Monday, November 30, 2009

A Year of Jihad in America

A Year of Jihad in America
By; Christopher Holton
www.StanduUpAmericaUS.com

There is mounting evidence that the global Jihadist insurgency is fully entrenched in the United States After the Fort Hood massacre news services seem divided between those hell-bent-for-leather on denying that the Fort Hood massacre was a case of anything other than a persecuted loner "snapping" and those who proclaimed it the first "terrorist" attack on US soil since September 11th.

This focus is wrong. Fort Hood was an act of Jihad and that's really all that matters: It is essential that we find out how extensive Nidal Malik Hasan's ties to other Jihadists were. Of this there can be no doubt.

But we must refrain from entering into a debate on what amounts largely to semantics about whether or not the Fort Hood massacre was an act of "terrorism." We need to get away from focusing on the term "terrorism" anyway. Some observers still don't consider the 1983 Beirut Barracks bombing by Hezbollah, which killed 241 Marines, sailors and soldiers, an act of "terrorism" because, by some widely recognized definitions, attacks on combatants cannot be termed "terrorism."

The Fort Hood massacre and the attack on the Marine Barracks were acts of Jihad. The Jihadis themselves don't refer to themselves as "terrorists." But they most assuredly refer to themselves as "Jihadis." We should let them own that title.

This was never a war on "terrorism." Jihad is being waged against us and we have tied ourselves in knots to deny that reality. Moreover, Fort Hood was hardly the first act of Jihad on US soil since September 11th. A few examples come to mind:

* The Anthrax Attacks (Call me a conspiracy theorist, but I do NOT buy the official line on these attacks, but that's a subject for another time and place.)
* The DC "Sniper" Shootings (There is a great deal of evidence that John Mohammed carried out these attacks in the name of Allah.)
* The LAX Shooting at the El Al Ticket Counter

Note that whether the perpetrators are members of a previously known terrorist organization (such as Al Qaeda) or were lone actors, these were still acts of Jihad.

It is difficult to combat a shadowy organization like Al Qaeda, but it is far more difficult to prevent "lone wolf" actors from attacking. Al Qaeda may be difficult to infiltrate and gather intelligence on, but how do we "infiltrate" a lone Jihadist?

This is symptomatic of a revolutionary Jihadist subculture metastasizing within the American Muslim community, especially within its mosques and organizations. This revolutionary subculture has produced an atmosphere in which Muslims are inspired to act violently. This is a very dangerous and volatile situation.

Over the last 12 months alone, we have been provided with a stack of evidence of the Jihadist insurgency inside America. Americans have largely ignored this evidence, or at least failed to "connect the dots." Seemingly completely unrelated cases do in fact have common threads: they are acts of Jihad.

I decided to go back and research examples of Jihad in America over the last 12 months, roughly 1 December 2008 to 1 December 2009. Here is a list of incidents, cases, actions, statements and plots which point to a Jihadist insurgency in our midst (Keep in mind that insurgencies are both civilizational/political and violent/militant.).

The list is compiled in reverse chronological order, meaning that the most recent items are listed first. We no doubt left out some cases. I believe that all of these cases and incidents brought together on a single listing will prompt most readers to conclude that the magnitude of the threat we face inside the United States is greater than they previously believed.

NOVEMBER 2009

* Ten Indicted in Philadelphia in Case Involving Material Support for Jihadist Terrorist Group Hezbollah
* Terrorism Charges Unsealed in Minnesota Against 8 Somali Members of Jihadist Terrorist Group al-Shabaab
* Feds in New York Move to Seize Assets of Iran-tied Alavi Foundation
* Nidal Malik Hasan Kills 13, Wounds 20 In Shooting Rampage at Fort Hood, Texas

OCTOBER 2009

* US Jails Al Qaeda Sleeper Agent (Ali al-Marri was previously held in brig at Charleston, SC Naval Station)
* Two Chicago Men Charged in Jihadist Terrorist Plot in Denmark
* Eleven Members of Jihadist Group Arrested in Detroit; Imam Killed in Shootout with FBI (Luqman Ameen Abdullah Shot and Killed FBI Dog During Arrest)
* Boston Muslim Charged in Plot to Kill Shoppers, Troops
* Three Ohio Residents Sentenced in Plot to Commit Terrorist Acts Against Americans Overseas
* Massachusetts Man Charged With Conspiracy to Provide Material Support for Terrorists
* University of California-Irvine Files Complaint with Feds that Muslim Student Union Raised Money for Jihadist Terrorist organization HAMAS

SEPTEMBER 2009

* Najibullah Zazi of Colorado Indicted in New York for Conspiracy to Use Explosives Against Persons or Property (Zazi had contact with Al Qaeda leader in Afghanistan). (More here and here)
* Illinois Jihadist Arrested in Plot to Bomb Illinois Federal Building
* Jordanian Muslim Arrested After Placing Inactive Bomb in Dallas High-Rise
* Lebanese-born Swede Sentenced to Life in Prison for Oregon Terrorist Training Camp Plot
* Three British Muslims Convicted In Plot to Bomb Airliners Bound for America (Plot could have killed 10,000)
* Apostate from Islam, Rifqa Bary, Flees Family After Her Father Threatens Her

AUGUST 2009

* Member of Prison Islamist Group Sentenced to 70 Months for Plot to Kill Jews, Attack Military Bases
* Atlanta Muslim, Ehsanul Islam Sadequee, Convicted of Supporting Foreign Terrorist Organization (Supported Lashkar-e-Tayyiba which carried out Mumbai attack)
* German Jihadists Describe Hatred of US as Reason for Terror Plot
* Yemeni Sheikh Pleads Guilty to Aiding HAMAS in New York Court

JULY 2009

* "Shoe Bomber" Richard Reid Sues to Resume Jihad From Prison
* The Odyssey of a Jihadist: From Long Island to Pakistan. (More here and here)
* Seven Charged in North Carolina for Terrorism (Plot to attack Marine Corps Base Quantico) (More here)
* American Al Qaeda Jihadist Sentenced to Life for Bush Assassination Plot
* Hizb ut-Tahrir Jihadi Conference Held in Chicago

JUNE 2009

* New Jersey Muslim Convicted of Providing Material Support to Jihadist Terrorist Group Hezbollah
* Tennessee Muslim Convert Kills One Soldier, Wounds Another Outside Little Rock Recruiting Office
* Ex-Georgia Tech Student Convicted on Terrorism Charges

MAY 2009

* Texas Muslim Charity Officials Sentenced to 65 Years for Financing HAMAS Jihadist Terrorist Organization
* New York Jihadist Plot to Target Synagogues Disrupted
* Canadian from Somalia Living in Minneapolis Pleads Guilty to Aiding Al Qaeda
* Five Miami Jihadists Convicted in Sears Tower Bombing Plot

APRIL 2009

* Three New Jersey Jihadists Sentenced to Life in Fort Dix Terrorist Plot

MARCH 2009

* Somali-Americans Recruited for Al Qaeda-linked Group, Says FBI

FEBRUARY 2009

* Ohio Jihadist Sentenced to 20 Years in Terror Bomb Plot
* Muslim Television Channel Founder Charged With Beheading His Wife in Honor Killing
* FBI Director Warns of Terror Attacks on US Cities
* Lashkar-e-Taiba Mumbai Attackers Had Worldwide List of 320 Targets
* Jailhouse Islam Convert Murders Philadelphia Police Officer

JANUARY 2009

* FBI Cuts Ties with Council for American Islamic Relations (CAIR) Over HAMAS Ties
* Terrorist Who Plotted to Bomb New York Targets in 1970s Released From Prison, Deported to Sudan. (More here)
* Chicago Cousins Plead Guilty to Conspiracy to Provide Material Support to Terrorism

DECEMBER 2008

* Staten Island Satellite TV Operator Pleads Guilty to Supporting Hezbollah
* Former University of South Florida Student Sentenced to 15 Years in Terrorism Case
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7 stories Barack Obama doesn't want told - John F. Harris - POLITICO.com

7 stories Barack Obama doesn't want told - John F. Harris - POLITICO.com

The Art of Political War for Tea Parties – by David Horowitz

The Art of Political War for Tea Parties – by David Horowitz

Thursday, November 19, 2009

How To Cut Healthcare Costs Chapter 1: Kill Women

The Wall Street Journal
NOVEMBER 19, 2009
A Breast Cancer Preview
The mammogram decision is a sign of cost control to come.

A government panel's decision to toss out long-time guidelines for breast cancer screening is causing an uproar, and well it should. This episode is an all-too-instructive preview of the coming political decisions about cost-control and medical treatment that are at the heart of ObamaCare.

As recently as 2002, the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force affirmed its recommendation that women 40 and older undergo annual mammograms to check for breast cancer. Since regular mammography became standard practice in the early 1990s, mortality from breast cancer—the second leading cause of cancer death among American women—has dropped by about 30%, after remaining constant for the prior half-century. But this week the 16-member task force ruled that patients under 50 or over 75 without special risk factors no longer need screening. [As a matter of fact, it was only 6 MONTHS AGO -- before health care legislation had moved to the front burner -- that this panel re-issued its own WARNING about the importance of early breast cancer detection, annual mammograms after age 40, and self-examinations. Now we have their VERY ABRUPT reversal of a VERY longstanding opinion, which for many years had concurred with the American Cancer Society's recommendations. The government panel has suddenly decided to oppose the ACS's recommendations -- on the basis of absolutely no new medical evidence.

So what changed? Nothing substantial in the clinical evidence. But the panel—which includes no oncologists or radiologists, who best know the medical literature—did decide to re-analyze the data with health-care spending as a core concern.

The task force concedes that the benefits of early detection are the same for all women. But according to its review, because there are fewer cases of breast cancer in younger women, it takes 1,904 screenings of women in their 40s to save one life and only 1,339 screenings to do the same among women in their 50s. It therefore concludes that the tests for the first group aren't valuable, while also noting that screening younger women results in more false positives that lead to unnecessary (but only in retrospect) follow-up tests or biopsies.
Of course, this calculation doesn't consider that at least 40% of the patient years of life saved by screening are among women under 50. That's a lot of women, even by the terms of the panel's own statistical abstractions. To put it another way, 665 additional mammograms are more expensive in the aggregate. But at the individual level they are immeasurably valuable, especially if you happen to be the woman whose life is saved.

The recommendation to cut off all screening in women over 75 is equally as myopic. The committee notes that the benefits of screening "occur only several years after the actual screening test, whereas the percentage of women who survive long enough to benefit decreases with age." It adds that "women of this age are at much greater risk for dying of other conditions that would not be affected by breast cancer screening." In other words, grandma is probably going to die anyway, so why waste the money to reduce the chances that she dies of a leading cause of death among elderly women?



The effects of this new breast cancer cost-consciousness are likely to be large. Medicare generally adopts the panel's recommendations when it makes coverage decisions for seniors, and its judgments also play a large role in the private insurance markets. Yes, people could pay for mammography out of pocket. This is fine with us, but it is also emphatically not the world of first-dollar insurance coverage we live in, in which reimbursement decisions deeply influence the practice of medicine.

More important for the future, every Democratic version of ObamaCare makes this task force an arbiter of the benefits that private insurers will be required to cover as they are converted into government contractors. What are now merely recommendations will become de facto rules, and under national health care these kinds of cost analyses will inevitably become more common as government decides where finite tax dollars are allowed to go. [IE, it is THIS PANEL which will be tasked with / authorized to determine what procedures will or won't be allowed for whom, under every single version of Health Reform Legislation sponsored by the Democrats. With the passage of any of these bills, this panel's recommendations will become the rules under which medical care is provided, BY LAW. Reminder: there are NO oncologists and NO radiologists on the panel. -- Morry]

In a rational system, the responsibility for health care ought to reside with patients and their doctors. James Thrall, a Harvard medical professor and chairman of the American College of Radiology, tells us that the breast cancer decision shows the dangers of medicine being reduced to "accounting exercises subject to interpretations and underlying assumptions," and based on costs and large group averages, not individuals.

"I fear that we are entering an era of deliberate decisions where we choose to trade people's lives for money," Dr. Thrall continued. He's not overstating the case, as the 12% of women who will develop breast cancer during their lifetimes may now better appreciate.

More spending on "prevention" has long been the cry of health reformers, and President Obama has been especially forceful. In his health speech to Congress in September, the President made a point of emphasizing "routine checkups and preventative care, like mammograms and colonoscopies—because there's no reason we shouldn't be catching diseases like breast cancer and colon cancer before they get worse."

It turns out that there is, in fact, a reason: Screening for breast cancer will cost the government too much money, even if it saves lives.

[And that money is needed for bailouts -- ie corporate welfare to the top 1% of the nation's business firms -- as well as for stimulus packages and all the pork and earmarks so crucial to keeping our essential political elite comfy in the style they've become accustomed to. -- Morry]
Copyright 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved
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THE RELEVANT FACTS:
In England today, the success rate for curing breast cancer is 2 out of 4 cases. (Many cases become terminal while the woman is waiting for surgery.) In the US it is 3 out of 4. Breast cancer strikes roughly 12 % of women. This means that breast cancer will strike roughly 18 million women who are alive today in the US. Of those our present system, if it survives, will cure 13.5 million; the British system would cure 9 million. There is no reason to believe government run medical care in the US will be any more successful than it is in Britain. Indeed, Hillary Clinton and others have praised the British system and stated that we should do more or less the same thing in the US. This means that of the 18 million victims of breast cancer, 4.5 million will die unnecessarily. It is not unreasonable to expect that 4.5 million women, alive and healthy today in the US, will be killed by ObamaCare.


And that is just breast cancer. Consider colon cancer, prostate cancer, heart disease, . . . .etc.
Lewis

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THERE IT IS, FOLKS, THE 1st step to be taken by ObamaCare to fulfill its promise of making healrh care affordable. It's so simple, it's amazing no one thought of it before!! We inaugurate the plan with the beautiful-in-its-simplicity step of killing 4.5 million American women. True, this will only cut medical costs by 1 or 2% overall, but don't lose heart!! Remember, there's still colon cancer, lung cancer, prostate cancer, bladder cancer, stomach cancer, heart disease, lung diseases, etc, etc,etc, each one a very promising area for effecting further cuts. We will probably be able to cut costs by up to 20% or more simply by arranging for the premature deaths of another 40-60 million Americans. True, simple tort reform has cut costs by an average of 30% in the few states which have enacted it, but this would be unfair to lawyers, as the currently considered Senate bill wisely recognizes. Lawyers are necessary because they are huge contributors to the Democrats' campaign chests, and the nation needs all the concerned, big-hearted Democrat accessories to murder it can get. (The bill currently under consideration in the Senate explicitly provides for substantial cuts in Federal funding to any state which places any restrictions or limits on awards in medical cases.) So . . . KUDOS FOR OBAMACARE. It's the smart way to go, and even if it is grossly dishonest and literally murderous, this is just part of the nature of many politicians, and in a nation of diversity, we must accomodate their viewpoint. So let's patch up our differences and all join together with the nation's medical malpractice attorneys and with our hard-working morticians in praising the virtues of ObamaCare!! -- Morry

A view of Obama from across the pond

A view of Obama from across the pond

Sunday, November 15, 2009

What Will It Take for You to Take a Stand?

Last night I attended a GOP “Meet and Greet,” hosted by a group of beautiful women at one of their gorgeous “House and Garden” homes in an affluent neighborhood. The food was delicious, the wine sublime, and the hospitality of genteel like minded couples unparalleled. The Governor and his delightful wife made an appearance, and both gave heartwarming speeches, as did a candidate for Governor of our state. It was a picture perfect evening which went off without a hitch.

So why did I awake the next morning with a sinking feeling? I had just met a great group of educated and presumably informed people who had an understanding of the issues which face our state and our nation. These are not your average folks; the resources at their disposal put them in a unique position, somewhat buffered by the economy which ravages the average working folks, and with the time, money, and access to information which give them a distinct advantage over those who live from paycheck to paycheck.

As I watched the speakers perched on an impressive staircase in front of a rapt audience discuss their ideas for a better tomorrow, I pictured similar scenes taking place 240 years ago, in which our founding fathers stood to make their pitch for the creation of new nation; a nation of the people, for the people, by the people. I imagine that those orators would have suggested to their listeners that the time had come for action; that as leaders of their communities, with resources, means to spread the word, and ability to sway the masses working simply for their everyday survival, that now was the time to take a stand for freedom. And not just for their freedom, but for the freedom of generations to come.

In my state and my country, we are at a not so dissimilar point in history. Our freedoms are under assault in all corners of our state and federal government. As the leader of the tea party movement in RI, I am proud and honored to have met thousands of average working folks who have had “enough” and are willing to take a stand for their freedom. Junkyard owners and nurses, retirees and teachers, stay at home moms, and small business owners; each and every one fills me with a sense of hope that all is not lost.

But some members of the political party which should embrace the tea party ideals of fiscal responsibility, accountability, and a return to Constitutional principles seem content to converse amongst themselves and host beautiful gatherings with beautiful people. By and large, they do not show the fortitude to speak amongst a room full of foes, and debate the merits of their stances on the issues. Why is this? Why are people, even educated people of means, cowed by the opposition, which has nothing but tired long disproved theories in their arsenal?

My charge to the leaders of our communities is this: it is time for bold action in defense of our freedom and freedom of our children. It is no longer acceptable to simply host gatherings and hope that change will come, for without the concerted action that only you can take, it will not. You must consider running for political office (no matter how distasteful that seems), you must donate your time and money to go on offense against the corrupt status quo, you must speak the truth, even if you feel you may offend some. Times which test us require men and and women of strength and resources to reach outside of our comfort zones. Be models for your children. Our future, and theirs, depends on it.

Monday, November 9, 2009

Tribute to our Soldiers on Veteran's Day

Hi everyone,

On Veteran's Day, we take the opportunity to honor those who have served and are actively serving our country. We so often forget to thank those who have made the ultimate sacrifice so that all of us can continue to live freely. Considering many of the oppressive regimes overseas against which our brave servicemen have fought, it is easy to forget how much of a luxury it really is to be able to even argue about healthcare, global warming, or any other issue that matters to us.

It means so much to an a soldier in harm's way to receive a letter from an American civilian, telling them that we here at home are behind them 100%. These brave men and women are our country's best. Let them know!!

I strongly encourage you to consider sending a letter to a serviceman or woman. Please take just a few minutes!! Someone will really appreciate it.

Below are some directions on how to use the website anysoldier.com to do so:

First, follow this link

http://www.anysoldier.com/WhereToSend/

Look at the list at the far left of your screen. There are a list of officers in active duty. When you click on one's name, you can request their current address. Remember, the officer you are sending to is not the person to which you should address your letter, because the officer will hand the letters sent to him/her to the soldiers under his/her command. Just address it "Dear Soldier."

You can request the address by email. They ask that you be 18 or older to participate (as you need to give your information to get the address), so this can be a great thing to do with the family.

Follow the recommendations found in the "How to Send" tab at the top as well when writing your letter.

Thanks so much! Those fighting for your freedom will appreciate it.

U-S-A!!!!