We all saw the rocky performance that Bobby Jindal gave in his response to the president’s not-the-state-of-the-union speech earlier this week. There was a lot of wincing going on during and after his performance. But, let me stress the word “performance,” here. It was NOT the basic theme of the speech that was so bad. It was but how he delivered it.

Still, despite his less than show-stopping performance, a lot of second guessing on Jindal started to waft about conservative circles. The “he’s not ready yet” stuff was everywhere. So, we need to remind ourselves of just what sort of stuff Governor Jindal is made of. That reminder comes in the form of his reaction and efforts during Hurricane Katrina. If you want a show-stopping performance, there you have one.

With his actions during that natural disaster and his words as a result, we can see his most basic ideals laid bare. And they are ideals we should all applaud. So, as a reminder here are some highlights of his op ed in the Wall Street Journal from September 8, 2005. Jindal began his piece with these words:

Over the past few days, America has been both moved and disturbed by television footage of Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath. But for those of us in Louisiana still struggling to cope, the troubling images are of opportunistic politicians playing the blame game while there is so much real work to do.

Rather than point fingers, we should be fixing the situation on the ground. And that will include taking steps to ensure that red tape doesn’t stifle the continued security and rebuilding efforts.

There have already been a number of instances in which an overly inhibitive bureaucracy prevented an appropriate response to the disaster. For example, on Wednesday of last week a company called my office. With only three hours before rising waters would make the mission impossible, they were anxious to send a rescue helicopter for their stranded employees. They wanted to know who would give them a go-ahead.

We could not identify the agency with authority. We heard that FEMA was in charge, that the FAA was in charge, and that the military was in charge. I went in person to talk with a FEMA representative and still could not get a straight answer. Finally we told the company to avoid interfering with Coast Guard missions, but to proceed on its own. Sometimes, asking for forgiveness is better than asking for permission.

True as can be. Big Government does not work. Local efforts are far more effective. And if anything speaks to Jindal’s basic American ideal it is this line…

My office became so frustrated with the bureaucracy that we often turned to private companies. They responded more quickly and flexibly.

Rugged individualism and local control. Now THAT is something we conservatives should applaud.

In any case, go on over to the WSJ and read Jindal’s whole piece. It is instructive to see what the man is made of. And remember, this came before he was the toast of conservatives everywhere, so he didn’t have quite as much to prove then as he might now that ambitions might be a tad more extent.

Lastly, I have to express my own disappointment in those that beat the man up so for his reply to Obama. I thought we were the party of ideas? Why are we so chagrined with a less than stellar delivery when the ideas were pretty solid? Are we going to throw Jindal under the bus so soon just because he doesn’t perform like Charlton Heston? I sure hope not. We are better than that, aren’t we?

And here is a great video of another Louisiana legend, Sheriff Harry Lee, a self-described “yellow dog Democrat,” who is a big supporter of Bobby Jindal!

This is Bobby Jindal. Please do not lose sight of this.

(Photo credit: washingtonpost.com)

According to bible prophecy the single reason that the worlds last and most vicious world leader succeeds where all others before him have failed is that he doesn’t attempt to conquer the world with warfare. How does he do it?

President Obama’s stimulus bill promises to keep us fully distracted, delighted and going places like back to the moon and shuttling blithely between the biggest money sucking hole in America, and the biggest fantasy diversion in the world. Now we can ride on the new magnetically driven monorail proposed between Las Vegas and Disneyworld. Cost for the American tax payer, twelve billion dollars. Cost for having fun in America, priceless.

Over 8000 pork heavy earmarks attached to the stimulus bill are creating immediate concerns but the long range behemoth discussed much less will undoubtedly be the beginning of government control of America’s banks.

Whether it’s philosophical or theological anyone worth a peg knows that a man’s life doesn’t consist of the things he owns. (Lk 12:15) A nations security according to the scripture is neither its armies nor its economy but its moral strength. This must be one of those lessons Barack Obama missed sitting at the feet of Pastor Wright, if it was ever offered. In his address to the Congress he made that abundantly clear.

There is little doubt that the President is not part of a worldwide conspiracy to bring the nations of earth under one roof but he doesn’t need to know he is helping to accomplish that to make it happen. This is why the elements and events preceding the second coming of Christ are hidden from the wisest of the wise.

That America wants to ignore the wisest principles of its own founding fathers and opt in to a nebulously indeterminate doctrine of ‘change’ doesn’t look good for the herds of Americans being spooked by financial crisis, global warming and other contrivances to the edge of the cliffs.

If we insist on skirting the Constitution and the guidance of our own founding fathers perhaps we should look even further back in our nation to the time when the Native Americans ruled the domain. They knew how to lead an entire herd of Buffalo over the cliffs by setting a squaw or a child in the right position to spook the herd and lead it right over the cliffs. Compared to the great trials of our past the business of economic recovery and a not so popular war are mere squaws and children; what has happened to American courage?

Presidents or ordinary taxpayers steeped in secularism, atheism, liberalism, tolerance and cultural diversity, Darwinism, green mania, gay indoctrination, slaughter of the un-born, ecumenicism, ecclesiastical apostasy and unconstitutionally checked government don’t need a conspiracy; the natural outcome of these things is a new world order, a plunge to our own death.

When the antichrist rules the entire globe during the last seven years of time as we know it he will have complete control over the world economy and every individual on earth will be a part of his shiny new economic miracle.

“And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. (Rev 13:16, 17)

The U.S. is running neck and neck with the European Union toward the nationalization of its banks. According to the EU Observer Feb 23, 2009 “ A report out on Wednesday (25 February) will likely call for the setting up of a new European agency to regulate financial institutions within the EU.

It “will call for deep institutional change” predicts Karel Lannoo, chief executive officer with the Centre for European Policy Studies, a Brussels based think-tank. The chair of the CEPS board, Onno Ruding, sits on the group tasked with issuing the report.

Mr. Lannoo, who specializes in the field of financial regulation, said the report would call for a “single agency modeled on the European Monetary Institute of 1992 … to lay the basis for the creation of a new European system of financial supervisors.”

The EU is now the twentieth member of the famed G-20, a group of the 20 most powerful economies on earth. The group already comprises 90 percent of the total global gross national product. It also has reign over 80 percent of world trade and makes up almost two thirds of the worlds entire population. Two other institutions directly linked to the G-20 are the International Monetary Fund and the high profile World Bank. The stage is set.

The chief goal of the G-20 is to build and sustain economic prosperity. It is a prosperity born of government control and not of private enterprise or capitalism. It is a new world order idea and anything but American. How many Americans know of these things much less can understand the deepest implications of these changes, a safe answer is, very few.

The G-20 website says “Since 1999, the G-20 has contributed to strengthen the international financial architecture and to foster sustainable economic growth and development. The G20 now has a crucial role in driving forward work between advanced and emerging economies to tackle the international financial and economic crisis, restore worldwide financial stability, lead the international economic recovery and secure a sustainable future for all countries.” According to the scripture no one will thank the G-20 for their noble aspirations in the end.

Not the promise of a few dollars in your next tax return or Nancy Pelosi’s jack in the box on steroids display followed by sixty five standing ovations at the Obama address to Congress can defer the long range implications.

The U.S. plan and the E.U. proclivity toward government control of banks if combined could spell the end of capitalism and free market enterprise on a global scale.

The creation of a one world economy is exactly how the last dictator melds the world into one happy global family without ever firing a single shot. But the happiness is short lived as is the rule of antichrist. His rule is interrupted by the actual physical return of the Lord Jesus Christ who not only judges the world but removes the reigns of power from all who now hold them. (Rev 11:15)

Nearly 25 percent of the Bible contains prophecies of the second coming of Christ but even if it had only a few lines and verses; who would you choose to believe. The beauty of the true faith is that it is always a matter of your choosing. No one will be jihad-ed or excommunicated or deported for not making the choice for God. But it is that very line drawn by the finished work of Christ on the cross and his call to all mankind to turn to him for salvation that is the reason why in the last days Christianity will undergo a great persecution. Yet the choice remains.

“…choose you this day whom ye will serve… but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (Jos 24:15)

http://www.americanprophet.org is the place for news, articles, movie and book reviews and other insights for life. Rev Bresciani is a columnist for online and print publications and now has millions of readers throughout the world.

Don’t get too excited over that headline. First, the soldiers being trained to secure the border aren’t US soldiers. And the soldiers who are being trained will secure the Iran-Iraq border, not the U.S.-Mexico border. While military officials overseas are taking a common sense approach to securing the border of war-torn Iraq, officials here in the United States appear indifferent to the crisis occurring on our own border with gang-infested, politically-corrupt Mexico. When approaching the border with Iran in Iraq’s Diyala province, travelers find a distinct lack of fences, signs or any other landmark letting them know that the border is near, according to officials at the American Forces Press Office. Often the only way of knowing the border is near is by noticing one of the 100 or so checkpoints varying in distances along the imaginary line that separates the Iraq and Iran. Each one of these checkpoints is manned by Iraqi Department of Border Enforcement personnel who stand ready to detain anyone trying to cross over from Iran into Iraq illegally. Working alongside Iraq’s border security officials is the U.S. Army 1st Infantry Division’s Border Transition Team 4312, which assists in keeping the borders safe and secure. “Our job is to track, confirm or deny illegal border access,” Army Master Sgt. Michael Henle, a team sergeant with BTT 4312, said. “We strictly work with the Iraqi [DBE], but we try to integrate the Iraqi army and the Iraqi police into the systems so they can work hand-in-hand, instead of operating unilaterally.” The U.S. government’s first efforts in border control date as early as 1904 when border patrolmen were called mounted watchmen. The men who patrolled then prevented illegal crossings, just as patrolmen do now. But the dangers of the job were not the same then as they are today. “A lot of our missions resemble U.S. border patrol missions,” Army Capt. Eric Wagoner of BTT 4312 said. “There’s no way to block off a border — you’re more of a deterrent. You can’t put the fence up and expect everyone to stop coming across. Our job is to make sure the Iraqi [DBE] has good methods to sustain their deterrence.” Wagoner said they work with the DBE to force the movement of those illegally crossing the border to locations where it is easier to catch them. Part of their objective is to have DBE and BTT members train together, he said. “We train our Iraqi counterparts,” Wagoner said. “Even though they are very good at training themselves on their border tasks, they do not have the resources … the experience in certain areas. Those are the [areas] we are trying to train them in.” Success of each mission is not just dependent upon the DBE, but also upon the locals living in the area. “Border villagers are the guys who live right there and see everything,” Wagoner said. “When we go talk to the people, we want the Iraqi [DBE] to do it because we want to make sure the local people know that the Iraqi [DBE] is a legitimate force in the area and that they are recognized.” While the U.S. government – under both Bush and Obama — denigrates American citizens who volunteer to help the U.S. Border Patrol — often calling them “vigilantes” or “racists” — that same U.S. government understands that in order for Iraq to survive, it must protect its sovereignty from external threats including terrorism and crime.

We all remember the drubbing that conservatives took during the campaign when they openly worried, and even directly charged, that Barack Obama was a far left radical. Pointing to the racist Reverend Jeremiah Wright, the domestic terrorist William Ayers and wife, and several others of Obama’s close friends and associates conservatives sounded a clarion call to alert the country that we were about to get one of the most extremely leftist presidents ever.

Of course, the so-called rational and presumably non-partisan commentators that abound in the center left of the chattering classes scoffed at what they claimed to be the wild demagogues on the “extreme right” who then said Obama was a radical. They have for the last two years excoriated anyone that worries about how far to the left Obama is, saying that Obama is just an average Democrat that seeks to “bring us together.”

Oh, but were it true that Obama was a centrist at heart. Unfortunately, with each passing week it seems that Barack Obama is looking far more the radical that conservatives charged that he was during the campaign than he is the centrist hands-across-the-aisle sort that the Democrats claim he is. One need only look at many of his appointments to see just how radical Obama is aiming to turn the U.S. government for proof of this fact.

During the campaign and as he planned his transition, Obama repeatedly turned to people whose views were far to the left of the average American’s. For instance, during the campaign and for his transition team, Obama relied on Susan Power for foreign policy advice. Power has for many years advocated that the U.S. give billions to upgrade the armed forces of Hamas and other Palestinian agencies despite the fact that Hamas and the PA have never once renounced the goal of wiping Israel off the face of the Earth.

Similarly, in the field of foreign policy, Obama tapped the services of Robert Malley a man well-known for his close working ties to Hamas and a man that repeatedly met with the terrorist group’s leaders. Obama also hired a woman, Sonal Shah, thought connected to a radical Hindu nationalist group in India to advise him.

In the filed of labor, Obama has sought out as his new chief of labor, one Hilda Solis. Solis has been found to have violated ethics rules by lobbying for a union friendly labor bill while she was both a member of Congress AND a member of the very unions that would benefit from the legislation. For the head of the National Labor Relations Board, Obama has picked Wilma Liebman, a woman that has strongly advocated against the rights of individuals and for collective rights; essentially a communist and virulently unAmerican concept.

Recently Obama appointed Harvard’s Ashton Carter to become the Pentagon’s chief weapons buyer (the undersecretary for acquisition, technology and logistics). However, Carter has been an outspoken critic of weapons of all stripes for years with his chief experience being in eliminating weapons, not funding and creating them. He has been an opponent of the military industrial establishment, not an ally — nor even neutral on the matter. Industry experts are worried that his anti-weapons sentiment will make him an enemy to the very job he is supposed to be filling. In a day when we have to fear terrorism as well as one where new technologies and the advancement of weapons systems to keep up with enemies is vitally important, Obama has picked a nominee that is against everything we need to be exploring to keep this country safe. An anti-weapons advocate for our chief weapons buyer is an amazing contradiction… unless one means to eliminate our weapons systems, not to improve them, naturally.

Now comes word that the Obama administration is looking to elevate Charles Freeman to a role in America’s intelligence establishment. Freeman once helped radical Islamists from Saudi Arabia to peddle an anti-western/anti-Jewish “text book” to kids in this country. Freeman, president of the Middle East Policy Council, a Saudi-funded think tank, was involved in selling the “Arab World Studies Notebook,” a book that for one claimed that Jerusalem is unequivocally an Arab province. The book also claimed that the Koran “synthesizes and perfects earlier revelations.”

So for our intelligence establishment, Barack Obama wants to install a man that agrees with, is funded by, and works with the Islamofascist enemies of the west? A man whose sympathies are against us. A man that has already been intimately involved with pushing Islamist ideals. THIS man is to be in one of OUR top intelligence positions?

Then there is Obama’s pick as head of the Office of Legal Counsel in the Department of Justice, Dawn Johansen. Johansen, for her part, is well known as a feminist radical that has said in the past that she feels pregnancy equals slavery. Johansen was a top lawyer for the National Abortion Rights Action League, or NARAL, a radical abortion advocacy group when she made this crazy claim in a Supreme Court case she was a part of. In many writings and court cases Johansen has also made the case that all restrictions against abortion should be eliminated and government should be made to pay for abortion.

Johansen has also written against any form of the security measures against terrorists that have thus far been put into motion. She is one of those fabulists that imagines that all terrorists could safely be put into the normal U.S. court system to be tried for their actions and has stood against any efforts to preempt terrorist attacks.

She has also advocated that any past applicants to the DOJ that the Bush administration had discriminated against because of the applicant’s leftist views should now get special consideration for those same views. In other words, she is hypocritically against past discrimination based on leftist personal political views and now wants the solution to be to discriminate against those that hold right leaning political views.

These Obama picks, each and every one, are radical leftists. They hold views that few Americans hold. They are in no way centrists or moderates and are not representative of the largest number of Americans. And these are the sorts of people with which Barack Obama wants to fill key position in our government.

So, tell me again that Barack is not a radical leftist. No, the truth is, Barack Obama is a radical’s radical through and through.

It is simply not worth the time or effort to conduct any deep analysis of Barack Obama’s State of the Union charade. The overwhelming majority of its coverage from the “mainstream” media could have been written well before the event. Obama would advance a nanny-state agenda of bigger and more intrusive government, interspersed with patriotic sounding platitudes of individual empowerment and the American dream. In response, the media would laud every utterance from the neophyte president as if he had received it on tablets of stone from the slopes of Mount Sinai.

Yet despite all of the glowing accolades from the usual sources, the entirety of the Obama agenda has been painfully predictable. He intends to “tax the wealthy” and use the plunder to buy votes from America’s diligently preserved underclass. The end game is to grow the ranks of the perennially needy to the point that their support for Obama and the Democrats will make the liberal political machine virtually invincible. From such a perspective, Obama’s speech was at once ominous and a smashing success.

Given the scripted nature of this purely symbolic ceremony, abetted by the media with all of its inane fawning, it might seem peculiar that so much energy is now being devoted to the political obliteration of Obama’s critics. But such is indeed the case, and the inordinate amount of negative attention directed at Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal is indicative of the real threat he and the conservatism he espouses pose to the liberal ideology.

Reaction to Governor Jindal from the media was universally scornful, as would be expected. Even before Jindal began to speak, MSNBC spokesman Chris Matthews voiced his disgust from off camera. But while Matthews’ immediate target was Jindal, his outburst was really reflective of the contempt held by the entire liberal media/political establishment towards all of heartland America.

To hear Jindal’s severest critics (who, not surprisingly, also happen to be Obama’s most ardent supporters), one might presume that the future of the country will not be determined from the implementation of any particular set of ideals, but solely on the basis of how well a speaker can deliver his message, whether or not it contains any substance. It is as if the fortunes of the nation rest on an American Idol contest from inside the Beltway, with no weight given to the particulars of the agenda. And on that front it is Obama, with his flowery rhetoric and far-reaching invocations of grandiose but totally empty promises (the ocean levels will begin to recede), who rules the day.

Governor Jindal sought not to dazzle Americans with sweeping pronouncements, but rather to inspire them with real and worthy ideas. From the opening of his commentary, he made it plain that he would not be engaging in any contest of oratory against Obama. He could leave the extravagant rhetoric to those who have nothing else of real value to offer the American people. Jindal instead sought to reach out with the strength of his ideas. And in the long run, that will remain as the real essence of what the nation wants and needs.

Admittedly, Jindal lingered briefly at the doleful altars of “political correctness” and “bipartisanship” during the outset of his remarks, echoing the standard references to Obama’s accomplishment on the basis of race, and the supposed desire for both parties to get along. But in the process, he highlighted a stunning contrast between his own background and Obama’s that will eventually define, in the starkest of terms, an ideological chasm that separates them.

Referring to his immigrant parents, which he offered as evidence of common ground between himself and Obama, Jindal then went on to describe his own father’s admiration for this nation, its bounty and its potential, jubilantly exclaiming that “Americans can do anything.” It is a message that still resonates with Bobby Jindal. He regularly repeated this declaration throughout the remainder of his commentary, applying its inspiring theme to numerous differing circumstances, and the ability of Americans in each case to triumph without the “help” of the power-hungry federal government.

Jindal talked of an upbringing that instilled a deep and abiding love for America in him, which he enthusiastically maintains to this day. This rearing stands in stark contrast to the venom, resentment and outright hatred of all things American that marked Barack Obama’s “spiritual journey,” spanning more than two decades, under the guidance of the “Reverend” Jeremiah Wright. There, as well as elsewhere among the anti-American “community organizers” of urban Chicago, Obama was willingly nurtured on a steady diet of virulent philosophies designed to engender a burning rage against this nation.

Consequently, it is understandable why Jindal will look out across America and see untapped opportunity where Obama will perceive only unfairness or discrimination. Jindal will recognize the potential for ordinary people to better themselves and their circumstances, but Obama will focus entirely on obstacles, whether real or imagined, that ostensibly can only be overcome with the crippling “assistance” of a government program. Jindal will work to free the people from bureaucratic entanglements that only demean and enslave them, while Obama seeks to expand the realm of costly and ineffective federal agencies that ultimately flourish at the expense of the people.

Jindal offers real hope for the future of the nation, which he bases on its past track record of overcoming difficulties and improving life for all. His successes in restoring the region after the devastation of Katrina echo his calls for a national restoration. And with his wisdom and optimism, such a restoration is indeed possible.

Obama, on the other hand, contends that he and his kind must remold the nation into conformity with their liberal ideology, clearly insinuating that unless his agenda is implemented, the prospects for equality and justice are bleak. Day by day, it becomes increasingly obvious that he has no intention of losing his opportunity to wield power, regardless of the real cost it may exact from the country, just as the corrupt and self-serving practices of Congressional Democrats and their cohorts in Louisiana left that state vulnerable to the storm, and hemorrhaging in its aftermath.

Jindal’s critics will vehemently seek to make the case that the directness and uneventful candor of his State of the Union response made him appear weak, and that it would be lost among the reverberations of Obama’s rousing message. Yet in truth it is Obama whose hollow words will dissipate from memory, once it becomes obvious that they carry no credence. Devoid of any substantial ideas, his singular appeal of ethnic tokenism will eventually fade from memory.

Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Lamar Smith (R-Texas) today called on House Democrats to hold a hearing on the surge in drug-related violence on the U.S.-Mexico border.  The violence is attributed to Mexican drug cartels, fighting turf battles and competing to control the U.S. drug trade markets.

In a letter to Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.), Smith cited reports from Wall Street Journal and USA Today that Mexican gangs are operating organized crime rings in at least 230 U.S. cities.

Ranking Member Smith issued the following statement along with his letter:

“The recent surge in drug-related violence on the Southwest border has turned some American communities and neighborhoods into the ‘wild west.’ Drug traffickers battling for an increased share in the U.S.-Mexico drug trade market are resorting to far more violent and deadly acts.

“According to national news reports, this violence resulted in the deaths of at least 9,000 people since 2007.  A battle is building on the border and U.S. citizens are getting caught in the cross-fire.  Congress must address the violence before more lives are lost.”

Mexico continues to be the source or entry point for the vast majority of the narcotics that are consumed in the US. Mexico is the leading transit country for cocaine and heroin consumed in the US. It is also the leading source country for marijuana and now methamphetamine.

Occasionally, the federal government of Mexico temporarily deployed the military and federal police officers to maintain order against trafficker-generated violence in highly impacted cities. But more often than not Mexican military — or those posing as military — provide protection for the traffickers and drug gangs.