On November 25th, The Commercial Appeal, a newspaper in Memphis, Tennessee, posted an article about a project being done by seventh-grade students at Horn Lake Middle School.  The students are studying World War II and are focusing on the Holocaust.

The article reports that:

“On Monday, students were on the receiving end of a speech from an 81-year-old Holocaust survivor.

“”Lovely lady,” Powell said. “Many of the children are the same age (12) that the survivor was when she was taken from her home. They would feel her pain if they were moved and their family members were killed. She knew immediately that her parents were sent to the concentration camp.””

The children in the seventh-grade class are collecting 1.5 million pennies, each penny to represent a child killed in the Holocaust.  The pennies are to be used in an online museum.

Power Line shared this story today with the following note:

“The link sent along by Ms. Powell is to the Memphis Commercial Appeal article on her class project. A friend who forwards Ms. Powell’s message comments: “Anything we can do… promoting their effort (and helping the kids get the pennies) would be a mitzvah.” The school’s address is: 6125 Hurt Road, Horn Lake, MS 38637-2399.”

What an innovative way to make a horrible part of history real.

The Washington Post reported yesterday that Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut will retire after serving his present term (and after receiving $100 million in pork in the current Senate healthcare bill).

The news that Senator Dodd is retiring is not a surprise.  The polls in Connecticut indicated that he would not be re-elected.  As Senator Dodd’s retirement was announced yesterday, Senator, Senator Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.)  also announced that he would not seek re-election.

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is expected to run for Chris Dodd’s seat, and he should be able to keep the seat in Democrat hands.  Representative Chris Murphy is expected to challenge Senator Joe Lieberman for his seat in 2012.

Chris Dodd’s approval ratings began to fall when it was disclosed that he had been given a special deal from Countrywide Mortgage at the time when he was on the committee that oversaw the mortgage industry.  If he had not retired, he probably would have been defeated in the coming election.

As the Democrats continue their secret negotiations on healthcare, Betsy McCaughey takes a look at the bills they are working with.  She posted an article today in the New York Post detailing which parts of the bill are unconstitutional.

This is a short summary of her article:

• Section 3403 of the Senate health bill, which establishes a commission to cut Medicare spending also says that this law cannot be changed or repealed in the future.  That represents one Congress telling a future Congress what they can and cannot do. 
• The amendment that allots $100 million to an unnamed facility (Sec. 10502, p. 328-329).  Why is the facility not named?
• The Senate bill (pages 320-324) says the interstate commerce clause of the Constitution provides the authority to require you to purchase health insurance.  There are some questions as to whether or not that is true.
• The Senate bill makes you enroll in a plan and then says that only doctors who do what the government dictates can be paid by your plan.

Finally Ms. McCaughey points out:

“Finally, the “takings clause” of the Fifth Amendment bars government from taking your property without compensation. It should protect everyone, no matter how unpopular — even insurance companies, but Congress ignored it in writing the health bill. The Senate version goes beyond reining in insurance-company abuses, a just cause, and actually caps insurance-company profit margins at well below current levels, robbing shareholders.”

Hopefully, if this bill passes, it will be immediately be challenged in court.  If it is allowed to stand, it will seriously erode the freedoms of the American people.

Politico.com reported yesterday that Curt Schilling has endorsed Scott Brown in the special election to fill Ted Kennedy’s vacant Senate seat.  That really is not a surprise–Curt Schilling has endorsed Republican candidates before, but in a state full of semi-crazed sports fans (Red Sox, Bruins, Celtics, and Patriots), I wonder what the impact of the endorsement will be.  Curt Schilling recorded an eighty-second spot that is currently on Scott Brown’s website explaining why he supports Scott Brown.  This could be a very close election.

CNN posted an article today by Steve Danyluk, an international first officer for a major U.S. airline and president of The Independence Fund, a nonprofit that supports troops wounded in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Officer Danyluk was flying over the Atlantic Ocean on an international flight when the Christmas Day attempted bombing incident took place. 

Officer Danyluk states in the article:

“I only learned about the incident after landing when I looked at the CNN Web site on my iPhone. I’m justifiably furious that I was not notified while airborne.”

Why wasn’t this pilot notified about the bomb on an international flight?  I thought we were told that all airlines and airplanes were notified?  The one actual constitutional duty of the government is to defend us.  Have they abandoned that part of their job in order to pass laws that probably are not constitutional? 

Does anyone remember September 11, 2001?  I wondered at the time why President Bush grounded all airlines–I really didn’t understand.  Looking back, he probably saved a lot of lives by doing that.  It seems as if this administration chose to ignore the implications of having a bomb on an international flight.  Thank God they got away with their lack of action this time, but we may not be as lucky in the future.

Manners and tradition are an important part of British culture.  America tends to be a little looser on both, but in the past we have worked well with the British.  Tony Blair and George W. Bush probably didn’t share a lot of political views, but they worked together very well to fight the war on terror.  They were on the same page.  Barack Obama, however, seems to have a habit of alienating America from its traditional allies.  This became obvious this week.

John Hinderaker at Power Line reported yesterday that the British Prime Minister’s Office has disclosed publicly that MI5 (British Intelligence) had warned the United States about Umar Abdulmutallab (the Christmas Day bomber).  According to the Prime Minister’s Office, the file on Abdulmutallab was sent to the US in 2008. 

The article states:

“Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was named in a file of people based in Britain who had made contact with radical Muslim preachers.”

I am willing to bet that the British would have neglected to mention this fact publicly if George W. Bush were still in the White House.  Admittedly, mentioning or not mentioning the fact that America was alerted doesn’t really change anything that happened (it sure does raise questions about the effectiveness of our anti-terrorism policies, however), but I suspect that this fact would have not been made public had President Obama been more polite and respectful to the British.

U S News & World Report reported yesterday on Harry Reid’s plan to move the healthcare bill forward. 

The article reports:

“Despite their claims to the contrary, the way that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid have handled the healthcare bill has been anything but transparent. And, if the left-wing blogosphere is to be believed, the two congressional leaders intend to keep the deliberations secret as they try to merge the House and Senate versions of the legislation into something that will pass both chambers.”

There are a few reasons for this secrecy.  It avoids having to cut a deal with Michigan’s Bart Stupak, who has stated that he will work to defeat the bill if it has federal funding for abortion.  Also, if the bill does not go through the standard House/Senate conference committee, it will not need 60 votes to pass in the Senate.  Evidently, the Democrat party is not sure they can get 60 votes again.  This process also blocks out the Republicans from the process.  This makes any success or failure of the new healthcare bill (taxes and healthcare) the responsibility of the Democrats.  This could make for a very interesting 2010 mid-term election.

The National Terror Alert website reported on January 1, 2010, that police responding to a disturbance call discovered in a rocket launcher in a Houston apartment.  The AT-4 shoulder-mounted rocket launcher can shoot a missile nearly 1,000 feet through buildings and tanks.  The person who lived in the apartment said that she was keeping the rocket for a friend, Nabilaye I. Yansane, whom she allowed to store items in her apartment. 

The article states:

“According to court documents, officers also found Jihadist writings that allegedly belonged to Yansane. The woman didn’t want to talk to KPRC Local 2 about that, either.”

The woman had called the police because she didn’t want Yansane at her apartment.  Yansane was charged with criminal trespassing and pleaded guilty.  He was sentenced to three days in jail, which he has already served. No charges related to the rocket launcher or writings were filed.

The article states:

“”Other people could have had access to the apartment, so maybe if a rocket launcher was located there, as is stated in the offense report, maybe it belonged to somebody else,” attorney Garl Polland said.”

There is nothing I can say to add to this story.

The concept of a nuclear-free world is a wonderful ideal, but like a lot of other ideals, it is an ideal–it does not work in real life.  Unfortunately, there always has to be a policeman on the block, and he needs to be armed better than the people who break the law.  Man left to his own resources cannot always be relied upon to do what is right.  Ask any elementary school principal why he has monitors on the playground at recess. 

The Los Angeles Times posted an article today on the president’s goals to shrink the U.S. stockpile and reduce the role of such weapons in foreign policy.  In theory, that would be a wonderful thing.  In practice, that is a very foolish move to make when Iran and North Korea are in the process of obtaining nuclear weapons.  Generally speaking, laws don’t really impact honest people–they instinctively do what is right–laws are there to deal with people who rob, steal, and destroy.  America’s giving up her nuclear weapons or scaling back on the modernization or development of her nuclear program would only result in a world more vulnerable to bullies like Iran or North Korea and thus a more dangerous world–not a safer one.

According to the article:

“Obama laid out his vision of a nuclear-free world in a speech in Prague, Czech Republic, last April, pledging that the U.S. would take dramatic steps to lead the way. Nine months later, the administration is locked in internal debate over a top-secret policy blueprint for shrinking the U.S. nuclear arsenal and reducing the role of such weapons in America’s military strategy and foreign policy.”

Thank God we have some people in our government with some common sense.  We need to remember in this debate that some of our allies depend on our nuclear weapons to protect them.  For example, U.S. submarines in the Pacific carry nuclear-tipped torpedoes.  The Japanese appreciate this as a possible deterrent to a growing Chinese navy.  Some U.S. officials want to keep about 200 U.S. bombs at European bases to protect against possible aggression by the Soviet Union.  Again, American nuclear weapons are generally a deterrent to war rather than the cause of one.  If you disarm the policemen in a town, crime increases, it does not go down. 

In yesterday’s Washington Post, George Will posted a story about Prospect Heights, a neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, where the owners of the New York Nets would like buy 22 acres of land to build a huge complex of high-rise residences, commercial properties and a basketball arena for the NBA’s New Jersey Nets.  The problem is that people already live in that 22 acres.  In order for the government to seize the land for development, it would have to be ‘blighted.’ 

According to the article:

“The Atlantic Yards site, where 10 subway lines and one railway line converge, is the center of the bustling Prospect Heights neighborhood of mostly small businesses and middle-class residences. Its energy and gentrification are reasons why 22 acres of this area — the World Trade Center site is only 16 acres — are coveted by Bruce Ratner, a politically connected developer collaborating with the avaricious city and state governments.”

We saw this type of property seizure in New London, Connecticut.  The case went all the way to the Supreme Court in 2005.  An article at RightWingGranny on December 1, 2009, reported that Pfizer Pharmaceutical Company, who took the land in New London, has now closed its New London plant and moved some of its employees to Groton, Connecticut.  The greed which resulted in the seizure of private property resulted in a total loss of tax revenue–the land is vacant.  The city is not even collecting the amount of property taxes they were collecting before they seized the land.

Private property is one of the tenets of the US Constitution.  To undermine the protection of private property is foolish and undermines our whole system of government.  Hopefully the residents of Brooklyn will do better in court than the residents of New London. 

The Hill is reporting today that Iran has decided not to allow a visit by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Massachusetts Democrat John Kerry.  At the same time, Kerry spokesman Frederick Jones has stated that the Senator had no plans to visit Iran.  Iran’s comment on the subject…

“Americans are more seeking to exploit the media and means of propaganda in a bid to gain an advantage,” (rapporteur of the parliament’s Nationals Security and Foreign Policy Commission Kazzem Jalali)  Jalali said. “…A number of the high-ranking officials in the present U.S. administration sent letters for talks with Iranian officials when they served as senators.

“The bills ratified in the US legislative bodies against Iran are examples of paradoxical behavior which we are witnessing from American statesmen towards Iran, and indicate that their policies on Iran are not honest,” he added.”

It gets rather interesting when you don’t know who is lying–our own supposedly ‘transparent’ government or the brutal dictatorship that is Iran.  I also wonder who is exploiting the media.

Jim Geraghty posted something at the campaign stop at National Review on the special election to be held in Massachusetts on January 19th to fill the seat of the late Senator Ted Kennedy.  Massachusetts is a totally Democrat state.  Every now and again they elect a Republican governor the clean up the mess the Democrats make, but generally it is a one-party state.  The fact that Scott Brown raised more than $600,000 in December is amazing. 

This is a note sent to Mr. Geraghty by a worker in the Scott Brown campaign:

“First, thank-you for covering this race as the lack of national attention on this race at this time in the Senate is genuinely vexing to many of Brown’s supporters.
 
“Secondly, at the ground level we have seen an incredibly unique phenomenon occurring here. Without the benefit of polls, I would say Brown is causing quite a groundswell of support from Republicans, unenrolleds and even Democrats. Now when registered Democrats are expressing an interest to volunteer, we know something is up.
 
“In the end, it might be the lack of national attention that helps us towards victory here. For Coakley’s supporters don’t even believe a race is occurring. And the fiscal conservatives of Massachusetts are by far, hands down the most motivated group in our state during this special election.”

Scott Brown represents the potential 41st Republican vote in Congress.  He represents the vote that would be able to stop the runaway spending and the coming runaway taxation.  I don’t know what his chances of winning are, but I do know that for the good of the country, he needs to be elected.

If you live in Massachusetts, please vote for Scott Brown on January 19th.

One of the most important things to understand when you are fighting a war is the mindset of the enemy you are fighting.  That has been one of the biggest mistakes made so far in the war on terror.  Al Qaeda understands our justice system and knows how to use it against us.  Al Qaeda is also not run by people we would consider rational.

Yahoo.news reported yesterday on the attack on the Danish cartoonist who drew a cartoon of Mohammed with a bomb as a hat.   Kurt Westergaard.has had death threats on his life since drawing the cartoon.  The would-be assassin broke into the cartoonist’s house carrying a knife and an axe.  The would-be assassin was a Somali man who is accused of having links with Somalia’s al-Shabaab militant group as well as al Qaeda militants.

We need to understand that the members of Al Qaeda do not fit the common definition of rational people.  Religion is the cloak they use as they work toward their goal of absolute power.  There is no secret that the ideal of radical Islamists is a worldwide Caliphate.  The bottom line here is that they intend to kill anyone who stands in the way of that goal–military or civilian–it doesn’t matter.

It seems as if when ethical problems come up in an election or campaign, the names involved are always the same.  The story you are about to hear is almost three weeks old, but I have to admit, I hadn’t heard any of it until tonight.

The Milford Daily News (Milford, Massachusetts) reported on December 17th that Scott Brown had filed ethics charges against the Martha Coakley campaign.  It seems that the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) used state computers and e-mail addresses to direct state employees to volunteer for Coakley, the Democratic state attorney general, who is running against Scott Brown for Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat.

The article points out:

“Daniel Winslow of the Duane Morris law firm, writing the complaint on behalf of the Brown campaign, said the union admitted to improper use of public resources in the FOX 25 report.”

This is the same union with close ties to ACORN and other paragons of virtue in the world of voting in America. 

The State Attorney General’s Office (Martha Coakley’s office) has stated that they have received the letter of complaint and will review it before commenting. 

This is amazing.  I looked for a follow-up story on the internet and did not find one.  The State Attorney General’s Office (Martha Coakley’s office) is supposed to be objective in their evaluation of charges against Martha Coakley’s campaign.  I will be very surprised if anything is ever done.  Meanwhile, if you live in Massachusetts and you want this kind of abuse of power and abuse of the political system to continue, vote for Martha Coakley.  If you are fed up with having a different set of laws for politicians than for the rest of us, vote for Scott Brown.  It’s that simple.

Power Line posted an interesting article yesterday which talked about security procedures on El Al Airlines.  John Hinderaker, who wrote the article, relates his experience when he traveled to Israel.  The Israeli security person (who seemed more like a tourist representative) looked Mr. Hinderaker and his wife directly in the eye and asked a few basic questions–who are you, where are you from, where are you going, etc.  After about thirty seconds, the woman concluded they were not terrorists and moved on.  Israel looks for the terrorist–not the weapon.  America is unwilling to adopt the Israeli system for fear of being accused of profiling.  Because of the ‘lawsuit mentality’ in America, adopting a policy of interviewing passengers could result in lawsuits.  Meanwhile, we have terrorists able to access our airplanes.

The article also points out that 2009 was the year that the majority of Americans figured out that the mainstream media was not telling the truth about healthcare reform or global warming.  The majority of Americans see the healthcare reform bill as the power grab it is and have begun to  realize that what we have heard over the years about global warming is not necessarily true. 

The strongest part of the American democracy is the informed voter.  As long as we have free access to the information we need to make informed decisions when we vote, we will stay free.

BigGovernment.com has posted a story stating that the Obama Administration has let the requirement that union leaders file a  Form T-1 Annual Report expire. 

The article states:

“After allowing only 11 days of comments from the public, the Obama Administration postponed requiring reports for another year. During 2010, the Obama Administration states that it intends to completely eliminate the financial disclosure.”

How much this lack of financial accountability will impact future elections depends on the American voters.  Money is an important political force, but a well-informed voter who does his own research can overcome the attempt to buy an election.  That happened recently in the New Jersey gubernatorial election when New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine spent more than $12 million more than Republican candidate Chris Christie and Chris Christie won the election. 

The unions should be held accountable for how they spend the money they collect, but in the end, a well-informed voter is worth more than any amount of union money spent to buy an election (just for the record, a large percent of Governor Corzine’s money was his own–not necessarily from unions).

Bloomberg.com reported Thursday that the Mayo Clinic in Arizona will stop accepting Medicare patients at one of its primary-care clinics in Arizona, saying the U.S. government pays too little.  The Mayo family clinic in Glendale, Arizona, will accept cash payments for services, but will no longer accept Medicare. 

According to the article:

“The Mayo organization had 3,700 staff physicians and scientists and treated 526,000 patients in 2008. It lost $840 million last year on Medicare, the government’s health program for the disabled and those 65 and older, Mayo spokeswoman Lynn Closway said.

“Mayo’s hospital and four clinics in Arizona, including the Glendale facility, lost $120 million on Medicare patients last year, Yardley said. The program’s payments cover about 50 percent of the cost of treating elderly primary-care patients at the Glendale clinic, he said.”

The article also states that many family doctors may also refuse to take Medicare patients because of the low reimbursement rates.  As Congress discusses a healthcare bill that will make major cuts in Medicare, this is one possible consequence of healthcare reform that needs to be examined closely.

This is not officially called healthcare rationing, but that’s what it is.  The currently proposed healthcare bill is very damaging to elderly healthcare in this country.

Andy McCarthy at the Corner at National Review notes today that President Obama as of December 16th has granted Interpol the authority to operate in America without the constraints of the US Constitution.  The second source of this post is a Washington Examiner article by Mark Tapscott on December 31st.  

Mr. Tapscott points out:

“Put simply, this means the Constitution is no longer the supreme law of the land in America. Thanks to Executive Order 12425 , which Obama signed Dec. 16 without explaining why, the supreme law of the land is now arguably whatever Interpol says it is, most likely as directed by the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, in conjunction with the United Nations.

“Maybe it’s just a bureaucratic snafu. Or perhaps Obama sincerely means to subsume U.S. law to what he views as a morally superior international body.”

This was done by an Executive Order–not by passing a law through Congress.  Mr. Tapscott points out that Interpol and ICC [the Intenrational Criminal Court] took seriously a request by Iran to place the top twenty-five civilian and military leaders of Israel on the international “Most Wanted” list because of their actions in the war in Gaza.  Interpol and the ICC are not necessarily the most objective judges in international situations.

I pointed out in a recent article that the Organization of the Islamic Conference is a 57 nation group that includes all Muslim nations and makes up the largest voting bloc in the UN.  As Muslim dictatorships gain more control in the United Nations, we can expect to see international organizations related to the United Nations attempt to limit the rights of citizens in free countries.  The laws that protect Americans in criminal proceedings could be upended by UN intervention at the same time those rights are being given to terrorists attempting to destroy this country!

At some point someone in government needs to point out that our elected officials take an oath to uphold the US Constitution.  This executive order needs to be examined by Congress and the American people in that light.