Last 2 weeks of News

I have been MIA the last two weeks, to much work and to do at home in the nice Spring weather to spend time on the computer.

1) California Supreme court rules Prop 8 is a “legal” amendment but stating the only the term marriage is what was made illegal for same sex couples in California. This is a ruling I actual agree with. Marriage is a religious term and should be taken totally out of the Governments hands. The government should create a mutual support contract to be filed with a government agency to give the “marriage rights” to any two people who want to enter such a relationship. Also a dissolution of the mutual support contract form and process would be needed. No need for lawyers or courts. Just a notarized form.
A good legal analysis can be found here.

2) Supreme Court nominee, Sonia Sotomayor, A normal far left wing hack job who thinks that they no better than anyone else what is “good” and “just” for all without any regard for the actual law.

3) Government Motors is now bankrupt. Big shock here, a poorly managed company for the last 30 years that has a huge union presence so short and long term costs can’t be controlled. To bad it will result in a motor company which is fascist in nature, supposedly privately owned by run by the government.

4) Obama stumping for his health care plans passage this summer before the bill is even written. The plan is here but there are no specifics. Normal politics, talk, give speech, no substance and rush through a plan in the darkness of night that nobody can read or comprehend since a true debate of the bill will result in it being something a vast majority of US citizen’s do not want.

5) North Korea leaves the peace Armistice, blows up a nuclear weapon and tests some long range missiles, the US response, maybe we can get a harsher worded letter to be considered at the UN but no passed. While this is going on make statements that this is not tolerable and North Korea is a rogue state, yada yada yada, nothing changed in 20 years on this front.

Searching for a silver lining but do not see anywhere that people are being told to be responsible for themselves and live with the consequences of poor decision making. Another couple of weeks on the road to fascism.

Obama – 1st 50 days – foreign policy

I have been pretty silent for the last week or so due to to much going on at work and home to have time to blog.

Since today is 50 days since Inauguration and everyone is talking domestic policy when the president has the most impact on foreign policy since Congress has limited involvement. I have been reviewing the news about US foreign policy to see what has changed since inauguration day.

Russia rejects US missile defense despite the article saying that a 18 year old treaty will be reworked, if the US drops the plan put missile defense in eastern Europe that is a Russia diplomatic win and a US/NATO loss.

The new administration talks down our relationship with England. Obama, Brown: Isn’t that special The greatest friend that America has in the world, tell them they are not that important.
From townhall.com

The results of the Canada visit were not as publicly catastrophic as some pre-meeting announced stated they could be. I guess it is a plus if the expectation were low and the results were that it was better. Obama’s Canada Visit Spotlights NAFTA

Ahmadinejad: Iran welcomes Obama overtures. The Iranian president is happy that the Obama administration wants to talk and will result in delays of any action against Iran for violating international treaties.

North Korea – U.S. Wants ‘Dialogue’ With North Korea, Urges End to Rhetoric . Letting Kim Jong Il become relevant again with the talks about long range missile testing.

Afghanistan – put in 17,000 troops when 30,000 are requested. Nothing like second guessing the generals on the ground and negotiating with the Enemy.
Obama says US is losing war in Afghanistan and hints at Taleban talks

Iraq – Follow the Bush administration plan on Iraq Withdraw.

My summary:
Make long time friends upset, kowtow to rivals and let low level dictators runs roughshod over American and world security interests.

I hope that the current administration can make all these long shot hopes come true lust like a lot like the domestic policies of high risk, high return and hope everything goes fine.

A scary time we live in.

Muslim Husband beheads wife, Buffalo, NY.

A truly barbaric act.

Prominent Orchard Park man charged with beheading his wife

Orchard Park police are investigating a particularly gruesome killing, the beheading of a woman, after her husband — an influential member of the local Muslim community — reported her death to police Thursday.
Police identified the victim as Aasiya Z. Hassan, 37. Detectives have charged her husband, Muzzammil Hassan, 44, with second-degree murder.
“He came to the police station at 6:20 p.m. [Thursday] and told us that she was dead,” Orchard Park Police Chief Andrew Benz said late this morning.
Muzzammil Hassan told police that his wife was at his business, Bridges TV, on Thorn Avenue in the village. Officers went to that location and discovered her body.
Muzzammil Hassan is the founder and chief executive officer of Bridges TV, which he launched in 2004, amid hopes that it would help portray Muslims in a more positive light.
The killing apparently occurred some time late Thursday afternoon. Detectives still are looking for the murder weapon.
“Obviously, this is the worst form of domestic violence possible,” Erie County District Attorney Frank A. Sedita III said today.
Authorities say Aasiya Hassan recently had filed for divorce from her husband.
“She had an order of protection that had him out of the home as of Friday the 6th [of February],” Benz said.
Muzzammil Hassan was arraigned before Village Justice Deborah Chimes and sent to the Erie County Holding Center.

I wonder how close the national media will follow this story
To bad NY no longer has the death penalty for pre-mediated murder.
I wonder if there will a Shari law given as a defense during the trial since the wife had filed for divorce and had a restraining order?

Thoughts on 1st Obama Press Conference

I did not want to write what I was thinking during the press conference because I wanted to think about the questions and answers taken in their entirety instead of one piece at a time. I also did not watch any of the pundits analysis of the press conference.

My impression of the Obama answers to the questions:

1) I will negotiate with Iran who has leaders that publicly espouses that America needs to be destroyed because it is the great Satan.

2) I will not negotiate with Republicans who believe that government is not the total solution to America’s issues and that private business is at fault for all that is wrong with America.

3) I will talk about partisanship and blame the republicans for not agreeing with me and praising me since I agreed to listen to their ideas. I will not mention that the democratic leadership of the congress totally ignores the republican ideas for which I am bragging about listening.

4) If I do not get what I want America will be a catastrophe and anyone who disagrees is ignorant.

5) I will not look into the camera as I answer the questions giving the impression that I am above the common man since I do not need to look them in the eye. I also will tilt my head to one side while responding to questions which is a body language sign for begin uncomfortable and lying.

6) Republicans and the Bush administration are totally at fault for everything that is wrong in America and I am the savior who will right their wrongs.

7) Even though 0% down and interest only mortgages caused this crisis in the short term more of this needs to be done and in the future sometime we will fix the problems caused by the short term fixes.

8 ) Even though Social Security (entitlements) will be paying out more than is collected on a monthly basis is 6 to 7 years I am going to ignore that since I think any crisis is 10 to 20 years away.

9) Elimination of the current health care industry is a necessity and being rebuilt as I see fit it required for America to go forward.

I tried very hard to find something positive from the press conference. I wish I could have found something positive but the body language, repeating of campaign talking points and failure to look at the camera (the American people) while talking leads me to believe that Obama is hiding his true beliefs or he is lying.

Why stop the prosecution of terrorist leader for US Cole attack?

I would like to here more publicly about the reasoning behind the failure to continue the prosecution for Saudi national Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri.

Why isn’t the left all up in arms about having this person imprisoned by Obama with no charges pending.

BEGGING FOR TERROR

……….
Nashiri remains in custody, but for how long is anybody’s guess.
Even Obama was at a loss yesterday as to what happens next. Meeting at the White House with the families of 9/11 and Cole bombing victims, Obama called Nashiri an “evil man” who “will be charged.”
For sure?
Obama has ordered a review of all Gitmo cases, to be finished within six months. Then something legalistic will happen – for better or for worse.
Unhappily, the president buys into the misguided notion that terrorists present a law-enforcement challenge.
They don’t.
By definition, terrorists operate outside the protections of the Geneva Conventions and international law. Those not shot down on the spot need to be dumped in distant holding pens and left to molder until even their own mothers have forgotten them.
To be sure, the Bush administration allowed itself to be hectored into treating terrorists essentially as criminals – hence the trial Obama interrupted.
But as wrongheaded as the Bush policy might have been, dropping charges against Nashiri is even worse.
For one thing, it paints a target on every warship in the US Navy – putting at risk every one of 56,253 sailors and 6,600 Marines now deployed aboard ship overseas.
And that’s just for starters.
Terrorists are emboldened by indecision and irresolution – precisely the qualities animating the decision to stand down the Nashiri case and to embrace the Gitmo hand-wringers.
Close the detention camp?
Yes, Obama has ordered just that.
But, as a wise New York City sanitation commissioner once upon a time said, “You can’t pick up the garbage if you’ve got no place to put it down.”
The terrorists know weakness when they see it. Count on it.

As I said on Inauguration day a few weeks, ago, keep Americans safe, it is now your job, anything less is a failed administration no matter what else happens.

President Obama, please keep us safe

Your number one requirement as part of the federal government is to keep the American citizens safe. That is one of the few enumerated powers given the federal government by the states and the people of the US as part of the constitution.

Freed by U.S., Saudi Becomes a Qaeda Chief

The emergence of a former Guantánamo Bay detainee as the deputy leader of Al Qaeda’s Yemeni branch has underscored the potential complications in carrying out the executive order President Obama signed Thursday that the detention center be shut down within a year.
The militant, Said Ali al-Shihri, is suspected of involvement in a deadly bombing of the United States Embassy in Yemen’s capital, Sana, in September. He was released to Saudi Arabia in 2007 and passed through a Saudi rehabilitation program for former jihadists before resurfacing with Al Qaeda in Yemen.

His status was announced in an Internet statement by the militant group and was confirmed by an American counterterrorism official.

“They’re one and the same guy,” said the official, who insisted on anonymity because he was discussing an intelligence analysis. “He returned to Saudi Arabia in 2007, but his movements to Yemen remain unclear.”

Welcome to the job President Obama.

Nice speech so I have read, doing my job so I could not listen.

The time for speech giving is over, you are now responsible as of 12 noon EST today. There is no on the job training allowed. You and your staff need to keep Americans safe, do not let us down.

An interesting read.

Al Qaeda and Biological weapons

An al Qaeda affiliate in Algeria closed a base earlier this month after an experiment with unconventional weapons went awry, a senior U.S. intelligence official said Monday.
………………
He said authorities in the first week of January intercepted an urgent communication between the leadership of al Qaeda in the Land of the Maghreb (AQIM) and al Qaeda’s leadership in the tribal region of Pakistan on the border with Afghanistan. The communication suggested that an area sealed to prevent leakage of a biological or chemical substance had been breached, according to the official.

“We don’t know if this is biological or chemical,” the official said.
……….

Where to go about the Truth about America Politics – UK

An interesting read, I hope this is change Americans can survive.

Obama camp ‘prepared to talk to Hamas’

Of course, Hamas want peace.
Hamas rejects UN call for Gaza ceasefire

Obama Administration and Homeland Security

The release of the Homeland security estimate for the next 5 years occurred recently.

One Team, One Mission, Securing Our Homeland

Based on some articles about this document, the outlook is potentially pretty dim for a secure America.
Homeland Security forecasts 5-year terror threats

Intel report: Hizbullah may strike in US

The incoming administration has a high bar to reach, no attacks on the mainland US since 9-11-01. 7+ years. I hope Obama and his team take this report and the threats against America seriously.

Based on this report out of the UK that the Bush administration is spending lots of time showing the Obama team the ropes.

Obama team will get crisis training to prepare for terrorist attacks

Ken Wainstein, President Bush’s adviser on homeland security, told reporters the “tabletop exercises” for incoming cabinet officials were part of an initiative by Bush to ensure the US does not drop its guard during the first post-9/11 transition of power.

Preparing for Obama’s takeover on 20 January has become an overriding preoccupation of both camps. Bush has pledged repeatedly to ensure a smooth handover. “We care about [Obama],” he told CNN this week. “We want him to be successful, and we want the transition to work.” The Obama camp has praised the Bush administration for its co-operation.

White House officials yesterday cast those efforts as part of Bush’s mission to leave America safer than it was at the time of the 9/11 attacks.

I think the historians will finally admit Bush did bring try to reach across the isle continually which cost him lots of support from his base.

The one bright sport of the Bush administration is that they have given the impression that protecting the homeland is their number one job. I just wish they would have been stronger on the boarder enforcement.

The Criminal who the Media calls a hero

Newsweek has asked the question.
The Fed Who Blew the Whistle Is he a hero or a criminal?

This man is the one who decided on his own that the wire taping of the Bush administration was illegal so he decided he is above the law and now is complaining he is being investigated.

He should be being prosecuted and put in jail for releasing confidential information not even being considered being looked at as a potential hero.

If there was a debate in the justice department about a above top secret projects legality it should have been discussed and debated internally. If the bosses say drop it, an employee then has two choices, drop it and keep working or quit and never mention why. The 3rd illegal option of going to the press should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and if found guilty the person should be put in jail for as long as possible under the law.

There are right and wrongs, the ends do not justify the means. Doing the right things only matters when no one knows you are doing the right thing.