"I have sat back and assessed the incident with the video of our Marines urinating on Taliban corpses. I do not recall any self-righteous indignation when our Delta snipers Shugart and Gordon had their bodies dragged through Mogadishu. Neither do I recall media outrage and condemnation of our Blackwater security contractors being killed, their bodies burned, and hung from a bridge in Fallujah.

"All these over-emotional pundits and armchair quarterbacks need to chill. Does anyone remember the two Soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division who were beheaded and gutted in Iraq?

"The Marines were wrong. Give them a maximum punishment under field grade level Article 15 (non-judicial punishment), place a General Officer level letter of reprimand in their personnel file, and have them in full dress uniform stand before their Battalion, each personally apologize to God, Country, and Corps videotaped and conclude by singing the full US Marine Corps Hymn without a teleprompter.

"As for everyone else, unless you have been shot at by the Taliban, shut your mouth, war is hell."

MILLER: Obama blows off Congress
President says he won’t abide by spending bill he signed
By Emily Miller - The Washington Times - Monday, December 26, 2011

When the president of the United States signs a bill into law, it's expected that he will abide by it. That's not the case with President Obama, who has a sudden interest in novel legalistic interpretations getting him off the hook from laws he doesn't like.

On Friday, the president signed the $1 trillion omnibus spending bill, which funds the government for the remaining nine months of the fiscal year. Afterward, he released a statement saying he won't abide by the law because the Justice Department had advised that certain provisions are "subject to well-founded constitutional objections."

House Speaker John A. Boehner's spokesman Kevin Smith told The Washington Times, "This president used to condemn the type of signing statements he is now embracing to ignore the will of Congress and the American people."

One of the presidential pet peeves is that Capitol Hill put the kibosh on his czars. Those high-level White House appointments aren't confirmed by the Senate but are central to implementing Mr. Obama's liberal agenda. Lawmakers specifically blocked funding for salaries and offices for four of his nine czars: health care (who coordinates Obamacare), automobile industry ("car czar"), urban affairs and climate change.

The president protested that defunding those positions "could prevent me from fulfilling my constitutional responsibilities, by denying me the assistance of senior advisers and by obstructing my supervision of executive branch officials." Thus, he's going to interpret the law as he sees fit.

The commander in chief is opposed to new restrictions on foreign relations and national security, especially a new requirement that the defense secretary notify congressional appropriations committees in advance of military exercises that cost more than $100,000 for construction.

Also at issue is a restriction on funding United Nations peacekeeping missions that put U.S. armed forces under the command or operational control of foreign nationals. Mr. Obama said he's only going to apply those provisions he deems constitutional. The same flexibility with the law apparently will be enjoyed in relation to 14 separate provisions that limit foreign aid to certain governments.

The president protested that "once again" he has been stopped from transferring terrorist detainees from the U.S. facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, onto the U.S. mainland. He claimed this law could "violate constitutional separation of powers principles." He vowed to interpret it to keep executive powers supreme and work to repeal the ban on bringing these dangerous outlaws stateside.

On top of all this, Mr. Obama took umbrage at unnamed but "numerous" omnibus provisions that limit the executive branch from spending money without the approval of congressional committees. He wrote, "These are constitutionally impermissible forms of congressional aggrandizement in the execution of the laws." The chief executive warned that his administration will notify the relevant committees in advance and listen to their recommendations, but "our spending decisions shall not be treated as dependent on the approval of congressional committees."

The American system of government is based on a separation of powers, not presidential fiat. Mr. Obama should abide by every word of the 1,200-page bill passed by Congress and signed by his own hand.

© Copyright 2012 The Washington Times, LLC.

18 December 2011 Last updated at 23:26 ET

N Korean leader Kim Jong-il dies

The announcer, wearing black, made the emotional announcement on state-run television

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has died at the age of 69, state-run television has announced.

Mr Kim, who has led the communist nation since the death of his father in 1994, died on a train while visiting an area outside the capital, the announcement said.

He suffered a stroke in 2008 and was absent from public view for months.

His designated successor is believed to be his third son, Kim Jong-un, who is thought to be in his late 20s.

North Korea's state-run news agency, KCNA, urged people to unite behind the younger Kim.

"All party members, military men and the public should faithfully follow the leadership of comrade Kim Jong-un and protect and further strengthen the unified front of the party, military and the public," the news agency said.

A funeral for Kim Jong-il will be held in Pyongyang on 28 December and Kim Jong-un will head the funeral committee, KCNA said. A period of national mourning has been declared from 17 to 29 December.

The BBC's Lucy Williamson in Seoul says Mr Kim's death will cause huge shock waves across North Korea, an impoverished, nuclear-armed nation with few allies.

The announcement came in an emotional statement read out on national television.

The announcer, wearing black, said he had died of physical and mental over-work. A later report from KCNA said Mr Kim had had a heart attack.

South Korea's military has been put on alert following the announcement and its National Security Council is convening for an emergency meeting, Yonhap news agency reports. The White House said it was "closely monitoring" reports of the death.

Asian stock markets fell after the news was announced.

Mr Kim had been making preparations to further install his son as his successor - a process that many had expected to see significant consolidation in 2012.

Professor Lee Jung-hoon, professor of international relations at Yonsei University in Seoul, told the BBC that with the transition of power from father to son incomplete, Mr Kim's death could herald "very unstable times" in North Korea.

"We have to be very worried because whenever there is domestic instability North Korea likes to find an external situation to divert the attention away from that - including indulging in provocation."

Christopher Hitchens—the incomparable critic, masterful rhetorician, fiery wit, and fearless bon vivant—died today at the age of 62. Hitchens was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in the spring of 2010, just after the publication of his memoir, Hitch-22, and began chemotherapy soon after. His matchless prose has appeared in Vanity Fair since 1992, when he was named contributing editor.

Washington’s Thanksgiving Proclamation
October 3, 1789

Introduction

Following a resolution of Congress, President George Washington proclaimed Thursday the 26th of November 1789 a day of “public thanksgiving and prayer” devoted to “the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be.” Reflecting American religious practice, Presidents and Congresses from the beginning of the republic have from time to time designated days of fasting and thanksgiving (the Thanksgiving holiday we continue to celebrate on the third Thursday of November was established by Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War).

In setting aside a day for Thanksgiving, Washington established a non-sectarian tone for these devotions and stressed political, moral, and intellectual blessings that make self-government possible, in addition to personal and national repentance. Although the First Amendment prevents Congress from establishing a religion or prohibiting its free exercise, Presidents, as well as Congress, have always recognized the American regard for sacred practices and beliefs. Thus, throughout American history, Presidents have offered non-sectarian prayers for the victory of the military and in the wake of catastrophes. Transcending passionate quarrels over the proper role of religion in politics, the Thanksgiving Proclamation reminds us how natural their relationship has been. While church and state are separate, religion and politics, in their American refinement, prop each other up.


By the President of the United States of America, a Proclamation.

Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and—Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me “to recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:”

Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favor, able interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted; for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us.

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations, and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shown kindness to us), and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally, to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best.

Given under my hand at the City of New York the third day of October in the year of our Lord 1789.

Go. Washington

Federal debt tops $15 trillion
Total increased $56 billion in one day
By Stephen Dinan - The Washington Times | Wednesday, November 16, 2011

The Treasury Department said Wednesday that the federal debt has climbed to a record $15 trillion — a staggering figure that caps a precipitous decade-long rise.

The exact total stood at $15,033,607,255,920.32 as of the end of business Tuesday, marking a jump of $56 billion over Monday’s tally. All told, federal debt has risen $4.407 trillion since President Obama took office. It stood at $5.7 trillion in 2001, when George W. Bush moved into the White House.

“Today marks an infamous day in American history,” said House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, Wisconsin Republican.

The announcement was made a day before Congress was poised to pass a bill that would continue the high rate of spending into 2012, and as a special committee continued to talk about ways to slow the steep rise in deficits projected for the foreseeable future.

None of those efforts would cut the debt, but would slow the rate of growth.

Republicans say that underscores the need for immediate spending cuts to get a handle on the budget.

They said Congress will have that chance this week when the House votes on a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution.

Democrats were silent on the $15 trillion debt milepost, though on the broader issue of deficits they say the economy is so weak that it needs more spending in the short term.

In the longer term, they argue, government cannot be cut down to the size it was for most of the post-World War II era, and instead must raise taxes to pay for all of its promises such as Social Security and Medicare while funding defense, education, food stamps and other basic domestic needs.

Mr. Obama has proposed several debt-reduction plans this year, but Republicans have rejected each of them for not tackling the long-term growth of entitlement programs and instead relying too heavily on taxes. In contrast, House Republicans’ budget this year focused on entitlements and didn’t increase any taxes. Senate Democrats haven’t brought a budget to their chamber floor in more than two years.

That leaves the two parties deadlocked, as borrowing continues apace.

Mr. Obama is averaging a debt increase of more than $1.5 trillion a year during his term in office, compared with an average of $612.4 billion for Mr. Bush and $192.5 billion a year under President Clinton.

By late Wednesday, the House and Senate Republican campaign committees began to use the debt figure in attacks on Democrats seeking election next year.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, said the new figure underscores the need for a fiscal conservative to bring “responsibility back to our nation’s capital.”

Congress earlier this year raised the debt ceiling, which cleared the way for the record figure. Still, the government is once again running out of room before it hits the new ceiling of $15.194 trillion. The special committee working on the deficit is supposed to come up with ways to slow the increase by $1.5 trillion, which would earn another $1.5 trillion raise in the debt limit.

At it stands, debt is nearly equal to the projected U.S. gross domestic product for 2011, which the Obama administration said in its February budget would reach $15.079 trillion.

The government’s debt figure is made up of two calculations: debt held by the public, which reached $10.314 trillion, and intragovernmental holdings, which is money the government borrows from accounts like the Social Security Trust Fund, which stood at $4.719 trillion.

© Copyright 2011 The Washington Times, LLC.