I think this poll says it all. The world is going to hell in a
handbasket. Is there any country we would want to emulate. Failed
states, failed socialist policies, statism,
The Poll Results
Regarding the question of which candidate they would
vote for if they could, respondents voted overwhelmingly for Obama in every
country polled, with the exception of the United States, where Republican John
McCain was preferred over Democrat Obama by a narrow margin.
"It's Obama by a landslide -- except in the country
in which he's actually running for president," said John Fredricks, Director of
Polling for Reader's Digest. "What is most striking is the margin of his
support."
Results include: -- Americans ranked the
global economy as most important; terrorism, second; and the war in
Iraq, third. Only the Russians were more concerned with terrorism than
Americans. -- In seven nations (Australia, Brazil, Canada, Finland,
Germany, Great Britain and Taiwan), the environment came out on top as a
major concern. -- Global poverty, which tallied only 4 percent
among Americans, was the No. 1 concern of respondents in six nations
(France, Mexico, Netherlands, Poland, South Africa and Spain) -- and
second in five others.
On the question "When you think of the U.S.
government, do you consider yourself pro-American, neutral or anti-American?"
respondents in other countries were split:
-- Nine of the 16 other countries were more
"anti-American" than "pro-American,"India and
Poland were most enthusiastic about the U.S. government. --
Anti-American sentiment was highest among Indonesia, Netherlands and
Spain, although U.S. neighbors Mexico and Canada expressed it as
well.
In response to a question about whether respondents
would like to move to the United States, the French expressed strong interest,
as did 73% of respondents in India. In Canada, only about 25% expressed an
interest in relocating, while in Mexico, the nation that sends the most
immigrants to the United States, one-third said they'd want to move there.
French novelist Philippe Laibro hypothesized in the article that "the legend
remains. America is still that land of the second chance, of multiple
opportunities, where anyone can succeed."
About the Global Presidential Poll:
Survey data were collected in 17 nations, 15 by the
international polling firm Synovate.
Excerpts: Remarks by Former Senator Fred
Thompson Former Senator Focuses on Themes of "Country First" and
"Service"
SAINT PAUL, Minn.
- This evening former Senator Fred Thompson will address the 2008 Republican
National Convention. Senator Thompson will expand on the convention's overall
theme, "Country First," and the theme for today's program, which is "service,"
as he illustrates why John McCain is best qualified to be the next President of
the United States
Excerpts are below:
On John
McCain's qualifications to be president: "This is the kind of
character that civilizations from the beginning of history have sought in their
leaders. Strength. Courage. Humility. Wisdom. Duty. Honor. It's pretty clear
there are two questions we will never have to ask ourselves, 'Who is this man?'
and 'Can we trust this man with the presidency?'"
On John
McCain's dedication to doing what is right – not what is
popular: "He has been to Iraq eight times since 2003. He went
seeking truth, not publicity. When he travels abroad, he prefers quietly
speaking to the troops amidst the heat and hardship of their daily lives. And
the same character that marked John McCain's military career has also marked his
political career. This man, John McCain, is not intimidated by what the polls
say or by what is politically safe or popular."
On John
McCain's commitment to taking real action to reform
Washington: "But while others were talking reform, John McCain
led the effort to make reform happen – always pressing, always moving for what
he believed was right and necessary to restore the people's faith in their
government. Confronting when necessary, reaching across the aisle when possible,
John personified why we came to Washington in the first place."
On John McCain's ability to restore integrity to our
government: "My role is to help remind you of the man behind
the vision. Because tonight our country is calling to all of us to step up,
stand up, and put 'Country First' with John McCain. Tonight we are being called
upon to do what is right for our country."
And then the annihilationists and Jew haters show up --- cloaked in the keffiyeh
She's ashamed, she covered her face.
This fat bastard kept calling me "hey Pamela! Cover up!" Yeah, said I was "sagging" (so not) and called me a prostitute> I thought I caught it on tape but I wasn't in movie mode. Just a pig thats all. He was with Yousef al-Khattab, the depraved all hang together.
Quick Vlog to give a snap Atlas recap over the rushing world events. Hold your nose and dive!
And listen to my podcast of my show with the Great Aunt Gail of Amina and Sarah Said - the tragic victims of a bloody honor killing. We failed those girls! In life. We will not fail them in death. Listen here.
""God picks the most beautiful flowers for his garden," said the mother of
16-year-old Avraham David Mozes.
Yohai Lifshitz, 18, of Jerusalem
Yehonatan Yitzhak Alder, 16, of Shilo
Yehonadav Haim Hirshfeld, 19, of Kochav Hashahar
Neria Cohen, 15, of Jerusalem
Roy Rot, 18, of Elkana
Segev Peniel Avihail, 15, of Neveh Daniel
Avraham David Mozes, 16, of Efrat
Doron Mahareta, 26, of Ashdod
Yeshivat Mercaz HaRav is the spiritual center of Religious Zionism.
A reader ...............
Dear Pamela,
I am shocked, and so angry.
Merkaz was the Yeshiva where I came to study many years ago, as a foreign student, an eager youngster on a spiritual quest, thirsty for knowledge of my people and heritage. I came to know the yeshivah's character and commitment, its cholent and charm, as well as its study halls and hallways now drenched in blood.
I had the privilege of my studies there taking place in 1967, during the lead-up to the Six Day war. The campus became a ghost town as virtually all the Israelis, comprising 95% of the student body, went to their army units, leaving only the dozen or so foreign lads (including yours truly) who all volunteered as a team and worked as the 'orderlies' at the nearby old Shaare Zedek hospital, where many of the wounded were later brought as the fighting developed. I'll never forget the experience of those weeks, nor the inspiring ambience of that particular yeshivah environment.
I'm telling you, the lads of Merkaz, even today 40 years later, are among the crème-de-la-crème of today's Israeli youth and the backbone of its Jewish future. That they were chosen as the target of this attack is perhaps the surest proof of this.
Today I cry and mourn, and seek to refortify my soul, along with the families and friends of those slaughtered and maimed in yesterday’s massacre. As the saying goes, this day will live in infamy for decades to come, but the sleeping giant it has aroused must be harnessed and directed appropriately.
At root, it is the leadership – primarily Israeli, but also American and European -- that is to blame for what has happened. Olmert and his team -- including the self-serving Shas party who have been, and still are, in a position to force a change in governance – have become a cabinet and government of enablers, not the disablers they should be, when it comes to terror. Together, they have allowed things in Israel to worsen day by day, bullet by bullet, rocket by rocket, when every justification, obligation and opportunity for taking decisive action has repeatedly presented itself but been rejected by them. Even a cursory analysis will show that Israeli’s pusillanimity has contributed not only to the increase in terror within Israel but to the palpable increase in anti-semitism elsewhere.
The Condappeasing Bush administration, and the Europeans, must also be called to account for providing funds and for putting their “arms” around the fake Palestinian enterprise, when that encouragement and those funds, arms and training have knowingly been used to launch and support aggression against Israel instead of peace. It is the height of hypocrisy for them now to be tut-tutting their 'regrets,' sending their “condi-olences,” and mouthing their 'condi-emnations'. The only meaningful "condemnation" is a strong “Jewish nation.” Women in Green has it right in saying that the response to eight deaths should be eight new settlements.
The massacre itself is painful enough. But to see Gazans and their brainwashed children actually jumping for joy at this tragedy takes one to a place beyond pain. Just imagine - they are actually celebrating a calamity, inflicted by their cohort, on the cream of Israeli youth and everything it stands for.
It is high time that those who commit such evil be taught an unequivocal lesson, be made to understand and remember for the next 40 years that it does not and will not pay to pursue this path. Regrettably, it is unlikely that the present governments – of Israel, the US or Europe – will have the integrity or the clarity of vision and purpose needed to conceive and convey such a lesson. Instead, they will most likely take quarter-measures, or less. Witness, even before the blood of the fallen had had time to congeal, Israeli and American “spokespersons” were already intoning the mantra that “this must not be allowed to derail the peace process!”
The very opposite should be the approach.
By failing to respond appropriately, by failing to take heed, by failing to reach and implement the obvious conclusions, they will thus communicate -- yet again -- the message that killing Jews is OK. The fallout of that failure will affect not only Israel and Jews everywhere, but will just as surely come home to roost on their own doorsteps too. By then, however, it may be too late to turn their tide.
Photo credit: Avi Ohayon, Government Press Office.
UPDATE: I hear a new hezbo group is taking credit for the mass murder and I am not buying it. It's all the same thing, all the same people, all the same religious dogma. Not buying it some new kid in town. It's the same old sick, depraved pox on humanity.
Gazan Arabs celebrate the murder of children
UPDATE: More on the Israeli Arab murderer: (hat tip Mara)
"Nearly half of them are
Palestinians who have received a permit to stay in Israel and an Israeli
identity card on the backdrop of their marriage to an Israeli Arab, and terror
groups seek to recruit them due to their access to Israeli
targets."
Accuracy in Media editor Cliff Kincaid disclosed today that a hugely
expensive bill called the “Global Poverty Act,” sponsored by Democratic Senator
Barack Obama, was quickly passed by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on
Wednesday and could result in the imposition of a global tax on the United
States.
UPDATE: Forever Young Must read by Leon Wieseltier, The New Republic hat tip A Grobman
The question of whether Barack Obama will make a fine commander-in chief finally
depends on your view of the direction of history in the coming years. I cannot
escape the foreboding that we are heading into an era of conflict, not an era of
conciliation. I do not mean that there will be many wars, though I cannot
imagine that the threat to American security from Al Qaeda and its many
associates can be met without a massive and sustained military operation in
western Pakistan, and I cannot imagine any Pakistani government ordering such an
operation. It is not "the politics of fear" to remind Obama's legions of the
blissful that, while they are watching Scarlett Johansson sway to the beat,
somewhere deep inside a quasi independent territory we might call Islamistan
people are making plans to blow them to bits. (Yes, they can.)
One of the striking features of Obama's victory speeches is the absence from
these exultations of any lasting allusion to the darker dimensions of our
strategic predicament. He makes no applause line out of American defense. And
jihadist terrorism is only one of the disorders in an increasingly disordered
world. The most repercussive fact of our time is surely the transformation of
China. The "metrics" are all staggering. Quantities, quantities, quantities.
China already has the power to wreck the American economy. However many tanks
and fighters it has, its hoarding of American dollars is itself a kind of
arsenal. And the bounty of wealth that it promises American business, the
fantasy of greed-fulfillment that it represents, makes it almost impossible to
conduct a serious discussion of the implications of this emerging world power
for American principles and American interests--certainly not in Washington,
where, when it comes to the art of dodging debate, Beijing is better than
Bandar. What China wants, China gets. Not even the gold medal in tyranny that
Beijing will win in its Olympics will make a difference. Meanwhile the
authoritarian Putin has punkishly succeeded in restoring Russia to its
inglorious heritage, reminding the world of the old formula that capitalism plus
state power equals fascism.In Iran, none of Ahmadinejad's domestic troubles
seem to have modified the state's sense of ascendancy, or its will to nuclearize
itself, or its appetite for instability in its region. In Iraq, the streets are
safer but the sects are not sweeter. In the Korean peninsula, diplomacy has gone
ominously cold. In Palestine there are two Palestines, and one of them belongs
to Hamas. In Darfur--well, you know, because everybody knows. In Latin America,
the failures of liberal economics have sullied the reputation of liberal
politics. And so on.
All this even before we attend to the elimination of poverty. And into this
unirenic environment strides Obama, pledging to extract us promptly from Iraq
and to negotiate with our enemies. What is the role of a conciliator in an
unconciliating world? You might think that in such conditions he is even more of
an historical necessity-but why would you think that all that stands between the
world and peace is one man? George W. Bush was not single-handedly responsible
for getting us into our strategic mess and Barack Obama will not be
single-handedly responsible for getting us out of it. There are autonomous
countries and cultures out there. The turbulence that I have described is not
caused by misunderstandings. It is caused by the interests of powers and the
beliefs of peoples. Beijing, Moscow, Tehran, Pyongyang, Islamabad, Gaza City,
Khartoum, Caracas-does Obama really believe that he has something to propose to
these ruthless regimes that they have not already considered? Does he plan to
move them, to organize them, to show them change they can believe in? With what
trick of empathy, what euphoria, does he hope to join the Shia, the Sunni, and
the Kurds in Iraq? Yes, he made a "muscular" speech in Chicago last spring; but
I have been pondering his remarks about foreign policy in the ensuing campaign
and I do not detect the hardness I seek, the disabused tone that the present
world warrants. My problem is not with "day one": nobody is perfectly prepared
for the White House, though the memory of Bill Clinton's "learning curve" is
still vivid, which in Bosnia and Rwanda cost more than a million lives. My
problem is that Obama's declarations in matters of foreign policy and national
security have a certain homeopathic quality. He seems averse to the hurtful,
expensive, traditional, unedifying stuff.
"False hopes?" Obama told a crowd in New Hampshire. "There's no such thing."
How dare he?
If I didn't impress upon you how honored I was to have been invited to introduce Mark Steyn, forgive me. He is illuminating and unabashedly clear. Of all that I heard and saw, Mark Steyn was the most brilliant. He so gets it and articulates it with such force and passion.
I kicked off my intro with a little limerick:
There once was a kafir named Steyn Muslims said wrote an offending line Twas an imam he quoted Now he's being swiftboated But his battle is yours and its mine.
Steyn's speech ought to be reproduced and be mandatory reading for every . American that cares about what's happening to this country. He excoriates the Republicans for moving to the left and abandoning the very tenets of our political philosophy.
Speaking with him prior to the event he expressed my concerns and distress over Romney's withdrawal. He, too, thought Romney was a great candidate.
Random points he made but watch the video:
He wouldn't use the word "small government" because it buys into the liberal narrative - that big government is the norm.
He took out the Republicans for refusing to enforce the border. Here we cop out to the impossibility of securing our own borders. We claim to be unable to keep people from sneaking over our sovereign borders but we will attempt (at least McCain will) to "change the heavens". We will expend untold treausure to address "global warming" to cool things down a degree but we can't control . He also pointed out that the greatest increase in illegal immigration has come post 9/11.
The default mode of the culture is liberal; the key levers of society
are liberal. The
defects of that approach seem increasingly apparent.
I can't write all my thoughts, I really hope Steyn runs his speech in full on his site.
Great American Rich Davis, Skye from Midnight Blue, Sharon Hyland whose husband is a Maine in Afghanistan and gave up a six figure job to start "A Hero's Welcome" and STEYN.
UPDATE: Here's a really clean copy (why townhall cut me out I'll never know)
What lengths we won't go through for our Presidential candidates! Romney is truly the outsider, the maverick. The well oiled machine is at work to destroy is candidacy my friends.
We have been hearing for years that Senator John
McCain gives “straight talk” and his bus has been endlessly referred to as the
“Straight Talk Express.” But endless repetition does not make something
true.
The fact that McCain makes short, blunt statements does not make
him a straight-talker.
There are short, blunt lies — and he told a big
one on the eve of the Florida primary, when he claimed that Mitt Romney had
advocated a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq.
Even the Washington Post, which supports McCain, said
that the senator “has distorted the meaning” of what Governor Romney
said, that Romney “has never proposed setting ‘a date for withdrawal.’ ”
During Mitt Romney’s ABC News interview that Senator McCain twisted,
Governor Romney was asked by the interviewer whether he agreed with President
Bush’s veto of congressional legislation setting a timetable for withdrawal, and
whether Romney as President would veto similar legislation.
“Of course,”
was Romney’s reply. There was no ambiguity.
Confronted with his lie on
Wednesday night’s debate, McCain blustered and filibustered in a manner
reminiscent of Captain Queeg in The
Caine Mutiny, when he was caught in a lie during a
navy inquiry.
When confronted with any of his misdeeds, Senator McCain
tends to fall back on his record as a war hero in Vietnam. Let’s talk
sense. Benedict Arnold was a war hero but that did not exempt him from
condemnation for his later betrayal. Being a war hero is not a lifetime
get-out-of-jail-free card. And becoming president of the United States is not a
matter of rewarding an individual for past services.
The presidency is a
heavy responsibility for the future of the nation, including generations yet
unborn. Character and integrity are major qualifications.
The passing
years and a friendly media have allowed Senator McCain’s shortcomings in the
character and integrity department to fade into the background.
McCain
was one of “the
Keating Five” — senators who used their influence to try to protect a
failing savings & loan company, which also became the subject of a
corruption investigation.
During the 2000 primaries, the Associated Press
reported Senator McCain’s joking about people with Alzheimer’s.
This went
beyond bad taste because (1) it was known at the time that Ronald Reagan was
suffering from Alzheimer’s and (2) the media to whom McCain was pandering hated
Ronald Reagan.
It is especially ironic now to see McCain wrapping himself
in the mantle of President Reagan.
With the momentum of his Florida
primary win behind him, going into the “Super Tuesday” primaries, John McCain
has now been restored to the position of front runner that the media gave him at
the outset. Other Republicans are jumping on his bandwagon. This may have
less to do with McCain’s own qualities than with the prospect of getting Cabinet
posts or Supreme Court appointments as rewards for their political
support.
It may all look like a done deal. But the McCain-Kennedy bill
giving amnesty to illegal aliens looked like a done deal two years ago — until
the public realized the truth behind the spin and brought that sell-out to a
screeching halt.
Super Tuesday may be the voters’ last chance to bring
the so-called “straight talk express” to a screeching halt.
It should be
called the “sell-out express” because McCain has sold out not only with amnesty
for illegal aliens but also sold out the First Amendment with the
McCain-Feingold “campaign finance reform” bill that was supposed to take big
money out of political campaigns, but blatantly has not.
McCain also sold
out on judicial nominations by making his own side deal with the Democrats,
undercutting Republican attempts to stop Democrats from filibustering judicial
nominees instead of voting them up or down.
This is quite a record for
someone running as a straight talker.
The brilliant and in the know Dr Jack Wheeler has a devastating piece. Scathing.
The number of fellow Senators who think John McCain is psychologically unstable
is large. Some will admit it publicly, like Thad Cochran who says, "The thought
of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine."
Others relate
times when McCain screamed four-letter obscenities right in their faces in the
Senate cloak room, like Dick Shelby, Rick Santorum, or Jim Inhofe. "The man is
unhinged," one Senator told me. "He is frighteningly unfit to be
Commander-in-Chief." That John McCain is clinically nuts is scary
enough. What worries a small group of GOP Senators and Congressmen even more is
a deep and dark skeletal secret in McCain's glorified past to which they are
privy, and which the Clintons will use to blackmail him.
[...]
In other words, the CIA has in its possession the notes and reports of John
McCain's interrogators at the Hanoi Hilton, in both the original Vietnamese and
translated Russian, showing collaboration with his Communist captors.
Allegations of this nature have been made over the years, many by
Vietnam veterans. There is an even an organization, Vietnam Veterans Against
McCain. But they are based on suspicions and circumstantial claims. There
has never been any hard direct evidence.
What T says the CIA has is
such evidence. Its release would destroy McCain. The threat of its release
could force McCain to take a fall, blow the election and lose on purpose. And
just who do you suppose would know what the CIA has and work with them to
release it?
Someone who has been a CIA asset since he was recruited by
London station chief Cord Meyer while a student at Oxford in 1968?
(Back
in the 90s years after he retired, if Cord drank a little too much Scotch, he
would laugh derisively at those conspiratorialists who accused Bill Clinton of
being connected with the KGB.
"They all darkly point to Bill's
participation in anti-war peace conferences in Stockholm and Oslo, and his trip
to Leningrad, Moscow, and Prague while he was at Oxford. ‘Who could have paid
for this?', they ask. ‘It had to be the KGB!' they claim." Cord would shake his
head. "What rot - we paid for it. We recruited Bill the first week he
was at Oxford. Bill's been an asset of The Three Bad Words ever since." Cord
passed on in 2001.)
The small group of Senators and Congressmen who have
been briefed by T have been unable to confirm with the CIA any details of its
document swap with the GRU beyond an admission that such a swap "may have
happened." They are very nervous about pursuing the matter any
further.
The Clintons are not nervous. They are utterly ruthless, and
have buddies at Langley all too happy to help them.
It has been noted
many times here in To The Point that while most folks think the CIA is
a right-wing outfit, it is not. The CIA has been dominated by left-wing
hyper-liberals for years. The CIA is a left-wing, liberal outfit, and its
main job for some time now is not attacking America's enemies but conservatives
in general and George W. Bush in particular. The story is best told by friend,
Ken Timmerman in his new book Shadow
Warriors.
When the time is right, the Clintons will see to the
leaking of the GRU archives on McCain to the media. Bet on it, just as you can
bet they'll follow it up with media disclosures of the lady lobbyists in
Washington having adulterous affairs with McCain. (There are at least three of
them; I know the name of one but I'm not going to put it in
writing.)
Maybe McCain will try to fight back by confirming Hillary's
well-known bisexuality and her lesbian affair with her beautiful assistant, Huma
Abedin. Google "Hillary" and "Huma Abedin" and you'll get almost 6,000 hits.
Turns out Huma is a Moslem who grew up in Saudi Arabia and is strongly suspected
of working for Saudi intelligence.
Or maybe he'll capitulate to Clinton
blackmail. You never can tell what a psychologically unstable guy will
do.
And that last point is why - be prepared for this, folks - I would
not in any circumstances vote for John McCain, not if either Hillary or Obama
were the alternative. Evil is safer than crazy. Leftie amateur inexperience is
safer than crazy. So I agree with Ann Coulter who says:
"I'd rather deal
with President Hillary than with President McCain. With Hillary, we'll get the
same ruinous liberal policies with none of the responsibility." How in
the world can the Republican Party get saddled with a nutcase whack-job who
knows nothing about economics, is so anti-capitalist he uses "profit" as a term
of derision, has never run a business or had any job outside of government, will
raise taxes, is so stupid that he believes "stopping global warming" is worth
destroying the American economy, won't drill ANWR, won't appoint strict
constructionist justices, won't protect marriage, will give amnesty to 20
million illegal aliens, is beloved by the New York Times, and lives in a
delusionary world of vanity and rage?
Rush is right. A McCain presidency
will be the destruction of the Republican Party. It needs to be rebuilt, not
wiped out with the field clear for the fascists of the left to consolidate power
and eliminate freedom.
I don't know if anyone else has noticed this but The Arnold has endorsed John McCain for president at a time when California is suing the US government because California wants stricter environmental laws on the books than what the Federal government has. McCain is very "green" friendly (as long as it gets him
