In these last days of the Bush presidency it is no surprise President Bush is going all out to kill as many known, high valued terrorists as he can before the pacifist Dems take control. The good news is the efforts are paying off as the US is now launching regular attacks on terrorist hideouts in the tribal areas of Pakistan. The attacks have been primarily in the Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA), where the remaining large sanctuaries are located for al-Qaeda and their radical Taliban allies.

A recent attack nailed a top level, infamous al-Qaeda terrorists who changed the face of air travel across the world in a close, but failed attack on commercial flights in 2006:

A British militant who was a liaison to Al Qaeda and was a main suspect in the plot to blow up trans-Atlantic airliners in 2006 was killed Saturday in a missile strike by an American aircraft in northern Pakistan, senior Pakistani and American officials said.

The militant, Rashid Rauf, was among the five people killed in the attack by a remotely piloted aircraft in North Waziristan, close to the Afghan border, the officials said. He is perhaps the best-known of the figures killed in an American airstrike campaign there that has intensified since August and has caused increased strains between the United States and Pakistan.

In August 2006, Mr. Rauf, a Briton of Pakistani descent, was detained in Pakistan, leading to the arrest of 25 suspects in Britain in connection with what prosecutors said was a plot to destroy seven airliners headed for the United States and Canada. This September, a British jury convicted three of eight defendants of conspiracy to commit murder, failing to reach verdicts on the more serious charge of using beverage bottles filled with liquid explosives to blow up the aircraft.

I was traveling the day this happened, August 10th 2006. It was a nightmare for a while as security at airports across the world changed overnight. In fact I have an entire category of posts dedicated to this one attack. In the annals of history, this will always be a historic event because of how it changed the world, even though the attack itself was thwarted.

It was an attack that would have made 9-11 look pale in comparison. The idea was to have a thousands of bodies dropping from the skies across American cities. It is a testament to President Bush and his administration that this attack was foiled and it was amazing to see how security changed over night to protect the flying public.

Sadly, this was also the year the GOP got drubbed by the voters because of their inability keep the conservative governing coalition together. The far right was unreasonably harsh on George Bush from that time onward, giving the Dems the opening they needed to win Congress and then, this year the Presidency (which apparently Obama won because the self absorbed ‘true conservatives’ sat home and did not vote). It is a testament to the ‘true conservatives’ that on the heels of this amazing event, President Bush and the GOP were rewarded with falling public support from their supposed ‘base’.

Well, while some folks fiddle in the face of terrorism, Bush has been waging a war for the history books. It is good to see justice being brought against the man who forced airlines to change their rules overnight as a result of his almost successful attack on the West. It is also good to see Bush pushing to the bitter end, as he promised he would do. Since 9-11 al-Qaeda has gone from being the future of Islam to being the enemy of Islam to many (if not most) Muslims in the Middle East and inside Pakistan and Afghanistan. That too is an amazing turn of events it seems we will need to wait on history to recognize, since we as a people are absorbed with other, lesser issues at the moment.

The Obama, marketed as the man who would ‘change’ politics, America and the world has stumbled out of the starting blocks. His selection of cabinet members has most people wondering if there are enough Clinton-era political retreads left around to fill all the Obama administration slots. “Change” just doesn’t seem to be coming through with all the cabinet selections we have seen.

And public optimism is also not shining through either. As I said a few weeks ago, the barometer to watch is the right/wrong track numbers. And they haven’t budged since the election:

 Track/Wrong Track

Gallup Poll. Nov. 13-16, 2008. N=1,009 adults nationwide. MoE ± 3.      <Graphic>
.
“In general, are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the way things are going in the United States at this time?”
.
		Satisfied	Dissatisfied	Unsure
		%	%	%
	11/13-16/08	11	87	2
	11/7-9/08	13	84	3
	10/31 - 11/2/08	13	85	2
	10/10-12/08	7	91	1
	10/3-5/08	9	90	1

Basically these numbers have not budged much given the 3% MoE since the financial collapse in September. Roughly 90% of the nation thinks we are still on the wrong track, even though there a major political shift towards the left has just been completed (starting 2 years ago with the GOP loss of control of Congress). What strikes me is how the number moved only slightly positive on the news of Obama’s election and the Democrat gains in Congress. But now it is drifting back downwards towards extreme pessimism. Maybe it is starting to sink that Obama has no magic powers, is really just the latest media-wrapped politician, that the same old players are playing the same old games in DC? Maybe America is realizing The Messiah has no magical robes?

The news for Congress is not much better, and why should it be? There was no ‘change’ in Congress and it was foolish liberal policies which brought down our economy, crushed by a sea of bad loans to people who were not capable of owning a home. A sea of bad loans a lot of rich democrats made their personal fortunes on. So I am not surprised Congressional approval numbers mirror the national mood:

The question will be whether Obama has sufficient ’star power’ to pull these numbers around, or whether the sour financial conditions and mood of the country will be the superior force and drag down Obama and the Dems.

Being a conservative means I should enjoy watching the Economic Black Hole suck the hope out of the Democrats who are poorly armed, policy-wise, to deal with the current crisis. They cannot afford to raise taxes on the rich (a.k.a., small business) which will really deflate their support. They will need to cut programs because of the cash crunch all levels of government are experiencing, which will anger their advocates. They will be bailing out Fat Cats right and left as the average Americans struggle to survive, and all those promises of pending Nirvana here on Earth will be exposed as the blatant lies they were. The liberal policies of taxing energy in accordance with Green Mythology will hurt those at the lower end of the economic scale the most, but the pain will be felt well up into the top of the middle class. 

It is the Economic Black Hole which will probably drain Obama’s star power and move him closer to the bleak numbers we see for the nation’s direction and approval for Congress.

But I am an American first, so I would really prefer the nation’s economic situation right itself, even if that means Obama and the Dems get credit for it. I am just not sure how it will happen. Especially with retreads Obama is surrounding himself with (Biden should have been a big clue as to who Obama would select to lead the nation). And given the highly negative responses to Obama’s selections on the left I would say he is losing his base, just as Bush lost the far right. If he does lose the intense far left, the infighting will be harsh and fierce, which means Obama’s numbers could tank before next summer, maybe during the middle of spring. Remember, he and Congress cannot really do anything for this year, and have limited windows for impacting 2009 until October.

There is no magic wand out there, and the financial crisis is proving to be stubbornly bad. What I would prefer is meaningless. The Dems don’t have the weapons to fight this beast, and maybe it is better they are consumed by the very beast their policies created. It is a harsh lesson we could have avoided if people understood what they were being sold by slick pols. But history is replete with ironies. The dems created this financial mess, and they were handed the reigns of power just in time to feel the full brunt of their missteps  They will reap the reward as they get the blame or praise for what comes in the next two years.

Sorry for the light posting folks, we had a new project start up on November 3rd on my ‘day job’ and the start up phase has been kicking my butt. Anyway, the holidays always slow things down on government projects so I will hopefully have a few more windows of opportunity here in the coming days.

In what has to be history’s most ironic and disconcerting example of “watch what you ask for, you just might get it” the Democrats have been handed the reigns of power at a time when the nation’s challenges are of a nature most likely to become worse under Democrat policies than better. It is an odd perfect storm that swept out the infighting conservatives and gave power to a party whose policies can produce in times of bountiful peace and economic growth. In times of national security challenges and a weak economy liberal policies are impotent at best, self destructive on average.

The largest threat facing this country since 9-11, hell since the Soviets and the Nazis, is a nuclear armed Iran run by martyrdom-mad Mullahs. And that threat is now more than ever a reality:

According to an article published Thursday in the New York Times, “Iran has now produced roughly enough nuclear material to make, with added purification, a single atom bomb, according to nuclear experts.”

…

“The figures detailing Iran’s progress were contained in a routine update on Wednesday from the International Atomic Energy Agency, which has been conducting inspections of the country’s main nuclear plant at Natanz. The report concluded that as of early this month, Iran had made 630 kilograms, or about 1,390 pounds, of low-enriched uranium.”

…

One must not forget that the enriched uranium is low grade. For now, it can be used for nuclear power plants. However, it can be further refined into higher grade uranium. To do that, enrichment facilities at Natanz would have to go through major visible reconfigurations. For example, all the piping infrastructure will have to be redone. This would make it very difficult for Iran to hide from the IAEA inspectors.

Unless, that is, there are secret facilities where the low enriched uranium is purified, away from the eyes and knowledge of the IAEA. And this is very possible.

What really irritates me about the reporting on this issue is the 6th grade level of thinking that goes into the reports. The concepts sound like something out of 1970’s network TV scripts. Let’s assume Iran is working to build a bomb. Would they be doing it in the facilities the IAEA are monitoring or would they be doing it someplace else. And if they could siphon off, say, half the low grade uranium without the IAEA detecting it they could then move this material someplace else. Maybe even to another allied country like Syria:

A senior Syrian official on Friday all but ruled out new visits by U.N inspectors probing allegations that his country had a covert program that could be used to make nuclear weapons.

…

The IAEA has said it suspects three other sites may have been nuclear-related and linked to the bombed location.

Othman described the three sites as (non-nuclear) “military bases” that could not be visited by outsiders, although higher Syrian authorities could decide otherwise.

An IAEA report this week heightened concerns about Al Kibar, saying that satellite imagery and other evidence showed it had the characteristics of a nuclear reactor. It also said that soil samples taken from the bombed site had a “significant number” of chemically processed natural uranium particles.

The fact is a UN inspections only work when the country wants to demonstrate compliance. They can easily be duped as Saddam Hussein did many times over many years. The UN allows itself to be a hazy cover for rogue nations intent on gaming the inspection system. The UNWMD inspection results should NEVER be given much credence when dealing with hostile nations, just like hostile witnesses cannot be given the benefit of objectiveness or honesty. 

So to assume Iran is honestly trying to comply with international restrictions on nuclear weapons is a dangerously foolish prospect. With these rose colored glasses on one could find excuses to not investigate all sorts of sophisticated efforts to hide a nuclear weapons program from prying eyes. In fact, we know Iran has been running the weaponization side of a program to build nuclear weapons. That was reported in the infamous NIE on the Iranian nuclear weapons program (see here, here and here). Even Democrats had serious reservations on the Pollyannish NIE that was produced as a media event:

Iran expert Ray Takeyh, a former professor at the National War College and National Defense University, said that although his own politics are left of the president’s, he agrees with Bush that Iran’s nuclear program is a continuing threat.

“The position I take is that President Bush is right on this,” said Takeyh, now at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Takeyh, who has long argued for engaging Iran in diplomacy, said the intelligence report was too easy on Tehran by not objecting to the uranium enrichment program, which many Western governments have alleged is meant to build the knowledge base to eventually develop nuclear weapons. The American intelligence agencies, in effect, accepted Iran’s contention that the enrichment is for peaceful purposes, Takeyh said.

…

Sharon Squassoni, a former government nuclear safeguards expert now with the generally liberal Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, noted that the intelligence report said Iran suspended its enrichment program in 2003 and later signed an agreement allowing U.N. inspections.

But, she said, the portion of the report made public was silent on the fact that the Iranians reversed both actions in 2006.

…

Gary Samore, who was a top arms control official in the Clinton White House, agreed that the National Intelligence Estimate did not adequately emphasize Iran’s continuing efforts to enrich uranium and build missiles.

“The halting of the weaponization program in 2003 is less important from a proliferation standpoint than resumption of the enrichment program in 2006,” said Samore, director of studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Samore said the report undermined Bush’s warnings about Iranian efforts to develop nuclear weapons and left Tehran in a strong position, allowing it to develop its enrichment capacity without a substantial challenge from the United States and its allies. The secret weaponization program is “on ice,” he said, but Iran preserves the option to resume that when it wishes.

What really bothers me on this is the short attention span and the inability or unwillingness to see the big picture here. One of the comments is the enriched uranium is useless without a functional nuclear weapon design and missiles. We know the Iranians have the missiles. And we know, sadly, the Clinton administration provided Iran with the most complicate element of a nuclear weapon - the trigger systems:

Last night, radio talk show host and former US Justice Department official Mark Levin shocked many listeners when he reported that President Bill Clinton gave nuclear technology to the Iranians in a harebrained scheme.

He said that the transfer of classified data to Iran was personally approved by then-President Clinton and that the CIA deliberately gave Iranian physicists blueprints for part of a nuclear bomb that likely helped Tehran advance its nuclear weapons development program.

The CIA, using a double-agent Russian scientist, handed a blueprint for a nuclear bomb to Iran, according to a new book “State of War” by James Risen, the New York Times reporter, who exposed the Bush administration’s controversial NSA spying operation, claims the plans contained fatal flaws designed to derail Tehran’s nuclear drive.

With all these pieces together, with a mindset that Iran is trying to hide their activities verses demonstrate sincere peaceful intentions (a.k.a. healthy skepticism) we can see the nation faces a real threat. They have the trigger design, they have the uranium, they have the missiles, and the NIE confirmed the weapon design plan, which they claimed was ’suspended’ in 2003, but others claim was restarted in 2006 (when the Dems won Congress, not surprisingly).

The test will be how the democrats play this to the nation. If they keep presenting scenarios that are more like afternoon-TV script than serious threat assessments we will know they are trying to deny or hide the threat. The Iranians will be watching for this too, and when we all see it that will be the green light for the Iranians to take the final steps. Will the Dems wait until there is a smoking hole where a major Israeli city once was, or a US base in Iraq?

If they present serious concerns in an effort to garner public support here and across the world for severe sanctions, then they will be doing what they can to stop the Iranian threat short of military action. Sadly I think we will not see this serious debate from the Democrats.

What kind of President will Obama be? We only have vague and conflicting impressions because his statements to date appear to be incoherent (at best) on a range of subjects. For example, he wants to eradicate al-Qaeda but run from Iraq. If we left Iraq and focused on the tribal regions of Pakistan, where does Obama think al-Qaeda might go for sanctuary? We really can’t afford to be playing whack-a-mole with terrorists.

The other incoherent thing he has been babbling on about is Global Warming, making apocalyptic claims that defy all reality:

The ’science is beyond dispute, and the facts are clear’. Yes the science is clear. We are in a serious global cooling phase which even scientist associated with the alarmist UN’s IPCC predict will last a decade or more. Yes, the data over the last decade have proven ALL of the IPCC climate models and predictions wrong. Science demands accuracy in its theories. When they are wrong there is no salvaging them or twisting them, they get thrown out. Science is showing there is no CO2 based, man-made CO2 and that is hard data.

But the sea levels are rising (on TV, not in the real world) storms are getting stronger (but they aren’t since the last two hurricane seasons are at a decades low intensity) and there is increased famine.

Well …. science shows that warmer global temperatures reduce famine as more crops can be grown for longer periods over greater ranges of latitude. In fact, models show global warming should reverse the worst area of famine on the globe, south of the Sahara Desert in Africa:

Global warming could significantly increase rainfall in Saharan Africa within a few decades, potentially ending the severe droughts that have devastated the region, a new study suggests.

The discovery was made by climate experts at the Royal Meteorological Institute in De Bilt, the Netherlands, who used a computer model to predict changes in the Sahel region - a wide belt stretching from the Atlantic to the horn of Africa that includes Ethiopia, Somalia and Djibouti.

Global warming will heat the land more than the sea, leading to changes in air pressure and weather. When the Netherlands team simulated this effect and combined it with warming caused by the expected rises in greenhouse gas emissions between 1980 and 2080, they found Sahel rainfall in the July to September period jumped 1-2mm a day.

Some scientists suspected that global warming might increase rainfall in the region, causing the so-called greening of the Sahara, but these are the biggest predicted increases so far.

So what is the pattern we are starting to see here for President-elect Obama? Well, it seems to mirror the Clinton model. The man who promised change is filling his cabinet with liberal democrat retreads. He is a Kool-Aid swilling liberal who wants to push the country left.  He is not being bold, he is seeing what can be poll tested successfully. He is the man of fad. Whatever is popular he is for, whatever is not he claims no position.

With the country still a post 9-11 country when it comes to al-Qaeda it is no surprise Obama claims he will eradicate al-Qaeda, especially in the face of threats by its number 2 leader Ayman al-Zawahiri:

A statement purporting to be from the second-in-command of Islamic militant network al-Qaeda has called on Muslims to harm “criminal” America.

In the message, Ayman al-Zawahiri is heard accusing President-elect Barack Obama of betraying his Muslim roots.

He also likens him to a “house slave” - who had chosen to align himself with the “enemies” of Islam.

Mr Obama has said stamping out al-Qaeda “once and for all” will be a top priority during his administration.

On Sunday, he said capturing or killing Osama Bin Laden was “critical” to US security.

Obama talks big, but his endless efforts to surrender Iraq to al-Qaeda showed he was not really serious about destroying al-Qaeda. A few years back he tested the political winds and saw Iraq was unpopular so he went incoherent on national security in order to maximize his personal adoration. He cried for the end of a hopeless war. Then things turned around and now the nation sees Iraq as a victory. What will Obama do? Will he break the hearts of his liberal base and go against public opinion?

Obama doesn’t see the trap he is setting up for himself because he is sure he is doing all this brilliantly and no one can trip him up. He has very little room for error as the economy continues to tank. Way too many of his voters bought into the fad idea that Obama was going to bring on Nirvana, that he was the Chosen One.

Clinton was egotistical and naive too when he started his first term. When he went into office he was going to show off that dazzling intellect everyone was drooling about (this year it is tingly legs). After the disaster in Somalia, his political near-death experience of the WTC I bombing (hiding the fact this was an act of war on American under the mirage of a criminal investigation and trial) and Hillary’s Health Care blunder Clinton finally learned the limits of Presidential power and why you need a cadre of leaders around you who know the hidden land mines of each area of government.

Obama cannot afford to lose his messianic image. The wrath of the naive voter who doesn’t get what was promised is swift and brutal - just look at Bush and the far right when they did not get all of what they wanted.  Obama has to face land mines overseas in Iraq, Iran and elsewhere (see here for a good overview of the real al-Qaeda and Islamo Fascist threat). The threat of terrorism is real and they are gunning for the new President.

I think the best indication of how dumb Obama could be is how he is blissfully unaware of what will happen if he imposes liberal policies on top of an ailing economy. He is a Kool-Aid guzzling liberal. His sheltered life and lack of real world experience has not given him the experience to understand the real world, he sees things through a lens not unlike the mentality seen on network TV shows.

For example, our economy is in shambles and the Messiah wants to make the mythical rising waters recede and cool an already cooling planet:

“At its core, it’s very simple - we need a price on carbon,” said David Crane, chief executive officer of NRG Energy, another Climate Action Partnership member. “We own coal-fired power plants. That’s what we do for a living. We’ve been developing low- or no-carbon technologies as we look to the future. … But again, we need a price on carbon, because it’s not cheap.”

Obama’s four-minute, videotaped speech largely repeated elements of his energy plan from the campaign trail, saying the nation must cut greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent below 1990 levels by the year 2050.

It is almost laughable. CO2 levels have been on the rise for 10 years, and the planet has been cooling over that same decade. The last time we had a record warm year was 1998 - when Bill Clinton was in office fighting impeachment! The current year is more reminiscent of 1995, right before the Clinton-Dole election year and when the GOP took over Congress.

Look, the only bright light in our economy is energy. Consumer prices fell in October (one month) by an amount not seen in 60 years:

The Consumer Price Index plunged 1.0 percent in October, its biggest drop since the Labor Department began monthly records in 1947. Core prices, excluding food and energy items, fell 0.1 percent — the first fall in more than a quarter of a century as prices for gasoline and all energy-related products fell.

It was all due to the lowered cost of energy. But Obama plans to go ahead and start taxing energy so that we will price ourselves out of certain energy solutions, which just happen to be incredibly popular at the moment. What is middle class American supposed to do with their oil heating system - convert it to nuclear power? 

Even if things went well on the economy it would be well into next year before we cleared the trouble. But things are not going well, and more and more people are going to get financially squeezed or ruined without any price increases on energy. Obama correctly sees “Green” as the next big media driven fad. But fads are just that, fads. As we see our tax dollars going to lousy businesses, executive and union jobs which pay too much in salary and benefits, to financial institutions that got rich off bad loans, people are going to start to get angrier and angrier.

And just wait until they see more taxes on energy, no drop in CO2 (because our portion of the global CO2 pool is miniscule) and global cooling continuing despite the CO2 levels not shrinking. And when crops cannot be grown at today’s levels due to the cooling there will be real outrage at the cost of food, food shortages and famine.  Obama (and too many other conservatives and moderates) have bought into the global warming myths (even 10 years after it stopped warming). Their pride and ego will not let them admit they were wrong, so we all get to pay for their crazy ideas on the latest fad and bring more pain to the average American and the poorest among us.

Obama’s pattern is becoming clear: he looks for popular positions and tries to push liberal policies through these fads. Some fads allow him to be openly liberal (Climate Change) and others he has to hide his liberal views under a smoke screen (Iraq victory). But Obama is Clinton 2.0. And that is going to really damage the democrats, because fool me once shame on you, fool me twice - shame on me. Fads are no way to govern. 

This is amazing progress from adult stem cell research, accomplishing what innumerable destroyed human-  lives just starting out in the embryonic phase of life - have yet to even come close to accomplishing:

A 30-year-old Spanish woman has made medical history by becoming the first patient to receive a whole organ transplant grown using her own cells.

 

Experts said the development opened a new era in surgery in which the repair of worn-out body parts would be carried out with personally customised replacements.

…

Doctors overcame the problem of rejection by taking her own stem cells to grow the replacement organ, using a donor trachea (lower windpipe) to provide the mechanical framework. Blood tests have shown no sign of rejection months after the surgery was complete.

More here:

Researchers and surgeons from Britain, Italy and Spain collaborated to grow tissue from Ms Castillo’s own bone marrow stem cells, using them to fashion the new bronchus – a branch of the windpipe. They believe that one day the approach will be used to create engineered replacements for other damaged organs, such as the bowel or bladder. In five years they hope to begin clinical trials in which laboratory-made voice boxes are implanted into patients with cancer of the larynx.

Genetically tuned replacement organs grown from your own adult stem cells, not harvested from young humans grown in factories like something out of The Matrix. Once again science has provided a ethical path to curing ailments and diseases that doesn’t rely on human sacrifice to obtain replacement parts.

The idea US taxpayers, struggling to stay afloat in a damaged economy, should bail out companies and state governments is a joke. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were disastrous experiments in liberal social policies. As usual those with connections siphoned off 100’s of millions of dollars from mortgage payments for themselves, and then lined the pockets of the liberal politicians who created this golden goose egg, all in the name of trying to give people who cannot handle it the responsibility of owning a home.

Now the big three automakers - which are hamstrung by large union wages and benefit packages, excessive regulation and insane executive pay packages - are begging for help. Well the help should not come from the taxpayer, is is also teetering. Then came the states who have their own tax revenues crying that they cannot control themselves (or their spending) and the taxpayers need to bale them out as well. BS! If you want more income at the state and local levels raise your taxes and take the political heat.

Where is this heading? Well I am waiting for the liberal news media, which has tarnished its brand to the point of bankrupting its one asset (objectivity), to come to the federal trough. The news industry is being rejected for the biased, simple minded, unthoughtful products they produce. Tingly legs are not news. It is so bad the New York Times cancelled Christmas!

Only a few are smart enough to lay blame where it belongs, on the news managers who turned once respectful sources of objective information into political propaganda sites. One of those who gets it is Rupert Murdoch:

“My summary of the way some of the established media has responded to the internet is this: it’s not newspapers that might become obsolete. It’s some of the editors, reporters, and proprietors who are forgetting a newspaper’s most precious asset: the bond with its readers,” said Murdoch, the chairman and chief executive officer of News Corp. 

The news media’s key asset is its reputation. To garner large leadership the media needs to be objective and balanced and fairly represent all views on matters. It is why Fox News is ascending and the old dinosaurs of the liberal news media sites is dying off. Fox is considered ‘right wing’ because it gives equal time and weight to conservative views. With this still a 50-50 country it is insanity to play to only a small group like liberals, who make up only about 20% of the population. But that is what the NY Times and MSNBC News Channel have done.

OK - but folks do know Darwin was right - right? Anyway, I am waiting for these failing news outlets to come begging for a bail out, after all their attempts to make money of their candidate’s election to the Presidency fail. After all, its only the government’s money - not anyone else’s.

Rover Spirit Climbing Columbia Hills

Last night I watched 5 Year On Mars, the National Geographic documentary of the two martian rovers (Spirit and Opportunity) built by NASA JPL, which have well exceeded their design parameters of 90 days of operation. After nearly 5 years of major successes and numerous near death experiences, these robots (guided by human operators by remote command loads) have really changed humanity’s understanding of Mars and the Universe. I strongly recommend it for the family. What I like about the program is how it portrays the workers at NASA, the engineering miracle workers that are providing mankind this amazing insight into our sister planet - which is half the size of Earth (see image below).

If folks have any questions leave them in the comment field and I will attempt to answer them as best I can. LJStrata has suggested I start posting more on other subjects than just politics and do more science related posts on stem cells and global warming. I was thinking I could do a series on NASA’s Constellation Program. Since there is nothing happening for the next few months seems like a nice diversion. Until then, grab your family and sit down and watch a tiny fraction of your tax dollars doing amazing things.

Rover Opportunity Investigating Rock Formations Inside A Crater

While we have attained much of a victory in Iraq, the focus now should be on protecting the victory and honoring the sacrifices made in attaining it. To do this the US and Iraqi governments need to plan out a transition phase to carefully reduce US forces towards the goal of having all US fighting forces out of Iraq under conditions which will maximize the potential future of our new Muslim-Arab allies in Iraq. Thankfully, President Bush (and to some extent in response to Obama’s election as the next POTUS) has accomplished one final victory in Iraq - the establishment of a long term agreement for a US presence in Iraq that will provide the environment to achieve withdrawal of US Forces from Iraq:

 

The Iraqi cabinet has approved a security pact with the US governing the future presence of 150,000 US troops in the country, officials have said.

Under the deal, US troops will withdraw from the streets of Iraqi towns next year, leaving Iraq by the end of 2011.

The decision will need to go before Iraq’s parliament for a final vote.

The two countries have been negotiating a bilateral deal over the future of US military forces in Iraq after their UN mandate expires on 31 December 2008.

 

The Iraqi Parliament, like all democratically elected bodies, will provide their inputs and wishes onto the agreement, but it should pass and provide America the necessary time to ensure Iraq remains a viable and stabilizing democracy in the volatile Middle East.

My guess is the Democrats are going to be so focused on domestic economic terms they will probably shy away from any dramatic moves in Iraq that go against the wishes of the Iraqis and would jeopardize the hard fought victory we have today. Of course, predicting liberal democrats will act with forethought and reason can be a risky endeavor, but the US economy will be such a drag on the Democrats’ support coming into the next round of federal elections in 2010 I am fairly certain they will realize taking on too much while the economy flounders will not be in their own best interest.

There is old rot in the GOP and conservative movement. It is the same old rot that took GOP Congressional majorities and a GOP White House in 2004 and was able to completely destroy the GOP and conservative brand in a mere 4 years, handing over Congress and the Dems to liberal democrats (on the wins of conservative democrats in most congressional races). 

I used to wonder at the Democrats and their love of Bill Clinton, who accomplished the same transfer of power under his administration. The difference between Bush and Clinton is, of course, the fact Clinton and the dems overstepped and allowed a GOP sweep of Congress. Which the GOP frittered away over the years.

Now the old rot of ‘true’ conservatives wants to hold onto their death grip on the GOP and conservative movement. But to do so they need to attack one of the biggest breathes of fresh air the GOP has seen since Ronald Reagan - Governor Sarah Palin:

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) is batting down the hype that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin heads into 2012 as the frontrunner for the GOP presidential nomination.

Palin energized the Republican base after GOP presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) tapped her as his running mate and she has tried to preserve her high public profile since Election Day.

…

“I think that she is going to be a significant player,” said Gingrich during an interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation”. “But she’s going to be one of 20 or 30 significant players. She’s not going to be the de facto leader.”

This is the kind of garbage that sinks the GOP. Palin energized the broader conservative coalition, not just ‘the base’. And Palin was wrongfully made out to be some kind of religious nut who pushes ‘values’ on others through government. She is not and does not. Palin is the kind of leader who can build a broad coalition, and Gingrich is pontificating from his past laurels. 

There is only one real leader out there that can raise crowds and appeal across the conservative enclaves, pulling in moderate and conservative democrats, independents and others. Sarah Palin is what the GOP needs, and those who oppose her AND come from the failed wing of the GOP should just sit back and let the people decide who will challenge the democrats.

And I don’t think we will be looking to DC for new leaders. I think we have plenty of talent out in the country and in the governorships to find people to bring fresh blood to DC. In 4 years, when America is fed up with liberal policies, the GOP can’t offer them stale options and ideas. It’s time for the GOP to be the party of The American Family.

There are legitimate times when nations need to suck their resources and production capacity dry in an effort to save humanity. The last time was World War II. Since then there have been times when nations need to buckle down and make investments in national security or emergency response to natural disasters. But these times of economic challenge will pale in comparison to what the liberals are planning to address the myth of man-made, CO2 driven global warming.

This myth of man-made, CO2 driven global warming is this year being proven to be the lie many said it was. This is the year were the past 4-6 years of near steady, slowly dropping global temperatures takes a major downturn - in complete violation of all the predictions made by human-made mathematical models which predicted runaway global warming and are the basis from which liberals claim we need to enter into global recession.

First some evidence that this year is probably the beginning of the decade’s long cooling the science data now indicates is possible. And with this cooling we have the evidence needed to finally prove, beyond any doubt, the false cries of doom coming from the Church of IPCC/Al Gore. 

So we begin with the fact that as CO2 levels continue to rise, Alaska is experiencing its coldest fall in a century:

One of the coldest Octobers on record in the Interior has the Yukon River grinding to a halt and residents settling in for winter.

October 2008 went down as Fairbanks’ fourth-coldest October on record since 1904, according to meteorologist Rick Thoman with the National Weather Service in Fairbanks. The average temperature of 15.1 degrees was 8.4 degrees below normal.

…

There were 13 days when the low temperature was zero or colder, the most sub-zero days in October since 1965, which holds the record of 14 sub-zero days in October and ranks as the second-coldest October on record.

This was not a spike of cold over a few days but a long term cold soak which would have broken more records if a brief warm spike had not blown in. Remember that humanity’s activities are supposedly overwhelming the natural forces of the planet if one is to believe Al Gore and his fellow travelers. These 2008 records challenging levels going back to 1904 and 1965 prove that CO2 levels cannot be the driver of global temperatures claimed by the alarmists on the left and inside the UN. CO2 levels are very high compared to 1904, let alone 1965, and so is the world’s human population.

For example, in 1900 the world population was 1.65 billion people, in 1965 it was 3.33 billion and in 2005 it was 6.45 billion. In percentages of today’s population that makes 1900 25% and 1965 52% of today’s population levels. It is mathematically impossible for a force of man that changed the global climate to be completely neutralized in a single year to levels equal to times when the world hosted half or a quarter of the population, and even smaller fractions of CO2 output. If the IPCC calculations where required to safely launch and return a Space Shuttle and showed these errors they IPCC would be fired for all eternity from working on human space flight.

Sadly, this bad data is coming from inside NASA, from a marginal offshoot group called GISS in New York (not to be confused with GSFC in MD where I hang out). Just this month outside bloggers had to correct the GISS data again, as it claimed there was historic warming in Russia, which turned out to really be stale September data left in the October calculations.

More and more scientist see a risk of too much cooling, something today’s higher CO2 levels could offset. And what we really don’t want is cooling, because it has been historically warmer than today, and during those times mankind flourished:

Global climate has always changed and recent climate changes are not unusual. The world was warmer in the mediaeval warm period, in the Roman warm period and on many occasions before then. During these periods agriculture and civilisations flourished. During cold periods like the little ice age there was famine, plague and war.

Both surface temperature records and the much more accurate records from satellite observations show there was a brief warming period from 1975-98. Since then, the world has cooled and is now at the same temperature it was in 1995. Nobody knows when, or if, world temperatures might increase.

Since the research for the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report was completed in mid 2006, researchers have discovered that warming since 1975 is not caused by greenhouse gases. Greenhouse gas warming would be at a maximum 10,000m above the tropics.

Observations from balloons and satellites have shown that warming is not happening. Therefore greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide are not a major factor in the world climate.

Like I said, today’s data completely disproves the models of those who have been crying fire. For a complete listing of the erroneous claims from Al Gore’s Church of IPCC check out this extensive analysis. Here are a few snippets:

The “Report’s” assertion that the “possible severity” of the consequences of “global warming” is becoming “increasingly clear” is not and cannot be based on any scientific view. “Global warming” began at the end of the Maunder Minimum in 1700 and continued at a near-uniform rate of 0.5-0.7 degrees C (0.9-1.2 F) per century until 1998, when it paused. There has been no statistically-significant increase in mean global surface temperature since 1998. In the past six and a half years global temperatures have been falling at an impressive rate equivalent to 0.4 degrees C (0.7 F) per decade:

The case for man-made, CO2 driven global warming is falling apart. And yet the liberals want to cripple the world’s economy and put the financial burden on the poorest among us by taxing everything that involves energy - which is everything. If you are measured and taxed by your carbon footprint, you are being taxed for the act of ‘being alive’.

One of the things the opposition to liberalism can champion without any risk is the requirement that the claims of global warming alarmist be vetted and reviewed given the extreme burden these fanatics are planning for all of humanity. It is time to bring scientific fact to the battle against emotional alarmists.

BTW, LJStrata came across this great quote from a book on Al Gore’s folly:

The true story - and this is not even open to interpretation among honest men - is that irrigation carried out by totalitarian and communist governments has dried up the [Aral] sea. Without the water there to cool the desert air, the region has warmed. Gore uses an environmental crime committed by government and central planning as an argument to restrict industry and capitalism. His argument is so far beyond rational that the light from rational takes an hour and a half to reach it.

You can read up on the Aral Sea situation here:

Once the world’s fourth-largest inland sea with an area of 68,000 km², the Aral Sea has been steadily shrinking since the 1960s, after the rivers Amu Darya and Syr Darya that fed it were diverted by Soviet Union irrigationprojects. By 2004, the sea had shrunk to 25% of its original surface area, and a nearly fivefold increase in salinity had killed most of its natural floraand fauna. By 2007 it had declined to 10% of its original size, splitting into three separate lakes, two of which are too salty to support fish.^[1] The once prosperous fishing industry has been virtually destroyed, and former fishing towns along the original shores have become ship graveyards. With this collapse has come unemployment and economic hardship. 

Clearly someone is lying about what is happening in this area and how it can be reversed through green house policies. All the CO2 cuts in the world will do nothing to fix the problem. This is classic liberal propaganda which should be trivial to challenge and knock down. Should be …

I was trying to write a post on man-made global warming, the fact it has been proven to be a myth and the enormous financial damage the liberals are going to do on a global scale chasing a fool’s errand, when I came across another one of those examples of a far right conservative who feels purity will bring broad consensus and support. Talk about your political morons - purity of consensus requires a small group of like minded people, therefore is political suicide. Here is a flaming idiot with his flame set to full on:

The conservative senator, speaking to a group of GOP officials gathered in Myrtle Beach at a conference on the future of the Republican Party, described how the party had strayed from its own “brand,” which, according to DeMint, should represent freedom, religious-based values and limited government.

“We have to be honest, and there’s a lot of blame to go around, but I have to mention George Bush, and I have to mention Ted Stevens, and I’m afraid I even have to mention John McCain,” he said.

Earth to DeTwit - McCain beat all the ‘pure conservatives’ in the primaries because ‘pure conservatives’ are political poison. Stevens is the only person who deserves to be on this list, but DeMint gets honorable mention for adding to the internal wars and further fracturing the conservative movement and pushing more people out of it than attracting in. It is not lack of agreement on the ‘challenges’ or ‘goals’ (e.g., ’smaller government’) that have destroyed the conservative coalition, it is the extreme proposals for these goals by purists over the years which have peeled away one issue related group after another.

Let’s back up a second and just get back to first principles of democratic governance. Supporting reasonable diversity of opinion regarding ‘how’ to address a generally accepted ‘challenge’ provides for creating governing coalitions (e.g., ‘how’ to deal with ‘illegal immigration’). When people strive too far into extreme versions of ‘how’ then the larger group of people who agree on the ‘challenge’ fracture into two or more groups. There is infighting and the extreme views of some push many of those who agreed on the ‘challenge’ to conclude the remedies are too toxic or risky to do anything about and they move to the opposing political camp.

George Bush has done NOTHING against conservatives accept deal with the reality that the nation is not far right and does not buy into the far right’s prescriptions for ‘how’ to deal with ‘challenges’. He has to get laws passed through Congress, and that means compromise on the ‘how’.  Success is moving the nation stepwise towards the grander ‘how’ envisioned by some as the ultimate goal.  They key here is movement at a pace the nation will accept and support.

Conservatives became impatient even when Bush was leading a nation through war and to the right. their impatience bloomed when Bush was not giving in to their demands as fast as they wanted. Talk about self absorbed. And for the sin of dealing with reality, the ‘true’ conservatives turned on our nation’s leader and their party’s leader. Which said all anyone needed to know about ‘true’ conservatives, their honor code, their connection to reality, their understanding of what it takes to govern America in the 21st century. If you want to repulse people turn on your allies because you are greedy to have your way now. That is a reputation killer any day of the week.

For example, let me pose a serious question to DeTwit: Since I am not personally tied to any religion I have attained my views on the sanctity of life through a broader sense of spirituality and from science itself, which dictates when life begins and allows us to use the engine of evolution to legally determine an embryo or fetus is not ‘part of the mother’ or simply a ‘clump of cells’. DeTwit claims the GOP is for religion-based values, but I attained my values and views through science and knowledge of the law. My approach has broader appeal and can be accepted by those more tied to science than scripture, and has the benefit of reams of legal precedence regarding DNA testing in trials. My approach happens to validate the views of many who, through faith, also believe in sanctity of life and why it is wrong to kill embryos for spare parts.

So, am I ‘pure’ enough because I use science and law to make an iron clad case against destroying embryos - which happens to validate those religion-based values? Will the DeTwits of the world continue their useless battle against evolution as proven science, as solid as the science that dictates the laws of motion and satellites, planets, etc? Will people armed with a high school level grasp of science continue to demean and challenge those of us who spent years learning about the truth of God’s Creation in amazing detail? This is why the conservative movement is totally busted. I am not a ‘true’ conservative and my efforts to support the right to life efforts is usually met with dazed looks and condescension.

Let me pick up on Immigration Reform again as it is my favorite topic to bash ‘true’ conservatives with. I was listening yesterday to AM Talk Radio (rarely do that at all now, given the dominance of ‘true’ conservatives lamenting the end of the world) and a caller called in with an interesting idea on comprehensive illegal immigration reform.

Now before the purists start going off in the comment sections here, the fact is illegal immigration reform is completely out of reach for years if not decades, accept the liberal blanket amnesty kind that could pass this Congress and get signed by the new President. All those who used scream ‘amnesty bill’ are about to see what a real one looks like. And remember, this is what you all wanted when you torpedoed the McCain-Bush proposal twice. This is what you wanted, and this is all your doing. So don’t whine to me about illegals. The next three years are what you wrought when you tanked the best option conservatives realistically had to make a difference in a quarter of a century. (Note the emphasis on the word ‘realistically’).

Anyway, the point of recalling this call was the sincerity of the caller to find a solution, and the idiocy of the ‘true’ conservative host in response. Again, it illustrates what is wrong with the right and why, even if the Dems do screw up like the did in the last Congress, the conservative movement has little hope of leveraging anything off their screw ups.

The caller was exploring higher income tax rates for migrant workers, especially those who are the long term ‘illegals’ which would transfer into a new migrant worker program. The idea was interesting and I realized we would have to do something to the tax code since most low-end migrant worker jobs are well into that class of incomes where people pay no federal taxes. I could see completely eliminating this loophole for transient workers (i.e., non US Citizens) since they need to pay into the government services they and their families will utilize while here (and possibly waiting for US citizenship). It was an interesting topic on how to make sure immigrant workers pay their share of the load.

The AM Talk Radio host was able to spew back a couple of pure myths before I had to change the channel. For example: Millions of illegals are still poring across our borders.

Not true. Since Bush has been President the border has been strengthened in a variety of ways, and last year was the first year the US did not allow a single illegal caught crossing to just come on in after promising to meet their court date hearing. Last year, and since, all illegals caught at the border are turned back. None come in. Bush did this and it is a major change in our border policy. One I am sure Obama will be overturning.

And then the ‘True’ Conservative said another dumb thing: Why not have them leave and then come back in?

Clearly, this person thinks in terms of cartoon TV level concepts. Simple minded solutions many times come from simple minds. Right now our economy is teetering and we cannot afford any large government programs. To make sure all illegal immigrants ‘went home’ would cost 100’s of billions of dollars. To process them back in would cost 100’s of billions of dollars. And the worker shortage would drive food and other basic product costs out the roof. All this over a some misdemeanors (recall, illegal immigration is not a felony in this country). The stupidity of this concept is just jaw dropping astonishing. 20 million illegals to hunt down, deport, and then check back in simply to let some on the far right get some masochistic sense of punishment is truly a waste of my tax dollars.

Illegal immigration is a paperwork and fee related crime. It is not much different from not carrying insurance on a car in a state that requires it, not paying your taxes on time. Misdemeanor crimes have punishments that usually involve fees and financial restitution (with interest). Conversely, very few crimes require you to give up your house and job. Those that result in that kind of impact result from a stint in jail.

When the ‘true’ conservatives went on the ‘deport them’ screed the damage was done to the GOP brand. When people soil their images to such a stark and pungent degree it can take years to correct, and sometimes never gets fixed. The problem with the conservative movement is it repulses more people than it attracts. This is one of many cases where they became too ugly to bear. Look at what a ‘true’ conservative stands for:

1. Somehow removing all illegal aliens from the country and putting up massive barriers along our borders. Conveys a nice, warm and friendly view of that city on the Hill? More like a gated community of snobs who cannot be bothered by ‘the masses’.
2. Opposition to giving senior citizens in poverty or on the edge of poverty a prescription drug benefit through Medicare/Medicaid, a program that reduces the cost of these programs because it removes the need to go to emergency rooms for basic medications. Those mean old Scrooges on the right will try to keep medicine from the sick and poor! Where is the shining city on the hill in this?
3. Opposition to education reform and a desire to pull their kids out of the public school system. I think it is OK to want better than the public school system can provide for kids (we all do). But to also oppose corrective action on those public schools is a step too far. It again looks like those with money are trying to dump those struggling and run to their enclaves. We are a community which does need to fix problems, not hide in gated communities and private schools.
4. Bush did not want the war against al-Qaeda to be a war against Muslims or Arabs, but then the ‘true’ right went on a purely religious and race based attack against a company from a moderate allied Arab-Muslim nation that was buying into some of our port operations here in the US. Even worse than the racist and religious bigotry behind the panic was the fact those screaming ‘fire’ were not listening to what was in the deal for national security. The deal included the Arab company paying for and installing Cargo sensor systems in all their international ports that would be feeding products into our port. It was a disaster for the GOP and conservatism.
5. The ‘true’ conservatives still moan on and on about the statesman focused process McCain and Lieberman and 12 other Senators used to avoid constitutional showdowns with Bush’s judicial appointees. A very small number of appointees were not able to get on the bench, but conversely there was no repeat of the Bork or Thomas fiascos. Anyone still holding a grudge against the Gang of 14 is out of sync with America. We don’t want FL-2000-like confrontations. We don’t want to see people Borked. I sometimes feel the ‘true’ conservatives are simply jealous about the moderates who pulled off a solution that avoided endless litigation.
6. Harriet Miers was the poster child for moderates and ex-democrats to leave the party. She was inside Bush’s inner circle and someone he knew very well. She was an ex-democrat - like Reagan and many other leaders of the GOP in the 80’s and 90’s until the purity wars erupted. Harriet Miers illustrated how a few extreme (and in the case of David Frum vengeance driven) conservatives would tear down the impure moderates if they tried to attain leadership or positions of power. It was the universal signal to RINOS and Quislings that the GOP umbrella was shrinking and only the pure need apply.

As another example from this year’s election look at the circus of the Minnesota Senate race. I can see, just as everyone else can, how the Dems are trying to steal the election there. But the big question is how could the GOP brand be so screwed up that an honorable man like Norm Coleman (and recent GOP convert from a Democrat) could even be challenged by a screw up (screw lose) like Al Franken? How did Obama the neophyte beat McCain the wise man of the middle? How is Coleman the moderate in a fight with a TV Clown?

Let me be clear here on what is happening (and I would love to see polls to ponder this question). If McCain was a Democrat would he have won? If Coleman was a Democrat would he be safely still in office? This is a REALLY important question right now for the GOP. I suspect the answer to both is yes, which is why moderate conservatives are going Blue-Dog instead of RINO (note the respect one moniker has while the other is demeaning) and giving the Dems governing coalitions.

If an individual conservative wants to make a difference, and the voters are repulsed by the ‘true’ conservatives, and the ‘true’ conservatives are attacking other conservatives for not being ‘pure’, the answer is easy. Become a Blue-Dog and have the opportunity to make a difference.

‘True’ Conservatives are ironically proving how right Darwin was. They are not capable of adapting or being flexible enough to succeed, they are not demonstrating to the general population traits that will lead to the population’s success and are therefore being shunned and held back from success. They are showing why evolution is a force to understand and exist with, just like gravity. If you jump of a building in a refusal to accept the force of gravity you are no different than someone who continues down a path that produces more and more failures. The path to death and oblivion is just longer.

The ‘true’ conservatives’ drive to purity is now clearly rejected in ways that could ensure their extinction. Purity is not a force of survival and growth, it is just the opposite. Adaptation is the path to success and long life for your family, their offspring and your values that you instill in them down through time. Me, I am just an observer watching it all play out as it has many times before in our history. Those who went extinct never thought their solution to survival and growth would be the one to fall to the wayside. They never do.

In an interesting addendum to my post below on how far President Bush was able to change the world after 9-11 there is a new poll out from Rasmussen which shows 60% of Americans believe we are winning the war on terrorism.

Voter confidence in the War on Terror has reached its highest level ever, with 60% now saying the United States and its allies are winning, according to the first Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey on the issue since Election Day.

A dour 15% of liberal pessimists are still lurking out there obsessed with failure. What is important about this turn of events is if Obama and the Dems fail, as many believe they will be pulling back and attempting appeasement - thus giving our enemies hope we will fold if attacked again, then the left will be seen as responsible for squandering victory. I if any number was going to give the liberals pause it should be this one.

If their actions or talk results in losing ground against terrorism, they will rightfully get the blame. Are they smart enough to see the nuclear land mine at their feet? History would indicate they are not. H/T Powerline.

The democrats are lucky. All they need to do is make sure they continue to stabilize Iraq and Afghanistan and help Pakistan clear out the last remaining Islamo Fascists hold up in their northern tribal regions - then plan the victory parades. They will arrogantly claim they ended the Iraq war (hopefully in victory if they can show some self restraint), and be the laughing stock of people who know who stayed the course to victory.

Bin Laden was the future of Islam after 9-11. It was assumed to be de facto reality that the Muslim world would rally behind him and al-Qaeda and start a global military conflict against The West and America using a stealth fighting force of terrorists. If things went well for Bin Laden, those stealth terrorists would be armed with a variety of Weapons of Mass Destruction.

Today Bin Laden and al-Qaeda and any related groups are the enemy of Muslims in Iraq. Today Bin Laden and the Taliban and al-Qaeda are hunted down in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Bin Laden is not the universal future of Islam, in most of the Arab Muslim communities he is the enemy.

And we have George W Bush, Ambassador Ryan Crocker, General David Petraeus and Senator John McCain to thank for this turn of events, among many others. And we have our military and civilian forces who fought this war in the trenches, and paid the sacrifices for all of us, to thank as well. Today we have allies in Afghanistan, not uncountable al-Qaeda training camps and a diseased version of Taliban Islam. Today we have allies in Iraq, not a power mad dictator with direct connections to the top al-Qaeda leaders and various related organizations. Today Qatar, Kuwait, UAE, Bahrain all are much stronger allies than they were after Gulf War I - illustrating how far we turned the situation around since 9-11.

Here are some interesting news stories from the last few days for folks to read and look back on 11/11/01, two months after 9-11, and think about how things have changed.

First is a story of an Iraqi town defying al-Qaeda, it is at this grass roots level where al-Qaeda has been the most damaged, crippling its support network and recruiting:

Dulaim is an Iraqi village transformed. Where masked gunmen from Al Qaeda in Iraq once imposed their will with killings and even stole irrigation pumps, today numerous Iraqi Army, police, and local Sunni militia checkpoints attest to new levels of security.

The change has been dramatic. It is the result of this farming hamlet deciding last January to change sides, reluctantly turning away from Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) and toward US and Iraqi forces.

But despite recently paying a high price for that shift, this village is determined not to turn back.

AQI struck in late September, killing 22 in the most lethal attack in a year in troubled eastern Diyala Province.

Instead of fear or failure, however, the unexpected response has been a recommitment to fight.

This decision to fight al-Qaeda by Arab Muslims is usually a line that cannot be uncrossed. But al-Qaeda, by enlisting thugs and criminals with simple minds and insatiable blood lust, earned the hate of the Arab Muslims.

And make no mistake, this rejection of al-Qaeda is not limited to Iraq, but is now spreading in the tribal lands of Pakistan:

 During their first meeting after suicide attack on Salarzai tribal Jirga, the elders of the tribe on Tuesday vowed to continue armed campaign against militants in the Bajaur Agency but appealed to the government to send in the law-enforcement agencies to take control of Salarzai Tehsil.

Also, the Afghan refugees started leaving the area after the expiry of the deadline to vacate the troubled tribal region. 

On the other hand, after weeks of silence and reports of his death, banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan spokesman Maulvi Omar suddenly came out of hibernation, offering a truce to the government on condition of halt to the military operation, while seven militants lost their lives in air strikes.

After their secret meeting at an undisclosed location for security concerns, the Salarzai elders nominated Malik Abdul Hakim as chief of Salarzai Lashkar and another elder, Malik Manasib Khan, as head of the Jirga.

Abdul Hakim is the younger brother of former Lashkar chief, late Haji Fazal Karim Khan, who along with 23 other tribal elders died in a suicide attack on Jirga in Salarzai on Thursday. The Salarzai tribal Jirga, comprising 60-70 chieftains, on Tuesday morning held a meeting with senior government officials at Khar, headquarters of Bajaur, in which they resolved to continue their armed campaign against militants in their territory.

It is a huge step for a Muslim to not protect ‘guests’ and instead call on outside military force to remove a threat. There is a matter of tribal pride on the line at not being able to protect the people from enemies. The fact is the remnants of the extreme Taliban and al-Qaeda now held up in an ever shrinking region of Norther Pakistan, pinned downed by US, NATO and Afghan forces to the north along the Pak-Afghan border, is not wanted by the locals. Afghanistan is not rising up to fight the democratically elected government or taking on the US/NATO allies in any threatening wave (yes there are dead enders attacking here and there - always will be).

Another interesting story out today is that Bin Laden may be cut off from these remnant forces surrounded and getting pounded.

The head of the CIA has claimed that almost all terrorist threats facing the US now originate in lawless Pakistani tribal areas, adding that Osama bin Laden is becoming increasingly isolated from the day-to-day running of al-Qaeda.

As 12 people were killed by another suspected cross-border American raid targeting Pakistan-based militants, Michael Hayden, the CIA director, told a Washington think tank last night that terror threats against America could invariably be traced back to the Pakistani tribal regions bordering Afghanistan.

Hours after he spoke, another suspected US missile attack killed 12 people in Pakistan, including five foreigners. US missile strikes are hugely controversial in Pakistan, with Islamabad claiming they fuel anti-American extremist groups.

More here on that latest missile strike. Bin Laden and his al-Qaeda movement have been severely wounded since 9-11, and are heading to the path of historic oblivion here soon - if the dems don’t go all wobbly and greedy for military money. 9-11 was a wake up call that required America to make up for years of poor decisions trying to keep status quo dictators in place, giving rise to Bin Laden and al-Qaeda. Policies pushed by an ever impotent UN and liberals who never understand the term ‘peace through strength’.

While I am very optimistic just about any fool should be able to take the current situation to a brilliant and successful end, the ship of fools running the Democrat Congress are more than capable of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. And with al-Qaeda penned in and backed into a corner, there will be one last effort to lash out and cause the US to hesitate, to give al-Qaeda one last chance to escape and survive to fight another day.

McCain would not have allowed that to happen. Obama better not allow it to happen.

What do the Democrats want to do for those who kept America safe from another terrorist attack on this nation over the past 7 years? Something no one would dare to predict after 9-11, that we could go 7 years without another attack on US soil. What is the gratitude to be showed to these critically important people we Americans owe our life to, and the lives of our families? The boot of course:

A number of influential congressional Democrats oppose keeping Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell and CIA Director Michael V. Hayden in their posts because both have publicly supported controversial Bush administration policies on interrogation and telephone surveillance. One Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee said there is a “consensus” view on the matter.

Other Democrats and many intelligence experts, however, give high marks to the current cadre of intelligence leaders, crediting them with restoring stability and professionalism to a community rocked by multiple scandals in recent years. A government official who has closely followed the evolution in the intelligence leadership in recent years argued that it is important to keep at least a few “seasoned” professionals in place during wartime.

Obama transition officials, who have steadfastly declined to discuss the personnel selection process, said yesterday that no decisions have been made regarding intelligence appointments. McConnell and Hayden, both career intelligence professionals, interpret the Obama team not reaching out to them as a sign that they will not be kept on, intelligence officials said.

Indulging in petty vindictiveness is not a smart move by liberal democrats (of course using the term ’smart’ with ‘liberal democrats’ is oxymoronic to the nth degree). There was stupid cries of dropping the ball by hallucinating radical democrats after 9-11. Their answer - do what they claimed Bush did, bungle an all important transition.

There is no rush here, and Obama needs to remember he needs people with opposing views to test and validate his orders, or else there is no feedback from the bureaucracy if he tries to execute a really dumb and naive action or order. No President worth their salt has only pandering yes-people echoing back how ingenious the President’s decisions are. A good President sprinkles his team with a range of voices and views and then selects which path to take. 

And he has time. He can work up new leaders if he wants. But if the dems rush to move these proven heroes out of their positions before next summer, while al-Qaeda is planning to test this President (his VP even admits this), that would be a certain recipe for disaster. My guess is, knowing the petty thought processes of liberal democrats, is they will take the risky path and give al-Qaeda an opening to test Obama like Bush was tested.

This country has gotten very use to the idea again it is safe from attack. Democrats would be wise to not allow that mythos to be shattered early and abruptly as they try to wave those magic wands and bring about Utopia.

There is a barometer for Americans to assess how well the Dems and Obama are doing - the right track/wrong track poll numbers. Since the election USA Today/Gallup checked the pulse of America and the election of Obama has not moved the needle: it is still pegged at 13% right track and 84% wrong track. People want to see results, they are not buying into promises and fantasies. So we should keep an eye on this chart for the next 6 months to see how Obama and the Dems are doing:

The problem for the Dems and Obama are ridiculously high expectations. Obama promised Nirvana and now he and the Dems have to deliver. Check out this other poll data to appreciate the dangers ahead for the left:

Americans have soaring hopes for the incoming Obama administration and an even higher opinion of the Democrat they just elected president, a new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll shows.

…

Almost that many — 65% — said they think the country will be better off four years from now.

…

A lower level of optimism greeted President Bush and former president Bill Clinton when they were first elected. In both cases, slightly more than 50% said they thought the country would be better off in four years.

…

Nearly two-thirds in the poll, 64%, said Obama’s top priority as president should be improving the economy. Majorities said it is critical or very important that he sign new, stricter regulations on financial firms and help people facing foreclosure. Nearly half said the same about passing a tax cut for the middle class.

Expectations for Obama are high across the board. Eight in 10 said he will improve conditions for minorities and the poor, and 76% said he’ll increase respect for the United States abroad.

About seven in 10 said he’ll be able to improve education and the environment. More than 60% said he will reduce unemployment, bring U.S. troops home from Iraq, improve the health care system, create a strong economic recovery and keep the U.S. safe from terrorism.

The American voters expect Obama to get out his magic wand and start fixing things. And don’t kid yourselves, they will not be waiting four years. He will end poverty, cure disease, raise everyone’s income and provide the best damn jobs on the planet! LOL! What we may have here this year is the once in a generational lesson on the limits of power and government. Every 30 or so years enough naive voters decide to come out and vote for the next Pied Piper of Plentiful Promises!

And then we get back to reality and remember why believing pols is a fool’s errand. My guess (and you know how bad my predictions can be) is the wrong track number stays damn high for a long time, as does the negative impression of Congress. The Iraq War, waged over 5 years, will look easy in comparison to righting the economy and bringing on Nirvana. But hey, that is what the Dems promised and that is what they are now required to deliver.