By Julian Krasta

First on the list of the Seven Deadly Sins is Pride. Barack Obama’s cup runneth over with SDS No. 1, so much so that his credibility – as well as the trustworthiness of the Democratic Party – is beginning to resemble the bottom of a birdcage.

As demonstrated during his excursion to the Middle East and Europe, Obama’s vainglory character has reached full feather: What we saw and heard was not a paradigm of intellectual prowess or the mountain-moving messiah the media are in desperation pitching the world to believe he is – quite the contrary.

In spite of every attempt to present himself as a deep thinker or an “every man,” the senator remains detached and unprincipled when it comes to giving full credit to our military. He is also cold and hostile, particularly when he is caught unawares by a journalist’s impromptu questions. Absent his teleprompter of pre-arranged homilies and dog-eared clichés, his remarks are a runoff of blatant inaccuracies, such as this “Berra-ism” that would make Yogi proud:

“Let me be perfectly clear: Israel is a strong friend of Israel’s” –

All of which are bells not even the power peacocks of the liberal mainstream media are able to un-ring.

Fairness demands I give credit to Obama. The only credit I believe he deserves is for his flair for dramatic showmanship. Not since P.T. Barnum – spot-lit in the center ring, dressed in coattails and top hat – has anyone effectively impressed and entrapped the hearts, minds and chromosomes of so many.

Put more simply: Obama enchants and entertains children of all ages.

Those he electrifies eagerly dive for every pearl that slips from his lips. Unfortunately, their fascination with him is anything but academic (as compared to John McCain’s feet-on-the-ground, fact-demanding supporters, as well as his opponents).

One explanation might be that, once Obama’s gullible herds imbibe of his “wondrous waters,” they become similarly stricken – or further stricken – with his now-trademark languor (which might explain why, when I first heard them chanting “We want change!” I had thought they were actually yelling, “We want pain!”).

Was that fair enough?

Obama’s one trick is he has mastered the art of doling out only cryptic hints of the changes he intends to make if he is elected. Aside from holding to a pattern of delivering sprawling and irregular speeches (which I view as a tribute to Dr. Seuss: “I do not like them in a box. I do not like them with a fox. I do not like them in a house…” – You get the picture), he has yet to convey concrete exemplars of how he would achieve those changes.

More importantly, he has not explained – not even a speck – what those changes would unerringly entail, and just how such changes would diametrically affect Americans, though Republicans and conservatives already know what he has in mind:

It’s a given that Obama would raise taxes across the board in order to provoke the mysterious changes only he envisions. His grandiose illusions of himself have blinded him to the fact that stacking more financial stress on the American people and on American industries would only serve to fund a radical attack on our nation’s problems:

Job losses could skyrocket. Personal spending would plummet. The housing market (and residential and commercial development) could collapse entirely. And retirement, investment and savings accounts could go under – to name an important few.

Just those tied together could conceivably cause parents (one or both, or the only one) to hold down a second job in order to make ends meet, which, in turn, would rupture family unity.

Is that what Obama’s wife meant when she heatedly lectured:

“Barack Obama will require you to work. He is going to demand that you shed your cynicism … that you come out of your isolation. Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual, uninvolved … uninformed”?

If that be true, then Obama aims to strip Americans of our freedom of choice. And if we were to lose freedom of choice, it would just be a matter of time before these, too, would be lost:

- Freedom of religion,

- Freedom of speech,

- Freedom of the press (in particular, the conservative press),

- Freedom of intellectual inquiry,

- Freedom of artistic expression, and

- Every other freedom that empowers the individual.

An equally serious setback would be this: If elected his conceit could initiate a power binge that would be a kick in the teeth to the Presidency. This is not a hypothetical in view of his track record of zero accomplishments, and his conspicuous immaturity.

His weaknesses are unlimited. His acuity is less than remarkable. In short: he would mitigate the muscle of the Commander-in-Chief and thereby exacerbate the broadening spectrum of critical issues facing this nation.

The United States is hovering closer to the thin edge of the wedge, because too large a percentage of the men and women we voted to represent our best interests – and those who will yet finagle to win our votes – are preoccupied in grudge matches for supremacy within their club quarters.

Elected civil servants mulishly persist in placing their hands on the wrong end of the stick with regard to their responsibilities to the American People. We need to jog their memories about their job function (the salaries of which we pay for):

Specifically, they, at all times, are to acquaint us with the best possible alternatives for how to shelter and maintain our basic human rights and our country’s integrity. If we do not agree, or find fault, with their proposals, we have the right to say no, and to repeat the word “no” pending acceptable answers and/or solutions.

It is common knowledge that, despite their campaign pledges (and the fact that we elected office holders on the basis of those pledges), they invariably present this wry comeback to our inquiries: “I plan to set up a task force to look into the matter” – which is code for “I have no intention of earning my keep.”

Earning their keep requires results, and results would be evidence that they deserve the position for which we elected them. So far, the only proof provided is the majority of those men and women we placed in government positions are all mouth and goiter.

For instance, there is a singular critical matter those elected abjectly refuse to work on and put right: the mounting pressure for America to, once and for all, release itself from its ties to foreign oil. It is far more appealing to members of Congress to stage a mock trial (at taxpayer expense) and drag over the coals American oil executives rather than admit to, and immediately act upon, an obvious way out: the U.S. territory designated ANWR (Artic National Wildlife Refuge).

The crude oil we very badly need is located in abundance within ANWR, in the remotest and uninhabited area, where none of God’s creatures (except mosquitoes) would suffer inconvenience in the exploration and capture of the resource.

A neighbor nation to the south, Brazil, has done this. They tapped into a mother lode oil field approximately 150 miles out at sea, which should help keep them supplied for a significant length of time. I recognize the value of ingenuity in the face of urgency, and am pleased to pass on good wishes to Brazil for taking the necessary steps to ensure their petroleum needs are fulfilled.

In light of Brazil’s achievement, it is lunacy on the part of our elected representatives to mandate that America not exploit every other potential advantage available within our own borders to re-energize our stockpile of fuel.

Meanwhile, the price per gallon to fill our cars’ fuel tanks is rapidly approaching $5.00. This is precisely what Shell Oil’s Chief Executive Officer, John Hofmeister, cautioned the House Committee in late May would come to pass unless and until Congress removes the shackles and allows Big Oil to responsibly explore and drill for oil.

Rather than a constructive debate, an ill-mannered response to Mr. Hofmeister’s statement was delivered by Maxine Waters-(D-CA) in which she attempted to intimidate the CEO, saying the government would socialize [sic] the oil companies. Her clumsy threat was altogether an embarrassment to the office to which she was elected, counterproductive to those proceedings, and an insult to the People’s intelligence.

From Capitol Hill to our largest cities and smallest townships nationwide, scent of power has clouded common sense and sense of duty. Too many of the elected officials we chose to invest with our trust spend their terms in office undermining the laws specifically written to protect citizens. There are also those who, out of idleness, pursue – and needlessly squander taxpayer money on – phantom resolutions to unsubstantiated conundrums, such as the Lieberman-Warner Climate Change Act.

Elected officials have wrecked the inner cities with their unaccountability and allowed schools to fall to ruin. As our education systems deteriorate, so goes our children’s literacy.

Fortunately, there are diehard educators out there who are determined to fight fire with fire. They want kids to be – as they should be – our number one priority. Unfortunately, this example is one of few exceptions. Suitably educating our youngsters in secure and healthy environments is no longer the blanket rule.

Politicians hamstring law enforcement agencies (as with the deleterious Special Order 40 in Los Angeles). And when such initiatives crash and burn leaving only scorched earth in their wake, they lay blame on the federal government. While the blame games go on, the record of men, women, teenagers and children killed and injured increases by the second. The cycle is vicious.

Once they assume office, elected officials engage a bizarre 4-stage slant on central issues (e.g., national security precautions, economic stability, health and welfare, education, our country’s independence, protection of our constitutional privileges), which is directly linked to the countless problems we face today:

1.      Nothing is going to happen.

2.      Something might happen but we should do nothing about it.

3.      Maybe we should do something but there’s nothing we can do.

4.      Maybe there was something we could have done, but it’s too late now.

Example: It took three U.S. presidents to be assassinated (Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield and William McKinley) before Congress finally authorized the Secret Service to assume the full-time responsibility of protecting our Commanders in Chief.

This same jumbled attitude pertains to the Senate’s points of view today with respect to the War on Terror. They (primarily the liberals amongst them) continue to be tightfisted in recognizing the positive effects of the Surge. They pay no heed to the Iraqi people’s remarkable endeavors – working side by side with our magnificent military – to liberate themselves from fanatic ideologues. Instead, Nancy Pelosi had the impudence to give the credit for the Iraqis’ achieved goals to Iran.

To say the Speaker’s remarks are disquieting would be an understatement. She is, in point of fact, encouraging Iran to be aggressive. Her statements were both precarious and immoral in view of the fact Mahmoud Admadinejad considers the North American continent and the State of Israel his personal kill zones.

On the basis of such recklessness, it is essential that the following be circulated to our elected politicians (above all to those yet to be elected), which is the People’s response to their abortive 4-stage strategy:

1.      “We” are not confused adolescents.

2.      “We” will not be placated.

3.      “We” are not fools.

4.      “We” are mature citizens who demand for our children and for ourselves protection from terrorists, street gangs, exploding numbers of illegal immigrants, the escalating cost of fuel, the pandemic of irresponsible and wasteful bureaucrats, and higher taxes.

With a shifty general election looming on the horizon, it is mordantly clear that we become unceasingly involved in our own destiny. This is no longer just optional. It is mandatory.

Serious citizen-voters must take the time, either by telephone, facsimile, U.S. mail or electronic mail, and extend straightforward rulings to our elected representatives on their performance, including imminent and wounding legislation. We must be relentless until they clean up their act and rescind radical propositions, from unconditional amnesty for illegals to a plan (dreamed up by the Democrats’ nominee) to distribute $845 BILLION taxpayer dollars outside the United States, the outcome of which could further weaken our fragile economy as well as break the backs of the American People.

“We” put them there. It is now time to dust off the weed whacker, which would serve as fitting notice to the incoming POTUS. That is:

“…a rare psychiatric syndrome in which a symptom of psychosis (particularly a paranoid or delusional belief) is transmitted from one individual to others.”

My lead-in model for the ‘individual’ of the definition is Arnold Schwarzenegger. In 2003, he announced on Leno that he would run for governor at the recall election. The ‘others’ were the starry-eyed Californians who went idiotically bonkers with glee. Core conservatives, on the other hand, upon hearing the news tore through their earthquake emergency supplies for oxygen tanks and Valium.

Arnold’s campaign was brutally simple: He ran solely on his larger-than-life movie image and his pumped up celebrity. Stargazers were bedazzled. He won by a vast margin. He ran for re-election, sprinkled more fairy dust, and won again.

Five years later, and as a direct result of “Mr. Olympia’s” narcissism and gross inexperience, the State of California is circling the drain, being dragged down by a $20 billions budget deficit ($4 billions more than when former Governor Gray Davis deservedly was given the boot).

The subject ‘individual’ of this commentary is – you guessed it – Barack Hussein Obama. The ‘others’ are his all-embracing followers who swarm around him like ants on a Snickers bar, and on whom his paranoia and delusions have been transmitted.

Obama & Co.’s folie à deux has flourished to extremism, maintained only by spectral evidence. It began with his grand entrance onto the presidential racetrack:

Straight out of the starting gate, the senator alleged he possesses a mountain range of unique capabilities, and that he, and no one else, is emotionally equipped to run the White House. The Cherries Jubilee to this smorgasbord of self-declared exceptionality is his claim that he, unaided, commands the global insight of the wants and needs of America and all nations of the world.

That would be a neat trick if the senator were, in fact, a 21^st Century phenomenon (e.g., a Teddy Roosevelt-Albert Einstein-“Doogie Howser”), which would validate his march towards being the Democrats’ presumptive nominee. But possessing only the sound of an enfant terrible when, in reality, he is not overrules the full list of his allegations.

Obama’s expanding list of misstatements, his political rawness, his misanthrope analyses of America, his aloofness towards our military, his hypocritical stance on the American dream, and his mirage that he can single-handedly summit with and sway blood tyrants (though that fantasy seems to be going up in smoke) are testimonies to the fact that his clippers are nowhere big enough or sharp enough to ‘cut the cloth’ and succeed to the inhospitable post of President of the United States.

Obama (like Schwarzenegger) has manipulated thousands of Americans into believing only he can make things right – and those he conned stand ready to open their veins for him.

This mixture – this folie à deux – of Obama’s delusional beliefs and his flocks’ fanatic devotion is a point of distress for the other nine-tenths of Americans who are wondering – and praying – when this engine of lunacy will run out of steam.

The lion’s share of the credit for Obama’s unobstructed pace goes to the mainstream media for their saturation campaigns in his favor. Just like with Schwarzenegger, the MSM sank their canines onto Obama’s bubble and squeak then ignited a publicity spectacle worthy of C.B. DeMille to boost his candidature. They hacked into and squatted on all the mediums granting Obama carte blanche, nonstop exposure. They also burn the midnight oil in an effort to cloak his out-and-out lack of leadership skills (a few of them; certainly not all).

The MSM’s barefaced partiality paid off for Obama: His likeness is seen in every newscast. It is plastered across the worldwide web. His voice (bound with fugues of gaffes and pointless blasts against President Bush) is heard every minute of every hour nationwide and worldwide; and his name is in print and spoken more frequently than syndicated reruns of Law & Order. We are snowed under by the look, sound and leger de main of Barack Hussein Obama and the hordes he has brought to heel.

A best comparison to such over-the-top promotion is when a movie studio spends millions of dollars on splashy digital billboards, commercials and merchandise for what they have convinced themselves – and are trying to convince ticket buyers – is going to be a mega blockbuster:

An enormous budget! A gigantic cast of A-List stars! Powerful! Compelling! Yada, yada, yada.

That, alone, should raise suspicions of its worthiness.

Then, after all the fuss and hard sell, the blockbuster turns out to be a mega stinker and sinks like a bucket of nails on opening weekend (which cancels the studio’s celebratory sushi & sake banquet – and everybody goes home hungry and, in all respects, sober).

Just like a movie with hundreds of millions of dollars on the line, Barack is (as Arnold was) an untested, colossal gamble. The obvious difference is big box office is not the measuring stick for a successful president. Our country’s freedoms and survival should in no way depend upon the aural or physical magnetism of a particular candidate.

A movie is a commodity. Obama also is a commodity – a jejune commodity, which is anathema for the White House. His overtures are merely guesses, and guesses are neither facts nor solutions. Worse, there is a growing danger of the drilled-in-stone obedience sworn to him by his followers who, without reservation, accept his speculations as realities.

To my jaundiced eye, those mosh pit images of Obama supporters resemble too closely other disturbing dominant-submissive profiles:

- The masses that ‘heiled’ Hitler.

- Those who, at this moment, are vowing to Allah to decapitate America.

- The glut of illegal aliens who audaciously wave their home countries’ flags in our faces and demand immediate amnesty.

- The dim-wit voters who overdosed on star glitter and seated Schwarzenegger in the state capital.

Virtually everyone who voted for Arnold mimics Peter the Fisherman: they ‘deny, deny, deny’ they had anything to do with the state’s financial catastrophe. Those with common sense and dignity, however, admit complicity and wish they had never heard of Schwarzenegger. In any event, the damage is done.

President Ronald Reagan said: “You don’t become President. The Presidency is an institution and you have temporary custody of it.”

Obama has ignored – or is ignorant of – this principle. He seems to consider the Presidency as a tinker toy. His dumbstruck devotees – his life support – are his play pals. He has hoodwinked himself into believing that the hearts and minds of all Americans, as well as those of our allies and enemies, are silly putty for him to mold to his outlandish way of thinking.

Investing even bare minimum faith in a man with such arrogance would be the same as sinking all your money into a non-FDIC bank with a flashy name that caters exclusivly to elitist glitterati but deals junk bonds to the middle class – or expecting a garage mechanic to perform brain surgery.

Pay close attention to the next Obama rally. Watch and listen to him spout his hollow oratory to the bug-eyed thousands he has bent to his will (“…a rare psychiatric syndrome in which a symptom of psychosis (particularly a paranoid or delusional belief) is transmitted from one individual to others”) and you will fully appreciate the meaning of shared madness.

by Julian Krasta

Jimmy Carter is a ticking time bomb strapped around America’s neck, and his mangled mentality is having a cruel field day with our nation’s integrity and optimism.

Power in the hands of the wrong person becomes venom. If there was one man who should have never been President, it was Carter. He was toxic then and is more so today – evidenced by his display of open-handed friendship to our enemies, which is a backhand blow to Americans.

No one who lived through Carter’s four years in office can deny that he was diametrically influential in carving the wide path for terrorists. His wholesale unresponsiveness to the toppling of the Shah of Iran and the subsequent infested takeover by the grime-skin Ayatollah Khomeini and al-Qaida has driven us to where we are today. My guess is Carter strives to reboot the bloody fiascos in the Middle East of which he and his addled administration were principal players.

It is an eerie compulsion that keeps Carter in that stupor of trashy-minded indifference. An impious example is last week he placed a wreath at Yasser Arafat’s grave. That would be like me sending a candygram to the Bolsheviks who murdered my great-grandparents. No penance exists that would absolve me of such a betrayal. Yet with Carter, the harshest admonishment from anyone was a mere “naïve.”

Carter should have trucked into the Iranian desert. If he had any sense of decency he would have placed a lasting remembrance on the site where, in April 1980, American Servicemen of Operation Eagle Claw died and were injured while attempting to rescue 66 Americans taken from the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and held hostage. Instead, Carter outright insulted those soldiers and their families – and every member of our military everywhere – by displaying obeisance to a dead fanatic with whom he shares no cultural bloodline.

Stateside, I hear little or nothing from Democrat candidates Clinton and Obama decrying Carter’s inflammatory activities. Obama did express a weak-knee “fundamental disagreement” with Carter. He said this for the benefit of Jewish voters, most of who are, as I am, unshakably skeptical about his sketchy abilities to lead this nation as well as protect our alliance with Israel.

Obama, who is as muddled as Carter, said, “We must not negotiate with a terrorist group intent on Israel’s destruction.” He added, “We should only sit down with Hamas if they renounce terrorism, recognize Israel’s right to exist, and abide by past agreements.”

First, if this freshman was really on the stick, his response should have been, “Mr. Carter’s words and actions are fundamentally unethical. Furthermore, we never negotiate with terrorists.”

Second, for him to allude to a sit-down with Hamas is tantamount to saying, “If you’re good boys, we’ll give you a cupcake. And if you’re really good, you can have ice cream, too.”

It is no mystery, therefore, why Carter supports Obama for President: They are both drunk on their own words.

Everything out of Carter’s mouth is a lava-flow of rogue dissension. His actions are equally contemptible. Yet he is allowed to sully the land of his birth to terrorist suicide cults who fall down laughing in the face of agreements, because their singular mission is to lash the world into unmitigated obedience to Islam.

Carter is not a weak sister; he is a criminally weak sister. His behavior betrays a pathology. His misshapen mind is pulling our credibility apart, because he still suffers from horrified disbelief over the loss of his power as President. Power to Carter is what booze is to a raging alcoholic: a poison without which he cannot exist – and the more he has the more dangerous he becomes.

Someone should lay down a spike strip under the Carter caravan to slow and bring to a halt his long-winded lunacy, because that infectious negative influence – fertilized by the mainstream media – could spawn a replicant of his administration, which would throttle the Presidency.

No energy in the universe can alter that hairy troll called infamy. However, the rancid anti-America spells Carter is vocalizing could reanimate some of the very worst of it: his four years in the White House. The only difference would be a President Barack Hussein Obama (who toe-taps his patriotism only when it is convenient for him).

by Julian Krasta

When he first stepped out on the world stage, Barack Hussein Obama seemed to most conservatives both beautiful and disturbing, as one might feel when casting a virgin glance upon a Salvador Dali painting: It makes no sense, it is a bit alarming, but the colors are pretty.

The other day, Barack Hussein Obama made another alarming statement, this one about small-town American voters, which brought out into the open his guilty secret: He is a spoiled and bitter child.

Ambitious politicians address expectant crowds often with “I can,” “I will,” or “I promise.” Typically, there are no images to go with their words. B. Hussein, however, has, and with broad and uneven strokes, splashed a redesigned America on the blank canvases that are his supporters’ minds. The vision they have grabbed onto is, from a balloon ride distance, a color-blended Utopia. Up close, it is stark, very costly, divided, divisive, and unsafe.

Obama displayed painful earnestness when he proposed a change the people can believe in. Unfortunately for him, comments he made about his grandmother being a ‘typical white person’ – and his backpedaling to attempt to reverse its base meaning – has exposed two irrefutable facts: (1) The “change” is pure fiction, because (2) his pallette, by his own admission, is smeared with only two shades: black on the left, white on the right.

In view of such inconsistency, as well as his rambling discourse following the Wright bruhaha in which his deep-seated obsession over race tumbled out, conservatives and auspicious Democrats have watched his ascent and listened to his avowals with enhanced caution. As he spiraled higher, caution turned to concern. With this hottest accusation (about voter bitterness, and on the heels of Wright’s frightful remarks), concern intensified.

I am not jumping for joy with this newest exposé. Rather, I am relieved. It serves to reconfirm that he is underneath the surface shine just another sloppy pop idol. Like all brat luminaries who are the darlings of the liberal media, he believes – or his puppeteers have led him to believe – that he can say or do anything and get away with it. For anyone to try to convince me Obama is qualified to lead this nation would be the same as trying to convince me Martin Bormann was an OK fella.

Obama, the official glamorizer of the liberals’ fractured philosophy, will go on with his lordly amusement of making outlandish conjectures about how he and he alone can cure America’s troubles. With no list of accomplishments to his credit since becoming a senator, this delinquent naïveté is fast becoming a point of great anxiety.

Obama’s immaturity is so tragic it is almost poetic.

The mainstream media will, as they always do, play down Obama’s numerous faux pas. Obama, in an attempt to maintain his artificial patina, will place the onus for his goof-ups on everyone else. His resolute followers will write articles defending him and engage in blown reactor shouting matches with us “xenophobes” for our audacity to speak or print the truth about him. Nevertheless, this political ingénue’s words are out there for eternity. Just as no earthly power can resurrect the dead, Obama can never change what he said.

Obama’s meteoric rise has unquestionably affected how he views his own mortality. Instead of window dressing for his mob of doting fans and highbrow supporters and voicing bizarre and self-congratulatory statements, he should re-register at Occidental College and take a crash course on Ancient Rome. Specifically:

When a general returned from a victorious campaign, he would enter Rome triumphantly in his chariot ahead of his legions wearing gold armor and electrum that flashed brightly in the sun. Thousands of exuberant citizens greeted him. They laid flowers before him and cheered wildly as if he were the god Apollo in human form. The moment must have been exhilarating.

Here is where Rome’s emperors were shrewd. They knew such adoration could easily cause the most sensible man to believe he is invincible and redoubtable – a god. With this in mind, they placed a solitary, unobtrusive man beside the general in his chariot. As they paraded past the adoring mob, the man’s sole duty was to repeat this warning in the general’s ear: “You are only a man.”

by Julian Krasta

Never in our short history as a nation has America confronted a world as broken and fragmented as the present, because never in our experience has there existed an enemy who defiles Holy Scripture to justify murder.

It has become commonplace to condemn and forewarn against Islamic terrorism. Sadly, it is now equally common for such condemnation and forewarnings to go unheard, and unheeded, all thanks to the liberal mainstream media and their masters, the liberal politicians.

With their masters’ approval, the MSM clamp a lid on the positives and flood negatives at our eyes and in ears like oil flowing from a busted crankcase. The People’s consciousness saturates with viscous mendacities, and their ability to rationalize right from wrong and good from evil is shortcircuited by a jumble of left-wing soundbites and predisposed partial reporting.

Knotted to this chaos of communications is the open-ended rabid derision by teacup poodles in the Senate. Cracking whips on the sidelines are those callous, noisy hypocrites who fleece the American taxpayers then flip around and poke in the eye the administration and our own intelligence and military experts – the very professionals who give unselfishly of their accredited knowledge and expertise so that our continued existence does not suffer further damage.

The epidemic of finger pointing by senators at our generals is reprehensible. They should instead lay unswerving blame on Osama bin Ladin and his corrupt clique of assassins. It was they, not President Bush or our military leaders and courageous warriors, who executed cold-blooded murder the morning of September 11, 2001 – when all innocence in the world was lost.

Had those horrors never succeeded, there would be no war in Iraq. Here at home, the twits with ‘Kerry for President’ stickers flaking off their car bumpers would not have Iraq to use as an anti-anthem to fire spitballs at our nation’s defenders and our honored dead. Saddam would still be in power and preying on his own peoples with a blizzard of abuse. He also would be building on his cache of WMDs with, no doubt, an anxious boost from his comrade in death, Mahmoud Admadinejad, with his advanced centrifuges to enrich uranium.

This, alone, is proof that, eventually, the animosity in that region of the Middle East against the United States would blow sky high. There would be war, because Democrats and their RINO toadies stuffed the critical issue of national defense and security in the Senate freezers.

Conservatives and judicious Democrats are revolted with the bloated, bellyaching Senate and Congress who step on the foul line when it comes to America’s safety. As an example, exactly one year ago, Speaker of the House Pelosi pulled a political squeeze play: She overrode the limits of her new responsibilities, packed her pumps and jetted, with full entourage, to the Middle East on what she called a “fact-finding tour.”

Nancy’s desperation to try to convince us she is a major league slugger drove her to that barefaced breach of protocol: “0 and 1.” She then hopped over to Damascus for a cosmic tête-à-tête with its leaders: “0 and 2”. Hell or high water, she was going to make a statement. Twelve months later, we are still waiting for that statement: “Full swing, strike three.”

In October, Pugnacious Pelosi came again out of left field and ramrodded Turkey with a resolution to vote as genocide the deaths of over a million Armenian nationals – during World War I. Nancy thought she was going to score with that move. Instead, it was instrumental in causing the spike in oil prices, which is hitting us all like a line drive in the gut.

The hat trick came this past week when she hurled a haymaker at President Bush, promising to block a vote for a free trade agreement with Colombia. Quoting White House press secretary Dana Perino, what Nancy has done is “unprecedented in the history of negotiating trade deals in announcing that Democrats would change the rules in the middle of the game.”

The friendly competition between the White House and the Democrat Congress was, at first, comical, like kicking dirt on the ump’s shoes after a bad call. The rivalry on the part of the Democrats, however, has devolved to being grubby, stupefying and embarrassing. Yes, we still have a bone to pick with the President when it comes to spending and a slew of other matters. To his credit, he has been working triple shifts to put a stop to our annihilation, so I have no problem cutting George a little slack – not so with Congress.

These slackjawed lawmakers are holding the American people captive. Jailers include the insufferable ACLU (who, e.g., strangled to death the joy of poking fun at ourselves, and regenerated it into a snarling brute they christened “political incorrectness”); ‘sanctury’ city councils (on “The welcome mat is out for all you millions of illegal aliens” debacle); and Congress (on our President’s efforts to snuff out terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan).

When outside threats provoke us, Americans immediately integrate – I will repeat that for B. Hussein Obama: integrate – and stand unyielding as one. How and with whom do we stand when threats erupt from members of our own team?

We are in danger of glue-brain voters electing either the “full of himself” or “she misstated” Democrat. If so, we all will endure four more torturous years of him or her (and him) and a free for all Congress who altogether refuses to play fair & square with Republicans on the safeguarding of America.

Furthermore, should such a misfit squad come to be, and continue their intolerant conduct of demonstrating to the world that they are just a bunch of power junkies, ‘We, the People’ might, in due course, lose our home advantage.

By Julian Krasta

While the three presidential candidates scuttle towards the big prize, the real-time issue of national defense against terrorist aggressors here and abroad remains the front-row topic.

Since time in memorial, legions of men of fractured ambition have left carpets of corpses in their wake because of ill-conceived, all-consuming greed, envy and hate. These same neuroses survive today. The disparity now is, tormentors are equipped with weapons of mass destruction and are sway to deluded impulses to gun down and eviscerate the sleeping giant, America.

As this threat persists, two questions beg answers:

1. Is our nation suitably fortified?

2. Do Americans understand the lengths they need to go to be prepared for the worst?

The answer to both is “yes” – but also “no.”

“Yes” to the first, because America has the greatest concentration of ground, sea and air tactical forces in the world: courageous soldiers, sailors, marines and fighter pilots far from home, where they are placing their lives willingly in harm’s way in order to keep us here at home safe from harm. (Many have died. To each, which includes their families and friends, I say, Thank you… and God bless you.)

“No” to question No. 1 arises because our sitting Congress is a twisted mass of liberal red tape. The result is the safeguards necessary for our country’s protection have fallen far down their critical must-do list. Why, you ask? Because, while our homeland is busting at the seams from the countless numbers of illegal aliens for whom everything from soup to nuts is “On the House,” there are not enough of our valiant soldiers to defend cities and states if the worst occurs… again.

Additionally, the “no” to No. 1 has been exacerbated by Democrat members of the House of Representatives, particularly their leaders, on whose necks, in my opinion, the axe should fall without mercy come November. Their gross negligence in purposely allowing the Protect America Act to expire in February is a clear threat to every single American.

The Democrats did not act alone. They worked in concert with trial lawyers who use their “officer of the court” status as an apparatus to beguile specific legislation so that the outcome benefits only them. Those lobbyists won, or rather bought, their argument (and other outrageous conflict-ridden contretemps) by disgorging thousands of favor dollars into the Democrats’ honey pot.

The return on their cash investment was a succès fou. In plain “Americans lose” English, the trial lawyers, with malicious intent, triumphed ignominiously, in that they caused to be blocked all efforts on the part of House Republicans to reinstate the Protect America Act, which has been officially dead in the water as of February 16, 2008.

As for the over-powdered culprits in the House (who anoint themselves daily with the F-word: “failure” [in Iraq]), by accepting tainted money they are indiscreetly admitting that a fatter party fund is more important to them than the lives and property of the present and future generations of Americans.

Whom do you imagine is wedged in the passageways and dead ends of their money-changing labyrinth? You guessed it, the taxpayers. We comprise the low-, middle- and high-income filers and every mom & pop store, every multinational, transnational, public, private, commercial, boutique, average, conglomerate and mega-corporation.

Whether the liberals like to hear it or not, and they do not, it is we the taxpayers – not elected officials – who are the only legitimate body that shapes and keeps alive the amalgam we call America. Yet our hard work, our tax dollars, our earned interest, our safety is more shabbily regarded than the millions of revenue-gluttonous illegal immigrants.

Once again, it falls onto the taxpayers to be vigilant watchdogs for us and our children, and our children’s future. It is up to us to prepare and be ready for the worst, which is in no way difficult.

The answer to question No. 2, above, is this. For all potential large-scale emergencies, there are steps that are vital to ensure we get through the first drastic days. Many Internet sites are devoted to preparedness.

Below are three of the best of those Internet sites. Take the time to study their contents and make emergency lists, and stock up against those lists. You would be surprised (I know I was shocked) to learn just how “unprepared” at home we are once we looked at the drills and supplies essential to keep going when the going gets rough.

Pretend another Hurricane Katrina will be bearing down on your house in seven days’ time. Start now and go to whatever lengths necessary in order to be fully equipped.

It is senseless to depend on backbiting Senators and Congresspersons to protect us and our kids, our family members and pets, or our real property, especially since self-seekers within House chambers have demonstrated that their primary concern is over what brings them and their party political more booty.

(Los Angeles Fire Department Emergency Preparedness List)

(Being Ready)

by Julian Krasta

The veneer is peeling, the wax is melting … and hell may indeed be freezing over – and after what appeared to be a dazzling, near-perfect pitch campaign reminiscent of the flawlessly timed cadences of Johnny Mathis when he sang ‘Chances Are.’

From where I sit, the wunderkind’s façade has slipped, and what we might be seeing now is the tried and true Barack Obama. Like water seeking its own level, his principles, too, have bubbled up through the glossy surface – and they are not so wunderbar.

Up to now, Obama – using fast & loose rhetoric – has gotten himself farther up the social and political ladders than any other non-caucasian in American history. The devotion and cheering on of the African-American communities and, by enormous measure, the white communities have aided in propelling him straight toward the highest, most coveted executive position this country has to offer.

He has played his role beautifully, delivering long stretches of imaginative, albeit immature, speculation, which his followers have eaten up like free ice cream on a hot day. According to those adoring fans, there seems to be nothing he could ever say that is wide of the mark. One liberal ladyfriend even said to me, “If Barack could sprout wings, we’d see him fly.”

His ability to fly notwithstanding, Obama’s long-term, personal association with a certain racist pastor has grounded him, at least for the time being. This close association might possibly cancel out a significant share of all the good will, trust, and hope for progress – and I am not talking just in terms of the Presidency. I include the ongoing, exhaustive and frustrating wars against racial prejudice in America in general, which we were winning.

Each inch-by-bloody-inch victory was bringing us closer, similar in nature to the centuries-long vicious turmoil in the Middle East where countries are crying out for freedom, democracy and equality. When you add up all those inches that we here in America have gained, everyone would realize that we had in fact come a very long way.

Then, just at the moment when evolution occurs, another hothead – another homegrown jihadist – comes scurrying out of his hole and starts hurling verbal IEDs in every direction causing widespread damage. This hothead – this pastor – refuses to let go of the past, because he is not happy unless he dredges up old ghosts and shoots every good intention in the head to impede social advancement and cameraderie.

The stage was set for the pastor’s ignominious emergence (like an irascible first-time homeowner who purposely blows his leaves into a neighbor’s yard, “Because now I can.”). He must have been thinking that his chummy friendship with Obama gave him the right to platform farcical and hateful statements such as “The government invented AIDS to kill black people,” and “The government is building concentration camps for black people,” and “The government provides drugs to blacks to hold them down,” etcetera, ad nauseum.

What I find astonishing is not what this pastor blurted but rather that Obama, who has been mentored by this person for over twenty years, claims he was not aware of his most intimate feelings, and has clumsily made excuses for same, which are all unquestionably uber radical and unprogressive. It is for his obvious reluctance to put the pastor fully and equivocally in his place that I perceive a rapid withering of Obama’s perfect presentations of himself.

When I had read the pastor’s rantings, I thought for a moment they were Stokely Carmichael’s words rising from his grave (about the cancer that took his life). He had said, it was “… given to me by the forces of American imperialism and others who conspired with them.” He further claimed that the FBI had put the disease in his body to assassinate him.

Oceans of water have passed since Carmichael was on the scene and sparked the term Black Power. His attitude nonetheless remains inured in the pastor’s heart and mind. He has proven without a shadow of doubt that he, and persons like himself (and not all of them black) who perpetually and unnecessarily let fly the words ‘racist’ and ‘racism’ at our faces and into our collective consciousness, have no intention of changing one iota either their points of view or their off-color tune any time soon.

Strangely enough, I must thank the pastor for his horrid honesty. Until now, conservatives have chosen to regard Obama’s spell over his followers as charming. No prima facie evidence we have presented has been beefy enough to cause Democrats and liberals to understand and accept the fact that he is not yet qualified or experienced to assume the mantle of Commander in Chief – most particularly at this volatile time.