Quiz

This past presidential campaign UPI article provides a concise memory jogger.

Which candidate  told The London Telegraph he advocated shutting down the terrorist detention camp at Guantanamo Bay and taking quick action on global warming?

“I would immediately close Guantanamo Bay, move all the prisoners to Fort Leavenworth [Kansas] and truly expedite the judicial proceedings in their cases,” he said. “I would reaffirm my commitment to address the issue of climate change and greenhouse gas emissions. I know how important this is in Europe in particular.”

Give up?

The surprising answer is here.

Democrats for sale: “We’re just negotiating the price”

Until recently Sen. Ben Nelson (Dem-NE), Sen. Mary Landrieu (Dem-LA) and Sen. Blanche Lincoln (Dem-AR) were the last holdouts among the 58 Democrats and two Independents whose votes Majority Leader Harry Reid and Barack Obowma must have to force the American people into a socialized medicine plan controlled by the federal government.

Landrieu was bought off with over $100 million in federal funds for her state of Louisiana and lifted restrictions on oyster harvesting, among other considerations.

AP reports that Nelson insisted Reid omit from the bill any change in the insurance industry’s protection from federal antitrust law. The House version of the legislation would expose the industry to scrutiny by both the Justice Department’s antitrust lawyers and the Federal Trade Commission. Reid, who spoke out strongly in favor of the change in antitrust treatment earlier in the fall, left it out of the bill he drafted over several weeks and unveiled on Wednesday.

Lincoln, the most politically vulnerable as the only one of the three seeking reelection next year, would benefit from having presidential backing. She has perfected the art of speaking out of both sides of her mouth, one side for the home folk and the other for the administration. The report says that in public she has asked that the bill be available for 72 hours before the vote occurs. In private, her demands have been more substantive. At home, she has suggested her vote will be influenced by former President Bill Clinton — a 12-year Arkansas governor.

The Democrat slipperiness is reminiscent of this tale widely (and probably incorrectly) attributed to Winston Churchill:

“At a late night dinner party, so the story goes, an inebriated Churchill asked an attractive woman whether she would sleep with him for a million pounds.

“Perhaps,” the woman said coyly.

“Would you sleep with me for one pound?” Churchill then asked.

“Of course not, what kind of woman do you take me for?” the woman responded indignantly.

“Madam, we’ve already established what kind of woman you are,” said Churchill, “now we’re just negotiating the price.”

AG Eric Holder’s path to setting the nation on its ear aided by AZ’s two senators

“Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and I believe continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards.”   Attorney General Eric Holder

Attorney General Eric Holder, acting on behalf of President Obama, has ordered trials in New York of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four of his co-conspirators in the 9/11 attacks on the United States.

Michelle Malkin writes: If you’ve been paying attention, you already know all about AG Eric Holder and his DOJ staff’s national security conflict of interest as senior partner with Covington & Burling— the prestigious Washington, D.C. law firm, which represents 17 Yemenis currently held at Gitmo.

Covington & Burling’s Gitmo bar roster has included some of the most radical detainee advocates; see David Remes, who peeled down to his underwear at a press conference in Yemen to draw attention to his clients’ plight and Marc Falkoff, who published a book of detainee poetry and who, in the book’s intro, compared their heroic struggle to the Jews held in concentration camps and Japanese Americans held in internment camps during WWII. [One of Falkoff's "gentle, thoughtful" young poets--a Kuwaiti "cleared for release" and repatriated in 2005--blew himself up in a truck bomb in Mosul last March, killing 13 Iraqi army soldiers and wounding 42 others.]

The fact that Mr. Holder, while Deputy Attorney General, pushed for the release of 16 violent FALN terrorists against the advice of the FBI, the US Attorneys who prosecuted them and the NYPD officers who were maimed by them, suggests that he was perfectly willing to put politics before the national security interests of the country. He is not suited for the job of attorney general, which is central to the issues surrounding the disposition of war on terror detainees.

Malkin reported at the time, “19 Bend Over Republicans joined the majority to install Holder as head of the Obama Justice Department.”

Here is the list, including our two Arizona Senators, John McCain and Jon Kyl. The disreputable vote took place February 2, 2009.

Pajamas Media opines the trial will be a three-ring circus.

Obowma: Working to perfect the art of double talk

Reuters reports that Barack Obowma is issuing warnings about the need to contain rising U.S. deficits, saying that if government debt were to pile up, it could lead to a double-dip recession.

“It is important though to recognize if we keep on adding to the debt, even in the midst of this recovery, that at some point, people could lose confidence in the U.S. economy in a way that could actually lead to a double-dip recession,” he said.

Obama says this while spending erratically and continuing to push excessively costly programs that will ultimately devastate the national economy, such as his stimulus, cap and trade, industry bailouts, his hallmark federalized health care overhaul and the granting of amnesty to approximately 30 million illegal aliens, who further negatively impact America’s ravaged job market.

Then, during an address in Shanghai, China earlier this week, Obama who has indicated his desire to clamp down on FOX News and curtail talk radio, disingenuously declared: “I’m a big supporter of non-censorship. I recognize that different countries have different traditions. I can tell you that in the United States, the fact that we have free Internet — or unrestricted Internet access — is a source of strength, and I think should be encouraged.”

The Examiner has more on Obama’s frontal attack on conservative talk radio. This man thinks the U.S. citizenry are fools who are watching the gauge on the beer keg more than his antics.

He’s wrong.

This is a Commander-in-Chief?

At a stop off at South Korea’s Osan Air Base, while greeting the very troops to whom he continually denies additional backups, Obowma insultingly said: “You guys make a pretty good photo op.”

The Washington Post has the full report.

Atheists declare God is “an affront”

House Minority Leader John Boehner and 44 other Republican lawmakers have joined a legal crusade to keep “In God We Trust” inscribed above the newly constructed visitors’ entrance to the U.S. Capitol.

In July, the Freedom From Religion Foundation filed a federal lawsuit to block the engravings at the visitor center. The group claims the phrase and the Pledge of Allegiance violate the separation of church and state.

Earlier this week, the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) filed a brief in U.S. District Court arguing the lawsuit borders on the frivolous.

“The fact is that Congress acted appropriately and consistent with the Constitution with the inclusion of the national motto and the Pledge of Allegiance in the Capitol Visitor Center,” said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the ACLJ. “These expressions echo the sentiments found in the Declaration of Independence and recognize the undeniable truth that our freedoms come from God.”

Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, said she hopes to have the Supreme Court eventually decide whether the national motto violates the First Amendment.

“The engraving at the Capitol Visitor Center is an affront to the 15 percent of Americans who do not believe in God,” she said. “The First Amendment states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

The GOP lawmakers argue that the intent was to prohibit a state-sponsored religion – not to remove all references to God from government.

Read more in the Cincinnati Inquirer here.

Providing a great lesson in citizenship: Union thugs target Boy Scout

Like unions? Here are the rollicking antics of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) taking on an Eagle Scout who apparently poses a threat to their workers due to his volunteerism.

The Morning Call, a Pennsylvania newspaper, reports that Nick Balzano, president of the local SEIU, told the Allentown City Council that the union is considering filing a grievance against the city for allowing 17-year-old Kevin Anderson to clear a 1,000-foot walking and biking path at a local park. Anderson did the good deed in pursuit of his Eagle Scout badge. He toiled more than 200 hours over several weeks to complete the project.

“We’ll be looking into the Cub Scout or Boy Scout who did the trails,”  Balzano told the council.

Legalizing grateful Democrats in time for the 2010 elections

Obowma’s Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano recently addressed a gathering at the Center for American Progress, a liberal Washington, D.C. policy group. She unveiled new arguments for an amnesty/legalization program for illegal aliens living in the U.S. in her duplicitous presentation, Napolitano actually claims such a program will enhance national security and protect American workers from unfair competition from lower-paid, easily exploited illegal immigrants.

“Let me emphasize this: we will never have fully effective law enforcement or national security as long as so many millions remain in the shadows,” Napolitano said, adding that the “recovering economy would be strengthened as these immigrants become full-paying taxpayers.”

Recovering economy? With the soaring unemployment numbers recently surpassing the dreaded double-digit marker, Americans likely missed that  piece of fabrication.

Under the administration’s plan, illegals who hope to gain legal status would have to register, pay fines and all taxes they owe, pass a criminal background check and learn English.

None of that standing in line as legal immigrants to this country do. Nope.  Sneaking in moves you right to the front of the line, encouraging the arrival of even more lawbreakers.

Some were quick to challenge Napolitano’s claims that border security had significantly improved or that American workers would be helped by bringing illegal immigrants into the system.

“How can they claim that enforcement is done when there are more than 400 open miles of border with Mexico?” asked Rep. Lamar Smith (TX) the senior Republican on the House Judiciary Committee. He said the administration should “deport illegal immigrant workers so they don’t remain here to compete with citizen and legal immigrant job seekers.”  Read Rep. Smith’s  reply to Napolitano here.

The full New York Times report can be read here.

Democrat slackers hard at work on the budget

Yes, it’s Connecticut, not Congress or Arizona — but this AP picture — which we missed when first reported — is still worth checking out. It shows two Democrat lawmakers, members of the Democrat-controlled legislature, sitting in the back row of the historic Hall of the House in Hartford during the lengthy debate over the two-year, $37 billion state budget. Instead of pondering the weighty economic problems and their impact on the state’s taxpayers, they are….playing computer solitaire.

The complete Hartford Courant article and embarrassing photo can been seen here.  [AP Photo/Jessica Hill]

Here is House Republican Leader Lawrence Cafero talking about his objections to borrowing a billion dollars to cover the budget deficit in Connecticut. Although nearly three thousand miles separate Arizona and Connecticut, the similarities between Democrats and Republicans remain constant.

As grocery strike looms, many workers oppose union’s demands

Not all employees of Fry’s and Safeway supermarkets support the strike that is scheduled to begin tomorrow at 6 PM.  And many Valley grocery shoppers agree with them.

Although the United Food and Commercial Workers Union’s reputed 25,000 members are scheduled to walk off the job, others employees are firmly stating that they would rather keep working.

The daily reports that the point of contention is a requirement that workers, who currently pay nothing for health insurance, help shoulder the cost by paying weekly premiums ranging from $5 per week for a single employee to $15 for coverage fro an entire family.

“I don’t want to go on strike,” said Fry’s employee Sean Owen. “Not in this economy.” He said that “everybody pays something for health care in this day and age,” and said he is willing to pay the low premiums

If they walk out as the union urges, many workers would receive about $100 per week in strike pay, but not all workers would qualify for even those payments.

With Arizona’s economy in a free-fall and the state’s unemployment exceeding 9 percent many have questioned the union’s wisdom in calling a strike. Christopher Mason, a Phoenix labor attorney says the union could have trouble garnering support from the community and its members during such difficult economic times. “It’s a strange time to call a strike,” he said. “How long can they last on $100-per-week strike pay?”

Those unions are certainly looking out for their members. Yes siree.