CBN.com:

Sixty-six percent believe the Palestinians should start off with their own state beside Israel, but then move to just one Palestinian state.

And 92 percent believe Jerusalem should be their capital.

The survey of 1,010 Palestinians — 656 in the West Bank and 353 in the Gaza Strip — was conducted by U.S. pollster Stanley Greenberg, along with the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion.

In light of the poll above, think about this: Neither Hamas, Fatah or the Palestinian National Authority, grant Israel the right to exist in their Charters and Constitutions, but exist they do. Israel has said there will be no two-state solution UNTIL and UNLESS, these factions accept and recognize the Nation of Israel’s right to exist.

Bet you think Gazans live in hovels? Take a look at the first video below. The second video is a Gaza Water Park, enjoyed by the boys. I do see one little girl not in shroud, but in something like a 1920’s bathing suit perhaps. The boys are in bathing suits in the hot sun – the girls in burkhas. The subtitle says Hamas burned the water park, but there is only a quick view.

Take a look at this video at American Perspective which lays out the plight of the people who live in what is known as Palestine.

The Gaza Strip

Gaza Water Park I (video)

Bakken Shale Drilling Fields

Liberals hate it. A couple of New York towns have banned it. North Dakota is booming and in February the state had the lowest unemployment rate in the U.S. (3.8%). If you need a job, try the oil and gas fields in North Dakota.

The point of this post is to direct you to an excellent video that explains exactly how fracking works. View it at NorthernOil.com. The second point is to mention that the Obama administration is doing everything it can to claim millions of acres of oil and gas rich land resources for “Wild Lands,” rendering them energy-useless.

The New American published an exposé on Czarist regulations that rained-down upon us on the Tuesday before Christmas 2010, which they refer to as Tyranny Tuesday. The author Michael Coffman address the millions of acres of land the administration (and others before it) have taken possession of under the “Wild Lands” provision of the Department of the Interior. Under the heading Czar Salazar Locks Up Trillions of Barrels of Domestic Oil and Gas, Coffman says:

As I discuss in my book Rescuing a Broken America,⁹ there exists enough oil and gas in shale oil formations in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming to completely supply all U.S. needs for several hundred years with current technology and oil prices. The BLM [Bureau of Land Management] estimates that “1.2-1.8 trillion barrels of oil is available in Wyoming’s Green River Formation alone. A moderate estimate of 800 billion barrels of oil that would be recoverable from oil shale in the Green River Formation is three times greater than the proven oil reserves of Saudi Arabia.”¹⁰ That is about a 100-year supply of oil at present U.S. consumption rates — just from Wyoming.

In spite of the fact that analysts unanimously celebrate this potential bonanza to America using environmentally-sensitive technology, progressives in Congress have systematically stalled on allowing its development. The Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 forever locked up much of this shale oil from being developed. The Heritage Foundation found that “331 million barrels of recoverable oil and 8.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas were taken out of exploration in Wyoming. The total amount of energy that would be restricted is equivalent to the amount of natural gas the entire U.S. produces in 15 years…. The law could not only restrict conventional energy resources, but it could also restrict access to oil shale in parts of Colorado and Utah as well.”¹¹ The “Wild Lands” decree by Salazar could lock up even more, if not all, of this priceless resource.

And that does not include the Bakken or Three Forks/Sanish which is believed to lie just above the Bakken. A couple of good articles on the Bakken that are understandable can be found at The Oil Drum and Oil Shale Gas. My previous article on the effect of the new industry in North Dakota is here.

Posted by Maggie @ Maggie’s Notebook

It’s almost hard to believe the response to this one lone Israeli flag and this one teenage boy carrying it. Thank God those police were there. That mob would have killed him if they hadn’t been; there’s no doubt in my mind of that. And they would’ve called themselves the victims in the situation, too, just like the Gaza “freedom flotilla”.

His name is Daniel Pereg.

A loud and angry mob of pro-Arab demonstrators outside the Israeli consulate in Los Angeles on Tuesday became even more enraged when one, lone Jewish high school student with a yarmulke and a large Israeli flag marched fearlessly alongside them.

The young man, whose name was later learned to be Daniel Pereg, seemed to be unmoved by the angry curses hurled at him by the American-Arab crowd. Though protected by a line of policemen, it appeared he could be attacked at any moment.

Reporters asked him afterwards about his unusual presence, and he explained, “I came out because I want to defend Israel… They [the soldiers attempting to divert the flotilla ships - ed.] were attacked, and they had the right to defend [themselves]. These people [on the boats] were not humanitarians; their ship was armed with knives, batons, and all kinds of things to attack the Israelis with. There is a naval blockade on Gaza, and they [the soldiers] were just doing their job of enforcing it… Hamas is a terrorist organization trying to kill Israelis.”

Asked if he is affiliated with any group, he said, “Just Judaism and Israel, that’s it.”

Asked how he knows that the ship was filled with arms, Daniel said, “I know from the news; I’m an informed person.”

This contrasted with the Arab-Americans who appear at the end of the video. One girl said that a Palestinian state alongside Israel would not satisfy her, as “there should not be an Israeli state! The Israeli state does not even exist!”

Another Arab-speaking American explained, “The only reason Israel is doing this is because they got kicked out from, uh, the German whatever, whatever happened to them. So they’re trying to take out their anger on someone else.” Asked about the Bible and the Jewish presence in the Land of Israel since the times of King Solomon, he lowered his voice and said, “I don’t know about that.”

I especially like how Jews can supposedly live in Palestine and everything would be OK, according to the girl at the end of the video. After all of the violence Palestinians have waged against the Jews, I’m sure they’ll let Jews live in Palestine peacefully… peacefully, of course, meaning the peace you get after you’re dead. Israel cannot win in this situation no matter what they do, and they’ll never please everyone. So they need to just keep doing what they’re doing and defend their country and their people, and just ignore what’s said about them. They know the truth. And so do the naysayers.

As for this young man, Daniel, God bless him. It takes a lot of courage and conviction to stand tall against a mob like that.

Hat Tip: Sister Toldjah

—–

Follow Cassy on Twitter and read more of her work at CassyFiano.com and Hard Corps Wife.

Our largely Liberal Congress is about to embark upon the path of legislating additional far-reaching regulation of our major financial institutions, designed to ensure that we never again face the level of crisis that we’ve been crippled by for the last two years. Why would we let them, when it is actually they who destroyed our economy in the first place? Think I’m joking? Read on.

Perhaps as proof of how we can all trust this Democrat-proposed new direction, Vice President Joe Biden has just today announced to the TV cameras (with the expected commensurate fanfare and media toe-licking) that General Motors has “paid back the entire amount” loaned to them by the federal government. To quote quotable Joe, this is “…an amazing accomplishment!” Such a grandiose pronouncement might lead us to think that America’s financial conditions surely must be improving.

The problem is, every so often, quotable Joe is just a bit off the mark with his rampant rhetoric. Like this time. While it’s true that GM has just paid back the initial bailout loan they weaseled out of us, Joe forgot to mention that GM paid that money back using not corporate proceeds or profit, but with cash they received in a second bailout loan from us. Hardly seems like a cause for a news conference, unless, of course, deceiving the voters is your stock and trade.

This raises an interesting question. Is this latest Bidenism just another simple mistake (like when Tom Daschle, Chris Dodd, Charlie Rangel, and all those other Democrats ‘forgot’ to pay their taxes)? Or is this part of the largest, most craven pattern of all-out, no-holds-barred, couldn’t-tell-the-truth-if-their-lives-depended-on-it, shock-and-awe wall-to-wall carpet-bombing of lies this country has ever been assailed by?

For this study in misinformation and dissembling, masquerading as mere cynical partisan propaganda, we’ll study the true events that led up to, and caused, the great financial meltdown of 2008… an event which, interestingly enough, directly contributed to Barack Hussein Obama’s election as America’s first Arab president in November of that same year.

If memory serves, you will recall that we all heard repeated, many times, the mantra of “eight years of George W. Bush’s failed policies” being at the root of virtually all our national woes. Barack Hussein Obama was absolutely eloquent as he laid the responsibility for our financial crises at the feet of that ignorant chimp, George W. Bush.

I remember well the speech Obama gave where, making that slightly peeved face with knitted brow, and dropping back into the ‘Negro dialect’ which Harry Reid insists he is capable of when he wants to be, bopping and jiving for the cameras with his pseudo-gangsta rap, Barry said, “Ya know, Ah don’ mind cleanin’ up the mess… Ah just don’ wanna hafta listen to a buncha guff from the folks’at caused it. Ah want them to siddown and shuddup while we get ta work cleanin’ up their mess.”

How noble. How very selfless and dignified of him. How can anyone not love that man… that prince among men?

Let’s leave aside opinions and partisanship for the moment, and instead go directly to the video record of the turbulent times that preceded America’s biggest financial implosion since The Great Depression. It is by now well documented (if not well known… the Obama-finger-puppet Media won’t air these truths) that during his years as a “community organizer” with extensive ACORN connections, Obama’s Chicago ACORN thugs bullied banks into making sub-prime mortgage loans to people with low income. Remember Barry telling Joe the Plumber how it’s necessary to “spread the wealth around” so that everyone has the same opportunities? Why, anything else would be… racist, wouldn’t it?

This article will demonstrate beyond any doubt that it was Barack Hussein Obama, the Congressional Black Caucus, and the Democrat-ACORN-led changes to our financial institutions that created this disaster (which they now, ironically enough, blame on George W. Bush). If it was additional government involvement which caused our financial meltdown, why would we want them to stick their dishonest, lying, rapidly growing Pinnochio noses even further into these markets which did just fine before their interference, and then exploded like an A-bomb once ACORN and the Liberals had their “Social Justice” way?

Republicans called for additional oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to avoid a coming financial meltdown, as Democrats and, more specifically, the Congressional Black Caucus, ridiculed the GOP for “pretending” that a crisis was coming. Maxine Waters, Gregory Meeks, Arthur Davis, Lacy Clay, Barney Frank all use the typical Liberal ploy of painting those calling for extra oversight as being racist, attempting to “lynch” Franklin Raines, then-head of Fannie Mae (before his exit in disgrace).

News reports at the time show that in 2001, the new Bush Administration, after looking over the financial information they inherited from eight years of Clinton financial policies, advised Congress that additional Federal regulations and oversight should be imposed on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the “GSE’s.” By 2003, George W. Bush’s Administration again called upon Congress for immediate action regarding the size of Fannie and Freddie, as well as investigations into their dangerous financial habits, and warning that if the GSE’s stumbled or failed, it could impact our entire financial structure as well as the global financial markets.

Also in 2003, Republican Treasury Secretary Snowe’s suggested oversight increases of Fannie and Freddie were blocked by pressure from the Democrats, and especially from then-Ranking Member, and current Chairman of the House Financial Service Committee, Democrat Barney Frank.

Thank goodness for YouTube, for if we had to rely upon the current, conveniently revised Democrat version of these causal events, one could easily be mislead into believing that it was “Bush’s fault” that Obama inherited this mess. As the video record makes abundantly clear, however, Mr. Obama walked into a mess created by the Liberal Democrats, the Congressional Black Caucus and, yes, he himself.

ACORN played a signal role in pressuring lending institutions to abandon the conservative lending practices which had for so long well served the housing market and all of America, in favor of liberal lending policies which, while they allowed more people than ever before to buy new homes, they also put at risk home values nationwide, our major American financial institutions, and the very economy which the entire globe relied upon for all its commerce.

When these people, who benefited from Obama-ACORN’s “Social Justice” changes to the practices of our lending institutions, were predictably unable to make payments on the homes they couldn’t afford, the mortgages went into default, and the economy collapsed. Even former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan testified that it was the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans defaulting which was the major cause of the financial crisis we are now in.

It was not “eight years of George W. Bush’s failed policies” as Obama to this day continues to repeat (despite that he knows what a vicious lie this is). Had Bush and the GOP had their way, this entire disaster could have been averted starting with a return to the more strict lending practices as far back as 2003. This entire disaster never needed to happen, but for the bullying, race-baiting, and Social Justice reforms insisted upon by ACORN, Obama, The Congressional Black Caucus, and the Liberal Democrats now in power. Keep in mind that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, at the time of the housing market collapse, securitized half of our Nation’s twelve trillion dollars in total mortgage debt. Even now, the newly-proposed financial regulations do not extend to cover Fannie and Freddie. Why?

So, back to the previous question: should we now let these same dishonest, lying, race-baiting bullies impose the greatest regulatory reform in history on our major financial institutions? It’s a rhetorical question.

Obama’s Surgeon General Pick…Finally No Controversy! Wait…Better Think Again

by Holger Awakens

Michelle Malkin has a bit on this pick too.

On July 5, 2005 I posted on the U.S. and Syria closing ranks to neutralize Israel. That report indicated that the U.S.  and Saudia Arabia were pressing Syrian President Bashar Assad to demarcate Syria’s borders with Lebanon. It’s a conundrum but it can be explained. At the time, I predicted that the demarcation and the hoped-for result would not happen. Here’s some more of the story:

Syria, Israel

The DEBKAfile says that President Assad traveled to Baku, Azerbaijan and received communications from Israel president, Shimon Peres and prime minister Benjaman Netanyahu. Baku is considered a “new channel of communications,” and a “hub of a complicated new negotiating track between Damascus and Jerusalem,” and is being referred to as the “Azeri diplomatic postbox,” or the Israel-Syrian letterbox.

Also in this mix with the U.S. is Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Lebanon. Middle East Envoy George Mitchell is standing in for Barack Obama.

President Assad’s reply will be sent to Jerusalem on Thursday or Friday. The problem is we don’t know what Assad is replying to, other than the words “peace process” appearing in the DEBKAfile post.

So if the bottom-line of the letterbox operation is a “peace process,” how might that come about?
My post of July 5th might answer that question and I’m reposting it below. Let me know what you think. As I said, earlier this month I predicted that it was a fantasy – not going to happen. Now, it seems we have Israel contacting Syria.

U.S Syria Relations Cozy: Neutralizing Israel
Maggie’s Notebook – July 5, 2009

Syrian president Bashar Assad has invited President Obama to visit Damascus, in the wake of a U.S.-Saudi press for Syria to “demarcate” its border with Lebanon. By marking the Syrian border and giving up its claims to Shaba Farms, also known as Mount Dov, and placing Mount Dov inside Lebanon’s borders, the reasoning is that Israel will have no rationale to claim the militarily strategic Mount Dov, and so Hizbullah will also have no reason to attack Israel. The move is on to neutralize Israel.

Syria, Israel – Shebaa Farms – Mount Dove (photo)

It’s a fantasy – it’s not going to happen.

For those who have forgotten, Israel liberated Mount Dov from Syria during the 1967 Six-Day War. Lebanon claims that Mount Dov belongs to it, and Hezbullah uses Israel’s ‘occupation’ of Mount Dov as proof that Israel is ‘occupying’ ‘Lebanese territory’ thereby justifying its existence in Lebanon. The US claims that if Syria demarcates its border with Lebanon, and puts Mount Dov on the Lebanese side of the border, it will take away Hezbullah’s raison d’etre (see map below).

It’s a bit shocking to know that in 2009, there are countries without official borders.

Israel took over the area in 1967 and sees it as part of the Golan Heights. The UN accepted this position following the IDF’s pullout from Lebanon in May 2000 but Hezbollah and Lebanon claim that this is Lebanese territory still under Israeli occupation.

From Israel’s long-time point-of-view, Shaba (Shebaa) Farms (Mount Dov) has been off the table for discussion.

What are the issues?

In the 1923 Anglo-French Demarcation Agreement, which set the borders between the British and French mandates in Palestine, Syria and Lebanon, the area was included in Syria. The maps of the 1949 Israeli-Syrian Armistice Agreements similarly designated the area as Syrian.

In the 1967 Six Day War, the farms were occupied by the IDF as part of its conquest of the Golan Heights. Lebanon was not involved in that war, and Israel did not engage in any fighting against it.

At that time, no one – neither Syria nor Lebanon – claimed that the area was Lebanese.

IN THE negotiations leading to the Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000, Lebanon for the first time raised its claim to the farms, but based on all previous historical documents and maps, the UN sided with the Israeli version, i.e. that this was Syrian territory and subject to future Israeli-Syrian negotiations. The Lebanese claim was used by Hizbullah to continue its resistance to “Israeli occupation of Lebanese territory.

At the time of the 2000 Israeli withdrawal the UN asked Syria about its position on the issue. Damascus was in a quandary: On the one hand, this was obviously Syrian territory; on the other, if Syria conceded that the farms belong to Lebanon, there might be a chance of getting one more sliver of Arab territory out of Israeli hands.

Syria thus responded that whatever its former claims to the Shaba Farms, it now agreed to cede them to Lebanon.

But when the UN asked Damascus for a formal document stating that the area had indeed been legally transferred to Lebanon, Syria balked – and it has still not supplied such a document.

The short story is that Syria has refused to recognize Lebanon as a sovereign state. Not until this year did Syria appoint it’s first ever ambassador to Beirut. At the same time, Lebanon sent its first ambassador to Syria.

Damascus still has powerful allies in Lebanon, including Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed Shi’ite party with a powerful guerrilla army.

The U.S. has pressured Israel to withdraw from Mount Dov for years.

The area is a 100 square mile parcel of land located at the foot of Mount Hermon where the Syrian, Lebanese and Israeli borders meet. Israel took control of the area after the Six Day War in 1967, and since then has built up a number of military outposts on the strategic hills.

Israel’s indefensible borders on all sides have led to the necessary land-grabs gained in the 1967 war. How can you defend your people when your enemies refuse to respect your border towns? This 2006 report describes the importance of not letting your enemy bite at your heels:

The drive up to the top of Mt. Dov on Wednesday is done along a narrow and winding road, accessible only in armored vehicles, a memory of Hizbullah’s incessant shelling of IDF outposts there not so long ago.

The Gladiola outpost is situated just over the Lebanese village of Shuba with a clear view of Ghajar, as well. Soldiers man heavily-fortified positions along the ridge, keeping an eye on the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) patrols below.

Strangely enough, during the war this summer, the Mt. Dov area was quiet, and saw nearly no fighting. According to the officer, the explanation is simple – Hizbullah does not attack military bases, since they know that in such a situation they will lose.

The importance of the area to Israel is clear:

Since the war in Lebanon, the IDF has invested millions of shekels in fixing the infrastructure along the mountain – from repaving the winding road to installing new antennas and surveillance equipment.

The officer said the soldiers stationed in the series of outposts along the mountain play a key role in assisting the IDF to form accurate assessments of Hizbullah’s plans.

The purpose of the powerful Hizbullah in Lebanon is to protest the Mount Dov possession by Israel, claiming that the land belongs to Lebanon.

Hizbullah’s attempt to claim sovereignty of Mt. Dov is because the group needs an excuse for its existence,” he said. “Otherwise, they are worthless.”

Israel Matzav questions any notion of Syria’s abandonment of Hizbullah and says this:

Engagement’ is one thing and giving up real assets (even if the asset is only a claim) is something else. Mount Dov is a very strategic point that is used for military purposes by Israel.

Why would the Syrians want to let Lebanon have it?

What is Lebanon giving them in return?

…even if Israel were to hand Mount Dov over to Lebanon tomorrow, Hezbullah would continue to exist and would continue to charge Israel with ‘occupying Lebanese territory.’

So what is the U.S. doing? Should Syria mark their border and place Mount Dov in Lebanon’s hands, and Israel acknowledge that border and abandon the area, how can Israel be rightly convinced that the position would not once again be used against the people of Israel? Could a treaty between Israel and Syria be achieved? Would such a treaty mean safety for Israel? There is no way for Israel to be rightly convinced. This has been a U.S. endeavor through the Bush years. The U.S. should not ask Israel to enter into such an agreement. Afterall, had Israel’s neighbors respected their sovereignty, the 1967 War would not have happened.

I believe that if the U.S. and the free world would wholeheartedly and very publicly back Israel, Hamas and Hizbullah would be defeated by the very notion that the west would assist Israel’s defense of its own borders. It’s very simple. Actively support the right of the Israeli people to exist…but rather than follow such a justifiable position, we quake at the wrath of the Muslim world. The thing we seem to ignore is that living inside that Muslim world is a sovereign non-Muslim nation. Where is the justification for the Muslim rejection of these people?

So what do you think? Can these two stories possibly be connected?

What do all these Republican-oriented political posts have to do with Stopping The ACLU?
Answer: Not a GD<[edited] thing.

Hmmm. He’s right.

This is StopTheACLU.com … and it seems that we haven’t been talking a lot about stopping the ACLU. Not directly, at least.

But, the case can be made that electing a conservative … or a more conservative than the Democrats’ offerings … candidate will help the fight against the outrages of the ACLU.

So, let’s look at the candidates from the standpoint of the ACLU.

Here are the ACLU lifetime ratings of the major party candidates still in the race:

Barack Hussein Obama (D) 82%
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton (D) 75%
Ronald Ernest “Ron” Paul (R) 61%
John Sidney McCain III (R) 25%

Note: I have been unable to find ACLU ratings on Maurice Robert “Mike” Gravel (D), who was in the Senate from 1969-1981, and Michael Dale Huckabee (R), who served 10 years as governor of Arkansas. I would be very interested any any data (with sources) regarding their ratings. I will say that I suspect they rate Gravel very high, and Huckabee in the same range as McCain.

So, there you go.

The ACLU rates Obama, Clinton, and Paul highest of the four remaining candidates that are currently in Congress.

And McCain the lowest.

So, if you read anything here supporting McCain (or Huckabee), then, yes, it’s related … though indirectly … to stopping the ACLU.

Oh, and if you see a post supporting Ron Paul … well, then, it looks like someone might have forgotten to take their medications.