America, We Have A Problem
By: Gary L. Bauer
2009 should be remembered as “the year of home-grown jihad.” Jihadists indoctrinated in the United States are a growing problem. While the Obama Administration and the liberal media continue to be in denial about this emerging threat, national security officials admit that these types of terrorists pose an increasing danger to our safety.
Earlier this year, FBI officials in Dallas arrested a Jordanian man attempting to bomb a downtown skyscraper. In Arkansas, a radical Islamist shot and killed a member of the U.S. military outside a recruiting station. In North Carolina, a converted Muslim was arrested for plotting to attack the Marine Corps base in Quantico, Virginia. Officials in New York City prevented another attack on the city’s transit system involving weapons of mass destruction. The deadliest attack occurred at Fort Hood, Texas, where 14 Americans were killed and dozens wounded by a man who called himself a “Soldier of Allah.” Barack Obama refuses to call this atrocity a terrorist attack despite the overwhelming evidence.
Officials revealed yesterday that five Muslim men from the Washington, D.C., suburbs of Northern Virginia were arrested at a home in Pakistan owned by a terrorist organization. The Associated Press reports that the men “told investigators they came to the country to take part in ‘jihad.’” All were between the ages of 19-25. It is worth noting that these men did not come from poverty-stricken homes. Ramy Zamzam, one of the men arrested, was a dental student attending Howard University. Despite being well-educated, these men, and many other terrorist plotters, bought into the hate-filled ideology that is radical Islam.
Top national security officials have been warning for years that al-Qaeda is recruiting and training Westerners to carry out terrorist attacks. Much of our attention has been focused on Europe because of its booming Muslim population. But the FBI has been investigating Somali Muslims in Minneapolis for more than a year after 20 individuals who attended the same mosque returned to Somalia. One became a suicide bomber. With the news from Pakistan and other events throughout the year, it is obvious the threat of home-grown jihad is just as serious here in the United States.
Obama Reaches Out … And Knifes Conservatives
After nearly a year of ignoring congressional conservatives, President Obama invited them to a White House meeting yesterday to work on a job creation bill. But, alas, Obama just couldn’t control himself at the private meeting. He accused Republicans of rooting against an economic recovery and warned them to stop “frightening” the American people.
Republican leaders were in no mood to be lectured by our socialist president. Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI) accused Obama of pushing a “job-killing agenda,” and told him the Environmental Protection Agency’s plan to regulate carbon dioxide was ludicrous. (More on that below.) House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence (R-IN) accused the Obama Administration of not “getting it,” and said, “We can’t borrow and spend and bail our way back to a growing economy.”
How ironic that President Obama blew up his own meeting. He couldn’t control his extreme partisanship even in a meeting intended to find common ground on creating jobs. It was another reminder that his promise to bring the country together and seek bi-partisanship has been replaced with “slash and burn” ideology that attempts to smear conservatives as enemies of all humanity and decency. If only he were this tough on Ahmadinejad and other world tyrants!
Why It Matters
Earlier this week, the Obama Administration announced that it would unilaterally regulate carbon emissions unless Congress adopted a cap and trade scheme. I’ve devoted a lot of space in this report to explaining the tremendous implications of cap and trade, but you could summarize it this way: a cap on our prosperity that trades our liberty for a radical ideology. Tuesday, the White House made clear what that ideology is – Soviet-style socialism.
Responding to the EPA’s announcement that it would begin regulating carbon, a top White House official issued a blunt threat to our elected representatives: “If you [Congress] don’t pass this legislation [cap and trade], then … the EPA is going to have to regulate in this area. And it is not going to be able to regulate on a market-based way, so it’s going to have to regulate in a command-and-control way, which will probably generate even more uncertainty.”
That statement is a declaration of war against working families and America’s free-market economy. The White House is telling Congress to pick its poison – cap and trade or command-and-control. That’s extortion, but that’s the “Chicago way,” isn’t it? And when did White House officials start using phrases like “command-and-control”? I thought command-and-control economies died with the Soviet Union.
This threat gives you some idea of just how devastating cap and trade is for the economy. The White House is unintentionally admitting, “We know cap and trade is bad. But the EPA regulations would be really, really bad.” The administration is playing a game of chicken with the economy in the middle of a severe recession.
There is a way out of this – rein in the bureaucracy and reduce the size and scope of government. Congress can amend the Clean Air Act to strip the EPA of authority over carbon emissions. That would be the most logical thing to do. Sadly, many liberal politicians are ideologically biased against common sense and fundamental economics. (If you needed any more evidence of the radical ideology behind climate change, a leader of the Chinese delegation in Copenhagen just announced that population control “fits right into the picture.”)
So, what’s the alternative? Clint Eastwood’s famous line comes to mind: “Go ahead, make my day.” Pollster Scott Rasmussen found that just 24% of American adults felt the EPA should act unilaterally to regulate carbon emissions. Conservatives ought to call Obama’s bluff: They should fight cap and trade tooth and nail, and dare Obama to destroy the economy with his command-and-control ideology. Ulysses S. Grant said, “I know no method to secure the repeal of bad or obnoxious laws so effective as their stringent execution.” Perhaps it’s time to test that method.
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THERE'S NEVER BEEN A COUNTRY IN [RECORDED] HISTORY, THAT EVER [VOTED] IT'S WAY OUT OF TYRANNY.
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