Solid Candidate creates Excitement in Egypt

As President Mubarak returns to Egypt after his latest health crisis a new face is on the scene. Mohamed El Baradei who is internationally famous as the head of the IAEA has returned to his homeland and is seeking to replace Mubarak. His candidacy is stirring up great excitement and we can only hope that democracy will prevail. There is a little debate going on in Egypt as to who is the most well known Egyptian. My own thought is Omar Sharif but perhaps my wife has colored my thinking! Here is what the Egyptian Chronicles had to say. Enjoy the video.

Son of Hamas

From the Online Wall Street Journal

By MATTHEW KAMINSKI

Nashville, Tenn.

'I absolutely know that in anybody's eyes I was a traitor," says Mosab Hassan Yousef. "To my family, to my nation, to my God. I crossed all the red lines in my society. I didn't leave one that I didn't cross."
Now 32, Mosab is the son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, a founder and leader of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas. Throughout the last decade, from the second Intifada to the current stalemate, he worked alongside his father in the West Bank. During that time the younger Mr. Yousef also secretly embraced Christianity. And as he reveals in his book "Son of Hamas," out this week, he became one of the top spies for Israel's internal security arm, the Shin Bet.more

BBC News - Hundreds of thousands back Iran Revolution

UPDATE-The incredibly brave opposition to the tyrannical Iranian regime continues its struggle despite the unpeakable cruelty being inflicted. The National, an English language newspaper published in the United Arab Emirates, has a good report. Go here


BBC News - Hundreds of thousands back Iran Revolution

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Osama Bin Laden blames U.S. for Climate Change

The elusive Bin Laden sends the world still another message of hate for the USA and other industrialized nations. Now he trying to tap into the popular but dubious  idea of global warming by blaming us. In addition to sponsoring and applauding cowardly terrorist attacks that indiscriminately kill innocents of any nation or religion  including his own he urges economic war on us even while admitting that the consequences of our collapse would be disastrous for the whole world. He does not yet have the enormous power required to do evil  on the same massive scale as  Stalin, Mao and Hitler but obviously he would if he could.

Internet Access around the World

As our world continues the Technology Revolution many totalitarian countries are trying to restrict internet access and even here in the United States there are elements within the current administration that would like to curb bloggers and other media that are critical of President Obama and his administration. In light of this  I am very pleased that the U.S. has spoken out about the restrictions being placed by China. It will give our own free speech advocates and media ammunition should the congress proceed with its attempts to revive the so-called  "fairness doctrine." See the article here

We already know how the difficulties faced by bloggers in Iran but Egypt is also trying to intimidate its very large blog population. Go here for some comments and follow on to an incident in Upper Egypt where five Christians were murdered on Christmas Day.Happily the U.S. State Department has also protested the incident according to the Egyptian Chronicles

Political Change in Iran- Alternatives

As the current regime continues to thumb it's nose at diplomatic efforts the risk of military action  grows. The WSJ Opinion Journal carries an interesting article today that suggests more options that have considerable merit. I have to believe that some of what is suggested has already been in play  but certainly a more consistent and determined effort should be made. The alternative of using military action would be disastrous and might weaken the opposition rather than bring about any change.

Welcome to the Old Guys Blog

As many readers of the Aiken Journal know I retired from the Aiken City Council in November 2009.The Aiken Journal was started as an email to constituents and then was also published online as a website and later as a blog. The Aiken Journal originally covered only City of Aiken and Aiken County items of concern but due to my propensity to worry about the whole world I started to cover broader interests.The Aiken Journal will generally limit its coverage  to City of Aiken, County  and South Carolina subjects and I have created the www.octogenarianonline.com to cover my personal interests around the world. I have also included in the archives of this new blog postings concerning national and world topics that were published by me in the Aiken Journal.These archive items have been removed from the Aiken Journal. I hope everyone visits the new site as it gets up and running. Good comments are always welcome.

Copenhagen Communist Caper

We should be very afraid. Our way of life is under attack at home and abroad.

Frank Gaffney: The Speech We Need

This is a terrific photo of President Obama. Frank Gaffney of the Center for Security Policy suggests a speech for the President to deliver tomorrow night at West Point:

 Frank Gaffney: The Speech We Need

President Obama's much-anticipated speech at West Point Tuesday night  constitutes an opportunity with the potential to be as strategically momentous as Richard Nixon's visit to China in 1972.  Mr. Obama is in a unique position to tell the truth about the nature of the enemy we confront, not just in Afghanistan but worldwide, and thereby put the effort to defeat that enemy on a sound, coherent and supportable footing.  Will he rise to the occasion?More

Honduras-Finally we are on the right side!

  Honduras's Democratic Solution

Why The Obama Administration Is Right To Support Sunday's Election

(WASHINGTON POST 28 NOV 09)

A BREACH has opened among those countries that have sought to resolve the political crisis in the Central American nation of Honduras. One group is focused on restoring democracy to the country, through support for a national election scheduled for Sunday. A second faction places priority on putting ousted president Manuel Zelaya back in office -- even though few Hondurans want him back and his legal term expires in just two months. To its credit, the Obama administration is leading the support for the democratic option, even though that means departing from its policy of seeking consensus with the region's big powers.

Elections have often been used to restore constitutional order in unstable countries; they brought a peaceful end to Augusto Pinochet's right-wing dictatorship in Chile and to the leftist Sandinista regime in Nicaragua. In the case of Honduras, the election solution is particularly appropriate, since one had been scheduled before Mr. Zelaya was arrested and illegally deported from the country in June. The candidates for president were chosen by a legal and orderly democratic process, with high participation; the vote will be supervised by an independent tribunal also established before the crisis.

Polls show that Hondurans are eager for the elections to occur. They have little taste for Mr. Zelaya, who embraced the leftist populism of Hugo Chávez while in office and was trying to follow the Venezuelan's model for dismantling democratic institutions. Last month, Mr. Zelaya accepted a U.S.-brokered deal that endorsed the elections while providing for the Honduran Congress to vote on whether to restore him to office for the remainder of his term. Yet when he was not immediately returned to power, Mr. Zelaya repudiated the plan. Now he and his supporters claim the election must be regarded as illegitimate, because Congress will not vote on his status until next week. Hondurans understandably wonder whether Mr. Zelaya's intention all along was to disrupt a democratic process that will send him to a well-deserved retirement.

Unfortunately, Mr. Zelaya has the backing not only of Mr. Chávez and his satellites but also of governments such as Brazil -- with which the Obama administration hoped to forge a regional partnership. The lesson of the Honduran crisis is that the United States cannot always pursue such multilateralism and also support democracy. Too many Latin American governments are more interested in backing leaders who share their political inclinations than in upholding the rule of law. While loudly denouncing the "coup" against Mr. Zelaya, they have ignored the rigging of elections and the violent suppression of opposition by fellow leftists. In rejecting their attempt to nullify Honduras's democratic vote this Sunday, the Obama administration has taken a relatively isolated stance -- and a correct one.

Lindsey Graham destroys Eric Holder

The following youtube videoshows Lindsey at his best. There is a very good commentary on this showdown at the Powerline Blog.

It's The Jihad, Stupid

Clear thinking from Frank Gaffney of the Center for Security Policy. 

Frank Gaffney: It's The Jihad, Stupid

Poll after poll indicates that official Washington is held in very low regard by the American people.  One reason is that our leaders are seen as out of touch with the realities confronting ordinary folks - and with what those folks' common sense suggests are appropriate responses to such realities. There could scarcely be a more graphic example of that disconnect - and its ominous implications - than the contortions the U.S. government is now going through in the wake of the murder of 13 people and the wounding of dozens more at Fort Hood last week.  For example, the FBI declared immediately after the attack that it was not an act of terrorism.  Other officials are promoting the idea that it is simply a case of an individual afflicted by post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or deranged by the prospect of an upcoming deployment to a war zone.  President Obama insists that we should reserve judgment, evidently because the facts are open to varying interpretations.

Continue Reading...

Honduras Pressured by U.S.

From the Center for Security Policy.

Frank Gaffney: Finally, A Coup In Honduras

Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Shannon and the National Security Council's Senior Director for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Dan Restrepo, visited the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa, on Wednesday to compel the country's recalcitrant democrats to make a deal with the man the latter had lawfully removed from the presidency on June 28th. It remains to be seen whether, pursuant to this deal, ex-President Manuel Zelaya will now be-- as he claims-- restored to power. What is already unmistakable, though, is that it is better to be a foe of America than its friend.

Continue Reading...

For another report on this topic by the Wall Street Journal go here.

Cap and Trade must be Fought

The following is brief and to the point.We must resist,

U.S. Policy on Honduras

There is so much going on in our world it is difficult to say what is the most important. I have been appalled at what our policy has been towards the legal disposal of a would be Dictator in Honduras. Go here to read more on this subject from the Center for Security Policy.

UPDATE- It looks like Zelaya may be returned to power. Presumably he would not be able to amend the constitution in order to continue his rule. We shall see! Go here for the story.

UPDATE NO. 2- Still working on it but hopefully it will turn out right . Go here

Doomsday in Denmark

Just in case you missed it!   The following piece from Carl Langley was published in the Aiken Standard today.

 

 

 

Holy Shazam, Batman, did you see what just happened to SuperObama? said Robin, unable to believe his eyes.

 On the craggy, rock-girded  cliffs of the Danish isle, our modern day version of Superman ran headlong into an international version of kryptonite.

  Barack Obama, our president and our media darling, used up five luxury class jets and more than $1 million dollars in flight costs in his vain effort to sell Chicago to the nations of the world.

 What a waste of a trip for Oprah and Michelle, the damsels of today's social environment where the image of celebrity is supposed to hold dominion over the dark shadows of life's often grim realities.

  The liberal media, especially the New York Times, Newsweek, Time and the so-called mainstream television networks, were lathering up their prose and ready to hail the Chief for his work in securing Chicago as the site for the 2016 Olympic games.

  Alas, a cabal (liberalspeak) of international judges thought otherwise and not only rejected Chicago but tossed out the Windy City in the very first round of the selection process.

 It's bad enough to be rejected, but in the first round, the very first round, of all things. Talk about rejection, and there it is in spades. And now they still are dancing in the streets in Rio de Janiero, my choice in the first place, while our wallflower is wilting away under a shower of alibis.

  "We really didn't care that much about it," an Obama insider is reported to have said. I would like to administer a polygraph test to that abuser of the facts.

  While there are a lot of us rejoicing at this turn of events, there is deep gloom and sadness in the meeting rooms of the Chicago mob, where dreams of luxuries dumped in their laps have evaporated in the nightmare of reality.

  Gone with the wind are the hopes of slumlords to rent out their roach- and rat-infested apartments to foreign visitors and perhaps Olympic athletes; gone with the wind are the hopes of the consultants and public relations types who pumped for Obama and now have seen the fountains of their personal wealth come up dry;  gone with the wind are the giddy plans of the liberal media to portray Obama as a savior of America's place on the world stage.

 The ending of dreamtime comes with the harsh realities of our real world, and those of us who love an America that does not pander to personality cults must get on to better tasks.

 Today, scarely a breeze of hope remains in the Windy City. The quiet is so pervasive it screams out like a cat with its tail caught under the rocking chair.

 Today, our America, where most of us soldier on against socialism, is awash in jobless citizens, failing schools that are not teaching the three Rs but singing mindless tributes to our Dear Leader, and the harsh specter of runaway inflation, high interest rates, money unavailable for automobile and home purchases and a national leadership both unable and unwilling to provide the leadership for our military engaged in mortal combat with an enemy dedicated to destroying us.

  President Obama has shown us to be just what his detractors said he would be: a clueless, slick talking politician, who was artfully framed as a deep thinker and decisive leader of a nation. He is only as good as the next fabrication cobbled together by a devious public relations staff and political insiders whose only thoughts are of themselves.

  I think about this as I consider the cocksure attitude people like David Axlerod Rahm Emanuel, Valerie Jarrett and others displayed while sending forth their World Leader to sell Chicago and who got just what was coming to him. 

 Let us who love our country take no comfort in the leadership traits of those who opposed Obama. Republican leaders were just as certain - and totally fearful - of what was going to come down in Denmark. They actually believed Obama was bulletproof on this one.

  The Republicans have lapsed into reactionaries, unable to look ahead with any degree of certitude to predict and project Obama's failings. Our Dear Leader will lose re-election only if left to his own devices. He is fully capable of doing himself in, and for that I give thanks.

  Our hope here is that he is proving almost daily he has no idea of what is going on in this nation and in the world at large. He is only as good as his last speech, and that is what he has been doing for the last nine months.

  A word to the President here: it's difficult to sit down and engage in meaningful strategic and tactical military discussions with generals and admirals when you

are busy making speeches that no one, not even you, remember, or choose to remember.

 The clock is ticking for this country, and it just struck 12 in Denmark for openers. Now we wait and watch the hands creep forward and wonder when total collapse of the world's greatest democracy comes. The hour may be sooner than we think.

  I am qualified to make these observations because I was born on the eve of the Great Depression, a period in time that today's school children have no knowledge of whatsover. So they will have to learn the hard way.

         Carl Langley

 

Democratic National Committee Google Ad

The following google ad from the Democratic National Committee was found on an Egyptian Blog. They are preaching to the entire world. Wake up America.To see where the link leads go here

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Is Islam at War with Us?

From the Center for Security Policy........

Frank Gaffney: Is 'Islam' At War With Us?

Last week, John Brennan, the assistant to the President for homeland security and counterterrorism approvingly recalled a key point in the speech Mr. Obama delivered in Cairo in June:  "America is not and never will be at war with Islam."  Unfortunately, that statement ignores the fact that the decision as to whether the United States is at war with anybody is not entirely up to our leadership or people.  The real question is:  Is ‘Islam' at war with us? To read the entire article go toThe Center for Security Policy

Is Islam at War with Us?

From the Center for Security Policy........

Frank Gaffney: Is 'Islam' At War With Us?

Last week, John Brennan, the assistant to the President for homeland security and counterterrorism approvingly recalled a key point in the speech Mr. Obama delivered in Cairo in June:  "America is not and never will be at war with Islam."  Unfortunately, that statement ignores the fact that the decision as to whether the United States is at war with anybody is not entirely up to our leadership or people.  The real question is:  Is ‘Islam' at war with us? To read the entire article go toThe Center for Security Policy

There was No coup in Honduras!

I have been stewing about Honduras and the actions of the OAS and our own government. Please read the following:

July 2nd, 2009

Dear Liberty Leader,

Within the next 48 hours, the situation in Honduras will reach its most critical point yet. Deposed Marxist dictator Manuel Zelaya -- backed by Hugo Chavez, CNN, and Barack Obama's State Department -- has set the stage to try to retake power in direct defiance of that nation's Supreme Court, its legislature, and the vast majority of the Honduran people.
And if Honduras falls, the rest of Latin America -- already at risk -- will not be far behind.
That's why it is more important than ever for us as Liberty Leaders to get out the facts to all we know -- as quickly as possible.,The attached commentary from a leading Honduran attorney, Octavio Sánchez, sets the record straight. Manuel Zelaya was seeking a third term through attempting to amend a portion of the Honduran Constitution which is illegal to amend. His removal was legal and constitutional. For more background, also refer to the following legal memorandum further explaining the timeline of events as they occurred and legal complexities. Please share this information with everyone in your address book and sound the alarm for our Friends of Freedom south of the border!
Thank you!

Bill Wilson

A 'coup' in Honduras? Nonsense.

By Octavio Sánchez
Tegucigalpa, Honduras – Sometimes, the whole world prefers a lie to the truth. The White House, the United Nations, the Organization of American States, and much of the media have condemned the ouster of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya this past weekend as a coup d'état.
That is nonsense.
In fact, what happened here is nothing short of the triumph of the rule of law.
To understand recent events, you have to know a bit about Honduras's constitutional history. In 1982, my country adopted a new Constitution that enabled our orderly return to democracy after years of military rule. After more than a dozen previous constitutions, the current Constitution, at 27 years old, has endured the longest.
It has endured because it responds and adapts to changing political conditions: Of its original 379 articles, seven have been completely or partially repealed, 18 have been interpreted, and 121 have been reformed.
It also includes seven articles that cannot be repealed or amended because they address issues that are critical for us. Those unchangeable articles include the form of government; the extent of our borders; the number of years of the presidential term; two prohibitions – one with respect to reelection of presidents, the other concerning eligibility for the presidency; and one article that penalizes the abrogation of the Constitution.
During these 27 years, Honduras has dealt with its problems within the rule of law. Every successful democratic country has lived through similar periods of trial and error until they were able to forge legal frameworks that adapt to their reality. France crafted more than a dozen constitutions between 1789 and the adoption of the current one in 1958. The US Constitution has been amended 27 times since 1789. And the British – pragmatic as they are – in 900 years have made so many changes that they have never bothered to compile their Constitution into a single body of law.
Under our Constitution, what happened in Honduras this past Sunday? Soldiers arrested and sent out of the country a Honduran citizen who, the day before, through his own actions had stripped himself of the presidency.
These are the facts: On June 26, President Zelaya issued a decree ordering all government employees to take part in the "Public Opinion Poll to convene a National Constitutional Assembly." In doing so, Zelaya triggered a constitutional provision that automatically removed him from office.
Constitutional assemblies are convened to write new constitutions. When Zelaya published that decree to initiate an "opinion poll" about the possibility of convening a national assembly, he contravened the unchangeable articles of the Constitution that deal with the prohibition of reelecting a president and of extending his term. His actions showed intent.
Our Constitution takes such intent seriously. According to Article 239: "No citizen who has already served as head of the Executive Branch can be President or Vice-President. Whoever violates this law or proposes its reform [emphasis added], as well as those that support such violation directly or indirectly, will immediately cease in their functions and will be unable to hold any public office for a period of 10 years."
Notice that the article speaks about intent and that it also says "immediately" – as in "instant," as in "no trial required," as in "no impeachment needed."
Continuismo – the tendency of heads of state to extend their rule indefinitely – has been the lifeblood of Latin America's authoritarian tradition. The Constitution's provision of instant sanction might sound draconian, but every Latin American democrat knows how much of a threat to our fragile democracies continuismo presents. In Latin America, chiefs of state have often been above the law. The instant sanction of the supreme law has successfully prevented the possibility of a new Honduran continuismo.
The Supreme Court and the attorney general ordered Zelaya's arrest for disobeying several court orders compelling him to obey the Constitution. He was detained and taken to Costa Rica. Why? Congress needed time to convene and remove him from office. With him inside the country that would have been impossible. This decision was taken by the 123 (of the 128) members of Congress present that day.
Don't believe the coup myth. The Honduran military acted entirely within the bounds of the Constitution. The military gained nothing but the respect of the nation by its actions.
I am extremely proud of my compatriots. Finally, we have decided to stand up and become a country of laws, not men. From now on, here in Honduras, no one will be above the law.
Octavio Sánchez, a lawyer, is a former presidential adviser (2002-05) and minister of culture (2005-06) of the Republic of Honduras.
###

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