Israel: Terrorist Release Certain to Increase Violence

Israel might have taken a step forward but with recent events the country has also taken two steps back. Two years ago, two Israeli soldiers were kidnapped on the Lebanese border by terrorist group Hezbollah. The group had kept the soldiers’ well-being from anyone though evidence found at the scene indicated the soldiers suffered major injuries. Shlomo Goldwasser is the father of one of the kidnapped soldiers, Ehud Goldwasser; he continued to have hope that his son was still alive.

Last week, however, this was found to be the furthest thing from the truth. In a deal with Israel, Hezbollah agreed to turn over the bodies of Goldwasser and fellow soldier Eldad Regev in return for murderer Samir Kantar who killed his daughter and another man in 1979. Kantar has been in Israel prison ever since. The current deal was negotiated by German intelligence and forensic experts confirmed the remains did indeed belong to the soldiers. Goldwasser had hope that he would receive his son. He lost that hope when Hezbollah turned over two black coffins in exchange for the prisoner.

A neighbor of the Regev family said through tears “It’s the saddest day for Israel. They kept us waiting until the last second to learn the fate of our sons”. The recent deal had been in negotiations for weeks with the Israel cabinet finally agreeing in full. Hezbollah celebrated the deal as a victory. A website for the terrorist group claimed the prisoners were to be dressed in military uniforms.

Hezbollah supporters and fellow terrorist group Hamas stated, “Today is a great victory for the resistance movements and for Hezbollah. It shows that the only successful way to free the prisoners is by kidnapping soldiers”. Gerhard C., a member of the German intelligence agency spent months on negotiations traveling between the U.N., New York and the middle east. Prime Minister Olmert was already under fire due to alleged corruption in his administration. He had been under pressure not to come to an agreement with Hezbollah.

In response to the continued attacks upon Israel, the Israeli’s attacked attacked Hezbollah in Lebanon in 2006 and Lebanon is still yet to fully recover. Olmert ordered an attack in order to secure the release of the two kidnapped soldiers but the move was poorly executed as the soldiers were not released. After 34 days of war, Hezbollah was still holding the soldiers. The power of the leader of Hezbollah, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, had increased power after the kidnapping and attacks that followed.

Still remaining is a classified report giving to Gerhard C. during negotiations about the fate of a future soldier, Ron Arad, who left his plane during a bombing in 1986 in Lebanon. Finding out the details and circumstances of this soldier and the events that day were a priority for the Israeli government. After reading several dozen pages, this report was deemed useless after finding out that it only stated Arad had been moved frequently and then lost.

Olmert stated “the report is completely inadequate”. It is doubtful that clarity on Arad’s death will ever be provided. Last weeks deal by Olmert was plagued by corruption investigations and the deal is attributed to Israel’s domestic weakness.

Iran throws out IAEA investigators

Iran told the International Atomic Energy Agency that it will no longer be cooperating with them in a move that is less than surprising for most of us. Iran has been under investigation by the IAEA for possible nuclear weapons development and as well as attempts to create and fuel nuclear missile payloads.

The Iranian Vice President made the announcement, which further leads the world to believe Iran is hiding something. Their nuclear defiance comes only five days after Tehran ignored demands from six world powers to suspend its warhead activities.

One year ago, the IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei stated that it was a huge step forward for Iran to allow investigators inside to examine their work. Of course, one year ago he also ignored comments that Iran was distracting investigators with the “work plan” to cover up six years of clandestine atomic work. However, multiple deadlines were missed because Iran seemed to be in no hurry to hold up their end of the bargain. In theory, this work plan was to have been finished in late 2007. Instead, it ended up going into 2008 and beyond.

Defiant Iran says the allegations made by the U.S. and other world powers are being fabricated, thus, the country is no longer even remotely interested in speaking to IAEA. No details were provided but Iranian Vice President Gholam Reza Aghazadeh stated that any further questions on the issue “will be dealt with another way”.

Britain’s Foreign Office commented “We are concerned by reports that Iran is refusing to cooperate with the IAEA on allegations over nuclear weapons. The IAEA has raised serious concerns over Iran’s activities with a possible military dimension. If Iran is serious about restoring international confidence in its intentions, it must address these issues,”

The IAEA has repeatedly asked Iran for explanations concerning their nuclear activities to no avail. Evidence collected by the IAEA includes draft plans of what appears to be refitting missiles with nuclear warheads, tests for nuclear detonators, civilian and military nuclear links as well as how to mold uranium into the shape of a warhead.

ElBaradei showed his frustration in the last report in May when he stated that Iran may be withholding information. It was also stated last week by the IAEA Deputy Director that Tehran’s defiance may be a result of multimedia presentations to the U.S. board members.

For the first time Saturday, the U.S. participated in talks in Geneva which had raised expectations for a compromise with Iran to stop their program. In return, the six world powers (U.S., Britain, Germany, France, Russia and China) would not make sanctions against Iran. However, Iran negotiators ignored the issue.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stated that Iran was not serious during the Geneva talks and threatened a fourth sanction against the country. The only question left to ask is: how many sanctions will it take before we realize they aren’t working?

Pakistan: Standing up to Islamofascism

Pakistan seems to be standing up for itself in the release of a high-ranking militant suspect. Threats from the Taliban’s commander against Pakistan’s security proved futile with the country’s refusal to release the suspect to the group. Twenty-one people were killed when militants and military forces battled while a suicide bomber injured four. According to witnesses, the suicide bomber was part of a sectarian rivalry.

The bomber was hiding on the side of a road in Hangu near a truck carrying Shiite Muslims. He came forward chanting “God is great!” before detonating the explosives. The driver of the truck, however, escaped without injury. The bomber wasn’t as fortunate. His body was found on the road, though most of the explosives were still intact.

The insurgents also seem to be getting smarter. They lured a convoy into a trap while five men acted as guides. When five other local men were sent to talk to them, they also disappeared. Sixteen troops, including a top commander, as well as five militants and one of their commanders were killed in a clash in the Hangu district. Escaping imminent death, one of the troops hid in a ravine.

In recent months, security in Pakistan has focused on the threat the Taliban poses against their country. This has also led to the arrest of one of a top aide to Pakistani Taliban. In return, this has led to Taliban fighters kidnapping security forces. This also resulted in a siege of a police station in which 19 employees became hostages. Still, Pakistan continued to stand their ground and refuse to release the Taliban’s top aide, claiming “no terrorist will be released, whatever the price we have to pay”.

A military operation in Hangu was dismissed with the promise that Pakistan would hunt down and find those responsible for the convoy attack. This clash happened while the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, was visiting the area on a one-day unannounced trip. Mullen met with several officials to discuss security problems stating that Pakistan is becoming more of a breeding-ground for Taliban militants because there is not enough pressure being applied to force them out.

Another area of focus during the visit was neighboring Afghanistan. Rehman Malik, Pakistan’s Interior Ministry Chief, stated “To save Afghanistan is to save Pakistan and to save Pakistan is to save the world”. He also remarked that in order to secure their country, their western border needed to be more secure.

The Obamessiah

This is the strangest thing ever — except that it reflects the reality in the minds of many young Democratic voters. And that my friends is stranger than any fiction.

Arctic Oil

I recently returned from a fantastic trip to the Arctic Circle. It was a trip of a lifetime and am very thankful that I was able to go.

The USGS (United States Geological Survey) just released a report, 90 Billion Barrels of Oil and 1,670 Trillion Cubic Feet of Natural Gas Assessed in the Arctic, about undiscovered and technically recoverable energy resources in the Arctic.

90 billion barrels of oil represents approximately 13% of the worlds undiscovered oil reserves.

After meeting many of the local people in the Arctic Circle, it is a fairly safe generalization to say that they want to see that oil discovered and recovered. They are deeply family-oriented people and they want to turn that oil into educations and futures for their children. Through their ANC (Alaskan Native Corporation) system, they have created incredible investment vehicles to protect and nurture future generations.

Luddite “environmentalists” worry about how oil and gas recovery will hurt “the environment.” I was able to tour the Red Creek mine in the Arctic Circle — the worlds largest zinc mine. Before the mine was built, lead deposits were seeping into the water supply. The water was unsafe to drink and even fish could not live in it. Now that the mine is in operation, the water is safe to drink and the river supports a healthy fish population. The operations at the mine did not seem to bother the caribou who stopped to observe the humans at work. We humans are a part of nature. It is only the naive and arrogant “environmentalists” who see themselves as “above” nature and separate from it.

The downside is that these 90 billion barrels of oil represent only 12 years of United States oil consumption. We currently produce 8.322 million barrels of oil a day and consume 20.8 million barrels of oil a day. Even added to our current domestic production, this new oil will fuel our economy for less than two decades.

Clearly, this is a stop-gap measure. John McCain has promised that his administration will put into motion a plan to build 45 new nuclear power plants by 2030. This oil can help get us to that point.

If we don’t use our own natural resources, we are forced to buy oil from fascists regimes like Iran, Venezuela, and Saudi Arabia. We are, in effect, supporting despotism and the enslavement of our fellow human beings by these fascist governments.

Nuclear power is the only reasonable future, but oil is the only actual present. We must act now to protect the present and the future.

Rudy Sandoval: American Hero

Rudy works the counter at the Pizza Patron in Denton Texas, but 17yr old Rudy Sandoval is a real American hero.

A couple of Friday’s ago, Ben Ramirez walked into the Pizza Patron wearing dark sunglasses and a wig and carrying what appeared to be a handgun. Ben demanded the money from the cash register and slapped Rudy in the face.

Rudy responded to the affront by fighting back. He struck his assailant several times — until Ben lost consciousness. Ben woke up a few minutes later, before the police had arrived. He immediately ran from the restaurant and got into a black pickup truck where two of his accomplices were waiting.

Another brave Texan was outside and noticed what was going on. He convinced two more Texans in an automobile to follow the black pickup truck. They identified the truck and it’s location to police and Ben Ramirez was arrested.

In total, four brave Americans helped that night to preserve all of our liberty. As John Locke wrote hundreds of years ago, “Where there is no law, there is no freedom.” These individuals acted, at risk to their own persons and property, to uphold the rule or law and to protect the freedom of Americans to enjoy pizza in peace.

NASA: Engineers vs. Bureaucrats

NASA hasn’t been in good shape for years. After NASA’s initial years of stunning success, the agency became bogged down in the same bureaucratic nonsense that makes a trip to the DMV take three hours. When NASA’s major cultural problems killed the seven astronauts in the Challenger, people began to believe that change was possible. When the space shuttle Columbia was destroyed on re-entry, it became obvious that change was necessary.

Unfortunately, that change has not happened. NASA engineers and contractors who present data which is not aligned with bureaucratic priorities are ignored, demoted, transferred, or fired. Unfortunately, this ignored data has on many occasions included important safety warnings which could have saved the lives of the Challenger and Columbia astronauts.

Finally, NASA engineers are taking their story public. NASA is moving forward with the development of a complex architecture for returning to the moon known as “Ares.” Concurrently, a team of over fifty NASA engineers has developed a competing architecture called “Jupiter” which promises to get us back to the moon sooner, cheaper, and safer.

Jupiter is part of the Direct 2.0 project. For more information on the Direct 2.0 project, visit DirectLauncher. DirectLaunch is an incredible example of American ingenuity and the power of both volunteerism and free enterprise.

NASA is an unfortunate example of overgrown government bureaucracy. The communist Chinese have beaten us in terms of commercial space missions, because they have privatized their space program. America is years behind the communist Chinese in terms of bringing the power of privatization to our space program.

I urge you to call your senators and representatives today and ask them what is their position on the Direct 2.0 project. I am betting that they won’t have a clue. That oversight failure is costing you, the American taxpayer, tens of billions of dollars a year.

Deporting Our Best and Our Brightest

The Statue of Liberty contains a bronze plaque inscribed with the poem “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus.

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Apparently a married 23 year old librarian from Massachusetts doesn’t count under the current definition of “your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.”

Marzavi Angel Martinez was brought to the United States by her parents when she was 3 years old. The United States is the only country she has ever known.

The mindless bureaucrats of the Federal government are now deporting Mrs. Martinez, because she was born in Mexico.

How was Mrs. Martinez caught? She was caught because she was attempting to pay her taxes. We are now deporting working taxpayers from our country. What does our nation need now more than working tax payers?

Mrs. Martinez is married and has a 15 month old son. The authorities have no power to deport her husband or her baby — they are ruthlessly and mindlessly attempting to break up the family.

Now is the time for principled members of the Republican Party to stand up and say “We support family values.” Separating a 15 month old child from his mother is not a family value.

The U.S. Constitution Returns to D.C. — sort of

The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution states “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

In response to a Supreme Court ruling against them, the fascists in the District of Columbia Council passed new legislation infringing the right of the People to keep and bear Arms just a little bit less.

The soulless bastards have replaced their old unconstitutional statute with a new unconstitutional statute.

The new law unconstitutionally infringes the rights of the People to keep and bear Arms in three ways:

1. It requires the People to apply for permits from the fascist bureaucrats in order to exercise the rights defined to them under the Constitution. This effectively says “You have only the Constitutional rights which the District of Columbia Council sees fit for you to have.” On a very practical level, the mindless bureaucrats have yet to issue a single permit and have no set date when they believe that they might be able to get around to it. In addition, the bureaucrats are charging the People of D.C. a processing fee to be able to exercise the rights granted to them in the Constitution.

2. The legislation infringes on the right of the People to keep and bear Arms by limiting them to 12 rounds of ammunition or less — effectively preventing the People from arming them with the best modern Arms.

3. The legislation infringes on the right of the People to keep and bear Arms by requiring all arms to be kept unloaded and disassembled or trigger locked. You can’t bear an unloaded, disassembled, or locked firearm. This is a bald faced attempt to subvert the meaning and wording of the United States Constitution.

Clearly, these evil and stupud men and women need to be recalled and replaced with the sort of patriots who founded our great nation — if People of that caliber can still be found.

Reformation of an anti-Iraq War Democrat

Lanny Davis recently penned Confessions of an anti-Iraq War Democrat for The Washington Times.

Davis is a former special counsel to President Clinton and is a long-time Clintonista. Lanny recently worked on Hillary Clinton’s campaign for the Presidency.

Lanny Davis represents the “center left” in America. The Democratic Party has abandoned the center left, in favor of complete pandering to the furthest left reaches of it’s constituency.

To my mind, this is a very positive sign. This is yet another move by the centrist Democrats away from the anti-freedom clique of people like John Kerry and Barack Obama. This is a move back to the Democratic Party of leaders like John F. Kennedy.

Do you remember what JFK said in his inaugural address? He said “Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.”

Do you remember what John Kerry said? He said he wanted to reduce terrorism to a “nuisance.” Do you see the stark contrast between those two approaches? One is the strategy of a victor, the other is a strategy of a victim.

The United States may have been a victim of terrorism — but we are not victims. We are victors — for as long as we are willing to pay the price of freedom.