Conservatively Speaking

The National T. E. A. PARTY tax protests will spread West this weekend.  Latter-day Paul Reveres will figuratively ride again this weekend at Santa Barbara’s Court House at 2:30 PM., Saturday, April 4, 2009. More than 400 people have already responded evennbefore this week’s promotion begins.

U.S. special operations commandos are disrupting terrorist financial networks by penetrating and blocking informal money transfers used by Muslims, a senior special operations official told Congress last week.

Lt. Gen. David P. Fridovich, director of the Special Operations Command Center for Special Operations, says terrorists’ propaganda has stated that “All a brother needs for successful Jihad is himself and money.”

“Ideology has its role, but the more we study our enemy, the more we learn what we have always known: money talks, and disrupting its flow, especially from outside the combat zones, is a salient part of counter-terrorism,” Fridovich said.

He detailed what the military calls “counterthreat finance activities” including a range of work. Among them are countering narcotics trafficking, proliferation activities, weapons of mass destruction funding, trafficking in persons, weapons trafficking, precursor chemical smuggling, petty and “very well” organized crime.

Enemy forces have shown impressive flexibility in using “every conceivable method of acquiring funds from running legal businesses and collecting voluntary donations, across the spectrum to kidnap for ransom and murder for hire,” he said.

Terrorists move money on pack animals and couriers through centuries old smuggling routes as well as through modern high-technology electronic transfers using cell phone and the internet. Terrorists also adapt to hiding their fundraising and financial work following U.S. efforts to disrupt them, he said.

Efforts are “intelligence-intensive” and involve large numbers of military and civilian personnel as well as international partners.

“We focus our analytical capabilities long term on carefully selected transregional targets which pose a clear threat to the US and our interests, and which are known to move and rely upon significant financial flows,” Fridovich said.

One major target is called Al Qaida’s External Facilitation Network, that includes stopping terrorist financiers in places like Kuwait and Pakistan, Europe and Asia who provide funds for IEDs, suicide-bombers in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Other counterfinance targets are aimed at de-funding Somalia’s Al Shabaab, Lebanese Hezbollah and Iranian terrorists that are trying to build a global financial infrastructure similar to Hezbollah’s and sometimes linked to it.

The commandos are expanding the highly successful model used to defeat terrorist funding in Iraq to counter-finance operations in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

The main tools of the group are intelligence, mainly electronic; Treasury designation of terrorist financiers; information operations; and law enforcement action.

The special operations group has had successes against the difficult target of Islamic “hawalas,” informal money transfer networks which circumvent formal financial institutions and traditional tracking methods.

“Widely used in the Middle East, and difficult to infiltrate, they pose a formidable financial collection challenge,” Fridovich said. “However, as we study them, we find many hawaladars employ varied levels of operational security. Most hawaladars, it must be said, run legitimate businesses, and serve a useful function for unbanked populations, but they seldom hesitate to move criminal or terrorist money, along with the legitimate.”

“Dismantling an entire network is difficult, but the interagency has interdicted a number of individual facilitators,” he said, comparing the activities to organized crime probes.

Oakdale, California’s annual Testicle Festival is always a big hit. On Monday, volunteers with the town’s Rotary Club plan to fry up 400 pounds of bulls’ balls and serve them to diners who pay $50 apiece for the sit-down meal.The event is a fund raisier for Rotary and the Oakland Cowboy Museum, has drawn an average of 450 people and last year raised $28,000.

Tens of thousands of people marched across central London Saturday to demand jobs, economic justice and environmental accountability, kicking off six days of protest and action planned in the run-up to the G20 summit next week. The theme was anti-capitalism and pro-socialism and even communism.

More than 150 groups threw their backing behind the “Put People First” march. Police said around 35,000 attended the demonstration, but there were large gaps in the line of protesters snaking its way across the city toward Speaker’s Corner in Hyde Park.

Security was tight around a small group of people waving anarchist flags. Anarchists and others have promised violence before the G20 meeting Thursday, and the British capital is bracing for a massive police operation as representatives of the world’s 20 leading economies - including Obama - fly in for a summit on the financial crisis.

Euro-leaders are less than happy with Obama but as the Czech President said while at the WSJ Climate Change Conference in Santa Barbara are keeping their mouths shut because they still want things from the USA.  China is taking a page from Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel “never to waste a crisit” and is pummeling the USA and bizarrely siding with the U. N. to relace the U. S. dollar in international trading. - that will not happen, at lest now.

Dicephalous (dai-SEF-uh-luhs) adjective: Having two heads. From Greek dikephalos (two-headed), from di- (two) + kephale head. Ultimately from the Indo-European root ghebh-el- (head) that is also the root of the word gable. A synonym of today’s word, bicephalous, also has all unique letters.

Israel has concluded the first live-fire test of its new rocket defense system, as renewed Palestinian strikes continue.  ”Iron Dome” is initialltyfocused on short range threats from Hamas and Hesbullah. It is not immediately clear whether the system could knockj down nuclear armed missiles from Iran. 

The Defense Ministry said the military tested the “Iron Dome” rocket defense system against a live target. The ministry, in a statement on March 26, said the system passed what was termed a “critical test” in late March and tracked and intercepted an incoming rocket.

“The defense establishment is committed to doing everything it can to provide all of Israel’s citizens with protection against rocket and missile threat,” Defense Ministry director-general Pinhas Buchris said.

Officials said Iron Dome intercepted the BM-21 Grad rocket on March 25. They said this marked the first live-fire test of Iron Dome, scheduled for initial deployment by 2010.

In January 2009, Hamas fired scores of Grad rockets into Israel. Most of the rockets were 122 mm, along with Chinese variants with a range of 40 kilometers.

Officials said the live fire test confirmed previous simulations of Iron Dome. They said additional tests would be conducted over the next few months as part of a fast-track development of short-range missile and rocket defense.

The Defense Ministry did not specify an interception by Iron Dome. Instead, in a cryptic statement, the ministry said Iron Dome responded “accordingly” to the fire of several rockets “of the same type that were fired in recent years at Israel.”

Iron Dome, severely criticized by the state comptroller, has been developed by the state-owned Rafael Advanced Defense Systems. Officials said the system has reached the final stage of development and was running ahead of schedule. They said the first Iron Dome battalion would be established within the Israel Air Force by August 2009.

“This is a national mission aimed at reaching the stage in which a clear majority of missiles do not reach their targets,” Defense Minister Ehud Barak said.

Obama, who has never run anything as much as a shoe shine stand, demanded and got the resignation of GMs CEO. Obama say Chrysler should merge with Italian automaker FIAT if it is to survive.

Come April 1st anywhere from 6000 to 8000 gas stations could be forced to close if they do not meet a new California Air Resources Board (CARB) mandate that requires small station owners to install new enhanced vapor recovery (EVR) nozzles to capture 98% of the vapor emissions instead of the current 95%.

Should this happen it will be devastating to California’s urban and minority communities and continue to drive pump prices up in California.

That’s why a Bipartisan group of Legislators are calling on CARB and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to extend the deadline for compliance by one year to April 1, 2010.

Anything shorter than that will result in:

• Closure of Service Stations Serving Inner City: Stations who cannot meet the deadline will be forced to shut down - creating a major a void in inner-city communities and resulting in dramatic prices increases at a time when our hardworking families can least afford new costs.
   
• Loss of Revenue for the State and increased unemployment that is shooting toward 12% now.: Service station closures will further hurt our struggling economy and aggravate an already dismal budget situation by putting more individuals out of work and reducing critically needed tax revenue - resulting in less money for the State’s general fund and ultimately lead to further decreases in badly needed community, health and educational programs.
   
• Increased blighted areas and increased pollution: Station closures will become community eyesores, set back our efforts to revitalize our inner city community’s and most ironically, likely result in increased pollution as individuals drive more to find an open gas station - undermining the original intent of the regulation.
   
• Hardship on Minority Owned Small Businesses: Major oil companies have divested most of their service stations to minority, disabled veterans, women and others individuals over the last several years - without an extension of the compliance deadline, these small business owners will be financially ruined and their dreams of a better life for their families vanquished.

The solution to avoid this crisis is simple - extend the deadline by one year.

T. E. A. Parties are spreading across California in advance of its May election to consider an arraye of tax increases that must be sanctioned by two-thirds of voters. Voters are in an increasingly foul mood. One at least one occasion a local, liberal  politician pressured police to obstruct the protest

Iran appears close to have bought itself enough time to complete its nuclear weapons program thanks to Russia. Penetrating Iranian air space and attack strategic facilities, is not as straightforward as it once was, a report said.

The Washington Institute said the U.S. Air Force would require the F-22 fighter to enter Iranian air space without being detected by Teheran’s network of Russian-origin air defense systems. Iran’s acquisition of the S-300 would enable the rapid detection of virtually any U.S. combat aircraft, including the F-15 and F-16.

The March 13report, titled “Buying Time with Iran: The F-22 Fighter, said. “there is little doubt that the F-22 can neutralize the Russian supplied air defense system. ”

Iran’s deployment of the Russia S-300 is a “game changing move that could affect Israel’s calculus about whether, and when, to launch a preventive strike against Iran’s nuclear infrastructure.” Is an included quote of Gen. [Ret.] Richard Hawley, the former commander of U.S. Air Force Air Combat Command, as saying in August 2008 “for non-stealth aircraft, the (Russian surface to air) SA-20 represents a virtual no-fly zone.” Most agree to fly a F-15 or F-16 against it would amount to suicide.

Iran and Russia have reported negotiations for the S-300PMU-2, the most advanced variant of the S-300 and which contains missile defense capabilities. Iran was already said to have acquired components, including radars of the legacy S-300V, with an interception range of 150 kilometers.

“Iran’s acquisition of the S-300 would render Israel’s current strike options dramatically more difficult, and could force Israel to considerably move forward any strike timetable,” the report said. “Should diplomacy fail, the United States can mount a powerful strike, regardless of the state of Iran’s air defenses; Israel, operating at extreme range with the F-15I and F-16I, cannot.”

The report urged the Obama administration to deploy the F-22 in a forward position to dissuade Russia from transferring the S-300PMU-2 to Teheran. Another option was to export the F-22 to Israel to enable a future strike option. There is scant hope Obama will do either, and fear that his defense cuts hidden in his proposed $3.6 trillion budget could cut F-22 / F-35 production - although many say he’s loath to do that because it could cost up to 65,000 high-paying jobs.

Plus the 5^th generation F-22 and F-35 variant are superior to any other warplane on earth and more than a match for even the most advanced Russian Su-47 that features a unique looking and distinctive moveable forward swept wings.

“The F-22 fighter might represent a trump card that could dissuade Russia from transferring the new air defense systems or that could preserve Israeli options should Russia go through with the sale,” the report said.

For the last decade, Israel and other prospective foreign clients have been unable to purchase the F-22. The report said the F-22 ban, contained in an amendment by Rep. David Obey (D) Wisconsin, 71, passed in 1998, could be repealed by Congress, which would help the prospect of an aircraft sale to Israel.

“Military deployments and arms transfers have long been used by the United States to reassure nervous allies and to forestall undesirable actions. In keeping with this tradition, the United States should consider the forward deployment of the F-22 as a means of signaling its resolve on the Iranian nuclear issue,” the report said. “Washington should also consider rescinding the Obey amendment restrictions on F-22 export to pave the way for its eventual transfer. This action could buy policymakers much-needed breathing room, allowing nuclear diplomacy with Iran time to run its course and, hopefully, to succeed.”

The U. S. F-22 sale and/or deployment and Russia’s sale of its advanced S-300PMU-2 air defense system are bargaining chips as is Russia’s support or delay until Iranian finishes a nuclear weapon as is the Polish-Czech Republic Anti-Ballistic Missile system so vehemently opposed by Russia.

Charities and churches are bracing for a $4,000,000,000 (billion) lose in contributions this year as a result of Obama’s inexplicable scheme to “punish” rich Americans by limiting their tax deduction for contributions. The logic is bizarre since no one makes money giving it away. Obama and almost all of his top appointees and staffers are notoriously not generous even though he and many of them make over $1 million per year.