No Second Guessing Israel - Sarah Palin

It just doesn't get any clearer or simpler than this. Gov. Palin has made one of the strongest pro-Israel statements of any sitting political figure in the US today. After starting with a somewhat cliche but still relevant comment of "preventing another Holocaust" as a justification to befriend Israel (language probably from an advisor) Gov. Palin then went on to make a value statement usually left presumed in comments made by "pro-Israel" US politicians. In fact, it would be nice to see more Israeli elected officials with such clear convictions as these. Saying "Israel is the good guy" is a welcome and significant break from the current administration's Pali-state support.

It is this sort of basic goodness, decency of character and common sense the American people are known for which has made Gov. Palin an overnight sensation. To hold such fundamental views as Gov. Palin expresses is a throw-back to a day before America was inundated with PC leftism. One wonders what sort of crisis or conflict would be needed to make Barack Obama make a decision between what is good and what is bad or what is right and what is wrong. In Obama's world, it is more important to talk to the bad and accommodate the evil. In Gov. Palin's world, the bad is shunned and good is upheld. The 2008 Presidential election will determine whether American traditional values as represented by McCain-Palin will confront an increasingly dangerous world and shaky international economy or the message of accommodation and retreat represented by the Obama-Biden ticket will re-shape America's charge of leadership into a role of back bench observer.

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INN - Palin: Israel is the Good Guy by Gil Ronen - Published: 09/26/08, 11:27 AM





(IsraelNN.com) "We shouldn't second guess Israel's security efforts because we cannot ever afford to send a message that we would allow a second Holocaust," Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin said in a television interview for CBS.
"Israel has got to have the opportunity and the ability to protect itself. They are our closest ally in the Mideast. We need them. They need us. And we shouldn't second guess their efforts," the Alaska governor added.

"It is obvious to me who the good guys are in this one and who the bad guys are. The bad guys are the ones who say Israel is a stinking corpse and should be wiped off the face of the earth," Palin explained.

"That's not a good guy who is saying that. Now, one who would seek to protect the good guys in this, the leaders of Israel and her friends, her allies, including the United States, in my world, those are the good guys," she said.
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Advanced Guilt by Association - Barack Obama

Guilt by Association? - JB Williams - The New Media Journal -September 25, 2008

(found on Free Republic)

Below is yet another documented article in the parade of warnings about Barack Hussein Obama. Welcome Aboard. This post makes the guilt by association argument in greater depth than my own Barack Obama Myths Facts and Obfuscating. Well done Mr. Williams. Someone reading the Williams article and not being even slightly concerned about democratic candidate Obama's past connections and judgment would have to either be on the Obama payroll or on drugs. There are too many inconsistencies, too many bad calls, too many rotten associations, and too many racist antiJews in Obama's past to ignore.

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See also a nice post from Protein Wisdom - O!bama Doodles! documenting the close connections between BHO and terrorist William Ayers. Here is a sneak peak:

The CAC’s basic functioning has long been known, because its annual reports, evaluations and some board minutes were public. But the Daley archive contains additional board minutes, the Collaborative minutes, and documentation on the groups that CAC funded and rejected. The Daley archives show that Mr. Obama and Mr. Ayers worked as a team to advance the CAC agenda.

One unsettled question is how Mr. Obama, a former community organizer fresh out of law school, could vault to the top of a new foundation? In response to my questions, the Obama campaign issued a statement saying that Mr. Ayers had nothing to do with Obama’s “recruitment” to the board. The statement says Deborah Leff and Patricia Albjerg Graham (presidents of other foundations) recruited him. Yet the archives show that, along with Ms. Leff and Ms. Graham, Mr. Ayers was one of a working group of five who assembled the initial board in 1994. Mr. Ayers founded CAC and was its guiding spirit. No one would have been appointed the CAC chairman without his approval.

The CAC’s agenda flowed from Mr. Ayers’s educational philosophy, which called for infusing students and their parents with a radical political commitment, and which downplayed achievement tests in favor of activism.[...]

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Guilt by Association? - JB Williams - The New Media Journal -September 25, 2008
The long list of evil Obama associates seems to grow daily and although Obama has spent the last few years dodging questions, ignoring demands for full open disclosure of his past and making excuses about a plethora of bad associations, one fact seems glaringly obvious...Obama has far more to hide than to share!

A Christian?

For months, despite his Arab Muslim name and background, Obama told the public via his surrogates in the press, that he was not a Muslim but a devoted Christian and he offered as proof, his twenty year membership in the Rev. Wright’s church of radical racism, where he and wife Michelle were married, their children were baptized and the Obama family sat in a pew for twenty years without ever noticing that they belonged to a radically anti-American church of racism.

Such a story begs a great lapse in judgment on the part of the listener...

Only after “the new media” released actual video footage of the Rev. Wright’s weekly tirades against “white America” did he reluctantly denounce his pastor of twenty years, claiming that this was not the Rev. Wright he had known, and that the founder and pastor did not speak for the church...

Then “the new media” released video of the new pastor who replaced the suddenly retiring Rev. Wright, and his vitriolic racist rhetoric was no different.

In the end, he left the church and denounced his pastor of twenty years, as well as the congregation he raised his children around. This was his proof of a Christian life? America looked the other way....

A Community Organizer?

Listed as the sole accomplishment on Obama’s résumé was “community organizing.” So, people naturally wanted to know what his community organizing was all about.

That’s when the names Saul Alinsky and William Ayers surfaced. Saul Alinsky was the father of the communist practice known as “community organizing,” the practice of exploiting poor and under-educated communities through race-baiting and class warfare. William Ayers is of course the famed convicted terrorist from left-wing homegrown terror organization Weatherman.

The basis for this particular group of community organizers is the communist strategy of exploiting poor, youthfully ill-informed and easily manipulated pockets of the population into mobilizing on behalf of their organizers’ agenda. In this case, Alinsky and Ayers set the radical left-wing agenda.

Though the initiative operated under the cover of a Vietnam era anti-war movement and Students for a Democratic Society, connected to the Black Panther movement and several other college campus initiatives led by the Communist Party, it was nothing more than standard run-of-the-mill communist propaganda parties aimed and exploiting the ignorant into moving the leftist agenda forward.

While Ayers is a prominent figure due to his bombing of government buildings, acts he still believes were justified today, the most famous member of the movement was infamous convicted murderer, Charles Manson.

This was Obama’s community organizing years in a nutshell. Radical leftists and Black Nationalists, all of whom operated violent illegal activities in opposition to American principles and values, in particular, capitalism. This is where Obama met the radical Rev. Jeremiah Wright. It’s also where he first came in contact with other radicals operating in common. Meanwhile, the leftist American press continued to look the other way.

Birds of a Feather?

During the early years of radical left-wing community organizing efforts, William Ayers and his father Thomas came into cooperative contact with the Black Panther’s and Black Panther behind the scenes mentor Donald Warden, known today as Dr. Khalid al-Mansour, the name he took when he adopted the radical Wahabbi Muslim faith through friends in the Saudi Royal family.

In a March 2008 TV interview, former Malcom X lawyer and Harlem burough president Percy Sutton named Khalid al-Mansour as the manchurian puppetmaster behind Barack Hussein Obama. He told of how al-Mansour was raising money for the education of Barack Obama, and asked Sutton to write a letter of recommendation to Harvard University on Obama’s behalf.

Politico blogger and Obama supporter Ben Smith immediately sought, received and printed a “ family retraction” of Sutton’s TV statements on the Politico blog. Newspapers across the country ready to run with the story of a manchurian candidate groomed by Saudi Royal family deal maker al-Mansour stopped dead in their tracks, biting on the Sutton retraction effectively manufactured by Smith in a rush to defend his candidate, Barack Obama.

However, the alleged Sutton retraction, issued by former Hillary Clinton Harlem campaign chief Kevin Wardally, turned out to be fake. When questioned about the retraction by NewsMax investigative journalist Ken Timmerman, official Sutton family representatives answered, “that neither Mr. Sutton or his family had ever heard of Kevin Wardally.”

”Who is this person?” asked Sutton’s assistant, Karen Malone. When told that he portrayed himself as a “spokesman” for the family, Malone told NewsMax, “Well, he’s not.”

Wardally refused to retract his false retraction, stating to NewsMax that, “he had been retained by a nephew of the elder Sutton, who is in our office almost every week.”

Timmerman reports, “Wardally works for Bill Lynch Associations, a Harlem political consulting firm. The nephew, Chuck Sutton, no longer works with the elder Sutton at Inner City Broadcasting, but for a high-tech start-up called Synematics.”

Still, nothing in the left-wing lamestream press about a growing number of miscreants who appear to be lying on behalf of the Obama campaign, including campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt...

The Harvard Law Grad?

The combination of ill-fated coincidences and shady characters surrounding what increasingly appears to be a corrupt Obama campaign is now leading honest investigative journalists like Ken Timmerman at NewsMax to ask more obvious questions.

Like, how did a poor black boy from a broken home, who never held down steady work or disclosed student loan information on his tax returns, managed to pay for seven years of the most expensive schooling in the country?

In searching for answers to this and many other obvious questions, reporters have received the runaround from Obama campaign spokespersons who can’t seem to stop cornering themselves in blatant contradictions.

While the Obama campaign continues to use his Harvard years as a centerpiece for a White House bid which he claims to be an “open book,” his Harvard records remain under lock and key, beyond the reach of journalists seeking to know more about a man who wants to be President of the United States.

Why won’t Obama sign a release for his college records at Harvard, Columbia or Occidental? And why is the left-wing lamestream press still silent on all of it? The answers should be obvious to everyone by now.

Guilt by Association?

In a candidate with no real relative experience on his résumé, the company he has chosen to keep over the years may be the only means of knowing what the man actually believes in. Yet the man is desperate to run from almost every associate he has ever known. This is because his life is filled with personal associates whom have a very public history of highly anti-social and very anti-American backgrounds.

The public has a right and good reason to know if Barack Hussein Obama is the Manchurian candidate of the Saudi Royal Family and at present, all evidence certainly points in that direction. At a minimum, there are way too many unanswered questions regarding an endless string of less than acceptable associations.

As a general rule, people who hide things have something to hide.

When Obama’s twenty year pastor and mentor became a racially charged public disgrace, Obama cried “guilt by association.”

When Obama was caught lying about the depth and breadth of his personal relationship with Weatherman terrorist William Ayers, he again cried “guilt by association.”

When former Black Panther lawyer Percy Sutton connected Obama to Black Panther mentor and Saudi front man Khalid al-Mansour, Obama cried “guilt by association” yet again.

When the nation learned that Obama’s “community organizing” was nothing more than Alinsky style communist bent Black community rabble-rousing in an effort to manipulate the most easily manipulated segments of our population, Obama cried “foul and more guilt by association.”

As Obama is linked to Arab Muslim after Arab Muslim, and mountains of money pour in from all over the globe through more than 500 campaign bundlers, with no means of backtracking where all of that money is really coming from, Obama runs for cover and redirects press attention away from himself by sending an army of investigators to Alaska to dig up (or invent if necessary) dirt on Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

Meanwhile, nobody in the left-wing lamestream press is asking a single serious question of the Obama campaign and there is NO mass public outcry for full disclosure from the candidate who is running on “full disclosure.”

Scumbags of a Feather Sink Together?

Best I can tell from all available evidence, Barack Hussein Obama is the Manchurian candidate of the Saudi Royal Family.

He has been propped up for years by Black Nationalists, former Black Panther thugs, Wahabbi wealth and communist sympathizers masquerading as Alinsky styled “community activists” who have bilked the poorest and most unsuspecting members of society out of their freedom and liberty in pursuit of left-wing political power.

Dr. Khalid al-Mansour is certainly capable of being the official puppet master behind what is clearly a puppet presidential candidate. More than forty years of political alignments by al-Mansour demonstrate that he is a brilliant individual, of great wealth and power, extraordinarily well connected, with a hardcore anti-American agenda and a life long desire to seat the first Black Nationalist President, maybe even operating under the command and control of the Saudi family that made al-Mansour the international power-broker he is today.

We have lots of facts, lots of questions and very few forthright answers here. We have all seen Obama’s alleged intellect disappear the minute he is without a teleprompter. He’s only eloquent when someone is feeding him words. So, who is feeding Obama those words?

Rev. Wright, Father Pfleger, Percy Sutton, Malcolm X, the Black Panthers, Saul Alinsky, William Ayers, Donald Warden (aka Dr. Khalid al-Mansour), pro-Palestinian Rashid Khalidi, Antoin 'Tony' Rezko, Nadhmi Auchi, Joseph Aramanda and Louis Farrahkan.

These names and more like them are repeatedly intertwined with Obama’s entire adult life over the last twenty odd years. The list of Obama associates is distinguished and consistent. Consistently corrupt, radically leftist, racially charged and anti-American...

When one has nothing but evil associates in his past, it is very difficult not to draw the natural conclusion that this individual, with such a long history of association with a multitude of corrupt friends, complete with very anti-American rap sheets, is also corrupt and anti-American at best.

Obama has the power to lay all such suspicions to rest by simply offering full disclosure of his brief but busy background.

Yet for some reason, Obama continues to run from his past and his past associations, leaving investigative journalists crisscrossing the country kicking over rocks and following trails that would lead any honest critical thinker to conclude that Obama is nothing he reports himself to be.

With each passing day, investigative journalists uncover another and then another Obama connection to leftist corruption, Arab money and tyrannical communist friends. If Obama refuses to answer the questions directly by fully opening up his life, he does so at the risk of allowing reporters and the voting public to draw their own conclusions from whatever evidence they are able to uncover on their own.

Meanwhile, the “candidate of full disclosure” can not run on his own “full disclosure” since he has offered no disclosure concerning his life.

People working around the clock to hide their past generally have something in their past worth hiding. People willing to open up their past for all to see, generally have nothing to hide.

His defenders call it guilt by association. But try running a Republican candidate who sat in the pew of a White Supremacist church for twenty years, hung out with skin heads on weekends and was groomed and funded for twenty years by Fidel Castro and see how long it takes leftists and their press to lynch that candidate by way of his associations...

Unless and until Obama is ready to stop running from his past, I suggest that every honest investigative journalist in America spend the next few weeks kicking over every rock around Obama and Dr. Khalid al-Mansour. At the moment, all evidence implicates Obama as a left-wing Saudi puppet and al-Mansour as the Saudi puppet master.

If this is the basis upon which Obama wants American voters to make their November decision, so be it. But losing in November won’t be the result of “racism.” It will be the result of life long “guilt by association” and the fact that Obama refused to answer a plethora of very real and reasonable questions about his past.

If he won’t explain the vast number of ill-conceived relationships, he will sink with his friends, including those in the lamestream press, who stopped being the unbiased eyes and ears of the people years ago.

I sincerely hope that Obama decides to open his résumé up to the standard scrutiny expected in every run for the highest office in the land. But I won’t be holding my breath...

Death by Tourism - Iraqi Justice

Iraq may execute MP for Israel visit - Sep. 22, 2008 AP and herb keinon , THE JERUSALEM POST

Ok. There are a few rules we need to understand about President Bush's new Iraq. The point is that just because the government may be freely elected it doesn't mean that:

1. The country or government will be Jew friendly


2. Just laws will be passed


3. Un-just laws will be overturned


4. All democratically elected states will have the same interests


5. Armed conflict is always avoidable between two states with democratically elected leaders

Having said all that, the world is certainly safer and Israel definitely safer after Saddam Hussein's rope burn swing. Iraq will determine its own future. For now, US security interests will benefit from the new Iraq. Such assurances may not, in the future bear fruit. I, for one, will not be a bit surprised, if Iraq survives as a state that one day, a stronger, democratically elected Iraqi government will take the lead in organizing another region effort to oppose the "Zionist Entity". Does that mean the war was a mistake? Heck no. It is just as likely that Iraq doesn't hold it together, breaks into sectarian conflict for an extended time and eventually ends up ruled by another dictator. Only time will tell whether that dictator is more Saddam Hussein or OBL.

As to the subject of the article, Israel should offer al-Alusi amnesty. There is after all a difference between free, democratic, and just. Much of the world misses this point.

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First his two sons were murdered. Now he faces prosecution. The reason for Mithal al-Alusi's troubles? Visiting Israel and advocating peace with the Jewish state - something Iraq's leaders refuse to consider.

The Iraqi is at the center of a political storm after his fellow lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to strip him of his immunity and allow his prosecution for visiting Israel - a crime punishable by death under a 1950s-era law. Such a fate is unlikely for al-Alusi, though he may lose his party's sole seat in parliament.

Because he had visited Israel, many Iraqis assume the maverick legislator was the real target of the assassins who killed his sons in 2005 while he escaped unharmed.

Now he is in trouble for again visiting Israel and attending a conference a week ago at the International Institute for Counterterrorism.

"He wasn't set to speak, but he was in the audience and conversed with a lecturer on a panel about insurgency and terrorism in Afghanistan, Iraq and Israel," said conference organizer Eitan Azani. "We didn't invite him. He came on his own initiative."

Al-Alusi has a German passport, allowing him to travel without visa restrictions imposed on other Iraqis. Lawmakers accused him of humiliating the nation with a trip to the "enemy" state.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor called the reaction to al-Arusi's visit "very distressing" and said it was sad this was the response to someone who merely visited Israel and was interested in a dialogue with it.

"It is very unfortunate that the reaction was so violent and aggressive," he said. "It adds nothing."

Palmor said Israel was appreciative of al-Alusi's "courage," and that the reactions to his visit were an example of the extremism that was plaguing that country and leading to so much bloodshed there.

The uproar shows how far Iraq has moved from the early US goal of creating a democracy that would make peace with Israel and remove a critical force from the Arab-Israeli conflict.

The US Embassy declined comment. "It is an issue for the Iraqi parliament, not the US Mission to Iraq," said spokesman Armand Cucciniello.

"What has happened was a catastrophe for democracy," Al-Alusi told The Associated Press in an interview in his Baghdad home. "Within an hour's time, the parliament became the policeman, the investigator, the judge, the government and the law. It was a sham trial."

Al-Alusi said he went to Israel to seek international support for Iraq as it struggles against terrorism, and insisted that the outcry reflected Iranian meddling in Iraq's internal affairs - an accusation often leveled by Sunnis like himself against Iraq's mostly Shi'ite neighbor.

"Iran is behind Hamas and Hizbullah and many other terrorist organizations. Israelis are suffering like me, like my people. So we need to be together," he said. "Peace will have more of a chance."

Iraq sent troops to three Arab wars against Israel, and fired Scud missiles at it in the 1991 Gulf War. It remains technically at war with the Jewish state. Iraq's once-thriving Jewish community has shriveled to just a few people, most having fled after Israel was established in 1948.

Ahmadenijad, Hillary and Democrats

It seems according to this story running on Arutz Sheva, that silly politics has become more important than defending Israel.

Since the anti-Ahmadinejad at the UN rally has become a political affair, it should be cancelled. If Jews cannot even get together and use what ever means possible to protest the terrorist from Teheran, and in Elul nonetheless, it is better not to even try.

This failure to even schedule speakers, (yes all who can help should come, Hillary as well as Gov. Palin) is embarrasing. Iran and all islamic facist terrorists are strengthened by our divisions and dis-unity.

And, thanks democrat-liberal Jews for finally admitting that your political agenda comes before the well-being of your brethren in Israel. And to the democrats in general, thanks for your whole hearted support of the Jewish people. The parted curtains reveal a petty political organization of easily offended operatives who hold by “my way or the highway”. I call upon the democrat party to send a high level representative to NY, (if the event is not cancelled) possibly even one of the two candidates on their presidential ticket and I call upon the organizers to re-invite Sarah Palin. Don’t force the conclusion upon the world that you only care about Israel and the Jews when it is politically convenient to do so.

Iran and the madman must be stopped but more importantly, the unification of the Jews must begin. The first goal cannot be met until the second goal is achieved.

I remember attending the big Soviet Jewry rally in DC in the late 80's. Politicians from across the spectrum spoke and to my knowledge, no one was axed due to party affiliation. HaShem should have mercy on his people.

Agent Emes Is Back - trailer

Agent Emes: Hard To Forget from Leibel on Vimeo.

9-11, Islamic Terrorism and the Next President

Today is 9/11. Many people are taking a vacation from politics to honor the fallen, to re-visit the horrible day in 2001 where America received a wake up call for ignoring the threat of Islamic facism.

Today as we remember the fallen, we warn the jihadists and would-be jihadists in the words of Ronald Reagan, you can run but you can't hide. And for this reason, it is appropriate not to pause from politics, but to consider how to defend America in the future. Who will put country before the UN? It is clear that only 1 candidate seeking the office of President of the United States understands war and will not shy away from defending America. One candidate will not make offers of no pre-condition talks with madmen, nations, people and religions which do not seek peace with America but capitulation from her.
In the words of Fred Thompson, supporting John McCain:

Here McCain makes his own vivid impression. His record shows that, early on, he understood the ominous intentions of Russia’s leaders, made the Iranian mullahs fear him and foresaw the need for a troop surge in Iraq, which, along with his own military service and longtime Armed Services Committee membership, add up to real national security experience.

By contrast, voters struggle with his opponent’s virtually nonexistent record on these issues. It comes down to a common sense decision that says: With national security traffic so heavy, this is not the moment to turn the car keys over to a teenage driver. Presidents don’t have time for drivers ed.

G-d Bless America

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The John McCain I got to know -Posted on September 10th, 2008
By Fred in Conservative, Values, Commentaries


(Cross published in The Politico)

Although Americans are used to Labor Day campaign kickoffs, this year’s back-to-back political conventions meant exposure to more than the usual number of partisan promises of a bright future and excoriation of the opposition.

So, while most of us who address the national conventions like to think our words will make all the difference for our party and the great American who is our nominee, in reality our speeches usually just blend into a kaleidoscope of impressions the public takes from the week’s events.

That is why, in my own convention speech, I tried to tap into a sentiment already established in the public mind. I talked about John McCain’s remarkable and heroic record as a POW. But I also talked about the John McCain that I got to know while sitting in the desk next to his on the floor of the U.S. Senate.

Citing any senator’s record, however impressive, may or may not electrify convention delegates. But it was my way of laying down a marker on behalf of a theory I have about both conventions and campaigns in general. Even amid a convention’s staged bedlam and overly hortatory speeches, voters do pick up information that develops into lasting impressions that count for something on Election Day.

The pundits and the political class sometimes underestimate the extent to which the public, in its subliminal but thorough way, collects data and makes informed electoral decisions. In a broader sense, voters carry into the polling booth this ultimate question about presidential candidates: “Who do I trust to make the right decision?”

Key issues for voters in this election will be freedom and national security, and here their impressions will be vivid: rogue nations with rapidly developing nuclear capabilities, nuclear-armed nations in volatile regions such as India and Pakistan, traditional nuclear powers such as Russia flexing their muscles and threatening the liberty and stability of those around them, and China building up its military in a way that suggests it wants to beat the United States in more than gold medals.

Here McCain makes his own vivid impression. His record shows that, early on, he understood the ominous intentions of Russia’s leaders, made the Iranian mullahs fear him and foresaw the need for a troop surge in Iraq, which, along with his own military service and longtime Armed Services Committee membership, add up to real national security experience.

By contrast, voters struggle with his opponent’s virtually nonexistent record on these issues. It comes down to a common sense decision that says: With national security traffic so heavy, this is not the moment to turn the car keys over to a teenage driver. Presidents don’t have time for drivers ed.

On the economy, voters have the same impression of McCain that I had on the Senate floor, where he fought plenty of fiscal battles. Some he lost. Some he won. Sometimes his colleagues liked him for it. Sometimes they most decidedly did not like him for it.

But the impression left with voters is, again, one that contrasts with his opponent’s. The McCain record shows he often stood alone in understanding that long-term prosperity of the American people requires us to stop wasting and spending the birthright of the next generation. And he knows, as his opponent does not, that you don’t make the American people prosperous by making the government richer and that, in an economic downturn, you don’t impose the largest tax increase in American history.

Finally, an issue McCain has asked me to help his campaign with — the federal judiciary — is one that disturbs voters to the point of having enormous electoral possibilities. The federal judiciary is the Democratic Party’s vehicle of choice to enact policies that could never see the light of day if they were required to go through the democratic process. And that party now talks about electing a supermajority in the Congress that, along with the most liberal president in our lifetime, would allow them to change the face of America without enacting one piece of legislation — a change that would take us a generation to rectify, if we ever could.

McCain has chosen to make this issue a priority because he thinks the public worries about a Supreme Court lost to liberalism for our lifetime, and that it cares about the appointment of federal judges who will follow the law and the Constitution and not remake it along the lines of their own policy preferences.

McCain’s opponent has carefully worked his way up the political ladder, guided by no discernible political principles except adherence to party positions — which he has showed a willingness to change if the political winds blow too strongly against them. By contrast, McCain’s life and career exemplifies courage, sacrifice and leadership.

Put simply: Others talked about reaching across the aisle and reconciling differences; John McCain did it. Others went along with pork barrel spending and getting the political benefit from it; John McCain fought it. Others wanted to declare defeat and cut and run in the central front of the war on terrorism; John McCain fought for a strategy that would ensure victory. Others gave lip service to reform; John McCain actually made it happen.

So impressions matter in politics — as do the facts and the record that create those impressions. Through all the convention hoopla and focus on the Electoral College horse race, then, the impressions of John McCain come through. Impressions of the same John McCain who lit up the political atmosphere last week with a startling and brilliant choice for running mate, the impressions of a lifetime record summed up by a word: leader. And a title: Mr. President.

Desperate Times Call For Desperate Democrats

Desperate democrats are trying to make the Palin pick for VP fit into a model of how they want the election to be campaigned, like shoving a square peg into a round hole. This will prove to be a mistake. Already the effort appears cynical and possibly is contributing to the new polls showing the McCain ticket moving ahead of Obama. Maybe the polls reflect the capricious and interpretative, serving the moment rather than the historical record, nature of the criticism (as evidenced in the article below) against Gov. Palin. The desperation and mistaken poll generated ideas of the career political activist Marc Stanley are evidence. Notice how the completely discredited Buchanan story is slipped into the OP/ED at the end capitalizing on the myth which has been kept alive by the liberal blogosphere.

Somewhere along the way to Utopian-socialist idealism, liberals have forgotten what the American legend is all about. They are about to re-discover it.

In fact, Sarah Palin may have already changed the political landscape in America for the better. Then again, maybe Governor Palin is merely restoring to America the value of citizen legislator like President Reagan a view held by our Founding Fathers as the way in which our country is responsive to the people. More over, the continuing fight to re-align the Jewish vote is heating up as will be seen below. The comparisons and criticisms used by Stanley in that fight are pretty comedic.

Desperation causes rational thought to give way to a failure to uncover inconsistency in logic. The "associations" argument which APRPEH made in the post, Barack Obama Myths, Facts and Obfuscation is a strong reason for any Jew to pause and think before pulling the lever for Obama. Here we have the desperate debunked story that Palin may have supported Buchanan and is also a risk because a Jews for J nut spoke at her church (not in the article below) and this somehow counteracts Obama's long history of antiJew associations. It is the height of chutzpah. Here is another example:

First, Palin has absolutely no foreign policy experience - it is ironic that McCain has spend his spring and summer telling Americans that the most important characteristic he is looking for in a vice president is an individual who is ready on day one to assume the presidency.

If it is so important to have foreign policy experience from day 1 in the White House, why is Obama running for President? Why is Obama qualified to assume the Presidency? Why do the democrats use McCain's interpretation of qualifications to be President? Speaks volumes about their guy doesn't it? Anyhow, look for the kitsch liberal red lines below as once again, another liberal tries to explain what Jewish values are without having a clue. Bring out the hammer, that peg will fit if pummeled enough times.

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Sep 3, 2008 22:06 | Updated Sep 4, 2008 22:09, JPOST article - Sarah Palin and the Jewish community By MARC R. STANLEY, NJDC

found at Free Republic


Sarah Palin Doll
Upon returning from the Democratic Convention in Denver we find a political landscape that has drastically changed. In the course of just one week Sen. Barack Obama picked Sen. Joseph Biden as his vice presidential nominee while Sen. John McCain picked Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska as his running mate. These two picks say a great deal about the judgment of each presidential candidate and about their understanding of the American Jewish community.
Biden, of course, was the more conventional pick - especially for the Jewish community. The senior senator from Delaware is one of the most well-known and respected politicians among American Jewish leadership. He may be unique for a non-Jewish senator in that he loudly exclaims that he is a Zionist. Even his adversaries admit that there is no more knowledgeable senator when it comes to Middle East policy. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency describes his record his record on Israel as "sterling." On domestic issues he is totally in sync with Jewish public opinion - supporting the separation of church and state, reproductive freedom and energy independence.



Palin is another story. She is an exceedingly odd choice for a party which has spent the better part of the past year loudly exclaiming that it was reaching out to Jewish voters and made much to do about considering two Jewish legislators - Joe Lieberman and Eric Cantor - as vice presidential possibilities.

First, Palin has absolutely no foreign policy experience - it is ironic that McCain has spend his spring and summer telling Americans that the most important characteristic he is looking for in a vice president is an individual who is ready on day one to assume the presidency. Moreover, Palin has never visited Israel and besides signing a pro-Israel resolution passed by the state legislature, she has apparently never spoken out or focused on the Jewish state.

ON DOMESTIC issues she is totally out of step with public opinion in the Jewish community. Palin is against reproductive freedom - even in the cases of rape and incest - and as a result one of the first organizations to support her nomination was the Christian Coalition.

She speaks about the effects of climate change in the Arctic, but she also is clear that she does not believe that climate change is man-made. Another position which American Jews will find strange is one she shares with McCain - she believes that creationism should be taught in public schools.

The reform narrative that GOP operatives like to site when speaking of Palin could be appealing to Jewish voters. However, Palin has a few problems here, as well. She eventually came out against the "Bridge to Nowhere" but only after the issue became a public embarrassment to the Republican Party and it was apparent that federal funds would not cover the whole cost of the project. When she ran for governor in October of 2006, she was all for spending taxpayer dollars on this very dubious "pork." It took her another 11 months to see the light. Moreover when she was first elected mayor of Wasilla (population 6,000) she was severely criticized by the local paper for firing city employees because they had supported her opponent.

Then there is the Palin troopergate scandal. On July 11, she fired the state's top cop, Walt Monegan. Monega says Palin fired him because he refused to fire a state trooper who went through a messy divorce with the governor's sister. Palin initially denied the charge but later admitted that some of her officials spoke to Monegan about firing the trooper. Monegan claims that she herself put on the pressure and the state legislature has begun an investigation into the charges that the governor used the power of her office for her personal/family agenda.

FINALLY, THERE is the matter of two anti-Israel politicians - Ron Paul and Pat Buchanan. In February Palin in an interview lavished praise on Ron Paul. There is also a controversy over whether Palin has supported former presidential aspirant Pat Buchanan. To be fair there is no evidence that Palin shares either of these Republicans' anti-Israel creed. However, since the beginning of the GOP narrative within the Jewish community is that Obama can not be trusted because of a handful of people who have endorsed him. If this guilt by association standard is one the McCain stands by, then they also need to deal with Palin's past support for anti-Israel politicians.

The Jewish vote in 2008 has been a hot topic of conversation in the media. John McCain's fist major decision of this campaign - picking Palin for his running mate - leads us to believe that the Jewish community's concerns are not so high on his priority list.

The writer is chairman of the National Jewish Democratic Council.

Shoftim: Divination vs. Divine Guidance

On this first erev Shabbos in Elul let's step away from the politics and world events. Forget all the efforts to divert yidden from the most basic core knowledge possessed by our holy neshamos and masked by our physical needs and unrestrained emotions. These affairs, politics and polls, news and analysis - into which we invest considerable physical and emotional strength sap more than our energy. They sap our ruchnius. It is my prayer for my Jewish readers that this Elul you are afforded from Heaven the strength to overcome the gashmius and strengthen your soul bonds to HaKadosh Baruch Hu.

By doing so, you will realize that all these events in which our egos want us to believe have great purpose and from which derive great pleasure, devoting countless hours for their consideration, have already been determined. If not for the need to seek meaning for our physical selves, we would otherwise be spending that same time learning and discussing ways to make the world a dwelling place for Him.

If you are someone other than Michelle Nevada, please skip the next paragraph and go straight to the dvar Torah.

Michelle, if you are reading this, you can click on something else now if you choose, since this message is one derived from the teachings of ChaBaD and the article below comes from a Rabbi with serious Lubavitch yichus. Rabbi Posner is one of those shluchim, a ChaBaDnik, following the vision of the Rebbe, who has dedicated his life to strengthening Jewish souls, teaching Torah, living as an example for others and making the world better. It is the Shluchim who are ChaBaD, not the nut cases that are quoted in the article you copied. (No intent to offend or insult should be implied in this message).

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FOR YOUR SHABBAT TABLE
By Rabbi Shimon H Posner
Chabad Rancho Mirage, CA

WITCHES, BLACK CATS, BULLS AND PLANES

Black cats don't bother me any more than white or brown ones do. The thirteenth floor is fine as long as the elevator is working. Horoscopes remain unread -regardless of whether we Tauruses need to think bull market or bear.

So I read this parsha's admonitions with a detachment of sorts: more them-there, than me-now. Thou shalt not go to witches who communicate with the dead through a chicken bone held in their throat. Thou shalt not pass your children through fire.

Thou shalt not seek diviners who ask sticks if they should take trips.

Thou shalt not read omens.

Wait, it's starting to sound vaguely, eerily relevant. I don't read horoscopes largely because I think they're bunk; some syndicated whoever swaps Tuesday's Gemini for Thursday's Capricorn. But what if I was shown reams of data showing their validity? -- Then I would have to rely on the thou-shalt-nots. Or else be rolling balls down airline aisles.

But after all the (well, seemingly) far-out admonitions that the parsha throws at us, comes a simple tomim tehiye im Hashem elockecha be simple with Hashem your G-d.

What is the common wrong of all these hocus-pocus trips? They are all trying to control the future, read perhaps, but reading with the hope of control. And hocus-pocus are not the only diviners and omen readers.

At the turn of the century, (oops, make that turn of the 1800's to 1900's) progressive Jewish writers and thinkers spoke of the Talmudic tradition being now detached academic study since it is no longer alive. "Our sole purpose," exclaimed one Yiddish novelist, "is to give Judaism a decent burial." He wasn't being a pessimist either; he was being realist, simply reading all the data available. Since modernity there had been a constant draw towards the diminishing role of religion, particularism, ethnicity and every other defining tenant of Yiddishkeit.

These novelists and philosophers were, to put it simply, right. They were dead wrong - in hindsight. Their error was not because their data was faulty, but because data cannot determine the future.

Tomim tehiye -- you shall be simple, wholesome, assured. You do what you have to; you leave the rest in Whose hands it ultimately is. You have done what Hashem told you to do; you are with Him; He is good; whatever happens is Him; whatever happens is good. In mame loshon:Bashert.

Statistics, (was it Disraeli that said?) lie. Perhaps in more avenues that one. Statistics at mid-century spoke about The Disappearing Jew. The Rebbe spoke about tomim tehiye. Not coincidentally, the phrase following tomim tehiye speaks of following Moshe's successors.

Not that you're relieved of the decision making, just the nail biting. Nor can you be careless because the future is not in your hands; you may get onto your flight to Chicago and end up in Boston but you are still the one who has to check the departure monitors. But if you checked the monitors, don't roll balls or whatever down the aisle. Enjoy your flight. To wherever. It's all bashert. All good. All the time.

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more articles and divrei Torah from Rabbi Posner can be found here

Obama Camp: Tasteless Rumors and Truisms

Turns Out, The Devout Republican Evangelical Governor Of Alaska Has A Soft Spot For Israel - Mere Rhetoric

A few weeks ago, APRPEH wrote in a post titled Obama and Carter Party in Denver, I opined that understanding liberal logic was finally possible

The modern liberal/democrat must be able to ignore truth for vision. Vision of course, without truth is fantasy. But that doesn't stop the left. When fantastical beliefs in new ideas emerge, ideas which are based upon fantasy more so than observation, on idealism more so than realism, on a slavish connection to a misnomer casting away thoughtful analysis, then you have liberal thought.

Since last Friday, we have had the following contributions to American political history and decency erosion from the left, proof texts for my theory:

• Bristol Palin is actually the mother of the 4 month old Downs baby "reported" to have been delivered by Governor Palin


• Todd Palin is the father of Bristol Palin's baby in utereo


• Governor Palin was a supporter of Pat Buchanan's presidential bid in 2000

While some of this utter nonsense has arisen like a monster in a horror flick from the bowels of the leftist bloggers and kossacks at Daily Kos, one has been perpetrated by knee jerk Jewish congressman Robert Flexer of Florida who saw revenge in his eyes for all the justifiable criticism of Obama's antiJew connections and assisted by the leftist media. Flexer saw read meat and his eyes forced his ego to override his brain in order to believe the story that Governor Palin supported Buchanan. The need to avenge his socialist presidential candidate and party standard barer negated any need to check the authenticity of the report. Had he done so, a great embarrassing mistake would have been avoided. A simple call to Chabad of Anchorage (see the VIN story at the bottom) or even AIPAC would have sufficed to make an intelligent comment instead of the bitter, angry and of course inaccurate comment that he made. To remind readers, Wexler's quote was {the selection of Palin was a "direct affront to all Jewish Americans"}. Oy Vey, please notify me when wacky Wexler apologizes.

Meanwhile, on to some real Jewbaiting, Ed Lasky has again produced a story of more of the same from the Obama campaign. Prominent Obama endorser criticizes "Israel Lobby"

Andrew Bacevich, described in the Lasky piece as one of the first prominent conservative endorsers of Barack Obama, wrote in an LA Times op/ed that the demonic brain washing carried on by the Israel lobby will again derail all hopes for peace in the Middle East by influencing for evil the easily deluded American policy makers.

And the Israel lobby will oppose attempts to chart a new course in the Middle East. If the past provides any indication, advocates of the status quo will mount a tenacious defense.

To be fair, Bacevich tried every way possible to look legitimate. He drew in the favorite bogeymen "big oil", "military industrial complex", and "Detroit". But the clincher is the conclusion that any reader must draw that those evil Jews are so strong it doesn't matter who the president is, American foreign policy will be derailed. So equal in influence to the oil industry, the auto industry and the defense industry is the insidious Israel lobby it deserves mention with industries that employ probably millions of Americans and worth mega-billions in value. What's wrong with this picture or if you are a young reader, 'One of these things is not like the others'.

What would happen if Bacevich had his way and each of these greedy groups caved in to his fantasy? American policy would be defined by interests which are what? Wholesome, honest, decent? American policy would somehow be transformed overnight into a force to establish American power based-hegemony over the world all provided Israel gives away the store to the barbarians, (I suppose this is Bacevich's new course in the Middle East). After all, three of these powers are domestic policy issues and one is foreign policy. Bacevich says that the vested interests of these groups work to "stalemate" policy making. Never mind that in the good ole USA people with common interests have a right to band together to promote differing interpretations as to what American interests are and should be.

To merge the "Israel lobby" with those faceless, shadowy and selfish connivers (/sarc), speaks volumes. And as the only "lobby" amongst the four he mentions that concerns another country, the foreign policy focus must be upon the Jews.

In Bacevich's view, even the Obamamessiah will not be able to bring peace to the world all because of the Israel lobby, oh and those others. Toss in the neo-cons who will derail McCain just for good measure. BTW, Lasky points out that Bacevich endorsed Obama (verified by Historians for Obama).

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McCain camp rejects Buchanan claims - JTA

The McCain camp rejected claims by Democrats that Sarah Palin once associated with Pat Buchanan.

"Governor Palin has never worked for any effort to elect Pat Buchanan -- that assertion is completely false," Michael Goldfarb, a spokesman for the presidential campaign of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), told ABC over the weekend in discussing Palin, the Alaska governor and vice presidential choice.

On Aug. 29, the Democratic Party issued a release quoting U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.) as saying that McCain's pick was a "direct affront to all Jewish Americans" because of reports of Palin's past associations with Buchanan, who has long postulated that the pro-Israel lobby is inordinately influential and that Hitler might have been contained through peaceful means.

Wexler's comments appear based on a 1999 report that Palin wore a Buchanan button during Buchanan's visit to Wasilla, the town she then led as mayor. At that time, however, Palin had written a letter to the local paper explaining that she wore campaign buttons as a matter of courtesy when candidates came to visit the town.
Palin was an official of the campaign of Steve Forbes, who like Buchanan was contending for the Republican presidential nomination.

Buchanan said he recalls meeting Palin at a 1996 fund-raiser in Alaska, but no record of her donating or supporting Buchanan at that time has surfaced.

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Palin Supported Forbes Not Buchanan - YidwithLid

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Democratic Rep.: Palin pick is 'direct affront to all Jewish Americans' By Haaretz Staff
Last update - 20:47 31/08/2008
Tags: Sarah Palin, Jewish Democrats

Democratic Congressman Robert Wexler of Florida lashed out Saturday at John McCain's choice of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate, accusing her of supporting "Nazi sympathizer" Pat Buchanan, and branding the move an "affront to all Jewish Americans."

"John McCain's decision to select a vice presidential running mate that endorsed Pat Buchanan for president in 2000 is a direct affront to all Jewish Americans," said a statement by Wexler.

"Pat Buchanan is a Nazi sympathizer with a uniquely atrocious record on Israel, even going as far as to denounce bringing former Nazi soldiers to justice and praising Adolf Hitler for his 'great courage'".

Wexler went on to accuse McCain of having "failed his first test of leadership."

"At a time when standing up for Israel's right to self-defense has never been more critical, John McCain has failed his first test of leadership and judgment by selecting a running mate who has aligned herself with a leading anti-Israel voice in American politics. It is frightening that John McCain would select someone one heartbeat away from the presidency who supported a man who embodies vitriolic anti-Israel sentiments."

The National Jewish Democratic Council also issued a statement Saturday saying that McCain's judgment appears "lacking" in choosing Palin.

"Prior to today's selection, Palin apparently has never spoken publicly about Israel," said a statement by the group's Executive Director Ira N. Forman. "Moreover, on a broad range of issues - most strikingly on the issue of women's reproductive freedom - she is totally out of step with Jewish public opinion.

The Republican Jewish Coalition, however, welcomed Palin's nomination.

"As governor of Alaska, Palin has enjoyed a strong working relationship with Alaska's Jewish community. She has demonstrated sensitivity to the concerns of the community and has been accessible and responsive," said coalition Executive Director Matt Brooks.

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Palin support of Buchanan is 'propaganda by Democrats,' says Fla. Republican
Last update - 02:26 02/09/2008
By Natasha Mozgovaya, Haaretz Correspondent, and Haaretz Service
Tags: Pat Buchanan, John McCain

The Republican majority leader of the Florida House of Representatives on Monday dismissed Democrats' criticism of John McCain's vice presidential nominee's prior support for the controversial television pundit and presidential candidate Patrick Buchanan.

In a surprise move, McCain tapped Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate, drawing fire from liberal Jewish leaders who cited her past praise for Buchanan.

"It's propaganda invented by the Democrats, and it?s unfortunate they were trying to make these accusations without any factual basis," said Adam Hasner, who represents the Boca Raton district in the Florida legislature. "It has been verified she never endorsed Buchanan, never worked for him and I think that those democrats who were making those accusation owe Gov. Palin an apology."

Democratic Congressman Robert Wexler of Florida lashed out Saturday at McCain's choice of Palin as his running mate due to the latter's support of a "Nazi sympathizer" (Buchanan), and branding the move an "affront to all Jewish Americans."

"John McCain's decision to select a vice presidential running mate that endorsed Pat Buchanan for president in 2000 is a direct affront to all Jewish Americans," said a statement by Wexler.

"Pat Buchanan is a Nazi sympathizer with a uniquely atrocious record on Israel, even going as far as to denounce bringing former Nazi soldiers to justice and praising Adolf Hitler for his 'great courage'".

Wexler went on to accuse McCain of having "failed his first test of leadership."

Hasner predicted a strong turnout of Jewish voters in favor of McCain in November, thanks to the Arizona senator's long record of supporting Israel.

"One of our secret weapons is Senator Joe Lieberman," Hasner said. "He?s a tremendous advocate for Senator McCain, and we believe that we?ll have a very strong turnout for the republican ticket."

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Alaska - Chabad Rabbi: Sarah Palin a Great Friend To The Jewish Community - VIN
Alaska - In light of recent media reports attempting to connect Republican VP nominee Gov. Sarah Palin with controversial historian and Nazi sympathizer Pat Buchanan, VIN News has learned that the Alaska governor has demonstrated strong support for Alaska’s Jewish community. In particular, Gov. Palin signed a resolution in June of 2008 recognizing Israel’s 60th anniversary and the unique relationship between Alaska and the Jewish State, especially the fact that Alaska Airlines played a critical role in the rescue of 40,000 Yemenite Jews in 1948 and 1949.

Chabad of Anchorage’s Rabbi Yosef Greenberg had this to tell VIN News:

“Gov. Palin signed this resolution in the presence of Alaska’s Jewish community leaders. This bill was orchestrated by members of the Alaska Legislation and heavily supported by Speaker of the House, Representative John Harris…

Gov. Palin has established a great relationship with the Jewish community over the years and has attended several of our Jewish cultural gala events. Gov. Palin also had plans to visit Israel with members of the Jewish community, however, for technical reason, the visit has not occurred yet.

I was personally impressed by Gov. Palin’s remarks of hope and faith when she gave birth to a child with special needs. We all feel that the Governor is a remarkable, energetic, and good person.

Having said that I like to reiterate that As a Lubavitcher rabbi, I would like to note that we do not endorse any political candidate.