Friday, December 7, 2012

Pearl Harbor in Perspective

Pearl Harbor - December 7, 1941
December 7, 2012

AMERICAN THINKER

Michael Kelbaugh

December 7, 1941 is a date which will live in infamy.  Any unfounded illusions held by peace-loving Americans concerning the intentions of Imperial Japan or its ally Nazi Germany were painfully but necessarily shattered that day, on which our nation was stirred into action before it was too late to stop the threat that the Axis powers posed 
to us and the rest of the world.


Franklin Roosevelt is universally acclaimed as a good war president, guiding the United States through an unprecedented time of global upheaval.  His domestic policies, however, granted enormous powers to the federal government that it has not since failed to abuse.
The Axis powers have come and gone, but the internal dangers created by Roosevelt's New Deal still plague us today.  No member of the Greatest Generation could have predicted that while Japan, our deadliest enemy, would soon become one of our closest allies, a benign little program called Social Security would one day threaten to exhaust our nation's finances and economy.
The most devastating attack since December 7, 1941 came nearly sixty years later, on September 11.  Very few, in the wake of that day, could have imagined that we would not suffer an attack of similar magnitude within the next seven years.  But for the rest of George Bush's presidency, the country was kept safe, notwithstanding the moral indignation of those who wished to bestow the constitutional rights enjoyed by American citizens on the cutthroats devoted to those citizens' destruction.  But even the Bush administration, through entitlement expansion, subsidized housing, and more spending, helped contribute to our current fiscal troubles.
We face weighty international challenges today, with a Middle East as unstable as ever and a state sponsor of terrorism still intent on obtaining a nuclear weapon.  But the United States, miraculously, has thus far survived every single external threat, often emerging stronger than before.  For the most part, the federal government over the years has fulfilled its primary role of protecting the citizenry and providing for the common defense.  But the ugly visage of international Communism has proven a less formidable adversary than the iconic, mass-produced smiley-face of Westernized socialism.
For this generation of Americans, it is our budgets, not our battlefields, which are stained red -- and  the small, internal matters, more so than anything dramatic, that have slowly but very steadily contributed to the possibility of a looming demise.
Our next bunch of heroic representatives who will take office in Washington this January are not unlikely to bungle the complex matters of Israel and Egypt and Iran, along with the simple and commonplace act of balancing a budget.  But it may well be the latter failure that most imperils our nation's future.

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/12/pearl_harbor_in_perspective.html#ixzz2EMNqFuoW

Bee's Note:
My dear mother's generation lived through the "Great Wall Street Crash" of 1929, which led to the "Great Depression" lasting ten years.  My mother was second oldest of eight siblings and the memory of her family "surviving" during those ten years remained with her for the rest of her life.  Her father was fortunate to have a job, but feeding a family of ten, plus a grandmother who lived with her family, took ingenuity and an imagination!  The family began raising chickens and growing vegetable gardens.  If one of the children needed a new dress or suit, her mother and grandmother became adapt at ripping up curtains and turning them into a new dress.  In their cellar (basement), the walls were lined with canned vegetables and sacks of potatoes.  Every single penny made by the children, doing odd jobs, was put into the "family" jar - the "community" bank.  In one corner of the living room was an old piano, where the family gathered after the evening meal to sing songs, while her grandmother played the piano.  (Here is where my mother learned how to play the piano.)  

Hard to imagine people singing through difficult times, but that was the one entertainment that cemented my mother's family together and that was fortunate for me and my family, as I remember always having the sounds of music throughout the home during my childhood years.  Mom had a beautiful singing voice and so did her sisters, and when the relatives visited, we gathered around that old piano and sing the songs of that era, one after another, from heart - never having to look at a music book for the words.  Like my grandparents, my mother could make one dollar stretch as far as a twenty dollar bill today.

And when World War II broke out, my mother's four brothers served our country in both the Navy and Army.  All the men came home - our family was truly blessed.  Everyone survived the Crash and the War.

Today, shades of the past were brought forward since 9/11.  Perhaps not as bad, but certainly not as good as the 1950's and early 60's.  The threats of our nation falling off the 'Fiscal Cliff" have many crying out, "The sky is falling, the sky is falling!"  However, I do not press the panic button, because I do remember the stories told by my parents, and know that just as their families survived, our nation came together and also survived.

America is a nation of "Survivors"!  Therefore, I do not believe that even if all of us are touched by this thing called the "Fiscal Cliff", America will not fail.  The only difference today, one that could drag us down, is the fact that today's leaders in Washington, DC are allowing an administration to embrace and support the enemy of these United States.  We knew who our enemies were before the attack on Pearl Harbor and we understood what we were fighting against.  Our leaders did not cover up the names and the tyranny of our enemies - we fought against them as a nation.  Those enemies are now some of America's best allies.  

As heartbreaking as it is today, to hear of the financial difficulties families are experiencing, we will survive this period as our grandparents once did; but will America survive the current leadership that supports our enemies throughout the Middle East, while it condemns our one ally Israel in that same area of the world?  When will our federal government acknowledge that Israel is the only "buffer" from having the entire Middle East explode?  The talk of Syria using chemical weapons is an example of how desperate that area has become and could be the beginnings of WWIII, as some predict today.

America, today we remember Pearl Harbor Day - the day of infamy!  May we learn the lessons of that day, when our nation became "One" in unity.  That generation, even after the loss of thousands of good men and women, survived to fight another day.  How is it that since 9/11, we have become so divided?  The House and Senate had better get their ducks in a row and start communicating; and Congress needs to begin doing their job of protecting the citizens who voted them into Office - they need to put the reigns on an administration that refuses to acknowledge the difference between America's enemies and its allies.




















Thursday, December 6, 2012

Obama and Morsi: Separated at Birth - by Daniel Greenfield


Thursday, December 06, 2012

Obama and Morsi: Separated at Birth

In Cairo, Morsi scribbles his decrees and in Washington DC, Obama scribbles his. There is an ocean between the two men, but there is a good deal that they have in common. Both are ideologues who piggybacked on public outrage over the national impact of international economic declines to climb to power and pursue their true agendas.

Without worries about the price of bread, the odds are good that Mubarak would be sitting in his old place and Morsi would be looking over the latest economic reports from the Brotherhood's business networks and front groups. And without a sharp decline in American living standards, Mubarak would be receiving phone calls from President McCain urging him to democratize Egypt, while Obama would be rallying the troops at the latest SEIU event for taking back Congress.

Times of crisis are political hunting grounds for extremist groups whose ideologies would otherwise be unpalatable. Angry people are more willing to accept the previously unacceptable to shake up the system and punish those that they blame for their economic situation. They are in the long run, only punishing themselves, but the long run rarely wins elections. The short run however is the all-time ballot box winner.

But the problem with running on the old Bolshy platform of "Land, Bread and Peace" is that the people eventually expect you to deliver at least two of three. And ideologues are not interested in empowering people. They will hand out subsidized freebies to their supporters to win elections, but they won't empower them economically, outside their network of subsidies, and peace is never on the table with folks who believe utopia is just a hundred years of war away.

There is a point midway between the cheering for hope and change, and the complete consolidation of power in the hands of a tyrannical system when the tyrant is vulnerable. That window is the one that opens when the people begin realizing that there is no land, bread or peace on the horizon. Their eyes haven't opened, but their patience has run out.

Morsi has tried to cut the duration of the window as narrowly as possibly by moving quickly to consolidate his power, but that brought on a second crisis and a wave of popular protests. Triggering those protests prematurely may have been his plan, but that plan may have also backfired. The only way to tell will be retroactively.

Obama's ObamaCare power grab was generally held to be premature, but even though the majority continues to oppose it, the man behind the program survived an election thanks to a hurricane and plenty of voter fraud. Morsi may similarly be able to survive his own power grab. An Islamist is, if nothing else, absolutely immune from the sort of human emotions that animate normal leaders.

The advantage of being an ideologue is that you simply do not care what infidels think and anyone who is not a member of your mental club is an infidel. Transnationalists, whether of the leftist or Islamist flavor, are men who live without a country. Their country is an imaginary global utopia, the infinite Reich of dreams, the Caliphate of their conspiracies and the World Revolution that can never be.

That disregard is what allows men like Obama and Morsi to survive the widespread hatred and contempt of a country, to sneeringly dismiss it, and get on with the program of taking it over. Bush and Mubarak could be hurt by how their own countrymen saw them. But Obama is not an American and Morsi is not an Egyptian. Obama is a Progressive and Morsi is an Islamist. Their approach to anyone outside that circle is limited to distinguishing between potential converts and useful idiots.

Bad leaders can be protested out of office. Ideologues can only be forced out of office. And that isn't easy. Any movement with enough money, skills and leverage to take their man all the way to the top is not going to fold just because the streets are full of protesters or because legal action is being taken against them. The cadre of such movements consists of men with no regard for any of laws of a society and who are entirely willing to destroy a country rather than give it up.

America in the 1950s briefly woke up to the fact that any measure had to be taken to keep the Reds away from power... or there would be no America left. Egyptians understood this about the Muslim Brotherhood all along and took many of those measures, until we forced Egypt to dismantle its defenses, as we dismantled our own. Obama and Morsi are the consequences of that unilateral disarmament.

Obama and Morsi are not individuals, they are the representatives of political movements that have spent the better part of a century clambering to power. Their brushes with the law have made them cunning and their rise to power after so long have fed their sense of historical destiny. To them these are more than momentary political triumphs, but the culmination of history. They do not see ballot boxes, but the inevitable march of progress and prophecy that must be fulfilled by any means necessary.

It is not surprising that Obama and Morsi, two men who hail from the same continent and a related cultural milieu, have gotten along so well with one another. Their interests do not precisely align, but they can appreciate a colleague working in the same field of revolution. But the mutual friendship may prove to be more harmful to Morsi than to Obama.

While conservatives and counterjihadists denounce Obama for his support for Morsi, until Morsi goes the way of Iran and begins seizing American hostages, most Americans will simply not care. Egyptians, on the other hand,  like most of the region, have the usual Anti-American instincts and the same Gaza ceasefire that won Morsi a blank check from Obama to do as he wished domestically also convinced many Egyptians that Morsi was Obama's poodle.

The same window that prevents Morsi from exerting total control over the country, also prevents him from making a complete break with America. Morsi needed Obama to bail out the Egyptian economy and now Obama is dragging Morsi down. Positive views of America fell to 19 percent in Egypt in 2012 making Anti-Americanism into a viable proposition. Not that it ever wasn't.

Morsi however also has the same ace in the deck as Obama. Class warfare. Islamists reliably draw their support from the poor. The Muslim Brotherhood's background was linked to feudal landholders, but it has successfully reinvented itself as the party of the rural fellaheen. The flow of the rural poor into Turkey's major cities allowed the Islamist AKP to take over Turkey. And Morsi is not proposing a referendum because he expects to lose.

Americans weren't ready for a reversal after four years. Will Egyptians be ready to cast down Morsi after a much shorter period?

Obama's work has taken longer and gone slower because there is much more of it to do. America started out at a higher point than Egypt and it will take it a while to hit bottom. Morsi has less to dismantle and is working against lower expectations in a country where freedom is a slogan, not a tangible experience.

The 21st Century has been surprisingly good to Islamists and leftists. The fall of the Soviet Union opened a power vacuum that the Islamists filled and allowed the left to sell its agenda in a world where the gulag was no longer a relevant term. Of the two groups the leftists have a shorter future, at least in areas that fall under Islamist control, but their Islamist alliances have also given them a new lease on life.

The leftists have taught class warfare to the Islamists and the Islamists have revived the left's critiques of foreign policy as imperialism by providing them with a global identity group that fills the hole left behind by the end of the Cold War. It is not surprising then to see Obama and Morsi working so well together... or following the same path.

Transnationalist movements are predatory. They strike at a weak period in a nation's history with the aim of tearing apart the country. But a country so weak and dissolute as to remain under the dominion of transnationalist movements is also too corrupted to be very much use. The Communists could never make much of Russia or China. It took a transition to capitalism to do that. And the only thing that transnationalists will be able to make of America or Egypt is to harness both countries for the sheer manpower and the leftover weapons.

Obama, Morsi and the forces behind them have power, but they have no future. Their reign can only end in one of two ways. Either the country becomes vigorous enough to cast them off and rebuild, or it will not, and the Islamists and the leftists will go down into the darkness with it. Every utopian dream sooner or later ends in a nightmare. The question is whether it will be a nightmare only for the leftist and Islamist movements or for the countries that they take over.

The Sultan Knish blog - by Daniel Greenfield




Minister Ya'alon Walla!: "Right now, Israel is not committed to the agreements'

 By: Tal his Walla News 
Tuesday, December 4, 2012, 20:08
(note: translated from Hebrew)

 Deputy Prime Minister made it clear that once the authority has acted unilaterally, Israel "abides by its own interests." The United States: "do not have to agree on everything." Olmert: "driven by political considerations"

"In the current situation in Israel is not committed to the agreements and understandings, but acts according to its interests," he said tonight (Tuesday) Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Strategic Affairs Moshe (Bogie) Ya'alon. While other countries continue to summon Israeli ambassadors talks Highlights and reprimand following the Israeli decision to expand construction in the settlements, Yaalon dismissed the strong international criticism. "We knew to be a reaction of the American administration and the European countries regarding construction in the settlements," he explained in an interview Walla! News"This is also their consistent policy - to condemn and oppose any Jewish construction in Judea and Samaria. Decided that our right to build anywhere, according to our interests. All topics discussed and the implications are clear."

"The move of Abu Mazen is a blatant violation of all agreements with us."  Ya'alon (Photo: Yotam Frum)
"The move of Abu Mazen is a blatant violation of all agreements with us." Ya'alon (Photo: Yotam Frum)

International outrage directed mainly Israel's decision to advance planning E1 region connecting Jerusalem and Maale Adumim, unlike unwritten understandings of previous prime ministers with the U.S. government not to build in the area, a move it difficult to establish a continuous future Palestinian state. According to Deputy Prime Minister, the unilateral move of Abu Mazen has created a situation in which Israel does not consider itself bound than those understandings. "Abbas's move is a flagrant violation of all agreements with us. Unfortunately, it happened by the UN and some European countries including the bridesmaids were these agreements Palestinian supportive," said Yaalon. "The world must understand that Israel absorbed the message is that we rely on agreements . It took a very bad future, and in this situation we are committed to the agreements and understandings, and we follow our interests. "

"Olmert and Livni are running bash us in the world"


Yaalon slammed the former prime minister, Ehud Olmert, and chairman of the party "movement", Tzipi Livni, and rejected criticism of the Prime Minister following the controversial decision. "one of the most difficult problems the international forefront of this phenomenon as ministers. If the program sounds like what Europeans would not do it? "Wondered Ya'alon." We have this internal political event, and Europeans came to us.Rather than stand united front to the world and to explain the Palestinian refusal - that they have experienced it, and we know that, at this time they run bash us in the world. "

"Motivated by political considerations."  Olmert and Livni (Photo: GPO)
"Motivated by political considerations." Olmert and Livni (Photo: GPO)


"Rather an open conflict."  Mahmoud Abbas at the UN (Photo: AP)
"Rather an open conflict." Mahmoud Abbas at the UN (Photo: AP)
"Former prime minister, was interviewed while Abu Mazen's speech, accusing the Prime Minister of Israel and refusal, as different facts, does not preclude national interests but by political considerations," Ya'alon explained. "The four years we offer to Abbas to sit down at the negotiating table, we froze construction, we were ready to answer the letter American, we were ready to respond to the initiative of the Quartet, we drove to Amman - but the Palestinians fled that Abbas does not want the political process - is better than the open conflict . convenient for him to go to places like the United Nations, but it only gives a statement, it does not change the situation on the ground. "
Despite criticism from the outside, Yaalon dismissed the claims about political crisis with the United States and Europe. "We heard before Operation Nube, Obama will come with Netanyahu account and saw predictions proved false after positive U.S. involvement in the operation," said Minister Ya'alon. "Strategic relationship between Israel U.S. deep and based on interests. we do not have to agree on everything. we disagree about the settlement, but other issues such as Gaza and Iran are joining forces in earnest. regarding settlement we know from the outset that we disagree. "

Syria: 'Israel is not alone in this matter "


"Americans received information in recent days that suspicious activity."  Obama (Reuters)
"Americans received information in recent days that suspicious activity." Obama (Reuters)
As well as to criticism from European countries, Ya'alon said that "these countries are still friendly. Friendship never examined one issue. We regret the position they are taking but we have open channels to discuss our differences." Ya'alon said that he is convinced visit has international will not have any impact on international support for the struggle Iran's nuclear program. "There is no connection between the Palestinian cause in Iran," he stressed. "Anyone who has tried to make that connection, he realized it was a mistake. While the Iranian threat dealt with, will be easier to deal with other issues in the region and it will be difficult for our enemies in Gaza and Lebanon to provoke us."
Growing concern regarding the world against the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime, Ya'alon said that "hypotheses are chemical arsenal falling into the hands of hostility and responsible as the Al - Qaeda or other terrorist groups." "The Americans recently received information that suspicious activity, so there was a warning to the U.S.. Past has been clear messages to Assad several occasions and in response to Assad have really picked up the weapon and separated materials." Yaalon reported yesterday refused to comment on the American magazine "Atlantic", in which Israel asked Jordan "green light" to attack Syria chemical weapons facilities , but stressed that "Israel is not alone in this matter., but Israel as a whole, must be ready to defend itself by itself.'s not the case now. "


Appeals to a reporter: tal_sh@walla.net.il
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BREAKING: USS EISENHOWER AIRCRAFT CARRIER ARRIVES OFF SYRIAN SHORE





USS EISENHOWER AIRCRAFT CARRIER ARRIVES OFF SYRIAN SHORE



The USS Eisenhower Strike Group transited the Suez Canal from the Persian Gulf Saturday, Dec. 1, sailing up to the Syrian coast Tuesday in a heavy storm, with 8 fighter bomber squadrons of Air Wing Seven on its decks and 8,000 sailors, airmen and Marines.
The USS Eisenhower group joins the USS Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group which carries 2,500 Marines. Facing Syria now are 10,000 US fighting men, 70 fighter-bombers and at least 17 warships, including the three Iwo Jima amphibious craft, a guided missile cruiser and 10 destroyers and frigates. Four of these vessels are armed with Aegis missile interceptors. This mighty US armada brings immense pressure to bear on the beleaguered Assad regime after it survied an almost two-year buffeting by an armed uprising. Its presence indicates that the United States now stands ready for direct military intervention in the Syrian conflict when the weather permits. http://www.debka.com/article/22586/USS-Eisenhower-aircraft-carrier-arrives-off-Syrian-shore





Anti-Semitism of the United Nations (video)


Bee's note:
Unfortunately, the propaganda against the Jewish people and Israel does not stop at the gates of the United Nations.  The Arab Spring has turned into a long, Arab Winter; democracy for Egypt has been exchanged for a newly elected President demanding full dictatorship; Syria's President is prepared to wipe out his own people with chemical weapons; what happened to American diplomats and Navy Seals on 9/11, in Libya, is still unresolved and covered up; and while the entire Middle East is aflame with Islamic terrorists roaming the streets freely, our very own Hillary Clinton focuses in on Israel's right to build on their own land:


Rumor has it that Hillary may plan to run for "President' in 2016.  I hope everyone reading this post will remember that she is and has been for the past four years, the woman who has done the work of BHO - constantly condemning Israel, while ignoring the plight of the non-Muslims throughout the Middle Eastern countries, at the hands of Islamic dictators and terrorist organizations. In Anne's Opinions, please read her brief commentary: 

Murder and Mayhem in the Middle East – but it’s Israeli houses that upset the world

_________________________





Wednesday, December 5, 2012

The Bee Sting Daily - Middle East/Israel News

Wednesday, December 5, 2012
THE MAJORITY IGNORED ALL WARNING SIGNS!

Bee Sting's Note:  I apologize for not blogging here as regular as I once did.  Like many Conservatives, November 6th Election Day was a black day in America's history.  Giving BHO a "second" term by 51% has put many of us in shock.  I had refused to believe that so many or our citizens were blinded to the false promises of Barak HUSSEN Obama.  Some joke that Romney's promise to put Americans back to work was actually his "undoing", as those millions receiving Federal Aid don't want the Glory Train of Entitlements to end.  Little do they realize that nothing is "free" and the costs associated with this last election will forever be branded as America's great loss - loss of freedom, of our liberties, and (heaven forbid), the very foundation of our nation being ripped to shreds by our leaders in Washington who were sworn to protect the U.S. Constitution!

We have all handled our disappointment since November 6th differently.  Some true warriors have continued non-stop, posting daily; while others, like myself, have had to take a step back and recoup.  How do I restore a sense of balance in my life?  Not since the Civil War, has America faced such dark clouds looming off into the not too distant future?  This blog was never about "me"; the purpose has always been to post news that demonstrated the failed foreign policies of the administration and how such failures impact the world.  Brilliant writers/authors have had their articles posted here daily and my first thought after November 6th was 'America is doomed".  Doomed to 4 more years of more of the same; doomed to watch a President of the United States continue onward (not "forward") with policies that are dangerous to the very security to the United States and that of our allies around the world.

Obama demonstrates since the elections that nothing has changed.  His sarcastic, pompous attitude towards members of Congress seeking answers to the debt crisis, the uproar in Egypt over President Morsi's decision to become the "new" Dictator of Egypt; the truth about the horrific tortures and deaths of our men in Benghazi; or the latest move by the United Nations to vote in favor of the Palestinians have not raised an eyebrow of this President.  That vote by the UN, by the way, was not a vote for a two-state solution.  It was a vote for a "FINAL" SOLUTION.  And Hillary is using the same propaganda as the Palestinians, by condemning Israel for building on their own land.  So much for this administration supporting Israel!  

While away from my computer, I have had time to focus more on my family; turned the news off long enough to stop hearing Obama's daily rants on the TV; ) - does he think he's still campaigning?! I have had time to speak with friends, as we encouraged each other about what lies ahead; took longer walks and breathed in fresh air; and worked on my daily newspaper (see below).  I decided to invest not just time, but money, into making the newspaper my priority.  Why?  Because it is impossible to keep up with breaking news here, by myself.  The quickest way to post "Breaking" news is to post it on the newspaper.  That does not mean to say I will abandon this blog, as some things are just too important and/or interesting that need to last longer than a day or two, for others to either read or listen to from a video.

I hope you will take a moment to check out the link (below) and if you should want it to appear in your E-mails daily, simply register as a "subscriber" on the news link.  Thank you, everyone, for taking time to stop by here to check things out.  May the next four years be covered under His most holy grace and mercy, for we won't receive encouragement or comfort for what this administration has in store for these United States.

http://paper.li/lsBeesting/1318824795#