Decency, Indecency, and Hypocrisy

Blogger Sikander Hayat writes:

"Israel is making difficult for its friends in the Muslim world to stay friends with it by constantly killing innocent people. Be it Turkey or Egypt, Israel’s actions have made it near impossible for the governments in the said countries to overtly support it. "

He raises an interesting point.

If we're talking about killing innocent people, I haven't noticed the Muslim world exactly falling over itself to condemn Hamas, now or ever...and they've been known to kill a fair amount of innocent people. Except, unlike the IDF Hamas deliberately targets civiians, don't they?

Or what about the Sudan's President Bashir who's got an arrest warrant out on him by the ICC and InterPol for what he ordered done to innocent people in Darfur?

The Muslim world ain't condemning him either. He's travelled to Egypt, Libya and Qatar and is getting a hero's welcome at the Arab League Summit as I write this!

Can Mr. Hayat spell h-y-p-o-c-r-i-s-y? I'm sure he can.

I would also question Mr Hayat's premise that Egypt is really a friend of Israel, given the popularity of the Muslim Brotherhood and the anti-Semitic propaganda and incitement that is routine in the Egyptian media. What Egypt and Israel have is essentially an armistice, based on the fact that the Egyptian regime knows it can't afford to lose another war with Israel, with $1.5 billion of desperately needed US aid in the balance and a sucession for the Mubarak regime close at hand.

As for Turkey, as PM Tayip Erdogan's Islamist government gets more of a handle over the secular military, that friendship has become pretty strained too. When a spoiled brat like Erdogan can throw a biased tantrum in public that even sparks a response out of an old dove like Shimon Peres, it tells us something, doesn't it?

The world is not divided by Muslim and non-Muslim, but by the decent and indecent.

It'a a source of sadness to me that so many Muslims ( not all, thank G-d) are unwilling to make a stand for decency and place that above tribal loyalty. Ultimately, it will cost them a great deal.

Weekend Monkey On Politics: The Real Banana,3/31/09

Hidey Ho, Primates! Welcome to the return of one and only Real Banana, your source for the real poop on politics.

Let's get right down to it, shall we?

Today's big noise is the special election in New York's 20th Congressional District. With the old rep Kirsten Gillibrand because kicked upstairs to the senate by Gov Patterson ( and lemme tell you, primates, I sure didn't see that one coming!) the race is on to replace her between Tedisco and Murphy.

If you still got a few shekels to bet, I figure the reThugs take this one by a couple of points, so it'll be Tedisco.

That particular district ain't Manhattan, it's upstate and thus a little more GOP leaning. Plus, people aren't exactly turning cartflips over the new state budget and all those Democrat inspired tax increases.

On the bright side for my Democrats it'll be close, so no real referendum on Obama. Although I gotta say, so fsr he screwing it up even worse than I thought he would.

Anyhoo, bet Tedisco to win, or if you can find a 'tard who'll give you Murphy and three or four points, I'd bet the spread.

The other beeg noise today is Chris Dodd's political meltdown on his home ground in Connecticut. The Senator from CountryWide and AIG is in real trouble, even if the election isn't 'til next year. I mean, when your home state newspapers are calling you a lying weasel and the polls show some dumbass House rep with higher poll ratings than you when you're a five-term incumbent, it might just be time to pull the plug and ride off into the sunset with whatever you've been able to steal.

I wouldn't be surprised if Dodd did just that.


Weekend Monkey was a Democratic candidate for president in the 2008 election, and a frequent contributer to Joshuapundit.He is currently working on a book about the campaign. He can be contacted at Wendmonkey@ yahoo.com

The Dinosaur Media Cooks The Polls For Obama

As President Obama jets across the Atlantic, the big headlines read :

Blame for downturn not fixed on Obama

Poll Finds Most Americans Approve of Obama's Economic Policies

Six in 10 Americans Approve Of Obama's Handling of Economic Crisis


Sure they do.That is until we take a closer look:

The percentage of Americans in the new poll who said the country is on the right track still stands at just 42 percent, but that is the highest percentage saying so in five years and marks a sharp turnabout from last fall, when as many as nine in 10 said the country was heading in the wrong direction. Fifty-seven percent now consider the nation as moving on the wrong track.

Now doesn't that seem a mite contradictory? Here we are in the age of The One, with hope n' change in the air like a miasma of rotting meat and almost two thirds of the country disapproves of the way things are going? With Obama in charge? Somehow, that doesn't seem to square with the headlines, does it? Let's go on:

At this early stage in his presidency, Obama continues to benefit from a broadly held perception that others should bear the bulk of responsibility for the severe economic problems that confront his administration. Americans see plenty of offenders, but only about a quarter blame the president and his team for an economy that's in the ditch.

Despite the increasing optimism about the future, the nation's overall mood remains gloomy, and doubts are rising about some of the administration's prescriptions for the economic woes. Independents are less solidly behind Obama than they have been, fewer Americans now express confidence that his economic programs will work, barely half of the country approves of how the president is dealing with the federal budget deficit, and the political climate is once again highly polarized.

Hmmm..once again, some contradictory statements in the same paragraphs. Only 25% of those polled think Obama's responsible for the current state of the economy,yet only half of the respondents approve of how he and his team are dealing with the economy?

I'd love to see how they worded the questions to come up with that. But let's continue...

Obama's overall approval rating among independents has dipped six points, to 61 percent, and fewer than half, 45 percent, said he is doing a good job of handling the deficit. His approval rating among Republicans has dropped seven points, to 30 percent.

OK, so apparently the numbers are skewed by party lines.Just for giggles let's take a look at the actual polling data...and see how the partisan split affected the poll itself, in terms of whom the respondents were:

Democrat: 36%
Republican: 25%
Independent: 33%

So even with an 11-point in built pro-Obama skew to the poll from Democrats, Obama hasn't convinced a majority that the country is on the right track or that his economic approach is working. Only 27% say the economy is improving, while 36% say it's getting worse...and that's with the lopsided partisan Democrat advantage in favor of Obama!

I'm surprised that after a couple of months and with all the energy spent on blaming Bush that the numbers are this bad. Can it be that the One's honeymoon is over, even with a chunk of his own party?

As for the WAPO/ABC minions that conducted this 'poll'..well, figures lie, and liars figure, don't they?

SecDef Gates Sends A Message To North Korea, Iran And Israel

In an interview with Chris Wallace on FOX last Sunday, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates was asked about North Korea's impending missile test and simply said "I would say we're not prepared to do anything about it."

This, after Gates admitted, "I don't know anyone at a senior level in the American government who does not believe this technology is intended to mask the development of an intercontinental ballistic missile."

In the same interview, Gates also danced around direct questions from Wallace about the Obama Administration's desire to severely cut funds allocated for missile defense.

There's a message here to a number of interested parties. The Mullahs of Iran now know that if the US is unwilling or unable to interfere with the North Koreans' ICBM test or take any effective action against their illegal nuclear program, the current occupant of the White House is certainly not going to interfere with Iran doing the same thing.

And the Israelis, if they're paying attention, should realize that the US either couldn't or wouldn't do anything to stop North Korea, they're not going to stop an Iranian missile strike on Israel either. And that any guarantees the Israelis get on that score are pretty much worthless.

Last but not least, of course is the message to the American people, who mostly aren't paying attention. Allowing rogue states to obtain and perfect nuclear weapons will eventually affect us severely, and the people supposedly in charge of dealing with this sort of thing apparently have more pressing concerns.

Obama's First Judicial Nominee - Far Left, Partisan And Well Connected

President Barack Hussein Obama has just made his first judicial nomination. And he's a Leftist's wet dream.

Judge David Hamilton has been chosen by Obama to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit. His background is interesting, to say the least.

Hamilton is now a federal judge the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, a nomination he received from Bill Clinton. At that time, the liberal ABA rated him as “not qualified” when Clinton nominated him for the post back in 1994.He was still confirmed by a voice vote by the Senate, where the Democrats had a majority.

Hamilton's a former ACLU and ACORN lawyer,and his tenure on the bench has been marked by some interesting decisions. He issued a ruling that made it easier for child sex offenders to move around Indiana by invalidating a local version of Megan's Law designed to protect children by keeping tabs of their whereabouts. He also has the typical ACLU 'tude when it comes to suppressing evidence and warrants. And he ruled against waiting periods for those women seeking abortions.

In one of his rulings that made headlines, Hinrichs v. Bosma, Hamilton ruled that prayers in Jesus' Name at the Indiana House of Representatives was unconstitutional, but prayers to Allah were not,

He was ultimately reversed on that curious misreading of the First Amendment by the 7th Circuit, the same court Obama was him sitting on now.

As for the connections part....aside from his ACORN and ACLU service, Hamilton is ex-Dem Congressman Lee Hamilton's nephew, and Hamilton's brother, John Hamilton, is married to Dawn Johnsen, another radical with a law degree who Obama has nominated to serve as assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel in the United States Department of Justice.

Bill Maher Hits A New Low

Now, tell the truth...you thought it wasn't possible for Bill Maher to reach a new low. Well, didn't you? Watch the video.

By the way, speaking of rape, I'd be willing to bet that Bill has no problem with letting Hollywood 'genius' Roman Polanski back into the country...

GM CEO Fired - By Obama

Now that GM stands for 'Government Motors' rather than 'General Motors', the Obama Administration has decided it needed a scapegoat to blame any past and future problems on as it attempts to revamp GM in its own way.

GM's George W. Bush is going to be GM CEO Rick Waggoner:

Wagoner, 56, who spent 32 years with GM working all over the world, stepped down effective immediately, the company said in a statement early Monday. He was replaced as CEO by Fritz Henderson, the company's vice chairman and chief operating officer.

GM board member Kent Kresa, a former chairman and CEO of Northrop Grumman Corp. (NOC), was named interim chairman and said new directors will make up the majority of GM's board when a new slate is nominated for election at the company's annual meeting in August.

"The board has recognized for some time that the company's restructuring will likely cause a significant change in the stockholders of the company and create the need for new directors with additional skills and experience," Kresa said in a written statement.

GM shares tumbled 86 cents, or 24 percent, to $2.76 in premarket trading Monday. That is down 89 percent from its 52-week high of $24.24 on April 30, 2008.

The management shake-up, according to several industry analysts, shows that the administration is serious about forcing GM to change more quickly and dramatically than it did during Wagoner's nearly nine-year tenure as CEO.

Jeremy Anwyl, chief executive of the automotive Web site Edmunds.com, called the move "political theater" to appease an increasingly bailout-weary public.

"American taxpayers are not happy," Anwyl said. "But this way you're able to point to Rick and say he's gone, and that creates an environment where the loans become politically palatable."

By all accounts, Wagoner made progress in fixing GM. While CEO, he cut its U.S. work force from 177,000 to roughly 92,000 today.

Wagoner also closed factories; shed the unprofitable Oldsmobile brand; globalized GM's engineering, manufacturing and design to save billions; and led a resurgence in quality and performance of its long-neglected cars. In 2007, the company reached a landmark agreement with the United Auto Workers that shifted massive retiree health care costs to a union-run trust and ushered in a $14-per-hour wage for new hires, about half that of a current laborer.

But critics, including many members of Congress, say Wagoner moved too slowly, failing to cut enough of the company's huge health care and pension costs, and relying too long on high-profit pickup trucks and SUVs as gas prices rose and the market shifted toward smaller vehicles.

In the past four years, GM has piled up $82 billion in losses.

It would be interested to see how much of those losses can be attributed to GM's bloated union contracts, pension entitlements and forced compliance with government regulations.

As I mentioned before, the easy solution for GM and Chrysler would have been to let them go Chapter 11, thus allowing them to get out from under the union contracts they were saddled with and make a new start. The feds could have helped out by ensuring the existing vested pension obligations were fulfilled, which would have cost a lot less over the long run.

For the Obama Administration to do any better than Waggoner did, they're going to have to abrogate those union contracts..and I'm betting that won't happen largely because the UAW gave over $11 million to the Democrats in 2008.

So a sin offering was needed to blame the ensuing mess on. Waggoner was it, just like George W. Bush has been it for the mess the Obama Administration has made out of the economy. And between ourselves, I think President Obama enjoyed firing him, for reasons I'll leave to your imagination.

Ayers And Dohrn Guests Of Honor At Illinois High School

Watcher of Weasels Terry Trippany has new piece out on Newsbusters that has the story:

Ayers is now the apparent shadow head of the Department of education..and he's carrying out his mission of creating a generation of radicals that hate his country as much as he does. In reading the linked news story, I found it interesting that Ayers and Dohrn's invitation stems from one of Ayers' ex-students...who is obviously carrying on his old mentor's work and raping the minds of his students as I write this.

This afternoon I learned that Bill Ayers has been invited to speak to high school students in the suburb of Naperville Illinois where he will discuss his days in the Weather Underground. (h/t Doug Ross Journal). The school district is defending the decision with the laughable claim that they would never invite anyone to the school that advocated violence. No kidding, this isn't a joke.

"While we firmly believe in exposing students to a wide variety of speakers and opinions, offering them the chance to experience different viewpoints and the opportunity to hone their critical thinking skills (one of the tenets of our mission), please know that we would never invite anyone who advocates violence," District 203 said through a news release issued Friday evening. "Our understanding is that Bill Ayers does not, although this point is being actively debated by several who have contacted us. In addition, administrators from other school districts who have heard his presentation to students, have indicated that Ayers focuses on students being involved in social justice."

Really, this claim is being actively debated? Bombings and dead people weren't enough to convince these educators that violent activism is what Bill Ayers is all about?

Did they forget about Ayers saying "I feel we didn't do enough?"

Read the whole thing

UPDATE: It appears that the Naperville District has ummm...reconsidered:

Faced with a firestorm of criticism, Naperville Unit District 203 leaders have canceled plans to have controversial author Bill Ayers speak to students at Naperville North High School.

Superintendent Alan Leis said Monday morning he had received more than 100 e-mails and numerous phone calls about Ayers' scheduled appearance and decided "it just wasn't appropriate. Any (educational) value here is completely lost."

"It is truly amazing the level of anger and emotion around this issue," he said.

"Amazing"? "Educational value"? You have to see how out of touch the people who are supposedly in charge of educating the next generation of Americans actually are to believe it.The public schools truly are the Left's madrassahs.

Palestinians Punish Youth Orchestra - For Playing In Front Of Holocaust Survivors

For any of you who still don't understand why the vision of a two state solution, with a `democratic Palestinian state living in peace next to Israel' is a fantasy, this story from the AP might just open your eyes a bit.

The American Jewish Committee and Israeli heiress Shari Arison, Israel's wealthiest woman had funded a group called Strings of Freedom, a small Palestinian youth orchestra based in Jenin led and taught by conductor Wafa Younis, an Israeli Arab living in Israel.

Today it was disbanded, Younis has been barred from entering Jenin and the small studio where she taught the 13-member Strings of Freedom orchestra has been boarded up.

Their crime? They played a concert for elderly Holocaust survivors in Holon, Israel:

Adnan Hindi of the Jenin camp called the Holocaust a "political issue" and accused the orchestra's conductor of unfairly dragging the children into a politics.

The dispute underscores Palestinian sensitivities over acknowledging Jewish suffering, which many fear could weaken their own historical grievances against Israel. Ignorance and even denial of the Holocaust is widespread in Palestinian society.

At last Wednesday's concert in Holon, most of the Holocaust survivors did not know the youths were Palestinians from the West Bank, a rare sight in Israel these days. And the youths, who range in age from 11 to 18, had no idea they were performing for people who lived through Nazi genocide — or even what the Holocaust was.{...}

"She exploited the children," said Hindi, the head of the camp's "popular committee," which takes on municipal duties. "She will be forbidden from doing any activities ... We have to protect our children and our community."


"The Holocaust happened, but we are facing a similar massacre by the Jews themselves," Hindi said. "We lost our land, and we were forced to flee and we've lived in refugee camps for the past 50 years."

Yes, I'm sure all of you have noticed the Palestinians being rounded up and herded into gas chambers, or shot and tossed into mass graves. And of course, you've noticed every single Palestinian, man, woman and child forcibly loaded into boxcars by the Israelis and sent to camps behind barbed wire.

And of course, none of the Palestinians left voluntarily, taking those famous house keys with them and waiting for their Arab brothers to massacre the Jews. Right?

Sarcasm aside, people like Mr. Hindi have no idea what a real genocide looks, feels and smells like. The closest they've ever come is at the hands of their Arab brothers, like King Hussein of Jordan during Black September, or the Kuwaitis after the first Gulf War.

Younis, the conductor, denied the issue was political, saying camp officials wanted to take over the orchestra to get its funding.

"They want to destroy this group. It's a shame, it's a tragedy. What did these poor, elderly people do wrong? What did these children do wrong?" she said.

While I'm certain Ms. Younis knows the answer, I'll provide it here. In the eyes of the 'moderate' terrorists of Fatah, with whom Adnan Hindi is affiliated, what those elderly Jews did wrong was to simply survive. They thus provide a living human witness to the lie that Fatah apparatchniks like Hindi have been indoctrinating the masses under their control with since the days of St. Arafat - that the Israelis are 'nazis' and the treatment of Palestinian Arabs and Jews during the Holocaust was the same, an important step in deligitimizing and isolating Israel.

What the children did wrong, and why Ms. Younis has been barred from further contact with them is because such interaction between Israelis and Palestinians messes with the programming these kids have received since they were old enough to go to school, to the mosque, listen to the media or attend one of those infamous Palestinian 'summer camps' .

You see, to live in peace next to someone, you have to acknowledge their humanity and educate your people for peace. On the other hand, if you're merely biding your time until your enemy is sufficiently weakened and worn down that the jihad has a better chance of success, you use whatever propaganda tools you have at your disposal to demonize and dehumanize your enemy to your populace, take whatever concessions your enemy foolishly grants you and wait for the right time to strike.

This unfortunate story is just a window into a far more important truth.

Rush Limbaugh..Laughing All The Way To The Bank

Back when Barack Obama and the Democrats first began targeting Rush Limbaugh, I made this prediction:

As for the Democrats, their demonizing Rush Limbaugh is something that must make El Rushbo absolutely chortle in glee. I first started listening to him back when Bil Clinton and his cohorts were trashing him out of sheer curiosity to see what all the fuss was about. Now that he's once again the subject of a concerted attack by the Left, so will a lot of other people.

Turns out I was right on the money as usual...

Rush Limbaugh says attacks on him by democrats have “backfired.” The proof is in the new PPM data from several large markets. “These audience growth rates are phenomenal,” he says. Limbaugh's show has seen cume and share gains in every PPM market. ( from Inside Radio )

And there's this ....

A combination of several powerful forces has resulted in explosive talk radio ratings growth, with indications of much more to come in the months ahead.

Primary factor driving the upward move? You guessed it: Rush Limbaugh. That's in contrast to declining support for Rush's arch-rival Obama.

With Limbaugh at the top of his game, including a more deeply loyal audience than ever, the numbers were expected to be strong. The beginning of the Obamist era, combined with a direct White House campaign targeting the talk titan, however, provided rocket fuel for El Rushbo's ratings. Even to seasoned industry veterans, this data should prove stunning.

Finally, implementation of the new, far more accurate electronic Portable People Meter (PPM) ratings system has benefited talk radio, as the manual diary-based "phantom cume" problems of the past disappear. For years, programmers complained that the old system cost them listenership and are now armed with the proof they'd long sought.

That may be why Obama and his supporters have fought implementation of PPM, as we originally reported in October of last year.


While these numbers reflect February's results, they could go even higher in March, as the White House anti-Rush effort was still in high gear going into this month.

Some specifics:


In New York City, WABC has experienced huge gains during Rush's noon- 3pm timeslot: from 4.6 to 6.7 overall (12 and older) share, good for first place overall in the nation's largest market. Rush's Big Apple listenership is now estimated at 693,000.

In the second-largest market, Los Angeles, KFI-AM has surged into the number one position (all listeners 12 and older) from 9am to noon, with 618,000 listeners, a 4.6 to 6.0 audience share increase over three months and an even bigger males 35-64 (4.6 to 6.3) move, to take first place there as well.

Chicago, saw another huge move, with Rush affiliate WLS also taking first place during his timeslot (12 and older), from 5.2 share to 6.9 and a total local listenership of 396,700 in the third-largest market.

KSFO / San Francisco saw similar results, despite the extreme-left bent of the Bay Area: 4.7 to 6.0 share, now ranking second overall and with men aged 35-64. Total audience: 346,000.

In Dallas - Fort Worth, 4.8 to 6.4 men 35-64 and fourth overall (12+), 3.5 to 4.5. Cumulative audience: 250,000.

Houston's results were truly blockbuster: 6.0 to 9.8 overall, ranking number one with a bullet and audience of 382,300. Men 35-64: number one again, from 8.6 to 12.2 over three months. Adults 25-54: first place, 4.6 to 8.7. Women 25-54: 3.7 to 8.3 again good for a top ranking.

DC's WMAL also saw Rush-related growth: 4.1 to 6.7, good for third overall and an audience of 155,300. Men 35-64: number one with a staggering 6.4 to 13.4 move.

In Atlanta, Rush has helped WGST fend off an enormous competitor, WSB-AM, with a similar 4.0 to 6.2 upward move, good for fifth place overall and a total audience of 473,500. The results are better in the male 35-64 demographic, surging from 5.5 to 8.0 share.

Bucking Detroit's recent Democratic voting trend, Rush's performance on WJR-AM has been more significant than ever, moving into first place with a 5.8 to 9.6 jump. Men 35-64: number one and 11.6 share. Total audience: 253,000.

Given this blockbuster data, will the White House think twice before targeting Rush again?

Keep in mind that these numbers don't even include Limbaugh's strongest markets, medium-sized cities such as Reno, Albuquerque, Boise, Fresno, Bakersfield and hundreds of others where his program dominates local radio.

UPDATE: Rush's surge has also led to overall, full-day gains at most of these stations, with WABC/ New York moving into fifth place overall, ahead of many music stations. That's its best showing in at least a year.

KSFO/ San Francisco also rose overall, grabbing sixth place, while WLS/ Chicago now ranks second, a stunning feat.

( from The Radio Factor)

As I predicted, a lot of people who hadn't tuned in to Limbaugh previously are doing so now, just to see whether the White House has been telling the truth about him. And from the numbers, apparently they're sticking around, which means that they're eventually likely to realize that he knows what he's talking about..which is NOT good news for Obama and his pals.

Like I said, EL Rushbo Is laughing all the way to the bank...while getting the conservative message out there to a lot of people who might not have heard it otherwise.

Commie Monopoly!!

Too funny!

I wonder..does Barack Obama get a piece of every game that sells?

Why I'm Happy The NY Times Published An Anti-Semitic Cartoon

There's been a great deal of outrage by Jewish groups (and the blogosphere)over the above bit of Jew hatred published by the New York Times.

I think its entirely misplaced and uncalled for.

When a dog does something wrong and goes unpunished, he almost always moves up the ladder of misdeeds until he does something really serious. So who do you blame then? The dog, or his owner and trainer?

The New York Times has been an anti-Israel and frequently an anti-Semitic paper for years, and the above cartoon almost exactly mirrors their editorial stance on the Middle East, if in a slightly more honest and upfront way. Columnists like Tom Friedman, Nicholas Kristoff and the latest edition, Roger Cohen have always carried the water for Israel's enemies, sought to humanize terrorists and equate Hamas and Hezbollah with the IDF. And the New York Times has been notable in shilling for Barack Obama in spite of his anti-Semitic and anti-Israel allies and associates. Did the ADL and the Wiesenthal Center just all of a sudden become aware of all this, when a number of us have been talking and writing about it for years?

Blaming the New York Times for being true to its nature at this point is cynical, self serving and meaningless. They've learned they can get away with this sort of thing with impunity.

For that matter, Pat Oliphant has been around a long time, has run a number of cartoons like this and is fairly well known in press circles as a Jew hater. Back when he worked at the old Herald Examiner, my father of blessed memory had to be restrained from punching his lights out when Oliphant started running his mouth off in his presence. The New York Times knew exactly what it was getting, and from whom.

So here's an interesting question to ponder. Why would the New York Times refuse to publish the Mohammed 'toons because they `didn't want to desecrate a religious symbol' but cheerfully print a cartoon denigrating a Jewish religious symbol?

Could it be perhaps because they knew that with Jews (or Christians, for that matter) the worst they have to fear is a few nasty letters they can sluff off with a pro forma 'apology' that rings about as true as one of Pee Wee Herman's?



They'll just do it again, because it cost them nothing.

Things might be different if the Times' executives and 'talent' had to contend with a bunch of Jews screaming at them and getting physically in their faces as they walked into the building,along with massive pressure on the Time's advertisers to pull their ads from the paper. Having a serious talk at street level with newstand vendors about the problems associated with carrying an anti-Semitic rag along with a few incidents of sloshing the piles of new papers in the stalls with a bottle of India Ink (an old union trick)might just change that perception.

Don't misunderstand...as far as I'm concerned, the New York Times has a perfect right to choose to print this or any other trash they please. But choices have consequences. And sometimes, when those consequences are made unmistakably clear, different choices get made.

Besides, as I said, I'm glad the Times ran this. Because I love clarity.

It should be obvious even to the most clueless what the agenda of the New York Times is.

It should be clear to anyone who despises Jew hatred that buying, advertising or subscribing to the New York Times or any other paper that ran this is subsidizing this kind of hatred. And for a Jew to do so is a fairly self-hating act one step above subscribing to the equivalent of Der Stürmer or Hezbollah's al-Intiqad.

It should be clear now exactly how impotent, out of touch and farcical the old line Jewish leadership at places like the ADL and the AJC actually is.

And it should be obvious that different leadership and a very different response to this sort of thing is needed in the future.

Sometimes an alarm clock needs to go off to wake people up.

When Big Brother Takes Over....!

Hat tip and a commendation to Joshua's Army member Zack!

Watcher's Council Results, 3/27/09

The Council has spoken! A complete rundown of the voting tallies is here.

The winning entry in the Council category this week was The Provocateur for My Grandfather, the 14th Amendment, and the AIG Bonuses, Mike's look at how Congress handled the AIG controversy from a unique personal view.

In second place we had a tie between Bookworm Room with Out of the Mouths of Babes , a piece on how her son recognized some self-evident truths about a certain president and Right Truth with Grim Assessment for America’s Safety , Debbie Hamilton's look at a number of security threats facing our country.

Also getting votes was Soccer Dad for Major newspaper seems fated to cast Israel in the worst possible light.

In the Non-Council category, the winner was Big Lizards for The Great Dictator.

In second place, we had a tie between my nominee,Robert Averech over at Big Hollywood for The Burning Of Los Angeles: The Gauntlet and Self-Evident for The ‘Geithner Put’, Part 1 .

As always, congratulations not only to the winners but to the participants.

Same Old Story - The Charges of IDF "Wanton Killing" In Gaza Crumble

It's like clockwork.

Every time Israel defends itself, you can make book that some body is going to accuse those awful Joos of committing massacres or worse on those poor defenseless Arabs. Who of course who not harm so much as a Jewish bunny rabbit.

There's even what amounts to an entire industry dealing with this. The Mohammed al-Dura fraud, the Qana Strike, the so-called Jenin 'massacre', the fiction about how broke and destitute the Palestinians are even after all that aid money are some of it's greatest hits. It's all part of a fictional narrative designed to delegitimize Israel and promote the Arab cause..with a kinky subtext that Jewish lives and Jewish blood don't matter nearly so much, because the dinosaur media never publicizes them in the same manner.

Israel's offensive to stop Hamas from firing rockets and mortars at Israel's civilians is no different.It was not Hamas who were condemned in the media and by the UN for their aggression and their cynical use of non-combatants as human shields. It was Israel, for daring to defend themselves.

The UN accused the IDF of deliberately targeting and firing on a UN school, which later turned out to be an outright lie, and the analysis of casualties proved that the vast majority of Arab casualties in Gaza were Hamas combatants ( amazing when you think of it, considering how Hamas hid behind women and children in an urban area).

The latest attempt to malign the IDF came from the Israeli Left, in the person of one 'activist' with a long history of this kind of stuff named Danny Zamir , who spread stories about alleged IDF atrocities in Gaza that made it into Ha'aretz, Israel's equivalent of the New York Times that hardly anyone reads over there.

From Ha'aretz, this spread to the New York Times and the British press ( naturally) as well as a number of papers in the Arab World.

Upon investigation, these charges turned out to be pure fiction as well:


The brigade commander of the unit linked to alleged “wanton killings” in Gaza launched his own investigation after hearing of the charges, speaking with actual eyewitnesses, all of whom said that the alleged killings did not take place. The original charges, based only on hearsay and rumors, have therefore been refuted and should be retracted.

The brigade commander’s findings were reported in the Israeli newspaper Maariv, in a story titled IDF Investigation Refutes the Testimonies About Gaza Killings. According to the story (translation by CAMERA):
Two central incidents that came up in the testimony, which Danny Zamir, the head of the Rabin pre-military academy presented to Chief of Staff Gaby Ashkenazi, focus on one infantry brigade. The brigade’s commander today will present to Brigadier General Eyal Eisenberg, commander of the Gaza division, the findings of his personal investigation about the matter which he undertook in the last few days, and after approval, he will present his findings to the head of the Southern Command, Major General Yoav Gallant.

Regarding the incident in which it was claimed that a sniper fired at a Palestinian woman and her two daughters, the brigade commander’s investigation cites the sniper: “I saw the woman and her daughters and I shot warning shots. The section commander came up to the roof and shouted at me, 'Why did you shoot at them?’ I explained that I did not shoot at them, but I fired warning shots.”

Officers from the brigade surmise that fighters that stayed in the bottom floor of the Palestinian house thought that he hit them, and from here the rumor that a sniper killed a mother and her two daughters spread.

The other alleged incident, the killing by a sniper of an elderly woman, also seems not to have taken place:

Regarding the second incident, in which it was claimed that soldiers went up to the roof to entertain themselves with firing and killed an elderly Palestinian woman, the brigade commander investigation found that there was no such incident.

It seems the both Ha’aretz and the New York Times, which gave these stories great play despite a clear lack of evidence, should be composing forthright corrections – preferably to be run on the front page. (...)


Ha’aretz, the New York Times, and most other outlets covering this controversy have ignored detailed statements by other soldiers of the strict rules of engagement that they followed, and of their acts of kindness towards Palestinians. (The Times devoted all of one sentence to a soldier who said that Israeli soldiers put their own lives at risk to avoid harming Palestinians. And the lone sentence was buried towards the end of the article.)

The Israeli newspaper Yediot recounted some of these in reaction to the Ha’aretz stories:
"I don’t believe there were soldiers who were looking to kill (Palestinians) for no reason," said 21-year-old Givati Brigade soldier Assaf Danziger, who was lightly injured three days before the conclusion of Operation Cast Lead.

"What happened there was not enjoyable to anyone; we wanted it to end as soon as possible and tried to avoid contact with innocent civilians," he said.

According to Danziger, soldiers were given specific orders to open fire only at armed terrorists or people who posed a threat. "There were no incidents of vandalism at any of the buildings we occupied. We did only what was justified and acted out of necessity. No one shot at civilians. People walked by us freely," he recounted.

In the same article Yediot also quoted other soldiers:

A Paratroopers Brigade soldier who also participated in the war called the claims "nonsense". Speaking on condition of anonymity, he said "It is true that in war morality can be interpreted in many different ways, and there are always a few idiots who act inappropriately, but most of the soldiers represented Israel honorably and with a high degree of morality.

"For instance, on three separate occasions my company commander checked soldiers' bags for stolen goods. Those who stole the smallest things, like candy, were severely punished," he said.

"We were forbidden from sleeping in Palestinians' beds even when we had no alternate accommodations, and we didn’t touch any of their food even after we hadn't had enough to eat for two days."

"During one incident, we were informed that a female suicide bomber was heading in our direction, but even when women approached us and crossed a certain point we made do with firing in the air, or near the women," the soldier recalled. "Even when we came across deserted stores, we didn’t even think of taking anything. One soldier took a can of food, but he immediately returned it after everyone yelled at him."
Major (res.) Idan Zuaretz of Givati said "in every war there is a small percentage of problematic soldiers, but we must look at it from a broad perspective and not focus on isolated incidents."

Zuaretz, a company commander, also questioned the integrity of the soldiers who made the controversial claims, saying "if this was such a burning issue for them, why have they remained silent until now? On an ethical and moral level, they were obligated to stop what they claimed had occurred and not wait two months to be heard at some esoteric debate."

According to the officer, the IDF went to great lengths and employed the most advanced technology to avoid harming civilian population.

"I've seen a few things in my time, but even I was blown away by the level of professionalism displayed by the army," Zuaretz said. "I personally gave my soldiers an order on the day we withdrew from Gaza to leave all of our goodies in the last house we occupied. Some reservists even left an envelope full of money to one Palestinian family."

Another soldier who had fought in Gaza, Yishai Goldflam, circulated an open letter to the Palestinian family whose home his unit had temporarily occupied during the fighting. His letter, titled “I am the soldier who slept in your home,” was published in Maariv, and then translated and published in Canada’s National Post. Goldflam too spoke of the care he and his fellow soldiers had taken to minimize damage to the home:

I spent many days in your home. You and your family's presence was felt in every corner. I saw your family portraits on the wall, and I thought of my family. I saw your wife's perfume bottles on the bureau, and I thought of my wife. I saw your children's toys and their English-language schoolbooks. I saw your personal computer and how you set up the modem and wireless phone next to the screen, just as I do.
I wanted you to know that despite the immense disorder you found in your house that was created during a search for explosives and tunnels (which were indeed found in other homes), we did our best to treat your possessions with respect. When I moved the computer table, I disconnected the cables and laid them down neatly on the floor, as I would do with my own computer. I even covered the computer from dust with a piece of cloth.

I know that the devastation, the bullet holes in your walls and the destruction of those homes near you place my descriptions in a ridiculous light. Still, I need you to understand me -- us -- and hope that you will channel your anger and criticism to the right places. I decided to write you this letter specifically because I stayed in your home...

It’s unfortunate that New York Times and Haaretz readers are fed constant doses of the anti-Israel story-of-the-day, while the papers ignore the stories of typical Israeli soldiers like Yishai Goldflam. Times editors (and their counterparts at Haaretz) should explain why Danny Zamir is fit to print, and Yishai Goldflam is not fit to print.

The IDF appears to be judged by harsh criteria that no other army in the world is subjected to - just like Israel itself. It's about time it stopped.

Left Attempting To Bankrupt Palin Family

Tom Delay said it best: "These days, the Left doesn't just want to defeat you politically. They're not happy until they destroy you and your family personally."

Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska is learning that first hand:

Since Alaska governor Sarah Palin was named John McCain's running mate, her foes and various Alaskan liberals have begun a new exercise, attempting to bankrupt the Palin family through legal fees, by filing endless ethics complaints against her.

In her term, ten ethics complaints and 150 FOIA requests have been filed. (One of the complaints, about improperly firing her state public-safety commissioner, predates her national prominence.)

{and as we now know, that one turned out to be pure horse manure)

While holding elected officials accountable is laudable, most of the matters are beyond trivial. One of the complaints against her was for talking to reporters about the presidential campaign while she was in the governor's office. Another objected to her office press secretary offering a statement to clarify a statement put out by her political action committee. The latest complaint is that Palin wore snow-machine gear advertising her husband Todd's sponsor, Arctic Cat Inc, while "in her official duties as governor" when she served as the "official starter" of the race.

Palin owes $500,000 in legal fees, almost four times her annual salary. She says she may be forced to create a legal defense fund.

Now, here's the thing...if it's cost the Palins a half mil in legal fees to fight stuff that ends up being tossed out of court, it's cost the people filing this ridiculous lawsuits money as well. Filing lawsuits, even if they're entirely frivolous costs money. There are filing fees, court costs, miscellaneous expenses like photocopying and the most expensive thing of all - the time involved. So where are all these people getting the money? Who's organizing this onslaught? WHO'S PAYING THE BILLS?

Since Sarah Palin is currently hugely popular among Republicans generally and likely to be a contender in 2012, now whom do you think might might have a huge interest in wanting to derail her by trying to bankrupt her and creating an aura of 'scandal' even when there's nothing there? Who would benefit?

Could it be, just maybe, the same folks who financed and executed the bogus 'Troopergate ' nonsense once they saw how popular Governor Palin was and the way she totally changed the dynamics of the presidential campaign around so that Obama's victory wasn't quite such a sure thing? The people in the Obama campaign who sicced their media flacks on her and did things like indulging in wholesale 'astroturfing' and putting out an illegal video on Palin during the campaign through thinly disguised surrogates?.

Could it be the same folks who are in the White House even now planning the campaign to re-elect the Chosen One?

Draw your own conclusions.

If nothing else, this proves on thing..the Left and the Democrats are scared to death of this woman....and with good reason.

From what I've seen of Sarah Palin, this crap is just going to make her work all that much harder to win.

O's Foreign Failures...

Ralph Peters nails it. And without even detailing all of Obama's screw ups and hostility towards our friends, let alone the screw ups with our enemies:

AMERICA'S enemies smell blood and it's type "O."

All new administrations stumble a bit as they seek their footing. But President Obama's foreign-policy botches have set new records for instant incompetence.

Contrary to left-wing myths, I wasn't a fan of the Bush administration. (I called for Donald Rumsfeld to get the boot in mid-2001.) But fair's fair. Despite his many faults, Bush sought to do good. Obama just wants to look good.

Vice President Dick Cheney was arrogant. Vice President Joe Biden is arrogant and stupid. Take your pick.

Don't worry about the new administration's ideology. Worry about its terrifying naivete.

Consider a sampling of the goofs O and his crew have made in just two months:

China: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (you know that gal married to the Saudi hireling) crawled to Beijing to tell the party bosses that human rights don't matter. Our "relationship" is more important than freedom and human dignity.

Beijing's response? A staged military confrontation with an unarmed US Navy vessel; continued screw-America currency cheating; a renewed crackdown on dissidents and, yesterday, a call for a new global currency to replace the dollar.

Thanks, Hill. You're a sweetheart.

Pakistan: With viral corruption throughout and Islamist fanatics sweeping half of its territory, Pakistan's coming apart. Its Dem-adored prez tries to ban opposition parties and gut the judiciary. It has nukes and seethes with hatred of America. And Islamabad controls our primary supply route into Afghanistan, using it as an extortion tool.

Obama's response? Billions in new aid for Pak pols to pocket. We'd be better off handing the money to AIG to pay out more bonuses.

Afghanistan: Obama's Vietnam. Am I the only American who remembers that candidate Obama had a plan to capture Osama bin Laden and fix our previous "mistakes" in Afghanistan? President Obama doesn't have a clue.

Iran: Obama tried to reach out, to talk. After all, talking got him to the White House. But America-bashing is what keeps Iran's leaders in office, it's their political essence. After 30 years of fierce hostility, hasn't anyone figured out that the senior mullahs need us as an enemy? Without the Great Satan America to blame, they'd have some real explaining to do to their homies. So O got the left-hand finger.

He wanted to chat with the Taliban, too. They told him he could stick it where the sun don't shine.

North Korea: Obama wanted a fresh start. North Korea's response? Threats of war with South Korea and the kidnapping of two American journalists. And the renewed pursuit of weapons of mass destruction, along with rocket tests.

Cuba: Obama would like to liberalize our relationship. The Castro boys told him to kiss off. They need an enemy, too. (Dear Mr. President: It's not always about us or how evil America is.)

Venezuela: Guess who else needs an enemy?

Mexico: The good news: Obama knows where it is on a map and recognizes that Mexico's government faces a narco-insurgency that threatens our country, too. His first action? Cave to the Teamsters, violate a lawful treaty on cross-border trucking, reignite fading anti-Americanism and undercut President Felipe Calderon.

Poland: Obama's stance on our bravest ally on the European continent? The Russians are more important than you are. He's sending the same message to Ukraine and Georgia.

Russia: Bolshie Biden, the commuting commissar, knows he's the man who can turn Russia into our best pal. After "Friend of Bill" Strobe Talbott tried and failed disastrously. And after poor W saw into Putin's soul, only to get his butt handed to him. "Uncle Joe" Biden has nothing to learn from past failures, though: He's got a re-set button.

Moscow's response to the Obama administration's bid for a new start? It threatens NATO members it once occupied and continues to back Iran's nuclear program. Plus, it bribes Kyrgystan to kick us off the critical-to-Afghanistan Manas airbase (then offers to help replace that supply lifeline, giving Russia a choke-hold on our troops).

Next, the Kremlin threatens massive re-armament and demands the abandonment of the dollar as the international reserve currency.

Obama's response? Push that re-set button again. And again.

At what point does naivete become cowardice?

As for our allies, Obama apparently needs them less than Bush did. O treated Britain's prime minister like the deputy Paraguayan veterinary inspector, and he blindsided the leaders of the Czech Republic, Poland, Mexico and Canada on issues ranging from missile defense to trade. But he'd like them to take the Gitmo terrorists off our hands, please.

The one bright spot thus far has been Iraq, where Obama quickly tossed aside his campaign promises. The O-man doesn't want to be on the blame-line for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory in Baghdad. And his MoveOn.org supporters can throw all the tantrums they want. (Breaking news, folks: O's a professional pol, not the messiah . . . )

Apart from Iraq, a success Senator Obama did all he could to prevent, his foreign policy's an instant wasteland. By comparison, the Carter administration is starting to look like a model of manly strength, courage and patriotism.

Ouch.That's gotta leave a mark.

Afghan Wanna-Be Suicide Bomber Accidently Blows Himself And 6 Other Jihadis Up

"Goodbye guys...Uh, I press this button, right?

A would-be suicide bomber accidentally blew himself up on Thursday, killing six other militants as he was bidding them farewell to leave for his intended target, the Interior Ministry said.

"The terrorist was on his way to his destination and saying good-bye to his associates and then his suicide vest exploded," a statement from the ministry said.

Taliban-led attacks in Afghanistan have escalated in the past year with suicide and roadside bombings insurgents' weapons of choice.

The incident happened in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan where mainly British troops are struggling against a growing Taliban-led insurgency

.


Too freaking funny!

Pastor John Hagee Is Israel's Hero - Again

The amazing Pastor John Hagee has done it again.

Looking at the obvious distancing from Israel by the Obama Administration, Pastor Hagee once more decided to take the initiative and do what needed to be done..reminding the people in DC that while a good many stupid Jews voted for the current occupant of the White House, there were plenty of other supporters of Israel that needed to be counted:

More than 100,000 American Christians have signed a petition expressing solidarity with Israel.

The petition, organized by Pastor John Hagee's group Christians United for Israel, was presented Tuesday to members of Congress.

It states that "there is no excuse for acts of terrorism against Israel and Israel has the same right as every other nation to defend her citizens from such violent attacks.

The petition goes on to say that its signers pledge to speak out on behalf of their "brothers and sisters in Israel" whenever and wherever necessary "until the attacks stop and they are finally living in peace and security with their neighbors."

In a statement, Hagee said, “As our leaders in Washington make decisions about American foreign policy in the Middle East, it is important for them to know that Christians across the country remain solidly committed to a strong U.S.-Israel relationship."

You may remember me mentioning Pastor Hagee before. Pastor Hagee's Crossroads Church, among their other numerous good works raised $8.5 million dollars to rescue Jews from the Soviet Union and to help them to settle in Israel.

Only a year ago, they raised $6 million dollars to donate to various Israeli causes and brought hundreds of supporters from America to Israel to express their solidarity with the Jews

And Pastor Hagee and his Church are the linchpin behind Christians United For Israel, one of the most diligent and uncompromising supporters of Israel and the Jewish people anywhere. They rival AIPAC when it comes to manning the trenches in DC for Israel, and they can be seen buttonholing Congressmen and asking them the hard questions when it comes to backing the nation Obama's long time mentor Jeremiah Wright famously referred to as 'a dirty word'.

Pastor Hagee was also the man who was unjustly smeared by the Obama campaign as anti-Semitic and anti-Catholic because he had endorsed John McCain for president and the Obama campaign needed a distraction to get the Jeremiah Wright story off the top of the news cycle. And to their eternal shame, a number of leftard Jews participated in maligning this great man, to the point where John McCain did the shameful, expedient thing and disavowed Hagee's endorsement.

Yet, after all that, Pastor Hagee continues to be one of the best friends Israel and the Jewish people ever had.

Full disclosure:: I've had the honor of meeting Pastor Hagee, I've seen what he's accomplished,and what a powerful leader he is,and I see him as more of a hero of Zion than many Jews.

He and his congregation will be blessed by Almighty G-d for continuing to make a difference, and those acts will be recorded and rewarded where it counts.The Bank Of Karma Uptown keeps pretty good records.

Oh, and by the way...at the Christians United For Israel website, there's a pledge you can sign in support of Israel if you're so inclined. That and maybe a small donation if you can afford it would be one way to thank him and his group for once again sticking their necks out for Israel. It's time and money well spent.

Gordon Brown "..The Devalued Prime Minister Of A Devalued Government!"

A classic and brilliantly eloquent Parliamentary flogging delivered by British MP Daniel Hannan,in which he tells Brown, "The truth, Mr. Prime Minister is that you have run out of our money...you cannot spend your way out of recession or borrow you're way out of debt!"

Unfortunately, the things he says could easily be applied to the socialist we elected here in America..a younger, slicker version of what could be termed, in the words of MP Hannan, 'a tired old Breznev era apparatchnik."

Hat tip and a commendation to Joshua's Army member Louie Louie

Obama's Brown Shirt Bill Passes...

Sorry..more bad news I'm afraid.It looks like Obama will be able to push through his Domestic Security Force bill.

The US Senate just set up for the passing of HR 1388 , otherwise known as the Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education (GIVE) Act. ..which authorizes $6 billion to reauthorize through 2014 the National and Community Service Act of 1990 and the Domestic Volunteer Service Act of 1973, acts that originally, among other programs, funded the AmeriCorps and the National Senior Service Corps.

However, it not only reauthorizes the programs, but also includes "new programs and studies". And the new bill specifically mentions possibilities if "all individuals in the United States were expected to perform national service or were required to perform a certain amount of national service."

What the bill does is to increase the number taxpayer funded 'community service' jobs in America from 75,000 to well over 250,000. This cadre is expected to indoctrinate others and eventually lead to an increase in the 'force' of Americans engaged in “community organizing” to about 7 million.

The bill also mentions the establishment of volunteers "grouped together as appropriate in campuses for operational, support, and boarding purposes. The Corps campus for a unit shall be in a facility or central location established as the operational headquarters and boarding place for the unit. … There shall be a superintendent for each camp...."

What we have here, given who's in the White house, is the framework of an 'Obama Youth', with ACORN types indoctrinating impressionable youths on the glories of socialism, the Democrat party and loyalty to the Leader, while teaching the mandatory 'volunteers' community organizing, professional Alinsky style grievance mongering, and other things the Obama regime might find appropriate.

Politicians on both sides of the aisle went for this one. Supporters of the plan include Teddy Kennedy (D. Mass.), John McCain (R. Nevada), Orrin Hatch (R. Utah),and Barbara Mikulski (D. Maryland). There were 14 Republican Senators who opposed the bill, while 11 Senators abstained.

It seems to me that if there was $6 billion available to spend, it could more appropriately have gone to the military to fund new recruiting. But I doubt that's what the Obama Administration has in mind.

The only good part of this is that a lot of the initial outlay will go for salaries to the existing ACORN types and for overpriced studies on how to implement this before it really gets going.

Once again, 2010 is key.

Watcher's Council Nominations, 3/25/09

The Watcher's Council is a group of some of the most incisive blogs in the`sphere. Every week, the members nominate two posts each, one of their own and one from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council.

So, let's see what we have this week....and do check out the Watcher's take on corrupt Democrat Rod Blagojevich naming names and showing where the bodies are buried...


COUNCIL

Joshuapundit - AIG - Obama And the Democrats Unconstitutional Shadow Show -In an attempt to dramatize the phony outrage the Obama Administration and their accomplices in Congress are voicing over amendments they specifically authorized in order to exempt the bonuses from major campaign donor AIG as part of the Obama bailout legislation, they are targeting a new class of rich kulaks as Enemies Of the People...and dancing on the Constitution to do it.

Rhymes With Right - Republican Rejection Of Hyperbole Called Racist In Georgia - Greg makes the excellent point that a labelling oposition to a resolution calling for Barack Obama to be made a lifetime member of th esegregationist Congressional Black Caucus is absolutely laughable.

The Razor - Congressman Lives in MD - Represents California -Scott notes that California Democrat Pete Stark is a sleaze. I fully agree, and he has a long history of being one on many levels.

The Glittering Eye - Geithner Announces Banker Bailout Program - This week Dave Schuler analyzes Secretary of the Treasury Geithner's bank bailout scheme. He's less than impressed.

Bookworm Room - Out of the Mouths of Babes - Ms. Bookworm quotes her son's take on demagogues...and it's well worth quoting.

Mere Rhetoric - Great News: Obama’s Hand-Picked NSC Consolidating Power Great - Omri examines how the Obama Administration's anti-Israel, pro-Arab NSC is essentially taking over a good slice of America's foreign policy...a dangerous trend where none of th eplayers are subject to congressional oversight.

Right Truth - Grim Assessment for America’s Safety - Debbie Hamilton looks at security threats to America..and what the Obama Administration is not doing about them.


Soccer Dad - Major newspaper seems fated to cast Israel in the worst possible light - I noticed this piece by Soccer Dad earlier in the week...here, he examines a particularly silly and biased editorial in the WAPO.


The Colossus of Rhodey - Messiah-worshiping News Journal also has faux outrage - Hube, like me, notices the phony outrage towards the AIG executives and the unconstitutional nature of Congresses' attempt to cover themselves...as seen through his local ObamaMedia.


The Provocateur - My Grandfather, the 14th Amendment, and the AIG Bonuses - Great minds think alike..Mike also noted certain similarities between the way the Obama Administration and the Democrats are behaving and the modi of dear old Unkie Joe Stalin.



NON-COUNCIL

Submitted By: Rhymes With Right - Big Lizards - The Great Dictator

Submitted By: Joshuapundit - Robert Averech/Big Hollywood - The Burning Of Los Angeles: The Gauntlet

Submitted By: The Razor - The Pirate King - The Environuts Are Winning

Submitted By: The Glittering Eye - Self-Evident - The ‘Geithner Put’, Part 1

Submitted By: Bookworm Room - Big Hollywood - Love, War — and Gay Marriage

Submitted By: Mere Rhetoric - Olivier Guitta - Which Way Will the Wind Blow From Damascus?

Submitted By: Right Truth - Chesler Chronicles at Pajamas Media - A Universal Doctrine of Women’s Rights.

Submitted By: Soccer Dad - Contentions - Linda Chavez - Re: Get Real

Submitted By: The Colossus of Rhodey - Oliver Kamm - Galloway’s heroes

Submitted By: The Provocateur - The Chicago Tribune - The Chicago Way in D.C.

Obama's Press Conference..The Mask Slips Again

The Chosen One continued his high public presence by favoring us mere mortals with yet a second press conference.Like the first one, it was obvious that most of the reporters were pre-selected and the the questions submitted in advance ( note the surprise of the one reporter who was called on who wasn't on the list) so the ol' teleprompter could be primed up and ready to roll.

So, what wisdom did the teleprompter umm..the president have for us?

Once again, I waded through this stuff so you don't have to.

Basically, boiled down to a single sentence, what he had to say was: 'Hey, I won the election, I'm going to get what I want out of Congress to pass my agenda and I'll sweat the details later.' Details like a deficit total of $9.3 trillion under what passes for his plan..

In between, we were treated to a healthy dose of horse manure from Elmer-Gantry-With-A-Tan.

Here are just a few samples, starting with his opening remarks:

The first step we took was to pass a recovery plan to jump-start job creation and put money in people's pockets. This plan's already saved the jobs of teachers and police officers. It's creating construction jobs to rebuild roads and bridges.

And yesterday, I met with a man whose company is reopening a factory outside of Pittsburgh that's rehiring workers to build some of the most energy-efficient windows in the world.

And this plan will provide a tax cut to 95 percent of all working families that will appear in people's paychecks by April 1.

So many outright lies, so little time..the president's 'stimulus' plan, by targeting small business owners with gross incomes of over $250,000 is going to cost jobs, not save them, as the rising unemployment numbers show..although government jobs, paid for on the taxpayer's dime actually increased.And those 'jobs' building roads and bridges? years in the future, after they've been designed, permitted and contracted. As I've pointed out before, meanwhile the money changes hands now.

And that mythical tax cut? It's actually a tax credit, Bubba, of about $52 dollars a month.And next year, since the tax tables aren't changing, it will be taxed as income.

And then there was this bit:

You know, there was a lot of outrage and finger-pointing last week, and much of it is understandable. I'm as angry as anybody about those bonuses that went to some of the very same individuals who brought our financial system to its knees, partly because it's yet another symptom of the culture that led us to this point.

But one of the most important lessons to learn from this crisis is that our economy only works if we recognize that we're all in this together, that we all have responsibilities to each other and to our country.

Bankers and executives on Wall Street need to realize that enriching themselves on the taxpayers' dime is inexcusable, that the days of outsized rewards and reckless speculation that puts us all at risk have to be over.

At the same time, the rest of us can't afford to demonize every investor or entrepreneur who seeks to make a profit. That drive is what has always fueled our prosperity, and it is what will ultimately get these banks lending and our economy moving once more

.


Obviously, President Zero thinks we're just downright stoo-pid.Does he think people don't know that the Democrats in DC deliberately crafted the part of the 'stimulus' bill dealing with the AIG bonuses with the idea of protecting a very generous campaign donor? That Chris Dodd went public on CNN saying that Obama and Geithner told him to do it ?

Not to mention the fact that Obama could have stopped the kabuki 'outrage' in Congress and the demonization of some of those investors and entrepeneurs - most of whom did nothing wrong - with a word. Instead, he let the class envy rage build because he regarded it as politically beneficial for the Obamazombies to see all private business as 'crooked' and 'greedy'..a standard community 'organizer' tactic ala' Sol Alinsky.


Needless to say, none of the chosen reporters mentioned any of this.

But here's some of the stuff that did come up.

In response to ABC's Jake Tapper on the proposed budget:

Well, I've emphasized repeatedly what I expect out of this budget. I expect that there's serious efforts at health care reform and that we are driving down costs for families and businesses, and ultimately for the federal and state governments that are going to be broke if we continue on the current path.

I've said that we've got to have a serious energy policy that frees ourselves from dependence on foreign oil and makes clean energy the profitable kind of energy.

{...}

And I've said that we've got to start driving our deficit numbers down.

Now, we never expected, when we printed out our budget, that they would simply Xerox it and vote on it. We assume that it has to go through the legislative process. I have not yet seen the final product coming out of the Senate or the House, and we're in constant conversations with them.

I am confident that the budget we put forward will have those principles in place.

When it comes to cap-and-trade, the broader principle is that we've got to move to a new energy era, and that means moving away from polluting energy sources towards cleaner energy sources. That is a potential engine for economic growth.

I think cap-and-trade is the best way, from my perspective, to achieve some of those gains, because what it does is it starts pricing the pollution that's being sent into the atmosphere.
{...}
Our point in the budget is: Let's get started now. We can't wait. And my expectation is that the Energy Committees or other relevant committees in both the House and the Senate are going to be moving forward a strong energy package. It will be authorized. We'll get it done. And I will sign it.

Translation? Hey, I want to fund the gimmees on universal health care and the rest of my agenda. I'm going to bankrupt the coal industry just like I said.And I'm going to get what I want regardless of what those blue dog Democrats think, and I want it done now. We'll sweat the details later, just like with the 'stimulus.'

Want more? here's Obama on the deficit: "In this budget, we have made the tough choices necessary to cut our deficit in half by the end of my first term even under the most pessimistic estimates."

Hah! Even the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office last week predicted that the Obama budget would produce deficits averaging nearly $1 trillion per year over the next decade.

Obama's razzle dazzle is based on the incredibly optimistic prediction that the economy will grow 3.2 percent for 2010, followed by three years of more than 4 percent growth each year.. while the Congressional Budget Office estimates that growth will be only 2.2. percent if all goes well. That's what Obama has described as “small differences” with a straight face. But when you're talking about the dollar amount of the US economy and factoring in what Obama wants to spend on things like health care,boondoggles for unproven energy sources and the cost of cap n' trade, the president is dealing with economic stupidity that even a Chicago Southside crack dealer could poke holes through.

And finally, amid of whole slew of things I could mention, here's President Obama one mo' time, blaming the evil Bush: "I suspect that some of those Republican critics ( of his budget) have a short memory, because, as I recall, I'm inheriting a $1.3 trillion deficit, annual deficit, from them."

True enough, on the face of it...except it's Congress that authorizes spending, and the last time I checked Congress was controlled by Democrats in the last two years of Bush's presidency. President Zero needs some new material, I think.

Just as an interesting contrast, when President Bush was interviewed a week ago and asked to comment on the first sixty days of the Obama presidency, he refused, responding "he (Obama) deserves my silence."

I'm not your biggest fan, but that was a classy response and a fine gesture, Mr. President.

And one that was wasted on the current occupant of the White House, who apparently lacks the manhood to respond in kind and take responsibility for his own mess.

I doubt we have ever had a president with this particular combination of malignant narcissism an doutright fecklessness.