Blogs For Victory

The DCCC is now claiming that Barack “Close Gitmo” Obama is ‘more aggressive in fighting al Qaeda’ than Bush… Have you ever heard anything so ridiculous and stupid?

They are saying that Barack Obama, who wants to close Gitmo? The same Obama who is letting the Christmas Day Bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab be tried in civilian court, not a military tribunal?

Obama’s terrorism-is-a-law-enforcement-issue attitude is the exact reason why former Gitmo detainees like Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab  were let go, only to rejoin the fight against our country.

More at Parcbench.

UPDATE by Mark Noonan: And more on that roaring, Obama Economic Recovery – U.S. taking majority ownership of GMAC. But, but, but I thought Barry said we’re getting better?

Geesh:

A loophole in a Massachusetts state law has allowed Zeituni Onyango – Barack Obama’s aunt and an illegal immigrant – to live in state-funded public housing in Boston since 2003, even though a federal immigration judge ordered Onyango to leave the country in 2004 after her request for asylum was denied.

The Boston Housing Authority (BHA) told CNSNews.com that illegal immigrants like Onyango can qualify for the state-funded housing in Massachusetts because, unlike federally funded programs, Massachusetts forbids the BHA from even asking about an applicant’s immigration status.

But that begs the question: why doesn’t ICE arrest and deport her?

Those of you who are long time readers here know that I’m “soft” on illegal immigration. Not as soft as liberals, but certainly much softer than the run-of-the-mill conservative. You know – I want a guest-worker program and favor a path to citizenship for illegals long in country and entirely self-supporting. But I’m also “hard” on law and order – and if someone has been found, by a court, to have broken the law, then that person must suffer whatever the law requires. In this case: deportation. It doesn’t matter that Massachusetts, run by dingbat liberals, doesn’t mind shoveling taxpayer money at illegals while citizens and legal immigrants suffer privation – that is Massachusetts’ problem. But it does matter that the federal government – in charge of keeping illegals out – hasn’t apparently done much to see this lady to the border.

If we are to be a nation under the rule of law, then the laws must be enforced. With a keen sense of justice and always erring on the side of mercy, but always enforced. Someone who breaks a law and is found culpable by the courts must suffer a penalty. Period. End of story. Until we get a handle on this and start enforcing our laws, we’ll have a continual erosion of respect for all laws – and in that direction lies anarchy and destruction.

For all of those who say that we don’t have a purpose in a fight for someone else’s liberty:

To bear with patience wrongs done to oneself is a mark of perfection, but to bear with patience wrongs done to someone else is a mark of imperfection and even of actual sin. – St Thomas Aquinas

They never give up:

…in New York’s Columbia County, a two-hour drive up the Hudson River from New York City. Local Democrats have encouraged weekend residents to register and vote on the theory that their ballots aren’t needed in New York City, where Democrats already hold an overwhelming registration edge. In a lightly-populated upstate community, however, a few transplant votes can represent the balance of power.

That was certainly the case last month in the town of Taghkanic, which has about 1,500 people. In a closely contested race for local offices, more than 20% of the ballots were cast by absentees, almost all of them by weekend residents who appeared to have delivered narrow victories to local Democrats. In response, Republicans have sued, pointing to evidence that many of the absentees were people whose jobs, drivers licenses and primary residences were in New York City and legally should have voted there. Some may even have voted in both jurisdictions. Approximately 60 absentee ballots are at issue and could sway the result of some races if disqualified.

The case will be heard by a local judge in State Supreme Court in Columbia County tomorrow. Evidence before him will include spreadsheets showing that many of the county’s absentee voters had signed affidavits for property tax exemptions on homes outside of Columbia County or signed second-home riders on mortgages securing their Columbia County property. Those riders explicitly say their primary residences are elsewhere.

As Democrats head in to an increasingly harsh electoral environment, we can expect ever more efforts to cheat. Cheating, remember, is not something that happens from time to time, it is something Democrats do whenever they can. And they are quite good at it. And also quite good at playing the injured party (as in Florida in 2000, or in Ohio in 2004) – naturally, most of the MSM will come down hard on the side of the Democrats.

The good news is that stories like these do show an increasingly desperate Democrat party – a party which knows it betrayed the American people and is about to get punished for it.

Our task is to both remain vigilant for these efforts while, also, working to run up our vote totals to the point where cheating won’t be able to change the outcome.

Jules Crittendon (quoting an article from the Boston Herald, and echoed by Ed Morrissey), has reported that Massachusetts GOP Senatorial Candidate Scott Brown has received little support, and may have actually been written off by the RNC.

Having just gotten off a blogger conference call with Mr. Brown, I can categorically state that Brown denies any lack of support for his campaign by the RNC. In fact, in the call Brown stated that his campaign has received “..everything from the RNC that we have asked for.”

It would appear that the story from the Boston Herald was designed not to report on the status of, but rather to outright sabotage the momentum of Brown’s Senate campaign.

Regardless, Brown did state that he looks forward to donations from every corner of the country, since his election would assist not only the citizens of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, but the entire nation.

Indeed, Brown’s election would break the stranglehold majority that the DNC has on the U.S. Senate, and it would be nearly axiomatic that Obamacare, at least in its current form, would not see the light of day in a final Senate vote.

In fact, it is very likely that the election of Scott Brown to fill the seat of Ted Kennedy may be our last hope in evading what could be a very dark chapter in America’s history.

If you are so inclined, please donate to Brown’s campaign here.

UPDATE: Polipundit says Brown can win…

Sorry guys and gals, just couldn’t think of anyth8ing good to write for the AM. Have at it.

Interesting:

The Department of Homeland Security has placed an order for 200 million rounds of pistol ammunition (.40 caliber, hollow-point) over the next five years for use by its Immigration, Customs and Enforcement division.

Let’s see now, ICE has approximately 15,000 employees. Not all of them are licensed to carry firearms, but just to keep the math simple, we’ll divide the whole shebang into 200 million. That works out to a little over 13,000 rounds per employee over five years, or approximately 2,600 per employee per year.

Now, in case the entire population of Mexico tries to cross the border over the next five years, this would be enough to shoot everybody twice; however, this event seems unlikely, and would represent a pretty harsh response, anyway.

So, what’s it all about, Janet?

Update: Winchester confirms. This news has been out there for a while, incidentally, but I’m just finding out about it.

Given that boarder security is already being slighted by Napolitano’s DHS, it seems odd that we would be getting enough ammo to fight a small war. So, indeed, what’s it all about, Janet?

Some possibilities:

1. Its something being “lost in the estimates” – the money is really for something else highly classified, and this is just the cover.

2. Its just a bit of boneheaded government waste.

3. Its a payoff to someone who donated to Obama.

4. Its to keep it out of our hands.

What do you think?

Michel Ledeen updates:

Here are the key points from Iran over the last 3-4 days: First, in line with my basic sermon these many years, if you study the videos you will see many many women in the front ranks. They have every reason to be there, as the Islamic Republic (like so many Islamic regimes) is built on the sludge of misogyny.

Second, many of the evil Basij goons wore masks. This is new, and it indicates fear that they will be identified and hunted down. The conflict is ever more violent: On several occasions, crowds attacked security forces, even dragging them out of cars — and then, cursing them, letting them run away.

Third, in another ominous development for the regime, people from the southern (lower-class) neighborhoods of Tehran joined in. The revolt is now very broad based. But it is not yet powerful enough for the Bazaaris to join: Today the Tehran Bazaar was open for business.

Fourth, the regime has been stripped of religious legitimacy by its own panic-driven brutality. By invading mosques and hosseiniyas, by assaulting family members of leading clerics (Grand Ayatollah Sanei is under house arrest), and by ordering murder on Ashura, the supreme leader has violated a whole series of previously sacrosanct rules. I will be surprised if we do not soon hear from Iraq’s Grand Ayatollah Sistani.

Finally, there is still no national strike of the sort that paralyzed the shah’s regime 31 years ago. But this may come: There were Twitter reports yesterday saying that Mousavi was calling for a strike on January 7.

Our prayers for the people of Iran – but I don’t see quite enough rebellion to actually bring down the regime. Right now, unless the army actively starts supporting the rebels, I believe the regime will regain control, even if only for a while. If there’s anything we can do to help (ie, provide communications, throw wrenches in the Iranian government machinery, etc), then we should do it, now. The more pressure on the regime, the more likely it is to topple.

From Bloomberg:

A 26-mile-long line of idled oil tankers, enough to blockade the English Channel, may signal a 25 percent slump in freight rates next year.

The ships will unload 26 percent of the crude and oil products they are storing in six months, adding to vessel supply and pushing rates for supertankers down to an average of $30,000 a day next year, compared with $40,212 now, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey of 15 analysts, traders and shipbrokers.

That’s below what Frontline Ltd., the biggest operator of the ships, says it needs to break even.

Traders booked a record number of ships for storage this year, seeking to profit from longer-dated energy futures trading at a premium to contracts for immediate delivery, according to SSY Consultancy & Research Ltd., a unit of the world’s second- largest shipbroker. Ships taken out of that trade would return to compete for cargoes just as deliveries from shipyards’ largest-ever order book swell the global fleet.

“The tanker market has been defying gravity,” said Martin Stopford, a London-based director at Clarkson Plc, the world’s largest shipbroker. Stopford has covered shipping since 1971.

Outside of the coming crash in tanker lease rates there is the looming crash in oil prices. Think about it – that much oil and other petroleum products are sitting in tankers and thus clearly not actually needed in the day to day. Its all surplus product – its off the market, for now, because speculators have placed it there. And it gets worse – all this oil has been un-needed while OPEC has dialed back on production due to the global recession.

Once all that comes on the market, then the price for all oil products will drop. Unless, of course, the global economy not only recovers, but goes gangbusters in to boom times. The reality is that even a modest economic recovery won’t be on track prior to 2011 and that is if everything goes well (something I don’t expect due to the Chinese real estate and securities bubbles, as well as our own stock bubble).

I was wondering what was keeping oil prices as high as they are. I mean, I knew that speculators were pushing up the price, but I hadn’t known that they were pushing up the price and then just storing surplus production for later delivery. This is insane. And very likely a direct result of all that money we and everyone else has been printing – the world is flush with fiat cash, allowing jerk speculators to run wild.

2010 will be a looooong year.

HAT TIP: Mish’s

Over at Riehl World View:

This has to be the most perfunctory speech the orator in chief has ever given. It’s as if he resents being pulled away from his vacation to make it. Where’s the energy? The personal connection? It isn’t there. He’s literally reading a press release and it shows. Where is all that charisma we’ve heard so much about? It’s as if the issue doesn’t even interest him at all.

Read the whole thing.

UPDATE: Mary Steyn also nails it:

Putting aside the stuff that was just plain wrong (this guy’s an “isolated extremist” – oh, yeah?), the President’s remarks had a horrible desiccated complacency. “Alleged…” “suspect…” “charged…” – because this is no different from a punk holding up a gas station, right? In all their alleged allegedness, this Administration has an allergy to the concept of war, and thus to the tools of war, including strategy and war aims. In essence, they’ve accepted a Fort Hood model for this challenge: every so often, something will happen and people will die, and we’ll seal off the crime scene and take the alleged suspect into alleged custody. But it’s reactive, and it cripples our ability to prevent the death of innocents.