Sunday is July 4th, Independence Day.

As I’ll be travelling east on a small piece of business after the weekend and the interval in-between will be pretty well taken up by preparations (prepping my maritime home for my absence) for the trip, which will be of indeterminate length, and on Sunday, of course, a few old comrades and I will be celebrating the birthday of the Declaration of Independence with a get-together including the usual old war stories, steak, shots and brewskies.

So, to commemmorate the 4th with a dose of related political commentary thrown in, I’ve decided that Newt Gingrich’s 2010 tribute says everything that needs to be said.

This Sunday, July 4th, we will once again celebrate our nation’s founding, marking the day in 1776 that the Continental Congress formally adopted the Declaration of Independence.

The Declaration of Independence was intended to be an official statement explaining why the 13 American colonies had declared their independence from Great Britain. In the years following its passage, however, this statement of principles about the rights of man grew to mean much more.

America became the only country in history founded, as Leo Strauss explained, “in explicit opposition to Machiavellian principles,” by which he meant crass, power politics. Instead, America was founded on a set of clearly expressed “self-evident” truths. Thomas Jefferson said the Declaration was “intended to be an expression of the American mind,” and indeed, no document since has so succinctly and so eloquently spelled out the spirit of America.

Our country has evolved out of the timeless truths expressed in the Declaration of Independence to develop a distinct character and set of values that distinguishes us from even other Western democracies.

This holiday, it is worth taking a look at how several key phrases from the Declaration of Independence have served as definitional statements about the aspirations of America, and how those words of our Founding Fathers’ have affected America in the 234 years since they were written.

To continue:

“…all men are created equal”

The Founding Fathers who authored the Declaration were the first people in the history of the world ever to express our natural equality as a principle of government in such an unqualified way. Though neither the Constitution that followed nor the Founders personally quite fulfilled the promise of those words, it has since been the project of our country to accomplish them.

America came though to recognize that we are not all literally equal—we are born with different capabilities and attributes, and to different stations in life—the words of the founders capture the truth that we must treat each other as equals. We are “created equal” in the sense that all men (and, we now recognize, all women) have the same natural rights, granted to them by God. We are all the same under the law.

…the same natural rights, granted to them by God.

“…endowed by their Creator”

The core contention of the Declaration of Independence and the principle of natural rights upon which America was founded is that there is a higher moral order upon which the laws of man must be based. The Declaration asserts the existence of “the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God,” which had a clear meaning in 18th Century England and America. It referred to the will of God as displayed by the natural order of the world.

John Locke, who was widely read by the leaders of colonial America, wrote in his Second Treatise on Government: “Thus the law of nature stands as an eternal rule of all men, legislators as well as others. The rules that they make for other men’s actions, must … be conformable to the law of nature, i.e., to the will of God.”

William Blackstone, who was arguably the single greatest influence on the creation of the American legal system, wrote in Commentaries on the Laws of England, “As man depends absolutely upon his Maker for everything, it is necessary that he should at all points conform to his maker’s will.”

“…the pursuit of happiness”

Here again we see the influence of the English and Scottish enlightenment on the Founding Fathers. For writers such as John Locke and Francis Hutcheson, the term “happiness” meant something close to “wisdom and virtue.” It did not mean hedonism or other shallow pleasures as the term is too often confused to mean today.

It is also essential to note that the Declaration does not say that we have a right to have happiness provided to us. It says we have the right to pursue happiness – an active verb. As I point out in jest to audiences in my speeches, the Declaration says nothing about a right to redistribution of happiness. It says nothing about happiness stamps. It does not say some people can be too happy and that government should make them less happy out of a sense of fairness.

The above emphasis is mine. Perhaps at least one or two “progressives” might be able, as John Hancock said upon signing his bold signature on the Declaration of Independence, of King George, to read those passages without having to put on their spectacles. Hopefully so that the words register!

A bedrock belief of American conservatism is a respect for the established traditions and values of American culture. Conservatives believe from the time the first colonists landed in Jamestown, America took on a unique culture and set of values that have set us apart from our European cousins: a belief in natural rights, strong religious faith and values, the importance of the work ethic, and a spirit of community that manifests itself in a belief in limited government and strong civic participation. It is this set of beliefs – truths enshrined in the Declaration of Independence – that have made America so successful, and they deserve to be protected.

The modern Left – what I describe in my book To Save America as a “secular-socialist machine” – is using every lever of power at its disposal to dismantle our unique American civilization and replace it with a secular, bureaucratic culture in which government is big, citizens are small, and our rights are defined by the state rather than endowed by our Creator. Equality under the law is being discarded in favor of equality of results; consent of the governed is being subverted by an increasingly overbearing federal bureaucracy and imperial judiciary; and the pursuit of happiness is being undermined by a redistributive welfare state that kills the can-do, entrepreneurial spirit of America.

This July 4th, I hope you will take time to read the Declaration of Independence and consider the truths about our rights and freedoms contained within. I hope you will take time to appreciate the sacrifices made by the founding generation and generations since to secure our liberty.

But most of all, I hope you will take time to appreciate the greatness of America and how hard we must be willing to work to preserve that which makes it so special.

Happy Independence Day.

Your friend,
Newt

And from Hard Astarboard (Seth, Wolf and I) as well, Happy Independence Day.

From The Israel Project.

2 Israelis attacked in Berlin nightclub

Police probing whether assault by man who identified himself as Palestinian was anti-Semitic

I don’t think they’ll have to probe too deep on this one, or, more to the point “Duh!”

************

Jewish dance group stoned in Hanover, Germany

German police are investigating the stoning of a Jewish dance group trying to perform on the street in the city of Hanover.

Youths reportedly shouted “Juden Raus” (Jews Out) as they attacked the dancers of the Chaverim (”Friends” in Hebrew) dance troupe last weekend.

Police said several Muslim immigrant youths were among the attackers and two youths were being questioned.

A German Jewish leader said she feared growing anti-Israeli sentiment.

…several Muslim immigrant youths were among the attackers…

Who’d'a thunk it!?

Unrelated to Germany, meanwhile:

Israel’s hard-line foreign minister said Tuesday there was “no chance” a Palestinian state would be established by 2012 — a message that threatened to cloud the latest visit by President Obama’s Mideast envoy.

The comments by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman drew swift Palestinian condemnations and could put Israel at odds with the international community, which has set a 2012 target for brokering a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians.

“As an optimist, I see no chance that a Palestinian state will be established by 2012,” Mr. Lieberman said at a news conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. “We can express interest, we can dream, but in reality, we are still far from reaching understandings and agreements on establishing an independent state by 2012.”

Can you blame him?

I’ve always thought that a strange title for an organization that’s more a Murder Incorporated for defenseless unborn, but very much alive, babies.

Naturally, since baby murder goes well, somehow, with the doctrine that’s become popular among our intellectual elite and the “progressive” politicians they elect, it is also supported by the mainstream media who, as we know, have a habit of reporting only what is convenient for the public to know in order to press their political agendas. As often as not, there are a few twists, spins and, to those who actively seek the truth, some profoundly loud omissions.

Fortunately, there are a few honest journalists out there, including those who write for the Culture and Media Institute.

Speaking of which…

Media Ignore Planned Parenthood’s $1.3 Billion Federal Funding Discrepancy

Networks and newspapers silent on government report contradicting abortion group’s taxpayer funding figures.

If $1.3 billion is unaccounted for and the media don’t report it, did it really happen?

According to an American Life League review of Planned Parenthood’s annual reports, the organization received more than $2 billion in federal grants and contracts between 2002 and 2008. A June 16 Government Accountability Report, however, found that the organization spent just $657.1 million of taxpayer money in the same time period.

The $1.3 billion discrepancy failed to catch the attention of the nation’s major media outlets. None of the networks (ABC, CBS and NBC) or major newspapers (Los Angeles times, The New York Times, USA Today and The Washington Post) reported it.

A Culture and Media Institute review of coverage found that only one newspaper listed among Nexis’ “major newspapers” – The Houston Chronicle – even mentioned the GAO report. The Chronicle’s June 16 article noted that Planned Parenthood spent $657 million of federal money over seven years, but did not mention the income/outlay discrepancy.

Amazing, here are all these media institutions in whom the public place their (I would say “our”, except I don’t trust those leftist turds, not me) trust for news, and only one of them even seems to “know” about a “discrepancy” on the part of an organization that our government siphons hundreds of millions of our hard earned tax dollars to.

Don’t Follow the Money

The media have made Planned Parenthood a go-to source for several stories over the last six months, including debate over abortion language in health care reform legislation, the trial of the activist who killed abortionist Dr. George Tiller, and the 50th anniversary of the Pill.

From Dec. 28, 2009, to June 28, 2010, the broadcast networks and the “Big 4” newspapers mentioned Planned Parenthood 56 times in news stories. None of those stories mentioned the GAO report, and only one article reported the amount of federal money going to Planned Parenthood.

The February 27 article in The New York Times mentioned an investigative operation by pro-life activist Lila Rose which found Planned Parenthood clinics willing to accept donations from people who wanted African American babies aborted. A separate New York Times report on January 28 characterized the investigation as “prank calls” to Planned Parenthood.

Four reports referred to state funding of Planned Parenthood, but did not mention federal resources granted to the organization.

Planned Parenthood’s 2008 Annual Report says $349.6 million in taxpayer-funded grants and contracts accounted for more than a third (36 percent) of the organization’s income that year, second only to health center revenue. Federal funding for Planned Parenthood has increased by 45 percent since 2001-2002, when it received a reported $240.9 million from taxpayers.

While federal orders mandate that government money not be used directly for abortions, pro-life advocates point out that federal money used to cover non-abortion costs frees up private money to pay for abortions.

“Frees it up.”

Favorite Experts

Planned Parenthood is by far the most cited pro-abortion group when it comes to national media coverage. In the last six months, 30 broadcast and print reports have quoted Planned Parenthood representatives and another 26 have mentioned the organization.

The 56 mentions of Planned Parenthood dwarf other pro-abortion groups, including the National Organization for Women (30) and NARAL Pro-Choice America (15).

When abortion was a major focus of health care reform debates, the media turned to Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards and other affiliated representatives to statements and analysis. When the media celebrated the 50th anniversary of “the Pill,” the media commemorated Planned Parenthood’s role in making it possible.

A February 26 profile in The Washington Post painted a glowing picture of abortion doctor Carol Ball. The article described a “difficult time” for Ball and other doctors who perform late term abortions in South Dakota.

When Planned Parenthood produced an ad in response to Focus on the Family’s pro-life Super Bowl ad, the media praised it. USA Today noted it “defend[ed] abortion rights,” although the Focus on the Family ad did not target abortion “rights.”

The New York Times on January 27 turned to Richards on the increase in teen pregnancy rates, and she used the opportunity bash abstinence education. “This new study makes it crystal clear that abstinence-only sex education for teenagers does not work,” Richards said.

In addition to news reports related to Planned Parenthood, newspapers published five letters to the editor from readers mentioning the organization and fives letters to the editor from Planned Parenthood executives.

Another seven op-eds and entertainment reviews mentioned Planned Parenthood, as well as 15 death notices, and a couple of comedians’ jokes. All told, the networks and newspapers mentioned Planned Parenthood more than 80 times in the last six months.

But when someone noticed a $1.3 billion discrepancy in Planned Parenthood’s handling of federal money – crickets.

See what I mean about the mainstream media?

The Sound of Silence

One letter to the editor in the Los Angeles Times February 7 illustrated the effect the media blackout has had on public perceptions of Planned Parenthood.

Responding to the media-manufactured controversy over Focus on the Family’s pro-life Super Bowl ad, a reader wrote, “If I had it, I would give millions to Planned Parenthood to advertise on CBS during the Super Bowl.”

Well, dear reader, your wish has already come true. You might not know it from reading the Times, but Planned Parenthood already receives more than $350 million every year from you and every other American taxpayer, with no oversight from the “watchdogs” in the media.

$350 million every year!!!!

Of yours and my tax dollars, monies we could find much better uses for than having a bunch of “progressive” politicians give it to Planned Parenthood.

More than enough in any reasonable man’s book to justify giving every politician involved his or her just desserts.

Spy vs Spy?

Nah, more like Counterspy vs Spy.

Federal authorities arrested 10 people suspected of carrying out long-term “deep-cover” assignments in the U.S. for Russia that involved integrating into American society as married couples, infiltrating “policy-making circles” in Washington, and recruiting government and business sources.

The arrests occurred after federal agents intercepted messages from intelligence officials in Moscow calling on the defendants to “search and develop” intelligence ties in the United States.

The suspects were taken into custody in New York, New Jersey and Virginia on Sunday as part of a multiyear investigation by the FBI, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New York and the Justice Department’s National Security Division.

See that? I’d be willing to bet that there are a whole lot of “progressives” out there who would refer to the guys and gals who catch spies for a living as “cold war anacronisms”, paranoids looking for enemy spooks under rocks.

Well, like they say, “Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you.”

A criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in New York said the deep-cover operation began in the 1990s, and terrorism scholars say the case shows that Cold War-style espionage schemes are not a thing of the past.

The complaint, written by FBI agent Amit Kachhia-Patel, said covert agents working for the SVR, successor to the Soviet-era KGB as the Kremlin’s intelligence organ, assumed false identities and lived in the United States on long-term, deep-cover assignments. It said they hid all connections between themselves and Russia, even while acting at the direction and under the control of the SVR.

Known as “illegals,” the complaint said the undercover Russian agents were told in a message: “You were sent to USA for long-term service trip. Your education, bank accounts, car, house, etc. — all these serve one goal: fulfill your main mission, i.e. to search and develop ties in policymaking circles in U.S. and send intels [intelligence reports] to [Center].”

Court documents show that at least one message sent back to Moscow from the defendants focused on turnover at the highest levels of the CIA and the 2008 U.S. presidential elections. Numerous messages intercepted by U.S. investigators were listed in the court documents, including what was described as a private conversation involving an unnamed former legislative counsel for Congress.

However, countries, including friendly ones, spy on each other all the time, not so much as a means for being prepared in case they go to war with one another where non-hostile or friendly relations are concerned, but to arm their diplomats with facts and figures, verbal “ammunition” to be utilized in the event that ones friend and ally is running a bluff in trade negotiations and other bargaining table venues.

This doesn’t mean that the spying itself doesn’t have to be complicated.

A shadowy money man for a Russian spy ring whose members were assigned a decade or more ago to infiltrate American society has been captured overseas, authorities said Tuesday. He was the last of 11 suspects named in a huge bust that threatens to tear recently mending relations between the U.S. and Russia.

The 11th suspect, using the name Christopher Metsos and purporting to be a Canadian citizen, was arrested at the Larnaca airport in Cyprus while trying to fly to Budapest, Hungary, police in the Mediterranean island nation said. He was later released on bail.

Metsos, 54, was among those named in complaints unsealed Monday in federal court in Manhattan. Authorities in Cyprus said he will remain there for one month until extradition proceedings begin.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Farbiarz on Monday called the allegations against the other 10 people, living in the Northeast, “the tip of the iceberg” of a conspiracy of Russia’s intelligence service, the SVR, to collect inside U.S. information.

Each of the 10 was charged with conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government without notifying the U.S. attorney general, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison upon conviction. Two criminal complaints outlining the charges were filed in U.S. District Court in New York.

Most of the suspects were accused of using fake names and claims of U.S. citizenship while really being Russian. It was unclear how and where they were recruited, but court papers say the operation goes back as far as the 1990s.

Russia’s foreign ministry acknowledged Tuesday that those arrested included Russian citizens but insisted they did nothing to hurt U.S. interests.

The ministry still angrily denounced the arrests as an unjustified throwback to the Cold War, and senior lawmakers said some in the U.S. government may be trying to undercut President Barack Obama’s warming relations with Moscow.

“These actions are unfounded and pursue unseemly goals,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement earlier Tuesday. “We don’t understand the reasons which prompted the U.S. Department of Justice to make a public statement in the spirit of Cold War-era spy stories.”

The timing of the arrests was notable, given the efforts by Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev to reset U.S.-Russia relations. The two leaders met last week at the White House after Medvedev visited high-tech firms in California’s Silicon Valley, and both attended the G-8 and G-20 meetings over the weekend in Canada.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin mentioned the arrests during a meeting at his home with former President Bill Clinton, who was in Moscow to speak at a conference.

“I understand that back home police are putting people in prison,” Putin said. “That’s their job. I’m counting on the fact that the positive trend seen in the relationship will not be harmed by these events.”

Intelligence on Obama’s foreign policy, particularly toward Russia, appears to have been a top priority for the Russian agents, prosecutors said. Obama was asked Tuesday about the arrests as he spoke to reporters in Washington about the economy, but he declined to answer.

Dead drops, brush passes, invisible ink, burst transmissions and all that good stuff.

The 38-year-old son of one of the arrested couples, Vicky Pelaez and Juan Lazaro, said Tuesday outside their home in Yonkers that he didn’t believe the allegations.

“This looks like an Alfred Hitchcock movie with all this stuff from the 1960s. This is preposterous,” Waldomar Mariscal said. Of the charges, he said, “They’re all inflated little pieces in the mosaic of unbelievable things.”

The FBI said it had intercepted a message from SVR’s headquarters, Moscow Center, to two of the 10 defendants describing their main mission as “to search and develop ties in policymaking circles in US.” Intercepted messages showed they were asked to learn about a wide range of topics, including nuclear weapons, U.S. arms control positions, Iran, White House rumors, CIA leadership turnover, the last presidential election, Congress and the political parties, prosecutors said.

The court papers allege some of the ring’s members lived as husband and wife; used invisible ink, coded radio transmissions and encrypted data; and employed Hollywood methods like swapping bags in passing at a train station.

The court papers also described a new high-tech spy-to-spy communications system used by the defendants: short-range wireless communications between laptop computers — a modern supplement for the old-style dead drop in a remote area, high-speed burst radio transmission or the hollowed-out nickels used by captured Soviet Col. Rudolf Abel in the 1950s to conceal and deliver microfilm.

Behind the scenes, they were known as “illegals” — short for illegal Russian agents — and were believed to have fake back stories known as “legends.”

In spring 2009, court documents say, conspirators Richard and Cynthia Murphy, who lived in New Jersey, were asked for information about Obama’s impending trip to Russia that summer, the U.S. negotiating position on the START arms reduction treaty, Afghanistan and the approach Washington would take in dealing with Iran’s suspect nuclear program. They also were asked to send background on U.S. officials traveling with Obama or involved in foreign policy, the documents say.

“Try to outline their views and most important Obama’s goals (sic) which he expects to achieve during summit in July and how does his team plan to do it (arguments, provisions, means of persuasion to ‘lure’ (Russia) into cooperation in US interests,” Moscow asked, according to the documents.

Moscow wanted reports that “should reflect approaches and ideas of” four unnamed sub-Cabinet U.S. foreign policy officials, they say.

One intercepted message said Cynthia Murphy “had several work-related personal meetings with” a man the court papers describe as a prominent New York-based financier active in politics.

In response, Moscow Center described the man as a very interesting target and urged the defendants to “try to build up little by little relations. … Maybe he can provide” Murphy “with remarks re US foreign policy, ‘roumors’ about White house internal ‘kitchen,’ invite her to venues (to major political party HQ in NYC, for instance. … In short, consider carefully all options in regard” to the financier.
The Murphys lived as husband and wife in suburban New Jersey, first Hoboken, then Montclair, with Richard Murphy carrying a fake birth certificate saying he was born in Philadelphia, authorities said.

The complaint says Metsos traveled to the United States to pay Richard Murphy and others using clandestine — and sometimes bizarre — methods.

Metsos was surreptitiously handed the money by a Russian official as the two swapped nearly identical orange bags while passing each other on a staircase at a commuter train station in New York, Metsos said.

After giving some of the money to one of the defendants, Metsos drove north and stopped his car near upstate Wurtsboro, N.Y. Using data from a global-positioning system that had been secretly installed in his car, agents went to the site and found a partially buried brown beer bottle. They dug down about five inches and discovered a package wrapped in duct tape, which they photographed and then reburied.

Two years later, video surveillance caught two unnamed secret agents digging up the package.

On Saturday, an undercover FBI agent in New York and another in Washington, both posing as Russian agents, met with two of the defendants, Anna Chapman at a New York restaurant and Mikhail Semenko on a Washington street corner blocks from the White House, prosecutors said. The FBI undercover agents gave each an espionage-related delivery to make. Court papers indicated Semenko made the delivery as instructed but apparently Chapman didn’t.

The question is, were these guys caught because the SVR is not as good as its predecessor, KGB, or have our counterintelligence skills gotten better?

There’s a vast gulf between the two.

The military promotes a “can-do” attitude, so does aggressive corporate leadership.

The Obama Administration, like any socialist organization, promotes mediocrity, which is synonymous with defeatism, and why not? After all, the one thing socialism does not promote is personal accomplishment. Sure, these wannabe Bolsheviks may preach the concept, but once one accomplishes, they then seek to penalize one and distribute the spoils to those who accomplish nothing.

And the defeatist mentality seeps into everything, not just the “governed”, but those from which the doctrine of defeatism emanates.

Remember when Homeland “Security” Secretary Janet Napolitano said that the border was as secure as it has ever been, a manipulation of words meant to suggest that it was pretty durn secure?

Well, it wasn’t and isn’t secure, and from her words, Napolitano has no intention of succeeding in making it so.

Not merely her words back in May, but last week as well.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, whose agency is charged with securing America’s borders, told an audience in Washington, D.C., in reference to the U.S.-Mexico border, “You’re never going to totally seal that border.”

Napolitano spoke and answered questions at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) on “Securing the Border: A Smarter Law Enforcement Approach,” on Wednesday.

When asked if she could give a timeline on when the border would be secured, Napolitano said, “The plain fact of the matter is the border is as secure now as it has ever been, but we know we can always do more. And that will always be the case.

“It’s a big border,” she said. “It’s 1,960 miles across that Southwest border. It’s some of the roughest, toughest geographical terrain in the world across that border. And so, the notion that you’re going to seal that border somehow is something that anybody who’s been involved in the actual doing of law enforcement–the front office work or the front line work of the law enforcement–would say, ‘You’re never going to totally seal that border.’”

The rest here.

Yes, folks, American “leadership” has surely fallen a long way.

Where once we were the greatest producer not only of manufactured goods but also of blatant success this planet had ever seen, we are now, thanks in large part to a parade of socialist losers and their minions being elected and reelected by some very
stupid voters who have been too mentally lazy to study candidates and their likely effects, if elected, on the American way of life before going to the polls, a country of defeatists, for defeatists and by defeatists, with Obamas, Napolitanos, Pelosis and Reids sitting on their thrones in Washington, detouring our great nation away from the Constitutional path that once enabled us, through the liberties that are being gradually diminished, to triumph.

Whoa! In the run-on sentences department…

So yeah, Janet, you’re probably right: With a defeatist White House and a defeatist majority on the Hill that encourage excellence only in misleading lies that mask stealth legislation to the contrary, the border will never be secured.

Of course, an unsecure border plays right into the hands of today’s Democrats, who see a “more the merrier” silver lining to that cloud — the more illegal aliens we have in the country when they finally push amnesty through, the more votes there’ll be for Democrats.

Ain’t life grand!?

Just when it looks like the entire world has lost its collective mind, practicality arises from an unexpected source.

Events in Turkey indicate that much of the Turkish public increasingly believes that their Prime Minister blundered by unnecessarily provoking a crisis with Israel.

If crises often provide opportunities, however, the long-term results of the flotilla incident might be just the opportunity to restore Turkish-Israeli relations to where they were before Turkey’s current Islamist government took power.

It now appears that the average Turk — for lack of a better term - approximately 70% of the population who is not part of the political establishment, the academic establishment, or the media — now understands that this crisis has hurt Turkey internationally and politically and that there was no reason for Turkey to provoke Israel.

It looks like the United States isn’t the only nation whose government is experiencing backlash from its citizens.

All over Turkey, people are asking the following questions:

Q: Where is this place called Gaza; who lives there?

A: The Palestinians – not Turks.

Q: Why are they trapped there?

A: Because Hamas is there, and will not work with the Palestinian Authority.

Q: Why should Turkey help them when Egypt – an Arab country - is also blockading Gaza, and none of the rich Arab petrodollar countries is helping the people in Gaza?

A: We are not a country as rich as the Arab petrodollar countries; they should help their own people. The Turkish government, our government, should use its money to help our poor, our laborers, and the people out in the eastern part of our country, nine out of ten of whom do not have enough money to put bread on their tables.

Q: Why then did our Prime Minister provoke this crisis?

A: This is an Arab affair. We are Turks. If the Arabs will not help themselves, and we do not have the basic necessities that we need, why should we worry about them? They do not help their own people, let alone other poor Muslims like ourselves. This is not our affair; we should not have been involved.

One elderly Turk summarized this attitude as follows: Why is there all this commotion about Gaza? There is very little difference between us and the Jews. We go to our mosques and they go to their mosques (i.e., Jewish synagogues). We eat Halal meat and they Jews eat their Halal meat (kosher meat). So, I do not understand why we are trying to protect these Palestinians. Why aren’t the Arabs helping their follow Arabs as we Turks are helping each other?

Erdigan (presumably): Ooops!

Yes, transcending even the game of global politics is one time honored tradition, that of remembering whom ones true friends are.

Moreover, many of these people are beginning to understand the value of the Turkish-Israeli relationship in positive ways they did understand before. For example, Israel helped Turkey, both militarily and internationally, with political support in the United States. For example, Israel and American Jewry have been helping Turkey over the years in Turkey’s lobbying efforts in Congress. Israel has also helped upgrade Turkish military equipment. Israel has also shared with Turkey intelligence information about the terrorist threats facing Turkey.

That’s what I’m talking about!

Continue reading here.

Hat Tip, TIP! (The Israel Project).

Next week, the Senate begins the farcical debate – farcical given the Democrat majority over there — over lefty activist shrew Solicitor General Elena Kagan’s nomination to the Supreme Court.

The Rabbinical Alliance of America takes umbrage.

Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan is “not kosher”–meaning she is not fit to serve on the court–according to more than 850 Orthodox members of the Rabbinical Alliance of America. That’s the term the rabbis used about Kagan in a press release issued Thursday, saying “Elena Kagan is not kosher. She is not fit to sit on this Court–or any court.”

Rabbi Yehuda Levin, spokesman for the alliance, told CNSNews.com on Thursday that “a great deal has been made about the fact that she would be the second Jewish woman on the court, and we want to signal to people across the country that we take no pride in this.”

Levin said most people are happy when “one of their own” is nominated to such a high position. But, he added, “We feel that Elena Kagan turns traditional Judaism on its head–from a concept of a nation of priests and holy people, she is turning it into, ‘Let’s homosexualize every segment of society. And by the way, partial-birth babies have no right to be delivered.’”

In a statement issued Thursday, the rabbinical alliance called on the Senate Judiciary Committee to refuse to confirm Kagan to succeed the outgoing Justice John Paul Stevens.

“It is clear from Ms. Kagan’s record on issues such as abortion-on-demand, partial-birth-abortion, the radical homosexual and lesbian agenda, the ’supremacy’ of the anti-family panoply over religious liberties of biblical adherents, et. al., that she will function as a flame-throwing radical, hastening society’s already steep decline into Sodom and Gomorrah,” the rabbis said in the statement.

Levin told CNSNews.com that his fellow rabbis–and hundreds of thousands of Orthodox and traditional Jews–are puzzled at the president’s choice of Kagan.

“What exactly was Obama thinking, President Obama thinking, when he nominated Kagan? Because eventually, down the road, someone–or some group–is going to ‘take the hit’ for the crazy decisions that Kagan is bound to make. So we would have much preferred if President Obama had given this ‘distinction’ to another minority group, instead of singling out the Jews.”

Right on, Rabbi!

The Mexican kid who got himself waxed by the Border Patrol back in early June, the one over whom the Mexican government created such a big brouhaha and demanded an investigation, etcetera, wasn’t merely among the “tired and poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free” as we were led to believe.

A 15-year-old Mexican boy shot and killed by a U.S. Border Patrol agent was among El Paso’s most wanted juvenile immigrant smugglers, according to federal arrest records reviewed by The Associated Press.

The records show Sergio Adrian Hernandez Huereca had been arrested at least four times since 2008 and twice in the same week in February 2009 on suspicion of smuggling illegal immigrants across the U.S.-Mexico border. Hernandez was repeatedly arrested along the U.S. side of the border near downtown El Paso, not far from where he was killed, but was never charged with a crime by federal prosecutors.

A Border Patrol agent shot and killed Hernandez June 7 while trying to arrest illegal immigrants crossing the muddy bed of the Rio Grande. Some witnesses said a group of people on the Mexican side were throwing rocks at the agents. Agents are generally permitted to use lethal force against rock throwers.

The records show that in at least one case Hernandez was to be paid $50 a person for smuggling four people into the U.S.

The youth was apparently a felony entrepreneur.

Now how do you like that?

Whenever the mainstream media or the federal government refer to “Americans” who leave the country for terrorist training compounds in places like Libya, Syria or Lebanon, these politically correct people in whom lies the responsibility of keeping the public informed (yes, the same folks who believe that their real job is to shape public opinion, generally in a leftward direction), their goal is obviously to have their readers or TV “news” audience envision a white guy whose family has enjoyed United States citizenship for several generations.

Sure, al-Qaeda Americans.

Dozens of Americans have joined terrorist groups and are posing a threat to the United States and its interests abroad, the president’s most senior adviser on counterterrorism and homeland security said Thursday.

“There are, in my mind, dozens of U.S. persons who are in different parts of the world, and they are very concerning to us,” said John O. Brennan, deputy White House national security adviser for homeland security and counterterrorism.

In a wide-ranging interview with The Washington Times, Mr. Brennan said he would not talk about lists of targeted American terrorists. However, U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies have been tracking down U.S. nationals and U.S. passport holders who pose security threats, like the Yemen-based al Qaeda cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, he said.

The interesting part of the equation is that these “Americans” all seem to have Arabic sounding names.

Now ain’t that strange…

To reverse an old adage, every silver lining has a cloud.

At least this one does.

As I mentioned previously, other conservatives have said that the plus side of the Obama presidency is that it has awakened “sleeping” Americans to the dangerous influence a socialist administration, especially one supported by a socialist-dominated House and Senate, presents; How it can effect the American way of life, virtually decimate our economy and intrude upon the liberties guaranteed us by the Constitution.

That is the silver lining.

The cloud is the damage the Obama Administration and the Pelosi/Reid-led Congress have already done to the economy and are laboring to do to the First, Second, Tenth and Twenty Seventh Amendments before they are voted out of the White House and into a minority on the Hill, respectively.

But back to the silver lining.

From the Wall Street Journal:

Americans are more pessimistic about the state of the country and less confident in President Barack Obama’s leadership than at any point since Mr. Obama entered the White House, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll.

The survey also shows grave and growing concerns about the Gulf oil spill, with overwhelming majorities of adults favoring stronger regulation of the oil industry and believing that the spill will affect the nation’s economy and environment.

Sixty-two percent of adults in the survey feel the country is on the wrong track, the highest level since before the 2008 election. Just one-third think the economy will get better over the next year, a 7-point drop from a month ago and the low point of Mr. Obama’s tenure.

Amid anxiety over the nation’s course, support for Mr. Obama and other incumbents is eroding. For the first time, more people disapprove of Mr. Obama’s job performance than approve. And 57% of voters would prefer to elect a new person to Congress than re-elect their local representatives, the highest share in 18 years.

The results show “a really ugly mood and an unhappy electorate,” said Democratic pollster Peter Hart, who conducts the Journal/NBC poll with GOP pollster Bill McInturff. “The voters, I think, are just looking for change, and that means bad news for incumbents and in particular for the Democrats.”

The entire article.

…57% of voters would prefer to elect a new person to Congress than re-elect their local representatives, the highest share in 18 years.

18 years, that’s how long it’s been since the Democrats last got skunked and a lengthy Republican majority ensued.

This time, however, a number of incumbent GOP long timers are also being given pink slips by right thinkers and moderate Republicans alike in state primaries, being replaced by more genuinely conservative candidates.

The RINOs and several “progressives” are either going to have to retire or start typing their resumes; while many of those Democrats who so recently made it plain that they were willing to sell out the American people for the good of “the party” have experienced the sudden urge to “spend more time with their families”.

Essentially, the disaffected voters of this greatest of nations have opted to take a step in the right direction.