No Official Bin Laden Death Photos - For Now

I agree wholeheartedly with the Obama administration's decision not to release pictures of Osama bin Laden's dead body. The fact that he is shark food at the bottom of the ocean and no longer a source of terrorist activity, murder, mayhem, and jihadist inspiration should be enough satisfaction for those of us in the U.S. and everywhere else in the civilized world who believe that the U.S. government wouldn't lie about THIS. In fact, they could not lie about it because the truth would leak out eventually. And for those that seriously want proof, I am sure they can approach the White House for the DNA evidence and other evidence, which some press outlets like 60 Minutes, The New York Times, or The National Enquirer will likely do. Besides, photographic evidence is almost worthless these days with the easy digital photo manipulation of photographs that goes on.

Already a horrible, fake, dead Osama is floating around on Facebook and probably scaring some kids whose newsfeed it shows up in because some friend or family member commented on it. The fake is really gruesome as I am sure the original is.

What would be the good reason to release the pictures? To assure our enemies the Islamic Jihadist terrorists, the Taliban, Hamas, Hezbolla, and Ahmadinejad that we are not lying, Osama really is dead? Will that suddenly convert them to our side? No. We don't even need to think for a second about releasing it for their sakes. Should we release it for the sakes of the people of Afghanistan who may be on the fence about whether to support the U.S./Afghan government or the Taliban? Maybe, if it will convince the leaders and the citizens of Afghanistan that the main source of funds to the Taliban in the past is out of the picture and that they can side with the forces of good, then it may be a useful tool in ending the hostilities in that country.

As far as skeptical governments, the U.S. can work directly with any of these and show them directly all evidence it has, including the photographic evidence. But this is the problem.

Unfortunately, the way the world works today, information can't be kept secret for long if there is a desire for it. Think wikileaks. At some point the real photo will leak out, by someone within the government, or someone who the government shows the evidence to, then the U.S. government will feign anger at the leak, but then admit that the photo or photos are authentic.

It is just a matter of time before evidence or photos of Osama bin Laden's death leak from the sieve that is the U.S. government, so unfortunately, the arguments for or against releasing them are really a moot point.

Hell Welcomes Its Newest Resident

Passport to Hell Stamped Approved

Almost ten years after planning, funding, and training fellow jihadists for the attacks of September 11, the founder and leader of the al Qaeda terrorist network, Osama bin Laden is dead, gone from this world thanks to the CIA, the Navy Seals, and other special ops forces, and a strong leadership hand from Barack Obama. You can see the president's statement here.

The U.S. special ops team raided bin Laden's mansion/compound in Islamabad, the CAPITAL of Pakistan, killed the world's leading terrorist, and dragged his body out of there with them, presumably in their Blackhawk helicopter. Later, after gathering the evidence needed for proof of his having been killed (whether DNA or photographic or both, we don't know at this moment) the terrorist's body was buried at sea so that a Muslim tradition of being buried within twenty-four hours of death could be adhered to.

I want to congratulate President Obama for staying strong in terms of wanting to find bin Laden and for not hesitating to go into Pakistan to do it. I remember candidate Obama stating that he would go into Pakistan if necessary to pursue al Qaeda, the Taliban, and bin Laden and he has shown willingness to do so. President Bush wanted very badly to find Osama bin Laden and had seven years to do it. We don't know if it was for lack of trying, or lack of political will, or lack of intelligence on the ground that he didn't find bin Laden. But thank God he has been finally found and brought to justice, and the families of the 9/11 victims and all U.S. citizens and residents, and all civilized peoples can for a moment feel that justice can be served in this world, and that evil people and evil acts can and will be punished at some point in time.

The world is clearly better off without its most notorious terrorist and Islamic radical jihadist, but the coming days could see a spike in terrorist bombings or bombing attempts as al Qaeda cells strive to prove that the fight will go on without their infamous and now deceased leader. It is also clear to all that the war against terror will and must go on until the radical, bloodthirsty wing of a religion that is practiced peacefully by most of its adherents, find nonlethal tools to express themselves. Unfortunately this doesn't seem likely to happen anytime too soon. For the moment at least, we have some good news in the war against civilization - General Osama bin Laden is dead!

Decision Points – A Review of George W. Bush’s Presidential Memoir

I am sure many people will scoff at the idea of reading former President George W. Bush’s recent presidential memoir Decision Points. Perhaps these skeptics will say that the book is just more lies, trumped-up excuses, or inside-the-beltway “spin” from a man who ended his presidency with pretty low poll numbers. But the decision not to read the book because you disagree with some or all of the policies of the man would be the wrong decision in my view. The book may not change your opinion of the man, but it does end up presenting him as a man, who in the end picks up his dog’s poop with a plastic bag just like the rest of us.

Decision Points is candid, informative, and deals in a behind-the-scenes way with issues that were argued about ad infinitum during Bush’s presidency, giving the reader his perspective on why he lead the way he did. You won’t get this take on what happened over the last decade from The New York Times or CNN. He deals with the reasons behind decisions he made concerning his response to the 9/11 attacks and the subsequent invasion of Afghanistan, his decision to take down Saddam Hussein’s regime, his rescue of Chrysler and GM, and the much maligned TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program). He also deals with personal issues such as why it was finally time to take responsibility for his life and actions and stop a personally destructive drinking habit.

Here are some of the topics Mr. Bush covers in the 480 page book:

•  The former baseball team owner talks in detail about his formative younger years and overcoming his negative relationship with alcohol and the effect it was having on his personal and family life.
•  He talks about his relationships with his wife, his daughters, and his parents.
• Bush discusses his years as governor of Texas, his decision to run for president, and the two difficult presidential campaigns.
•  He speaks of his relationships with the people in his administrations like Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, and Don Rumsfeld, and his reasons behind choosing them for their various positions.
•  The education reform known as No Child Left Behind is covered in detail along with statistics before and after its implementation.
• The attacks of September 11, 2001 are discussed and here the behind-the-scenes activities of a president during an unprecedented crisis are informative, enlightening, and emotional.
• The decision to go to war in Afghanistan against the Taliban and al Qaeda is explained.
• Though extremely unpopular with many people, the context surrounding the Iraq War is again laid out before the reader.
• Protecting the Homefront was one of the most important things to George W. Bush as president, and he discusses the steps he and his administration took in concert with Congress to successfully protect Americans from another attack.
• Hurricane Katrina was the worst natural disaster in U.S. history and Bush explains things his administration got right and the things they got wrong.
• Aid to Africa to fights AIDS and malaria was also important to President Bush but this received little public attention while he was president. He explains in the book that it was one of the most impactful and important things he did.
• TARP, AIG, and the auto bailout, were attacked from the right and the left in the last year of the president’s term in office. He deals with the decision to go ahead with these actions while placing them in the context and dismal climate that existed at the time.

The book is honest, heartfelt, and often displays a humbleness that many people found admirable in the man when he was in office. Decision Points was written by someone who comes across as a man who had the country’s best interests at heart, and based his decisions on what he felt was the best choice for protecting or supporting the American people. Clearly he was wrong many times, as most presidents have been about some things, and many times in this book he points out the places where he may have been wrong or would have done something different. But he also defends many of the decisions where he feels he was right and acting in the best interests of the American people. He places all the decisions back into the contexts in which they were made, reminding us of the environments and conditions in which the actions were taken.

I did not agree with some of the policies of President Bush while he was in office, including his push for amnesty for illegal aliens, his painfully slow turnaround on implementing the surge in Iraq, his apparent lack of will to concentrate on winning in Afghanistan, and the extreme bailout mentality at the end of his term. But I believe that anyone who is interested in U.S. history, policy, politics, or presidents, whether they agree with this president or not, will benefit from reading this book. I enjoyed getting to know a decent man a little better, and understanding some of the important events of the last ten years with greater depth and clarity.

Atlas Shrugged Part 1 - Movie Review

Image copyright The Strike Productions

The movie Atlas Shrugged is based on a continuously popular novel of the same title by Ayn Rand published in 1957. Atlas Shrugged opened April 15 (the usual IRS tax return deadline) and through April 28 has made 3.1 million dollars while playing on just 465 screens. (A normal release being 2500 to 3000 screens.) Hopefully the limited distribution of the film and the correspondingly lower box office receipts won’t hurt the chances for the production and release of Part 2. Why? Because for someone who hasn’t read the book, the movie ends frustratingly abruptly and leaves too many loose ends untied. I won’t hold my breath for this movie to have made a profit based on the mere eight people who were in the theater with me and a friend on a Tuesday evening. Hopefully, The Strike Productions will do a better job of marketing and distributing the DVD when it comes out a month or two from now.

Atlas Shrugged, the movie, is set in 2016 in an only slightly surreal United States mired in economic depression, and hyper-government control of business, and industry. Innovation, invention, and capitalism are frowned upon; success is anathema. Laws are being passed left and right to place controls on businesses and individuals that gain too much success. An anti-dog-eat-dog law is one example. Another example is that individual citizens are limited by law to owning one company. But lobbying, cronyism, political favoritism, and plenty of other immoral activity continues apace, while a liberal agenda of spreading fairness and spreading wealth is brought to bear as the government policy for dealing with the deepening depression and poverty in the country. Unfortunately, and probably not coincidentally, the subject matter bears striking similarities to some of the policies and activities being pursued in the U.S. under the Obama administration.

In the movie, gasoline is 37 dollars a gallon which causes personal travel and movement of freight by train to be the preferred methods of locomotion. It is in this atmosphere that Dagny Taggert, an owner of a family-owned railroad struggles to bring her business back from a disastrous railway accident. She has decided to use a revolutionary metal made from a new alloy to rebuild the tracks of her broken and decaying Rio Norte line. Hank Reardon is the beset owner of the steel company and developer of the new metal. The two CEOs collaborate on the project with Ellis Wyatt, a tough, down-to-earth oil company owner who needs the train line to move his oil cross-country. They succeed, despite being continuously dogged by government regulation, divestiture of personal property, political and industrial sabotage, etc.

Atlas Shrugged has some beautiful cinematography, and good acting by Taylor Shilling, Grant Bowler, Matthew Marsden, and Graham Beckel. Without the background of having read the book, some of what goes on in the movie is maddeningly mysterious, and as previously mentioned the ending is a dissatisfying truncation. But all in all, the good outweighs the little bad there is and this allegorical story is worth the time and money spent to see it. I just hope there is a part two to come.

Source Code - Movie Review

Image copyright Summit Entertainment

Source Code is an exciting, interesting, emotion charged, and sometimes baffling movie. And considering that it is also a riveting whodunit thriller, I am surprised that the box office take isn’t larger than the approximately $36,000,000 (thru 4/18/11) it has garnered since April 1 when it opened in theaters across the U.S. I went to see it on Sunday afternoon and there were eight, maybe ten people in the small theater. I’m not complaining, because the fewer people in the small space we were in, the less distractions while the movie played. But as good as the film is, this didn’t seem like a fair-sized audience. Maybe the marketing of the movie is inadequate, though I do have to give kudos to the studio, who, besides making the standard trailers available for the film, also made available the first five minutes of the movie as a teaser on Yahoo’s movies website. The trailers, including the five minute one hooked me and I had to see the film. Source Code has even gotten many good critical and user reviews (including this one).

Jake Gyllenhaal, is terrific as Captain Colter Stevens, an Air Force helicopter pilot who wakes up in another man’s body on a doomed train headed for Chicago (doomed I tells ya). For a good portion of the movie he is trying to acclimate himself to his confusing situation and finds out a little here and a little there to keep the viewer interested in what is happening to the man. In the seat across from him on the commuter train is a friend of “his”, a woman named Christina who is played very well by Michelle Monaghan.

At the start of the movie, the viewer is made aware that Captain Stevens is apparently on a mission to find out who bombed a commuter train and thwart a possible nuclear dirty bomb attack on the city of Chicago. And there is time travel of a sort involved. The twists and turns of storyline as Stevens tries to figure out where the bomb is, who the bomber is, and what his own situation is, make the movie plenty exciting. The unhomogeneous cast of characters on the train adds a realistic flavor to everyday life in the suburbs of an American city.

If you have ever seen Groundhog Day then you’ll recognize the parallel with that movie almost immediately, but unlike Groundhog Day which beats you over the head with its plot gimmick, Source Code does not. In an interesting casting nod, Scott Bakula, who played a time traveler in Quantum Leap, is cast as the voice of Capt. Stevens’ father, though I didn’t realize it at the time and it doesn’t matter in terms of the movie, it is just a cool connection. 

What a great picture! If you’re going to see a movie in the next week or two, see this film!

Donald Trump, "Political" Opportunist

Donald and Melania Trump (by Boss Tweed)

I hate to admit it. I too was caught up in the Donald Trump possible-presidential-run media-hype, protocampaign tour as much as many other Republicans, conservatives, and independents are. He has compelling arguments. He is saying all the right things about China, OPEC, and Obama's spending. Trump's a successful, self-made "billionaire". He says he's conservative. He's a businessman and would do things as president that would benefit the American economy, and from the point of view of a CEO. I read "The Donald"'s first two books, the first one, The Art of the Deal, was a runaway bestseller and I enjoyed it very much. It was a motivating read. The second book, which may or may not have been called BlaBlaBla, wasn't nearly as interesting. Additionally, the real estate mogul and casino owner also has a successful show called "The Apprentice" and a commanding presence to boot. How many people can say they have a catch phrase? ("You're Fired") In short, he's a doer, not a socialist, community organizer looking to bring the U.S. down a notch.

But my thanks go out to radio talkshow host Mark Levin for opening my eyes to who this guy really is. Mark has been skeptical of Trump since his potential presidential run began. It started with questions about his financial contributions to politicians which were all over the map and seem to actually favor Democrats. Trump sloughed off this criticism as him just being loyal to friends and though he didn't say it, from how it looks it seems as if he is basically greasing the palms of everybody just in case in the future he ever needs to call in a favor from one of these politicians. I'm not saying he is doing this. I'm just saying it looks like that.


Here is the text of some of the recordings of Trump that Levin played on his show on Friday. You can hear them on Mark Levin's website and find them easily on YouTube. Go to the tape: "I'm impressed with Nancy Pelosi...but I'm surprised that she didn't try to have Bush impeached, which personally I think would have been a wonderful thing. He lied. He got us into the war with lies." "I think Obama will lead by consensus." "He's (Obama) done an amazing job." "Bush has been a disaster, he's been terrible...who could be worse?" "Bush has been so bad, so incompetent, so evil, I don't think any (Republican) could have won." And here's the pièce de résistance, something we conservatives say whenever we wake up in the morning, but in this case they are Donald Trump's words, "We must have universal health care."

Wow! What a true-blue conservative. Yep. What? You can't hear me through the dripping wet digital sarcasm that's slogging its sticky way through your broadband Internet connection? Sblorry.

 

But wait! Just when you thought we'd had enough fun for one day, Mr. Trump switches gears. Back to the tapes: "I used to say Jimmy Carter was the worst president in U.S. history, now I say it's Barack Obama." "Barack Obama is the worst president ever."

Donald Trump calls himself a conservative, and practically called himself a compassionate conservative (which was George W. Bush's label) the other day on Sean Hannity's television show. But many of Trump's views are downright liberal Democrat views. His venomous position on George W. Bush and the Iraq war is a liberal Democrat position. His view that America needs universal health care is a liberal Democrat position. His previous support for Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi is certainly not a conservative position. And a conservative would not financially support Chuck Schumer, Hillary Clinton, the Democratic National Committee, and the like.

While Donald Trump would be certainly be better to have in the office of President of the United States than Barack Obama, he would not be better than ANY of the other serious, and proven Republicans. He just happens to know how to play the media. His opportunistic "campaign" for president will end by his own hand when he sees the jig is up, when he doesn't need a ratings boost any more, or when skeptical Republicans dismiss him as the "fake, phoney, fraud" that he is.

If You Want Employment to Rise, Buy American

The headline of this article makes a certain amount of sense, don’t you think? More on common sense in a moment. But first some good news.

Today it has been reported that the unemployment rate has fallen to 8.8 percent, a one tenth of one percent drop from February. This is due to the economy adding 216,000 jobs in March, the second month in a row that jobs were added at that rate. Hopefully this number won’t be adjusted down in the coming days as is often the case with unemployment numbers. These figures are good news and come in spite of the President’s anti-business policies such as the Stimulus, Obamacare, Quantitative Easing, and the previous Congress’s neverending unemployment insurance extensions. It’s no surprise that Mitt Romney says in his USAToday opinion piece that the rate of new jobs production would be much higher (and the unemployment rate lower) by now if it were not for Obama’s policies. This is part of the common sense I was talking about earlier, and it’s a view held by a large and growing portion of the American population.

But we as Americans can (and should) do more to make the employment numbers rise in our towns and states. We can buy American-based services and products. We can buy local. It is only common sense. Do you think buying Japanese Playstations made in China will help U.S. unemployment numbers? Or would buying a Microsoft Xbox 360 be a better idea? Would buying a Toshiba laptop be a good idea? Or would buying an Apple, Dell, or HP product help more? Of course the latter would help more.

But we Americans don’t always do what is common sense when it comes to what we buy. Americans most often buy whatever is the lowest-priced product or service, generally not paying attention to (or caring) where something is made. For instance, if Moammar Gadhafi was selling gasoline at $2 a gallon in New York City right now, there’d be a line into the gas station as long as Fifth Avenue. That’s the way it is for many American consumers. Too often today there is no choice but to buy products made in China by foreign national companies. Although buying Korean cell phones and automobiles does involve employment for the people selling those goods in this country, there are not as many people employed as if the product were designed, made, and sold by an American company. In addition the tax benefits accrued by the various taxing authorities are fewer leading to lower tax revenues flowing into the various governing authorities. Not to mention greater debt and lower employment.

Is your neighbor out of work? Are you? What better way to support them than to buy American, and even better to buy LOCAL. Being from Michigan originally, I have always supported American automobile makers. Especially nowadays, the vehicles Detroit makes are stylish, and built with real quality. I had friends in the auto business, in addition to having a brother who works directly in that industry. I felt that if I ever bought a vehicle that wasn’t made in America, that I’d be doing my small part in diminishing the business that he depends on for his family’s bread and butter. It’s not much to ask of a family member or neighbor to support the company that employs them and provides a tax base to the state and local governments where you live, instead of supporting the workers and the tax base of some city, say in Germany.

If you lived in a town full of bakeries, some of them run by your relatives, would you buy bread from Denmark? If you lived in Idaho would you buy potatoes from Michigan? If you would, let me just remind you that you only have two feet that you can shoot.

Buying local, means, as much as possible, eating in your town, buying gasoline in the burg where you pay your real estate taxes, grocery shopping in your town, and buying your car and your cell phone where you live. This supports the businesses that pay taxes in your town, thereby keeping the pressure on raising your taxes lower.

It’s hard sometimes to find American-made options, but in the car market, it’s easy. Besides American automakers, there are many foreign companies that manufacture cars in the U.S. now, which is a good alternative for consumers who don’t like Detroit’s big three automakers. Honda makes many Accords, Civics and Acuras in the U.S., as does Toyota with their Camry, Hyundai’s Sonata, BMW’s Z series, Mercedes, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, and Subaru all make cars in the U.S. using American workers. These car buying options are good for those people wanting to support American jobs, and as with American automakers you have to look at them on a model-by-model basis to see if they are actually “Made in the USA”. Look at the sticker on the window for the country of origin.

Other options for American-made goods are bath towels which I found at Bed, Bath and Beyond which were luxurious and only slightly higher cost than their Chinese and Pakistani-made counterparts in the store. Oh, and buy American-made bottled water. There’s really no excuse for buying water from Fiji, or France, from an ecological standpoint or from an ideological standpoint. Same for beer and wine. There are so many super California wines that there is no excuse for buying wine from anywhere else. And small and large American breweries have a wide variety of tasty beers these days that employ American workers. Buy some American beer if you’re imbibing this weekend. You’ll feel great about it. Without going into everything that’s made in the U.S., some of the bigger items like appliances from Whirlpool, Maytag, and Kenmore are made in the U.S. as are most lawn tractors, and heavy equipment from companies like John Deere, Caterpillar, and Komatsu among others.

The more we Buy American, not because we are against other countries, but because we are for our neighbors, family members, and fellow citizens, the better the chance we’ll have of digging ourselves out of this jobless, economic funk that the U.S. currently finds itself in, despite the monetary policies of the government which continue to choke economic growth.

For more exhaustive lists of American-made products, check out these Made in the USA links:

http://www.usstuff.com/index.htm

http://madeinusa.com/

Butt-Ugly Political Discourse – Par for the 21st Century

At present, the political discourse in my home state of New Jersey is butt-ugly. There’s no more apropos way to say it. Just look at the replies to newspaper blogs and web-posted articles. Look at the political forums on Craigslist, or on the Usenet newsgroups. Look at many of the writers of political blogs and the commenters posting there. (Letters to the editor at newspapers are less venomous, but that’s because there’s an editorial filter there that the Internet doesn’t tend to have.) Is this butt-ugliness confined merely to the Web, where anyone with a computer and an alias can sling mud without personal repercussion? Just imagine if this kind of language was what you could expect when you went to the grocery store, the mall, or work? Not to slander middle-school students unnecessarily, but the communication being displayed is really grade-school/middle-school level communication. Nothing more.

Hmm…it’s not just New Jersey where the discussion lacks decorum. I get that. Pretty much all of the U.S. has the same problem. We’ve all seen it on Facebook. And it’s not just the Internet either. Media personalities engage in mud-slinging too. Bill Maher does it, Michael Moore does it, Keith Olberman and Ed Schultz do it, Mark Levin does it too (though he consistently discusses policy in a high-level manner as well).

So Why? Why does the discussion devolve to middle-school personal attacks, instead of arguments for or against a policy? Sarah Palin is dumb. Joe Biden is a clown. Chris Christie is fat. So-and-so has big ears.

It could be because the easiest attacks to hurl at someone are the ones you don’t have to think about. Or the ones you make up. Look at the person and the first thing that comes to mind is the source of your disparagement. Easy. For Maher’s recent sexist slur, that was Sarah Palin’s gender. Sometimes it’s race, sometimes it’s the size of someone’s nose, sometimes it’s someone’s weight or even age. And many times the personal attacks are just baseless jabs using generalized, well-worn insults.

I have this theory that serious people don’t ever read the comments on blogs, or the comments to online articles because they know that a bunch of uneducated yahoos and uncivilized lurkers are the progenitors of the insults and vitriol that are usually found there. And it is part of the same theory that serious people rarely comment on blogs or online articles for the same reason.

For instance, it’s really disgusting to me to read blog comments like the following:

• “I’d love to see Christie’s response if his food allowance was cut. When you are fat, dumb and happy (and well off your whole life) you cannot connect with working people...”
• “Just another fat cop that thinks he is above the law”
• “She is, as I have said before, hyper-partisan, painfully ignorant, pathologically dishonest, chronically unethical, intellectually unconscious, and jaw-droppingly stupid. And those are her better qualities.”

The person who wrote this last blog comment at the DailyKos blog could not prove or support one of the hate-filled statements that flow with ease through his slanderous blog post. In fact, “painfully ignorant”, “intellectually unconscious”, and “jaw-droppingly stupid” all mean the same thing, so his list is unnecessarily padded, perhaps to bolster the word count for his “editor”, or just to express more completely his hate for a successful woman.  I feel sorry for mal-educated people like him and Bill Maher, and for the fact that they want to exist in this gaseous fog of venom, or as Sean Hannity has put it Palin-derangement syndrome.

All this being said, I have seen useful, thoughtful comments, replies, and blogs all over the Internet, so there’s no need to throw the baby out with the bathwater, but sometimes it’s no inviting bath either. I think it will take a major rejiggering of our society to expect any change on this front, however. When we learn to respect each other more as human beings, each of us struggling to survive as individuals and providers for family members, maybe then we’ll see improvement. When we begin to treat each other with some measure of honor, as is still done in some societies, perhaps then we’ll see more respect. But I’m not holding my breath.

It is indeed hard for me to feel that sort of compassion for a weasel-punk like Bill Maher when he says something like he did about Sarah Palin. I am not a saint after all.

(Comments excerpted from an Asbury Park Press weblog, and the DailyKos)

Idiots and Their Platforms (Michael Ratner Proves That Finks Can Flourish)

This entire, vapid, and unproofread opinion piece* by Michael Ratner for the CNN website, hinges on the terrorist-supported supposition that waterboarding is torture. The truth is, is that it is not a foregone conclusion as Mr. Ratner makes it out to be, and it is not political Machiavellianism that President Bush hasn't been tried for "war crimes" or "torture". There has been no trial because there hasn’t been anything of substance to try anyone for. There is no "there" there.

He calls for legal action against a former leader of this country from outside its borders. That alone is anti-Constitutional. Hey Mr. Ratner, how about spending some time fighting real injustices against United States citizens instead of undermining them and being an advocate for the enemies of the people of this country?

It figures CNN would give this activist lefty a voice on its website.
*Why there should be a case against George W. Bush under torture law; February 19, 2011 by Michael Ratner, special to CNN

Stephen R. Donaldson’s “Against All Things Ending”: A Review

As per usual with Stephen Donaldson’s Thomas Covenant books, I couldn’t wait for this latest tome to come out. It was a good two or three years since the last one, which is a long time when you’re in the middle of a storyline. Against All Things Ending is the third book in the latest series of Thomas Covenant books which is called The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. The fourth book is apparently the book which will wrap up the series and this storyline. I had been under the understanding that the third book was the last one. Not so.

I would actually have liked for this book to be the last one because I am tired of all the angst that the main characters, Covenant and Linden, are always expressing in their thoughts. It really is a labor to get through sometimes. If I had done this, then that wouldn’t have happened. If I hadn’t been so bad, if I hadn’t been so insufficient, if only I hadn’t let everyone down. Blah, blah, blah. There is just too much introspective self-talk in this book (and the other Covenant books) which serves to pad the book’s page count and slow down the action so that everything happens in a Matrix-like time dilation. 

But that’s the only downside for me. I can wade through the characters' piteous non-verbal and verbal monologues because in the main, I care about them. Donaldson creates characters that you care about and root for. And his story is interesting, unusual, and imaginative as well.

In a nutshell, the whole Thomas Covenant series of books deals mainly with Thomas Covenant and Linden Avery, two people who live in the United States, and occasionally find themselves translated, against their wills, to a place called The Land. It is a place kind of like Middle Earth from The Lord of the Rings. Middle ages technology along with giants, wizards, orc-like creatures, omniscient horses, elves, and Earthpower, which is something like “The Force”, etc.

But Donaldson has created a deep and coherent world in The Land which has a history and a cast of characters, races, and beings that it is hard not to love, even if the angst of Linden and Covenant can be a drag on the story sometimes.

This story starts out (after Donaldson provides a refresher chapter to remind everyone what has taken place in past books, a handy feature since the first of these books came out in the 1980s) where the last book left off, with Linden Avery desperate to do something to retrieve her adopted son who is held captive by Lord Foul’s minions. She is again flying by the seat of her pants, and not seeking input from her friends because she is sure they’ll say no or disagree with her, and try and stop her. This is the modus operandi of both her and Covenant throughout the series - sort of going rogue. She has brought Covenant back to mortality, from the Arch of Time where he had been the keeper of Time since his last battle and defeat of Lord Foul. Her act has upset her friends in The Land, and all the other beings of power as well. In fact, this “desecration” has set into motion the End Days by awakening the Worm of the World’s End, a creature that while it is sleeping gives the world its power and vitality, but when awakened seeks to destroy all of the Earth by eating everything and hence snuffing out existence.

She had hoped Covenant would help her find her son and perhaps defeat Lord Foul and his minions again. She also loved him and wanted to be with him. But he is a spirit stuffed back in a mortal body. He is nowhere near whole, or helpful to her in his present, flawed condition. Now they must defeat evil and try to stave off the end of the world as well. A tall order for two reluctant and flawed heroes.

The book is worth the read, especially if you are a fan of the Thomas Covenant books. If you haven’t read them, you could read this book and enjoy it, and even understand it thanks to the refresher chapter. But for the best experience I would read at least the first two books of this series starting with The Runes of the Earth. Enjoy!

Thus begins the long wait for book 4, The Last Dark.

The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant

The Runes of the Earth (2004)

Fatal Revenant (2007)

Against All Things Ending (2010)

The Last Dark (20??)

Ron Paul Blasts TSA and Homeland Security

Representative Ron Paul makes an impassioned case on the floor of the House of Representatives here against the use of the TSA's naked body scanners and the "enhanced patdown" which many are calling sexual assault. He makes a good point also in his bill that the government shouldn't be allowed to do to us what we cannot do to other people, namely touching people inappropriately, and taking nude photos of people and children. A great short speech. Please watch it.

Don't Be Shy If You Want to Fly

John Tyner, to my mind, is a hero defending liberty and decency. He is the young man who refused to be screened by TSA airport scanners which can peer through clothes at someone’s naked body. Then after hearing how he would be felt-up and groped by the “enhanced pat-down” instead, he refused to do that also, saying famously “But if you touch my junk, I’m gonna have you arrested.” After long discussions with TSA officials, he then was escorted from the airport because they wouldn’t allow him to board his flight without the personal intrusion first. (Video of encounter)

And for his refusal to submit to these invasions he is now threatened with an investigation and a $11,000 fine! You must be kidding. For what? Did he break a law? Hey Ms. Napolitano, how about a moratorium on enhanced stupidity? And I hear you’re considering a waver for Muslim women. WHAAAAT?? Good idea. Pretty much the ONLY female suicide bombers that have ever existed have been Islamic extremist women. That would sort of leave a gaping hole in airline safety if you ask me. How about we exempt everyone from personally intrusive searches, unless through investigatory means we find them to be suspicious or to fit an FBI-style profile of a potential bad guy? Let’s look at how a country successful at counter-terrorism does it, ie., Israel. They are more targeted in their screening process, and have been pretty successful in keeping bombers off of their airplanes. Or how about using more bomb-sniffing dogs?

I think we are going to see a lot of bipartisan furor over this policy in the coming days and rightly so. A consumer protest has been suggested for next Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving where people will refuse the scan, opting for the “enhanced patdown” which will have the effect of slowing down passenger screening and gumming up an already slow travel day. Something needs to be done, but accepting the patdown is accepting the equal of two bad equals. Everyone who flies on that day should refuse both screening techniques. If 2,000,000 travelers did that, no planes would fly. Would Janet Napolitano and the TSA be happy then? We the citizen need to be heard again. These are outrageous policies which need to be replaced .

"Those who give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Benjamin Franklin

Layoffs at Work

Yesterday we had another round of layoffs at work (a cyclical occurrence at the company I work for). I feel bad for those who were cut. (I was laid off by the same company three or four years ago and hired back six months later.) But people laid off today have ninety-nine weeks of unemployment to fall back on, so if you're going to lose your job, then now is the time to do it.

I do hope my former co-workers find work quickly however, because I know that it's easy to start feeling down and like you're not contributing to society if you don't have a job for a long period of time. I have a few pointers gained from my experience with being laid off.

First of all, shine up that resume. Make sure it's up to date and everything is spelled properly. Have it proofread or edited by someone else. But seriously, it's a very good idea. We can read something a hundred times and miss something someone else will see after reading it just once. A resume must be perfect.

Next, sign up for LinkedIn, a professional networking website and connect with all your former co-workers and friends. The more contacts you have on there the better the chance you will have of finding work. Get some referrals from them while you're still fresh in their minds. Sign up on and search Careerbuilder.com, Monster.com, and Hotjobs.com. And don't fall for the "make 1000 dollars a week on your computer" scam postings. Also use craigslist.org to search for jobs. There are plenty of legitimate job listings on the site along with the scams. You'll just have to learn to discern between the two. And if you're serious about finding work, put in your status on Facebook that you're looking for work. It can't hurt.

What I also suggest to my former office mates and what I will do myself next time I find myself in that position is to, yes, spend time looking for work every day, but not eight hours a day. You need to spend time advancing any entrepreneurial or freelance projects you may have been thinking of. This is the perfect time to nurture those ideas you may have had to be your own boss.

In my case, I would have spent more time writing and getting things sent out to publishers. But you may want to start a business, and so should put aside some time each day toward reaching that goal. Write a business plan, create some artwork for your portfolio, sell some Avon, take a course in Real Estate. Anything, as long as it is helping you advance your career goals and dreams in some way. It doesn't have to be Careerbuilder, Monster, and resumes all day long.

And after eight hours on the job hunt and the personal career development hunt, "Go home", as usual and do your normal after work routine. Exercise, cook, help your kids with their homework, go bowling. Operating in this way will help to keep you sane and calm in a distressing time.

Good luck on your future my friends. I hope it is full of success and happiness. It was a pleasure working with you.

Elections in U.S. a Boon for Liberty

This is a good week with plenty of political sun shining in the USA. Tuesday's mid-term election has been called a "historical win", "a wave election", "a tsunami", "an earthquake", "a drubbing", “a repudiation”, and "a shellacking". While we don't have a new Captain for our ship, we do have a fine new crew, and they were put there by the restless people of this great land to keep the ship from hitting any more icebergs. Or, to use President Obama's (wrong) overused analogy, "to get us out of the ditch", that he and Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid have driven us into.

Republicans won 240 seats in the House of Representatives, gaining 60+ seats and taking the majority in that body. The GOP also gained 6 or more seats in the Senate, improving their number there to 46+ and leaving Democrats with a slimmer majority in that body. What this historical shift in power means is that there won't be one party rule any longer and there will be an actual check in the system of "checks and balances".

Some of the bright spots of the day include: Marco Rubio winning a U.S. senate seat from Florida against political chameleon Governor Charlie Crist. Pat Toomey grabbing a senate seat in blue Pennsylvania was also great. Michele Bachmann winning re-election to the House was excellent since she is a big Tea Party booster, and Nikki Haley winning the governorship of South Carolina is good news for that state. State legislatures were also greatly affected with Republicans gaining 680+ seats in all statehouses.

Being originally from Michigan I should also express happiness that the Democrat chokehold there has been relieved somewhat, which I hope will bring some fiscal economic relief to that downtrodden state. They have a new Republican governor, senator, and a state legislature firmly in Republican hands.

Unfortunately, in my district in New Jersey, the Tea Party backed candidate for the U.S. House, Anna Little, did not beat the entrenched Democrat Frank Pallone, who brags that the Health Care bill was "his bill". However, she did put up a hell of a fight. He is a hard-core liberal this Pallone and I am sad to see he won, but happy to know that now he will be in the minority party.

Christine O'Donnell of Delaware and Sharon Angle of Nevada were two high profile Tea Party backed Senate candidates who put up good fights but lost mostly due to voluminous slander by their opponents and the mainstream press.

And in the greatest puzzle of the day, I will never understand how someone (Jerry Brown) who wrecked the economy of California in his previous eight years as governor there could be elected to do it all over again (at this critical time!), over a candidate (Meg Whitman) who ran many companies successfully and made billions of dollars doing it. But it’s not like she'd have the financial chops to run California compared to someone who already failed at the job, right? One has to question what the voters, even Democrats, were thinking in CA.

There were two other big winners in this election: The Tea Party movement and Sarah Palin. Mrs. Palin was a big winner because she took her star power, her political capital,  and conservative ideals into every nook and cranny of this country in support of conservative Republicans, many of whom were running for the first time in their lives for office. And in most every case it helped the candidate greatly. This increased Palin's visibility as well as her political savoir faire.

The Tea Party movement, which is basically the voice of the quiet majority, showed that it has the clout to get people elected, the ideals to attract a large membership, and the power to sway law makers. This despite slander from the media and politicians. But the Tea Party movement is just a frame for a large number of Americans who are dissatisfied with an out-of-control government.

In the end, it was just the American people who came out on Tuesday and demanded change with their votes. A fine example for a democratic republic like the United States of America.

Pledge Is a Blueprint for Change

Voter’s in the U.S. should pay scant attention to political attack advertising on television and radio in the last few days of this election cycle and read the “Pledge to America” authored by Republican members of the House of Representatives. This is a short document (a PDF with lots of nice photos) that they wrote for, and at the behest of a clamoring and suffering American public. It is similar to Congressional Republican’s 1994 “Contract with America” which provided a list of planned governing actions and promises to voters of that year’s elections.

Similarly, the “Pledge to America” outlines Republicans’ promises to "turn this ship around", with concrete actions that they will take if they are elected to a majority on November 2, 2010. The Pledge’s promises reference the Constitution and Constitutionality often.

If Republicans do gain a majority on November 2 (as they appear likely to) and follow through on the reforms, repeals, and economic resuscitation that is outlined in this document, it is clear that this country will again be headed down a path toward a stronger future. It’s a deal changer that will give the incoming freshman electees and veteran congressmen a blueprint for governing by the people and for the people.

Read it before you pass judgement and call it and the Republicans the same old same old political posturing. Holding the line against tax increases, cutting government spending, enabling job creation, fixing the economy, Congressional transparency, national security – there’s a lot to like in the Pledge if you want the country to get on track for a better future. There is a determination in the Pledge and in many Republicans, inspired by the Tea Parties, to answer the challenge set by the citizens of this country to do something about out of control government.

And as always, don't take for granted the outcome of any election. Nothing is a sure thing. VOTE!

Goldilocks Planet May Not Even Exist

Gliese 581

About two weeks ago, I was one of the only voices on the Internet raising a skeptical eyebrow at all the fantastic claims surrounding the alleged new planet, Gliese 851g. Now it appears that another group of astronomers from Switzerland have questioned the supposed planet’s existence using some of the same data as the original researchers. Using an expanded data set from the HARPS instrument on the La Silla telescope at the European Southern Observatory in Chile, this group was unable to find evidence for the planet at all.

In a Space.com interview, one of the original researchers, Steven Vogt said that he was confident in his conclusions and found it odd that the Swiss researchers didn’t use data from the HIRES instrument on the Keck telescope at Hawaii's Keck Observatory which he said was needed in addition to the other data to reliably detect the new planet.

The new information was announced at an astronomy conference, as many new discoveries are, but it is the actual published scientific paper which needs to be scrutinized by other scientists before any conclusion can be come to.

My point is that the chickens were counted way before they hatched regarding Gliese 851g, and even if the planet is found to exist, it is still just a tug on a star, and any other information is speculation.

Astronomers' Excitement Misleads the Press and the Public

Europa

The National Science Foundation (NSF) announced findings by several astronomers on Wednesday that they have found a planet on which the "chances for life on this planet are 100 percent,” as was stated by Steven Vogt of the University of California at Santa Cruz, one of the co-discoverers of the planet, in an AP article.

Based on the paltry information these astronomers have to work with, this statement is ludicrous. Even if they were to say there is a fifty percent or even a twenty percent chance, that would still be pie-in-the-sky daydreaming.

The only things they “know” about Gliese 581g are its mass, its distance from its sun Gliese 581, and its orbital period. Everything else they know is inferred from these few facts.

And the reason they know so little is that they didn’t find this planet through the end of an optical telescope and see it, or send a space probe to look at it. Nope. Instead they used a sketchy (to me) twenty year-old technique, which surmises a planet’s existence by measuring variations in the star's radial velocity. This is basically the star’s velocity as it appears to astronomers in spectrographs, which can be affected by the tugs of planets as they circle the central star. It’s sort of like staring at a tree on the side of the crowded New Jersey Turnpike and watching the leaves blow, and then guessing what kind of vehicle just went by. And who was driving it.

So for all these astronomers (and media pundits) know, Gliese 581g is a rock like Mercury or the Moon, bigger, but still just a rock.

But because this planet, which is supposedly three times larger than Earth, resides in what they call the Goldilocks zone (a place in a solar system a certain distance from a sun where a planet could support liquid water), a lot of energy is being given to the idea that it might have some form of life on it.

Let us recognize that Venus, an extremely inhospitable planet in our solar system, resides in this solar system's Goldilock's zone. It is its poisonous and thick atmosphere that make it uninhabitable, not to mention its 800 degree surface temperature.

The planet Mars also resides in the Goldilocks zone and may have had life on it, or may have never had life on it. It would most likely have liquid water on it now if it had a slightly denser atmosphere, and were therefore warmer. This may have been true in the past. The point is, it doesn’t now.

There is a moon of the planet Jupiter called Europa which may very well have life on it in liquid oceans under its cracked, but frozen surface. This extremely cold place is well outside the sun's Goldilock's zone.

The Washington Post article concerning this story also says that there are six or seven planets including Gliese 581g closer to this star than Earth is to our own Sun, including at least one Jupiter-type planet.

The close orbital proximity of all these large planets may wreak upon Gliese 581g unknown effects due to gravitational interactions between them. For instance, very large planets tend to attract or divert more asteroids and comets, possibly causing life-killing sized asteroids to smash into the surface of said planet at a more frequent rate than happens on Earth. It has been suggested that the dinosaurs and other animals on Earth may have been killed at one or more times by asteroids which smashed into the planet like 10,000 nuclear bombs causing a dust induced winter which killed off all but the heartiest species. This would make things very inhospitable for life if it happens once, but if too often, then life will never have a chance to get going before the next global killer comet or asteroid.

The very idea of a Goldilock's zone is something which is misleading and the press and the public are eating it up because it makes for great press. There are so many factors to consider beyond saying "Here is a rock that's in the right place, so it must have water and life on it."

Since there is no evidence that this is anything but a rock at a supposedly propicious distance from its sun, inferences beyond this are irresponsible, media grabbing, and wild speculation. Let's wait until we have real evidence in hand before making claims like these or even suggesting them.

Election Day 2010 -- A New Dawn for Liberty

November 2, 2010 is going to be a grand and ebullient day! The political party in power is going to be given a political spanking that, while it may not be unprecedented, is certainly one of the most memorable and necessary of recent history. There have not been many high points politically since the Democrats monopolized federal power in 2008, but the first Tuesday in November will be a pinnacle. (Actually the citizen activism of the past year or two has also been a heartening high point.)

November’s peaceful shift of power will be one of the beautiful strengths and wonders of our representative democracy. It shows that when most of the people don't like the way things are going they vote to get rid of "the bums".

Unfortunately, in most years the people who already hold the office, the incumbents, win elections hands down, almost by default, due mainly to voter apathy, but also to political machinery. Things are different now. In 2006 and 2008, there was general discontent with Republicans and, incumbents included, they were voted  out of the House of Representatives and the Senate, giving Democrats control of the Legislative branch in 2006 and the Executive branch in 2008.

However, in 2010, a huge swath of voters feels that Democrats in the Congress and the Obama White House have overreached, overspent, overlegislated, crippled the economic recovery and changed the country in other damaging ways.

The people who will be voted into office in November in many cases are not professional politicians, they are people who are fed up with the status quo, who will actually do things differently because they have a mandate and will be voted into office with many, many like-minded individuals. They and the Tea Party will hold the political establishment’s feet to the proverbial fire.

That's the good that the Tea Party process has brought to the political landscape --highlighting the bad stuff that's going on and supporting those who want to reverse it.

Of course you don't like the Tea Party and how it resonates with most Americans if you are for spending trillions of dollars, if you're against enforcing our border laws, if you're for weakening our defenses, if you're for higher taxes, and if you’re for redistribution of wealth.

Liberals can rail against the Tea Party, and Independents, Conservatives, and Republicans all they want to, and they can lie and make claims about how great things are and all the wonderful things the Democrat congress and the President have done, but in the end, the truth is plain in the economy, in the housing market and job market, in the promises that were made and not realized. On November 2, checks and balances will be restored to the government. Not as much will get done, and that's a damn good thing because in general Congress isn't doing much that's good anyway. On November 2, two party government will be restored to the United States government.

And speaking as a New Jerseyan, what would make November 2 even better would be if New Jersey's two liberal/socialist senators were standing for re-election because a Lautenburg and Menendez defeat would be the icing on the electoral cake.

But don’t take election day victories for either side for granted – get to your polling place and vote!

ACLU vs. God

The American Civil Liberties Union (aka The Progressives for Litigation Union, or the Anti Christian Lawyers Union) on behalf of Sharon Brenner Cadalzo has brought a lawsuit against the town of Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey to stop a Christian prayer from being said before every town council meeting.

Ms. Cadalzo, who is Jewish, said it made her uncomfortable to hear the Christian prayer. The prayer she was "subjected" to was The Lord's Prayer. My question for Ms. Cadalzo, Why would it make you uncomfortable to hear a prayer to your own God? The Lord's Prayer was spoken by Jesus and his disciples and followers and refers to the Judeo/Christian God – the same God and creator of the universe the Jewish people pray to. The words of this prayer are hardly foreign ideas to Jews and the prayer is in fact similar to some Jewish prayers and phraseology contained in the Jewish Bible. So in my mind it engenders some incredulity and some suspicions as to the motivation for her taking this action.

So by now you may think I'm heading in one direction about this topic. But you'd be wrong. While I absolutely disagree with the idea of taking celebratory symbols and decorations like Christmas trees and Menorahs off of public property, because cultural celebration is not proselytizing, in this case I have to agree with the ACLU and Ms. Cadalzo.

Though the Christian prayer wouldn't make me uncomfortable being Catholic myself, I do think in this day and age when there are so many other religions interacting in public life (and so many atheists, bless their souls) that perhaps it is unfair. The prayer certainly does seem to run afoul of the state and federal constitutions, though in the end, that is an interpretive matter for the Judges or Justices to decide.

I have to say that if I was at a town council meeting and the council president, or clerk kneeled and said a prayer towards Mecca, I would be uncomfortable. Additionally, there are lots of people in New Jersey from India. Maybe some of them would like prayers said to the Hindu gods Vishnu or Brahma. And where would the line be drawn.

In this one case regarding the ACLU, I have to agree. That's one can of worms that should not have been opened in the United States and in New Jersey. Public officials, performing public duties should not be reciting the prayers of any religion before or during public business. It is an activity leaning too close to the sanctioning of a particular religion. 

Two books you might enjoy...
The ACLU vs. America: Exposing the Agenda to Redefine Moral Values.....

In Defense of American Liberties, Second Edition: A History of the ACLU

Lord Monckton Lecture Debunks Global Warming Theory

Watch this 2009 video complete with PowerPoint presentation slides, (a la Al Gore's fiction piece An Inconvenient Truth) in which Lord Christopher Monckton goes through the scientific evidence bit by bit, totally disassembling the shaky science and convenient lies of Global Warming theory. Though it can be a little tedious at times with all the numbers and data, Monckton is an engaging lecturer and the facts he presents are really the last nails in the coffin of human-caused Global Warming.

It's well worth the hour and a half viewing time.

Wikileaks - Saboteurs of the Public Good

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, said the leak of the Afghanistan war documents creates a real potential threat to put American lives at risk.

This Julian Assange who runs the Wikileaks website and the people who supplied U.S. government documents that may hurt troops on the field and may also reduce operational effectiveness (ie. undermine the war against al Qaida, the Taliban, and terrorism) should be rounded up for being traitors if they live in this country and as enemy combatants if they live in another country. It’s hard enough to win a war without our own citizens undermining the efforts of the free countries of the world to win the fight against oppressive and evil regimes, and organizations.

Government secrets are secrets for a reason. While there may be damning information in any cache of documents, when citizens obtain state secrets and release them, they are practicing statecraft without a license. Sort of like if they decided to tell a surgeon what cuts to make on a patient in surgery, or backseat air traffic controlling. They are assuming that they know better than said government about the issue that the state is trying to keep secret.

In this case, it works out to be an anti-west, anti-US, anti-good, pro-bad guys theft and release of government secrets.

Again, it is my opinion that everyone involved in this "state secrets dump" in a substantial way should be tried as a traitor or an enemy combatant and taken to Guantanamo Bay. They are not a force for public good and may be putting American and NATO troops at risk. There are watchdogs and there are saboteurs. Wikileaks founder and his cohorts are saboteurs.

Russian Spies Seek to Undermine U.S.

Well, surprise, surprise. Considering how Russia has been acting, really since KGB man Vladimir Putin has had anything to do with the Russian government, we shouldn't drop our jaws in amazement at the breaking news which greets us this week concerning Russian spies being deeply ensconced in American society. Eleven undercover agents (I wouldn't be surprised if there are many more) have been arrested for their "alleged" spying activities for the Russian intelligence service (SVR). They were living among us, and paid by the Russian government to feed it information gathered surreptitiously about U.S. government activities.

In 2010. Not 1975. Ze cold var is zupposed to be over! Chya! I mean Nyet!

I hope that this will wake up someone in the U.S. government to the duplicitousness of Putin, Medvedev and the Russian government. They can't be trusted as far as they can be thrown. But it's a hopeless wish. (See my article below concerning Russia and Iran.)

What is our government's attitude toward this unfriendly activity? It is a cavalier, practically light-hearted response. This very week the White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said that this would not affect relations between the two countries. Really? Here is a foreign government acting even more maliciously and underhandedly than usual and it won't affect the relationship?

No. The Obama regime excels at turning a blind eye to things that harm American interests and sovereignty.

What exactly would it take for this administration to have a relationship affected? Instead of President Obama saying that this is a troubling development if true, it was said by Baghdad Bob Gibbs that the president had NO personal opinion on the matter.

Of course not, why should the president of the United States have an opinion on foreign nationals allegedly spying on the country?

Unfortunately (using golfing terminology that Obama will be quite comfortable with), that is par for the course with this president. He is willing to allow foreign nationals free entry to the U.S., free and unlimited use of our services, displace U.S. workers by taking jobs from them, and now he wants to pardon and amnesty them.

I suspect if he had an opinion about the Russian spies, it would be similar to his stand on illegal aliens. Let them come out of the shadows, pardon them, give them healthcare, make them citizens and give them a DNC membership card.

Don't worry. It's more like they were stealing pickles from the pickle jar, than stealing state secrets. Mhmm.

That's not the point at the same time that it is. We need to worry very much about the information they may have gotten past the FBI, but we also need to worry what else Russia is doing to undermine us.

The rest of us need to worry even if the Obama regime doesn't.