February 4, 2010
Exclusive: You Can’t Make This Stuff Up! (2/4/10)
The Editors
Whenever you think general incompetence by those who purport to serve by the consent of the governed can’t get any worse, think again:
“Obama Shows Poor Judgment on Terrorism” (Richard Cohen, 2/2/10)
There is almost nothing the Obama administration does regarding terrorism that makes me feel safer. Whether it is guaranteeing captured terrorists that they will not be waterboarded, or whether it is reciting terrorists their rights, or whether it is the legally meandering and confusing rule that some terrorists will be tried in military tribunals and some in civilian courts, what is missing is a firm recognition that what comes first is not the message sent to America's critics but the message sent to Americans themselves. When, oh when, will this administration wake up?
Bit by bit, circumstances are forcing President Obama and his aides to come to grips with reality. The original plan to try Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the so-called 9/11 mastermind, in New York City has apparently been aborted. It finally occurred to the Justice Department that cordoning off much of Lower Manhattan and placing a security perimeter around the financial district not only would cost something like $200 million a year, but would destroy the economy of the area. A trial there would give KSM, as he is called, a second shot at devastating downtown New York.
It is amazing that no one thought this through.
(read entire article here)
An administration needs to be ready to hit the ground running on day one. And when it comes to critical issues like national security, we cannot afford an administration that seems to need a wide learning curve.
“Professor of Contempt – The Legacy of Howard Zinn” (Roger Kimball, 2/3/10)
With Howard Zinn, contemporary American academia found its court historian. Zinn, who died January 27 at 87, was like a gigantic echo chamber, accurately reproducing – and actively reinforcing – every left-wing cliché with which the academy has abetted its sense of election these past several decades. “You see how smart he is,” saith the tribe, “he thinks exactly as we do.” Zinn’s biography tells us that he was the author of “more than 20 books.” But only one matters: A People’s History of the United States. Published in 1980 with appropriately modest expectations – it had, I read somewhere, an initial print run of only 5,000 copies – the book went on to sell some 2 million and is still going strong. Its Amazon sales rank as of February 1, 2010, was 7. Seven. That’s a number most authors would climb over broken bottles to achieve 30 days after their books were published. Here it is 30 years on.
How to explain such phenomenal success? The publisher had doubtless assayed the book’s intellectual merits and proceeded accordingly. Left out of account was the presumption of its political message. The extremity and consistency of that message – that America is and always has been an evil, exploitative country – guaranteed its success among the tenured radicals to whom we have entrusted the education of our children. More to the point, this history “from the perspective of the slaughtered and mutilated” nudged out all other contenders for the prize of becoming the preferred catechism in American – that is to say, anti-American – history. A People’s History is the textbook of choice in high schools and colleges across the country.
(read entire article here)
If our children are learning about the so-called evils of America rather than the positive contributions this nation has made to Western civilization – indeed, the world over – then we are lost before we even begin to fight to take American culture back from the radicals who would change it forever.
“Obama Surrendering Internet to Foreign Powers” (Bradley A. Blakeman, 1/31/10)
Without the ingenuity of America’s brightest minds and the investment of U.S. taxpayer dollars, there would be no Internet, as we now know it today.
Now, the Obama administration has moved quietly to cede control of the Web from the United States to foreign powers.
[…]
Now for the bad news: In an effort to show the world how inclusive, sharing, cooperative, and international America can be, the Obama administration set off on a plan to surrender control and key management of the Internet by the U.S. Department of Commerce and its agents.
The key to the control America has over the Internet is through the management of the Domain Name System (DNS) and the giant servers that service the Internet.
Domain names are managed through an entity named IANA, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority. The IANA, which operates on behalf of the U.S. Department of Commerce, is responsible for the global coordination of the DNS, IP addressing, and other Internet protocol resources.
In short, without an IP Address or other essential Internet protocols, a person or entity would not have access to the Internet.
For years, the international community has been pressuring the United States to surrender its control and management of the Internet. They want an international body such as the United Nations or even the International Telecommunications Union, (an entity that coordinates international telephone communications), to manage all aspects of the Internet in behalf of all nations.
The argument advanced for those seeking international control of the Internet is that the Internet has become such a powerful, pervasive, and a dependent form of international communications, that it would be dangerous and inequitable for any one nation to control and manage it.
(read the entire article here)
Oh, because the squeaky clean UN would be a much better choice? Remember the sex scandals and the oil for food debacle? Yeah, that UN.
The Internet is a marvel of American ingenuity, one which we have shared ungrudgingly with the world – like kindergarteners share peanut butter sandwiches and toys, to coin a phrase. However, with this ingenuity comes great responsibility. We can’t think of another nation or another political body that would do as good a job as we have in monitoring what has become a critical communications resource for the world.
Once again, American exceptionalism has fallen on the chopping block for the good of the “global community.” And we think that’s sad.
Reader Comments: Submit Your Comment (6)
Yep, our socialist elites do not have a clue. And ali babba has less than most. Is he really the poster child for Harvard?
posted by : AZ_VET
Thursday, February 4, 2010 at 04:09 AM
This person, this impersonator, this appeaser-in-chief, doesn't realize that every move of appeasement is exploited throughout society as weakness. His continuing "World Apology Tour",is so dangerous to us, and gains us nothing but disdain. There are those dumb enough in the world, (even in the USA), to believe, actually believe that the USA owes anyone an apology for anything. I don't think there is any country, or non-country, (Palestine, Somalia as it is today, etc.), that has not benefited in some way from the USA.
And, I like your cafepress shop. http://www.cafepress.com/familysecurity . Just spent some time browsing, and will be back to grab a t-shirt. I too have a shop in Cafepress: http://www.cafepress.com/frankopinions . Keep the "Family Security Matters" information coming. We need all the education we can get.
"Never Forget that Political Correctness enabled Radical Islam to take 14 lives at Ft. Hood Texas, 11/5/09!"
posted by : FranklyOpinionated
Thursday, February 4, 2010 at 09:57 AM
America did not invent the internet.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Berners-Lee
posted by : InternetFactsPlease
Thursday, February 4, 2010 at 01:07 PM
No, Mr. InternetFactsPlease, we all know that despite what Wikipedia purports is that Al Gore invented the Internet.
posted by : Gary Hinson
Thursday, February 4, 2010 at 02:49 PM
Voted in a child to do a mans' job. But he sure shoots a mean hoop.
posted by : OBL
Thursday, February 4, 2010 at 03:08 PM
I guess Obama wants us to become a colony again? Maybe even a ward of the UN?
I'm retired, I won't have to see the mess continue to deteriorate as much as my grandson, the poor guy. They're taking his freedoms, they're unilaterally reducing the strength of his Country, and they're laying it open to invasion and ruin.
posted by : tnmccoy
Thursday, February 4, 2010 at 08:34 PM
