http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/print/286355
Gingrich and the CourtsTime to rein in the imperial judiciary.
In 2005, Congress barred our terrorist enemies from appealing their wartime detention to the civilian courts. The Detainee Treatment Act (DTA) was an eminently reasonable statute. The handling of captives in wartime had always been exclusively an executive-branch prerogative — war being a political and military exercise, not a litigation. The framers committed all aspects of warfare to the political branches, accountable to the people whose lives are at stake, not to the politically insulated judiciary.
Congress acted comfortably within its powers: The Constitution makes it master of the federal courts’ jurisdiction. Indeed, other than the Supreme Court, all federal courts are creatures of statute — the Constitution does not require their existence. Yet, in a nod to the ambiguities of terrorist warfare, in which jihadists do not operate openly as honorable soldiers, the DTA even provided a narrow avenue of judicial review. That made our enemies the first anti-American belligerents in history to be given systematic access to American people’s courts in wartime — something the World War II–era Congress would not have tolerated, and that the Supreme Court of that time actually warned against.
http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/ The Light That Burns A candle is a brief flare of light. A wick dipped in oil burns and then goes out again. The light of Chanukah appears to follow the same narrative. Briefly there is light and warmth and then darkness again. 120 years after the Maccabees drove out the foreign invaders and […]
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=48229 Former President George W. Bush’s aide Michael Gerson posted a distressingly ignorant column on 12/13/11 which attacked both former speaker and Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, and my colleague Andrew C. McCarthy, for their sober, if frank conceptions of the Sharia. The counterfactual basis for Mr. Gerson’s diatribe is his own thoroughly deficient understanding […]
http://times247.com/ Obama slashes Guard: Spartan 300 to defend 2,000-mile border AP Tuesday, December 20, 2011 News Starting in January, the force of 1,200 National Guard troops at the border will be reduced to fewer than 300 at a cost of about $60 million, said Paul Stockton, assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense. Read more… Read […]
http://www.americanthinker.com/printpage/?url=http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/../2011/12/the_epas_unconscionable_war_on_fracking.html
The Fifth Amendment of the Constitution guarantees that “no person shall be … deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.” For government to harm investors in a private business by bringing false charges against that business is most certainly a violation of the Fifth Amendment. The Environmental Protection Agency, it seems, has been engaged in just this sort of unconstitutional activity ever since Obama appointed Lisa Jackson as director.
The main target of this overzealous prosecution has been companies that produce fossil fuels. Whether it be mountaintop mining, offshore or Arctic drilling, or hydraulic fracturing, the Obama EPA has moved swiftly to block new exploration and production. The bias against fossil fuels that exists at the agency would be bad enough, but the fact that the EPA may have employed illegal and unconstitutional tactics in support of its green agenda is far worse.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/dec/20/high-stakes-in-the-taiwanese-elections/
BY A BIZARRE TWIST OF POLITICAL HYPOCRISY…TAIWAN…A FLOURISHING DEMOCRACY IS DENIED MEMBERSHIP IN THE UNITED NATIONS TO ACCOMMODATE THE THUGS IN BEIJING…..ANOTHER LEGACY OF THE FOUL POLITICS THAT STARTED WITH NIXON/KISSINGER BETRAYAL OF TAIWAN IMPLEMENTED BY CARTER WHEN HE REMOVED THE AMERICAN EMBASSY FROM TAIPEI AND TRANSFERRED IT TO PEKING, DUCKING ALL PRINCIPLES AND RESPONSIBILITY TO ALLIES…..RSK
On Jan. 14, Taiwanese voters will elect the country’s next president and parliament. Officials in both Beijing and Washington are closely watching the election campaign, for the outcome could affect both Taiwan-China and U.S.-China relations.
President Ma Ying-jeou, the incumbent from a mainland emigre family and Beijing’s preferred candidate, came to power in a landslide victory in 2008 on a platform of rapprochement with China and reviving Taiwan’s struggling economy. However, most Taiwanese opinion polls show him running behind Tsai Ing-wen, a native of Taiwan and candidate of the island’s major opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which leans toward a more independent Taiwan and rejects unification with China.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/dec/20/bidens-taliban-buddies/
Vice President Joe Biden said the Taliban are not our enemy. If so, it makes one wonder what all the killing is about.
“Look, the Taliban per se is not our enemy,” Mr. Biden stated in an interview last week. “That’s critical.” White House spokesman Jay Carney, in his customary role as clarifier of Mr. Biden’s statements, explained, “It is a simple fact that we went into Afghanistan because of the attack on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001. We are there now to ultimately defeat al Qaeda, to stabilize Afghanistan and stabilize it in part so that al Qaeda or other terrorists who have as their aim attacks on the United States cannot establish a foothold again in that country.”
This rhetorical dance is true so far as it goes, but the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force defines the enemy as “those nations, organizations or persons [the president] determines planned, authorized, committed or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on Sept. 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations.” The Taliban were given an opportunity to hand over the perpetrators of the Sept. 11 attacks but refused. That’s the simple fact of why America overthrew the regime, and that’s the root of the current spat with Taliban leader Mullah Omar.
http://www.steynonline.com/4698/false-fronts-at-home-and-abroad
A headline from the Daily Telegraph of London:
IMF Drawing Up £500bn Package to Save Italy, Spain and the Euro.
Insofar as most of us give any thought to the International Monetary Fund, we vaguely assume it’s there to help developing nations. But it’s now bailing out First World advanced economies. Indeed, Italy is a member of the G7, which is supposed to be the super elite of the developed world. But it’s angling for a 600 billion–euro rescue package.
So it’s a good thing we’ve got this IMF thingy to hand when we need someone flush enough to prop up soi-disant European economic powerhouses. But where exactly does the IMF get its money from? Ah, well. America provides 17.7 percent of the IMF’s funding, which is more than the next three biggest contributors (Japan, Germany, and the United Kingdom) combined. So, in a 600 billion–euro bailout for Italy, 106.2 billion euros — or about $143 billion — will come from the United States. Which is to say, you.
http://bigpeace.com/
THE MISSION WAS TO OUST A MONSTER….BUT THEN IT DEVOLVED INTO NATION BUILDING AND WINNING THE “HEARTS AND MINDS” OF LOCALS INCLUDING THE TALIBAN AND ASSORTED TERRORISTS AND THAT’S WHERE IT WENT BAD….RSK
The persistent rewriting of our entry into and exit from Iraq, let alone the merits of the mission, is a cruel pill to swallow for those who fought there.
Just what did eight years of fighting in Iraq really accomplish? For the veteran, the answer clearly rises above the din of public fuss, political filtering and predictions of future.
On the question of Iraq, I am struck by America’s amnesia. There’s a prevalent theory that, like Mussolini, at least Hussein made the trains run on time and we had no business being there.
How soon we choose to forget. Since Saddam’s coming to power in 1979, Iraq attacked every neighboring country save Syria (which fought among the allies against Iraq in the Gulf War). Ponder Saddam’s 1980-88 war with Iran, his brutal conquering of Kuwait in 1990, his subsequent attacks on Saudi Arabia and Israel, his defeat in the Gulf War of 1990-91, his wholesale murder of Iraqi Shias in 1991-92, his decade-long defiance of every international mandate, and finally, his pushing the envelope to the point that most of the world had quite enough of him by 2003.
http://www.thecommentator.com/article/747/the_new_commandments
As Britain moves from the sacred to the secular a Government working group commissioned in 1999 has finally put forward its recommendations.
1. Thou shalt not eat crisps, nor sugar, nor chocolate, nor meat of artificial construct, and neither shall thee imbibe of carbonated drinks, lest it be Perrier, nor shalt thou let thy offspring consume such evil lest it affect their schooling; which the leaders are unable to improve with other measures.
2. Thou shalt measure everything and everything shalt thou measure. Every action, every deed, every thought shalst thou measure, and place against targets of academic construct so that the leaders of men can converse with truth, unless the measurements be not what the leaders wish to hear and thus can be mediated to form a better truth.
3. Thou shalt not smoke. Ever. Anywhere. Hear this well. Death is to be feared more than life is to be enjoyed. And that goes for any other pleasure which displeases the leaders of men, yea, and their quack focus groups. Particularly wine. Wine is very bad.
4. Thou shalt not hunt lest it be a cruelty to the hunted: thou dost not see the eagle, nor the wolf, nor the shark in the sea wearing pink and riding a horse, and so must it be with you. And that goes for any other pleasure which displeases the leaders of men, yea, and their focus groups.
5. Thou shalt recycle, even if it takest several hours to work out what goes where. All the earth and its living things canst be saved by thou living in darkness and cold and squalor.
6. Thou shalt surrender up half of your wealth, half of your possessions and half of your worldly goods, so that those leaders who create the statutes may prosper, and prosper well.
7. Thou shall not be elitist. Elitism is wrong. The child of great mind shall be schooled with the child of poor mind, and no school shall have a congregation of great minds nor success nor potential, unless it be of a sporting or artistic nature; in which case that sort of elitism is really quite OK but not the other sort. The other sort is elitist.
8. Thou shalt not glorify the massacre of the innocents within the last two score years unless the massacres were caused by people we now do business with. Thou cannot know which massacres were the good massacres and which were the bad massacres but the leaders will amend the chronicles accordingly.
9. Thou canst not be assumed to have the power of the mind to make decisions nor direct thy own way nor shield thyself nor thy family from the dangers of the world without a detailed risk assessment. Thy mind is simple and sparse. Listen to thy leaders, their wisdom is great and their desires are thy commands and thou must obey.
10. Thou canst covet thy neighbour’s ass and his goods and possessions; coveting is good. Coveting ensures a retail sector of much strength based on usury, which is also good.
Adrian Moss is a screenwriter and a chapter-contributor to “Prime Minister Boris and Other Things Which Never Happened…” He Tweets at @akmoss
