A BACKDOOR TO SABOTAGING IRAQ
Kuwait. Surely you didn't think I'm buried under Washington's Super Blizzard this week - especially since Jim DeMint (R-SC) has promised it won't stop snowing until Algore cries uncle? Nope, I'm in sunny Kuwait, where it's 70 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. One reason I'm here is to see how the Obama Justice Department - which we could appropriately term Zero Justice - is making a backdoor attempt here to sabotage America's (so far) successful war in Iraq. First, though, we need to answer the historical question - what has Kuwait got to do with Hanukkah?
HALF-FULL REPORT 02/05/10
While Remember The Alamo tried to be a good synopsis of our memorable Rendezvous in San Antone, I saved the best line of the event for the HFR.
After all the dystopian discussion of how the Dems are driving us into financial ruin, Jack Kelly announced in his presentation: "There's a lot of talk nowadays about America becoming a banana republic. Here's the reality, folks - the whole world is becoming a banana republic." Kelly's prophecy came quickly into sharper focus this week. Big time. After a 853-point drop since Jan. 19, the Dow is plunging over the 10,000-point precipice. Greece, as the HFR has been predicting, is dragging the Euro into a deep hole. Next to fall in are Spain and Portugal. And now comes China.
THE ONE PLACE WHERE OBAMA IS KILLING TERRORISTS
As the administration fiddles and fumbles with its soft- on-terror policies at home, one Obama-blessed campaign abroad is hitting al Qaeda and its franchises hard: the drone war. Drones work. They kill terrorists. Important terrorists. And we don't have to squabble about where to put their shredded bodies on trial. For all the billions poured into Afghan pockets, the continuing giveaways to well-connected contractors, the abuse of our military as glorified aid workers and terrorist targets, and the general strategic incoherence in Washington, we're getting this one thing right. On Tuesday (2/02), an up-the-ante wave of attacks fired 18 missiles from Unmanned Aerial Systems. (UAS is our term of the week for drones.) The strike hit a terrorist stronghold, killing another dozen or more militants. Cool. Very cool.
REPEAL THE 17TH TO REVIVE THE 10TH
One of the key objectives of the Tea Party people is the strict enforcement of the 10th Amendment : "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." As an early 1960s vintage member of the then-new conservative movement, I remember us focusing on the 10th amendment during the 1964 Goldwater campaign. It has been a staple of conservative thought, and the continued dormancy of 10th amendment enforcement has been one of the failures of our now half-century-old movement. As the Tea Party movement in so many ways seems to represent the 2.0 version of our movement, I am thinking about the 10th amendment anew. It strikes me that the best way to revive the 10th Amendment is to repeal the 17th Amendment -- which changes the first paragraph of Article I, Section 3 of the Constitution to provide that each state's senators are to be "elected by the people thereof" rather than being "chosen by the Legislature thereof."
DOES THE CONSTITUTION EXIST FOR THE IRS?
Over the last two weeks, the rule of law has been strengthened in a couple of major cases, one in the United States and one in Switzerland, but has been undermined in an action - surprise, surprise - by the IRS. On Jan. 22, a Swiss court upheld the rule of law by saying that an agreement between the U.S. and Swiss governments to turn over UBS files on private bank clients to U.S. authorities violated Swiss law. Switzerland has different laws than the United States regarding financial privacy and what parts of the tax law are felonies and which are not. Just because the Swiss law is different does not make it inferior to U.S. law. (In fact, Switzerland has direct democracy and a very long tradition of upholding human rights.) The United States considers it a felony not to file a W-9 tax form, while the Swiss do not consider the failure to file the appropriate form a felony. An IRS official said, "We expect the Swiss government to continue to honor the terms of the agreement" - despite the agreement having been deemed unlawful. Of course, the IRS has a long tradition of ignoring the law and the Constitution when it suits its purposes.
A DEFICIT OF TRUST IN OBAMA
In his State of the Union address, President Barack Hussein Obama said: "We face a deficit of trust -- deep and corrosive doubts about how Washington works that have been growing for years. To close that credibility gap, we have to take action on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue -- to end the outsized influence of lobbyists; to do our work openly; to give the people the government they deserve." The day after the president uttered those words, a senior administration official offered private policy briefings to lobbyists on the administration's plans. Do you think it will ever occur to our Narcissist-in-chief that he has become the source of this "deficit of trust"?
TECHNOLOGY TO PROTECT YOU
At the Remember The Alamo Rendezvous, I discussed a number of the latest technologies to protect you. Jack asked me to list them for you with a brief description. I'm happy to do so.
Identity Stronghold is a site that sells RFID protectors for licenses, credit cards etc. They also sell passport protectors and wallets that have RFID protector inserts for the all your Security card needs.
Ixquick is simply the safest search browser to use on the globe. They do not track you and your searches are private as they can be on the web. They also have recently introduced a proxy service which allows you to search the entire web safely. To learn more about the proxy service visit here: Proxy
Locational Privacy learn how your preconceived ideas of freedom moving about the mall, county or country are changing. Do what you can to protect your identity and privacy now.
REMEMBER THE ALAMO
There were 140 of us, and I think we all agree - the Remember The Alamo Rendezvous in San Antonio last weekend (1/29-1/31) was one to remember.
Speaking of memory, I didn't take notes - I was a little busy - so we'll see how good my recall is as I recount it for you. Feel quite free to add or correct what I say on the Forum. There's already a lively discussion going.
We started right off Friday evening with a discussion of the Double-D strategy. That quickly brought our attention to TTPer Mitch Rapp, who with the help of Bill Gregory, Jim Snape, and other TTPers, has created the Defund and Disobey website: defundanddisobey.com - to which there is now a direct link in the left side bar of the TTP home page.
Mitch envisions his site to be the clearing house for Tea Party efforts to deligitimize the Democrats' plan to extend government control of our lives. I encourage you to participate in it, tell all your friends in the Tea Party movement about it, and support it with a small contribution.
We all owe Mitch a debt of gratitude for what he has chosen to do. And the Rendezvous was just getting started.
HALF-FULL REPORT 01/29/10
Amidst all the catcalls and raspberries directed at Zero's SOTU speech this week - Fred Barnes called it the "least fresh" and most cliché-ridden such speech in over 30 years - I must admit I thought it was great. Perfect, in fact. We couldn't have asked for anything better. As Forrest Gump observed, "Stupid is as stupid does." It doesn't get much stupider than to ignore the First Rule of Holes - when you're in a hole, stop digging - except to insist that the way to get out of the hole is to keep digging ever more feverishly, and to blame everyone but yourself for the hole you're in. The SOTU speech confirmed that we have a narcissistic fool for a president - all ego and no brains. He is, with stupidly obdurate stubbornness, going to keep doing exactly what has caused his agenda to fail and his approval ratings to sink ever lower. This almost guarantees that he will keep his party on the path to electoral disaster in November. How could we ask for more? Well, here's how.
THE NEXUS ONE PHONE
The Nexus One is the new phone from Google that has what is described as the Android OS. This is an Operating System developed from the ground up by Google. Android runs on a Linux kernel and is written in the Java code language. Anyone interested in detailed explanations of the Android OS can find it here. Android I have had a Nexus One phone for a couple of weeks and can inform you of what my impressions are first hand. Let me start by stating that I cancelled my AT&T contract with the iPhone for the Nexus One. Here are the details.