And a thirsty one it is indeed, as they all are. The United States has sold Israel two billion dollars worth of military fuel stocks. That’s about 444 million gallons of JP-8, unleaded and diesel fuel.

Israel’s air force would use prodigious quantities of fuel in an all-out air assault against her enemies that could last for days. The tanks and mobile artillery won’t be slow consuming huge amounts of fuel either. This, right in the face of Barack Obama’s biggest push to neuter Israel, by promising a ‘nuclear shield’ to protect her from her enemies… if she promises not to attack Iran.
Note to our Israeli friends: Barack Hussein’s promises are as empty as his economic policies.

It’s remarkable that the administration that has done everything in its power to prevent the Israelis from defending themselves against the real and present danger that is fundamentalist Iran, is the same one that is supplying the one strategic assurance Israel needed to prosecute a sustained military effort.

Israel’s quick and final solution to the Galant issue pretty much put a stop to the speculation that it was a red herring to distract the Arabs from Israeli war preparations. The US, Germany, France and UK air forces have been training, simulating operations over Iran.

Syria’s armed forces are at their highest alert status. Hamas continues to agitate and Hizballah concentrates forces in Lebanon.
Israel must move soon. We should move with her.

Semper Vigilans, Semper Fidelis

© Skip MacLure 2010

After the excitement of the primaries at the start of the week, it was pretty much back to business-as-usual. The same old rhetoric, blame-shifting and outright lies from the doomed Democrats.

Joe Biden

The howler of the week was courtesy of none other than Joe Biden, gaffe-master extraordinaire. Stating that the economy recovery was slower than he would like, he insisted that we are headed in the right direction. So was the Titanic, Joe. It doesn’t take a master cartographer to read the economy map. If you take the Cartesian coordinates of unemployment, private sector expansion and market confidence, you’ll probably find yourself somewhere in the Bermuda triangle of failed stimuli.

I’ll give Joe one thing… his timing was impeccable, the mark of a gifted comedian. A few days after his remarks, a GDP figure of 1.6% was announced which, in any known universe except the Democrats’, is hardly a move in the right direction.

On Wednesday, it was revealed that former GOP Chairman Ken Mehlman had announced to family and associates that he was gay. While his reluctance (or should I say hesitancy?) to ‘come out’ earlier was perhaps due to possible reactions of Republican colleagues, it was the liberals who supplied some vicious character attacks. While I do not agree with Mr Mehlman’s now open support of gay marriage (not to be confused with civil partnerships, the legal implications of which I have no objection), I applaud his courage and his remarks on the dangers that Islam poses to minority groups.

Ken Mehlman

Some of the nasty comments I read from liberals, calling Mehlman a hypocrite and worse, reminded me of the offensive comment by Harry Reid, when he said that he didn’t know how voters of Hispanic heritage could be Republican. Well, it may be news to the Democrats, but not all Hispanics, blacks or gays dislike America and the Constitution. The liberal assertion that they should all be Democrats is an insult, which implies that all minorities are gullible and lack common sense and decency. To declare such is to pigeonhole all minorities, something they claim (falsely) to oppose.

This distrust of Democrat hypocrisy was borne out by the results of a Rasmussen poll this week. Voters now place more trust in the Republican Party than in Democrats on all ten major issues. On the economy, taxes, national security, health care and immigration, the percentage points difference ranged from 16% to 8%.

One thing that was evident in the survey is the majority support for Arizona-type immigration legislation in the voters’ home states. While John Morton’s ICE agents carried out a successful operation in rounding up 370 illegal immigrants, many guilty of heinous crimes (kudos to Mr Morton for that), there were many in Texas that had already been arrested being released without trial.

John Morton

Mr Morton explained that ICE has to prioritize, given their limited resources. That is fair comment, but it does highlight the need to outsource immigration control to the individual states, who are willing and able to implement the law, given the chance. It is time for the Federal Government to support law and order, rather than pander to the extremist groups who claim Constitutional protection for aliens.
The Constitution is there to protect legal American citizens.

For the Obama administration to cite their opposition to the Arizona Bill in a report to the UN Human Rights Council, on the grounds of ‘racial profiling’ (a total fiction, as the bill prohibited this practice), is another example of their desire to diminish the respect of the US on the international stage. This quote from the AP article: “High unemployment rates, hate crime, poverty, poor housing, lack of access to health care and discriminatory hiring practices are among the challenges the report identified as affecting blacks, Latinos, Muslims, South Asians, Native Americans and gays and lesbians in the United States.”

The very report is discriminatory, as it does not mention the fact that white heterosexuals are also subject to these problems, especially the unemployment that has resulted from Obama’s government and the hate crimes instigated by liberals against Republicans, which seem to become more prevalent. It would be interesting to read the reports submitted by some other countries, say, Venezuela, the Arab countries and Iran.

(Editor Dee is in for Skip today)

I’ve figured it out… we’ve got this all wrong. There have been 3.5 million new and saved jobs since Obama took office. We know ’cause they told us so.

The problem is, it’s not the truth. It’s not even close to the truth. The truth is that the American people aren’t buying the story lines any more. The spin scarcely has time to get started before we tear it apart and subject it to the ‘new media review’. By the time we unravel it, there’s not much spin.

I guess we’re all sort of stunned out here, watching this administration self destruct. It’s not just that Barack Obama and that pack of amateurs he has in his government are wrong in their approach to governing and economic policy for this country. It’s that they have been, and are, wrong about every single thing they’ve done since taking office.

With the November 2 elections right around the corner, the desperation in some corners of the Democrat establishment is palpable. With the clock running out, so are the options for incumbent Democrats, some of whom have already fallen by the wayside in primaries across the nation… with many more to come.

If the mood of the nation remains as ugly as it is today, it will become a historical event.
It can’t come soon enough. Clock watching is hard work.

Semper Vigilans, Semper Fidelis

© Skip MacLure 2010

With the notable exception of John McCain, the national Patriot movement has had significant results backing strong Constitutional Conservatives. Rinos continue to pay the price again, with that one notable exception.

To our Arizona friends. I hope you chose wisely. I can’t help thinking that people like Lindsey Graham and John McCain will revert to type. More than willing to sell out his principles, McCain is perfectly capable of secret deals with the DeMarxists, as is Graham. We have no choice but to watch them like hawks and force them to behave.

Hey! Anybody out there want to lay any bets on how long it’s going to take our boy John to revert to type? I say one week. But he has talked a hell of a tough game on the border and illegals, since he had his border epiphany.

Dick Morris is openly calling for both the House and the Senate to change hands in an historic repudiation of the leftward movement of our government. Yes, the people do have a voice in our system and they are making their voices heard in historic numbers.

The grim statistics that are coming out of the economy pretty much say it all. Record mortgage filings, the lowest real estate sales in fifteen years. We lost 500,000 jobs last month, companies are afraid to hire and investment is virtually frozen.

All political prognosticators are calling for a Republican sweep of the House. I think that’s great, and I say let’s take the damned Senate too.
While we’re doing that, let’s pray to God for the wisdom to do this right.

Semper Vigilans, Semper Fidelis

© Skip MacLure 2010

The latest batch of primary election results yielded few surprises. After some scathing attacks on rival JD Hayworth, and a no-less-than-spectacular turnaround on immigration policies, John McCain was to cruise home with a twenty four percentage point lead.

John McCain

While Hayworth is a largely unknown quantity in political circles, I think it is a safe assumption that he would not have been tempted to acquiesce to the Democrats in the Senate. The balance in the Senate, come November, will be a close call, probably too close to afford the luxury of defecting Republican votes.

I am amazed that Arizona Republicans, whose current main concern is illegal immigration, could be taken in by a flip-flopper extraordinaire, whose about-turn is nothing more than a blatant act of self-preservation. Sen. Jim Inhofe called McCain a “closet liberal”. Gee, ya think, Jim?! Not a very deep closet, either.

Joe Miller

In Alaska, Tea Party endorsed newcomer Joe Miller was leading incumbent Senator Lisa Murkowski by 51 to 49, with 98% 0f votes counted. It could be a week before the final result is announced, with remote rural areas using the old paper ballot system.

Back in Arizona, Ben Quayle, son of former VP Dan Quayle, won the Republican primary in the 3rd Congressional District. The 33 year old lawyer beat off competition from nine other candidates to become favorite to replace retiring Representative John Shadegg.

Ben Quayle

Earlier this month, Quayle called Barack Obama “the worst president in history” and hoped that he would be elected to Congress to “knock the hell out of Washington”.
Honest on the first count, determined on the second – sounds like the type of person we need.

(Editor Dee is in for Skip today)

Arizona has proven itself to be a pretty sane place. I hope that holds true through the primary election for the Senate race between JD Hayworth and John McCain.

I’d like to hope that Arizona would have better sense than to fall for McCain’s chameleon-like transformation into a closed borders, anti-illegal alien guy. Or, that along with people like the ever-detestable Lindsey Graham, he was perfectly willing to sell the American people down the road with his carbon tax scheme.

It cost twenty million dollars of McCain money to get the Senator this far. He did his best to destroy JD Hayworth with Arizona voters. What was disappointing was the support that McCain got from the Old Guard Republican Party back in the beltway. They were the same ones who backed McCain for President. McCain could prove to be a very negative factor in the US Senate. He simply cannot be trusted not to immediately revert to type once re-elected. Millions of Patriots have made it abundantly clear that we do not want business as usual from our elected representatives.

Political prognosticators from both ends of the spectrum are calling for what may be a political repudiation of historical proportions, with estimates north of fifty seats that could be lost by the DeMarxists in November. Further, there are some who are now openly speculating on the real possibility that the Senate could be lost to the Conservative Republican revolution as well.

McCain just cannot be trusted. He’s proven too many times that he’s willing to throw party and principles away. From the Gang of Fourteen to his willingness to sell us out on immigration… proof that he cannot be trusted is out there in abundance.

If you live in Arizona, please get to the polls and vote today. Gather your friends and family and get them to the polls.

Semper Vigilans, Semper Fidelis

© Skip MacLure 2010

The chatter among the bad guys, Syria, Hizballah in Lebanon, Hamas and the Palestinians and the Islamic Jihad, is all about the high state of preparedness for war.

Maj. Gen. Yoav Galant and Ehud Barak

Israel moved quickly to solve command issues, with Ehud Barak’s nomination of OC Southern Command Major General Yoav Galant to serve as the country’s Chief of Staff in February, when Lt.General Gaby Ashkenazi steps down. A wise and timely move by the Israeli government.

Iran has its surrogates threatening war, as it continues its insane race for more and more weapons and its relentless pursuit of nuclear arms. Iran may be goading its puppets into attacking Israel to bleed the Israelis as much as they can, before Israel launches an assault aimed at crippling Iran’s nuclear weapons program.

When you stop and consider that Hizballah has some forty thousand rockets and missiles hidden just over the border and the length of time they’ve had to fortify strong points inside Lebanon, it makes the prospect of combat there worth serious consideration.

I don’t know how brave the Syrians are. They talk up a great game but they don’t seem particularly eager to go mano a mano with the Israelis. As I recall, the last time the two armies met, the Syrians got fed their lunch. What is more worrisome are the missile batteries that she has concentrated in the border area.

Hamas and the West Bank… there won’t be much change here… Israel will still have to go in and dig them out, only this time the Palestinians will bring out all their toys.
It’s a monumental undertaking that Israel has known was coming for years.

Semper Vigilans, Semper Fidelis

© Skip MacLure 2010

Barney Frank lauded, flacked and defended the two institutions many people feel were major factors in the collapse of the mortgage market and, through them, the housing and construction industries.

Barney Frank

Fannie and Freddie, the two government entities which had been producing most of the high-risk paper, bundling it and selling it to other mortgage banks. Eventually, the market turned toxic with bad mortgages and the actual and threatened failures of many of the banking institutions that had gambled on these billions of dollars of worthless bundled mortgages.

Even in the face of the obvious disaster that befell us in 2008, just in time to panic an already nervous public into thinking the sky was falling, Barney Frank was steadfast in his defense of the two low-income mortgage giants.

I was listening to Larry Kudlow’s radio audience filet him for appearing to praise Barney Frank for his abrupt turn around about Fannie and Freddie saying, “they should be abolished”. Larry seems to think that Barney had an epiphany regarding Fannie and Freddie and the entire low-income loan business, among other revelations. He thinks Frank is a serious politician and, as he puts it, “a thinker”. Ok, Larry, if you say so, but I’m equally certain that whatever comes of all that furious thinking does not, in general, bode well for the American people.

I’m wondering if Mr Frank may be looking for political cover in the impending storm coming up in November. In fairness to Larry Kudlow, he disagrees with just about everything Frank says. I’ve made no secret of my dislike for Barney Frank and what he helped perpetrate. For him to ride out the back end of this, as the redeemed advocate for free market solutions, would be disingenuous at best.
He hasn’t changed his spots Larry… just his tune.

Semper Vigilans, Semper Fidelis

© Skip MacLure 2010

The week started with the Drudge Report headline “Mosque Mess Monday”. It was to get more messy as the week progressed, especially for the fragmenting Democrats.

The previous Friday, Barack Obama had openly declared, at the White House iftar, that it was a constitutional right to be able to build a mosque. Naturally, this greatly pleased the mostly Muslim dinner guests. When challenged on his statement the following day, during a family visit to Florida, Obama explained that he had not been commenting on the wisdom of the decision to place a mosque there. Wisdom was far from the minds of the perpetrators of this odious scheme. It’s a shame that Obama did not use some of the vitriol that he has in abundance for those that seek to serve and support the American people and way of life.

Make no mistake, the choice of the former Burlington building is no sheer coincidence. The name ‘Cordoba’ itself should ring alarm bells. Why would they purposely choose a site that will cost $100 million to develop, which, by all accounts, is money they do not yet have?

Harry Reid

On Monday, Harry Reid stated his belief that the mosque should be built elsewhere. I never thought I’d say it, but well said, Harry. It wouldn’t have anything to do with your slipping election prospects, by any chance?

On Tuesday, it was announced that New York State Governor David Paterson planned to meet with the project developers with the intention of offering them alternative state-owned land for the building. This was rapidly followed by a statement from lead developer Sharif El-Gamal, who insisted that the subject was not up for debate. More proof, as if any was needed, of their determination to build in this particular part of Manhattan.

Nancy Pelosi

The most ridiculous item of the week came on Wednesday, with Nancy Pelosi’s call for an investigation into who is funding the mosque opposition. Funding? It doesn’t take funding to voice your opinion on plans which are an affront to the memory of the victims, the grief of the surviving families and the sacrifices of the rescue services on, and after, 9-11. I get the distinct feeling that, as this affair rolls on, some unpleasant realities will come to light. Every Trojan horse eventually reveals its contents.

The end of the week saw some more bad news on the economy. New claims for unemployment benefits rose to 500,000, the highest since November 2009. The number of people on emergency benefits also increased by 260,105 to 4.75 million. Sounds like more change for the worse, and very little hope.

Finally, on the subject of statistics, a Time/CNN poll revealed that 24% of Americans believe that Barack Obama is Muslim. Surprisingly, given the political leanings of the pollsters, it was found that 75% of those surveyed hold a favorable impression of the Jewish faith, just above Catholicism and Protestantism. The Muslim cult came last at 44%. With Obama’s current Presidential approval index at minus eighteen points, could it be time for a change of faith?

(Editor Dee is in for Skip today)

It looks like Arizona has a lot of serious company out there just now. No fewer than twenty two states are in the process of drafting, or seeking to pass, legislation such as was passed by Arizona. Others are looking at the Arizona law with renewed interest.

Representative Debbie Riddle of Texas aims to pass a new immigration law in January.

The cash strapped municipalities, counties and states can ill afford the lavish largesse, once routinely offered to illegals by liberal governments. The gravy train is petering out for one reason… there is no money. Federal programs and make-work grants are fizzling out.

The stimulus simply didn’t work. That money is running out. The sectors favored most by the infusion of these federal dollars are of course the people to whom Obama and his DeMarxist Congress were most beholden… the public sector unions, the SEIU, the teachers’ unions. So far, they’ve largely avoided the brutal layoff / no job nightmare the rest of us have been living with, only because of repeated bail outs.

It will be increasingly difficult to keep these jobs off the chopping block as further bailouts seem unlikely, given the proximity of the elections and the mood in the country about any further deficit spending. Once the public sector starts to feel the bite, more dissatisfaction will be directed towards Obama and his government.

These twenty two states are legislating in the face of the government’s lawsuit which challenges the legality of Arizona’s ‘tough’ illegal immigration law, which is nothing more than federal law enforced. I think more states will start looking really hard at enacting similar laws, as they have to face how much catering to illegals is really costing them.

Encourage your lawmakers to consider Arizona-style legislation. If we dry up the goodies we won’t have to deport them, because they’ll go back where they came from if there’s no work or welfare to attract and hold them.

Semper Vigilans, Semper Fidelis

© Skip MacLure 2010