Hodge-podge Page

EGYPTIAN LEADER CONDEMNS DEMOCRACY, CALLS IT ‘BAD, BACKWARDS AND RETARDED IDEA’

When Egyptian Shaykh Sa‘id ’Abd-al-’Azim (a leader in Egypt’s salafi movement, which is a militant fundamentalist group calling for Islamic domination) sat down for an interview with the satellite station al-Hafez, he had plenty to say about democracy’s “evils.” Aside from calling the freedom-focused form of government ”…a bad, backwards, and retarded idea,“ he also said that those who support democracy are ”wicked.” He goes on to target the perils of free will, saying:

Even the freedoms–what are they? Among the freedoms inherent in the democratic system are freedom for women, freedom of ownership, freedom of homosexuality, personal freedom, freedom of conscience and expression, freedom to disbelieve in the Creator of Heaven and Earth. There’s mixing (of men and women), usury–all of this is in democracy, which is why I condemn it.

You can watch the June 4 interview, below:

"Democracy Is a Bad, Backwards, and Retarded Idea"

Israel Law Center Stops 'Audacity of Hope'

JanSuzanne Krasner 

As of now, the Audacity of Hope, a US to Gaza vessel with 50 passengers, reporters and crew, are trying to join an international flotilla to break the Gaza coastal blockade, but are being detained in a Greek Port.

There have been many attempts at stopping this US ship from pursuing this journey, including US and UN warnings that their participation may be a violation of American criminal law, and the consequences are in their hands. The US does not support this flotilla and will not protect them.

During the past few months, the Shurat Hadin, Israel Law Center, began a civil law suit against the organizers of the Audacity of Hope for Dr. Alan Bauer, a Harvard-educated biologist and terror victim injured in a 2002 Jerusalem bombing.  It is this firm that now reveals that they had anonymously made a civil complaint to the Greek harbormasters that the vessel is unfit for the journey and accuses the organization of aiding terror.  

One of the passengers, the outspoken Ann Wright, believes it is Israel putting economic pressure on the Greek government during their time of  great financial stress.  Meanwhile, the original Mavi Marmara is not joining this 2nd flotilla and the IHH, a Turkish financial organization that supported the first flotilla, has pulled out. As more and more pressure is applied to this operation, it seems that their true purpose for this flotilla is only for public sympathy for the Palestinian cause.

They are not carrying any humanitarian aid, or other supplies. They are only carrying, with the hope of delivering for display, 1,000 letters written by 'Americans' to show that Americans care about the Palestinian people in Gaza.  Given there appears to be no longer a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and the Rafah Crossing from Egypt into Gaza is open,  the Audacity is obviously hell bent on instigating a major confrontation, with reporters (I am sure Pro-Palestinian reporters from the Times, CNN and other media) filming and editing events and offering it up for instant public consumption. 

Here's hoping that this civil complaint will stop these people and save them from themselves.  One has to wonder how these 36 passengers, seemingly with good intentions, allow themselves to become puppets of terror groups and propaganda fodder. Can it be that the left's agenda of Israel bashing that has become so fashionable today, making Israel guilty until proven innocent?   

Have the Democrats Given Up on Governing?

Greg Richards

Last year the Democrats had control of both Houses of Congress by large majorities and had their guy as president.  They had completecontrol of the federal government.  And they didn't pass a budget, probably Congress' most basic responsibility.  They had control of the government and they didn't pass a budget.

This year, the House has passed a budget, but the Senate, still controlled by the Dems, refuses to pass one.  It has been over two years since the Senate, controlled all that time by the Dems, has passed a budget.

Last Wednesday (June 20, 2011), Chuck Schumer and Dick Durbin had a press conference, and, acting like two overripe students sitting in the back of an out-of-controlclassroom making snide remarks and throwing spitballs, opined that the budget problem was because Republicans wanted to sabotage the economy.  This from a party that for two years has refused to pass a budget.

Why no budget from the Dems?  They don't want to deal with the fact that the bill for the welfare state has come due.  Instead, they just want to party on.  As the innkeeper is coming out from behind the bar with the bill, they are grabbing their beers and running for the rest rooms, leaving everyone else to pay.

In February, Obama released what is arguably one of the most irresponsible documents ever seriously presented to the public by a president -- a budget with so little discipline in it that even the Dems are running from it.  On May 26, the Senate voted 97 - 0 not even to consider the president's budget.

Three years of Obama spending has increased the net debt of the country by 88% -- close to doubling it.  The deficit for this fiscal year is projected at 11% of GDP, a ruinous level.

The Dems are spending the country out of house and home and all they can do when confronted with the problem is elbow each other in the ribs and throw spitballs.  Where are we going?


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SUPREME COURT WILL RULE IF GOV’T CAN TRACK GPS UNITS WITHOUT A WARRANT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court will weigh in on an important privacy issue for the digital age, whether the police need a warrant before using a global positioning system device to track a suspect’s movements.

The justices said Monday they will hear the Obama administration’s appeal of a court ruling that favored a criminal defendant. The federal appeals court in Washington overturned a criminal conviction because the police had no warrant for the GPS device they secretly installed on a man’s car.

Other appeals courts have ruled that search warrants aren’t necessary for GPS tracking.

The Justice Department argued that warrantless use of GPS devices does not violate the Fourth Amendment’s ban on unreasonable searches. It also said prompt resolution of the divergent court opinions is critically important to law enforcement.

Why so many presidential mistakes in so little time?

Ethel C. Fenig

Michael Ledeen asks a question that many of us have wondered about: "What's Up With All the Presidential Gaffes, Anyway?:

He noticed.  Although much of the public hasn't because

to report them all would totally undermine the image of the president to which a surprising number of "reporters" and pundits are wedded:that of an unusually intelligent and well educated man.

But more people have become aware of these presidential gaffes, mistakes, errors because the increasingly ignored so called mainstream media don't dominate and control the news feeds as they once did; bloggers and tweeters and other alternative new news media have noticed the numerous errors and are duly mentioning them.

So what do all these gaffes mean?  Answering his question, Ledeen  believes

A friend said to me earlier today that he was really amazed at the discipline of Obama's team, specifically in the small number of leaks compared with previous administrations-especially W's years.  It's a good point, and that only happens when information flow is severely restricted;  when only a handful of folks know what's happening, chances to leak are reduced.  (On the recent decision on force level reductions in Afghanistan, for example, most of the "inside the Beltway" rumors were dead wrong).

I suspect that drafts of presidential speeches and statements are treated the same way. I think they are only circulated among a very small number of people for comment, and those people are probably very busy, and don't have the time to check things like the precise name and history of a Medal of Honor recipient.

So fact checking isn't that important to the Obama administration.  And, despite Obama's claims, the administration isn't very transparent; only "a handful of folks know what's happening."

But what about Obama's major mistake such as pronouncing the Marine Corps (pronounced cor) as corpse?  According to Ledeen

It tells us that the president and his trusted advisers are the products of the atrocious, politically correct educational system that's wrecking the country in so many ways.  And it's very worrisome.  It's part of the Orwellian universe that envelops many of our leaders, a universe in which they feel free to simply invent "facts" so long as they fit the emotional and ideological pattern that really matters to the elite.

But...but...Obama and his best buds now infesting the government attended Harvard and its lawschool or similar so called elite institutions where they all attained high, higher, highest honors; Obama himself was editor of Law Review.  Ok, ok he didn't write any major articles as law review editor, as customary, but still...

Obama and friends even taught at these elite institutions of higher learning; why Obama himself was a perfessor or something at the University of Chicago's Law School.  Again though he produced no major articles or profound insights as is customary from a university noted for its research.

As Ledeen concludes

The gaffes are important.  They tell us a lot about the nature of our leaders, and it's not good news.  But it is news...even though it's not reported as often as it should be, or with the sort of concern the gaffes deserve.

Well maybe if Obama and Sarah Palin, the latter a graduate of non elite schools,meet up in that elusive 57th state while campaigning she can correctly inform him that there are only 50 states.

But then the media would blame her.

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‘PROPER PROCEDURE’: TSA DEFENDS 95-YEAR-OLD’S DIAPER PAT-DOWN

Jonathon M. Seidl

The TSA is doubling down after it was revealed that screeners in Florida forced a 95-year-old lukemia patient to remove her adult diaper in order to complete a pat-down.

“While every person and item must be screened before entering the secure boarding area, TSA works with passengers to resolve security alarms in a respectful and sensitive manner,” the agency said in a statement on Sunday. “We have reviewed the circumstances involving this screening and determined that our officers acted professionally and according to proper procedure.”

“If this is your procedure — which I do understand — I also feel that your procedure needs to be changed,” Jean Weber, the daughter of the elderly woman who was traveling with her mother during the incident, told CNN:

Weber gave more details to CNN on how the pat-down occured:

While going through security, the 95-year-old was taken by a TSA officer into a glassed-in area, where a pat-down was performed, Weber said. An agent told Weber “they felt something suspicious on (her mother’s) leg and they couldn’t determine what it was” — leading them to take her into a private, closed room.

Soon after, Weber said, a TSA agent came out and told her that her mother’s Depend undergarment was “wet and it was firm, and they couldn’t check it thoroughly.” The mother and daughter left to find a bathroom, at the TSA officer’s request, to take off the adult diaper.

Weber said she burst into tears during the ordeal, forcing her own pat-down and other measures in accordance with TSA protocol. But she said her mother, a nurse for 65 years, “was very calm” despite being bothered by the fact that she had to go through the airport without underwear.

Eventually, Weber said she asked for her mother to be whisked away to the boarding gate without her, because their plane was scheduled to leave in two minutes and Weber was still going through security.

POTUS the Sneak

Richard Butrick

Dismissed or rejected by Congress?  No problem.  Just effect the consequences of the would-be bill by memo to regulatory or enforcement agencies.  Cap-and-trade legislation, gun regulation, net neutrality legislation -- all dismissed or rejected by Congress. Undaunted, the Obama has used the EPA to try to effect carbon control, AFT to try to implement gun controls and FCC to try toeffect net neutrality.

Now it is the DreamAct, twice rejected by Congress.  Just this last Friday the Obama administration issued a mandate to ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) to use "prosecutorial discretion" with regard to enforcing immigration laws.  According to Director Morton this means, "federal immigration officials do not have to deport illegal aliens if they are enrolled in any type of education program, if their family members have volunteered for U.S. military service, or even if they are pregnant or nursing."

Charles Krauthammer had sharp words for the Obama congressional end-run:

This is outright lawlessness on the part of the administration. Whatever the politics of this, we do have a constitution. And under it, the legislature, the Congress enacts the laws and the executive executes them. It doesn't make them up.

The DREAM Act was rejected by Congress. It is now being enacted by theexecutive, despite the express will of the Congress. That is lawless. It may not be an explicit executive order, it's an implicit one. It's exactly as Obama is doing with the EPA. Cap and trade is rejected so it's gonna regulate the carbon emissions again through executive action.

And in this case it's even worse in the case of immigration because it's arbitrary. If you leave it at the discretion of a prosecutor, instead of having the rule of law where it applies to everybody, you can have a prosecutor here and there who will decide well this guy will get in and this guy will not entirely arbitrarily. It's corrupting and it's lawless. That is not the way you run a democracy.

WISC GOVERNOR SIGNS BALANCED BUDGET ON TIME WITHOUT RAISING TAXES

Republican Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker signed his first budget Sunday, a two-year $66 billion deal that will balance the state’s $3 billion shortfall without raising taxes. Balancing the budget without raising taxes fulfills a campaign pledge, and Gov. Walker was able to accomplish this prior to the new fiscal year starting July 1. The budget passed without the support of a single Democrat in the Legislature.

“He released just 50 vetoes early Sunday morning, signaling the Republican-controlled Legislature had given him almost everything he wanted when lawmakers revised the document. Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle issued 81 vetoes with the 2009-11 budget, his last before leaving office.

‘As a state, we can choose to take the easy road and push off the tough decisions and pass the buck to future generations, or we can step up to the plate and make the tough decisions today,’ Walker said in prepared remarks. ‘Our budget chooses to fix our problems now, so that our children and our grandchildren don’t face the same challenges we face today.’”

To find the state out of the fiscal quagmire which he inherited, Gov. Walker had to make major cuts including shaving $1.85 billion from education and $500 million in unspecified Medicaid programs. The budget expands Milwaukee’s school voucher program to suburban schools in Milwaukee County and the city of Racine.

Gov. Walker signed the budget before a crowd of about 100 people in Green Bay, with a few hundred protesters gathered outside chanting “Shame!“ and ”Recall Walker!” reports theMilwaukee Journal Sentinel. Democrats have criticized the budget as an attack on middle class values since it cuts funding for public schools and tax credits for poor people.

Wisconsin is scheduled to have recall elections in August that could result in Democrats gaining a majority in the Senate and with it power to block Walker and the GOP’s agenda in the future.