The olive- skinned man with the Afro at the back of the room glanced around nervously. Whoever it was, he had found what he was looking for, and it was Dewey. Dewey recognized that. He saw it in the hatred, in the way the man’s eyes darted about constantly, settling back on him every few moments. Dewey knew when someone had come to kill him.

The killer was young, early twenties. He wore an orange polo shirt with the collar stuck up. He’d marked Dewey, a minute ago, five minutes ago, half an hour ago. He stared, unaware that Dewey could see him in the mirror behind the bar.

Dewey reached behind him and felt the .45 caliber handgun tucked into the small of his back, beneath the windbreaker. He stood up.

Dewey looked quickly at Talbot, who was deep in conversation with the Frenchwoman. He turned and pushed quickly through swarms of people to the door. There, in the glass of the door, he caught a glimpse of the bright orange shirt. The killer was following. Dewey had surprised the killer with his abrupt move.

He stepped outside onto the crowded sidewalk. It was still hot and he felt sweat pouring from his chest, wetting his shirt. He needed to move fast now. He jogged one block, then went left. He moved away from the strip, down empty sidewalks, past small houses. He jogged past car after parked car, beneath the glow of streetlights.

Looking at windshields as he moved, Dewey searched for a reflection, a sign the young killer was following behind. In the driver’s side window of a pickup truck, he caught a glimpse of the orange shirt. The killer, trying to keep up, was running too fast.

Almost sprinting now, Dewey turned the corner. He reached into the small of his back, pulled out the Colt M1911. From his front pocket he grabbed the silencer and screwed it into the Colt’s nozzle. Sweat rained down from his head and chest as he sprinted for his life. In a block, he took a hard right down another street. He crossed the street, then ducked behind a sedan and watched. The killer, following Dewey’s turn, appeared and looked around. His left arm moved up to his face. Dewey heard his panicked voice, words barked into a cell phone.

How many are there?

Dewey took off again, picking up his pace, looking in front of him for others, running as fast as he could down the sidewalk.

Dewey waited, gun cocked. The killer with the orange shirt appeared, running into the road, then down the middle of it toward him. Dewey waited another second, then two, watching the killer come toward him, oblivious to the fact that he was waiting for him in front of the van, hidden behind the back bumper of a pickup.

Dewey steadied his arm, then squeezed the Colt’s trigger, firing a silenced bullet across half a block into the killer’s chest, knocking him backward. The body dropped into the middle of the street. A pool of blood quickly spread onto the black tar as the terrorist was killed.

Dewey turned. He looked around again for others as he listened for the other killer, the one at the rear of the van.

Dewey crouched and waited. He heard the terrorist begin to move along the passenger side of the van. Dewey remained in a crouch, close to the blacktop. He ducked and looked beneath the van. He saw the silhouette of two legs stepping slowly toward the front of the van.

Dewey lunged, grabbing the killer’s weapon just as bullets started to fly from the machine gun’s silencer. Dewey felt the heat of the gun barrel, but held on. A shower of slugs struck a windshield across the street, shattering it. Dewey pulled back sharply and ripped the weapon from the killer’s arms. The hail of bullets ceased as Dewey threw the machine gun to the blacktop. The startled terrorist was frozen in place for a second, then reached for Dewey’s neck. He slammed his knee into Dewey’s abdomen. His fists struck wildly. A fist hit Dewey’s mouth and Dewey tasted blood in his mouth. The killer hit him again, a sharp punch to Dewey’s chest, the blow absorbed by a wall of muscles.

Dewey turned, his back to the killer for just an instant, then wheeled his left foot in a vicious round house kick to the Arab’s stomach. The breaking ribs cracked the quiet air. The terrorist was knocked back a few steps, moaning, clutching his chest. Dewey followed the kick with a fierce swing to the Arab’s face, crushing the killer’s nose, blood exploding out everywhere. Another strike, this time Dewey’s left fi st to now- cracked ribs. The terrorist fell backward onto the sidewalk, and reached inside his pocket, pulling out a cell phone. Dewey reached down and tore the cell from the man’s grip before he could say something. Frisking him, he found a handgun in the killer’s ankle holster and removed it. Incapacitated, the Arab grunted from the pain. He writhed in pain, as blood poured like water from his lips and mouth down his chin. In the pale glow of a distant lamppost, the terrorist’s black, bloodshot eyes looked up at Dewey, helpless.

Dewey reached into the man’s mouth, feeling the molars until one loosened. He tore the fake tooth from the mouth and looked at it quickly. The cyanide pill was the size of a pinhead.

The terrorist was silent.

“Talk and I’ll let you eat the cyanide,” said Dewey. “Don’t talk and I’ll tie you up. The police will find you. You’ll be at Guantánamo in a day or two. They’ll torture more information out of you than you ever thought you knew. Aswan Fortuna will exterminate your family by the end of the week out of revenge.”

Excerpted from Coup D’État by Ben Coes. Copyright 2011 by Ben Coes. Excerpted with permission of St Martin’s Press. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

—–

Superman was created by the sons of Jewish immigrants – Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, and they had a love for America.

When I was growing up as a kid on Long Island, we couldn’t wait to see
the next episode of Superman on TV or get the latest comic. I wanted a Superman costume for Halloween. I proudly wore my red cape and believed I was fighting for truth, justice, and the American way. So did most of my friends. Years later, my two sons – years apart – alsowanted to be the Man of Steel for Halloween.

This may no longer appeal to the bright eyed youth of America. Never will Superman be part of the lexicon for American pop culture. DC Comics, for whatever reason, turned its back on America. Will Superman now fight for Sharia Law to be adopted into England, France, and Germany? This act shows more than anything else the depth that a socialistic based education system has indoctrinated minds and created a cultural battleground for the soul of America.

Who came up with this idea? I would love to know the background of who made this decision? I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall in the meeting that took place at DC Comics when they agreed to make Superman denounce America. Was it economics? “Let’s make the Man of Steel reject America and we can sell more comics in Turkey, China, North Korea, Iran, Ireland, England, Germany.” What made them do it? Is it because a directive has been given from unseen forces to advance a global agenda? Why not just create a whole new character? Globalman. The Adventures of Globalman. Imagine an iconic comic figure from another country denouncing their adopted country? Who owns DC comics? Who are the major stockholders?

The arrogant cleverness behind this decision is one of the biggest cultural attacks on America. This seemingly minor act is MONUMENTAL. America is an ideal – “that shining city on a hill, the last best hope of mankind.” There is nothing wrong with America. Sometimes the men we put in office let her down, but inevitably she corrects herself, because of all of US. And it is this ideal that Superman has protected, even from the United Nations.

Did Jor-El send his son to Pakistan or Cuba? No, AMERICA. Like the early pilgrims in search of FREEDOM, a small spacecraft sent Kal-El to America, land of the free and home of the brave. For over seventy years, Clark Kent/Superman has been a proud American. Superman didn’t denounce America; He has been kidnapped, hijacked, and it’s time to send the Navy SEALS in to get him back. Or better yet, let’s denounce Superman. The new Men of Steel are Navy SEALS and the all those who serve and protect the American Way. I’m sure some will say, “What’s the big deal?” or “You’re overreacting.” Well, in the 900th comic of Superman, he was killed – not by Kyptonite, but by pen and ink.

—–

In closing, take a moment to watch the above Youtube clip. If you don’t have much time, skip ahead and start watching at around 6:30 in. Forward the link to friends. Download the clip to your phone and play it for people. Now more than ever, these words are very significant.

—–

Amazing footage, full of righteous passion and truth. The seven minutes only get better as they unspool, especially when actress Veena Malik completely turns the argument around on both the sanctimonious newsman and the downright frightening Muslim cleric.

In a word, it’s inspirational.

Looks like Pakistan has something in common with America. Like here, their women appear to be the best and bravest badass truth tellers — the biggest threat and enemies to an oppressive media, entertainment and political establishment ready to destroy and punish those who dare stray off of a certain ideological plantation.

Take a moment and say a prayer for the safety of Veena Malik. She could use it. For starters, it’s unlikely anyone in Vichy Hollywood will be starting any kind of ribbon campaign on her behalf any time soon. Also, there’s a key difference between America and Pakistan. Here this kind of free-thinking only results in more negative press and name calling.

Strike Group Reagan is intended to tell the story of one such potential conflict – with the challenges that might occur, and how American servicemen improvise solutions to problems, adapt to an enemy’s plans and tactics, and overcome obstacles to accomplish their mission. 

Even before 9/11, America’s “first responder” to an international crisis was usually a carrier strike group, sometimes teamed with a Marine Expeditionary Unit. This is not Cold War nostalgia. In the 1990s, carriers were sent to hot spots, the Taiwan crisis of 1996 being the most prominent. One of the reasons CIA and Special Operations personnel did so well in late 2001 was because of the support that came from USS Enterprise (CVN 65), which had turned around to arrive off Pakistan. 

Yet there has been little, if any coverage of this side of the tale from Hollywood – or even the carriers in general. It is something long-neglected since the end of Desert Storm. Covering a carrier strike group’s response to the initial stages of a conflict seemed like a natural focus for a movie. So, I began writing a screenplay, and used it as the outline for the novel that became Strike Group Reagan. And as the writing process continued, the need for Strike Group Reagan in my mind became greater and greater. 

This is not to complain about the heroic portrayals of American troops in several science-fiction TV franchises and movies. But why not tell tales of heroism against enemies other than Decepticons, Goa’uld, or alien invaders? It shouldn’t be too hard to show how American military personnel would improvise and adapt to the challenges that would come from such a conflict. If Hollywood can show American troops finding a way to take down Megatron’s minions, why can’t they show how our troops take down a group of Taliban thugs? 

Several films, while box-office bombs, were little more than thinly-disguised screeds against the Global War on Terror. America’s troops were portrayed as victims – or worse. That portrayal is dead wrong – America’s servicemen are heroes – and deserve those portrayals with regards to the war on terror. I come from a Navy family – my dad served in the United States Navy, and was even on the front lines of the Cold War in a sense (having been on an SSBN deterrence patrol). I’m proud of his service. 

At the same time, I also felt that I owed people more than just complaints about the situation. I wanted to try to contribute the sort of story I wanted to see. I felt the material was ample: In my lifetime, there have been several instances where the Marines have had to come in to evacuate Americans from conflict zones. Carriers have handled a number of “small” conflicts from the “Line of Death” confrontations with Libyan dictator Moammar Qaddafi in the 1980s to the “tanker war” of the late 1980s in the Persian Gulf. There are places where similar conflicts could occur today. 

Strike Group Reagan is an effort to properly honor our troops – an effort to tell a tale of American troops in the global war on terror carrying out their mission. It is available on Amazon.com, or via Comfort Publishing, and there is a group for fans on Facebook.

According to the State Department’s Rewards for Justice Program there is a bounty of up to $10 million on Omar for sheltering Osama bin-Laden and his al-Qaeda network in the years prior to the September 11 attacks as well as the period during and immediately thereafter.

At the end of March, US Military Intelligence was informed by US operatives working in the Af/Pak theater on behalf of the D.O.D. that Omar had been detained by Pakistani authorities. One would assume that this would be passed up the chain and that the Secretary of Defense would have been alerted immediately. From what I am hearing, that may not have been the case.

When this explosive information was quietly confirmed to United States Intelligence ten days ago by Pakistani authorities, it appeared to take the Defense Department by surprise. No one, though, is going to be more surprised than Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. It seems even with confirmation from the Pakistanis themselves, she was never brought up to speed.

Over the weekend, Clinton accused Pakistani Government officials of “holding back” on bin Laden intelligence. In an interview Sunday on CBS “60 Minutes,” she said:

“I believe that somewhere in this government are people who know where Usama bin Laden and Al Qaeda is, where Mullah Omar and the leadership of the Afghan Taliban is, and we expect more cooperation to help us bring to justice, capture or kill those who attacked us on 9/11.”

They know all right and so do we, at least when it comes to Mullah Omar. We have known since the end of March and we had it confirmed ten days ago by the Pakistanis. So why didn’t the State Department and the CIA know?

Developing.

So Mayor Bloomberg proves once again that he may be the dumbest rich man in the world. First, on Monday he speculated on who might be behind the Time Square car bomb. His speculation, which is purely speculative, of course! – was assisted by our nation’s elf, Katie Couric:

Bloomberg: If I had to guess 25 cents, this would be exactly that. Somebody….

Couric: A homegrown….

Bloomberg: A homegrown, maybe a mentally deranged person or somebody with a political agenda that doesn’t like the health care bill or something. It could be anything.

Yep, those folks are so angry at health care reform, that they’re setting off car bombs, left and right. You know, when they’re not running hardware stores, cheating at Scrabble with their neighbors, or playing with their grandkids.

Anyway, if you thought he couldn’t get any dumber, well, you’re wrong, people who thought he couldn’t get any dumber.

Yep, only hours after the arrest of – not a tea partier – but a Pakistani terrorist, Bloomy takes pains to calm our biggest concerns: the threat of backlash against Pakistani or Muslim people.

It was precisely what I was worried about!

“The fact that so many people are out and about in Times Square today, where I just came from, really shows that, and I want to make clear that we will not tolerate any bias or backlash against Pakistani or Muslim New Yorkers.”

God help me.

Look, I get why he said this. He said this, so he can say that he said this.

But look, the threat of backlash is one of the most exaggerated ideas known to modern culture. The mention of backlash, in my mind, must outnumber the actual incidents of backlash by about 3,000 to one. Remember all that 9/11 backlash around Manhattan? Yeah, neither do I.

Seriously, I wish I knew what experiences Bloomy bases his conclusions on. It’s infuriating to see breath and effort wasted on this PC drivel, when it should be focused only on a condemnation of cretins who want to kill all of us. Worse, it’s insulting to ALL OF US, Pakistani’s included.

First Bloomy suggests the car bomber is an American wacko, then he assumes Americans may start lynching innocent folks. Dang – how can a man who has done so well in this country, think our country sucks so bad? He loves running our lives, even as he hates those who live them.

And if you disagree with me, you’re a racist homophobe backlasher.

As President Obama says, let’s be clear: that comical Copenhagen conference wasn’t about science, it was about wealth transfer. The gist: because of America’s “hyper-industrialization,” we need to pay off poor countries for all the harm we’ve caused in the world. That’s the real green in the green movement: It’s cash, not grass.

What’s this have to do with Christmas? Well, I think the world has forgotten that the biggest gift to this planet is America’s industry – and it’s time to remind them where they would be without it.

1. Whenever a horrible disaster hits, they would be dead. Be it an earthquake, a tsunami or a Madonna tour – we’re usually the first and biggest responders – saving the injured, and helping to rebuild. It is because of our tremendous capability to mobilize quickly that makes us a nation of superheroes. It also takes planes, trucks and tractors to do that stuff. Imagine that carbon footprint.

2. If they ever get sick, they would be dead. It’s true. While critical cretins like Chavez and Mugabe actually harm their own people, we save millions of strangers’ lives. Even that bozo called Bono admits it was George Bush who helped prevent the death of millions of Africans from AIDS. Yeah – I know what our critics will say: it’s easy for America to do this stuff. Well, it’s even easier not to do it.

3. If their family is hungry, they would be dead. Let’s not forget Norman Borlaug, who invented disease resistant wheat, saving hundreds of millions of lives in India and Pakistan. You can only do that if you’re of an industrial mind – thinking about people, not polar bears.

4. If they’re under the thumb of fascism, they would be dead. We possess the greatest military technology in the world, and we’ve used it to end horrible wars. Our industry of annihilation gave new life to many countries.

In sum, the very people complaining about America would not be alive, if it weren’t for America. Which is why, I say to them: Merry Christmas.

It sure beats a pair of socks.

Tonight we have the lovely Remi Spencer, the delightful Mike Baker, the witty Steven Crowder, and the always awesome Dr. Michael Baden.

During his campaign for the White House President Obama said, “We have seen Afghanistan worsen, deteriorate. We need more troops there. We need more resources there… I would send two to three additional brigades to Afghanistan.”

He promised to send another ten to fifteen thousand troops to help those already there. He also declared that the war in Afghanistan was the proper front in the war against terror. Now that he is Commander-in-Chief, his vision seems to be less clear.

The military commanders gave the President four troop deployment options earlier this week but he refused all four. Not for military reasons but because of some hooey about the corruption of the government in Kabul and their inability to run a fair election. Mr. President, if our support for governments was based on whether they are corrupt or not and could run a fair election, we would have pulled federal funding from Chicago years ago. The problem with pulling out of Afghanistan, or Chicago for that matter, is that they would fall into violent anarchy. We have already seen that happen in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

Current thinking on what to do in Afghanistan is based on two faulty assumptions:

The first is that wars are clear and concise events with specific outcomes and easy to find exit points. When John McCain told us the truth about how long we might be in Iraq, we didn’t want to hear it. We have been in Japan and Germany for over sixty years and in the Philippines for much longer. I wonder if back during the Spanish- American War leftist were telling the President that the Philippines were tribal islands and would never be able to be organized into a stable democratic government?

The second faulty assumption is that if we walk away from Afghanistan, simply pull all of our troops out, the war it then over. How long would it be before the Taliban was running things again and Al Qaeda was using it as a base of operations?  We will be fighting the same people again in the future, perhaps armed with nuclear weapons from Iran or Pakistan. Our national attention span has shortened to Twitter-like dimensions while our enemies think in terms of centuries.

The real problem for President Obama is that is if he deploys more troops and commits to staying, Afghanistan is no longer Bush’s war but his. Not even a year into his term and he is already worried about his legacy rather than doing what is best for the country. He is worried that his presidency will get bogged down in the battle for liberty instead of being able to focus on strengthening ACORN and the SEIU.

The left doesn’t mind waging long, costly, and non-winnable wars, so long as they are they start them themselves. Look at the war on poverty and the war on drugs. Our cities are littered with the lives ruined by those wars. We have thrown enough money into those two rat holes to finance Iraq and Afghanistan for the next fifty years and toss in twenty years of free government health care to boot. Do we have an exit strategy from the Welfare State, Mr. President?

The most rudimentary example is, of course, the pistol in the desk drawer: revealed in Act I, and then in Act II, the gun is used to kill someone.

For an intensive workshop in cinematic setups and payoffs you should screen the Back to the Future series, where setup and payoff are elevated to an entirely new level.

It’s kind of fascinating, watching Obama construct the setup for his Afghanistan policy. He follows a familiar dramatic structure:

1. Anguished self-reflection, all quite public in order to display nobility of character.

2. Striking out at supporting players—Generals Petraeus and McChrystal—for their disloyal behavior.

3. Floating ideas through the court jester, Joe Biden, regarding an alternate—i.e. losing—policy in Afghanistan. The fool is allowed to speak the truth in order to maintain plausible deniability, but actually designed to prepare the great unwashed for a series of radical policy shifts.

It’s all very Will Shakespeare.

But of course this is all a set-up for Obama to do nothing for as long as possible, which is, by the way, doing quite a bit. Inaction on the part of America and her allies benefits the Muslim terrorists by giving them time to recruit, raise funds, regroup, train, and conquer more real estate.

Obama’s next move will be to deploy a few extra troops to Afghanistan, just enough to claim that he’s in the fight, but not enough to shatter his liberal base.

However,  as the body count rises and the tactical and strategic situation in Afghanistan deteriorates, Obama will, in slow motion, bring the troops home, thereby surrendering to radical Islam. And, according to the Democrats, rescuing us from a Vietnam like quagmire.

The blowback will be massive.

1. The Islamists will—rightly—declare victory over the Crusader infidels.

2. Radical Islam will point to a failure of Western resolve in the face of imperial Islam. The propaganda value of this claim cannot be overstated.

3. The Taliban will swallow the entire country and a reign of Islamic terror will spread like the Black Plague.

4. Rapidly, Afghanistan will devolve into a terrorist and drug cartel state, sending out death squads to Europe, North Africa and America.

5. Emboldened, the Taliban will set their sights on neighboring Pakistan, a failed nuclear state ripe for picking. India will be compelled to act or face a nuclear Taliban—dirty suitcase bombs will proliferate—and their non-state Islamist allies, including Iranian proxies. Hamas and Hizbullah.

6. America’s allies will view Obama’s America as an unreliable ally and draw away from America’s orbit.

7. Obama’s fetish for sitting down, in community organizer mode, and yapping away with totalitarian regimes signals massive naivete and weakness. Hence, the Taliban, Iran, North Korea, and Venezuela will stomp all over this administration like a rug. The number one rule of geo-politics is: weakness invites aggression.

Ladies and gentlemen, fasten your seat belts, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.

Copyright © Robert J. Avrech

A. Nothing?
B. Anything?
C. A lot?

The answer is C, but we just didn`t see it.

We know that some of our brave troops died fighting for freedom. Protestors in Iran were violently silenced too, fighting for a glimmer of what we have. You can also be certain that the opportunity to actively undermine fascism in Iran has passed – our President choosing “wait and see” over “hope and change.” He also snuck a few hundred pages of climate-bill baloney past us in the dead of night.

No biggie, right?

But I`m not wagging my stubby, sausage-shaped finger. In that same span of time, I probably purchased about 50 bucks worth of music on iTunes. I saw a pile of movies (including “Up,” and “Zoo.” One is about tracking a rare bird; the other sleeping with a horse – please don`t confuse the two when making plans with the kids). I caught up on “Daisy of Love,” “Charm School,” and the clumsy replacement for “Project Runway,” “The Fashion Show.” I now know that Izrah could never replace Heidi.

Not to belittle the coverage of the passing of “the world`s greatest entertainer,” in fact I`m in awe of it. But while Jackson took over the news, Obama made a deal with Russia – signing an agreement to reduce nuclear stockpiles by as much as a third.

Is this good or bad? Who cares? You can`t download nukes or fast forward to their best parts, so what good are they? Never mind that the whole point of having nuclear deterrents is HAVING them. And that by HAVING them, they are effectively a nuclear deterrent, whether or not the shrink wrap is removed.

In a way, nuclear weapons are like Stephen Hawking books. I have one on my coffee table. It`s never been opened, but it serves its purpose (it`s where I place the stromboli).

But here`s what do I know. if we are going reduce our nuclear warheads, let`s at least replace them with something we know can obliterate a city. I`m talking a years worth of “The Hills,” a million “Transformer” DVDs, and of course, the entire Michael Jackson catalogue. I`m thinking the only way to effectively beat our enemies is by making them as aimless and satisfied as we are.

TONIGHT:

GWAR!!!

Kimberly Guilfoyle!

Andrew WK!

Alison Rosen!

Me!