FBI arrests two Chicago men for Danish terror plot

By Warren Richey

Federal authorities announced Tuesday that they had broken up a Chicago-based plot to help attack the offices of a Danish newspaper that once published cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammed.

Publication of the cartoons in 2005 sparked outrage among many Muslims internationally. It also triggered calls by Islamic militants for retaliation.

Federal prosecutors said they believe the two Chicago men, David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana, were helping to plan a potential retaliatory attack against the Danish newspaper with the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LET), which is classified as a terrorist organization by the US government.

Mr. Headley, a US citizen, was arrested Oct. 3 by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport as he was about to board a flight to Pakistan via Philadelphia. His alleged co-conspirator, Mr. Rana, a citizen of Canada, was picked up Oct. 18 at his home in Chicago.

Announcing the arrests, US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said there was no danger of attacks in the Chicago area. "Law enforcement has a duty to be vigilant to guard against not just those who would carry out attacks here on our soil but those who plot on our soil to help carry out violent attacks overseas," he said in a statement.

"This case is a reminder that the threat posed by international terrorist organizations is global in nature and requires constant vigilance at home and abroad," added David Kris, assistant attorney general for national security. More arrests are said to be expected.

According to federal affidavits filed in the US District Court in Chicago, the plot began in October 2008 when Headley allegedly posted a message on an Internet discussion group suggesting he might take action against the Danish cartoonists and others at the newspaper for "making fun of Islam."

Anyone See a TREND Here?

Michigan:Muslim Mob Surrounds and Attacks Christians~Video Detroit mosque leader killed in FBI raid FBI arrests two Chicago men for Danish terror plot House Republicans accuse Muslim group of trying to plant spies... Sharia trumps Yale's free speech

Headley, who changed his name in 2006 from Daood Gilani, reportedly wrote that he was: "disposed towards violence for the offending parties."

Officials say the two men and their contacts in Pakistan used code words in e-mails and other communications. The plan was called the "Mickey Mouse Project," "mmp," and "the northern project."

They say e-mails were coded with words such as "investments," "projects," "business," and "actions."

Headley traveled to Denmark in January 2009 and visited the offices of the newspaper, Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten. The affidavits say he then traveled to Pakistan's border tribal region and met personally with Ilyas Kashmiri, operations chief of Harakat-ul Jihad Islami, a group the US government classifies as a terror organization with ties to both Al Qaeda and LET.

After returning to Chicago last summer, Headley continued to exchange e-mails with members of the Pakistani groups and asked if the Denmark project was on hold, according to the affidavits. Intercepted e-mails suggest that group leaders were considering using Headley to identify potential targets for attacks in India, the affidavits say.

Headley returned to Denmark in July 2009 on a trip partly arranged by Mr. Rana. US intelligence agents intercepted communications suggesting that Headley was planning to travel back to Pakistan in October to meet with Mr. Kashmiri and others associated with the LET, according to the affidavits.

He was arrested as he prepared to board his flight from Chicago. In his luggage agents discovered a computer memory stick that contained 10 short videos of Copenhagen, including footage of the newspaper building during the day and night, a nearby Danish military barracks, and the exterior and interior of Copenhagen's central train station.

In addition, according to the affidavit, Headley had an airline reservation made by Rana to fly from Atlanta to Copenhagen on Oct. 29, 2009.

Headley has been charged with conspiring to commit a terrorist act outside the US and with conspiring to provide material support to an overseas terrorism conspiracy.

Rana is charged with conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorism conspiracy.

If convicted, Headley faces up to life in prison for the terror conspiracy charge. Both Headley and Rana face up to 15 years in prison on the material support conspiracy charge.

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Detroit mosque leader killed in FBI raid

Feds charge 11 followers of radical Muslim group

By Paul Egan and Oralandar Brand-Williams

Detroit -- The leader of a Detroit mosque who allegedly espoused violence and separatism was shot and killed Wednesday by the FBI in a gun battle at a Dearborn warehouse.

Luqman Ameen Abdullah, imam of the Masjid Al-Haqq mosque in Detroit, was being arrested on a raft of federal charges including conspiracy, receipt of stolen goods, and firearms offenses.

Charges were also filed against 11 of Abdullah's followers. Eight were in custody Wednesday night awaiting detention hearings today; three remained at large.

A federal complaint filed Wednesday identified Abdullah, 53, also known as Christopher Thomas, as "a highly placed leader of a nationwide radical fundamentalist Sunni group." His black Muslim group calls itself "Ummah," or the brotherhood, and wants to establish a separate state within the United States governed by Sharia law, Interim U.S. Attorney Terrence Berg and Andrew Arena, FBI special agent in charge in Detroit, said in a joint statement.

"He regularly preaches anti-government and anti-law enforcement rhetoric," an FBI agent wrote in an affidavit. "Abdullah and his followers have trained regularly in the use of firearms, and continue to train in martial arts and sword fighting."

The Ummah is headed nationally by Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, formerly known as H. Rap Brown, who is serving a state sentence for the murder of two police officers in Georgia.

Early Wednesday afternoon, FBI agents and local police from the Joint Terrorism Task Force surrounded a warehouse and trucking firm on Miller Road near Michigan Avenue where Abdullah and four of his followers were hiding, said Special Agent Sandra Berchtold, a spokeswoman for the FBI in Detroit.

When agents entered the warehouse, four of the men obeyed orders to surrender but Abdullah opened fire and was shot to death, Berchtold said. An FBI dog also was shot and killed, she said.

Though a 45-page complaint filed in the case alleges Abdullah "calls his followers to an offensive jihad" and preaches that every Muslim should "have a weapon and should not be scared to use their weapon when needed," charges in the case do not include terrorism or national security crimes.

Anyone See a TREND Here?

Michigan:Muslim Mob Surrounds and Attacks Christians~Video Detroit mosque leader killed in FBI raid FBI arrests two Chicago men for Danish terror plot House Republicans accuse Muslim group of trying to plant spies... Sharia trumps Yale's free speech

The complaint further alleged that an armed group known as the "Sutra team" protected the mosque.

In January, when members were evicted from a building on Joy Road for nonpayment of property taxes, Detroit police confiscated two firearms, about 40 knives and martial arts weapons from Abdullah's apartment, the complaint alleged.

The mosque then relocated to Clairmount in Detroit, the complaint says.

According to the complaint, Abdullah told an informant that if the FBI came to get him: "I'll just strap a bomb on and blow up everybody." On another occasion, he said: "We've got to take out the U.S. government," the complaint alleges.

David Nu'man of Detroit, who considered himself a friend of Abdullah, said he is skeptical about the allegations.

"It doesn't seem to be of his character," said Nu'man, who had attended the mosque on Joy Road but was not a member.

Ihsan Bagby, the general secretary of the Muslim Alliance of North America, said Abdullah was a member of the Lexington, K.Y.-based group, and his shooting shocked the African American Muslim community nationwide.

"We want to know what happened," said Bagby. "We had no inkling of any kind of criminal activity. This is a complete shock to all of us."

The others charged are:

• Mohammad Abdul Salaam, also known as Gregory Stone, 45, of Detroit, with conspiracy to commit federal crimes and sale or receipt of stolen goods.

• Abdullah Beard, also known as Detric Lamont Driver, 37, of Detroit, with conspiracy to commit federal crimes.

• Abdul Saboor, also known as Dwayne Edward Davis, 37, of Detroit, with conspiracy to commit federal crimes.

• Mujahid Carswell, also known as Mujahid Abdullah, 30, of Detroit and Ontario, Canada, with conspiracy to commit federal crimes.

• Adam Ibraheem, 38, of Detroit, with conspiracy to commit federal crimes.

• Gary Laverne Porter, 59, of Detroit, with conspiracy to commit federal crimes and possession of firearms by a convicted felon.

• Ali Abdul Raqib, 57, of Detroit, with conspiracy to commit federal crimes.

• Mohammad Alsahi, also known as Mohammad Palestine, 33, of Ontario, Canada, with conspiracy to commit federal crimes.

• Yassir Ali Khan, 30, of Ontario, Canada, and Warren, with conspiracy to commit federal crimes.

• Mohammad Abdul Bassir, also known as Franklin D. Roosevelt Williams, 50, of Ojibway Correctional Facility, with conspiracy to commit federal crimes, sale or receipt of stolen goods, mail fraud, supplying firearms to felons, possession of weapons by a felon, and altering or removing motor vehicle identification numbers.

• A.C. Pusha, charged in a separate complaint late Wednesday with conspiracy to receive and sell stolen goods.

Salaam, Saboor, Porter, Beard, Ibraheem, Raqib, and Pusha all appeared in U.S. District Court in Detroit late Wednesday afternoon. Bassir is in state custody. Others charged are still at large.

Prior to the gunfight in Dearborn, the FBI executed search warrants at 4467 Tireman and 9278 Genesee in Detroit, officials said.

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Imagine a world without America

By Barry Farber

Prof. Niall Ferguson of Harvard says America is in decline. More about that in a minute.

Texas is where they say they take football most seriously. In North Carolina we took football so seriously we didn't even call timeout to smile at Texas' claim. The year before I entered the University of North Carolina, Texas beat UNC 35-0. That hurt!

The next year UNC beat Texas 35-7. Afterwards, as we walked in the setting sun through the pine woods surrounding Kenan Stadium in Chapel Hill, the carillon in the Bell Tower playing our alma mater, I asked myself, "Can things possibly get any better? We beat Germany. We beat Japan. And we beat Texas."

The next day I was walking down the corridor of one of the campus buildings and glanced into an empty classroom. On the front blackboard was what looked like a piece of modern art; different colored streaks like jagged lightning descending from upper left to lower right. I walked in and discovered it was a chart detailing the decline of every major civilization, the Roman, the Greek, the Persian, the Carthaginian, the Ottoman; even the Mayan and Aztec. Decline! "Could this ever happen to America?" I thought about that for about eight seconds before deciding, "No!" The world loved us too much. And they had a lot of reason to love us even more than they did. No. We're here for keeps.

So, here comes professor Niall Ferguson with a convincing argument that America is waving a feeble goodbye while China is storming onto center stage. He may be right, particularly considering present management, but it may stall or even reverse America's decline if enough Americans put aside the Niagara of anti-Americanism – imported and domestic – and consider how far up America is declining from.

Who, from professor to peasant, is able to name another country that ever amassed more power and abused it less than America? Or, amassed more wealth and distributed it more fairly? What other country was ever attacked, then rallied and destroyed the aggressors and, instead of the traditional rape and plunder, rewarded its attackers with rehabilitation and democracy? And what country ever won a war and wound up with less territory than when the war began? After spending much blood and treasure ejecting the Japanese from the Philippines, America gave the Philippines independence.

The victorious Soviet forces subjugated Eastern Europe. Victorious American and British forces liberated Western Europe. All we asked from the nations we liberated was enough land to bury our dead. Continents don't forget things like that quickly. Every German mother in that war prayed that her son would be captured by the Americans or the British, not the Soviets. That kind of compliment is not achieved by propaganda.

Far from least and far from last, America had the nuclear bomb exclusively for four solid years. After the war it was never used, not even to brandish, blackmail or bluff. Instead, America took the lead and founded the United Nations, fully allowing for America to be out-voted as that great "Parliament of Man" became a VIP lounge for dictators, aggressors, oppressors, thugs, thieves, sexual predators and other varieties of truly awful people.

Once America even sent troops into a Communist country with no invitation and no declaration of war. In 1963 there was a terrible earthquake in Skoplje, in the old Yugoslavia. Things were so chaotic and the Yugoslav authorities were so overwhelmed, America simply loaded up C-47 cargo planes with doctors, medications, portable operating rooms and blankets and went. America chased a lot of fire engines around the world; lots of people helped; lots of lives saved.

The United States used its dominance to serve as the heart-lung machine of the planet earth. Without America, no democracy would have been possible anywhere. Surely that claim will make some want to gag, but, please, when you get your breath back, give us your scenario as to how democracy might have survived without America; bearing in mind the behavior of another empire that recently declined – namely, the Communist.

The world looks down on America with the utmost envy.

The following warning is offered respectfully to the world: You will miss us. Who will forge and give backbone to your NATOs to restrain aggressors? Who will lead the fight against the 12th-century passions of jihad? Mark my words – you will even miss our Britney Spears and our Paris Hilton. You don't have a history, you don't have a tradition, you don't have a hope, you don't have a clue of how to make acceptable conditions prevail over so much of the earth's surface without America.

America has made mistakes. Those were four trite, wasted words. Who hasn't? Again, can you name another country whose misdeeds amounted to such a miniscule fraction of its unselfish generosity and sacrifice for others?

Folk wisdom tells us, "Be nice to those you meet on your way up. You may meet them again on your way down." America was nice on our way up. A rip-roaring patriot published a list of almost a hundred countries that owed their existence, their freedom or their prosperity to America. I could only challenge the inclusion of two or three.

Maybe that folk wisdom needs a flip side; namely, "Be nice to certain countries on their way down, because, unlike that dreary roll call from Romans to Aztecs, you may meet an occasional America on its way back up."

Barry Farber is a talk-radio host and author.

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Company's anti-aging products built on cells harvested from aborted baby

Confirmed: Skin cream contains fetal proteins

By Drew Zahn

A pro-life organization is blasting a Switzerland-based cosmetics manufacturer whose website openly admits some of its products were developed from the tissues of an aborted baby.

Children of God for Life is a non-profit organization focused on the bioethics of embryonic tissue use in medicine and manufacturing. One of its current campaigns includes petitioning pharmaceutical companies to produce safe, effective alternatives to vaccines derived or cultivated from aborted fetal tissue.

But the organization's attention has now turned Neocutis, a company with offices in San Francisco which has developed a line of anti-aging products that include an ingredient the company has trademarked as Processed Skin Cell Protein, or PSP, developed from skin cells harvested from an abortion.

"It is absolutely deplorable that Neocutis would resort to exploiting the remains of a deliberately slaughtered baby for nothing other than pure vanity and financial gain," said Debi Vinnedge, executive director of Children of God for Life, in a statement. "There is simply no moral justification for this."

The website for Neocutis, which is privately held with estimated annual sales of in excess of $2 million, explains that its research began years ago, when scientists discovered fetal skin's unusual ability to heal without scarring. Scientists at the University Hospital of Lausanne, Switzerland, then created a process to extract proteins from fetal cells in the attempt to obtain an optimal, naturally balanced mixture of nutrients.

The scientists then infused those nutrients into a line of cosmeceutical anti-aging products: Neocutis skin cream, Journée day cream, Lumière eye cream and Bio-Gel bio-restorative hydrogel – products Vinnedge is advising women to throw in the garbage before contacting Neocutis to voice their concerns.

"There is absolutely no reason to use aborted babies for such selfish motives," Vinnedge said. "It is anti-life, anti-woman and counter-productive, as Neocutis is about to find out!"

Children of God for Life boasts that it has been a watchdog on pharmaceutical companies using aborted fetal cell lines in medical products and has received thousands of inquiries from the public on the use of aborted fetal material in cosmetics. But this is the first time, the organization says, that any company was bold enough to put the information right on its own website and in product literature.

In fact, the Neocutis website openly explains the history of its PSP ingredient:

"A small biopsy of fetal skin was donated following a one-time medical termination," the website states, "and a dedicated cell bank was established for developing new skin treatments. Originally established for wound healing and burn treatments, today this same cell bank also provides a lasting supply of cells for producing Neocutis' proprietary skin care ingredient Processed Skin Cell Proteins."

The company adds, "No additional fetal biopsies will ever be required."

But Children of God for Life finds little consolation in the company's statement.

"You note in your literature that 'no further fetal biopsies will be needed,' as though the life of the one child you have exploited has no value," wrote the organization in a letter to Neocutis' CEO. "It is deplorable that you would attempt to mollify the public and whitewash your badly tarnished image so thoughtlessly."

Vinnedge also told WND that companies aren't required to disclose their research history to the public, so there may be facts conveniently omitted from the Neocutis story.

"What we don't know is how many other fetuses were involved before they perfected that one cell line," she surmised. "There's a possibility there were more."

WND contacted Neocutis repeatedly for comment, but phone messages were not returned. A Businessweek web report says the company was founded in 2003 and its directors were identified as Frederic-Edouard Koehn, Patrick Hohlfeld, Diego Braguglia and Jennifer Pearson.

Children of God for Life, however, is actively calling for a boycott of all Neocutis products, beginning a campaign to contact the company's investors and even offering free publicity to companies that will certify in writing their products are free from ingredients derived from aborted babies.

"We know there are companies using moral sources for collagen and skin proteins," Vinnedge said. "We intend to publicly promote these other cosmetic companies competing with Neocutis that are willing to step forward and contact us."

Read more >>

BABIES WITHOUT MEN OR WOMEN

No men OR women needed: Scientists create sperm and eggs from stem cells

By Fiona Macrae

Human eggs and sperm have been grown in the laboratory in research which could change the face of parenthood.

It paves the way for a cure for infertility and could help those left sterile by cancer treatment to have children who are biologically their own.

But it raises a number of moral and ethical concerns. These include the possibility of children being born through entirely artificial means, and men and women being sidelined from the process of making babies. 

Forever fertile? Infertile men and women could have their own biological children using the breakthrough sperm and eggs

Opponents argue that it is wrong to meddle with the building blocks of life and warn that the advances taking place to tackle infertility risk distorting and damaging relations between family members.

The U.S. government-funded research also offers the prospect of a 'miracle pill' which staves off the menopause, allowing women to wait longer to have a child.

It centres on stem cells, widely seen as a repair kit for the body. 

Scientists at Stanford University in California found the right cocktail of chemicals and vitamins to coax the cells into becoming eggs and sperm. 

Controversial: Britain's oldest mother Elizabeth Adeney, 67, who went abroad for IVF, is pictured here with her newborn son in June this year

The sperm had heads and short tails and are thought to have been mature enough to fertilise an egg.

The eggs were at a much earlier stage but were still much more developed than any created so far by other scientists. 

The double success, published in the journal Nature, raises the prospect of men and women one day 'growing' their own sperm and eggs for use in IVF treatments.

The American team used stem cells taken from embryos in the first days of life but hope to repeat the process with slivers of skin.

The skin cells would first be exposed to a mixture which wound back their biological clocks to embryonic stem cell state, before being transformed into sperm or eggs.

Starting with a person's own skin would also mean the lab-grown sperm or eggs would not be rejected by the body.

The science also raises the possibility of 'male eggs' made from men's skin and 'female sperm' from women's skin.

This would allow gay couples to have children genetically their own, although many scientists are sceptical about whether it is possible to create sperm from female cells, which lack the male Y chromosome.

The U.S. breakthrough could unlock many of the secrets of egg and sperm production, leading to new drug treatments for infertility.

Defects in sperm and egg development are the biggest cause of infertility but, because many of the key stages occur in the womb, scientists have struggled to study the process in detail.

Researcher Rita Reijo Pera, of Stanford's Centre for Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research, believes new fertility drugs are just five years away.

However, safety and ethical concerns mean that artificial sperm and eggs are much further away from use.

Dr Reijo Pera said any future use of artificial eggs and sperm would have to be subject to guidelines.

'Whether one builds the boundaries on religion or just on an internal sense or of right and wrong, these are important. In this field, it is not "anything goes".'

Scientists at Newcastle University claimed to have made sperm from embryonic stem cells earlier this year but the research paper has been retracted.

Dr Allan Pacey, a Sheffield University expert in male fertility said: 'Ultimately this may help us find a cure for male infertility. Not necessarily by making sperm in the laboratory, I personally think that is unlikely, but by identifying new targets for drugs or genes that may stimulate sperm production to occur naturally.

'This is a long way off, but it is a laudable dream.'

Dr Peter Saunders, of the Christian Medical Fellowship, said that IVF should be the preserve of married couples.

'The question is, why are we creating artificial gametes (eggs and sperm) and aborting 200,000 babies a year when there are many, many couples willing to adopt?'

Josephine Quintavalle, of the campaign group Comment on Reproductive Ethics, warned that any flaws in the artificial sperm or eggs could be passed on to future generations.

Anthony Ozimic, of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, said: 'The use of artificial gametes in reproduction would distort and damage relations between family members.

'There are no instances of any major medical advance achieved by abandoning basic ethical principles such as safeguarding the right to life.' 

Read more >>

VIDEO: Michigan:Muslim Mob Surrounds and Attacks Christians

Michigan:Muslim Mob Surrounds and Attacks Christians~Video

From our friends over at Islam In Action...

The sad thing, and also the most frightening, is that this is now common place here in the USA. But due to extreme political correctness (never say or show anything bad about muslim radicalism) you will never see this kind of thing in the courts or even reported on the main stream media.

This is a video from this years Arab International Festival taking place in the Islamic capital of the USA, Michigan. It was not enough that Sharia loving Muslims were able to stop Christians from handing out Christian literature in the festival, so they also had to gang up and punch other law abiding Christians. Things are starting to look like the UK here. Wake up guys, the enemy is in our backyard.

Hat tip to Doctor Bulldog & Ronin

From the video notes:

This is a video of David Wood and Nabeel Qureshi asking questions at Arabfest, Dearborn. The date is June 21st, 2009. There was a booth at the festival which had a banner titled “Islam: Got Questions? Get Answers.” From their table, we picked up a pamphlet claiming that Islam promotes peace. We noticed that it was full of poor logic and errors, so we decided to make a video refuting it. We went to the booth that gave us the pamphlet to give them the opportunity to defend their claims. Security, however, stepped in and forced us to turn off our camera.

We left the booth, received advice from police, and found out that the actions of the security guards were illegal. We went back to the booth to record a potential answer again. Realizing that the Muslims present had no answer, we left.

Anyone See a TREND Here?

Michigan:Muslim Mob Surrounds and Attacks Christians~Video Detroit mosque leader killed in FBI raid FBI arrests two Chicago men for Danish terror plot House Republicans accuse Muslim group of trying to plant spies... Sharia trumps Yale's free speech

When we came outside, we were asked some questions by two young men, who had been sent by security to entrap us. While we responded to them, festival security started assaulting us, as you will see in this video. The conclusion of this video is a mob of festival security attacking our cameras, pushing us back, kicking our legs, and lying to the police.

We ask you, is it a coincidence that the city with the highest percentage of Muslims in the United States is the city where Christianity is not allowed to be represented (let alone preached) on a public sidewalk? Is it coincidence that in this city, people will say “No way!” when we say “This is the United States of America”?

Is this what will happen when Islam takes over the United States?

 

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Can Republicans Pander Their Way Into Leadership?

By: Christopher G. Adamo

Never have the stars lined up for Republicans as profoundly as has been the case this year, with the arrogance and ugliness of the Obama, Reid, and Pelosi political juggernaut, and the threat it poses to the future of this country, on full display. But rather than seizing the moment and restoring the strength of political conservatism, too many among the GOP “inner circle” seem content to remain scavenging on the fringes of the liberal agenda.

The 2010 mid-term congressional races could easily become a rout of the left, with heartland America energized and active as it has not been in nearly two decades. According to current trends and polling data, next year’s races are nearly guaranteed to go decidedly to the right. Unfortunately, the Republican Party has opted to soften its stances and pursue a strategy of “inclusiveness,” which in reality represents a shift to the left, and out of the good graces of heartland America. Nowhere is this travesty more flagrantly on display than in the upcoming New York District 23 special election.

Overwhelmingly rural, House District 23 barely went for Obama in last year’s election. And as was the case throughout the nation, the Democrat ticket was helped immeasurably by the insipidness of the McCain campaign. Clearly, this district is not a “lock” for the Democrats. Yet, when selecting a Republican nominee in the upcoming election its Republican Party apparatus sought to  “lead” by following, and chose the extremely liberal Republican Assembly Woman Dierdre Scozzafava. On most issues, she is at least as far left as Bill Owens, the Democrat.

Worse yet, notable figures within Republican circles, such as former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and current House Minority Leader John Boehner are endorsing the Scozzafava candidacy purely on the basis that she calls herself “Republican.” From their perspective, giving the seat to someone who holds that title is somehow superior to allowing it to go to a Democrat. Yet recent history paints a starkly different picture.

In Pennsylvania in 2004, then “Republican” Senator Arlen Specter faced a stiff primary challenge from Congressman Pat Toomey. Believing that Specter would somehow help garner Pennsylvania for George W. Bush in his re-election bid that same year, the President made over two dozen campaign appearances on behalf of Specter. Clearly, this boosted Specter’s political fortunes and helped him win a razor thin victory over Toomey, whereupon he immediately turned on Bush and the GOP, siding with Democrats in several key votes. Ultimately, in the wake of the 2008 Obama victory, Specter came out of the closet and declared what honest observers knew all along, that he was indeed a Democrat.

Is this the great Republican strategy to turn the country back from its current downfall? Do Republican “leaders” really believe that the outrage from middle America over the thuggish nationalization of industry, banking, and possibly the healthcare field by Obama and his minions can be channeled into a boost for the candidacy of a “me too” liberal Republican like Scozzafava?

At least when the Trojans of yore brought that confounded wooden horse into their midst, they did so in total ignorance of the danger it represented. It would have been beyond credible, even in a fable, to contend that they might have still accepted it, knowing its sinister contents, under the absurd auspices that doing so would ensure a greater number of warriors to fight the impending battle against the Greeks. Yet that is precisely the mentality of those who claim an allegiance to conservatism while supporting the likes of Scozzafava.

Fortunately, conservative America has finally had its fill of the empty “RINO” promises. All of the stirring rhetoric of a well-crafted party platform is absolutely meaningless if the party proceeds to accept and even embrace a liberal agenda. While some true conservatives are still working within the GOP in an effort to regain control of it from its liberal captors, others are working outside the party to jolt it with a dose of reality, and hopefully gain the attention of its myopic upper echelon.

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, making good on her promise to continue the political fight from outside of public office, has endorsed the candidacy of Doug Hoffman, the Conservative Party candidate. In this she is joined by former Republican House Majority Leader Dick Armey and former Senator Rick Santorum, along with an enormous and extremely energized contingent from grassroots America.

Few on the political “inside” appear to have any comprehension of just how much is at stake in the District 23 race. If Scozzafava somehow manages to win, she will be heralded as the embodiment of what the Republican Party needs to become in order to regain majority status in the Congress and Senate. Consequently, any Republicans running to the right of Scozzafava in subsequent races would invariably be marginalized on the nightly news and among the party liberals as being “out of the mainstream,” thus giving all Republicans an enormous obstacle to overcome in their electoral pursuits.

Yet nothing could be farther from the truth. The political ground occupied by Scozzafava is exactly what destroyed GOP momentum in the last decade, and what ultimately cost it in 2006 and 2008. Conservatives know this, and so do the liberals. Only the Republican “insiders” remain oblivious.

From as far back as the Nixon Administration, Republican political fortunes have risen and fallen in direct correlation to the party’s embrace or abandonment of conservative principle. Things are no different this year, despite the stunning successes of the Obama machine in 2008. Disillusionment with the current Administration, by itself, is not sufficient to bolster Republican popularity with voters. Only a real conservative opposition will properly address the outrage and energy of traditional America and, with the promise of a real reversal of the present destructive and unconstitutional liberal agenda, rally the conservative grassroots to victory in 2010.

Christopher G. Adamo has been active in Wyoming politics for many years and is a managing partner in Best American Buy (www.bestamericanbuy.com), an e-commerce business that markets American made products including the incomparable Abigail Adams Bedspread Set from Bates Mills. Contact information for Chris Adamo, and his archives, can be found at www.chrisadamo.com

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Top donors offered 'wide range of perks' since Obama took office...

Offered access to bowling alley, movie theater

By Matthew Mosk

During his first nine months in office, President Obama has quietly rewarded scores of top Democratic donors with VIP access to the White House, private briefings with administration advisers and invitations to important speeches and town-hall meetings.

High-dollar fundraisers have been promised access to senior White House officials in exchange for pledges to donate $30,400 personally or to bundle $300,000 in contributions ahead of the 2010 midterm elections, according to internal Democratic National Committee documents obtained by The Washington Times.

One top donor described in an interview with The Times being given a birthday visit to the Oval Office. Another was allowed use of a White House-complex bowling alley for his family. Bundlers closest to the president were invited to watch a movie in the red-walled theater in the basement of the presidential mansion.

Mr. Obama invited his top New York bundler, UBS Americas CEO Robert Wolf, to golf with him during the president's Martha's Vineyard vacation in August. At least 39 donors and fundraisers also were treated to a lavish White House reception on St. Patrick's Day, where the fountains on the North and South Lawns were dyed green, photos and video reviewed by The Times and CBS News also show.

Presidential aides said there has been no systematic effort to use the White House complex to aid fundraising, though they acknowledge the DNC has paid for some events at the presidential mansion.

Many guests at the White House not only had fundraising connections, but also have personal friendships with the president, Mr. Obama's aides said.

"Contributing does not guarantee a ticket to the White House, nor does it prohibit the contributor from visiting," said Dan Pfeiffer, deputy White House communications director.

---

White House response to story: White House touts ethics in rewards for fundraisers

Deputy White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer provided this response to Wednesday's Washington Times report on efforts by President Obama and the Democratic National Committee to court and reward his largest donors and fundraisers:

"President Obama has opened the doors of the White House to hundreds of thousands of Americans since the administration began, and for the first time in history, records detailing who visited the White House will be made public on a regular basis," Mr. Pfeiffer wrote in an e-mail.

"Many of the people mentioned in this story have been friends and associates of the Obamas for decades - including college roommates and family friends whose relationships predate and are separate from the President's career in public service. Given that nearly 4 million Americans donated to the campaign, it's no surprise that some who contributed have visited the White House, as have grass-roots organizers who didn't contribute financial support and people who actively opposed the President's candidacy," he said.

"As part of an effort to open up events at the White House to thousands of Americans, we have at times provided tickets to events to the DNC, among many other organizations. Our understanding is that those tickets have in turn been distributed to grass-roots supporters, contributors and elected officials. Contributing does not guarantee a ticket to the White House, nor does it prohibit the contributor from visiting.

"This Administration has across the board set the toughest ethics standards in history. As a result, we have reduced special-interest influence over the policymaking process to promote merit-based decision-making. We believe that is due in no small part to our insistence on strict adherence to the rules - an approach we intend to continue."

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