Kellsey Grammer appeared on the Glenn Beck Program yesterday. Among other topics that include Sarah Palin and his new movie, “American Carol.” One of the more interesting topics is when Glenn asked Grammer where we are as a nation.

GLENN: Where do you think we are as a nation today? If we don’t wake up soon, we don’t turn our lives around, where do you think we are as nation?

GRAMMER: We’re in a crisis of a Civil War basically, just not a shooting one. That’s been my feeling for some time now. I was honestly, I said it years ago but I mean, the guy that did anything to really bring us together was Osama Bin Laden and that’s a pretty awful situation. And, you know, when people were going down in those planes, and I knew several people on board, they weren’t Republicans and Democrats. They were Americans. And I attended several memorials where actually they were used as opportunities to punch George Bush around and I thought, already? This is already happening? I mean, there’s a sickness. It’s like decay from the inside, and it scares the hell out of me. I mean, otherwise rational, you know, cordial human beings have lost their minds about — I recently spoke at one of these McCain campaign things and I said simply that in my community it has been impossible since George Bush was elected to have anything but a tortured and dysfunctional conversation. I mean, it’s as though we stand in completely different worlds and that does still make me nervous.

GLENN: But we do. You know, to kind of go off on your Civil War thing, I was, two weekends ago I met with a guy who was I believe the first person to say a global terror network. That was his phrase. And he said this is not — we’re treating this like a police action. This is not. This is a global terror network. And I said to him, I asked him, you know, where are we in our history, where do you think we are. And he said, people don’t understand. We’re in 1860.

GRAMMER: Oh, yeah. There you go.

GLENN: We’ve got to have a leader that steps to the plate that says united we stand, divided we fall, and can actually unite us.

You can read the full transcript of the interview on GlennBeck.com.

Insiders listen here.

I saw this posted over at FreeRepublic.com, an Examiner editorial written by Amos Wright.  of what McCain should do in the upcoming days and during Tuesday’s debate. It’s well worth the read and I hope John McCain and his staff are taking notes.

If McCain doesn’t start pointing out to the America public who Barack Obama is, and what he actually represents then we might be in serious trouble.

First, knock it off with the "corporations are evil" bit.

Stop it. Just stop it. That stuff is for Progressives and Populists like Bill O’Reilly.

I don’t know if you really believe it, or if you think it plays up to the middle, but it’s not helping the situation. Wall Street could not – would not – have done what it did if Congress had not first pursued bad policies and ideas that made the problem possible, then made it promising.

Knock it off with the bipartisan foolishness. Congress is the prime mover here. It created this mess.

The Media has been lying to you all these years. They don’t care about you, and they only care about bipartisanship when it gives Progressives cover for stupid policies. Nobody cares. You care, maybe. But absolutely nobody else. Moreover, your base – which you desperately need – is not amenable to hearing you trash Capitalism. Not at all.

If I wanted to hear a bunch of Mini-Me Communists rant about the evils of corporations, I’d go back to being a Progressive and I’d sign up for one of Bill Ayer’s classes. Too many of us left that swamp too long ago for us to want to wade through an acre of the decaying filth of discredited ideas to come vote for you on the other side.

So quit it.

++

Now, I just read this article from U.S. News. If this is the case, and you’re doing it because it’s what your strategy team advises, keep them on board, hire new people and listen to the new ones. Because your old ones are wrong.

If this is your idea and it’s why James Pethokoukis says it is, get a coach to fix it. Because you are going to lose.

The article states that

1. this is too complicated a problem to inform people
2. there are racial components to the issue (or appear to be)
3. the campaign believes the time is better spent talking about taxes, energy and healthcare.

Every single one of these ideas is a mistake, and wrong to boot.

Let’s start from the top. The people will be informed one way or the other. They can be lied to – which is the intention of your opponent and his Mainstream Media arm – or they can be told the truth. But you’re going to have to do it. The truth does not win out unless you make it win out. So, here it is; internalize it:

THE ECONOMIC PROBLEM IN 5 EASY STEPS

1. For various reasons, including buying votes from groups like ACORN, Congress wanted to wildly expand home ownership to the poor. So it passed laws that distorted the market, causing problems to build up over time. Bad regulation was piled on top of bad regulation in a Dr. Seussian junk tower of half-baked legislative ideas.
2. People including Bill Clinton, Congressional Republicans and Yourself warned about this growing problem as early as a decade ago and all the way up until the crisis.
3. Lenders and borrowers thought they were protected, so they overleveraged. Homebuyers seeing a brand new market thought prices would always go up, so they borrowed more than they should have.
4. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, empowered and protected by Democrats who were on the take, including one of the worst offenders of all – Barack Obama – pushed the problem out of control.
5. The whole house of cards came down because it was unsustainable, and now we all have to pay.

That’s it. That’s the whole story in a nutshell. I wrote that in 3 minutes off the top of my head. You can memorize it in 15. It’s the structural framework of everything. Everything else is just a detail. Try it. Find a detail and you can almost always find a place in that structure to hang it on. And you can tell the American public to go online and look it up for themselves. They don’t know. They don’t even know to look because the Media is concealing it as best it can, and your opponent is flat-out, bald-faced lying about it.

And I don’t use the word "lie" lightly.

Lesson: the problem wasn’t deregulation, it was the wrong kind of regulation. The Democrats in their role of Philosopher Kings – built this golem. They nurtured it and coddled it and now that it’s gone loose all over the countryside, they want to blame it on the rest of us. No. Do not let them do this or you will lose. And you will deserve to lose.

THERE IS A RACIAL COMPONENT TO THIS ISSUE

Who cares? There’s a racial component to this entire election. And you are not going to fix it, change it or alter it. It’s there and you can do nothing about it. Nothing. You lost that hill the moment the Democrats went from Hillary to Hopey-Changiness. Go right around it. Americans are already being called racists for not supporting a man who chose race for himself, so there is no tangible evidence you will lose anything by telling the truth. The people who were already preferring race over substance and the facts already cast their vote months ago. You are not ever going to get them back. Ever.

You want a military analogy? Here: Island-hop. Don’t fight battles you can’t win. Go right around them and starve them for resources.

The simple fact: this is not about race, it’s about fooling the poor into over-extending themselves, then taking pay-offs in Congress in political support and actual currency to keep the whole putrid affair running. Congress let them down, and it doesn’t help anyone to pretend otherwise. If Obama wants to call this a race issue, call him on making it one – loudly and clearly, so that everyone else can hear it – and get back to the fact that it hurts poor people of every stripe: Caucasians, Blacks, Latinos, Asians, Women… Everyone.

YOU THINK IT’S MORE IMPORTANT TO TALK ABOUT TAXES, ENERGY AND HEALTHCARE

No. It’s not. Because if the economy goes south, the rest of this doesn’t matter. If we let a Democrat control the White House and the Democrats control Congress, America will be on a spending Bacchanalia the likes of which it has never seen. The institutional problems at the heart of our economic unrest will not be fixed and this will happen again, likely as not when the bill for Social Security comes due, another foolish Progressive pyramid scheme nobody has the guts to face.

++

Now, if you think the economic crisis is hard to explain, then you haven’t looked at the tax code lately. Moreover, if Obama and you go back and forth on his, nobody will know the difference. Nobody knows all the differences. Taxing, tariffs and the economic effects of bad legislation are such byzantine issues you cannot inform anyone of anything. They think the only taxes are income and corporate taxes. They don’t realize that shifting interest rates and costs from one group of people to another or increasing inflation are also taxes. And you aren’t going to educate them.

Here are your talking points on taxes.

"As a rule, the Republican party has always been for reduced taxes and reduced spending. We lost our way under Bush. But the thing to remember is that this is the Democrat’s way. They love to take money out of people’s purses and spend it. It’s what they do.

Traditionally, they were tax-and-spend. Even if you can believe that net balance of all taxes under Obama will fall – not just income taxes as he is trying to lead you to believe, but the net balance of all your taxes – Democrats will only have changed to less-tax-and-more-spend. Their complaints about Bush are that we are in a deficit. They have no complaints about the taxing or spending other than that we’re not doing enough of it. That’s not the Change America has been Hoping for or needs."

That’s it. That’s all you need to say about taxes. If you want to provide details, send them to the website or give up a detail. Stick to the narrative and move on to more important problems.

++

Here are your talking points on energy.

"Let’s face it. Like all Progressives, Barack Obama has an ideological dislike for the Petroleum Industry. (Did you get that? Petroleum Industry. NOT oil.) He even said once that he has no problem with the kind of high gas prices that disproportionately hurt the poor and working Americans. He’d rather have China, Russia and other less-than-ideal partners supply us with oil than have America produce more. And that’s dangerous.

I, John McCain, am all for alternative energies, and my plan supports them. All of them. Oil, gas, coal, hydroelectric, solar, wind, tide, nuclear. But unlike my opponent, I want to make sure that we don’t crowd out new technologies. Government isn’t as smart as my opponent thinks he and it is. So we want to make sure that innovations we haven’t thought about have room to grow."

Learn it.

++

On healthcare. The simple fact is that you cannot out socialize Barack Obama. He’s to the left of Congress’ only Socialist. So if they zig, you’re going to need to zag. You need to differentiate in the public’s mind, and counter with a proposition that sells to both their worries and their values.

Here are your talking points on healthcare.

"The biggest cause of the economic meltdown wasn’t the market. It was the government. Now they want to take control of your health. The free market brought us tens of thousands of new drugs that save lives. It brought us the MRI. It brought so many innovations that the rest of the world – including Europe and Canada relies on us to do most of it’s R + D. Right now people from Canada and Europe flock to America for treatments.

Socializing healthcare – which is what the Democrats and Mr. Obama want – will ensure that the system stagnates. Again, the problems we have aren’t from deregulation. They’re from bad regulation. You all know that government rarely solves one problem without creating at least one new one.

Our problems are mostly financial. Our solutions should deal with finding smart market solutions to rising costs for Americans today, while keeping innovation alive in America so that our children don’t just have healthcare, they have better healthcare than we could have imagined at lower cost. That’s what America does. And that’s why the world depends on us to make healthcare and healthcare innovations available to it."

Attack. Attack, attack, attack. But do us all a favor. Point the gun at them, not us. We’re tired of friendly fire, Mr. McCain. We’re sick of having our own party shoot us in the foot.

Well looks like there is nothing the American People can do about the bailout bill now. It just crossed the wires that President Bush has officially signed the bill after both houses of Congress passed it.

The Bailout bill gives the Treasury Department $700,000,000,000 of monopoly money to use in hopes of buying up bad credit loans and freeing up the financial markets of all this bad credit. Our financial system just lost it’s ability to fail. In my opinion not having the option of failing will mean more bad decisions in the future. Five , ten, or twenty years from now we will look back at this day and realize that it was a HUGE MISTAKE.

HOTAIR: Breaking: Bailout vote underway; Update: 218; Update: 263-171

Update: Sugary Senate pork made the medicine go down: 263-171 as the gavel comes down, with some 90 Republicans voting yes. The Dow has suddenly dropped by 80 points or so, but I think I know why – it’s pessimists like me unloading their portfolios to capitalize on the post-bailout spike ahead of what they expect will be another downturn next week. (I didn’t unload, but thought about it.)

The Dow is bouncing. It has gone negative, now it’s back in the positive.

You can read the entire text of the H.R. 1424, which is U.S. Senate’s version of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, the Energy Improvement and Extension Act of 2008, and Tax Extenders and Alternative Minimum Tax Relief Act of 2008. The 451-page bill is a part of a proposed bailout of United States financial system

Update: Now that economic bailout plan has been finally passed in both houses, and sign into law what kind of impact will this have on the Presidential election and the many congressional contests around the country. One of the reasons congressmen voted No on a similar bill on Monday was because they feared that they would lose the support of their constituents. Is one month long enough time for the voters to forget about this debacle of a bill?

Yesterday John McCain announced Alaskian Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. I’ve been spending the past 24 hours consuming as much information that I can find about her and I have been impressed. The news media keep saying that Palin is a “Game Changer” in this year’s presidential campaign – and I do agree. Before she was added to the Republican ticket I wasn’t sure if I could vote for McCain, now I’m 98% certain that I will be voting for McCain/Palin come November.

Here is the text from Palin’s speech:

Governor Sarah Palin: “And I thank you, Senator McCain and Mrs. McCain, for the confidence that you have placed in me. Senator, I am honored to be chosen as your running mate. I will be honored to serve next to the next president of the United States.

“I know that when Senator McCain gave me this opportunity, he had a short list of highly qualified men and women, and to have made that list at all — it was a privilege. And to have been chosen brings a great challenge. I know that it will demand the best that I have to give, and I promise nothing less.

“First, there are a few people whom I would like you to meet. I want to start with my husband, Todd. And Todd and I are actually celebrating our 20th anniversary today, and I promised him a little surprise for the anniversary present, and hopefully he knows that I did deliver.

“And then we have as — after my husband, who is a lifelong commercial fisherman, lifetime Alaskan — he’s a production operator. Todd is a production operator in the oil fields up on Alaska’s North Slope, and he’s a proud member of the United Steelworkers Union, and he’s a world champion snow machine racer. Todd and I met way back in high school, and I can tell you that he is still the man that I admire most in this world.

“Along the way, Todd and I have shared many blessings, and four out of five of them are here with us today. Our oldest son, Track, though, he’ll be following the presidential campaign from afar. On September 11th of last year, our son enlisted in the United States Army. Track now serves in an infantry brigade. And on September 11th, Track will deploy to Iraq in the service of his country. And Todd and I are so proud of him and of all the fine men and women serving the country in uniform.

“Next to Todd is our daughter Bristol; another daughter, Willow; our youngest daughter, Piper; and over in their arms is our son Trig, a beautiful baby boy. He was born just in April. His name is Trig Paxson Van Palin.

“Some of life’s greatest opportunities come unexpectedly, and this is certainly the case today. I never really set out to be involved in public affairs, much less to run for this office. My mom and dad both worked at the local elementary school. And my husband and I, we both grew up working with our hands.

“I was just your average ‘hockey mom’ in Alaska. We were busy raising our kids. I was serving as the team mom and coaching some basketball on the side. I got involved in the PTA and then was elected to the city council and then elected mayor of my hometown, where my agenda was to stop wasteful spending and cut property taxes and put the people first.

“I was then appointed ethics commissioner and chairman of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, and when I found corruption there, I fought it hard and I held the offenders to account. Along with fellow reformers in the great state of Alaska, as governor, I’ve stood up to the old politics as usual, to the special interests, to the lobbyists, the Big Oil companies and the ‘good old boy’ network.

“When oil and gas prices went up so dramatically and the state revenues followed with that increase, I sent a large share of that revenue directly back to the people of Alaska — and we are now — we’re now embarking on a $40 billion natural gas pipeline to help lead America to energy independence.

“I signed major ethics reforms, and I appointed both Democrats and independents to serve in my administration. And I’ve championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. In fact, I told Congress thanks, but no thanks, on that “Bridge to Nowhere.” If our state wanted a bridge, I said, we’d build it ourselves.

“Well, it’s always, though, safer in politics to avoid risk, to just kind of go along with the status quo. But I didn’t get into government to do the safe and easy things. A ship in harbor is safe, but that’s not why the ship is built. Politics isn’t just a game of competing interests and clashing parties. The people of America expect us to seek public office and to serve for the right reasons. And the right reason is to challenge the status quo and to serve the common good.

“Now, no one expects us to agree on everything, whether in Juneau or in Washington. But we are expected to govern with integrity and good will and clear convictions and a servant’s heart.

“Now, no leader in America has shown these qualities so clearly or presents so clear a threat to business as usual in Washington as Senator John S. McCain. This — this is a moment when principles and political independence matter a lot more than just the party line. And this is a man who has always been there to serve his country, not just his party.

“And this is a moment that requires resolve and toughness and strength of heart in the American president. And my running mate is a man who has shown those qualities in the darkest of places and in the service of his country. A colleague once said about Senator McCain: That man did things for this country that few people could go through; never forget that. And that speaker was former Senator John Glenn of Ohio. And John Glenn knows something about heroism.

“And I’m going to make sure nobody does forget that in his campaign. There is only one candidate who has truly fought for America, and that man is John McCain.

“This is a moment — this is a moment when great causes can be won and great threats overcome, depending on the judgment of our next president. In a dangerous world, it is John McCain who will lead America’s friends and allies in preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

“It was John McCain who cautioned long ago about the harm that Russian aggression could do to Georgia and to other small Democratic neighbors and to the world oil markets.

“It was Senator McCain who refused to hedge his support for our troops in Iraq, regardless of the political costs. And you know what? As the mother of one of those troops and as the commander of Alaska’s National Guard, that’s the kind of man I want as our commander in chief.

“Profiles in courage, they can be hard to come by these days. You know, so often we just find them in books. But next week when we nominate John McCain for president, we’re putting one on the ballot!

“To serve as vice president beside such a man would be the privilege of a lifetime, and it’s fitting that this trust has been given to me 88 years almost to the day after the women of America first gained the right to vote.

“I think as well today of two other women who came before me in national elections. I can’t begin this great effort without honoring the achievements of Geraldine Ferraro in 1984, and, of course, Senator Hillary Clinton, who showed such determination and grace in her presidential campaign.

“It was rightly noted in Denver this week that Hillary left 18 million cracks in the highest, hardest glass ceiling in America. But it turns out the women of America aren’t finished yet, and we can shatter that glass ceiling once and for all.

“So for my part, the mission is clear. The next 67 days I’m going to take our campaign to every part of our country and our message of reform to every voter of every background, in every political party, or no party at all. If you want change in Washington, if you hope for a better America, then we’re asking for your vote on the 4th of November.

“My fellow Americans, come join our cause. Join our cause and help our country to elect a great man the next president of the United States. And I thank you, and I — God bless you, I say, and God bless America. Thank you.”

It was obvious that Iran made a mistake when they announced that they defeated the United States on “debate” if their nuclear program was for peace or more demonic purposes. They then retracted that statement by accusing the United States of spying on them. Well, no duh! President Bush wants Iran to explain to the world why they had a nuclear weapons program.

From the Associated Press:

WASHINGTON (AP) – President Bush on Tuesday called on Iran to explain why it had a secretive nuclear weapons program, and warned that any such efforts must not be allowed to flourish “for the sake of world peace.”

“Iran is dangerous,” Bush said after an Oval Office meeting with Italian President Giorgio Napolitano. “We believe Iran had a secret military weapons program, and Iran must explain to the world why they had such a program.”

Bush’s comments came after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that it was “a step forward” that U.S. intelligence agencies had concluded that Tehran stopped developing its nuclear weapons program four years ago.

Ahmadinejad told reporters that an “entirely different” situation between the United States and Iran could be created if more steps like the intelligence report followed.

“We consider this measure by the U.S. government a positive step. It is a step forward,” Ahmadinejad said.

“If one or two other steps are taken, the issues we have in front of us will be entirely different and will lose their complexity, and the way will be open for the resolution of basic issues in the region and in dealings between the two sides,” he said.

Iran has said its nuclear program is peaceful, but until last week, the United States and Western allies had countered that Iran was hiding plans for a bomb.

“Iran has an obligation to explain to the IAEA why they hid this program from them,” Bush said, referring to the nuclear watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency.

“Iran is dangerous, and they’ll be even more dangerous if they learn how to enrich uranium,” Bush said. “So I look forward to working with the president,” Bush said, referring to Napolitano, the Italian leader, “to explain our strategy and to figure out ways we can work together to prevent this from happening for the sake of world peace.”

Terror at Omaha Mall.

OMAHA, Neb. — Omaha police said nine people were dead, including the alleged shooter, after shots were fired inside the Von Maur store at Westroads Mall on Wednesday afternoon.

Sgt. Teresa Negron said there are nine fatalities. She said officers found the suspected shooter dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Negron could not describe the shooter, but said he was a male. Negron said most of the victims were inside Von Maur.

The gunman has been identified:

OMAHA, Neb. — The shooter at Westroads Mall was identified as Robert A. Hawkins of Bellevue, according to the Sarpy County Sheriff’s Department, and a suicide note said he was going to be famous.

Hawkins, 19, had been arrested on a couple of misdemeanors in November and was due in court this month. One charge included minor in possession of alcohol. He was arrested on Nov. 24. He was due in court for an arraignment on Dec. 19.

Sarpy County deputies said they are getting a warrant to search Hawkins’ home in the Quail Creek neighborhood in Bellevue.

The woman who owns that house at 4302 McCartey Drive, who only gave her first name of Debra, said Hawkins had a lot of emotional instability. She said she thought he was turning things around. She said he had just learned that he was fired from McDonald’s.

Debra said Hawkins was coming out of his room Wednesday morning when she last saw him.

“He said he’d gotten fired and was pretty upset and said, ‘This is the only way,’ and we tried to talk to him,” Debra said. “He was just a very troubled — I had no idea that he was this troubled. I don’t know if it was because he got fired from McDonald’s.”

Debra said she saw Hawkins with a gun last night and thought he and her sons were going hunting, which they did quite often.

Shooter was said to be a black male in his 30′s. Possibly wore fatigues. Possible more than one shooter? Fox News is citing a local NBC report that one person has a self-inflicted wound. KETV has a photo of a male matching the description of the shooter in custody. FoxNews radio is reporting that the shooter is in custody dead.

Police radio reports 2 people dead, up to 10 victims. KETV reporting that are multiple fatalities. 9 Dead confirmed, and 5 victims in Omaha hospitals.

Shots said to be random. 35 to 40 shots said to have been fired. Event said to have occurred in a gift-wrap customer service line. Employees and customers were among the victims.

Officers are stilling trying to clear the mall store by store.

Witness: Shooter was a tall man. He was standing in the children’s section. Raising his gun in the hair shooting numerous rounds into the air.

KETV 7:24: Gunman left three notes. One to his family, One to his friends, and One that was titled, “My Will”. He lost his job at McDonalds recently. Landlord took him to give him safe shelter, stability. Her sons grew up with the Gunman. Warrant has been issued for the house.

Flashback:

Police Remove Grenade from Westroads Parking Lot

Posted: Dec 1, 2007 04:26 PM

Omaha, NE – Police removed a grenade from the parking lot outside Westroads Mall late Friday.

Omaha Police say someone found the grenade in the mall parking lot near The Cheesecake Factory. It was still intact – meaning the pin had not been removed. Police say no one was around when they found the grenade. The bomb squad safely removed it from the area.

Police do not have any suspects at this hour.

Related News Articles

- Worst Mass Slaying In Nebraska History Claims 9
- More Known About Westroads Mall Shooter
- Two Surviving Victims Identified After Westroads Shooting
- Six Minutes of Mayhem
- Troubled Youth Ends in Bloodshed

For Immediate Release from Fred08.com:

Fred Thompson Statement on the National Intelligence Estimate

McLean, VA – Fred Thompson released the following statement today on the latest National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) regarding Iran:

“The accuracy of the latest NIE on Iran should be received with a good deal of skepticism. Our intelligence community has often underestimated the intentions of adversaries, including Saddam Hussein’s Iraq and North Korea. And are all of the CIA detractors now going to take intelligence pronouncements at face value? It’s awfully convenient for a lot of people: the administration gets to say its policies worked; the Democrats get to claim we should have eased up on Iran a long time ago: and Russia and China can claim sanctions on Iran are not necessary. Who benefits from all this? Iran.

“And what if the NIE estimate is accurate? It’s essentially an analysis of Iran’s intentions at a point in time. Meanwhile, Iran continues to enrich uranium for allegedly peaceful purposes, but which would allow them to easily transition to a nuclear weapons program at any point in the future. Maybe even now–now that so many seem willing to forget Iran’s past deceptions and ongoing intransigence. After all, a nuclear weapons program is simply an extension of the process by why uranium is enriched for civilian nuclear fuel. To this day Iran has yet to comply with international demands and its Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty requirements for open inspections and other safeguard measures.

“The bottom line is that the United States must continue to improve its human intelligence capabilities and intelligence analysis. We must hope for the best, but not let our guard down for a moment. If something appears to be too good to be true, it very well may be.“

The Associated Press reporting:

TEHRAN, Iran – A new U.S. intelligence review concluding Iran stopped developing an atomic weapons program in 2003 is a “declaration of victory” for Iran’s nuclear program, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Wednesday.

The U.S. intelligence report released Monday concluded that Iran had stopped its weapons program in late 2003 and shown no signs since of resuming it, representing a sharp turnaround from a previous intelligence assessment in 2005.

“This is a declaration of victory for the Iranian nation against the world powers over the nuclear issue,” Ahmadinejad told thousands of people during a visit to Ilam province in western Iran.

“This was a final shot to those who, in the past several years, spread a sense of threat and concern in the world through lies of nuclear weapons … Thanks to your resistance, a fatal shot was fired at the dreams of ill-wishers and the truthfulness of the Iranian nation was once again proved by the ill-wishers themselves,” Ahmadinejad said, drawing celebratory whistles from the crowd.

Yea… okay Mr President. The same guys you are accusing of spreading “a sense of threat and concern in the world through lies of nuclear weapons” is the same government that gives you your so-called vindication. We love the spin though!

Iran has touted the new U.S. intelligence report as vindication of its claims that its nuclear program is peaceful and Iranian officials insist that Washington should take a less hawkish stance and drop attempts to impose new sanctions in light of the report’s surprise conclusions.

Just like the liberal media before it, Iran is totally glossing over the fact that there was a Nuclear Weapons program in 2003. That that program was halted because of pressures from the United States and coalition forces (See Iraq War). And, that by now the Iranians have probably restarted their weapons program and we’ll hear about it in the next intelligence report due in 2013.

Rice explains new US view on Iran nukes

Also from the Associated Press:

Rice said Tuesday it would be a “big mistake” to ease any diplomatic pressure on Iran despite the new U.S. findings.

“It doesn’t mean you should take the pressure off,” she said en route to Ethiopia to see African leaders. “It puts a premium on diplomatic efforts.

“I continue to see Iran as a dangerous power in international politics,” Rice told reporters traveling with her. “At this moment, it doesn’t appear to have an active weaponization program. That frankly is good news. But if it causes people to say, ‘Oh, well, then we don’t need to worry about what the Iranians are doing,’ I think we will have made a big mistake.”

Since 2003 Iran “elected” Ahmadinejad and his religious nutjob views into office. The rhetoric against Israel increased dramatically. Including various times when he said that Israel would be forced into the sea, or wiped off the face of the earth (depending on the translation). There should be caution over Iran and what’s going on with it’s civilian nuclear plant.

The article continues.

Rice said it may take some time for U.S. allies to understand the administration’s new conclusions on Iran, but she said there should be great concern still about the Islamic republic’s continuing preprocessing and enrichment of uranium, which Tehran insists is only for civilian energy production. Such an enrichment program also could lead to nuclear weapons production.

“We need to do everything we can to stop them from being able to perfect this enrichment and reprocessing program,” she said.

The U.S. secretary of state urged nations such as China and Russia not to harden their stance against a new round of sanctions, arguing that the fact that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 because of international pressure shows that diplomacy works.

“We know that pressure has worked in the past and it caused them to do something very important,” Rice said. “Now let’s use our collective efforts to cause them to take the next important step,” she added, referring to a potential halt to its enrichment of uranium.

Rice said she wants officials from other countries to try to understand the nuance of the new U.S. intelligence assessment.

“People need the opportunity to absorb what they’ve heard,” she said. “We have been completely transparent about what the intelligence assessment says. And people need a chance to read it. When they do that and when they read it in its detail and nuance, they will be able to see the points that I have made.”

President Bush: “Come Clean” Iran!

Continuing on the Associated Press tour:

Two days after a new intelligence report said that Iran had halted its nuclear weapons program four years ago, Bush demanded that Tehran detail its previous program to develop nuclear weapons “which the Iranian regime has yet to acknowledge.”

“The Iranians have a strategic choice to make,” he said. “They can come clean with the international community about the scope of their nuclear activities, and fully accept the long-standing offer to suspend their enrichment program and come to the table and negotiate, or they can continue on a path of isolation.”

The administration is worried that the new National Intelligence Estimate — representing a consensus of all U.S. spy agencies — weakens its leverage over Iran and its ability to build global pressure on Tehran to stop its uranium enrichment program.

Bush, arriving here on a campaign fundraising trip, said he had consulted with members of his national security team, who gave him a report about what Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley have learned in talks during the past several days with their counterparts in Britain, Germany, France and Russia.

“These countries understand that the Iranian nuclear issue is a problem, and continues to be a problem and must be addressed,” Bush said.

Backing the U.S. intelligence community, Bush said he appreciated its work in helping people to understand past and present activities in Iran and helping the administration develop a sound policy.

“It is clear from the latest NIE that the Iranian government has more to explain about its nuclear intentions and past actions,” Bush said.

I agree. The fact is they were developing a nuclear weapons program. Now they need to answer why.

Right before Thanksgiving the Chinese Government wouldn’t allow the USS Kitty Hawk to dock on the shores of Hong Kong. It’s only been a nearly 50 year tradition for the ship and its crew to meet up with family members in Hong Kong for some R&R. Now Red China says that the reason the American ship was turned away cause it gave them “grave concern” when the ship changed course to avoid an oncoming storm.

From the AP:

BEIJING (AP) – China said Tuesday it expressed “grave concern” over the USS Kitty Hawk’s passage through the politically sensitive Taiwan Strait on its return to Japan.

The U.S. aircraft carrier had been barred by China from entering Hong Kong for a Thanksgiving port call.

Mainland Chinese authorities reversed their decision, but by then the ships were too far out to sea and did not turn back.

“U.S. officials informed China at that time that it took the route because of a storm,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said at a briefing. “China expressed grave concern to the U.S. and requested the U.S. to take prudent moves in this highly sensitive area.”

In a couple of hours the results in the Venezuela election should be known. Local Venezuelan websites are already reporting some exit poll results, but it is too soon to know anything for certain.

Early Exit Polling Results from Reuters show President Hugo winning the referendum:

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez appeared headed for victory on Sunday in a referendum on allowing the leftist to rule for as long as he keeps winning elections, government-linked sources said, citing exit polls.

Three exit polls showed Chavez won by between six and eight percentage points in a vote where turnout was low, the two sources said.

If confirmed, it would be by far the slimmest victory margin in the career of a man who wants to rule for life and turn the major oil exporter into a socialist state.

Opposition says their exit polls show that they won by 4% (Salon)

Update I:

Plenty of sources are saying that NO will win – but the government might still announce that the referendum passed.

Update II:

Venezuela News and Views blog is reporting that Chavez has canceled his press conference – which could be seen that the results might be to close to call.

Alexis Marrero Blog has regional results.

Update III:

Reuters still reporting a win for Chavez.

CARACAS (Reuters) – Three cabinet ministers on Sunday said Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez won a referendum on whether he can run indefinitely for reelection.

The ministers, who asked not to be named, cited preliminary polling and electoral data.

Update IV:

Venezuela News and Views blog is reporting that reporters are begging for their viewers to keep the peace while the results are coming in cause the results are going to be very close.

Update V:

Alexis Marrer Blog English Translation:

The Tendency is very clear the triumph of is not definitive, all the acts that have been entered give like result a definitive triumph of the opposition. it is certain that when I write this post I do not have the confirmation of the Zuliano state, Barquisimeto, Mérida, and Barina. But in the other states the Triumph is definitive. We could say with clarity that the triumph is by very little point but it is it.
The National press has not managed to give the tendency so that the law Jaw therefore stipulates it. But there are pro-government foreign newspapers of tendency that are using single the source that the government gives them. Cómos con is Country and other sources already known.
Venezuelan you do not lose the faith here soon will leave the truth.
The results in tendency are the one of
51% NO
49% YES

Update VI:

Sky News headline: Venezuelans ‘Back President For Life’

Update VII: Official word is that NO has won the election. Chavez’s referendums failed the election. Now I wonder if he’ll follow up on his threat to end exportation of Oil to the United States or not.

Update VIII: Isn’t amazing on Al Jazeera and Reuters both called it as a win for Chavez hours before the official word came out? No doubt there will be investigations into the results by Chavez.

AP Flash:

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) – President Hugo Chavez suffered a stinging defeat in a vote on constitutional changes that would have let him run for re-election indefinitely, the chief of National Electoral Council said Monday.

Voters defeated the sweeping measures by a vote of 51 percent to 49 percent, Tibisay Lucena said.

Update IX: Freedom wins.