Family Security Matters Briefings - Week of 6/30/08

Obama's Terror-Fighting Fantasies: Democrat Typifies the 'September 10' Mentality
By Joel Himelfarb

According to Sen. Barack Obama, there is a relatively painless solution to the terrorism problem America faces today: going back to the anti-terrorism tactics of the Clinton years. "It is my firm belief that we can track terrorists, we can crack down on threats against the United States, but we can do so within the constraints of our Constitution," the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee told ABC News last week. "And you know, let's take the example of Guantanamo [Bay]. What we know is that, in previous terrorist attacks, for example, the first attack against the World Trade Center, we were able to arrest those responsible, put them on trial. They are currently in U.S. prisons, incapacitated. And the fact that the administration has not tried to do that has created a situation where not only have we never actually put many of those folks on trial, but we have destroyed our credibility when it comes to rule of law around the world, and given a boost to terrorist recruitment, in countries that say, 'Look, this is how the United States treats Muslims,' " Obama added, "We could have done the exact same thing, but done it in a way that was consistent with our laws." [more...]

Proud Pagan Witch Backs Obama's Poverty Bill
By Cliff Kincaid

While Sen. Barack Obama struggles to keep the public in the dark about the nature of his pro-UN Global Poverty Act, a recent "Bay Area Interfaith Leaders' Luncheon" was held to lobby for Senate passage of the bill, whose cost has been estimated at $845 billion. An actual witch who spoke at a "Pagan Pride" festival in San Francisco was one of the listed participants. The witch, known as the "Elder Donald Frew" of the "Wiccan Community," was interviewed by the Reverend Don Lewis of "Witch School International" for a "reality" show called "Magick TV" and is shown talking about his involvement in the United Nations-backed United Religions Initiative. You can see the interview here. Magick TV features a "daily spell." [more...]

An Energy Plan to Avoid $5 per Gallon Gas
By KT McFarland

Do you find yourself wondering lately WHAT HAPPENED to America? A few years ago we had won the Cold War, were the envy of the world, and the economic superpower. Now we have a collapsing dollar, a record national debt which is increasingly owned by foreigners, skyrocketing food prices, and the price of gas has doubled in just two years. We're fighting a costly and seemingly open-ended war against radical Islam.Much of the world hates us. And every opinion poll shows Americans think things will only get worse. It feels like the wheels have just come off the trolley. [more...]

Beyond Mugabe's Madness
By J.Peter Pham, PhD

Even by the ridiculously low procedural standards of Africa's club of presidents-for-life, last Friday's poll in Zimbabwe was a truly pathetic exercise. As Barry Bearak, the Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times correspondent noted Saturday in his dispatch, the voters faced a peculiar choice: "cast their ballots for President Robert Mugabe, the only candidate left in the presidential runoff, or be beaten up and perhaps killed." In a devilish twist on conventional get-out-the-vote efforts, thousands of voters across the southern African country were kidnapped at dusk by armed thugs from the ruling Zimbabwe Africa National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) and forced to attend campaign rallies, known as pungwe ("all-night vigil") sessions, and made to chant pro-Mugabe slogans and sing the despot's praises until dawn when they were led off to vote "correctly." The recalcitrant were beaten up or worse. Even Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) who won the first round in the presidential election in March only to drop out of the race less than a week before the second round after the regime-directed campaign of violence which I documented in last week's column, had to counsel his supporters, "If possible we ask you not to vote today, but if you must vote for Mr. Mugabe because of threats on your life today, then do so." [more...]