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Thursday, June 25, 2009
Ross Mackenzie :: Townhall.com Columnist
On Gaza, Gitmo, Kafisi, Moderates, the 'Wise Latina,' Etc.
by Ross Mackenzie
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Brief comments on a variety of topics currently in the news....

With the Obama administration springing Guantanamo-housed terrorists and e.g. funding Hamas-dominated Gaza to the tune of $900 million (etc.), how far we have come from George Bush's admonition: "Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists."

*****

Bankrupt California has gone hat-in-hand to the White House, where the president said in effect, Not today, buddy, but maybe tomorrow -- and averted his eyes. 'Sfunny. What's good for the nation's gargantuan banks is not good enough for a (now) decidedly Democratic gargantuan state? Has Obama consulted his economic advisers? They might tell him that with the world's eighth-largest economy, and a state boasting more population than any other, California is too big to fail. As was, for instance, General Motors.

*****

Is the stock market these days a bull or a bear? A Wall Street Journal news story tries to help: "Historical data and the still struggling economy seem to point to...a cyclical bull market in a secular bear market." All clear?

*****

If you listen to the Obama media, the president has seduced Israel's new, second-time-around prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, into accepting a Palestinian state. Maybe. A tough hombre, Netanyahu now supports a two-state plan -- with conditions: The new country (1) would have to recognize Israel as "the nation state of the Jewish people." Further (2) the Palestinian state would possess no military and (3) Israel would control its air space. (4) Israel would accept no Palestinian "refugees," (5) Israelis would maintain the right to settle in the West Bank, and (6) Jerusalem would remain undivided and under Israeli control.

*****

Palestinians told Netanyahu to take his two-state overture and stuff it. Said Khaled Meshal last month, chief dialectician of the Hamas terrorists crushing Gaza: "There is only one enemy in the region, and that is Israel."

*****

Ponder this one. Self-styled "moderates" often say that rather than departing what they deem a wayward organization in a huff, it is better to remain in the group and help reform it from within. Yet (a) many have left a Republican Party they deem usurped by social conservatives and the religious right. And (b) many have left, for greener ecclesiastical pastures or lush fairways, mainline Protestant churches no longer satisfying their religious, emotional, or intellectual needs. It's all enough to make one wonder, regarding supposedly stay-the-course moderates: Who's in a huff?

*****

Appellate Judge Sonia Sotomayor, nominated for a seat on the Supreme Court, is defending her membership in a women-only club -- the Belizean Grove. This despite prohibitions against federal judges joining groups discriminating on the basis of gender. Judge Sotomayor says that though her club denies membership to men, it allows men at some of its events. There was a time -- long ago and far away -- when men nominated for higher judgeships were ripped as perverse Neanderthals for their memberships in all-male clubs. But in this New Age of double standards, the "wise Latina" (Judge Sotomayor's words) has a more mature view.

*****

President Obama said that without adoption of his economic "stimulus" bill, unemployment would reach 9 percent -- and never mind that most of the stimulus won't kick in until 2011. Congress dutifully passed the measure, and unemployment has reached 9.4 percent. Could that be why Obama is pressing his Cabinet secretaries to accelerate their stimulus spending?

*****

Forbes reports on tracking by Eric Singer, a fund manager who compares stock performance when Congress is in session with performance when Congress is adjourned or in recess. According to Singer's data, in the 44 years ended December 31, the S&P 500 was up an average annual .3 percent on the 7,244 days Congress was in session -- and up a stunning 16.1 percent on the 3,821 days it was not. Give Singer a cigar, and send those congressional swells on permanent vacations.

*****

Oh, and Gitmo? Obama evidently has succumbed to an onslaught by Senate NIMBYs -- Not in My Back Yarders -- who insist terrorists housed at Guantanamo are as radioactive as the nuclear waste rejected for Yucca Mountain in Nevada. The Senators insist Gitmo's 240 jihadists are unwelcome in their state penitentiaries. Having enlisted no cooperating states, Obama is shopping the terrorists to cooperating countries. In this hour of euphemization, what Obamaphiles during the grim Bush II years termed "rendition" of terrorists in foreign prisons -- they now call "repatriation."

*****

If Obama lands any of Gitmo's jihadists in Kuwait (liberated by the U.S. in the first Gulf War), they might tap to the delightful beat of Kuwaiti dissident Abdullah al-Nafisi. Recently on a recruiting tour, Nafisi brought supporters up to speed on al-Qaeda's efforts to breach the U.S.-Mexico border -- with:

*****

"Four pounds of anthrax -- in a suitcase this big -- carried by a fighter through tunnels from Mexico into the U.S., are guaranteed to kill 330,000 Americans within a single hour if it is properly spread in population centers there. What a horrifying idea. 9/11 will be small change in comparison. Am I right? There is no need for airplanes, conspiracies, timings, and so on. One person, with the courage to carry 4 pounds of anthrax, will go to the White House lawn and will spread this 'confetti' all over them, and then we'll do these cries of joy. It will turn into a real celebration."

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About The Author

Ross Mackenzie lives with his wife and Labrador retriever in the woods west of Richmond, Virginia. They have two grown sons, both Naval officers.

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(7 comments so Far)
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Reply # 1
Date: Jun 25, 2009 - 1:42 AM EST
Road To Economic Collapse I


Ron Paul: Obama 'Goal' Is Economic Collapse

Wednesday, June 24, 2009 3:08 PM

By: Rick Pedraza Article Font Size



U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, says he was dismayed that Congress passed the war supplemental appropriations bill so easily last week.

“An economic collapse seems to be the goal of Congress and this administration,” Paul said during his weekly radio address Monday.

“Washington spends with impunity, domestically bailing and nationalizing basically everything they can get their hands on,” Paul said.

Mocking the idea that Obama was a “peace candidate,” Paul pointed out that hisadministration will be sending another $106 billion it doesn't have "to continue the bloodshed in Afghanistan and Iraq without a hint of a plan to bring American troops home."

Paul noted that many of his congressional colleagues who previously voted with him in opposition to every war supplemental request under the Bush administration seem to have changed their tune. He maintains that a vote to fund the war is a vote in favor of the war.

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Reply # 2
Date: Jun 25, 2009 - 1:43 AM EST
Road To Economic Collapse? 2
“Congress exercises its constitutional prerogatives through the power of the purse,” Paul said. “As long as Congress continues to enable these dangerous interventions abroad, there is no end in sight: that is until we face total economic collapse.”

Paul noted that, as Americans struggle through the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, the foreign aid and International Monetary Fund appropriations in the spending bill passed last week can be called an international bailout:

The emergency supplemental appropriations bill sends:


$660 million to Gaza


$555 million to Israel


$310 million to Egypt


$300 million to Jordan


$420 million to Mexico


$889 million to the United Nations for so-called “peace-keeping” missions


$1 billion overseas to address the global financial crisis outside U.S. borders


$8 billion to address a potential pandemic flu, which he said could result in mandatory vaccinations “for no discernable reason other than to enrich the pharmaceutical companies.”

Perhaps most outrageous, Paul said, is the $108 billion loan guarantee to the IMF.

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Reply # 3
Date: Jun 25, 2009 - 9:17 AM EST
Women-only clubs?
although "...her club denies membership to men, it allows men at some of its events. " When? When the Chippendales are performing?
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Reply # 4
Date: Jun 25, 2009 - 9:20 AM EST
one good some bad
One plus in this column is that in praising Netanyahu, Mackenzie does a good job of making clear that he is praising him for pretending to advocate peace while actually pushing for something that no human beings would accept. Isn't it cool that Netanyahu is tough enough to insist on a perpetual state of conflict so that people on each side can die indefinitely. What a man he is.

On the other hand, his revealing an ignorance of what rendition is seems somewhat embarassing.
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Reply # 5
Date: Jun 25, 2009 - 10:13 AM EST
the "wise latina" & female clubs
So the wise latina believes it's okay to belong to a women's power club that blatantly discriminates against me because "men can come to some of the events".

Oh really?

I remember a few years ago womens' groups were all in a tizzy because the golf course at Augusta (where they always play the Masters Tournament) wouldn't allow females as members. Females could, however, play on the golf course if guests of a member. So, since women "can come to some of the events", I guess these womens' groups had nothing to really complain about.

(Of course, if they don't like it, they can always complain to the wise latina...)
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Reply # 6
Date: Jun 25, 2009 - 11:37 AM EST
No human being would accept ....
...Lon, the destruction of his home country and the murder of all of its inhabitants. Preventing that outcome is sufficient reason for Netanyahu to lie, cheat, steal and be prepared - if necessary to protect his people - to kill all the Arabs and Muslims who attempt to kill his folk. If that is "something that no human being would accept", then none of our leaders have ever been human, starting with the first colonial leader to led an attack on the Indians and including President Truman, who ordered the atom bombing of two Japanese cities (as well as the fire-bombing to rubble with matching deaths of civilians of six or eight more) to end World War 2 on terms that were favorable to the U.S. Survival sometimes is a "kill or be killed" kind of proposition, out in the real world, away from the fantasies of academic thought, political evasions and news reporters' ignorance. I know you won't accept that as true and will deride me for saying so; that doesn't make what I said any less true.
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Reply # 7
Date: Jun 25, 2009 - 6:10 PM EST
CA decidedly Democratic?
I'm not so sure about this.

They voted no new taxes even though they knew it would mean losing funding for a number of entitlements. And, they shot down the gay marriage amendment.

I think the large number of Hispanics in California have traditionally voted for Democrats because the media told them this was the party that would represent their interests.

Hispanics are largely Catholic, pro family, hard working and conservative in their thinking on most things.

I think Hispanics are beginning to realize they have been duped by the media into backing Democrats.

It has got to be difficult, coming to a foreign country, dealing with a language barrier, and then trying to decipher who is genuinely on your side in politics. It's hard enough for those of us born here to know who to trust.

I think Hispanics are starting to wise up. If our Republican representatives would get off their butts and articulate a clear message to Hispanics telling them why it is REPUBLICANS who really represent them, the GOP could own the Hispanic vote.
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