This is post for everyone who is still complaining that George Bush started a war in Iraq.  There is a report at Archaeology.org about the evidence forensic archeaologists are uncovering of mass executions in Iraq by the Saddam Hussein regime.  The victims of these executions were men, women and children–some children as young as seven years old.  My comment is this–we were in a position to put an end to this sort of thing in Iraq and we did.  This was a crude version of what Hitler did–only it was more political than racial.  Thank God we put an end to it.  Thank God for the bravery, courage, and determination of our American military and President.  The article is lengthy and emotionally difficult to read, but it is worth reading.

I’m still waiting for the most eithical House of Representatives in history and the most ethical Presidency.  Nancy Pelosi promised that the ethics investigation into Charles Rangel’s tax problems would end in early January.  Actually, according to an article at Townhall.com, the investigation into Charles Rangel’s activities has been expanded to include whether he granted special tax favors to an oil company in exchange for a million dollar college center bearing his name.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch–according to Breitbart.com, Timothy Geithner’s tax problems have slowed his confirmation process, but Senators of both parties do not see the issue as a problem in his confirmation.  Have we lost our minds?

The two people most responsible for tax laws and tax policy in America both have had problems paying their taxes.  This is amazing.  What crimes do I have to commit to be considered for public office?

If I believed that Charles Rangel and Timothy Geithner (because of their own tax problems) would be totally intent upon simplifying the tax code so that a third grader could successfully file their taxes, I would be thrilled to have both of them in charge of tax policy.  However, that belief is off somewhere with my belief in the Easter bunny.

It seems to me that people used to be punished for income tax evasion, but with the current Democrats it has become resume enhancement!

As word gets out that Barack Obama will sign an executive order to close Guantanamo early in his Presidency, the facts keep getting in the way.  The real question is, “What do you do with the prisoners?”  The latest statistics show that 11 per cent of the Guantanamo prisoners that have been released have shown up later on the battlefield.  As a military mom of an active duty Marine, the idea of releasing people to shoot at our soldiers is obscene.  One of the suggestions to put the prisoners in prisons on military bases in America has already met with strong resistance.  Terrorists have been trained to kill innocent people.  Why in the world would we want to run the risk of bringing them into this country?  I also heard one suggestion that if Barack Obama closes Guantanamo, he should put the prisoners in a tent city on the White House lawn.

James Lileks’ Blog has a wonderful piece on his blog about driving in the cold and snow.  I strongly recommend reading it.  One of his suggestions:

“If you are on the highway and traffic is moving slowly, consider putting distance between yourself and the car in front of you. How far? Well, put your hand about two feet from your face. Is your palm smaller than the numbers on the license plate of the vehicle in front of you? More space.”

Definitely good advice. 

If you repeat a lie often enough, some people begin to accept it as truth.  We have spent the last eight years hearing that the world hates us because of George W. Bush.  Well, President Bush is headed for some well-earned peace and quiet, and there’s a new man in charge who was supposed to end all of the hatred for America.  Guess again.  Power Line Blog has pictures of a pro Palestinian gathering in Tehran showing Iranians walking on a picture of Barack Obama, burning a picture of Barack Obama, and generally defacing the posters.  The radical element of the Muslim faith hates us because we are free.  It really doesn’t matter who the President is.  For some reason, our freedom and prosperity are seen as a threat to them.  In a sense they are a threat, because our freedom and prosperity stand in the way of the extremist Muslim goal of a one-world caliphate.  As long as we care to defend our freedom, their goal of ruling a world of Muslims will not be complete.

According to Power Line Blog, Al Franken’s request to the Governor and Secretary of State of Minnesota that they issue him a certificate of election so that he can fill Norm Coleman’s Senate seat was denied.  According to the article:

“So why did Franken bother? Many people don’t realize that under Minnesota law, post-election proceedings take place in three stages. Two of those stages, canvassing and recount, are complete, while the third, the election contest, is just beginning. Several important issues that will result in Norm Coleman gaining votes have not yet been addressed in either of the first two phases. I suspect that Franken is trying to don the mantle of inevitability on the theory that the more people think he is destined to win, the more likely he is to do so.”

There is a possibility that Al Franken will wind up in the Senate.  If that happens, it will be unfortunate.  One of the issues in this election is the fact that there were more votes counted than actual registered voters.  I’m not really sure either side will be happy if the other side is declared the winner.  I know that holding another election would be expensive and would not immediately seat a Senator, but an honest election (and recount) is needed.  The other alternative is to realize that the last reliable count was the machine count at the end of the election .  Nothing since then seems to have been uniform or certifiable.

I’m sure that as we await the Obama inauguration there will be many comments (from both sides) about the George Bush legacy.  I personally like the one written by Fred Barnes at The Weekly Standard.  I don’t agree with everything George Bush did, and I don’t totally agree with Fred Barnes’ list, but I think it’s a fair evaluation of the past eight years.  I do think that whenever we talk about the George Bush presidency, we need to remember how we felt on September 11, 2001, and celebrate the fact that our country has not been successfully attacked since then.  I believe that fact is due to the anti-terrorism policies of the George Bush administration.

My favorite accomplishments of George Bush are first, the number of Muslims who now live in freedom because he stood up to the Taliban and stood up to Al Qaeda in Iraq; and second, the appointment of Justice Roberts and Justice Alito.  Women are going to school in places where that was never possible; they are running for and being elected to public office; and they are on their way to being treated as people–not possessions in countries where that was not possible.  George Bush did not actually change the composition of the Supreme Court–he didn’t replace a liberal with a conservative–but he appointed quality judges who will continue to have an impact on our society after he leaves office.

I believe history will be much kinder to George Bush than today’s journalists.

Energy independence is not a Democrat Party goal, despite what you may have been told.  According to Amanda Carpenter at Townhall.com Harry Reid has advanced his $10 billion land grab.  According to the article:

“Basically, by using “federal wilderness” laws and other environental designations, the Democratic Congress is locking-up energy-rich domestic lands. Instead of putting a new energy ban in place, they are just going to let the federal government absorb them so they’ll never be developed.”

The bill will now be sent to the House of Representatives where hopefully the House Republicans wil ammend it.  However, with the new rule changes Nancy Pelosi has put in place, that will be extremely difficult. 

It seems to me that in a time of economic crisis, the exploration and development of America’s own natural resources would be a wonderful way to help the economy.  I really do wonder why the Democrats have such a hard time with that concept.

According to Hotair.com some of the photography coming out of the war in Gaza is staged and fake.  There is a video at CNN (posted also at HotAir) of two boys evidently injured while playing on a roof in Gaza.  Upon closer examination, there are some problems with the video, such as the amount of blood on the operating table, the damage to the roof of the building, and an undisturbed chair and closeline on the roof.  CNN is challenging the charges of fakery, but has taken the video down, then put it back up.  In the past, the video would have gone unchallenged, and the propaganda war would have turned against Israel.  The propaganda war may still turn against Israel, but at least the obvious fakery is being challenged.

According to Yahoo News, when Barack Obama gave his speech on the economy on Wednesday, he referred to Social Security and Medicare as massive government entitlement programs that needed to be reformed.  Yes, they need to be reformed, but let’s go back to the words he used.  Social Security is not an entitlement program.  Everyone (except Congress, Government Workers, and a few select others) under the age of seventy has put more money into Social Security than they will ever get back.  Calling Social Security an entitlement program is either an innocent mistake or a clue to dangers to the program ahead.  Before you begin to complain about Social Security as an expensive entitlement, I think you need to address the concept of generational welfare and what it has done to destroy the American family.  Anyone who is retired, approaching retirement, or working needs to pay attention to what happens next.

According to January 7, 2009, The Smoking Gun, in an unbelievable blooper, U. S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald accidently e-mailed to reporters the true identities of nearly 20 of the confidential witnesses he interviewed during an investigation of a fraud case.  The mailing was actually a 62-page U.S. District Court complaint filed against John Walsh and Charles Martin, principals of the now-defunct One World Capital Group.  Unfortunately, the key to the named sources in the document (which were supposed to be confidential) was also included, so that there was no confidentiality.  Fitzgerald spokesman Randall Samborn immediately sent an urgent follow-up e-mail asking journalists to destroy the complaint due to the “non-public information disclosing the identities of persons not named in the affidavit. 

Patrick Fitzgerald is currently involved in the Rod Blagojevich investigation and was one of the main investigators in the Tony Rezko case (which supposedly was leading to an investigation of ACORN).  Anyone can push a wrong button or e-mail something extra unintentionally, but I suspect the people whose names were accidently released are not feeling too comfortable. 

Just an aside, I haven’t heard anything lately about the investigations of Tony Rezko or ACORN.  I wonder where those investigations are standing.  I know that Tony Rezko has already been tried, but I am not sure if any links to ACORN were actually followed up on.  That would be interesting to know.

As I have previously noted, the best website I have found on the subject of climate change is wattsupwiththat.com.  It’s very well done and has a lot of back-up information on why global warming is a hoax.  But sometimes things are just plain obvious.  Here are some stories that the global warming alarmists might want to take a look at.

First, according to the Calgary Herald. Rex Tillerson has told the press that Exxonmobil Corporation, the world’s largest crude oil refiner, supports taxing carbon dioxide as the most efficient way of curbing greenhouse gas emissions.  Think about this for a minute.  When you breathe, you exhale carbon dioxide.  Trees use it in photosynthesis.  Just think, if governments can find a way to tax everyone on the amount of air they breathe, they would never have to worry about revenue again.  Most of the population would be broke (except those that figured out how to get in on the gravy train) and our society would be changed forever.  Where is common sense in this debate?  It gets worse.

Second, as the alarmists scream ‘the sky is falling, we are going to overheat tomorrow’, Breitbart.com is reporting Siberia-like conditions in Europe.  Madrid’s airport was closed due to a rare, heavy snowfall, and several rivers in Germany were frozen.  Meanwhile, the Dutch are enjoying skating over frozen canals and lakes.

Third, according to AccuWeather.com a hugh snowstorm is headed for the east coast of the US, followed by what is expected to be the coldest weather in fifteen years.  In Massachusetts, we have a winter storm warning in effect from 6 pm today to noon tomorrow.  We are expected to get somewhere around 8 to 14 inches of snow, followed later next week by temperatures remaining in the teens during the day and single figures at night (not factoring in wind chills).

The bottom line on this, to me, is that we are not getting both sides of the story.  As sunspot activity has decreased since 1998, global temperatures have cooled.  You can do a graph of global temperature and sunspot activity and you will see that the patterns are similar.  The warming and cooling periods over the last century have not been related to human activity; they have been related to cyclical sunspot activity.  I am sure that the activity of man has had some small impact on the ecology of the earth, but actually, we are not that important in the grand scheme of things.  I believe we need to be careful about pollution–we need to use every scientific method we can to keep our negative impact on the earth as low as possible–recycle, treat chemical and human waste so that it is non-polluting, etc., but I think the whole global warming hype has more to do with economics than science. 

According to Power Line Blog PETA has started a new campaign to discourage people from eating fish.  They evidently have decided that the fish PR people have not done an adequate job of convincing us that we should not eat them.  In keeping with the current depth of the popular culture in America, PETA has decided that a name change should do the trick.  Fish will now be called (if PETA has its way) ‘sea kittens’.  After all, you wouldn’t want to eat something that has the name ‘kitten’.  Correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems to me that kittens are warm, fuzzy, loveable things.  They sit on your lap and purr.  Try doing that with a fish.

The campaign is aimed at children (as usual), teaching them that fish are really very intelligent animals and that we should not eat them.  Any educator taking part in this campaign should be charged with brainwashing–this is ridiculous.

According to an article in The Sun Chronicle an Attleboro, Massachusetts, newspaper, while the state of Massachusetts is facing a $1 billion budget deficit, state lawmakers will be receiving a 5.5 per cent pay raise.  It’s an automatic pay raise based on the increase in median household income over the past two years, and because it is based on median income, in two years, their salary will probably go down. 

Some of the representatives have said that they will give the money to charity.  State Represetative Betty Poirier said that she fears that if she refuses the raise, the state will spend it in a wasteful way, so she will be giving it to charities in her district.

I object.  Why not give the money to the taxpayers where it came from?  Charity is a wonderful thing, but how about some charity for those of us who work for a living.  We pay our bills and if you are a middle income family, your tax burden is ridiculous.  Massachusetts missed its chance in November for a taxpayer revolt, but this kind of thinking will cause one in the not too distant future.

The Illinois House has voted to impeach Governor Blagojevich.  The vote was 114 to 1, impeachment required 60 votes.  The legislature accused the Governor of ‘letting down the people of Illinois by letting ego and ambition drive his decisions.’   Would we have any state governors left if they could be impeached for this?

It’s amazing to me that the criminal charges include plans to sell a Senate seat (which he never actually did).  The other charges listed included expanding a state healthcare program without proper authority, going around the law and giving jobs to political allies, and misspending money on a flu vaccine that wasn’t needed and couldn’t be brought into the country.  This just doesn’t sound like the stuff of which impeachment is made.  It sounds like the normal cronyism and insider baseball that goes on in our government.  If I believed that this was the beginning of a nationwide effort to clean up government, I would be impressed.  However, I’m not quite sure what this is.  It may just be a governor that crossed the Chicago machine somehow.

There was an article in the Washington Times on Wednesday about the rules changes made in the House of Representatives on the first day of the 111th Congress.  The article details the changes the Democrats have made in order to lessen the impact of the Republican minority in the house.  During the past two years, Republicans have been able to slow down or block legislation they did not support, and the measures taken will make that much more difficult. 

Another rule that was eliminated was the rule of term limits for committee chairmen.  The chairmen were limited to three two-year terms–now there will be no limits at all.  It will be interesting to see how these rule changes play out.

The U. S. Interior Department has lifted a 79-year old executive order banning oil-shale development in Wyoming and Utah.  According to Bloomberg.com, the Department issued a notice that will open up 6 million acres in Wyoming and 1.7 million in Utah for leasing pending analysis to determine if the land warrants special protections. The plan would take effect next month.

There are two things to note here.  First, Barack Obama would have the power as President to overturn this measure.  Second, I have a question–in the current era of relatively cheap gasoline and oil, is oil-shale available at a price that would be competitive? 

Just as a note, I would like to say it would be wonderful to have sources of energy here that didn’t have diplomatic strings attached.  Europe is learning that lesson now as Vladimir Putin is consolidating his control over the oil that flows into Europe.  We need to learn from what is happening there and from what has happened to us in the past.

Barack Obama gave his ecomony speech today.  He painted a picture that would make Shirley Temple give up her smile.  I realize these are challenging times economically, but I think we need a little perspective.  According to Department of Labor statistics, things have been much worse at other times.

The unemployment rate in November of 2008 across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts was 5.5 per cent.  In Attleboro, Massachusetts, it was 6.7 per cent.  The national unemployment rate in 1980 was 7.1 per cent.  In 1982 it peaked at 9.7 per cent.  In 1980, inflation peaked at about 14 per cent annually.  The cost of fuel rose 60.4 per cent.  In January 2008, the cost of fuel rose 34.4 per cent.

During the Jimmy Carter administration, a term was invented to measure the economic situation–the misery index.  It was derived from some calculation of unemployment, interest rates, and inflation–all of which were climbing.  We are not there yet, in fact we are coming out of the recession.  The stock market is a leading indicator, and it has remained above 8,000.  Increased government spending is going to weigh the economy down and slow down the recovery.  I hope there are some members of Congress that can stop the runaway train that government spending has now become.

There is an aarticle at The Hill quoting Harry Reid as saying, “I don’t work for Obama.”  Ok, would someone please tell me who he actually does work for.  Senator Reid is making the point that the Senate will not just be rubber stamp to Barack Obama’s ideas.  However, at the end of the article, he points out that he only needs two Republican votes to pass ‘card check’.

What is card check?  It is the legislation the unions have been dreaming about for years.  It takes the secret ballot out of union elections and allows the unions to muscle their way into a company without a really fair election.  It then forces the company to negotiate with the union within a matter of months with the threat of arbitration hanging over the company’s head.  It is nightmare legislation that if passed will probably result in serious job losses in this country as businesses move overseas.  That is just one of the nightmare possibilites of the anti-business administration that is about to come into power.  The saving grace may be that Barack Obama is an ambitious man.  When he sees the damage to the economy that his policies are doing and the effect on his chances for reelection, many of those policies may abruptly change.  The left will be unhappy, but he will be reelected.  This could be a very interesting four years.

Just a note.  The economy is beginning a slow turnaround as we speak.  If it is not weighed down by too much regulation, too many taxes, and a sudden large expansion of government, we will probably be in good shape by June.  If we are, watch Obama take the credit!

I posted an article yesterday about Barack Obama’s choice of Leon Panetta to head the CIA in the new administration.  I’m not thrilled, but I really don’t know enough to have any strong objections.  Well, it didn’t take long to find someone who did.

There is an opinion piece in today’s New York Post by Ralph Peters strongly opposing the nomination.  Ralph Peters was a career intelligence officer in the U. S. Army, so I feel as if his opinion on this might be much more knowledgeable than mine.

He points out that Mr. Panetta was part of the Clinton administration which never took the threat of terrorism seriously. Mr. Peters feels that based on his experience working in the intelligence community during the 1990’s, the Clinton administration seriously undermined the integrity of the CIA.  He also states that Mr. Panetta is unfamiliar with the intelligence community and the way it interacts around the world.

Intelligence is one of our weapons in the War on Terror.  I guess the question I have after reading this New York Post editorial is, “Does Barack Obama believe that there is a War on Terror and that there are people in the world plotting the demise of America even as I write this?”  If not, we could be in for a rough four years.

There is a man named Yoni Tidi who has a blog called YoniTheBlogger.com.  He was born and raised in America, but moved to Israel as a young adult.  He served in the IDF for twenty years and has fought in Gaza.  He was interviewed on the Hugh Hewitt show on Tuesday, January 6.  The link to the podcast is Hugh Hewitt podcasts.  It’s the second hour of the show and I am not sure how long the link will be active.  Anyway, his perspective on the war in Gaza is different than anything I have heard so far, and I wanted to share it.

Yoni opposes warning terrorists ahead of time that you are going to bomb them.  There have been polls taken within the Palestinian territories by Palestinians showing the 67 to 80 per cent of the residents support the firing of rockets into Israel.  Why do you show mercy to a society that is that warped?  He also states that the victory of Israel is the only way to peace–that is, the only way Hamas will stop firing rockets into Israel.  He points out that he does not feel that the mission of Israel is well defined–what is their actual goal? 

There were two other facts he mentioned that I have not heard.  The first was that there is war going on between Hamas and Fatah (both terrorist groups).  In Gaza, Hamas is murdering Fatah, and in the West Bank, Fatah is murdering Hamas.  Neither group is interested in peaceful co-existence either with Israel or each other.  The second fact was the reporting of an incident at the Gaza-Egypt border last week.  Some Palestinians blew a hole in the border wall, and as they came through, the Egyptian border guards machine gunned them down.  Where was the reporting of that incident?  Evidently it’s ok for Arabs to kill Arabs and its ok for Arabs to kill Jews, but it’s not ok for Jews to kill Arabs.  Go figure.

Anyway, a cease fire is not the answer unless it permanently stops the firing of rockets into Israel.  Otherwise it isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on.  Remember that part of the Oslo Accord was that Israel would give up land in exchange for peace.  Israel gave up the land, where is the peace?

Barack Obama has appointed Leon Panetta to head the CIA.  This is a very interesting appointment.  Ed Morrissey has an article posted at Hot Air commenting on the appointment:

“Even the notion of “change” doesn’t apply here.  Obama has no executive experience in government, and neither does Panetta, but Panetta hardly represents a breath of fresh air in Washington.  He’s another Clinton-era retread, only in this case, put in charge of an organization about which he knows nothing.  He’s there to exercise Obama’s political will and nothing more.

Obama deserves the benefit of the doubt on his political appointments, but this is one selection that should get a lot of scrutiny from Congress.  If Obama wants a political hatchet man in a high-level appointment, have Panetta run OMB — or Commerce, where there’s a late opening.  America deserves the benefit of experience and wisdom in the position of CIA director.”

One of the things to consider here is the fact that anyone with any connections to the current CIA would have been strongly opposed by the political left.  Remember, the Patriot Act and other measures that have kept us safe for the last eight years were not popular with the political left.  Another thing to consider is the fact that for the past eight years, the CIA and the State Department have waged on undeclared war on the Bush administration through leaks of classified information and other tactics.  Barack Obama might be wise to appoint someone he knows will be an ally to lead the CIA.

One on the things that should be noted when attempting to sort our the recent election in Minnesota is the fact that more votes were counted than voters voted.  Senator Coleman will be filing an ‘election contest’ to protest the results of the last recount.  One of the things that is being challenged is that there were no uniform standards applied during the recount process.  One of the best sources of information on this election is Power Line Blog.  Two of the lawyers who author the blog are from Minnesota and understand how elections work there.  I just wish they could explain to me how Al Franken got any votes at all! 

As Israel is being condemned for an attack on a UN School, there are a few facts (and videos) being left out of the condemnation.  There is an article (and a video) at Little Green Footballs of the terrorists firing mortar shells at Israel from this school.  The date of the video is October of 2007.  How long was Israel supposed to let Hamas fire rockets at her without firing back?  I heard the Hamas whining described on the radio today as “the he-hit-me-back defense”.   Anyone who has raised children has probably heard that argument at some point.  Generally speaking, it doesn’t work on Mom, and it shouldn’t work on the world community.

Another example of the propaganda war that is going on is related at Power Line Blog.  According to thier post:

“Public television network France 2 has admitted that earlier today, it showed photos of dozens of bodies of members of Hamas and civilians who it said were killed in an Israeli bombing raid on January 1. Only problem: the photos were actually taken in 2005, and the people depicted were killed not by Israel, but when “a truck full of explosives blew up in the Jabaliya Refugee Camp.” The terrorists, in other words, blew themselves up accidentally and took a number of civilians with them.”

The New York Post is reporting that John Travolta’s son died of a seizure while vacationing with his family.  My heart and prayers go out to Mr. and Mrs. Travolta and their family.  I wish them comfort, wisdom, and peace as they move through the days ahead.