Vice President Cheney - 200 protesters at Brigham Young University turn out to rally against the Vice President speaking there - counter protesters (?) passed out brownies and asked students to sign a letter thanking Cheney got 400 sigs in 40 minutes.

Isn't it strange how the press always gives a number for the Anti crowd but never for the Pro crowd?  Could it be that's because the Pro crowd is larger than the Antis?  I'd say from the number of signatures thanking Vice President Cheney that the Pros were there in larger numbers.  Same thing happened at the Gathering of Eagles.
___________________________________________________

American University Karl Rove - According to a university spokesman, as Rove tried to leave a building, he was confronted by more than a dozen protesters. Some started throwing things at Rove and his car. Others tried to block his vehicle.
American University security guards moved in and forced the protesters away so Rove could leave. Campus police described the protest as peaceful, and there were no arrests.

"Campus police say the protest was peaceful".  Ok, since when is throwing objects at someone and ILLEGALLY detaining them by force "peaceful"?  I think the Faculity and the rent-a-cops at American University may be closet liberals.  Ya think? 
____________________________________________________

Erin Conaton, the committee's staff director, sent out the 15-page memo titled "Style Guide for Defense Authorization Report."

"When referencing military operations throughout the world, please be as specific as possible. Please avoid using colloquialisms such as, 'the war on terrorism, or the 'Long War' Please do not use the term 'global war on terrorism,' " according to the memo.

Are democrats really this stupid?  They really believe that by not calling the global war on terrorism the global war on terrorism it will make it not so.  Terrorism is war.....this is a war on a global scale.  The only Americans stupid enough to fall for this "play on words" are the ostrich-emulating defeatocrats.
____________________________________________________

Freshmen Angelopoulos and Anklesaria are both foreign citizens; Anklesaria is British and Angelopoulos is Greek. Akbar, a senior, was born in Pakistan, according to police, but is a U.S. citizen. Both Anklesaria and Angelopoulos had to turn over their passports (Yale students)

Aw come on boys will be boys.  They did admit it was a stupid thing to do.  I have news for them.  It would have been a lot more stupid if they had set the Flag on fire in front of me.  It would have been an experience they would never forget and always regret.
____________________________________________________

SAN FRANCISCO -- The lawyer and parents of an American-born Taliban soldier are asking President George W. Bush to commute his 20-year prison term.

John Walker Lindh was captured in Afghanistan in November 2001 by American forces sent to topple the Taliban after the 9/11 attacks.

He was charged with conspiring to kill Americans and supporting terrorists but pleaded guilty to lesser offenses, including carrying weapons against U.S. forces.
 

Lindh's lawyer and father said the one-year sentence given recently to Australian David Hicks should be reflected in Lindh's case. Attorney James Brosnahan said it's a question of fairness and proportionality.

Poor Taliban Johnny!  This......animal's lawyer seems to forget, Lindh was (I repeat was) an American.  He received a VERY light sentence to begin with.  He should have been executed by firing squad and I would have volunteered to pull a trigger!  If President Bush releases this punk, they also better deport him back to Afghanistan, because he certainly has no right to live in America!  Oh yes, his Mother thinks what he did was Patriotic!!!!!??????  She says, "It helped bridge the gap between the muslims and the west."  How the hell does she figure that!?  Delusional?  Definitely!

 
Opponents of a new executive branch lobbying reform bill working its way through the U.S. House of Representatives warn that it will impede an ordinary citizen's absolute right to communicate with government officials.<br>

Conservatives groups have expressed outrage over the proposed law — one that targets not just lobbyists but organizations trying to effect public policy.<br>

When Rep. Henry A. Waxman, chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform of the House, introduced H.R. 984, the Executive Branch Reform Act, last month, he promised it represented "good government" reform.<br>

Critics, however, think it should be renumbered "H.R. 1984" because of the looming specter of an Orwellian "Big Brother."<br>

As advertised, the legislation, among a host of other provisions, stops the practice of "secret" meetings between lobbyists and executive branch officials by requiring all political appointees and senior officials in federal agencies and the White House to report the contacts they have with lobbyists and other private parties seeking to influence official government action.<br>

The reports, which will be filed quarterly and maintained on a searchable database at the Office of Government Ethics, must disclose the dates of meetings, the parties involved, and the subject matters discussed.<br>

Reportedly, the Waxman bill, approved 28-0 by his committee on Feb. 14, may be incorporated into a broader "ethics reform" bill, on which the House may act at any time.<br>

The Senate passed its version of "ethics reform" legislation, S.1, in January, but it got stripped of any provision comparable to H.R. 984's reporting requirements.<br>

There are many concerns over the language in the controversial H.S. 984.<br>

"Not later than 30 days after the end of a calendar quarter, each covered executive branch official shall make a record of, and file with the Office of Government Ethics a report on, any significant contacts during the quarter between the covered executive branch official and any private party relating to an official government action. If no such contacts occurred, each such official shall make a record of, and file with the Office a report on, this fact, at the same time." <br>

Susan T. Muskett, an attorney with the National Right to Life Committee cringes at what she perceives as the overly broad verbiage.<br>

Muskett explains that under H.R. 984, thousands of executive branch officials would be required to file quarterly reports containing the timing and substantive details of "any significant contact" they receive on a policy matter — not only from lobbyists, but from any "private party" — a term defined in the bill to include "any person or entity" other than other government officials, or representatives of such officials such as congressional staff persons.<br>

The bill, she further explains, defines a "significant contact" as any "oral or written communication (including electronic communication) . . . in which such private party seeks to influence official action by any officer or employee of the executive branch of the United States."<br>

Opines Muskett: "The requirement would apply to communications whether they were one-way or two-way, and whether they were solicited or unsolicited. Every e-mail, fax, letter, or voicemail expressing a view on a policy matter would have to be reported.<br>

"Every conversation in which any ‘private party' expressed herself to an official on a policy matter would have to be reported — whether the conversation took place in a formal meeting, or on the phone, or in a random encounter at a church or synagogue, or in a private conversation with a spouse." <br>

Rev. Louis P. Sheldon, chairman and founder of the Traditional Values Coalition in Washington, D.C. is also up in arms about the Waxman bill.<br>

"H.R. 984 creates an elaborate and unneeded reporting system for executive branch officials — more than 8,000 — who will be required to file complicated reports four times a year," Shelton says.<br>

"Making a mistake can result in a $50,000 fine. Every contact made by executive branch employees must be recorded under Waxman-Davis [a Republican on the committee, Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia], even by the Armed Forces. "This is completely unreasonable . . .," argues Shelton. "The president would be bound up in reports." <br>

In February, Traditional Values Coalition was an integral part in successfully stripping Section 220 from S.1. when the Senate tried to pass a grass-roots lobby reform bill similar to the Waxman House bill. <br>

Muskett agrees with Shelton's fear of government executives being bond up in reports: "If an advocacy group anywhere on the ideological spectrum could obtain the voicemail or e-mail address of a covered government official, the group could essentially paralyze the official's office by using the Internet to generate tens of thousands of unsolicited ‘significant contacts,' each voicing boilerplate disagreement with an agency's policy on any matter — each of which would have to be individually logged and reported," she says. <br>

But if critics like Shelton and Muskett see the bill as too broad and sweeping, Waxman refers to it as necessarily "comprehensive." <br>

"It would end the secret meetings between special interests and government officials that characterized the operations of Vice President Cheney's energy task force. And it would expose the activities of influence-peddlers like Jack Abramoff to public scrutiny," Waxman argues. <br>

"This bill may be the most significant open-government legislation since the enactment of the Freedom of Information Act," he concludes. <br>

During Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearings, James A. Thurber, distinguished professor and director and founder of the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies at American University in Washington, D.C. buttressed Waxman's concerns. <br>

"One very public and striking example of the lack of transparency in executive branch lobbying was Vice President Cheney's Energy Task Force," Thurber testified.<br>

"Vice President Cheney — himself a former energy industry executive — met with top energy company officials to write the administration's energy plan. Despite repeated requests for transparency, through the disclosure of the names of these private interests and the minutes of the meetings, Government Accountability Office requests, and a court case, those meetings have remained secret," he added. <br>

"Less attention has been paid to the hundreds of secret meetings that happen each week between government executives and lobbyists for private interests who are seeking federal contracts or contract extensions, or who are seeking to influence changes in federal rules or regulatory policy."<br>

In addition to the reporting requirements, the Waxman bill:<br><br>

Creates a federal ban to prevent lobbyists who enter government from handing out favors to their former clients. In addition, government officials will be prohibited from negotiating future employment with private interests who are affected by their official actions. Officials who leave government to become lobbyists would not be able to lobby their former colleagues for two years (current law has only a one-year ban).<br>

Bars executives who worked for private contractors from awarding contracts to their former employers when they enter government. The bill also closes multiple loopholes in the law governing when government procurement officials can be hired by companies to whom they awarded contracts.<br>

Eliminates the use of unregulated "pseudo-classifications" such as "sensitive but unclassified" or "for official use only." The legislation would require the development of regulations and standards governing the use of any information control designations by federal agencies.<br>

Addresses the issue of government-sponsored covert propaganda by requiring the federal government to disclose its role in funding or disseminating messages to the American public.
Meanwhile, Shelton and his Traditional Values Coalition are wary of another bill — this one dealing with reporting requirements regarding citizen communication with the legislative branch.<br>

Language in the House Grassroots Lobby bill will make any person or group who alerts 500-plus people as to any issue to reporting four times a year on every single letter, phone call, e-mail, plus the cost, which they send out.<br>

Says Shelton: "It is clear that Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi intends to include in the measure a provision like Sec 220 that violates the First Amendment rights of citizens to freely petition their government which we stripped from the Senate bill."

My favorite "Stupidisms" Are noted in red, my comments to some are in blue.   Steve

Altman, Robert -  "If George W. Bush is elected president, I'm leaving for France."
      

Aniston, Jennifer - "Bush is a f**king idiot." 
      
Asner, Ed   - "We didn't have a free election in 2002."
      
Baldwin, Alec - "Bush wasn't elected, he was selected — selected by five judges up in Washington who voted along party lines."

Behar, Joy - "What I think we should do is draw up a petition, everybody sign in crayon, and then he'll [Bush] understand."

Belafonte, Harry - "I don't think that [U.S. President] George Bush...is a man of honor." 
 
Bernhard, Sandra - "The real terrorist threats are George W. Bush and his band of brown-shirted thugs." 
      
Carlin, George - "I especially like those terrorist fellows in the Middle East who run around blowing themselves up along with other people; they strike me as interesting guys. 

Cher - "I don't like Bush. I don't trust him. I don't like his record. He's stupid. He's lazy."  
      

Clennon, David - "I'm not comparing Bush to Adolf Hitler - because George Bush, for one thing, is not as smart as Adolf Hitler. And secondly George Bush has much more power than Adolf Hitler ever had."  
      
Clooney, George -"The problem is we elected a manager, and we need a leader. Let's face it: Bush is just dim."  "We can't beat anyone anymore."

Cusack, John - "... I'm not saying I loved Gore, but I'm saying I don't want that mother-f*cking Bush in the White House."
 
DiFranco, Ani - From her song Self Evident: "and we hold these truths to be self evident:
                     #1 george w. bush is not president
                     #2 america is not a true democracy
                     #3 the media is not fooling me"

Dixie Chicks - "Just so you know, we're ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas."
 
Duncan, Sandy -"I don't have all the facts, and who knows what's really the truth, but I don't really respect his (Bush's) way of dealing with this situation. It would have been great to have someone really, really smart in that office, and someone who is globally aware."
 
Farrell, Mike - On the Clinton war with Kosovo: 
"...the bottom line is that I think it's appropriate for the international community in situations like this to intervene. I am in favor of an intervention. ...On some level you have to say that at least somebody is doing something."
On the Bush war with Iraq: 
"It is inappropriate for the administration to trump up a case in which we are ballyhooed into war." 
      

Fonda, Jane - "I would think that if you understood what Communism was, you would hope, you would pray on your knees, that we would someday become communists." -- Michigan State University, 1970
                    

"I don't know if a country where the people are so ignorant of reality and of history, if you can call that a free world."
 

Garofalo, Janeane - "This [Iraq war] is a manufactured conflict for the sake of geopolitical dominance in the area. 
                          
"There is no evidence of weapons of mass destruction. You never even get that idea floated in the mainstream media. If you bring it up, they hate the messenger. You've ruined everyone's good time."
 
Gere, Richard - "Why is it when we have 10 million people in this country who say 'no,' we still have a president who says 'yes.' In a democracy, something's wrong here." (geez stupid what about the other 290 million!  Steve)
                       
 "Bush's plans for war are a bizarre bad dream. There doesn't appear to be any sort of basis for any this. I have a feeling something hidden is at work here that will someday see the light of day."
 

Glover, Danny - "It's basically this rabid nationalism that has its own kind of potential of being maniacal. As we march down and wave the flags, we must be sure of what we're waving them for.  "Something is happening now that is very dark and very sinister in this country, and for us to not admit it is happening is, in some ways, for us to be blind."
 
Goldberg, Whoopi - "I don't agree, you see, I don't really view communism as a bad thing."
 
Hagman, Larry - "[Bush is a] sad figure: not too well educated, who doesn't get out of America much. He's leading the country towards fascism."

"It's all the same to me, he wouldn't understand the word fascism anyway."

Harrelson, Woody - "This is a racist and imperialist war. The warmongers who stole the White House (you call them 'hawks', but I would never disparage such a fine bird) have hijacked a nation's grief and turned it into a perpetual war on any non-white country they choose to describe as terrorist."

Harris, Ed - "I haven't even been drinking, but, at all, but, you know, being a man, I've got to say that we've got this guy in the White House who thinks he is a man, you know, who projects himself as a man because he has a certain masculinity, and he's a good old boy, and he used to drink, and he knows how to shoot a gun and how to drive a pickup truck, etcetera like that. That's not the definition of a man, God Dammit!"

But this is being a man:

"She [my wife] has educated me over the 20 years we have been together to the point where she's got me in her hip pocket."

Hoffman, Dustin - "For me as an American, the most painful aspect of this is that I believe that administration has taken the events of 9/11 and has manipulated the grief of the country and I think that's reprehensible."
  
Hynde, Chrissie - "Have we gone to war yet? We (expletive) deserve to get bombed. Bring it on."

"Let's get rid of all the economic (expletive) this country represents! Bring it on, I hope the Muslims win!" (what a foolish woman......I guess she's a masochist)
      

Lange, Jessica - "The atmosphere in my country is poisonous, intolerable for those of us who are not right-wing" 
      
Lee, Spike - "They are trying to sell the world something that isn't true. When Donald Rumsfeld makes statements like,'If you don't support our war you are supporting terrorism,' I feel disgusted. They have shown no evidence of a link. This has nothing to do with disarmament. It's about oil. We all know Iraq is a country with a great reserve of natural resources. I find it difficult to buy what Bush is telling us about this being a moral war."  
      
Madonna - "If I were President, Howard Stern would get kicked out of the country -- and Roman Polanski would be allowed back in!"

 So how does "President Madonna" justify ejecting Citizen Stern for exercising his constitutional right to free speech -- but welcoming a foreigner who was 44 when convicted of raping a 13-year-old American child he plied with drugs and booze? She says it's "because artists are allowed to make mistakes and have unconventional ideas . . . !" (they need to get her into rehab!)
 
Matthews, Dave - "I fear that our true motivation is about oil and our own flailing economy; about the failure to destroy Al Qaeda and about revenge."
 
Moore, Michael(aka fat, ugly, and stupid) - Speaking about 9/11, "Many families have been devastated tonight. This just is not right. They did not deserve to die. If someone did this to get back at Bush, then they did so by killing thousands of people who DID NOT VOTE for him! Boston, New York, DC, and the planes' destination of California --these were places that voted AGAINST Bush!""... You know he's [Bush] there illegally. You know he was not elected either by the popular vote or the vote in Florida."... we know all those facts about Florida and what Katherine Harris did, and the private firm that took African-Americans off the voting rolls and prohibited them from voting. But I've been surprised in this first week how many average Americans were not aware of all of the trickery and deceit that took place in the year before the election to fix it for George W. Bush."
 
Mortensen, Viggo - "And now just because we focused on Iraq for many reasons, not the least of which is oil... and some kind of vendetta maybe that our President's father has... Who knows what the reasons are? It doesn't really matter" 
      

Norton, Edward - "As an actor I know in my mind, watching him [Bush], what a low-quality mind he has. Because I've been doing this since I was 5 years old, I know when a person is saying words that aren't their own -- and it's apparent as it could possibly be to me that he's a mouthpiece, and not even a good mouthpiece. [Ronald] Reagan was a B-movie actor, but at least he had the ability to touch certain emotional notes. Bush is just utterly incapable of it."(this from a man who's just admitted he's never done a real days waork in his life.)
 
Pearl Jam - "With three Supreme Court positions opening in the next administration, I'm frightened to think of a Republican in office, especially one raised by a father who was in the CIA. I'm moving to a different country if little Damien II gets elected." 
     
Penn, Sean - "I don't know if people value the thought of revolution any more. I think it would be an enormously patriotic movement to invest in the possibility of revolution." (sounds like advocating sedition here. Isn't that illegal?)
 
Robbins, Tim - The non-violent Robbins said to the journalist who interviewed Sarandon's Republican mother, "If you ever write about my family again, I will [bleeping] find you and I will [bleeping] hurt you."

"I'm against this whole 'Let's bomb a new country because things aren't going our way.' It's, let's change the subject from Cheney and Halliburton and the crumbling confidence in the stock market. Talk about cynical! Because it's the cost of human lives that I resent... to put American soldiers in harm's way and to do everything to change the subject so that Republicans can keep control of the House." 
      
 Roberts, Eric - "Bush is a "fascist" and a co-conspirator (with Osama bin Laden) in deliberately "wrecking the American economy."
 
Roberts, Julia - "Republican comes in the dictionary just after reptile and just above repugnant... I looked up Democrat. It's of the people, by the people, for the people." "He's embarrassing. He's not my president. He will never be my president."  (and Julia Roberts needs to look up the word stupid, she'll find her name there)
 
Sarandon, Susan - "I'm tired of being labelled anti-American because I ask questions." (poor baby....)
                        

"In the name of fear and fighting terror we are giving the reigns of power to oil men looking for distraction from their disastrous economic performance."
  
Scorsese, Martin - "There must be people who remember World War II and the Holocaust who can help us get out of this rut." 
      
Sheen, Martin - "George W Bush is like a bad comic working the crowd, a moron, if you'll pardon the expression." (no I don't pardon the expression you moron!)  Sheen declared of President Clinton: "I think he was probably the brightest President of the 20th century."

Q: When has it become criminal to express yourself in this country? 
Sheen: Right now.

Q: Assess the Bush Administration. 
 Sheen: In order to understand this Administration it is helpful to have a background in [Alcoholics Anonymous's] Twelve Step, because it is real clear to those of us who understand the Twelve Step program that these are very dysfunctional times. We live in a very dysfunctional society, and this is a very, very dysfunctional Administration. The proven way for this Administration to keep power is to keep us all in fear. As long as we are afraid of the unknown and afraid of each other, he, or anyone like him, can rule. It's like they will take responsibility for protecting us. It's when we take back the responsibility for protecting ourselves that they get scared. I am amazed by the level of arrogance within the Administration. 
 

Stone, Oliver - "They [corporations] control culture. They control ideas. And I think the revolt of September 11th was about 'F-- you! F-- your order!'"

"We should look to (Castro) as one of the Earth's wisest people, one of the people we should consult."
 
Streisand, Barbra - "We cannot let the right wing roll back more than thirty years of social progress."
                          
"We have a president who stole the presidency through family ties, arrogance and intimidation, employing Republican operatives to exercise the tactics of voter fraud by disenfranchising thousands of blacks, elderly Jews and other minorities."
 
Vidal, Gore - "I don't see us winning the war. We have made enemies of one billion Muslims."

"As dumb as this administration is, they don't look ahead. They don't know where any countries are. They don't know how to make deals. They don't really know much about anything. There is no plan."

"Whatever Saddam has that might be atrocious - mustard gas, pox, viruses - we will ensure that he uses it."

"Now you have people [in Washington] who have no interest in the country at all. They're interested in their companies, their corporations grabbing Caspian oil."

"The media [have] never been more disgusting in my lifetime. Every lie out of Washington - they're out there doing war dances."
 
Williams, Robin - "We're here tonight because of the Shrub, you know who I'm talking about. George W. Bush, Jr. The W stands for 'where the Hell is it?' You know, you look at George W. and you realize some men are born great, some achieve greatness, and some get it as a graduation gift. So sad. I just want to ask the   Secret Service, is it true that his Secret Service code name is Gilligan?"

 "We have a president for whom English is a second language. He's like 'We have to get rid of dictators,' but he's pretty much one himself."

• First, an unadmitted contempt for democracy. The U.S. is the world's most successful democracy. The right of voters to elect more than 80,000 public officials, the length and thoroughness of electoral campaigns, the pervasiveness of the media and the almost daily reports by opinion polls ensure that government and electorate do not diverge for long and that Washington generally reflects the majority opinion in its actions.

It is this feature that intellectuals--especially in Europe--find embittering. They know they must genuflect to democracy as a system. They cannot openly admit that an entire people--especially one comprising nearly 300 million, who enjoy all the freedoms--can be mistaken. But in their hearts these intellectuals do not accept the principle of one person, one vote. They scornfully, if privately, reject the notion that a farmer in Kansas, a miner in Pennsylvania or an auto assembler in Michigan can carry as much social and moral weight as they do. In fact, they have a special derogatory word for anyone who acts on this assumption: "populist." A populist is someone who accepts the people's verdict, even--and especially--when it runs counter to the intellectual consensus (as with capital punishment, for example). In the jargon of intellectual persiflage, populism is almost as bad as fascism--indeed, it's a step toward it. Hence, the argument goes, the U.S. is not so much an "educated democracy" as it is a media-swayed and interest-group-controlled populist regime.

The truth is, on the European Continent there is little experience of working democracy. Italy and Germany have had democracy only since the late 1940s; Spain, since the 1960s. France is not a democracy; it is a republic run by bureaucratic and party elites, whose errors are dealt with by strikes, street riots and blockades instead of by votes. Elements of the French system are being imposed throughout the EU, even in countries such as Denmark and Sweden that have long practiced democracy with success. In a French-style pseudodemocracy, intellectuals have considerable influence, at both government and street levels. In a true democracy, intellectuals are no more powerful than their arguments.

• Second, anti-Americanism is a function of cultural racism. An astonishingly high proportion of European elites know very little about U.S. history or culture and even deny that they have a separate existence apart from their European roots. It is strange that those seeking to bring about a European federal state or union have at no stage sought to study the lessons Americans learned during the creation of the U.S. in the 1780s. After all, the U.S. Constitution (suitably amended) has lasted for more than 200 years, and within its framework the country has emerged as the richest and most powerful society in world history. You might think, therefore, that European elites would seek to learn something from such a successful process. Not at all: The view is that sophisticated, civilized Europe has nothing to learn from "adolescent" America. What these Euro-elites particularly abhor is the way in which the framers of the Constitution made every effort to involve the population through the process of public debates, town meetings and ratification votes--and this at a time when Europe was still governed (for the most part) by the absolute sovereigns of the ancien régime.

This cultural racism is particularly directed at the supposedly "know-nothing" President George W. Bush and his "gung ho" Texas background. The European intelligentsia gets its notion of America chiefly from Hollywood, TV soaps like Dallas and fiction. Few of them have any experience of America, outside of three or four big cities. Middle America is unexplored territory. The fact that the U.S. has proved a highly efficient crucible for melding different peoples into a human sum greater than its constituent parts is seen as a misfortune in Europe because it produces a cultural stew that lacks purity of any kind and is therefore at the mercy of commercial forces.

• Third, European elites tend to look at Americans as a subcivilized mass, whose function is to be obedient consumers in a system run by big business. The role of competition in U.S. economic life--and in every other aspect of life--is ignored, because competition is something Continental Europeans like to keep to a minimum and under careful control.

Although Americans are seen as highly materialistic consumers, they are also despised and feared for their spiritual interests, their participation in religious worship and their subscription to creeds of morality. Europeans see no inconsistency in their condemnation of the U.S. for being at one and the same time paganly unethical and morally zealous.

The truth is, any accusation that comes to hand is used without scruple by the Old World intelligentsia. Anti-Americanism is factually absurd, contradictory, racist, crude, childish, self-defeating and, at bottom, nonsensical. It is based on the powerful but irrational impulse of envy--an envy of American wealth, power, success and determination. It is an envy made all the more poisonous because of a fearful European conviction that America's strength is rising while Europe's is falling.

Americans can do better. There are core ideas that should serve as a taproot for a consensus on how to understand and describe our enemies — and ultimately how to defeat them.

Specifically, we should:

1. Reject calls for appeasement. Believing that concessions will stem transnational terrorism would be a grave mistake.

Usama bin Laden, for example, has promoted attacks by arguing that the West is a "paper tiger" with little stomach for prevailing in a long war. Appeasement would only reinforce this belief.

One act of appeasement is the failure to call this conflict "war." Terrorists believe that they are at war with us. From their perspective, our failure to acknowledge this fact is an act of cowardice and weakness. Refusing to recognize that we are at war only encourages the enemy to be more warlike.

2. Acknowledge that there is no single enemy. Various terrorist networks pose different kinds of local, regional and global threats. Many different terrorist networks are at work around the world. The distinct threats posed by different terrorist groups require a differentiated U.S. policy custom-made for each group, not a one-size-fits-all approach.

3. Understand that poverty is not the "root cause" of terrorism. Many terrorists come from middle-class backgrounds and were indoctrinated and trained in Western Europe.

Terrorists purport that violence is an appropriate way to solve societal ills. Discrediting that belief is the first and most essential task in addressing the root causes of terrorism.

At the same time, the U.S. and its allies need to offer alternatives to terrorism that are real, credible and achievable means of making people free, safe and prosperous.

4. Accept that a Palestinian-Israeli peace deal will not defuse the terrorist threat. An enduring peace is clearly in the interest of all peoples in the Middle East, but terrorists are opposed to Israel's very existence as a sovereign state, not simply to making peace with it.

Additionally, many use the conflict as an excuse to push their own political agendas or to condone escalating violence. Their arguments only obscure the reality that a Palestinian-Israeli accord will not stop transnational terrorism.

5. Acknowledge that elections alone will not bring freedom and democracy. Elections alone are not democracy; they are the promise of democracy. Achieving peace and freedom takes years of effort and commitment.

As the U.S. has relearned from Iraq's difficult transition to a democratic society, free and fair elections do not guarantee freedom from terrorist attacks. Democracy comes from building the institutions that foster a resilient civil society, including freedom from corruption, upholding human rights, protecting freedom of the press and religious practice and ensuring equality of opportunity.

6. Remind audiences that many terrorist groups are revolutionary organizations that seek to impose their totalitarian ideology on Muslims as well as non-Muslims. Although Usama bin Laden seeks to provoke a clash of civilizations, he also promotes a clash within Islamic civilization. Al Qaeda has killed many thousands more Muslims than non-Muslims. Muslims have a major stake in defeating Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups because they are among the chief victims of their attacks and pay a heavy price when forced to live under terrorist regimes.

7. Not give up on moderate Muslims. Many Muslims reject terrorism, even in countries where the official rhetoric seems disturbingly warlike. Many Islamic scholars argue that terrorism — the intentional murder of innocents to achieve political goals — is completely illegitimate.

In some cases, moderate voices receive little notice in Western media. In other instances, individuals are fearful to speak out too loudly because of the threat from terrorists and their supporters. The U.S. should encourage Muslim political, religious and social leaders to denounce terrorism and cooperate in defeating terrorist groups.

Winning the war on terrorism will require understanding the enemy, delegitimizing its view of the world, offering a credible alternative, and demonstrating the will to prevail in the long war. Using the right words and ideas can help to speed the course to victory.

James Phillips is Research Fellow for Middle Eastern Affairs in the Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation, where James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., is Senior Research Fellow for National Security and Homeland Security.

March 23, 2007 
 An Historic Day

"Benchmarks without deadlines are just words, and, after four years of this war,
words are not enough."
- Speaker Pelosi

Today, the House of Representatives passed the U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans' Health, and Iraq Accountability Act by a vote of 218 to 212.  We made a critical choice—a choice to hold the Bush Administration and the Iraqi government accountable, and to set a responsible timeline for the redeployment of U.S. troops.

Our legislation fully supports our troops and ensures they have the tools and resources they need to do they job they have been asked to do. It prohibits the deployment of troops who are not “fully mission capable” – fully trained, equipped, and protected.  It also honors the promises made to our veterans, funding our obligation to the new generation of veterans.

By requiring the Iraqi government to meet key security, political, and economic benchmarks that President Bush himself has laid out, we are holding the Iraqi government accountable.  Failure to meet these benchmarks will mean the beginning of U.S withdrawal from Iraq and will restrict economic aid to the Iraqis.

The redeployment of our troops will allow us to focus more fully on the real war on terror, which is in Afghanistan.  This bill takes giant steps toward putting resources into that war, which has been nearly forgotten by the Bush Administration.

President Bush continues to offer an open-ended commitment to a war that cannot be resolved militarily.  Today, the House of Representatives passed legislation that will, for the first time, set a date for the withdrawal of our troops from Iraq and begin to end the war.

Watch highlights from the debate on the Speaker's blog, The Gavel.

Watch Speaker Pelosi's speech.

Gulf Coast Recovery

This week, the House passed the Gulf Coast Housing Recovery Act, addressing the housing needs of the survivors of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.  This legislation is the first of several bills that the House will soon consider to address the unmet needs of Gulf Coast residents.

The bill will speed up the repair and rebuilding of homes and affordable rental housing in affected areas, ensure continued rental assistance for displaced families and those who have moved back home, and provide reimbursements to communities and landlords that generously assisted evacuees.

While increasing the availability of housing, House Democrats have also been working to strengthen oversight and repair the corruption and no-bid contracts that plagued the Gulf Coast following the hurricanes. Last week, the House passed the Accountability in Contracting Act, requiring federal agencies to limit the use of abuse-prone contracts and increase transparency and accountability in federal contracts. The Oversight Committee has proven that under the Bush Administration, the “shadow government” of private companies working under federal contract has exploded in size. Between 2000 and 2005, procurement spending increased by over $175 billion dollars, making federal contracts the fastest growing component of federal discretionary spending.

We will continue the work we have begun on behalf of the American people affected by the hurricanes. We will clean up the damage that has been done by Republican refusal to sufficiently fund the recovery of the Gulf Coast, and we will work to ensure those in the region have access to secure and affordable housing, quality health care, and safe communities to call home.

Learn more about the Gulf Coast Housing Recovery Act.

Global Warming

This week, former Vice President Al Gore testified on global warming at an Energy and Commerce Committee hearing.  As a global leader on combating climate change, Al Gore has been both an educator and an agitator – spurring so many to take real action.  He presented Congress with challenging and creative ideas, and made a compelling case for the urgency to act.

House Committees are already working hard on hearings and legislation that will take crucial steps to achieve energy independence and reduce activities that contribute to global warming.  The newly created Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming will raise the visibility of these urgent issues and gather critical information to protect America’s security.  We are going to take bold action throughout this Congress to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, stop global warming, and ensure that America is in the forefront in developing innovative technologies.  These decisions are critical to our national security and to the creation of millions of jobs here in America.

The time to take that action is now.  We hold our children’s future in our hands – not our grandchildren, or great-grandchildren, but our own children.  As the most adaptable creatures on the planet, it is time for us to adapt.

Watch Vice President Gore's testimony.
 

I am the State Leader for Iowa in this event.  Please volunteer and lets do this!  Let's show the World how proud we are of our Soldiers!

Steve

The issue of Sen. Barack Obama’s Muslim past has surfaced again as his campaign steps back from its flat denial that he ever belonged to the Islamic faith.

Earlier this year several media outlets reported that Obama had attended a radical madrasa, or Islamic school, when he lived in Indonesia. At the time, Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs declared: “To be clear, Senator Obama has never been a Muslim, was not raised a Muslim, and is a committed Christian who attends the United Church of Christ in Chicago.”

The report about the radical madrasa turned out to be false.

Now, in a statement to the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday, Gibbs amended that declaration, saying: “Obama has never been a practicing Muslim,” the key word being “practicing.”

But a boyhood friend of Obama in Indonesia, Zulfin Adi, told the Times: “His mother often went to the church, but Barry [Barack’s name at the time] was Muslim. He went to the mosque.”

The Times sent a reporter to Jakarta, capital of the Muslim nation, to delve into an issue that could have a serious impact on the Democratic presidential candidate’s White House aspiration, as voters “react to a candidate with an early exposure to Islam, a religion that remains foreign to many Americans,” the Times noted.

Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, to Barack Hussein Obama Sr., a Kenyan, and Kansas-born Ann Dunham. The couple separated when Barack was 2. They later divorced, and Dunham married Lolo Soetoro, a Muslim. In 1967, the family moved to Jakarta, where Obama was known as Barry Soetoro, and he remained there from age 6 to 10.

Obama attended first grade at a Catholic elementary school near his home, St. Francis of Assisi Foundation School, which accepted students of any religion.

His first-grade teacher Israella Dharmawan told the Times: “At that time, Barry was also praying in a Catholic way, but Barry was Muslim. He was registered as a Muslim because his father was Muslim.”

In the third grade, Obama transferred to a public school, where he was also registered as a Muslim.

Muslim students at the school attended weekly religion lessons about Islam, taught by a Muslim.

In his autobiography, “Dreams From My Father,” Obama mentions studying the Quran and describes the public school as “a Muslim school.”

Boyhood friend Adi said Obama occasionally went to Friday prayers at a local mosque.

“We prayed but not really seriously, just following actions done by older people in the mosque,” he told the Times.

Sometimes, when the call to prayer sounded, Barry and Lolo would walk to the mosque together, Adi added.

Obama’s half-sister Maya Soetoro, in a statement issued Wednesday by the Obama campaign, said the family attended the mosque only for “big communal events.”

New revelations about Obama’s Muslim past could provide ammunition for his critics — and political opponents.

One such critic is Chicago-based Internet journalist and broadcaster Andy Martin, a lawyer and consumer advocate who wrote earlier about Obama’s connection to Islam.

Reacting to the claim from Obama’s sister that the family went to the mosque only for “big communal events,” Martin wrote on Thursday: “Tens of millions of ‘Christians’ flock to churches for Easter and Christmas. And they would slap you down if you told them they were not Christians merely because they only appear twice a year for ‘big communal events.’”

He also wrote: “Obama no longer denies he was a Muslim. Now he says he wasn’t a ‘practicing’ Muslim.

“People in general will accept most anything from public officials as long as they don’t lie about it.”

Some customers called and wrote Target to complain about the practice; a few called for a general boycott of Target on the Star Tribune's community blog, buzz.mn.

After the story appeared, Target asked Muslim cashiers who refuse to handle pork to wear gloves or transfer to other areas of the stores. In some cases, Muslim cashiers will be given the option of transferring to other stores. "We are confident that this is a reasonable solution for our guests and team members," Target spokeswoman Paula Thornton-Greear said in a statement. It remains unclear whether wages would be affected by any job transfers; cashiers are generally entry-level positions at Target.

"Blown way out of proportion"

The move is an effort by Target to balance the religious rights of its employees with customer demands for prompt service. However, some Somali Muslims in the Twin Cities said that the retailer is overreacting to public pressure and that stores should be able to accommodate Muslim cashiers without disrupting service.

"This is being blown way out of proportion," said Abdi Sheikhosman, a professor of Islamic law at the University of Minnesota Law School. "Pork products represent a very small percentage of Target's overall products. ... Accommodations could have been made."

Target's new policy is similar to ones at other grocery stores in the area. Spokespeople for the chains that operate Cub and Rainbow food stores said Muslims who share concerns about pork during the interview process are told of opportunities in departments such as dairy, floral or customer service that don't involve handling pork.

"There are many jobs in the grocery store that do not involve handling pork," said Vivian King, a spokeswoman for Roundy's, which owns Rainbow stores.

Each Target store appears to have some leeway in implementing the new policy. At the downtown Minneapolis Target, employees were called into one-on-one meetings Thursday and asked whether they were opposed to handling pork for religious reasons. Those who said yes were told they could no longer work as cashiers during the store's busiest hours, 12 p.m. to 1:30 p.m., according to an employee at the store who requested anonymity.

At the SuperTarget off Hwy. 7 in St. Louis Park, which has a full grocery section, Muslim cashiers who said they refuse to handle pork were transferred Thursday to the sales floor to stock shelves or fold clothes. It remained unclear whether that change is permanent. The store manager declined to be interviewed, and Thornton-Greear said the company wouldn't discuss the situation at specific stores.

Suhara Robla, a 20-year-old employee at the store, said more than a dozen Muslim cashiers were asked Thursday to do other jobs. "They told all of us who don't touch pork to go to the sales floor," she said. "They really didn't say why. They just said it was a new policy."

Sinful to sell pork?

Many Muslims believe the pig is an unclean animal and consider it a sin to eat pork. The Qur'an has multiple passages in which Allah instructs believers to avoid eating pig flesh. It is so core to their beliefs that some consider it sinful to sell the meat, because that encourages others to participate in a sinful act.

In the Muslim world, there is even a stronger taboo against pork than alcohol, said Owais Bayunus, an imam at the Abu Khudra Mosque in Columbia Heights. Wearing gloves will not solve the issue, he said. "There is a school of thought within the Muslim community that if you sell pork or alcohol to someone, then you are contributing to the propagation of a sinful activity," he said. "Many Muslims do not want to see non-Muslims involved in a sinful product."

At Target stores, some Muslim cashiers opposed to selling pork had grown accustomed to waving over other employees whenever they came across bacon, ham or other pork products, even pepperoni pizza. In many cases, they simply switched on a little light above their registers and another cashier would rush to their side and swipe the product for them.

The practice seemed to work well for Robla. She said she needed help scanning pork products only "about two or three times a day." In other cases, customers would volunteer to swipe the items themselves.

Occasionally, however, Robla said, people would get annoyed when she told them it was because of her religion. "Some people would say, 'If you won't scan it, then I don't want this thing,' " she said. "I don't understand it. Some people don't even want to wait a few seconds."

Mohamed Muse, who also works at the St. Louis Park store but not as a cashier, has no problems with the new policy. "If someone is trying to buy pork, you can't just say, 'Wait here,' " he said. "You can't put a hold on the work system."

Muse, speaking to a reporter Friday afternoon at the Somali mall just off Lake Street, said when he applied for his job six months ago, a human-resources worker asked him whether he could handle pork. Muse, who arrived in the country eight months ago after immigrating with his family from Nairobi, Kenya, said no. "They said OK. So I work mostly with fruits and vegetables overnight," he said. "It was really no problem."

Still, he understands some of the controversy, which has included discussions on area talk-radio stations. "People are sensitive," he said. "They say, 'You are trying to force me to [your] religion! You are losing my time!' All that stuff."

Homeland Security: Authorities across the pond now fear that even more Muslims - possibly numbering in the thousands - are plotting terror. On this end, however, U.S. officials still can't see anything in the pipeline.

Either the British have better intelligence than we do, or we don't have any radicalized Muslim communities here in America. Sanguine U.S. authorities are guessing the latter.

Responding to new alarms raised by the Brits, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff says not to worry, the threat inside America is less severe. He maintains that this country doesn't have the kind of "pockets" of concentrated radicals seen in Britain, where terrorists can find support and plot with virtual impunity.

Chertoff must not get out much.

Right across the Potomac from his office is the second-highest concentration of Muslims in the country. Baileys Crossroads, Va., is teeming with Islamic radicals just as hostile to the U.S. government as their counterparts in London.

Baileys Crossroads is the heart of the Wahhabi corridor, which includes the safe houses where the hijackers stayed and the mosque where they and dozens of other terrorists have worshipped.

Another area mosque preached to members of the Virginia Jihad Network, who plotted to kill American soldiers after 9/11 and praised the space shuttle Columbia disaster as a "good omen" for Islam.

The area also includes two luxury apartment high-rises that erupted into cheers when the World Trade Center fell on 9/11. Law enforcement has dubbed them the "Taliban Towers." Investigators routinely find posters and computer screen savers celebrating Osama bin Laden as a hero.

Down the street is a Saudi charitable front for al-Qaida once run by bin Laden's nephew. The U.S. branch of the dangerous Muslim Brotherhood is in the same office park. Farther down in Alexandria is the Saudi madrassa that's graduated several terrorists, including the al-Qaida operative who plotted to assassinate President Bush.

Agents on the ground working the inordinate number of terror cases in the area say it's no less than the base of operations for the bad guys in America - and it's right in Chertoff's backyard.

Despite raid after raid, however, none of the entities along the Wahhabi corridor has been shut down. Thanks to institutionalized political correctness and Saudi Embassy complaints, the terror-supporting infrastructure has not been dismantled.

The Brits turned a blind eye to radicalism in their backyard, but no more. They're finally cracking down.

We haven't learned our lesson for some odd reason. To suddenly decree this side of the pond a radical-free zone after what happened here just over five years ago is fatuous.

The hijackers didn't operate in isolation, like visitors from outer space. They were secreted inside the Muslim community for well over a year, and got substantial aid and comfort from dozens of facilitators at no less than seven mosques from coast to coast. Some knew the evil they planned and helped them anyway.

Assimilation? Hardly. In Baileys Crossroads, skinned goats are delivered daily to several halal butcher shops located in shopping centers where all the signs are in Arabic. Women shop in head-to-toe black abayas.

You'd never know this is a suburb of the nation's capital. Concerned longtime residents have seen it turn into "Northern Virginiastan."

The pundits who mouth pleasant platitudes about American Muslims being more "integrated" have never spent much time in Northern Virginia, or for that matter, in Bridgeview, Ill.; or Jersey City, N.J.; or Dearborn, Mich., where residents are routinely subjected to rallies and marches for Hezbollah and other terror groups, along with calls to pray blasted over mosque loudspeakers five times a day.

These places look and sound more like little Cairos than any American city, and they provide perfect cover for Muslim terrorists and their supporters.

Terror experts say there are hundreds if not thousands of potential suicide bombers already established inside the Muslim communities in America. They need to be ferreted out

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Members of extremist groups have signed up as school bus drivers in the United States, counterterror officials said Friday, in a cautionary bulletin to police. An FBI spokesman said "parents and children have nothing to fear."

Asked about the alert notice, the FBI's Rich Kolko said "there are no threats, no plots and no history leading us to believe there is any reason for concern," although law enforcement agencies around the country were asked to watch out for kids' safety.

The bulletin, parts of which were read to The Associated Press, did not say how often foreign extremists have sought to acquire licenses to drive school buses, or where. It was sent Friday as part of what officials said was a routine FBI and Homeland Security Department advisory to local law enforcement.

It noted "recent suspicious activity" by foreigners who either drive school buses or are licensed to drive them, according to a counterterror official who read parts of the document to The Associated Press.

Foreigners under recent investigation include "some with ties to extremist groups" who have been able to "purchase buses and acquire licenses," the bulletin says.

But Homeland Security and the FBI "have no information indicating these individuals are involved in a terrorist plot against the homeland," it says. The memo also notes: "Most attempts by foreign nationals in the United States to acquire school bus licenses to drive them are legitimate."

Kolko said the bulletin was sent merely as an educational tool to help local police identify and respond to any suspicious activity.

It was not immediately clear whether the extremists intended to do with the school buses. One counterterror official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said it was likely that the foreigners investigated were merely employed as bus drivers, and did not intend to use them as part of any terror plot.

Steve

Steve

WASHINGTON —  Republicans handed Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid a defeat on the Iraq issue Thursday, voting down a proposal that would withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq by March 31, 2008.

The vote was 50-48 against the measure, 12 short of the 60 needed for passage.

Democrats aggressively challenged President Bush's Iraq policy at both ends of the Capitol building, gaining House committee approval for a troop withdrawal deadline of Sept. 1, 2008, but suffering defeat in the Senate.

Anti-war Democrats prevailed on a near-party line vote of 36-28 in the House Appropriations Committee, brushing aside a week-old veto threat and overcoming unyielding opposition from Republicans.

"I want this war to end. I don't want to go to any more funerals," said New York Rep. Jose Serrano, one of several liberal Democrats who have pledged their support for the legislation despite preferring a faster end to the war.

"Nobody wants our troops out of Iraq more than I do, countered Rep. C.W. Bill Young a Republican, who sought unsuccessfully to scuttle the timeline for a troop withdrawal. "But we can't afford to turn over Iraq to Al Qaeda."

In the Senate, after weeks of skirmishing, Republicans easily turned back Democratic legislation requiring a troop withdrawal to begin within 120 days. The measure set no fixed deadline for completion of the redeployment, but set a goal of March 31, 2008. The Iraq debate spilled over to the 2008 campaign for the White House.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, a Democratic presidential candidate, said in a New York Times interview that if elected she would maintain a scaled-down American military force in Iraq that would stay off the streets in Baghdad and no longer would try to protect Iraqis from sectarian violence.

She cited "remaining vital national security interests" for a continued deployment of U.S. troops in Iraq aimed at fighting al-Qaida, deterring Iran, protecting Kurds and possibly supporting the Iraqi military, the newspaper reported Wednesday night on its Web site.

She said her plan was consistent with the Senate resolution, saying it called for "a limited number" of troops to stay in Iraq to protect the U.S. Embassy and other personnel, train and equip Iraqi forces and conduct "targeted counterterrorism operations."

While the House bill is unlikely to sail through unchecked, Democrats say its passage — even if by a slim majority — would be a loud message to the president to end the war. Pelosi was trying to line up votes from party liberals who want troops out of Iraq sooner than the 2008 deadline, as well as more conservative Democrats who are concerned the bill would micromanage the war.

A total of 10 peaceful anti-war protesters were arrested, both inside the committee room and outside the building where the debate was unfolding.

Sgt. Kimberly Schneider of the Capitol Police said they would be charged with unlawful assembly and disorderly conduct. "They were being loud and boisterous. They were told to stop and they didn't so they were arrested," she said.

Six Muslim imams ordered off a US Airways flight at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport last November want to hold the airline responsible for how it treated them, one of the imams on the flight said at a press conference today at the Council on American-Islamic Relations' office in Washington, D.C.
The imams filed a discrimination lawsuit Monday against the airline and the Metropolitan Airports Commission, claiming they were removed from the plane because of their race and religion.

"To date, we continue to be defamed and feel anxiety every time we fly," Didmar Faja said today. "We are respected community leaders and this incident has caused us extreme harm."

Omar T. Mohammedi, whose New York City law firm is representing the imams, said this is not the first case against a U.S. airline for discrimination and it won't be the last.

A few dozen peace activists marched across the Golden Gate Bridge and gathered outside the San Francisco home of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday, demanding that Congress stop funding the war in Iraq.

“San Francisco has been against this war from the very beginning,” said Toby Blome, a physical therapist who organized the event. “This is our fifth year of the war, and Nancy needs to wake up and represent San Franciscans.”

Nowhere in the article does it explicitly say that the protest was organized by Code Pink. However, a quick Google search turned up this picture which proves Ms. Blome’s ties to Code Pink:

Here’s more from the article:

The rally is the most recent “occupation” activists have staged in lawmakers’ offices on Capitol Hill and in their home communities. U.S. Rep. Rahm Emanuel’s office in Chicago was targeted on Thursday, and peace activists dressed in pink showed up recently at the Senate offices of presidential hopefuls John McCain and Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Other recent protest targets include Reps. Marcy Kaptur of Ohio and David Obey of Wisconsin and Sens. Richard Durbin of Illinois and Barbara Mikulski of Maryland. All four Democrats voted against the 2002 measure authorizing the war.

We know how well the meeting with David Obey went, don’t we? What’s a poor anti-war fanatic supposed to do? Here’s how Ms. Pelosi responded:

“Speaker Pelosi shares the concerns of the protesters about the disastrous war in Iraq. The Speaker has put the House of Representatives on course to chart a new direction for the American people and the war in Iraq,” said Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill, in a statement.

“Led by the Speaker, Democrats have put forward legislation that will measure the Iraqi government’s actions by the standards President Bush himself set, conforms deployment of our troops to existing military standards for readiness and provides badly needed help to an overburdened military and veterans’ medical system wracked by scandal.”

Ms. Pelosi essentially said “I’m with you…until there’s a difficult decision to be made. Then I’ll pay lip service to you, then ignore you as best I can.” That’s a profile in courage, isn’t it?

Illinois Sen. Barack Obama on Sunday told a small group of Iowa Democrats that U.S. policy in the Middle East can be compassionate as well as tough, while he also provided these influential voices in the leadoff caucus state with an up-close view of him as a presidential candidate.

Obama told the Muscatine-area party activists that he supports relaxing restrictions on aid to the Palestinian people. He said they have suffered the most as a result of stalled peace efforts with Israel.

“Nobody is suffering more than the Palestinian people,” Obama said while on the final leg of his weekend trip to eastern Iowa. “If we could get some movement among Palestinian leadership, what I’d like to see is a loosening up of some of the restrictions on providing aid directly to the Palestinian people,” he added.

What a joke. Obama has a charisma that Hillary is envious of (and that Bill had) but he’s utterly clueless when it comes to foreign policy. The Palestinian people elected a bunch of terrorists to their government. To think of Palestinians as victims denies the fact that their votes installed Hamas as their official government. As is always the case, people get the government they deserve. In this instance, they deserved a terrorist government. It’s impossible for me to feel sorry for the Palestinians when they voted for this disaster.

Israel’s survival as a powerful democratic ally in the Middle East must remain a top priority, Obama said. “There is also no doubt that we have a huge strategic stake in bringing about a peaceful resolution to the conflict,” he said. But the United States cannot broker that resolution until the Palestinian government recognizes the nation of Israel.

This is typical Obama. First he says that a President Obama would loosen up the restrictions on aid to the Palestinian people, then he says that we can’t broker a deal with the Palestinian government until they recognize Israel’s right to exist. HELLO!!! The Palestinian government is Hamas. Hamas won’t recognize Israel’s right to exist. They’ll say something that gets aid flowing to them but they’ll never admit that Israel has a right to exist.

Statements like that should scare everyone of an Obama presidency. He’s utterly wishy-washy and clueless on foreign policy. He’s as much of an empty suit as John Edwards is.