A Letter From Israel

THE TRUTH FROM THE WARZONE

My girlfriend, who is Jewish, recently went to Israel with some of her college classmates and the guy who was in charge of her group is currently in Israel. His name is Dovev Barak, and he recently sent this dispatch to her from Israel:

If you are wondering what is going on let me tell you the story because Im guessing that the news in the US is not so accurate sometimes...

During the last 3 years a few Israeli town in the south have been attacked by home-made missiles (called 'Kassam') from Gaza. Every day at least 10 missiles or more hit the Israeli town of Sderot.

Three weeks ago three groups of terrorists (including those from Hamas which is backed by Iran) attacked an Israeli outpost close to Gaza by digging a tunnel under the border between Gaza and Israel. They killed two soldiers and kidnapped another demanding the immediate release of 1000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for some information about the kidnapped soldier. According to the Geneva Convention they must allow the Red Cross to visit the soldier but the terrorists havent allowed access.

Yesterday, a group of terrorists from Hezbollah crossed the border into Israel and attacked 2 Israeli Jeeps. The terrorists killed 3 soldiers and kidnapped 2 soldiers. Another 4 soldiers were killed trying to rescue their kidnapped friends when their tank ran over a roadside bomb planted by the Hezbollah terrorists.

Israel, of course, responded by attacking the infrastructure (roads and bridges) in southern Lebanonin order to prevent the terrorists from taking the kidnapped soldiers even farther into Lebanon. Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah told reporters that the two soldiers had been taken to a place "far, far away" and that an Israeli military campaign would not win their release. Hezhollah also fired missiles at towns like Tzfat, Karmiel, and Nahariya.

Today Israel responded again. Firing missiles and rockets from Lebanon or Gaza into Israel terrorists entering Israel and attacking civilians and military personel is an act of war. Israel cant allow another country to attack her and because of that Israel attacked Lebanese strategic locations. Just an hour ago another 2 missiles hit Haifa. So far, two civilians have been killed in those attacks, seven soldiers have been killed, and 2 other soldiers have been kidnapped.

Are we at war? I think we are, although everything continues like normal in the center of Israel. Everyone is going to work although some people are being called up to duty in the Israeli Army reserves.

I know that in the American and European news it seems that Israel is the bad guy and world leaders might be condeming Israel, but honestly, Israel, like the US and any other normal country, cant let its citizens and soldiers be attacked like that. To do nothing would invite the other terrorist organizations to attack.

Well said Dovev. I hope to hear more from him soon, so check back frequently.

-Brad

Busy News Day

HOW THE MIDDLE EAST IS MAKING ME GO BROKE

I wrote about the escalating tensions in Gaza yesterday, but now we are going to feel the effects here in Ohio. As no surprise to any of us, oil has begun to riiiiiiiiiiise because of 'tensions' in the Middle East. Is it just me, or does everything in the world effect the price of oil? It is seriously getting out of control. With that said, the price of crude is approaching an all time high of $77 per barrel, because of problems in an area where we get not one drop of oil. But I guess that doesnt matter anymore. As far as military operation in Israel are going, they have bombed an airport in Lebanon and Hezbollah has appearently retaliated by launching a missile into a highly populated Israeli city. Both sides are now beginning to take prisoners as the situation continues to spiral out of control. Dont expect an end to this anytime soon, but prepare yourself for even higher gas prices, yipppppie.

Besides all that fun, President Bush was in Germany today feasting on wild bor with the new chancellor of Germany, who has become quite a good friend of W's. This is just a small stop on his way to the G8 Summit in Russia, where the leaders of the world will have to tackle some extremely tough issues, but dont expect much to get accomplished. I expect alot to be praised in public, with alot of bitching in private, with little coming in the way of solutions since most world leaders cant agree on anything.

Back in the states, Democrats continue to make asses of themselves by running a campaign add showing the flag draped coffins of KIA US troops. Republicans are outraged, as most of the country should be, but dont expect anyone in the media to hold the Dems accountable for using poor taste, since most in the media agree with them. We can only hope that everyday Americans, especially those moderate among us, will finally see the Democrats for who they are, a bunch of whiney losers who complain about everything while offering no answers.

Finally, just coming over the wire as I type these magnificent words, CNN is reporting that Valerie Plame is suing Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, and Scooter Libby, evidentally over the fact that she was allegedly outed as a covert agent for the CIA, which she was not. This whole thing has gotten so political its pathetic, and now that Patrick Fitzgerald has no case against anyone because nobody did anything wrong, Mrs. Plame is going to take matters into her own hands. Hilarious. More on this story as details warrant. Busy news day, be back soon.

-Brad

Another War in the Middle East

HERE WE GO AGAIN

As I sit here and type this to you, Israeli war planes are probably bombing the crap out of Palestinian targets in Gaza City. This is in response to the Hezbollah report that they have captured a couple more Israeli soldiers. Remember, it was the capturing of a lone Israeli soldier that started this latest set back in peace back on June 25th. This war seems to me like it could be a very big deal. On one side, you obviously have the Israeli's who will mostly have to go it alone, but have the resources to do so. On the other side, you have the Palestinians and Hamas, who are funded and helped by terror groups like Hezbollah and the Governments of Syria and Iran.

I hope that this entire ordeal can be solved peacefully and diplomatically, but everyday seems to prove the contrary as hostile actions continue by both sides. Inevitibly, the United States will be sucked into this if the situation continues to deteriorate. Once again, we will do the right thing and defend Israel, as they are surrounded by enemies not only to them, but also to the USA. However, this conflict could have an effect on our efforts in Iraq, and as of now Im not sure if the effect will be positive or negative. It could be a positive turn of events if the terrorists see a bigger threat in Gaza and give up on Iraq, but that is specuation on my part. The biggest variable right now in this entire thing is Iran. The leaders of that country have expressed their ambitions to wipe Israel off the map, so these latest events could be very telling. If Iran gets involved publically, I believe the United States will have no other option but to intervene. I do not think that the president will let Israel go it alone against those idiots, but I could be wrong.

It seems that war has all but begun once again between the Israeli's and the Muslims in the holy land. Their inability to get along, after everything Israel has given to the Palestinians completely baffles me. The tide turned when Hamas won big in the most recent election over there, and most who study that part of the world would probably tell you that this type of aggressive action was only a matter of time. The terror groups over there just cannot let Israel alone, and now they will have to face the wrath of one of the strongest military's in the entire world. Go Israel.

-Brad

The Rage Over Minimum Wage

MY TAKE

Ive been told that Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, and other have recently been in Ohio complaining about the current rate of the minimum wage in American. Evidentally, some grassroots groups right here in the Buckeye state have been planning to take matter into their own hands and get legislation passed in the state legislature to raise the wage. Clinton and Edwards are in the camp, like the majority of the Democratic Party, which says that having a low minimum wage hurts tons of working families in this country and blah blah blah. For those of you who dont know, the minimum wage is currently $5.15 and has been since 1997.

In my opinion, the minimum wage should be extremely low, to give people an incentive for actually getting a good education which will allow them to make more money to support them and their families. I do understand that not everyone is cut out for higher education, but those people can still learn a trade at a vocational school which will be much to their benefit. The Bureau of Labor and Statistics says that more than 80% of people making the minimum wage have no dependents, meaning the obvious, that most are teenage kids. Trust me, if your are middle aged with children and your making minimum wage, you probably have many other problems unrelated to anything Im talking about here.

This whole debate has a eerie existance of hypocracy if I say so myself. Remember how the Democrats always moan about how Republicans use issues like gay marriage and flag burning just to rally their base around election time? Well that is exactly what the Dems are doing here. Minimum wage has been a constant issue of their platform since is was instituted by FDR, and now they are using it to get themselves much needed votes for the upcoming election. Its a loser now and always has been. I dont think that many people making minimum wage who are over the age of 18 vote in huge numbers, but I guess I could be wrong. Probably not though.

Here is what I suggest: I personally would support raising the minimum wage, but only to $5.65 tops. With gas prices where they are and inflation rates rising, even high school kids should be able to enjoy themselves and their paychecks a little more. Plus they tend to spend money like crazy, which in it of itself helps the overall economy. I however do not, and will never support raising it to $6.85, which is where the likes of Hillary wants it. Thats way too much and will cause a lot of inflation just by itself. It would be nice if the Democrats tried it my way, instead of trying to lie to the American people by telling them that a low minimum wage hurts countless families in this country, which again just aint true. Im not really worried about this entire issue though, with Republicans in control of basically the entire country, I wouldnt invision any raise in the minimum wage in the very near future. Yet another reason why we must prevail on November 7th, 2006. Dont let these people ruin the economy the Bush administration created.

-Brad

Lieberman Under Attack

SUCKS TO BE HIM

I kinda feel bad for Joe Lieberman. I actually like the guy, I think he is one of the very few Democrats in congress who is thinking clearly and also has a mind of his own. Maybe it makes me a hypocrit though, considering that Im not a fan of John McCain, while the two are very similar on their respective sides of the isle. I watched the debate the other night on MSNBC between Lieberman and his extremely liberal opponent Ned Lamont. To me, Lamont came off to be extremely fake. The man is obviously running as a left wing looney because he believes he can get the support of the other left wing loonies in Connecticut, whom Lieberman has alienated by taking the correct stand on the Iraq war.

Obviously, Iraq is the defining issue in the campaign. Other than Iraq, Lieberman pretty much follows the Democratic party line. What I have found very interesting about this race is the fear of other elected Democrats to publically support Lieberman. John Kerry, who wants to run for president in 2008 as the liberal candidate, refuses to support his friend. To me, that just proves how big of a tool that John Kerry truly is. All the man cares about is politics and himself, which is why he will never be our president, thank God.

My vast political knowledge very rarely lets me down, and I think I will be right by saying that Joe Lieberman will win the Senate race from his own state. Im not sure if he will survive the primary, but if he has to run as an independent, which he says he will, I think he will prevail. Im just curious about the Republican candidate in the race and whether or not that person has any chance of winning if Lieberman and Lamont end up splitting the Democratic vote in November. Wouldnt that be an interesting change of events?! By the way, primary day is August 8th, I believe, in Connecticut, so stay tuned.

-Brad

North Korea 1, USA 0

WHO'S THE BOSS?

Yesterday, the North Korean's decided to defy the United States, and the world I guess, by test launching a bunch of missiles capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, and one that could potentially hit the continental US. Oh by the way, they conveniently picked the 4th of July to do their little test. The president and the UN were extremely quick to react to this news by immediately issuing statements condeming the tests and blah blah blah. What everyone failed to do was come up with a plan to either punish the North Korean's or send them a strong warning not to do something like this again. I dont know how many times we can make these pointless and worthless threats while expecting psycho leaders, like those in North Korea, to take us seriously.

Let me first say that I believe most are overreacting about his news. I do not think that the Korean's have capabilities to hit the United States from thousands of miles away. With that said, if I lived in South Korea or Japan, Id probabaly be much more concerned. Furthermore, I do not believe even Lil' Kim has the balls to use a nuclear weapon against an ally of the United States of America. At most, the guy might have 5-10 nukes, compared to our 1,300+. Suffice it to say, in the event of a nuclear conflict, I dont like his chances.

Now, here is what I think we should do since the North Korean's made the first move. We cannot sanction these people anymore. I know that the UN loves sanctions because it gets them off the hook without having ever do anything tough, but this situation is beyond that. The North Korean people have already suffered greatly under the current regime, basically they cannot get any poorer. Knowing that, we must be willing to use our muscle rather than our mouths. If I was the president, unbenounced to anyone, I would get about two dozen F-16's together, in attack formation, and let them breeze by Pyongyang at a slow rate of speed. Let the moronic leaders over there see for themselves that they can be annihilated in a matter of seconds with simple conventional weapondry. And, if they decide to try and shoot one of our planes down, give the pilots the green light to destroy any hostile air defense systems they might utilize. In other words, let them shoot first. We are the the United States of America for crying out loud and we should be allowed to intimidate these jerks if we want to. As I said, this should be a covert operation, but if the news does come out, you can bet that the rest of the world would complain about how we are the bullies in the world. But then Id say to them, would you prefer, a strong United States who bullied a country into submission, or a potential nuclear war? Sounds simple you might say, but common sense seems to be a thing of the past in the rhelm of international relations.

-Brad

NASA Scrubbs Discovery...Again

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

I dont know about you, but the space program as a whole today really doesnt make much sense. It seems to me that the risks out weigh the rewards here in 2006, and in my opinion, NASA should either focus completely on the future, or call it quits altogether. Its a shame that it has come to this, but when the Columbia decintagrated into the morning sky three years ago, it really put the space program into persepective. Is it worth the lives of seven or eight brave people just to go into space and orbit the earth? Americans have been orbiting the earth since the late 1950's, so what is really the point? We spend billions and billions of dollars a year on NASA, and unless they use that money on more uselful projects, I think the congress should simply cut them off.

The American space program used to be the envy of the world. During the 1960's, from Mercury, to Gemini, and especially during the Apollo years, we were utilizing our resources to reach an objective, which was to go to the moon. There is no such objective today, and we need one. I have heard talks about maybe going back to the moon, which I would support. There are even rumors of attempting to go to Mars, which I would strongly support. When the Apollo 1 astronauts died during a test, they died because we were on a mission. But now it doesnt seem to me like we have any mission at all. People say that space travel can never become routine, well, I honestly think it has. Too routine and far too dangerous.

In my opinion, NASA should just retire the shuttle project completely, and take the next decade to focus on going someplace. Nobody would mind if they did such a thing because we could all once again be galvonized by the brilliance of distant space travel. For those of you who dont know about it, go back and read about the space program of the 1960's, and how excited America was when we first orbited the earth, then orbited the moon, then finally landed on the moon almost 37 years ago. Space travel should be a game of firsts, but it hasnt been in nearly three decades. I direct you to the book "Lost Moon" by astronaut Jim Lovell, who was on the famous Apollo 13 mission. It really illustrates the NASA in those days, and shows much things have changed. I ask you all this question, and please leave comments, do you think what NASA does today, is worth the lives of our astronauts?

-Brad

Meet the Press Recap

REDEMPTION

Whoa...this weeks Meet the Press was amazing. It had gotten very stale over the past few weeks, with Tim Russert just basically having on Democrats and letting them spew out their talking points. But this week Russert was gone, and Andrea Mitchell was the guest host, and she did a marvelous job. The first segment pitted Senators Mitch McConnell and Chuckie Schumer against one another. Mrs. Mitchell grilled Schumer for almost the entire half hour, it was great. McConnell basically just sat there and let her have him, as everything that Chuckie was saying became red meat for the inquisitive Mitchell. The Quote of the day had to have been when Schumer, discussing Hillary Clinton's presidential asperations said that right now she is focused on simply running for the Senate of the United States of New York. Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?

The second segment was about the New York Times and their irresponisible reporting. Bill Bennett was the only conservative, with three other panelists. But Bill held his ground against the other three whiners who want to protect the press from any accountability. The people in the media basically think that they are above the law, and Bennett proved that brilliantly by just letting them talk. The best part about the whole thing is that everytime they get a chance to defend themselves, they just galvonize conservatives who will defeat them and their ideology in November. I almost felt bad for Bennett, but then I thought to myself that it would be great to go against a panel of people who think the way that liberal journalists do, because it makes people like us and Bennett look that much smarter, and even more American. Bennett did a great job.

I really suggest if you didnt get to see the show this morning, you go here and watch it, or read the transcript if you have a few hours. Again, Andrea Mitchell did a great job and Id love to see more of her on MTP in the future. It was great entertainment.

-Brad

The Wall Street Journal Explains Itself

SOME REAL HONEST REPORTING

By now, everyone knows about the whole New york Times, LA Times, and Wall Street Journal bru-ha-ha over the publishing of a secret anti-terror measure even after the government had asked them not to do it. But finally, a single newspaper who ran the story is explaining itself with dignity. The Wall Street Journal is considered a much more conservative paper when compared to the likes of the New York Slimes, so many people were confused when they saw this story show up on their newspages. Also, many in the liberal media have bitched about the fact that those upset about the declassification of the SWIFT program have only blamed the New York Times and not the Wall Street Journal because of political bias.

Well, thats just not true. The WSJ does bare some responsibility for running the story. However, the New York Times deserves the brunt, because it was their reporting that leaked all the classified information and it was their editor who was called by numerous people inside the White House and members of congress including vocal war critic and resident looney Jack Murtha. The New York Times, on their own, decided to bypass everyone and go with the story because in their own distorted minds, they know whats best for this country. Since they went ahead with this mistake, a backlash has ensued that might have finally been the tipping point in the irresponsiblitiy of the mainstream media over the past five years.

As I said before, the Wall Street Journal is the first paper to express any sort of regret for publishing the story, and I for one take them at their word. You can read their explanation here, and I suggest you do because it gives a very good summary of all the events that lead up to the publishing of the story. By the way, the House of Representatives today passed a resolution 227-183 condeming the newsmedia for endangering the lives of Americans by their rogue reporting, and I hear the Senate is going to do something similar in the very near future. Its about time we take a stand America.

-Brad

Supreme Court Rules Against Bush

DONT PANIC JUST YET

This morning, the Supreme Court said that the terrorists in Guantanamo Bay, and remember these people are terrorists, cannot be tried in military tribunals, which basically means that they must be tried like they were American citizens. Read the story here. However, in the court decision, it says that the president did overstep his bounds as commander-in-chief, but they also said that if congress were to pass legislation saying that the people in GITMO should be tried like military combatants, then that would be just fine. As soon as that was known, Republican senators were already getting together to introduce some legislation to do just that.

Of course, the media was abuzz with this news. Remember, liberals absolutely hate what we are doing in Cuba, so to them, this was a huge victory while being an enormous defeat for the Bush administration. What I said in the first paragraph rebukes that obscene notion. But its ok, let them think they have won this one so that when congress acts accordingly, it will be even sweeter to see them go completely looney, even more looney than they already are.

Now, on to the logistics of this decision. Firstly, once again allow me to reiterate the fact that I just dont get all the fuss over Guantanamo. Why do regular people care so much about the fact that we lock up terrorists that we find on the battlefield. We must do things like this to protect ourselves against future attacks both in this country and against our troops. Many liberals talk about how much the detention camp has hurt our credibility around the world...WHO FREAKIN CARES! This isnt their country or their war to run. We were hit, not them, so they should just shut up about it and let us do our job. What we are doing in the war on terror does not effect France of Germany. We dont tell them how to run their business so they should keep their stinkin noses out of ours. Furthermore, if we cannot detain terrorists captured in battle then what good are our troops? Should they be risking their lives to fight an enemy that gets more sympathy than they do? If this decision is upheld, then maybe our troops should just kill every person they capture. That would solve the problem, would it not? You decide.

I hope that the congress will do what it has to do in this case so we can continue to win our war. One good thing that came out of this whole thing is that this will undoubtedly rally the conservative base behind the president. This latest BS, plus the New York Slimes debacle, is helping the GOP more than we could have ever wished. I am becoming more confident every time something like this happens that we will be just fine in the November elections. I think that most of the American people are smart enough to see how those on the left are seriously trying to ruin this country. Hopefully, im not giving people too much credit, but I dont think I am. We must win this war, Ive said it a million times, but everyday it is getting harder and harder, and that is scary, veeeeeeeery scary. Remember, we havent been hit in almost five years, ask yourselves why.

-Brad