These quotes are from a Power Line article posted yesterday:

“Nancy Pelosi, press conference, September 7, 2006:

“[E]ven if [Osama bin Laden] is caught tomorrow, it is five years too late. He has done more damage the longer he has been out there. But, in fact, the damage that he has done … is done. And even to capture him now I don’t think makes us any safer.

“Nancy Pelosi, earlier today:

“The death of Osama bin Laden marks the most significant development in our fight against al-Qaida. … I salute President Obama, his national security team, Director Panetta, our men and women in the intelligence community and military, and other nations who supported this effort for their leadership in achieving this major accomplishment. … [T]he death of Osama bin Laden is historic….”

Unfortunately we have already begun the 2012 election season.  Listen carefully.

On Friday Hot Air posted an article about Mitch Daniels, Governor of Indiana, signing a bill to  cut off government funding to Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider. Indiana will become the first state to take such an action.

The government funds abortion indirectly by allocating Medicaid funds to Planned Parenthood when it serves Medicaid patients.  In signing this bill, Governor Daniels runs the risk of the government cutting off Medicaid funds to the state.  Federal law does provide that a state can’t be selective in allocating Medicaid funds to medical providers who serve Medicaid patients.

The article also reports:

“His message to Planned Parenthood as the screaming begins: “Any organization affected by this provision can resume receiving taxpayer dollars immediately by ceasing or separating its operations that perform abortions.” Exactly. We’re constantly assured by the left that abortions are only the teeny-tiniest insignificant little part of the services that PP provides. Should be easy for them to go cold turkey, then, if they’re keen on that Medicaid money. Nevertheless, to no one’s surprise, they’re already planning a court battle.”

The Hyde Amendment, passed in 1976, was supposed to bar the use of taxpayer dollars to pay for abortions.  Planned Parenthood has gotten around the law simply by claiming that federal funds were used for other activities.  

Here is some information on Planned Parenthood’s Budget from a website called Life Dedcisions International:

“PPFA’s income for fiscal year 2008-2009 was more than $1.1 billion (up six percent from 2007-2008), with nearly one-third coming from taxpayers. This “not-for-profit” entity ends virtually every fiscal year with tens of millions of dollars in “excess revenue over expenses” (known to most people as “profit”). The “excess” for 2008-2009 alone was $64.4 million.

 

“On June 30, 2009, PPFA had net assets valued at $994.7 million, of which $396.3 million was unrestricted (essentially a savings account) and $179.9 million was temporarily restricted. Despite these huge sums, PPFA incessantly claims to need more taxpayer dollars.”

Thank you, Mitch Daniels, for your courage in taking a stand.

John Hinderaker at Power Line posted a story yesterday about the Dunes Sagebrush Lizard. 

The article reports:

“Last December, the Fish and Wildlife Service announced that the lizard, a three-inch-long reptile native to the American Southwest, “faces immediate and significant threats due to oil and gas activities and herbicide treatments” and initiated the process to get it listed under the Endangered Species Act.

“In 2002, the Center for Biological Diversity first petitioned to have the lizard, originally considered a subspecies of the common sagebrush lizard, listed as endangered. The Bush administration delayed consideration for six years. Last year, the Obama administration put it back on the fast track.”

The article further reports:

“…Steven Chu, Obama’s secretary of energy, [has] expressed a fondness for high European gas prices as a means of reducing consumption of fossil fuels. In a September 2008 newspaper interview, he said: “Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe.” Gas prices in Europe then averaged about $8 a gallon.

“As gas prices here soar toward $5 a gallon, Chu’s friends at the Interior Department may help him and President Obama get the rest of the way toward their goal. If the dunes sagebrush lizard, now considered a separate species, is granted endangered status, oil and gas production in the Permian Basin in New Mexico and Texas may have to be shut down.”

If we are to remain free and prosperous in American, we need leaders who understand the stategic and practical need to develop our own sources of carbon-based fuel.  Whether we like it or not, carbon-based fuel is the economic engine of a thriving ecoonomy.  I just hope the next administration can undo the damage done by this president’s energy policies.

I think that’s old news already.  My aim with this story is to provide links to some of the more thoughtful comments posted on the internet about the death of Osama Bin Laden.

Today’s Washington Examiner details how Osama Bin Laden was located.  The breakthrough began with information obtained at Guantanamo after 9/11. 

The Washington Examiner reported:

“No other country, not even Pakistan, was informed of any of this intelligence until after the raid to protect operational security.”

This is key to understanding what actually happened and what happens next.

Victor Davis Hanson reports at the National Review:

“Finally, this comes at a fortunate time. No one is talking of victory any more in Afghanistan; we seem confused in Libya, so the death of bin Laden reminds us that the U.S. can still take the war to the enemy in his own backyard, and act with confidence and audacity rather than “leading from behind.” Let us hope that Dr. Zawahiri is next — though the al Qaeda generation of 2001 seems almost enfeebled now, and are nearly all scattered, killed, or captured.”

The important point here is that the al Qaeda generation of 2001 is enfeebled–however, remember that there is a new generation of al Qaeda which may be much less centralized.

Yahoo News posted a Reuters story which stated:

“”The damage bin Laden had caused Islam is beyond appalling and a collective shame,” said another Saudi, Mahmoud Sabbagh, on Twitter.

“Another, anonymous, Saudi said: “He might have had a noble idea to elevate Islam but his implementation was wrong and caused more harm than good. I believe his death will calm people down and may dry up the wells of terrorism.””

It will be interesting to see how terrorists react to the loss of their spiritual leader.  I suspect that there are plans as we speak for revenge against the ‘infidels.’

The thing to remember here is that the death of Bin Laden is more symbolic than relevant.  His death provides closure for all the people who lost loved ones on 911.  I remember a friend whose daughter worked in the second tower waiting for the phone call from her daughter telling her everything was ok.  That call never came.  But the death of Bin Laden does not change the fact that terrorism is alive and well in the world and aiming to create a world-wide caliphate.  This victory is merely an important step in fighting for the survival of western civilization.  It is not the end of the war on terror, it is only a step.

On Thursday, Freedomworks posted an article about a provision of Obamacare that was somehow overlooked in the debate.

This is the provision as stated in the article:

“Here’s the relevant legal language from 1311(a):

“(1) PLANNING AND ESTABLISHMENT GRANTS.–There shall be appropriated to the Secretary, out of any moneys in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, an amount necessary to enable the Secretary to make awards, not later than 1 year after enactment of this Act, to States in amounts specified in paragraph (2) for the uses described in paragraph (3).

“(2) AMOUNT SPECIFIED.–For each fiscal year, the Secretary shall determine the total amount that the Secretary will make available to each State for grants under this subsection.

“(3) USE OF FUNDS.–A State shall use amounts awarded under this subsection for activities (including planning activities) related to establishing an American Health Benefit Exchange, as described in subsection (b).

. . . 

“(4)(B).– “No grant shall be awarded under this subsection after January 1, 2015.””

What this does, essentially, is set up a slush fund that will end in 2015. 

The article further reports:

“Under Mr. Obama’s approving eye, Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), Kathleen Sebelius, is already busy using this uncapped fund to seduce states into collaborating in the implementation of Obamacare. She’s issued nearly $50 million in grants to help states “plan and evaluate” how they’ll set up exchanges by 2014 as the law requires them to do.”

Unfortunately, we are about to see how principled our state governments are.  I’m not optimistic.  Please follow the link to the article to read further details of this aspect of the bill.

In 1951 the Israeli Parliament (Knesset) set the date of a week after the seventh day of Passover as Yom Hashoah Ve-Hagevurah (Day of Remembrance of the Holocaust and teh Heroism).  The date marks the anniversary of the uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto.  Today in celebration of that day, my husband and I went to Ahavath Torah Congregation in Stoughton, Massachusetts, and listened to two people deeply affected by the Holocaust tell their stories.

Marga Dieter told her story of being a young child in Germany during World War II.  She was born in 1939 and as a young child spent time hiding in bomb shelters as her country was bombed.  At one point in her life, her mother was taken away by the SS because one of her brothers had reported something her mother said or did.  Her father served in the German Navy.

Zella Brown is the daughter of Jewish Holocaust survivors.  She spoke of growing up hearing her father talk about being in thirteen concentration camps, including Auschwitz, and seeing his pictures of what had happened in the camps.  Her father was one of the few concentration camp survivors who told his story to everyone who would listen.

The two women were part of a seminar at Harvard University in 1992 when Jews and Germans shared their stories.  Marga spoke of being ashamed as she heard the stories from the Jews and not really knowing how to share her story. 

Obviously the two stories are very different, but each has a valid story to tell.  One of the things said early in the presentation was that nothing we do can bring back the people who were killed or change history.

It was encouraging to see the friendship and respect between these two women, but I do have a few observations which probably do not go along with the spirit of the event.  There is no moral equivalency here.  I had the impression that Marga’s family did not support Hitler, and she explained some of the events that allowed him to rise to power.  But the fact remains that he rose to power and no one inside Germany successfully stopped him from building the concentration camps and killing innocent people.  The part of the presentation I disagreed with was the idea that war is not the way to solve anything.  My question at that point becomes, “How do you suggest we should have dealt with Hitler?”  I am not sure anything other than war would have worked.

War is a terrible thing, and what happened in Germany during World War II was a terrible thing–both for the Jews and many innocent German people.  We cannot change that, and I applaud these two women for speaking out so people can hear the pain caused by war.  Unfortunately, we live in a less than perfect world, and every now and then you have to fight to stop evil.  If the German people had successfully killed Hitler after it became obvious what he was doing, World War II might have been avoided.  Other than that, I think that World War II was inevitable after Kristallnacht in November of 1938.

Unfortunately this story is another example of how the government misuses taxpayer dollars.  The story is from the Washington Times.  It was posted on Thursday, April 28.

The federal government announced this week that it will be going to court to stop Rainbow Acres Farm, an Amish farm in Pennsylvania, from selling its contraband to customers in the Washington area.  No, the Amish are not selling illegal herbs or untaxed tobacco–they have sold raw milk to customers who needed it because they had health problems with pasteurized milk. 

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) contends that raw milk can carry harmful bacteria, such as salmonella, E. coli and listeria.  The FDA has gone on the record saying that raw milk should never be consumed. 

I understand the FDA’s desire to protect public health, but I really think they have gone too far this time.  This case involved a yearlong sting operation which included aliases, a 5 a.m. surprise inspection and surreptitious purchases from Rainbow Acres Farm.  I realize we are no longer a society that has a lot of small farms, but in past generations, how many people grew up on farms and routinely drank raw milk?

The article reports:

“”I look at this as the FDA is in cahoots with the large milk producers,” said Karin Edgett, a D.C. resident who buys directly from Rainbow Acres. “I don’t want the FDA and my tax dollars to go to shut down a farm that hasn’t had any complaints against it. They’re producing good food, and the consumers are extremely happy with it.”

“The FDA’s actions stand in contrast to other areas where the Obama administration has said it will take a hands-off approach to violations of the law, including the use of medical marijuana in states that have approved it, and illegal-immigrant students and youths, whom the administration said recently will not be targets of their enforcement efforts.”

The customers of the farm were not happy about the actions of the FDA.  The article reports:

“Mr. Allgyer’s customers declined to talk about the operations, and when asked whether they knew what would happen to the farm’s distribution, they said they would have to wait and see.

“One of those customers, Liz Reitzig, president of the Maryland Independent Consumers and Farmers Association, said she started looking for raw milk when her oldest daughter began to show signs of not being able to tolerate pasteurized milk.

“She first did what’s called cow sharing, which is when a group of people buy shares in owning a cow, and pay a farmer to board and milk the cow. But Maryland outlawed that practice and she was forced to look elsewhere for raw milk, and turned to Mr. Allgyer’s farm.

“”We like the way they farm, we love their product, it’s super-high-quality, they’re wonderful. It’s just a wonderful arrangement,” she said.

“”FDA really has no idea what they’re talking about when they’re talking about fresh milk. They have no concept – they really don’t understand what it’s like for people like me who have friends and family who can’t drink conventional milk,” Ms. Reitzig said.”

Somehow I think the FDA should have better things to do with its time and its money than to hassle an Amish family farm in Pennsylvania.