So, I’ve been hosting a website of one form or another for ten years now. A lot has changed since I first started writing my own HTML and getting myself in trouble with web content. My high school administrators actually accused me of “Brainwashing” people with my website when I was a Sophomore in High School. That’s when I knew having a web presence was going to be fun.

Anyway, being the pessimist and cynic that I am, I thought it would be fun to look back and list the 10 Dumbest Things of the decade.

Technically, I don’t believe the decade starts until 2011, but seeing as how I’m the only one who knows how to count to 10 anymore, I might as well play along. Nevertheless, Happy New Year to you all!

10. De-Baathification
After WWII, the Allies persecuted the leaders of the Nazi Regime responsible for the humanitarian disaster they were responsible for, but let the rest of the Nazi Party remain in tact under a new “Christian” name. They did this because Nazis hated Communists as much as we did and if we got rid of all the Nazis, there’d be nothing left in West Germany but the Communists. We just turned a blind eye and let everybody sing the “I Was Not A Nazi Polka.”

Well, post-invasion Iraq was very similar to the post-war Germany. For a very long period, only Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party was allowed to operate in the country, not unlike Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Party. Well meaning politicians, local officials, and military personnel were forced to swear an oath to Saddam and his party in order to do their patriotic duty to serve and protect. As was the case in post-war Germany, not everybody who had a Baath Party membership card in their wallet was a vicious war criminal. In fact, they were an integral part in the day-to-day functioning of Iraqi society.

Paul Wolfowitz came in to oversee and govern occupied Iraq and one of his earliest policies was de-Baathication. This meant the complete disbandment of local political structures, police forces, and the entire military. Not only did this policy leave a void that would be filled by radical Islamists, but it forced the United States to spend billions of dollars to rebuild a basic infrastructure that was already there when we entered the country.

Like the Nazi Party after the war, the leaders of the Baath Party needed to be tried and punished for their horrendous crimes during the reign of Saddam Hussein, but it was irresponsible and shortsighted to completely dismantle every molecule of society that the Baath Party had touched during its 35 year reign.

9. Michigan and Florida Destroyed The Primary System in 2007/2008
Mike Huckabee’s blunders are further down on the list, but before you get all pissy at me for listing them in the top 10 dumbest of the decade, let’s agree that Michigan and Florida are the reason why Mike Huckabee is the host of a boring talk show instead of the President, or at least the defeated Republican candidate for President.

For the first time in the history of modern primaries, the winner of the Republican nomination did not finish in the Top 3 in Iowa. The 2008 Republican Primary was a demolition derby more than it was an example of Democracy in action. The reason for this is that Michigan and Florida moved their primaries up way ahead of schedule to get a say in the process. Unfortunately, this meant candidates would have to either divide their precious resources between more states or forfeit entire states to try and focus on what were perceived as the most winnable ones.

Had Huckabee not had to spend time campaigning in Michigan while Fred Thompson was attacking him in South Carolina or been able to focus on the Super Tuesday States instead of campaigning throughout Florida, both of those dates might have looked MUCH better for him.

Although everybody and their uncle demonized the hell out of me when I said it in 2008, I think there is general consensus now that John McCain was nothing shy of a piss awful Presidential candidate. His failure to win even 50% of the primary and caucus votes shows that McCain simply survived the demolition derby rather than win the support of Republican primary goers. And both the party and our message suffered for it in the General Election.

Things may have been better or worse with with Huckabee or Romney, but it goes without saying that John McCain was not the best candidate the Republicans fielded and the final responsibility for that falls on the shoulders of Michigan and Florida for screwing up the primary process.

8. Drum Sets with Rock Band and Guitar Hero
I don’t actually own the drum set, but I’ve been to Best Buy and my friends’ houses enough to know it belongs on the 10 dumbest video game gimmicks of all time. Look, the idea of this is brilliant. The guitar thing is taking off because it’s tons of fun, but you can only have one guitar and one bass, how can we make this a party game? Drums! It’s very reasonable.

The problem is that you’re using real wood drumsticks on fake, hard plastic drums. The sound being produced by this whacking completely drowns out the sound of the music you’re video game buddy band is supposed to be playing to. The final result is a bunch of clicking and clacking from two plastic guitars and a plastic drum set that sounds like an elementary school music room filled with a bunch of kindergartners when the teacher leaves the room with Billy because he got a drumstick in his nose.

Billy would have made my list for the 1990s’ “Dumbest of the Decade.”

7. 9/11 Conspiracy Theorists
I’m curious to know how many of these people thought TWA Flight 800 was a government cover up of a terrorist attack prior to the 1996 Olympics but the September 11, 2001 attacks were the doing of our own government.

Actually, let me come right out and call these idiots the most unpatriotic people in our entire country. Seriously, the Communist Party of America has higher quality American citizens then these jackasses. Here’s why. These morons are going around saying that our government intentionally killed almost 3,000 American civilians on a single day just to invade a couple of countries that were in the way. And what do they do about it? They make videos that they watch at fancy tin foil hat parties.

Believing that terrorists were responsible for the attacks, I enlisted as in the United States Air Force weeks later. I wanted to kill the *#(%*#$#@!s responsible for killing 3,000 of my American brothers and sisters. If these conspiracy whack jobs loved their country and truly believed in this bull crap nonsense, they would have marched on Washington, D.C. with firearms and tried to kill everyone they thought was responsible for killing their fellow countrymen.

But no, they’re pissy little un-American cowards who are too afraid to stand up for what they believe in. So instead, they’ll attack the character of everybody who dares disagree with them. That’s fine, I’m sure Rosie O’Donnell and the rest of these kooks will have a great time burning in Hell together.

6. Windows Vista
WTF? I mean seriously.

5. Benazir Bhutto Almost Begged To Be Assassinated
It was December 26, 2007 and I was hanging out with my cousin Tom (a commenter on this blog and my favorite liberal) and his girlfriend at a coffee shop in Valparaiso, IN. We got to talking about the Global War on Terrorism and the topic of Benazir Bhutto came up. She had returned from exile in October and there were a few attempts on her life since then, but President Musharraf’s “State of Emergency” made it difficult for terrorists to get anywhere near her. Well, a little earlier, Bhutto got her way and the “State of Emergency,” which also restricted her ability to campaign, was lifted.

Tom asked me for my opinion about this and I said something along the lines of, “It’s absolutely stupid. She’s going to be dead by the end of the week.”

I left for Iowa to campaign for Governor Huckabee the morning of the 27th and didn’t have cell phone reception most of the way out there… and to be honest, I was too busy rocking out to Uriah Heep to hear my cell phone anyway. Well, Tom had left a message on my voice mail. “Dude! Bhutto is dead! How the *#%@ did you know that?”

I was working for the government at the time as a terrorism analyst, so I had to call him and assure him that I didn’t divulge any secrets to him and his girlfriend and nobody would be coming to take them away. It’s the sort of analysis you regret ever making, but it was really just common sense. People wanted her dead. People were actively trying to kill her. Social restrictions keep good AND bad people away from her. When you have a controversial politician who some people want dead in enormous mixed with unchecked masses of people – bad things are going to happen.

I don’t want to say that Bhutto deserved to die in a suicide bombing because that would be cruel, but she damn well should have known better. What the blazes did she think was going to happen?

5. Taking Politics Beyond the Waters Edge
This was the decade for people being absolutely stupid with their political views, wasn’t it?

2003: The Dixie Chicks attack President Bush and Texas in London. Coincidentally, they testified before Congress because Texas radio stations stopped playing their music after the incident. John McCain defended them, arguing that their political statements shouldn’t affect whether they are heard on the radio or not.

2006: Nancy Pelosi and a “bi-partisan” Congressional delegation went to Syria to meet with President Assad, despite the fact that then-Secretary of State Rice specifically told them not to go.

2009: Mike Huckabee went to Israel and made the President of the United States sound like a Jew-hating Nazi, hell-bent on Israel’s destruction. Huckabee defended himself by saying he was “just a tourist.” Yeah, except that he’s a politician, was invited to speak at political dinners, and was followed around by Israeli media the entire time.

Look, when you’re in the United States, you can say whatever you like about the President and our country. But when you’re overseas, we show a united front. Always. That’s been the unwritten rule since before WWII and it’s gotten us through that World War and the Cold War. Let’s not abandon our senses now and take our politics overseas. United We Stand, under Huckabee, Pelosi, and the Dixie Chicks we fall.

4. Hanging Chads
That’s right, Florida! You screwed up two of the three Presidential Elections of the decade. Good going!

If our Republic should fail by the end of the century, historians will look back to the finale to the 2000 Presidential Race and use it as the catalyst. The worst part of it all was the whole “chad” thing. Pregnant Chads, hanging chads, punctured chads, and the list of chads goes on. The 2000 Recount of Florida proved once and for all to every American their their vote may have actually not counted.

Look, I believe Bush won Florida fair and square. Why there were recounts only in the most heavily Democratic areas is beyond me, but the month long argument over chads was really what annoyed the heck out of me.

Next time, just let Fox News declare the winner early and save us the trouble of having to sit through this again.

3. Pharmaceutical Ads
The last time I checked, the United States was one of only two industrialized nations that allowed pharmaceutical companies to advertise. It actually used to be illegal, but we have President Clinton to thank for reversing that. Now, we all get to watch some 50 year old man talk to his reflection in a mirror about his malfunctioning penis.

Oh, what was that, miss? You’re feeling sad and unmotivated? Well, there’s a pill for that. Actually, there are a few hundred thousand pills for that. You’re life might actually suck like hell, but at least you don’t have to feel like it does! Any one of these hundreds of thousands of pills can make you a good little soldier, carrying through with your miserable life so that you’ll be tolerable to your husband/kids/dog. Oh, yeah, we should probably mention that there’s a chance of upset stomach, nausea, dry mouth, blindness, irresistible sexual urges, increased thoughts of suicide, and problems urinating. You also shouldn’t take these pills if you have a family history of kidney, heart, or liver problems as these hundreds of thousands of pills have been reported to decrease their kidney, hear, and liver function. If your kidneys, liver, or heart stop functioning, you should stop taking these pills and call your doctor immediately.

Ask your doctor for hundreds of thousands of pills today!

Seriously, you if you’re one of the people who watches these ads and thinks to yourself, “Gee, I do feel like that sometimes,” you need to stop watching TV because you’re an idiot and the only way pharmacutical companies are going to stop peddling their drugs on television is if idiots like you stop talking to your doctors about the damn hundreds of thousands pills you heard about since your last visit.

2. Washington Keeps Willingham as Football Head Coach
Seriously, Washington is supposed to be an institution for higher learning. Aren’t you sort of setting a bad example by doing something as stupid as not only hiring Ty Willingham, but keeping him around for 4 losing seasons? Yeah, how did that 4th year work out for you? Oh, that’s right, in the 120 year history of Washington football, that was your only winless season.

That was REALLY dumb, Washington.

1. The NEW Game Ball (NBA)
Holy crap, this was stupid. In 2006, the NBA introduced a “New Game Ball.” The only problem was that they didn’t bother testing it with much more than an insanely small sampling of bench warmers during the off season. The “superior grip” of the new ball, which was created by the new microfiber composite material, actually tore up and blistered players’ fingers, had different aerodynamics, and (ironically) was more difficult to hold because of how it handled moisture.

The players revolted, taking it up through the players union. In turn, NBA Commissioner David Stern gave up on the NEW game ball and went back to the traditional leather ball that every NBA player and fan grew up playing with.

Seriously, even if the new ball was better than the traditional leather ball, what did you expect to happen? Every player who has a bad game is going to rush to blame it on the new ball. What’s more, these guys have spent 22-40 years playing with leather basketballs. Coaches have been using leather basketballs for close up to 60 years. By changing the ball, you’re asking them to re-learn the absolute, most fundamental part of the game – the ball.

That was absolutely dumb!

The Federal Reserve System. Founded in 1913 “in response to prior financial panics and bank runs, the most severe of which being the Panic of 1907“, was founded on an ungrounded belief that capitalism was to blame for financial disasters. Many of us that read/write for/comment on this site probably shake our head at this comment, and I’m one of them. I don’t believe that the creation of the Federal Reserve was necessary, and was created mostly for political reasons. Not necessarily to “control the economy” (I don’t adhere to that theory), but instead to use as a political stunt to show that the government is supposedly doing everything possible to help the people.

The current responsibilities of the FED include (list from Wikipedia):

To address the problem of banking panics

To serve as the central bank for the United States

To strike a balance between private interests of banks and the centralized responsibility of government

• To supervise and regulate banking institutions
• To protect the credit rights of consumers

To manage the nation’s money supply through monetary policy to achieve the sometimes-conflicting goals of

• maximum employment
• stable prices, including prevention of either inflation or deflation^[33]
• moderate long-term interest rates

To maintain the stability of the financial system and contain systemic risk in financial markets

To provide financial services to depository institutions, the U.S. government, and foreign official institutions, including playing a major role in operating the nation’s payments system

• To facilitate the exchange of payments among regions
• To respond to local liquidity needs

To strengthen U.S. standing in the world economy

Now, in theory, I agree: the Federal Reserve wasn’t needed to accomplish these things. However, my main argument against the elimination of the Federal Reserve is that it is far too late for such a thing to happen. At this point, the FED is so ingrained into our system that ripping this bureaucratic nightmare leech could result in fatal blood loss (to use a less than flattering analogy). Will I concede that the FED has, in many cases, caused more harm that good? Absolutely. However, let’s say that tomorrow the Federal Reserve System ceases to exist (not realistic in the least bit, but lets pretend for a moment). The panic that it would bring amongst investors would see the stock market crash to almost nothing. Suddenly, businesses that are relying on the FED to keep interest rates artificially low would close down over night, and massive lay offs and unemployment rates would finally slam that nail into our coffin.

Do I think that the FED should be held accountable for their mistakes? Absolutely. In fact, I have an entire Economic Bill of Rights that I believe should be passed. Not only would such legislation be more realistic than the elimination of the FED, it would accomplish what many of us on here want (accountability and transparency) with out completely demolishing the economy. The Economic Bill of Rights, which I found in the book “Common Sense Economics” and fell in love with, are as follows:

a. No government shall use its regulatory powers to take private property, either partially or in its entirety, for public use without paying the owner the full market value of the property taken.

In recent years state and local governments in particular have used regulations to take or control private property without compensation, even though the property owner had violated the rights of no one. The courts have generally allowed them to do so as long as a legislative body deemed that the action was “in the public interest” or that the taking did not deny the owner all uses of his or her property. This is an open door to abuse that must be closed.

b. The rights of individuals to compete in a business or profession and/or buy and sell legally tradable goods and services at mutually acceptable terms shall not be infringed by Congress or any of the States.

The freedom of individuals to compete in business and engage in voluntary exchange activities is a cornerstone of both economic freedom and progress. Price controls, business and occupational entry restraints, laws restricting the exchange of goods and services across state boundaries, and other government regulations that restrain trade should be prohibited.

c. Congress shall not levy taxes or impose quotas on either imports or exports.

The U.S. Constitution already prohibits the imposition of these trade restraints on exports. This prohibition should also be extended to imports. The freedom to trade is a basic human right, just like freedom of speech and freedom of religion. There is no reason why Americans should no be permitted to buy from and sell to whomever will give them the best deal, even if the trading partner lives in another country.

d. A 3/4ths approval of both Houses of Congress shall be required for all expenditure programs of the federal government. At least 2/3rds approval of the legislative branches of state government shall be required for the approval of expenditures by state governnments.

Remember, if a project is really productive, there will always be a method of finance that will result in everyone gaining. Thus, the super majority provisions need not eliminate projects that truly increase wealth. They will, however, make it more difficult for special interests to use government as a tool for plunder. They will also help keep the spending activities of governments as the local level where competition among governments provides a stronger incentive to serve the interests of all citizens.

e. A 3/4ths approval of both Houses of Congress shall be required before the federal government is permitted to borrow any funds to finance a deficit in its annual budget.

This will reduce the inclination of Congress to spend beyond its means.

f. A 3/4ths approval of both Houses of Congress shall be required for the federal government to mandate any expenditures by either State governments or private business firms.

If this provision is no included, Congress will use mandated expenditures to escape the prior spending and borrowing limitations.

g. The function of the Federal Reserve System (FED) is to maintain the value of currency and establish a stable price level. If the price level either increases or decreases by more than four percent annually during two consecutive years, all Governors of the FED shall be required to submit their resignations.

This provision would make it clear what the FED is supposed to do. If the FED establishes monetary stability, it is doing its part to promote economic stability and progress.

Now, would even this be quite the undertaking? Of course. However getting something like this passed as opposed to the elimination of a humongous bureaucratic machine is much much more realistic. So there you go, my thoughts on the FED. Lets have some constructive comments, shall we? Yes, I do in fact have a brain, and with that brain I think for myself instead of following the leader. I haven’t heard one other person with this particular viewpoint on the FED or economic policy, and while I know it’s not perfect, nothing ever is. Non-constructive comments will not be addresssed.

The only way the events of Christmas Day could have been any worse would have been if the terrorist bombing had gone through. There’s plenty of blame to go around in both the United States and the European Union for what happened, which included ignoring threats and allowing explosives into airports and onto passenger airplanes. A former teacher from Nigeria, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, had taken explosives from al-Qaida in Yemen, brought those explosives to Europe unnoticed, and managed to board a plane to Detroit from Amsterdam (Flight 253) on Christmas Day with Americans and Europeans alike on board. He had become so radicalized, even at a young age, that he scared the wits out of his private school teachers and his family even called Nigerian authorities to tell them they thought this guy was a security threat. HIS OWN FAMILY TURNED HIM IN!

Or at least they tried to…

You see, the Nigerians tried to alert the Europeans and Americans about this but absolutely nothing was done about it… Unless they started the e-mail with the traditional Nigerian greeting of:

“I have inherited the estate of Prince Azkabhar and would like to transfer this $30 million USD into a western bank account. I will give you $2 million USD if you help transfer these funds through your bank account.”

there is no excuse for security agencies in both the United States and Europe dropping the ball on this.

Here’s probably what happened on our end in the United States:

1. Kid becomes radicalized, scares the crap out of the family
2. Family contacts Nigerian authorities, warns them about their son
3. Nigerian government contacts US and UK Embassies
4. US Embassy reports this through the ranks at the US State Department
5. State Department reports this to the Department of Homeland Security
6. DHS is under political pressure to trim down the no-fly list, so they ignore it

Of course, we share this list with our buddies in Europe, including the Netherlands, and I’m not sure what happened on their end, but everything dealing with internal security has been all screwed up by the European Union – especially in the smaller countries that rely on Britain, Germany, France, Italy, and the United States for their security. Well, they likely looked at the US list, didn’t see this guy’s name on there, and figured the report from Nigeria wasn’t serious if the Americans didn’t care enough to put him on our giant list, which included Yusuf Islam (a.k.a. Cat Stevens) until recently. Of course, the British denied this guy a return visa after his father alerted the world intelligence community about the threat his son posed.

THANKFULLY, the crew members and at least one of the passengers were able to stop this guy from blowing up the plane. But for all practical purposes, this was an utter failure of ALL counterterrorism measures the United States and the European Union have taken. We have sacrificed a LOT of comfort and a lot of our liberties over the last 8 years to prevent terrorism, and yet al-Qaida terrorists are STILL getting aboard western aircraft with explosives.

What’s worse is that there is fighting in the US Government now over who is to blame. The Department of Homeland Security is saying it never got the name from the State Department and the State Department is crying that the Department of Homeland Security simply didn’t care to take the threat seriously. Well, we’ve already discussed on this blog the problems within the State Department under Secretary Clinton. However, the reason so many foreign names have been on the no-fly list has been almost entirely the work of the US State Department and the CIA working with Israel’s list. Although Hillary Clinton has hired her own staff, the vast majority of the State Department employees are carry overs from the Bush Administration. They have always erred on the side of caution and since the size of the no-fly list is a political problem for the DHS instead of the DoS, I find it hard to believe this is a shortcoming of the State Department.

After first remarkable saying that the “the system worked” in an interview a couple days ago, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano is now agreeing with virtually everyone else in the United States that the system did in fact fail miserably. In fact, just a few months ago, we found out they were looking into conservatives as possible right-wing terrorists. When I said that they were too busy spying on us instead of the terrorists who want to kill us, this is what I meant. So what the hell is she still doing in office?

Well, that’s a complex question that has a lot to do with political loyalty in the Obama Administration and the very nature of the Department of Homeland Security itself.

To keep this as short as possible, before the Department of Homeland Security, the different intelligence agencies (CIA, DIA, NSA, DoS, FBI, etc.) all acted on their information independently and passed the most important stuff up to the White House every day. The President and his advisers would then analyze the information they got from the different agencies and build policy off of that. On special occassions, all the intelligence community heads would come together in the White House for special pow-wows to discuss strategy. How specifically this system worked was up to the President. Bush trusted Clinton-appointed Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) George Tenet more than Clinton himself trusted the man. As a result, Tenet was in the inner circle in the Bush Administration but had considerably less pull in the Clinton circle.

Today, the Department of Homeland Security functions literally as a political filter. It’s goal is to look at what everybody in the intelligence community is doing and report that to the President. Of course, the President’s time is very valuable and you only have a limited amount of time to brief him and his advisers. The idea, which Republicans foolishly supported, was that a Federal Government bureaucracy that is easily pressured politically would be far better suited to sort through what’s important or not important than the President and his most trusted men and women, most of whom have decades of experience in the field.

The Department of Homeland Security is a security vulnerability and should be eliminated!

Don’t misunderstand, I’m not saying that everything that the DHS does is unimportant. In fact, it stole a lot of its responsibilities from other intelligence agencies and Congress even gave it some new ones that should be kept. What I’m advocating here is that these responsibilities, new and old, be delegated to the various intelligence agencies that existed prior to the rise of the Department of Homeland Security. For example, the no-fly list should be a State Department responsibility and the names should be given to them from their own sources as well as the FBI, CIA, and DIA. Domestic names should come through the FBI, foreign names through themselves, the CIA and the DIA. The State Department can then give the list to the countries we want to have the list and make sure countries are doing what they’re supposed to be doing at security checkpoints. Why the DoS? Because they already have offices in every country we accept incoming flights from (a.k.a. Embassies) and ties to those governments.

After Hurricane Katrina, we saw what affect the DHS had on FEMA. Under the DHS, FEMA has become a terrorism response force training for Chemical and Biological readiness while ignoring the much more real threats posed by tornadoes, floods, hurricanes, blizzards, and earthquakes. Again, the DHS was seen creating security vulnerabilities that caused the needless suffering and death of hundreds of people.

This latest incident aboard Flight 253 to Detroit serves as yet another reminder of how inept the Department of Homeland Security really is and how much better we could be with other, non-political agencies handling its responsibilities.

Now before anybody starts to jump the gun on this one, let me explain a couple of things.

More than 90% of the Republican contenders being spoken about for a Presidential run in 2012 will make this list. The only reason that Ron Paul is the first that I am going to write about is that, for Christmas, I received his book “Revolution”. I’m not entirely done with the book yet (being under 200 pages, I’m about 3/4 the way through) but I’ve already read through the chapters that talk about the things that I disagree with him on. The rest of the book is on economic issues, which I agree with the man on many of these issues.

This will be something like the Green Series that I did (and am continuing to do, I just haven’t been in much of a mood to do the necessary research on other “green” forms of energy and would hate to write a half-arsed piece) only it will be my own personal feelings on each Republican Presidential possible for 2012. I’ve wanted to start on this for a little while, and decided the best way to do it is, well, to sit down and do it.

Ron Paul, the Republican Congressman for the 14th District in Texas, is of a much more libertarian, state-rights mindset than most candidates, and there are some issues in that realm that I am in support of. However, more often than not I feel that he takes the ideas a step too far. A perfect example would be the “Audit the FED bill”. I do support this idea. Transparency is great, and there is no reason that the Federal Reserve can’t show what they’ve been doing and when and why. Open up the books and lets all take a look. However, Paul’s latest book (which I have yet to read, however is titled “End the FED”), which deals with the elimination of the Federal Reserve, is a touch too far for my liking. At this point, the elimination of the Federal Reserve is not only unrealistic but dangerous. The idea that America could possibly go back to the gold standard is absurd. On top of that, if we are to audit the FED, it needs to happen soon if at all. By auditing our Federal Reserve, we risk other countries (and our own people) losing complete faith in our economic structure (not that there is much faith now, but regardless). If we wait to pass this bill until the economy is back on the upturn, we run the risk of putting out the match before it has a chance to fully light. Right now is the time.

I do agree with him that the campaign against earmarks wasn’t enough. A couple million here and there compared to a humongous budget is like spitting into the wind.

Now, the things that I strongly oppose: his objection to our countries foreign policy. I’ll be the first to say that we should certainly think twice before picking and choosing winners in conflicts across the globe, but to become complete non-interventionists is, again, unrealistic. We have eyes and ears (as pointed out by Paul) in over 160 countries currently for a good reason. Part of the reason that we don’t have 9/11 type attacks more often is exactly because of those eyes and ears.

Also, I don’t personally have a problem with “nation building”, if it is done correctly. I know this is very unpopular with a lot of different people, and Paul isn’t the only person that will make this list that will be opposed to the idea, however history has shown that no two democratic countries have ever been at war with each other. The more countries that are democracies, the better we are as a planet.

Since Paul has become a major political face, he has acquired quite the cult following, with his supporters calling him “Dr. Paul”. The problem, however, is that others call him “Dr. No”, because he specifically won’t vote on something if he thinks that it is unconstitutional. I’m sure on a great many things, I would agree with him when it comes to those decisions, however to me it’s one thing to say “I don’t agree with this bill or that bill and will therefore vote no” and another to label EVERYTHING “unconstitutional”. There are several different ways to view the Constitution, and while I’m a bit more traditional in the viewpoint of the Constitution as well, not EVERYTHING is unconstitutional.

If he could reel back a notch or two on economic policy and change his mind a few notches on foreign policy, I could support him. On social issues I have very few objections, since he is conservative on those issues but believes, like I do, that the best way to handle those issues are to make them state issues. As it stands, however, I can’t cast a vote in his favor for President.

Yes, I said Merry Christmas. If that offends you, tough. I won’t do the Happy Holidays PC crap.

Regardless, I think I speak for all of the ktracy contributors when I say Merry Christmas. I hope all of your drives are safe, if you happen to be visiting family (which is what I’ll actually be doing) and be careful with the eggnog. Remember, don’t nog and drive!

During days like Christmas, politics takes a back seat, and we should all be thankful that we are with our friends/families. So give your wife/girlfriend/boyfriend a kiss under the mistle toe, unwrap some presents, and give a little prayer to God thanking Him for another year, for better or for worse. I for one will probably take a couple of days to put up another post, in the mean time, download some wonderful talk radio from www.mattersofopinion.net to listen to while you drive and read through some of the old posts from Kevin, Semp, and I while drinking your hot cocao. It’ll put you in the Christmas spirit, I’m sure (hey, it’s Christmas, but I’m still a capitalist pig).

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Evangelical Christians and others are up in arms about an Islamic Mosque and Cultural Center near the site of the World Trade Center turning into a major Islamic cultural center. By the way they were complaining about this, one would think they invaded Ground Zero and begun building a giant mosque directly on the site. Unfortunately, I’d be willing to bet that the fear mongers responsible for blowing this story out of proportion intend for just that to happen.

In fact, the location is two city blocks away at 45 Park Place.

As terrible as this sounds, the location of this site is a former Burlington Coat Factory that was destroyed by debris from the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Since the time Burlington Coat Factory left the building, gangs took over and vandalized the property; making it an utter eyesore. That’s when Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, a professor for St. Joseph’s College (he must be a radical Muslim if he’s willing to teach at a private Christian school), purchased the property as an “overflow” place for worshipers to come and pray. Now, they’re planning on developing the property and building the proposed Cultural Center. Rauf has been an active voice in trying to improve Islamic-Western relations for the past 25 years and to think that anything he’s planning on doing is going to be used by extremists is simply absurd.

And quite frankly, I say it’s wonderful! Instead of being a haven for crime, they’re turning it into something that will educate people about the true nature of Islam and how what happened a couple blocks away was not representative of the Islam worshiped by the vast majority of the world’s 1 billion Muslims. I have no doubt that when they’re finished, it’s going to be a beautiful addition to the neighborhood that desperately needs a face lift after what happened over eight years ago.

What particularly irritates me about this is the absolute ignorance of the Evangelical media. For example, let’s look at World Net Daily.

…

Now Muslim worshippers currently occupy the building, and they plan to turn it into a major Islamic cultural center.

“The men and women stand up, raise their hands on either side of their head, murmur ‘Allahu akhbar,’ bow and kneel again,” reports Spiegel Online.

…

He said the West must understand the terrorists’ point of view – and he blamed Christians for starting mass attacks on civilians.

“The Islamic method of waging war is not to kill innocent civilians. But it was Christians in World War II who bombed civilians in Dresden and Hiroshima, neither of which were military targets,” he said.

Really quickly, this last quote was taken completely out of context. He was briefing FBI agents for a sensitivity training course, so it was absolutely imperative to how they do their job that they understand the terrorists’ point of view. If they walked out of there not understanding that, Rauf didn’t do his job.

According to the report, Rauf said there would be little progress until the U.S. acknowledged backing dictators and the U.S. president gave an “America Culpa” speech to the Muslim world.

This is true, actually. We give a tremendous amount of money to keep the Islamic dictatorships in power across the Middle East. Israel actually gets really ticked off about it every couple of years and the political and social oppression is often times what motivates people to resort to violence under the only flag that offers them freedom – religious fanaticism.

In an interview with Beliefnet on Islam and America, a reporter asked Rauf, “Some Islamic charities are being investigated for terrorist ties. Have you seen what you consider to be reputable Islamic charities being financially damaged?”

“We believe that a certain portion of every charity has been legitimate,” he responded. “To say that you have connections with terrorism is a very gray area. It’s like the accusation that Saddam Hussein had links to Osama bin Laden. Well, America had links to Osama bin Laden – does that mean that America is a terrorist country or has ties to terrorism?”

Again, he’s actually right. Part of the reason for this is that most terrorist groups are allowed to stay where they are because they give back to the community. Islam actually mandates that they do, so you can look at a terrorist group like Hizbollah in Lebanon and find a charity that supports them pretty easily. But what if the money raised by the charity and given to Hizbollah goes to building roads and buying medicine?

Do they have to deal with Hizbollah? Well, if you want to help people in the most poverty stricken parts of Lebanon, you have to deal with whoever has guns pointed at you when you arrive. And in all honesty, Hizbollah probably knows where the charity money needs to go better than anybody because of how active they are in the community.

With that said, it might be safer to help starving children in South America. Rauf is right though.

In 2004, Rauf participated in a 30-second advertisement, broadcast on Arabic television, in which he apologized for alleged abuses at Abu Ghraib prison.

The Times reported Rauf said he believes “Islamic terrorists do not come from another moral universe – that they arise from oppressive societies that he feels Washington had a hand in creating.”

God forbid he should apologize. I mean, if President Bush didn’t apologize, nobody should.

Hold on a minute. What’s that? … President Bush DID apologize for Abu Ghraib? … oh.

… forget what I just said.

Then World Net Daily, having to keep up appearances, “copy-pasted” “comments” from “readers” on “various blogs.”

* Muslims are doing this only to see if they get away with it. It’s the way Islam spreads in every country these days, like a cancer – through incremental totalitarianism. In this case, they’ll quietly open the mosque, then, as they get away with it, they’ll ramp up their outrages until someone finally points it out. At that time, their lawyers, backed by the ACLU and various liberal organizations, will pounce.

* This is not different than allowing the Nazis to establish their headquarters and propaganda office in NYC in 1938. How come people could tell right from wrong then and not now?

* What bonehead allowed this to happen?

* That’s disgusting. That truly is low. I feel bad for the people who lost family members.

* This is outrageous. I just don’t have word.

* This is called “staging” for the KSM trial.

* You’ve got to be kidding me. If this is true, our beloved country is already gone. We no longer have the America I know and love.

* Who wants to bet this place becomes a “tourist attraction” for Muslims? This mosque will become one of Islam’s holiest shrines as it sits upon the site of their greatest modern military victory.

* Good idea. Maybe terrorists will be less likely to bomb this area if there’s a mosque there.

Did you ever watch C-SPAN at 4:00 in the morning? It makes you question the integrity of our Democracy because we have some real idiots in this country. Well, they strike again, having no clue about the world they live in. I mean, let’s say this becomes a tourist attraction. So what? This particular area isn’t exactly thriving after what happened on the day of the terrorist attacks and again with this current recession. The more people it brings in, the more money that will be spent in New York.

One blogger at Patriot Update said we should shoot this plan down because Saudi Arabia wouldn’t allow a Church or Synagogue in their country. Well, DUH! But the last time I checked, we don’t live in Saudi Arabia. We live in a country that embraces religious freedom. And unless that’s changed, I love this country because of that freedom and the many others we have. We are BETTER than Saudi Arabia because of this!

It’s good for New York.

It’s good for Muslims who want a place near other landmarks for the other Abrahamic Faiths (St. Peter’s Catholic Church and the Museum of Jewish Heritage).

It’s good for the community.

It’s good for bringing a greater understanding between the faiths.

The bottom line: IT’S GOOD!

Evangelical Christians and others are up in arms about an Islamic Mosque near the site of the World Trade Center turning into a major Islamic cultural center. By the way they were complaining about this, one would think they invaded Ground Zero and begun building a giant mosque directly on the site. Unfortunately, I’d be willing to bet that the fear mongers responsible for blowing this story out of proportion intend for just that to happen.

In fact, the location is two city blocks away at 45 Park Place.

As terrible as this sounds, the location of this site is a former Burlington Coat Factory that was destroyed by debris from the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Since the time Burlington Coat Factory left the building, gangs took over and vandalized the property; making it an utter eyesore. That’s when Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, a professor for St. Joseph’s College (he must be a radical Muslim if he’s willing to teach at a private Christian school), purchased the property as an “overflow” place for worshipers to come and pray. Now, they’re planning on developing the property and building the proposed Cultural Center. Rauf has been an active voice in trying to improve Islamic-Western relations for the past 25 years and to think that anything he’s planning on doing is going to be used by extremists is simply absurd.

And quite frankly, I say it’s wonderful! Instead of being a haven for crime, they’re turning it into something that will educate people about the true nature of Islam and how what happened a couple blocks away was not representative of the Islam worshiped by the vast majority of the world’s 1 billion Muslims. I have no doubt that when they’re finished, it’s going to be a beautiful addition to the neighborhood that desperately needs a face lift after what happened over eight years ago.

What particularly irritates me about this is the absolute ignorance of the Evangelical media. For example, let’s look at World Net Daily.

…

Now Muslim worshippers currently occupy the building, and they plan to turn it into a major Islamic cultural center.

“The men and women stand up, raise their hands on either side of their head, murmur ‘Allahu akhbar,’ bow and kneel again,” reports Spiegel Online.

…

He said the West must understand the terrorists’ point of view – and he blamed Christians for starting mass attacks on civilians.

“The Islamic method of waging war is not to kill innocent civilians. But it was Christians in World War II who bombed civilians in Dresden and Hiroshima, neither of which were military targets,” he said.

Really quickly, this last quote was taken completely out of context. He was briefing FBI agents for a sensitivity training course, so it was absolutely imperative to how they do their job that they understand the terrorists’ point of view. If they walked out of there not understanding that, Rauf didn’t do his job.

According to the report, Rauf said there would be little progress until the U.S. acknowledged backing dictators and the U.S. president gave an “America Culpa” speech to the Muslim world.

This is true, actually. We give a tremendous amount of money to keep the Islamic dictatorships in power across the Middle East. Israel actually gets really ticked off about it every couple of years and the political and social oppression is often times what motivates people to resort to violence under the only flag that offers them freedom – religious fanaticism.

In an interview with Beliefnet on Islam and America, a reporter asked Rauf, “Some Islamic charities are being investigated for terrorist ties. Have you seen what you consider to be reputable Islamic charities being financially damaged?”

“We believe that a certain portion of every charity has been legitimate,” he responded. “To say that you have connections with terrorism is a very gray area. It’s like the accusation that Saddam Hussein had links to Osama bin Laden. Well, America had links to Osama bin Laden – does that mean that America is a terrorist country or has ties to terrorism?”

Again, he’s actually right. Part of the reason for this is that most terrorist groups are allowed to stay where they are because they give back to the community. Islam actually mandates that they do, so you can look at a terrorist group like Hizbollah in Lebanon and find a charity that supports them pretty easily. But what if the money raised by the charity and given to Hizbollah goes to building roads and buying medicine?

Do they have to deal with Hizbollah? Well, if you want to help people in the most poverty stricken parts of Lebanon, you have to deal with whoever has guns pointed at you when you arrive. And in all honesty, Hizbollah probably knows where the charity money needs to go better than anybody because of how active they are in the community.

With that said, it might be safer to help starving children in South America. Rauf is right though.

In 2004, Rauf participated in a 30-second advertisement, broadcast on Arabic television, in which he apologized for alleged abuses at Abu Ghraib prison.

The Times reported Rauf said he believes “Islamic terrorists do not come from another moral universe – that they arise from oppressive societies that he feels Washington had a hand in creating.”

God forbid he should apologize. I mean, if President Bush didn’t apologize, nobody should.

Hold on a minute. What’s that? … President Bush DID apologize for Abu Ghraib? … oh.

… forget what I just said.

Then World Net Daily, having to keep up appearances, “copy-pasted” “comments” from “readers” on “various blogs.”

* Muslims are doing this only to see if they get away with it. It’s the way Islam spreads in every country these days, like a cancer – through incremental totalitarianism. In this case, they’ll quietly open the mosque, then, as they get away with it, they’ll ramp up their outrages until someone finally points it out. At that time, their lawyers, backed by the ACLU and various liberal organizations, will pounce.

* This is not different than allowing the Nazis to establish their headquarters and propaganda office in NYC in 1938. How come people could tell right from wrong then and not now?

* What bonehead allowed this to happen?

* That’s disgusting. That truly is low. I feel bad for the people who lost family members.

* This is outrageous. I just don’t have word.

* This is called “staging” for the KSM trial.

* You’ve got to be kidding me. If this is true, our beloved country is already gone. We no longer have the America I know and love.

* Who wants to bet this place becomes a “tourist attraction” for Muslims? This mosque will become one of Islam’s holiest shrines as it sits upon the site of their greatest modern military victory.

* Good idea. Maybe terrorists will be less likely to bomb this area if there’s a mosque there.

Did you ever watch C-SPAN at 4:00 in the morning? It makes you question the integrity of our Democracy because we have some real idiots in this country. Well, they strike again, having no clue about the world they live in. I mean, let’s say this becomes a tourist attraction. So what? This particular area isn’t exactly thriving after what happened on the day of the terrorist attacks and again with this current recession. The more people it brings in, the more money that will be spent in New York.

One blogger at Patriot Update said we should shoot this plan down because Saudi Arabia wouldn’t allow a Church or Synagogue in their country. Well, DUH! But the last time I checked, we don’t live in Saudi Arabia. We live in a country that embraces religious freedom. And unless that’s changed, I love this country because of that freedom and the many others we have. We are BETTER than Saudi Arabia because of this!

It’s good for New York.

It’s good for Muslims who want a place near other landmarks for the other Abrahamic Faiths (St. Peter’s Catholic Church and the Museum of Jewish Heritage).

It’s good for the community.

It’s good for bringing a greater understanding between the faiths.

The bottom line: IT’S GOOD!

Yo Gabba Gabba. If any of you reading this are also friends of mine on Facebook, you will recall my many one liners of disdain for this show.

If you aren’t familiar with the show, it was created by one of the band members of the Aquabats (a sub-par “punk” band) and promotes liberal ideology throughout the show. Many may snicker at this, but if you watch more than an episode or two, it is a very fair assessment. There’s the episode that deals with being “green” and talks about the environment, there is an episode where the characters sing a song with lyrics like “Whats your talent, whats your skill” which stings of socialistic stylings, and of course has no educational value what-so-ever. None. No problem solving, no shape recognition, no counting…nothing. The entire show is dedicated to singing and dancing and loving one another. Which is great, don’t get me wrong. Children should sing, and dance, and love each other. However, the show is junk programming that has lots of pretty colors and (halway decent) children songs. The show also features guests, many smaller indy bands.

Micky’s Clubhouse, however, blows Yo Gabba Gabba out of the water. Not only does Micky, and Minnie, and Daisy, and the rest of the Disney characters that we all know and love, promote having fun and dancing, they also incorporate a wide range or skills that children should be learning. For example, at the beginning of every episode, there is some kind of “mystery”. In one episode the party hats that Minnie and Daisy had made are stolen. Micky and rest of the gang get 4 tools to take with them to use when needed, and follow clues to not only find the hats, but to discover who stole them as well.

During the adventure, the gang counts out how many hats are left, incorporate problem solving techniques to accomplish their mission, and use shape distinction to discover what sized head is needed for the socket to fix Goofy’s skateboard! I mean, really! This show, versus Yo Gabba Gabba? As I said, the gang sings songs and dances, but only after their problem is solved and they have the time, which is a great example of good work ethic.

Am I over thinking this? I know I’ve asked that on several past posts regarding parenting and child rearing, and I never thought that I would become so interested in something that is seemingly mundane like which children shows my child should be watching, but I guess I ask because I am a new father. With all that said, I certainly don’t keep Gage from watching Yo Gabba Gabba, however I make sure that Yo Gabba Gabba is being watched much less than Micky’s Clubhouse. Yo Gabba Gabba is kind of like junk food, while Micky is more like the actual meal.

Regardless, I would love to hear from you all perhaps with other educational but entertaining children’s shows, and preferably not ultra liberal with their ideology.

Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid may be one of the sleaziest scumbags to step foot on the floor of the US Senate, but let’s give his sleaziness credit where credit is due. He covered the butts of virtually every Democrat in the Senate the best he could by picking the absolute most opportune time to put the Healthcare Abomination Bill up for a vote. I wish I could write here and say that they won’t get away with it because we won’t let them, but the fact of the matter is that they’re going to get away with it… they already have.

The war isn’t over, though.

Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid’s sleazy counterpart in the lower house in Congress, still has to find a consensus in the House of Representatives, which she has pretty miserably failed at since becoming Speaker of the House three years ago. What they SHOULD do is take the Senate Bill and just vote directly on that. However, Nancy Pelosi’s pride won’t allow for a bill to come through the House of Representatives without amendments. What’s more, lawmakers on both side of the isle aren’t going to want to pass this bill without hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars additional pork added to the legislation.

So assuming that Speaker Pelosi can reign in her party enough to get what she needs to pass a House version of the Bill, the Senate is going to sit down with the House of Representatives and hash out the differences… then the new legislation will have to go before both the House and Senate for a final vote. Finally, after all that, it goes to the President.

I know we discussed this earlier and it met with a lot of negative reactions, but Republicans should go out of there way to make this such terrible legislation that no moderate Democrat in their right mind would vote in favor of it at the end of the day. We need every tool in our arsenal to have this bill indefinitely tabled and destroying the bill through socialist amendments that trample civil liberties and offend the conscious are a weapon we’ll need. To hell what the RLC has to say about it.

Nothing quite makes air guitars wail like an underdog turning the corrupt establishment on its head. So ktracy.com is sending a collective thank you to Marco Rubio for giving us conservative Republicans a reason to take out our air guitars and rock the night away.

According to a Rassmussen poll released on Tuesday (I was busy with Finals week: so I only had time for the air guitar, not the blogging), Marco Rubio and Charlie Crist are tied at 43% in the Republican Primary. Additionally, Marco Rubio is polling better than Charlie Crist against the likely Democratic nominee, Kendrick Meek:

Marco Rubio: 49%
Kendrick Meek: 35%

Charlie Crist: 43%
Kendrick Meek: 36%

In other words, if you’re a Republican who will be voting in Florida’s primary next year, the conservative candidate in the race for the GOP nomination is the safest bet, pulling in solid double digit leads. In fact, Rubio is performing a full 7% better than Crist in the General Election polling being done. That’s incredible!

Of course, after the holiday season, Charlie Crist is going to do what all career politicians do when they’re in trouble… go on the attack and start blaming everyone but himself. I wouldn’t be surprised to see more staff shake ups after the new year and you can bet Marco Rubio is going to be watched and scrutinized by absolutely every resource available in Crist’s inventory.

Remember, being tied in the polls is a GREAT sign of momentum, but if the primary were held today, Rubio would still likely lose for no reason other than the fact that Crist is going to have a the best Get Out The Vote (GOTV) effort money can buy… literally. Marco Rubio still has a lot of ground to make up in order to pull this out and he can only do that with the help of grassroots conservatives around the country, like yourselves.

Please, take some time to visit www.marcorubio.com and consider leaving a donation before the end of the year. The Rubio campaign will have to file its quarterly fundraising numbers for October, November, and December after the new year and the better those numbers look, the more serious people are going to take Rubio as a candidate against Crist.

Either way, it’s safe to say that a Republican is going to win this General Election. The question is whether we want to give this seat to a conservative Republican who is going to fix the problems in Washington and around the country or somebody like Charlie Crist who supported Obama’s failed bailout package and guarantees the continuation of the same corrupt status quo.

I think it goes without saying that it’s critically important that we do everything we can to help Marco Rubio win this primary.

This election cycle, the contributors and I are using a new method for endorsing candidates. We are working on a questionaire at the moment and once a candidate or his or her representative candidly answer the questions, we will discuss whether or not that person receives an endorsement from www.ktracy.com. In order for the website to endorse a candidate, he or she needs the unanimous support of all contributors.

Although I personally like Marco Rubio and hope he wins, we have not begun the process of officially endorsing candidates. KTracy.com has not endorsed Rubio or any other candidate for this election cycle.