According to The New York Times, Said Ali al-Shihri, released from Guantanamo, has become the deputy leader of Al Qaeda in Yemen.  He is linked to a deadly bombing of the US Embassy in Yemen in September.  He was released to Saudi Arabia in 2007 and completed the Saudi Arabian rehabilitation program for former jihadists before resurfacing with Al Qaeda in Yemen.

OK.  Let’s look at this.  Saudi Arabia is the center of Wahhabism, the form of Islam that gave us the 911 terrorists.  Saudi Arabia has a ‘rehabilitation program’.  This is like trying to rehabilitate Hitler’s SS.  There is no rehabillitation for terrorists.  They have been brainwashed beyond the point of no return.  Compassion and humanity do not exist in their minds.  How else do you explain the making of videos and celebrating, as innocent people have their heads sawn off?

We need to find an inaccessible island somewhere with enough jungle growth to sustain life, and leave all the terrorists there to live together.  There could be no way off or on and no communication with the outside world.  These people will always be a threat to civilization.  The question is whether or not civilization will acknowledge the threat.

According to The New York Times, President Obama signed executive orders undoing three of the foundational items in George Bush’s counterterrorism stategy.  First, the closing of Guantanamo within a year (with no stated plans of what to do with the terrorists imprisoned there), second, ending the CIA secret prisons (just for the record, that program began under Bill Clinton), and third, all  interrogations will now follow the noncoercive methods of the Army field manual.  This sounds very noble–the idea is that we have claimed the ‘moral high ground’.  I would lilke to point out that all prisoners we have held and are holding still have their heads, their hands and their feet.  I’m not for mistreatment, but I think this one case when one man’s comfort or discomfort cannot be valued above the well being of innocent civilians.

At some point it needs to be noted that there are people out there whose goal is to destroy our civilizaiton.  Not all Muslims are terrorists, but so far, the majority of terrorists are Muslims, and if you remember, they have no problem killing innocent civilians or removing the heads of anyone they happen to kidnap.  I am sure there are a number of terrorist leaders looking at these three executive orders by Obama and rubbing their hands with glee.  There will now be no real problem for terrorists who are captured.  We will go back to the Clinton days of “Take me to New York so I can see my lawyer” (approximately the words of one terrorist captured early in the Iraq war).

Bill Clinton dealt with the terrorist problem as a legal matter–he prosecuted the people responsible for the first World Trade Center bombing in a court of law.  There were no real consequences for the people who actually planned the operation overseas.  George Bush changed the rules–he said essentially to the terrorists-  you mess with us, we will mess with you.  During the Clinton years we were attacked overseas a number of times (embassies, the US Cole, etc.) and plots were stopped at home (LAX 2000), but the planning of terrorist attacks continued.  I am sure the planning of terrorist attacks continued under George Bush, but the terrorists knew that the consequences of an attack or of being captured by the Americans would be high.  The terrorists now have no reason to fear capture, and I am afraid they may not have to fear the consequnces of commmitting terrorist acts if we bring back the trials in American courtrooms for terrorists.  We may have regained ‘the moral high ground’, but we have probably put ourselves at risk by doing so.  Intellectually it’s a great idea, practically, it’s a formula for a major terriorist attack against America.

There are two articles on the internet this morning dealing with the Minnesota Senate race.  The first at KSTP-TV Minneapolis has Norm Coleman stating that when the legal challenges are over, he will be declared the winner.  The issues involved are the double counting of a number of votes (almost thirty precincts have more votes than registered voters) and the absentee ballots that were disqualified (many were later counted, but not with standard rules).  Coleman was ahead initially by about two hundred votes.  A swing of four hundred votes in a recount would be very unusual.

Meanwhile, according to Yahoo News the Senate is moving toward seating Al Franken.  According to the article–

“We’re going to try to seat Al Franken,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., told reporters on Wednesday, a few hours before he posed with Franken for photos just off the Senate floor. “There’s not a question in anyone’s mind, an assertion by anyone, that there’s been any fraud or wrongdoing in this election.”

Also according to the article at Yahoo–

“If Al Franken truly believes he won this election, he should respect the laws of his state and allow this legal review to be completed,” said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Until the State of Minnesota declares a winner, I don’t understand how the Senate can seat anyone.  This may be another case of Harry Reid inserting himself into a losing sitation.  For the sake of future elections in this country and for the sake of the people of Minnesota, I do hope the eventual outcome of this is fair and honest.

According to the Deseret News, Hamas had declared victory in Gaza.  They held victory rallies on Tuesday and stated that “Gaza is just a stepping stone for eliminating the Jewish state. “Hamas today is more powerful,” Ismail Radwan, a Hamas leader, told a crowd from a terrace overlooking Gaza’s main square, with the demolished parliament building serving as a backdrop.” 

How in the world can we expect Israel to make peace and give up land to a group of people who want to end her existence?  I do, however, love the irony of declaring victory with the backdrop of a demolished parliament building.  I really hope Israel does whatever is necessary to ensure its own survival.

There is an interesting post regarding the closing of Guantanamo Bay at National Review Online.  Gallop has taken a poll on whether or not we should close the base.  The results were as follows:  35 percent “yes,” 45 percent “no,” 20 percent “no opinion.”  It doesn’t seem that an overwhelming majority of Americans want to move the terrorists–particularly to their neighborhoods.

In a related story, The Charlotte Observer is reporting that– “a judge on Wednesday quickly granted President Barack Obama’s request to suspend the war crimes trial of a young Canadian in what may be the beginning of the end for the Bush administration’s system of trying alleged terrorists.

The judge, Army Col. Patrick Parrish, issued a one-sentence written order for the 120-day continuance, without even holding a hearing on the question. Another judge was expected to rule later Wednesday on a similar motion to suspend the trial of five men charged in the Sept. 11 attacks.”

Barack Obama has said that he would like trials of Guantanamo prisoners to take place in the United States.  This is somewhat ridiculous.  These are not enemy soldiers.  They are not fighting for any country.  In a sense, they are nothing but a bunch of violent, somewhat organized anarchists.  The have been brainwashed and trained to the point that it will never be safe to let them loose or to allow them to be anywhere that escape is a possibility.  The safety of American citizens is at risk here, and if the wrong decision is made, the consequences will probably bring down the popularity of this administration very quickly.

This is a picture from Kuwait.  It shows that American companies know how to meet needs and make a profit around the world!

Thank you to all our military that are over there making the world safer for us.

If you would like to say thank you to President Bush, click on this link Mission1accomplished,com.  You can just sign your name or leave a message.  According to the people at Little Green Footballs, the folks who built the site are planning to present the comments and logs to George W. Bush’s Presidential Library on September 11, 2011.

It would take pages and pages to say what I am grateful to George Bush for in his presidency.  He kept us safe, he changed the rules on how we deal with terrorists, he gave victory and freedom to the people in Iraq, he gave other people in the world the hope of freedom, and he modeled steadfastness.  But–I am totally thankful for what he did yesterday in commuting two jail sentences.

According to Yahoo.com (Associated Press), President Bush, responding to heavy pressure from Republican and Democratic lawmakers alike, commuted the prison sentences of Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean. The two guards from El Paso, Texas, each were sentenced to more than 10 years for the shooting, which they tried to cover up. They will be released within two months.

I was not on the jury that tried this case, so I don’t have all the information that the jurors have, but from where I sit the sentencing was extreme and the whole situation was out of hand.  The man who was shot was a drug dealer avoiding capture.  They fired.  He was shot.  There were circumstatces linking him to a van of drugs, and evidently he had a history of drug trafficking.  Again, I wasn’t on the jury, but it seems to me that we need to look at the whole picture in terms of protecting our citizens and country from drug dealers and criminals coming across the border.  I’m sorry if the belief is that excessive force is used, but the conviction of the policemen rather than the drug dealer does not send a good message..

It’s funny how new beginnings are in the eye of the beholder.  According to the New York Post, Nancy Pelosi says she is open to prosecuting officials from the Bush administration for high crimes and misdemeanors.  She is wondering if the Democrats have the right to ignore all the ‘crimes’ of the Bush administration.

Meanwhile back at the ranch.  George Bush is out of office.  He is no longer involved in any decisions effecting this country–but there are people in the House and Senate who are still making decisions and who have ethical problems that have not been investigated.  Charles Rangel chairs the House Ways and Means Committee.  Rangel has tax problems–both with reporting income to the IRS and the Congress, and campaign contribution problems–but he is the man in charge of the committee writing our tax laws.  Barney Frank, House Financial Services Committee Chairman, has some very interesting ties to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and was one of the people blocking reform of those organizations.  Chris Dodd, Senate Banking Committee Chairman, received a special mortgage from Countrywide Financial (part of the mortgage meltdown) as he was blocking tighter regulation on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the mortgage market.

The people listed above are still in a position to effect tax policies and laws that will impact the financial health of our country.  Is there a reason why they have not been investigated (other than the fact that they are Democrats)?  Let President Bush retire in peace–I am sure he will be as classy an ex-president as his father has been.  The antics (and non-antics) of the living ex-presidents ought to give us some real insight into their honesty and character.

Unfortunately human nature has a way of showing up  very quickly in any political situation.  Barack Obama is no exception.  According to Power Line Blog, the delay in converting our television sets from analog to digital may have more to do with a telecommunications industry executive that contributed to the Obama campaign than any practical considerations.

R. Gerard Salemme, an executive vice president at a company called Clearwire, advised Obama’s telecom transition team and was a substantial contributor to the Obama campaign.  Timothy Carney, a columnist for the Washington Examiner, contends that delaying the transition from analog to digital will assist Sprint and Clearwire while injuring Verizon, one of Sprint’s major competitors. 

According to the article:

“As Carney explains it, the switch from analog to digital will free up a huge swath of frequencies, which the FCC has auctioned off to other telecommunications firms, including Verizon, who will use this spectrum for its wireless broadband networks, providing Internet for Blackberries and similar devices. But Sprint and Clearwire already own specturm which they have used to launch their their fourth-generation wireless broadband network, known as 4G network. Verizon cannot do so yet because it lacks the necessary spectrum. Thus, says Carney, “the longer broadcasters use analog signals, the longer Verizon has to wait to get the spectrum it needs for its 4G network–which gives Sprint a longer honeymoon as the only network offering 4G speeds.””

You can find the original article at deexaminer.com. 

I wouldn’t call the Dalai Lama a politician, but he is definitely a voice on the world stage.    On Saturday, the Dalai Lama made a statement that terrorism cannot be tackled by applying the principle of ahimsa because the minds of terrorists are closed.

According to Gateway Pundit the Dalai Lama, while delivering the Madhavrao Scindia Memorial Lecture, stated,  “It is difficult to deal with terrorism through non-violence.”.

The article reports that:

“He said that the only way to tackle terrorism is through prevention. The head of the Tibetan government-in-exile left the audience stunned when he said “I love President George W Bush.” He went on to add how he and the US President instantly struck a chord in their first meeting unlike politicians who take a while to develop close ties.”

As George Bush leaves office, the world is beginning to see how much he did to stop the success of terrorism around the world.  America has always been a force for good, and the policies of George Bush have helped to keep the world safe.  I hope Barack Obama will continue that tradition.  

According to The Flint Journal columnist John Tomlinson, we need to begin to pray for global warming.  His column in The Flint Journal states that:

“At December’s U.N. Global Warming conference in Poznan, Poland, 650 of the world’s top climatologists stood up and said man-made global warming is a media generated myth without basis. Said climatologist Dr. David Gee, Chairman of the International Geological Congress, “For how many years must the planet cool before we begin to understand that the planet is not warming?””

The University of Illinois’ Arctic Climate Research Center has discovered that the Arctic ice is now at the same level it was in 1979, and Antarctic ice has increased 5 per cent since 1980.  The Russian government has just released a study saying that we are headed for a 100,000 year ice age.  This is not related to carbon dioxide levels–core samples taken from the earth show that carbon dioxide levels follow the earth’s temperature rise–not lead it.   Carbon dioxide fluctuations follow the change in sea temperature. As water temperatures rise, oceans release additional dissolved carbon dioxide.

The cost of ‘fixing global warming’ on the successful economies of the world would be enormous.  Somehow, someone has gotten the idea that taking money from people or economies that are successful and giving it to people or economies that have failed is a good idea.  The missing part of this idea is that economic success if generally based on actions–for people, it involves freedom to pursue goals, for countries, it involves giving freedom to people so that they can create what is needed for a successful society.   If your goal is to eliminate as much poverty from the earth as possible, all you would have to do is abolish dictatorships and communist and socialist societies.  Look around and see which countries are prospering.  Admittedly, this is a hard time for any country to prosper, but generally, the countries with the most freedom are doing the best economically.  Where you have a ruling cadre that controls all the wealth of a country and no middle class–just poverty, no amount of money given by successful countries is going to make a difference.  Any money given will simply wind up in the pockets of the corrupt leaders.  Carbon credits and other similar plans are only ways to take money away from the people who have earned it and give it to people who have no intention of working for it.

According to Hot Air, President-elect Barack Obama has slightly modified his promise on embryonic stem cells.  He has stated that he would prefer legislative action by Congress rather than an Executive Order on his part.  That’s a mixed blessing. 

The government does not ban embryonic stem cell research–what they do ban is federal money being spent on embryonic stem cell research.  Generally speaking, if a science advancement has great potential, private money is willing to fund it (we are a profit-driven society).  Because the advancements in stem cell research have been more common in adult stem cells, that is the research that has received the most private funding.  Funding embryonic stem cells is like someone who is looking for his car keys under the street light rather than where he dropped them–he won’t find them, but the light is better! 

I hope that Americans who care about the destruction of human embryos and also care about how our tax dollars are spent will contact their congressmen and let their voices be heard.  The success in stem cell research has come in the area of adult stem cells.  Private funding for that research will continue because it will eventually reap financial and practical rewards.  Why should we throw our tax dollars into something that has consistently proven to be unsuccessful?

My husband and I were supposed to leave for the balmy shores of North Caroline (40 degrees or so) yesterday morning.  We headed off to the airport (our youngest daughter was nice enough to pick us up as the sun was coming up) to catch a flight to Charlotte, North Caroline.  We are visiting children and grandchildren (including our favorite Marine in Jacksonville, NC).  Well, to make a long story short, we paid our $30 for luggage, got on the plane, and the plane was broken and never took off.  We rented a car, drove home, and hope to leave at some ungodly hour this morning (in the snow).  If the pilot says the plane is broken and won’t fly it, I’m ok with that–I’d rather not be flying on a broken plane.  However, it seems to me that some compensation would have been very nice.

Blogging will be intermittent over the next week or so as I will be in balmy North Carolina (when you live in Massachusetts, anything above thirty degrees in January in balmy).  Hopefully it will be a quiet week where we can all enjoy the pomp and circumstance of the inauguration of the new President.  We need to pray for wisdom for Barack Obama as he takes office.  We also need to remember, as the loyal opposition, to be loyal opposition–not people who attack the President for anything and everything, tearing down the respect for the Office of President in the process.  You will hear from me frequently in the battle of ideas that is coming–but Barack Obama is a good, family man who has been chosen as our President.  He does not deserve to be personally attacked.

Israel has declared a unilateral cease-fire in Gaza today according to Reuters.  The announcement was made three hours before the actual truce was to start, and immediately after the announcment three missiles were fired into southern Israel.  Hamas has vowed to fight on, despite the ‘truce’.

I asked a former military person I know what victory for Israel would look like in Gaza.  He gave me a short answer–“When Hamas surrenders unconditionally, Israel has won.”  He then went on to site the two atomic bombs we dropped on Japan and the bombing of Dresden, Germany during World War II.  Unless the enemy of civilization (a terrorist who takes millions of dollars from the democracies of the world and does not use in on infrastructure, but only on weapons and military training) surrenders, there will never be peace in that area of the world.  Israel would live at peace with Hamas, but Hamas cannot abide the existence of Israel.

According to the Chicago Tribune (reported on January 16th) the new Minerals Management Service report said developer Cape Wind Associates’ plans for a wind farm off Cape Cod pose no major environmental problems.  The  federal agency rejected high-profile opponents’ arguments that the giant turbines would damage the environment off Cape Cod.  The final decision on this wind farm will be left up to the Obama administration.  The interesting part of this discussion is who is for it and who is against it.  Obama supports ‘green’ energy (on Friday he was visiting an Ohio company that makes parts for wind turbines); Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick has been a stong supporter of the wind farm; Senator Kennedy of Massachusetts has been a strong opponent of the wind farm.  Kennedy’s family compound at Hyannis would have a clear view of the windfarm.  John Kerry and Walter Cronkite have also opposed it.  This is going to be a prolonged fight if Barack Obama supports the wind farm.  If he does not support the wind farm, the idea will die a slow and agonizing death.

I have a few comments on this (surprise).  I live in Massachusetts.  I live in an all-electric house.  That’s not really too bad (considering the cost of oil and gas in the recent past), but my electric bill last month was approaching $300.  I also buy fuel for two pellet stoves ($150 to $200 a month depending on how cold it is).  I’m a Senior Citizen not yet retired.  There is no way I could afford to retire in Massachusetts even if I wanted to.  If a wind farm would lower my electric bill, make America more energy independent, and be non-polluting, I would totally support it.  John Kerry, Walter Cronkite, and Ted Kennedy may not even notice when their electric bill goes up, but mine has tripled over the past five years.

It has also been proven that whenever something relatively free of pollutants is placed on the ocean floor, it becomes a magnet for marine life.  That is why the US Navy often sinks its old ships off the Atlantic Coast after stripping them of anything that might harm the sea environment.  They form artificial reefs.  The wind farm might also help restock some of the depleted fishing areas off the coast of Cape Cod.

The problem of geese at airports is not new.  A lot of our airports are located near water (commerce generally centers at ports) and have marshland of some sort around them.  Washington D.C. is essentially a filled-in swamp, also parts of Boston are former wetlands claimed before ecology was in vogue.  Anyway, one of National Review‘s blogs has an interesting article pointing out that in January of 2004 Senator Charles Schumer helped pass a law for a ‘non-lethal, environmentally friendly solution for controlling New York City’s Canadian Geese’ (giving $200,00 in tax money to the US Fish and Wildlife Service).  Evidently, what caused him to bring up the earmark and get it passed was the fact that Greenpeace was trying to save a flock of geese from Riker’s Island (in the flight path of Laguardia) rather than have the geese killed.  I couldn’t figure out from the article what was or wasn’t done to the geese, but I guess the question at hand should be, “Are people more valuable than geese?”.  I personally think sometimes you have to do hard things to protect people–move the geese or have them for dinner–but we need to protect the lives of passengers on airplanes.

The American Thinker has a quick note about yesterday’s plane landing in the Hudson River (it wasn’t a crash–it was more of a glide).  He points out that the experience and training of the pilot (as well as his courage in checking all the seats to make sure they were empty and being the last one out) allowed him to safely put the plane down and get everyone out.  There is a place for experience.  Let’s here it for the old (although this pilot was not actually old) people!!!!

According to Amanda Carpenter at Townhall.com, Harry Reid may not immediately bring up the ‘card check’ bill in this Congress.  Evidently, Reid does not have the votes to get it passed and will not bring it up until he does.  Meanwhile, big labor is running ads to the effect that the only way workers will get reasonable wages and health care benefits is to join a union.  The use of the word ‘change’ in the ads may be an attempt to put pressure on Barack Obama to keep his campaign promise to big labor and push the bill through.

There is a great poll going on at Hot Air to find the best conservative movies over the past twenty-five years.  Their selections to vote on are interesting, and it will be interesting to see which movies win.

It may be time for the next election before Minnesota sorts this one out.  My favorite source of information about the Coleman vs Franken election (other than the Minnesota Star Tribune (which filed for reorganization in bankruptcy last night) is the Power Line Blog.  They have a post up today referring to a column in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal by MIchael Stokes Paulsen arguing the unconstitutionality of the Minnesota Senate recount.  The column is entitled  “The Minnesota recount was unconstitutional.”   His point was that there were so many inconsistencies in the way ballots were counted in the recount that the rule of all votes being equally counted was violated.  It is disturbing that more than 25 of the reporting precincts reported more votes than registered voters.  It brings me back to the following quote:

“It’s not the people who vote that count. It’s the people who count the votes.” (Josef Stalin)

This quote and the events in Minnesota should wake us up to the fact that all people and parties running for election are not necessarily on the side of honesty.

The New York Post has a number of stories about the US Air crash into the Hudson River yesterday.  The stories are wonderful to read.  The youngest survivor was 9 months old and the oldest was 85.  Everyone got out.  There were some injuries, but it sounds as if they are minor compared to what they could have been.

There were a lot of things that went into the fact that everyone on the plane survived.  The airlines in America are very thorough in training their flight crews for emergencies.  Obviously, as they are being trained, they hope they will never have to use the training, but it is there.  The calmness of the pilot and the flight crew prevented panic among the passengers, and the passengers helped each other where there were special situations (the nine-month-old baby and the 85-year-old woman).  It’s nice to know that when situations are difficult, we still know how to help each other so that everyone gets out!

This is rant from a friend of one of my daughters in New York.  It convinces me that we all need to take a deep breath.

“Subject: But other than that, how was the play Mrs Lincoln?

great time to be a securities or bankruptcy lawyer.  BOA caught lying yest re Federal backstop on the MER takeover, was material and not disclosed prior to merger.  They gonna take a beating.  AAPL caught in lies re Jobs, this could get really messy.  Somebody lied/mislead a couple idiot media folks, discovery will be a disaster for Apple.  Ugly but overdue, they got a pass when they were caught red handed on the backdating.  Wild, wild days, when will the media stop talking about Obama’s smooth transition?  This is the  worst transition in memory.  Hillary got a pass, Bill is still allowed to collect donations/bribes.  She acted on behalf of 6 of his major donors as a senator, in each case taking formal action either 1 month before or after the money changed hands.  Richardson DOA, and he was the second choice.  Blago fiasco that obama should have been able to control and kill in DC.  Now Giether is hanging by a thread.  Wish I had some cash, intrade kept him in high 90’s follow the disclosure.  Insane, he has limited Dem backing, now Republicans have the ability to kill if they wish (which is an open question).  Tax cheat running the IRS?  Does that make sense?  And he has been neck deep, #2 or 3 player in TARP fiasco, how’s that working?  As Pres NY Fed he was chief Regulator of all the NYC based IB’s that levered up and destroyed the economy.  But other than that he’s perfect.
If we turn back the clock, go back to the way unemployment was historically calculated (LBJ and Clinton both altered the statistical calculation) we are around 16/17%, not the 7.2 you see in headlines.  keep that in mind when they tell you it’s not bad. 
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE5077TM20090109
when we hit 9-10%, and we will, we have have more unemployment than the great depression.  And the mets will still suck in Sept.”

He thinks he’s got problems–I’m a Jets fan!!!

Henry Waxman has stated his goal of pushing through legislation dealing with the ‘climate crisis’ before Memorial Day.  The story is in Breitbart.com.  He wants to protect us from ‘global warming’ just as the figures show that the last ten years has been a period of global cooling.  How like Congress to show up ten years too late.

Wow.  All 155 people on Flight 1549 are safe after it crashed into the frigid Hudson River according to Breitbart.com.  Thank God for the clear heads of the pilot, the flight crew, the passengers and the rescue people.  This story could have had a very different ending.  Sometimes when we fly, we take for granted the professionalism of the flight crew, next time, we might not.