West Struggles With Definition of Jihad

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t is fair to say that jihad "can be" understood in a peaceful way. However, there is huge difference between saying that "Jihad can be understood in a peaceful way" and "Jihad is a peaceful concept." The former is an honest and accurate statement, while the latter is a wrong and deceiving one that indicates a serious lack of knowledge.

Scientific honesty necessitates that we present all views about the meaning of the word jihad instead of selecting the definition that makes us feel most comfortable. The following facts MUST be addressed to understand the most dominant meaning of the word jihad in the Muslim world:

Currently, the words "jihadi Islam"* are used by the mainstream Arab media to refer to the violent form of Islam. If jihad is mainly peaceful, why do the Arab media use the word predominantly to describe violent Islam?

The word jihad is interpreted in most of the reputable traditional Islamic books in a violent manner. One of the many available examples, al-Shawkaneei's interpretation for the Quran[2] mentions for Sura 9, Verse 73 that "Jihad against the Infidels is achieved by fighting them until they submit to Islam". Why would it be that he the most reputable Islamic scholars understood jihad in such a way if it was predominantly peaceful?

Modern Islamic books written by top Islamic scholars and distributed globally still adopt the violent meaning of the word to fight the disbelievers until "Allah alone is worshiped". For example, Minhaj al-Muslim [3] states clearly that the aim of violent jihad is that "Allah alone is worshiped." If the word jihad is primarily understood in a peaceful way, why do we not hear about peaceful jihadi organizations?

The word jihad is almost always used by the violent radical groups. If the word is understood predominantly in a peaceful way, would we not see it used predominantly by peaceful Islamic organizations rather than the violent ones?

Modern Islamic scholars such as Yusuf Al-Quradawy who are considered "moderates" by many in Western media and academia mention clearly that jihad has to be conducted via wars to spread Islam and make Islam as the only religion [5]. How is it that such a knowledgeable and leading "moderate" Islamic scholar is not aware of the ['peaceful'] meaning of the word jihad while non-Arabic speakers [Westerners] somehow are?

The most effective way to know the true meaning of jihad is to simply evaluate how the word is used by the Arab street and how it is defined in Islamic texts and in the Arab media, as seen above. As Brennan wisely put it in his speech, "How you define a problem shapes how you address it," and eight years after September 11, we are still having problems defining the problem.”

Creating a Western definition for a word that does not represent how it is primarily used by native Arabic speakers and in Islamic text is both misleading and dangerous to our national security.

It would be great to convince Arabic speakers and the Muslim world to change the meaning of the word instead of deceiving ourselves. The change must occur in Muslims’ educational books rather than in the public statements they release to the West to convince it that jihad is peaceful.

[I noticed some time ago speaking with an expat Indian Muslim at work that on the topic of GWOT he never stumbled over 'terrorist' vs. 'insurgents' vs. 'extremists' ad infinitum - he simply/fluidly refers to the violence makers as 'jihadis', and he assured me that only the West doesn't.

I.e., how do we effectively address a problem we refuse to accurately recognize?]

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‘Progressive’ Islamic Group Shows Terror Support

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The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) engages in frequent interfaith programs with Jewish groups and has been embraced warmly by the Obama administration as a contact point for the American Muslim community.

In those circles, ISNA presents an open and progressive face of Islam that is led by a woman, Ingrid Mattson. Literature available at ISNA's annual convention last month in Washington, however, offers a far different vision... [snip]

Books and pamphlets obtained by the Investigative Project on Terrorism from ISNA's July national convention feature numerous attempts to portray U.S. prosecution of terrorists and terror supporters as anti-Muslim bigotry; dramatic revisionist history that denied attacks by Arab nations and Palestinian terrorists against Israel; anti-Semitic tracts and hyperbolic rants about a genocide and holocaust of Palestinians...

The true measure of character is determined by what is said and written when people think no one is paying attention. The literature promoted at last month's convention shows we may not really be seeing what goes on behind closed doors with ISNA...

[Taqqiyeh: "The Holy Lie" - "The Islamic principle of 'taqqiyeh' means it is a duty for a Muslim to lie and deceive unbelievers if doing so contributes to the enhancement of Islam, and that taqqiyeh may be used to infiltrate and destroy kafir (infidel) countries."

I.e., it's not a sin to lie to unbelievers - yet we chose to ignore glaring evidence of its use again and again.]

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I have another Idea

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I just saw that the Mayor of London (Boris Johnson):

has recommended that non-Muslims take the opportunity of the month of Ramadan to fast, along with their Muslim neighbors, in order to promote "understanding between cultures."

Here’s a better idea. One of my degrees is in Comparative Religion. As a result, I have read the Koran about a dozen times. (I have three copies in my library.)

Instead of fasting for Ramadan go out and buy or borrow or even look up the Koran on the Internet. Read the book. Discover for yourself if Islam is really a religion of peace. Learn for yourself if you would seriously consider converting (of your own free will) to Islam.

Enough with the pretending to be a Muslim by fasting during Ramadan … go read their book. Find out what Muslims really believe.

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Lux et Veritas

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Whenever I write about Europe and demography, I get a lot of mail on the general line of, “Oh, yeah, Steyn? When will Muslims be 50.01 per cent of the population then? 2020? 2030? C’mon, you scaremonger…”

And I usually reply that it’s not about hitting 50 per cent. It’s about the point at which mediating between the Muslim population and the broader population becomes a central and then the dominant feature of the culture...

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image toon - gwot nsec islm = Oby and OBL w-bomb reaching out

FCC 'Diversity' Chief Asked Liberals to Fight Limbaugh

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Obama's new 'fairness' czar FCC Chief Diversity Officer Mark Lloyd made that argument in a 2007 report he penned for the liberal Center for American Progress, CNS News reports.

Lloyd claimed that the conservative media moguls were in league with the Supreme Court to battle liberals in the government.

“A pro-big business Supreme Court aligned with Murdoch, Limbaugh, and Zell and ready to battle a progressive in the White House begins to sound a lot like the early years of the FDR administration,”

“Will progressives sound like FDR and commit to creating a media policy that actually serves democracy and promotes diverse and antagonistic sources of news?”

Of course it’s difficult to argue that the media is under threat from conservatives when so many newspapers support Democrats on their editorial pages.

And it’s hardly accurate to call Murdoch a doctrinaire conservative. He is famous for allying himself with politicians of all stripes, including Hillary Clinton, to further his business interests.

[Another extreme appointment.]

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image toon - 1st sclm bbro libs- ultra liberal czars

Did anyone run the numbers

[HT:LC]

A vehicle at 15 mpg and 12,000 miles per year uses 800 gallons a year of gasoline.

A vehicle at 25 mpg and 12,000 miles per year uses 480 gallons a year.

So, the average clunker transaction will reduce US gasoline consumption by 320 gallons per year per vehicle.

They claim 700,000 vehicles – so that's 224 million gallons year.

That equates to a bit over 5 million barrels of oil.

5 million barrels of oil is about 1/4 of one day's US consumption.

And, 5 million barrels of oil costs about $350 million dollars at $75/bbl.

So, we all contributed to spending $3 billion* to save $350 million.

How good a deal was that ?

They'll probably do a great job with health care though.
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image toon mny sclm auto = Question = cask from government clunker

WSJ: Obamanomics Could Create Depression

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It's clear that President Barack Obama's $787-billion stimulus hasn't worked as advertised, but some economists are worried it could backfire and cause something much worse.

According to a new study by economists Charles Rowley of George Mason University and Nathanael Smith of the Locke Institute and endorsed by Nobel laureate James Buchanan, the Keynesian tactics employed by Obama

"will ultimately hamper the long-term growth potential of the U.S. economy and may risk delaying full economic recovery by several years."

The study accuses the president of making Depression-era mistakes likely to have Depresson-era results...

[But it will provide the 'crisis' needed to allow real change...]

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Your Stimulus at Work

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Courtesy of Innocent Bystanders, a picture is worth a thousand words. Here is the picture.

Here are some words.

"[The stimulus is] doing more, faster, more efficiently, and more effectively than most expected."

Joe Biden, as reported by the Associated Press

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image toon - mny crpt = Court jester proclaims stimulus is working

POLL: Most Americans see through AGW scam

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Forty-seven percent (47%) of U.S. voters say global warming is caused by long-term planetary trends rather than human activity.

However, the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 42% still blame human activity more for climate change, while five percent (5%) say there is some other reason.

Except for June when the two points of view were virtually tied, voters have been trending away from blaming human activity since January.

Most men (53%) say long-term trends are to blame, while women are closely divided on the question. Younger voters are more likely than their elders to see human activity as the root cause of global warming.

Sixty-two percent (62%) of Democrats fault humans, while 65% of Republicans and a plurality (49%) of voters not affiliated with either party say planetary trends are the culprit.

[Progress - but we're in a race, AND THEY'RE TARGETING OUR CHILDREN...]

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I Pledge to Promote Global Warming Propaganda

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How does it work? You can learn a lot by watching ACE's trailer -- steeped in global warming alarmism -- which includes representative segments of their presentation. ACE promises a "high school assembly experience that will activate, educate, inspire, your school to create a future safe from climate change."

The group has enlisted a battalion of "educators" to fan out (so far) into schools across five metropolitan areas: San Francisco/Oakland, Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago and Boston. Most of the hires appear to be drawn from the recently graduated and/or eco-activist ranks.

The educator featured in ACE's YouTube trailer is Ambessa Contave, described as "a ten-year veteran of The Bay Area's art, non-profit, environmental justice and activism." He is also half of a rap duo called Fiyawata, and promotes his causes via hip-hop festival called "Grind for the Green." Contave's website explains:

"you guys have lived through the ten hottest years ever recorded in history" (not true) and "we're in the middle of this planetary emergency" (a fearmongering statement designed to motivate undiscerning youth).

According to a July report in the climate paranoia publication Grist, ACE is "funded solely" by wind energy entrepreneur Michael Haas, president of Orion Energy LLC... [snip]

Now outside an election year, Haas has turned his attention to the next generation. His minions at ACE seek permission from school boards to "build on education to engage and empower students to take action" on global warming. The goal is to reach 140,000 American high school students by December 31.

Last week many parents were upset by the "I Pledge" video shown in a Utah school and by President Obama's planned speech to schoolchildren this week.

Add ACE to that indoctrination list.

[Parents, do you know what's being pushed on your children?]

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image toon - grn engry = new cars recycle land fill into polar bears

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Thank God

-end 090909 post-

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image toon - 1st mny = Oby's speech re: we're all rich

Double Standard on Radical Obama Advisor Van Jones

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On Thursday's Special Report with Bret Baier, FNC host Baier ran a report by correspondent James Rosen describing a "troubling pattern of behavior" by President Obama's Green Jobs Czar, Van Jones.

The report noted some of the controversial statements and connections of Jones, who has not only described himself in the past with such words as "Marxist" and "radical," but has also been linked to 9/11 Truthers and radical groups such as one organization whose manifesto "equated those killed on 9/11 with, quote, 'the victims of U.S. imperialism around the world.'"

The report also showed a clip of Jones from last year accusing "white polluters" of "steering poison" into minority communities.

Rosen ran a soundbite of University of Virginia Politics Professor Larry Sabato -- known for his willingness to criticize politicians of both parties -- who noted what would have happened

"If a Bush official had made anything comparable to what Mr. Jones has said and done, no doubt there would have been a national hurrah of magnificent proportions."

Proof, if any were needed, was quickly provided in that none of the three network morning shows made any reference whatsoever to Van Jones, his radical statements or association with 9/11 'Truther' deniers.

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Jones blames 'smears' for ouster

[HT:BN].
Spoken like a true member of the Obama administration:

"On the eve of historic fights for health care and clean energy, opponents of reform have mounted a vicious smear campaign against me," ... "They are using lies and distortions to distract and divide."

I guess liberals believe it's a "smear" when someone reveals the facts about their past.

He won't have to worry about joining the ranks of the unemployed though, as he'll be a triumphant trophy hire for numerous environmental or other organizations, where as a victim of the vast right wing conspiracy he'll enjoy martyr status.

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Nets Portray Van Jones as Victim of Conservatives

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Instead of focusing on how the Obama administration found it appropriate to hire a man who added his name to a petition asserting the Bush administration deliberately allowed the 9/11 attacks to occur -- or the incompetence displayed in not knowing about it -- ABC and NBC on Sunday night painted Van Jones as a victim...

With “Under Fire” on screen by a picture of Jones, as if he's the aggrieved party, World News anchor Dan Harris stressed how Jones' remarks on various topics

“were all made before he joined the Obama administration, but made him an easy target for conservatives.” [?]

and repeated Jones' own lame defense

“he said he is the victim of a 'vicious smear campaign of lies and distortion.'”

and put the final spin squarely at Republicans feet with

“Democrats worry that Van Jones is only the first of Mr. Obama's so-called policy czars...that will be targeted by Republicans.”

Inadvertently, presumably, NBC anchor Lester Holt conceded the mainstream media's malfeasance:

“I don't think most Americans had heard of him before this.”

Holt then asked John Harwood:

“Can the Republican Right claim its first scalp in this administration?”

Harwood proceeded to adopt a different tact by then down playing the significance of the entire affair by insisting

“Jones was not an especially important figure within the administration. His job wasn't that big.”

Sunday night, the CBS Evening News limited Jones coverage to a short update by anchor Russ Mitchell. On Friday, CBS was the only broadcast network evening newscast to have run any story on Jones...

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Jones was recruited not in spite of his beliefs but because of them

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Just how comfortable was the Obama team with the far left, radical statements and beliefs of Van Jones?

Obviously, they believed he fit right in. Somewhat lost in the controversy over Jones Trutherism, his conspiracy mongering about whites trying to kill black people through environmental degradation, his anti-Semitic statements on Israel, his support for the cop killer Mumia, and other beyond the pale beliefs is the fact that, as Paul Mirengoff of Powerline points out, Obama had his eye on the "former" communist for years:

Having watched the rise of Van Jones, why did Team Obama nonetheless "recruit" him into the White house? Because what Jones says and believes is well within the range of what Obama believes, and thus not jarrring to him and his crew... [snip]

One of Paul's friends is quoted as saying, "Van Jones is simply Jeremiah Wright behind a White House desk." How true, indeed.

Obama's radical associations may not have prevented him from winning the White House. But I have a gut feeling that his links to these nutcases won't get quite the free pass he received in 2008. A few more Van Joneses coupled with Obama's attempt to restructure our economy and the voter won't need the MSM to tell them that something is terribly wrong with the president and the company he keeps.

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Van Jones;
The Only Yale Lawyer Who
“Didn’t Know What He Was Signing”

..

Obama's Orders Requireth Haste

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A country that prides itself on its virtuous tendency to reserve judgment until all the facts are in is probably now wondering, if Obama's Healthcare plan is so wonderful, why does he appear reluctant to allow more time to have people carefully delve into it, and is instead engaged in a frenzied public relations campaign which chief goal is to achieve a political victory?

In fact the more the bill is scrutinized, the more that major flaws emerge, and the more resistance Obama encounters, even from some of his own constituents. This makes all the insistence to muscle it through Congress as quickly as possible all the more suspicious. Especially when reports continue to surface that real crises are being visited upon other countries that have for some time operated under one form of socialized medicine or another, bearing some rather sobering accounts of their own experiences which are nothing short of horrific.

Against manifest evidence to the contrary, virtually every Obama policy to date has tried to sidestep the fact that the best societies thrive when the doors of free private enterprise are flung open, and that countries that flirt with government enforced parity swiftly devolve into drudging autocracies.

The biggest irony of course, is that those who are asking for a little more time to responsibly examine the subtle machinations of Obama's grand designs are the ones being portrayed as enemies of progress...

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image toon gwot nsec reps libs hcare = Axis of evil, then and now Bush v Reid

NYT: Democrats Should Pass ObamaCare With No GOP Support

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Candidate Barack Obama promised a new era of bipartisanship in Washington if Americans put him in the White House.

Less than eight months after Inauguration Day, the New York Times has advised the President to ignore such idealism and ram through Congress a widely unpopular healthcare reform package without the support of even one Republican.

Irrespective of the dangerous precedent and the long-term political ramifications, the Times editorial board recommended the Democrats use a parliamentary manipulation to avoid a Senate filibuster...

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ObamaCare -- Or Else

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Is there something disquieting about a president who only wants to spread love and compassion to all Americans -- or else? Or else he'll hate us forever? Or else he'll put us in jail? Or do it despite a greater that two to one majority explicitly telling him we don't want it?

That's the feeling I'm getting. He is so intent on doing us all a big favor. ObamaCare is Just and Right and Compassionate --- and it has nothing to do with empowering the Left for the next generation and turning everybody else into Russian serfs. Nothing at all. There's no self-interest in this man and his benevolent friends from Chicago. They do whatever they do purely out of love for all of humanity.

If some used car salesman keeps ringing your doorbell and phoning you at home and spamming your email, and just will not stop trying to sell you the same old lousy clunker -- after a while you might start to think that he's not that interested in serving your needs.

Something other than trying to do you the favor of a lifetime must be at play here...

[Its never been about improving health care.]

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image toon - 1st hcare = Trojan Donkey re hcare

Afghanistan Matters

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As a soldier who was in Afghanistan for most of 2008 I say unequivocally George Will is wrong; Afghanistan matters.

George Will’s imagined scenario of special-forces and airpower serving in place of boots on the ground in Afghanistan surely sounds good to deskbound policy wonks. But they would do well to remember that policy failed us through the Clinton era. At that time Pakistan was under the more stable hand of Musharraf.

If we abandon our foothold in Afghanistan, we abandon our contacts on the ground. In order for predators, cruise missiles, and SF operators to succeed repeatedly against al-Qaeda, or any other enemies, our forces need human intelligence. This is why al-Qaeda and the Taliban high command retreated to and continue to hide in the inaccessible reaches of Pakistan. It’s why al-Qaeda chose the then closed state of Afghanistan as a base in the first place.

A premature withdrawal from Afghanistan will also present a tremendous propaganda victory to the Taliban. This would be a truly strategic weapon for all of our Islamist enemies in the current struggle. George Will has stepped up his campaign, and now wants to quit Iraq early as well. He cites the ties that Shiite Iran has established with Shiite Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki as a reason to end our commitment there.

If we were to follow Mr. Will’s prescription, by 2011 we could be facing a hostile band of powers stretching from the India-Pakistan border through Syria, to the Mediterranean. This would be the worst middle-eastern scenario the US ever faced, as bad as the Soviet dominated region envisioned by Carter and Reagan circa 1980.

We could face two Islamic, hostile, nuclear powers. Such an outcome would represent the beginning of the end for Israel. It would signify the end of American hegemony, and the start of a truly new world order; one that would be highly unfavorable to our interests...

[Highly Recommended > ]

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Gates: AP decision 'appalling'

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.Defense Secretary Robert Gates is objecting “in the strongest terms” to an Associated Press decision to transmit a photograph showing a mortally wounded 21-year-old Marine in his final moments of life, calling the decision “appalling” and a breach of “common decency.”

The AP reported that the Marine’s father had asked that the image not be published.

The photo shows Lance Cpl. Joshua M. Bernard of New Portland, Maine, who was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade in a Taliban ambush Aug. 14 in Helmand province of southern Afghanistan.

Gates wrote to Thomas Curley, AP’s president and chief executive officer.

“Out of respect for his family’s wishes, I ask you in the strongest of terms to reconsider your decision. I cannot imagine the pain and suffering Lance Corporal Bernard’s death has caused his family.

"Why your organization would purposefully defy the family’s wishes knowing full well that it will lead to yet more anguish is beyond me. Your lack of compassion and common sense in choosing to put this image of their maimed and stricken child on the front page of multiple American newspapers is appalling. The issue here is not law, policy or constitutional right – but judgment and common decency.

I am begging you to defer to the wishes of the family. This will cause them great pain.”

The Associated Press reported in a story about deliberations about that photo that “after a period of reflection” the news service decided to make public the image.

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The 9/11 Tear Drop Memorial

Something at once beautiful, powerful, provocative and meaningful that the media prefers to ignore

This column is composed to illuminate a beau geste given to honor our brothers and sisters lost on 9/11. This is written three years after the consecration of an august gesture that I had not heard of and it seems many others as well -- the Tear Drop Memorial, Russia's gift to the United States on the fifth anniversary of 9/11. The source of this ignorance will be dealt with in a moment.

The link to the 9/11 monument site is provided above so there will be only a brief comment on the Memorial itself and its artist. The Tear Drop Memorial was created by Georgian/Russian sculptor Zurab Tsereteli and is officially titled "To the Struggle Against World Terrorism" or "The Memorial at Harbor View Park". The monument is located at The Peninsula at Bayonne Harbor, New Jersey, and is lined up to look upon the Statue of Liberty. The persons most likely to see it would be those coming into the harbor by boat.





















The monolithic block of vertical, earth-colored stone is over 100 feet high. It appears rent in the center from top to bottom and in the gap is a 40 foot, four ton nickel-plated tear drop. The base of the monument is a multi-faceted onyx pedestal inscribed with the names of all of those that perished on 9-11-01, from Flight 93 in Pennsylvania to the Pentagon to the twin Trade Towers.

The symbolisms of this touching and costly gesture are as profound as those of our adopted First Lady, the Statue of Liberty. The Tear Drop and the Russian people deserve, in spite of whatever else they are, a commensurate acknowledgment of this moving symbol of sympathy. It's a crime that even three years later the Russian's simpatico for our losses has not been widely recognized by America and her leaders.

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If you have tears, prepare to shed them now

- William Shakespeare

[link]

Israel, Taiwan, and the UN

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Nixon's Republican administration abandoned the Republic of China on Taiwan and the world followed. Every year since 1992, the Chinese on Taiwan have petitioned for UN membership and their request has been denied. Similarly, the UN has singled out Israel for more criticism than any other nation.

Taiwan lost membership in all UN organizations. Taiwan's population of over 23 million has no representation at the UN.

The Palestinian National Authority's population was estimated in 2008 to be 4.1 million. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) was established in 1948 and is devoted exclusively to Palestinian Arabs.

UNRWA is the only UN agency dedicated to working for refugees in a specific conflict. UNRWA's cash budget for 2008 was over $540 million. It must be made clear that UNRWA has never assisted Jewish refugees who were victimized in Islamic nations and fled for their safety to Israel.

Israel and her supporters should -- at every opportunity -- expose the UN for the fraud that it is. This includes the unjust exclusion of Taiwan.

In the Obama era especially, Israel should seek to strengthen ties with those nations like Taiwan -- history may record Nixon's abandonment of Taiwan as minor compared to Obama's desertion of Israel...

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How Obama Stopped the Peace Process

[HT:SS]
On Monday's Special Report with Bret Baier, as FNC aired a special episode with host Baier stationed in Jerusalem to focus on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Charles Krauthammer noted that the President has pressed Israel further on the issue of construction within existing Jewish settlements than Palestinians previously had.

After observing that the "delay in the peace process is a self-inflicted wound on the Obama administration," and after noting that the issue of settlements had previously "been in consensus," he continued:

"The U.S. and Israelis had agreed, no new settlements, no new expansion of territory in settlements and dismantling of existing settlements. And the Palestinians had accepted that, had never refused negotiations for anything else.

"But then Obama adds a condition of no thickening of settlements, i.e., you don't construct a kindergarten if children are born, which the Israelis have rejected. And all of a sudden, the Palestinians and Arabs have said no negotiations until Israel jumps through this higher hoop.

"So the Arabs and Palestinians have said we are not going to move, we're going to let Obama extract unilateral concessions out of the Israelis, and that is why the process has stopped."

Below is a transcript of the relevant portion of the Monday's transcript...

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image toon - israel = Oby = Netanyahu; tear down settlements

Recession Proof Industry

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Stable employment is increasingly hard to find these days. But there is one industry that, despite a sharp decrease in revenue, is on a hiring binge. This from bizjournals.com:

Federal agencies will add more than 270,000 employees during the next three years, according to a report from the Partnership for Public Service.

The total projected hiring for “mission-critical jobs” is expected to jump more than 40 percent during fiscal 2010 to 2012 from the previous three years.

I’m always curious to know what federal bureaucrats consider “mission critical” (their own jobs top the list I suppose).

The Cash for Clunkers program provides a clue. The program forced the Transportation Department to triple the staffers designated for paperwork.

As all of private America tightens its belt to make it through difficult times, the federal government will roll on, merrily oblivious to the world around it.

Oh, and did I mention federal employees average double the wage of private workers?

[and the gap is widening...]

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Bursting the Government Bubble

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In the last decade, we have witnessed the bursting of two bubbles, the stock market bubble driven by internet stocks with unsustainable business models and valuations, and more recently, the private debt bubble that has resulted in the destruction of credit along with real estate values.

America is now engaged in the unprecedented growth in government accompanied with unprecedented debt at the federal level.

The Federal Reserve in cooperation with both the Bush Administration in its final days and now the Obama administration is propping up the credit markets with over $1.0T including the TARP funds, and open market purchases of the US debt obligations. Can the too big to fail hypothesis for the big banks also be applied to the Federal government?

The Obama agenda is driving secular growth in government size and services as seen in the Stimulus bill, the March budget resolution, cash for clunkers, cash for insurance companies, cash for banks, cash for GM, and potentially a government option for health care. All of these costs for expanded government need to be paid, and so far, this administration has not articulated how to pay for these bills.

Eventually, all bubbles will burst, and there will be a reversion to the mean, that is, the level of government size and services that existed before the bubble. One possible objective of this Administration is to successfully change the nature of America and government in a way such there can be no reversion to the mean. This is the change that Obama hopes to achieve.

The Obama administration, and Rahm Emmanuel's claim that the financial crisis is not to be wasted has set the stage that will either result in a permanent change in the size and power of the federal government, or it will result in an abrupt end of the growth of government services.

In either case, this administration has created an unstable relationship between government and its constituents.

Either way, there will be change.

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image toon - 1st mny msm reps libs = Angry mob organized - nothing re 10T$ Gov expansion

The Science of Global Warming: Saving the World or Hunting for Ghosts?

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Veterinarians know about cows and cow diseases. Vets can back up their knowledge with thousands of experiments and the accumulation of mountains of incontrovertible data.[i]

On the other hand, there are people who pretend to be scientists and pretend to have explanations for how certain things work -- things that either don't exist or aren't anything like the phenomena that the pretend scientist claims that the things are.

Take "ghost hunters" as an example. What is their science? Does it have a name?[ii] How does one become a ghost-hunting scientist? What evidence qualifies for proving that ghosts exists? How do ghost hunters cure us of the ghosts? (By mumbling some words and then telling their gullible clients that the ghost is gone?)

Doesn't the "science" of ghost hunting presume, without any credible evidence, the existence of ghosts? How do these ghost scientists even look for something that probably doesn't exist? Notice that veterinarians don't assume that cows are sick and that there is only one cow sickness. They study the cow for symptoms and then render a diagnosis.

Now to our topic: What about the science of global warming? Is it more like the science of healing cows or the "science" of ghost hunting?

[Recommended > ]

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Time to End the Hyphenated American Thing

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The announcer introduces me to the audiences of thousands, “Singer/songwriter of the national America Tea Party Anthem, Mr. Lloyd Marcus!”

I enthusiastically enter the stage, “Hello my fellow patriots! I am not an African American ... I am Lloyd Marcus ... AMERICAN!” The mostly white crowds go wild with applause and cheers of approval. I feel their relief and gratitude of a black man who loves his country and is not hostile or resentful toward them.

I am traveling across America on the Tea Party Express Tour. We began August 28th in Sacramento, CA. Our 34 city tour will end September 12th in Washington DC.

[snip]

The audience's emotional response to my, I am not a hyphenated American proclamation has been a big surprise to me. After each rally many approach me to thank me. They tell me, “I can not begin to tell you how much I appreciate what you said. I'm Irish (or I am Italian), and I would never hyphenate. America doesn't need things to divide us”

This cross-country tour has opened my eyes to the reality that Americans have been held hostage by political correctness. [Most] Americans want to be united. They hate hyphenating. In New Mexico, a young man thanked me, “I tell all my friends I am American ... not Mexican-American!"

But it's these same Americans who want to be united without hyphenations that are called racists by the Obama administration for disagreeing with his radical agenda...

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The Point of the Dagger

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A dagger is pointed at the heart of America. Its point is the deliberate misuse of the English language for the purpose of influencing how Americans speak and think. If the dagger is driven home, reason itself will be the principal victim.

Reason is the human faculty concerned with forming good conclusions and making sound judgments.[1] It is the power of intelligent thought, and it takes us step by step on a journey to knowledge. We use words to take that journey because, as the English philosopher Francis Bacon once observed, words are the "footsteps of reason."

But, as Bacon understood quite well, words are a form of code. It is what they stand for that carries meaning, not the words themselves. Thus, to be meaningful, words must be faithful to what they describe. When words lack fidelity, they cease to convey authentic meaning and become an obstacle in the path to knowledge.

In America today, it isn't difficult to find linguistic infidelity. A few conspicuous examples suffice to illustrate the point:

• Undocumented immigrants for illegal aliens
• English plus for Spanish language education
• Economic justice for criminally confiscatory tax policies
• Tax rebates for government handouts to people who pay no taxes
• Tax loopholes for legal ways that people can try to keep their own money
• Affirmative action for legally mandated racism
• Equal employment opportunity for legally required ethnic and gender quotas
• Reproductive health services for abortion clinics

Each of these linguistic deceits is an individual affront to reason, as are thousands of others just like them. But what is more important is that they are part of a deliberate campaign to manipulate our language in order to control how Americans speak and think...

[Highly Recommended > ]

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California Politicians Break Fast with Hamas Front

CALIFORNIA

Dozens of California lawmakers are expected to gather in the state Capitol this evening for an Iftar dinner – the meal breaking the daily fast for Muslims during the month of Ramadan.

In doing so, the politicians are partnering with a group that federal law enforcement officials say is a Hamas-front.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations' (CAIR) California chapter issued a news release Monday boasting that the dinner is co-hosted by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Speaker Karen Bass and Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and 35 other lawmakers.

Public use of the Capitol's Eureka Room requires a member of the California Assembly's sponsorship. Assembly Member Dave Jones, who has spoken at numerous CAIR functions, helped reserve the room, records at the Joint Rules Committee show. [snip]

Among the disclosures:

The FBI last year cut off communication with the group, pointing to exhibits in evidence in the Hamas-support trial of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF). Five former HLF officials were convicted last fall of illegally funneling more than $12 million to the Palestinian terrorist group.

The FBI's case agent testified that CAIR was a Hamas front in the United States, with other exhibits showing it was part of a network of groups and individuals called the "Palestine Committee," which aimed to help Hamas financially and politically. Prosecutors say CAIR's very birth in 1994 is a part of that effort. [snip]

According to the CAIR release, the Assembly co-hosts of the dinner include:

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
Board of Equalization Chairwoman Betty Yee

Senate President pro Tem Darrel Steinberg
Senator Alex Padilla
Senator Carol Liu
Senator Elaine Alquist
Senator Fran Pavley
Senator Jenny Oropeza
Senator Loni Hancock
Senator Lou Correa
Senator Mark Leno
Senator Pat Wiggins
Senator Denise Ducheny
Senator Leland Yee
Senator Lois Wolk

Assembly Speaker Karen Bass
Assemblymember Dave Jones
Assemblymember Fiona Ma
Assemblymember Jared Huffman
Assemblymember Alyson Huber
Assemblymember Anthony Adams
Assemblymember Bonnie Lowenthal
Assemblymember Hector De La Torre
Assemblymember Ira Ruskin
Assemblymember Isadore Hall
Assemblymember Jose Solorio
Assemblymember Lori Saldaña
Assemblymember Mariko Yamada
Assemblymember Mike Eng
Assemblymember Paul Fong
Assemblymember Pedro Nava
Assemblymember Anthony Portantino
Assemblymember Tom Ammiano
Assemblymember Tom Torlakson
Assemblymember Tony Mendoza
Assemblymember Warren Furutani
Assemblymember Alberto Torrico
Assemblymember Mary Hayashi
Assemblymember Paul Krekorian

**Update: A Schwarzenegger spokesman said the governor did not attend the dinner but agreed to be listed as a co-host because he "supports elevating the holiday."



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G, B, F...

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Complaint Against Former Top Palin Aide Dismissed

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- An ethics complaint against a top aide of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has been dismissed as lacking merit.

The complaint was dismissed last week by Alaska's deputy attorney general, Craig Tillery. It alleged that former press secretary Bill McAllister worked on state time to benefit Palin's interest during and after her quest as the GOP vice presidential candidate.

A report from the state Department of Law recommending dismissal of the complaint concluded that no evidence was found that state ethics law was violated.

The grievance was among six filed against Palin or her staff by Anchorage resident Andree McLeod. Five have been dismissed, and one is pending.

[Expect front page headline in the NYT 'soon'...]

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NEA put to work for Obama

The National Endowment for the Arts is supposed to be an apolitical government agency that does nothing more than decide on worthy artistic projects and fund them.

They are a grant agency - and little else. Write to them about your latest idea for a one man show involving cow manure sculptures and you'll probably get approved.

Just one thing though. It would help if one of your cow manure statues was of President Obama, as Abbey Schachter of the New York Post explains:

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Thief thanks cops for rescuing him

An Italian thief thanked police officers for arresting him and putting an end to a beating from Korean tourists whom he had robbed in Rome, police say. ''I must thank you; they were massacring me,''' the 48-year-old criminal told police after he was arrested near the Theatre of Marcellus...

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image toon c-art - crpt - EYEBALL on Card Check card

Obama's Labor Day message

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Just in time for Labor Day, President Barack Obama's (D) promises a "Labor Day and Fair Rewards for Hard Work:"

With Labor Day approaching, the President commits to rebuilding the economy so that a lifetime of hard work leads to a comfortable retirement, and explains his proposal to help to get there.

Meanwhile unemployment continues to climb--oh right, that's the fault of former President George W. Bush (R)--and stimulus, shovel ready projects aren't being shoveled. Meanwhile, cash dependent auto dealers are still waiting for their government cash for taking clunkers.

They are staring once again at empty showrooms, firing sales personnel but staying up at night filling out the 25 page intricately worded government forms for their clunker government rebate and new clunker free car owners listen incredulously as their accountants tell them, oh by the way, your clunker discount is taxable.

And oh yes, as far as fair rewards for hard work--the government will probably not renew the tax deductions set to expire in just a few months beginning in 2010 so your "lifetime of hard work" is seized by the government leading to a comfortable retirement for government bureaucrats paid for by your higher taxes.

So enjoy Labor Day. It is your fair reward for hard work.

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image toon - crpt auto = Union Label = pink slip mny

UAW Has Reason to Celebrate This Labor Day

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The Labor Day holiday is almost upon us and the networks are likely to spend it talking about vacation, barbequing and holiday sales instead of examining the 2009 victories of the labor unions. In fact, all year they avoided talking about the many recent blessings organized labor has enjoyed.

The United Auto Workers (UAW), which donated more than 99 percent of its $25.4 million to Democratic federal candidates, had a particularly good year, at least compared to other stakeholders as General Motors and Chrysler struggled and were forced into a 'government-managed' bankruptcy by the White House.

Those auto company bailouts and bankruptcies were major stories this year, yet the network news media rarely discussed union causes of the car companies' inability to compete, and the high cost of union labor compared to non-union labor. In fact, in some cases the UAW was portrayed to evoke sympathy from viewers.

NBC's Lester Holt said that the UAW had "made major concessions," on May 29 which would save GM $1.3 billion a year. CBS described it as "swallowing a bitter pill."

What were those "major concessions?" Hans Bader at the Competitive Enterprise Institute cited the Washington Post, which described them as "‘bitter' only by the peculiar standards of Big Three labor," as when all was said and done, the UAW's health fund ended up with 17.5 percent of GM shares and 55 percent of Chrysler shares...

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image toon = mny auto = Oby bankruptcy of Chrysler keeps unions uaw crpt

Obama's curiously close labor friendship

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SEIU chief Andy Stern enjoys 'unusual' access to the White House -
- he visits weekly and says “We get heard.”

They led the most powerful forces in healthcare -- the trade groups representing doctors, insurance companies, hospitals and drug makers. Any one of them could stall, if not derail, President Obama's hopes of overhauling the U.S. healthcare system.

Instead, they stood with Obama before TV cameras at the White House and pledged their cooperation. For Obama, the show of unity gave momentum to perhaps his most ambitious domestic goal.

But the moment was a victory, as well, for another man invited to the event that morning in May - Andy Stern, who heads the SEIU. The SEIU spent $60 million to help elect Obama. Stern said the group deployed 100,000 volunteers during the campaign, including 3,000 who worked on the election full time.

With nearly 2 million members, the SEIU says it has people in 13 states whose senators are considered important targets in the lobbying effort behind the emerging Democratic healthcare bill.

The union wants to 'coax' those senators into voting for the bill...

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mage toon - bdd mny crpt - UAW union behind auto bailout

Labor Department seeks to cancel rule on unions

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WASHINGTON - The Labor Department moved Tuesday to rescind a regulation approved during President George W. Bush's last days in office that would have increased scrutiny of union finances to help root out financial corruption.

The agency said it considered the comments of numerous labor organizations in making its decision...

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image toon - crption - Card Check goons intimidate Joe re being intimidated

Labor unions pressure Wall Street on ending secret ballots for unionization

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Ben Smith of Politico documents far-from-subtle attempts of Big Labor to intimidate Wall Street money managers into dropping their opposition to the Orwellian-named Employee Free Choice Act, that would end secret ballots in unionization elections.

The labor movement is taking square aim at Wall Street with a new tool in its fight to pass the Employee Free Choice Act: the hundreds of billions of dollars in pension funds it manages for union workers and retirees, some of it held by the same firms that are fighting the provision known as "card check."

"Has your company made any public statements in support or opposition to EFCA?" asks one of nine pointed questions in a polite, detailed four-page questionnaire.

"If 'Yes,' please explain."

To paraphrase:

"Nice little investment fund you've got there.
Be a shame if anything happened to it."

Pension funds are accompanied by a fiduciary duty. Their custodians must invest them in the financial best interests of the owners, the pension holders.

Of course, if you presume that the federal government will bail out any shortfall, then it makes sense to use them for political blackmail.

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image toon - mny auto sclm reps = Oby's ganster politics re Chrysler v UAW crpt

PUBLIC TIRING OF LABOR UNIONS - ESPECIALLY IN THEIR GOVERNMENT

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The approval rating of one of the biggest supporters of Obama's attempt to impose a socialist system on America has plummeted. Gallup has been polling on the public's attitude to Labor Unions since the 1930s. They report public support of unions is at an all time low.

More broadly, fewer than half of Americans -- 48%, an all-time low -- approve of labor unions, down from 59% a year ago.

This is seven percentage points below the former low of 55%, reached in both 1979 and 1981. Throughout the 1970s there had been both labor strife and growing reports of union corruption, culminating in the 1979 murder of United Mineworker dissident Joseph ("Jock") Yablonski. The 1981 low related to the illegal strike by federal air traffic controllers that resulted in Ronald Reagan dismissing all 13,000 controllers. Public support for Reagan's action muzzled labor union activism for many years.

With the administration relying on organized labor to come out strong for his agenda, these are grim numbers.

One suspects the current tumble in public approval of unions reflects both the highly unpopular government takeover of the highly unionized General Motors and and the intransigence of many public employee unions about wages and particularly benefits as states, counties and municipalities attempt to balance their budgets...

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image toon - crpt - State pensions about to sit down - unfunded unions

Card Check: Good for Unions, Bad for America

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The Obama administration's budget is full of proposals that threaten to weaken our staggering economy. Higher taxes on high earners and reduced deductions for their charitable contributions and mortgage interests. A cap-and-trade system that will impose higher costs on everyone who uses electricity. A national health insurance program that will take $600 billion or so out of the private-sector economy.

ut the most grievous threat to future prosperity may be off-budget -- the inaptly named Employee Free Choice Act. Also known as card check, the legislation would effectively abolish secret ballots in unionization elections. It provides that once a majority of employees had filled out sign-up cards circulated by union organizers, the employer would have to recognize and bargain with the union. And if the two sides didn't reach agreement in a short term, federal arbitrators would impose one. Wages, fringe benefits and work rules would all be imposed by the federal government.

It's not difficult to see why union leaders want this. Union membership has fallen from more than 30 percent of the private-sector workforce in the 1950s to about 8 percent today. Union leaders would like to see that go up. So would most Democratic politicians, since some portion of union dues -- unions try to conceal how much -- goes directly or indirectly to support Democratic candidates. The unions and the Democrats want to put up a tollgate on as much of the private sector as they can, to extract money from consumers of goods and services.

They have already set up such tollgates on much of the public sector. In the 1950s, very few public-sector workers were union members. Today, nearly half of all union members are public-sector employees. In many states and central cities -- think California and New York City -- public-sector unions channel vast flows of money, all of it originating from taxpayers, to themselves and to Democratic politicians. The unions use that money to promote some public policies that are not obviously in the interests of public-sector employees -- restrictive trade regulations, for example, which appeal to nostalgic union leaders who would like to see millions of unionized autoworkers and steelworkers once again.

In the previous Congress, the unions got the Democratic House to pass the card check proposal and got every Democratic senator not only to vote for it but to co-sponsor it, as well. But the votes of all Democrats plus that of Pennsylvania Republican Arlen Specter were not enough then to overcome a Senate filibuster. This year, there is little doubt that Speaker Nancy Pelosi could again jam card check through the House. But moderate Democrats from districts where unions are unpopular have gotten her to spare them a vote until and unless the measure gets through the Senate.

There, its prospects are not so good, now that there is no longer a Republican president to veto it. Card check supporters have a list of 15 Democratic senators who have expressed some manner of unease about the issue. Does Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln, up for re-election in 2010, really want to pass a law strongly opposed by her state's biggest business, Wal-Mart, long a target of union organizers? Do Democratic senators from right-to-work states where employees can't be required to join unions want to go along?

As for Specter, union leaders have publicly said they'll support him if he backs card check. His public response has been to hail the importance of the secret ballot and the undesirability of mandatory arbitration.

Politicians can read numbers. Pollster Scott Rasmussen reported last week that 61 percent of Americans think it's fair to require a secret ballot vote if workers want a union. Only 18 percent disagree. Congressional Democrats used to believe that themselves -- in the course of a trade debate in 2001, they urged that Mexico hold secret ballot unionization elections.

Rasmussen also reported an interesting difference between current union members and non-members. Union members by a 47 percent to 18 percent margin thought most workers want to join a labor union. But non-members believe by a 56 percent to 14 percent margin that most workers don't.

Are non-union members deluded? Why don't they want the supposedly higher wages and job protections unions purport to give them? Maybe it's because the adversarial unionism promoted by the Wagner Act of 1935 is out of date. It made some sense when employers used time-and-motion study to speed up assembly lines and squeeze the last quantum of energy out of workers and could lay off workers at will.

But today's employees have unemployment compensation and are protected by various anti-discrimination laws. There is a whole raft of employment law that didn't exist in 1935, and corporate human resources departments are disciplined by that law.

As the Detroit automakers' troubles show, the adversarial work rules insisted on by the United Auto Workers -- a relatively enlightened union in this area -- made them unable to compete in quality or cost with foreign automakers who employ cooperative management techniques and treat their workers as intelligent partners rather than as dumb animals, the way the time-and-motion study managers did in the 1930s.

Card check would give coercive union organizers the chance to impose on large swaths of the private-sector economy the burdens the UAW imposed on the Detroit automakers. It would set up tollgates to channel the money of consumers as well as taxpayers to the Democratic Party. You can see how that would be good for union leaders and Democrats.

But good for America?

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image toon mny crpt - UNION thug sure we'll make right choice