The Front Page Cover
"I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened"
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Featuring:
Republicans Are Ready to Rumble
Peggy Noonan
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"Rise up together as one voice"
"Be careful where you stand"
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The Pennsylvania Avenue Refugee Showdown 
Despite intense lobbying by the administration, the House voted overwhelmingly Thursday to approve a measure stiffening oversight requirements for those seeking refugee status. The 289-137 margin was enough to stave off Barack nObama's veto threat, particularly when 45 Democrats went against him and supported the House bill, dubbed the American SAFE Act. Those going against nObama said to vote otherwise would be “radioactive.” (If it were up to the Islamic State, the vote wouldn’t be the only thing that's radioactive.)
In a refreshingly powerful and coherent message from the House speaker, Paul Ryan said, "Let me comment about his veto threat: It baffles me. I just for the life of me don't understand why his veto threat came as it did, especially given the fact that his own law enforcement top officials came to congress and testified that there are gaps in this refugee program." He continued, "ISIL is already telling us that they are trying to infiltrate the refugee population. When we have indications that some of the Paris bombers ... may have come through the refugee routes, don't you think that common sense dictates that we should take a pause and get this right?"
As with most conservatives, Ryan's concern isn't with all or even most refugees; it's with the few who pose a threat.
But never mind common sense. nObama says, “The idea that somehow [refugees] pose a more significant threat than all the tourists who pour into the United States every single day just doesn’t jive with reality. So my expectation is after the initial spasm of rhetoric, the people will settle down, take a look at the facts, and we’ll be able to proceed.” His reality is an alternate utopian one. -The Patriot Post
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Hilly vs. Hilly on the Islamic State In last weekend's Democrat debate — the one in which the candidates repeated the warning that "climate change is the greatest threat to national security" — Hilly Clinton weighed in on the Islamic State. “It cannot be contained, it must be defeated,” she said in a clear reference to Barack nObama's foolish "contained" remarks hours before the deadly attack in Paris. "But," she added, "this cannot be an American fight, although American leadership is essential." Whatever that means. 
Maybe she ate her Wheaties Thursday because she sounded a much different note. The conflict with the Islamic State “requires sustained commitment from every pillar of American power,” she said. “This is a worldwide fight and America must lead it.” What a difference a few days, at this point, make.
Yet in the same speech she announced her "plan" to "defeat ISIS." But it essentially boils down to this:
Step 1: "Defeat ISIS in Syria, Iraq and across the Middle East" (an actual quote) Step 2: ? Step 3: Win the White House.
Lost in translation is calling our enemies what they are: Radical Islamofascists, jihadis bent on death and destruction. Instead, she insisted, "Muslims are peaceful and tolerant people and have nothing whatsoever to do with terrorism." Except for all the times they do, of course.She also displayed an astounding lack of self-awareness, lamenting that despite the success in Iraq (without crediting George W. Bush's surge) the Iraqis were later "betrayed and forgotten." By whom? By nObama and his secretary of state, Hilly Clinton. If Clinton can't articulate who the enemy is or why the Islamic State was able to rise, there's no hope she'll be able to craft a strategy that secures America's interests.
-The Patriot Post
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Just Who Are These 'Gunmen'?
More tragedy struck Mali today, where reports indicate Confederate flag-wielding, Second Amendment-advocating white Christian bigots murdered several people and took scores more hostage. Not really, though that's what the Leftmedia would like to say. Instead, it's using a term that's recycled when labeling people isn't politically opportune. Take it away, Washington Post: "Gunmen stormed a luxury hotel in Mali's capital on Friday, killing at least three people and taking about 170 hostages in a city that serves as a logistics hub for French forces helping in a fight against Islamist insurgents."
Scratch that. Let's try again: "Gunmen Islamic terrorists stormed a luxury hotel in Mali's capital on Friday..." In the sixth graph — strategically placed, no doubt — the Post notes, "Malian army commander Modibo Nama Traore said at least 10 gunmen stormed the Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako shouting 'Allahu Akbar' — 'God is great' in Arabic — then fired on guards and began rounding up hostages." The Islamists are said to have freed hostages "able to recite a Muslim profession of faith." Hey, who says terrorists aren't charitable?
It's no coincidence that the attack comes just days after Boko Haram is suspected of killing 32 in a Nigerian bombing and a slew of other high-casualty attacks. The Islamic State recently bombed a Russian plane carrying more than 200 before going on a rampage in Paris, killing another 129. While no group has claimed responsibility for the Mali tragedy, that's really beside the point, because all Islamic extremists fall under the same umbrella. It's an ideology that won't be changed by regulating carbon emissions, which is what the Left says drives these jihadis to carry out these gruesome assaults. But they'll gladly accept Western leaders using it as a scapegoat. What lunacy.
-The Patriot Post
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Utah homework: make propaganda poster for terror group
{Robert Spencer} ~ The local Fox affiliate has covered this, but just imagine the national outcry if students at Salem Junior High had been told to make a recruiting poster for…AFDI... Then we would really have had a media uproar on our hands. But when a school has children telling people to join the Islamic State, the mainstream media yawns and only the “right-wing” is concerned. This is why the Islamic State has the upper hand in the war against the U.S. and the free world. Only one side is fighting. The other side is clueless, compromised, and — look! Kardashians! We’re so busy being multicultural and empathetic toward those who hate us, we have forgotten why we should defend ourselves. Students in ninth grade at Salem Junior High School were given a homework assignment where they were told to draw a propaganda poster for a terrorist organization. After parents complained, the assignment was canceled. http://www.jihadwatch.org/2015/11/utah-homework-make-propaganda-poster-for-terror-group.
Among the Believers
{Matthew Walther} ~ I paid someone to shave me on my first morning as a Democratic activist. It was expensive, but very pleasant. The barber didn’t take debit cards, so I had to run to an ATM in order to pay him... When I returned wheezing in my well-chosen tweed and lavender cashmere sweater combo—I thought hard about my outfit that day—I apologized. “No problem,” he said. “Happy to wait. You look so handsome.” This was just the confidence booster I needed. After paying my $100 to register as a Young Professional member of the Democratic Women’s Leadership Forum (WLF), I was set to attend the group’s National Issues Conference in Washington, D.C., but feeling a bit nervous. What would they say at registration when I stopped by to pick up my lanyard? Would I be the only Democratic woman leader-in-training with a moustache, however well trimmed? I hoped the aftershave didn’t smell too strongly. The WLF was founded in 1993, according to the pamphlet I received at check-in, “to uphold a viable women’s finance council as an integral part of the Democratic Party and to increase their engagement in the Party. The WLF is made up of a national community of dynamic female leaders committed to maintaining a women’s outreach program by raising substantial resources, building political networks, and reaching women voters in 50 states.” Leaders like me. http://freebeacon.com/culture/among-the-believers/.
Islamic State Employs New Tactics to Plot Attacks
{Daniel Wiser} ~ The Islamic State is using a variety of new tactics, including encryption and control of local resources in Iraq and Syria, that make it more difficult to defeat without a greater U.S. presence in the Middle East, analysts said on Friday... The terrorist attacks in Paris in last week, which were carried out by Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, militants who killed 129 people, encapsulate the increasingly successful and lethal methods used by the group to plot operations. French and U.S. intelligence agencies had been tracking Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the suspected mastermind behind the Paris attacks, this summer in Iraq and Syria before he went dark. Investigators now say he traveled back to his home in Belgium to lead the series of assaults and bombings. French police killed Abaaoud during a raid on Wednesday. http://freebeacon.com/national-security/islamic-state-employs-new-tactics-to-plot-attacks.
National Suicide Is Un-American – Poison Grapes Of The Islamic...
{rickwells.us} ~ Rep Steve King (R-IA) addresses the condescending attitude and tone of open borders, pro-amnesty , pro-invasion Speaker Ryan regarding the serious matter of the importation of terrorists and the destruction of our American culture... Ryan’s’ claims that opposition to the Islamic invasion and advocating for a common sense approach to preventing the damage from being done is somehow exhibiting un-American values and worthy of a self-righteous smirk doesn’t sit well with Rep King. He talks with the host about the idea of a 1-3 year moratorium on immigration to allow review and to determine who we have in the country already. Of course that would never fly with the Democrat Marxists for exactly that reason; we’d know who is in here, expel them and not bring in any more. All are actions which are in opposition to the agenda of the leftists. King’s had enough of the false, demeaning of the left characterized by statements such as “That’s just not who we are,” implying bigotry as the basis for common sense based rational actions. King notes that it is the same argument that is used when he says, “We should not allow millions of people to pour across our borders and live in our society, and we should secure our borders restore the rule of law and a respect for the rule of law.” http://rickwells.us/archives/22600.
Parasite nObama’s “Hate America World Tour”
{rickwells.us} ~ The very real threat of Islamic terrorism is rising exponentially around the globe, largely due to the actions and inactions of the nObama regime... As is typical, instead of paying attention to the real problem, nObama is instead inviting terrorist into America and focusing on correcting make-believe non-problems in the most expensive, crippling manners possible. The globetrotting criminal in the White House is making his fraudulent “Pilfer America First” case arguments anywhere he can get anyone to listen. On Saturday he lectured a group of naïve Malaysians on the supposed dangers of climate change. The audience may not have even been English speaking and would in fact, in view of the bull crap bombardment that was being leveled against them, be blessed if that were the case. The threat, along the lines of the maybe, someday, might be and could be variety, somehow garners the ‘president’s’ daily attention and incessant advocacy, while the actual existing hazard posed by his Islamist comrades is completely swept under his royal prayer rug. http://rickwells.us/archives/22611.
Trey Gowdy’s Statement Concerning the Syrian Refugees
{Tami Jackson} ~ When Trey Gowdy speaks, people listen, or at least they should. And what is so very infuriating is that Gowdy is saying what the sitting U.S. President should have said... But rather than grave concern for America and her citizens’ safety and security, King nObama sticks doggedly to his formula for transformation. The President is remaking this great republic into just another failed, socialist, third-rate country under siege by an invasion of Muslim (and other) immigrants. Americans are worried, and with good reason. Immigration under BHnO’s “rule” has already stretched our resources and endangered U.S. citizens. The unassimilated have fled to America for free stuff and worse..
Russia Dropping Personalized BombsOn ISIS Targets in Syria
{Trey SAnchez} ~ While President nObama is blocking U.S. military pilots from unloading their full payloads on Islamic State militants, Russia President Vladimir Putin is commanding his bombers to give them all they got... In video released Friday (above), warships in the Caspian Sea can be seen firing dozens of cruise missiles at seven "terrorist positions" with extreme prejudice, according to Sky News. Making the story even better, Russian fighters are personalizing their bombs with handwritten messages like "For Paris," and "For Our Guys." The images of the decorated warheads carried the caption: "Pilots and technicians of Hmeymim airbase have sent their message to terrorists by priority airmail.".
More Palestinian and Western Mistakes
{Bassam Tawil} ~ The Palestinians have taken it upon themselves to sacrifice our younger generation -- on the altar of pointlessness -- again... The Palestinians have been sending their children -- still in their teens, and intoxicated by hatred and lies as the assassins of old were intoxicated by hashish -- to the streets of Israel and the roads of the West Bank to murder Israelis again. And for what? Is Al-Aqsa mosque in danger? It is not. But the cynical, calculating Fatah, Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Hamas -- and the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement which has just been banned -- are desperate to bring the Palestinian issue back to the headlines. They hope it would displace the true catastrophe of the chaos in Syria and Iraq, which has led to the flood of refugees to Europe. The Palestinian "victims" -- victims of their own credulousness -- are known as shuhadaa, martyrs for the sake of Allah, victims of the misconception that Allah wants us to die for him. But Allah forbids us to murder. Muhammad forbids us to murder. The Qur'an forbids us to murder. http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6928/palestinian-western-mistakes.
ISIS issues rules for women jihadists
{Pamela Geller} ~ ISIS terror thugs have released a sickening set of rules for women who want to wage jihad... including detailed guidelines for when she has permission to become a suicide bomber. The guidelines were published in response to questions from a Saudi Arabian ISIS sympathiser, who asked how she could serve the mujahideen (fighters engaged in jihad) if the conflict in Syria and Iraq spilled over into ‘Bilal al-Haramyan’ – a jihadi term for Mecca and Medina, the holy cities in Saudi Arabia. The advice, published by the ISIS propaganda arm the Zura Foundation, starts: “It is upon the woman to do what she can for the jihad to support the religion of God according to her abilities, whether it is by nursing, sewing, or serving through cooking, washing and other things.” But then the bizarre and sexist advice turns to female fighters..
Phoenix flagged as “hotbed” for jihad-terror recruiting
{Pamela Geller} ~ Recent apprehensions of illegal immigrants from the Middle East and South Asia along the southern U.S. border have renewed security concerns in the region... amid claims that Phoenix in particular is becoming a “hotbed” for terror recruiting and activity. One source told Fox News the FBI even briefed Phoenix police two weeks ago to notify them that the Islamic State is trying to recruit “high-school age students.” The Afghani and Pakistanis apprehended elsewhere in Arizona were mixed in with a group of more than a dozen Mexican immigrants and two smugglers, Customs and Border Protection said in a statement. Members of the Joint Terrorism Task Force were dispatched to interview the illegal immigrants, but CBP said, “Records checks revealed no derogatory information about the individuals.” The two smugglers, meanwhile, fought with the arresting agents and now face charges; the Pakistanis and Afghani remain in CBP custody as witnesses. http://pamelageller.com/2015/11/phoenix-flagged-as-hotbed-for-jihad-terror-recruiting.html/.
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Republicans Are Ready to Rumble
Peggy Noonan
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My thoughts as they evolved through seven days of thinking aloud:
My thoughts as they evolved through seven days of thinking aloud:
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What is going on, and not only with Republicans, is that American voters are surveying the past 15 years. At home they see an economic near-collapse followed by a feeble recovery, a culture that grows every day grosser and more bizarre, falling educational results, a bigger, more demanding and more corrupt federal government. In the world: two unwon wars, ISIS, a refugee crisis greater than any since the end of World War II, Putin on the move, American clout and prestige on the decline.
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They think: Who gave us this world? Who led us the past 15 years? They realize: It was the most credentialed, acclaimed and experienced political professionals in both parties. The pros gave us this world—the people who knew what they were doing! Who had a lifetime of political attainment!
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They conclude: Maybe we have to expand our idea of “credentials.” Maybe we need another kind of “experience.” Maybe individuals with “attainments” outside the political world are the ones who can get us out of this mess.
They conclude: Maybe we have to expand our idea of “credentials.” Maybe we need another kind of “experience.” Maybe individuals with “attainments” outside the political world are the ones who can get us out of this mess.
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Thus Donald Trump the businessman, Ben Carson the neurosurgeon and Carly Fiorina the former CEO. Add their poll numbers up—consistently, for 100 days now, so it’s not a blip but a real trendline—and you have more than half of likely Republican voters saying yes, I want an outsider.
Thus Donald Trump the businessman, Ben Carson the neurosurgeon and Carly Fiorina the former CEO. Add their poll numbers up—consistently, for 100 days now, so it’s not a blip but a real trendline—and you have more than half of likely Republican voters saying yes, I want an outsider.
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And you know, they have a point. They are derided in the media as irrationally angry, but they shouldn’t be dismissed. They’re trying to make things better, to break through the logjam.
And you know, they have a point. They are derided in the media as irrationally angry, but they shouldn’t be dismissed. They’re trying to make things better, to break through the logjam.
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But as we get closer to the voting, there are two things they have to keep in mind. One is that reaching outside doesn’t necessarily make things better. It might. It might make things worse. The fact of outsiderness is no guarantee of anything except a lack of political experience. The other is that, as Carl Cannon of RealClearPolitics has noted, politics is actually a profession, even for some a vocation. You learn important things as you practice it. Experience deepens your ability to decide, to persuade, to lead. Political knowledge can be a handy thing when you hold the country’s highest political office.
But as we get closer to the voting, there are two things they have to keep in mind. One is that reaching outside doesn’t necessarily make things better. It might. It might make things worse. The fact of outsiderness is no guarantee of anything except a lack of political experience. The other is that, as Carl Cannon of RealClearPolitics has noted, politics is actually a profession, even for some a vocation. You learn important things as you practice it. Experience deepens your ability to decide, to persuade, to lead. Political knowledge can be a handy thing when you hold the country’s highest political office.
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Is it possible what we need right now isn’t a nonpolitician but instead a brilliant and gifted politician to lead us through these times? (Yes, I know: Who? I don’t know. The powers of the most successful pols tend to be clearest in retrospect.)
Is it possible what we need right now isn’t a nonpolitician but instead a brilliant and gifted politician to lead us through these times? (Yes, I know: Who? I don’t know. The powers of the most successful pols tend to be clearest in retrospect.)
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There are two important pieces of context within the above dynamic. One is that the great, enduring issue that divides the wise men, elders and big donors of the GOP (who are the natural protectors and supporters of the party’s professional politicians) and the base (which is turning to the outsiders) is illegal immigration. The base hates it. The elders and donors vary in their support—some accept it for practical reasons, some are enthusiastic, some are true open-borders ideologues—but they all support it. That taints their warnings to stick with politicians who know how things work.
There are two important pieces of context within the above dynamic. One is that the great, enduring issue that divides the wise men, elders and big donors of the GOP (who are the natural protectors and supporters of the party’s professional politicians) and the base (which is turning to the outsiders) is illegal immigration. The base hates it. The elders and donors vary in their support—some accept it for practical reasons, some are enthusiastic, some are true open-borders ideologues—but they all support it. That taints their warnings to stick with politicians who know how things work.
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The party on this huge issue is split between the top—the affluent and influential—and the bottom—the indignant, the worried and working-class.
The party on this huge issue is split between the top—the affluent and influential—and the bottom—the indignant, the worried and working-class.
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Another part of the year’s context: 2016 is in a way like the dramatic, portentous year 1976. That year Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan fought over one question: Will the Republican Party stay a midcentury moderate-liberal party or become a conservative party? Reagan’s landslides in 1980 and 1984 answered the question: The GOP would be a conservative party, and has been since. But this year’s question is equally fundamental: What does conservative mean in the 21st century?
Another part of the year’s context: 2016 is in a way like the dramatic, portentous year 1976. That year Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan fought over one question: Will the Republican Party stay a midcentury moderate-liberal party or become a conservative party? Reagan’s landslides in 1980 and 1984 answered the question: The GOP would be a conservative party, and has been since. But this year’s question is equally fundamental: What does conservative mean in the 21st century?
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Is it conservative to spend whatever it takes, and it will be a lot, to create and maintain the best national defense in the world? (The world is safer when America is stronger.) Or is it conservative to care about spending, to look to our allies to pick up their part of the burden? (Build too beautiful a military and you’ll only encourage the politicians to use it.)
Is it conservative to spend whatever it takes, and it will be a lot, to create and maintain the best national defense in the world? (The world is safer when America is stronger.) Or is it conservative to care about spending, to look to our allies to pick up their part of the burden? (Build too beautiful a military and you’ll only encourage the politicians to use it.)
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Is it conservative to say we have to cut back entitlement spending to cut our unsupportable deficits, or is it conservative to say a deal’s a deal, generations paid into it and have a moral right to everything they were promised? Is it conservative to say there’s plenty to be saved by cracking down on fraud and waste but in a time of economic stress the people will not accept benefit cuts and no serious party that lives in and respects reality should attempt it?
Is it conservative to say we have to cut back entitlement spending to cut our unsupportable deficits, or is it conservative to say a deal’s a deal, generations paid into it and have a moral right to everything they were promised? Is it conservative to say there’s plenty to be saved by cracking down on fraud and waste but in a time of economic stress the people will not accept benefit cuts and no serious party that lives in and respects reality should attempt it?
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Is it conservative to attempt to be the leader of the world, its sole and acknowledged great power, or is it conservative to be, as they say, the friend of liberty everywhere but the protector primarily of our own interests?
Is it conservative to attempt to be the leader of the world, its sole and acknowledged great power, or is it conservative to be, as they say, the friend of liberty everywhere but the protector primarily of our own interests?
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This is a lot to work out. It will probably take more than one election cycle. It’s to the credit of Republicans that they are having these debates. But a party wrestling with these issues is by definition not unified.
This is a lot to work out. It will probably take more than one election cycle. It’s to the credit of Republicans that they are having these debates. But a party wrestling with these issues is by definition not unified.
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The Democrats, for all their small struggles, are. They are disciplined. Their central organizing principle is getting and holding power.
The Democrats, for all their small struggles, are. They are disciplined. Their central organizing principle is getting and holding power.
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The Republicans this year have more intellectual vitality and engagement. That they are split about ideas, stands, principles is to their credit. They are acting out what politics was meant to be. But that civic virtue is a political liability.
At this point—early, but certain trends are obvious—the Democrats have the advantage. They want one thing. The Republicans want many serious and opposing things.
The Republicans this year have more intellectual vitality and engagement. That they are split about ideas, stands, principles is to their credit. They are acting out what politics was meant to be. But that civic virtue is a political liability.
At this point—early, but certain trends are obvious—the Democrats have the advantage. They want one thing. The Republicans want many serious and opposing things.
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Which gets us to the subject of super PACs and the damage they can do. The other night in the Fox Business debate some candidates touched on the practical and philosophical disagreements in the party. It was edifying. We need more.
But the first candidate whose super PAC money goes to killing another candidate with heavy opposition research will likely be the killer of more than one candidacy.
Which gets us to the subject of super PACs and the damage they can do. The other night in the Fox Business debate some candidates touched on the practical and philosophical disagreements in the party. It was edifying. We need more.
But the first candidate whose super PAC money goes to killing another candidate with heavy opposition research will likely be the killer of more than one candidacy.
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While all this is roiling the Republican Party, while all the divisions are thrashed out, is this the time for candidates to do to each other what Newt Gingrich did to Mitt Romney in 2012, grinding him up and handing him on a platter to the Democrats? I wondered last spring if 2016 would come down to Boring versus Bloody—a dull, peaceful Democratic coronation; a Republican rumble from which the nominee emerges damaged beyond repair.
While all this is roiling the Republican Party, while all the divisions are thrashed out, is this the time for candidates to do to each other what Newt Gingrich did to Mitt Romney in 2012, grinding him up and handing him on a platter to the Democrats? I wondered last spring if 2016 would come down to Boring versus Bloody—a dull, peaceful Democratic coronation; a Republican rumble from which the nominee emerges damaged beyond repair.
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The Democrats are depending on the Republicans to bloody each other in that way. They’re depending on Republicans to be stupid.
The Democrats are depending on the Republicans to bloody each other in that way. They’re depending on Republicans to be stupid.
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There have been reports Jeb Bush’s PAC is considering going after Marco Rubio. If it does, Mr. Bush will look like Al Pacino in “Scarface,” with his allies wielding all that super PAC dough and saying: “Say hello to my little friend.” The Pacino character took out all his enemies, but what’s so memorable about that last scene is that he shot up the entire mansion, pretty much brought the house down, and of course went down himself, in the end.
There have been reports Jeb Bush’s PAC is considering going after Marco Rubio. If it does, Mr. Bush will look like Al Pacino in “Scarface,” with his allies wielding all that super PAC dough and saying: “Say hello to my little friend.” The Pacino character took out all his enemies, but what’s so memorable about that last scene is that he shot up the entire mansion, pretty much brought the house down, and of course went down himself, in the end.
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