RIGHT THOUGHTS

Many liberal pundits will sink pretty low to try and bring Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her family down. They’ve criticized her for wearing a Star of David necklace to show solidarity for Israel, called her tasteless and misogynistic names, and lambasted her for statements taken out of context. Even some on the right find it too easy to undermine her as a politician.

Critics can’t help but go after her daughter, Bristol either. First, she’s called promiscuous and moronic for being a careless teenager while never giving her credit for taking on the responsibility of accepting her role as a teenage mother. Then, they’re appalled that she wants to promote abstinence. How dare she share her experiences in an effort to prevent others from having to go through the same adversity, right?

But one publication on the left has sunk further than most could imagine. On Tuesday, Jack Stuef wrote a piece for Wonkette that — I hope — would outrage even the likes of Keith Olbermann. It was an ill-mannered and round about way to claim that Palin uses her developmentally disabled son, Trig as a political prop. Instead, Stuef comes out bashing a three year old with Downs Syndrome. He labels the child a “snowbilly grifter” and quotes another Wonkette operative who claims that Trig is only “somewhat alive.”

Stuef’s article is so vile that many sponsors pulled their ads once it was brought to their attention. Nordstrom, Huggies and Papa Johns, among others, have made statements via twitter denouncing Wonkette.

Wonkette editor Ken Layne also released a statement, and it’s not the reaction one would expect from the editor of a site in the midst of a PR disaster:

I have four kids myself and I wouldn’t want them mocked on the Internet by a bunch of cretins on the Internet. And that’s just one reason why I wouldn’t parade my children around in the media. What kind of mother does that?

In any case, Jack has been admonished and put on night probation until further notice. Anything involving Palin, I want to make it extra clear that *Palin* is the problem with America. Not her kids. Not her little kid, anyway. The older ones seem to be on their own path and you can’t really blame Sarah for it, although she certainly encourages the sleaziest possible behavior from her grown children, which is hardly a very “family values” thing to do. But as far as Jack’s future, a few months on the night shift  cleaning up the furious, ALLCAPS unmoderated Wonkette comments, without pay, should teach him a thing or two about writing stuff that confuses the target. Trig is cool with us. Sarah Palin, on the other hand, is a grave danger to America. 

Although Layne acknowledged Stuef’s wrongdoings, he didn’t convey an ounce of outrage for the bashing. This is a sick and desperate ploy to bring down a strong, successful, conservative woman at the expense of her three year old son, and barely a word has been muttered by the mainstream media.

It’s never okay to berate anyone because of a disability, and certainly not an innocent child. This is not a partisan issue. Everyone needs to stand up and denounce this hateful attack.

UPDATE: As of Thursday, the article has been deleted from Wonkette. The editor posted an explaination of why it was taken down.  The note also claims that Stuef apologizes for writing the article.

Many companies that advertise on the website are making sure that they no longer do business with Wonkette, but some are still appearing on the website.  The list can be viewed here. 

As for the mainstream media’s response? Still silence.

We all know most extreme leftists are undoubtedly hypocritical.  There are those who claim Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) budget plan will kill, starve and abandon disabled children and the elderly but they support Obamacare while denying the inevitable rationing that will occur under socialized health care when the money runs out.  There are those who praise the President for intervening in Libya for “humanitarian purposes” but criticize the war in Iraq.  A country with a sadistic dictator who killed more Muslims than anyone in history. 

However, the most sanctimonious of them all is arguably the feminist left.  Their self-righteousness is incomparable. And their two-faced convictions are so transparent it’s puzzling that anyone can listen to their rants or protests and not consider it complete satire.

The most recent example of the hypocrisy comes from the left’s silence when Keith Olbermann attacked S.E. Cupp after her appearance on the Joy Behar show where she states her opinion on the subsidization of Planned Parenthood.  The ex-MSNBC pundit tweeted, “On so many levels [S.E. Cupp is] a perfect demonstration of the necessity of the work that Planned Parenthood does.”

The response from the left? …Well, we’re still waiting on that.

Why isn’t Joy Behar speaking up for Cupp? Oh, that’s right; she prefers to spew hatred upon anyone who opposes her views and when it comes to conservative women, she tends to become quite the anti-feminist herself (see: the Sharron Angle rant.)

The National Organization for Women (NOW), the group that claims that they work to “eliminate discrimination and harassment in the workplace, schools, the justice system and all other sectors of society” has yet to denounce Olbermann’s hate speech as well.  Perhaps they will hang back to see if their name gets dragged through the mud enough for anyone to notice, like the organization did when Bill Maher called former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin a “dumb twat” on his HBO show.

After much pressure NOW responded to the incident. But, not surprisingly, they used it as an outlet to promote their own agenda, one that is completely irrelevant to the situation:

“You’re trying to take up our time getting us to defend your friend, Sarah Palin. If you keep us busy defending her, we have less time to defend women’s bodies from the onslaught of reproductive rights attacks and other threats to our freedom, safety, livelihood, etc.” (h/t Red Eye w/ Gutfeld)

Feminists can ignore these sexist insults or drag their feet all they want when coming to the defense of conservative women, but all it takes is a harmless barefoot-and-pregnant joke tossed in a progressive woman’s direction for the left to come out of the wood work to crucify the “chauvinist pig” that would say such filth.

Wishing someone had never been born or extremely crude name calling, however, is all in good fun in their eyes— as long as it’s done by radical left pundits.

Once again, Barack Obama has put his foot in his mouth. Joe Biden must be rubbing off on him—when Joe is taking a mid-day siesta, that is. In an article released Monday morning, the President defended his favorite leisure activity that he probably prefers to call his “kinetic line-of-play action”—but most people call golf—by saying he spends so much time hitting the links because security restrictions prevent him from doing other activities in an effort to avoid executive duties; activities like taking walks or “squeezing fruit.”

“I just miss - I miss being anonymous.” he bemoans, “I miss Saturday morning, rolling out of bed, not shaving, getting into my car with the girls, driving to the supermarket, squeezing the fruit, getting my car washed, taking walks. I can’t take a walk.”

Funny, I wonder why he didn’t mention other things that “normal” Americans do, like having to fill up his gas tank at almost five dollars a gallon on his way back home, or maybe even putting in a whole 40 hours of work per week.

Maybe it’s because the President isn’t a “normal” American. Normal Americans don’t make endless unfulfilled promises. When a problem comes along, most normal Americans tackle it in a practical and timely manner instead of avoiding the issue like the plague until someone else comes up with a solution then criticizes said solution with no intentions of having an answer themselves.

The absurdity of his statements are mind-boggling. If President Bush had said something similar mainstream media would have a field day. And one obvious question still remains unanswered; if the President misses his anonymity so much, why is he running for re-election? I’m sure plenty of people would rather see Barack on a nice stroll in Central Park with the girls than on their televisions preaching the same tired partisan rhetoric and demagoguery.

On Saturday, The New York Times’ Jeff Zeleny published this article claiming that the decisions Obama made this week in regards to the spending cuts and looming government shut down were efforts to become more centrist as a part of his re-election campaign. He went on to discuss how the Democrats may now doubt his support in future issues…

But in agreeing Friday night to what he called the largest annual spending cut in the nation’s history, the president further decoupled himself from his party in Congress, exacerbating concerns among some Democrats about whether he is really one of them and is willing to spend political capital to defend their principles on bigger battles ahead.

First, I have to address this; “the largest annual spending cut in the nation’s history?” That may be true but when you compare the cuts to the amount of spending that has occurred during this administration (more than Washington to Reagan, total) it’s really still pocket change and many conservatives would agree.

Rep. Allen West (R-FL) says the 38.5 billion just “isn’t enough”  Rep. Steve King (R-IA) said it was a “big mistake.”  Michelle Bachmann also opposed the deal. All of whom are disappointed that Speaker Boehner did not live up to his promise of $100 billion in spending cuts. It seems that this was at most a compromise between the two parties and not a move closer to the right by Obama as Zeleny claims.

He goes on…

The White House is hoping voters will view compromising and trying to reach consensus as signs of mature leadership in a partisan environment, not weakness — the attribute Republicans lawmakers and potential presidential candidates are most frequently trying to attach to Mr. Obama.

Leadership? Really? Wasn’t there supposed to be a spending cuts bill proposed when the Democrats had control of the White House, Senate and House? Instead, Obama punted as to not stir up any dissatisfaction before the 2010 elections. And he seemed to stay as far away from this issue for as long as possible as well.  Is that what we’re calling “leadership” these days? I guess I didn’t get the memo.

President Obama has said little for the more than a month since the Libyan rebels began their effort to overthrow Muammar Qaddafi’s brutal regime; choosing instead to sit down with ESPN and discuss his NCAA bracket, attend the Gridiron Club dinner, and make statements against bullying in schools and Women’s History Month (which leaves me wondering, if recognizing women’s accomplishments is so important in such a time as this, did Barack fill out a NCAA women’s bracket as well? I mean, women’s basketball should be just as exciting and competitive and important as men’s, right?) He even participated in his 61st round of golf as president the day after a magnitude 8.9 earthquake devastated Japan unleashing a destructive tsunami and putting multiple nuclear power plants at risk for meltdowns.  Waiting days to address the disaster.

Perhaps this hesitation is to ensure what the Wall Street Journal called, “political safety” on Thursday. Making swift and accurate decisions about what is best for America and the Middle East isn’t Obama’s priority. His reputation is.

Finally, last Friday we went to war with Libya after Qaddafi wouldn’t comply with UN requests.  At last we made our move, but we weren’t the first to strike.  The French were.  After our Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had a meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy who urged her to have the United States take action immediately,  Clinton’s only response was, “[t]here are difficulties.” This evasive and ambiguous position with Qaddafi left European Governments “completely puzzled.” One European diplomat who talked with The Cable said, “We are wondering if this is a priority for the United States.” It seems as though the administration is not looking for victory but was rather coerced by other nations to follow their lead. On Fox News Sunday this past weekend, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) stated, “…we’re taking a back seat rather than a leadership role” which makes America look weak in the eyes of other nations.

As Jimmie Bise from The Sundries Shack said in his blog on Sunday, Obama “understands foreign policy as well as a hamster understands the control panel of a 747.”

USGS

About 6 months ago, a writer was watching a news program on oil and one of the Forbes Bros. was the guest. The host said to Forbes, “I am going to ask you a direct question and I would like a direct answer; “How much oil does the U.S. have in the ground?”  Forbes did not miss a beat, he said, “More than all the Middle East put together.”

The U. S. Geological Service issued a report in April 2008 that only scientists and oil men knew was coming, but man was it big.  It was a revised report (hadn’t been updated since 1995) on how much oil was in this area of the western 2/3 of North Dakota, western South Dakota, and extreme eastern Montana ….. check THIS out:
The Bakken is the largest domestic oil discovery since Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay, and has the potential to eliminate all American dependence on foreign oil. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates it at 503 billion barrels. Even if just 10% of the oil is recoverable… at $107 a barrel, we’re looking at a resource base worth more than $5.3 trillion..

“When I first briefed legislators on this, you could practically see their jaws hit the floor. They had no idea..” says Terry Johnson, the Montana Legislature’s financial analyst.

“This sizable find is now the highest-producing onshore oil field found in the past 56 years,” reports The Pittsburgh Post Gazette.  It’s a formation known as the Williston Basin , but is more commonly referred to as the ‘Bakken.’  It stretches from Northern Montana, through North Dakota and into Canada .  For years, U.S.  oil exploration has been considered a dead end. Even the ‘Big Oil’ companies gave up searching for major oil wells decades ago. However, a recent technological breakthrough has opened up the Bakken’s massive reserves… and we now have access of up to 500 billion barrels.  And because this is light, sweet oil, those billions of barrels will cost Americans just $16 PER BARREL!

That’s enough crude to fully fuel the American economy for 2041 years straight.  And if THAT didn’t throw you on the floor, then this next one should - because  it’s from 2006!

U. S. Oil Discovery - Largest Reserve in the World
Stansberry Report Online - 4/20/2006 
Hidden 1,000 feet beneath the surface of the Rocky Mountains lies the largest untapped oil reserve in the world. It is more than 2 TRILLION barrels.  On August 8, 2005 President Bush mandated its extraction.  In three and a half years of high oil prices none has been extracted. With this motherload of oil why are we still fighting over off-shore drilling?

They reported this stunning news:  We have more oil inside our borders, than all the other proven reserves on earth.. Here are the official estimates:
- 8-times as much oil  as Saudi Arabia
-18-times as much oil  as Iraq
- 21-times as much oil  as Kuwait
- 22-times as much oil as Iran
- 500-times as much oil as Yemen 

HOW can this BE?  HOW can we NOT BE extracting this? Because the environmentalists and others have blocked all efforts to help America become independent of foreign oil! Again, we are letting a small group of people dictate our lives and our economy…..WHY?

James Bartis, lead researcher with the study says we’ve got more oil in this very compact area than the entire Middle East - more than 2 TRILLION barrels untapped.  That’s more than all the proven oil reserves of crude oil in the world today, reports The Denver Post.

Don’t think ‘OPEC’ will drop its price - even with this find? Think again!  It’s all about the competitive marketplace, - it has to. Think OPEC just might be funding the environmentalists?

Many Americans are misinformed or uninformed when it comes to the actual threat of homegrown terrorism.  To this day the threat is highly underestimated even after events such as Fort Hood, the underwear bomber and the New Year’s plot. 

However, the lack of knowledge was even greater just 10 years ago. I conducted a full academic search of my university’s entire online library.  The first relevant article I found was from August of 2002; almost 2 years after September 11, 2001.  The piece from USA Today speaks of this new idea of targeting “suspected terrorist groups in America.”  The “commitment to worldwide Jihad against the west” could hardly be fathomed by the writers let alone those who were reading it. 

The following link led me to a speech given by FBI director Robert Mueller 4 years later in June 2006.  He spoke to a division of the FBI in Cleveland, Ohio.  His speech, entitled “Homegrown Terrorism and Radicalization Process,” took place shortly after 17 suspects were arrested in Toronto in an alleged terrorist plot to blow up several buildings in the city and to “behead the prime minister.”  Was the media even reporting this incident the way they would have today?  I honestly can’t say.  I know I don’t remember this being reported, but then again, I was just graduating high school at this time and was much more concerned about myspace and lip gloss than national security.  The Toronto arrests happened after the London and Madrid bombings.  Both of which I do remember.

Still, even in 2006 Mueller emphasized that these suspects did not fall under the “normal” definition of terrorists at the time. He emphasized that they were not “sleeper operatives sent on suicide missions” but students and business men.  I find it hard to remember when this type of terrorist was not the norm.  This was a time, though less than 5 years ago, when we still had a hard time grasping ideas that there were people out their who viewed their democratic and capitalistic countries as the enemy.  A time when everyone thought al-Qaeda was the only jihadist movement happening.  Americans had no idea that these plots were happening in their own backyard.

There is a reason why Americans were not informed about this threat.  In the very same month that Mueller was warning fellow FBI agents of these homegrown dangers, an article in Time magazine called “The American Exception” was published.  Time highlights the ways in which America’s Muslim community is “different” from those in Britain and the rest of Europe.  The magazine claims that the Unites States places more of an emphasis on religious liberty and Muslim integration into mainstream society.  Just 5 years ago, Time felt that “Americans need not fear homegrown terrorism the way many European countries do.”

Then Fort Hood happened.  Only a few years after Time considered America the “exception” to homegrown terrorism.  Even after this massacre occurred in Texas, Time was still questioning whether is this a real, and continuing threat to the US:  “When an Army major turns mass murderer on America’s largest military base, it fuels the worst fear of terrorism experts: Are lone wolves who don’t need an al-Qaeda training camp the new threat to homeland security?”

…Wasn’t that question answered 3 years ago when Mueller made his speech in Ohio?  Isn’t it a journalist’s job to report what the experts are saying (especially when it’s coming straight from the FBI,) instead of ignoring the threats in an effort to be politically correct? 

Even today in 2011, while the threat of homegrown terrorism is rising daily and Americans are more aware of such events going on in their own country, mainstream media and even our elected politicians are downplaying the seriousness of America’s vulnerability.  The Los Angeles Times states that authorities have broken up 22 attacks being plotted in the U.S. from May of 2009 to last November.  A total of 21 plots had been foiled in the eight years previous to May 2009.  And the government doesn’t think it’s necessary to extend the Patriot Act?  But then again, why would they?  Obama was blind enough to urge the American people to not rush to judgement on the intentions of Major Hasan even though he was shouting “Allahu akbar! (Allah is the greatest)” while intentionally murdering and injuring innocent people on a military base. 

What is it going to take for the administration to cast aside their overly sensitive concerns of political correctness and actually make national security a top priority on it’s list?

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) — “Egypt‘s military leaders dissolved parliament and suspended the constitution Sunday, meeting two key demands of protesters who have been keeping up pressure for immediate steps to transition to democratic, civilian rule after forcing Hosni Mubarak out of power…”

ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) — Heavily outnumbered by riot police, thousands of Algerians defied government warnings and dodged barricades to rally in their capital Saturday, demanding democratic reforms a day after mass protests toppled Egypt‘s autocratic ruler.

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) –  Tunisia’s foreign minister has resigned just weeks after he was named to replace the month-old transitional government’s first, short-lived foreign minister, the official TAP news agency said Sunday.

The report didn’t provide any details about the reasons behind Ahmed Ounaies’ resignation, but critics have decried what they saw as the offhand way he described the “people’s revolution” that ousted the North African nation’s longtime autocratic president, Zine Al Abidine Ben Ali, on Jan. 14. 

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) –  Jordan’s state news agency says King Abdullah II has met with a top American military official visiting to reassure the U.S.-allied leader as the uprising in Egypt reverberates around the Middle East.

Jordan’s government is among several in the region facing protests calling for greater political openness and steps to lift people out of poverty.

Abdullah’s meeting Sunday with Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, was closed to news media.

The Petra news agency says only that they discussed “bilateral relations and issues of mutual concern.” Royal Palace officials did not answer their phones.

Mullen will also visit Israel, which is deeply worried a new Egyptian government will be less friendly to the Jewish state.

SANAA, Yemen (AP) –  Yemeni police armed with sticks and daggers beat back thousands of protesters marching through the capital in a third straight day of demonstrations calling for political reforms and the resignation of the country’s U.S.-allied president.

The protests have mushroomed since crowds gathered Friday to celebrate the ouster of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak after an 18-day revolt fueled by similar grievances. Yemen is one of several countries in the Middle East feeling the aftershocks, as pro-reform demonstrators take inspiration from the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) –  Iran’s presidential office says a nuclear scientist who recently survived an assassination attempt has been appointed the new head to the country’s nuclear program.

Fereidoun Abbasi, a 52-year-old professor of nuclear isotopes at Tehran’s Defense Ministry, was seriously wounded in a bomb attack in November.

The statement which appeared on the website Sunday, said Iran’s president appointed Abbasi as head of the nuclear energy agency, succeeding Ali Akbar Salehi who earlier became foreign minister.

Iran’s nuclear chief is also automatically a vice president.

Iran’s nuclear program has been matter of the international concern over the past years. The West suspects the program has aimed at building weapons, a charge Iran denies.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran‘s opposition on Sunday renewed its call for a rally in support of protesters in Tunisia and Egypt despite a government warning of repercussions if demonstrations take place, a reformist website reported.

In a statement published on Kaleme.com, the opposition urged its supporters to rally on Monday in central Tehran and accused the government of hypocrisy by voicing support for the Egyptian and Tunisian uprisings while refusing to allow Iranian political activists to stage a peaceful demonstration.

Wary of a reinvigorated opposition at home, Iranian authorities have detained several activists and journalists in recent weeks, and opposition leader Mahdi Karroubi was put under house arrest, apparently in connection with the request to stage the rally.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) — The death toll for a suicide bombing on Saturday on a bus carrying Shi’ite pilgrims rose to 36, Iraqi officials said Sunday about one of the deadliest acts of violence against the country’s majority Muslim sect this year.

The attack targeted pilgrims returning from a religious ceremony at the al-Askari mosque in the former insurgent stronghold of Samarra, north of Baghdad. The violence highlighted renewed efforts this year by insurgents to incite sectarian violence after a lull in attacks.

Police and hospital officials said 64 people were wounded in the suicide bombing, which came after ceremonies marking the death of a revered ninth-century religious figure buried there.

Mubarak replacements? Criticizer of U.S. & Israel Tops List

“It took this government 230 years from 1776-2006…our national debt was a heart palpitating $8 trillion…and in only four years time, with Speaker Pelosi and Harry Reid, the liberals increased that amount a whopping 75%.”

—Rep. Michelle Bachmann (MN)

“Now, you know the reason [why liberals suddenly think positively of Reagan.] They want you to forget what they’ve been up to the past two years.  Good news is nobody’s buying it.  Americans are no more convinced that Dick Durbin looks up to Ronald Reagan than they thought Obamacare would make healthcare better or less expensive.  So, a lot has changed over the past two years but one thing hasn’t changed and Democrats continue to underestimate the intelligence and memory of the American voter.

They seem to think if they can just tweak their language a little bit…we’ll forget all the rest.  Well let me tell you…we haven’t forgotten.  We will not let the people who spent the last two years trying to turn this country into France walk away from their record.”

—Sen. Mitch McConnell (KY)

“The Obama administration is wrong on terrorists, wrong on Iran, wrong on the Muslim Brotherhood, wrong on Hezbollah and being wrong on that many national security items is an enormously dangerous thing.”

—Newt Gingrich

“Government has failed us with our money, with our financial institution.  It’s failed in running our post office and trains; it’s failed in enforcing our immigration laws and our drug laws and our laws on the books against violent criminals with guns…By it’s lies and laws and lack of enforcement government policies are getting us killed.”

—Wayne LaPierre, CEO of the National Rifle Association

“And now President Obama is asking us  to raise the debt ceiling without any commitment to cutting spending at the same time. […] The administration is preparing to offer a budget that will destroy jobs by spending too much, borrowing too much and taxing too much from the American people.  This isn’t ‘Winning the Future,’ this is ‘Spending the Future.’”

—Speaker John Boehner

“[Obama] replaced his Chicago Politician Chief of Staff with a fresh face, from Chicago, named Daly.  Make no mistake here folks, what we’re all watching isn’t Brave New World, what we’re watching is Groundhog’s Day.”

—Mitt Romney

….more to come.