Privacy vs Security

As a Conservative I have always supported limiting the role that government plays in our everyday lives, and our constitutional right to privacy is just one example of a safeguard put in place to prevent our country from turning into the world depicted in George Orwell's 1984. The events of 9/11/01 affected every American on a personal level bringing the war of the 21st century to our doorstep and changing the role of our government forever. Over the past five years, hundreds of safeguards have been put in place throughout the country designed to prevent a terrorist attack from occurring, and so far they have been 100% effective. So the question is are we safe? As most are aware there have been numerous reports citing the fact that our country still has a long way to go before we can declare ourselves completely safe from terrorism, so where do we go from here and more importantly where do we as Americans draw the line between our constitutional right to privacy and the security of our nation?

On Thursday the City of Chicago, along with IBM Corporation, launched perhaps the most advanced video surveillance system in the United States. The camera system is so advanced that it is able to recognize specific license plates and vehicles that are being sought by authorities. More importantly this system, according to IBM, would be capable of detecting abnormal behaviors that could lead up to a terrorist attack, such as a car circling the Sears Tower several times or a suspicious package abandoned outside of a school. The most astonishing aspect of this system is that it is completely computer operated and only requires its operators to analyze the alerts that it produces for potential threats. The City of Chicago has not yet released the cost of this plan saying only that most of the cost will likely be paid for by the Department of Homeland Security; however, previous and more basic systems cost approximately 10,000 dollars per camera.

This system is almost guaranteed to be criticized by members of the ACLU, as well as leading politicians in Chicago and Washington, for being an unwarranted invasion of privacy; however, if these cameras are capable of stopping a terrorist attack before it happens, does it really matter? This question is one that I urge every American to consider because rest assured this is only the first of many technological advancements designed to better protect Americans from those wishing to destroy our way of life. Make no mistake about it, systems like this WILL protect us; however, without proper operational guidelines in place they can also do a great amount of damage to our way of life.

Liberal Elites Welcome Ahmadinejad

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is currently on his way to NYC to meet with the UN General Assembly. No doubt his speech will look to portray George W. Bush as the unrelenting spawn of Satan as he did the last time he stopped by; but this time his visit is special. Apparently Ahmadinejad requested the right to visit ground zero. His request was rightfully denied. Yet it is utterly chilling that he even considered pulling such a stunt. Ground Zero is a place of great importance to all Americans and we cannot have it disrespected by some one who spends his free time discussing the proper way to destroy the West and Israel.

He will be barred from Ground Zero but Ahmadinejad will be allowed to speak at the UN General Assembly. If you recall the last time he spoke he unleashed a triad of anti-west rhetoric that was unprecedented in modern history. Between Ahmadinejad and Hugo Chavez you would think George W. Bush spends his free time eating kittens. I as an American feel that such nonsense should not be tolerated on our soil.

Yet it appears Columbia University feels differently. Despite numerous protests, from students and the organization Freedom Watch, it appears Columbia University will be offering President Ahmadinejad a forum to discuss his views. Leave it to one of the more liberal university's in the country to give Ahmadinejad a place to rant against the West and Israel. This is a complete and utter disgrace. Ahmadinejad is currently, now that Saddam Hussein has been disposed, the biggest threat to freedom and the west on the face of this planet. Now most people would respond to this by opposing his visit but not Columbia. They are euphoric to learn about how the Holocaust is "A Myth" or how Ahmadinejad would like to see the destruction of Israel. Well I think its time we as a country unite once again cause if we continue this fragmented approach to national defense; one day people like Ahmadinejad wont have to ask permission to show up in our country.

Be Back Later...

The time has come, and I am off. I will be processing and swearing in to active duty with the US Army bright and early tomorrow morning, then shipping out to Fort Jackson, SC for Basic training. Although this is a pivotal and exciting moment in my life, it is a time where I will not be able to contribute to RFAROnline.

Expect my return in early December after I have reported to Fort Benning, GA for Officer Candidate School.

I trust that Chris, Brian and the others will be able to keep you all thoroughly entertained and informed throughout the next 10 weeks. God Bless.

UF Student Tased and Arrested at Kerry Event

A student at the University of Florida was tased during a speech by John Kerry after he took the microphone from another student (not shown in the video), began a rant insinuating that Kerry must be part of the great Right Wing Conspiracy, and attempted to ask a series of questions. Check out the videos below of the event and aftermath:





Now, we are all for freedom of speech, but there has to be a line. In this situation, the line is stealing the show, causing a disturbance and making a scene, then resisting officers who attempted to remove him from the venue. On my former campus, a much smaller university, if a student is making a scene and disrupts an event, Campus Police Officers would remove that person...resisting them will escalate the situation.

What I love about this kid (Andrew Meyer) is that he seriously believes everything is controlled by an epic, secret-society-run conspiracy headed up by George W. Bush and evil conservatives. He is convinced that because he knows "the truth" and is "brave" enough to be outspoken about it, the police (also part of the conspiracy) have come to take him away and kill him (check out the last couple minutes of the 2nd video). Bottom line, he broke the rules and paid for it.

By the way, if there really is this grand right wing conspiracy, why haven't Chris or I received a paycheck?

Quick Note: My original title for this piece was "Lefty McLefterton from Leftville Tased and Arrested" (Get the Kyle Cease Reference?). I thought it was funny, but didn't think some of our readers would appreciate the humor...guess I could be considered a hypocrite when it comes to the whole political correctness issue, huh?

American Security Firm banned from Iraq

The Iraqi Interior Ministry revoked Blackwater USA's license to operate within their borders following a shootout that has left 8 civilians dead and another 13 injured. From WaPo:

"The 'civilians' who reportedly fired upon by Blackwater professionals were in fact armed enemies and Blackwater personnel returned defensive fire," company spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell said late Monday. "Blackwater regrets any loss of life, but this convoy was violently attacked by armed insurgents, not civilians, and our people did their job to defend human life."

Robert Young Pelton, an independent military analyst who spent a month with a Blackwater team in Baghdad while researching his book, "Licensed to Kill," said the contractors No. 1 priority is keeping their high-value clients alive. "The Blackwater guys are not fools," Pelton said. "If they were gunning down people it was because they felt it was the beginning of an ambush."

Blackwater has been a goto resource of many worldwide government and law enforcement agencies for security, training, armament, personnel, etc. Most notably, however, has been their impact within Iraq on the front lines in the War on Terror. If forced to leave, the Iraqi government will break over $800 million in contracts between Blackwater, Iraq, the United States and others.

This move by the Iraqi Interior seems to be misguided. Maybe its just me, but when the Iraqi Government and their citizens continue to ask for our help and support, maybe they shouldn't be shunning private security firms (or any security firms for that matter) that we have joint contracts with. These men are contracted as soldiers and security enforcement, and will act accordingly when engaged.

Question: Should they have not returned fire and held tight in order to avoid criticism from the Iraqi Interior (and others)? I'd like to think you all already know what I am going to say to that one...Seems to me that police officers get the same 20/20 hindsight reactions here at home when they use deadly force. This type of mindset can be very dangerous for soldiers, security personnel, and civilians in a hostile war environment.

HILLARY CARE REVISTED

Guess what's back...? If you guessed largely overpriced and utterly useless government-run health care, you guessed correctly my friend. Just this week, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton announced her "brand new" health care plan. The idea is that health care will soon be mandatory in all states, much like auto insurance. The plan will cost an estimated $110 billion dollars and will make premiums payable based on income, so lower income families will pay less then higher income families. Even better Mrs. Clinton plans to fund this by removing the Tax Cuts from people making over 250,000 a year. Mrs. Clinton, obviously aware of the massive failure of her last proposal, was quick to defuse the idea that this is socialized health care.

"I know my Republican opponents will try to equate health care for all Americans with government-run health care. Don't let them fool us again. This is not government-run..."

First lets start with the most egregious error in her thinking, That it will be funded by removing the tax cuts for the rich. What Mrs. Clinton fails to understand is that this will decrease rather then increase revenue. Tax cuts allow a person to keep their money and invest it in the economy which creates growth and jobs and also tax revenue. How is this? Because when ever you buy something or invest or gift something you pay taxes so this extract money in the economy circulates and every time it dose tax is paid. This creates the increase in revenue. Taking away these tax cuts will fund the program for possibly a year if it stays at $110 billion; but other programs will become underfunded and deficits will ensue. Also it will grow in size because all government programs start small and end bloated and useless just look at social security.

She also forgets to mention that most privately insured people will drop their coverage in favor of "cheaper" federal health insurance. This will bloat the program and drive up its cost. In the end we will be stuck with the Canadian model of less doctors, longer waits, and illegal private facilities. That's right the country liberals consider to be the model for health care actually has illegal private facilities because the public ones are horrible. So with 2008 around the corner choose wisely cause the last thing we need is another bloated government program.

Source:
Hillary Clinton Proposes New Healthcare Plan

OJ AT IT AGAIN

Well who would have thought OJ Simpson, who seems to be able to get away with anything, is up to no good once again? OJ is being held for armed robbery of a Vegas hotel room containing sports memorabilia of, get this, his career. That’s right OJ stole OJ stuff. He faces up to seven felony charges in relation to this crime. Now I had a feeling OJ was stupid but this is really out of control. How dumb do you have to be to steal memorabilia of your own career? You have a camera OJ, take a picture and sign it. They say criminals have a hard time not re-offending and it appears so in this case. Now granted I am not positive he did the crime he was charged with back in the nineties but still it’s not off base to think he did.

To be honest this is just becoming routine. Every month some rich trouser stain goes out and dose something stupid and I as a commentator am supposed to come out and report it as if its news. I think its time we take Paris Hilton, OJ, etc and put them were they belong off our airwaves. We are engaged in a war whose outcome is far more important than anything OJ is doing.

The fact is that I would be willing to place a large bet that OJ will be getting all the coverage the next few weeks. Also please take time to pray to your respective God that this trial last under a year and a half. Oh and don’t forget to stay glued to the TV, I expect the Ford Bronco to be out on the highway any day now.

Never Forget

Complacency seems to be the word of the past 6 years for American society. Given, no one has forgotten what happened, but many seem to loose focus of the lesson handed to us that day.

We know that an evil and radical force attacked our nation and murdered over 3,000 of our fellow countrymen/women; what we forget is that this enemy continues to operate throughout the world, centralized in the shadows of the Middle East. Even though their efforts have been turned onto the US Soldiers sent to hunt them down rather than our citizens, we still seem to latch on to theories and ideas that will only lead us back to a time where we lived in "happy-go-lucky" land and terrorism was allowed to operate and flourish for over 3 decades.

In the aftermath of 9/11, we have brought the hammer down on those who sign onto the ideas and agendas of terrorism. The War on the West initiated by Radical Islam has been countered and splintered by our campaigns in the War on Terror. We have enabled our intelligence community to halt numerous terror plots and bring in hundreds of connected suspects. Our progress on the front lines in Iraq and Afghanistan are just another testament to our success in this fight. The game plan following 9/11: Defeat those who plot against our country, our citizens, our allies and our ideals. However, it seems this complacency has given our enemies a political advantage as our own people fail to recognize the threat and unknowingly call for their victory.

With that, I say: Never forget that we have an active enemy constantly plotting against us. Never forget that this enemy will fight us to the death, even to the extent of taking their own life in order to take one of ours. Never forget that we can defeat this enemy by continuing our efforts on their turf; by giving them the fight they asked for on a scale they never thought possible. Never forget that we can make a brighter tomorrow for ourselves and others worldwide by winning today. Finally, never forget those who had to die so that we would become united against this enemy and their ideals.

For some reason, liberals have spent far too much time over the past 6 years focusing on Bush and those around him rather than the enemy who continues to exist and operate. It may sound cheesy, but it is very true: United we stand, divided we fall. I fear it will take another attack on our country (apparently attacks on our soldiers aren't enough) in order to snap people out of their complacent mindset and allow us to rally once again so we put this enemy to rest.

Feel free to add your own "Never Forget's" under the comments.

Processed and Enlisted

"I, Carl Edward Soderberg, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God."

As of this afternoon, I am a Specialist (SPC, E-4) in the United States Army. I ship out to Basic Training on September 20th (during which time you will all have to manage without my writings :P), and will enter Officer Candidate School on December 3rd.

UPDATE: I am stoked.

9/14/01

Well it seems the world’s number one terrorist is planning a special broadcast on the anniversary of the 9-11 attacks. Now this is far from a shock since this is an anniversary of victory to Bin Laden. However, for Americans it is a time to look at what we have become since the terrible events of that September morning.

Think back to 9/14/01. It was both a horrible and wonderful time. We had just suffered the worst attack in the history of our nation. Some would say there is no good that could come out of that. But I disagree. Because on 9/14/01 we stopped being conservatives or liberals, black or white...we became simple Americans. We were united in a single purpose to defend freedom from the attackers who had taken our loved ones from us without cause or remorse. We stood tall as our President from the ashes of the Twin Towers echoed the battle cry. The following is a video of the President at the Twin towers on 9/14/01

Watch it closely. You will notice there are no verbal gaffes; just President George W. Bush, the leader of the Free World, announcing that he will lead his country against its largest threat in half a century. This should be a moment we treasure, yet you will almost never see this footage again except on the internet. As of late it seems to be more important to everyone spend our time ripping the President limb from limb because he has been a poor public speaker. On that day, however, he showed the real George W. Bush: A man of leadership, and that man is still present today as he stands strong for what he promised to do and fight for 6 years ago. He knew his role and understood that the fate of the free world rested on his shoulders.

So, Harry Reid and company, I suggest you watch that video and watch it closely...because this is what real leadership is.

Thompson makes it Official

Finally, Fred is in the race. See more at Fred08.com.





I love these videos from his appearance on the Tonight Show because he is able to show everyone what separates him from the rest of the pack: A desire to lead and make a difference with action rather than just words. It will be interesting to watch the rest of the election unfold from this point on.

Global Warming = Summer Movie Boom?

Variety author Ted Johnson has finished up a piece where he discusses possible causes for the extremely successful summer the movie industry has had in 2007. He titled his work "Global Warming at the Box Office." Here is an excerpt:

The weather.

Is global warming good for Hollywood? Extreme heat and heavy rain across large swaths of the U.S. sent more people to theaters, looking for relief. The onset of the extreme weather -- record-breaking temperatures in the western U.S., rain up and down the Eastern seaboard, the Midwest and Texas -- started at the end of June, just as the box office was starting to see a bump. "You went from dreadful heat to downpours," Snyder says. "Historically, we've seen a bounce in grosses when the weather is bad. Also, when kids can't go outside, and make their parents nuts, they send them to the movies."

Well, of course the Hollywood crowd is going to jump into the mindset of "now, how could this be affected by global warming?" In all honesty, I am pretty sure that my Ford Explorer isn't the reason that Transformers did well at the box office.

Furthermore, here is another reason Mr. Johnson added to his list:

Escapism.

War, scandal, disaster. That's all you see in the news. People just want to escape. They'll avoid "The Mighty Heart" in favor of talking rats. It seems like a great explanation, full of cultural pontification, intellectual heft and societal angst. That is, until you remember what was in the news in the tepid summer of 2005: War, scandal, disaster.

How about the simple fact that the movies this summer just plain rocked? Too simple? Funny how libs are always looking for "creative" explanations when the answer is right in front of them. Remember, we had Transformers, Oceans 13, Pirates 3, F4: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Spiderman 3, Ratatouille (which was awesome), Live Free or Die Hard, Mr. Brooks, Knocked Up, Harry Potter, The Simpsons Movie, Bourne Ultimatum, Superbad, Rush Hour 3, and closed it up with the remake of Halloween this past weekend. Did I miss any other decent ones? No, Balls of Fury does not make the cut...

Bush visits Iraq

AL ASAD AIR BASE, Iraq (Reuters) The president flew to Iraq with his security team to meet with U.S. commander General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker for a final review of the war before a showdown in Congress over troop levels.

"General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker tell me if the kind of success we are seeing continues, it will be possible to maintain the same level of security with fewer American forces," Bush said. (Full story here)

Great move by the President here. In all honesty, I don't know why he doesn't head over there more often. This was definitely good timing though with the "pinnacle" point of our campaign in Iraq coming up next week when Patraeus and Crocker present there update to Congress.

Whats interesting is that the Democrats have done everything in their power to prevent the two from testifying, or having the review at all. They have spent their 8 months in power (and even more so this summer) trying to tie the hands of our soldiers, generals, political supporters and Commander in Chief when it comes to Iraq, essentially attempting to wave the white flag for political purposes and gain.

This is not new however, so I'll make my point: Ever since the Democrats have taken office, their approval ratings have gone in the toilet while the Bush Administration has gained approval. Iraq has seen a drop in violence after the President finally gave the country what it needed: More security. Dealing with Iran (in a tough manner) is hopefully the next thing on his "to-do" list. Quick reminder as to why for all you "Rosie O'Donnell's" out there:

Nuclear milestone reached: 3,000 centrifuges
Iranian President mocks U.S., saying we WON'T strike

Victory is close; do not allow these lost liberals strip it from us.

"As you know, today is Labor Day back home -- (hooah!) -- so I thought I'd come by to thank you for all your hard work...We've all come to say thank you. We've come to tell you the American people are standing with you. They're grateful for your sacrifice. As Commander-in-Chief, I'm proud to be in your presence on this Labor Day. I ask for God's blessings on you and your family, and may God continue to bless America. Thank you."

-George W. Bush, President of the United States (September 3, 2007)