Ted Cruz Wins Texas Senate Nomination!!!

Which means he's almost assured of a seat in the next Senate.

Cruz was an underdog to take down Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst - the favorite of the party establishment and Hutchison's heir apparent. Ted Cruz was more aligned with the Tea Party, and he had a lot less money to spend than Dewhurst did.

But Ted Cruz prevailed, and I mean to tell you..I think we have an excellent rookie conservative senator coming up. It's good to see common sense prevailing somewhere in America.

Saudi Intelligence Chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan Assassinated?

If true, this is huge.


There are a number of reports coming from the Middle East saying that the new Saudi Chief of Intelligence Prince Bandar bin Sultan was assassinated a few days ago in an explosion. The assassination reportedly occurred July 23rd, just a few days after he was appointed.

Iran's official PRESS-TV bureau has the same story.

The perpetrator is said to be Syria, in revenge for the bombing in Damascus which killed several high ranking Syrian officials. My guess is that it was more likely to have been Hezbollah or the Iranians themselves, perhaps the Qods Force. As you may remember, the Iranians have been behind similar operations before in the Kingdom, during the Haj. And of course, the Khobar Towers bombing.

Bandar was not only the Kingdom's intel chief, he was a high ranking member of the Saudi ruling family. He was the son of Prince Sultan ( defense minister from 1963 until his death in 2011) and of a slave. he also served as Saudi ambassador to the US from 1983 until 2005, and was so close to the Bush family that his nickname among them was 'Bandar Bush'.

He reportedly received his promotion to intel chief for planning and executing the Damascus bombing. As I've mentioned, The Saudis and Qataris are bankrolling the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood rebellion.

Official sources in Saudi Arabia are refusing to confirm of deny this, which leads me to believe it might very well be true.

More on this as it comes in.

Harry Reid Has Affairs With Pet Dogs, Lights Own Farts On Fire

I have that direct from a long time owner of a kennel who's known Reid for years, and told me explicitly that not only did Senator Reid admit it to him, but that he's been supplying the dogs in question and actually saw Reid set one of his farts on fire with a bic lighter.

The above photo shows him allegedly testing out one  dog's 'suitability'.

Of course, my source must remain confidential.

Nevertheless, I can prove what I say as much as Reid can 'prove' his statements to a Huffington Post reporter about an unnamed 'Bain Investor' telling him that Governor Romney hasn't paid taxes in ten years.

I mean, if you were Mitt Romney,would you be telling some unnamed investor in Bain ( or anyone else for that matter) how much you pay in taxes? Senator Reid might be damned good at crafting special legislation to enrich himself on land deals, but as for crafting a credible slam? You literally would have to go to HuffPo, Newsweak, or Daily Kos to find someone stupid enough to echo chamber that one.

Oh, it gets better. Reid also claims he's somehow channeling Mitt Romney's dead father:

"His poor father must be so embarrassed about his son," Reid said, in reference to George Romney's standard-setting decision to turn over 12 years of tax returns when he ran for president in the late 1960s.

Which leads me to wonder...just how low can someone like Harry Reid go? And is his mother ashamed of him, slandering someone like this just because he found someone equally despicable willing to print this?

Actually, both John Kerry and John McCain never released more than two years' taxes, and they weren't running against Obama, and the dinosaur media.

By the way, I have another hot item on Senator Reid. Did you know he likes to pick his nose and eat his own boogers when he thinks no one's looking? Confidential source, but absolutely accurate, I tell you.



Trust me, we're going to see a lot worse as this goes on.

I never want to hear a single lefty tell me again about 'poisonous discourse' or the evils of Republican 'partisan politics'.

NPR's Cokie Roberts : Romney's Trip to Poland Motivated By White Racism

This is hardly surprising, given that it's Mary Martha Corrinne Morrison Clayburn Boggs 'Cokie' Roberts, but this is demented even for a long time left wing ideologue posing as a 'journalist'. Check this out:

LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST: So today is Poland. Why is he stopping in Poland. What does he hope to accomplish with that?

COKIE ROBERTS: Well, I think part of it was a desire to portray President Obama as something of a wimp, and say he's abandoned Eastern Europe. But look, you remember well the Reagan Democrats. Those ethnic white voters who had been Democrats for many years; turned out for Ronald Reagan, and have been fairly predictable Republicans since then. Now it's a smaller percentage of the population -- of the voting population -- than it used to be, but white voters are still much more Republican than any other group in the electorate. They went for McCain in 2008 by 55%. And I think that getting those ethnic voters excited is really what Romney has in mind here. It's more for the folks at home -- the descendents of the people that he will be speaking to -- in Poland.

Yes, Mitt Romney's trip to Poland wasn't motivated by wanting to confer with the leaders and speak to the people of one of our most important allies in New Europe, one that's been especially screwed over by the Obama Administration's faux 're-set' with Russia.

It's all about appealing to white racism.

This sort of bigoted extreme far left nonsense is hardly anything new for Roberts, so no surprises there.

But you have to wonder if NPR and similar outlets actually have any journalistic standards or ethics left. Andnote that Wertheimer didn't even see fit to challenge this nonsense in the least.

I wouldn't even mind this inanity so much, if it wasn't being funded by the American taxpayer.

The Obama Media And The Unbelievably Negative Coverage Of Mitt Romney's Trip

If they had any honor or credibility left, much of our press has sacrificed it with their coverage of Governor Romney's foreign trip.

Today's headlines on the Governor's trip to Poland are a superb example. There's no headlines or even much mention about Governor Romney's superb and well received speech to the Polish people, or his endorsement by Polish icon Lechs Walesa.

No, today's screaming headlines concern one campaign aide who told an intrusive and rude press pool exactly what they deserved to hear.

Governor Romney was visiting Poland's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Warsaw along with a delegation of Poland's veterans. As he paid his respects, instead of respecting the solemn moment, the media jackals began baying questions at Romney. At which point, traveling press secretary Rick Gorka lost it:
CNN: "Governor Romney are you concerned about some of the mishaps of your trip?
NYT: "Governor Romney do you have a statement for the Palestinians?
Washington Post: "What about your gaffes?
NYT: "Governor Romney do you feel that your gaffes have overshadowed your foreign trip?"
CNN: "Governor Romney just a few questions sir, you haven't taken but three questions on this trip from the press!
Gorka: "Show some respect"
NYT: "We haven't had another chance to ask a question..."
Gorka: "Kiss my ass. This is a Holy site for the Polish people. Show some respect."


Yes, that's the headline. Not the fact that Governor Romney was incredibly well received by one of our most loyal allies in Europe.

As I mentioned previously, the same thing happened in Britain ( with the connivance of a large contingent of the British press and a number of British politicians), where soundbites were literally invented based on something Governor Romney never even said. And of course, the Obama Media here was full of Governor Romney's 'gaffes' which actually weren't really gaffes at all.

And it happened in Israel where Governor Romney's trip and an amazing speech were again received as overwhelmingly favorable by the people he came to speak to.

The press headlines about Governor Romney's Israel trip? Hysterical allegations of 'racism' by a corrupt Arafat-era PLO hack which were demonstrably false, but again, that was the headline.

According to CNN, Mr. Gorka later called the press to apologize. As far as I'm concerned, he needn't have. As this point, many of them are simply behaving like hostile entities who deserve no consideration whatsoever.

It's important to look at one aspect of this...what exactly was the purpose of this trip? If it was designed to have Governor Romney meet with foreign leaders and let the citizens of some of our most important allies know where he stood on matters that concern them, he succeeded quite well in two out of three countries. And even in Britain, we have no idea about how the British public actually felt, since the antics of the UK's politicians and press pretty much precluded any serious discussions.

But you'd never know it to read the dinosaur media.

Not only did we see partisan screeds on the Governor's actual trip, but we saw the press co-operate enthusiastically when the Obama Administration released stories like the one on the supposedly never returned Churchill bust, timed specifically to embarrass Mitt Romney when he was in the UK.

When that story,peddled on the official White House site proved to be an outright falsehood, the story was quickly buried. Can you imagine the coverage if Mitt Romney had done something even remotely similar?

Ditto with Nancy Pelosi's gaffe on how President Obama has 'been to Israel over and over again'. Buried in the memory hole.

And after all this, the Obama Media is attacking Romney for 'blaming the media'! Tres le chutzpah, if you'll allow a linguistically mixed observation.

If Governor Romney had any illusions that he was going to be treated with even an iota of fairness or even basic decency, I'm sure he now understands things differently.

If I were Governor Romney, I would seriously consider retaliating by taking away from these people the one thing they value most...access. Creating a press pool that feeds them exactly what you want them to have is the proper way to deal with them. They won't like it,but as I said, at this point you're essentially dealing with hostile entities that might as well be on the payroll of the Obama Campaign.

And I would insist on someone I considered fair and balanced to moderate the coming debates.

UPDATE: Just listen to these reporters screech at Romney in Poland, courtesy of Bill Kristol:



You could almost feel like they need to be hosed down just to approach human standards. Not only was Gorka's response totally appropriate, he ought to be commended for his patience and self control.

I echo Bill Kristol's sentiments. Here's hoping the Romney campaign doesn't become defensive and apologetic, but hangs tough and calls this for what it is.

This Article Made Me Physically Sick- Pianos Being Dumped And Destroyed

This article got a visceral response from me. Apparently, perfectly good pianos, some of them antiques by famous makers, are being dumped and destroyed en masse:


The Knabe baby grand did a cartwheel and landed on its back, legs poking into the air. A Lester upright thudded onto its side with a final groan of strings, a death-rattling chord. After 10 pianos were dumped, a small yellow loader with a claw in front scuttled in like a vicious beetle, crushing keyboards, soundboards and cases into a pile.

The site, a trash-transfer station in this town 20 miles north of Philadelphia, is just one place where pianos go to die. This kind of scene has become increasingly common.

The value of used pianos, especially uprights, has plummeted in recent years. So instead of selling them to a neighbor, donating them to a church or just passing them along to a relative, owners are far more likely to discard them, technicians, movers and dealers say. Piano movers are making regular runs to the dump, becoming adept at dismantling instruments, selling parts to artists, even burning them for firewood.

“We bust them up with a sledgehammer,” said Jeffrey Harrington, the owner of Harrington Moving & Storage in Maplewood, N.J.

The story? People don't want to pay the costs of moving them, keeping them tuned and repairing them, and competition from new digital pianos at much lower prices is fierce.

So these fine instruments simply end up being destroyed, after a lifetim eof making beautiful music:

O’Mara Meehan Piano Movers said it takes 5 to 10 pianos a month to the debris transfer site here. The company was founded in 1874 by the great-grandfather of the brothers Bryan and Charles T. O’Mara Jr.

Bryan O’Mara and an employee, James A. Fox, drove their truck into a hangarlike structure one day last week. Inside the truck were six uprights and four grands. Several came from the Philadelphia school system and one from a retirement home. “This was Mrs. Dombrowski’s from New Hope,” Mr. O’Mara said, patting the Knabe.

Mr. O’Mara and Mr. Fox pushed them off the back of the truck one by one. The top of an upright popped off when it landed. Mr. Fox tossed amputated piano legs and a pedal mechanism. Sprayers from above sent out a swirl of dust-settling mist, adding to the surreal atmosphere.

Mr. O’Mara had charged the former owners about $150 per piano. The trash site charged him $233.24 for dumping them all. A recycling company would pick up the debris and separate the wood from the metal.

Beethoven Pianos, a restorer, renter, mover and dealer in New York, has a 34,000-square-foot warehouse at the base of the Third Avenue Bridge in the Bronx, with scores of pianos awaiting disposal, said the owner, Carl Demler.

“In wintertime we burn them,” he said, pointing to a round metal stove. “This one has eaten many pianos.”

Many of these instruments were made back when craftsmanship actually mattered. They were made of real wood, often in quality joined or pegged cabinets and designed to be more than just a musical instrument, but a sign of culture and beauty in the home.

Any society that treats these items in such a fashion, as disposable items, is incurring a kind of cultural sickness.

Not much more I can say about this.

Factchecking The AP On Romney's Israel Trip...Pure Horsemanure Disguised As Straight News

It's hard to believe that the Associated Press still considers itself a hard news outlet.

Today's story on Governor Romney's speech in Israel is a case in point.

The headline says it all:'Romney comments at fundraiser outrage Palestinians'...in big red letters.

Apparently the governor, looking at the difference between Israel's development and surrounding Arab countries drew some obvious conclusions about th epart culture plays in prosperity.

So they quote Saeb Erekat, the right fork of Yasser Arafat's tongue, who ought to know personally about how cultural elements have impacted the 'Palestinian' economy.

"It is a racist statement and this man doesn't realize that the Palestinian economy cannot reach its potential because there is an Israeli occupation," said Saeb Erekat, a senior aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

"It seems to me this man lacks information, knowledge, vision and understanding of this region and its people," Erekat added. "He also lacks knowledge about the Israelis themselves. I have not heard any Israeli official speak about cultural superiority."

First of all, Area A is entirely under Palestinian control, not subject to Israeli checkpoints except where it's necessitated by threat of Palestinian terrorism. So is Gaza, which had no blockade in place (from both the Israeli and Egyptian sides,I might add) until Hamas took over and started shooting missiles at Israel.The people identifying themselves as Palestinians rule these areas. There is no occupation of the Arab occupied parts of Judea and Samaria (AKA the West Bank) in any realistic sense of the word.

Aside from the AP stacking the deck by linking Gaza and the Palestinian Authority ruled territory in the figures they site, here's a dirty little secret about why Israel is a developed, modern democracy while the Palestinian Authority and every other non-oil bearing Arab country isn't, and Saeb Erekat knows this pretty well, since he's one of the perpetrators.

All the Arab countries, including what passes for 'Palestine' are kleptocracies,where the leaders and those connected to them (including Erekat) steal their people blind.Fatah's Old Guard were gifted by the chief thief himself, Yasser Arafat,with monopolies on virtually every bit of economic activity worth mentioning, which is why Mahmoud Abbas, his two sons, and a number of others including Erekat are millionaires.

Stealing the aid money from gullible western donors became a sport a long time ago, which is where Sufa Arafat gets the money to live in the best hotel in Paris while a number of Palestinians still live in refugee camps.

"It's Israeli occupiers and Palestinians under occupation, and that's why Palestinians cannot realize their potential," Erekat is quoted as saying.

But if you look at the other Arab countries without oil wealth, you see the same pattern.It's not just the Palestinians. Call it the culture of corruption, if you like.

Even in the Arab countries with oil wealth, most of the money tends to stay 'in the family' shall we say.The Saudis are a classic example.

So Romney was entirely correct about a link between culture, prosperity and development: "And you look at Israel and you say you have a hard time suggesting that all of the natural resources on the land could account for all the accomplishment of the people here," Romney said, before citing another book, "The Wealth and Poverty of Nations," by former Harvard professor David Landes.

This book, Romney said in Jerusalem, concludes that "if you could learn anything from the economic history of the world it's this: Culture makes all the difference. Culture makes all the difference."

So what's the AP's response? Ra-aa-cism!

Another blatant whopper -

Romney flew to the Middle East from Britain, where he caused a stir by questioning whether officials there were fully prepared for the Olympic Games. A stop in Poland will complete his trip.

As I pointed out,Governor Romney never actually said the Brits were not fully prepared for the Olympics.

If this is where the dinosaur media buys it stories from to redact, is it any wonder so much of th emedia is so biased towards President Obama's re-election? And tilted against Israel?

This Week's Watcher's Forum: Do You Favor Changes To Current Laws On Gun Ownership?

Every week on Monday morning , the Council and invited guests weigh in at the Watcher's Forum, short takes on a major issue of the day. This week's question:Do You Favor Changes To Current Laws On Gun Ownership?

The Independent Sentinel: I think it is a slippery slope. I want to keep the power in the hands of the state.

A reporting process for large sales of ammo and large capacity magazine clips should be considered by all states.

The Colorado killer could have placed bombs with timing devices throughout the theatre. He was determined and he would have used explosives.

I'm in NY and we don't have much left of the second amendment here. Even so, the legislators want even tougher laws. Some want gun rights as restrictive on Long Island as they are in NYC. The slippery slope!

NYC, DC, Chicago, with some of the toughest gun laws in the country, have serious gun violence-their strict gun laws have done nothing except further the illegal gun trade.

Australia, which never had a second amendment, went through a massive gun confiscation. Now government officials want to eliminate all private gun ownership. They even want to ban some knives, something we've done in NYC.

There will be no end if we go down that slope.

The Colossus of Rhodey: I have to plead ignorance on exactly what all our current gun laws are -- mainly because they're quite labyrinthine. They're an amalgam of state, local and federal law that can be difficult to follow at times.

For instance, take an AK-47: The Firearm Owners Protection Act of 1986 banned the domestic production of fully automatic weapons for civilian use. However, such weapons produced prior to that year are permitted to be possessed and transferred by civilians "in accordance with federal, state and local law."

That aside, my views may differ from that of many right-leaning folk: Like all rights noted in our venerable Constitution, the Second Amendment is subject to reasonable restrictions. I do not find it "reasonable" to permit everyday civilians to own automatic weapons. I believe that the right to own handguns and/or rifles of a hunting or sports nature is "reasonable," and that any attempts to outright ban these are a violation of our Second Amendment rights. The recent McDonald and Heller Supreme Court cases establish precedent that any efforts to ban handguns, in particular, are unconstitutional.

Old School:Perhaps I can provide a bit of perspective residing in the UK as I do.Firearms are tightly controlled, and there is a category known as 'prohibited weapons',which includes most handguns,pepper spray,semi-automatic and pump-action centrefire rifles.

In order to own the remaining legal weapons, which basically consists of shotguns, some hunting rifles, manually loaded rifles (including most .22 rifles) a few very specific types manually loaded hand guns and historic black powder weapons, one must obtain and hold a document known as a Shotgun Certificate or a Firearm Certificate.

These must be obtained via the local police, and as I can tell you from experience, they are quite difficult to obtain.You must not only exhibit competence in gun safety, but convince the police you have satisfactory security for your gun and demonstrate to them that you have what's known as "good reason to possess" each individual firearm applied for. You also need to provide two separate references the police find acceptable in order to obtain your certificate. And you must renew them every five years.Certificates for handguns of any type are quite difficult to obtain, and rifle and shotgun certificates are likewise difficult in the city.

In essence, it means that since 1997 and Labour's Firearm's Amendment Act Number Two, the British public has, to all intents and purposes, been disarmed. The net result has been that crimes involving guns have increased a great deal.

The inference of course is that someone who does not care to abide by the laws in general is certainly not going to draw the line at disobeying our gun laws should they be so inclined.

Joshuapundit:Want to make a gun control zealot scream with frustration? Here's a riddle that will show you how:

I know of two countries that have a number of things in common. Both have compulsory military service, followed by compulsory militia duty for a number of years afterwards.

Because of that, both countries require that a fair amount of their citizenry keep fully automatic military assault rifles and a decent amount of ammo in their homes in easy reach and in ready to lock and load condition. In fact, you frequently see citizens of both countries on their way to reserve duty carrying their weapons on public transport or on the streets.

Yet both countries have two of the lowest homicide rates in the western world, and in one of them, armed citizens have been credited with saving a number of lives using their weaponry.

The two countries? Switzerland and Israel.

Oh, and both countries make a fetish of independence..one of the world's oldest free democracies anbd one of its newest.

Obviously the solution of problems like Virginia Tech and Aurora lies in the culture rather than in letting people protect themselves. And armed citizens could have prevented loss of life in both cases.

The Razor:Beyond making it illegal for the administration to arm drug cartels in Mexico, no. The ideas floating around about reporting ammo sales are silly. With one shot one kill you can shoot a lot of people with only a single box of ammo. So what’s the purpose of such a law, other than to make people feel like they are DOING SOMETHING to prevent such incidents from occurring? They won’t.

I would sue out of existence any business that restricts law-abiding citizens from carrying guns on their premises and then fails to protect them from being shot. If you are going to disarm the law abiding while doing nothing to prevent criminals from getting guns, then you should take your business to the UK where they prefer that sort of thing or risk losing everything.

The Noisy Room:Actually, yes I do... Get rid of all gun laws - period. Unless of course you want to institute one - you know, the one the Swiss did where everyone is required to have a gun. That one, I could get behind. I'm tired of the left harping that you should only have guns for sporting purposes and then only certain guns. That when some mass murdering asshat kills lots of innocent people, it's the gun's fault. Surely it has nothing to do with the whack job wielding the weapon. Notice they never point out that said whack job could have been stopped if just ONE person had a concealed weapon at hand (not to mention the savings of court costs, time and the requisite cleaning of the gene pool). It's all a Progressive means of manipulating the Constitution and abridging our Second Amendment rights. The Second Amendment is our last defense against government tyranny. Which is increasing by the minute here in the US. More guns and less regulation is the answer here - not more restrictions.

The brutal truth is that if someone wants to kill someone, they'll find a way to do it with or without a gun. Restricting guns and ammo only hurts law abiding citizens. Criminals don't give a crap. While you are at it, get rid of all anti-knife laws as well. Progressive Marxists have hood-winked Americans into believing that gun laws protect them. No, they don't - they suppress Americans and their freedoms. That is why one of the first full-frontal moves of a despot is to disarm the citizenry. Check your history. Me, the more guns and ammo the better and if I want to have a damn armory in my basement, that's my business on my property. The government can go 'know themselves' in the biblical sense. 'Nough said.

The Right Planet:"No free man shall ever be disbarred the use of arms" --Thomas Jefferson

"The great object is that every man be armed. Everyone who is able may have a gun…. Are we at last brought to such a humiliating and debasing degradation that we cannot be trusted with arms for our own self defense? Where is the difference between having our arms in our possession and under our own direction, and having them under the management of Congress? If our defence be the real object of having those arms, in whose hands can they be trusted with more propriety, or equal safety to us, as in our own hands?" --Patrick Henry

Pretty much sums it up for me (more here).

Well, there you have it.

Make sure to tune in every Monday for the Watcher’s Forum.And remember, every Wednesday, the Council has its weekly contest with the members nominating two posts each, one written by themselves and one written by someone from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council. It’s a weekly magazine of some of the best stuff written in the blogosphere, and you won’t want to miss it.

And don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter..’cause we’re cool like that

Mitt Romney: An Illuminating Speech From Jerusalem, Israel

Governor Mitt Romney gave quite a speech to the Jerusalem Foundation today. And the contrast with President Obama couldn't be more clear cut.

Whereas President Obama, in his infamous Cairo speech parroted the Arab line that the establishment of Israel was essentially due to western guilt over the Holocaust, Romney got it exactly right:

To step foot into Israel is to step foot into a nation that began with an ancient promise made in this land. {...}

Our two nations are separated by more than 5,000 miles. But for an American abroad, you can’t get much closer to the ideals and convictions of my own country than you do in Israel. We’re part of the great fellowship of democracies. We speak the same language of freedom and justice, and the right of every person to live in peace. We serve the same cause and provoke the same hatreds in the same enemies of civilization.

It is my firm conviction that the security of Israel is in the vital national security interest of the United States. And ours is an alliance based not only on shared interests but also on enduring shared values.

And throughout his speech, Mitt Romney made persistent reference to one simple phrase...'Jerusalem, Israel'.

The Obama Administration has never seen fit to utter, unequivocally, those two words..Jerusalem, Israel. It has indulged in sneaky changes to captions, gone through the most absurd verbal tics, denied that Jews have any right to their holy places in Jerusalem, even outright lied about agreements made with previous U.S. presidents.

That Mitt Romney does it, naturally, without a moments hesitation or nuance says volumes.

Nor does Governor Romney appear to be under any illusions about Iran:

It was Menachem Begin who said this about the Ninth of the month of Av: “We remember that day,” he said, “and now have the responsibility to make sure that never again will our independence be destroyed and never again will the Jew become homeless or defenseless.” “This,” Prime Minister Begin added, “is the crux of the problems facing us in the future.”

So it is today, as Israel faces enemies who deny past crimes against the Jewish people and seek to commit new ones.

When Iran’s leaders deny the Holocaust or speak of wiping this nation off the map, only the naïve – or worse – will dismiss it as an excess of rhetoric. Make no mistake: the ayatollahs in Tehran are testing our moral defenses. They want to know who will object, and who will look the other way.

My message to the people of Israel and the leaders of Iran is one and the same: I will not look away; and neither will my country. As Prime Minister Begin put it, in vivid and haunting words, “if an enemy of [the Jewish] people says he seeks to destroy us, believe him.”

We have seen the horrors of history. We will not stand by. We will not watch them play out again.

It would be foolish not to take Iran’s leaders at their word. They are, after all, the product of a radical theocracy.

Over the years Iran has amassed a bloody and brutal record. It has seized embassies, targeted diplomats, and killed its own people. It supports the ruthless Assad regime in Syria. They have provided weapons that have killed American soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq. It has plotted to assassinate diplomats on American soil. It is Iran that is the leading state sponsor of terrorism and the most destabilizing nation in the world.

We have a solemn duty and a moral imperative to deny Iran’s leaders the means to follow through on their malevolent intentions.

We should stand with all who would join our effort to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran – and that includes Iranian dissidents. Do not erase from your memory the scenes from three years ago, when that regime brought death to its own people as they rose up. The threat we face does not come from the Iranian people, but from the regime that oppresses them.

Five years ago, at the Herzliya Conference, I stated my view that Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons capability presents an intolerable threat to Israel, to America, and to the world.

That threat has only become worse.

Now as then, the regime’s claims that it seeks to enrich nuclear material for peaceful purposes are belied by years of malign deceptions.

Now as then, the conduct of Iran’s leaders gives us no reason to trust them with nuclear material.

But today, the regime in Iran is five years closer to developing nuclear weapons capability. Preventing that outcome must be our highest national security priority.

I want to pause on this last point. It is sometimes said that those who are the most committed to stopping the Iranian regime from securing nuclear weapons are reckless and provocative and inviting war.

The opposite is true. We are the true peacemakers. History teaches with force and clarity that when the world’s most despotic regimes secure the world’s most destructive weapons, peace often gives way to oppression, to violence, or to devastating war.

We must not delude ourselves into thinking that containment is an option. We must lead the effort to prevent Iran from building and possessing nuclear weapons capability. We should employ any and all measures to dissuade the Iranian regime from its nuclear course, and it is our fervent hope that diplomatic and economic measures will do so. In the final analysis, of course, no option should be excluded. We recognize Israel’s right to defend itself, and that it is right for America to stand with you.

An amazing clarity, after the fog of the last three and a half years.

The thing is, Mitt Romney gets Israel and its relationship to the survival of the west in a way President Barack Obama not only never did, but never wanted to.

Where Barack Obama sees Israel as an impediment and as a western colonialist outpost he despises, deep within, Mitt Romney sees it as an important and key western ally, and a place whose survival against the odds is to be admired.In short, Governor Romney appears to know whom our friends are and whom our enemies are.

That's the clear difference.

Dennis Ross: "There's Some Crap Even I Won't Eat'

You know whom Dennis Ross is - partisan Democrat, ex-Clintonista, Middle East peace factotum and until recently a major apologist for the Obama Administration on its Israel policy.

But apparently not any more. Having just left the Obama Administration as an adviser, he's let it be known he'll be sitting out the 2012 campaign:

Dennis Ross, a longtime diplomat and a key architect of the Oslo peace process under President Clinton—a man who worked for the Obama campaign during the 2008 Democratic primaries despite his previous loyalty to the Clintons—won’t be campaigning for Obama this time, Ross confirmed to The Daily Beast.

“I am the Counselor at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy,” Ross said in an email on Friday. “The Washington Institute is a non-profit organization and I cannot do political work from here. When I acted for the campaign in 2008, I had to take a leave of absence to do so. Having only recently returned to the Institute, I cannot now again take a leave of absence.”

After his success stumping for Obama in the 2008 campaign, Ross went on to become a key Middle East policymaker, first at the State Department and later at the White House.

“Ambassador Ross was obviously the No. 1 pro-Israel surrogate for the Obama campaign in 2008,” said Josh Block, a former press aide for the Clinton administration and former top spokesman for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. “The fact that after three years of working on Mideast policy side-by-side with the president, Ambassador Ross has decided to sit out this campaign, unlike other former top officials now at nonpartisan think tanks, will certainly be understood as a message of its own, intentionally or unintentionally.”

Back in 2008, Ross was a major asset for the campaign, and played a big part in fooling American Jews that Barack Obama's previous associations with rabidly anti-Israel figures meant nothing, and that it was just fine to pull the lever for him.

Things are different now, as Ross himself explained in a recent WAPO op-ed, albeit tres diplomatically.

The White House is going to be reduced to the likes J-Street gal Debbie Wasserman-Schultz to try and flim flam Jewish votes this time out.

What Ross is doing, of course, is pretty much what my rabid-Democrat-for- life parents did in 1980. He simply can't lie to himself the way he used to. And there may even be some well-deserved shame involved.He may not be able to vote for a pro Israel Republican, but he's not willing to support an anti-Israel Democrat.

Again, I urge American Jews to do the same...if you simply can't manage to vote for a pro-Israel Republican in November, at least don't vote to put an anti-Israel president back in the White House. Just don't vote for president.

DOJ Refuses To Deny That It Will Seek To Criminalize Criticism of Islam

More evidence on how deeply the Muslim Brotherhood has penetrated the Obama Administration.

Thomas Perez is President Obama's Assistant Attorney General, and he who could be said to be the Obama Administration's point man in fulfilling the president's declaration on al-Arabiya that he considered one of his primary duties as president to be the defender of Islam.

In the above clip you see Perez consistently refusing to answer a simple question:

In a Constitution Subcommittee hearing yesterday, Congressman Trent Franks (AZ-02) questioned Assistant Attorney General, Thomas Perez, over the Administration's commitment to 1st Amendment rights. Franks' questions were prompted by a Daily Caller article from late last year in which Perez was quoted as warmly embracing the proposals of Islamist advocates in a meeting at George Washington University, among them a request for "a legal declaration that U.S. citizens' criticism of Islam constitutes racial discrimination."

Of course Perez wasn't going to put himself on record, but I think the answer's pretty obvious.

The rot goes deep, and hysterical shrieks of 'witch hunt' and 'Islamophobia' aren't going to camouflage the stench for too much longer.

NBC's Bob Costas' Reaction To The Israeli Olympic Team..And Al Jazeera's Hatred

NBC's Bob Costas wasn't quite able to have a moment of silence to honor the murdered Israeli athletes of the '72 Munich Olympics as he wished, but as the Israeli team walked by. But what he did instead was to report on the IOC's craven refusal to honor the murdered athletes, and to voice his disapproval of that cowardice.

Oddly enough, the Israeli team did get some silence as they marched by. From Al Jazeera ( AKA JihadTV).as soon as the Israeli delegation entered the stadium led by windsurfer Shahar Zubari who was wielding the Israeli flag with pride, the Arab broadcasters suddenly fell silent.

The two veteran festive Arab sport commentators, Yousef Saif and Isam Shawali sat there in bitter silence, not even able to pronounce the word 'Israel'. As the Israeli team entered the stadium, Shawali said "They don't deserve it."



Enough said.

( hat tip, The Elder)

Tisha B'Av - Mourning And Renewal

Today is Tisha B'Av, which in English is the ninth day of the month of Av in the Hebrew calender.

It is a day of prayer, fasting and mourning. Both the First Temple and Second Temple in Jerusalem were destroyed on this exact date, 656 years apart.

Tisha B'Av has an evil repute in Jewish history. On this same date, the following tragedies occurred aside from the destruction of the First and Second Temples:

• The sin of the twelve scouts sent by Moses who spoke disparagingly about the Land G-d promised the Jews traditionally occurred on Tisha B'av, causing the delay in entering the Holy Land.
  

• The Romans crushed Bar Kokhba's revolt and destroyed the city of Betar, killing over 100,000 Jews, in 132 CE.
  

• The First Crusade was declared by Pope Urban II in 1095..with the result that 10,000 Jews were murdered wholesale in its first month and most of the Jewish communities in France and Germany were destroyed.
  

• The Jews were violently expelled from England in 1290 after the Blood Libel and were not allowed to return to England until the days of Oliver Cromwell, four hundred years later.
  

• Jews were expelled wholesale from Spain in 1492 after living peacefully in the country for five centuries.
  

• On Tisha B'Av 1914 (August 1, 1914), World War I began, causing the devastation of Europe and directly setting the stage for the Holocaust.
  

• On Tisha B'av 1941, Nazi leader Hermann Göring gave a written authorization to SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich, Chief of the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA) to "make all necessary preparations" for a "total solution of the Jewish question" in all the territories under German rule.
  

• On the eve of Tisha B'Av 1942, the mass deportation of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto began, mostly to Auschwitz and Treblinka.
  

• In 1994 on Tisha B'Av, the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires was bombed by Hezbollah, the agents of Iran, killing 86 innocent people and wounding 300 others.
  

The Book of Lamentations, the Book of Job, portions of Jeremiah and chapters of the Talmud that discuss the laws of mourning are traditionally read. Aside from that, Torah study is prohibited as it is considered a pleasant activity.

So in the midst of this mourning, what should members of the tribe consider?

At the risk of sounding complacent, there is some comfort in having survived the determined attempts by the most powerful empires of their time to exterminate us. They are gone, and we survive., and that is perhaps a lesson in itself that there is a heavenly power at work in spite of everything.

It's also worth noting that the truly horrid things that happened to the Jews over the centuries after the destruction of the Second Temple and the diaspora happened because the Jews were defenseless, with no country to call their own. That of course is no longer true, but it might just be that some of the atrocities visited on the Jews had the hidden benefit of convincing even those in relatively comfortable circumstances that a strong, powerful country and a haven was an absolute necessity.

Certainly that was the case of Theodore Herzl, a thoroughly assimilated Austrian Jewish journalist who had no thoughts at all about Zionism - until he covered the Dreyfus case in France back in 1894 ( a mere 118 years ago) and saw the mobs in the Paris streets howling for the death of the Jews.

At that point, he realized that no matter how long they lived in Europe, no matter how much they regarded themselves as good, patriotic Austrians, Frenchmen, Germans, et al the Jews would always be aliens, always regarded as the Other. So he went home, laid out the case for Zionism by writing Der Judenstaadt and helped give birth to a modern miracle.

In its short history, Israel has redeemed Jews from Europe, Ethiopia and the entire Middle East who would have died otherwise. Had a strong, powerful Israel existed only twenty or thirty years earlier, the Six Million would not have perished.

That's something that's worth considering, especially for those self-hating Jews and others who make their religion out of disparaging and attacking the world's only Jewish country.

Holocaust survivor and Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel once said that to him,the holiest spot in Israel was not the Kotel, the Western Wall but the tiny booth at Ben Gurion airport where a Jewish customs agent sat stamping entry visas.

On this Tisha B'av, as we mourn the horrors of the past, let us not forget to remember the hope of the future.

Napoleon, oddly enough, was one person who foresaw that future. He once passed a synagogue during the Ninth of Av, looked inside and saw Jews sitting on the floor, barefoot and weeping. When he asked why, he was told the Jews were mourning over the destruction of their Holy Temples. “How long ago did this occur?”, he asked. “About 1,500 years ago”. “In that case”, said Napoloan, “there is no doubt that their Temple will be rebuilt. A people capable of crying for so long over its destroyed Temple and Land will eventually find its way home.”

The Jews are once again home. May the Holy Temple, the Beit Hamikdosh be rebuilt soon, and in our time.


-selah-

Pelosi: 'Obama's Been To Israel Over And Over Again'

President Obama's Jewish numbers must really be looking worrisome if this tired old partisan shill has to say things like this:

You know, as many of the Republicans are using Israel as an excuse, what they really want are tax cuts for the wealthy. So Israel, that can be one reason they put forth."

The interviewer then added, "That’s why some of the Republican Jewish supporters are really active."

Pelosi responded, "Well, that’s how they’re being exploited. And they’re smart people. They follow these issues. But they have to know the facts. And the fact is that President Obama has been the strongest person in terms of sanctions on Iran, which is important to Israel. He’s been the strongest person on whether it’s Iron Dome, David’s Sling, any of these weapons systems and initiatives that relate to Israel. He has been there over and over again."

I think I've already dealt with how President Obama is undermining the so-called 'sanctions.

Iron Dome and David's Sling are joint weapons projects, with most of the technology coming form Israel, especially in the case of David's Sling, with is being developed primarily by Rafael,an Israeli company, so it's not like President Obama is 'giving' Israel anything there so much as helping fund a weapons project that both countries will use.

But what about the statement that President Obama has been to Israel 'over and over again'?

Ummm, no? Bill Kristol, with whom I have my differences on occasion does a great job of nailing this nonsense down:

I'm involved with the Emergency Committee for Israel. We have an ad up in several states calling attention to the fact that President Obama, who's been quite the world traveler, has never visited Israel as president. Did we make a terrible mistake? Were we unjust to President Obama? Do we have to pull down the ad?

No, no, and no. Contrary to Pelosi's apparent claim, President Obama hasn't been to Israel over and over again. He's never been as president, which is certainly what Pelosi implied. Well, maybe he visited Israel "over and over" before becoming president, and that's what Pelosi meant to say? No. When he was senator, Obama went on two trips to Israel, once with several other freshmen members of Congress, and then as a presidential candidate. And he'd never been interested enough in Israel to visit as a private citizen. So much for the notion that Obama's been "over and over again."

So Pelosi is wrong, and the Emergency Committee is right. But Pelosi's resort to a whopper to try to reassure pro-Israel voters does suggest how worried Democrats must be about the reaction to Obama's attempt to create distance between his administration and Israel, as Obama's Israel policy gets more scrutiny.

More than mere 'daylight' some people would call the president's policy and attitudes towards Israel downright hostile. Not to mention patronizing and deceptive.

The ad Mr. Kristol speaks of can be seen above.

Now personally, I'd just as soon President Obama not visit Israel, if you get my drift. But the idea that he's a friend of Israel and goes there 'all the time' is absolutely bizarre.

Again, I urge American Jews...if you simply can't manage to vote for a pro-Israel Republican in November, at least don't vote to put an anti-Israel president back in the White House. Just don't vote for president.

That's exactly what my hardcore Democrats-for-life parents did in 1972 when Nixon ran against McGovern, and again in 1980 when Carter ran against Reagan. They simply voted on the rest of the ballot and didn't cast a vote for president.

Hezbollah Now Actively Aiding The Assad regime

There have been a certain amount of Hezbollah fighters aiding the regime inSyria in its fight against the rebels, but it's been kept relatively quiet. Apparently, that's now at an end:

The Hizbullah terror group has affirmed its allegiance to Syria and has offered to place itself at President Bashar Assad’s disposal.

According to a report on Thursday in Lebanon’s Al-Joumhouria newspaper, Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah “placed all of Hizbullah capabilities at al-Assad’s disposal, in the event of the Syrian regime requiring urgent assistance.”

The newspaper quoted senior political sources as confirming that there had been contact between Assad and Nasrallah, and that “Nasrallah had offered al-Assad two forms of assistance, firstly he offered elements of Hizbullah’s special forces any time they are needed, even if they are required to be sent to open fronts to fight the revolutionaries. Secondly, Nasrallah invited the Syrian president to his personal residence, or even to meet inside the Iranian embassy in Beirut.”

The report said that Assad “has opted to remain in Syria because he still believes he is able to steer the ship with the help of some Russian political and military experts.”

The leadup to this was a speech by Hezbollah's leader, Sheikh Nasrallah, who made a point of emphasizing Hezbollah's ties with the Assad regime last week:

“Some say that Syria is the link between Hizbullah and Iran, but let me say that Syria is much more than that,” said Nasrallah. “It is very important for the resistance. The most important missiles which fell in Haifa, and beyond Haifa, and in the center of Israel – were Syrian missiles given to the resistance in Lebanon. Syria gave the resistance missiles which helped us in the Second Lebanon War. It's not just in Lebanon, it’s also in Gaza.”

Lebanon's Naharnet has more:

Hizbullah fighters have lately crossed the area of Hawsh al-Sayyed Ali in Hermel to Syria to help Syrian government troops in their fight against rebels, security sources said.

The sources told An Nahar daily published on Friday that the militants from the 910 unit of Hizbullah’s Jihad Council are fighting alongside the Syrian forces in the areas of al-Qussair, Homs and al-Rastan.

Hizbullah has also a strong military presence in the area of Zabadani, the same sources said.

Now that Hezbollah has decided to double down on the Assad regime, it's almost certain that the civil war is going to continue for some time.

I still see Assad carving out an easily defended redoubt in Northwestern Syria consisting of everything west of the Orantes River and perhaps a strip of territory encompassing Idlib and Aleppo. This comprises the commercial heart of Syria and the areas where most of the Alawites live. From the ports of Latakia and Tartus, he can easily be supplied by the Russians and with Hezbollah now fully on board, not only will the Muslim Brotherhood rebels have difficulty pushing Assad out but he will likely have the arms and manpower to wear them down by attrition and retake most of the country.

This is definitely a Sunni/Muslim Brotherhood versus Shi'ite/Iran bloc conflict, as I've always said.

Dem Election Offical Vows Not To Enforce PA Voter ID Law

In Delaware County, of course.

Even as the fate of Pennsylvania's new voter-identification law plays out in a Harrisburg courtroom, an election official in Delaware County is vowing not to enforce it.

Christopher L. Broach, a Democratic inspector of elections in the tiny borough of Colwyn, said he would not ask voters to prove who they are on Election Day.

"To ask me to enforce something that violates civil rights is ludicrous and absolutely something I am not willing to do," Broach said Thursday in an interview.

An IT consultant, Broach was elected inspector of elections but has recently acted as judge of elections to fill a vacancy. He called the law a ploy by the Republican-controlled legislature, "a wholly unethical decision that violated civil rights for the sake of getting Mitt Romney elected."

It gets even better further on, when he starts comparing himself to Rosa Parks.

Never mind, of course, that he was a elected to enforce the state's laws and took an oath to do so. That means nothing compared to aiding and abetting voter fraud to get Barack Obama re-elected.

You see, illegal aliens, convicted felons and dead people are a Democrat constituency. Just ask Eric Holder.

The Supreme Court has already weighed in on Pennsylvania's law by upholding an Indiana law that it mirrors, but the idea here is to get to a friendly, Democrat appointed judge and delay things until after the election.

Photo ID's are free for the asking to those who need them, and the odd, occasional sob story used by Democrat friendly media lackeys is just that.

Frankly, as far as I'm concerned, anyone too stupid or incompetent to obtain a photo ID doesn't belong in the voting booth anyway.

Attitudes like Broach's are a disgrace both to the office he holds and to our democracy. And his twaddle about 'civil rights concerns' pales, no pun intended, when you examine how the Obama Administration has suppressed the active military vote and how Obama's Department of Justice has refused to intervene in blatant cases of voter fraud involving whites.

More Olympic Spirit - Lebanese Team Demands Barrier Separation From Israelis

The Lebanese Olympic judo team demanded and got the Olympic committee to erect a barrier between themselves and the Israeli judo squad just hours before the Games’ opening ceremony.

The two teams were scheduled to train inside London’s ExCeL center but Lebanon’s team refused and their team’s coach demanded an apartheid wall to separate them from the Jews.

Of course the IOC complied with this racism rather than give Lebanon an ultimatum to abide by the Olympic Charter, curb their behavior or pack for the trip home.

I guarantee you that's exactly what would have happened if the Israelis had made that kind of demand.

What an absolute disgrace.

Mitt And The Brits - An Open Letter To The UK

Dear Cousins,
I hope you don't mind if I take issue with your behavior towards a guest, the visiting Mitt Romney.

Well, to be quite honest, I really don't care whether you mind or not.

Your British press is enjoying itself immensely over a few minor gaffes Governor Romney is supposed to have committed, a number of your politicians have fed the fire and of course the dinosaur media here is absolutely ecstatic, particularly the Soros contingent.

It seems that even your politicians now realize that they went a bit overboard and are trying to walk things back. In reality, they owe Governor Romney a heart felt apology.

Well and good, but it's something perhaps some of you should have thought about more before you piled in so thoroughly.

Let's look at Mitt Romney's 'terrible mistakes' shall we?

The man who successfully ran the Salt Lake City Olympics took a look around at a city a number of people have referred to as Londonistan because of its population of resident jihadis and in answer to a question by NBC's Brian Williams, merely said that it was hard to know how things might turn out, and expressed some concern about the security arrangements, citing stories that the private security firm had said they were shorthanded. At no time did he say London 'wasn't ready', but that particular soundbite was manufactured by your press and your politicians and jammed down Romney's throat. Did he really deserve to be ridiculed in your press, snidely lectured by your Prime Minister or booed by a mob egged on by one of your local politicos? Simply for telling the truth?

Considering London's history of terrorist attacks and the fact that a wanna be jihadi got through the police cordon easily and almost succeeded in wresting the Olympic torch away from the woman holding it while screaming 'Allahu Akbar' , perhaps his concerns were not all that misplaced. The man could just as easily have been carrying a bomb.

Of course, had Governor Romney gone with the easy answer and said that everything looked fine and there was an incident afterwards, he would then have been attacked in the UK and here at home by the media for 'knowing nothing about security' and 'not being ready to lead'! Nice how that works out.

What else was there...oh yes, he referred to someone whom to us is a minor British politician as 'Mr. Leader' instead of Ed Milliband, he mentioned he had a meeting with the head of MI6 and horror of horrors, he referred to our common Anglo Saxon heritage. How dare he!

The sort of overt disrespect shown Governor Romney ( and some of our other leaders) in Britain has never happened to one of your leaders here in America, and believe me, there have been a number of occasions where that would have been far more warranted than anything Governor Romney did or said. But it didn't happen, simply because we Americans are, generally speaking, a notoriously polite people who understand courtesy and how to treat guests. You see, like most Americans, I was raised to understand that when you have a guest in your home who commits a gaffe of etiquette, you do your very best to cover for them rather than ridicule them. I seem to recall you doing that for President Obama quite recently. Apparently, the rules in Britain change according to the political agenda. And of course, who's involved.

The kabuki outrage over Governor Romney invoking our countries' common Anglo-Saxon heritage is particularly revealing.

I fully realize that in today's Britain, multiculturalism - or, let's be honest, attempting to accommodate and placate a restive Muslim population - is all the agenda, to the point where sharia has an equal status with British common law, honor killings occur with distressing regularity, the Royal Navy is essentially a thing of the past, Britain's soldiers are unable to parade in their own country without being mocked and insulted, and a number of Britons seem to no longer have any pride in their country's heritage. Fine by me, but was it really so sensible to make a point of mocking and disillusioning someone who still appears to honor that heritage and seeks to find common ground with you?

Our current president Barack Obama has already let it be known on a number of occasions that he has little regard for the special relationship between America and Britain.Perhaps some of you agree with him.

But here's a point worth considering. In the event Britain needed a strong friend and ally in a dire situation, who would be more likely to lend a helping hand - President Obama or a President Romney?

I think you know the answer, in your heart of hearts.

Apparently the emotional investment you had in 2008 in Barack Obama as rock star and antidote to President Bush didn't quite work out as you planned, but that isn't stopping some of you from doubling down, as we say on this side of the Pond.But it just might be that you've picked the wrong horse in this race. It's a fools bet after all, since even if you manage to win and President Obama's re-elected you end up losing.

And at any rate, since Mitt Romney at this point has at least a 50% chance of becoming our next president, the wisdom of alienating him with boorish behavior to score a few short term political points would seem non-existent no matter how you answer that question.

It may very well be that the special relationship between Britain and America is a thing of the past, especially if you appear to be willing to treat a visiting American leader to your country in this fashion. Fine by me, if that's what it is.After all, you don't pal around with people whom insult you.

But as my mother told me, you need to be careful before you burn your bridges.

Think about it.

And if what I've written here upsets some of you, you're quite welcome.

Regards,
Rob Miller

Iranian Claims He Has 'Infection' , Won't Compete Against Israeli Athlete

Remember IOC President Jacques Rogge's warning that 'sanctions would be taken' against any Muslim nation refusing to compete against Israelis? I think we're about to see how true that was.

Just days after U.N. secretary-general Ban Ki-moon announced the traditional Olympic Truce – for people and nations to “set aside their differences” during London 2012 – news emerged that the one Iranian athlete likely to face an Israeli in competition has withdrawn with a “gut infection.”

Iranian Javad Mahjoub qualified in the same half-heavyweight judo category as an Israeli, Ariel Ze’evi, who participated in the last three Olympics, won the bronze medal in Athens 2004, and is the 2012 European champion. The half-heavyweight category competition is scheduled for August 2.

But Iranian Sports Medicine Federation head Lotfali Pour-Kazemi said this week Mahjoub’s condition required a 10-day antibiotic course and he would not be able to compete. An Iranian judo website quoted him as saying the judoka was experiencing “weakness, nausea and vomiting.”

During the Judo World Cup in Tashkent in 2011, Mahjoub was lined up in a head-to-head against another Israeli, Or Sasson, but refused to compete.

For his part, Ze’evi has been on the receiving end of an anti-Israel boycott before, when a Tunisian withdrew rather than taken him on during world judo championships in 2001. Ze’evi won silver.

Iranians withdrew from events pitting them against Israelis in the last two Olympic Games, in Athens 2004 (judo) and Beijing 2008 (swimming).

The Olympic Charter states, “Any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics, gender or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement.”

Ah, the Olympic spirit! I can almost guarantee you that Iran will suffer about the same penalties for violating the Olympic Charter as they have for consistently violating the UN charter.

The Churchill Bust - Fact, or Fiction?

The White today is attempting to debunk something that's been said repeatedly and publicly for a long time...namely that a bust of Winston Churchill, a gift from the UK to Presidet Bush was summarily returned to Britain as one of the first things President Obama did when he moved into the White House.

The story now is that is that it was never returned, but merely moved to the residence, and the White House staff helpfully provides a picture.

This raises several interesting questions.

Back in 2009, even the British press reported that the bust had been returned.A simple search reveals not one but numerous news reports and commentary on the matter. So obviously, the bust indeed went back in 2009.And in the three years since, the White House has never seen fit to refute that. All of a sudden, in the middle of the president's election campaign they ' debunk' this, while President Obama's Republican challenger just happens to be in the UK? What a coincidence!

So what's being shown in the picture? Did the most partisan and contentious president in history request it back from the Brits in time for his re-election campaign? The photo, according to the White House, was taken July 20, 2010 by an official White House photographer - which means it could have been taken last week and no one has any way of knowing differently.

Or was a copy made, especially for this particular spin? Coincided to break while Governor Romney is in the UK?

Given President Obama's famous record for veracity, either explanation works..but personally, I lean towards number 2..which also takes on an additional meaning when referring to what usually seems to be coming out of the White House.

-selah-

UPDATE: Well, what do you know? Turns out I was right all along.The White house outright lied about this being the same bust that was 'never returned'.

The one PM Blair gave to President Bush was sent back to the UK like a piece of unwanted rubbish, just as I wrote. It was another, similar bust that the White House photographed and misrepresented, gathering dust in the White House backrooms until it was needed to try to create a campaign talking point.

So much for 'conspiracy theories,hmmm?

They'll say and do anything.

Boston Mayor Menino: Chick-fil-A No Way! Radical Imam Who Wants Gays Killed? No Problem!

Like Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Boston's Mayor Tom Menino wants to deny building permits to the Chick-fil-A restaurant chain simply because the Christian owner, Dan Cathy, was open about the fact that he favors traditional marriage between one man and one woman.

They have another thing in common as well. Just like Rahm Emanuel, Mayor Menino is more than willing to favor and assist entities in 'his' city that endorse violently anti-gay sentiments that make anything Dan Cathy said look positively benign in comparison.

In Boston, there's a mosque I know by repute, run by the Islamic Society of Boston. The mosque is very much Muslim Brotherhood oriented, and claims the Muslim Brotherhood's spiritual leader imam Yusef al-Qaradawi as it's major influence and spiritual guide. One of its eight founding members was Abdurahman Alamoudi, who was jailed for 23 years in 2004 for material support of Islamist terrorism and money laundering.

In fact, the Society used Qaradiwi's name in their fundraising, and are suspected of receiving Muslim Brotherhood funds to help build the mosque. In fact he was actually an honorary member of the board.

Qaradiwi, one of the most popular figures in the Muslim world has some interesting views.

He favors a world-wide Islamist caliphate under sharia law, including the beating of 'disobediant' women, female genital mutilation , and death for homosexuals and apostates, just as it says in the Qu'ran.

He's also called for a second Holocaust against Jews, saying, "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."

Yes, this is the Muslim Brotherhood's real face, despite the white wash going on in the Obama Administration these days. And while the Islamic Society of Boston found it convenient to distance themselves a bit from Qaradiwi personally a few years after the mosque was built and established, but they have never distanced themselves from his theology. Literature found in the mosque, speakers who've been invited guests , writings and speeches of people intimately associated with the mosque and transcripts of a number of sermons preached there confirms exactly how the Islamic Society of Boston views these matters.

And Mayor Menino's connection? He gifted the Islamic Society of Boston land worth $1.2 million at the time in order to establish the mosque.Not only that, he he gave a speech at its ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Just like Rahm Amanuel's endorsement of Louis Farrakhan in Chicago, Mayor Menino's assistance to the establishment of a Muslim Brotherhood oriented mosque makes you wonder exactly where he really stands on gay rights.

Of course, the big difference is obviously who's talking. Apparently a Christian voicing opposition to same sex marriage is to be publicly opposed, but Muslims whose theology is virulently opposed to homosexuals is a very different matter for the likes of Rahm Emanuel and Tom Menino.Or perhaps, it's just that Christians are a safer target.

If you were gay, which would you rather have in your town? A restaurant that provides jobs, serves homosexuals and doesn't discriminate against them but whose president exercises his First Amendment rights by merely stating he's against same sex marriage? Or a Muslim Brotherhood mosque that promotes the views on homosexuals I've outlined here?

The Council Has Spoken!! This Week's Watcher's Council Winners

The Council has spoken, the votes have been cast, and the results are in for this week's Watcher's Council match up.

But before we get to this week's results, we have some important business to take care of...because tomorrow is Courtney's Birthday!!!!



Yes, our own GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD is another year older.

Of course, we have cake...in honor of Courtney's southern heritage, it'll be truly decadent Praline chocolate layer:



And some Veuve Cliquot on the side:



And oh yeah, an Osama piñata, just because we can:



So dig in and enjoy, everyone..

I still remember the first time I encountered Courtney's writing. Up until then, I never thought of English as a foreign language!

But I'll tell you what attracted me...it wasn't her unique style, entertaining though that was. It was the heart and unique spirit behind it. I always see it there, and it makes what Courtney writes have a special flavor. It's truly a pleasure to have her as part of our group, and simply put, I'm really glad she's here.

Well, Courts, this has been an interesting year for you, and in some ways, a challenging one, I know. But through it all, you've stuck with it and continued to turn out work in your own inimitable style. Integrity rocks, even if it isn't always easy. And you know what? Corny and cliched as it may sound, I have tremendous respect for you for walking that path.

Have an absolutely fabulous birthday...Many more.




OK, OK, this week's result.

Remember the old TV show, Allan Funt's 'Candid Camera'? Where they would set up humorous situations just to see how people would react and film them secretly, only revealing at the end that they had been on 'Candid Camera'?



This week's winner, Joshuapundit's The Worst Thing You Can Do To An Egyptian got its inspiration from a MEMRI video showing how an Egyptian version of this show went down, on al-Nahar TV, and just like the old American TV show, it was extremely revealing if not very funny....perhaps a lot more revealing than the Egyptians realized, I'm thinking. Here's a slice:


You might remember the old TV show 'Candid Camera', which got its laughs from pranking people and filming their reactions secretly.

Here we have the Egyptian version, courtesy of MEMRI on al-Nahar TV, where three prominent Egyptian celebrities were brought in for an Arabic-language interview that they were told was for German television. But once the cameras were rolling, the interviewer and the staff on the set pranked the guests by telling them they were really Israelis and the show was for an Israeli channel. The full clip, available at MEMRI's link is well worth watching.

The reactions of the guests were, shall we say, revealing.

All three guests reacted by spewing some of the vilest Jew hatred you could imagine, and the two male guests actually got physically violent with the 'Jews', one of them, actor Ayman Kandeel, punching the female host Iman Mubarak and knocking her to the ground.

Not only does it reveal the deep seated hatred for Jews in Egyptian society but what passes for normal behavior. Could you imagine an American actor hitting a female TV host on the air and having any kind of career left, let alone avoiding being arrested?

Actress Mayar Al-Beblawi is shown in the clip declaring that “In that country [Israel], they are all liars. You wouldn’t believe it. They are real liars. They keep whining all the time about the Holocaust, or whatever it’s called. With all the Palestinians that you have killed, you are still whining about the Holocaust and its lousy figures?!”

Al-Beblawi adds later: “These people sawed off [the head] of John the Baptist. They are the slayers of the prophets, what else can we say about them?… Allah did not curse the worm and the moth as much as he cursed the Jews."

Even more revealing is what happened after the shows hosts revealed that they really were Egyptians and it was all a Candid Camera style stunt.In the case of Ayman Kandeel, he even demanded to see identity cards.

The hosts of the show never once remonstrated with the guests for their violence and bigotry. Even the female host, Iman Mubarak who got slugged praised them for their 'patriotism' after being told they were in the same room with Jews.


In our non-Council category, the winner was Iowahawk with You Didn't Build That submitted by Joshuapundit. It's a piece of his usual satiric brilliance and a take off on Genesis according to Obama and his fellow fans of big government, and I sure wish I'd written it! Congrats, Mr. Burge.


OK, without any further ado, here are this week’s full results:

Council Winners

• *First place with 3 1/3 votes! Joshuapundit- The Worst Thing You Can Do To An Egyptian




• Second place with 2 1/3 votes – The Right Planet- Turn It Off!



• Third place with 2 votes – The Noisy Room-The Darkest Knight – the Anarchist Butterfly Effect



• Fourth place with 1 2/3 votes – Gay Patriot- The Politicization of Evil



• Fifth place with 1 1/3 votes – Simply Jews -We love you too, Peter Beinart



• Sixth place *t* with 2/3 vote – The Mellow Jihadi- The Aurora Massacre



• Sixth place *t* with 2/3 vote –GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD - Wobbly!



• Sixth place *t* with 2/3 vote – The Colossus of Rhodey – Speaking of the Dark Knight ...



• Sixth place *t* with 2/3 vote – VA Right! –Aurora Colorado Shooting Proves We Have a Shortage of Guns in the Hands of Heroes



• Seventh place *t* with i/3 vote – The Razor –Irony –Now Fortified With Even More Irony



• Seventh place *t* with 1/3 vote – The Glittering Eye – Elizabeth's Secret

Non-Council Winners

• First place with 3 1/3 votes! – Iowahawk- You Didn't Build That submitted by Joshuapundit



• Second place with 2 votes – Nice Deb –Obama: “I Didn’t Say What You Heard Me Say” submitted by VA Right!



• Third place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – The Socialism of Fools –Iran Vice President Rahimi on the Jews submitted by Simply Jews



• Third place *t* with 1 1/3 votes -Yid With Lid-The 2012 London Olympics- A Celebration of Terrorism’'s Success submitted by The Independent Sentinel




• Third place *t* with 1 1/3 vote - Carpe Diem -The Top 20% Paid 94.1% of Income Taxes in 2009 submitted by Rhymes With Right



• Fourth place with 1 votes - Raymond Ibrahim – New York Times Shills for Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood submitted by The Right Planet



• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote - Sultan Knish –Obama For Sale submitted by The Noisy Room



• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote -Pressure Points –Egypt Opens to Gaza submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD



• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote -Christian Smith/The Chronicle Review – An Academic Auto-da-Fé submitted by The Glittering Eye



• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote -Breitbart.Com –GLAAD Slams Roland Martin, Ignores BuzzFeed For Same Behavior submitted by Gay Patriot



• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote -The First Street Journal –Comment Rescue: Wagonwheel and the essence of liberalism submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey



• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote -Ron Meyer, CNS News –Aurora's Strict Gun Laws Didn't Prevent Shooting, But If One Law-Abiding Person In The Theater Had Been Carrying One... submitted by The Razor



• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote -SOFREP –Navy SEAL Lessons Learned From Aurora Colorado submitted by The Mellow Jihadi

See you next week! See you next week! Don't forget to tune in on Monday AM for this week's Watcher's Forum, as the Council takes apart one of the provocative issues of the day an weighs in...don't you dare miss it. And don't forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter..'cause we're cool like that!