Sergeant Ronbo Going On Patrol

I would like to take this opportunity to inform the readers of THE FREEDOM FIGHTER’S JOURNAL that Sergeant Ronbo will no longer be posting. The main reason for this is because I’m leaving Orlando shortly after New Years and will be unable to post further due to being on the road and so forth. Furthermore, I’ve reached a condition known in the Trade as “Blogger Burnout” which seems to hit many bloggers after a few years on the keyboard. The third reason is lack of compensation for the many hours spent in preparation, writing and posting my articles.

I originally started to blog on June 10, 2005 when I posted a newspaper article by the late Billy Cox in order to correct the record on a legal matter. I didn’t intend to post further, but the thing about blogging is that it’s like having just one potato chip – you just can’t have ONE, so before you know it you’re hooked. As addictions go blogging is one of the better if you post for a good cause and I would say that the liberation of the human race is about the best cause one can promote.

This is the end of THE FREEDOM FIGHTER’S JOURNAL. It is well said, "all good things must end some day." At some point in time the United States of America will end, as will all nations, people, animals and the planet itself. The universe has an expiration date as well. Only Almighty God and his angels are eternal. The good news is that life goes until the end times, and the blogsphere will go on until this venue ceases to be popular, or Big Brother pulls the plug. To my readers who look for a good blog I would point them in the direction of Aurora who publishes THE MIDNIGHT SUN in Sydney, Australia. I consider the American-Australian connection important for many reasons, the most important in my humble opinion being the fact that of all the countries in the world only Australia has committed her armed forces in every major conflict fought by the United States for nearly 100 years.

I think of all the 3,000 plus articles I've posted on THE FREEDOM FIGHTER'S JOURNAL, the best were The Falling Man of 9/11 and Remember 9/11: Freedom Isn't Free and Sergeant Eddie Jeffers Speaks From The Grave.

What we see in these three articles is a reflection of our era. It is a Dark Age of world war that reminds every man and woman in this country to do their duty. Sergeant Eddie Jeffers was one such man who died at a young age fighting in Iraq. The video and song "Freedom Isn't Free" reminds us that freedom is purchased at the highest price of all, and we must all be prepared to offer up our lives in the defense of liberty at a moment's notice. "The Falling Man of 9/11" reminds us of all of the victims of that infamous day when peaceful America was dastardly and cowardly stabbed in the back by nationals from countries we thought were allies.

It is said by our Islamic opponents that our Western Civilization is too morally weak to stop the assault by Jihadists determined to destroy the West by turning themselves into homicide bombs. They say that Americans fear death and will do anything to avoid fighting to the last ditch. I say that the example of Eddie Jeffers and The Falling Man prove that Americans will do what needs to be done to stop the advance of tyranny. If that involves military service in far off lands in difficult conditions, Americans will do that. If it involves jumping off buildings to cheat the Jihadists of a willing victim, Americans will do that as well.

I would like express my warm regards for the readers and contributors to this blog and wish them a Happy New Year!


Ronbo's Favorite Articles:

RONBO ON IDEALISTS

RONBO ON BERLIN

RONBO ON BARBOURISM

RONBO ON EVIL IMPERIAL AMERICAN STORMTROOPERS IN IRAQ

RONBO ON MEDAL OF HONOR WINNER COLONEL LEWIS MILLETT

RONBO ON THE U.S. ARMY SECURITY AGENCY

RONBO ON THE MISSION THAT NEVER HAPPENED

RONBO ON THE ULTIMATE SACRIFICE

The Lesbo Hillary Clinton Is A Genius!

Former President Clinton says his wife is a "world-class genius" when it comes to improving the lives of others.

Clinton stuck mostly to familiar themes in two hour-long appearances Thursday, describing at length what he views as the nation's biggest challenges. Nearly 15 minutes into his first speech, he added almost as an afterthought that "everything I'm saying here is my wife's position, not just mine."

It was his third trip to New Hampshire in little more than a month, and the visit came the day before Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton was to return to the Granite State for two days of campaigning.

Calling the ability to help others the most important quality in a president, Clinton first compared the successes of his administration in creating jobs and other areas to the failures of the Bush administration before finally turning the focus to his wife, a New York senator.

"The reason she ought to be president, over and above her vision and her plans is that she has proven in every position she has ever had in life, whether it was in elected office or not, that she is a world-class genius in making positive changes in other people's lives," he said.

Change vs. experience has been a theme of the Democratic presidential race, and Clinton said the two are not mutually exclusive.

Again, he defended himself before praising Hillary Clinton, calling it an oversimplification to say that in 1992, he was the change candidate to George H.W. Bush's experience.

"When I came here, I was 46, but I was the senior governor in America," Bill Clinton said. "I had worked hard on the very economic issues I said I'd try work on as president for years and years and years."

Clinton lauded his wife for her early work for the Children's Defense Fund, her efforts to improve education in Arkansas when he was the state's governor and her work in the U.S. Senate, repeatedly and forcefully calling her "an agent of change."

"She's got the right vision, big plans and a proven ability to change lives for the better. Experience and change are only opposed in values if you're so experienced you don't have any energy left and you can't cut it, or if your experience is in fighting change," he said. "But if you know how to do things, and you prove it over a long time that you can make change in other people's lives, I think that is a pretty strong recommendation."

SOURCE

I Love America. I Want To Kill Americans!

Many of the insurgents building bombs and carrying out attacks in Iraq are hate-filled teenagers. Diya Muhammad Hussein, 16, is one of them. He spoke with SPIEGEL ONLINE about his desire to kill the American occupiers -- and his dreams of emigrating to the United States.

It was on a Wednesday a few weeks ago when Diya Muhammad Hussein went out to kill Americans. It was shortly after one o'clock in the morning and the curfew had just begun in the western Iraq town of Rawah. Diya crept out of his brother's house and walked to the tree where he had hidden the explosive device three days before.

He carried the hand-made mine to a gravel road nearby and buried it. Then he put the batteries for the remote-controlled detonator into a charger he had attached to a car battery, hid and waited.

The Rest Of The Story

Algore Betrays The Country On Global Warming

The scientists — many of whom are current or former members of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that shares the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Mr. Gore for publicizing a climate crisis — cast doubt on the "scientific consensus" that man-made global warming imperils the planet.

"I find the Doomsday picture Al Gore is painting — a six-meter sea level rise, 15 times the IPCC number — entirely without merit," said Dutch atmospheric scientist Hendrik Tennekes, one of the researchers quoted in the report by Republican staff of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

The Complete Article At WASHINGTON TIMES

U.S. Senate Report On The Global Warming Scam

DAY BY DAY TODAY

ULTIMATUM: HAMAS TERRORISTS SET TO KILL 1700 MUSLIM FAITHFUL

Close to 2000 Mecca pilgrims are being threatened with death by Hamas terrorists in the Gulf of Aqaba as Egypt insists that the terrorists follow proper immigration procedure.

The Hamas thugs were returning from Mecca with large amounts of money received from Islamists as a donation to their cause. As they prepared to enter Egypt with the money, Egyptian authorities insisted that they must pass through the Egyptian/Israeli checkpoints before entry.

The Hamas terrorists refused knowing that the Israelis would arrest them and confiscate the money. Some of the terrorists are high on Israel's wanted list and would be recognized. In order to force Egypt to waive the official procedure, the terrorists have taken two ferries hostage and are threatening the lives of 1700 passengers.

It appears that the Hamas terrorists used the annual pilgrimage to Mecca as a cover to transport the huge sums of money back from Mecca into Gaza. The money was sent to Hamas from the Muslim brotherhood (pictured) and from

Iran's Ahmadinejad for the purpose of funding the Hamas terrorists to continue their assault on Israel.

Apparently, the Saudis knew about the handover of money and allowed it to occur. Jordan was also complicit. These countries turned a blind eye in order to rid the country of the Hamas scourge and let them board the ferries to Egypt, knowing Egypt would not let them land without passing through joint Egyptian and Israeli checkpoints.

Bear in mind that most of these hostages are Muslims returning from the Mecca pilgrimage and that the terrorists would rather kill 1700 of their faithful Muslims brothers and sisters than be captured and lose their blood money.

Oddly this episode coincided with an official visit by French president Sarkozy to Egypt.

I don't know about you but it appears to me that Hamas did not think this trip out too carefully. It's interesting that many major news feeds are not yet reporting this incident as it puts Hamas in a negative light as they are truly showing what vile creatures they can be.

Another interesting development is that the Hamas men aboard have communicated with their associates in the Gaza Strip and as a result they have massed tens of thousands of people to ram the Egytian gateway to the Sinai to facilitate their unfettered re-entry I suppose. It's always through violent means with these people I see.
Israel should be poised to storm Gaza if need be to make sure they are there at the receiving end when they arrive.

For more info on this story visit Debka files here.

WESTERN AID: CREATING PALESTINIAN BEGGARS AND KILLERS

Socialism doesn't work and neither do its condescending contributions. The vast sums of money sent to Africa from the west over the last few decades have been in vain as the plight of Africans is still no better and possibly worse. And it's the same situation with Palestine. Western aid has not only increased their homicide levels but actually reduced their prosperity. Yes, Palestinians are being made POORER and more violent because of the do-gooders of the west. Here are some startling statistics on how western aid has actually hurt the Palestinians:

...some basic facts about the Palestinian economy, drawing on a fine survey by Ziv Hellman, "Terminal Situation," in the Dec. 24 issue of Jerusalem Report:

• Palestinian per year per-capita income has contracted by about 40 percent since its US$2,000 peak in 1992 (before the Oslo process began) to less than $1,200 now.


• Per-capita Israeli income, 10 times greater than the Palestinians' in 1967 is now 23 times greater.


• Deep poverty has increased in Gaza from 22 percent of the population in 1998 to nearly 35 percent in 2006; it would be about 67 percent if not for remittances and food aid.


• Direct foreign investment barely exists, while local capital mostly gets sent abroad or is invested in real estate or short-term trading.


• The Palestinian Authority economy, Hellman writes, "is largely based on monopolies in various industries granted by PA officials in exchange for kickbacks."


• The PA's payroll is so bloated that the cost of wages alone exceeds all revenues.


• A dysfunctional judicial system in the PA means armed gangs usually decide commercial disputes.

Foreign aid does not help an economy. In fact, as the late Lord Bauer and others have noted, the more aid received, the worse the consequences for the recipient. While Yassir Arafat was in power, a third of the Palestinian Authority's budget was taken by 'the President's Office' no questions asked. Incredibly "the World Bank objected, but the Israeli government and the European Union endorsed this corrupt arrangement, so it remained in place".

Conventional wisdom in the west has it that "poverty, isolation, Israeli roadblocks, the lack of a state, etc." lead to the dysfunctional actions of the Palestinians.

Mahmoud Abbas, the PA leader, summed up this viewpoint at the Annapolis conference in November: "the absence of hope and overwhelming despair … feed extremism."

Eliminate those hardships and Palestinians, supposedly, would turn their attention to such constructive concerns as economic development and democracy. Trouble is, that change never comes.

	The Paris conference for the "Palestinian state" raised US$7.4 billion in pledges on Dec. 17, 2007. © V.Chemla/GIN

Apparently, the opposite is true. Interestingly, when the Palestinians are exhilarated by all that money, they tend to turn more extreme, believing that they can wipe out the State of Israel. Instead of giving up on this goal and focusing their attention on the everyday activities of educating their children and earning a living, they turn to more destructive behavior.

"Note that the Palestinian economy peaked in 1992, just as, post-Soviet Union and post-Kuwait war, hopes bottomed out to eliminate Israel."

It is essential that the Palestinians experience the bitter reality of defeat so that they will turn to the task of repairing their own society. The outpouring of aid from the west is a devastation both for the economy and for their stability. It's time that they turned their attentions away from fighting Israel and look after themselves and this will not happen while the west continues to ply them with aid.

Summarized from an excellent post by Daniel Pipes.



I love this take on the wall between the Palestinians and the Israelis tipped by Mike_W.



Cross-posted at The Midnight Sun

DAY BY DAY TODAY

The Pakistan Civil War

Pakistan has always been a problem which presented the US with many unappealing alternatives: support Pervez Musharraf, an allegedly "friendly" dictator who played a double game, posing as a secular "modernizer" while appeasing Islamists; take our chances with civilian politicians, who have often proved to be either ineffective leaders or Islamist sympathizers; or contemplate military action against a nation six or seven times more populous than Iraq and armed with nuclear weapons.

In this context, there was one option that was far and away more appealing than all of the others: supporting Benazir Bhutto's return to Pakistan and her likely election as Pakistan's next prime minister. Bhutto had a record as a secular liberal, and she had promised to work with the US as a more effective ally in rooting out the Islamists who are trying to take over Pakistan.

This is why Benazir Bhutto's assassination today, in what seems to be a combination sniper and suicide bomb attack, is a tragedy for the US.

It is also a monumental tragedy for Pakistan.

Pakistan is one of the front lines of the Muslim civil war, an internal battle for control between two substantial minorities: hard-core Islamic fanatics versus a relatively liberal, secular, semi-Westernized, educated middle class. This is a conflict that already had blood flowing in the streets—which now includes the blood of Benazir Bhutto, the best political hope for Pakistan's liberals.

Pakistan still has a chance to recover. Its liberals, realizing that they have to act to end the Islamists' rule by murder, may rally behind a new leader and be galvanized to elect a parliamentary majority. But it is unclear at this point who that new leader may be, and the most likely beneficiary of Bhutto's death is rival opposition leader Nawaz Sharif, a "moderate" Islamist who is accused of taking bribes from Osama bin Laden back in the 1990s in exchange for turning a blind eye to al Qaeda activities in Pakistan.

Pakistan stands on the edge of a precipice. Every time a society has allowed the Islamists to take control, that society has experienced the fate of the Islamists' hero, the suicide bomber. It has been systematically destroyed—culturally, politically, economically—in an act of national suicide, in order to be transformed into an instrument of international murder.

"Bhutto Assassinated in Attack on Rally," Salman Masood and Graham Bowley, New York Times, December 27 The Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated near the capital, Islamabad, on Thursday. Witnesses said Ms. Bhutto, who was appearing at a political campaign rally, was fired upon at close range by a gunman, and then struck by shrapnel from a blast that the government said was caused by a suicide bomber….

The exact circumstances surrounding the assassination were still unclear. Senior officials in Ms. Bhutto's party said she was leaving after addressing the rally and stood up through the sunroof of her car to wave at the crowd when she was hit in the head by a sniper in a nearby building….

Other witnesses described a single assassin opening fire on Ms. Bhutto and her entourage, hitting her at least once in the neck and once in the chest, before blowing himself up. Dr. Abbas Hayat, a professor of pathology at Rawalpindi General Hospital where Ms. Bhutto was taken, said that doctors tried to revive her for 35 minutes but that she had shrapnel wounds and head injuries and was in heart failure. He said he could not confirm whether she had bullet injuries.

Angry supporters rioted in her home city, the southern port of Karachi, The Associated Press reported, shooting at police officers, setting tires and cars on fire and burning a gas station….

Ms. Bhutto's death is the latest upset in Pakistan's treacherous political situation, and leaves her party leaderless in the short term and likely to be unable to effectively compete in hotly contested parliamentary elections that are two weeks away, according to Hasan Askari Rizvi, a leading Pakistani political and military analyst….

At the hospital where Ms. Bhutto was taken, a large number of police began to cordon off the area as angry party workers smashed windows. Many protesters shouted "Musharraf Dog."…

Ms. Bhutto's assassination immediately raised questions about whether the January parliamentary elections will now go ahead or be postponed. Nawaz Sharif, the country's other main opposition leader, said his party would boycott the elections if they went ahead, according Pakistani television….

The assassination is likely to bring renewed attention to Pakistan's security agencies. Ms. Bhutto had long accused the country's main military intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, of working against her and her party because they opposed her liberal, secular agenda.

Five Minutes To Midnight

As Americans were disengaging from the news to celebrate our Christmas holiday, the rest of the world took advantage of this opportunity to fall apart. The Turks bombed Kurdistan, increasing the likelihood of a (still improbable) wider conflict in the area of Iraq that has been most stable for the longest time.

More disturbing, the Russians took advantage of the pro-Iranian slant of the US government's recent National Intelligence Estimate and began delivering enriched uranium to Iran. The worsening of the Iranian nuclear threat is covered by Investor's Business Daily below.

Meanwhile, military blogger Bill Roggio covers a new military intelligence report on the Iranian role in Iraq. Diplomatist State Department types have recently been boasting that Iran has been jaw-jaw-ed into reducing its support for Iraqi insurgents. The new report concludes that Iranian support has dropped, not because the Iranian stopped trying, but because our troops have been very effective at killing or capturing Iran's agents

"Iran Ups the Ante," Investor's Business Daily, December 24 Iran has made two major announcements in the past two days. First, it says it's just three months away from starting up its Bushehr nuclear facility, thanks to Russia's timely Christmas gift of a supply of nuclear fuel. Second, it says it wants to open up 19 more nuclear power plants, which would require enormous amounts of refined uranium to run and give Iran a plausible reason for enriching its own uranium….

Western fecklessness has only emboldened Iran and enablers such as Russia. Moscow began shipping nuclear fuel to Iran just this month, convinced Bush's tough stance has been undercut by the NIE report. Iran thinks so, too.

Last month, Iran tested its new "Ashura" missile with an estimated range of 1,250 miles. That, according to American Enterprise Institute scholar Charlie Szrom, could give Tehran the ability to "reach US bases in the Middle East and parts of Eastern Europe, including such US allies as Romania, Georgia, or Ukraine."

Even the most conservative intelligence estimates say Iran will be able to build nuclear bombs by 2015. It already has 3,000 centrifuges whirring away at its Natanz facility enriching nuclear fuel, with plans for thousands more. The world ignores this at its peril.

"You'll Do Something, Mr. Rearden"

Congress also took advantage of the week before Christmas to pass a sweeping anti-energy energy bill which essentially mandates that we all be driving Prius-style "hybrid cars" and lighting our homes with fluorescent light bulbs by 2020. It is a rare piece of federal legislation that can kill both the incandescent light bulb and the sports car in one stroke. See the details in the article linked to below.

The administration supported this legislation partly to stave off even more restrictive limits on energy use proposed by a cabal of 17 states who were seeking to pass suicidal global warming regulations of their own. By imposing their own special environmental regulations on roughly one-half of America's population, these states were attempting to usurp the role of the federal government and effectively impose those regulations on all of us.

But the most important fact about this bill is that it elicited so little resistance, not only from the Bush administration (which has had no real stomach for opposing the global warming hysteria), but also from Republicans in Congress and from commentators from the right.

And there is worse to come. Having established, with so little resistance, the premise that the phantom fear of global warming can be used as a basis for anti-industrial legislation, Congress will move to impose ever tighter limits on American prosperity. A report in the Christian Science Monitor lists what we can expect in 2008, including:

Climate cap-and-trade: Because energy use and emissions go hand in hand, the new energy law accelerates debate over regulating carbon-dioxide emissions across the US economy. Key legislation, such as the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act, would require a cap-and-trade system to cut CO2 emissions 15 percent below current levels by 2020. The bill already has significant support and, despite White House opposition, debate over the measure is expected as soon as January.

"Cap-and-trade" is a euphemism for a system of good old-fashioned rationing. In the next year, the United States Congress will seriously consider a scheme of national energy rationing for the most productive economy in the world.

What makes them think they can get away with this? What are they counting on? A federal judge who approved Vermont's attempt to impose its own local global-warming controls put it clearly:

History suggests that the ingenuity of the industry, once put in gear, responds admirably to most technological challenges. In light of the public statements of industry representatives, (the) history of compliance with previous technological challenges, and the state of the record, the court remains unconvinced automakers cannot meet the challenges of Vermont and California's GHG [greenhouse gas] regulations.

Readers of Ayn Rand's prescient novel Atlas Shrugged will recognize this attitude expressed in a different form: "You'll do something, Mr. Rearden."

"Bush Signs Bill to Increase Fuel Efficiency," Richard Simon and Johanna Neuman, Los Angeles Times, December 20 President Bush on Wednesday signed an energy bill designed to cut US dependence on overseas oil by imposing the biggest increase in fuel-efficiency standards in 32 years and mandating a fivefold increase in the use of home-grown biofuels….

Flanked by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and other congressional leaders, Bush thanked them for their "wisdom" in requiring the new standards. He also called on Congress to double the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve, open a portion of the Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to energy exploration and help expand the use of nuclear power….

The legislation calls for a 40% increase in fuel efficiency for new cars and light trucks by 2020, for a fleetwide average of 35 miles per gallon. It also requires a fivefold increase—to 36 billion gallons—in the amount of alternative homegrown fuels, such as ethanol, that must be added to the nation's gasoline supply by 2022….

The House approved the measure, 314 to 100; the Senate approved it last week, 86 to 8….
By 2020, light bulbs will have to be at least three times more efficient than they are now.

The High Price of Free Medical Care

I had predicted that the big domestic issues in 2008—and particularly in the 2008 presidential election—would be socialized medicine and global warming. I thought that socialized medicine would be the bigger issue, while global warming would be less immediate. It's now looking like it may be the other way around.

While the global warming juggernaut gets moving in earnest in Washington, the state-level push for a government takeover of the medical industry has gotten bogged down. Because states cannot print money and thus cannot engage in unlimited deficit spending, they cannot evade the question that has produced the most squabbling: who should be looted to pay for "free" health care.

These state-level plans are crucial tests of the ability to gain support for socialized medicine schemes on a national level, and their failure provides hope that a national-level takeover can also be thwarted.

"States' Widening of Health Care Hits Roadblocks," Kevin Sack, New York Times, December 25 Though the governors of three big states—California, Illinois and Pennsylvania—proposed sweeping plans to restructure health care this year, none will finish 2007 with bills passed and signed….

The Schwarzenegger-Núñez plan, which passed the Democratic-controlled Assembly last week, expands on the universal coverage law that Massachusetts passed in 2006. That state now requires insurance companies to offer coverage regardless of an applicant's health status and mandates that most residents have insurance by Dec. 31, or face a tax penalty of $219….

The downside, and one noted by states with widening budget gaps, is that the program is expected to exceed its first-year budget by at least $150 million. And state officials are struggling to prevent double-digit premium increases next year….

Illinois' Democratic governor, Rod R. Blagojevich, got nowhere with his proposals to pay for universal access to insurance by taxing gross business receipts and assessing employers who do not offer coverage to their employees….

In Pennsylvania, Gov. Edward G. Rendell, also a Democrat, failed to persuade his politically divided legislature to cover the state's 900,000 uninsured through an employer assessment. Like the California leaders, Mr. Rendell has now proposed increasing cigarette taxes, as well as raiding the surplus in a state fund designed to help doctors pay for malpractice insurance….

"It remains incredibly difficult for states by themselves to get all the uninsured covered," said Robert Blendon, a Harvard professor of health policy and political analysis. "There just is not a consensus on who should pay."

General Petraeus: MAN OF THE YEAR

The idiots at Time selected Vladimir Putin as their "Person of the Year," demonstrating a complete inability to gauge the scale, size, and significance of world events—and a desperate need to evade the story of the real Man of the Year: General David Petraeus, the architect of the strategy that reversed America's fortunes in Iraq.

Michael Barone does a good job of explaining why Putin was an "odd choice" and names what's really going on: "It's hard to avoid the conclusion that Time didn't name Petraeus as the person of the year because its editors didn't want to spotlight and honor American success."

Meanwhile, it was left to blustering populist Bill O'Reilly to name the reasons why Petraeus deserves to be honored as the man who affected the world most significantly in the last year. Most notable—and the part that really seems to appeal to O'Reilly, whose only notable virtue is his cantankerousness—is the extent to which Petraeus swiftly and completely overturned the conventional wisdom, achieving success where so many confidently predicted failure.

"'The Factor's' Person of the Year," Bill O'Reilly, FoxNews.com, December 18 "The Factor's" Person of the Year must meet some very strict requirements. The person must have done something extraordinary, must be a world player, and must have changed history in some way. That is our yardstick.

And so, "The Factor" person of the year is General David Petraeus, who has turned a disastrous military situation in Iraq into a possible victory in less than a year. You will remember how the general got worked over by some Congress people, how many folks said publicly the so-called "surge" in Iraq would not work.

Well, they were wrong. Violence is now at the lowest levels since the conflict began in 2003. Obviously, a stunning turnaround in less than a year….

A fair amount of people can oppose the war in Iraq yet want to see their country succeed in that place. There's no question that a stable Iraq is good for the world because it provides a bulwark against Islamic terrorism and Iranian expansion.

Mike Huckabee's Unfair Tax

Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee's surge in the polls is due in part to support provided to him by fanatical advocates of the so-called "FairTax." (See, for example, an analysis in today's Washington Post.)

Many things disqualify Huckabee to be president. There is the fact that, in the very first Republican debate, he was one of only three candidates who raised their hands to say that they did not believe in evolution—an indication of his willingness to elevate religion over science. Then there is the fact that he thinks international affairs can be described by analogies to high-school popularity contests.

But arguably the worst idea peddled by Huckabee is the "FairTax." Commentators have been toying with many plays on Huckabee's name (describing his personal charm as "Huck-appeal," for example), but the only one that really ought to stick is: "Huckster." He is selling us, as a way to lift the burden of the IRS, a fraudulent, dangerous political diversion.

The whole style of the argument for the "FairTax" begins with its name, which is an obvious attempt to force us to accept a positive evaluation of the proposal the moment we begin talking about it. It amounts to the following argument: Why should we think the FairTax is a fair tax? Because that's what they named it! This is a proposal that begins by insulting our intelligence, treating us like a bunch of rubes who can be manipulated by the crudest political ploy.

So let's just call this proposal by an actual, objective, descriptive name: it's a national sales tax.

Commentators on the right have already done a good job of dissecting the many fraudulent claims about this tax. Bruce Bartlett, for example, describes the legerdemain used by FairTax advocates to sell us a 30 percent national sales tax as if it were a 23 percent tax. In fact, the best estimates for the actual sales tax rate required to replace current federal revenues—which is what Huckabee claims the tax will do—is about 57%.

And the problems go on and on. The national sales tax would replace a system that places a disproportionate burden on the rich with a new system that places a disproportionate burden on the poor, who spend a higher percentage of their income than the wealthy do. And as one reader pointed out to me, the national sales tax would wallop retirees. "People like me who have spent a lifetime paying income tax and saving, now face a new large tax on spending—a double tax."
Even worse is the proposed solution to these problems: to relieve the burden of the poor, the FairTax would have the government send everyone in the nation a monthly welfare-style check to help us meet our basic needs. Huckabee wants to put the whole nation on the dole.

And what about the biggest benefit claimed for the FairTax—that it would eliminate the IRS? But this only means that state or federal governments would have to create a whole new tax enforcement bureaucracy to further harass and persecute retailers. And what about all of the sales carried out by individuals, on eBay or at flea markets—sales that would now be considered illegal black market transactions? If you hate the IRS, boy are you going to hate the new tax police tasked with enforcing a national sales tax.

And speaking of the black market, when I first heard the national sales tax idea in the early 1990s, I found that a number of economists had done studies on collection rates for sales taxes. The results were pretty consistent: it is possible to collect sales taxes up to a rate of about 12 or 13 percent. Above that, retail transactions quickly move into a burgeoning black market. The incentive to avoid taxes is too high, and the ease of doing so is too great.

These (and other objections) are all valid. But I think the worst effect of a national sales tax is the simple fact that it is radically new and would require a vast restructuring of the economy over the period of at least a decade—and all for nothing.

It would take years of uncertainty for the government even to set up a new tax system, to overhaul that system repeatedly as it discovers new flaws, loopholes, and unanticipated consequences. And because it is impossible to predict with any accuracy the revenue produced by a totally new and untested tax system, Congress would have to spend a decade re-adjusting the national sales tax rate in an attempt to raise a sufficient amount of revenue.

And that's just the government. It would take at least as long for individuals and businesses to figure out how the new tax system works and to restructure their operations so they are still capable of operating under the new system. The only virtue of our current tax system is that it has been around so long that everyone has managed to adapt to it and find a way to survive and grow despite the drain of federal taxes. All of us—businesses and individuals—would have to start that process over again completely from scratch.

Of course, every significant reform requires the individuals and businesses to readjust their expectations—but this only means that we had better make sure that such a change accomplishes an important reduction in the burden of government. Yet FairTax advocates insist that their scheme is designed to bring in exactly as much revenue as the existing system.

In short, changing the whole tax system from the bottom up is a proposal for decades of economic chaos—and for what, if it's not going to significantly reduce the size of government?

This is the real fraud behind the FairTax. For all of the boasting talk about eliminating the IRS, the FairTax is not actually an attempt to reduce the burden of government on our lives. It's just an attempt to shift that burden into a different form. It's an attempt to make us think that our problem is the wrong kind of taxes, when our problem is too much taxes.

And here we reach the purpose of the FairTax fraud. It allows Huckabee to pose as an anti-tax crusader—and to commandeer the energy of an existing grass-roots anti-tax organization—while still allowing him to accept and even expand the whole bloated edifice of the middle class welfare state.

And that brings me to the one criticism of the FairTax that I don't agree with: that it is quixotic and politically impractical. According to this criticism, the FairTax is a dead letter because Congress is never going to vote to repeal the 16th amendment and eliminate the IRS.

But there are many political goals that may seem quixotic. This only means that they will take decades, even a lifetime of patient work to promote. But if you're going to spend decades tilting at windmills, it had better be to achieve something important. In my view, there is only one big crusade, on the issue of taxes and spending, that qualifies: the privatization of Social Security.

Social Security and the other "middle class welfare" program, Medicare, are the largest drivers of runaway federal spending and thus of the ever-increasing taxes required to support that spending. I can remember when the idea of privatizing Social Security seemed utterly impossible. Social Security was "the third rail of American politics": touch it and you die. And yet every few years, decade after decade, privatization has gotten closer and closer to being seriously considered. A few years ago, President Bush promoted in Congress a first incremental step to privatization. The death of that proposal indicates that privatization is still a long way away—but it's closer than the FairTax, and much more worthwhile.

But to get there we have to have a clear idea of the real tax and spending problem we face: too much taxes, supporting too much spending, providing too many unearned benefits—particularly the vast array of subsidies for America's prosperous middle class. We have to realize that the problem is too much government, and the solution is to reduce the size of government.

In short, we need ideological and moral clarity—rather than the hucksterism Mike Huckabee and his FairTax fanatics are offering.

Gates of Vienna: Benazir Bhutto’s Death Will Stabilize Pakistan#readfurther#readfurther

Gates of Vienna: Benazir Bhutto’s Death Will Stabilize Pakistan#readfurther#readfurther

ROUND UP THE USUAL SUSPECTS

Pakistan's first choice to lead the Bhutto investigation? (Claude Rains photo courtesy of imdb.com)

As Pakistan descends further into chaos, the Musharraf government says it knows who killed former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. Unfortunately, the regime's actions since the assassination have undercut those claims.

Barely 24 hours after her death, there have been stunning revelations about how Bhutto died, and what wasn't done in the aftermath of Thursday's assassination. Both will only fuel suspicion about government complicity in the attack, which claimed the lives of the former prime minister and 20 others.

In one of the nation's first official statements on the assassination, Pakistan's Interior Minister, Hamid Nawaz, said Mrs. Bhutto died from head injuries, not bullet wounds as was originally reported. At least seven doctors at Rawalpindi General Hospital--where Bhutto was taken for treatment--reported that there were no bullet wounds on her body. Initial reports suggested that Mrs. Bhutto was shot in her neck and chest by an unknown gunman, who then blew himself up.

But, according to Mr. Nawaz, X-rays of the former prime minister did not reveal any bullets in her head, leading doctors to conclude that she was killed by shrapnel from the bomb:

“The report says she had head injuries – an irregular patch – and the X-ray doesn’t show any bullet in the head. So it was probably the shrapnel or any other thing has struck her in her said. That damaged her brain, causing it to ooze and her death. The report categorically says there’s no wound other than that,” Nawaz told a Pakistani news channel.

But that finding is not conclusive--at least by western standards--because no autopsy was performed (emphasis mine).

The doctors have submitted a report to the Pakistan government in which they say that no post-mortem was performed on Bhutto’s body and they had not received any instructions to perform one.

[snip]

An autopsy was not carried out at the hospital "because the district administration and police had not requested the hospital authorities (for this)", the report said.

Admittedly, we're not experts in Pakistani post-mortem procedures. But, under the circumstances--the assassination of a former prime minister seeking a return to power--you'd think that an autopsy request would be automatic.

On the other hand, if any combination of (a) Pakistan's current leadership; (b) the nation's military or (c) it's primary intelligence organization (the ISI) had a hand in the assassination, then failing to order an autopsy would be a convenient mechanism for cooling the forensic trail. Under Islamic tradition, bodies of the deceased are not embalmed and burial usually occurs on the day of death, so decomposition begins quickly, and potential clues may be lost. Readers will note that no one in Islamabad is pressing for an exhumation of the body, either. In the meantime, the failure to conduct an autopsy can can be blamed on the "confusion" that followed the event, or some minor police functionary--take your pick.

In the aftermath of yesterday's tragedy, there was a widespread belief (some would say hope) that the Bhutto assassination was the work of Islamic terrorists. After all, President Musharraf has survived three attempts on his life since 2001; radicals had threatened to kill Mrs. Bhutto since her return to Pakistan in October, and the bombing of her campaign rally had all the trappings of an Al Qaida/Taliban operation.

But, more recent events suggest otherwise. A friend of the late prime minister received an e-mail from her last October (which he also forwarded to Wolf Blitzer of CNN). In the message, Bhutto complained about Musharraf's refusal to provide requested security measures, and said if she died, the Pakistani president would bear part of the blame. Bhutto's long-time U.S. friend (and lobbyist) Mark Siegel claims that Musharraf refused her request for Scotland Yard and the FBI to investigate the "suspicious" 18 October bombing of a rally in Karachi, marking her return from exile. More than 100 people died in that attack.

Two months later, Pakistan's failure to autopsy Mrs. Bhutto's body suggests a government that is disinterested in pursuing possible leads, fearful (or knowing) where they might lead. In an interview on yesterday's Sean Hannity radio program, Middle East analyst (and Pakistani native) Monsoor Ijaz--hardly a Bhutto ally--pressed the Musharraf regime to request outside assistance in the investigation. Without independent confirmation from the FBI and Scotland Yard, he warned, Musharraf could not present a credible case that Bhutto was killed by terrorists.

So far, Islamabad has made no request for assistance, concentrating (instead) on learning the identity of the bomber, and launching an investigation into the lack of an autopsy. Call us cynics, but we're betting that the bomber will be quickly linked to terrorists, and some Rawalpindi cop will be blamed for failing to order a post-mortem. It's a convenient touch that Captain Renault from Casablanca would appreciate.

***
Sure enough, Interior Minister Nawaz has already announced that "we have evidence that Al-Qaida and the Taliban" were behind the suicide attack on Benazir Bhutto. That may be true, but the government's handling of the case (so far) makes that narrative more difficult to accept. And thousands of Pakistanis appear equally unconvinced.

A Tip of The Steel Helmet to George Smiley At IN FROM THE COLD

Pro-American Movies Sell Best Overseas

They can try and spin The Golden Compass totals all they want but a worldwide gross of $135 million still doesn’t even begin to cover production costs. This will have to gross in the $400 million range before lies about breaking-even begin to sound credible.

Does anyone else find it interesting that National Treasure 2 is huge overseas? How many times have we heard from Hollywood apologists that American-centric films aren’t being produced because they don’t do well in foreign markets? Obviously, that’s nothing more than spin because you can’t get anymore American than National Treasure. Hell, the first one did $175 million overseas.

The only American-centric films being humiliated overseas are the anti-American-centric films. Treasure proves that an exciting story well-told can make money all over the world. Even a patriotic story well-told.

The reason we keep hearing American-centric films don’t do well in foreign coffers is because Hollywood is insane. They spread this lie to excuse their not making them as some kind of “business decision” when in fact it’s an anti-business, political decision.

The films doing well overseas are the films that do well here. Had the money spent on those seven HateAmerica films been used for a single well-made film which appealed to the American people investors would’ve cleaned up both here and overseas. So, let’s agree to lay down the lie about American-centric films and how they do overseas. Obviously people Not-From-America are ready to enjoy a film set in and around America if it’s a good one.

The Complete Article At LIBERTAS

CHURCHES RE-OPEN IN IRAQ

BAGHDAD (AP) - Thousands of Iraqi Christians made their way to church through checkpoints and streets lined with blast walls, many drawing hope from a lull in violence to celebrate Christmas Mass in numbers unthinkable a year ago.

Death is never far in Iraq—two separate suicide bombings north of Baghdad killed at least 35 people and wounded scores more. But the number of attacks has fallen dramatically in the past few months—the U.S. military says by 60 percent since June.

"We did not celebrate last year, but this year we have security and we feel better," said Rasha Ghaban, one of many women at the small Church of the Holy Family in Karradah, a mainly Shiite district in downtown Baghdad where many Christians live. "We hope our future will be better, God willing."

Families streamed into the church's courtyard, wrapped in heavy winter jackets to protect them from the early morning chill. Young children with neatly combed hair held their parents' hands, and women stopped by the front door to pick through a basket of small lacy headscarves, placing them over their hair before walking in.

The pews were almost full—women toward the back and on the right side of the church, the men on the left—and still more people streamed in. Outside, police armed with automatic rifles manned a checkpoint at the corner of the narrow street, searching every passing car for possible bombs.

Christians have often been the target of attacks by Islamic extremists in Iraq, forcing tens of thousands to flee. Many of those who stayed were isolated in neighborhoods protected by barricades and checkpoints. Less than 3 percent of Iraq's 26 million people are Christians—the majority Chaldean-Assyrians and Armenians, with small numbers of Roman Catholics.

A coordinated bombing campaign in 2004 targeted churches in the Iraqi capital, and anti-Christian violence also flared last September after Pope Benedict XVI made comments perceived to be against Islam.

But this year, with the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha coming just before Christmas, Iraq has been living through some of the most peaceful moments since the U.S.-led invasion of 2003.

Cardinal Emmanuel III Delly, leader of the ancient Chaldean Catholic Church and Iraq's first cardinal, celebrated Mass before about 2,000 people in the Mar Eliya Church the eastern New Baghdad neighborhood of the capital.

"Iraq is a bouquet of flowers of different colors, each color represents a religion or ethnicity but all of them have the same scent," the 80-year-old Delly told the congregation.

Muslim clerics—both Sunni and Shiite—also attended the service in a sign of unity.

"May Iraq be safe every year, and may our Christian brothers be safe every year," Shiite cleric Hadi al-Jazail told AP Television News outside the church. "We came to celebrate with them and to reassure them."

William Jalal, a 39-year old father of three attending Mass at Mar Eliya, said this Christmas was clearly different.

"We didn't celebrate like this in the past two years as we were holding limited celebrations for relatives in an atmosphere filled with fear," said Jalal, a cook in one of Baghdad's social clubs. "Now we feel better as we see all these security forces in the streets to protect us."

Bombers still attack city markets, police or army patrols and stores, and the dead bodies of tortured kidnap victims turn up almost daily along river banks or dumped on the streets.

Venturing out in large numbers late at night in Baghdad is still unthinkable, so the capital's Christians celebrated midnight Mass in the middle of the afternoon on Christmas Eve.

Delly, speaking to The Associated Press at his guarded compound in western Baghdad on Christmas Eve, said fear still pervaded everyday life, despite the fall in violence.

"Everyone is still afraid to go out," he said. "Even small animals are afraid of the danger."

In northern Iraq's much safer Kurdish autonomous region, worshipers headed to the town of Ain Kawa, near Irbil. Some 1,600 Arab Christian families from Baghdad and nearby regions have settled there, said the local mayor, Fahmi Sulafa.

"Here, I feel my soul is at rest," said Matti Gordese, a 40-year-old father of four originally from Baghdad. "I can practise my religion without feeling that suddenly, a bomb will explode and kill you in God's house."

SYDNEY MORNING HERALD STILL BOO-HOOING OVER TERRORIST, HICKS

Australian terrorist, David Hicks is due to be released tomorrow. This is a man who was raised in a free country which he left to traipse around four terrorist camps to join himself to the bloody, anti-west activities of such organizations as LET and Al Qa'eda.

He never truly repented of his activities, but described Osama bin Laden as 'lovely' to his parents. Hicks was devoted to the cause of the slaughter of the 'enemies of Islam'. He was captured and rightfully imprisoned by coalition troops and then taken to Guantanamo where he was held in a humane detention (unlike the third world torture chambers his Jihadist buddies torment people in).

While he was in detention, the Leftists of Australia howled and railed against our then government, the John Howard led Liberal party to pressure America to release him. The media managed to change the thinking of ordinary Australians on this issue until the public went from a righteous disgust for the man to campaigning for his release and shaking their fist at John Howard and the Americans for keeping him in Guantanamo.

Tomorrow, David Hicks gets out of jail; far too prematurely in my opinion. He will apply to receive the government handout that every unemployed person receives in Australia, just for being Australian and out of work and you and I, the taxpayers he despised will support him as he sits idle, perhaps getting bored enough to hatch more wild, anarchic, violent ideas in his feeble brain.

This isn't generous enough for the Sydney Morning Herald, who published the most pathetic analysis of David Hicks mental health. I'll post the opening here:

DAVID HICKS'S mental condition is so fragile that - only five days before his scheduled release from jail - he suffers from agoraphobia and retreats to the kind of solitary confinement he endured for five years in Guantanamo Bay.

The former Muslim extremist has suffered panic attacks and has ventured into the sunshine, in the prison yard, only once since his return to Australia in May this year to serve the balance of his nine-month sentence at Yatala Labour Prison in Adelaide. He could not cope and preferred the enclosed prison and artificial lighting, where he felt more safe.

"He tried to go out but he just said everything closed in on him," his father, Terry Hicks, told the Herald. (Read more here
if you can stand more of this garbage).

Oh, pleeeaze! Give me a break. Prison is not meant to be the HILTON. Actually he should be glad he's out at all. If it were up to me, he'd be looking down the tunnel of a good, solid decade or so to contemplate what it means to be a decent citizen.

Cross-posted at The Midnight Sun

BENAZIR BHUTTO IS NOW A MARTYR

Nothing in her life Became her like the leaving it.

Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto has been murdered. Despite her faults, the fact that she was trying to bring some democracy to Pakistan makes her a martyr infinitely more so than the animals that killed her and at least 20 others in the attack.

Al Qaeda has claimed responsibility, naturally.

“We terminated the most precious American asset which vowed to defeat [the] mujahadeen,” Al-Qaeda’s commander and main spokesperson Mustafa Abu Al-Yazid told Adnkronos International (AKI) in a phone call from an unknown location, speaking in faltering English. Al-Yazid is the main al-Qaeda commander in Afghanistan. (source thanks to Ace)

You can learn more about Benazir Bhutto from this obituary which covers the basics of her life and politics.

The murder of Benazir Bhutto is tragic on so many levels. The most immediate is the loss her family, friends and supporters must endure. My prayers for them and for those who also lost loved ones in this brutal attack.

Some have rushed to blame President Musharraf, because she was the opposition leader which gives him some motive. He also ties to the military and he's been playing extremists and moderates against each other for some time now. He needs the extremists to stay in power, yet we all know the danger of extreme Islamists gaining actual power in that country due to Pakistan having nuclear weapons.

There are no good choices here. Perhaps Musharraf will finally allow sustained military action by the U.S. and coalition countries in the lawless tribal regions that have been a haven for Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups. Doing so however, will require he institute martial law again and possibly delay the elections, which may push some of the moderate opposition into alliances with the extremists.

The tragedy that should now concern everyone is that nuclear weapons just moved a step closer to falling into the hands of Islamic extremists. The path ahead to preventing that is uncertain and undoubtedly bloody. For those inclined to, much prayer is needed for world leaders and those on the front lines, that they will have the wisdom and courage to avoid the worst possible outcome.


A Tip of The Steel Helmet To:

Democommies Push For Bush And Cheney Impeachment

This is insane! Well what can you expect from a bunch of raving Leftard Moonbats who blame Bush and Cheney for everything that goes wrong in the world and in their own worthless subhuman lives? It will be interesting to see how this farce plays out in an election year, the Democommies have a majority in the House and could in theory impeach Bush and Cheney. They wouldn't be removed from office because that would require two-thirds vote in the Senate and the Democommies only have 51 seats.

Michelle Malkin:

I’ve been telling you that the impeachment mob is gearing up for big things in 2008. Rep. Robert Wexler is on the prowl–raising funds online, posting videos, and putting heat on the Democrat leadership to act on Dennis Kucinich’s impeachment resolution. There’s the impeachment play that’ll be unveiled after New Year’s. Santa Rosa City Council members passed an impeachment resolution earlier this month. And now, from Washington state, (hat tip - Orbusmax), we’ve got another push for a legislative impeachment resolution–along with assorted BDS festivities:

More excellent coverage at Michelle Malkin's website

FREEDOM FIGHTER BHUTTO ASSASSINATED IN PAKISTAN

Now cracks a noble heart. Good-night, sweet princess;
And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.

The bad news this morning is the assassination of a woman of courage in Pakistan, The Freedom Fighter Benazir Bhutto, whose "great crime" was a burning desire to bring liberty and justice to her country. As I type these lines I'm watching Fox News coverage in Pakistan and the mobs are running wild looking for revenge. I am reminded of that scene in Shakespeare's JULIUS CAESAR when the Roman mob runs amok against Caesar's assassins who flee Rome.

The next scene may be civil war in Pakistan.

SOURCE

On December 27th, 2007 at 9:19 am, sfcmac said:

This is terrible. She worked hard to reform a country full of misogynist, Islamofascist miscreants. Pakistan has formented terrorist scumbags and extremists for years. She knew her life was in constant danger, but returned to her home and courageously stood up to subhuman filth. For her efforts to bring democracy to Pakistan, she was rewarded with murder.

To be sure, the Musharraf regime will blame the United States for brokering an agreement to let her back into Pakistan, and the moonbats on the Left will blame President Bush because everything is his fault, from their lousy childhoods to their miserable worthless adult lives.

Expect a lot of rioting and more bombs. It won’t stop until all the muslim extremist pigs are dead, which means it won’t be any time soon.

TSUNAMI AID SPENT ON LEFTIST INDOCTRINATION

You might be forgiven for thinking Amnesty International, Save the Children and Oxfam as generally benevolent organizations which exist for the betterment of those 'less fortunate than ourselves', but what really drives these organizations? Could it be that they care more about driving home their foul, insidious agendas than about the people themselves? Here are a few home truths about the money Australians donated to tsunami relief efforts.

"THREE years after Australians donated $400 million to rebuild Asian lives devastated by the 2004 tsunami, aid groups are under attack for spending much of the money on social and political engineering."
"The activities - listed as tsunami relief - include a "travelling Oxfam gender justice show" in Indonesia to change rural male attitudes towards women.
Another Oxfam project, reminiscent of the ACTU's Your Rights at Work campaign, instructs Thai workers in Australian-style industrial activism and encourages them to set up trade unions.
The Oxfam website describes how $18,690 of its tsunami relief fund is being spent on a theatre production to "help change attitudes toward women in Acehnese society".
A World Vision tsunami relief project in the Indonesian province of Aceh includes a lobbying campaign to advance land reform to promote gender equ