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July 24, 2008

Rabbi Berel Wein: On the road again --- and again and again

Richard Z. Chesnoff: Mideast Refugees --- Failure vs. Success

JWisdom:: Word power is about more than vocabulary by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

July 23, 2008

Jonathan Tobin: The Mufti of Jerusalem's Nazi ideology lives on among contemporary Islamists

The Kosher Gourmet by Joe Gray: Smoked paprika turkey meatballs simmered in red wine and tomato sauce

JWisdom:: 'Routine' doesn't need to mean ‘rote’ By Rabbi David Aaron

July 22, 2008

Yossi Klein Halevi: Dear Barack Obama

Elliot B. Gertel: Eli Stone: Self-indulgent, arrogant corporate attorney as modern-day prophet

JWisdom:: Three Weeks - Nine Days - One Purpose by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

July 21, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Spending your kids' money

Mitch Albom: A grim exchange illustrates a key difference

JWisdom:: The Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith: Hammered on the Anvil --- Severed by the Sickle by Rabbi Nosson Scherman

July 18, 2008

Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: The Sanctification and Importance of Time

Caroline B. Glick: US wants it absolutely clear it has no intention of attacking Iran's nuclear installations

Mona Charen: What can you say about a people who welcome a child murderer as a hero?

JWisdom:: Living a dog's life, dawg? by Rabbi Dovid Gross

July 17, 2008

Steven Emerson: Deals with devils

Libby Lazewnik: One Step at a Time

JWisdom:: Leader the follower? by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

July 16, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Poaching humans

The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer: Meaty pasta salad with summer berries perfect for warm evenings

JWisdom:: Keeping A Secret by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

July 15, 2008

Dennis Prager: False Equation: Opposing Same-Sex Marriage and Opposing Interracial Marriage

Joel Greenberg: Researchers look to Israeli circumcision program to help combat AIDS 'Alternatives' to Logic Won't Work

JWisdom:: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part V: Why Judaism ISN'T Spiritual by Rabbi David Aaron

July 14, 2008

Jonathan Rosenblum: A warning from Canada to those who value life

Jonathan Tobin: 'Alternatives' to Logic Won't Work

JWisdom:: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Poland's Unique Antisemitism, Part II

July 11, 2008

Rabbi Francis Nataf: It's hard to be humble when you're great

Caroline B. Glick: A tale of two hostages

JWisdom:: Profane for Prophet by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

July 8, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q. Duty to save gullible from themselves?

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Islamists have the West just where they want us

JWisdom:: Putting the Spirit Back into Spirituality, Part 3: The Fully Loaded Human Being by Rabbi Dovid Gross

July 3, 2008

Rabbi Dr. Abraham J. Twerski: A spiritual budget (TOUCHING!)

Jeff Jacoby: Israel still paying for its defeat

JWisdom:: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part IV by Rabbi David Aaron

JWisdom:: The Moses Method by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

July 2, 2008

Jonathan Tobin: Appeasers Make Poor Patriots

The Kosher Gourmet By Kathleen Purvis: Slaw, y'all: For BBQs or Sabbath dinner, these southern recipes are something else!

JWisdom:: Rabbi Mordechai Becher: Jewish Rx for A Simpler Life

July 1, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q. I think it's important to leave a legacy to my children. How much should I save towards this end?

Paul Greenberg:A President who is history deficient?

JWisdom:: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Poland's Unique Antisemitism

June 30, 2008

Jonathan Rosenblum: Remembering the architect of Torah Judaism for the modern world

Abe Novick: Hulk: Still a Jew?

JWisdom: : Putting the Spirit Back into Spirituality, Part 2: The Abandoned Child

June 26, 2008

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: Quantum leap to evil

Caroline B. Glick: Victimized families must not be allowed to dictate policy

June 25, 2008

Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Today in Biblical History: King Jeroboam of Israel prevents pilgrimage to Jerusalem

Jonathan Tobin: Real Friends and Real Enemies

JWisdom: Raping of reason By Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

June 25, 2008

Steven Emerson: Kristof: Never Mind the Terrorists

Stratfor Intelligence Briefing: Mediterranean Flyover: Telegraphing an Israeli Punch?

JWisdom: Rabbi David Aaron: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part III

June 24, 2008

Caroline B. Glick: What were they thinking!?

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Guilty knowledge

JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Warping Innocence

June 23, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Diploma dilemma

Jeff Jacoby: A world without children

JWisdom: Rabbi Dovid Gross: Putting the Spirit Back into Spirituality --- Introduction

June 20, 2008

Rabbi A. Henach Leibowitz: Man: The Crowning Glory of Creation

Caroline B. Glick: Israel's darkest week

JWisdom: We aren't worthy? by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

June 19, 2008

Rabbi Elazar Meisels: The saints who don't come marchin' in

Chris Christoff: Muslim woman demands an apology from Obama after camera snub

June 18, 2008

Jonathan Tobin: Still Dancing Around Jerusalem

The Kosher Gourmet by Steve Petusevsky: Chilled fruit and vegetable soups

JWisdom: Souls Need A Check Up? by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

June 17, 2008

Rabbi Avi Shafran: Baby Einstein

Caroline B. Glick: Bush's rhetoric, Bush's policies

JWisdom: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part II by Rabbi David Aaron

June 16, 2008

Varda Branfman: Bob Dylan, won't you please come home?

Diana West: Academic dares to question the 'religion of peace'

JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Positive Backfire

March 22, 2007

J-Rhythms with Avraham Rosenblum: JWR's cutting-edge music program showcasing performers -- singers, song writers, musicians, and bands -- who learn and live the Torah lifestyle (OUR NEWEST IGODCAST !)

Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review April 11, 2007 / 23 Nissan, 5767

Pelosi's proclivities

By Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Speaker Nancy Pelosi is clearly one of those women who want it all. In her case though, this is not simply a matter of a lady seeking to have both a family and a fulfilling and successful professional life. Rather, the first female leader of the House of Representatives evidently seeks also to be the commander-in-chief and the secretary of state.


The job of the former would be circumscribed, if not rendered impossible, by the legislation Mrs. Pelosi is currently pushing through Congress. Her supplemental spending bill meant to provide resources needed to fund ongoing military operations would compel the removal of U.S. combat forces from Iraq by a date certain, irrespective of conditions on the ground.


Fortunately, the incumbent Commander-in-Chief is not prepared to relinquish the job just yet. President Bush has the votes to sustain his promised veto of such restrictions. And Sen. Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, seemed on a Sunday talk show to signal that even Mrs. Pelosi's kindred spirits in defeatism are not prepared to follow her lead at the expense of the troops, whose funding is now being jeopardized.


Still, the message being sent by a Speaker who signals division in the face of the enemy is insidious in the extreme. It encourages our foes, undermines the confidence of our friends and demoralizes those we have sent into harm's way.


Not content with such dubious achievements, Mrs. Pelosi has set her sights on Condoleezza Rice's portfolio, too. Using the Easter recess for a bit of globetrotting, the Speaker took her show on the road to Damascus. Speaking of which, once there, she fatuously announced that "We came in friendship, hope, and determined that the road to Damascus is a road to peace."


Even the Washington Post was so outraged by this performance that it unloaded on her in an editorial last Thursday. The paper called the Speaker's statement "ludicrous," noting that her host and purported partner for peace, Syrian dictator Bashir Assad "is a corrupt thug whose overriding priority at the moment is not peace with Israel but heading off U.N. charges that he orchestrated the murder of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri."


The Post justifiably savaged the Speaker for trying "to substitute her own foreign policy for that of a sitting Republican president." It said that her "attempt to establish a shadow presidency is not only counterproductive, it is foolish."


What Madame Speaker's Iraq and Syria initiatives have in common is a preoccupation with handing the Bush Administration strategic defeats for domestic political gain, without regard for the predictable and probably high costs of such behavior to the nation. Now, that same dedication to such a short-sighted, tactical objective is evidently precluding effective action to redress America's energy insecurity.


Specifically, reports from Capitol Hill indicate that Mrs. Pelosi has refused to allow action on the 2007 DRIVE Act. This legislation is modeled on the Set America Free Coalition's Blueprint for Energy Security. It would encourage important steps towards reducing what Mr. Bush has rightly described as the country's "addiction to oil" by decreasing the U.S. transportation sector's reliance on immense quantities of gas and diesel fuels much of which are imported from countries that are unstable at best, and dangerous at worst.


The centerpiece of the Drive Act is "fuel choice" — which would permit gas consumption to be cut through a number of practical, near-term steps. These include greatly increasing the number of vehicles in America's automotive fleet that can use alternatives to petroleum-based fuels (namely, ethanol — derived from various sources, not just corn — and methanol) and creating incentives for the production and distribution of such liquids. The DRIVE Act would also help make electricity a widely used transportation fuel by encouraging the accelerated introduction of plug-in hybrids.


Legislation along these lines was first introduced in the House during the last session of Congress with strong bipartisan support under the leadership of Republicans Jack Kingston and Jim Saxton of Georgia and New Jersey, respectively, and New York Democrat Eliot Engel. Rather than allow the then-Republican majority a victory on energy issues in the run-up to a critical election, however, Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi opposed its enactment.


Now that the voters have entrusted both houses of Congress to Mrs. Pelosi's party, however, one might ask why the reintroduced, and vitally needed, DRIVE Act would still be hanging fire in the House of Representatives? The conclusion seems unavoidable: The Speaker is unable to put the national interest before her partisan ambitions to deny this president any successes during his remaining time in office. Unless she shifts course, it could be at least two more years before already overdue energy security measures are enacted.


If Nancy Pelosi's party is to have any hope of actually running the country (not to be confused with operating a "shadow presidency" that threatens to run it into the ground), the Democrats had better not only forego further negative measures like the recent meddling in Iraq and Syria. They must also do something constructive. A good place to start on the latter would be to take the lead in swiftly adopting the energy security program contained in the bipartisan, bicameral DRIVE Act.


Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.

JWR contributor Frank J. Gaffney, Jr. heads the Center for Security Policy. Comments by clicking here.

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