Monday, November 26, 2012

More Politics


More from my friend who wishes to remain anonymous:

OK, OK, OK. I’m still getting an endless flood of “What do you think about this?” notes. So here is one more worth thinking about. Please pay special attention to how clueless the Republican Party is. They should embrace any who might oppose Obama, including the TEA Party, Libertarians, Catholics, Jews, Evangelicals, etc. They should cultivate the groups who are strongly pro-Obama, especially single women and Hispanics. They should start by firing Carl Rove and getting someone like Allen West to set policy. And they should go all in for appointing an Independent Investigator over Benghazi, the cover-up, and the hocus pocus about Obama’s failed foreign policy, getting the facts and pursuing this all the way to an impeachment if necessary, and, yes, even if they fail to prevail against a Progressive Senate. They have the power to do this if they so choose.

The Republicans seem to be a bunch of freaking brain-dead idiots. They will not confront Obama. Romney ran a single issue campaign, on jobs. It was a good issue, but it wasn’t enough. He refused to attack Obama, saying that he didn’t care if people liked Obama or not, so long as they didn’t vote for him. He refused to call Obama on Benghazi, on voter fraud, on Constitutional violations, on taking foreign donations, on corruption, and on and on. In the second debate, Romney even passed up a swing at that hanging curve ball, the Benghazi cover-up, to talk nice and agree with Obama’s foreign policy.

The best strategy? If the TEA Party had more power to shape Republican policy, that would help. More radically, perhaps the Rs should just disband or re-brand themselves. They are not getting the job done, even against the President with the worst record in modern history, if not in all of our history. They seem about as relevant to resisting Saul Alinsky communism as would be the Whigs or Federalists of yore.

This is just my opinion, FWIW. Even the Russians (in Pravda) now say flat-out that America has been taken over by communists, and they know Communists better than anyone. We lost the election, but we might be able to fix or replace the Republicans in time to mount useful resistance and even an impeachment. The old Exceptional America would not give up without a try. Our Constitution, by and for the People, gives us this sacred responsibility.

That’s what I think, FWIW. What am I going to do? What I’ve been saying. I’m going to write my novels and do a blog. The bible says the Watchman must sound the alarm or the blood will be on his hands. I did that. 

Saturday, November 24, 2012

Surprised, Bobbled, Flabbergasted


SURPRISED

After four years of Obama in constant campaign mode (with divisiveness, Saul Alinsky demagoguery, and the world getting ever stranger) I thought that nothing could surprise me. For example, Thanksgiving 2012 was the fourth year in a row where President Obama did not mention God, an American tradition that goes back to Washington and Lincoln. Instead, he campaigned, junketed overseas, and avoided the major issues of his failed Presidency. No surprise there: It’s the new Normal.

But the Benghazi debacle did surprise me, and it’s getting WORSE. Under oath in the classified Congressional hearings, most everyone from Team Obama is still lying, dodging, and weaving, apparently using Saul Alinsky Rule # 2 – “Talk about what should be, not was is.” Even those whom we presumed to have honor and integrity.

Intel Committee Member on Petraeus: 'Essentially, He's Using a Technicality to Say: Well, I Didn't Lie to You Guys'
By Terence P. Jeffrey
CNSNews.com 

Rep. Devin Nunes (R.-Calif.), a member of the House intelligence committee, says former CIA Director David Petraeus is “using a technicality” to say to the committee “I didn’t lie to you guys” about what happened in Benghazi.
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/intel-committee-member-petraeus-essentially-he-s-using-technicality-say-well-i-didn-t
BOGGLED (Massive, long time, Republican Stupidity!!!!) – Democrats can report voter fraud, but not Republicans.
Voting machines suspiciously defaulting to Barack Obama? Buses loaded with strangers appearing at polling stations? Even ballots turning out 100 percent for one candidate in precinct reports?
In short, suspicions of vote fraud?
That’s too bad, because a race-based consent decree negotiated by Democrats against the Republican National Committee a generation ago (1975!!!) still has tied the RNC’s hands, and GOP officials could be cited for contempt – or worse – if they try to make sure American elections are clean.
Impossible?
No. Fact.
The case is the Democratic National Committee vs. the Republican National Committee, originally from 1982. Democrats alleged Republicans were trying intimidate minority voters in New Jersey and brought the legal action. The RNC, inexplicably, decided to agree to a consent decree before a Democrat-appointed judge rather than fight the claims.
The judge, Dickinson Debevoise, appointed by Jimmy Carter, later retired but decided he would continue to control the case. The decision requires the RNC – but not the DNC – to “refrain from undertaking any ballot security activities in polling places or election districts where the racial or ethnic composition of such districts is a factor in the decision to conduct, or the actual conduct of, such activities there and where a purpose or significant effect of such activities is to deter qualified voters from voting; and the conduct of such activities disproportionately in or directed toward districts that have a substantial proportion of racial or ethnic populations shall be considered relevant evidence of the existence of such a factor and purpose.”
The rest of the agreement essentially requires the RNC to follow applicable state and federal election laws.
But the section cited above has been used for decades to warn off Republicans from any challenge to evidence of voter fraud in districts with “racial or ethnic populations.”

FLABBERGASTED

Fast and Furious has been running for over three years, with Holder found in contempt of Congress, but, as yet, no one punished. Now we have Benghazi Gate, which is worse, with dead Americans, Flag Officers fired for sending help, the entire Obama Foreign Policy in shambles, several Congressional Investigations running  behind closed doors, and amazing things leaking out. So what haven’t we heard?

We’ve not heard much about Obama’s buddy in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood guy, the radical Islamist that Czar Clapper said was not Islamic but “almost non-sectarian.” Some are calling this “Treason.” Here’s one source, and do watch the video of the Morsi speech (English is in the crawl), which reminds one of Hitler speeches in the time of Munich.
“We witnessed another one of Barack Obama’s oddities with the Muslim Brotherhood. The first anomaly was when Obama was almost giddy when the Muslim Brotherhood president of Egypt, Mohammed Morsi, ascended to power. The Muslim Brotherhood had openly called for the destruction of the United States “from within”, most recently apparent in Muslim Brotherhood front groups like CAIR calling for the purging of any training materials within the FBI and CIA that “offended” Muslims. Barack Obama of course dutifully complied.
The most recent oddity, however, is Obama calling on Morsi to “broker a truce” between Hamas and Israel. Hamas has fired on average one thousand rockets per year at Israel from the Gaza strip; and for eight days, Israel did something that they should have done a decade ago: fight back.
Keep in mind that the Muslim Brotherhood is the parent organization of Hamas. Keep in mind that, like Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood has called for the annihilation of Israel. So for Obama to call on Morsi to “broker a truce” is ridiculous.
The so-called “truce” amounts to Israel ceasing to defend herself and the opening up of the Gaza strip blockade that has kept Iran and other extremists countries (now Egypt) from shipping more powerful weapons to Hamas.
Furthermore, Obama colluding with someone who is part of an organization that has openly called for the destruction of the United States amounts to treason in my book.”

Conclusion

Do pass this along, but strip the contact information. (The links are pubic.) I’m thinking the Republicans are NOT up to winning elections or standing up to Saul Alinsky tactics.

Crypto-Jews


Graphic Novel Sheds Light on Crypto-Jews

The Santa Fe area is the setting for “El Iluminado, A Graphic Novel,” a mystery about murder among New Mexico’s Crypto-Jews by Ilan Stavans.
Our sense of self shifts with the unveiling of family secrets.
Sometimes, the shift can crack families apart, creating unbridgeable divisions between those who embrace and reject the unforeseen.
For Crypto-Jews, the mystery may surface in habits and unspoken traditions confirmed by a hexagram-shaped star carved into a headstone.
Literary critic and author Ilan Stavans will sign and discuss his graphic novel “El Iluminado,” a mystery set amid the Crypto-Jews of New Mexico, on Sunday at the New Mexico History Museum. The book reflects Stavans’ personal and professional interest in the subject, as well as his desire to marry history with imagination. Illustrator Steve Sheinkin depicts Stavans’ fictional namesake on a journey into taco joints, desert ranches, soaring cathedrals and Santa Fe’s deep past.
The book opens as the young Rolando PĂ©rez falls to his death from a New Mexico cliff. Did he jump or was he pushed? What documents was he willing to sacrifice himself for to protect his family, the police and the church? The fictional Professor Stavans arrives in Santa Fe to give a lecture about the area’s long-buried Jewish history. His presentation attracts unexpected attention, drawing him into a desperate race to find long-lost documents that might hold the key to Rolando’s death.
The real Stavans has researched and lectured about the history of Crypto-Jews for many years. A humanities professor at Amherst College, he teaches both Hispanic and Jewish literature. He’s drawn to the conundrum of Crypto-Jews throughout history — many of whom were forced to flee Spain under a 1492 edict from King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella during the Inquisition.
Those who converted to Catholicism were deemed “new Christians” or “conversos.” Some decided to outwardly live Christian lives, while maintaining their Judaism at home. Many traveled to Mexico and into the American Southwest, where they remain today. Luis de Carvajal the Younger, also known as El Iluminado, was a Crypto-Jew who lived in Mexico in the 16th century and was ultimately killed for not relinquishing his Jewish roots.
Stavan’s book combines history, spirituality and a murder mystery sprinkled with a touch of Spanglish. Born and raised in Mexico, Stavans is of Eastern European descent; Yiddish was his first language. He came from a family of poor peddlers and rabbis whose ethnicity was open.
“In my childhood, I came across many people who thought they had a Crypto-Jewish past,” he said in a telephone interview from Amherst, Mass. “I became very close to one of them. Her mother would clean the room by sweeping all the dust and the garbage and pushing it out a window. It was key to her family history; it was the custom not to mix profane dirt with other parts of the family home.
“They isolated themselves from Friday night through Saturday night; they wouldn’t go out,” he added. “In some of these families, there was a key that had passed from generation to generation that would open a door in Spain when the family was in Spain. It was one of those elements of folklore tradition.”
He started researching Crypto-Jews in the Santa Fe area 20 years ago. “I wanted to see some of the tombstones and visit the Basilica,” Cathedral of St. Francis, he said. “I found an incredible mix, juxtaposition of Catholicism and Judaism.
In the cemeteries, “sometimes there’s a cross inside the Star of David.” Other headstones featured a hand with the four fingers divided into two pairs. “That is a mystical symbol meant to protect the tombstones,” he explained.
Stavans turned to the novel form because it allowed him to teach a little history, while letting his imagination fly.
“The novel gives you a kind of freedom I don’t have as a scholar,” he said.
The graphic novel matches his words with cartoon-like imagery, just like the old comic books he read as a child, he added.
The story started to germinate when Stavans gave a talk on Crypto-Jews at the Museum of New Mexico in 2009.
“It was very crowded, and I found myself in a very strange position,’ he said. “Probably the people in the audience knew more about Crypto-Jews than I did. I wanted them to talk to me.”
A young woman told him the discovery of her family’s Crypto-Jewish past had produced inconsolable divisions she feared carried violent undertones.
Stavans based the Perez characters on a young Santa Fe man who spoke to him about his own divided Crypto-Jewish past –– his family disowned him when he embraced his Judaism.
“We’re all Crypto-Jews in one way or another,” Stavans said. “All families have secrets. I wanted to build a mystery, and the idea is that the past is up for grabs. We all shift it to fit our needs.”