Last night (5/21) on Fox News, while denouncing the historical and geographical ignorance of America's "temporary leader," Sarah Palin revealed that she wants her cell phone ringtone to be country star Gretchen Wilson's Redneck Woman. Wilson campaigned for Palin and performed at her campaign rallies in 2008 - and will do so again next year.  Nothing quite epitomizes Palin's appeal to Americans like this song.  The fundamental dividing line of political power, of freedom vs. fascism in America today, is not between Democrats and Republicans.  It is between the Court Party and the Country Party. One way to get this is to watch and listen to Gretchen Wilson's Redneck Woman (video and lyrics below)- and ask yourself, what other presidential candidate would have the nerve to embrace this song that spits in the face of the Power Establishment? 

Last month, in Food Crisis and Opportunity,  we talked about the coming global crisis in food production.  Next month as promised, I, along with my wife Rebel, Alex Alexiev, and Joel Wade, are going lead 20 TTPers to Bulgaria to learn how to profit from the crisis. I fell in love with Bulgaria when I was first there as the Soviet empire was collapsing in early 1990.  There's thousands of years of history - Bronze Age tribes, the Ancient Greeks, the Romans, medieval Christian kingdoms, hidden monasteries protecting Christianity from centuries of Moslem oppression by the Ottoman Turks, finally gaining independence in 1908 only to lose it to the Soviet Union during World War II, and now free at last. And all through this, Bulgarians forged and kept a Christian culture and heritage.  People come from all over the world to visit the extraordinary monasteries such as Rila or Ivanovo (World Heritage Sites, we'll visit both) the Bulgarians built to preserve their culture from Moslem imperialism. Even more visitors - hordes in the height of the summer - come to vacation on the gorgeous beaches of Bulgaria's Black Sea coast.  In the winter, skiers flock to ski resorts high in the Balkan mountains. It's a country of such profusion of flowers everywhere there's an entire valley called the Valley of Roses.  You couldn't ask for a more hospitable warm-hearted people - or ask for a better way to be shown hospitality, for Bulgarians really know how to make good wine and are more than happy to share a glass with you at every opportunity. And speaking of opportunity... Bulgaria is so fertile it's known as The Land Without Famine, and the agricultural opportunities are truly extraordinary.  That's what we'll be focusing on - while taking time for adventure, exploration and fun.  Here's the itinerary:

The Main Enemy: Islamism Chapter VI: Islamism in Europe The rise of Radical Islam in Europe, and especially Western Europe, is closely tied to the explosive growth of the Moslem immigrant populations in the continent. While the efforts to establish Islamist organizations and networks, such as those of the Moslem Brotherhood under Said Ramadan (1926-1995), predated the waves of Moslem immigration in the 1960s and 1970s, it was the massive numbers of new immigrants, more often than not concentrated in compact Moslem ghettoes, that created the ideal conditions for spreading Islamist ideology. An understanding of the radicalization problem therefore necessitates a brief discussion of the Moslem immigration and consequent population explosion phenomenon in Europe.

The Main Enemy:  Islamism Chapter V: Radical Islam Resurgent When did Radical Islam or Islamism first come into being as a significant phenomenon internationally? It is well-known that several strands of Moslem radicalism have existed independently in a number of geographic areas since the early decades of the twentieth century. These include: *the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood (Ikhwan al Moslemin) founded in 1928 as a reaction to Mustafa Kemal Ataturk's abolishment of the Caliphate in 1924. *the Deobandi Islamic school in India and its proselytizing arm, the Islamic missionary movement of Tablighi Jamaat. *the preservation and growth of the Wahhabi extremist creed under the protection of the Saudi Kingdom in Arabia in the 1930s and beyond.  This chapter will focus primarily on Wahhabism as the primary driver of present-day Islamism, made possible by Saudi oil money.

First, an apology for the fake "OBL Dead" photo.  You'd think, having been taught by the master himself, I'd follow Ronald Reagan's advice to "trust but verify."  But I didn't this time, being caught up in the excitement of getting what I thought was a pic of OBL shot in the head in the arms of a Navy SEAL. If you knew who my source was and his bona fides, you'd be blown away.  But even he got suckered - the pic was photoshopped from the movie Blackhawk Down - and forgot RR's advice as well.  So I screwed up and am really sheepish. Sorry about this.  I'll never forget Reagan's words ever again. *  *  *  *  *  * One good way to recover from too much cheap tequila celebrating Cinco de Mayo last night is to read Cinco de Reality (May 2010).  It will sober you up for sure.  (Plus it's a great nutshell history of the creation of Mexico.) *  *  *  *  *  * Back to the Obama-Osama Saga.  What Jack Kelly calls a "botch" is getting more farcical and fun by the hour.  Through his sheer incompetent perversity in refusing to release the OBL death photos, Zero has manufactured this ridiculous "deather" controversy that's taken off like wildfire. The quote of the week:  "Obama killed Osama and we got 72 versions."

The Main Enemy: Islamism Chapter IV: The Limited Scope of Sharia in Past Moslem Empires Perhaps the greatest failure of the American (and Western) approach to radical Islam is our unwillingness to identify and expose it as an essentially totalitarian political ideology under the guise of religion, rather than a religion as such. This despite the fact that the Islamists themselves claim that what they believe in and promote is not just a religion but the perfect fusion between a faith and a political system (din wa dawla). This is an absolutely fundamental part of the Islamist ideology and the main justification for what they see as a religious obligation to impose by violence if need be a political system in the form of a Caliphate, i.e., worldwide Moslem rule. Therefore, an understanding of what sharia is and what it is not is essential not only for a better grasp of the Islamist mindset, but more importantly it is of vital importance for a critical assessment of Islamism's bogus claims and poor grounding in traditional Islamic teaching.

This was the week Zero changed his middle name from Hussein to Pandora.  And it wasn't due to Trump, as the Cajun Clown James Carville is claiming, but to my buddy Jerry Corsi. In fact, Jerry was set to write my biography - How We Won The Cold War:  The Greatest Adventure of Modern Times - when Joseph Farah prevailed upon him to write Where's The Birth Certificate? instead.  Go for it, I told Jerry - helping to save America is infinitely more important than telling my story. Jerry's book zooming to best-seller status the instant its publication was announced on Drudge last week (4/20) is what prompted Zero to release - finally! -  his long form BC exactly one week later (4/27) and becoming Pandora Obama thereby. Yet here is the real issue with Zero.  It's not where he was born or who his parents were or whether he was adopted in Indonesia, etc.  It's that he's not an American in his soul.  There are millions upon millions of naturalized U.S. citizens far more genuinely American than him. Zero is Anti-American in a fundamental way, far more deeply than the superficiality of where he was born.  He means us harm, he has already done grave damage to our culture, our economy, our military and national security, our future as a nation. Thus anything that delegitimizes his presidency in the eyes of voters is a move in the right direction.  He may well be a fraud in the circumstances of his birth, his school accomplishments, his entire curriculum vitae.  Much more importantly, he is a fraud as an American.  That's why he is Not My President, nor is he truly America's.

The Main Enemy:  Islamism Chapter III: The Ideology of Radical Islam How did all the recent advances of Islamism, which we summarized in Chapter II, come to pass with little notice in the space of just a few decades? It is, of course, true that dogmatic orthodoxy and extremism, including its most violent forms, is nothing new in Islam and that Moslem history is replete with movements and individuals who have tried to impose their version of Islamic orthodoxy on fellow Moslems. Yet the actual practice of Islamic societies, as shall be shown in the next chapter, has been considerably different, in that sharia law, despite being paid lip service to on a regular basis, was seldom applied to governance except as family law. Contemporary Radical Islam, on the other hand, though seeking religious legitimization in sharia and age-old Islamic dogma, is a modern phenomenon that has more in common with totalitarian revolutionary movements than with any kind of transitory "Islamic revival" as many have argued. Understanding its Nazi/Communist totalitarian ideological nature and its modus operandi as a highly organized revolutionary movement is essential for comprehending the nature of the threat it poses and designing a strategy to defeat it.

It's Good Friday!  My wife and I always personally celebrate Good Friday, because that was the day we met almost three decades ago.  It sure was a good day for us! Sunday, of course, is Easter, a celebration of renewal, rebirth, and resurrection.  The Resurrection itself was 1,978 years ago (33 AD).  Today, America is being crucified on a Cross of Debt, and Congress will soon be faced with a choice to resurrect her or let her die. By the time the House returns from "Spring Recess" on May 2nd, federal spending will have exceeded the debt ceiling.  Expect to see a tsunami of enemedia scare stories predicting an apocalypse if the House doesn't cave and vote to raise it - such as this one in Politico. The article encapsulates all the outright lies of the parasite class:  "the full faith and credit of the United States" hangs in the balance, the House GOP will "plunge the nation into default" if it doesn't cave, blah blah. This is willful lying.  The federal government will continue to have plenty of tax revenue to service its old debt, to pay the military, but not for, say, Planned Parenthood or the EPA.  What really will "send global markets into a tailspin" is if the debt ceiling is raised and Uncle Sam continues his fiscal insanity. So here we are, the moment has arrived, and it's ironic that it comes at Eastertime.

The Main Enemy: Islamism Chapter II:  The Nature of the Threat Whether it is called radical Islam, Islamism, Salafism, or Islamo-fascism, the adversary we face, even as we often refuse to identify it for what it is, is clearly on the march. The reason we fail to see that is because its objective is not terrorism, but the imposition of an uncompromising totalitarian interpretation of Islam worldwide by means of proselytism, subjugation, and violent jihad as need be. Purely terrorist groups like al-Qaeda, which rely on terrorism as a first and only resort, however murderous, are a rather marginal factor in this essentially ideological struggle, and the fact that we have bestowed on them the status of principal enemy has prevented us from really understanding the nature of this war. So let's be clear on the real nature of the threat.

If you can't wait for May 6th, you're not alone.  This will be TTP's 10th Rendezvous - Rendezvous X - and we plan to make it our best yet.  Miko has the full hour-by-hour schedule - from opening at 6pm Friday May 6 to closing at 12:30pm Sunday May 8 - below.  Let me fill in the details.  We have a program I think is a real mind-blow.  Here we go.

[This is the Introductory Chapter of Alex Alexiev's masterful study on Radical Islam's Threat to the West and the Moslem World to be published later this year by The Hudson Institute.  Subsequent chapters or chapter sections will be a weekly feature in TTP for the next several weeks.] The Main Enemy:  Islamism Introduction It is the starting premise of this study that the United States government's focus on what came to be known as the "war on terror" after 9/11 has been fundamentally wrong. The main enemy is not "terror." Nor is it al-Qaeda, despite President Obama's assertion in January 2010 after the failed Christmas Day bombing attempt that "we are at war against al-Qaeda, a far-reaching network of violence and hatred." No, the main enemy is radical Islamist ideology or Islamism. A change of emphasis would allow us to see clearly that defeating this enemy cannot be accomplished by counterterror strategies and kinetic means alone, but requires a sophisticated strategy to defeat the ideology of Islamism by delegitimizing it in the eyes of its current and potential supporters in the Moslem community. The essential prerequisite to achieving this objective is to understand the nature of the threat presented by radical Islam, its ideological underpinnings, and its strengths and weaknesses.  Here is an outline of what we'll be discussing in the coming weeks.

Well, he had to crack under the pressure sooner or later, and thank heavens it's sooner.  Everyone on Capitol Hill this morning can't stop talking about it.  Boehner and Reid have just been told to expect a momentous announcement from the White House.  At 9pm EDT this evening, the President will announce on national television that, due to the overwhelming difficulties the nation faces which have proven impossible for him to solve because Republicans refuse to cooperate, he is resigning the presidency effective immediately.  Good luck, America, he will say, you'll have to solve your problems without me. And yes, today is April Fool's Day. *  *  *  *  *  *  So let's talk about fools - and their luck.  Zero just might pull Libya off.  He'll have David Cameron to thank for it, and MI6, which is disintegrating Gaddafi's regime via defections. Conservative contempt for Zero is so bottomless that many don't want him to succeed even when it's in our clear interests that he do so.  He was right in saying the US could not stand by while Gaddafi perpetrated genocidal slaughter upon his own people, and wrong in not solving the problem immediately by an assassination strike on Gaddafi. So now he owns this war which has to be won - for if Gaddafi stays in power he will "return to international terrorism and resume his nuclear weapons program," warns John Bolton who is nobody's fool.  When asked about the rebels fighting Gaddafi and if they might be radical Islamists, John responded, "Yes, there is uncertainty about them - but when there is Muammar Gaddafi on one side and uncertainty on the other, you pick uncertainty."