Brown Vs. Coakley : Down To The Wire In Massachusetts

The special election in Massachusetts to fill the open seat left by Ted Kennedy's death continues to heat up.

Republican Scott Brown continues to pick up momentum against Democrat Attorney General Martha Coakley, who appears more clueless and gaffe prone with every day that passes.

Brown did very well in the debate Coakley finally consented to, coming up with the money line of the evening. When asked how he rationalized filling Ted Kennedy's seat because of Brown's opposition to ObamaCare, Brown responded "It's not Kennedy's seat, it's the people's seat"

The same debate saw Coakley declaring that there were no terrorists in Afghanistan, something that would be news to the men and women we have fighting them there.

Amid a number of other silly statements, she's also going to go down in campaign history for putting out an attack ad on Brown that actually misspelled the name of the state she hopes to represent.

Unfortunately, Coakley also not only a liar but a transparently poor one, as shown by her insistence that she 'didn't see anything' when Weekly Standard reporter John McCormack was thrown to the ground while trying to get a question in by a burly Democratic apparatchnik named Michael Meehan..even after this photo surfaced:



Meehan, by the way, is an Obama appointee to the Broadcasting Board of Governors with some obviously useful talents, given the nature of the administration. For her part, Coakley has not ousted Meehan from her campaign or even done the obvious thing and apologized - although Meehan eventually did.

She is, in short, a pillowcase, with what few ideas she does have being exceedingly dangerous -just as I told you earlier.

That in itself may not matter. There are a number of people in Massachusetts who would rather vote for a neanderthal over Jesus, as long as the caveman had a 'd' after his name on the ballot.

At this point, Coakley understands that, or more likely made to understand that as top Democratic operatives have been flown in to work the campaign. Coakley has been the recipient of huge financing from both The Democrat Senate Campaign Committee and the boys at the SEIU, and she's started using the money to fund particularly nasty attack ads. Significantly,comments are disabled on her YouTube channel, a sure sign that she knows the ad is factually challenged in the extreme. I wouldn't be surprised at this point if she puts out ads accusing Scott Brown of child molesting, robbing church collection plates and poisoning cute, fluffy puppies.

Meanwhile, Scott Brown has been denied any national support by the RNC, thanks to the self-absorbed cretin running it...although he's done decently raising funds on his own from conservatives through sheer momentum and exposure on conservative talk radio and blogs.

As an added ace up her sleeve, Coakley also has ACORN making a special effort to get the vote out for her in their special way, so we can expect votes from corpses and people with names like Daffy Duck, Ima F.Raud and Izzy Dunyet with addresses at the local Democratic party campaign office or city library.

The idea of course, even if Brown squeaks out what looks like a win is to delay certifying the results as long as possible so that he doesn't become the forty first vote in the Senate and torpedo ObamaCare. As a matter of fact, the Dems are working from that very possibility, strategizing on how to finish the heist before Brown can be sworn in just in case he actually does win.

Of course, if it is nailbiter close, the Dems will probably delay things until they can find enough votes in the trunk of a car or something to give Coakley the win. Meanwhile, Paul Kirk,the current placeholder in the seat has already said that he'd vote for Obamacare if given the chance.

How will it all end up? Scott Brown actually had the right take on it.The Senate seat belongs to the people of Massachusetts. And if they'd rather have a brain-dead tool like Martha Coakley representing them, the choice is theirs.

The senate election is January 19th, one day before the end of Prez Zero's first year in office. Call me optimistic, but it does occur to me than electing Scott Brown to the Senate would make a superb anniversary present for the current occupant of the White House.

Just a little something to go with the morning coffee, as it were.

American Muslim Conference On 'Intolerance' Is A Vehicle For Jew Hatred

Omri over at Mere Rhetoric has the story on an Islamic Summit in Chicago that was billed as a conference to promote peace and tolerance, condemn terrorism and combat the increasing radicalization of Muslim-American youths. Not unexpectedly, since CAIR, The Muslim American Society (MAS) and the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA)were the chief organizers, it turned into something different:

Rafiq Jaber, former president of the Islamic Association of Palestine, described Jews to the audience as "the worst kind of people," who came to Jerusalem "with false pretenses."... The ADL cited Hamed Ghazali, chairman of the MAS Council of Islamic Schools and professor at the Islamic American University in Michigan, as telling the audience in Arabic that "Allah gave us the Jews"... Other speakers -- specifically Egyptian Sheik Raghib Al Serjani -- argued that the eradication of the state of Israel is a religious duty... Materials sold... included books and CDs by anti-Semitic sheiks such as Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a leading Muslim Brotherhood leader based in Qatar who is known for terrorist connections. Another radical cleric whose wares were available... was Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S.-born Muslim cleric who has encouraged American Muslims to wage jihad against the U.S. He has been tied to Fort Hood shooting suspect Maj. Nidal Hasan and Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.

The MAS folks, for their part, are shocked anyone thinks their speakers were being specifically antisemitic. At first I thought they were being absurd but from a certain perspective they kind of have a point. The stuff about waging anti-American jihad was a running and prominent theme throughout the conference - apparently we're on Allah's land - but that doesn't necessarily have anything to do with Jews.

And the stuff about destroying Israel can't be "over the top" either. Sure it might sound antisemitic to de facto advocate the massacre of millions of Jews, a vital prerequisite to destroying the Jewish State. But "Palestine from the river to the sea" has been a staple of MAS organizing for years, and MAS is committed to combating intolerance, so that can't be intolerant. QED.

This is right in line with the standard Muslim Brotherhood ideology, the group behind the MAS and CAIR. And CAIR of course is an unindicted co-conspirator in a number of terrorist trials including the Holy Land Foundation, so no surprises here. Rather than fighting the increased radicalization of American Muslims, these people are facilitating it.

Not that there aren't a number of peaceful Muslims. A fairly brave group of them in Detroit held a rally outside the courthouse after the Christmas Crotch Bomber was arraigned to show that Islamist terrorists don't represent Islam, and in the words of their leader to show that "We're going to take our religion back."

Between 12 and 50 people showed up, depending on who was counting.

Between 12 and 50 people, in the largest Muslim community in America, with an area Muslim population estimated at about 300,000.

Miep Gies, Rest In Peace

It's one thing to theorize about courage and moral responsibility.It's very different to act on those principles, when acting on them means death.

Miep Gies, who passed away Monday at 100 years old was one such person who passed that ultimate test.

During the Nazi occupation, Miep Gies was one of a team of Dutch citizens who helped to hide Anne Frank and her family from the Nazis for two years, and the person who saw to it that Anne Frank's diary did not fall into the hands of her Nazi murderers:

The family stayed in the secret room from July 1942 until August 4, 1944, when they were arrested by Gestapo and Dutch police after being betrayed by an informant. Two of Gies' team were arrested that day, but she and her friend, Bep Voskuijl, were left behind -- and found 14-year-old Anne's papers.

"And there Bep and I saw Anne's diary papers lying on the floor. I said, 'Pick them up!' Bep stood there staring, frozen. I said, 'Pick them up! Pick them up!' We were afraid, but we did out best to collect all the papers," Gies said in a 1998 interview with The Anne Frank House in Amsterdam.

"Then we went downstairs. And there we stood, Bep and I. I asked, 'What now, Bep?' She answered, 'You're the oldest. You hold on to them. So I did."

The girl had chronicled two years of the emotions and fears that gripped her during hiding, as well as candid thoughts on her family, her feelings for friend-in-hiding Peter van Pels, and dreams of being a professional writer. Mixed into the entries were the names of the Dutch helpers, who risked their lives to keep the family's secret.

"I didn't read Anne's diary papers. ... It's a good thing I didn't because if I had read them I would have had to burn them," she said in the 1998 interview. "Some of the information in them was dangerous."

The diary was sheltered in Gies' desk drawer and later turned over to Otto Frank when he returned after the war as the only surviving resident of the annex. Anne died at northern Germany's Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945.

After the war, Ms. Gies turned the diaries over to Anne's father, Otto Frank, the only surviving member of the family.

Miep Giles apparently never considered herself a hero.Perhaps she didn't realize exactly how heroic she was, because her kind of courage is much rarer than that found on the battlefield.

I have no doubt that Miep Gies bravery has now been recognized by the Father of us all.

Hell Comes To Haiti

Haiti, a country that has seen more than its share of misery just got hit with a horrific addition - a 7.0 earthquake outside Port-Au-Prince, the capitol city and largest population center.

Haiti is one of the world's poorest countries. Most people have very little except the minimum needed to survive, and now many of them have lost even that.



Building codes are non-existent in Haiti as they are in most poor countries, so the effect of the quake was particularly devastating, with buildings crumbling into rubble or being pancaked. The death toll will likely run into the thousands.

Basic services like food, water and power are non-existent.Hospitals in Port-au-Prince collapsed, including all three facilities run by Doctors Without Borders. Dozens of other buildings were destroyed or sustained heavy damage, including a building in the presidential compound, the U.N. headquarters and the landmark Hotel Montana.

The National Penitentiary collapsed as well and the any of the almost 4,000 inmates who survived escaped adding to the potential security problems that could arise if people resort to looting. That sort of thing has happened before in Haiti when disasters have hit, and even though there's a 11,000 strong UN peacekeeping force there doesn't necessarily mean it won't happen again.

President Obama issued a statement promising a "swift, coordinated and aggressive" U.S. response:

"The reports and images that we've seen of collapsed hospitals, crumbled homes and men and women carrying their injured neighbors through the streets are truly heart-wrenching," Obama said.

Aside from the sheer effort of getting aid to the country, digging people out of the rubble and restoring basic services the biggest problem will be keeping the aid and money out of the hands of the Haitian government as much as possible. Many of them will literally resell the aid to desperate people to line their own pockets.

Here are a few carefully selected ways to help:

• The American Red Cross International Response Fund.

• Yele Haiti Earthquake Fund

• The Salvation Army via: Online Credit Card Donations at 1-800-SAL-ARMY or you can mail them at: The Salvation Army World Service Office
  International Disaster Relief Fund
  PO Box 630728
  Baltimore, MD 21263-0728
  (*designate checks and money orders to ‘Haiti Earthquake’)

• Food For the Poor

• American Jewish World Service

• Catholic Relief Services

• World Vision

More at Fausta's place, at Michelle Malkin's and at The Anchoress.

Watcher's Council Nominations..Light Skinned, And Without Any Dialect Unless We Wanna

Does anybody identify the people in the picture?

Welcome to the latest edition of the Watcher's Council nominations, some of the best writing from a group of the most incisive blogs in the`sphere. Every week, the members nominate two posts each, one of their own and one from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council. The Council votes to pick the winners in each category and the results can be seen in this space on Friday morning.

COUNCIL NEWS:

No one took advantage of our generous link whorage offer this week, earning an honorable mention. If you wish to have your blog earn an honorable mention and have a piece of yours appear on the Watcher's Council page next week, the opportunity is open and up for grabs.

Here's how you do it:

Make a post on your site linking to this week's Council winners when they're posted Friday morning.

Send me an e-mail by Tuesday 5 PM with the subject line 'link whorage' at rmill2k@msn.com with a link to the post you wrote linking to this week's winners and a link to a new piece you've written and want to showcase that you want to appear here the following week.

We''ll do the rest, and the increased traffic and the resulting fame and notoriety are all yours!

So, without further ado, let's see what we have this week....

Council Submissions

• Wolf Howling - National Security At The End Of Obama's First Year


• Joshuapundit - It Begins: Obama Threatens Aid Cutoffs For Israel


• Rhymes With Right - On The Left-Wing Freak-Out Over Brit Hume’s Public Christianity


• Right Truth - By Hook or By Crook - How Democrats Plan to win in 2010 and 2012


• Soccer Dad - Mitchell on negotiation: getting to "no"


• Bookworm Room- The need for an honest, 21st century debate about abortion


• Mere Rhetoric - Obama Loosening Border Enforcement, State Dept. "Diversity Visas"
  Bringing In Thousands From Terror-Sponsoring Countries


• The Glittering Eye - Reinventing "Reinventing Government"


• American Digest - The 2010 Election Season is Now OPEN: "What Happened to the Republicans I Used to Know?"


• The Provocateur - The 355th and our Agent Orange Legacy in Thailand


• The Colossus of Rhodey - The Politics of "Avatar"


• The Razor - Republicans Aren't Ready

Non-Council Submissions

• Submitted By: Wolf Howling – Big Lizards - Voting Rights for Felons: "Race Neutral" = Race Biased


• Submitted By: Rhymes With Right – Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion - Call Dems Bluff On Refusing To Seat Scott Brown


• Submitted By: Bookworm Room – American Thinker/Rabbi Aryeh Spero - President Obama must choose sides


• Submitted By: Right Truth – Family Security Matters/ Dr. Sami Alrabaa - Is Muslim Blood More Precious than Christian Blood? The Hypocrisy of Western Politicians


• Submitted By: Mere Rhetoric – Tnooz - Ex counter-terrorism official labels TSA rules ‘criminal negligence’ and calls for tech solutions


• Submitted By: The Glittering Eye – Chicago Boyz - America: You Need A Policy Chimp


• Submitted By: American Digest– Rough Type - Mr. Tracy's Library


• Submitted By: Joshuapundit – Ace of Spades Culture Clash on Video: CNN Anchorette Wants to Know Why Truck Dealer's Motto Is "God, Guns, Guts, and American Pick-Up Trucks"


• Submitted By: The Provocateur – Dick Morris - Urgent: Help Us Win in Massachsetts


• Submitted By: The Colossus of Rhodey – The Chronicle of Higher Education - Green Guilt


• Submitted By: Soccer Dad – Neo-Neocon - Can Mr. Brown Go To Washington?


• Submitted By: The Razor – Newsbusters - Newsweek's Fineman: 'Pretty Much Everybody' Favors Dems Vs. GOP's 'Terrible Record' on Race

Obama Deigns To Meet With House republicans

My, my! So nice of the president to notice that there are Republicans in the House of Representatives:

President Barack Obama will address House Republicans next week at their annual retreat in Baltimore, deputy White House press secretary Bill Burton said Tuesday afternoon.

It’s a show of bipartisanship after a year rife with tumult in the relationship between the president and the minority in the House. House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia and House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence of Indiana have taken swipes at nearly every one of the White House’s priorities — ranging from sweeping health care overhaul to stimulus legislation.

I love that...a 'show of bi-partisanship' after Obama and the Democrats actually locked Republicans out of the room to tailor the bogus stimulus bill, after dancing on long-standing rules of both the House and Senate and treating members of the GOP like garbage, after the clandestine schemes, outright lies and last minute bribes and deals from the administration that pledged to be 'the most transparent in history'...an dafter all that, now Obama is supposedly making a gesture towards bi-partisanship?

Eric Cantor,House minority whip has the right of it:

But even as news emerged that Obama will speak to House Republicans, Cantor took a jab at the president. On rare occasions when Republicans were invited to the White House, Cantor said, Republicans were paid “lip service while the cameras were on, only to completely rebuff those ideas afterward.”

“It is important to ask whether the president plans to meet with Republicans, or speak to them,” Cantor said in a statement.

Even veteran GOP legislators like John McCain and Cantor have made it known openly that the White House has never even attempted to meet with any of them on policy.

And now, Obama has the nerve to deign to speak to the GOP House members?

I suppose they can't refuse to have him drop by, but at this point I'm sure they realize that it's simply a PR stunt on Obama's part and not even worth the bother of attending.As a matter of fact, it would be a fitting and well-deserved response if most of them found some other business to attend to when Obama drops by.

Let Zero spread his horse manure in front of someone else.

The Chief Rabbi Of Israel: Fast And Pray For Rain To End Israel's Drought

The Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel, Shlomo Amar, has made a special request that Jews fast and pray this Thursday for rain to ease Israel's drought:

In a letter written on official stationery of the State of Israel, Amar explained to the public that most of the winter season has passed without the "rains of blessing", and with Israel's water flow "limited and coming with great suffering," after several years of below average rainfall. "The Kinneret is almost totally dry," he lamented.

Rabbi Amar promised the public that a solution can be found in the collective and individual actions of the Jews of Israel. "It is our obligation in this situation to look inward and to actualize [good] deeds, to draw near to G-d with all our hearts, and to pour out our pleas to Him with a broken and forlorn heart."

Rabbi Amar called on all those who care about the continued presence and success of Jews in the Land of Israel to fast and pray on Thursday, the 28th day of Tevet. Those who have difficulty fasting, he says, should fast at least half the day. He also encouraged Jews to congregate in synagogues to say Selichot (penitence) prayers and Psalms.

If the Jews do these things, Rabbi Amar says, "the great G-d will not reject, He will hear His poor ones, He will see His impoverished ones and hear our prayers, and will fulfill our requests with kindness and mercy, return His winds and waters will flow… with mercy on our nation and on the inheritance of our fathers."

There's a special prayer for rain here, for those of you whom read Hebrew. And for those of you wishing to honor the Rabbi's request, the 28th day of Tevet is this Thursday, January 14th.

For those of you not of the Jewish persuasion, I'm sure a moment of prayer for rain for Israel this Thursday would have much merit and help a great deal.

Must See: CNN Anchorette's Bigotry Unmasked By Truck Dealer

This has to be one of the best smackdowns of an elitest leftard I've seen in some time.

Gun owning G-d fearing Christian businessman,one....Leftard, zero!

Guess the first place I'd check out if I needed a car or truck?
I'd see Mark Muller at Max Motors, of course.

Aside from his motto of "G-d, Guns, Guts, and American Pick-Up Trucks" and his straight forward 'tude, I like the fact that he's not at all apologetic about his Boss being a Jewish carpenter.

Full disclosure: I neither asked for nor received a dime from Mark Muller or anyone else for writing this.Just enjoyed the vid.

(h/t, Ace)

What Harry Reid And The Democrats Are Really Saying About America

By now, most of you know about how Harry Reid described then-candidate Barack Obama in 2008 to author Mark Halperin as a "light-skinned" with "no Negro dialect unless he wants to have one".

As I predicted,all of Reid's fellow Democrats, everyone from President Obama to the < Congressional Black Caucus are circling the wagons around the Senate Majority leader.

Reid, you see, is down for the Agenda and thus bullet proof with these people.

But it goes deeper than that.

What Reid was really saying is that America is a racist country and would never get behind anyone who looks too dark skinned and who sounds too authentically 'black.'

Needless to say, this fits in perfectly with the Democrat's view of their own country, and its likely especially true when it comes to the President and the majority of the CBC.

I'd love them to show me another country in the world outside of Africa or a few nations in the Caribbean where black people have anything remotely like the presence, opportunities and influence American blacks enjoy in the political establishment, academia, business and the arts as they do here in America.

Racism can partially be defined as having an inordinate concentration on race to the exclusion of all other considerations.

Based on that, I think we know whom the real racists are. No matter how it gets spun.

Guess Who's Helping Fund The US Budget Deficit? Israel!

It's very common for Jew haters like Andrew Sullivan or Michael Scheuer to say that the US 'gets nothing' from its relationship with Israel.

Not only are they absurdly wrong from a strategic and military point of view, but from a simple dollar and cents angle as well.

You see, all threats by Obama and George Mitchell to cut off aid to Israel aside, it's Israel that is helping the US finance its massive deficit,not the other way around:

At the height of the 2002 recession, the Israeli government approached the US Administration and asked that it approve loan guarantees that would enable Jerusalem to raise capital internationally. In exchange for these guarantees, Israel was asked to pay a risk premium in advance

Back then already, Israel did not really need to raise capital abroad. A surplus was emerging in our international balance of payments that only grew in later years. The request from America was made for reasons of political backing and display of trust and support. The guarantees were approved in April 2003 to the tune of $9 billion over three years.

Since October 2004, Israel has made no use of the guarantees, whose validity was extended from time to time. A total of $3.8 billion in unused loan guarantees are just lying there.

A year ago, on the eve of the elections, both Netanyahu and Barak spoke about the possibility of using the guarantees as a lever that would pull the economy out of recession. After the elections they examined the statistics and discovered that Israel has a huge foreign currency surplus relative to our economy’s size. The notion of using the guarantees was abandoned, and rightfully so.

As of September 2009, Israel’s foreign debt totals $28 billion. Meanwhile, the State of Israel’s foreign currency reserves total $60 billion. Most of them are invested in US government bonds. That is, the Israeli government’s foreign debt stands at -$32 billion. Or in other words, at this time we, Israelis, are financing America’s debts – and not the other way around.

Israel is doing the exact same thing for the US economy China is doing, although on a smaller scale.And given the hits the dollar is taking, I have no doubt that at least part of the reason Israel is backing the dollar is on the basis of our alliance with them.

Tell me again how we 'get nothing' from our relationship with Israel.

(h/t Carl)

Today's Must Reads, 1/12/10

Welcome to today's must reads in news, politics and opinion, hand picked by Natasha.

Feel free to send anything you find that you feel is worthy of a look to me at rmill2k@msn.com and I'll review it. This includes stuff you write yourself. Or if you prefer, you can send it attention Natasha, our official must reads Avatar..she loves mail.

CNN: Congressional Black Caucus Backs Harry Reid

What a surprise, eh?

Gateway Pundit: Ann Coulter to Al Sharpton: “Did Harry Reid Ask You to Stop Using Your Negro Dialect Too?”

A must see!

Pollster.com: Widely divergent polls in Massachusetts Senate election

Byron York :Desparate Dems try to Palinize Massachusetts Senate Race

Neo-Neocon : Can Mr. Brown go To Washington?

Video: Scott brown - 'It's not Kennedy's seat, it's the people's seat'

That could be the money quote of the election right there.

Right Wing News: Liberal Pollster Shows Brown Ahead

Rasmussen: Looking closer at the Massachusetts senate polls

common sense from an authoritative voice.

Thomas Friedman, NYT:Muslim World Must Publicly Denounce Jihad Terrorism

Washington Times: Obama's havoc to the US intel system

Der Spiegel :Interview with General Stanley McChrystal - how to win in Afghanistan

As always, a superb interview from Germany's Der Spiegel. This one is with our commanding general in Afghanistan and sheds considerable light on what's happening.

Fausta :Panty bomber Abdulmutallab's London al-Qaeda connection

WSJ: Taking the Measure of Obama's Foreign Policy

John Bolton/WSJ:Let's Take Bureaucracy Out of Intelligence

WSJ:The Administration has ways of making terrorists not talk.

The Brookings Institute :The Narco-Jihad

Robert Kagan: Obama's Year Of Failed Diplomacy

Victor Davis Hanson : 2010, our year of decision

Associated Press:Stimulus a failure

Pajamas Media
Fannie and Freddie - Frauds by design

CNBC: Chris Dodd - ObamaCare 'hanging by a thread'

Phyllis Schlafley :10 reasons ObamaCare can still be killed

Philip Caputo/Atlantic:The Fall Of Mexico

The Hill :US Chamber of Congress sayas Obama's policies will lead to 'double dip' recession

CBS :The Copenhagen Junket - 20 members of Congress get all expenses paid trip

Jerusalem Post :Islamists in Algeria burn and loot Protestant church

Adnan Khan, Maclean's:Pakistan: An Insurgent's Paradise

Jerusalem Post:Israel to Turkey - If you want a fight, we'll fight!

Jerusalem Post:US Iran sanctions to be targeted, mild - Obama Administration to block bills which would affect refined fuel imports

Pam Geller/American Thinker:Obama Aids the Enemy He Will Not Name

Jihad Watch:CAIR's Honest Ibe Hooper caught boasting about getting Saudi money -- which he has denied getting in public

Judge Tosses Out Bulk of Evidence Against Gitmo Detainee In Civilian Court Trial

This is pretty much what we can expect from giving jihadis the same legal rights as American citizens and trying them in civilian court:

A federal judge has tossed out most of the government's evidence against a tarrorism detainee on grounds his confessions were coerced, allegedly by U.S. forces, before he became a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay.

In a ruling this week, U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan also said the government failed to establish that 23 statements the detainee made to interrogators at Guantanamo Bay were untainted by the earlier coerced statements made while he was held under harsh conditions in Afghanistan.

However, the judge said statements he made during two military administrative hearings at the U.S. detention center in Cuba, where he was assisted by a personal representative, were reliable and sufficient to justify holding the detainee.

Musa'ab Omar Al Madhwani allegedly engaged in a 2 1/2-hour firefight with Pakistani authorities before his capture in a Karachi apartment in 2002.

The detainee says that after five days in a Pakistani prison, he was handed over to U.S. forces and flown to a pitch-black prison he believes was in Afghanistan. He says he was suspended in his cell by his left hand and that guards blasted his cell with music 24 hours a day.

He said that he confessed to whatever allegations his interrogators made and that harassment and threats continued after he was moved to a different prison in Afghanistan.

Al Madhwani said that interrogators at Guantanamo Bay on multiple occasions threatened him when he tried to retract what he now claims was a false confession.

The judge said he was particularly concerned that interrogators at Guantanamo Bay relied on or had access to the coerced confessions from Afghanistan made by Al Madhwani.

Needless to say, the allegations of abuse came after this particular jihadi got lawyered up for his civilian trial.

What's more, this judge was completely within his rights in this decision. Once the Obama Administration decided that Al Madhwani was to be Mirandized and sent through our court system to receive the same Constitutional protections due all criminal suspects who are US citizens, there's no way to put the toothpaste back in the tube without violating the Equal Protection provision of the Constitution.

That's exactly why the Bush Administration created military tribunals, to ensure basic fairness and rule of Law while still recognizing the difference between jihadis caught on the battlefield in Afghanistan and domestic criminals and resolving this quandary. Now that Obama has rejected the tribunals and insisted on getting civilian courts involved, he's going to be stuck with the results. Or rather, the rest of us without Secret Service protection will when some of these jihadis go free and return to their former pursuits.

Hoax n' change, suckahs!

Sarah Palin Continues to Out-FOX The Competition

You can literally feel the steam coming out of the Angry Left's ears at the news that Governor Sarah Palin has signed on with FOX as a contributor:

Sarah Palin’s supporters have reason to cheer, and perhaps lament, the media news leaked to the New York Times this morning. The former governor and VP candidate will become a Fox News analyst, signing a multi-year deal for appearances as a political pundit. That gives Palin an even larger stage, but might mean that she’s looking at a longer game plan than some may want:

The network confirmed that Ms. Palin will appear on the network’s programming on a regular basis as part of a multi-year deal. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Ms. Palin will not have her own regular program, one person familiar with the deal said, though she will host an occasional series that will run on the network from time to time. This person would not elaborate, but the network does have a precedent for such a series. Oliver L. North is the host of an occasionally running documentary series on the military called “War Stories.”

...However, a multi-year deal may mean that Palin will wait to run for higher office. She could either go for the Senate or the presidency next, but either way, she’d have to start building a campaign no later than a year from now. Media outlets generally cut off analysts when they start building campaigns to avoid the necessity of giving opponents free air time for responses. A multiyear deal doesn’t preclude the possibility of entering into a campaign in 2011, but it indicates that Palin isn’t yet envisioning such a step.

Maybe she isn't...but maybe she is. As I've remarked before on more than one occasion, Governor Palin is an extremely sharp individual, about as far removed from the cartoon character portrayed by the media as one could imagine.

I'd be very surprised if the Arctic Fox didn't keep her options open, with provisions allowing her to get out of her contract easily if she decides to run for office in 2012 or any other time. If becoming a major media star was the sum of her ambitions, she'd have opted for a regular show and with her following, there's no question Roger Ailes and Rupert Murdoch would have given it to her.

During the time between his failed try for the presidency in 1976 and his second, successful attempt in 1980, Ronald Reagan wrote a regular national column that gave him a media presence but didn't interfere with his making speeches nationwide.

Sarah Palin is just doing an updated version.Think of this as her FaceBook page on a whole different level.

It will continue the process she started by writing her book and appearing on Oprah of letting the American people get to know her, in an environment she controls.Not only that, but she'll be in a position to publicize conservative candidates, who will then owe her favors.

If she decides to run in 2012, this is a brilliant move on her part.

I can't wait for the time she appears on FOX in the same slot as Katie Couric - and absolutely destroys Couric ratings-wise.

You go, Governor!

Michael Steele - Another Monumental Bit Of Stupidity

And this time, he's not alone.

As many of you know, a fairly silly and inconsequential tell-all book called "Game Change" on the supposed inside story of the 2008 election is scheduled for release this Tuesday, January 12, and in an effort to gin up sales the publisher has released a few juicy tidbits.

One of them concerns Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who apparently described then-candidate Barack Obama in 2008 to author Mark Halperin as a "light-skinned" with "no Negro dialect unless he wants to have one".

Reid has already admitted saying this to Halperin, and has apologized...and here's where the stupid part comes in. Michael Steele has - wait for it- called for Reid to step down as Senate Majority Leader and accused the Democrats of having a double standard on race, citing Trent Lott's crucifixion back in 2002 by the Donkeys as an example:

"There is this standard where Democrats feel that they can say these things and they can apologize when it comes from the mouths of their own. But if it comes from anyone else, it is racism," Steele told "Fox News Sunday."

"If (Senate Minority Leader) Mitch McConnell had said those very words that this chairman and this president would be calling for his head, and they would be labeling every Republican in the country as a racist for saying exactly what this chairman has just said," Steele continued.

Steele of course is correct. Needless to say, the Democrats are rallying behind Reid, unlike the Republicans in the case of Trent Lott.

But here's where the stupid part comes in.

Harry Reid was severely damaged goods even before this came out, running way behind every conceivable GOP opponent in the polls. Cutting him off at the knees now makes it highly likely that he might just decide to 'retire', paving the way for a far more popular Dem Senate candidate in 2010.

In fact, many Dems are hypocrites when it comes to race, and their concern about black people is limited to getting them out there to vote Donkey on election day and forgetting about the Democrat's support for policies that result in dysfunctional schools, high crime rates in black neighborhoods,civic corruption in Donkey-ruled cities, bogus economic policies and support for open borders that devastates job opportunities for the black working class.

But as Steele and others ought to know by now,that doesn't amount to anything as long as somebody is down for the agenda:

In a written statement Saturday, Obama said he accepted Reid's apology "without question because I've known him for years, I've seen the passionate leadership he's shown on issues of social justice and I know what's in his heart."

"As far as I am concerned, the book is closed," he added.

A senior Democratic source with close contacts on Capitol Hill said Reid is not depending only on Obama for forgiveness.

"He's in the midst of an aggressive mea culpa tour that has thus far produced supportive statements from key African American leaders in the Congress and civil rights community. He's got a strong record on social justice and related issues and is doing the right thing by immediately taking responsibility for the comment. He knows it was a boneheaded thing to say and is showing appropriate remorse," the source said.

Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine also defended Reid. "I don't think this is an issue that is going affect his leadership at all. In fact, he's doing some very heavy lifting -- wonderful lifting right now to get this health care bill over the goal line," Kaine told "Fox News Sunday."

The Democratic source added that Reid will likely not lose his position, as Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott did after his 2002 tribute to the now-deceased Sen. Strom Thurmond on his 100th birthday.

"The only way he gets deposed is if the Democrats decide they have a political interest in seeing him go. Based on the reaction thus far, he'll endure a few bad days but will be fine in the long run and can focus his efforts on his campaign."

Exactly so. Quod Erat Demonstradum, Democrats.

It Begins: Obama Threatens Aid Cutoffs For Israel

Obama's Arab-American Special Mid East Envoy George Mitchell finally went public today on PBS and essentially threatened sanctions against Israel and a cutoff of US aid if the Israelis refuse to knuckle under to Obama's demands on behalf of the Palestinians....the creation of Jew -free zones in Judea, Samaria ( AKA the West Bank) and East Jerusalem, along with the loss of Judaism's holiest sites.

Mideast envoy George Mitchell has threatened that the U.S. could freeze aid to Israel if the country fails to advance peace talks, YNetNews.com reported.

Mitchell said the U.S. can legally cut its support for aid to Israel and that all options must remain open, YNet reports, though he clarified on PBS that the U.S. wants to put pressure on both sides in Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.

The remarks come on the eve of his trip to Israel, aiming to bolster a peace process that failed to get back off the ground during the first year of the Obama administration.

"We think that the negotiation should last no more than two years," Mitchell said in an interview on PBS' "Charlie Rose." "We hope the parties agree. Personally I think it can be done in a shorter period of time."

Actually, if you look the entire transcript, Mitchell was a lot more dishonest and dangerously subtle than that. ( h/t Soccer Dad)

As I predicted a while ago, this was going to happen sooner or later with Barack Hussein Obama as president. He doesn't consider Israel an ally, but an obstruction.You see, the current occupant of the White House wasn't really sleeping through Jeremiah Wright's sermons at Trinity Church.

I particularly liked Mitchell's line about wanting to put pressure on both sides. Since when has Obama ever put any pressure on the Palestinians? Did he ask the Arabs to stop building in East Jerusalem or the disputed areas of Judea and Samaria, AKA the West Bank? Did the US ever lean on the Palestinians to take the terrorists from the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade off the Fatah payroll,or to stop making public heroes out of murderers? Uhh, nope.

Nor does Mitchell seem to particularly care about the fact that Hamas would likely take over a Palestinian State in the areas the Obama Administration wants to force Israel to vacate, just as Hamas did in Gaza.

This is not coming out of left field. Obama, in his despicable speeches in Cairo and at the Muslim dominated UN, made it abundantly clear where his sympathies lie.

Accordingly, Obama had the Pentagon change the rules on military aid to Isreal to restrict how the IDF could use it, made blatantly anti-Israel appointments to his cabinet and his advisers, and explicitly violated the Road Map by endorsing the Saudi 'peace' ultimatum and reneging on the Bush Administration's agreement with Israeli PM Ariel Sharon on Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria(AKA the West Bank) that were supposed to remain part of Israel in any settlement. He then insisted that Jews were not entitled to build anything in the so-called settlements, including Jerusalem, issuing a statement that the Palestinians need not recognize Israel as a Jewish State.

Th ekicker is that even if Israel knuckles under and creates half a million Jewish refugees, gives up the half of Jerusalem containing its holiest sites and retreats to the indefensible borders ex-Israeli UN ambassador Abba Eban aptly referred to as the Auschwitz lines, it will not be enough for the Arabs. In fact, it will be only the beginning of more demands, because the core issue is Arab unwillingness to live next to Jews in peace and equality.

In contrast, the US has already given $900 million to the Palestinians with no strings attached, spent additional millions building an army for Fatah under General Keith Dayton and made a number of high tech arms sales to the Arab nations..while not making a single major arms sale to Israel since Obama became President.

Nor has Obama expended a fraction of the energy he's exerting jousting with the Israelis to wards dealing with Iran's nuclear weapons program.

President Barack Hussein Obama obviously intends to 'reach out' to the Muslim World by delivering Israel and giving them the Jews.

Actually, the biggest 'stick' the Obama Administration has to use against Israel is not rescinding loan guarantees, which are not actual direct aid from the US but a 'guarantor' arrangement allowing Israel to borrow monies at more favorable rates. Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitzresponded to Mitchell's threat by saying that thus far, Israel has not needed to use the guarantees to repay loans. And he made an additional point as well:

Steinitz added, "Only a few months ago, we reached an agreement with the US Department of the Treasury and Department of State on the loan guarantees for 2010 and 2011. There were no conditions attached. Israel has made, and continues to make, every effort, including difficult gestures, to renew the negotiations. We haven’t received any indication that the guarantees will be used to pressure us."

Minister of Education and Culture Gideon Saar added, "When we're told such things, in the way that they're said, we should make clear that as far as the peace talks are concerned, Israel will act on the basis of its vital interests, and not as a function of its relations with another country.

Saar said that, in his opinion, "The US administration knows that it's the Palestinian Authority that is preventing peace talks by placing prior conditions that did not exist before. Israel has made hard and painful decisions while the Palestinians have done nothing. Israel will not accept prior conditions to the negotiations."

Nor is a major cutback on aid(most of which is spent here) likely for now, because it would have to go through Congress.

The main stick Obama has to use against Israel is in the Muslim dominated UN, where as Mitchell intimated, Obama intends to try to turn Israel into South Africa by having the US vote for sanctions or abstain to isolate Israel and turn it into a pariah state.It's important to remember that one of President Obama's 'innovations' was to take the UN ambassador's position ( now held by Susan Rice) and make it an independent cabinet post reporting directly to him instead of being under the Secretary of State.

The Palestinians, backed by the Muslim bloc and the EU are already working on a binding UN resolution that would ratify an Arab-only Palestinian State along the pre-1967 lines with Jerusalem as its capitol.There's absolutely no doubt that the Obama Administration would either vote for this and subsequent sanctions or simply have the US abstain and allow it to go through.

Given the Obama Administration's disrespect for the US alliance with Israel and its disregard for previous agreements, the above scenario is likely no matter how many concessions Israel makes.

The Israelis, not being stupid likely realize that their traditional relationship with the US is over for now. And they may very well take a much more independent course and seek out a new best friend or two internationally in the near future.

Odd as it sounds, the loss of the American alliance with Israel might end up negatively affecting the US more than Israel. Aside from the many benefits the alliance has given both the US and NATO,this kind of craven, appeasement minded behavior sends a message to America's friends as well as its enemies.

It's a mistake of historic proportions.

UPDATE:Interestingly enough, it turns out that far from being dependent on US aid and loan guarantees, Israel is actually helping the US fund its massive deficit, believe it or not!

It underlines what I said - the chief weapon Obama has to pressure and deligitimize Israel is in the international forum, where he has no congressional oversight and can merely instruct a UN ambassador who reports directly to him.

If he chooses that course, the US will suffer for it in the future.

Fire Michael Steele

Now. Today.

Political losses in the US don't result in the opposition being shot or imprisoned. So it's customary in American politics that when one of the parties suffers a major defeat, changes occur, especially in party leadership.

What's normally called for is a selfless steward with leadership and accountability, with a plan and a vision to revive the party and restore it and its core principles to power.

Instead the GOP leadership picked Michael Steele.

What they had in mind I'll leave to your speculation, but in terms of providing selfless leadership and vision, they were knockin' at the wrong door.

Since he's been in charge, Steele has done very little that's been positive and a whole lot that's been negative. He's used his position to enrich himself by pimping lucrative speaking tours for himself, accepting paid speaking engagements while he is working as the RNC’s chairman and shilling a book he's written, while spending RNC money like water with so little effect and accountability that a number of high level GOP donors have reportedly closed their checkbooks. Meanwhile the RNC is now experiencing a cash crunch.

He's consistently refused to back conservatives attuned to the party base. A good example was his plowing almost a million dollars into RINO Dede Scozzafava's campaign in NY 23 while shunning Conservative candidate Hoffman, even after he had endorsements from major conservative Republicans. As it was Scozzafava turned Democrat and took just enough votes away from Hoffman to allow Democrat Bill Owens to win by a whisker.

And as I write this, he's refusing to send a dime or any help to Scott Brown, the GOP senatorial candidate in Massachusetts who is closing in on the Democrat nominee Attorney General Martha Coakley, an undistinguished candidate even by Democrat standards in an election that might very well be won.

Even worse, he has what I could aptly term a stoo-pid mouth, almost rivaling Joe Biden in that department. This week for instance, as two GOP sitting senators announced their retirement, GOP indentification up and the Obama's poll numbers cratered, Steele was interviewed on TV and said that Steele said that not only didn't he believe the Republicans could win enough seats to take control of the House in 2010, he wasn't sure his party was ready to be in charge!

Lovely. We not only have a president apologizing for America all over the globe, we now have an RNC chairman apologizing for the Republican Party!

In response to the aghast reaction of Republicans, Steele then responded in a radio interview with ABC "Get a life....If you don't want me in the job, fire me. But until then, shut up," he said. "Get with the program, or get out of the way."

Just today, he insulted a native American GOP congressman by using the phrase 'honest injun'.

Fire him NOW. Believe me, any black voters bringing a racial angle into this weren't going to vote against Obama and the Democrats anyway.

UPDATE: Steele apparently canceled a TV appearance today with ABC News' "Top Line" after he was summoned to an 'emergency meeting' at RNC headquarters according toAce. Hopefully they're giving him his walking papers.

James Carville: Airport scanners can 'measure my penis'

I have to admit, as much as I disagree with Serpent Head on a number of issues he's always been enjoyable and good for a laugh:

Speaking on The Tony Kornheiser Show Friday, Carville laid out, or unzipped, his vision for airport security.

"Let me buy a [security] pass ... so that they can scan me and and search me and measure my penis, then let me get on the plane," he said.{...}

But Carville isn't worried about his privacy: "I'll sacrifice my civil rights to get me up in the air, like Clooney," he said, referring to Hollywood leading man George Clooney's latest film.

I guess nobody ever explained to James the difference between a body scanner and a microscope!

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Seriously, he's got the right attitude if the wrong basic information. The scanners in use incorporate a privacy filter that blurs the crotch area so that genitalia are indistinct.

That's exactly why the Crotch Bomber and the other jihadi from Saudi Arabia who was recently caught with his explosives in his anus had things set up the way they did.

As far as I'm concerned, anyone from the Muslim World or who comes across as a potential security risk and wants to fly top America had better be prepared to submit to a full cavity search if necessary.

Muslims can blame their weak clergy and leadership for refusing to condemn jihad, and our American leadership for refusing to meaningfully confront the Islamist states that harbor, fund and promote it.

Watcher's Winners! The Tribe Has Spoken

The Council has spoken, choosing the winners in this week's competition. And there's some superb weekend reading in in store for you.

In the Council category, the winner this week was American Digest with his in depth essay on the Christmas crotch bomber # Lowballing Death: Keeping the Northwest 253 Numbers Down:

I've noticed the chant more and more as the days have gone by. It's a chant usually preceded by the world "only;" as in "Even if the bomb had gone off it would have 'only' killed 290."

"290" is by far the most magical number in the morass of magical thinking that's subsumed discussion of the "near disaster" of the Christmas attempt to give Northwest 253 a "premature landing". The number "290" is the number of passengers and crew on board the aircraft. "290" is a number we hear a lot in conjunction with discussion of this failed attempt at mass murder. A lot of people in the administration, the TSA, and those on the left attempting to excuse what happened would be happy if "290" stuck. If "290" can be made to stick then the disaster, tragic as it might have been, is merely a "pinprick" and can be, like so many other aspects of this monumental failure, lowballed.

But "290" is, looked at from any reasonable point of view, at the bottom of the scale when it comes to discussing how many might have lost their lives. The ultimate outcome of NW253 being brought down could have been much worse and, like the attacks against the World Trade Center on 9/11, easily have risen into the thousands.

When referring to "290" the Obama administration along with their media cohorts and apologists are assuming that the =/-400,000 pound Airbus 300 would have vaporized in thin air and, like some event in the Bermuda Triangle, the aircraft, passengers and crew would have simply gone to their reward in the middle of the sky with only a puff of pixie dust left behind. This is sweet nonsense since airliners, when bombed in mid-heaven, have a nasty habit of coming to earth. In flames and sometimes in pieces.

In flaming pieces is what happened to the closest parallel to NW253, the downing in Lockerbie, Scotland of PanAm 103. In that "incident" the parts of the aircraft fell onto a village of a few thousand people and killed 11 people on the ground as well as the 259 on the plane.

At that point comparisons between PanAm 210 and NW253 diverge. Flight 210 was on climb out from London and, interestingly enough, on a course that would have taken it into Detroit. NW253 was on final approach to the same airport on a flight path that took it over the Detroit metropolitan area with a population of some 3,900,000. It is a much, much denser area; one that might be described as a "target rich environment" for a 400,000 pound flying bomb.

In the non-Council category, the winner this week is a moving piece by Michael Yon ( and as always with Yon, the accompanying photos are all worth a thousand words) on Afghanistan, with Into Thine Hand I Commit My Spirit :

Arghandab, Afghanistan
New Year's Eve, 2009

On this small base surrounded by a mixture of enemy and friendly territory, a memorial has been erected just next to the Chapel. Inside the tepee are 21 photos of 21 soldiers killed during the first months of a year-long tour of duty. The fallen will belong forever to the honor rolls of the 1-17th Infantry Battalion, 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, and they will join the sacred list of names of those who have given their lives in service of the United States of America.

The symbol of the 2nd Infantry Division is the Indian Head. At night, soldiers of the “Indian Head Division” can be seen passing by the tepee, sometimes stopping to peer inside before walking into the darkness.

Sometimes the soldiers walk by carrying lights that are red or green, or sometimes white. Tonight, Cobra Battery was firing illumination rounds from the cannons, which boom from the darkness, arcing a round into the night, where miles away a canister unsheathes, and the parachute opens, and brightness floats silently, shimmering over the valley where these soldiers died.

Council Notes:

Some of our readers noticed that the site was down for some time yesterday. What happened is that several of the highly trained monkeys who are responsible for site maintenance in our secret bunker in the American Heartland apparently did some belated New Years Eve celebrating, resulting in a fried server.

The Management promptly disciplined the offenders and has repaired the damage. Our apologies:



If you want to see your blog piece listed on the Watcher’s Council page as an honorable mention, our generous offer of link whorage remains open. Here's how you take advantage of it:

Simply make a post linking to this week’s Council winners

Send me an e-mail with the subject line ‘link whorage’ at rmill2k@msn.com before 5PM next Tuesday, December 22nd. Include a link to that post and a link to the piece you want to appear in next week's Honorable Mentions

The resulting fame, glory and increased traffic are yours for the taking.

Here's the complete rundown of this week's results. Only the Razor was unable to vote, and he was the only one affected by the mandatory 2/3 vote penalty.

I can't wait to see next week's exciting entries, and as always, congratulations not only to the winners but to all the participants.

Council Submissions

• First place with 3 2/3 points! – American Digest - Lowballing Death: Keeping the Northwest 253 Numbers Down


• Second place with 2 2/3 points – Bookworm Room - San Francisco: America's homegrown anarchic totalitarianism


• Third place with 1 1/3 points – Joshuapundit - 58% Of Americans Want The Crotch Bomber Waterboarded - And the Left Is Outraged!


• Fourth place with 2/3 point – (Tie*) –Wolf Howling - Knee JERK Reaction Of Progressives


• Fourth place with 2/3 point – (Tie*) –Soccer Dad - The Very Model Of A Modern UN Bureaucrat


• Fifth place with 1/3 point – (Tie*) – The Colossus of Rhodey - Is This 'Hypocrisy'?


• Fifth place with 1/3 point – (Tie*) – The Glittering Eye - Facing Chinese Mercantilism


• Fifth place with 1/3 point –(Tie*) – Mere Rhetoric - Iran To US: No Visa For Kerry, Please Consider Yourself Officially Humiliated


• Fifth place with 1/3 point –(Tie*) – Right Truth - Jihad vs Terrorism Today

Non-Council Submissions

• First place with 2 2/3 points! – Michael Yon - Into Thine Hand I Commit My Spirit


• Second place with 1 2/3 points – (Tie*) –Jules Crittendon - Damn The Naughts


• Second place with 1 2/3 points– (Tie*) – Villainous Company - The Official 2010 Villainous Company Banned Bloggers List


• Third place with 1 1/3 points – Media Backspin - 10 Significant Articles From the 'Noughties' Decade


• Fourth place with 1 point – Next Web - Google Blocking Negative Search Recommendations On Islam – Why?


• Fifth place with 2/3 point (Tie*) – Powerline - John Brennan's disgraceful performance


• Fifth place with 2/3 point (Tie*) – Big Hollywood - EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Military Blogger Michael Yon Detained, Handcuffed by TSA in Seattle Airport


• Fifth place with 2/3 point (Tie*) – Bernard Goldberg - And What Exactly Is Wrong With Profiling


• Fifth place with 2/3 point (Tie*) – The Mudville Gazette - # Taliban Kill 8 CIA Agents in Afghanistan

Obama's Speech On The Crotch Bomber

I just finished listening to the president address the nation on the Christmas bombing, and unfortunately, it was about what I thought it would be...with one exception.

The President actually got through a speech without blaming his predecessor and believe it or not uttered the phrase 'ultimately, the buck stops with me'. I almost fell over.

Obama acknowledged that this was 'systemic failure' and pledged a "a continued and sustained" effort to improve intelligence gathering and security screenings at airport.

Obama claimed he has ordered officials to act more quickly and decisively in adding terrorist suspects to no-fly lists and collating evidence that could lead to an attack.That was the first part of the speech.

The last part of the speech was, to be blunt, problematic and could have been vetted by CAIR. Obama stressed that the nation is "at war" with al-Qaeda, which once again shows he has no idea what we're up against, especially when he made a point of emphasizing the contributions of our Arab partners...many of whom sponsor, fund, and support jihad terrorism as long as its not directed against their own ruling cliques.

No modern terrorist movement has ever sustained itself without safe havens to train, fund and shelter and al-Qaeda, the Muslim Brotherhood or any of their various offshoots are no different.President Obama simply doesn't understand that, ironically just like his predecessor.

If Obama actually believed we were at war, he wouldn't be releasing enemy combatants or mirandizing them.

Obama made a huge deal out of saying that the majority of Muslims 'reject al-Qaeda'( as if they were our only problem) but acknowledged that they were making substantial efforts to recruit. he reiterated that the US would continue to 'reach out' to Muslims to convince them to reject 'extremism' which to paraphrase Obama, led to a limited future and the death of fellow Muslims.

Note that last....he wants potential jihadis to abjure their ways not because it's evil, or because there might be retaliation on our part as we defend ourselves, but simply because it's to their personal benefit and they'll avoid possibly killing a few Muslims in amongst the infidels. That kind of weak stance is guaranteed to result in exactly the opposite of what Obama intended.Unfortunately, I doubt he sees that.

He then made a point of calling for an end to partisan criticism (remember, that's only allowed if the Democrats do it) and urged Americans to stay united and 'preserve our open society' rather than "hunker down" in fear.

The President's attempts to improve are security are well and good, but the problem continues to be the attitude behind it.

The attitude is crucial - and that's where the real security failure is.