Shameful Che Shirts

Do you own, or have you owned and worn, or know someone who owns and has worn one of those allegedly 'cool' Che Guevara t-shirts? Do you know the reason that the shirt was being worn? Does the image on the shirt actually stand for something? Do you even know who Che Guevara really was?

The 'Che Guevara' t-shirt and image has become a symbol of sorts for all that is 'counter-cultural'. It is often meant as a protest symbol for those who feel that the 'little man' is being intentionally repressed in some way by government and/or business.

Wanting to help those who are less fortunate than we are is a noble sentiment. So is wanting to effect positive changes on a government or on a society that has become repressive or abusive to it's citizens. So what exactly does that have to do with America, the most free country in the history of the world? And why on earth would this man be an appropriate symbol for such protests anyway?

Ernesto 'Che' Gevara was born in 1928 in the South American country of Argentina to parents of mixed Spanish and Irish heritage. He was brought up in a very political and intellectual environment, and became a reader of the works and teachings of Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin at an early age.

In 1951 he took a year off before entering medical school in order to travel around South America on a motorcycle. During this trip he experienced first-hand the poverty in much of the land, and as a result ultimately wrote 'The Motorcycle Diaries' in regards to the trip. The book was subsequently made into a major release film in 2004.

As Guevara matured into manhood his views became more and more radical, and he eventually established the stated viewpoint that Marxism achieved through armed struggle and defended by an armed populace was the only way to rectify what he believed had become 'American imperialism' in Latin America.

Of course the true facts were that in nearly the entirety of South America, poverty was endemic, and ruling regimes in nearly every country had for centuries failed to bring about positive change due to greed for power and controlled material wealth for the privileged few.

Any American efforts to change those conditions in order to ultimately help the people by establishing democracy and capitalism was seen as interference, or 'imperialism', trying to impose our ways on others. The motives of the American government and business were always painted as self-serving when the truth was that true capitalist democratic change would indeed be good for both North and South American peoples.

The fact is that Latin American people would indeed be freer and have a better chance at sustained economic growth under truly democratic forms of government that adopted capitalist economic systems. But the power-hungry South American rulers would not let that happen, in fact would consider such a statement as paternalistically insulting, and so used and still use propaganda to paint America as a big bully and themselves as poor peasants who just want to be left alone.

It was within this atmosphere that Guevara moved his family to Mexico City in 1954, and a year later he was introduced through some Cuban exile friends to a man by the name of Fidel Castro. He was immediately swayed by Castro's militant revolutionary ideas and began serious military training in guerrilla warfare tactics.

He went with Castro to participate in the violent overthrow of the Cuban government in the late 1950's, becoming an integral leader of the rebel army. He became feared for his brutality and ruthlessness, torturing or executing anyone whom he deemed a traitor, spy, or deserter. Finally the Castro forces were able to defeat and overthrow the Cuban government and took control of Havana in January of 1959.

On taking charge, Guevara was put in charge by Castro of sorting out and punishing all political enemies and 'war criminals'. In this role, Che Guevara oversaw and even participated in the killing of hundreds of people without due process. Guevara was then later put in charge of the economy, and began to install his beloved socialist values. As always happens with such socialist systems, his programs ended in the abject failure of decreased productivity and increased dependency on the government. The Cuban economy remains in shambles to this day.

During the 1960's he became the principle voice and actor in establishing and growing the Cuban-Soviet relationship that brought Soviet ballistic missiles to the island nation just a hundred miles from the Florida coast. As history tells us, this led to the single closest experience the world would ever come to all-out nuclear war.

When the Soviets finally backed down from the Kennedy administration and withdrew the missiles, Che became enraged at what he called their betrayal, and he turned against them. He stated that had the nuclear-armed missiles been under Cuban control, he would have fired them off against the Americans. During the course of his adult life, Guevara was possibly the most vocally anti-American individual in history.

Ultimately Guevara would travel all around the world trying to educate himself on Marxist, communist, socialist, and terrorist ideals and tactics. His trips would take him to places as disparate as China, Egypt, and Ireland. He would lend his hand to Marxist revolutionary efforts in the Congo in Africa and back in South America in Bolivia. It was there that he was finally captured and executed in October of 1967.

During his lifetime, Che Guevara was closely involved with or directly responsible for violent government overthrow, torture, execution and overall destruction to humanity on a massive scale. None of his efforts were ever successful at helping any group of citizens lead a safer, happier, more secure life. In fact, his policies and actions in Cuba and other parts of the world led to death and disillusionment for millions. In the end, like Mao and Lenin and numerous others, he was a failed socialist murderer.

So this is the man whose image the 'counter-culture' has deemed as 'cool' to wear on a t-shirt. At least in South America they are beginning to get it. A recent popular t-shirt worn by youth in Argentina mocked "I have a Che tshirt and I don't know why", capturing perfectly the question for any young American who would ever display his image. Why are you wearing that shameful Che shirt?

Predictions for 2010

I don't own a crystal ball, nor do I have any special psychic powers or connections to the Almighty that would grant me privileged insight. But I do understand a little bit about what is going on in the world, and it's a challenge to look ahead and try to figure out what a new year may bring.

The following are 10 predictions that I am willing to make for the new year that we just began. Every year brings with it major news developments, exciting sporting accomplishments, political intrigue, public scandals, celebrity gaffes, natural disasters, and other headlines. We can take a look back at the end of 2010 and see how I faired with these:

1) Israel-Iran War: There is just no way that Israel can allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons. If the mullahs are not overthrown and Ahmadinejad kicked out on his apocalpyse-desirous can in the first few months of the year, Israel cannot wait much longer. It's a bit of an upset that the Israelis have waited this long. This will be huge.

2) American Congress: The Republican Party will make major inroads in both Houses of Congress in the 2010 mid-term elections. Probably not enough to take over either House, unless of course the Obama administration continues to bury the U.S. in debt and continues to take over private industry. My bet is the Dems up for election will paint themselves moderately enough to salvage a slight Dem majority.

3) Terrorism in the West: There will be a moderate-to-major successful Islamofascist terrorist attack somewhere in either Great Britain or the United States this year. The radical Islamists have sworn to keep coming at us, they continue to make actual attempts, and we keep getting lucky most times. Our luck will run out somewhere, some time.

4) American Financial Debacle: Unemployment will continue to rise, credit will continue to remain tight, the housing market will continue to stagnate. The policies that the Obama administration is utilizing simply do nothing to spur ongoing economic growth. There will be calls for more stimulus, just what we need (sic). At some point in the year the Fed will raise interest rates to stave off inflation, worsening many areas of the economy. The stock market will end the year lower than the final 2009 levels.

5) Natural Disaster: The world has been rocked in recent years by major tsunamis, floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, more so than at any time. Or does it just seem that way because we now have 24-hour news coverage? In any event, the U.S. got away without a major hurricane striking the mainland in 2009. We won't be as lucky in 2010, and look for at least one other major event elsewhere in the developed world this year.

6) The Sports World: Predicting champions is the longest of long shots, but here goes. The Super Bowl will see the Philadelphia Eagles defeat the New England Patriots. How's that for a homer pick? Want another one? Okay, the Philadelphia Phillies will defeat the New York Yankees in a World Series rematch. The Chicago Black Hawks will win the Stanley Cup by downing the New Jersey Devils. The Cleveland Cavaliers will upend the LA Lakers for the NBA title. Kansas wins the NCAA men's basketball tournament.

7) Olympics Incident: The Winter Olympics are being held in Vancouver next month. The largest sporting event on earth remains the greatest attraction for television, athletes, fans - and terrorists. Watch for some attack or attempted attack at some venue. If Vancouver lucks out, or makes it's own luck with tremendous security, the real challenge is next. London hosts the 2012 Summer Olympics, and that one should be a real security challenge.

8) Celebrity Deaths: We all know there will be some. The usual suspects this time around include Billy Graham, Nancy Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Dick Clark, Elizabeth Taylor, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Kirk Douglas, Betty Ford, Nelson Mandela, Jerry Lewis, Fidel Castro, Osama bin Laden and Abe Vigoda, who I personally think may never die. But the real challenge is predicting the younger folks who really shouldn't go, but who end up in accidents or overdoses or as homicides/suicides. Put me down for a couple on the longshots: Charlie Sheen and Lindsay Lohan.

9) Science and Sci-Fi: There will continue to be no proof of intelligent life on other planets. No flying saucers or other beings will visit/invade the earth. The H1N1 virus will fade from the headlines amid warnings from the medical community that some major disease will eventually break out among humans that will indeed cause a worldwide crisis, and they will be right - eventually. By the way, your life can already be tracked via things like GPS on your cellphone and via your debit/credit card usage. This will become even more invasive in the coming year.

10) Weight Loss: Okay, here is the biggie. Yours truly will lose weight, a great deal of it, and get in the best shape that I have been in since my police academy days two decades ago. This is the one that I hope actually comes through for me. Well, this and the Republicans making strong Congressional gains. I am starting the effort this coming week. Wish me luck.

So there go ten areas where I am willing to go out on the limb with some general and specific predictions. It will be a great year for some, a terrible year for others, the last year on earth for some, the first year for others. In short, in the end it will be pretty much like any other year. It's all ahead of us right now. It will be interesting to take a look back in 11 months or so and reflect on this article with the knowledge of the reality of what actually occurred.

Obama's 'Peace for Our Time'

"If a nation expects to be ignorant -- and free -- in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." --Thomas Jefferson

On 30 September 1938, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain addressed his countrymen in regard to the Munich Agreement, which assured Adolf Hitler that Britain would "wink and nod" at Der Fuhrer's annexation of western Czechoslovakia to satiate Germany's need for additional "living space." (Six months earlier, Hitler had annexed Austria, without so much as a whimper from Britain and France.)

Chamberlain insisted, infamously, that appeasing Hitler with the Munich Agreement would provide "peace for our time." But on 1 September 1939, Herr Hitler invaded Poland, and World War II, the bloodiest conflict and genocide in history, was underway.

Fortunately, Chamberlain was replaced by Winston Churchill on 10 May 1940, the same day Hitler invaded France and the Low Countries.

A month later, Churchill delivered his "finest hour" speech, to the House of Commons: "I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that ... if we can stand up to him, all Europe may be freed and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age.... Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves, that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, 'This was their finest hour.'"

This week, Barack Hussein Obama endeavored to appease the world's most dangerous fascist movement since the Third Reich. Islam has long provided safe haven for the Islamist movement of "Jihadistan," that borderless nation of countless jihadis devoted to the destruction of the West and the imposition of a worldwide caliphate and Shariah law. If we seek to appease this abominable movement rather than confront it, the world most certainly will, as Churchill warned, "sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age."

Last fall, Obama campaigned on a promise to mollify our Islamic foes and "re-set" the terms of understanding between American democracy and Middle Eastern tyranny -- to great applause from his legions of mesmerized peacenik sycophants.

In January, Obama recommitted to making peace with Islam, saying, "I have Muslim members of my family. I have lived in Muslim countries."

Before his departure this week, a key Obama aide reiterated Obama's Muslim roots: "The president himself experienced Islam on three continents ... you know, growing up in Indonesia, having a Muslim father -- obviously Muslim Americans are a key part of Illinois and Chicago."

Then Obama served up this gem: "Now, the flip side is I think that the United States and the West generally, we have to educate ourselves more effectively on Islam. And one of the points I want to make is, is that if you actually took the number of Muslims Americans, we'd be one of the largest Muslim countries in the world."

Huh? There are currently some 1.8 billion Muslims in the world. Indonesia has 200 million, Pakistan has 165 million, dozens of other countries have tens of millions more, and the U.S. has less than 3 million.

Obama's "ignorance" of Muslim demographics is appalling. Yet he has the audacity to say, "We have to educate ourselves more effectively on Islam."

Lest anyone doubt Obama's determination to appease Islam, consider the fact that on Monday, the day before his departure, American Islamic convert Abdul Hakim Mujahid Muhammad shot two young military recruiters in Arkansas, murdering Pvt. William Long -- and Obama initially offered no official comment.

Contrast that to the killing the previous day of George Tiller, infamous for murdering thousands of babies just prior to birth. Within hours of that incident, Obama served up an official statement of "shock and outrage." Obama's Attorney General also dispatched U.S. Marshals to protect "appropriate people and facilities around the nation."

But law enforcement resources have not been dispatched to protect recruiting centers (even though hundreds of those have been attacked in recent years), nor is Obama sending Marshals to protect synagogues, after last month's arrest of four Islamists who planned to bomb Jewish houses of worship in New York.

Ironically, the last time a sitting president attempted to appease his abortion constituency by mobilizing federal law enforcement resources was when Bill Clinton sent the FBI, ATF and U.S. Marshals to search for lone abortion clinic bomber Eric Rudolph -- ironic, I say, because at the same time thousands of agents were unsuccessfully attempting to apprehend Rudolph in North Carolina, al-Qa'ida terrorists were taking flight lessons a few hundred miles down the road in Florida, preparing to crash civilian airliners into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the U.S. Capitol Building to the tune of "Allahu akbar."

In other words, Obama appeased his pro-abortion constituency with a show of force and appeased his Islamic constituency with inaction.

Under increasing pressure, Obama's handlers finally posted a comment late Wednesday on the murder of the military recruiter, indicating that he was "deeply saddened by this senseless act of violence." Personally, I am "shocked and outraged."

Suffice it to say that BHO didn't want to offend our Islamist enemy in the same week he is trying to appease them.

But I digress.

After stopping for another bow to Saudi King Abdullah, Obama crossed the Red Sea (perhaps he actually walked on it) to address his peace-loving brethren in Egypt -- accompanied by a security force of more than 3,000 agents, far exceeding the security detail accompanying George W. Bush for his visits to war zones in Iraq. That seemed a bit excessive, since there were more than 30,000 Egyptian security forces in, on and around Al Azhar University, where Obama delivered his version of Rodney King's "can't we all just get along" speech.

Perhaps someone recalled that on 6 October 1981, Egyptian President Muhammad Anwar Al Sadat was assassinated by his own Egyptian security forces acting on a fatwa issued by peace-loving Muslim cleric Omar Abdel-Rahman. Omar, a.k.a. "inmate 34892-054," is now serving a life sentence in a North Carolina federal prison after being convicted for planning the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. He was an associate of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who planned the 2001 attack. (Hey, maybe the Tar Heel State, which gave its electoral votes to Obama, will take those Gitmo detainees off his hands.)

Obama offered these olive branches to the Islamic masses from his teleprompters in Cairo: "[I have] unyielding belief that all people yearn for certain things ... confidence in the rule of law; government that is transparent and doesn't steal from the people; the freedom to live as you choose. ... Islam is not part of the problem in combating violent extremism -- it is an important part of promoting peace. ... I have known Islam on three continents before coming to the region where it was first revealed. As a boy, I heard the call of the azaan at the break of dawn and the fall of dusk. As a young man, I worked in Chicago communities where many found dignity and peace in their Muslim faith. ... [Jerusalem should be] a place for all of the children of Abraham to mingle peacefully together as in the story of Isra [from the Koran], when Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed (peace be upon them) joined in prayer. ... Islam has a proud tradition of tolerance."

While Israel was not on Obama's Middle Eastern itinerary, as some sort of atonement, his plans take him from Egypt to Germany for a visit to the Nazis' Buchenwald concentration camp and a token tribute to Holocaust victims.

Then Obama will proceed to Normandy for the 65th anniversary of the Allies' D-Day invasion of France, which ultimately brought the Third Reich to collapse.

In other words, BHO began his trip by appeasing fascists in the Middle East (at great peril to future generations of Americans), and will end his trip "honoring" tens of thousands of Americans who died as a direct result of the appeasement of fascists in Europe.

For the record, I don't mean to suggest that because Obama has a penchant for appeasing Islam, he is a Muslim. In one of his two autobiographies, "The Audacity of Hope," he noted that both of his parents were atheists and, "In our household, the Bible, the Koran, and the Bhagavad Gita sat on the shelf." Just sat there...

Based on the rest of his book, I'm certain that he is not a Muslim, but a Socialist like William Ayers and the Marxist terrorists who launched his political career.

As the MSM talkingheads fawn over the Obama show abroad, the greatest peril to Americans remains the plethora of domestic Neo-Marxist economic programs now being implemented by the Obama regime.

Even the Russian newspaper Pravda, once the primary dezinfomatsia organ of the old Soviet Union, recently published an article by Stanislav Mishin entitled, "American Capitalism Gone with a Whimper," in which Mishin writes that Obama has pulled the plug on the American way of life.

Mishin observes: "It must be said, that like the breaking of a great dam, the American descent into Marxism is happening with breath-taking speed, against the back drop of a passive, hopeless sheeple, excuse me dear reader, I meant people. ... First, the population was dumbed down through a politicized and substandard education system based on pop culture, rather than the classics. Americans know more about their favorite TV dramas than the drama in D.C. that directly affects their lives. ... The final collapse has come with the election of Barack Obama. His speed in the past three months has been truly impressive. His spending and money printing has been record setting, not just in Americaâ??s short history, but in the world. If this keeps up for more than another year, and there is no sign that it will not, America at best will resemble the Weimar Republic and at worst Zimbabwe. ... Prime Minister Putin, less than two months ago, warned Obama not to follow the path to Marxism, it only leads to disaster."

More to the point, Fidel Castro's understudy, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, in a lecture on Socialism this week, said, "Obama has just nationalized nothing more and nothing less than General Motors. Comrade Obama! Fidel, careful or we are going to end up to his right."

It is indeed a sad day for America when our president becomes the butt of Marxism jokes between Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro in the same week that he is appeasing Islam.

Short of some audacious "change" on the home front to dislodge these Leftists, future generations of Americans will look back upon ours and say, "This was not their finest hour."

WRITTEN by Mark Alexander and distributed in his Patriot Post newsletter essay on June 4th, 2009

The Castrated States of America

In just 100 days Obama has moved us from a war footing to a wuss footing. Yes sir, from a foreign policy/national defense standpoint, Barack is making Jimmy Carter look like a full-on badass. The President is dead set on taking off our rowdy body armor and replacing it with a petite glittered bustier; he's insisting that our General Pattons become generally passive. A one-eyed, myopic circus freak can see this.

Yep, forget the G.I. Joe, Johnny Get Your Gun image America used to tout. Obama would rather us morph into a chatty Jiminy Glick before those who want us dead.

You just know Osama and his boys are in some Pakistani cave smoking a hookah piled high with blonde Lebanese hash as they praise Allah and laugh their butts off at how stupid and soft we've become in just a few months while they plot their next "manmade disaster," as Janet Napolitano would call it.

I'm certain that this recent transition from bold to bland is making all the "progressives" feel smarmy as they imagine in their warm and fuzzy heart of hearts that they have just climbed up a couple rungs on the evolutionary ladder.

However, no matter how chuffed the daft Left feels about our metamorphosis from strength to slop, millions of implacable Muslims and rogue dictators around the planet will continue to abhor us regardless of whether or not we go metrosexual. They do not believe in evolving and are currently fetching some C4 to blow up the ladder the Left pretends we are ascending.

Can you say, naïve? I knew you could.

Conservative commentators are taking Obama to task, stating that Barack is putting us in a pre-9/11 mindset. A pre-9/11 mindset? I think you boys and girls are being too nice. Forget pre-9/11... this is pre-7/11. And from a security standpoint, sooner or later his policies are going to make life in the US, let's say, really inconvenient.

Now, should Charlie Gibson ever interview you non-Kool Aid swillers on TV and in the course of the interview lower his tortoise shell reading glasses and contemptuously ask you with that oleaginous look on his face, "So, Mr. or Ms. Conservative, exactly what is the Obama Doctrine?" From what BHO has said and done in the last 100 daze, you can tell Chuck's tacky backside it's this: The Obama Doctrine is the systematic emasculation of those aspects and entities that, heretofore, have kept us safe. It is the politically correct castration of our nation's cojones, or tomatoes, or testicles or whatever you want to call 'em.

Yes, according to our Gelding-In-Chief, everything is our fault, our strongest allies are to be dissed, bows are to be given to Saudi Kings, high fives go to Hugo, Ahmadinejad gets a bromance vid from BHO via YouTube, and talks are conducted with Cuba about burning a Cohiba with the Castro brothers. In addition, Obama's administration says Israel is the pain in the middle east, the US should throw billions at rogue nations, we ought to nuke our nukes . . . all the while blaming everything on GW, telling the world Islam doesn't spawn terrorists, and forbidding our interrogators to interrogate those who wish us dead. What's next, BHO? A détente with el Diablo?

Yeah, what I've deduced from Obama's teleprompter is this: The Obama Doctrine is, essentially, that America sucks. Everything is our fault. And to go forward, we must castrate everything that has kept us secure, because, y'know, we wouldn't want to continue to be safe and strong anymore, right?

WRITTEN by Doug Giles and posted at ClashRadio.com on May 4th, 2009