POST SCRIPTS

I won’t try to crawl into the mind of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to figure out what he meant when he said these things but I was interested in the thoughts about the governors remarks expressed by Prof. Aperovitz in a

recent New York Times op-ed piece titled California Split. His is a progressive world and so the governors words were no doubt screened through his progressive vision for our possible future:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger seems to have grasped the essential truth that no nation — not even the United States — can be managed successfully from the center once it reaches a certain scale.

California’s governor has also put his finger on a little discussed flaw in America’s constitutional formula. The United States is almost certainly too big to be a meaningful democracy.

I hope you had a chance to read part one of this story on Walid Shoebat . Now, as promised, I'm going to give you the opposing view as presented by the UC Davis Muslim Student Association (MSA). I think you will find their arguments interesting and it may shed a little light into the concerns of the Muslim-American community. They gave me a prepared statement and I will include that first and then my comments:

"We repudiate and unequivocally condemn terrorism, as a grave and serious crime that should be punished in the strictest means possible. We are concerned that a self-confessed "ex-terrorist" is walking

freely in the country, simply because he has converted to Christianity and supports this country's policies towards Israel. We call upon the FBI and DHW to investigate the claims regarding Shoebat's violent past and to see whether he disclosed this information when applying for his citizenship.

We also condemn the intentionally Islamophobic and erroneous association of Islam and violence that will result from the fear-mongering employed in the event's advertisements. We ask fellow students and community members to study the facts about Islam and reject hate-speech and propaganda."

The Mission of the MSA at UC Davis is to create an avenue for Muslim students to meet, exchange ideas, clarify misconceptions about Islam. The MSA hosts various events throughout the year." Shazeb Qadir, President End of statement.

When I was talking with the Muslim students one thing was clear, they all "said" they felt the same way as Shazeb, but when asked individually to articulate their grievances with Shoebat, about half of those I spoke with really didn't know much about the man and the others were just restating the position noted above. You have consider these kids were probably under a lot of peer pressure, which seems to be the case all over the Arab world so I can't say they were all being forthcoming about their true feelings. Individual dissent goes against the way they've been raised. The only answer that made any sense to them was that Shoebat must be an opportunist, exploiting his alleged ties to radical Muslims for big money. In their minds what else could it be? They knew Islam couldn't be as evil as he claimed, so he must be a fraud, they even doubted he ever had such ties to terrorism.

When asked why they doubted Shoebats terrorist ties, they couldn't give me a good answerI, but I felt it was mostly because they just didn't like what Shoebat said about Muslims and I can understand that, Shoebat was pretty rough on Muslims and they couldn't accept the criticism as being truthful. This was a denial pattern I've seen in a lot of protest groups where emotion often trumps facts. However, what was very positive about these students was their overall demeanor which conveyed a lot of sincerity about being non-violent. They wanted to be as open and communicative about their religion as it was culturally possible and I felt that was a good sign.

Their numbers outside Freeborn Hall were probably about 50 by the time event let out. As people exited the students followed a fairly well orchestrated plan that appeared to be led by an older middle eastern appearing male. I suspected he was an Imam when I saw him a few minutes earlier hold what looked like a prayer for the students that circled around him.

When I was wrapping up my conversations with the Muslim students, the consensus answer was, they were all still feeling the heat from 9-11 and in that sense they felt like victims of racial profiling. I said, "Isn't that the whole point of terrorism, to create suspicions and divisions among a population?" They all agreed to that point and the President of their group, Shazeb Qadir, said this is exactly why they want to keep communications open between their group and others in the community. At one point a Muslim male student said, "If the USA was attacked I would defend this country and other people (other Americans) don't get this!"

For the students to actually admit there was a threat to the USA by some Muslims radicals seems a breakthrough, given the sort of denial we've come to expect from the Muslim world. But, then this is a very moderate and mostly American born Muslim group.

The sad part is these students were good kids. They were about to launch themselves into mainstream American society as college graduates and here they were putting themselves at odds with Shoebat, a man that most other Americans seem think of as a sort of "truth" hero giving the ultimate insight into fanatical Muslim terrorism. For these students, here and at other college campus's, to take on Walid Shoebat and not also go on the offensive against terrorists other than Shoebat, makes their grievances against him appear disingenuous, even though I do not believe this is the case. I can appreciate in some small way the anger and resentment these young Muslims must feel towards the man, since Shoebat rails against the brutality he experienced that was passed off as fundamentalist doctrine. Worse yet, he does it as a former Muslim who has converted to becoming a Christian, which according to Sharia law is a crime of apostasy which often carries a death sentence.

It's hard to wrap your head around a death sentence for anyone over his/her religious beliefs... if you have a western mind or even an open mind in the 21st century. But, to put this in some sense of cultural context, imagine how you might feel if you were a very devout Catholic and a former Catholic Priest became a Pentecostal and went on to publicly say how rotten Catholicism was and what evil it fostered. Then imagine that he went on a popular public speaking tour denouncing all Catholics as a bunch of child molesters and published two books on the subject. You'd be pretty mad too and not likely too open to hearing what he had to say about your religion. This is the situation the Muslims students are caught up in, only its even worse for them because of their strict culture.

The clear way out of this conflict, where they might be thought of as potential terrorists when protesting Shoebat, is to acknowledge that radical fundamentalist philosophies do create hatred, bigotry and violence. But, do it publicly, not necessarily like Shoebat, but perhaps in some sort of context that they could live with it and yet not feel like they are selling out their religion. That's a real tough road for these students. They are caught in the middle between two cultures and no matter what they do, they won't satisfy either side. Fundamentalist Islamic terrorism is one big loser for them, their families and their religion...but, this day they can't come right out and say it in any sort of convincing way that's on par with their anger toward a guy like Shoebat. Maybe some day they will, but not this day.

Posted by Post Scripts at 04:48 PM | Comments (1)

Voter Fraud

by Tina Grazier

The next time democrats scream foul accusing the GOP of voter fraud and stealing elections keep
this story in mind. You'll notice that the writer fails to mention any ties or associations with a political party. Here's a hint for you, Jesse Jackson has been known to “associate‿:

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A man who worked for an advocacy group that signs up new voters pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court to voter registration fraud, the U.S. attorney's office said. *** Dale D. Franklin, 44, was hired by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, to work with Project Vote, another not-for-profit group that helps register voters.

So who is ACORN? You can find out quite a bit about the organization HERE and HERE. The following are a few excerpts from these two sites:

ACORN is a grassroots political organization that grew out of George Wiley's National Welfare Rights Organization (NWRO), whose members in the late 1960s and early 70s invaded welfare offices across the U.S. -- often violently -- bullying social workers and loudly demanding every penny to which the law "entitled" them.

Today ACORN claims 175,000 dues-paying member families, and more than 850 chapters in 70 U.S. cities in 38 states. (The organization is also active in Canada and Mexico). It owns two radio stations, a housing corporation, and a law office, and maintains affiliate relationships with a host of trade-union locals. ACORN also runs schools where children are trained in class consciousness; a network of "boot camps" for training street activists; and operations that extort contributions from banks and other businesses under threat of racial violence and trumped-up civil rights charges

During the 2004 election, Mac Stuart was working as a coordinator for minority voter outreach for its voter registration effort in Miami-Dade County for ACORN. In the course of his job, Stuart saw ACORN workers copying voter registration form (which was illegal under Florida law) and segregating voter registration forms for Republicans that were not subsequently turned into the County.

In the 2004 election cycle, ACORN and its sister group Project Vote ran a nationwide voter mobilization drive that was marred by allegations of fraudulent voter registration, vote-rigging, voter intimidation, and vote-for-pay scams. ACORN's get-out-the-vote activists were implicated in schemes that included the falsification and destruction of thousands of voter registration forms, and the registering of convicted felons even in states where felons are ineligible to vote.

Since ACORN is a private corporation, it does not divulge its finances. Further complicating any effort to calculate ACORN's income is the fact that it operates an unknown number of front groups, many of which conceal their relationship to ACORN.

The article, “ACORN and the Money Tree‿ by Meghan Clyne in National Review offers a well researched view into the funding sources for this huge umbrella organization:

‿… the group claims as its purpose helping low- and middle-income Americans — through initiatives ranging from improving urban public schools, to providing counseling on how to avoid "predatory lending," to increasing the availability of "affordable housing." Most of these programs are conducted locally, by state-level ACORN organizations — which are often set up as 501(c)3 nonprofit entities distinct from the national ACORN umbrella, a 501(c)4 lobbying organization. Sounds benign enough — except that, according to Bob Huberty, executive vice president of the Capital Research Center , these tax-exempt 501(c)3s "have no reason for existence other than to get grants from the government and foundations." They are, essentially, an ACORN front for asking Uncle Sam to subsidize political activity.‿

For the tax year beginning July 1, 2002, and ending June 30, 2003, ACORN Housing Corp.'s 990 Form shows a total of $1,710,203 received in government grants (the year before, the total was $1,977,306).

…what kind of return is the government getting on its investment? *** The EPI (Employment Policies Institute) study documents ACORN's involvement in an $850,000 labor-union embezzlement scheme in the late 1990s; in 2003, ACORN was found to have violated the National Labor Relations Act and was ordered to "rehire and pay restitution to employees terminated for attempting to form a union." (ACORN's in-house union-busting starkly contradicts its prescriptions for private-sector unionization, and is especially two-faced considering that ACORN's chief organizer and co-founder — Wade Rathke — is also the chief organizer of Local 100 of the Service Employees International Union in New Orleans.)***ACORN's hypocrisy also extends to its stand on the minimum wage. While it has often attempted to force minimum-wage increases on private businesses through ballot initiatives and local ordinances, ACORN tried to exempt itself from California's minimum-wage requirements. According to EPI, "ACORN argued that being forced to pay higher wages would mean that they would hire fewer employees — the very dilemma faced by businesses. Incredibly, ACORN stated that paying its employees a lower wage would allow them to be more sympathetic to the low- and moderate-income families they were attempting to help. ACORN argued that abiding by the state minimum wage would limit their ability to promote their agenda and would therefore be a violation of their First Amendment rights.

Posted by Post Scripts at 02:06 PM | Comments (0)

February 09, 2007

Misconceptions About Libertarians

New contribution from Jeff:

There is a general misconception about Libertarians, especially by Republicans, that I feel compiled to clear up. People assume that we Libertarians advocate drug use and support the legalization of drugs out of self interest.

I know how nicely conservatives will defend that 2nd Amendment, and how quick they point to statistics, the Constitution, American history and so forth. And that's a good thing, for they are right.

And Liberals want to ban guns and blame manufacturers, while exaggerating the dangers of them.

For the previous sentence, substitute the words "Conservative" for "Liberals," and "drugs" for "guns," and you have the same faulty reasoning for the left as well as the right. Conservatives, please use your power of logic and apply it to what you preach-personal responsibility. Then take the next step: ask yourself if spending tens of billions of dollars on the futile "Drug War" is fiscally conservative. Then, go get some real statistics, and pour over them (this may be eye-opening even to the most bias "drug warrior"). Finally, go to the Constitution, read the 9th and 10th Amendments. If you ignore the Constitution, real statistics, personal responsibility and blame inanimate objects, be aware that you're using the same method as Liberals. And it's wrong.

Again, Libertarians only advocate personal responsibility, not drugs. It only appears to be an important plank of the Libertarian philosophy because it's the one big thing Conservatives keep trippin' on.

Jeff

Posted by Post Scripts at 02:13 PM | Comments (3)

February 08, 2007

Posted by Post Scripts at 08:29 PM | Comments (0)

Posted by Nick F.

I want to thank Mike Wacker for his suggestion to watch Maurice McTique's speech to the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. It was great to hear so much common sense in one 45min session. If you are interested in what would happen if we actualy implemented the suggestions of men like Milton Freidman you need to watch this!!!

Type in www.uccs.edu/~csgi/mctigue2004august.shtml....if that fails type in "Rolling Back Government" and it will be the first link.

Thanks again Mike.

Posted by Post Scripts at 07:55 PM | Comments (0)

Posted by Post Scripts at 11:59 AM | Comments (2)

A Minor Injustice

by Jack Lee

Metered overtime parking in the City of Chico will cost you $15 and that's bad enough, but, IF you fail to pay it within 15 days, you will be charged another $30 !

Why the huge $30 penalty for a $15 ticket? Well, it seems this is the "lowest penalty" set by the City Council and it applies to fines starting out at $15 and all the way up to $250. That makes the least of all City Code infractions (overtime parking) the highest penalized and that makes no sense to me whatsoever.

People living on social security likely pay their bills once a month and that means they will pay a late penalty if they don't pay that parking ticket within the two week window and the elderly/disabled can least afford to pay this fine, let alone a whopping 2X penalty...thats really unfair. But, don't talk "unfair" to our liberal city council, they approved this injustice.

It gets worse: Fail to pay the $45 and City will turn you in to the credit bureau and stop you from registering your car next year and all over a few minutes of overtime parking....me thinks this is a little too "Cool Hand Luke".

By the way the cities of Oroville, Paradise and Gridley have abandoned their metered parking as being bad for PR and cost ineffective. The Chico Downtown Merchants Association might want to take this parking fine/double penalty up with the City Council, because it's just another reason for consumers to shop the malls where the parking is free.

Posted by Post Scripts at 08:43 AM | Comments (1)

February 07, 2007

From Terrorist to Peace Activist - Part 1

by Jack Lee

Walid Shoebat, pictured on the left, is a former member of the PLO who grew up hating Jews. According to his autobiography, his grandfather was the Muslim Mukhtar (chieftain) of Beit Sahour-Bethlehem and a friend of Haj-Ameen Al-Husseni, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and notorious friend of Adolf Hitler in WWII. Walid's great grandfather, Abdullah Ali Awad-Allah, was also a fighter and close associate of both Abdul Qader and Haj Amin Al-Husseini, who led the Palestinians against Israel.

Today, many in this world would like to see him dead, ... not for his terrorist activities, but because he renounced terrorism! Shoebat's life is an amazing story that comes with a warning.

Walid Shoebat is the author of "Why I Left Jihad" and he's currently on a lecture tour that includes a number of California Universities. His new book, "Why We Want To Kill You" is about to be released this month. I caught up with him last night at UC Davis, where he was the honored guest speaker, sponsored by the Foundation For the Defense of Democracy.

Security at the event was to say the least, obvious and intense. And justifiably so, given the recent death threats against Shoebat. Attendees were treated like airport passengers and with the exception of the media, cameras or recorders were NOT allowed inside. Thanks to the high level of security the crowd filtered slowly into the 1300 seat auditorium which caused the show to open about 25 minutes late. This gave me an opportunity to interview some guests, that included a few Muslim students that occupied an entire center section near the press seating.

It was hard not to notice each Muslim student wore red duck tape on their right arms, which they later used to cover their mouths when Shoebat began speaking. The consensus answer was, this was to protest the extent to which their voices were being shut down by on campus racist groups such as the group that set up this event. When I asked for specifics exactly how they were being denied their free speech or were victims of bigotry I didn't get one example, but some vague generalities. I moved on to ask why they had a problem with a reformed terrorist and the consensus answer was, he's a phoney and a hate monger, and he stereotypes all Muslims as terrorists. More on this later. Now it was time for Shoebat to take the stage and he came out of a side door about 10 feet away from my "press" box.

Just before Shoebat took the podium to a nearly packed house, the MC reminded the audience of the First Amendment and that it was illegal to engage in certain disruptive activities and that violators would be arrested and prosecuted. The majority of the crowd gave a loud and extended applause! The Muslim students simply sat silent and observed. When Walid Shoebat walked on stage to take the podium he received a warm welcome with most of the audience, a fair mix of students and adults, standing. At this time the Muslim students in the center seats removed the red tape from their shoulders and placed it over their mouths. As Walid started to speak they stood up for a moment, made their presence known and then sat down.

Shoebat's speech summarized his childhood growing up in Jordan and later in Isreal and the occupied territory among Palestinians. He focused on his public school education where he was said he [indoctrinated] to hate Jews from day one and his eventual evolution of hate led him to being a radical Muslim terrorist. He concluded with his view of radical Islam, its growth and why we need to fight it.

Walid recalled one of the Arab public school songs he sang, that opened with "Arabs are the beloved and Jews are the dogs..." and he sang a verse. He said he routinely began each school day singing the praises of Arabs and their righteous struggle against the evil Jews and against Israel. He explained, often graphic detail, that every facet of his Arab childhood yearswas inundated by hate speech against the Jews and this included the most incredible stories of so-called Jewish atrocities, for example how they feasted on children or ate the flesh torn from the bodies of their Arab victims. He said of course such stories which often took on the dimensions of the movie "Night of the Living Dead" were preposterous, but to a young child it seemed only too real....too believable!

Shoebat gave example after example of the brutality and injustices he witnessed as he grew into adulthood as a Muslim. "My friend Jamal Hanouneh, for example, his brother, Basem Hanouneh, suffered a horrible fate. His body was found dead near the military camp in Beit Sahur, mutilated and with his penis cut off. When the news circulated through town, everyone blamed the Israeli military for the crime. Twenty years later, his real killers were discovered. The sons of Bishara Qumsiyeh (Mazen's relatives) while drunk, confessed the whole gruesome details. Of course, no one acknowledged the lie perpetrated against the Israelis who had nothing to do with the crime. It got worse, the two brothers also confessed to another unsolved mystery – the murder of my first Bible teacher in third grade, an elderly single lady Mrs. Christa from Germany, who was raped and mutilated by the two brothers."

He denounces the bigotry and violence he experienced as he quoted the former Israeli Prime Minister, Golda Meir, "Peace can only come when the Arabs love their children more than they hate us!"

Shoebat said as his Muslim fundamentalist experience increased, so did the numbers of moral juxtapositions that came from his perspective having both a Christian and Muslim parent and it weighed on his conscience. On one side he was told he had to fight because his land had been stolen by the Jews and he was part of a holy war to regain his country and on the other he was trying to be at peace with himself and with the others that lived around him that did not seem to be the threat he had been told.

His inner dilemma continued as he became part of the secret network of terrorist activists, which included bombing of Israeli targets. The contrast he experienced between Muslim v Western ideologies was never more apparent than when he escalated his role in the PLO as a teenager sent on his first bombing mission.

Shoebat began to see what his peers in the Muslim world apparently did not. He saw that Jews were not the abomination and scourge on the world he had been taught, they were just people like himself, he began to question his teachers of the Koran and he had doubts about the words of the Prophet Mohammed. He said in the United States you can question your religion, you can even be critical of your religion, but in the Arab world this would eventually cost him everything, even his right to live in his own land. He said in this respect, the Muslim fundamentalists had taken away "his" land, not the Jews. As Shoebat explained, "the day I converted to Christianity was the day I really lost my land!" As he noted, this is one of the many injustices that now motivates him to speak out against fundamentalist Islam and their terrorism for jihad.

The audience gave Shoebat a standing ovation when he said this and spoke about how he cherishes his right to say what he thinks in the United States without fear from the community around him or from the government. This was among the many things that helped him turn away from the fundamentalist ways and terrorism. In stark contrast the Muslim students sat silent, but later on stood several times in unison, red tape still across their mouths, when Shoebat engaged in more criticizes of Islamic doctrine or the Prophet Mohammed.

Shoebat painted a picture of an Arab world heavily influenced by fundamentalist extremism, where fantastic sums of oil money is used to buy influence in western society and allies on college campuses to aide in the global movement of conquest. He said, "You should remember this word, look it up on the internet, it is H-U-D-N-A!" And this is what I found when I looked on the net, "Hudna has a distinct meaning to Islamic fundamentalists, well-versed in their history: The prophet Mohammad struck a legendary, ten-year hudna with the Quraysh tribe that controlled Mecca in the seventh century. Over the following two years, Mohammad rearmed and took advantage of a minor Quraysh infraction to break the hudna and launch the full conquest of Mecca, the holiest city in Islam.

When Yassir Arafat infamously invoked Mohammad's hudna in 1994 to describe his own Oslo commitments "on the road to Jerusalem," the implication was clear. As Mideast expert Daniel Pipes explained, Arafat was asserting to his Islamic brethren that he will, "when his circumstances change for the better, take advantage of some technicality to tear up existing accords and launch a military assault on Israel." Indeed, this is precisely what occurred in Sept. 2000 when Arafat & Co. launched a terror assault upon Israeli citizens.

As for Hamas, they have proven time and again their commitment to a tactical hudna — replenishing their strength during the quiet periods, then returning with increased deadliness." http://www.honestreporting.com/articles/critiques/Hudna_With_Hamas.asp)

Shoebat concluded by saying that the Islamic fundamentalist threat is a global threat and present real dangers within the USA where many fundamentalists exist and spread jihad.

There were so many facets to this story it's hard to do justice to them all in the brevity of this blog space, however I hope I have given you enough information to make you aware of the importance of what this former terrorist, turned peace activist, has to say. For more on Shoebat and his books check out this site. (http://www.shoebat.com/index.php)

Part 2 of this story will conclude with my interviews with Muslims students, before and after Shoebat's lectrure. They have a different point of view, but don't rush to judge them, what they have to say might surprise you. That article will be out on Friday.

Posted by Post Scripts at 10:56 AM | Comments (1)

February 06, 2007

What Comes Around

by Tina Grazier

I remember fondly the "old liberal cause" of NO NUKES. Martin Sheen himself showed up quite often to protest in front of the gates at the Lawrence Livermore Lab. The rag tag bunch of twenty or so t-shirt and bell bottom clad sign carrying screamers paraded in a circle for a day and really thought they had "made a difference". Barbra Streisand acting boldly, held her first concert ever, inviting friends and neighbors to her backyard for the outdoor event. She used the concert to announce the creation of a foundation dedicated to the elimination of nukes. She generously donated her Malibu compound to the "cause"
(...and, I imagine, avoided taxes at the same time).

Well, folks, what comes around does indeed go around. No, Malibu hasn't experienced a nuclear event and the lab in Livermore is still in business, but those pigs that fly have definitely come home to "roost". All the hand-wringing concern over developments in nuclear science has now presented the anti-nuke crowd a dilemma of greenhouse proportions. One of their own has caved on the big one. Sadly the story in Spiegel Magazine is closed, but here's the gist of it:

James Lovelock is attracting attention again with his provocative ideas. The former hero of the environmental movement has called for an end to "green romanticism." The only way to delay climate catastrophe, says the environmental guru, is through the massive expansion of nuclear energy.

I can't believe I'm saying this about a "greenie" but, I think his point is well taken. Another story this week announced that American nuclear energy facilities will not need additional protective measures. It seems we built them to withstand just about anything. Good old American know-how!

Posted by Post Scripts at 08:50 AM | Comments (1)

Tina's War Front Snips:

Tina's War Front Snips:

With the prospect of three civil wars looming over the Middle East -- and Iran poised to gain from them all -- Saudi Arabia has abandoned its behind-the-scenes checkbook diplomacy and taken on a central, aggressive role in reshaping the region's conflicts. (snip) "Usually the Saudis prefer to maneuver behind the scenes. Lately they've been noticeably active." New York Times

Baghdad - Iraqi and US forces killed a top official of radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's organisation in a raid on his home north of Baghdad on Sunday, calling him a ''rogue leader'' of Sadr's Mehdi Army militia. An official in Sadr's political office, Abdul-Mehdi al- Matiri, called the killing of Khadhim al-Hamadani in the village of Huweidar near Baquba an ''assassination''. The US military said in a statement that Hamadani had reportedly been responsible for attacks on US and Iraqi troops Reuters

Deep in the mountains of eastern Iraq, a cluster of mud huts and the chatter of machinegun fire reveal another

piece of the jigsaw puzzle called Kurdistan. Here, recruits are training to fight Iran, one of the four countries that rule the fractured Kurdish people. And although they belong to an organisation officially outlawed as terrorist by Washington, they appear to be operating unhindered either by Iraqi-Kurdish units or the limited US force in Kurdish areas. Jordon Times

Kabul - The white flag of the Taleban still flies above the northern Helmand town of Musa Qala, as the group yesterday issued a chilling battle cry promising the bloodiest year since its fall in 2001, with legions of willing suicide bombers. /snip/ ''We have made 80 per cent preparations to fight American and foreign forces and we are about to start war,'' Mullah Hayatullah Khan, 35, a guerrilla leader The Scotsman

A long-awaited Senate showdown on the war in Iraq was shut down before it even started yesterday, when nearly all Republicans voted to stop the Senate from considering a resolution opposing President Bush's plan to send 21,500 additional combat troops into battle. A day of posturing, finger-pointing and backroom wrangling came to nothing...

Some people are actively taking on the enemy...others continue to blather on...and on...and on....full of sound and furry, signifying nothing!

At least most of the Republicans stood their ground.

Posted by Post Scripts at 08:36 AM | Comments (0)

Happy Birthday Mr. President

You Speak to Us Still...

by Tina Grazier

"Today, in their memory, and for all who fought here, we celebrate the triumph of democracy. We reaffirm the unity of democratic people who fought a war and then joined with the vanquished in a firm resolve to keep the peace. From a terrible war we learned that unity made us invincible; now, in peace, that same unity makes us secure. We sought to bring all freedom-loving nations together in a community dedicated to the defense and preservation of our sacred values. Our alliance, forged in the crucible of war, tempered and shaped by the realities of the post-war world, has succeeded. In Europe, the threat has been contained, the peace has been kept. Today, the living here assembled -- officials, veterans, citizens -- are a tribute to what was achieved here 40 years ago. This land is secure. We are free. These things are worth fighting and dying for." Ronald Reagan-40th Anniversary of D-Day

"We, the members of the New Republican Party, believe that the preservation and enhancement of the values that strengthen and protect individual freedom, family life, communities and neighborhoods and the liberty of our beloved nation should be at the heart of any legislative or political program presented to the American people." Ronald Wilson Reagan (1911 - 2004)

"[Ronald Reagan] believed that people were the most important resource and that our natural resources should be used in ways that would benefit mankind. Ronald Reagan knew that a growing economy and an improving environment would go hand-in-hand. He understood the absolute necessity of employing sound science to management of natural resources and environmental standards. He rejected the Socialist view of environmental management and the regulatory scheme of 'one size fits all' regulations. He supported the principle of federalism in environmental management and was strongly committed to the principle of protection of property rights. And Reagan knew that environmental policies that emanate from liberty are the most successful." Becky Norton Dunlop

Find these quotes and other information at the Patriot Post tribute page to our 40th president Ronald Reagan.

Posted by Post Scripts at 08:32 AM | Comments (2)

Press Release

Press Release - Public Service Announcement

A six week course on the America’s Constitution and Bill of Rights will be presented on Wednesdays, starting Feb. 7th from 6 to 8pm at the Chico Library. This educational video course is hosted by world renowned Constitutional scholar and lecturer, Michael Badnarik. A study book entitled “Its Good to be King�? by Mr. Badnarik does compliment the course, but is not necessary.

This course is presented free to the community as a public service and is sponsored by the Butte County Libertarian Party.

Posted by Post Scripts at 08:24 AM | Comments (4)

February 05, 2007

What Motivates Our President?

by Tina Glazier

The president has remained steadfast in his duty and commitment to defend the American people from our enemies. He has said over and over again, that his decision to take the fight to the enemy was made so as to avoid fighting them here at home. He has said the war would be long and difficult and that it would be fought on many fronts. Mistakes have been made but in times of war, what president has not made mistakes?

Those in our country who refuse to support the president create an unpleasant and unhelpful reality in this war and the disunity is unsettling. It makes defeat of the enemy a more difficult challenge. It gives the enemy aid and comfort. Even a small child is smart enough to understand that unchallenged bullies don't give up. What about President Bush's decision is so difficult for some adults to comprehend? Why is it so difficult for some to get and support the goals and motivation for fighting back? The only answer that I can stomach is that we now live in a different world than the one we grew up in...and they simply refuse to believe it.

A few months ago a HREF="http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/appeasement-takes-hold-again/2007/02/04/1170523957031.html">French high school philosophy teacher wrote an article published in Le Figaro titled "What should the free world do in the face of Islamic Ter