A Jewish 17-year-old and a a 16-year old removed from a US Airways flight between New York and Kentucky after one of the boys started to perform his traditional prayers and whipped out - wait for it - tefillim!
As pictured above, tefillim are ritual prayer phylacteries used by observant Jews, consisting of leather straps and two small ( about an inch and half square) boxes containing Torah verses, one worn on the forehead and one worn on the upper arm, as pictured above.
When questioned about it, the boy cooperated and explained what the tefillum were, but that wasn't good enough for the pilot. The flight was diverted to Philadelphia, the kids were marched off the plane at gunpoint and forced to lie on the ground spread-eagle to be sniffed by bomb-detecting dogs. And the the parents were not contacted for hours and had no idea where their children were:
My friend Greg over at Rhymes with Right has a superb post on this that gets to the heart of the matter:
Muslims can condemn the US president, praise Muslim dictators, and engage in all manner of suspicious behavior on airplanes in this country without being removed from airplanes – and get windfall legal settlements if they do.
On the other hand, polite Jewish kids who pray in a traditional manner on a plane will be cause for diverting the flight for an emergency landing , and will be removed from the plane for further investigation. {...}
I think this is an example of PC run amok – the pilot deciding that any concern raised about any passenger demanded the same treatment that a suspicious-acting Muslim would get, even though the explanation provided was perfectly reasonable and easily verifiable. You know, the same reason we treat Congressional Medal of Honor winners and elderly nuns the same way we treat guys matching the profile of the Crotch Bomber (or worse) -- in order to avoid accusations of profiling.
Read the whole thing...it's right on the money.
He has it exactly right. I also find it difficult to believe that none of the crew, pilots or passengers on a flight originating out of New York City had never seen tefillum in action before...or as Greg points out, given the cooperation and the demeanor of the two teenagers, there was absolutely no reason that they couldn't have checked with a Rabbi, or even the internet before pulling them off the plane.
This would never have happened on El Al regardless of the passenger's religion because of their interview questions and pre-check in screening,not to mention well trained armed security on board the plane.
No, US Air wanted to make sure no one was going to accuse them of not being politically correct, even if it was nonsensical. And I have a feeling that this kind of stupidity is going to cost them a bundle.
Speaking of which, here's the Latma crew in Israel having a little satirical fun at the expense of US airline security:
To some people, banker is a code word for Jewish; and guess who Obama is assaulting? He’s assaulting bankers. He’s assaulting money people. And a lot of those people on Wall Street are Jewish. So I wonder if there’s – if there’s starting to be some buyer’s remorse there.
The ADL's Abe Foxman wrote
Rush Limbaugh reached a new low with his borderline anti-Semitic comments about Jews as bankers, their supposed influence on Wall Street, and how they vote.
Limbaugh’s references to Jews and money in a discussion of Massachusetts politics were offensive and inappropriate. While the age-old stereotype about Jews and money has a long and sordid history, it also remains one of the main pillars of anti-Semitism and is widely accepted by many Americans. His notion that Jews vote based on their religion, rather than on their interests as Americans, plays into the hands of anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists.
When he comes to understand why his words were so offensive and unacceptable, Limbaugh should apologize.
Well done Rabbi Foxman!
Instead of taking on the real 'anti-Zionists' in the Obama Administration for whom 'neocon' is a code word for dirty Jew, you go after a proven friend of Israel and the Jewish people who was merely pointing out the obvious..that the current Administration is planning to use a well worn stereotype to try to salvage its political fortunes.
Given Obama's Obama's "familial" relationship with Reverend Wright, his long standing relationship with Louis Farrakhan, the Saudis, the Nation of Islam and the rabidly anti-Semitic (oh, excuse me, 'anti-Zionist')Left, Limbaugh's observation was exactly right.
Limbaugh sees liberal, pro-Obama Jews as voting against their own interests. He's totally correct. This president only has a use for those Jews who are willing to bend over for the issues and individuals Obama supports.
If Rabbi Foxman and the ADL were really serious about ferreting out Jew haters, they ought to check out what's going on at sites like HuffPo and Daily Kos and other 'progressive' outlets and see what being spewed into the ozone there.
But of course, they won't. Because the ADL has a lot of Lefty donors who still delude themselves and continue to drink the Obama-ade.So only the most egregious Jew hatred on the Left ever gets targeted by the ADL.
Foxman will doubtless get a lot of applause from these self-deluding fools. But the ADL's NAACP-lite act is getting pretty tiresome,not to mention suicidal.
When you demonize your friends and give your real enemies a pass, you wake up one day to find out that your enemies are stronger and your friends are nowhere to be found.
Damn that First Amendment! Who do these peons think they are?
The US Supreme court, in a five to four decision struck down a major part of McCain-Feingold, gutting legislation that I and many others have long said was unconstitutional:
In a stunning reversal of the nation's federal campaign finance laws, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 Thursday that free-speech rights permit groups like corporations and labor unions to directly spend on political campaigns, prompting the White House to pledge "forceful" action to undercut the decision.
In a written statement, President Obama said the high court had "given a green light to a new stampede of special interest money in our politics." He called it a "major victory" for Wall Street, health insurance companies and other interests which would diminish the influence of Americans who give small donations. Obama pledged to "work immediately" with Congress to develop a "forceful response."
"The public interest requires nothing less," Obama said.
Siding with filmmakers of "Hillary: The Movie," who were challenged by the Federal Election Commission on their sources of cash to pay for the film, the court overturned a 20-year-old ruling that banned corporate and labor money. The decision threatens similar limits imposed by 24 states.
The justices also struck down part of the landmark McCain-Feingold campaign finance bill that barred union- and corporate-paid issue ads in the closing days of election campaigns.
Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the main opinion, which reads in part that there is "no basis for allowing the government to limit corporate independent expenditures."
"There is no basis for the proposition that, in the political speech context, the government may impose restrictions on certain disfavored speakers," he wrote. "The government may regulate corporate speech through disclaimer and disclosure requirements, but it may not suppress that speech altogether."
For an excellent video primer of the issues involved,check out by the Cato Institute:
So why are Prez Zero, Chuckie Schumer, and Nancy Pelosi so exercised by this?
As I'm sure you know by now, it's not that these fine, upstanding self-effacing public servants are against special interests - far from it. They just want to limit it to their friends and be able to control it to their benefit.
Union donations to the Democrats were never affected by McCain-Feingold. After lying about accepting public financing, Prez Zero raised and spent more money on his Presidential campaign than anyone in history, and and the unions ponied up over one third of the total, which is the huge hidden factor behind the way the GM and Chrysler buyouts were handled,the exemption Obama gave the unions from the tax on 'Cadillac' health plans mandated by ObamaCare and numerous other sleazy special interest deals.
Heck,the SEIU gave failed Senate candidate Martha Coakley a million bucks for her campaign..no problem.
McCain-Feingold never affected the infamous practice of bundling either, or sideways contributions from trade associations like the trial lawyers or shadow PACS, which is why George Soros and a few other Lefty billionaires effectively own the Democratic Party.
Today’s ruling could lead to more corporate and union election spending, but since none of this money can go directly to candidates the corruption factor is limited. The money will go towards spreading information about candidates and issues.
Aside from being a major victory for free speech, this levels the playing field. And that's why the Left hates it.
Air America Media CEO Charlie Kireker tells staff the liberal radio network will cease live programming immediately and file Chapter 7 liquidation "soon."
Visit InsideRadio.com for more details.
The Leftard hate radio echo chamber simply doesn't bring in the listeners, because hard Left diatribes only work in college classrooms or at political rallies where the give and take of debate is non-existent.
Companies like Clear Channel used to use ad revenues from their conservative talk radio stations like KFI in Los Angeles to subsidize Air America outlets they owned, with the idea of gaining market share. But with ad revenues down and hardly anyone listening, I imagine they couldn't afford to keep throwing money away so the plug is finally being pulled.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that she lacks the votes to quickly move the Senate's sweeping health overhaul bill through the House, a potentially devastating blow to President Barack Obama's signature issue.
Pelosi, D-Calif., made the comment to reporters after House Democrats held a closed-door meeting at which participants vented frustration with the Senate's massive version of the legislation.
Her concession meant there was little hope for a White House-backed plan to quickly push the Senate-approved health bill through the House, followed by a separate measure making changes sought by House members, such as easing the Senate's tax on higher-cost health plans. Such an approach would be "problematic," she said.
"In its present form without any changes I don't think it's possible to pass the Senate bill in the House," Pelosi said, adding, "I don't see the votes for it at this time."
Pelosi's remarks signaled that advancing health legislation through Congress will likely be a lengthy process—despite Democrats' desire for a quick election-year pivot to address jobs and the economy, which polls show are the public's top concern.
"We're not in a big rush," Pelosi said. "Pause, reflect."
'Pause, reflect'?? All of a sudden, just out of the goodness of their hearts, the Donkeys decided not to jam Obamacare through as quickly as they could do it, just out the goodness of their pea sized hearts, Ri-i-ght.
The real story, of course is that San Fran Nan is in a strait jacket for real. She hasn't got the 218 votes to pass the ObamaCare Senate bill and the Senate doesn't have the votes any more to simply shove it through via the reconciliation process...because a number of them saw what been happening and want to move away from this toxic nonsense as far as they can, what with elections coming up.
And speaking of the Senate, both Olympia Snowe and Ohio's own RINO George Voinovich were hit on by Obama to turn over and get ObamaCare through, and both reportedly said 'no thanks.'
That's going to be the new Democrat tactic - to try and pick off one or two Republicans to craft a 'bi-partisan' ObamaCare bill and save Zero's reputation.Given the distance between what the Senate could conceivably pass and what the House progressives would vote for that won't be an easy task anyway.
If the GOP is smart, they won't get involved in any of this nonsense, especially given how disrespectfully they've been treated . They'll propose their own legislation on the lines of what's at the GOP website, focusing on tort reform and allowing consumers to shop across state lines for insurance and prescription drugs. And they won't allow a single Donkey anywhere near it.
It won't pass, or even in the unlikely chance it does, Prez Zero will veto it.But teh American people will know who the real obstructionists are and who actually has the better ideas.
Far better to let Prez Zero and the Donkeys hang precariously on the limb they've gone out on than to climb on it with them.
You'll remember I had a piece previously about Obama's questionable choice to head the floundering TSA, Errol Southers
Even though he was caught lying under oath to Congress, was a huge advocate for unionizing the current crop TSA employees ( imagine what a nightmare that would be) and had some highly questionable views on his understanding of exactly whom was posing the kind of threats the TSA should be focusing on, he looked like he was in..until last night:
The Obama administration's choice to lead the struggling Transportation Security Administration withdrew his name from consideration Wednesday, just weeks after revelations that he had provided misleading information to Congress prompted several Republicans to suggest his nomination would not move forward without a fight.
Erroll Southers, a former FBI agent and homeland security specialist, was presented as a leader who would improve the TSA's sprawling operations and improve passenger screening to prevent such attacks as the attempted Christmas Day bombing of a Detroit-bound airliner.
..."It is apparent that this path has been obstructed by political ideology," he said. "My nomination has become a lightning rod for those who have chosen to push a political agenda at the risk of the safety and security of the American people. This partisan climate is unacceptable and I refuse to allow myself to remain part of their dialogue."
Oh please, Errol....just say raa-a-aa-cism and have done with it. Like there were no good reasons for anyone in Congress to vote against you.
Here's a sample of Errol Southers in action, showing exactly what kind of terrorists he thinks the TSA should concentrate on:
My pal and Watcher's Council mate Mike Volpe AKA The Provocateur is scheduled to be on Blog Talk Radio tomorrow night at 7PM. He's always an interesting guy...
Talk about chutzpah! Hey,Obama...you sit down with those Jews so we don't have to:
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has proposed that the Obama administration negotiate the final borders of a Palestinian state with Israel, a Palestinian official said Wednesday, as a US envoy headed to the region for another attempt to restart Mideast peace talks.
Such a proxy arrangement could provide a way around the current deadlock over reviving Israeli-Palestinian talks, which broke off more than a year ago. Abbas says he won't return to the table without a complete Israeli settlement freeze, something Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to do.
As an alternative, US officials could replace Palestinian negotiators in border talks with Israel, said an Abbas aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the content of internal meetings. The US negotiators would be given clear parameters, the aide said.
Remember when the Arabs were criticizing the US because they felt it was too pro-Israel and 'not an honest broker'? Apparently they have no interest in actual fairness as long as the bias is in their favor. But you knew that, right?
Abbas still is insisting of Jews not being able to build in their country or their capital in areas he feels the Palestinians are entitled to of course...but he's content to have Netanyahu agree to it secretly, so as not to unduly rile people.
I have a feeling the Israelis will pass on this one. And in fact, that's pretty much what Netanyahu's spokesperson said today.
Given that he won a resounding victory in Massachusetts, a number of people who shall be nameless are wondering if Scott Brown is simply a better looking version of Arlan Spector.
Creatures like David Frum are arguing that Brown's stunning victory is a win for the RINO's, and a sign that the GOP should go 'bigger tent' AKA Democrat-lite.
Where I see Brown actually falling on the spectrum is as a Classic Liberal..the sort of Democrat Reagan was before, as Reagan famously said, "the Democratic Party left me."
By that, I mean he is a small government,strong defense, pro free enterprise fiscally prudent politician who, like Sarah Palin, has tapped into the anger and energy of the American people at gut level.
On social issues, he considers himself pro-choice with reasonable limits and acknowledges gay marriage in Massachusetts as an established fact, both eminently acceptable positions in view of whom his constituents are. it also shows that he's an extremely savvy politician who decided not to fight on the Democrat's preferred turf.
He's an avowed fiscal conservative who has voted against tax increases in Massachusetts, is pro-business and was an outspoken opponent of ObamaCare.
He's pro-gun,pro capital punishment, anti amnesty for illegal aliens and says he favors interrogating terrorists for actionable intel rather than treating them as mere common criminals who are entitled to be read their Miranda rights. Brown's on record as saying that he'd rather see tax dollars spent on national defense instead of providing terrorists with lawyers.
On Iran, here's what he had to say:
I support the bi-partisan Iran sanctions bill and believe that until Ahmadinejad gives up his nuclear ambitions he should be isolated from the rest of the world. With its reckless pursuit of nuclear weapons, Iran represents the biggest threat to Israel. Ahmadinejad is a Holocaust denier who has threatened to wipe Israel off the map. Meeting with him confers legitimacy when the only correct response is to treat him as an outcast. A personal meeting with Ahmadinejad, as suggested by my opponent, would embolden him and be used as a propaganda tool to strengthen his position.
And yes, he is also pro-Israel.
On his website, he says this:
Israel has made enormous sacrifices in an attempt to secure peace – including unilateral withdrawal from Gaza. I support a two-state solution that reaffirms Israel’s right to exist and provides the Palestinians with a place of their own where both sides can live in peace and security. As our closest ally in the Middle East, Israel lives every day under the threat of terror yet shares with America a dedication to democratic ideals, a respect for faith, and a commitment to peace in the region. Until a lasting peace is achieved, I support the security barrier erected by Israel which has proven successful in protecting Israeli civilians from terrorist attacks.
And for further information,we have this interview with the Jewish Advocate, Boston's largest ( and fairly Left-leaning) Jewish paper:
Q: Speaking of existing agreements, Israel previously agreed to stop building more settlements. The Obama administration pressed Israel to halt any more settlement activity. Are settlements an obstacle to achieving a two-state solution?
Well certainly, but Israel also has the right to live in its lands without having another country dictate terms before you get to the bargaining table. Whether it's close settlements or not build, you can't be giving away cards before you get to the bargaining table. ... I find it offensive that [Obama is] setting the terms before even sitting down at the table. ... I think that Israel had done more than enough in terms of extending the olive branch to get people to the bargaining table.
Q: Israel's security barrier in the West Bank and its incursion into the Gaza Strip both achieved their aims, measured by the reduction in suicide bombings inside Israel and rocket fire from Gaza. Yet both have been condemned as violating Palestinians' rights. Are Israel's methods excessive?
A: Well, when it comes to your survival, I don't know, what's excessive? When you have people lobbing missiles into your bedrooms, you need to establish security measures to protect your kids, your families. ... And don't forget. when you have Hamas lobbing missiles from hospitals and schools, you're at an unfair disadvantage. Israel and the United States, we follow the Geneva Conventions and the protocols and the laws of war.
...
Q: How concerned are you that Iran is close to acquiring a nuclear weapon? Do you believe economic sanctions can halt the Iranian program? If not, should other measures be considered, or should the world, and Israel, find a way to coexist with a nuclear Iran?
That's scary. Well, first of all there's a couple of things happening. Ahmadinejad ... Martha Coakley wants to have one-on-one negotiations with him. She would go there. That's ridiculous. You don't want to legitimize his regime and give it a propaganda tool. She'd be the only one who wants to do that. Not even President Obama wants to do that. Low-level negotiations are great, but they're obviously playing the cat and mouse game. ...
They're at 28 percent unemployment. Their cash reserves are almost gone. So if there is any type of economic threat right now, that can work ... it would shut their industry down cold. ...
Everyone knows that Israel has the right to protect itself. The option to attack Iran is always there. You don't even need to mention it.
RINO? I don't think so, Bubba.
What Brown represents is the logical next step...resurrecting the old Reagan coalition and defeating the agenda of a dangerous president and his far Left adherents.
Soon come, people. Soon come. The wave has just begun.
For now, it's worth observing that a Democratic Party that would abandon their central initiative this quickly isn't a Democratic Party that deserves to hold power. If they don't believe in the importance of their policies, why should anyone who's skeptical change their mind? If they're not interested in actually passing their agenda, why should voters who agree with Democrats on the issues work to elect them? A commitment provisional on Ted Kennedy not dying and Martha Coakley not running a terrible campaign is not much of a commitment at all.
Speaking of Kennedy, he anticipated this reaction back in 1980. On the eve of his defeat to Jimmy Carter, and Carter's defeat to Ronald Reagan, he warned his supporters against letting electoral setbacks dampen their commitment to their cause. "If the Democrats run for cover, if we become pale carbon copies of the opposition, we will lose -- and deserve to lose," he said. "The last thing this country needs is two Republican parties."
Leave it to Klein to use someone like Ted Kennedy as a model legislator.
I find it hilarious that even a Leftard like Klein would fail to grasp that what ObamaCare was about was destroying the very health care system that prolonged Ted Kennedy's life.Or maybe it wouldn't have, at least not for Kennedy..since the Democrats in Congress made sure that ObamaCare wouldn't apply to them.
Maybe what Ted Kennedy might really have said at this point is that 'Er ah... ObamaCare is just a bridge too far.'
Come to think of it, I have my doubts Teddy would have used exactly those words.
This is huge... especially coming from Barney Frank:
“I have two reactions to the election in Massachusetts. One, I am disappointed. Two, I feel strongly that the Democratic majority in Congress must respect the process and make no effort to bypass the electoral results.
If Martha Coakley had won, I believe we could have worked out a reasonable compromise between the House and Senate health care bills. But since Scott Brown has won and the Republicans now have 41 votes in the Senate, that approach is no longer appropriate. I am hopeful that some Republican Senators will be willing to discuss a revised version of health care reform because I do not think that the country would be well-served by the health care status quo. But our respect for democratic procedures must rule out any effort to pass a health care bill as if the Massachusetts election had not happened.
Going forward, I hope there will be a serious effort to change the Senate rule which means that 59 votes are not enough to pass major legislation, but those are the rules by which the health care bill was considered, and it would be wrong to change them in the middle of the process.”
Translation? Frank realizes that he and a lot of other Democrats are going to be voted out if Obama tries to shove this through. And I have a feeling that he's speaking for a lot of other Donkeys who would rather not go public and risk Pelosi and Obama's wrath.
To me, it is a delicious irony that the first shots of the new Revolution should be fired at the same site where the original shots were fired 234 years ago.It would have been almost unimaginable only a short time ago.
Any way you slice it, this is the start of something big.
President Obama made a major tactical error in coming down to endorse Coakely and explicitly making her candidacy what amounted to a referendum on his presidency. Prez Zero's fanboys are working overtime to spin it, but all one has to do is to look at the ad Obama made for Coakely for Organizing America, the logistical and financial support the Obama White House gave her and look at the speech he made for her at the rallies in Massachusetts.
Given his inflated sense of himself, Obama felt that all he had to do to put across an elitist, clueless and unqualified candidate was to show up and watch the sheep fall in line behind him, just like in the old days. He couldn't have been more wrong.
This was a pushback at the Obama administration's doctrinaire, out of touch policies, the crooked deals and Chicago-on-the- Potomac, and even the more honest Democrat voices admit it and are urging that the Donkeys take the lesson to heart and make some changes.
That's fairly unlikely. Obama has already signaled that he plans to be a lot more 'combative' about getting his agenda through:
President Barack Obama plans a combative response if, as White House aides fear, Democrats lose Tuesday’s special Senate election in Massachusetts, close advisers say.
“This is not a moment that causes the president or anybody who works for him to express any doubt,” a senior administration official said. “It more reinforces the conviction to fight hard.”…
There won’t be any grand proclamation that “the era of Big Government is over” — the words President Bill Clinton uttered after Republicans won the Congress in the 1990s and he was forced to trim a once-ambitious agenda.
“The response will not be to do incremental things and try to salvage a few seats in the fall,” a presidential adviser said. “The best political route also happens to be the boldest rhetorical route, which is to go out and fight and let the chips fall where they may. We can say, ‘At least we fought for these things, and the Republicans said no.’”
You can expect to see this president trash talking quite outrageously when it comes to this years' State of the Union speech, due out January 27th. I could almost write a critique of the coming speech in advance.
He will blame 'obstructionists' the Republicans and 'the old politics as usual' for his mishaps. And expect him to do the class war dance, blaming 'the banks', 'Wall Street' 'big insurers' and 'the special interests' for everything he can't lay at Bush's feet.
I wouldn't even be surprised to hear him make a call for fiscal responsibility...after he and the Democrats quadrupled the nation's debt like an out-of control teen at the mall armed with daddy's credit card.
Hopefully the GOP will have someone respond properly, mentioning the president's bogus stimulus deal that created no jobs and mostly went to pay off his political allies, 'cash for clunkers', the bribing of the Senate with literally billions of our tax dollars, the attempted nationalization of huge sectors of the economy,and the blank checks for Fannie and Freddie. Or perhaps the strange avoidance of any criticism or reigning in of Obama's Wall Street pals at Goldman Sachs and the president's corrupt deal with Big Pharma could be mentioned. Or the Obama deficit, and the fact that Obama has spent more in one year than than the ee-vil BushHitler spent in eight....just for starters.
I doubt they would, but perhaps the GOP could prevail on Rush Limbaugh to do the honors. That would definitely be must-see TV.
As for Obamacare, I think the president plans to shove it through no matter what. He's simply made it too much a part of his agenda and made too many deals that have to be paid off somehow to shelve it or start from scratch. Since it's unlikely he's going to be able to unduly delay Scott Brown's being seated in the Senate, the obvious tactics are likely to be either ping ponging, where the House wholly endorses the Senate bill without any changes or reconciliation, where the Donkeys can simply lock the Republicans out of the room, make certain superficial changes in budgeting and pass the bill by simple majorities.
Both are possible, and both have a number of difficulties.
There are a number of 'progressives' that dislike the Baucus bill intensely because it lacks guv'mint run healthcare,and many more of the slightly less insane Blue Dogs are worried because they already know that the folks back home hate the whole idea. Nancy Pelosi manged to get the 218 votes she needed because one GOP congressman, Joseph Cao, allowed himself to be bribed and because the anti-abortion language of the Stupac amendment passed.
However, the Senate bill lacks the anti-abortion provisions of the Stupac Amendment and also taxes the so-called 'cadillac heath plans' heavily. Obama had made a deal with the Unions to effectively exempt their plans from these taxes, but that backroom deal would be difficult to include if there's a pingpong or reconciliation, andthe same is true of the anti-abortion language. Donkeys who depend on union support will be hard pressed to vote yes to the Senate bill, and Rep Stupak says that he has a dozen no votes if the abortion language remains cut from the legislation. So it might be tough getting to 218 in the House this time.However, it's not impossible.
I wrote some time ago that if Prez Zero shoves Obamacare through Congress, that would be the one single thing that could lose them their majorities in both houses. The way things are going now, they might just lose them anyway...Mess NBC, of all places, had Zero's approval ratings at a whopping 48%, and remember, that's Mess NBC where they've been known to oversample Democrats by 15%.
No matter what ends up happening with ObamaCare, other crusades I expect Obama to embark on shortly are card check, to end secret ballots in Union elections ( after all, they didn't spend a quarter of a billion dollars to elect him for nothing) 'punishing' the banks, would should do wonders for the economy and amnesty for illegal aliens, AKA 'comprehensive immigration reform'. With a 10% official unemployment rate ( more like 17% or 18% in real numbers) el amnestia ought to go over about as well as ObamaCare has.For all the hope n' change rhetoric, President Obama doesn't strike me as the kind of person who is capable of actually dropping his agenda just because the majority of the American people obviously want no part of it.
As for the Republicans, hopefully tonight has clued them in that they need to run on principles,values and populism, something I suppose you could call the Palin formula. Scott Brown ended up getting $500 thousand from the RNC under the table once he had done all the spadework himself, but he was smart enough not to be identified with the GOP establishment and they were smart enough to go along with it.
Brown succeeded with a small government, conservative Reaganesque platform that energized people like no Republican has since Sarah Palin. A guy in his truck almost overnight became a symbol of people tired of business as usual and disillusioned with the Wizard of O and Chicago-on-the Potomac.
Tonight's victory is very likely to spur a lot of Democrat retirements and open up more seats, and it may very well make some of the more idiotic incumbents ( Babs Boxer, I'm looking at you) amazingly vulnerable to the right candidates. The GOP needs a lot less of the same old same old and a lot more Scott Browns, and they're out there.
We have, after all, a country to save.
Oh, and happy one year anniversary, Mr. President.Best of luck on the golf course.
For some reason, that hospital so far is the only functioning hospital at the quake site, as this interview by CNN's Elizabeth Cohen with Harvard Medical's Dr. Jennifer Furin reveals.
I'm surprised this ran on the usually anti-Israel CNN.
The polls are open in Massachusetts and the stakes are high.
I still rate this race as leaning towards Republican Scott Brown, and most polls show him leading handily. But anything can happen, and I urge Brown's campaign and supporters not to succumb to overconfidence.
The Democrats have actually made a taxpayer supported business out of stealing elections with bogus votes. ACORN and Obama's own Organize For America are very much on the ground and we can expect the dead to rise from their graves and vote Democrat, not to mention convicted felons, illegal aliens and numerous homeless people who addresses at given as the local Democrat campaign office or the public library.
Obama has put his personal prestige on the line, there are far too many sleazy political payoffs connected with passing ObamaCare and the stakes are high. Do not expect this to be a fair election, and unless Brown wins by an uncontroversial margin you can expect the Democrats to mount as many challenges as needed until they can 'find' the necessary votes to win. You'll see exactly what I mean if Brown wins by 2 percent or less.
In spite of their name, the leadership of today's Democrats have a contempt for democracy that is palpable. UberLefty Ed Schultz personifies this attitude.
Those of you in the Bay State that haven't already done so, now would be a splendid time to volunteer to help get the vote out and to poll watch.
With the clock ticking inexorably towards Tuesday's election and a new poll showing them in a dead heat, Democrat Martha Coakley and Republican Scott Brown are crisscrossing the state today in a last-minute scramble for votes in a race that has drawn national attention.
'Dead heat'? Oh yeah, there's one poll from an obviously unbiased, non-partisan source showing Coakely and Brown dead even..from Daily Kos!
I guess that's how Peter Schworm, the author of this tripe learned spin it leftwards back in J-school.Simply pathetic.
The Taliban carried out a daylight Mumbai-style attack on on government centers and civilian targets in the heart of the Afghanistan capital of Kabul today.
The Taliban fighters wore suicide vests and used assault rifles and RPG's as well as car bombs to attack the central area where the presidential palace, the Justice Ministry, and the Central Bank are located. The Serena Hotel, a shopping mall and a movie theater also became part of the war zone.
The attack lasted six hours and resulted in widespread damage and scores of wounded. Seven Taliban fighters, three soldiers, and two civilians were killed in the fighting.
The attack took place as President Karzai was swearing in his new cabinet and is mulling over offering the Taliban an amnesty and a place in his new government. For their part, the Taliban have so far refused any negotiations until the NATO forces leave the country.
What today's attack was likely supposed to demonstrate to both President Karzai and the Afghan people is that the Taliban are capable of striking even in the heavily guarded heart of Kabul, and that relying on NATO to protect them is futile.
There will undoubtedly be more such attacks, since they're designed to erode any basic sense of security for the Afghans.That was an old Viet Cong tactic.
The cute little Right wingnut teabagger alone is worth the price of admission.
Brown has energized something in the people of Massachusetts.Maybe it's him, maybe it's just that they've finally had enough.Or maybe it's both.
Volunteers for Brown are so plentiful that they have some of them working and calling from home. Coakely, on the other hand,has basically had to pretty much cede her get out the vote efforts to Obama's people from Organizing America.
The polls? Public Policy has Brown up by 51-46, 5 points. Other polls show him up by as much as nine points, which I personally think is a bit high.
As Byron York points out, there are two unique factors affecting this race, ObamaCare and one party rule. Massachusetts already has what amounts to universal health coverage, put in place by Mitt Romney.If ObamaCare passes, the already overtaxed people of the Bay State will be paying much higher taxes to subsidize Nebraska and Louisiana's sweetheart deals for something they already have. And that assumes they're happy with the longest wait time to see a physician in the nation.
They also have noticed that when Democrats rule unrestricted without any checks and balances, bad things can happen. And Martha Coakely's clueless and imperious attitude as the anointed senator-to-be hasn't helped either.
Martha Coakely and Barack Obama failed to fill the hall at a Boston University no less, only drawing 2,000 or so in a hall that seats 3,000.
And wonder of wonders, in the midst of a dull speech where the president did his usual class warfare number, he was actually heckled for 3-4 minutes:
The scene was entirely different over at Scott Brown's rally in Worchester:
“It’s an absolute mob scene. The police have closed off the streets. It’s mind blowing. The hall is already full, and it holds 3,000 people. There may be another 1,000 people outside.”
Meanwhile, reader Sean Fitzpatrick writes: “Pictures don’t do justice. Nothing like this in Mass since JFK. Worcester rally starts in thirty minutes and the streets are already packed.” Here’s a pic.
The word is that Obama's advisers are already telling him that Coakely is toast, and the polls pretty much all show Brown ahead.
It's by no means a time to get complacent,however. The margin of victory has to be great enough to preclude the usual Dem shenanigans...or as Hugh Hewitt once put it, if it's not close, they can't cheat.
Those of you in the Bay State that haven't already done so, now would be a splendid time to volunteer to help get the vote out.
I note with interest that Israel is sending substantial aid and manpower to the Haitian people to help them in their hour of need, including an entire IDF field hospital.
As a matter of fact, a Haitian woman just gave birth to a son in that hospital and named the child Israel in gratitude, as pictured above.
But it's also interesting that as one looks at all the countries sending aid to Haiti, many Muslim countries seem to be conspicuously absent, in spite of all those petrodollars. Even Muslim Aid, the one Islamic charity that appears to be giving anything is based in the US.
There have been pledges, which may or may not be honored - $1 million each from Kuwait and Morocco. There are some direct supplies from Iran, and contingents of aid workers from Indonesia and Turkey.
But that's it.
Nothing from the Saudis, nothing from the UAE, nothing from the rest of the Arab world, nothing from Pakistan or the Muslim nations in Central Asia, nothing from Iraq...
They tried it once before and it was a dismal failure.
Reminds me of the line from Spinal Tap, where the interviewer is asking the band's manager whether the fact that they're only able to sell tickets in smaller and smaller halls means their appeal is fading...
"No, I think it just means that their appeal is becoming more selective."
Simply put,Martha Coakley has become a trainwreck.
The latest polls show GOP Senate candidate Scott Brown ahead of Coakely, with the momentum behind him. As a matter of fact, according to the NRO's Jim Geraghty, Brown's internal polls actually show him up by eleven.
Coakely insulted yet another sizable group of voters today by saying, believe it or not, that Red Sox great Curt Schilling was a Yankee fan! Yes, Curt Schilling, the man who led the Red Sox to their first national championship since 1918, breaking the infamous curse of the Bambino.
Schilling, who had already endorsed Brown fired back one down the middle, saying "I've been called a lot of things...but never, I mean never, could anyone make the mistake of calling me a Yankee fan. Well, check that, if you didn't know what the hell is going on in your own state maybe you could..."
There are three signs the Donkeys understand that Coakley is cratering. First, the attack ads have gotten so below the belt that and outright false that even some Left leaning sites are repulsed by them.
The second sign is that a number of Leftard commentators are as much as admitting how unqualified Coakely is by calling on the troops to be good Donkeys, hold their noses and vote for her anyway. Andrew Sullivan was one such, taking a little time off from his Jew-baiting and Trig Palin conspiracies ( no link to this particular jackass, thank you very much). Some of them, like Mess NBC's Ed Schultz are even calling on Democrats to steal the election regardless of what the voters of Massachusetts want.
You see, with the Left, their views on democracy are a lot like their views on dissent. They love it, but only as long as the results support their agenda. Otherwise, they're not so keen on the idea and would just as soon stifle it.
The final sign, of course, is that the Donkeys are even now already making plans on how to shove ObamaCare down our collective throats no matter how things go on Tuesday.
That would probably involve either massive bogus court challenges if the vote is even slightly close to delay Brown being seated in time to vote on ObamaCare or the use of the reconciliation tactic, which would mean a closed door deal to simply push through the existing Senate bill with few if any changes with the idea of 'fixing things' later. That would eliminate any debate in the Senate or House, would only require a 51 vote simple majority and could get the bill on Obama's desk for signature well before Brown could be seated.
Speaking of Obama, he may have made a tactical error by doing a video for Organizing America touting Coakley and essentially making her victory a referendum on his presidency. And he's going to underline that by appearing in Massachusetts for Coakely at a rally on Monday.
If Obama, ACORN and the Democrats machine in Massachusetts manage to pull this out by whatever means necessary, well and good for Obama. But if Coakely loses, it's going to be seen as another defeat for the Obama Administration.
What's striking, of course, is how much effort, time and money Obama and the Democrats are willing to put in to elect such an obviously unqualified candidate to the US Senate, simply because Coakely has that ‘d’ after her name on the ballot
I seem to remember a few things somebody said during the last presidential campaign about getting beyond the Old Politics and the partisan divide in Washington for the good of the country, but like almost everything else Obama had to say back then, it's turned out to be pure horse manure.
Someone is getting called for jury duty...but it's no human.
A family is trying to figure out how their pet cat was summonsed for jury duty.
“I said, Sal, what’s this? You know, I don’t believe it I was shocked,” said Guy Esposito, Sal’s owner.
Sal’s owners, Guy and Anna Esposito, think they may know the source of the mix up: Sal really is a member of the family, so on the last Census form, Anna Esposito listed him under “pets”.
“I just wrote ‘Sal Esposito’, scratched out the ‘dog,’ and wrote, ‘cat,’” said Anna.
Anna filed for Sal’s disqualification of service. However, the jury commissioner was unmoved and denied the request.
Sal’s service date at Suffolk Superior Court{this is in Boston Massachusetts-rm} is set for March 23. Anna said that if the issue isn’t cleared up by then, she will simply have to bring the cat to court.
I bet my dollar to your dime ACORN filled out the census form for them, and the cat was listed as voting for Obama in '08.
You'll remember the three Navy SEALS who captured a dangerous terrorist murderer in Iraq and instead of a commendation are now facing a court martial because the jihadi complained to Iraqi authorities that they allegedly hit him in the mouth.
In the latest gesture of appeasement, two of them are being shipped to Iraq for trial, while the third is going to appear in a special court martial proceeding next week:
During this preliminary hearing, military court judge Cmdr. Tierney Carlos declared that he would like to have the cases of Navy SEALs Petty Officer 1st Class Julio Huertas and Petty Officer 2nd Class Jonathan Keefe moved to Camp Victory in Iraq. The ruling will give the court the ability to question Ahmed Hashim Abed – the alleged victim.
The lawyer who represents Jonathan Keefe had requested that Abed be brought to the United States for questioning regarding the case.
The charges are all linked to an alleged incident involving Abed, the suspected perpetrator of the killing and burning of four Blackwater contractors in Fallujah, Iraq. Abed had complained to investigators that he was subjected to physical abuse – he was said to have been punched – while he was in detention.
Jonathan Keefe is charged with dereliction of duty and making a false official statement. Julio Huertas faces the same charges as well as impeding an official investigation.
Carlos reportedly said the following as he made the ruling for Keefe: “It doesn’t make sense to me that the alleged victim is available for deposition and not available for trial. In order to prevent prejudice to the accused, this case should be tried in Iraq.” Carlos said further: “This deposition will not be a substitute for the alleged victim’s appearance.”
The deposition Commander Carlos is referring to came from the Iraqi authorities, just as the original charges against the SEALS did. As I remarked earlier, it's easy to punch yourself in the mouth or bang your face against a wall and say that those evil Americans did it - especially when some of your sympathetic countrymen swear to it and the American military, at the behest of Washington, is bending over backwards to prove how Muslim friendly they are.
If this jihadi cockroach Ahmed Hashim Abed is unable or unwilling to come to the US to be questioned in open court, these charges should have been dropped then and there.
Instead, these brave warriors have to have their lives put on hold and get shipped back to Iraq for Abed and the Iraqi's convenience.
In fact even if theSEALS did smack Abed around a little in the course of capturing him in what was by all accounts a dangerous mission, what are we saying by putting these men on trial?
If we allow our warriors to be demonized merely for doing their job superbly, the day will come when no one will step up. This is not only unfair and absurd,it's suicidal.
Apparently Congressman Burton ( R- IN) is mounting a campaign to go directly to Major General Charles Cleveland, the Commanding General of Special Operations Command Central to have the charges dismissed. His latest letter to the General is here.
Please contact your local Senators, Congressmen and State Representatives and ask they get involved.
( Hat tip and a commendation to long time Joshua's Army member Joyce C for initially sending this my way)
I dreamed last night about the first ultrasound I had when I was pregnant with my daughter. I was sixteen weeks pregnant, and had been throwing up non-stop for 15 1/2 of those sixteen weeks. I was not happy. I resented the parasite within me. And then I saw the sonogram image and discovered that the parasite had a little round head, two arms and two legs, and an incredible spinal cord that looked like the most exquisite string of pearls. That image did not instantly reconcile me to the next 26 weeks of non-stop vomiting, but it made me aware that “the fetus” is not simply an aggregation of cells, or a thing indistinguishable from a dog or a chicken fetus. It’s a baby.
By the time I had my second child, I knew, without question, that every “fetus” is a nascent human being. I finally recognized on an emotional level that the zygote created on the first day is the same life as the baby you hold in your arms on the last. It is also the same as the toddler that lisps “I wuv you,” and the pre-teen who says “Y0u’re the best mommy ever.” They all start there, right inside each mother.
You’d think, of course, that this realization should have been obvious to me, and should have long predated the birth of two children. But I grew up in the feminist abortion oriented culture, and that culture shies away assiduously from focusing on the life within the woman and focuses, instead, only on the woman herself. There’s a great deal of logic to that focus. During my lifetime alone, there was little to focus on other than the woman. Doctors doing autopsies and medical students studying anatomy might have had a sense of fetal development but, really, no one else did. We weren’t peeking in the womb just a few decades back. Premature babies died as often as not, so our cultural sense of their viability was limited. Heck, in the old days, huge numbers of full-term babies died as often as not. In the pre-modern era, up to 50% of all children died before their 5th birthday — and that’s just counting live births.
In the non-Council category, the winner this week is a great piece in American Thinker by Rabbi Aryeh Spero on the president's seeming inability to be an adversary against the global jihad levied against the West, President Obama Must Choose Sides :
There appears to be a battle raging within Barack Obama. How this war is resolved will decide how we fight the war on terror and determine if we win it at all. In his speech last spring in Cairo, Mr. Obama said, "I consider it part of my responsibility as President of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear." Defending the honor of Islam and protecting Muslims is one of the goals that Barack Obama has set for himself. It constitutes a personal definition of his presidency. But is he doing so to the point of misleading the public in general, and at the risk of jeopardizing the American people in particular?
The near-deaths of three hundred people on Christmas due to an Islamic terrorist plot -- an act of war against America -- did not rouse Obama from golf and relaxation until three days later. When he finally spoke, he disrespected us, as before, by claiming that this was a "lone event" disconnected from anything larger. But most Americans knew what it was, and the subsequent reports and al-Qaeda announcement told us that this was an act of jihad, a part of the larger scheme of radical Islam in its war against America.
After the Fort Hood massacre, the president's first reaction was to intone the silly assertion that we "do not know what prompted this outrage." In fact, everyone immediately intuited what was verified more each day after the carnage: that devotion to the Islamic cause generated Nidal Hasan's decision to kill American infidels. The president was strangely unwilling to tie these murders to Islam or jihad or imams, even knowing that the jihadist yelled "Allah aqbar" as he mowed down innocent Americans.
In all these matters, Mr. Obama's first concern seems to protect things Islamic rather than name and fight the Islamism intent on destroying us. This attitude predates his presidency, and it is one of the animating and personal goals of his worldview. Even before becoming senator of Illinois, he tells us in The Audacity of Hope (pp.261) of his earlier decision: "I will stand with them [Muslims] should the political winds shift in an ugly direction." For Barack Obama, the recognition that this is not simply generic "extremism," as he likes to call it, but specific to Islam and carried out by devout young Muslim men borders on the "ugly direction" against which he promised to stand. But by so doing, Mr.Obama is misleading the country and standing in the way of the measures needed to protect the American people and win the war on terror.
Here's the complete rundown of this week's results. Only Soccer Dad and the Colossus of Rhodeywere unable to vote, and only Soccer Dad was 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.
I seem to be in a spiritual mode today...not at all a bad thing.
If you remember, I wrote a piece on an appeal by The Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel, Shlomo Amar, that Jews fast and pray this Thursday (28th Tevet) for rain to ease Israel's drought.
Accordingly, I fasted today (the 28th day of Tevet came yesterday in Israel, but today here) and prayed to Almighty G-d to send rain to the Holy Land to succor Israel and replenish it.I definitely felt the connection.
Today, I looked at the weather forecast for Israel and saw heavy rains predicted all over the country starting January 17th.
Pat Robertson made headlines yesterday in a comment about the massive earthquake in Haiti, stating that the cause of the earthquake was a pact that the African slaves made with the devil in order to get his assistance in freeing them from the French, and that Haiti had been cursed ever since:
Needless to say, the Left had a field day with this. No less than Obama commissar Valerie Jarret pronounced Dr. Robertson's comments 'stunning'.
And of course the raa-a-aa-cism card came out...ironic since the comments were made during an appeal to Robertson's listeners for donations and prayer to succor the Haitian people. In fact, Robertson and his ministry had already raised millions of dollars in aid for Haiti's poor even before the quake hit, and are in the process of raising millions more, while aid teams from Robertson's ministry are already en route to join the ones that were already on the island.
The whole thing has become an exercise in 'hey lookit the dumb cracker hillbilly Jee-sus peddler' so that the spotlight can be taken off the meltdown of Obama's poll numbers as the Democrats prepare the consummation of the backroom ObamaCare heist.
Do I agree with what Pat Robertson had to say? Not at all, but I also know that he's not the idiot people would have you believe, and I understand where he's coming from even if his timing was abysmal and some of his historical facts are questionable.
Here's a spoiler..the following discussion deals to some degree with theology and speculation. I love dealing with ultimate issues like this, but not everyone does, so consider yourselves warned.
Aside from the fact that Napoleon was not in power at the time of the Haitian slave revolt ( and Napoleon III hadn't even been born yet) the 'pact with the devil' Robertson is speaking about was an actual historical event that took place in 1791 at Bois Caiman, where the oppressed African slaves gathered in the hills one evening under the leadership of Boukman Dutty, a voodoo houngan ( priest) and indulged in a voodoo oathing ceremony that involved drinking the blood of a pig and swearing to kill every white on the island, after which they revolted. That was the beginning of the Haitian revolution that eventually rid them of their French masters.
Now was it a pact with the devil as Robertson says? Doubtful, although it depends on how you define the devil.
I know a bit about voodoo, and its basic central elements are the magical philosophy that like affects like (i.e. the famous voodoo dolls) and that various spirits (loas) in the voodoo pantheon can be bribed by material gifts and ceremonies by supplicants to help with the involuntary manipulation of people and things in the physical world for reasons of financial gain, love, lust, and hatred. An oathing ceremony, as this appears to have been, is normally a way of binding people to an enterprise and usually involves partaking of a potion made up of blood,urine, semen or other organic substances while making an offering to a loa - in this case probably Ogoun,who traditionally presides over matters of war.
Was that enough to curse Haiti for all time?
If one believes in an omnipotent G-d ( and I definitely do) then one also has to believe that He is master of this world, that nothing happens without a purpose and that He ultimately controls the cosmos and everything in it.
There's no half way. G-d either controls it all or He doesn't. And that, incidentally, includes ol' Scratch, AKA the devil.
That's one of the places where Robertson and I likely part company.Unlike Christianity, Judaism never embraced the concept of Satan as an 'adversary' to G-d, preferring to believe that evil in mankind was a product of man's yetzer harah, the evil inclination that came from misuse of man's Free Will.
In the Book of Job, G-d essentially gives Satan carte blanche to do whatever he likes with Job to prove that Satan has no power over the truly righteous. Satan takes away Job's wealth, family and even his health, but the key to Satan and G-d's real relationship is that after each incidence, the Book of Job tells us explicitly that Satan was required to report what had happened to G-d. And as you know, one doesn't 'report' to one's equal, but to one's superior.
This concept of the devil being required to report to G-d - and in effect, being his servant - is quite different than the typical picture of how Satan operates.But it is consistent with the idea of G-d being omnipotent.
So the idea that the Haitians would make a pact with the devil, who operates under G-d's command and then be cursed by G-d for centuries for doing it simply makes no sense theologically if you truly believe in an omnipotent G-d. I simply don't think it works out that way, especially over centuries in the Great Holy Ledger In The Sky. I simply don't see G-d doing business that way.
Now where Robertson may have a few things somewhat right, even if he's wrong about a curse by G-d causing the quake is in his remarks on how poor and unfortunate Haiti is.
That may partly be a direct result of the hold voodoo has on part of the population of the island,because of its emphasis on manipulation and temporal power,at least at its most basic. Such attitudes can make a society selfish, corrupt and wasteful. For example, the other half of the Island of Hispaniola, the Dominican Republic is touristy and developed but still well forested and the farm lands are intelligently cultivated. One can even do eco-tourism there and observe the rain forest first hand. In Haiti, large tracts of forest have been clear cut and not replanted, wasteful slash and burn agriculture is still practiced and a lot of the farm land is either fallow or misused.
To me, it's significant that a defrocked Catholic priest Jean-Bertrand Aristide , the Haitian politician Bill Clinton devoted so much energy to keeping in power was the first Haitian president to legalize voodoo as an official state religion, and was a committed marxist. He was so corrupt and disruptive to the country's economy that he was thrown out twice by his own people.
Before him, the last real rulers Haiti had were the Duvaliers, Papa Doc and Baby Doc ruling them, both of whom claimed voodoo as part of their power. That's particularly true of Papa Doc, who was identified by many Haitians as the living embodiment of Baron Samedi, the loa who rules the underworld and the passage between the worlds of the living and the dead. Papa Doc was also popularly rumored to make zombie slaves out of those who opposed him.
After everything that's happened to Haiti and the Haitian people, their island home was a destitute wreck even before the quake and it will take every bit of their legendary resilience to make things right.
And as for the quake....oh, yes, I know what you're thinking. If G-d controls everything in this world, what about the quake? What about the innocents who've died or lost everything?
My answer is that the earthquake, just like the ocean or the night sky is of this world and thus under His control. If G-d is in fact omnipotent, then the earthquake is definitely part of G-d's plan, hard as that may be to take. He has His own reasons, and I would not even speculate as to what those might be, although I flatter myself to think I have the glimmer of an idea.
Just as good does not exist in the absence of evil, renewal does not exist in the absence of destruction. They are two sides of the same coin, both necessary to each other. Nor can one rebuild on a flawed structure. You have to start from the basic beginnings.
Here's some food for thought - as I write this, countries all over the world, even countries with major issues between them are now working together and sending volunteers and supplies to help Haiti, and people worldwide are donating money and supplies, even in these dire economic times. Haiti is a small, poor country that normally no one thinks about, but this disaster has put the tragedy of Haiti on the world's television screens and reminded all of us that Haiti exists.
Even more, Haiti has little strategic value and no major resources, so the massive efforts by the peoples of the world to save the Haitians have no ulterior motives except our common humanity. And yes, as a manifestation of G-d's love that lies within us all.
This in itself is a tremendous power, and an idea that is indeed worth thinking about.
-selah -
By the way, here are a few carefully selected ways to help:
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’)
