Friday, February 03, 2012
The Forgotten Man
A video by artist Jon McNaughton trying to tell us what's at stake..you need to see this.
To see the painting at full size, go here.
Glorifying Evil
The Palestinian Authority had its own way of commemorating International Holocaust Remembrance Day this year.
They chose that occasion to have official Fatah-run Palestinian TV glorify the murderers of the Fogel family.
You might remember the Fogels.
They were a young family living in the Jewish community of Itamar who were at home, relaxing after the Sabbath. On March 11, 2011, two Arabs affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine(PFLP) Hakim Awad and Amjad Muhammad Fawzi Awad carried out an assault they had planned in advance, cutting through a security fence, breaking into the Fogel's home and murdering the five members of the family pictured above, including a 3-month-old baby. They butchered them without even the regard a slaughterer usually gives to an animal.
The two were captured by the Shin Bet, tried in Israeli courts and sentenced to consecutive life terms since Israel has no capital punishment. Neither ever expressed the slightest remorse.
Last week,official 'Palestinian' TV broadcast greetings to the two murderers on a show called 'For You', dedicated to Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons.
Hakim Awad's mother was an honored guest, praising the two killers as 'heroes' and referring to Hakim as her “dear son.”
Hakim's aunt also participated, also calling the two murderers “heroes,” and calling Awad “the hero, the legend” with the enthusiastic approval from show's host.
The producers of the program and its host knew in advance that the callers were relatives of the Fogel murderers and introduced them to the audience while text with the names of the callers appeared at the bottom of the screen: “Prisoner Hakim Awad’s family / Awarta – Nablus.”
Not one western leader condemned it.
Upon doing a little further research through one of my sources in a direct position to know, I found out that both Awads are on the list of those 'Palestinian' terrorists whose families receive an official monthly salary directly from the Palestinian Authority while they're in prison.
Now, it shouldn't be any great shock to anyone that the 'Palestinian Authority' and Mahmoud Abbas consider murdering Jews and Jewish children in particular to be praiseworthy and something to be rewarded financially. Nor should it surprise anyone that those whom murder Jews are held up as role models and heroes. Mahmoud Abbas and Fatah, after all, are the same folks who made child murderer Sami Kuntar an honorary 'Palestinian' citizen and gave him a hero's welcome after he was released in a prisoner swap, the same people who name public buildings and streets after murderers and teach their children about the virtues of killing Jews in their mosques and schools.
My quarrel here isn't with them because I expect nothing else. Based on what they teach their children and the sort of people they make heroes out of, they are whom and what they are, and one doesn't blame a mad dog when he bites someone - you simply deal with the situation so he doesn't bite anyone again.
But I am quite sick to death of another entirely different group of people.
As I mentioned, the program in question aired right around what is supposedly an international day of recognition and remembrance of the victims of the Holocaust.From all over the EU, various politicians issued statements about the horrors of the Holocaust and voiced their resolve that it should never happen again, some of them quite eloquently. The Norwegians, one of the most anti-Semitic nations in Europe surprised everyone by finally admitting that yes, we did help the Nazis round up our Jews and deport them, and we were pretty enthusiastic about it too. Sorry about that! It only took them until 1998, close to 60 years to get around to finally compensating those survivors who were still alive for property that was seized from them way back in 1942. I suppose this latest apology pretty much cleans the slate for the Norwegians are as far as they're concerned.
Our own president weighed in with his signature baritone, saying that United States would “pledge to speak truth to those who deny the Holocaust.”
“As we celebrate the strength and resilience of survivors, we pledge to stand strong against all those who would commit atrocities, against the resurgence of anti-Semitism, and against hatred in all its forms.”
Admirable sentiments, all worthy of applause.
Until it hits you.
Where's Fatah getting the money every month to pay the Awads and all the other genocidal killers in Israeli prisons? Where do the funds the PA passes on to to Hamas come from? Where did they get the cash to build a girl's school named after Dalal Mughrabi, whose claim to fame was leading a band of 'Palestinian' killer in the hijack of a bus and murdering 13 children, some of them Americans? How do the salaries of the al-Aksa martyr's brigade get paid, and how are the schools, media and mosques that teach genocide as heroism and 'martyrdom' funded?
They're funded by the very same people that made such pious and stirring declarations on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, including our president. By the EU, by UNRWA, by USAid, and by the IMF.
Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader Yusuf al-Qaradawi has called repeatedly for genocide against Israel and a second Holocaust.In one of his sermons, he asked God "to kill the Jewish Zionists, every last one of them."
In another sermon on al-Jazeera he said "Throughout history, Allah has imposed upon the [Jews] people who would punish them for their corruption. The last punishment was carried out by [Adolf] Hitler. G-d willing, this time it will be the believers."
Yet President Obama's Deputy Secretary of State Nicholas Burns has had cordial meetings with Brotherhood leaders in Egypt to discuss relations with the US, and Qaradiwi himself is actually employed by our State Department as I write this as an intermediary with the Taliban. And the EU nations are even less shy about meeting with Hamas and Brotherhood officials than our State Department.
Iran has repeatedly called for genocide against 'the Zionist entity' and is currently working on a program to obtain nuclear weapons. Has any of the nations whose leaders uttered all those well meant, moving pledges of never again done anything significant to stop them?
In looking at all this, it's impossible to avoid a simple conclusion. The same nations lighting candles, attending ceremonies and making pious speeches about the Holocaust are more than happy to aid and abet the equivalent of today's Nazis when the mainstreaming of genocide in the name of Allah is involved.
For all the fuss over dead Jews, avoiding a repeat performance today with live Jews seems to have a very different priority for a lot of them.
The 'international community' is hell bent on using every subterfuge, pressure and threat to try to bully Israel into retreating to the indefensible borders Israeli statesman Abba Eban appropriately called 'the Auschwitz lines'.
They cheerfully fund the 'Palestinians', give them legitimacy and ignore their goal of murdering every Jew in Israel, just as the Fogels were murdered. They're happy to deal with the Muslim Brotherhood regardless of the Brotherhood's call to drive every Jew out of the Middle East by force. And irony of ironies,Germany,who just gifted Israel's Holocaust museum Yad Vashem with a 10 million euro grant is Iran's largest trading partner in Europe.
It's impossible not to get a certain message out of this...one that carries a certain, long standing stench about it, an echo from a not-so-distant past.
Odd, isn't it? In almost all western countries, Holocaust denial is decried as the idiocy it is, and it's even criminalized in most of Europe. Yet Mahmoud Abbas, who wrote his university thesis in Moscow denying the Holocaust and later published most of it in a book, al-Wajh al-Akhar: al-'Alaqat as-Sirriya bayna an-Naziya wa's-Sihyuniya that is still a standard text in the 'Palestinian' school curriculum is welcomed with open arms...and wallets. And even though Article Two of the UN charter forbids threatening genocide or aggression against a fellow member, Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is an invited guest at the UN and Iran remains a member in good standing.
For my part, I'm tired of listening to these hypocritical sentiments. I'm beyond tired...I'm sick to death of it, almost to the point of nausea. Too many of these western leaders move their mouths about their 'commitments to Israel's security' and the horrors of the Holocaust, while at the same time aiding and abetting the jihad against the Jews at worst, or ignoring it at best.
This is exactly why a strong, powerful Israel is a necessity. Because a lot of the people outside Israel who solemnly intone "Never Again" on Holocaust Remembrance Day aren't prepared to take any action whatsoever to back it up...to their shame.
They chose that occasion to have official Fatah-run Palestinian TV glorify the murderers of the Fogel family.
You might remember the Fogels.
They were a young family living in the Jewish community of Itamar who were at home, relaxing after the Sabbath. On March 11, 2011, two Arabs affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine(PFLP) Hakim Awad and Amjad Muhammad Fawzi Awad carried out an assault they had planned in advance, cutting through a security fence, breaking into the Fogel's home and murdering the five members of the family pictured above, including a 3-month-old baby. They butchered them without even the regard a slaughterer usually gives to an animal.
The two were captured by the Shin Bet, tried in Israeli courts and sentenced to consecutive life terms since Israel has no capital punishment. Neither ever expressed the slightest remorse.
Last week,official 'Palestinian' TV broadcast greetings to the two murderers on a show called 'For You', dedicated to Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons.
Hakim Awad's mother was an honored guest, praising the two killers as 'heroes' and referring to Hakim as her “dear son.”
Hakim's aunt also participated, also calling the two murderers “heroes,” and calling Awad “the hero, the legend” with the enthusiastic approval from show's host.
The producers of the program and its host knew in advance that the callers were relatives of the Fogel murderers and introduced them to the audience while text with the names of the callers appeared at the bottom of the screen: “Prisoner Hakim Awad’s family / Awarta – Nablus.”
Not one western leader condemned it.
Upon doing a little further research through one of my sources in a direct position to know, I found out that both Awads are on the list of those 'Palestinian' terrorists whose families receive an official monthly salary directly from the Palestinian Authority while they're in prison.
Now, it shouldn't be any great shock to anyone that the 'Palestinian Authority' and Mahmoud Abbas consider murdering Jews and Jewish children in particular to be praiseworthy and something to be rewarded financially. Nor should it surprise anyone that those whom murder Jews are held up as role models and heroes. Mahmoud Abbas and Fatah, after all, are the same folks who made child murderer Sami Kuntar an honorary 'Palestinian' citizen and gave him a hero's welcome after he was released in a prisoner swap, the same people who name public buildings and streets after murderers and teach their children about the virtues of killing Jews in their mosques and schools.
My quarrel here isn't with them because I expect nothing else. Based on what they teach their children and the sort of people they make heroes out of, they are whom and what they are, and one doesn't blame a mad dog when he bites someone - you simply deal with the situation so he doesn't bite anyone again.
But I am quite sick to death of another entirely different group of people.
As I mentioned, the program in question aired right around what is supposedly an international day of recognition and remembrance of the victims of the Holocaust.From all over the EU, various politicians issued statements about the horrors of the Holocaust and voiced their resolve that it should never happen again, some of them quite eloquently. The Norwegians, one of the most anti-Semitic nations in Europe surprised everyone by finally admitting that yes, we did help the Nazis round up our Jews and deport them, and we were pretty enthusiastic about it too. Sorry about that! It only took them until 1998, close to 60 years to get around to finally compensating those survivors who were still alive for property that was seized from them way back in 1942. I suppose this latest apology pretty much cleans the slate for the Norwegians are as far as they're concerned.
Our own president weighed in with his signature baritone, saying that United States would “pledge to speak truth to those who deny the Holocaust.”
“As we celebrate the strength and resilience of survivors, we pledge to stand strong against all those who would commit atrocities, against the resurgence of anti-Semitism, and against hatred in all its forms.”
Admirable sentiments, all worthy of applause.
Until it hits you.
Where's Fatah getting the money every month to pay the Awads and all the other genocidal killers in Israeli prisons? Where do the funds the PA passes on to to Hamas come from? Where did they get the cash to build a girl's school named after Dalal Mughrabi, whose claim to fame was leading a band of 'Palestinian' killer in the hijack of a bus and murdering 13 children, some of them Americans? How do the salaries of the al-Aksa martyr's brigade get paid, and how are the schools, media and mosques that teach genocide as heroism and 'martyrdom' funded?
They're funded by the very same people that made such pious and stirring declarations on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, including our president. By the EU, by UNRWA, by USAid, and by the IMF.
Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader Yusuf al-Qaradawi has called repeatedly for genocide against Israel and a second Holocaust.In one of his sermons, he asked God "to kill the Jewish Zionists, every last one of them."
In another sermon on al-Jazeera he said "Throughout history, Allah has imposed upon the [Jews] people who would punish them for their corruption. The last punishment was carried out by [Adolf] Hitler. G-d willing, this time it will be the believers."
Yet President Obama's Deputy Secretary of State Nicholas Burns has had cordial meetings with Brotherhood leaders in Egypt to discuss relations with the US, and Qaradiwi himself is actually employed by our State Department as I write this as an intermediary with the Taliban. And the EU nations are even less shy about meeting with Hamas and Brotherhood officials than our State Department.
Iran has repeatedly called for genocide against 'the Zionist entity' and is currently working on a program to obtain nuclear weapons. Has any of the nations whose leaders uttered all those well meant, moving pledges of never again done anything significant to stop them?
In looking at all this, it's impossible to avoid a simple conclusion. The same nations lighting candles, attending ceremonies and making pious speeches about the Holocaust are more than happy to aid and abet the equivalent of today's Nazis when the mainstreaming of genocide in the name of Allah is involved.
For all the fuss over dead Jews, avoiding a repeat performance today with live Jews seems to have a very different priority for a lot of them.
The 'international community' is hell bent on using every subterfuge, pressure and threat to try to bully Israel into retreating to the indefensible borders Israeli statesman Abba Eban appropriately called 'the Auschwitz lines'.
They cheerfully fund the 'Palestinians', give them legitimacy and ignore their goal of murdering every Jew in Israel, just as the Fogels were murdered. They're happy to deal with the Muslim Brotherhood regardless of the Brotherhood's call to drive every Jew out of the Middle East by force. And irony of ironies,Germany,who just gifted Israel's Holocaust museum Yad Vashem with a 10 million euro grant is Iran's largest trading partner in Europe.
It's impossible not to get a certain message out of this...one that carries a certain, long standing stench about it, an echo from a not-so-distant past.
Odd, isn't it? In almost all western countries, Holocaust denial is decried as the idiocy it is, and it's even criminalized in most of Europe. Yet Mahmoud Abbas, who wrote his university thesis in Moscow denying the Holocaust and later published most of it in a book, al-Wajh al-Akhar: al-'Alaqat as-Sirriya bayna an-Naziya wa's-Sihyuniya that is still a standard text in the 'Palestinian' school curriculum is welcomed with open arms...and wallets. And even though Article Two of the UN charter forbids threatening genocide or aggression against a fellow member, Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is an invited guest at the UN and Iran remains a member in good standing.
For my part, I'm tired of listening to these hypocritical sentiments. I'm beyond tired...I'm sick to death of it, almost to the point of nausea. Too many of these western leaders move their mouths about their 'commitments to Israel's security' and the horrors of the Holocaust, while at the same time aiding and abetting the jihad against the Jews at worst, or ignoring it at best.
This is exactly why a strong, powerful Israel is a necessity. Because a lot of the people outside Israel who solemnly intone "Never Again" on Holocaust Remembrance Day aren't prepared to take any action whatsoever to back it up...to their shame.
Iran Threatens War With US, Calls Israel 'A Cancerous Tumor That Must Be Cut Out'
For all the nonsense about talks and engagement with Iran, nothing has changed and if anything, the Islamic Republic is upping the ante.
The Iranians are still barring UN inspectors from their nuclear sites in spite of three days of talks with Western diplomats The reaction of the West , of course, is to wait to see what happens at more talks scheduled later in the month - the same pattern the Iranians have used to game the West for the past five years or more, ever since their illegal nuclear program was outed by Iranian dissidents.
Iran is also continuing to develop its missile technology. It turns out that the Mullahs are working on advanced missiles with a range of over 6,200 miles ( 10,000 kilometers) capable of hitting any spot in Europe and America's east coast. One of the sites involved was the Iranian missile base in Bidganeh, where that mysterious explosion occurred back in November.
Today, after prayers marking the anniversary of the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei addressed a large crowd, and directly threatened the US and Israel with destruction. He pledged that Iran would not withdraw from its nuclear agenda under any circumstances and promised to retaliate against any western sanctions saying, “In response to threats of oil embargo and war, we have our own threats to impose at the right time."
"Americans say all options are on the table even the option of military strike [against Iran],” he declared.
“Any military strike is ten times more harmful for America. Such threats show that they have no sufficient discourse against Iran's logic and discourse."
The New YorkTimes oddly chose not to mention it in its coverage of this, but the Ayatollah also again threatened Israel with destruction, saying "The Zionist regime is a true cancer tumor on this region that should be cut off. And it definitely will be cut off.”
He also pledged Iran's help to "any nation or group that wants to confront and fight against the Zionist regime " and also admitted that Iran had assisted genocidal terrorist groups like Hezbollah and Hamas.
"We have intervened in anti-Israel matters, and it brought victory in the 33-day war by Hezbollah against Israel in 2006, and in the 22-day war," between Hamas and Israel in the Gaza Strip, he said.
This is not just the usual rhetoric. While the fact that Iran is an active supporter and sponsor of terrorism is well known, Iran's leaders almost never state it publicly. Of course Khamenei omitted any mention of al-Qaeda or the Taliban.
Meanwhile, the democracies of the West are sleeping, while Iran goes nuclear.
President Obama's huge foreign policy boast is that he 'got bin-Laden', a terrorist who deserved death but was essentially no threat to us at the time. It cost millions of dollars and it may arguably given al-Qaeda a new lease on life. We've spent a trillion dollars and lost many lives in Iraq and Afghanistan, neither of which were imminent threats to us.
Yet somehow two successive presidents have chosen to ignore animminent threat to America from a country that freely admits its in a state of war with us and has done everything in its power to wage that war. And they continue to do so. They apparently prefer to wait until it's too late, and we will pay dearly in blood if this folly continues.
"Still, if you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed, if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not so costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance for survival. There may be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no chance of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves."
- Sir Winston Churchill, 1936
Thursday, February 02, 2012
The Council Has Spoken!! This Week's Watcher's Council Results
The Council has spoken, the votes have been cast, and the results are in for the first Watcher's Council match up of 2012, carved eternally in the akhasic records of cyberspace.
The so-called Arab Spring is rapidly turning into an Arab winter. And as this week's winner, Joshuapundit's The New Egypt - Bankrupt And Sinking Fast writes, it's not likely to be a pleasant time in Pyramid Land:
All hail the wondrous Arab Spring!
It is one year ago today that the protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square began that ended in the fall of the Mubarak regime. It was fitting that President Obama mentioned it last night in his State of the Union Address, since he had a major role in that 'wave of change', calling for Mubarak's ouster and signalling to the Egyptian military whom now control the country which way to turn.It's well worth examining how things are going.
The parliamentary elections have been held, and the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood and the hard core Salafist al-Nour Party won - surprise!- over 75% of the seats.The FaceBook and Twitter liberals in places like Cairo and Alexandria everyone in the West was so in love with proved to be a negligible political force, and Egypt is likely headed towards an Islamist Republic as soon as the proper arrangements are made with the Army.
The Army originally had ideas of a government that had little civilian control over the military or is it's budget, ala' the old Turkish model. In response, Islamists played their cards quite cleverly, gradually fomenting discontent against military rule and instigating violent riots after Friday prayers over the military's refusal to turn over power to a civilian government. The riots resulted in a harsh series of crack downs that effectively turned the military from the people's heroes during the Revolution into oppressors and the chief villains opposing 'democracy'. Between September and the end of December, something like 100 demonstrators were killed by the Army and police, while hundreds were injured and arrested.
The military junta's tactics also turned the Brotherhood and the Salafis into heroes, and the election results show how effective their tactics were. The Egyptian military will almost certainly have to make the same devil's bargain with the Islamists that the Iranian military did.
So Egypt is likely headed towards Islamist rule, but the country's future is looking increasingly grim. Egypt's economy is essentially collapsing from within.
After the Lara Logan gang rape and the widespread scenes of unrest, most of Egypt's tourism industry is dead, and the rest will likely collapse as soon as the Islamists take power and put sharia law in place to outlaw alcohol, bikinis and mixed bathing on beaches.
Increased sectarian violence against Egypt's Coptic Christians, who largely supported the Revolution, is ensuring that a large group of Egypt's more prosperous and educated citizens are emigrating in droves.
Investors are unwilling to buy Egyptian bonds even at double digit interest rates, which means that Egypt's ability to borrow is being cut to the bone. No one wants the Egyptian pound. The only Egyptian bonds anyone wants to buy are dollar-denominated treasury bills. After the results of the last election, currency flight has become a major problem, as anyone with money is stashing it overseas as fast as they can in euros or dollars, preparing for a relocation out of the country.
In our non-Council category, we had a tight race, but in the end the winner was Alisina.org for What Is My Identity? submitted by Joshuapundit. What's it about? I suggest you go read for yourself and make up your own mind. I guarantee you won't be unaffected by it.
Without further ado, here are this week’s full results:
Council Winners
- *First place with 3 2/3 votes! Joshuapundit – The New Egypt - Bankrupt And Sinking Fast
- Second place with 2 2/3 votes – Bookworm Room- ObamaCare, the Catholic Church, and mandatory abortion payments
- Third place with 2 1/3 votes – The Razor-The Twisted Memory of Newt Gingrich
- Fourth Place with 1 2/3 votes – New Zeal-Russia Today Hires WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange- Will the Kremlin Be Pleased?
- Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote – The Colossus Of Rhodey-If you didn't know this was coming by now, you're living in a cave
- Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote –GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD -The Saudi Persian War
- Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote –The Right Planet -GOP: On Whose Side?
- Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote – The Noisy Room – Tantrum on the Tarmac
- Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote – The Political Commentator –In a debate would John King ask Obama about this...? (Video)
- Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote – VA Right! –Senator Janet Howell ‘Rectal Avenger’
- Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote – The Mellow Jihadi – Parading Vets: St Louis Vs. New York
- Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote – Rhymes With Right – Presidents Are Not Kings; Americans No Obliged To Appear When He Beckons
Non-Council Winners
- First place with 2 1/3 votes! – Alisineh.Org- What Is My Identity? submitted by Joshuapundit
- Second place *t* with 1 2/3 votes – Smithsonian.com – Revisiting the Rise and Fall of the Third Reich submitted by The Colossus Of Rhodey
- Second place *t* with 1 2/3 votes –Caroline Glick The Zionist Imperative submitted by The Political Commentator
- Second place *t* with 1 2/3 votes –The Reserve Officer New Defense Strategy submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD
- Second place *t* with 1 2/3 votes –Bob Owens/PJ MediaNew Emails Suggest Eric Holder Perjured Himself submitted by The Glittering Eye
- Third place with 1 1/3 votes -Frontloading HQ –I'll see your white knight and raise you a filing deadline. Why It's Too Late for Entry in the Republican Nomination Race submitted by Rhymes With Right
- Fourth place with 1 vote - Investors Business Daily – Media Act As Though Only Republicans Misbehave submitted by VA Right!
- Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote -American Thinker –Barack Obama and the Strategy of Manufactured Crisis submitted by The Right Planet
- Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote - Michelle Malkin –For Santorum submitted by The Noisy Room
- Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote -Terry Glavin –It's Not Funny Anymore submitted by Simply Jews
- Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote -Blogbat –The Moon Is Made of Cheese, You Know submitted by Right Truth
- Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote -Via Meadia –Beyond Blue Part One: The Crisis of the American Dream submitted by The Razor
- Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote -The Kitchen Dispatch –Aloha, Sarge Charlie. Until We Meet Again submitted by The Mellow Jihadi
- Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote -Bill Whittle –The Vote Pump submitted by Bookworm Room
See you next week! And don't forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter..'cause we're cool like that!
Leon Panetta: ' Strong Likelihood Israel Will Strike Iran This Spring'
Our Secretary of Defense, in action:
Panetta believes there is strong likelihood that Israel will strike Iran in April, May or June — before Iran enters what Israelis described as a “zone of immunity” to commence building a nuclear bomb. Very soon, the Israelis fear, the Iranians will have enough enriched uranium in deep underground facilities to make a weapon — and only the U.S. could then stop them militarily…
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak may have signaled the prospect of an Israeli attack soon when he asked last month to postpone a planned U.S.-Israel military exercise that would culminate in a live-fire phase in May. Barak apologized that Israel couldn’t devote the resources to the annual exercise this spring.
President Obama and Panetta are said to have cautioned the Israelis that the United States opposes an attack, believing that it would derail an increasingly successful international economic sanctions program and other non-military efforts to stop Iran from crossing the threshold. But the White House hasn’t yet decided precisely how the United States would respond if the Israelis do attack. {...}
The administration appears to favor staying out of the conflict unless Iran hits U.S. assets, which would trigger a strong U.S. response.
Israelis are said to believe that a military strike could be limited and contained. They would bomb the uranium-enrichment facility at Natanz and other targets; an attack on the buried enrichment facility at Qom would be harder from the air. Iranians would retaliate, but Israelis doubt the action would be an overwhelming barrage, with rockets from Hezbollah forces in Lebanon. One Israeli estimate is that the Jewish state might have to absorb 500 casualties.
Israelis point to Syria’s lack of response to an Israeli attack on a nuclear reactor there in 2007. Iranians might show similar restraint, because of fear the regime would be endangered by all-out war. Some Israelis have also likened a strike on Iran to the 1976 hostage-rescue raid on Entebbe, Uganda, which was followed by a change of regime in that country.
First off, let's recognize that this is sheer speculation..except for Secretary Panetta's comments.You have to wonder what kind of games Panetta and the Obama Administration are playing to announce a three month window in which an loyal ally they claim to support will be making an attack against a genocidal foe who is also an American enemy.
Personally, I think the president is concerned about two things and two things only - the possibility of higher gas prices endangering his re-election and his need to keep a wag the dog US attack on Iran as an option on hold for his own use in say, October if he's down in the polls.
But let's look at the larger question: will Israel make a preemptive strike on Iran?
As the WAPO article points out, they've certainly done so before.
Barry Rubin has an interesting piece on PJM in which he says it won't happen, and that this is Israel's way of putting pressure on the West to implement crippling sanctions on the Iranian regime so they won't have to attack Iran's nuclear facilities. For my own part, I hope he's right but I think he's mistaken.
First, any meaningful sanctions on Iran - the targeting of Iranian oil imports and Iran's Central Bank have already been kicked down the road while yet another round of ineffectual talks goes on for months. And even if the sanctions are finally implemented, a number of countries have already said they won't abide by them, including Russia, China and India.
Second, he gives the Iranian regime a great deal more credit for being rational actors than they deserve. They're rational in terms of strategy when it comes to accomplishing their goals,but little else.
Rubin argues that a strike now would not only fail to do anything but delay Iran's obtaining nuclear weapons, but would ensure that Iran uses them once they finally do obtain them. But there's absolutely no reason to assume that Iran will behave like the Soviet Union and that the spectre of Mutually Assured Destruction(MAD) can be relied on to keep the mullahs in check. The Twelver sect of the Hidden Imam and the Shi'ite inbred taste for 'martyrdom' is not something Israel - or for that matter, America - is going to be able to live with peacefully and the very nature of the regime and the religious impulses that drive it almost guarantee that Iran will use nuclear weapons at some point if it obtains them. The Israelis would be suicidal fools allow Iran to get nuclear weapons on the chance they might not use them, or pass them on to someone who would.
Iran is a dying nation in many respects, and they are going to have to find something that unites the country, engages the almost 30% unemployed youth in what I call the cannon fodder age bracket of 18-29 and offers the possibility of territorial expansion. They've also noted how North Korea has been able to misbehave with impunity because it possesses nuclear weapons, and how that regime has done quite well operating as a nuclear 'supermarket' for illegal proliferation. Given Iran's pervasive anti-Semitism and the religious fervor in many parts of Iranian society, a strike on Israel when the regime feels ready makes perfect sense, either directly from Iran or via Hezbollah. They've said so openly.
This also resonates as a factor in what I feel will be the future competition for leadership of the Muslim Middle East between Iran's Shi'ite dominated bloc of Iran,Syria (assuming Basher Assad holds on to power), Iraq and Lebanon and the Muslim Brotherhood dominated bloc of Egypt,Libya, the 'Palestinian' areas, and probably Jordan and Syria (if Assad falls).
The conventional wisdom that a preemptive strike would only delay things a few years is also based on speculation If a strike is done in a sufficiently thorough manner,Iran is likely to need quite a bit of time to replace not only the facilities and materials but the infrastructure and scientific manpower involved. Deeper facilities like the one near Qom and in Fardo could be hit by tactical nukes if necessary, or at the least their infrastructure could be sufficiently damaged to the point of making them useless for quite some time. .No less an authority than ex-IDF Chief of Staff and current Vice Prime Minister Moshe 'Boogie' Ya'alon says that all of Iran's nuclear sites are vulnerable to a strike and that it's quite doable.
Israel also has the strategic option of including a hit on Iran's oilfields and gas refineries .That would affect the regime's ability both to afford nuclear toys in the future or to be able to finance attacks against Israel or anyone else for quite some time.And it would also affect Iran's relationship with countries like India and China once they have no oil to sell. The spike in oil prices involved would be a temporary one, since the Saudis and the Emirates have already agreed in principle to make up for any shortfall,and America has ample resources to tap if needed.
it's not without risk, but given the alternative the chance is one Israel will have to take if the West continues to sit by while Iran goes nuclear.
Where I agree with Professor Rubin is that a strike by Israel will not happen in the Spring. Israel will use the leverage of an Israeli strike to try and pressure the West into doing what it ought to be doing for its own survival anyway, and if that proves unsuccessful, they will do it themselves...likely with the connivance of the Saudis.
Meanwhile, they'll use this window in time to train and prepare both the IDF and the Israeli public, putting it in their mind that something must be done, and that the clock is ticking.
Wednesday, February 01, 2012
CAIR Wins One At West Point
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has released an announcement bragging that they have successfully prevented retired Lieutenant General William G. “Jerry” Boykin from speaking at an upcoming prayer breakfast at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
“We welcome Mr. Boykin’s withdrawal from this event and hope that the speaker who replaces him will offer cadets a spiritual message that promotes tolerance and mutual understanding,” said CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad in a statement.
I love hearing about 'tolerance and mutual understanding' from a man who is on record saying he supports Hamas and was on the verge on being indicted and tried in the second phase of the Holy Land Foundation Trial..until the Obama Department of Justice filed declinations to prosecute on Awad and a slew of others and allowed them to avoid prosecution. Yes, they're getting bold indeed.
So who is General Boykin, and why was CAIR so anxious to stop him from speaking at West Point?
Lt. General William 'Jerry' Boykin has a long and distinguished career specializing in intelligence and Special forces Warfare. Among his decorations are the Distinguished Service Medal, Defense Superior Service Medal (with 3 Oak Leaf Clusters), Legion of Merit (with Oak Leaf Cluster), Bronze Star, Air Medal and the Purple Heart (with Oak Leaf Cluster. He also attended the Armed Forces Staff College, Army War College, and received a masters from Shippensburg University.
Boykin started out in armor with the Army's 2nd Armored division and later moved over to the Screaming Eagles, where he got his jump badge as a paratrooper. He later volunteered for the Army's elite Delta Force,and participated in a number of Army operations, serving in Grenada, Somalia, Panama and Iraq.
Boykin then served with the CIA Agency as Deputy Director of Special Activities, and ended up promoted to the rank of Brigadier General.
After that,he served as the Commanding General for the U.S. Army Special Forces Command (Airborne) at Fort Bragg, North Carolina and went from there to being the the Commanding General in charge of the US Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center. He finished his career as Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence during the Bush Administration and retired in 2007.
So why would there be a problem with an experienced, intelligent soldier like this with a lifetime of service to his country addressing the West Point cadets at a prayer breakfast?
Oh, wait, I forgot one thing. He's a committed and devout Christian with a rather jaundiced view of Islam, sharia and jihad.
For instance, back 2003 when he was hunting down terrorist Osman Atto in Mogadishu he remarked: "He went on CNN and he laughed at us, and he said, 'They'll never get me because Allah will protect me. Allah will protect me.' Well, you know what? I knew that my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God and his was an idol."
Those remarks were taped clandestinely and whipped into a firestorm by William Arkin, an anti-military far Leftwing writer then working for NBC, who reported them in the worst possible light. Boykin attempted to clarify his remarks, saying that he was implying that Atto's true "god" was money, but that was enough to set CAIR, the dinosaur media, and all of the politically correct politicians in DC at Boykin's heels.The only one who seriously defended him was SecDef Don Rumsfeld ( likely after giving him a decent chewing out for not being more careful). Rummy referred to Boykin as "an officer that has an outstanding record in the United States armed forces" an dmentioned a few things about freedom of speech.
Since he's been retired,Boykin has been a lot more outspoken, warning that there is a stealth jihad occurring here in America and that a large percentage of the mosques have already been radicalized.He also has made remarks to the effect that as a Christian, he feels there is n ongoing spiritual war that is continuous as articulated in the Bible...and that it's not confined to the war of terrorism.In other words, he takes literally what G-d told the Jews about Amalek.
I especially liked these remarks of General Boykins, spoken in 2008 at a conference in Israel and received with a standing ovation:
We as believers have been promised that we will spend an eternity with God. Last Saturday I was doing a men's conference in Fredricksburg, Virginia and I was praying during the worship service and something dawned on me and it was the Holy Spirit speaking to me.
And the Holy Spirit said, "this is what I want you to share with My men today", and I'm going to share it with you and this is what it is: One day, we're going to stand before the gates of Heaven. Some of us want to be able to walk up there in a white robe and we want to sing Abba Father and Amazing Grace and we want to say to the Lord, "I worshiped You."
But I want you to think about this: Here's the way I want to enter the gates of Heaven. I want to come skidding in there on all fours. I want to be slipping and sliding and I want to hit the gates of heaven with a bang. And when I stand up and I stand before Christ, I want there to be blood on my knees and my elbows. I want to be covered with mud. And I want to be standing there with a ragged breast plate of righteousness. And a spear in my hand. And I want to say, "Look at me, Jesus. I've been in the battle. I've been fighting for you." Ladies and gentlemen, put your armor on and get into battle.
God bless you.
No wonder CAIR didn't want this man anywhere near the cadets.
Originally, West Point stood by its commitment to have General Boykin speak at the breakfast, saying he was aware that it was an interfaith event and wasn't going to say anything untoward. But the pressure was intense,including,if my sources are correct, directly from Washington. And in the end, General Boykin, depending on whom you believe was either disinvited or chose not to subject the Academy to any more controversy and opted out.
So CAIR and their allies won this particular battle. But General Boykin continues to write and speak and is finding a great many listeners in other quarters, so a temporary setback of this kind
is likely to just get him to intensify his efforts. I'm sure this particular warrior is going going to keep right on going until he wins.
Jihadis Guilty In Major UK Plot - Targeted Stock Exchange, Mayor's Home, Rabbi's Homes
Four jihadis pled guilty today in a London courthouse to to planning a terrorist attack on the London Stock Exchange, Mayor Boris Johnson's home and the homes of two London rabbis.
Mohammed Chowdhury, 21; Shah Rahman, 28; Gurukanth Desai, 30; and Abdul Miah, 25, all pled guilty at Woolwich Crown Court in London today, and five other men involved in the conspiracy pled guilty to other terrorist offenses.
They were arrested back in December 2010 in a large-scale anti-terrorist raid by Scotland Yard that drew massive criticism from the Muslim Council of Britain.All of them are British citizens.
Chowdhury and Rahaman were apparently the leaders. There were also plans to send mail bombs prior to hitting the main targets and launching a “Mumbai-style” attack on London.
The group is scheduled to be sentenced next week.
Gallup State Approval Numbers Predict An Obama Loss
The above is an interesting one from the latest Gallup Poll( via memeorandum). It's based on Gallup's annual state-by-state presidential approval numbers for 2011, and shows what the 2012 election would look like if President Obama carries only those states where he had a net positive approval rating in 2011 (e.g. Michigan where he is up 48 percent to 44 percent).
The generic GOP candidate beats him 323 electoral votes to 215.
Now, a projection of this kind has its faults. For one thing, 2011 is not 2012, and this map shows a generic Republican rather than a specific candidate, which would change the map considerably.So would turnout factors
Allowing for that, all things being equal my personal caveats would be as follows:
I wouldn't dream of making a personal projection this far out,but this doesn't look good for the White House.
Romney Wins Florida By Double Digits
In a major blowout, Mitt Romney crushed Newt Gingrich 46.4% to 31.9% in the Sunshine State, with Rick Santorum taking 13.4% and Ron Paul bringing up the rear with 7%.
Romney's victory was telling in that he won big in a number of important groups.
Women overall abandoned Gingrich for Romney by a 22 point spread, and married women dumped Newt by an almost two-to-one margin, 28% to Romney's 51%.
Among Hispanics, Romney crushed Gingrich, taking 54% of that vote to Gingriches' 14%. This is especially telling because of Romney's relatively hardline stance on illegal immigration, which was distorted by a large number of negative Spanish language ads put out not only by the Gingrich campaign but by Super PACs and Union money friendly to President Obama.
And Governor Romney actually took the Tea Party vote away from Newt Gingrich. Out of the 66 percent of Florida voters who said they supported the Tea Party, 41% cast their ballots for Romney and 38% for Gingrich.
When asked which candidate had the best chance to defeat President Obama Romney got 58%, according to the exit poll data. Only 33 percent of those voters said they supported Gingrich.
Newt Gingrich barely managed to hold on to Evangelicals, 39% to Romney's 36%.
Florida is a massively important win because it's a vital state Republicans are going to have to carry if they are to defeat President Obama in November. Unlike the other primary states we've seen thus far, Florida is a larger state with a diverse population that has demographics that looked pretty favorable to Gingrich going in. It's a southern state, the GOP electorate is conservative and Tea-Party friendly like South Carolina, it has a large senior population and Gingrich came in to the state with the momentum (and cash) from his win in South Carolina just a short time before the Florida primary.
If Newt Gingrich got beaten like a gong in Florida, it's likely going to be difficult for him to compete with Romney anywhere out of the Deep South.
Another important milestone is that both Gingrich and Romney shed important parts of their image.
Newt Gingrich lost his perceived mastery as a debater,giving several poor performances prior to Florida vote. And Mitt Romney definitely put to rest and questions among conservatives about his toughness and ability to go toe to toe with Obama in the general with his blitzkrieg campaign that knocked Gingrich out of the ring.
As John Podhoretz wrote on Monday in the New York Post, Florida was a challenge to Romney’s ability to play hardball: “The clean-cut Boy Scout Ken-doll candidate from Massachusetts needed to show his fellow Republicans that he could be mean, tough and merciless on the attack — that he could take it to his rival and best him.”
Accomplishing that didn't come without a price, however. What Romney may have gained among conservatives is offset by what he may have lost from swing voters disgusted by the negative tone of the campaign.
Newt Gingrich's reaction was to promise a scorched earth campaign no matter what the cost, and to have the nerve to call for the other candidates to get out of the race so that "Newt Gingrich, the conservative alternative can defeat the Massachusetts moderate." Yes, he's talking about himself in the third person now. Just for that bit of pomposity, I hope Rick Santorum, a far better man takes over Gingrich's number two spot fairly soon.
Governor Romney, on the other hand, attempted to repair some of that damage in his victory speech, focusing on President Obama, calling for unity in the battle ahead and graciously giving a shout out to his rivals, saying:
There are fewer candidates than when the race began, but the three gentlemen left are serious and able competitors. And I congratulate them on another hard-fought contest in this campaign.
Primary contests are not easy – and they’re not supposed to be. As this primary unfolds, our opponents in the other party have been watching. They like to comfort themselves with the thought that a competitive campaign will leave us divided and weak.
But I’ve got some news for them: A competitive primary does not divide us; it prepares us. And when we gather here in Tampa seven months from now for our convention, ours will be a united party with a winning ticket for America!
Three years ago this week, a newly elected President Obama faced the American people and said that if he couldn’t turn the economy around in three years, he’d be looking at a one-term proposition. We’re here to collect.{...}
In his State of the Union Address, the President actually said, “Let’s remember how we got here.” Don’t worry, Mr. President, we remember exactly how we got here! You won the election!
Leadership is about taking responsibility, not making excuses. In another era of American crisis, Thomas Paine is reported to have said, “Lead, follow, or get out of the way.” Mr. President, you were elected to lead, you chose to follow, and now it’s time for you to get out of the way!
I stand ready to lead this Party and our nation. As a man who has spent his life outside Washington, I know what it is like to start a business. I know how extraordinarily difficult it is to build something from nothing. I know how government kills jobs and, yes, how it can help.
President Obama’s view of capitalism is to send your money to his friends’ companies. My vision for free enterprise is to return entrepreneurship to the genius and creativity of the American people.
On one of the most personal matters of our lives, our health care, President Obama would turn decision making over to government bureaucrats. He forced through Obamacare; I will repeal it.
Like his colleagues in the faculty lounge who think they know better, President Obama demonizes and denigrates almost every sector of our economy. I will make America the most attractive place in the world for entrepreneurs, for innovators, and for job creators. And unlike the other people running for President, I know how to do that. President Obama orders religious organizations to violate their conscience; I will defend religious liberty and overturn regulations that trample on our first freedom.{...}
President Obama believes America’s role as leader in the world is a thing of the past. He is intent on shrinking our military capacity at a time when the world faces rising threats. I will insist on a military so powerful no one would ever think of challenging it. President Obama has adopted a strategy of appeasement and apology. I will stand with our friends and speak out for those seeking freedom.
President Obama wants to “fundamentally transform” America. We want to restore America to the founding principles that made this country great.
Our plans protect freedom and opportunity, and our blueprint is the Constitution of the United States.
Together, we will build an America where “hope” is a new job with a paycheck, not a faded word on an old bumper sticker.
The path I lay out is not one paved with ever increasing government checks and cradle-to-grave assurances that government will always be the solution. If this election is a bidding war for who can promise more benefits, then I’m not your President. You have that President today.
Pretty good speech, actually. Almost Reaganesque. I especially liked the lines about the faculty lounge and the faded bumper sticker.
And I also know given a choice between Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney whom I want sitting in the White House.
Watcher's Council Nominations - Florida Showdown Edition
Ah, primary season is in full swing..
Welcome to the Watcher's Council, a blogging group consisting of some of the most incisive blogs in the 'sphere, and the longest running group of its kind in existence. Every week, the members nominate two posts each, one written by themselves and one written by someone from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council.Then we vote on the best two posts, with the results appearing on Friday.
This week's contest is dedicated to Isabella Santorum and little Elli - get well soon, we're pulling for you sweethearts.
Council News:
This week, Ask Marion, The Independent Sentinel and Capitalist Preservation took advantage of my generous offer of link whorage and earned honorable mention status.
You can, too! Want to see your work appear on the Watcher’s Council homepage in our weekly contest listing? Didn’t get nominated by a Council member? No worries.
Simply head over to Joshuapundit and post the title a link to the piece you want considered along with an e-mail address ( which won't be published) in the comments section no later than Monday 6PM PST in order to be considered for our honorable mention category, and return the favor by creating a post on your site linking to the Watcher’s Council contest for the week.
It's a great way of exposing your best work to Watcher’s Council readers and Council members. while grabbing the increased traffic and notoriety. And how good is that, eh?
So, let's see what we have this week....
Council Submissions
- The Colossus of Rhodey – If you didn't know this was coming by now, you're living in a cave
- Joshuapundit-The New Egypt - Bankrupt And Sinking Fast
- The Noisy Room – Tantrum on the Tarmac
- Simply Jews – Wayne Madsen drops another... bombshell: Barack Obama outed as CIA creation
- New Zeal – Russia Today Hires WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange- Will the Kremlin Be Pleased?
- The Political Commentator – In a debate would John King ask Obama about this...? (Video)
- VA Right - Senator Janet Howell ‘Rectal Avenger’
- GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – The Saudi Persian War
- The Mellow Jihadi – Parading Vets: St Louis Vs. New York
- Bookworm Room – ObamaCare, the Catholic Church, and mandatory abortion payments
- The Razor – The Twisted Memory of Newt Gingrich
- Rhymes With Right – Presidents Are Not Kings; Americans No Obliged To Appear When He Beckons
- Right Truth – What's In A Name?
- The Right Planet – GOP: On Whose Side?
- The Glittering Eye -The History of Spaghetti and Marinara
Honorable Mentions
- The Independent Sentinel - Obama Signed the Anti-Counterfeiting Treaty & Ceded Our Internet Rights to the UN
- Ask Marion - Hillary Leaving as Obama’s Eligibility Trial(s) Move Forward… Coincidence?
- Capitalist Preservation - A hiss is just a hiss, a lie is just a lie...
Non-Council Submissions
- Smithsonian.com – Revisiting the Rise and Fall of the Third Reich submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey
- Alisina.org – What Is My Identity? submitted by Joshuapundit
- Michelle Malkin –For Santorum submitted by The Noisy Room
- Terry Glavin – It's Not Funny Anymore submitted by Simply Jews
- American Thinker – The Civilized Man vs. the MTA Savages submitted by New Zeal
- Caroline Glick -The Zionist Imperative submitted by The Political Commentator
- Investor.com – Media Act As Though Only Republicans Misbehave submitted by VA Right
- The Reserve Officer – New Defense Strategy submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD
- The Kitchen Dispatch –Aloha, Sarge Charlie. Until We Meet Again submitted by The Mellow Jihadi
- Bill Whittle-The Vote Pumpsubmitted by Bookworm Room
- Via Meadia –Beyond Blue Part One: The Crisis of the American Dream submitted by The Razor
- Frontloading HQ – I'll see your white knight and raise you a filing deadline. Why It's Too Late for Entry in the Republican Nomination Racesubmitted by Rhymes with Right
- Blogbat -The Moon Is Made of Cheese, You Know submitted by Right Truth
- Bob Owens/PJ Media – New Emails Suggest Eric Holder Perjured Himself submitted by The Glittering Eye
- American Thinker – Barack Obama and the Strategy of Manufactured Crisis submitted by The Right Planet
- Gates of Vienna – Breivik: Al Qaeda’s Man in Oslo? submitted by The Watcher
Enjoy! And don't forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter..'cause we're cool like that!
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
MF Global's Jon Corzine Raises $500K For Obama
Well, at least we know now where some of that $ 1.2 billion in investor funds that's 'missing' went!
According the Barack Obama's 2012 campaign website, Jon Corzine of Hoboken, New Jersey raised at least $500,000 for the president's reelection effort.
Corzine, of course, has most recently been in the news for being on the wrong side of a $6.3 billion bet as head of MF Global. "MF Global filed for bankruptcy on October 31, after $6.3 billion in risky bets on European sovereign debt spooked investors and an effort to sell the company failed," Reuters reported. "Investigators are searching for as much as $1.2 billion in missing customer money, which regulators said the company may have diverted for its own needs."
Later, Corzine admitted he could not account for the $1.2 billion.
Ah the sweet smell of The Chicago Way..if the president gets re-elected, any bets out there on how soon Jon Corzine gets a pardon if he ends up being convicted?
Newt Attacks Romney For Fiscal Conservatism And Leaner, Smarter Government!
This gets more bizarre the longer it goes on.
Florida has a large population of elderly retired Jews, and Newt Gingrich is targeting them in his personal appearances by claiming that while he was governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney vetoed kosher food in state-supported old age homes, thus causing the retirees distress because of the disrespect to their religion.
Sounds pretty nasty, doesn't it? Especially to someone who keeps kosher and imagines all those poor elderly Jews having to choose between violating their faith by eating non-kosher food or starvation.
The real story? What actually happened is that the State of Massachusetts was going through a severe budget crunch and Governor Romney attempted to cut the state budget by ending expensive kosher kitchens in state-supported nursing homes and called for kosher meals to get prepared off-site and bused in to those locations where they were needed. It would have saved the state $600,000 per year, and still provided kosher meals to any Jew that wanted them. The Democrat- dominated Massachusetts legislature shot the proposal down.
Just listen to Newt's new radio spot:
“vetoed a bill paying for kosher food for our seniors in nursing homes -- Holocaust survivors, who for the first time, were forced to eat non-kosher, because Romney thought $5 was too much to pay for our grandparents to eat kosher.”
I'm upset about this not only because it gives the lie to Newt Gingrich's claim that he's a 'fiscal conservative' but because it's a disgraceful attempt to manipulate old people and slander another person with a deliberate falsehood. He'll be saying Romney eats babies for breakfast next, and poisons puppies for recreation.
After this, I don't want hear another word from Gingrich or his supporters about 'attack ads' or 'lies'. Not another single word.
Iranian Majlis Preparing Impeachment For Ahmadinejad
At least that's what a number of sources are reporting.
The rift I reported on earlier between President Ahmadinejad and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei has not lessened, but gotten even greater.
The chief cause of the friction is that Ahmadinejad has been seeking increased power and freedom of action while showing a disturbing tendency not to follow orders to put it mildly, and the Mullahs don't like it, to say the least.
Under the velayat-e-faqih clerical government installed by Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979, the Supreme Leader and the Council of Guardians actually rule and the president's office is essentially an administrative one. If Khamenei decides he's had enough of Ahmadinejad,there's nothing stopping him from having the Iranian majlis (parliament) throw hm out of office.
However, the political discord may not be what Ayatollah Khamenei wants right now, especially if he can have a quiet talk with Ahmadinejad and let him know that there could be new accommodations for him in Teheran's Evin prison unless he changes his ways. Ahmadinejad's terms in up in 2013 anyway, and he would not be able to run fro re-election without the consent of Khamenei and the Council of Guardians anyway.
Another possible factor is Khamenei's reported ill health. He may very well decide to settle business with Ahmadinejad and not leave it for a successor to do.
Make no mistake about it - we're not talking about a 'Persian Spring' here..just a changing of one man's position.
Stay tuned...
Monday, January 30, 2012
CBC Chairman Emanuel Cleaver: 'Hey, We're Racists! What Of It?'
That's not exactly verbatim, but it's essentially what the Chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus said:
Rep. Emanuel Cleaver — the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus – told The Daily Caller that African Americans won’t “march on the White House” over the high unemployment rate in the black community because President Barack Obama is black.
Following his appearance at Republican Rep. Allen West’s Black Conservative Forum, Cleaver elaborated on his past comments about Obama’s image in the African American community, saying, “The point I was making is that black people hold the president in such high esteem, that they would not dare march on the White House even though unemployment is at 15 percent and higher and if there was a white president we would do that because we’ve had white presidents since George Washington.”
Cleaver continued, “The point was that if we had anybody else in the White House, with this level of unemployment, that you know, you would see a lot more African Americans, African American organizations and retro organizations speaking out against it. But because he is revered, you know, he gets I guess the benefit of, you know, understanding that the situation was terrible when he came in. So, we’re not doing that.”
The Missouri Democrat told The DC that he personally resisted a proposed Annual Legislative Conference (ALC) “prayer” demonstration at the White House.
“I was resistant to a group of individuals who wanted to lock arms, surround the White House, with several thousand people during the ALC this past October and pray. I resisted it because I thought if we did that it would be interpreted as some kind of assault on the president, which I was not willing to launch,” he said.
So...it's OK to trash President Bush simply because he's white, but President Obama is sacrosanct just because he's black for even worse performance.
Does anyone have any doubt that if whites used exactly the same criteria in criticizing President Obama while giving a white president a pass Rep. Cleaver and his friends would be foaming at the mouth and screaming "Racism" ?
You see, Racism really is colorblind, as Dr, King so clearly saw.
It's an ugly cancer no matter who wears the sheet.
India Opts Out Of Participating In Iran Oil Embargo
India, the world's fourth largest oil consumer has informed the US and Europe that it will not participate in the embargo on Iranian oil scheduled to start - if it starts - this summer.
"It is not possible for India to take any decision to reduce the imports from Iran drastically, because among the countries which can provide the requirement of the emerging economies, Iran is an important country amongst them," Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters on a visit to the Unites States.
Yeah, sanctions'll work. Sure they will.
In a related item, India and Iran have agreed to drop the use of the dollar as a reserve currency for oil trading between the two countries. They're using gold.
UK's Global Warming Office New Figures: No Warming in the Past 15 Years
Whoopsie:
The supposed ‘consensus’ on man-made global warming is facing an inconvenient challenge after the release of new temperature data showing the planet has not warmed for the past 15 years.
The figures suggest that we could even be heading for a mini ice age to rival the 70-year temperature drop that saw frost fairs held on the Thames in the 17th Century.
Based on readings from more than 30,000 measuring stations, the data was issued last week without fanfare by the Met Office and the University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit. It confirms that the rising trend in world temperatures ended in 1997.
Remember 'the science is settled'?
What I'd like to know now is how taxpayers in the developed world go about reclaiming the billions of taxpayer dollars that were and still are literally being stolen from the public purse in the name of this scam.
Brinks, The Great Train Robbery and even Bernie Madoff aren't even in the same league.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
AG Holder Caught In Another Fast And Furious Lie
Attorney General Eric Holder’s Department of Justice did a document dump on Operation Fast and Furious to congressional officials late Friday night. One part of this was a series of emails showing Holder was informed of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry’s murder on the day it happened – December 15, 2010 – and that he was informed the weapons used to kill Terry were from Fast and Furious on the same day.
Let me reiterate. Eric Holder didn't find out about gunwalking and Fast and Furious "a few weeks" before Congress called him in as he originally said (later amended to "a few months") before his May 2011 testimony.He knew all about it the very same day:
An email from one official, whose name has been redacted from the document, to now-former Arizona U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke reads: “On December 14, 2010, a BORTAC agent working in the Nogales, AZ AOR was shot. The agent was conducting Border Patrol operations 18 miles north of the international boundary when he encountered [redacted word] unidentified subjects. Shots were exchanged resulting in the agent being shot. At this time, the agent is being transported to an area where he can be air lifted to an emergency medical center.”
That email was sent at 2:31 a.m. on the day Terry was shot. One hour later, a follow-up email read: “Our agent has passed away.”
Burke forwarded those two emails to Holder’s then-deputy chief of staff Monty Wilkinson later that morning, adding that the incident was “not good” because it happened “18 miles w/in” the border.
Wilkinson responded to Burke shortly thereafter and said the incident was “tragic.” “I’ve alerted the AG [Holder], the Acting DAG, Lisa, etc.”
Then, later that day, Burke followed up with Wilkinson after Burke discovered from officials whose names are redacted that the guns used to kill Terry were from Fast and Furious. “The guns found in the desert near the murder BP officer connect back to the investigation we were going to talk about – they were AK-47s purchased at a Phoenix gun store,” Burke wrote to Wilkinson.
“I’ll call tomorrow,” Wilkinson responded.
Adding to the paper trail, there already are a series of memos containing the intimate details of Fast and Furious that were sent to Holder throughout 2010 from several of his senior aides. Holder has continued to claim he never read them.
Holder is scheduled to appear before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform next Thursday, February 2. This will be the first time the House oversight committee will have an opportunity to question Holder himself, although Holder has already testified before Congress three times on Fast and Furious — twice before the House Judiciary Committee and once before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Congress needs to grow a spine and impeach this weasel, since the president won't fire him. And the fact that President Obama has had nothing to say about this also leads me to believe that this entire plot, which appears to be mainly directed at pushing a major erosion of Second Amendments rights by sparking violent incidents on the border goes far beyond AG Holder and directly into the White House itself.
Does Congress have the basic integrity to insist on a special prosecutor? Idoubt it, but if they do, we might actually be able to get to the bottom of this.
California Goes Crazy Again...
Ah, the beat goes on...
Notwithstanding the massive recalls of Chevy Volts, the low driving range before recharging and the high incidence of battery fires,The California Air Resources Board unanimously approved a set of new rules requiring that one in seven of the new cars sold in California by 2025 be an electric or other zero-emission vehicle.
The plan also mandates a 75 percent reduction in smog-forming pollutants by 2025, and a 50 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from today's standards. All hail Gaia! :
"Today's vote ... represents a new chapter for clean cars in California and in the nation as a whole," said Mary Nichols, the board's chairman. "Californians have always loved their cars. We buy a lot of them and drive them. Now we will have cleaner and more efficient cars to love." [...]
Trade groups representing auto dealers worried that the new regulations would increase the costs of vehicles for consumers and stifle the industry's growth.
The California New Car Dealers Association and other industry groups representing those who sell cars said the board is overestimating consumer demand for electric vehicles and other so-called "zero-emission vehicles."
Dealers are concerned that the regulations will lead to higher costs in all cars, and say consumers have been slow to warm to electric and other zero-emission vehicles.
Board member Sandra Berg, who said she drives the all-electric Nissan Leaf, said before the vote that regulators need to take consumer behavior and choice seriously in this equation.
She said a lot of work must be done to educate dealers to sell the new generation of cars.
"Early adopters (of electric cars) are willing to go without heat to save the miles they need to get to their destination, but that is not going to help grow the consumer base," Berg said, referring to the range issues with some current electric vehicles.
The board's research staff disputes the argument from dealers that the mandates for new technology will increase costs for cars. They point to steady increases in hybrid and other sales and argue that fuel cost savings will make up for any vehicle price increase.
"Our research shows a $1,400 to $1,900 car price increase. But over the life of the vehicles, the owners save $6,000 in reduced fuel and maintenance costs," board spokesman David Clegern said.
Consumers have largely shied away from these electric vehicles because of their limited driving range, higher purchase prices ( I don't know what planet Clegern and his 'researchers' are living on) and a mixed record for reliability in a number of models. Simple solution..California's bureaucrats are going to force you to buy them.
Let's look at the likely results of this stupidity:
The ironic part is that this is being done in the name of 'global warming', but will have little or no effect of emissions because all that electric power comes from - you guessed it, power plants fueled by oil, gas, coal or nuclear power. And even if that wasn't true, pollution doesn't honor state boundaries. Or even national borders.
Of course, this isn't about pollution per se, but almost entirely political in nature. The Obama Administration loves cap n' trade because it provides tax revenues, cripples the hated oil and coal industries and gives them bureaucratic control over yet another segment of American industry. And it also allows them to use taxpayer dollars to reward campaign donors with Solyndra-like green energy scams. The Democrats who run California are no different.
If California was anything but a state of the Union, it would be under receivership right now.
Michael Savage Rips Ron Paul To Shreds
Not one of my favorites, but when Dr. Savage is on target, he's really on target...
Occupy Oakland Creeps Riot, Break Into City Hall, Burn American Flag
You'll remember that far left Oakland mayor Democrat Jean Quan was noticeably tolerant and supportive of the #Occupy Oakland creeps the last time they erupted back in November.Their pestilential encampment was only dismantled by police after it became a major health hazard.
Over the weekend, #Occupy Oakland repaid the city's tolerance by breaking into City Hall and did massive damage to the facility, including seizing American flags and burning them as part of the festivities.They also tore down fencing at the adjacent Henry Kaiser convention center and smashed everything they could get their hands on, including construction equipment left onsite. The #Occupy mob fought with police throughout the entire day, throwing rocks, bottles and other objects at officers. The Police responded by deploying smoke, tear gas and bean bag rounds. They later marched downtown,breaking into a number of buildings including a YMCA and damaging them.Over 300 were arrested.
The riot occurred after #Occupy protesters demanded the use a vacant building as a social center and threatened to to shut down the port, occupy the airport and take over City Hall.
Mayor Quan was typically schizoid about the event, on one hand demanding that the rioters "stop using Oakland as its playground" and on the other hand refusing to condemn the #Occupy movement, blaming on a small "very radical, violent" splinter group within #Occupy for the violence and destruction.
In media stories about this and other incidents, it's notable that no mention has been made of the fact that prominent Democrats like Nancy Pelosi and President Obama have explicitly endorsed the #Occupy protesters and everything they stand for. And that the Democrats and of course Democrat paymaster George Soros have helped finance it.
Israeli PM Netanyahu Wishes The Chinese People A Happy New Year
Believe it or not, the most popular video on YouTube this week, with over 40 million hits and climbing.
( hat tip, Carl)
Friday, January 27, 2012
Muslim Shooting Out Of Car Shouting "Allahu Akbar" Pleads Guilty -WAPO: 'Motive Unclear'
Today's Washington Post provides a superb example of why the majority of the dinosaur media is not to be trusted when it comes to reporting about Islamists or about jihad activity, particularly in the United States.
Yonathan Melaku, an ex-marine reservist and a naturalized citizen from Ethiopia pled guilty today in a plea bargain to three counts, including shooting at the Pentagon on Oct. 19, 2010, and attempting to vandalize veterans’ memorials on U.S. property. As part of a plea agreement, Melaku admitted to shooting at the National Museum of the Marine Corps, the Pentagon and two military recruiting offices in October and November of 2010. Here's how the WAPO described this, under the headline 'Motive of Shooter is Unclear':
Yonathan Melaku was sneaking through Fort Myer and Arlington National Cemetery, his backpack filled with plastic bags of ammonium nitrate, a notebook containing jihadist messages, and a can of black spray paint. The 23-year-old former Marine was heading to the graves of the nation’s most recent heroes, aiming to desecrate the stones with Arabic statements and leave handfuls of explosive material nearby as a message.
Before police foiled the plan in June, the vandalism was to be Melaku’s sixth attack, months after he went on a mysterious shooting spree that targeted the Pentagon, the National Museum of the Marine Corps and two other military buildings in Northern Virginia. A video found after Melaku’s arrest showed him wearing a black mask and shooting a 9mm handgun out of his Acura’s passenger window as he drove along Interstate 95, shouting “Allahu Akbar!”
Yes, 'mysterious'. Wait, it gets better:
FBI officials and prosecutors said Melaku was on a personal terror mission. They said he researched jihadism on the Internet and had references to terrorism in a notebook and on his computer. It also seemed like he was gathering materials to make an improvised explosive device, though there was no indication how he would have used it.
Melaku wanted “to create fear and terror, which is what terrorists do,” said Dana Boente, first assistant U.S. Attorney in Alexandria.
Special Agent Jacqueline Maguire, of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, said it was fortunate authorities caught Melaku before anyone was injured. She said it appears Melaku acted alone.
“This case shows that violent homegrown extremism is present in our community, whether by one person or by many,” Maguire said.
Even the FBI won't mention the words 'Islam' and 'terrorism' in the same sentence, but they at least mentioned an amorphous, undefined 'extremism' without mentioning the obvious. Listen to how the accussed's defense attorney is spinning this:
Gregory English, Melaku’s defense lawyer, said after the hearing that Melaku’s family is of the Coptic Christian faith and that they were stunned to learn of his involvement in the crimes and the references to Islamic jihad. English said the shootings were out of character for Melaku, and he wonders whether his client suffers from a psychological problem, which he has asked the court to evaluate.
“As bad as it is, this is someone who essentially broke windows,” English said. “It’s vandalism. He has no link to terrorism. . . . He had a message, but I don’t understand what that message was supposed to be.”
Either Mr. English is stupid, or he thinks we are.The only reason this home grown jihadi didn't hurt anyone is because we were extremely lucky, and that luck might not have held if Melaku had managed to escape and proceeded to manufacture the IED for which he was already putting together the ingrediants. As for Melaku's Coptic background, here's a tip...find the imams he was associating with that converted him to Islam and you'll find where the 'violent homegrown extremism in our community' Special Agent Maguire was talking about is coming from.
Melaku agreed to the plea bargain which carried a sentence of 25 years only because he was looking at a possible mandatory sentence of more than 85 years in the face of solid hard evidence. He's only 23, and he'll likely be out in 10 to 15, and you'll notice that no one is talking about deporting him when his sentence is served.
'Ssssh! Don't mention the word jihad! Nothing to see here.
The Council Has Spoken!! This Week's Watcher's Council Results
The Council has spoken, the votes have been cast, and the results are in for the first Watcher's Council match up of 2012, carved eternally in the akhasic records of cyberspace.
This week's winning essay, The Mellow Jihadi's Lance Corporal Donald Hogan, Marine Hero is a prime example of the Jihadi's unique literary style as he takes a stirring look at an American hero in and recounts his feelings on reading about his posthumous honoring. Here's a slice:
I am sitting in my home away from home, Panera Bread. The traffic outside is all jerky bumpers and tire shrieks. A bummy dude with an expensive laptop sprawls a seat five feet from me. I finish reading this moving post on the Marine Corps and continue my duck hunt through the web for interesting stories to share. Posts, articles, pictures that capture me, waiting for me to do the same to them.
Then this story waves at me and I know I have to salute a great hero:
A Marine who died from a roadside bomb in Afghanistan was awarded the highest honor given to members of the Corps for his heroic actions as he hurled his body into a fellow serviceman and warned the rest of the his squad of the blast.
Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said Tuesday that 20-year-old Lance Cpl. Donald Hogan is “now part of Marine lore along with the great heroes of the Corps” as he presented the fallen hero’s parents with the Navy Cross. He said his actions placed him among the “bravest and finest” in the Marines.
Semper Fi indeed.
In our non-Council category, the winner was a must read piece by an old favorite of mine, terrorism expert Dave Gaubatz writing in Family Security Matters on howMuslim Children in America are Being Taught to Hate submitted by The Political Commentator.
Eventually, we're going to wake up to what's happening right under our collective noses as a new generation of American Muslims is indoctrinated by people who definitely mean us no good.
Here are this week’s full results. Only New Zeal was unable to vote this week and was affected by the infamous mandatory 2/3 vote penalty:
Council Winners
- *First place with 3 2/3 votes! The Mellow Jihadi – Lance Corporal Donald Hogan, Marine Hero
- Second place with 3 1/3 votes – The Right Planet- Are We a Democracy?
- Third place with 1 2/3 votes – Joshuapundit- Obama's State Of The Union - The Hollow Man
- Fourth place *t* with 1 vote – The Colossus of Rhodey-What the Gingrich South Carolina victory could mean
- Fourth place *t* with 1 vote – The Glittering Eye-You Be the Judge
- Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote – The Noisy Room-Revolution Moves Into The Overton Window
- Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote – The Razor-A Tale of Two Disasters: The Titanic and the Costa Concordia
- Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote – Bookworm Room –War is not, and should not be, sporting
- Sith place *t* with 1/3 vote – GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – Going All The Way
- Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote –Simply Jews – Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey vs FUKUS
- Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote – Rhymes With Right – Am I Wrong To Be Troubled Here?
- Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote – The Political Commentator – Doing away with the Electoral College! One man, one vote and majority wins!
Non-Council Winners
- First place with 2 2/3 votes! –Family Security Matters- Muslim Children in America are Being Taught to Hate submitted by The Political Commentator
- Second place with 2 votes – Mark Steyn – The Sinking Of The West submitted by Joshuapundit
- Third place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – Sultan Knish So You Want a Revolution... submitted by The Noisy Room
- Third place *t* with 1 1/3 votes - Yourish.Com–TANSTAAFL submitted by Simply Jews
- Third place *t* with 1 1/3 votes - Right Wing News –The Worst People In Politics Aren't Racists submitted by The Mellow Jihadi
- Fourth place *t* with 1 vote - The Foundry –1,000 Days Without a Budget: Facts on the Senate's Failure submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey
- Fourth place *t* with 1 vote -The Compass – An Iran Attack Would Succeed, Then What? submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD
- Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote -Gay Patriot –SOTU: Obama’s last chance to change tone submitted by Right Truth
- Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote -The New Atlantis –The Global War Against Baby Girls submitted by The Watcher
- Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote -James Taranto/Best of the Web–The Genetic Fallacy submitted by The Glittering Eye
- Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote -Zero Hedge –Obama Puppetmaster Warren Buffett Biggest Winner From Keystone Pipeline Rejectionsubmitted by The Razor
- Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote -Cabinet –The Behavioral Sink submitted by The Watcher
- Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote -Polipundit –Why Newt should not be the nominee submitted by Rhymes With Right
- Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote - Accuracy In Media –The FOX News Feminists submitted by New Zeal
See you next week! And don't forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter..'cause we're cool like that!
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