Officials: Yemen a Bigger Security Threat Than Libya

From NTI.org (March 28):

WASHINGTON -- As the United States spearheads the attack against Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi's military assets, key former officials said an even bigger threat to U.S. national security comes from Yemen, a country that hosts many militants and is now enmeshed in a civil uprising that is threatening to unseat U.S.-backed President Ali Abdullah Saleh (see GSN, Feb. 10).

Saleh has been a crucial American ally in combating al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, a group that chief U.S. counterterrorism analyst Michael Leiter recently called the “most significant risk to the U.S. homeland” and the most poised to successfully attack American cities (see GSN, Dec. 21, 2010). Former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and government officials said the current instability in Yemen appears likely to threaten already strained U.S. counterterrorism efforts and could provide new opportunities for AQAP to launch attacks.

“From a security standpoint, our interest in what happens in Yemen is much more significant than our interest in Libya,” Chertoff told National Journal. “In Libya it's a humanitarian issue -- there's some security issue, but really, Yemen is a critical issue.” [read more]

Well, that’s nice to know. So, is Obama going to do a kinetic military action against Yemen then? Who knows.

I watched Obama’s speech about the war in Libya and I did not notice any mention about an exit strategy. Are we going to take out Qadhafi or not? That’s the question to paraphrase Shakespeare. And by the way why wasn’t his speech on the CBS, NBC, or ABC? Seems odd.

Former SEIU Official Reveals Secret Plan To “Destabilize” America

From Business Insider.com (March 22):

A former official of one of the country's most-powerful unions, SEIU, has a secret plan to "destabilize" the country.

The plan is designed to destroy JP Morgan, nuke the stock market, and weaken Wall Street's grip on power, thus creating the conditions necessary for a redistribution of wealth and a change in government.

The former SEIU official, Stephen Lerner, spoke in a closed session at a Pace University forum last weekend. [read more]

Word by word this is what Lerner said:

There are actually extraordinary things we could do right now to start to destabilize the folks that are in power and start to rebuild a movement.

For example, 10% of homeowners are underwater right their home they are paying more for it then its worth 10% of those people are in strategic default, meaning they are refusing to pay but they are staying in their home that's totally spontaneous they figured out it takes a year to kick me out of my home because foreclosure is backed up

If you could double that number you would  you could put banks at the edge of insolvency again.

We have an entire economy that is built on debt and banks so the question would be what would happen if we organized homeowners in mass to do a mortgage strike if we get half a million people to agree  it would literally cause a new finical crisis for the banks not for us we would be doing quite well  we wouldn't be paying anything...

You can read the rest of the transcript at the Business Insider website but I think you get the point.

Isn’t this domestic economic terrorism? Where is the just justice department investigating this guy? On, no they are too worried about TEA parties and people who vote for third parties and carry around pocket Constitutions.

Is this the “Inside Out-Bottom Up” part that Van Jones was alluding to?

What Might Have Been

In his great book The New Reagan Revolution:  How Ronald Reagan's Principles Can Restore America's Greatness (2010), Michael Reagan says his father would have never ran for governor then president if Bobby Kennedy wouldn’t have had the General Electric Theater TV show cancelled.

According to Michael Reagan, President Reagan enjoyed working on the show and it was one consistently ranked in the top ten. He probably would have never quit and ran for governor of California. But because GE was negotiating a contract with the federal gov’t and Ronald Reagan criticized the JFK administration on the show in some of his speeches, Bobby Kennedy had GE cancel the show evidently for revenge. Hence the President had to look for work. You know the rest of the story.

This incident got me wondering. Let’s say in another parallel universe where the GE Theater was not cancelled who would have got the 1980 republican nomination in the primary? Probably George HW Bush. I am assuming of course everything else would have stayed the same. HW was second runner up in the primary race. Would HW have won the general election against Carter? It’s possible. He won against Mondale. So, instead of a strong conservative the country would have had a moderate. All this is speculative of course. GE could have cancelled the show in the far far future since it had good ratings and Reagan might still have ran for office later on.

Let this be a lesson to the vindictive Left. They might think getting a strong conservative fired from a TV show or radio show is a good idea but it might come back to haunt them. Their revenge might end up having Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity or Glenn Beck run for a major office. It would be better for the Left if they just leave those conservatives alone and let them keep their current jobs. Or would they rather have them as POTUS?

Al Qaeda's New Magazine for Women Mixes Beauty and Bomb Tips

From Fox News.com (March 14):

Would-be female Islamist extremists Sunday were awaiting copies of Al Qaeda's newly-launched women's magazine, which mixes tips on skin care with articles on marrying suicide bombers and waging electronic jihad.

Al Shamikha magazine -- its title means "The Majestic Woman" -- features beauty and fashion tips alongside articles on "marrying a mujahedeen" and carrying out suicide attacks. [read more]

You can’t make this stuff up! What exactly does one wear to a homicide bombing anyway? What will be next a cave decorating magazine? Maybe a militant Jihad version of the O(prah) magazine?

Maine gets break in federal health care overhaul

From CNBC.com (March 8):

PORTLAND, Maine - The federal government Tuesday granted Maine a waiver of a key provision in President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, citing the likelihood that enforcement could destabilize the state's market for individual health insurance.

The U.S. Health and Human Services department said in a letter it would waive the requirement that insurers spend 80 cents to 85 cents of every premium dollar on medical care and quality improvement. Instead, the letter said, the state could maintain its 65 percent standard for three years, with the caveat that HHS intends to review the figures after two years.

The decision makes Maine the first state to receive a waiver of the requirement. Similar requests are pending from Kentucky, Nevada and New Hampshire. [read more]

First, if Obamacare is the “ideal” health care system then why have any waivers at all? Second, can the other states (like the ones who are suing to get off this oppressive system) have a waiver like this?

And what about this Section 9 (Limits on Congress) in the Constitution:

No Preference shall be given by any Regulation of Commerce [my emphasis] or Revenue to the Ports of one State over those of another: nor shall Vessels bound to, or from, one State, be obliged to enter, clear, or pay Duties in another.

Then again it isn’t the Congress granting the waiver, but still I think that law would apply to gov’t agencies too following the spirit of the law. True, the waiver is only temporary but it would be nice if all states could get a waiver permanently. Only way to do that is to repeal  Obamacare. And the only way to repeal Obamacare is vote people in Congress who will repeal the law and a president who won’t veto the repeal like Obama would. 

Miscellaneous Thoughts Part 21

• If God is omnipotent then why did He have to rest? I mean being omnipotent means having  infinite energy doesn’t it?
• Procrastinators of the world unite tomorrow! Or maybe next week…
• The reason the Left likes public transportation like trains and buses (other than that they are governmentally controlled) instead of automobiles is because autos represent total freedom.
• If you let one rip and want to blame an animal close to you be sure it is a mammal of the right size. That is don’t blame mice, rats, hamsters, rabbits, etc. 
• I think that if school is cancelled because of a snow day it should be made up on a Saturday instead of shortening summer vacation. Although, the National Teachers Union would not go for this idea.
• Oprah thinks Obama should deserve respect. Well, respect goes both ways. I cannot respect a president who doesn’t respect the Constitution or other Americans.
• Insane thought: Heavy metal country music. Imagine the group Metallica playing steel guitars and violins. It would be music with dark and foreboding lyrics but with a nice country feel. 
• To the elite Left only they are capable of ruling themselves.
• Big Labor likes card check because the leaders can try to intimidate union voters to vote their way. Something tells me they would love to do away with secret ballots in political elections. Voting should always be secret no matter what or who you are voting for.
• The Left is so arrogant that they would think they could persuade evil extraterrestrials bent on conquering the earth that they are on the ET’s side and get massacred later on.

Likes for Potential GOP Presidential Candidates

Below is a table of Facebook likes for GOP candidates who may be running for president:

   GOP candidate             Likes                                   Notes

Sarah Palin	2,769,978
Mitt Romney	803,069
Mike Huckabee	539,501
Ron Paul	305,123
Donald Trump	177,995
Newt Gingrich	111,141
Tim Pawlenty	72,877
Herman Cain	53,884	ex-CEO and President of Godfather’s Pizza and ex-radio show host
Mike Pence	47,651
Rick Santorum	13,127
Rudy Giuliani	2,168
Buddy Roemer	296	ex-governor of Louisiana
Harold Heard	67	businessman

If you notice Sarah Palin got the most likes. This is not too surprising to me. But if you believe the Left-wing pundits you would think she doesn’t even have a fighting chance.

Donald Trump said during the CPAC conference that he did not think Ron Paul had a chance at winning. And yet Ron Paul’s likes are a lot more than his.

I found Buddy Roemer’s candidacy for POTUS by Googling “Presidential Exploratory Committee.” It seems a lot of candidates got to start this committee before deciding to run for president. I wonder if  George Washington, Thomas Jefferson or Abe Lincoln had these committees. Probably not.

The last candidate Harold Heard I saw on my Facebook page. One of my “likes” talked about him so I included him in the table for fun.  Not too bad a guy.

Pentagon Study: ‘08 Financial Crisis May Have Included Work of Financial Terrorists

The Blaze.com reports that in 2008 the Pentagon may have thought the financial crises back then may have included financial terrorists.

The most likely suspects according to the report include Middle Eastern states, Islamic terrorists, hostile members of the Chinese military, or government and organized crime groups in Russia, Venezuela or Iran. Chinese military officials publicly have suggested using economic warfare against the U.S. Wow, that’s a lot of suspects.

According to the Pentagon’s new report, the attack has three stages, two of which may have already been implemented:

• The first phase was a speculative run-up in oil prices that generated as much as $2 trillion of excess wealth for oil-producing nations, filling the coffers of Sovereign Wealth Funds, especially those that follow Shariah Compliant Finance.
• The second phase appears to have begun in 2008 with a series of bear raids targeting U.S. financial services firms that appeared to be systemically significant [such as Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers]. … This created a system-wide crisis, caused the collapse of the credit markets, and nearly collapsed the global financial system.
• The risk of a Phase Three has quickly emerged, suggesting a potential direct economic attack on the U.S. Treasury and U.S. dollar. Such an event has already been discussed by finance ministers in major emerging market nations such as China and Russia as well as Iran and the Arab states. A focused effort to collapse the dollar by dumping Treasury bonds has grave implications including the possibility of a downgrading of U.S. debt forcing rapidly rising interest rates and a collapse of the American economy. In short, a bear raid against the U.S.financial system remains possible and may even be likely. [Emphasis added]

You can read more of the report if you want. It would have been nice if the Pentagon reported this in 2008. Evidently they think it is important now to release the report.

These are of course all outside threats. But there is another threat to be aware of. And that’s the erosion of American patriotism or nationalism. Basically, love of country. There is nothing wrong with this. If the French, Germans, or Russians love their country that is okay. Heck, I don’t care if Iranians and Chinese love their country. As long as they don’t start attacking other countries or making threats I don’t see a problem.

World War II was not caused because of nationalism. It was caused because a narcissistic power-hungry leader wanted to take over the world. Interestingly enough the German people back then had to swear an absolute oath to Hitler not to German’s constitution or the country.

When you don’t love your country you won’t defend it. Hitler knew this when he invaded France. After WW I the teachers union taught the school children not to love their country. (Does that sound familiar in this country today?)  The teachers union must of thought love of country in Germany started WW I. It didn’t. WW I was caused because of an assassination and a bunch of pacts between countries. 

Now, the teacher unions in America in my opinion are not teaching American nationalism  is because they have  the New World Order mindset. You can’t have a New World Order when there is nationalism in countries.

Miscellaneous Thoughts Part 20

• Busy people of world unite! That is if you can fit uniting in your schedule…
• God does not believe, He knows because He is omniscience. Man has beliefs because he only has incomplete knowledge of the world and fills the gaps with his beliefs.
• If Communists in America controlled the internet everyone would be using a dial-up connection except of course for the powers-that-be.
• Ben Franklin once said “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.” Progressives would want the population of a country only to be healthy. They would overtax the wealthy and keep the population unwise (read: in the dark).
• I wonder if the rich Left applies progressive tip system at restaurants? That is do they tip at a higher rate than people who earn less money than they do? Knowing them they probably don’t tip at all.
• If guns cause violence then what caused violence before the invention of gun-powder?
• Rule 4 from Rules for Radicals: “Make opponents live up to their own book of rules. “ Since we (the Radicals) don’t have any meaningful principles don’t worry about opponents using the rule on us.
• Glenn Beck said if you change yourself you can change the country. This statement sounds like a principle from Complexity Theory: Tiny differences in input could quickly, become overwhelming differences in output. Also, known as the Butterfly Effect.
• So, the Left now wants civil discourse. I say they go first.
• Treating people as part of a group instead of treating them as individuals is beginning of a stereotype or even an “ism” like racism or sexism.

Space weather could wreak havoc in gadget-driven world

From Google News (Feb 19):

WASHINGTON — A geomagnetic space storm sparked by a solar eruption like the one that flared toward Earth Tuesday is bound to strike again and could wreak havoc across the gadget-happy modern world, experts say.

Contemporary society is increasingly vulnerable to space weather because of our dependence on satellite systems for synchronizing computers, airline navigation, telecommunications networks and other electronic devices.

A potent solar storm could disrupt these technologies, scorch satellites, crash stock markets and cause power outages that last weeks or months, experts said Saturday at the American Association for the Advancement of Science's annual meeting.

The situation will only get more dire because the solar cycle is heading into a period of more intense activity in the coming 11 years.

"This is not a matter of if, it is simply a matter of when and how big," said National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration administrator Jane Lubchenco. [read more]

Well, isn’t that something to look forward to. Not! And people are worried about climate change? Ha!