Iran's Flexing

Iran is currently conducting a five day long war game. The purpose behind these war games is to show that Iran could , if needed, protect their nuclear sites. Which are still claimed to be for peaceful purposes.

But that doesn't make a lot of sense does it? Despite the fact that our intelligence shows that Iran is making nuclear weapons Iran continues to claim that their program is for energy purposes. If it's for energy why are war games being held to practice the defense of these facilities?

The simple truth of the fact is that Iran and Ahmadinejad speak out if both sides of their mouth. We can't trust Iran to do or mean anything so we definitely can't trust them with nuclear weapons.

We, as a nation, must realize that nuclear weapons in Iran's hands is a great threat, and if we allow Ahmadinejad to have such power we can only wonder what he'll do with it.

Senate Says "Yes"

Yesterday, the Senate passed a measure to bring the healthcare reform bill to debate. This is a landmark decision, but it is by no shade of the imagination the end of the road. Multiple votes remain in the Senate, each one us an opportunity for the bill to be rejected.

Democrats are most definitely celebrating, but the American people are far from happy. Few Americans are in favor of a government takeover of healthcare yet our representatives continue to push reform further and further up the legislative ladder.

The Senate bill would cost close to one trillion dollars and as population grows so will the cost, I mean, have you ever known a government program of this magnitude that didn't grow in cost over time? This bill would also raise taxes, in the middle of a recession! To put it simply, this isn't a popular bill, and it won't help healthcare at all.

Voters won't forget this in a year from now. In fact this single issue could be the end of a lot of careers if reform gets passed.

Palin's Media Blitz

Former Alaska Governor and former Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin has recently published her book, and to spread the word she has made several interview appearances, but has her media campaign been effective at changing opinions?

In short the answer is yes, a recent poll shows that 47% of Americans approve of Governor Palin while a smaller ammount disapprove, but there is of course a significant ammount of people who simply don't know. Palin has been asked dozens of questions throughout this process, but the quality of her answers has been varied.

Fox's Bill O'Reilly asked Governor Palin if she thought that she has the qualities necessary to be President. Palin responded essentially with a yes and that she wouldn't have run for Vice President if she wasn't capable of being President.

I plan on reading Governor Palin's book and I think that it will be very interesting to see how her popularity fluctuates over the next few months.

Obama and China

President Obama landed in China recently but has been rather quiet in terms of China's repeated violations of human rights that we are granted at birth, and even before birth. To me it is really rather disturbing that Obama us being so silent, but he has his reasons.

First, the debt, President Obama can't afford for China to stop buying our debt. Pun intended. A statement was released that said that the President would push his concerns in private, but not in public, but we'll never know the full details of what happened in those meetings.

Another explanation for the President's silence is that he wants China to work with him in terms of climate change. Despite whatever the President says or doesn't say I'm positive that China won't put Cap & Trade in place.

I understand some of President Obama's reasoning, but China's blatant crimes against humanity can not and should not go unpunished.

Safety?

In the aftermath of the Fort Hood attack many Americans are asking if we are safe from domestic terrorist attacks. Some people believe that the attack at Fort Hood was a freak accident. Others, however, believe that Major Hasan's actions are a prime example of our vulnerability to attack.

The administration has never been very tough on terrorism. Secretary Napolitano even refused to call terrorism, terrorism, instead she named it as "man-caused disaster". A fire can be a man-caused disaster something like 9/11 is terrorism.

Being, for lack of a better term, soft on terrorism and terrorists gets us nowhere it simply digs us a deeper hole. We've seen that time and time again yet some Americans still don't realize it.

I do think that we are safe, as safe as we were in the Clinton years, but in comparison to just a year ago, I think we could do better.

A Civilian Trial

Attorney General Eric Holder recently announced that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind behind the September 11 attacks and four other Guantanamo Bay detainees would soon face trial in New York. This announcement raises concerns with many Americans and multiple 9/11 families have come out against this. I'll tell you why.

Many on the left feel that it is a violation of the laws of the United States to try terrorists in a military tribunal. The problem with that idea is that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and most Gitmo detainees were captured in foreign lands, which in itself raises concerns. If we are going to try terrorists in civilian courts we would have to read these men their Miranda rights on the battlefield, and would have to follow dozens of regulations that have never been given to war criminals.

If Mohammmed is acquitted he gets to walk free. If any Guantanamo Bay detainee who is tried in a civilian court is acquitted they can walk away and continue to commit or aid terrorist acts against us. Furthermore, Mohammed's lawyers have another venue for undermining the trial-he is guaranteed a jury of his peers. Well how many people reside in New York City that are enough like Mohammed to be considered a peer? None, that would serve on a jury.

Using a criminal justice system for terrorists will only energize their base. If they can commit acts of terrorism very discreetly they have the possibility of facing zero consequences. To take this farther, in order to indict some of these people judges may look the other way on certain things which will only result in the deterioration of the rights of American citizens.

We simple can't try these men in civilian courts. Our civilian justice system was not made with terrorism in mind. It's just that simple. If I wanted to see people attacking the techniques and the people who saved lives I simply turn it on to certain talk shows shows not a courtroom.

A Sad Announcement

Due to recent events I will have to lower the frequency of my posts. Instead of everyday I will only be posting every Saturday, Sunday and Monday. I hope that this is a temporary change and I appreciate your cooperation. Sadly there isn't another post for today. Thanks again!