POP #1

It's been a while, first a roundup of Policy or Political [POP] from around the world. The details on some of these issues will show up later this week. For now, enjoy POP #1:

A) 2006 Middle East Conflict (Israel v. Hamas and Hezbollah) - policy - This started when three Israeli soldiers were taken and then short and medium range missiles were fired into Northern Israel. If Lebanon does not want to be fired upon, how about not shooting missiles? And if the Palestinians want a state, why not build where they are? Unless they do not want Israel to exist.

B) The rise of Anti-Semitism by the Democrats and the American Left - Political - Read these posts: By the Daily Kos (here, here, and here), the commentators of the Huffington post , the writings of James Wolcott of Vanity Fair (here, here, here and here). The complicity of CNN with Hezbollah and the United Nation's peacekeepers help with the kidnappings. Finally count how many Republicans voted in the House against House Resolution 391. The answer is one against eight Democrats.

C) I'm writing a book - Political and Policy - More news as I write further.

Under the hood

The site will be upgraded by Norman Hayes. He does good work.

Watch this space.......

The roll-out is postponed....

The roll-out is being postponed because I am having some people work on the site. There is so much news, that I will comment once the site is up again.

For those working on the site, here is what is needed:

1) Move this picture behind the title screen.

2) Help create expandable Blog posts, since I will write a lot.

3) Clean up the right side of this Blog and show me how to add stuff cleanly.

If anyone working on this site has questions, email me. Sorry for the delay, but once The Valley is ready, new posts galore.......

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The meaning of the Missiles

Read this.

The question we Americans (that includes you, Messrs. Keller and Baquat) should be asking is: What does Kim Jong-Il get for firing his missiles?

The last time North Korea threatened us, we gave money and financial support. Among North Korea's neighbors, who can trust them? China, more interested in being an Economic power, does not want it's borders threatened. Japan, just out of a recession , and pacifisic since WWII, does not want an encrouching power either.

The only known trading power with North Korea is, at this moment, Iran. What North Korea is missing is money. During the early 20th Century, Germany launched a Dreadnaught battleship off the coast of North Africa. Why? To show the European world, the expanding Prussian Empire.

What must we do? This is Poker and Kim Jong-Il laid all his cards on the table. And the dealer hasn't shown the flop yet. Multi-lateral negotations (US, China, South Korea, and Japan) and using the carrot of trade might cause North Korea to back down.

Again, we can only hope.

Happy July 4th!

This is one of my favorite holidays. Every year, to celebrate it, I read the book Patriots by AJ Langguth. Let us remember why we celebrate the holiday:

"When members of the [Continental] Congress came to Jefferson's stirring conclusion, a majority thought it should include one last appeal to the power even greater then George III....They did not meddlewith Jefferson's last oath, more solumn than anything they might devise:

"'And for support of this declaration, with a firm relience on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortune and our sacred honor'

"On July 4, 1776, independence was delcared in language worthy of it."

-- Patriots, AJ Langguth, pg.362

Here is a copy of that famous document. Enjoy the fireworks tonight.:

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,

"--That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
"He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

"He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

"He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

"He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

"He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

"He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

"He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent: For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offencesFor abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands. He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Causation

Right after SWIFT is publicized, there is a car bomb that destroys 66. The Washington Post describes the attack here.

A simple idea, if SWIFT was not publicized would this attack have occured? Is there a way to reverse engineer the funding and supplier of these car bombs?

Again, I ask, how many troops do the New York Times and Los Angeles Times have to protect us?

Some July 4th humor

Zarqawi Arrives at Heaven

When Zarqawi died, George Washington met him at the Pearly Gates.Washington slapped him across the face and yelled, "How dare youtry to destroy the nation I helped conceive!?"

Patrick Henry approached, punched him in the nose and shouted,"You wanted to end our liberties - but you failed!"

James Madison followed, kicked him hard in the groin and said,"This is why I allowed our government to provide for the common defense!"

Thomas Jefferson was next. He waited until Zarqawi had stoppedretching after Madison's blow to his nuts. Then he started wailing on Zarqawi with a long cane, snarling, "It was evil men like you who inspired me to write the Declaration of Independence."

The beatings and thrashings continued as George Mason, James Monroe and 66 other early Americans unleashed their anger on the terrorist leader.

Finally, as Zarqawi lay bleeding and in pain, the Angel Gabriel appeared.Zarqawi wept and said, "This is not what you promised me."Gabriel replied, "I told you there would be 72 Virginians waiting for you in Heaven. What did you think I said?