "the stimulus is a step toward a Soviet America."

Or, as Lenin said, "The way to crush the bourgeoisie [the middle class] is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation."

Or, as Winston Churchill so presciently pronounced: "Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy; its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery."

Writer Randall Hoven has elaboratedupon what the president has "accomplished" in his first weeks in office. This is the short list:

• Rewarded abortionists by freeing federal funds to pay for abortions both here and overseas.
• Rewarded terrorists by not interrogating them too roughly.
• Rewarded terrorists by closing Gitmo.
• Punished the U.S. military by halting commissions until Gitmo is "reviewed."
• Rewarded the domestically-held terrorist Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri by "reviewing" his case.
• Rewarded Gitmo detainee Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, an al Qaeda suspect in USS Cole in 200, that killed 17 US sailors, by dropping charges against him.
• Rewarded terrorists from Hamas by granting them up to $20.3 million for the "conflict victims in Gaza."
• Rewarded terrorists by establishing a redress process if those suspected of wrongdoing are delayed or prohibited from boarding a flight.
• Rewarded female career "victims" by signing the "Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act" so women can wage equal-pay lawsuits, not for up to 180 days but for decades in the past.
• Rewarded the American-hating president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, by "reaching out" to him – to which the madman demanded that the U.S. apologize to Iran for its actions for" the past 60 years" and remove all U.S. forces from the Middle East.
• Rewarded labor unions by revoking a former executive order that forced employers to notify employees of their rights.
• Punished faith-based organizations by equating them with "neighborhood partnerships" like Planned Parenthood and ACORN – treating them "like a house of God, in the eyes of the federal government."
• Punished fair-hiring employers by requiring federal executives to hire union-only members.
• Punished the American people by issuing numerous draconian environmental dictates that insure zero energy independence for decades to come, if ever.

In other words, Hoven says, it was all "pay back Democratic special interests…spend really, really huge amounts of other people's money, [and] make terrorism a law-enforcement issue instead of a national-defense issue and watch terrorists and nuclear proliferators be released, from Pakistan to Yemen to Gitmo."

I haven't even mentioned how much Obama has also:

• Punished Americans by appointing chronic tax cheats and craven lobbyists to his cabinet and as advisors.
• Punished Americans by reversing every promise he made about transparency, bipartisanship, and having an economic-growth bill with no pork.
• Rewarded terrorists by authorizing $20.3 million to aid Palestinian refugees from Gaza – read Hamas – to "migrate." But as journalist Judi McLeod and intelligence analyst Michael Travis have asked, "Is Obama opening the floodgates to Hamas" and "What security measures are in place to keep Hamas terrorists from gaining free access into the U.S.?"
• Punished Americans by not firing – or even sanctioning – Attorney General Eric Holder, who called America a "nation of cowards."
• Punished Americans by moving the once-objective census process into the White House's to be overseen by the Chicago-machine flunkie, Rahm Emanuel.
• And then there was the cringe-producing embarrassment he caused by granting his first interview to the Arab media, Dubai-based al Arabiya TV, where he proceeded to apologize for America's "mistakes."

VOX CLAMATO EN DESERTO

On the eve of the "stimulus" bill vote, which took place on February 14th, Fox News' Greta Van Susteren asked Alaska's Gov. Sarah Palin what the president should do.

"He should veto it!" Palin exclaimed. "He should send it back to the lawmakers so they have time to actually read it and understand its impact." Hers was a lonely voice of opposition, but it resonated with millions of Americans who also wondered how their (overwhelmingly Democrat) elected officials had the gall to vote for a 1,100-page bill they hadn't read when recent spending packages of significantly less heft had failed so thunderously:

• $180 billion stimulus program in the spring of 2008: Failed.
• $345 billion housing bailout from the summer of 2008: Failed.
• $700 billion Wall Street bailout from the fall of 2008: Failed.
• Grand total: $1.2 trillion in spending: Failed.

Just a few days later, on February 17th, Louisiana's Governor Bobby Jindal suggested that he might not be interested in taking the $4 billion allotted to his state in the "stimulus" package before reviewing each program and determining "what are the strings" attached to it were. And on February 18th, according to the Associated Press, a number of other Republican governors said they were considering turning down at least some of the money, questioning if it would help the economy at all.

Of course, it was a Democrat, South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn, who sneaked tucked into the package a proviso that allows state legislatures to override a governor's decision. It was also Clyburn who said that the refusal of governors to accept the funds was "a slap in the face of African-Americans." To which Kevin Martin, a member of Project 21 – a leading voice of the African-American community since 1992 – replied: "Liberals such as Congressman Clyburn have always employed tactics such as the race card to shame critics into accepting their heavy-handed demands…to use race as a means of cramming it down these governors' throats is reprehensible, and people should take notice as to how far these people are willing to go to get their way."

Indeed. Americans should be celebrating those governors who have questioned the ability of the bloated, pork-laden, special-interest-favoring bill to create jobs or "save" the economy At this point, their numbers may be small, but their potential for influence is huge.

Let them know what you think of their efforts.

Gov. Mark Sanford (SC): Tel: 1-803-734-2100; Fax: 1-803-734-5167; E-mail.

Gov. Bobby Jindal (LA): E-mail.

Governor Haley Barbour (MISS): Tel: 1-877-405-0733 or1- 601-359-3150.

Governor C.L. "Butch" Otter (ID): Tel: 1-208-334-2100.

Governor Sarah Palin (AK): Tel: 1-907- 465-3500; Fax: 1-907- 465-3532; E-mail.

Governor Mitch Daniels (IN): Tel: 1-317-232-4567; E-mail.

Keep this Contact Your Governor Guide handy.

DON'T TREAD ON ME

Afraid that the Obama agenda includes trampling on states' rights, 22 states are declaring sovereignty or planning to. Sovereignty is not the same as secession, in which a state or states threaten to leave the union. Sovereignty is granted under the 10th Amendment of the Constitution, which is part of the Bill of Rights. In short, it says that: "Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right…"

The states now seeking sovereignty are expressing the fear that a new national government might seek to exercise powers not granted to the government and that states will lose their autonomy. In stark contrast are those who believe that Congress can enact – at the will or whim of the president – just about anything that strikes their socialist fancies.

The states seeking sovereignty believe that if enough states get on board, they could press their claims together and prevail. The federal government, they say, has no physical existence, except for the machinery that runs it, but that the states are the country!

As one blogger stated, "Whether they're using a stick or a club, the states are drawing a line in the sand and placing the Federal Government on notice."

To date, the states that are already sovereign, having passed 10th Amendment resolutions in their legislatures, include:

California (CA): Click here for more info.
Texas (TX): Click here.

States claiming sovereignty include:

Arizona (AZ): Click here.
Georgia (GA): Click here.
Michigan (MI): Click here.
Missouri (MO): Click here and Click here.
Montana (MT): Click here.
New Hampshire (NH): Click here.
Oklahoma (OK): Click here.
South Carolina (SC): Click here.
Washington (WA): Click here.

Hawaii (HI) is actually aiming for total sovereignty, as it claims the state was never really a state of the U.S.A. Click HERE and HERE.

States that are planning motions toward claiming sovereignty include the following:

Alabama (AL), Alaska (AK), Arkansas (AR), Colorado (CO, Idaho (ID), Indiana (IN), Kansas (KS), Maine (ME), Nevada (NV), Pennsylvania (PA), and Tennessee (TN).

Click here for Source # 1 for the "pending / planning" states and Source # 2 for the "pending / planning" states.

That is almost half our country, as you can see by this map:

And more states are joining the Don't Tread On Me juggernaut, including Georgia, Oklahoma, and Ohio.

But there is a rub here. A Resolution carries no weight and only sends a "sense of the state legislature" to the federal government. But a Bill can become a Law. So when you're contacting your state officials, let them know what you think.

According to writer Dave Nalle, it now looks "like at least 22 states have Bills in some stage of development. About half are in the process of being drafted, several are in committee or out for debate, and the pack is being led by Arizona, Oklahoma, and New Hampshire, where the bills have strong support and will likely be voted on within a matter of weeks. As yet, none have passed into law, but we may see that happen in some of the most active states fairly quickly."

Most of the Resolutions, Nalle says, "are originating from inside legislatures and from established state politicians, specifically in response to concerns about unfunded mandates and excessive burdens placed on the states by the federal government. The expense and partisan character of many of the elements of the stimulus bill is of increasing concern and helping to motivate legislators to pass these state resolutions…while the 10th Amendment is central to their argument, legislators are more concerned about retaining power they see being gradually eroded by the federal government…"

YES, YOUR HONOR!

It is not only governors and state legislatures waking up to the shock of dealing with a far-left-cum-socialist-cum-Marxist president and a far-left Congress that echoes his contempt for free-market capitalism and the U.S. Constitution. It is also organizations like Patriots for America as well as individual activists.

A minister, Christ Otto, started the Red Envelope Project that has already resulted in over 100,000 red envelopes being sent to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue (zip: 20500), which are marked on the back with the simple sentence: "This envelope represents one child who died in abortion…it is empty because that child was unable to offer anything to the world."

Stephen Pidgeon, a lawyer who has waged one of more than a dozen Supreme Court lawsuits (Broe v. Reed) in an attempt to prove that President Obama is Constitutionally ineligible to hold his office, has launched an effort to empanel a National Grand Jury "to serve as ombudsmen for the citizens of the country in respect to constitutional rights and privileges…and to conduct criminal investigations of members of the federal government, and, if the evidence is sufficient, issue criminal indictments."

The National Grand Jury, Pidgeon says, "is an entirely independent body. Judges of the Supreme Court, the Courts of Appeal, and the District Courts of the United States, United States Attorneys, and Congress of the United States may act only as advisors. They cannot prevent National Grand Jury action unless that action violates the duly enacted laws as originally created in the United States."

He says that a National Grand Jury is empowered to:

• Inquire into the condition and management of branches of the federal government and its agencies.
• Investigate and report on the operations, accounts and records of federal officers, departments, and functions.
• Inquire into the willful or corrupt misconduct in office of public officers.
• Submit a final report of its findings and recommendations, no later than the end of its term, to the Presiding Juror of the National Grand Jury.

To become a Grand Juror, go to this website: www.DecaLogosIntl.org.

So to all people who wonder "What can I do?" to reclaim the America they knew and loved before Obama, I suggest that you join these efforts and also start protests of your own, be they e-mail campaigns, signatures on petitions, letters-to-editors, street demonstrations, and endless petitions to your elected representatives. If they don't respond to your liking, kick the bums out of office in 2010!

Obama eyes intel pick tied to bin Laden

By Aaron Klein

Business dealing, close contacts with family of terrorist mastermind

JERUSALEM – The Obama administration's reported pick for a top intelligence post has financial ties to the infamous bin Laden family – including dealings after Sept. 11, 2001.

Charles "Chas" Freeman, the U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia during the first Gulf War, is slated to head the National Intelligence Council, according to multiple reports. Freeman has come under fire in the Israeli media and on some pro-Israel blogs for his sharp criticism of the Jewish state. He also reportedly heavily criticized American anti-terrorism policy.

Now Ashley Rinsdberg, a Jerusalem-based researcher and blogger for the Daily Beast website has dug up another issue that may cause even bigger worry for the likely Obama appointee – he had business ties to Osama bin Laden's family and strongly defended the connections after 9/11.

Rindsberg documented how as chairman of Projects International, Inc., a company that develops worldwide business deals, Freeman declared in an Associated Press interview just after the 9/11 attacks he was still "discussing proposals with the Bin Laden Group – and that won't change."

The Bin Laden Group is a multinational construction conglomerate and holding company for the assets owned by the bin Laden family. It was founded in 1950 by Sheik Mohammed bin Laden, father of the terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden.

Freeman told the AP companies that have "had very long and profitable relationships are now running for public relations cover."

He said bin Laden remains "a very honored name" in the Saudi kingdom.

In a separate interview Sept. 28, 2001, Freeman told the Wall Street Journal he spoke at the time to two of Osama bin Laden's brothers following the mega terrorist attacks. He said they told him the FBI had been "remarkably sensitive, tactful and protective" of the family during the current crisis.

The Journal noted Freeman's ties to the bin Laden family went beyond admiration and business. He served as president of the Middle East Policy Council, a Washington-based Saudi backed nonprofit that at time was receiving tens of thousands of dollars a year from the bin Laden family.

Freeman maintained to the Journal that the bin Laden family company was closely aligned with American interests and that the group was part of the "establishment that Osama's trying to overthrow."

Osama bin Laden worked briefly in his family business and is reported to have inherited as much as $50 million from his father in cash and stock. The Saudi Bin Laden Group has invested in the Carlyle Group, a global private equity investment firm to which former President George H. W. Bush served as adviser. Former President George W. Bush sat on the board.

Rindsberg noted several investigations by U.S. intelligence agencies and journalists of the bin Laden family's ties to al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden, raising questions about the authenticity of the family's claim of distance from the terrorist chieftain.

Vincent Cannistro, a former CIA counter-terrorism specialist, for example, asserts that some bin Laden factions have not disowned Osama.

Also, Carmen bin Laden, a sister-in-law of Osama, told the German magazine Der Spiegel that the "Bin Ladens never disowned Osama; in this family, a brother remains a brother, no matter what he has done."

Freeman heavily critical of U.S., Israel

Meanwhile, Freeman's likely appointment has sparked concern among the pro-Israel community.

Blogs and Israeli news media websites have been highlighting recent comments Freeman made that are perceived as heavily critical of Israel.

He told the Washington Institute of Foreign Affairs in 2007 that Israeli policy is generating anti-American sentiment while the Jewish state "no longer even pretends to seek peace with the Palestinians; it strives instead to pacify them."

"American identification with Israeli policy has also become total. Those in the region and beyond it who detest Israeli behavior, which is to say almost everyone, now naturally extend their loathing to Americans," he claimed.

Freeman lauded Hamas as "is the only democratically-elected government in the Arab world and claimed the terrorist group "is showing that if we offer it nothing but unreasoning hostility and condemnation, it will only stiffen its position and seek allies among our enemies. In both cases, we forfeit our influence for no gain."

An investigative article by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in 2005 exposed how Freeman's Middle East Policy Council was peddling to American schools a wildly inaccurate, anti-Israel, Saudi-funded textbook.

His council joined with California-based Arab World and Islamic Resources in selling to U.S. schools the "Arab World Studies Notebook." The JTA found the book described Jerusalem as unequivocally "Arab," characterized Jewish residence in the holy city as "settlement"; labeled the "question of Jewish lobbying" against "the whole question of defining American interests and concerns"; and suggested the Quran "synthesizes and perfects earlier revelations."

"Freeman is a strident critic of Israel and a textbook case of the old-line Arabism that afflicted American diplomacy at the time the state of Israel was born," Steve Rosen, a former top official of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, wrote on his "Obama Mideast Monitor" blog hosted by the Middle East Forum.

Rindsberg notes Freeman also heavily criticized Bush's policy after 9/11. In 2006, in a speech to the U.S. Information Agency Alumni Association, Freeman compared Bush to Caligula and slammed America as a country that "stifles debate at home, that picks and chooses which laws it will ignore or respect, and whose opposition party whines but does not oppose."

MURDOCH WARNS: NATIONS WILL BE REDEFINED, FUTURES ALTERED

Media baron Rupert Murdoch issued an urgent internal communication late Monday, warning his staff: "We are in the midst of a phase of history in which nations will be redefined and their futures fundamentally altered."

MORE

The dramatic call comes as markets continue their plunge and the future of media becomes increasingly muddled.

"Many people will be under extreme pressure and many companies mortally wounded," Murdoch declared.

"Our competitors will be sorely tempted to take the easy beat, to reduce quality in the search for immediate dividends."

He continued: "Let me be very clear about our company: where others might step back from their commitment to their viewers, their users, readers and customers – we will renew ours.

"The direction of the business now and over the next few years will define the character of our company for decades."

Developing...

Lawmakers Cite Economic Crisis in Effort to Ban Death Penalty

By Cristina Corbin

...."We're looking at any way we can to save money moving forward in the state of Kansas," McGinn told FOXNews.com. "This will save significant money -- money that could be used toward education programs and toward community corrections programs," she said.

Colorado, Kansas, Maryland, Montana, New Hampshire, Nebraska and New Mexico are among those states actively considering abolishing executions as a way to cut costs. But in other states, including Texas and California, the debate has gained little ground. ....

Official: U.S. to Provide Substantial Aid for Gaza Reconstruction

FOX News' Nina Donaghy and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

U.S. aid for Gaza reconstruction will be "substantial," a State Department official told FOX News Tuesday after reports that the Obama administration plans to designate at least $900 million to rebuild the war-ravaged strip controlled by the U.S.-designated terror group Hamas

The official could not confirm reports about the size of the package intended to be administered through the Palestinian Authority led by Mahmoud Abbas. The PA, which is headquartered in the West Bank, does not have control on the ground in Gaza, and the U.S. has no formal contacts with Hamas.

"Our pledge will be substantial, that it will contain new funding and funding we had planned for 2009," the official said. "As the secretary said, it is not all finished yet, so can't confirm a $900 million package."

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Tuesday -- as she prepared to make her first Mideast trip as America's top diplomat.-- that details on the package are still being worked out.

"We have made no decisions, and we are working across the government to determine what our approach will be," she said, adding that she's looking forward to attending the international donors conference for Gaza on March 2 in Egypt.

"But you know, there's still a lot of work to do," she said.

Israeli and Palestinian officials said Monday that Clinton will visit Israel and the West Bank during the first week of March. Clinton said during her Asia trip last week that she would attend an international donors conference in Egypt on March 2 to discuss reconstruction in Gaza, which last month was battered in fighting with Israeli Defense Forces responding to rockets fired from the strip

The Israeli officials, meanwhile, said Clinton will arrive in Israel on March 2 for meetings with the country's top leaders. Israel is currently ruled by a caretaker government as Likud Party leader Benjamin Netanyahu cobbles together a new coalition.

The Israeli officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the visit had not been announced by the State Department, which has not released Clinton's schedule for next week.

Yasser Abed Rabbo, a senior aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said Clinton also would visit the West Bank during her stay.

History Unfolding

(Compiler's note: A must read and consider what this lady is pointing out. This is clearly an important read.)

by Pat Dollard

I am a student of history. Professionally, I have written 15 books in six languages, and have studied it all my life. I think there is something monumentally large afoot, and I do not believe it is just a banking crisis, or a mortgage crisis, or a credit crisis. Yes these exist, but they are merely single facets on a very large gemstone that is only now coming into a sharper focus.

Something of historic proportions is happening. I can sense it because I know how it feels, smells, what it looks like, and how people react to it. Yes, a perfect storm may be brewing, but there is something happening within our country that has been evolving for about ten to fifteen years. The pace has dramatically quickened in the past two.

We demand and then codify into law the requirement that our banks make massive loans to people we know they can never pay back? Why?

We learn just days ago that the Federal Reserve, which has little or no real oversight by anyone, has "loaned" two trillion dollars (that is $2,000,000,000,000) over the past few months, but will not tell us to whom or why or disclose the terms. That is our money. Yours and mine. And that is three times the $700B we all argued about so strenuously just this past September. Who has this money? Why do they have it? Why are the terms unavailable to us? Who asked for it? Who authorized it? I thought this was a government of "we the people," who loaned our powers to our elected leaders. Apparently not.

We have spent two or more decades intentionally de-industrializing our economy. Why?

We have intentionally dumbed down our schools, ignored our history, and no longer teach our founding documents, why we are exceptional, and why we are worth preserving. Students by and large cannot write, think critically, read, or articulate. Parents are not revolting, teachers are not picketing, school boards continue to back mediocrity. Why?

We have now established the precedent of protesting every close election (now violently in California over a proposition that is so controversial that it wants marriage to remain between one man and one woman. Did you ever think such a thing possible just a decade ago?) We have corrupted our sacred political process by allowing unelected judges to write laws that radically change our way of life, and then mainstream Marxist groups like ACORN and others to turn our voting system into a banana republic. To what purpose?

Now our mortgage industry is collapsing, housing prices are in free fall, major industries are failing, our banking system is on the verge of collapse, social security is nearly bankrupt, as is medicare and our entire government, our education system is worse than a joke (I teach college and know precisely what I am talking about) - the list is staggering in its length, breadth, and depth. It is potentially 1929 x ten. And we are at war with an enemy we cannot name for fear of offending people of the same religion, who cannot wait to slit the throats of your children if they have the opportunity to do so.

And now we have elected a man no one knows anything about, who has never run so much as a Dairy Queen, let alone a town as big as Wasilla , Alaska . All of his associations and alliances are with real radicals in their chosen fields of employment, and everything we learn about him, drip by drip, is unsettling if not downright scary (Surely you have heard him speak about his idea to create and fund a mandatory civilian defense force stronger than our military for use inside our borders? No? Oh of course. The media would never play that for you over and over and then demand he answer it. Sarah Palin's pregnant daughter and $150,000 wardrobe is more important.)

Mr. Obama's winning platform can be boiled down to one word: Change.

Why?

I have never been so afraid for my country and for my children as I am now.

This man campaigned on bringing people together, something he has never, ever done in his professional life. In my assessment, Obama will divide us along philosophical lines, push us apart, and then try to realign the pieces into a new and different power structure. Change is indeed coming. And when it comes, you will never see the same nation again.

And that is only the beginning.

And I thought I would never be able to experience what the ordinary, moral German felt in the mid-1930s. In those times, the savior was a former smooth-talking rabble-rouser from the streets, about whom the average German knew next to nothing. What they did know was that he was associated with groups that shouted, shoved, and pushed around people with whom they disagreed; he edged his way onto the political stage through great oratory. Conservative "losers" read it right now.

And promises. Economic times were tough, people were losing jobs, and he was a great speaker. And he smiled and waved a lot. And people, even newspapers, were afraid to speak out for fear that his "brown shirts" would bully them into submission. And then, he was duly elected to office, a full-throttled economic crisis at hand [the Great Depression]. Slowly but surely he seized the controls of government power, department by department, person by person, bureaucracy by bureaucracy. The kids joined a Youth Movement in his name, where they were taught what to think. How did he get the people on his side? He did it promising jobs to the jobless, money to the moneyless, and goodies for the military-industrial complex. He did it by indoctrinating the children, advocating gun control, health care for all, better wages, better jobs, and promising to re-instill pride once again in the country, across Europe , and across the world. He did it with a compliant media-did you know that? And he did this all in the name of justice and . . . change. And the people surely got what they voted for.

(Look it up if you think I am exaggerating.)

Read your history books. Many people objected in 1933 and were shouted down, called names, laughed at, and made fun of. When Winston Churchill pointed out the obvious in the late 1930s while seated in the House of Lords in England (he was not yet Prime Minister), he was booed into his seat and called a crazy troublemaker. He was right, though.

Don't forget that Germany was the most educated, cultured country in Europe. It was full of music, art, museums, hospitals, laboratories, and universities. And in less than six years-a shorter time span than just two terms of the U. S. presidency-it was rounding up its own citizens, killing others, abrogating its laws, turning children against parents, and neighbors against neighbors. All with the best of intentions, of course. The road to Hell is paved with them.

As a practical thinker, one not overly prone to emotional decisions, I have a choice: I can either believe what the objective pieces of evidence tell me (even if they make me cringe with disgust); I can believe what history is shouting to me from across the chasm of seven decades; or I can hope I am wrong by closing my eyes, having another latte, and ignoring what is transpiring around me.

Some people scoff at me, others laugh, or think I am foolish, naive, or both. Perhaps I am. But I have never been afraid to look people in the eye and tell them exactly what I believe-and why I believe it. I pray I am wrong. I do not think I am.

Tea Party revolution brewing

by Andrea Shea King

The kettle's whistling. Tea Parties are popping up all over the country. People are flocking to these sites which have cropped up practically overnight in search of information about rallies, demonstrations and Tea Parties in their cities. The revolution is brewing!

....Mark the date: February 19, 2009 when Santelli might have unwittingly fired a shot signaling the beginning of The Great Revolution, spawning dozens of citizen Tea Party Protests across the country. Responding to Santelli's passionate comments, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs suggested Santelli drink a cup of decaf coffee. We prefer tea....

"Somebody in our government needs to finally pay attention. It is what I've been talking about that was coming for a very long time and that is disenfranchisement which will turn into anger and then turn into God knows what," Glenn Beck said Friday on his radio program about CNBC'S Rick Santelli's passionate comments made Thursday from the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange

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TCOP (Top Conservatives on Twitter) are coordinating simultaneous nationwide rallies and demonstrations for this Friday at noon ET in Chicago, Washington D.C., Fayetteville, N.C., Pittsburgh, Penn., San Diego, Calif., Fort Worth, Texas, Tulsa, Okla., Oklahoma City, Orlando, Fla., Omaha, Neb., Atlanta, Ga., and elsewhere in Missouri. More cities are joining in every day.

Soldier doubts eligibility, defies president's orders

By Bob Unruh

'As an officer, my sworn oath to support and defend our Constitution requires this'

A U.S. soldier on active duty in Iraq has called President Obama an "impostor" in a statement in which he affirmed plans to join as plaintiff in a challenge to Obama's eligibility to be commander in chief.

The statement was publicized by California attorney Orly Taitz who, along with her Defend Our Freedom Foundation, is working on a series of legal cases seeking to uncover Obama's birth records and other documents that would reveal whether he meets the requirements of the U.S. Constitution.

"As an active-duty officer in the United States Army, I have grave concerns about the constitutional eligibility of Barack Hussein Obama to hold the office of president of the United States," wrote Scott Easterling in a "to-whom-it-may-concern" letter.

Obama "has absolutely refused to provide to the American public his original birth certificate, as well as other documents which may prove or disprove his eligibility," Easterling wrote. "In fact, he has fought every attempt made by concerned citizens in their effort to force him to do so."

Taitz told WND she had advised Easterling to obtain legal counsel before making any statements regarding the commander-in-chief, but he insisted on moving forward. His contention is that as an active member of the U.S. military, he is required to follow orders from a sitting president, and he needs – on pain of court-martial – to know that Obama is eligible.

Where's the proof Barack Obama was born in the U.S. or that he fulfills the "natural-born American" clause in the Constitution? If you still want to see it, join more than 250,000 others and sign up now!

Taitz said other legal cases questioning Obama's eligibility filed by members of the military mostly have included retired officers, and courts several times have ruled they don't have standing to issue their challenge.

Easterling, however, is subject to enemy fire and certainly would have a reason to need to know the legitimacy of his orders, she argued.

"Until Mr. Obama releases a 'vault copy' of his original birth certificate for public review, I will consider him neither my Commander in Chief nor my President, but rather, a usurper to the Office – an impostor," his statement said.

Easterling said he joined the Army at age 40 after working in Iraq as a contractor.

"I chose to work … to support my troops and then left that lucrative position when the Army raised its maximum enlistment age to 40. Upon completion of basic training, I entered Officer Candidate School and commissioned as a 2LT in August 2007. After completing the subsequent basic officer leadership courses, I was assigned to Ft. Knox and shortly thereafter deployed to Balad, Iraq," he wrote.

"I implore all service-members and citizens to contact their senators and representatives and demand that they require Mr. Obama prove his eligibility. Our Constitution and our great nation must not be allowed to be disgraced," he wrote.....