Watcher's Council Nominations, 4/22/09

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 the financial crisis and how it originated... with 18 minutes of video the Left doesn't want you to see.

Oh, and also, we welcome back to the Council after a long and unfortunate absence from the blogosphere the one and only GW from Wolf Howling. It's been too long, and it's nice to have you back.

COUNCIL

Joshuapundit - The Real Holocaust Denial - I'm sure it was no coincidence that Iran's President Ahmadinejad was invited as an honored guest to address the UN conference on racism in Geneva this week on the same day Jews in Israel and around the world observe Yom HaShoah, an annual memorial for the dead of the Holocaust.

Ahmadinejad performed as expected, and I have a few things to say about the matter.

Right Truth - Witch Hunts (and you are the witch) -Debbie Hamilton has my favorite title of the week..and a very appropriate one in that her piece concerns FBI surveillance on those dangerous Right Wing Extremists populating the Tea Parties across the country. Like the infamous DHS report, this is an indication of things to come. When a government distrusts its most patriotic and productive citizens, a change is in the air.

The Provocateur - Dr. Andrew Agwunobi Strikes Again - Mike traces the history of failure of an incompetent health care bureaucrat. Apparently the Peter principle is at work here ( leave a comment and ask me if you don't know what that is).

The Razor - Obama Administration Sucking Moonbats Out of Private Sector - Scott notes that radicals in power tend to hire radicals...and that they generally get away with it. In the case of the woman he mentions, Rosa Brooks, I'm much more concerned about this ex-George Soros employee who's views border on sedition being in the Pentagon and handling classified national security data than I am about her views on government licensing of media, although her fascist views on that subject are a cause for concern, to say the least.

Rhymes With Right - About The Secession Thing - Greg gives us a sensible Texas-eye view of Governor Perry and the secession kerfuffle.

The Glittering Eye - For the Want of a Horseshoe Nail -This week Dave explores one of the hidden problems behind the sluggish economy..getting affordable performance bonds for small independent building contractors, a necessary bit of insurance before lenders will commit funds for construction.

Bookworm Room - Honing our arguments - Ms. Bookworm writes about the phenomenon of trolls, and how, ultimately, they can be helpful.

Soccer Dad - Preoccupied with occupation -In a fine and to the point piece, Soccer Dad unmasks the so-called 'occupation' most of the the Arabs have been using as an excuse to avoid dealing with Israel since 1948. As Soccer Dad points out, the language of "occupation" gives the Arabs the ultimate veto on the peace process and an excuse for making no concessions whatsoever. Either Israel abides by Palestinian demands or it remains an "occupier." And thus Arab terrorism is a fight against "occupation' and thus understandable.

Wolf Howling - Throwing Green Fuel On An Economic Fire - In GW's return piece , the Wolf takes notice of the absurd Obama EPA ruling on greenhouse gases, a recipe for poverty and the decline of the American economy that may prove more pernicious than the mountain of debt Obama has saddled us and our children with.


NON-COUNCIL


Submitted By: Right Truth - American Daughter - The Intimidation Begins

Submitted By: The Provocateur - Portfolio - Confessions of a TARP CEO’s Wife

Submitted By: Joshuapundit - Doug Ross@Journal - Let Them Eat Dirt

Submitted By: The Razor - The Journal of the American Enterprise Institute - The Coming of the Fourth American Republic

Submitted By: Rhymes With Right - Right On The Left Coast - Close West Point?

Submitted By: The Glittering Eye - Rortybomb - Ban Mortgage Prepayment Penalties at the Federal Level, 1: Texas

Submitted By: Bookworm Room - Britannica Blog - Shock peace therapy for the mideast

Submitted By: Soccer Dad - Elder of Ziyon - More of those “civilians” killed in Gaza (UPDATED)

Submitted By: Wolf Howling - AIFD - Obama Administration Stacking the Deck with Islamists

Submitted By: The Watcher - Thomas Sowell at The Jewish World Review - Are You an ‘Extremist’?

Napolitano Blames Entry Of 9/11 Hijackers On Canada !?!

Obama's new diplomacy...suck up to our enemies and alienate our friends for no good reason.

The fireworks started when Chief of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano was pressed by reporters about statements she made to the effect that there should be equal treatment for the Mexican and Canadian borders. And never mind the flood of illegal immigrants and the major drug war now taking place on our southern border:

"Yes, Canada is not Mexico, it doesn't have a drug war going on, it didn't have 6,000 homicides that were drug-related last year," she said.

"Nonetheless, to the extent that terrorists have come into our country or suspected or known terrorists have entered our country across a border, it's been across the Canadian border. There are real issues there."

When asked if she was referring to the 9-11 terrorists, Napolitano added: "Not just those but others as well.".

The only small problem with that is that it's simply untrue, as the 9/11 Commission found out. And even if it were, the last time I checked, it was US border guards who are responsible for the US side of the border, not the Canadians.

Is this woman too stupid to know that, or to understand the difference between legal and illegal immigration? Apparently not. And to think, the Left called George W. Bush an embarrassment!

Needless to say, our friends in Canada are pretty ticked off at this, and rightfully so. They're wondering how she got her job.

Simple, really. President Obama isn't really concerned with the idea of national security all that much, and also doesn't know much about it. He likes the idea of an amnesty for illegal aliens, but knows that it wouldn't play well politically in the US, so he picked a reliable and not too bright Democrat with a track record of being very soft on illegal aliens to head the DHS and simply maintain the status quo.

And next year, with the US census under the personal control of Rahm Emanuel rather than the US Department of Commerce to count heads and ACORN on the loose to register these new bogus 'voters', he figures he'll be in a position to get what he wants anyway through the back door without the political cost of having to ram an amnesty through Congress.

For what it's worth, my apologies to our Canadian allies. Every so often, our electorate goes insane.

cross posted over at Watcher Of Weasels

Don't Let YouTube Take The IDF Offline

Joshua's Army member Chana writes:

The IDF broadcasting on You Tube, presented by Capt. Avichai Adraee, an Israeli officer speaking Arabic, (with English subtitles)showing and explaining in full clarity what is really going on in Gaza and how Hamas terrorists operate from the midst of civilian neighborhood, schools and mosques and how they used a United Nations school as shelter while firing mortar bombs at Israeli soldiers, thus endangering Palestinian civilians ...

However, You Tube wants to remove this video by using the excuse that not too many people are logging in. So please watch the video once, twice and three times and also forward this e-mail to as many people so they also log in and the IDF will be able to have its voice heard.

OK GANG....YOU HEARD THE LADY. HERE'S THE LINK:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sznMP3dnCg&feature=PlayList&p=24B34659

Now Get busy, `kay?

The Real Holocaust Denial

Today is Yom HaShoah, the day Israel and the rest of the Jewish world officially mourn the dead of the Holocaust.

It's also the day after Iran's President, serial Holocaust denier Mahmoud Ahmadinejad addressed a UN conference on racism and human rights as an honored and invited guest.

True to form, he came up with a speech that demonized Israel as a racist and illegitimate regime and denied the Holocaust, claiming the West used the question of the Holocaust ( and one native Farsi speaker I know who heard it live translated it as the 'questionable Holocaust') as a "pretext" to steal Muslim land.*

Ahmadinejad has referred to Israel as a cancerous tumor, called for it to be wiped off the map repeatedly and has said that Israel is fated to `disappear' soon ...and that the `countdown' towards the end of the Zionist regime will be over soon, Allah willing. He's repeatedly denied the Holocaust actually took place and hosted conferences on Iran on that very subject. And believe it or not, I don't blame him one bit.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is merely doing what he's always done, repeating the stock line of most of the Arab and Muslim world, where Mein Kampf and its dream of a Jew free world is still a bestseller.

No, Ahmadinejad can't be faulted for doing the same old material. The 20 odd Western UN delegates who theatrically walked out on him ? That's another matter.

A number of Western leaders seem bent on doing collective impressions of Claude Rains' famous Vichy French captain at Rick's Place in `Casablanca'..they're shocked, simply shocked.I can't imagine why they would be.

Promoting a second Holocaust to make up for the one they claim never happened has been Iran's position since 1979. It was, after all, Iran's `moderate' ex-president Rafsanjani who said that the problem of Israel could be solved by one nuclear bomb.

These same Western leaders voicing shock and dismay at the spectacle of Ahmadinejad ranting about destroying Israel can't pretend they aren't aware of all this. And they're also fully aware that Iran's denial of the first Holocaust is part of its arming of people like Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad and its pursuit of nuclear weapons to perpetrate a second one.

This is the regime whom people like Barack Obama and Robert Gates want to `negotiate' with, thinking it's going to stop with Israel and the Jews.

In a very real sense, the `Holocaust denial' of the West's leaders is much worse than Ahmadinejad's. Because they have even less excuse for it than they did in 1938. They know that not only did it happen, but that it's entirely plausible.And like the last time, they are doing absolutely nothing to stop it, aside from things like the theatrics we witnessed yesterday at the UN.


Ahmadinejad at least has an explanation, if not an excuse. He obviously thinks of himself as a G-d fearing and pious man who finds his pretext for Jew hatred in the Qu'ran and the Hadith, where it clearly states that Allah's Messenger Mohammed told his followers that on the Day of Judgement the very rocks and trees will call out to pious Muslims to kill the Jews hiding behind them (Sahih Muslim, Book 041, Number 6985). A lot of people who live in Iran and in the other Muslim countries who's delegates cheered his speech yesterday agree with him.

That's because Ahmadinejad's views are shared by much of the Muslim world - that the Holocaust was a myth, that the sinister Jews used it to `steal' Arab land, and that even if a few Jews did become lampshades and chimney smoke,why should the Muslims suffer for it?

Here's why, the dirty little secret that the Muslim world will never acknowledge. The Arab world is directly complicit in the Holocaust. And what's more, they know it, even if they refuse to admit it.

After World War I, the former Ottoman province that became the Palestine Mandate was given by the League of Nations to British authority for the express purpose of creating a Jewish nation. In the area west of the Jordan River, the only real populated communities were places like Jerusalem and Safed, where the majority of the inhabitants were Jews. Britain's first act was to take 80% of this land, everything east of the Jordan River, give it to the Arabs as Trans-Jordan and forbid any Jews from living or settling there.

The Zionist movement was promised by Britain that the rest of Palestine - everything else west of the Jordan River-would be the Jewish homeland. This promise was never kept. The British, during their tenure in Palestine put all kinds of arbitrary barriers on Jews migrating to Palestine, while allowing unlimited immigration to what was left of Palestine to Arabs from Syria, Egypt, and the Hejaz.

Of course, even 80% of Palestine was not enough for the Arabs to accept Jews living next to them in peace and equality. Incited by their leaders, the Arabs rioted and created such unrest from the 1930's onward that the British halted all Jewish immigration to the Holy Land on the eve of the Holocaust with the issuance of the White Paper in 1938, trapping millions of Jews in Europe without a place to flee to. If not for that, the death toll in the Holocaust would have been nowhere near what it was.

If the Arabs `gave' the Jews three times as much land as Israel consists of today,it would not be enough to compensate for their part in the slaughter of the Jews of Europe or their attempt to murder the survivors. And they've compounded this sin - and I use the word advisedly - by ethnically cleansing almost a million Jews from the Arab world since 1948,and trying to complete the task of genocide up to our present day.

And then as now, they had the willing help of the West, who had no such `religious' excuse.

All during WWII, when a third of the Jewish population of Palestine was in uniform fighting for the allies, the British allowed unlimited migration from the Arab world into Israel. In 1944, Himmler attempted to make a deal with the Allies to exchange the Jewish population of Hungary, about 500,000 people, for a few trucks. The Americans signed on to the deal but the British vetoed it, explicitly because they were afraid of Arab unrest and did not want these Jews in Palestine.

Hungary's Jews went to Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen instead of Israel. A picture of how almost all of them ended up is at the head of this piece.

During WWII, the Arabs largely sided with the Axis against the allies. The `Palestinian' leader, the British appointed Grand Mufti of Jerusalem spent most of the war in Europe recruiting Muslims from Bosnia and the Caucasus to fight in SS divisions for Hitler and the Nazis. In the French provinces of Syria and Lebanon, Arab troops fought with Vichy against the allies and Iraq was taken over by a pro-Nazi Arab regime. And in Egypt, numerous veterans of the British 8th Army who fought and defeated the Nazis at El-Alamein have related how the Egyptians had Cairo all decked out in Nazi flags to welcome the German `liberators' when the British marched back into the city.

In spite of this, the British were happy to arm and train the Arab armies that attempted to massacre the Jews of Israel in 1948, three years after Auschwitz was liberated. The most effective Arab fighting force in that war, the Jordanian Arab legion, was led by British officers under the notorious Jew hater Colonel John Glubb (`Glubb Pasha'). Nor were the British alone, though they were the most blatant. The UN did nothing to stop their Arab member states from their attempted genocide and even the United States had an arms embargo on the infant Jewish state. Anyone interested in the full sordid story should read Lucy Dawidowicz's ` The War Against the Jews : 1933-1945: and Joan Peter's prize winning From Time Immemorial: The Origins of the Arab-Jewish Conflict over Palestine.

In his book, `Crusade in Europe' written in 1946, General Eisenhower wrote about what he called `horror camps' and his reaction on seeing his first one. He made a point of recording those feelings, of seeing that the press toured the camps and took pictures, because somehow he foresaw even then a time when people would deny that the Holocaust occurred.Footage still exists of American soldiers forcing Germans into the camps to look at what had been done..as if some of those Germans hadn't been living downwind from the smell of burning flesh. General Eisenhower wanted to make sure that `plausible denial' would no longer be an excuse.

Based on how the West is reacting to another Holocaust in the making, he failed, through no fault of his own.Listening to Gordon Brown and Barack Obama, you can hear the same tired phrases of appeasement and cowardice as the winds of history whistle and chuckle.

The difference of course is that this time, the Jews have a country and an army of their own. While the West may indulge itself in Holocaust denial again to its own ultimate peril, the Jews of Israel realize they do not have that luxury and need not suffer for it.

And that's the real message of Yom HaShoah, as well as the reason for Israel's existence. Never again, indeed.

*UPDATE: Another note on the speech - oddly enough, Ahamadinejad's original text as released to the media read that "following World War II, they resorted to military aggression to make an entire nation homeless on the pretext of Jewish sufferings and the ambiguous and dubious question of Holocaust."

Ahmadinejad appears to have dropped the terms "ambiguous and dubious," referring instead in Farsi to "the abuse of the question of the Holocaust" as a substitute, perhaps thinking that would make it more palatable.I still go with the translation of my Farsi speaker as given above.

Elie Wiesel Abused as 'Zio-Nazi' by Ahmadinejad's Entourage at UN Conference

For those of you whom don't know, Elie Wiesel is a Holocaust survivor and a former winner of the Nobel prize for literature.Why he bothered to come to Geneva to address the UN I can't imagine,but it took considerable courage.

That's a quality both the thugs brutalizing him and the UN that is permitting this travesty to go on have absolutely none of.

Sheer evil.

(hat tip to LGF

Weekend Monkey's Real Banana On politics, 4/21/09

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

Let's do it and get to it..

Well, tea party day has come and gone, and the primates definitely seem pretty riled.
And so do Obama's towel boyz and girlz in the media. I mean, I never would have thought that gay sexual humor like 'teabagging' would actually go mainstream, but that's MSNBC for you.For those of you who don't know what that is, it involves one primate squatting over the face of another primate who then takes the part of the first primate's package that most resembles teabags into his mouth. That's the meaning behind gay newsguy Anderson Cooper's juvenile little wheeze about how it's hard to talk when you're teabagging.

Nice. Classy.

I warned my fellow Domocrats this pimple would come to a head if Obama got the nod from the Donkeys, and I was right. With the high taxes, crazy spending and the other monkey shines that are going on in DC, Obama could end up doing to my Democrats what Bush did to the Rethugs...owchie!

Speaking of gay stuff, Rudy Giuliani is back in the news, whaddya know? David Patterson, the present NY guv is, shall we say, muy unpopular with just a 13% approval rating, just a little above Spitzer about the time he got popped with that hooker, if you can believe that.

So Patterson likely figured he'd pick up a few points by pushing a same-sex marriage bill.

Rudi jumped on that one like a pit bull on a poodle, saying:

"This is the kind of issue that, in many ways, is somewhat beyond politics.

I think gay marriage will obviously be an issue for any Republican next year because Republicans are either in favor of the position I'm in favor of, civil unions, or in many cases Republicans don't even favor civil unions."

What this means is that Rudi definitely looks like he's getting ready to take a shot at the governor's seat in New York State..which could be a stepping stone to try for the White House in 2012. If he gets into it, he's going to be tough to beat in New York, especially given his track record as opposed to Patterson and Spitzer's. Rudy taking on Patterson would be a massacre - probably at least 15 -1 by election day unless something weird happens. Hey, I'd take those odds.

What Patterson doing is moving hard left to try and fend off a primary challenge from Andy Cuomo, who is after his ass because of not getting appointed to Hillary's Senate seat. So you could see a real catfight here, with the hard left, blacks and gays siding with Patterson versus Democrat whites, Latinos and ethnics for Cuomo.

If I were running Patterson's thing, I'd bribe somebody to get into the race and split Cuomo's base to get the nomination, then try to unite the Donkeys against whoever the ReThug candidate turns out to be. Hey, it could work!

If Cuomo beats out Patterson, it's more of a dogfight between him and Giuliani, but to do that Cuomo is going to have to challenge a sitting black governor which ain't gonna sit well with a significant slice of the Donkey electorate. He'll also have to endorse same sex marriage as opposed to Rudy's more moderate civil union stance and there's no telling how that's going to play out, even in a place like New York City..and besides, Rudy could pick up a lotta the gay vote just by parading in drag again..but hopefully, with a fashion consultant - that last dress was a !##@!&! trainwreck. We'll see what develops.

Meanwhile, my Democrats look like they're going to add another senate and House seat to our margin of victory in a coupla close elections by applying that old Democratic principle of counting every vote that counts and discounting those that don't. Hey, that's politics.

With Al Franken in the Senate, cracks about 'those clowns in Washington' will take on a brand new meaning, trust me. Hey, if Franken can get in, don't be surprised if I don't take a stab at it. You could be addressing me as Senator Monkey in the future.

Smell yah later, Primates!

Weekend Monkey was a Democratic candidate for president in 2008 and is JoshuaPundit's political guru. He can be reached at wendmonkey@aol.com

Evan Sayet : How Modern "Liberals" Think...

Want an amazing synopsis of how modern 'liberals' think and why? This video by comedian/writer Evan Sayet is exactly what you're looking for.

Hat tip to Doug Ross

PS: For those of you in Los Angeles, Evan Sayet is doing standup and appearing in his Right to Laugh Concert tomorrow at the world famous Laugh Factory in Hollywood.

Obama Hearts Chavez - And Apologizes For America

Note the seventies-style Lefty 'movement' handshake - it tells the whole story right there.

President Obama attended the latest Summit of the Americas in Trinidad with a host of Latin American leaders and while his basic premise was to meet n' greet, part of that job involved absorbing a number of diatribes aimed at the US, notably from our old commie acquaintance, former Nicaraguan dictator Daniel Ortega.

Obama seems to have succeded in cuddling up to Chavez,who presented him with a book as a gift that was a standard Leftist rant against yanqui imperialism, "The Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent," by Eduardo Galeano.

Obama said he was looking forward to reading it - not realizing that it was written in Spanish, which shows that Chavez's gift was about as well thought out as Obama's gift to the UK's Gordon Brown of a $39.95 DVD collection that would only play on US players.

It's interesting to note the contrast between President Obama's rappoir with Hugo Chavez as opposed to his relationship with, say, an ally like Israeli PM Netanyahu - who Obama still has yet to agree to meet with.

Obama's EPA Paves The Way For American Poverty And Economic Decline

In a late ruling on Friday ( it seems this stuff always gets planned so it hits the bottom of the news cycle on the weekends)President Obama's EPA made a ruling that will have far reaching consequences to American prosperity and economic development at least as great as the mountain of debt the Obama Administration has saddled us and our children with - and possibly more:

The US Environmental Protection Agency has shifted course by deeming carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases a health risk, in a landmark turnaround that could impact climate change regulation.

"After a thorough scientific review ordered in 2007 by the US Supreme Court, the Environmental Protection Agency issued a proposed finding ... that greenhouse gases contribute to air pollution that may endanger public health or welfare," said an EPA statement posted on its website on Friday.

The move, which could open the door to stronger regulation on greenhouse gas emissions, marks a significant shift on climate change from the previous presidency of George W. Bush, which failed to heed EPA warnings on the possibly devastating consequences of inaction.

"This finding confirms that greenhouse gas pollution is a serious problem now and for future generations. Fortunately, it follows President (Barack) Obama's call for a low carbon economy and strong leadership in Congress on clean energy and climate legislation," said EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson.

"This pollution problem has a solution -- one that will create millions of green jobs and end our country's dependence on foreign oil.

"As the proposed endangerment finding states, 'In both magnitude and probability, climate change is an enormous problem. The greenhouse gases that are responsible for it endanger public health and welfare within the meaning of the Clean Air Act,'" she added.

This is nothing more than an attempt to impose an 'energy tax' on the American people by regulation without the political cost of trying to ram it through through Congress. And it's part of Obama's declared intention to bankrupt America's coal industry even if it made energy prices skyrocket, something over 85% of Americans were unaware of during the campaign according to Zogby's polling. We already know how his administration feels about domestic oil drilling.

Rest assured that China, Russia and India have no plans to go along with this farce -because they need to grow their economies.And the 'green jobs' Obama and the EPA are talking about? Not only will new jobs not be created, as displaced workers from coal and oil simply migrate to the new ones, but it's highly likely that there will be a net job loss!

The socialist government of Spain tried this exact formula at the height of the global warming craze, and the results are a pretty good indication of what we can expect:

Every “green job” created with government money in Spain over the last eight years came at the cost of 2.2 regular jobs, and only one in 10 of the newly created green jobs became a permanent job, says a new study released this month. The study draws parallels with the green jobs programs of the Obama administration.

President Obama, in fact, has used Spain’s green initiative as a blueprint for how the United States should use federal funds to stimulate the economy. Obama’s economic stimulus package,which Congress passed in February, allocates billions of dollars to the green jobs industry.

But the author of the study, Dr. Gabriel Calzada, an economics professor at Juan Carlos University in Madrid, said the United States should expect results similar to those in Spain:

“Spain’s experience (cited by President Obama as a model) reveals with high confidence, by two different methods, that the U.S. should expect a loss of at least 2.2 jobs on average, or about 9 jobs lost for every 4 created, to which we have to add those jobs that non-subsidized investments with the same resources would have created,” wrote Calzada in his report: Study of the Effects on Employment of Public Aid to Renewable Energy Sources.

Not only that, but the jobs President Obama will be replacing in the mines and at the oil rigs are largely unionized high paying blue collar jobs. Want to bet that the new 'green' jobs won't have the same sort of paychecks and benefits?

CO2, AKA Carbon dioxide is a naturally occuring gas that occurs everytime we exhale, and it's necessary for plant growth, which functions exactly the opposite of ours - we inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide while plants do exactly the reverse.

As for global warming, that particular scam has been debunked to the point that slightly over one third of Americans still believe it, according to Rasmussen. If anything we're experiencing a trend towards global cooling.

Putting the kind of stringent regulations on American manufacturers Obama's EPA has in mind is a guaranteed recipe for sending what's left of America's manufacturing jobs overseas while putting the rest of us in the poorhouse as we struggle to meet rising energy costs and taxes.

Hope n' change!

UN Delegates Stage Walk Out After Ahmadinejad Calls Israel 'Racist' And Denies Holocaust

A group of mostly western delegates to the UN's so-called conference against racism in Geneva walked out on Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's speech today, after he referred to Israel's as a racist regime that was founded "on the pretext of Jewish suffering" during World War II.

Around 20 delegates, including envoys from the UK, France, and Finland stood up and left the room at what was considered an anti-Semitic remark by the Iranian leader, who has repeatedly called for Israel to be wiped off the map.

Nine Western countries including Israel and the United States had already decided to boycott the conference entirely because its draft declaration endorsed the conclusions of an anti-racism conference in South Africa eight years ago in which Islamic nations pushed through a text equating Zionism with racism. [...]

The Obama administration announced at the weekend that it would boycott the meeting because its draft declaration makes reference to the text agreed in 2001 at the UN's first anti-racism conference in Durban, South Africa. That document was agreed after the United States and Israel walked out over attempts to liken Zionism - the movement to establish a Jewish state in the Holy Land - to racism.

Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Poland joined the boycott.

The major sticking points in the draft final declaration prepared for the current meeting concern its implied criticism of Israel and an attempt by Muslim governments to remove all criticism of Islam, Sharia law, the Prophet Muhammad and other tenets of their faith.

Let's examine some of this a bit more closely.

President Obama and UN Ambassador Susan Rice have known for weeks what this conference was about, what the problems with the draft final declaration were and that Ahmadinejad would be addressing the conference on Hitler's birthday, which with supreme irony falls on Yom HaShoah, the day when Israel and Jews around the world memorialize the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Yet they waited until the last minute to bow out.,,probably carefully weighing the political effect on President Obama's attempt to appease the Muslim world versus the Obama Administration's Jewish constituency here in the US, and whether it would be less of a problem to simply not show up versus having to walk out later.And for that matter, the American taxpayer is still footing a large chunk of the bills for the conference.

I doubt even Bill Clinton would have been that amoral, cynical and calculating.

As a contrast, Canada and Italy, to their eternal credit, announced from the very first that they would not be a part of this obscene theater.Nor am I surprised at the German and Polish decisions to boycott. They understand what's going on at the conference all too well, because they lived it.

The UN is an idea formed from the ashes of World war II that has outlived its usefulness, and what happened there today simply underlines it. When an organization designed to be a forum for freedom, democracy and dialogue between nations degenerates to the point where someone like Ahmadinejad is an honored guest, there's no saving it - it's terminal.

Israel And The Obama Administration Far Apart On Mid East Peace

The US Special envoy to the Middle East, Arab-American ex-Senator George Mitchell made a trip to Israel and the Palestinian occupied areas of Judea and Samaria to get a feel for how far he could push the new Israeli government and ended up in the middle of what could tactfully be called a 'divergence' of Israeli and American views on the Palestinians and Iran.

In fairness, Mitchell's task was made much more difficult by the Obama Administration, which sent several provocative signals to Israel that the US is preparing to appease Iran at Israel's expense before Mitchell even arrived to talk to them.


President Obama has made it clear many times that he favors a second Arab Palestinian state on the old pre-1967 borders established as quickly as possible and that he backs the Saudi peace ultimatum. Mitchell's job was to pressure the new Netanyahu government to commit to the Saudi plan and the idea of establishing a Palestinian state on Israel's territory, regardless of the problem of Hamas, the prior Roadmap agreements the Palestinians have still not implemented or Israel's very real security considerations.

Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman quickly let Mitchell and the Obama Administration know that things have changed and they weren't dealing with the likes of Tzipi Livni and Ehud Olmert any more. he stated emphatically that the Israelis were more than happy to fulfill the actual commitments they made as part of the Roadmap, including the additional provisions spelled out by Ariel Sharon and accepted by then President Bush - as soon as the Palestinians began fulfilling their obligations under the same agreement.He also said that while Israel was committed to the Road Map, it was not committed to the results of the gang rape that occurred courtesy of Condi Rice at Annapolis...where nothing was signed anyway.

Needless to say, the Palestinians were not exactly pleased at being reminded that they actually had to do something to get anything. As a matter of fact, their reaction can best be described as a heel kicking, screaming tantrum.

When Mitchell met with Bibi Netanyahu, Israel's new Prime Minister essentially turned things on their ear by telling Mitchell that he would be happy to resume negotiations on the new Palestinian state President Obama wants and commit to the idea of a two state solution - as soon as the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish State.

Since neither Hamas or Fatah have recognized Israel's right to exist,( although the Palestinian Authority did at Oslo, in order to get the aid money flowing)this presented a problem to President Obama's grand designs.

The Palestinians stated emphatically that they had no intention of recognizing Israel.

"This is an obstacle on the path to peace and the creation of two states," Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas's spokesman said.

There's more to this than meets the eye. Aside from pushing Israel back to what ex-Israel UN Ambassador Abba Eban aptly called the 'Auschwitz lines' the Palestinians insist on the right to swamp what's left of Israel with thousands of genocidal 'refugees' in a so-called right of return, something that has never even been considered for the almost one million Jewish refugees on the 1948 conflict from all over the Arab world. Recognizing Israel would involve the Palestinians making a realistic concession on this point. And realistic concessions are not what Mahmoud Abbas and Fatah or the rival Green Hat Gang in Gaza are about. It's all or nothing and it always has been, which makes the whole idea of 'negotiations' farcical.

Netanyahu and Lieberman pointed that out to Mitchell, with Lieberman explicitly saying that new approaches are needed, because the old approach of israel making concessions and giving up land has been a failure. Netanyahu reportedly told Mitchell that the Israelis were not going to accede to a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria (AKA the West Bank) merely to have it become another part of Hamastan, something that would happen in a heartbeat if the IDF pulled out and left Abbas and Fatah to their own devices.

The US response to this was fairly negative. A planned meeting with Obama and Netanyahu at the White House for May to coincide with Netanyahu's appearance at the AIPAC convention was cancelled, and while both sides made polite noises to indicate that it was a mere scheduling problem, no alternative date was set, and the White House appears as anxious to speak with Netanyahu as they were with Israeli Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazy last month.Mahmoud Abbas is scheduled to be hosted by the White House next month, but there's no indication Netanyahu will be there any time soon.

Mitchell made it clear that the US considers the establishment of a Palestinian state a priority:

"This conflict has gone on for far too long, and the people of this region should no longer have to wait for the just peace that guarantees security for all," Mitchell said.

"The US is committed to the establishment of a sovereign, independent Palestinian state, where the aspirations of the Palestinian people to control their own destiny are realized," he said.

"We want the Arab peace initiative to be a part of the effort to reach this goal. A comprehensive peace in this region is in the national interest of the United States. It is in the interest of the Palestinian people, it is in the interest of the people of Israel and of the entire region. A two-state solution is the only solution," he said.

There is, of course, no mention from Mitchell of Arab violence and rejectionism as a reason why peace in this conflict has been so elusive.

Perhaps the most extraordinary part of the exchange between Israel and the US was a letter sent by National Union chairman and MK Ya'acov "Ketzele" Katz to White House chief-of-staff Rahm Emanuel last week, after Emanuel was quoted as telling an American Jewish leader that the White House was going to ram a Palestinian state through no matter who was prime minister of Israel.

In the letter, Katz, who is not part of the Netanyahu government, reminded Emanuel of his Israeli background and of the biblical Queen Esther, who ended up at using her influence with Persian King Ahashverosh to intervene on behalf of the Jews of the Persian Empire against Haman.

"For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?" Katz wrote, quoting from the Book of Esther (4:14).

I have no information on how the letter was received in the White House.

Watcher's Council Results, 4/17/09

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

The winning entry in the Council category this week was A Few Inconvenient Truths About Israel And ‘Settlements’ from yours truly, my attempt to illuminate with a little truth some of the outright lies, absurdities and distortions that have now become increasingly common on this subject in the dinosaur media. Thanks gang, it's an honor.

In second place was The Razor for What is a Man? , a fine examination of this subject that included one of my favorite poems.

Also getting votes were Bookworm Room for Separation does not mean destruction and The Glittering Eye for Majority of Those Who Pay No Income Taxes Believe the Tax System is Fair


In the Non-Council category, the winner was Macs Mind with About that Obama Iraq Visit which explains that Obama's welcome in Iraq by our troops was not exactly what it appeared to be.

In second place, we had Information Dissemination with Observing the Obama Administration Somali Piracy Policy

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

Janeane Garofalo Calls Tea Parties 'Racist'

If you attended a tea party to protest your government's off the charts spending and massive taxation, you're simply a redneck racist. At least that's what failed comedienne and failed Air America talk show host Janeane Garafolo and Keith Olbermann over at MSNBC think...if that's the operative word:

"Let's be very honest about what this is about. This is not about bashing Democrats. It's not about taxes. They have no idea what the Boston Tea party was about. They don't know their history at all. It's about hating a black man in the White House," she said on MSNBC's "The Countdown" with Keith Olbermann Thursday evening. "This is racism straight up and is nothing but a bunch of teabagging rednecks. There is no way around that." {..}

The actress went on to describe the brain size of typical "right-winger, Republican or conservative or your average white power activist."

"Their synapses are misfiring. ... It is a neurological problem we are dealing with," she said. This isn't the first time she's offered this analysis, either. Ms. Garofalo said similar things about Alaskan GOP Governor Sarah Palin's brain last February in an interview with an environmental blog.

The actress went on to bash the GOP on MSNBC Thursday because it had "crystallized into the white power movement" as well as Fox News, which she said has captured the "Klan demo[graphic]."

"Who else is Fox talking to? Urban older white guys and their girlfriends who suffer from Stockholm Syndrome," she said.

Olbermann listened to this ridiculous rant and simple interjected comments like 'yes', right' and 'of course'.

That really is what these people think of average Americans.

It's easy enough to satirize a woman(I'm guessing she's one) like Garafalo, and Olbermann could serve as a dictionary definition of self=parody.

But I think the timing is a bit suspect and it goes beyond that, especially since we now know that this stuff is being coordinated on a daily basis by the Obama White House.

The Chosen One just had the Department of Homeland Security issue a report stating that 'right wing extremists' including returning vets are the chief danger facing this country, and if you remember, he just received funding to set up his own domestic security force "just as powerful, just as well funded as our military."

And based on a recent cop killing in Pittsburg and a crazed wack job shooting up an immigration office in New York, we've seen new calls to limit the right to bear arms under the Second Amendment.

Could the Obama Administration be setting up a scenario where there's a vastly publicized vast right wing racist 'conspiracy' that calls for extraordinary wide ranging powers for the President to counter an evil rightwing racist threat - implemented by Obama's personal security force?

It's not as far fetched as it seems - especially given the essentially fascist nature of a lot of people mistakenly labeled as 'liberals' - like the two on display at MSNBC mentioned above.

The US Signals It Will Appease Iran - At Israel's Expense

The Obama Administration has sent a number of unmistakable signals recently to Israel that it considers them an obstruction rather than an ally...and that appeasing Iran and the Muslim world takes priority over its relationship with Israel.

First, President Obama agreed on an important concession to Iran, reversing years of policy. They sent a message to the Mullahs that they would be willing to begin talks on Iran's nuclear weapons program without insisting that the Iranians at least temporarily cease enrichment - which means that the mullahs can run out the clock with endless negotiations while they continue to perfect their nukes and their delivery systems.

Second, the Israelis definitely took note of the North Korean fiasco, where Secretary of Defense Robert Gates went public before the Nork's recent missile launch to tell the world that the US couldn't or wouldn't do anything about it. As I mentioned at the time the Israelis, if they're paying attention, should realize that if 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.

Just to underline that message, it recently came out that SecDef Gates refused Japan's request to allow the US Navy to utilize America's most advanced radar, a seaborne X-band unit during the North Korean launch:

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates denied permission for the U.S. Northern Command to use the Pentagon's most powerful sea-based radar to monitor North Korea's recent missile launch, precluding officials from collecting finely detailed launch data or testing the radar in a real-time crisis, current and former defense officials said.

To say that the Japanese were upset about this is an understatement.

The Israelis also have an X-Band unit, stationed in the Negev Desert as part of the well-publicized link up of the Israeli and US missile defense systems designed to ease Israel's concerns about Iran's nukes.The US has insisted that the unit remain completely under US control without any Israeli oversight or involvement..which wasn't a huge problem because the Israelis felt confident that the Americans would never allow a missile attack against a long time ally of the US.

After seeing how Japan, another log-time US ally was left hanging, I doubt the Israelis have that confidence.

Finally, Israel was the recipient of two high level blunt warnings from the US in the space of about a week against taking any action to stop the Iranians from getting nukes, one from Vice President Joe Biden and the other from SecDef Gates.

Gates statement was reminiscent of his remarks on North Korea, saying that the US can't do anything about Iran's quest for nukes and that an Iranian nuclear bomb can be prevented only if "Iranians themselves decide it's too costly."

He also said that a strike on Iran's nukes would unify Iran, "cement their determination to have a nuclear program, and also build into the whole country an undying hatred of whoever hits them."

Of course that ignores both the Iranian regime's determination to obtain nukes that's already cemented in place and its genocidal desire to use them on Israel, whether on it's own or by providing them its proxies, Hezbollah and Hamas. As for the hatred, that's pretty much a given already. Referring to a country as a cancer and threatening to wipe it off the map reflects sentiments that aren't going to change no matter what Israel does or doesn't do.

Not only does Gate's statement effectively signal the Mullahs that the US is not going to do anything effective to stop them, it tells the Israelis that the US is not to be depended on an an ally and that they're supposed to cringe, depend on Ahmadinejad and Khamenei's good graces and hope it all works out.

Gates, of course is speaking with Obama's voice. The Israelis would be fools to accept this, and I doubt they will.

As for the US, if things continue as they are we're set to learn a very hard lesson on why appeasing a regime like Iran's is a no guarantee of our own security.

We will pay in blood and treasure and treasure for that lesson, and the longer we try to delay the inevitable the higher the bill will be.

UN's Durban II Set To Start April 20th - Hitler's Birthday

Well, you have to admit the symbolism is appropriate.

Hitler's birthday is a fitting date to commence the UN's Durban II Conference on 'anti-racism' and human rights - with Libya as the chair of the “Main Committee” running the conference, Iran as the vice chair, and Cuba, the Castro brothers' Caribbean gulag as 'reporteur'. These three superb practitioners of human rights will run the “Durban II” conference in Geneva.

Running the conference will be Libyan Chair Najat Al-Hajjaji, who is essentially serving as the front for the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC). Her not-so-hidden agenda is shared by her partner in running the conference, the Secretary-General of Durban II, UN High Commissioner Navi Pillay, a native of Durban South Africa who had a prominent and particularly odious part in what occurred at Durban I.

The first order of business will be to reaffirm what happened at Durban I, officially known as “the UN World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance” back in 2001.

That particular shindig turned into an anti-Semitic orgy so foul that the US and even the EU delegates ended up walking out before the final paper was drafted. It is that agreement that will be 'reaffirmed' by Durban II in Geneva, along with some new additions.

Since 2001, the Organization of Islamic Conference has been formed and now constitutes a major voting bloc at the UN and especially on the UN Human Rights Council(UNHRC). And they've gotten much more ambitious.
Aside from repeating the successful 2001 formula to scapegoat Israel and America, the UNHRC is looking to put in place actual international laws and UN resolutions that would muzzle any criticism of Islam, as well as formalize the entire final document adopted in Geneva.

For instance, the new proposed working document document lists 'occupation' as racism. That will provide a new handle for unlimited speeches and resolutions condemning Israel's so-called 'occupation of Palestinian land' - Darfur, Tibet and Iran and Syria's activities in Lebanon among others will not be mentioned.

Paragraphs 73 through 78 mention specifically illegal aliens and their rights and mandate that 'international law' trumps any immigration laws that a sovereign nation might have.

In addition, the trans Atlantic slave trade that ended in the 19th century in mentioned several times and covered in depth, and formulas provided for 'apologies' and reparations without mentioning the far larger trans Sahara or Sudanese slave trade conducted by Arabs...some of which still goes on today. The apologies and reparations provisions are also aimed specifically at the US, something that might be quite interesting to the Obama Administration and UN Ambassador Rice and might account for why America has not yet pulled out of the disgraceful farce and is indeed funding a huge chunk of it.

As an added treat for the conference attendees, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinijad has announced that he will attend and address the conference. After all, he's an expert on both the Little Satan of Israel and the Big Satan of America and should go over quite well.

What remains to be seen is whether the US will attend. President Obama has already announced that the US will join the UNHRC, something President Bush, to his credit, dismissed out of hand.

The original line from the Obama administration was that the US would participate to 'modify' the draft document and would not attend Durban II if the racist and anti-Semitic 2001 Durban Declaration which the US rejected the first time around was reaffirmed. Since the opening statement of the new document does exactly this, even that lame excuse no longer exists.

Canada and Israel have announced that they will not attend or participate, and it's likely that Australia, the Netherlands and Italy won't either. Had the Obama administration had the basic decency to boycott Durban II and avoid legitimizing it, it's likely other countries would have pulled out also. Instead, this is yet another attempt by Obama to vote 'present' .

As it is, the Obama administration has delayed a decision until the last minute.Even if they subsequently pull out, a message has already been sent.

On Monday, April 20th, Hitler's birthday, the delegates will sit in Geneva to listen to a speech by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,a man who denies the Holocaust occurred and who has been quite emphatic in his desire to commit a new one by wiping Israel off the map.He'll talk about human rights and the evils of intolerance without a trace of irony.

And afterwards, the UN will end up adopting a document that embodies the very sort of racism and bigotry the organization was originally designed to combat when it was born in the ashes of World War II.

Somewhere, Der Führer is smiling.

How CNN 'Reported' On The Tea Parties

The dinosaur media was eventually forced to 'report' on the tea parties, and their coverage has been exactly what you would expect..biased, snarky and deliberately misleading.

This starts from deliberately downplaying the numbers that attended to what we see above..a supposed 'journalist' engaging in a political argument with a protester, something you never would have seen at, say, those cute little commie fueled anti-War rallies.

Notice the deep contempt in Susan Roesgen's voice, her gratuitous slur of FOX news as a 'right wing conservative network' ( she obviously read the recent DHS report and believes every word), the way she rudely yanks the microphone away from the person SHE chose to engage so she can talk over him and how quickly she moves away when he proves to be more articulate than she bargained for. Notice the insult she tosses off at the end of the segment that the tea party 'isn't family viewing', at an event where numerous families brought their children..and the way her studio co-anchor glosses over the whole thing.

One shouldn't expect much from CNN, the network that went down on its knees in front of Saddam Hussein and willingly serviced him by avoiding reporting his atrocities 'to keep access to the story'.

But what bothers me is that they continue to adopt to the pose of being 'unbiased professional journalists',rather than the media whores for the Left they actually are.

In an actual news organization, somebody like Susan Roesgen would have gotten her ass fired in a nanosecond. There's a difference between being hired to report the news and being hired to commentate on it.

Instead, I'm sure she was highfived by her bosses for her 'courageous coverage' and got enough free drinks sent to her at whatever bar media hookers like Rosen hang out at in Chicago to put her under the table and give her a hellish hangover the next day.

Somebody like Markos over at Daily Kos or most of the Leftards over at Huffington Post are insane, but at least they're honest. Susan Roesgen and her fellow shills in the dinosaur media don't even have that going for them.

hattip to The Other McCain

For interested parties, here's what happened after the CNN cameras were turned off. Apparently some of the demonstrators had a few things to say to Susan Roesgen, starting at about 1:58...

Harvard Islamic Chaplain Advocates Death For Apostates

As sharia law becomes more accepted as 'just another religious tradition' in America, its adherents become bolder and more outspoken as the need for taqia ( dissembling to advance Islam) lessens:

Harvard Islamic chaplain Taha Abdul-Basser ’96 has recently come under fire for controversial statements in which he allegedly endorsed death as a punishment for Islamic apostates.

In a private e-mail to a student last week, Abdul-Basser wrote that there was “great wisdom (hikma) associated with the established and preserved position (capital punishment [for apostates]) and so, even if it makes some uncomfortable in the face of the hegemonic modern human rights discourse, one should not dismiss it out of hand.”

The e-mail was forwarded over Muslim student e-mail lists and later picked up by the blogosphere, sparking debate and, in many cases, criticism of Abdul-Basser from those who have interpreted his statement as supporting the execution of those who leave the Islamic religion.

“I believe he doesn’t belong as the official chaplain,” said one Islamic student, who asked that he not be named to avoid conflicts with Muslim religious authorities. “If the Christian ministers said that people who converted from Christianity should be killed, don’t you think the University should do something?”

According to the student, many of Abdul-Basser’s other views are “not in line with liberal values, such as notions of human rights. He privileges the medieval discourse of the Islamic jurists, and is not willing to exercise independent thought and judgment beyond a certain limit,” the student said.

Keep in mind that Abdul-Basser is not a private individual, but has an official position as a Harvard chaplain.

Samad Khurram ’09-’10 said Abdul-Basser’s remarks conflicted with the Harvard United Ministry’s support of freedom of religion.

“I support free speech, freedom of belief and association, so this came as a big shock to me,” Khurram said.

“[His remarks] are the first step towards inciting intolerance and inciting people towards violence,” said a Muslim Harvard student, who requested that he not be named for fear of harming his relationship with the Islamic community.

Aqil Sajjad, a Harvard graduate student, also said that Abdul-Basser’s statements were “totally wrong, definitely out of line for somebody in that position. I wouldn’t go and seek religious advice from one who is saying this.”

A Muslim student at MIT, who also asked to remain anonymous to preserve his relationship with the Islamic community, said the chaplain’s remarks wrongly suggested that only Westerners and Westernized Muslims who did not fully understand Islam would find the killing of apostates objectionable.

“If what he said was what I thought, then it is very shocking and not something that I would expect or want coming out of a chaplain at any major American university,” he said.

Notice how many of these Muslim students who disagreed with the party line insisted on remaining anonymous? After all, since the Muslim chaplain involved is asserting that Islamic sharia law demands the death penalty for apostates. Did the anonymous students have some concerns for their well-being if they were seen as opposing Islamic sharia law?


The party line itself it unequivocal, and Abdul-Basser should not be criticized being honest about it.

Here is precisely what Muhammad ordered, as recorded in the Hadith:

The Messenger of Allah said, “Whoever changes his (Islamic) religion, kill him.” Al-Bukhary (number 6922)

Abdul-Basher is correctly stating the commands of his religion, as seen by the majority of Muslims around the world.Is there a consensus of rational American Muslims prepared to repudiate this utterly?

And if there isn't, are non-Muslim Americans prepared to insist that Islam conform to our laws, our Constitution, our democratic principles, and our tradition of respect for human rights and religious freedom...just as we have with other religions in the past?

That's the question, in a nutshell.And it's one we had better answer quickly, for the sake of both American Muslims and ourselves.

Scenes From The Tea Parties..

Nashville, Tennessee

Louisville, Kentucky

Fayetteville, North Carolina ( courtesy of long-time Joshua's Army member Zeb)

Denver, Colorado


Greensburg, PA

Oklahoma City

Lansing, Michigan

Toledo, Ohio

The dinosaur media is largely ignoring this ( a Google search reveals that coverage is almost exclusively on the blogosphere)when they're not ridiculing it,but I think this is a more significant development that snarky, full-of-themselves commentators like MSNBC's Rachel Maddow and CNN's Anderson Cooper realize.

For one thing, this is not usually the segment of society that attends demonstrations.

Normally, they're done by the left because the foot soldiers ( students and 'activists) are not usually people with jobs and responsibilities. And the afterparty 'hookup' atmosphere at those things is usually a big part of the attraction, as anyone involved in Obama rallies will testify if they're being even a little honest.

The crowd here is very different -composed largely of people with families, jobs and a myriad of excuses not to find time to attend a demonstration during a work day. You rarely see them out on the streets like this, and especially not in these numbers.

And as my friend Dave Schuler from the Glittering Eye points out, the number of Americans who have zero income tax liability is the highest it’s been in over a half century. The people at the tea parties are part of the roughly 55% of Americans who actually pay taxes.

If the horse is getting tired of carrying the load and shows it this publicly, it's an important change in the weather. I fully expect to see more signs of this in the near future...especially given the current climate in Washington..

Watcher's Council Nominations. 4/15/09

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 in the council's Tax Day edition- and do check out the
Watcher's take on the tea parties and the recent DHS report targeting 'right wing extremists'...


COUNCIL
Joshuapundit - A Few Inconvenient Truths About Israel And ‘Settlements’

Right Truth - Radical Leftist Appointments -Radicals appoint their fellow radicals to government positions when they win elections. Right Truth documents some of President Obama's choices.

Rhymes With Right - Lege Considering Campus Carry Bill, Chron Says “No” - I'm amazed that this is even a subject for debate in Texas, an admirably sensible place. As Greg points out, state law provides that law abiding citizens have the right of concealed carry, something criminals have justly learned to fear if the statistics are any indication. One armed and motivated professor or student could have saved a lot of lives at Virginia Tech.

Bookworm Room - Separation does not mean destruction - The always scintillating Ms. Bookworm takes on a particularly egregious instance of the secular gestapo coming down on two college students...as opposed to the tacit acceptance of leftist pronouncements in the public schools.

The Glittering Eye - Majority of Those Who Pay No Income Taxes Believe the Tax System is Fair - Dave parses a ridiculous poll showing that the majority of Americans like the current tax system..without making allowance for the fact that the percentage of people who don't pay any taxes is higher than ever in our history!

Mere Rhetoric - Obama Refuses To Visit Normandy Memorial Because It Might Offend Germany -Omri notes that President Obama decided to cater to German sensibilities by passing on a visit to the Normandy memorial.

Aside from the fact that I think most Germans (many of whom respect the virtue of patriotism) wouldn't have been offended in the least, I'm rather happy the current occupant of the White House chose to give Normandy a miss. Given his views on America and on our military, I'm sure the spirits of the American patriots who inhabit Pont Du Hoc were happy not to be sullied by his presence and gratified to be left to slumber in peace without being intruded on for an Obama photo-op.


The Colossus of Rhodey - Do we really need fear Republicans shooting up the place? - Hube takes on some Leftard bloggers in the state that elected Joe Biden who fear the wrath of evil Republicans...which ties in, I suppose with the recent DHS report...

The Provocateur - Krugman, the Tea Parties, and Alinsky’s Rule #13 - Mike Volpe looks at a recent Paul Krugman column on the tea parties and smells the putrid scent of Obama mentor Saul Alinsky.

The Razor - What is a Man? - Well, what is he? Scott gives us his thoughts on this question, including incorporating lines from one of my favorite poems.


NON-COUNCIL

Submitted By: Right Truth - Dr. Melissa Clouthier - Tea Parties And Liberal Angst

Submitted By: Joshuapundit - Shrinkwrapped - On demographics And Meaning, Part IV

Submitted By: Rhymes With Right - Gay Patriot - Anti-Tea Party Hysteria: Opposition to Big Government Doesn’t Meet Netroots Standard for Acceptable Political Grievances

Submitted By: Bookworm Room - Jerusalem Post - Caroline Glick - Surviving in a post-American world

Submitted By: The Glittering Eye - Information Dissemination - Observing the Obama Administration Somali Piracy Policy

Submitted By: Mere Rhetoric - Mark Steyn - Our Reprimitivized Future

Submitted By: The Colossus of Rhodey - The Times Online - From Fatwa to Jihad: The Rushdie Affair and Its Legacy by Kenan Malik

Submitted By: The Provocateur - New Ledger - The PUMA: GM Has a good PR Day

Submitted By: The Razor - Macs Mind - About that Obama Iraq Visit

Submitted By: The Watcher - American Thinker - DHS, ‘Rightwing Extremism’ and Information Warfare