RUTHFULLY YOURS

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324374004578221930183249940.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop

Is Hugo Chávez dead or alive? And if he is dead, won’t that make it difficult for him to take the oath of office on Thursday—when he is supposed to be sworn in as the Venezuela’s president for another six-year term?Inquiring Venezuelans want to know. It has been four weeks since Mr. Chávez left the country for cancer surgery in Havana, and he has yet to make a postoperative public appearance. The details of his illness and his prognosis have remained a state secret since June 2011, when he announced that he had cancer.

The government only will say now that he is suffering a severe respiratory infection that makes it difficult for him to breath. But as time goes by the speculation that he is not going to recover is increasing.

Even Cuba, which holds considerable sway over the Venezuelan military and the country’s intelligence apparatus, would have trouble pulling off a “Weekend at Bernie’s” inauguration. Which explains why the president of the Venezuelan national assembly, Diosdado Cabello, announced on Saturday that Mr. Chávez will remain the president after Thursday whether he shows up for the inauguration or not.

This is a violation of the constitution, which says he must take the oath on Jan. 10 before the National Assembly or the Supreme Court. But it is hardly a surprise. Dragging Mr. Chávez across the finish line is a high priority and the government began to lay the groundwork for this Plan B last week when the realization hit that he won’t make it under his own power.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324374004578217592090921844.html?mod=opinion_newsreel

MAX BOOT MISSES THE REAL FOUL LEGACY OF GENERAL STANLEY McCHRYSTAL….THE RULES OF ENGAGEMENT AND THE EXQUISITE AND FAWNING SENSITIVITY TO OUR ENEMIES AND THEIR DEATH CULT AT THE EXPENSE OF THE SAFETY OF AMERICAN SOLDIERS…RSK DIANA WEST HAS BEEN WRITING ABOUT THIS BEST: READ: http://www.dianawest.net/Home/tabid/36/EntryId/1444/Fire-McChrystal-Updated.aspx

“There are many, many reasons to fire Gen. McChrystal, as I first began noting back in September 2009, and they all begin with the criminally irresponsible rules of engagement (ROEs) that are predicated on a politically correct, see-no-Islam, hothouse-academic, socially-engineering vision of the world as it isn’t that has cost all too many of our men’s lives, limbs, and well- being, not to mention countless billions of dollars, and lost power and prestige that once safeguarded us against our enemies.Firing McChrystal without also “firing” the disastrous counterinsurgency (COIN) strategy as codified by the equally culpable Gen. Petraeus does nothing to help the country out of this unrelieved nightmare of pointlessly wasteful, harmful-to-our-interests, seemingly endless war. In other words, it just doesn’t matter if McChrystal’s fired for “insubordination,” or not. So long as COIN rules, someone just as bad will step in to fill his place. ”
The Model Modern General
Throughout his career, Stanley McChrytal was unshakably dedicated to his soldiers, to his wife, and, above all, to the Army and nation.

Modern generals’ memoirs are mostly ghostwritten these days and follow a familiar template: open with a battle scene to hook the reader, then flash back to the author’s youth, before bringing the story up to the present day, focusing most of the attention on the last and highest-profile assignment. “My Share of the Task” by Stanley McChrystal follows this general outline, but it is considerably more thoughtful and better crafted than most.

The difference is noticeable from the very first chapter, “Ghosts of Christmas Past,” where Gen. McChrystal describes a Christmas-time trip he made on a Black Hawk helicopter around Afghanistan in 2009 to spread holiday cheer to units under his command. In a few well-chosen phrases—perhaps provided by Sam Ayres, “a young Yale graduate” whom he credits for making the story “come alive”—he deftly evokes his life. “Soothed by the rhythmic vibrations of the rotors,” he writes, “my mind wandered to the more than half-century of Christmases I’d experienced.” It is an effective literary device, and Gen. McChrystal is able to make clear immediately his dedication to his brother soldiers, to his wife, Annie, and, above all, to the Army and the nation.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323874204578221932173414130.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop

Al Gore’s due diligence must have missed the on-air party, with cake, for a deadly terrorist.

Al Gore and his co-investors just sold liberal cable channel Current TV to Al Jazeera, the network bankrolled by the emir of Qatar. How much in carbon offsets does Mr. Gore need to balance his estimated $100 million from the sale to an oil sheik?

But there’s a more serious issue here than hypocrisy. Current’s owners could have simply said they sold to the highest bidder, with the emir paying an estimated $500 million for a network with viewership of only 22,000. Instead they glorified Al Jazeera.

Writing for himself and Mr. Gore, co-founder Joel Hyatt, a lawyer and Democratic fundraiser, explained: “When considering the several suitors who were interested in acquiring Current, it became clear to us that Al Jazeera was founded with the same goals we had.” Among them: “to give voice to those whose voices are not typically heard; to speak truth to power; to provide independent and diverse points of view; and to tell the important stories that no one else is telling.”

Mr. Hyatt also asserted that “Al and I did significant due diligence.” He wrote that he spent a week at Al Jazeera’s headquarters in Qatar and was impressed by the “journalistic integrity” he saw there.

http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=7&x_issue=37&x_article=2370

Every January, people around the world take stock of themselves and resolve to improve in the new year, vowing to break bad habits and form good ones. In 2013, CAMERA would like news media to do the same and we suggest the following 13 for ’13…

New Year’s Resolutions We’d Like the Media to Make:

1. Stop misreporting on Gaza.
Gaza is not occupied, not a “prison camp” and the people are allowed to fish. The Palestinians in Gaza rank above average in the Arab world by all indicators: health care, immunizations, education, nutrition, longevity, and low childhood mortality. Israel withdrew every last soldier, civilian and interred body from Gaza in 2005, the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza is legal and Israel does not control all of Gaza’s borders – Gaza has a border with Egypt which Egypt controls. Hamas rules the Gaza Strip and responsibility for any suffering on the part of its residents lies primarily with the terrorist organization.

2. Stop calling Mahmoud Abbas a “moderate”.
Since succeeding Yasser Arafat as Palestinian Authority president and leader of Fatah, Abbas almost invariably has been described as a “moderate.” This, despite the fact that Abbas, Arafat and a few colleagues founded Fatah in 1959 to “liberate” Israel, not the West Bank (then occupied by Jordan) or the Gaza Strip (then held by Egypt); that Abbas continues to incite his people against Israel; that he refuses to even negotiate with Israel; and that Abbas published his doctoral thesis as a book, “The Other Side: The Secret Relationship between Nazism and the Zionist Movement,” which denied the severity of the Holocaust and claimed “a secret relationship between Nazism and the Zionist movement.” His PA TV and other media outlets continue to praise terrorist killers as “heroes” and describe Israeli cities as part of “Palestine.” What is moderate about this?

3. Call terrorists “terrorists,” not “militants”.
Terrorism, defined by the U.S. Law Code, Title 22, Chapter 38, Paragraph 2656 f(d) and used in the State Department’s annual reports to Congress is “… premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against non-combatant targets by sub-national groups or clandestine agents….” The Department of Defense definition recognizes that terrorism is a crime: “The calculated use of unlawful violence or threat of unlawful violence to inculcate fear, intended to coerce or intimidate governments or societies in the pursuit of goals that are generally political, religious or ideological.” “Militant,” on the other hand, is undefined by American law and its consensus usage journalistically – militant unionist, militant environmentalist, militant vegetarian – is as an adjective. It suggests vehemence and persistence but not illegal violence. Farmers farm, lawyers practice law, and terrorists commit terrorism – they don’t advocate causes.

4. Report accurately on the security barrier.
The security fence is a nonviolent way to reduce terrorism and it has been extremely effective in saving lives – both Jewish and non-Jewish. It was constructed in response to the second “intifada” and has significantly reduced terror attacks originating from the West Bank. It does not “completely surround Bethlehem”, it is not “a wall” nor an “iron curtain.” Furthermore, there are security and separation barriers all over the world that get no criticism – or coverage – whatsoever.

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2013/01/stark_evidence_of_us_british_naval_decline.html

Is it actually possible that, as you read this, the United States Navy has only one supercarrier battle group at sea? Read on – and be amazed.

Look no farther than these two news items, both from today’s Sunday Times of London, to see the effect of two decades of shrinkage in the size of the United States Navy and the retreat of the Royal Navy from the high seas:

For the first time in two centuries, British businessmen and others have formed a private navy to protect shipping off the pirate-ridden coast of Somali on the Horn of Africa. A millionaire businessman has formed a company called Typhoon to furnish escort and protection, including troops, along the shipping lanes which world navies have proved inadequate to police. The first convoy of ships is projected for March or April.

The re-emergence of what used to called “privateers” (Sir Francis Drake is the most famous example from history) is the latest sign of outsourcing or abandonment of traditional military functions by Western nations whose militaries have contracted to pinpoint-size in the wake of the growth of the modern welfare state. Private security and private armies — again, once known to history as “mercenaries,” are another aspect of this trend.

Meanwhile, news came that the Russian Navy has deployed ships, marines, combat vehicles and equipment just off the coast of Syria. Five landing ships are accompanied by military vessels.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/01/what_to_do_about_a_coup.html

How does a secretary of state decide whether and when to put the United States on record regarding what appears to be a coup — the decision of a sitting ruler to remain in place in contravention of the terms of the country’s constitution?

The Venezuelan Constitution is clear.

The oath of office has to be administered on 10 January before the National Assembly. If the president-elect “cannot be sworn in before the National Assembly [suggesting that the Assembly cannot meet, not that the President doesn’t show up], he shall take the oath of office before the Supreme Tribunal of Justice.” Article 231
If the president is temporarily unavailable, the executive vice president can serve as president for up to 90 days, extendable by the National Assembly for another 90. “If the temporarily unavailability continues for more than 90 consecutive days, the National Assembly shall have the power to decide … whether the unavailability to serve should be considered permanent.” Article 234
“Permanent physical or mental disability [must be] certified by a medical board designated by the Supreme Tribunal of Justice with the approval of the National Assembly[.]” Article 233
“When an elected President becomes permanently unavailable to serve prior to his inauguration, a new election … shall be held within 30 consecutive days,” during which time the president of the National Assembly will serve as president. Article 233

Nevertheless, Venezuelan Vice President Nicolas Maduro simply announced this past weekend that ailing and absent President Hugo Chávez can start his new term without being sworn in at all.

http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/

“They hurry like savages to get aboard an iron train/And though it’s smoky and crowded they’re too civilized to complain.”

“Bongo, Bongo, Bongo”, Danny Kaye

The difference between the civilized man and the savage is that the civilized man follows the rules and the savage does not. A civilized man is quite capable of killing one, a hundred or even a million, so long as he is first outfitted with a uniform and a set of regulations telling him when and where to kill. A savage kills as he lives, without the need for rules and regulations. The civilized man is bound by interdependent social compacts that control his survival. The savage does not depend on a social compact for his survival. He depends on himself. Even when his survival derives from the same system as that of the civilized man, he feels no sense of obligation toward that system. He exploits it, the way that he would exploit a honeycomb in the forest or kill the last mammoth without worrying what will happen when it is gone.

The modern civilized man with his giant and tiny screens full of information that tell him not only who won and who lost, and make him laugh and cry, but also update him on the latest social mores so that he can maintain his civilized status by staying in step with the march of progress, has learned to live by the rules. More than that he has learned to believe in the rules. The rules feed him and move him up the ladder where he will be able to buy more giant and tiny screens to stay in step with civilization.

The savage advances much more slowly up the ladder, even when he lives next door to the civilized man, but this is of little concern to him. The civilized man is concerned with advancement while the savage is concerned with sensation. The civilized man wants to better himself. The savage only wants to be himself. For the civilized man there is only the past and the future, but no present, but for the savage there is hardly any past and no future… only the eternal carpe diem moment of the present.

The civilized man builds trains, roads, telegraph poles, skyscrapers, fiber optic lines, satellites and organizations to link together and control his civilization. Faster communications and transportation make it possible to link together larger areas, economically and politically. Civilization expands and grows denser at its centers and increasing amounts of resources are diverted from the tasks of progress to the chores of administering impossibly large territories.

http://freebeacon.com/ted-cruz-opposes-hagel-nomination/ Ted Cruz Opposes Hagel Nomination Cruz says Hagel Nomination Makes War with Iran ‘More Likely’Newly installed Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) said the potential nomination of former Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel would make war with Iran “more likely.”   Hagel, who is expected to be nominated by President Barack Obama Monday as the nation’s […]

Obama’s Dark Designs on America — on The Finch Gang
by Frontpagemag.com
What the President has in store for the country he hates — and leads — in his second term.
http://frontpagemag.com/2013/frontpagemag-com/the-shattered-republican-spine-on-the-glazov-gang/

RE: http://www.justice.gov/usao/nys/pressreleases/December12/AsylumFraudChargesPR.php
Hi Gang:

Nearly every discussion about immigration these days involve the failures to secure the southern border of the United States and the need to make the E-Verify program mandatory. Most recently the discussions about immigration are most likely to focus on the administration’s ongoing assault on the effective enforcement of the immigration laws from within the interior of the United States and the need to provide “pathways to citizenship” for unknown millions- likely tens of millions of illegal aliens, even though there is no way of knowing who most of these foreign nationals are nor is their any easy way of determining the veracity of any claims that aliens who evaded the inspections process will make in their applications for amnesty. This is also a key problem where the ongoing massive deferred action program that the administration has implemented for illegal alien “DREAMERS.”

Time and again I have provided testimony before various Congressional hearings about the utter lack of integrity to the various immigration benefit programs that provide aliens with lawful status and even United States citizenship. This was also a major factor in the testimony I provided to the 9/11 Commission.

Today I was surfing the internet to see what is going on in the wacky world of immigration and came upon a new release that was issued by the Office of the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York on December 18, 2012- just a couple of weeks ago. There have been no reports of this story on news programs that would rather run stories about muggings or examples of celebrities running amok!

Here is the title of the news release:
“Twenty-Six Individuals, Including Six Lawyers, Charged In Manhattan Federal Court With Participating In Immigration Fraud Schemes Involving Hundreds Of Fraudulent Asylum Applications”
Here is the sub-title that appeared in this extensive news release:
“Applications Containing Fabricated Claims of Persecution Were Allegedly Submitted By at Least 10 New York City Law Firms”
Do you think if the law firms were involved in tax evasion or some other area of criminality that the story would not have made headlines? Where immigration is concerned the narrative is more important than the truth! As a result- this major story will likely not be discussed on television or radio programs or written about in newspapers! Since you are not likely to see this press release anywhere else, I have attached it, in its entirety, below.

Before we delve into the particulars of this story I want you to know a bit about my own background so that you will, hopefully, better appreciate my perspectives.