First and foremost a the President of the United States must defend the this country, its citizens and interests abroad. For more than 20 years under 4 presidents terrorists attacked this country's interests and citizens all over the world with few consequence. As the attacks grew bolder and closer our responses remained feckless.

Date	Incident	Deaths	Injured
1-Apr-83	A suicide car bombing against the U.S. embassy in Beirut kills 63, including 17 Americans.	63
1-Oct-83	A suicide car bomb attack against the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut kills 241 servicemen. A simultaneous attack on a French base kills 58 paratroopers.	299
1-Nov-84	A bomb attack on the U.S. embassy in Bogota, Colombia kills a passer-by. The attack was preceded by death threats against U.S. officials by drug traffickers.	1
1-Apr-85	A bomb explodes in a restaurant near a U.S. air base in Madrid, Spain, killing 18, all Spaniards, and wounding 82, including 15 Americans.	18	82
1-Jun-85	A TWA airliner is hijacked over the Mediterranean, the start of a two-week hostage ordeal. The last 39 passengers are eventually released in Damascus after being held in various locations in Beirut.	1
1-Jun-85	In San Salvador, El Salvador, 13 people are killed in a machine gun attack at an outdoor café, including four U.S. Marines and two American businessmen.	13
1-Aug-85	A car bomb at a U.S. military base in Frankfurt, Germany kills two and injures 20. A U.S. soldier murdered for his identity papers is found a day after the explosion.	2	20
1-Oct-85	Palestinian terrorists hijack the cruise liner Achille Lauro (in response to the Israeli attack on PLO headquarters in Tunisia) Leon Klinghoffer, an elderly, wheelchair-bound American, is killed and thrown overboard.	1
1-Nov-85	Hijackers aboard an Egyptair flight kill one American. Egyptian commandos later storm the aircraft on the isle of Malta, and 60 people are killed.	61
1-Dec-85	Simultaneous suicide attacks are carried out against U.S. and Israeli check-in desks at Rome and Vienna international airports. 20 people are killed in the two attacks, including four terrorists.	20
1-Apr-86	An explosion damages a TWA flight as it prepares to land in Athens, Greece. Four people are killed when they are sucked out of the aircraft.	4
5-Apr-86	A bomb destroys the LaBelle discotheque in West Berlin. The disco was known to be frequented by U.S. servicemen. The attack kills one American and one German woman and wounds 150, including 44 Americans	144
1987	There were no successful attacks inside the United States or against American interests abroad.
21-Dec-88	A bomb destroys Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. All 259 people aboard the Boeing 747 are killed including 189 Americans, as are 11 people on the ground.	200
1989	There were no successful attacks inside the United States or against American interests abroad.
6-Jul-90	February: Marine Corps Lt. Colonel Higgens, Chief of the U.N. Truce Force, was kidnapped and murdered by Hezbollah.	200
9-Nov-91	American University in Beirut bombed.	1	8
1992	There were no successful attacks inside the United States or against American interests abroad.
1-Feb-93	A bomb in a van explodes in the underground parking garage in New York's World Trade Center, killing six people and wounding 1,042.	6	1042
1994	There were no successful attacks inside the United States or against American interests abroad.
13-Nov-95	A car-bomb in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia kills seven people, five of them American military and civilian advisers for National Guard training. The "Tigers of the Gulf," "Islamist Movement for Change," and "Fighting Advocates of God" claim responsibility.	7
25-Jun-96	A bomb aboard a fuel truck explodes outside a U.S. air force installation in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. 19 U.S. military personnel are killed in the Khubar Towers housing facility, and 515 are wounded, including 240 Americans.	19	515
21-Nov-97	Terrorists murder four American oil company employees in Pakistan.	4
21-Jun-98	Rocket-propelled grenades explode near the U.S. embassy in Beirut.	0
7-Aug-98	Terrorist bombs destroy the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. In Nairobi, 12 Americans are among the 291 killed, and over 5,000 are wounded, including 6 Americans. In Dar es Salaam, one U.S. citizen is wounded among the 10 killed and 77 injured.	291	5000
31-Oct-99	October: Egypt Air flight 990 crashed off the coast of Massachusetts, killing 100 Americans among the more than 200 on board; the pilot yelled "Allahu Akbar!" as he steered the airplane into the ocean.	200	5000
12-Oct-00	A terrorist bomb damages the destroyer USS Cole in the port of Aden, Yemen, killing 17 sailors and injuring 39.	17	39
11-Sep-01	Terrorists hijack four U.S. commercial airliners taking off from various locations in the United States in a coordinated suicide attack. In separate attacks, two of the airliners crash into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, which catch fire and eventually collapse. A third airliner crashes into the Pentagon in Washington, DC, causing extensive damage. The fourth airliner, also believed to be heading towards Washington, DC, crashes outside Shanksville, PA., killing all 45 people on board. Casualty estimates from New York put the possible death toll close to 3800, while as many as 200 people may have been lost at the Pentagon crash site.	2998	6291
October-02	Diplomat Laurence Foley murdered in Jordan, in an operation planned, directed and financed by Zarqawi in Iraq, perhaps with the complicity of Saddam's government.	1
May-03	Suicide bombers killed 10 Americans, and killed and wounded many others, at housing compounds for westerners in Saudi Arabia.	10
October-03	More bombings of United States housing compounds in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia killed 26 and injured 160.	26	160
2004	There were no successful attacks inside the United States or against American interests abroad.
2005	There were no successful attacks inside the United States or against American interests abroad.
2006	There were no successful attacks inside the United States or against American interests abroad.
2007	There were no successful attacks inside the United States or against American interests abroad.
2008	US Embassy in Yemen bombed. Former Guantanamo Bay prisoner Said Ali al-Shihri now chief of al-Qaida in Yemen is believed to have planned the opereration.	16
	Total	4607	18157

Notice that there was only one gap of more than two years where no American target outside a war zone were hit and who was president at the time. That 5 year streak was broken in part because we decided to let go of a bad guy we had already captured. That was a good idea.

Palin & Biden On Gay Marriage

Sarah and Joe can tell us their differences on rights, particularly marriage:



They agree, that can't be right. Maybe Obama can clarify it for me.....



Uhmm.....John what do you have to say....



Well maybe I don't believe John or Sarah, we all know they take their marching orders from George W, so does he have to say.....



Oh.

Thank You Democrat Voters

''These two entities -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- are not facing any kind of financial crisis. The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.”

-Ranking Financial Services Committee Democrat Barney Frank, September 2003


I really don't blame Chris Dodd, Barney Frank and the rest of the Fannie Mae/Freddy Mac enablers. They are exactly as they advertised, charlatans and class warfare hustlers. I blame Democrat voters for causing this economic catastrophe.



Own it. We'll all be paying for it.

Here's a New York Times story from 2003. For fun I put quotes by Republicans in Red and Democrats in Blue. Very enlightening as to who was concerned and who was not.

New Agency Proposed to Oversee Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae

By STEPHEN LABATON

The Bush administration today recommended the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis a decade ago.

Under the plan, disclosed at a Congressional hearing today, a new agency would be created within the Treasury Department to assume supervision of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored companies that are the two largest players in the mortgage lending industry.

The new agency would have the authority, which now rests with Congress, to set one of the two capital-reserve requirements for the companies. It would exercise authority over any new lines of business. And it would determine whether the two are adequately managing the risks of their ballooning portfolios.

The plan is an acknowledgment by the administration that oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- which together have issued more than $1.5 trillion in outstanding debt -- is broken. A report by outside investigators in July concluded that Freddie Mac manipulated its accounting to mislead investors, and critics have said Fannie Mae does not adequately hedge against rising interest rates.

''There is a general recognition that the supervisory system for housing-related government-sponsored enterprises neither has the tools, nor the stature, to deal effectively with the current size, complexity and importance of these enterprises,'' Treasury Secretary John W. Snow told the House Financial Services Committee in an appearance with Housing Secretary Mel Martinez, who also backed the plan.

Mr. Snow said that Congress should eliminate the power of the president to appoint directors to the companies, a sign that the administration is less concerned about the perks of patronage than it is about the potential political problems associated with any new difficulties arising at the companies.

The administration's proposal, which was endorsed in large part today by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, would not repeal the significant government subsidies granted to the two companies. And it does not alter the implicit guarantee that Washington will bail the companies out if they run into financial difficulty; that perception enables them to issue debt at significantly lower rates than their competitors. Nor would it remove the companies' exemptions from taxes and antifraud provisions of federal securities laws.

The proposal is the opening act in one of the biggest and most significant lobbying battles of the Congressional session.

After the hearing, Representative Michael G. Oxley, chairman of the Financial Services Committee, and Senator Richard Shelby, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, announced their intention to draft legislation based on the administration's proposal. Industry executives said Congress could complete action on legislation before leaving for recess in the fall.

''The current regulator does not have the tools, or the mandate, to adequately regulate these enterprises,'' Mr. Oxley said at the hearing. ''We have seen in recent months that mismanagement and questionable accounting practices went largely unnoticed by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight,'' the independent agency that now regulates the companies.

''These irregularities, which have been going on for several years, should have been detected earlier by the regulator,'' he added.

The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, which is part of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, was created by Congress in 1992 after the bailout of the savings and loan industry and concerns about regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which buy mortgages from lenders and repackage them as securities or hold them in their own portfolios.

At the time, the companies and their allies beat back efforts for tougher oversight by the Treasury Department, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or the Federal Reserve. Supporters of the companies said efforts to regulate the lenders tightly under those agencies might diminish their ability to finance loans for lower-income families. This year, however, the chances of passing legislation to tighten the oversight are better than in the past.

Reflecting the changing political climate, both Fannie Mae and its leading rivals applauded the administration's package. The support from Fannie Mae came after a round of discussions between it and the administration and assurances from the Treasury that it would not seek to change the company's mission.

After those assurances, Franklin D. Raines, Fannie Mae's chief executive, endorsed the shift of regulatory oversight to the Treasury Department, as well as other elements of the plan.

''We welcome the administration's approach outlined today,'' Mr. Raines said. The company opposes some smaller elements of the package, like one that eliminates the authority of the president to appoint 5 of the company's 18 board members*.

* The reason Mr. Raines quote is in Blue (denoting a Democrat) is because he the Budget Director under Bill Clinton and was one of several former Clinton officials who ran Fannie Mae outfit for the last 10 years racking up big salaries, big fines and ultimately led it to collapse.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_Raines

Company executives said that the company preferred having the president select some directors. The company is also likely to lobby against the efforts that give regulators too much authority to approve its products.

Freddie Mac, whose accounting is under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission and a United States attorney in Virginia, issued a statement calling the administration plan a ''responsible proposal.''

The stocks of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae fell while the prices of their bonds generally rose. Shares of Freddie Mac fell $2.04, or 3.7 percent, to $53.40, while Fannie Mae was down $1.62, or 2.4 percent, to $66.74. The price of a Fannie Mae bond due in March 2013 rose to 97.337 from 96.525.Its yield fell to 4.726 percent from 4.835 percent on Tuesday.

Fannie Mae, which was previously known as the Federal National Mortgage Association, and Freddie Mac, which was the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, have been criticized by rivals for exerting too much influence over their regulators.

''The regulator has not only been outmanned, it has been outlobbied,'' said Representative Richard H. Baker, the Louisiana Republican who has proposed legislation similar to the administration proposal and who leads a subcommittee that oversees the companies. ''Being underfunded does not explain how a glowing report of Freddie's operations was released only hours before the managerial upheaval that followed. This is not world-class regulatory work.''

Significant details must still be worked out before Congress can approve a bill. Among the groups denouncing the proposal today were the National Association of Home Builders and Congressional Democrats who fear that tighter regulation of the companies could sharply reduce their commitment to financing low-income and affordable housing.

''These two entities -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- are not facing any kind of financial crisis,'' said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. ''The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.”**

** Barney Frank has been the Chairman of the Financial Services committee since the Democrats took control in January 2007

Representative Melvin L. Watt, Democrat of North Carolina, agreed.

''I don't see much other than a shell game going on here, moving something from one agency to another and in the process weakening the bargaining power of poorer families and their ability to get affordable housing,'' Mr. Watt said.***

*** Whenever there is reform to be done Democrats don’t like (Social Security, Medicare, Welfare, etc…) just whip out the trusty class warfare card.

Story of a Winning Ticket

This is why the base is excited. We respect John, but we love Sarah.

God I Miss Newt

This is already linked to by Hot Air but I had to bring it hear for future reference.



Newt more than anyone understands we can no longer let Democrats and their mouthpieces in the mainstream media hound our best fighters out of political influence. They have used character assassination to destroy the political fortunes of Bork, Thomas (unsuccessfully), Gingrich, Livingston, Delay,and now they have their eyes on Palin. Time to push back and stop apologizing for being conservative.

The Classes of Campaign Gaffs

There are three types of gaffs candidates can make on the campaign trail ranging from a innocent slip of the tongue to an outright, fact checked lie. Below are examples of Barack Obama making each.

Simple Misstatement



These are only good for cheeps laughs. Its the kind of misstake anyone could make in an speaking extemporaneously. No one thinks Obama is confused about the number of states. On the other hand these are the types of gaffs that have made President Bush the butt of jokes for over a decade.

Shooting from the hip not knowing what you are talking about:



This is a dangerous one. It sounds so reasonable if left unchallengened it will become conventional wisdom. It is also gross exaggeration.

Outright lying:



Barrack Obama is not on the Banking, or any of its sub-committee. It bends credibility the think he forgot that. It was a lie told to make himself look better to his audience. It was told with the grace and ease of a man who is used to lying.

Hands off the Thermostat...

....and that SUV and that extra slice of pizza. The Messiah says so:



Remember its not high gas prices that bother Obama, its just the speed of the increase:



People who take a interest in the food you eat, car you drive or the temperature you keep your bedroom will have no problem choosing your doctor or deciding when you make too much money

Omar Khadr

The video of Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr's interrogation has been all over the web today. Omar's defense attorneys petitioned to have the video released to garner sympathy for their client. In the video the teenager cries pathetically and recounts how he has been mistreated. The child in the video is a far cry from the Jihad warrior who killed a 28-year-old Sergeant First Class Christopher Speer a medic with the U.S. Special Forces. His defense attorneys would rather you not watch this video of a another soilder wounded by Khadr's grenade:

Killers like this are made not born. Omar was just a chip off the old block. In 2004, PBS FrontLine gave us an introduction to the charming family Khadr:



The US has already decided not to seek the death penalty against Khadr. So if you want shed tears for someone how about Sargent Speer, his widow and his daughter. Omar at least gets a trial and his life.

And now a cool cleansing breath for the hot summer. A slide show from our trip to the Canadian side of the border....