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RS>WND's Schilling Still Has Amnes


Welcome to The Patriot Post
Friday Digest - Vol. 08 No. 46 ....... Mark Alexander, Publisher


This week's 'Alpha Jackass' award


"Have you ever had any association with any person, group or business venture
that could be used -- even unfairly -- to impugn or attack your character and
qualifications for government service?" --page 7, question 61 of the
questionnaire required of prospective Obama administration cabinet members


One among 63 intrusive questions that will serve only to drive qualified
people away, this question stood out for two reasons: Obama himself has many
troubling associations (though that didn't seem to matter to 66 million
voters), and prospective cabinet members would have to answer, "Yes, I'm
associated with Barack Obama."


Political analyst Rich Galen also observed, "If this were an incoming
Republican Administration, I guarantee you the name 'McCarthy' would be on
every front page in the nation in describing [this questionnaire]."


And speaking of guns, question 59 reads, "Do you or any members of your
immediate family own a gun? If so, provide complete ownership and registration
information. Has the registration ever lapsed? Please also describe how and by
whom it is used and whether it has been the cause of any personal injuries or
property damage."


Memo to Obama: Other than in the twisted world of Washington, DC, guns are not
registered, nor should they be.


Party Chairmanships up for grabs


Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean has announced that he is
stepping down after one term and leaving no clues as to what his next move
will be. Dean earned the respect of the permanent Demo political class in
Washington the hard way -- by proving that his much-derided 50-state strategy
was the key to success in two straight national elections. Dean had the
support of the MoveOn.org and Daily Kos crowd gained from his own presidential
run in 2004 and he used the so-called "netroots" to help him implement a plan
to put volunteers on the ground in every state. It was an expensive
proposition which helped to swing Congress into the Democrat fold in 2006 and
the White House this year. The list of potential replacements is long --
former Gore campaign head Donna Brazile, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) and Gov.
Tim Kaine (D-VA) are just three names that have been mentioned so far.


Dean may be stepping down to avoid future public conflicts with incoming Chief
of Staff Rahm Emanuel, who's made no secret of his dislike for the soon-to-be
former DNC Chairman. Or maybe he just wants to go out while he's on top.


Republican National Committee Chairman Mike Duncan, however, does not have
that luxury. In fact, while Duncan has not announced his plans as RNC boss,
much of the rest of the Committee and the Party wants him out in short order.
Duncan presided over two consecutive embarrassing elections for the GOP, and
now the biggest political parlor game in town is guessing just who might
become the next leader. Newt Gingrich is a popular choice, but he is not
personally campaigning for the job. He believes he can be more effective
running American Solutions and the Center for Health Transformation. A
campaign has also formed around former Maryland Lt. Governor Michael Steele,
and Michigan GOP Chairman Saul Anuzis is actively campaigning for the
position. Whoever ultimately gets the job will have the tremendous task of
refocusing a leaderless party and working against stout Democrat majorities.
Republicans take heart, though: You can't fall off the floor.


NATIONAL SECURITY


Warfront with Jihadistan: Testing the new guy


"I'm the only major candidate who opposed this war [in Iraq] from the
beginning... [A]s president I will end it... I will cut investments in
unproven missile defense systems... I will not weaponize space... I will slow
our development of future combat systems... I will set a goal of a world
without nuclear weapons... I will not develop new nuclear weapons..."
Unfortunately, those words are not a rehash of some 1980 Jimmy Carter campaign
pledge, but straight from the mouth of the current president-elect, the man
entrusted to defend our nation. Terrifying to reflect upon, they represent the
views of a man totally detached from the political and military realities of
the world and unable to see the shots already being fired across his bow by
our enemies.


After months of falling violence, this week saw a sudden increase in bombings
in Iraq, with dozens being killed and wounded. The violence comes as U.S. and
Iraqi officials try to reach a final security agreement that would keep U.S.
troops in Iraq until 2011, but that has drawn sharp criticism from the
majority Shiite community.


Interestingly, Iran is also majority Shiite, and Obama, who has pushed for
diplomatic talks with Iran, is blind if he doesn't think this increase in Iraq
violence is a direct Iranian challenge to his incoming regime. As if to dare
Obama to pull American troops out of Iraq, Iran, during war games near the
Iraqi border this week, test-fired two new missiles capable of striking
Israel.


Combined with Russia's announcement that it will deploy missiles near
Kaliningrad to counter the U.S. missile defense system in Poland, and North
Korea's declaration Wednesday that it won't allow inspectors to examine its
nuclear complex, it is obvious that the world's thugs are testing Obama early
-- just as his running mate Joe Biden predicted. They already think him a
weakling, and given Obama's statements, they appear to be right. The Obama
regime could be a direct threat to our country. Change we can believe in? How
about change we can't survive?


Department of Military Readiness: Navy wins sonar battle


The United States Navy scored a victory this week in the U.S. Supreme Court in
a battle against environmentalists and their accomplices in the Ninth Circuit
Court. The question was whether the Navy could test sonar systems off the
California coast in spite of alleged harm to whales and dolphins. The sonar is
essential in detecting new "quiet" submarines deployed by China and North
Korea.


A district court in California had ruled that the Navy must cease such
exercises in order to save the whales, and the Ninth Circuit Court agreed. The
Bush administration had countered by exempting the Navy from the federal laws
cited in the case, saying that national security trumped the whales. This
week, the Supreme Court agreed. "We do not discount the importance of
plaintiffs' ecological, scientific and recreational interests in marine
mammals. Those interests, however, are plainly outweighed by the Navy's need
to conduct realistic training exercises," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in
the majority opinion. "We see no basis for jeopardizing national security."
Unfortunately, the decision could be rendered moot by the incoming Obama
administration, which would likely stop the exercises.


The Gray Lady undermines national security ... again


There they go again. The New York Times, continuing its policy of aiding and
abetting this nation's enemies, on Monday published the latest classified
anti-terrorist program to come to its attention. This revelation covers a
secret order that authorized covert military action inside Syria, Pakistan and
"elsewhere" (a quick look at the map to see what lies between Pakistan and
Syria will discover "elsewhere"). Citing military and civilian sources, The
Times reports that nearly a dozen such raids have been carried out since 2004.
We can only imagine the gratitude felt by those brave special-ops soldiers
carrying out these missions that their activities are public knowledge.


Freedom of the press is one of the most important rights enshrined in the
Constitution. Its position as part of the First Amendment is no accident,
indicating the importance the Founders gave to a press able to report freely
and without fear on the activities of government. Even in wartime, the
government should not censor the media unless truly extraordinary
circumstances dictate otherwise. But there is also a reason for the
government's classification of information, including this definition of Top
Secret: "information of a highly sensitive nature, whose disclosure could
result in grave danger to the national security of the United States." At what
point does The Times consider that protecting our national security is more
important than scoring political points against the Bush administration?


The trouble at General Motors


General Motors is making noise about needing between $11 and $14 billion from
the federal bailout of $700 billion in order to continue business, though it
doesn't appear that Congress has the votes to approve extending the bailout to
automakers. GM threatened to cease production by next summer unless help is
forthcoming. Deutsche Bank Group, one of the world's leading financial service
providers, this week downgraded GM's stock value to $0. Not that long ago, GM
was the largest corporation in the world.


Most of the blame lies with the United Auto Workers Union for extorting
outlandish benefits from GM (Ford and Chrysler suffer similar problems),
though,


granted, GM management bears blame for accepting those deals. Among the
privileges given to union workers is what is known as a job bank, which
requires GM to pay workers displaced by restructuring or technological
progress nearly their entire salary, as well as benefits and pension. Health
care is another ballooning expense. Workers can smoke while on the assembly
line, yet some pay $0 deductibles at the doctor's office. In total, GM spends
more on health care per vehicle than on steel. "The United Auto Workers have
bled General Motors dry, leaving the company in a tattered state, and the
union members extremely vulnerable," said Richard Berman, Executive Director
for the Center for Union Facts. "It will be truly unfortunate if union demands
over many years result in another bankruptcy or bailout."



EDITORIAL EXEGESIS


"As Congress gears up to pass another spending 'stimulus' bill, there's one
political silver lining: Democrats are being forced to abandon the pretense of
fiscal conservatism known as 'pay as you go' budgeting. Late last week the
leader of the House Blue Dog Coalition, Tennessee Democrat Jim Cooper,
announced that with Barack Obama about to enter the White House, 'I'm not sure
the old rules are relevant anymore.' Why not? Because, Mr. Cooper said, 'It
would be unfair to the new President to put him in a budget straitjacket.'

Democrats ran on 'paygo' in 2006, promising to offset any new spending
increases or tax cuts with comparable tax increases or spending cuts. Once in
charge on Capitol Hill they quickly made exceptions, waiving paygo no fewer
than 12 times to accommodate some $398 billion in new deficit spending -- not
that the press corps bothered to notice. That didn't stop Majority Leader
Steny Hoyer from announcing in May that 'We're absolutely committed to paygo.

Speaker [Nancy Pelosi] is committed to paygo. I'm very committed to paygo. Our
caucus is committed to paygo.' Yet now Mr. Cooper is delivering official last
rites, as the Washington spending machinery powers up in earnest. Paygo was
always a big con designed not to reduce spending but to stop tax cuts. It was
invented to stop the GOP Congress and then a Republican President, but it is
inconvenient when Democrats run the show. With the recession available as an
excuse for just about anything, get ready for the first $1 trillion federal
budget deficit. And don't expect any howling from the Blue Dogs." --The Wall
Street Journal


DEZINFORMATSIA


You don't say: "There is a slightly creepy cult of personality about all of
this." --Newsweek's Evan Thomas on Obama


For example: "Let me show you a map [of the election]... This may be the best
map ever seen! ... That whole sea of blue across the country..." --MSNBC's
Chris Matthews ++ "Will the Obamas return to Camelot in the White House?" --
CBS's Harry Smith


Give us a break: "[M]edia scholars, including a former top aide to McCain,
disagree [that mainstream news organizations routinely gave Obama preferential
treatment]. They said campaign coverage often did lean in Obama's favor,
though not -- as many conservatives have suggested -- because of a hidden
liberal agenda on the part of the media. Instead, academic experts said, Obama
benefited largely from the dynamics of the campaign itself and the media's
tendency to focus on the 'horse race'..." --Reuters' Steve Gorman


Biased and proud of it: "I want to do everything I can to make this thing
work, this new presidency work. ... Yeah, it is my job. My job is to help this
country ...[to] make this work successfully, because this country needs a
successful presidency more than anything right now." --MSNBC's Chris Matthews


Angry Right?: "We all saw the pictures on election night, people all over the
world dancing in the streets but some Americans, particularly conservatives,
very different feelings about President-elect Obama. Many of them feeling
really, really angry right now ... what can only be called right-wing rage."
--CNN's Campbell Brown


Race bait: "But now we have the delicious irony that a white president from a
patrician family, whose administration was so negligent about America's poor
and black citizens, was so incompetent that he helped elect the first black
president." --New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd


Newspulper Headlines:


If They Do Say So Themselves: "Media Bias Largely Unseen in US Presidential
Race" --Reuters


'No, We Can't': "Obama Aides Tamp Down Expectations" --The New York Times
Maybe They Should Stop Burning Cash: "Carmakers Report Losses as They Burn
Cash" --New York Times Web site


And So Close to Thanksgiving: "Duchess of York Accused of Smearing Turkey's
Image" --Reuters


You Only Live Twice: "Skydiver Dies in Second Fatal Jump at Virginia Airport
in 2 Months" --FoxNews.com


Everything Seemingly Is Spinning Out of Control: "Monks Brawl at Christian
Holy Site in Jerusalem" --Associated Press


Bottom Stories of the Day: "Marijuana Aroma Detected at Obama's Hollywood
Celebration Rally" --Breitbart.tv ++ "Obama Picks an Ally as Chief of Staff"
--Austin American-Statesman (Thanks to The Wall Street Journal's James
Taranto)





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