Welcome to the Party!

We believe that an engaged citizenry is at the heart of the strength of the United States. The empowerment of the individual citizen is what makes our nation great and it is for this belief that we call ourselves Republican. To that end our club  stands to continue to build the bridge between the individual Republican voter and their party.

Our goals are to help manage a powerful volunteer legion for the Republican party, to connect voters and volunteers to the system and to create a network for Republicans to meet, socialize and have fun! Some of DSDNRC’s primary goals include:

• Register and turnout as many Republican voters as possible.
• To positively promote the Republican party by emphasizing the strengths of our own ideals through the example of our own actions.
• To cultivate strong candidates based on their leadership within their local neighborhood club.
• To educate voters about their local party and to provide them the opportunities to become more engaged in local politics.

Contact Dawn Wildman for information or just if you are bored and might want to play Wii Golf or something

San Diego Tea Party

http://www.officialchicagoteaparty.com/

On Friday February 27th ticked off citizens from around the country are gathering to belly ache about the mad economic initiatives both passed and proposed by President Obama and his Democrat Congress.

The San Diego Tea Party will take place at the Star of India on San Diego Bay. We will be gathering at 8:30am. The reason for the early start is to synchronize the nationwide Tea Party.

Tea Party organizer Dawn Wildman will be on Roger Hedgecock’s show at 4:45 today to discuss.

We are also having a Club Meeting at 3pm Saturday to discuss bringing the district back online. Please write to sandiegonrc@hotmail.com with interest.

Join us on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=38301978422

Obama’s Sacrifice, Fact or Fiction?

So the President tells us that we all need to sacrifice….wow, really? I live in San Diego, California and I have been trying to keep my budget going with my “sunshine dollars” for a while now. We, in Southern California, end up paying some of the highest prices in gas in the Nation. We haven’t seen pay raises in years and our properties are now almost worthless. How much more are we supposed to sacrifice? Obama is cruising around in Air Force One to sign a Bill that he could have done in the White House. Is he sacrificing…well yes, our tax payers are paying for him to stage another theater production. It’s not as if he is paying for it.No sacrifice there! When did we become a Nation of dummies? When did common sense die? The Stimulus Bill was bad enough but to fly across the Nation for no other reason but to sign this Bill seems ludicrice at best and irresponsible at worst. Where is the moral outrage? When the Congress passes one of the most expensive Bills in history and then flies off to Italy for a vacation where is the outrage? Are people just not paying attention? Everything Obama does is theater. His coronation, oh I’m sorry inauguration, was the costliest on record, and now he uses his power and position to stage these productions to appeal to the common man. Are you impressed? I am not! It feels a little like the movie, “The BodySnatchers”. remember this movie, when the aliens came down and took over the bodies of the citizens and they were ostensibly the same except for small changes to their personalities. Those still aware started to notice the changes and realize the citizens were not themselves..Well that is what I feel like today. Who has taken the collective minds of the US citizenary? We will fight and defend ourselves against foreign terrorists but sit idlely by while the very govenment sworn to proetct us and uphold our ideals is the group attacking us. This is outrageous people!! We need to be standing onthe mountains and screaming our collective rage at the machine that is Washington. Please people wake up before they take over your body and mind and there is no hope for saving our country! Show your rage and show that the principles of the Founding Fathers are not just stale rhetoric to be discussed in memorium

The Importance of Being Earnest…..

About Money that is . The Democrates have traded doing business the “old fashioned ” way through committees and appropriations to throw all their eggs in one basket with the Stimulus Bill. The extremely funny thing about this is, that if you give democrates a chance to talk long enough they will tell you almost unanimously that they didn’t love the Bill but it was “the best thing for the country”. This morning on FoxNews Brad Sherman (CA-D) was being interviewed about the Bill and his ‘Aye’ vote. When asked if he read the whole Bill he blatantly replied, ” reading it is not the Be All and End All of a Bill “… well you have it folks. They no longer need to read the legislation they are voting for even though our country will be paying for this debacle for generations to come. So you get voted into office where your only job is to represent the constituents of our country and the only thing you really need to do is actually READ THE BILL before you vote and you don’t do that. In any other job you would be fired for such an irresponsible performance. Maybe we need to start sending our elelcted officials quarterly reviews to let them know how tenuious their positions are in the body they represent. And we need to put our money where our mouth is and stop re-electing these people into office. We are to blame if we keep letting the same idiots in DC represent us! It means we need to do our homework, learn who is running and stop listening to sound bites and 30 second interviews where the same rhetoric is spewed through the airwaves. This is truly a revolution and we are called to arms, no matter what your political affiliation , you need to understand what is happening to this country because there will be no going back. This is not a fatalistic notion just a pragmatic one. This Bill will not solve any probelms and indeed We The People are already helping to psuh the economy back into position. It won’t happen over night because the mess didn’t happen over night. It is like losing that last 10 pounds ladies, all the old ways of working out aren’t working so you try a new strategy and that is where we are at politically. We need a new strategy. We need to voice our anger, disappointment and know that our officials are listening. We didn’t win this battle but we certaintly put the GOP on the right track….Now for the opposition!. There will be plenty of battles yet to come and we must be prepared to do what is neccessary to get involved.! Kudos to us for this moral victory and karma will take care of those that have strayed from the goals and the wishes of the People.

New Vote in House for Stimulus Bill

The outcome was 246 Yeas and 183 Nays. No Republicans voted for the Bill and 5 No Votes were recorded, those were as follows: Gordon TN Lee– NY went home for updates on plane crash in Buffalo Campbell Stark Davis-TN Here we go to the Senate which at this time is still debating the issue

Meg Whitman for CA Gov?

REPUBLICAN MEG WHITMAN, FORMER EBAY PRESIDENT AND CEO, ANNOUNCES FORMATION OF 2010 GUBERNATORIAL CAMPAIGN EXPLORATORY COMMITTEE

Former Governor Pete Wilson, Chief Deputy Republican Whip Congressman Kevin McCarthy, Congresswoman Mary Bono Mack, State Senator Tony Strickland, Assembly Republican Whip Nathan Fletcher and Former State Assemblywoman Sharon Runner to Lead Exploratory Committee

For Immediate Release CONTACT: Mitch Zak
Monday, February 9, 2009
(916) 448-5802
Cell: (916) 612-0979

SACRAMENTO – Republican Meg Whitman, former President and CEO of eBay, today announced the formation of an Exploratory Committee to seek the nomination for Governor in 2010. Former California Governor Pete Wilson will serve as Campaign Chairman joining Exploratory Committee Co-Chairs House Chief Deputy Republican Whip Congressman Kevin McCarthy, Congresswoman Mary Bono Mack, State Senator Tony Strickland, Assembly Republican Whip Nathan Fletcher and former State Assemblywoman Sharon Runner. In the coming weeks, through speeches in Silicon Valley, Orange County and at the California Republican Party Convention in Sacramento, Whitman will offer a vision for the Golden State.

“After careful consideration and with tremendous loyalty to our Golden State, I have formed an Exploratory Committee, the first step in the process of running for Governor in 2010,” Whitman said. “California faces challenges unlike any other time in its history – a weak and faltering economy, massive job losses, and an exploding state budget deficit. California is better than thi s, and I refuse to stand by and watch it fail. Now is the time for people across the state to join in a cause for change, excellence and a new California.”

Whitman, 52, retired from eBay in March 2008 following a decade with the company. Under her leadership, eBay grew from a startup with 30 employees, $4.7 million in revenues, and 300,000 users to a global ecommerce leader with operations in 38 countries, more than 15,000 employees, almost $8 billion in revenues, and more than 300 million registered users. There are more than 12 million eBay users in California alone.

Jeff Randle, President and CEO of Randle Communications, is Whitman’s senior advisor and has worked with her since 2007. Randle joins Henry Gomez, one of Whitman’s closest advisors during her tenure at eBay. Together, Randle and Gomez are developing a campaign organization that includes some of America’s most respected campaign professionals. (Please see the following list).

“Meg Whitman is a tremendous leader and team-builder,” Randle said. “California today has serious problems, but Meg is committed to working to restore the state’s greatness. With new leadership and a new direction, Meg will forge a new California, which will once again be the number one state in economic growth, job creation and quality of life.”

megwhitman.com

Meet Meg Whitman
Click Here to Read Meg’s Bio
2010 Exploratory Committee Leadership – Quote Sheet
Click Here to to Read Quote Sheet
Meg Whitman for Governor 2010 Exploratory Committee Team
Leadership Team

Jeff Randle – Senior Advisor
Jeff Randle is one of California’s most respected political strategists. He has played a leadership role in each of the last four victorious California Republican gubernatorial campaigns, including both of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s victories and both of Governor Pete Wilson’s campaigns. Randle has been Meg’s top political advisor since the summer 2007 and helped build the Whitman team.

Spencer Zwick – Senior Advisor/Finance Vice Chair
Spencer Zwick is the managing partner of Solamere Capital Group, a private equity investment firm. Spencer previously served as the National Finance Director and vice chairman of the Mitt Romney for President campaign.

Rob Stutzman – Senior Consultant and Communications Strategist
Rob Stutzman, principal of Navigators Global, leads the firm’s Strategic Communications practice. He is a veteran of nearly two decades of campaigns. During the 2008 Presidential Campaign, Stutzman served as senior California advisor to the Mitt Romney for President campaign. Previously, he was deputy chief of staff of communications for California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Mitch Zak — Communications & Press
Mitch Zak, partner with Randle Communications, is considered one of California’s leading grassro ots communications strategists. He was coalition’s director during Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 2003 Recall Election Campaign and served as political director for former Governor Pete Wilson.

Todd Cranney – Deputy Campaign Manager, Political
Todd Cranney is a veteran of several major campaigns, most recently serving as campaign manager for Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher in California’s 75th Assembly District. Cranney’s experience includes Bush Cheney ‘04, Governor Schwarzenegger’s re-election campaign and the Mitt Romney for President campaign.

Don Stirling – Deputy Campaign Manager/Finance Director
Stirling has more than 25 years of fundraising experience. He most recently served as a finance consultant to McCain Victory and Mitt Romney’s Free and Strong America PAC. He also served as Deputy Finance Director/Mountain States Region for the Mitt Romney for President campaign. Stirling’s past affiliations include the National Basketball Association (NBA), the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA), and the Salt Lake City 2002 Olympic Winter Games, where Stirling raised over $100 million.

Joanne Davis – Senior Finance Advisor
Joanne Davis is co-owner of The Davis Group. Her career in politics and government has spanned over twenty-five years and has included working with top elected officials, state political parties, public opinion leaders and corporate executives in both California and nationwide. Davis specializes in developing financial management programs for statewide campaigns, including fundraising, budgeting and financial operations. She has worked in this capacity for the las t four California gubernatorial nominees including both of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s successful campaigns. Mrs. Davis recently managed the statewide fundraising operation of the Mitt Romney for President campaign.

Scott Howell & Company – Media Strategists
One of the nation’s premier GOP media firms, Scott Howell & Company has been dubbed “The hottest media consulting firm in the last few cycles on the Republican side” by The Washington Post. The Whitman media team will be led by founding partner Scott Howell, a South Carolina native and respected GOP media strategist. Working with Scott will be partner Todd Harris, a California native and veteran of California and national politics, as well as partners Heath Thompson, Vinny Minchillo and Senior VP Malorie Miller. Scott Howell & Company is based in Dallas, Texas and has offices in Dallas and the Washington, DC area.

John McLaughlin – Pollster
John McLaughlin has worked professionally as a strategic consultant, market researcher and pollster for over 25 years. His political clients have included Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Steve Forbes, former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, and 14 current and former U.S. Senators and 25 members of Congress.

David B. Hill, Ph.D. – Pollster
David B. Hill, Director of Hill Research Consultants, received his Ph.D. from The Florida State Univer sity. In 1991, CAMPAIGN magazine named Dr. Hill the second most effective major political consultant overall, and best political pollster in the nation. Dr. Hill spent ten years as a faculty member at Kansas State University, Florida Atlantic University and in a tenured position at Texas A&M University where he also served as Director of the Public Policy Resources Laboratory and founding Director of The Texas Poll.

Tokoni, Inc. – Website and Online Media
Tokoni, Inc. is a company dedicated to shaping the next generation of social media by creating communities that allow anyone, anywhere, to have a voice. Founded in August 2007, Tokoni breaks down social content and connection barriers and leverages the Web’s natural ability to enable a shared understanding around issues, individuals and brands. Tokoni is developing Meg’s Internet presence for the campaign.

Ana Helman – Deputy Campaign Manager, Scheduling & Operations
Ana Helman has more than a decade of experience as a community liaison in the public, private and non-profit sectors. Helman has held leadership positions in several high profile political organizations including Dole-Kemp ‘96 and as state president of the California Young Republicans.

Michael Saragosa – Director, Coalitions
Michael Saragosa most recently has served as Undersecretary of the California State and Consumer Services Agency, appointed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. He also served Governor Schwarzenegger as Chief Deputy Appointments Secretary and is considered one of California’s leading grass roots coalition experts, particularly in California’s Latino community.

Tom Hiltachk – Legal Counsel
Mr. Hiltachk is managing partner at Bell, McAndrews & Hiltachk, LLP. He has practiced political and election law exclusively since 1988. He served as President of the California Political Attorneys Association from 2004-2005, and serves on the Board of the American Association of Political Consultants.

Finance Consultants

Stacy Davis – Orange County Finance Director
Stacy Davis has owned her own political fundraising firm for over four years. She has worked with many high profile political candidates including Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Most recently she served as the McCain-Palin campaign’s Orange County and Inland Empire Finance Director.

Karolyn Dorsee – San Diego/Imperial County Finance Director
Dorsee Productions has been actively involved and dedicated to fundraising for the Republican Party in California since the late 1970s. Her company has been integral in countless Republican campaigns such as President Gerald Ford and President Ronald Reagan, Governor Pete Wilson, Governor Mitt Romney, Speaker Newt Gingrich, Congressmen Brian Bilbray and Darrell Issa, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, as well as the recent Presidential McCain/Palin Campaign.

Charissa Abbay Gonzales, M .A. – Los Angeles/Central Coast Finance Director
Gonzales is owner of On Target Fundraising and is a seasoned fundraising professional based in Los Angeles. She has over ten years of fundraising experience, working on both Republican presidential and statewide campaigns, including the Riordan for Governor and Simon for Governor campaign, and most recently served as chief fundraiser for the successful nonprofit Los Angeles based organization United Friends of the Children.

Kristin Hueter – San Francisco Bay Area Finance Director
Hueter has been raising political funds at the National, Regional, and State levels for two decades. Her clients have included Presidential, US Senate & Congressional, and Gubernatorial campaigns, as well as National and State Parties and numerous State-wide Initiatives. Kristin is active with a number of business and charitable organizations.

Wendy Warfield – Sacramento/Central Valley/North State Finance Director
Warfield has more than three decades of political and fundraising experience. With a specialty focused on the North State and Central Valley, Warfield’s reputation for success has established her as one of the most preeminent fundraising firms in California. Most notably Warfield has raised nearly $28 million for Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the California Republican Party since the Governor’s 2003 Recall election.

Jennifer Cowen-Fitzgerald – Inland Empire Finance Dire ctor
Cowen-Fitzgerald owns and operates CL7 Communications, a strategic communications firm that specializes in political fundraising. In recent years, Jennifer successfully executed fundraising programs for major political candidates including Presidential Candidate Governor Mitt Romney (out-raising all the competition in Orange County) and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Additionally, CL7 helped move the California Women’s Leadership Association from an Orange County group to a premier, statewide professional organization of business women committed to affecting positive political change in California.

Karen Hammond – National Outreach
Hammond has been a successful political fundraiser for over ten years. She most recently served as a finance consultant for McCain Victory as well Romney for President. She began her career as a Deputy Finance Director for Jeb Bush and also oversaw the 2002 Olympic Winter Games donor program.

Campaign Advisors

Pete Wehner – Speechwriter/Policy Advisor
Peter Wehner, former Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of the White House Office of Strategic Initiatives, is a Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Mr. Wehner served in the Reagan and George H.W. Bush Administrations prior to becoming deputy director of speech writing for President George W. Bush in 2001.

Patrick Durkin – Policy Advisor
Patrick Durkin was the Director of Policy for the John McCain for President campaign. Previously, he was Man aging Director at the investment banks Credit Suisse, Donaldson Lufkin and Jenrette where he was Head of the International Banking Group During the Presidency of Ronald Reagan, he was Special Assistant and Speechwriter to the Secretary of the Treasury and was appointed by the President to the Presidential Commission on the 1987 Stock Market Crash. He was appointed by President George Bush to the boards of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. Durkin is a member of the Council of Foreign Relations and the Council of Excellence in Government.

WHY OBAMA WANTS THE CENSUS

By JOHN FUND

President Obama said in his inaugural address that he planned to “restore science to its rightful place” in government. That’s a worthy goal. But statisticians at the Commerce Department didn’t think it would mean having the director of next year’s Census report directly to the White House rather than to the Commerce secretary, as is customary. “There’s only one reason to have that high level of White House involvement,” a career professional at the Census Bureau tells me. “And it’s called politics, not science.”

The decision was made last week after California Rep. Barbara Lee, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, and Hispanic groups complained to the White House that Judd Gregg, the Republican senator from New Hampshire slated to head Commerce, couldn’t be trusted to conduct a complete Census. The National Association of Latino Officials said it had “serious questions about his willingness to ensure that the 2010 Census produces the most accurate possible count.”

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Anything that threatens the integrity of the Census has profound implications. Not only is it the basis for congressional redistricting, it provides the raw data by which government spending is allocated on everything from roads to schools. The Bureau of Labor Statistics also uses the Census to prepare the economic data that so much of business relies upon. “If the original numbers aren’t as hard as possible, the uses they’re put to get fuzzier and fuzzier,” says Bruce Chapman, who was director of the Census in the 1980s.

Mr. Chapman worries about a revival of the effort led by minority groups after the 2000 Census to adjust the totals for states and cities using statistical sampling and computer models. In 1999, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in Department of Commerce v. U.S. House that sampling could not be used to reapportion congressional seats. But it left open the possibility that sampling could be used to redraw political boundaries within the states.

Such a move would prove controversial. “Sampling potentially has the kind of margin of error an opinion poll has and the same subjectivity a voter-intent standard in a recount has,” says Mr. Chapman.

Starting in 2000, the Census Bureau conducted three years of studies with the help of many outside statistical experts. According to then Census director Louis Kincannon, the Bureau concluded that “adjustment based on sampling didn’t produce improved figures” and could damage Census credibility.

The reason? In theory, statisticians can identify general numbers of people missed in a head count. But it cannot then place those abstract “missing people” into specific neighborhoods, let alone blocks. And anyone could go door to door and find out such people don’t exist. There can be other anomalies. “The adjusted numbers told us the head count had overcounted the number of Indians on reservations,” Mr. Kincannon told me. “That made no sense.”

The problem of counting minorities and the homeless has long been known. Census Bureau statisticians believe that a vigorous hard count, supplemented by adding in the names of actual people missed by head counters but still found in public records, is likely to lead to a far more defensible count than sampling-based adjustment.

The larger debate prompted seven former Census directors — serving every president from Nixon to George W. Bush — to sign a letter last year supporting a bill to turn the Census Bureau into an independent agency after the 2010 Census. “It is vitally important that the American public have confidence that the census results have been produced by an independent, non-partisan, apolitical, and scientific Census Bureau,” it read.

The directors also noted that “each of us experienced times when we could have made much more timely and thorough responses to Congressional requests and oversight if we had dealt directly with Congress.” The bill’s chief sponsor is New York Democratic Rep. Carolyn Maloney, who represents Manhattan’s Upper East Side.

“The real issue is who directs the Census, the pros or the pols,” says Mr. Chapman. “You would think an administration that’s thumping its chest about respecting science would show a little respect for scientists in the statistical field.” He worries that a Census director reporting to a hyperpartisan such as White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel increases the chances of a presidential order that would override the consensus of statisticians.

The Obama administration is downplaying how closely the White House will oversee the Census Bureau. But Press Secretary Robert Gibbs insists there is “historical precedent” for the Census director to be “working closely with the White House.”

It would be nice to know what Sen. Gregg thinks about all this, but he’s refusing comment. And that, says Mr. Chapman, the former Census director, is damaging his credibility. “He will look neutered with oversight of the most important function of his department over the next two years shipped over to the West Wing,” he says. “If I were him, I wouldn’t take the job unless I had that changed.”

Mr. Fund is a columnist for WSJ.com.

True in 2005, True Today (reprint from posted item on BattleCry-CA.com in Oct. ‘05)

Los Angeles Times op-ed entitled “American Debacle” Zbigniew Brzezinski, former national-security adviser to President Carter, begins with:

Some 60 years ago Arnold Toynbee concluded, in his monumental “Study of History,” that the ultimate cause of imperial collapse was “suicidal statecraft.” Sadly for George W. Bush’s place in history and — much more important — ominously for America’s future, that adroit phrase increasingly seems applicable to the policies pursued by the United States since the cataclysm of 9/11.

Brzezinski soon adds, “In a very real sense, during the last four years the Bush team has dangerously undercut America’s seemingly secure perch on top of the global totem pole by transforming a manageable, though serious, challenge largely of regional origin into an international debacle.”

What are we to make of all this, when a former national-security adviser writes that the war that began when Middle Eastern terrorists struck at the heart of the continental United States in New York and Washington — something that neither the Nazis, Japanese militarists, nor Soviets ever accomplished — was merely a “challenge largely of regional origin”?

Some “region” — downtown Manhattan and the nerve center of the American military.

Aside from the unintended irony that the classical historian Arnold Toynbee himself was not always “adroit,” but wrong in most of his determinist conclusions, and that such criticism comes from a high official of an administration that witnessed on its watch the Iranian-hostage debacle, the disastrous rescue mission, the tragicomic odyssey of the terminally ill shah, the first and last Western Olympic boycott, oil hikes even higher in real dollars than the present spikes, Communist infiltration into Central America, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the Cambodian holocaust, a gloomy acceptance that perpetual parity with the Soviet Union was the hope of the day, the realism that cemented our ties with corrupt autocracies in the Middle East (Orwellian sales of F-15 warplanes to the Saudis minus their extras), and the hard-to-achieve simultaneous high unemployment, high inflation, and high interest rates, Mr. Brzezinski is at least a valuable barometer of the current pessimism over events such as September 11.

Such gloom seems to be the fashion of the day. Iraq is now routinely dismissed as a quagmire or “lost.” Osama bin laden is assumed to be still active, while we are beginning the fifth year of the war that is “longer than World War II.” Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo purportedly are proof of our brutality and have lost us hearts and minds, while gas prices spiral out of control. The U.S. military is supposedly “overextended” if not “wrecked” by Iraq, while the war in Afghanistan “drags on.” Meanwhile, it is “only a matter of time” until we are hit with another terrorist strike of the magnitude of September 11. To cap it off, the United States is now “disliked” abroad, by those who abhor our “unilateralism” and “preemptive” war.

All that is a fair summation of the current glumness.

But how accurate are such charges? If one were to assess them from the view of the Islamic fundamentalists, they would hardly resemble reality.

Many of al-Zarqawi or Dr. Zawahiri’s intercepted letters and communiqués reveal paranoid fears that Iraq is indeed becoming lost — but to the terrorists. The enemy speaks of constantly shifting tactics — try beheading contractors; no, turn to slaughtering Shiites; no, butcher teachers and school kids; no, go back to try to blow up American convoys. In contrast, we are consistent in our strategy — go after jihadists, train Iraqi security forces, promote consensual government so Iraq becomes an autonomous republic free to determine its own future. We will leave anytime the elected government of Iraq asks us to; the terrorists won’t cease until they have rammed, Taliban-style, an 8th-century theocracy down the throats of unwilling Iraqis.

Bin Laden is in theory “loose,” but can’t go anywhere except the wild Afghan-Pakistan border or perhaps the frontiers of Kashmir. His terrorist hierarchy is scattered, and many of his top operatives are either dead or, like him, in hiding. For all the legitimate worry over the triangulation of Pakistan, it is still safer for Americans openly to walk down the streets of Islamabad than for bin Laden. In any case, at least the former try it and the latter does not. How much food and medical supplies will bin Laden airlift in to his fellow Muslims reeling from the earthquake?

Note how al Qaeda has dropped much of its vaunted boasts to restore the caliphate over the infidel, and now excuses its violence with the plea of victimhood: “After all this, does the prey not have the right, when bound and dragged to its slaughter, to escape? Does it not have the right, while being slaughtered, to lash out with its paw? Does it not have the right, after being slaughtered, to attack its slaughterer with its blood?”

The war against the terrorists may be entering the fifth year, but despite over 2,000 combat fatalities, we have still only lost a little over 2/3s of those killed on the very first day of the war, almost 50 months ago — quite a contrast with the over 400,000 American dead at the end of World War II. And a wrecked Japan and Germany were not on a secure path to democracy until six years after America entered the war, unlike Iraq and Afghanistan that were defeated without killing millions and already have held plebiscites on new constitutions.

Westerners, it is true, sensationalize the abuses of Abu Ghraib and perceived grievances of Guantanamo far more than they do the abject slaughtering and beheading by the enemy. Nor do Americans write much about the heroics of their own U.S. Marines in retaking Fallujah or their brave Army battalions in providing security for civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq to vote.

But our enemies still are not impressed by such a self-critical mentality, and know that a trip to Abu Ghraib does not mean either a Saddam-like torture chamber or an al Qaeda beheading, but rather far better conditions than they ever would extend to others, and often a rest of sorts between attacking Americans. As for Guantanamo, it is humane compared to any jail in the Middle East, and fundamentalists only harp on its perceived brutality since they think such invective resonates with Western opponents of America’s current policy.

Oil is the weirdest theme of the debate over the war. Opponents claim that we went there to steal or control it. But after we arrived, as in the case of 1991 when we had the entire mega-reserves of Kuwait in our grasp, we turned it back over to the local owners, ensuring that for the first time in decades a transparent Iraqi government — not the French, not the Russians, not the Baathists, not the Saddam kleptocracy — now controls its own petroleum. The more the terrorists talk about Western theft of their national heritage, the more OPEC gouges the industrialized world and sends its billions in petrodollars abroad to foreign banks.

The story of the war since September 11 is that the United States military has not lost a single battle, has removed two dictatorships, and has birthed democracy in the Middle East. During Katrina, critics suggested troops in Iraq should have been in New Orleans, but that was a political, not a realistic complaint: few charged that there were too many thousands abroad in Germany, Italy, the U.K., Korea, or Japan when they should have been in Louisiana.

Afghanistan is nearing the status of the Balkans — after nearly four, not eight years of peacekeeping to keep down the remnants of fascism while democracy takes root. And Afghanistan was a war (like Iraq) approved by the U.S. Senate and House — unlike Mr. Clinton’s bombing of Serbia.

The enemy seems frustrated that it cannot repeat September 11 here in the United States. Hundreds of terrorists have been arrested, and direction from a central al Qaeda leadership has been lost. Killing jihadists in Afghanistan and Iraq has, as their communiqués show, put terrorists on the defensive — understandable after losing sympathetic governments like the Taliban.

We have made plenty of mistakes since September 11, often failed to articulate our goals and values, and turned on each other in perpetual acrimony. Federal spending is out of control, and our present energy policy won’t wean us off Middle Eastern petroleum for years. But still lost in all this conundrum is that the old appeasement of the 1990s is over, the terrorists are losing both tactically and strategically, and, as Tony Blair said of the evolving Western mentality, “The rules of the game are changing.”

Finally, we need to be systematic in our appraisal of the course of this war, asking not just whether the United States is more popular and better liked, but rather whether Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, and Egypt are moving in the right or wrong direction. Is Europe more or less attuned to the dangers of radical Islam, and more or less likely to work with the United States? Is the Israeli-Palestinian dispute getting worse or stabilizing? Is our security at home getting better, and do we understand radical Islam more or less perfectly? Are Middle East neutrals like Saudi Arabia and Pakistan more or less helpful in the war against the terrorists? Are global powers like India and Japan more or less inclined to America? And are clear-cut enemies such as Iran and Syria becoming more or less emboldened or facing ostracism?

If we look at all these questions dispassionately, and tune out the angry rhetoric on the extreme Left and Right, then we can see things are becoming better rather than worse — even as the media and now the public itself believes that a successful strategy is failing.

And as for Mr. Brzezinski’s indictment — most of us still would prefer the United States of 2005 to the chaotic America of 1977-80 under an administration that did little to confront the rise of Islamic fundamentalism, which began in earnest on its watch with the real debacle in Tehran.

Rocking out at Claire De Lune

I ate all of Pat’s cake and it was yummy. The rest of the meeting was not recorded except I believe there were 2 pieces of legal pad that went around the table.  People read the pieces of paper and there was much rejoicing. We are hoping to get together again on the 25th of February for the next get together. Bring one more Republican each!!

And don’t forget the author of the knife and the wasp will be there to personally autogragh your copy! Avalable in paperback today!!

60 Minutes and One Sure Fire Plan

As Americans we love new, improved products and this was never clearer than when Barack Obama was elected president a few weeks ago. After all he is the new, improved and younger version of our previous “products” in government. His whole platform was built on change. He would be changing “ old guard” of the GOP run show to the new improved, Democratic run show. So let’s review these changes so far, as he picks his cabinet and “new products” for the government. Oh yeah they aren’t new just a little “used” products. The ‘certified used’ version of government. After all, his cabinet is starting to look a lot like Clinton’s cabinet of the 1990’s. As Dr. Phil says, “The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior.” So I guess we will see how much change actually occurs.

 

While watching President-Elect Obama’s first real interview since his election to office, on 60 Minutes  I was shaking my head, not in disbelief but in a “ here we go again “, way. He sounds like every other politician, but with a more polished version of the quid pro quo.   I thought this guy was supposed to be the “second coming”, the visionary, and the prophet for a new America? Well it sounds like the old America according to the Democrats. Obama stated at the beginning of his interview when asked if this was the worst financial crisis the US had ever seen, “It could be worse”. Really? How profound. I remember when John McCain said the same thing on the campaign trail and he was called, ‘disconnected’ to the people and not clearly understating the true crisis that Americans were dealing with every day. John McCain was out of touch but Obama who is plugged in with each and every American household thinks, “It could be worse”. Good I feel better now.

 

Barack Obama also said he didn’t want more regulation on companies which sounds very much like the John McCain platform on taxing US companies. He had no answer for why the Treasury and Congress have allowed $300 billion to be sifted through unnamed banks and yet no one is better off. Maybe I missed the answer when I blinked. Apparently no one really knows the answer to that question. And when the subject came to the war in Iraq Obama was sure that our troops would be coming home sooner rather than later. This is easier to say now that Iraq has given us a 3 year time frame for troop reduction. Obama doesn’t say that all of our troops are coming home; we will be shifting our focus from Iraq to Afghanistan. So don’t be surprised when we are still fighting a war in Middle East we are just changing locations. That is the new improved version of war.

 

And now for his “New Deal”. Obama doesn’t believe we can recreate the solutions for the Depression on a financial crisis that is different in the year 2008  but his campaign used that very fear mongering when he was running for his current position. He also says he wants to be a President who is “straight “with the American people. So why did he seal his records at Harvard and his birth records in Hawaii. Why is it that I know more about Angelina Jolie’s breast feeding troubles than I do about where Obama was born or his past job performance? I know he was a community organizer but I don’t if any of his core ideas worked to change anything. I am still shocked at the crime rate in Chicago and the fact that a woman and her family were slaughtered by thugs in her home across the street from a church outside of Chicago, but Obama was a hard working Senator from Illinois. If he does for the Country what he seemingly has done for Illinois we are all in trouble!

 

It is true that Barack Obama is handsome to some and very charismatic to many but that doesn’t help us in the arena of International politics. His lack of experience even in his job as a Senator scares me. How does a person gain experience from job you never actually worked at? He was elected but rarely if ever voted on anything. He didn’t write his own legislation, and I never heard of him doing anything for the people of his own State. Maybe I’m “disconnected” but I would think if he was really great at problem solving they would have been shoving it down our throats for the past two years. Instead they just showed us how inept our current government was; by the way he is actually part of that current government as a Senator.

 

Even more interesting about the interview on 60minutes was Obama’s claim to be seeking an “orderly” transition while Bush leaves office and Obama takes over. Has anyone ever seen an “un-orderly” transition? I mean by the nature of the job I think men leave the White House running. Bush is probably thrilled by now to be handing the problems of the Nation over to Obama, I know I would. I doubt they will have to tear Laura Bush from the chandelier in the White House. These things are done very orderly and by a list of routine practices  I would suppose. I did feel sorry for Obama and his family though when he mentioned that his routine has been upset greatly by the turn of events of the election and he is beginning to feel “disconnected” from his routines and people due to the Secret Service and pressures that follow being President –Elect. Hmmm, disconnected huh? Sounds familiar. Maybe that is just a by product of being a politician today.

 

But through it all Obama did in fact express his first concise plan for the Nation…He wants to create a National Playoff for College Football. He explained in great detail how he thought it should work and why. If he could explain his plan for any other problem as well I wouldn’t be so worried. I am put at ease now, knowing that the age-old question of the college football play off debate is now in the hands of the most powerful man in the world, the US President. I can finally sleep. Now that is change I can believe in.!