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THE INCREASING IRRELEVANCE OF ISRAEL’S OPPOSITION

Olmert's and Livni's assaults on Netanyahu made clear that like most of their colleagues on the Left, they believe that relations between countries and relations between governments are the same thing.  Leaders of the Israeli left believe the major determinant in the quality of the U.S.-Israeli relationship is the view of the U.S. president.

Luckily for Israel, Livni, Olmert and the Left they represent have no idea what they are talking about.
As a poll released last week makes clear, Americans are far more likely to ditch leaders they believe are harming the US-Israel alliance than they are to ditch the alliance.

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HALF-FULL REPORT 01/29/10


Amidst all the catcalls and raspberries directed at Zero's SOTU speech this week - Fred Barnes called it the "least fresh" and most cliché-ridden such speech in over 30 years - I must admit I thought it was great.  Perfect, in fact.  We couldn't have asked for anything better.

As Forrest Gump observed, "Stupid is as stupid does."  It doesn't get much stupider than to ignore the First Rule of Holes - when you're in a hole, stop digging - except to insist that the way to get out of the hole is to keep digging ever more feverishly, and to blame everyone but yourself for the hole you're in.

The SOTU speech confirmed that we have a narcissistic fool for a president - all ego and no brains.   He is, with stupidly obdurate stubbornness, going to keep doing exactly what has caused his agenda to fail and his approval ratings to sink ever lower.

This almost guarantees that he will keep his party on the path to electoral disaster in November.  How could we ask for more?  Well, here's how.

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ARE THEY IDIOTS, OR DO THEY HAVE ANOTHER AGENDA?


Why did a bare majority (219-212) of the members of the U.S. Congress vote for the largest tax increase in American history this past Friday, under the claim it was a vote to save the climate?

There is no consensus in the scientific community about how much climate change, other than the normal cycles, is taking place, nor how severe it will be, and how much man-made CO2 is responsible.

It is known that the legislation will have a negligible effect on global CO2 emissions, particularly since the big polluters, such as China and India, are not playing ball. It is also known that the "cap and trade" system that the legislation calls for has been a failure in Europe.

In sum, serious people understand the legislation will hurt the U.S. economy, reduce the standard of living and yet not accomplish its claimed intent; therefore, why were so many members of Congress willing to vote for it?

Are they idiots, or do they have another agenda?

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THE EVIL EMPIRE OF THE 21ST CENTURY

Ronald Reagan first condemned the Soviet Union as an "evil empire" in a speech to the National Association of Evangelicals in Orlando Florida on March 8, 1983.

Publicly naming the explicit nature of Soviet imperialism provided the necessary focus for those of us working on a strategy to rid the world of it - a strategy the press called the Reagan Doctrine.  Less than eight years after President Reagan spoke those immortal words, the Soviet Union was no more.

Ex-KGB agent Vladimir Putin is determined to resurrect this evil empire with oil billions, gangster capitalism, and Russian thuggery.  But Russia is dying demographically and by 2015 half the Russian Army will be Moslem.  By 2020 or maybe before, the eastern half of Russian Siberia will be Chinese Siberia (TTP, November 2006).

Russia has no future beyond ephemerally high oil prices.  Once they crash, so does Russia.

So is there an heir to the title of Evil Empire in this new century?  Yes.  It is China.

One principal reason is that the internal structure of the former Soviet Union and China are the same.  One benefit of the Beijing Olympics is to make that blindingly clear.

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CAN YOU SUPPORT OUR VETERANS AND OUR ENEMIES AT THE SAME TIME?

The Veterans of Foreign Wars Political Action Committee has endorsed "Senator Ma'am for re-election.  Scott Swett finds this odd.  So do the leaders of the VFW, who have asked the VFW PAC to rescind that and other endorsements of anti-military Democrats, and who are contemplating abolition of the PAC, which is run separately from the VFW.

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HALF-FULL REPORT 01/22/10


The obvious news headline for the week is:

DEMOCRATS GET TEABAGGED

Yes, I know just what this means and how vulgar it is.  Nevertheless, it is the irresistibly appropriate response to the deluge of disgusting vileness we have been subjected to by the Democrat Party, the OPM Obama Propaganda Media, and the Moonbat Hate America Left.

Democrat Chuck Schumer - a United States Senator - publicly calls Scott Brown a "far-right teabagger."  MSNBC loudmouth Ed Schultz announces on his national radio show (1/16) that "I'd cheat to keep these bastards (Scott Brown and other conservatives) out" of power.  Radical lunatic talk show host Mike Malloy denounces the voters of Massachusetts for electing "a theocratic madman as senator," and tells his audience that Hannity, Limbaugh & O'Reilly were the ones who really "bombed your goddamn country" on 9/11.

Ultimate moonbat Keith Olbermann proclaims on MSNBC national television that Scott Brown is an "irresponsible, homophobic, racist, reactionary, ex-nude model, teabagging supporter of violence against women and against politicians with whom he disagrees."  

Well, sorry, schmucks.  You all just got teabagged by America.

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BRITAIN AND AMERICA COMPETE IN ECONOMIC SUICIDE


Professor David Smith, a former Bank of England economist and well-known commentator on the British economy, has forecast a rise in government spending to more than 53 percent of national income by 2010, financed by deficit spending of 14% of national income.


He argues:  "There must be serious doubt whether deficits on this scale can be financed in a non-inflationary manner without very large capital inflows from abroad. And it is hard to see why such inflows should be forthcoming now that the British economy has become so highly taxed by international standards."

If President Obama carries through on his threats to greatly increase U.S. taxes on carbon, etc.; allows the George W. Bush tax cuts to expire next year; and does not begin seriously to reduce spending, many economists will be able to say the same things about the U.S. economy next year that Mr. Smith says about the United Kingdom's economy today.

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WEST OF THE DEAD SEA


You're lazily swimming in the Mediterranean Sea just off a beautiful beach.  The beach goes on for miles, lined with resort hotels, and it's crowded with people.  Young fit men playing volleyball, beautiful bikini-clad young women sunbathing, families relaxing under umbrellas, children making sand castles, multitudes of folks peacefully enjoying themselves in the sun, the sand, and the gentle sea.

You swear you're at one of Spain's great beaches, like Valencia, Marbella, or Barcelona.  But you've noticed that a small light plane has flown along the shoreline several times.  Your son asks, "Dad, why does that plane keep flying by?"  

"It's an IDF spotter plane," you tell him.  "Watching for a boatload full of Arab terrorists who might land to machine gun to death as many Jews on this beach as they can.  Stuff like that can happen here anyplace, anytime.  That's life in Israel."

Nope, we're not in Valencia.  We're in Tel Aviv.

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AHMADINEJAD’S TARGET AUDIENCE

By Iranian and Hizbullah accounts, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's visit to Lebanon this week will be a splendid affair. The man who stole his office and then killed his countrymen to protect his crime will be greeted as a conquering hero. Billboards bidding him welcome and Iranian flags will line the roads from the Beirut airport down to the border with Israel.

AHMADINEJAD'S VISIT must be seen within the regional context that it is taking place. Specifically, it must be seen against the backdrop of Lebanese politics. It must also be seen in the context of waning US power and influence in the region. Finally it should be evaluated in terms of Iranian domestic affairs and Ahmadinejad's ongoing struggle with his people who reject his leadership. While Iran's ill-intentions towards Israel remain static, all of the other developments in the region are dynamic.

One aspect of Ahmadinejad's visit is abundantly clear. It is the diplomatic equivalent of a victory lap. Iran's ruler is using his trip as an opportunity to flaunt his position as the colonial overlord of Lebanon.

That means that Iran now believes it is in its interest to expose that Lebanon today is nothing more than an Iranian colony.

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HALF-FULL REPORT 01/15/10


Sure enough, it didn't take long for the moonbats to figure out how to blame Bush for the Haiti earthquake.  Note their arguments in the Puffington Host. 

It's all Bush's fault because he supposedly engineered the 2004 rebellion that overthrew Haiti's fantastically corrupt Marxist dictator Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and that Bush had all US aid to Haiti channeled through private aid organizations and not through bottomlessly corrupt government officials.  They actually claim this.

This was quickly followed by media moonbat Keith Olbermann of MSNBC arguing that the disaster in Haiti is why the US needs ObamaCare.  You can trust the Left to never let a crisis go to political waste.

Here's something to focus on during the Haitian horror:  the humanity of Judeo-Christian values.  Look down the full list of countries, companies, and organizations (current as of today 1/15/10) providing aid to Haiti or an abbreviated summary of the list here. 

First, note that with the exception of miniscule aid from Turkey (an emergency management expert and a psychologist), not one single Moslem country is providing a dime.  It is one of Mohammed's five requirements to be a Moslem that you contribute to charity - for other Moslems.  People who aren't Moslem aren't really people at all, they are sub-human infidels, kafrs, not deserving of charity.

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WHAT IF UMPIRES OWNED BASEBALL TEAMS?


If you knew that baseball teams with winning records tended to be more profitable for their owners than those with losing records - and if you learned that the Baltimore Orioles had just been purchased by the World Umpires Association (MLB's umpire's union), would you expect the Orioles to win more or fewer games?

Almost everyone implicitly understands why the umpires should not be allowed to own teams they referee.

In a free-market economic system, the government is supposed to be the umpire and not a player. Its job is to set and enforce the rules, but if it is allowed to also become a player, by owning and managing business enterprises, it is unlikely to treat the competing companies fairly, and there will be little check on its own misbehavior.

The record of government ownership and/or control of companies in the United States and elsewhere has been one long disaster. This promises to continue, and far more disatrously.

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EAST OF THE DEAD SEA


petra1

The 2,000 year-old Rose Red City of Petra was the religious center of an ancient desert people named Nabataeans.  They didn't build huge temples such as this - they carved them out of cliffs of rose-red sandstone in their hidden mountain sanctuary east of the Dead Sea.

Their capital was the ancient city of Ammon, known to the Greeks and Romans as Philadelphia, after the Hellenic ruler of Egypt,  Ptolemy II Philadelphus (309-246 BC).

Nabataea flourished until it was conquered by the Roman Emperor Trajan (53-117 AD).  The Nabataeans converted to Christianity and lived as peaceful farmers until they were overrun by Arab invaders in the 7th century who forced them to submit to Islam.

They vanished, and so did any memory of Petra until it was discovered by a Swiss explorer, Johann Burckhardt, in 1812.  Ammon, pronounced Amman (ah-man vs. ah-mone) by the Arabs, had been reduced to rubble by a series of earthquakes during the Middle Ages, and remained a small village with some Roman ruins for centuries.

The entire area east of the Dead Sea was a forgotten desert wasteland, incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in the early 1500s and ignored by the Sultans in Istanbul.  And then the history that continues to shake our world today began...

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THE LESSONS OF STUXNET

There's a new cyber-weapon on the block. And it's a doozy. Stuxnet, a malicious software, or malware, program was apparently first discovered in June.

Although it has appeared in India, Pakistan and Indonesia, Iran's industrial complexes - including its nuclear installations - are its main victims.

No other malware program has ever managed to move from cyberspace to the real world. And this is what makes Stuxnet so revolutionary. It is not a tool of industrial espionage. It is a weapon of war.

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HALF-FULL REPORT 01/08/10


OK, folks, time to get serious - The Remember the Alamo Rendezvous in San Antonio is three weeks away.  You really really do not want to be square and not be there. 

This is your opportunity to help launch the Defund & Disobey Revolution of 2010.  Your opportunity to revel in fellowship with other members of the TTP family.  You owe it to yourself, you owe it to America.  I'm counting on seeing you there.

***
They sure know how to party in Louisiana, don't they?  The party of the year is shaping up there - a Recall Party!  Turns out Louisiana law allows for a recall election to throw an elected official - including a federal one (except for judges) - out of office.  This most specifically means Democrat Senator Mary Landrieu.

The effort is being organized by moveonmary.org.  They need volunteers, they need money.  Mary Landrieu stole the election from Woody Jenkins back in 1996 and was bribed with "the Louisiana Purchase" to vote for ZeroCare.  She was re-elected in 2008, which means Louisiana (and America) is stuck with her until 2014 - but now there's a chance to throw her out on her tush this year.  We should all pitch in.  Let's party!

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A CRIMINAL ROAD TO FISCAL RUIN


If you were in debt, would you be more or less likely to increase your liabilities if you knew someone else would pay them off?

Many children can quickly figure out the answer to this question, but it seems to be a real stumper for members of the House Financial Services Committee, chaired Rep. Barney Frank, Massachusetts Democrat. They are considering having the federal government reinsure municipal bonds.

Such fiscal madness likely would make even citizens of banana republics blush.

The Feds are engaged in exactly the same behavior that got American International Group Inc. in trouble: insuring financial assets without having adequate resources to pay off all of the potential insurance claims. Such behavior can be viewed as criminally irresponsible.

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