The Conservative Side

Mexican Cartels Control Parts of Arizona

By: Jerry Seper and Matthew Cella

The federal government has posted signs along a major interstate highway in Arizona, more than 100 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border, warning travelers the area is unsafe because of drug and alien smugglers, and a local sheriff says Mexican drug cartels now control some parts of the state.

The signs were posted by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) along a 60-mile stretch of Interstate 8 between Casa Grande and Gila Bend, a major east-west corridor linking Tucson and Phoenix with San Diego.

They warn travelers that they are entering an \"active drug and human smuggling area\" and they may encounter \"armed criminals and smuggling vehicles traveling at high rates of speed.\" Beginning less than 50 miles south of Phoenix, the signs encourage travelers to \"use public lands north of Interstate 8\" and to call 911 if they \"see suspicious activity.\"

Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, whose county lies at the center of major drug and alien smuggling routes to Phoenix and cities east and west, attests to the violence. He said his deputies are outmanned and outgunned by drug traffickers in the rough-hewn desert stretches of his own county.

No Peace for Israel

No Peace for Israel By Alan Caruba Saturday, August 21, 2010

The Iranians and the Syrians are on heightened military alert as the Russians fuel the Iranian nuclear reactor at Brushehr today and everyone has an opinion about when and who will attack it. If the world wanted to stop the plant from functioning, it could and would have done so long ago.

The military alert is understandable. Israel destroyed an Iraqi reactor that Saddam Hussein was building and a clandestine one being built by Syria

As anyone who has a World Almanac with its map of the world from the United Kingdom to a tip of Australia can determine, it is a very long way from tiny Israel to Iran. Distance increases the risk along with what is surely a ring of missile defense around the reactor.

While the Israelis have conducted some exercises to demonstrate their bombers could make the trip, they have been rather quiet about the Iranian reactor. A very real part of that involves Hezbollah in Lebanon which is armed to the teeth and Hamas in the Gaza strip, both of which are Iranian proxies in any conflict.

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took the occasion on Friday to announce that the Israelis and the Palestinian Authority (PA) had agreed to once again sit down and discuss peace. This is kabuki theatre, a charade, a farce. It�s the old land-for-peace swap that has not resulted in a day of peace for Israel since it was founded in 1948.

Mamoud Abbas, the head of the PA, was the right-hand man to Yassir Arafat, famed Nobel Peace Prize winner (thus rendering that award one of the great farces on the international scene) and he has no more power than that which the Israelis grant him. As for the rest of the Arab community, the Palestinians have been completely abandoned.

Muddledness at the Top

Muddledness at the Top
Our current crises demand clarity. This administration offers none.

By Dan Kennedy
Business & Media Institute
5/12/2010 12:15:33 PM

On the May 9 �Meet the Press,� host David Gregory had a disturbing discussion with Attorney General Eric Holder. What was so unsettling was the insistent use of law enforcement language rather than speaking of war on terrorism and terrorists; the refusal by Obama Administration and complicit mainstream media to acknowledge the fact that we are at war.

Key word: war. What is needed to save us is public and political agreement that we are engaged in World War III, and therefore other nations must be identified accurately as allies or enemies, based on their harboring and abetting those bent on our destruction or co-operatively, comprehensively and aggressively rooting them out and eradicating them. We need to act with our allies in ways appropriate to ally relationships, and act toward the allies of our enemies in ways appropriate to enemies � including trade embargos, closing off travel to and from, even � yes � profiling of the enemy states� citizens in or entering our borders, and more. We need definitive, unambiguous clarity.

A nation, its political leaders and its citizenry behave very differently during the conduct of a war in which its homeland is under threat and attack than when that nation is merely bothered by occasional crime appropriately dealt with by routine law enforcement and judicial process. Presently, most American citizens, taking their cues from this President and his league of liberal ideologues, fools, incompetents and liars and the co-opted media, are muddling about as if in the latter circumstances. They are unconvinced we are above the �code red� level of, say, World War II.

For 30 years, I have been advising, consulting, coaching and assisting business owners, from small shop operators to CEO�s of billion dollar enterprises, with strategies to not only grow but strengthen their companies. The successful and the unsuccessful are foundationally separated by willingness and ability to clearly and candidly diagnose, name, enunciate and frankly discuss their problems, the threats to their prosperity or, at times, survival, and the realities in which they operate. Companies burdened with �see no evil, hear no evil, speak about no evil� leadership die.

For example, consider a small thing, like an employee engaged in malfeasance, sabotage or simply toxic influence on others. The rule of the business leader who keeps his company safe and strong is: fire fast, hire slow. He has clarity, decisiveness and zero tolerance for threats. (If this interests you, I�ve written an entire book about it: No B.S. Guide to Ruthless Management of People and Profits.) More tolerant, gentle, indecisive, hesitant, timid, non-forthright leadership inevitably leads only one place: the steps of bankruptcy court.

Ultimately, if we can�t accurately and candidly articulate the threat to our very survival, identify and name and hold accountable the true enemy and its allies, we cannot possibly prevail. If we won�t even acknowledge that we are at war, we have already lost.

One of the panelists on �Meet the Press� did, at least, acknowledge that the Obama positions, policies and leadership on this matter � the safety, security and sovereignty of the United States � are, �muddled.� He excused the muddledness due to the complexity of the problems we confront in this area � which he declined to name as World War III. But he has it all wrong. The complexity cannot be excuse for muddled thinking and the muddled, timid, too-slow actions such thinking produces. The complexity is all the more mandate for clarity.

We stand on a shrinking island of crisis. Our southern border is virtually non-existent, nominally defended, and the collectively enraged population of legal citizens in Arizona is demonized by Obama for passing a law-of-desperation that makes it illegal to be illegal. Not only are we doing nothing, we refuse to name the Mexican government itself as enemy for its role in the invasion and attack on our sovereignty. Our security in total is under sequential, accelerating attack by terrorists from abroad, harbored and abetted by other nations � not at all secretly. But we refuse to identify those nations as enemies and treat them accordingly.

In Washington, we are threatened by an ignorant, incompetent, criminally irresponsible government hell-bent on national bankruptcy, resolutely refusing to curb spending, and instead usurping private sector and expanding government at tyrannical speed.

These are not separate matters at all. They are all connected cars on the same runaway train, and we are all passengers being raced to our deaths. If we do not mutiny, rush the engine room, pull the emergency brake, and wrest control, America will be totally transformed just as Obama promised. Into the greatest train wreck in world history.

Dan Kennedy is a serial entrepreneur, adviser to business owners, sought-after speaker and author of 14 books. His latest, �Make �Em Laugh & Take Their Money: A Few Thoughts on Using Humor as a Speaker or Writer or Sales Professional for Purposes of Persuasion,� contains a lelection of his BMI essays. More information about Dan can be found at www.NoBSBooks.com, and a free collection of his business resources including newsletters and webinars at www.DanKennedy.com.

Gingrich Calls Tim Burns \'the Next Scott Brown\'

By Robert Stacy McCain on 4.28.10 @ 9:26AM

Less than three weeks remain before the May 18 special election to fill the Pennsylvania 12th District House seat formerly held by Democrat Jack Murtha, and Newt Gingrich explains the significance:

[T]his special election is a huge opportunity.
In fact, in Tim Burns I believe we have a chance to win an upset election that will reverberate through the country much like the election of Scott Brown did in January. . . .
PA-12 is a Democratic district, but it is also very rural and culturally conservative. While it had overwhelmingly elected Democrat Jack Murtha for decades, it has rapidly turned against the Obama-Pelosi-Reid machine . . .
Tim Burns\' opponent, Democrat Mark Critz, a former staff member of Jack Murtha, has been put in a nearly impossible situation.

Obama Speech Signals a U.S. Shift on Middle East.

By Ted Belman

The New York Times recently announced Obama Speech Signals a U.S. Shift on Middle East.

�When Mr. Obama declared that resolving the long-running Middle East dispute was a �vital national security interest of the United States,� he was highlighting a change that has resulted from a lengthy debate among his top officials over how best to balance support for Israel against other American interests.

�Mr. Obama said conflicts like the one in the Middle East ended up �costing us significantly in terms of both blood and treasure� � drawing an explicit link between the Israeli-Palestinian strife and the safety of American soldiers as they battle Islamic extremism and terrorism in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.�

To show that Obama was not alone in this, it buttressed his message by quoting from Sec�y Rice, Gen Patraeus and Martin Indyk. It might just as well have quoted from The Baker Report, Z Brzezinski and Sec�y Clinton.

Actually this shift was a long time in coming. There have always been voices in the administration that viewed Israel as a liability rather than an asset.

DC Knows that Obama is Ineligible for Office

By JB Williams

Members from all three branches of the Federal government already know that Barack Hussein Obama is ineligible for the office of President. National leaders, to include members of the US Supreme Court, already know that Barack Hussein Obama is not a �natural born citizen� of the United States of America, and therefore, is ineligible for the office he currently holds. (See JB�s new article on The Bottom Line on Natural Born Citizen)

What they don�t know is how long it will take for most Americans to figure it out, or what to do about it.

The diversionary search for an authentic birth certificate is ongoing and Obama has now spent in excess of $2 million in legal fees to keep that search

Eric Holder�s Department of Justice continues to deploy taxpayer funded attorneys around the country to file dismissals on behalf of Obama, denying all American citizens access to the courts as a peaceful remedy, which only fuels the fire of discontent and the questions about Obama persist.

Michelle Obama states that Kenya is Barack�s �home country.� She knows, after twenty years with Barack. The Ambassador or Kenya has confirmed the same His family friends all know it, and are in fact quite proud of the fact that Americans had no hesitation in electing a �black man from Kenya� as President of the United States.

The US Supreme Court knows what the constitutional condition of �natural born citizen� means. Even the most far left member of that court, Justice Ginsberg, is on record proclaiming that a �natural born citizen� is a birth child of TWO legal US citizens.

Senate committee subpoenas Fort Hood documents

Apr 19th, 2010

WASHINGTON (AP) � In a rare public dispute between a Democratic-led Congress and the White House, a Senate committee on Monday subpoenaed the Obama administration for secret documents and access to witnesses in last year�s mass shooting at the Fort Hood Army base in Texas.

Congress has been largely supportive of President Barack Obama�s policies and the White House prides itself on increased government transparency. Nonetheless, the chairman and ranking Republican of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee have alleged that the administration is covering up critical details on the case, including whether the government had access to information that could have prevented the shooting.

�Unfortunately, it is impossible for us to avoid reaching the conclusion that the departments simply do not want to cooperate with our investigation,� wrote Sens. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, in a letter accompanying the subpoena.

When armies are unleashed against citizens

When armies are unleashed against citizens--2 pages of the ObamaCare bill

One of the cornerstones of the American experiment in human freedom is the tenet that military forces are never to be used against citizens, except in cases of extreme national emergency. When military forces are allowed to engage in domestic issues a Pandora\'s box is opened that unleashes a slippery slope that erodes every known principle of human liberty.

(AP Photo/David Longstreath). When armies are unleashed against citizens.

Fox News legal analyst and judge Andrew Napolitano has raised serious questions about a new \'private army\' funded by the ObamaCare bill.

At issue is a provision, 2 pages long, tucked into the bill that creates and funds a 6000-person brigade of physicians that would be trained by the military and operate with the full powers of the military should the President so direct.

The provision also gives the President broad powers to take National Guard troops from the states in non-wartime and place them in the service of the Federal Government. This mandate would override any objection raised by Governors, who at present possess the only civilian powers over the National Guard.

This video contains commentary on this subject by Andrew Napolitano. To get to the portion of the program that discusses the private army provision, watch the entire video, which is a definite eye-opener.

Several troubling issues come to the surface concerning this portion of the ObamaCare bill, which has now been signed into law.

First, until now if the government needed physicians it could hire them to serve under Health and Human Services to work in the Centers for Disease Control or the Public Health Service. For the first time in American history a special provision is made to place physicians in military training and service during non-wartime.

States against Federal Government over Health Care

Virginia, Idaho Herald War of the States against Federal Government over Health Care

By Peter J. Smith

BOISE, Idaho, March 19, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Virginia and Idaho have now taken the lead among U.S. states in the fight against national health care, with the two states having successfully enacted laws empowering their attorneys general to sue the federal government for trying to force their respective residents to buy health insurance.

On Wednesday, Gov. C.L. \"Butch\" Otter signed the Idaho Health Freedom Act into law, during the first public ceremony for this year\'s legislature.

No Quarter: How Left-Wing Blogs Seek To Destroy Us Rather Than Debate Us

Why They Hate Erick

Posted by Dan McLaughlin (Profile)

Friday, March 19th

If you have been reading or writing blogs for some time, you may recall the early, heady days of the blogosphere back around 2002-03. Many of us old-school bloggers started back then (I started writing baseball on the web in May 2000, and political blogging in August 2002; RedState wouldn�t be founded until the summer of 2004). The blog world was a small town in those days, where everybody knew everybody, nobody was too big to respond to emails, comments or trackbacks (remember trackbacks?), and for all the fire of political debate, there was a broad-based sense that blogs constituted a community of interest that crossed party lines. Bloggers were glad to see recognition given to blogs and bloggers, engaged in debate across ideological lines, and in some cases informal alliances sprung up, as when blogs on the right and left alike united to drive media interest in ousting Trent Lott as GOP Senate Majority Leader after the 2002 elections over his comments about Strom Thurmond. Sites like The Command Post, which followed the blow-by-blow of the Iraq War, featured contributors from both sides of the political spectrum (myself included, along with others who would later become contributors at RedState). I don�t want to overstate the degree of comity or idealize that era, but there was at least some degree of prevailing ethos that bloggers - amateurs using the internet to gather news and offer citizen punditry - had something in common even when their partisan and ideological interests diverged.

Those days are long, long gone. The coordinated and utterly predictable left-wing assault on CNN�s hiring of RedState leader Erick Erickson over the past few days is merely the latest illustration of how the left side of the blogosphere sees it as its role not to debate conservative bloggers and pundits, but to destroy us and preclude us from being heard. Nobody on our side of the aisle should be under any illusion about the depths of personal enmity harbored towards us by the left blogs, nor the fact that they will spare no effort to go after us personally. These are not good people, they are not our friends, and they mean us harm.