Sec. Clinton Blasts House Bill With Aid Requirements for Egypt, Lebanon, Pakistan, 'Palestinians'

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is livid over a proposed House bill out of committee that would impose strict new requirements on U.S. foreign aid to Egypt, Lebanon, Pakistan, Yemen, and the Palestinian Authority.

Th Secretary of State wrote In an angry letter she wrote to members of the House Foreign Affairs committee, Clinton claimed the bill “would be debilitating to my efforts to carry out a considered foreign policy and diplomacy, and to use foreign assistance strategically to that end.”

Mrs. Clinton actually threatened to lobby the president to veto the bill if it's passed.

So, what are these horrific restrictions she's so upset about?

For example, as one condition to continue to get the billions in baksheesh they receive from us, the Pakistanis would need to prove that they are assisting in an US investigation on who gave sanctuary to Osama bin Laden.

The committee’s chairman, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), said in her opening statement Wednesday that the measure would send a clear message to the country in which Osama bin Laden hid for years without detection.

Pakistan, she said, is “on notice that it is no longer business as usual and that they will be held to account if they continue to refuse to cooperate with our efforts to eliminate the nuclear black market, destroy the remaining elements of Osama Bin Laden’s network, and vigorously pursue our counter-terrorism objectives.”

“I think the prospect of a cutoff of assistance will get their attention and that the games being played with our security will finally stop,” she added.

Lebanon will not receive any US aid if a Hezbollah member occupies a top government or policy post (they dominate the cabinet).The 'Palestinian Authority' must terminate incitement against Israel in the media and in the schools, cooperate with Israel on security matters,attain statehood via negotiations with Israel rather than an end run to the UN. And the 'Palestinian' Authority must not allow members of Hamas, a recognized terrorist group, to be part of its government directly or indirectly. In other words, in order to get the $510 million of our tax dollars President Obama has set aside for them, The 'Palestinian Authority' must simply abide by the agreements it signed, the Oslo Accords and the Road Map.

The Egyptians would be required to keep the peace with Israel and the other provisions of the Camp David Accords, while Yemen would have to be be free of human rights abuses. And the flow of US foreign aid to all of these countries could only continue if the Obama administration was able to certify that no members of terrorist organizations groups or their sympathizers were serving in their governments. The countries also have to meet certain anti-corruption standards.

The Republican in the House said the bill would serve U.S. national interests while scaling back overall spending. “In this difficult geopolitical and economic climate, the American people deserve a policy that is based on American principles, looks out for American interests, and wisely invests American dollars,” Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas), chairwoman of the Appropriations subcommittee on State-Foreign Operations, said Wednesday. In other words, foreign aid ought to be reserved for our friends, or at countries that serve our interests, not our enemies. What a concept, eh?

Both Granger and the committee’s ranking Democrat, Nita Lowey (D-NY)favored attaching strings to aid for Pakistan and the other Middle Eastern countries named.

Brad Goehner, a spokesman for Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), the chairwoman of the House committee, told the Post that the letter was “disappointing, particularly given the current debt crisis, that the Obama administration is fighting to keep sending taxpayer money to foreign organizations and governments that undermine U.S. interests.”

I have to admit, I can't imagine why Mr. Goehner would be disappointed at this late date after watching this president and his team operate for over two-and-a-half years.

It's worth taking a look at how this has played out in real life so far.

Both Lebanon and the 'Palestinian' Authority have received billions in US military aid, going back to the Bush Administration. Lebanon's went to the Shi'ite dominated army which is now fully integrated with Hezbollah, while a lot of the shiny new equipment the US equipped Mahmoud Abbas' forces with ended up in the hands of Hamas after Fatah was chased out of Gaza.

Just this May, the United States along with Qatar and the World Bank pledged to give billions of dollars in aid that we don't really have to Egypt and Tunisia in order to keep the two countries economies afloat.

As part of the measures, Obama promised of $1 billion in debt relief to Egypt, and offered an additional $1 billion in loans.

Those pledges were unfortunately given before anyone really knew what was going to happen in either country. In Egypt, the situation is extremely unsettled and the likely rulers when it all sorts itself out will be the Muslim Brotherhood as Egypt becomes President Obama's Iran. And the money they're being given isn't going to change the fact that Egypt has a population of 80 million people it has no ability to feed.

As for Tunisia, it has a much better chance of economic recovery, but the political sitution doesn't auger well for it being a democracy. In fact, in new ‘democratic’ Tunisia, one of the first acts of the Commission of Political Reform was to pass laws ensuring that all ties to Israel will be severed permanently. Tunisia's tiny Jewish community, one of the few left in the Arab world, are already in the process of leaving.

The bill will likely pass the House, but probably not the Democrat majority senate without some moderation, and even then President Obama is not likely to sign it. But I have to applaud Congress for finally at least trying to draw the line at funding hostile countries with money we can ill afford unless they agree to perform in accordance to our national interest.

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The Most Dangerous Story In The News Today

In today's Washington Post..here's the opening paragraph:

U.S. counterterrorism officials are increasingly convinced that the killing of Osama bin Laden and the toll of seven years of CIA drone strikes have pushed al­-Qaeda to the brink of collapse.

The article quotes the usual unnamed sources.

The WAPO, being the relatively careful news organization it is covers its tracks carefully with caveats stuck away in odd corners like "al Qaeda might yet rally", "its demise would not end the terrorist threat" and "Even if al Qaeda is dismantled, its militant ideology has spread and will remain a long-term threat."

But the headline and the overwhelming thrust of the article is that al-Qaeda is finished.

Isn't that just wonderful? Wouldn't it be nice to believe that the war that began on 9/11 is all over now, and we beat the bad guys?

Sorry, but I'm afraid I have to pop your bubble.Let's look at something obvious. Why would this be fed to the media just now? And who benefits?

This story fits neatly into the Obama Administration's plans. And even though the WAPO isn't naming names, I can pretty much figure out whom they got it from and why.

We're getting out of Afghanistan, but if we - oh pardon me, President Barack Obama - killed Osama bin-Laden and defeated al-Qaeda, it's not a retreat anymore is it? On the campaign trail, it becomes a win. It can be touted as ''We've finished off the bad guys, and look at who it was that ended Bush's War brought our troops home!' So President Obama gets a totally undeserved label from the usual media suspects as a national security genius.

Not only that but since we've won, we can slash defense spending to the bone and spend that money on Obama's domestic agenda, can't we?

Now that we've figured out the why and who benefits, let's examine who the media almost certainly got this from..and why it's so dangerous.

Leon Panetta, until very recently was the head of our CIA, and just a couple of weeks ago was in Afghanistan saying "We’re within reach of strategically defeating al Qaeda."

Now, he's the Secretary of Defense charged with two major responsibilities. First, getting our troops out of Afghanistan in accordance with President Obama's set in stone date in time for maximum benefit for the president at election time, and selling it to Congress and the media as justified by the military situation. And second, to institute the massive defense cuts his boss is calling for.

All just a coincidence, of course. But I think it's a pretty good bet that he's the WAPO's source, that this was ordered directly by the White House and that we'll likely see more of these stories.

Aside from the despicable nature of playing politics with national security, this story is extremely dangerous in and of itself.

Contrary to what this president and his administration would have you believe, we were never really just fighting al-Qaeda, but a whole slew of Islamist organizations ( many of them associated with the Muslim Brotherhood and other Salafist groups) and the rogue states that support them. Al-Qaeda were at most just part of the parade, and slightly out of hand subcontractors. And the story also ignores the significant ties between al-Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood and what that might mean in countries like Egypt. If you'll recall, al-Qaeda's current leader, Ayman Zawahiri is both an Egyptian and a former member of the Brotherhood, and I've speculated on these pages that the one of the reasons Osama bin-Laden was ratted out was because of the disagreement between the two about staying in Pakistan versus relocating to the Arab World.

This story's also extremely dangerous because of the honor shame factor involved. Trumpeting al-Qaeda's defeat in the press could be just the impetus needed for them to put another operation against the Great Satan into action.

Deluding the American people into thinking that this war is mostly over and lulling them into a false sense of security is exactly what the Islamists want. In fact, that war, because of the desultory way our leaders chose to fight it is merely begun.

That's why this piece is the most dangerous story in the news today.

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Boehner Plan Being Reworked,Gains Momentum; Reid Vows To Kill It In The Senate

Speaker John Boehner's plan to cut spending in exchange for allowing a rise in the debt ceiling fell a bit short in the savings department when it was scored by the CBO, so it's being reworked and will likely come to a vote on Thursday.

Although many House Republicans initially refused to vote for the bill, Boehner wisely opened up the conversation to his caucus and the revamped bill seems to be picking up steam in the House. Rep. Allen West ( R-FL) was a key endorsement:

"From what I saw in there, I think there’s a pretty good change of heart,” Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) said following an early morning meeting of the GOP. Although West had already indicated he would support the bill, he said the Congressional Budget Office’s cost estimate of the bill and lobbying by leaders seemed to have help turn the page on the measure.

Asked if he thought the bill would be passed, West said, “I believe it [will]. I’d almost put my retirement check on it.”

One conservative lawmaker said Boehner and his lieutenants have been pushing their Conference hard on the issue. “They’re working it hard. They’re working it earnestly. They’re working it aggressively,” the lawmaker said.

The work will be for nothing if Senate Majority leader Harry Reid ( D-NV) has anything to say about it.

Reid hasn't even seen the reworked plan yet, but says the Boehner plan isn't going to get a single Democrat vote in the Senate, which if he's right means that it would fail on a party line vote - just like 'cut, cap, and balance', the first solution to the problem passed by th eHouse and voted for by every Republican in the Senate. Reid referred to Boehner's plan as " a big wet kiss for the Right Wing."

Does Reid have a plan, as he claims? Well, no one's sure there is one, since no one's seen it!

The president and the Democrats are obviously going to deliberately go for a government shutdown unless they get whatever they want in the way of sharply higher tax increases. They've apparently decided that the political gains they feel they can reap by holding people like social security recipients and military families hostage and then blaming it on the Republicans outweighs the good of the country.

And Tom Friedman in Pravda-on-the-Hudson had the nerve to compare the Republicans with Hezbollah in his screed today..talk about political terrorists.

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Mayor Of Kandahr Killed In Suicide Bombing

Another victim was added to the string of assassinations by the Taliban in Afghanistan as Ghulam Haidar Hamidi, mayor of Kandahar, Afghanistan was killed today in a suicide bombing attack.

Hamidi, a U.S. citizen, was killed when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives in a corridor near Hamidi's office. The mayor was meeting elders from a city district when one of them got close to the mayor and detonated a bomb hidden in his turban.

Hamidi is just the latest in a series of killings carried out by the Taliban as they seek to assert control over Afghanistan as the US prepares to pull out. Two of Hamidi's deputy mayors were killed in attacks by insurgents last year, and in the last four months the provincial police chief, top cleric and leading powerbroker, President Hamid Karzai's half-brother, have all been assassinated.

There will likely be more of these the closer the US withdrawal date gets.

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Jon Stewart on 'Obama And Armadebtdon 2011'

The Daily Show - Armadebtdon 2011 - Call Congress
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

"Did the president just quit?" Absolutely hilarious!

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Watcher's Council Nominations - Summer Madness Edition

An interesting week we've had! As a friend of mine puts it, tanning in the Apocalypse.

Welcome to the Watcher's Council, a blogging group consisting of some of the most incisive blogs in the 'sphere, and the longest running group of its kind in existence. Every week, the members nominate two posts each, one written by themselves and one written by someone from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council.Then we vote on the best two posts, with the results appearing on Friday.

This week's contest is dedicated to Dymphna and The Baron at Gates of Vienna, because whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger. And to an absolutely incredible young lady whom I'm very proud of, starting year 15 today. Happy Birthday!



Council News:

This week, Maggie's Notebook,Restoring Honor Starts Here and Capitalist Preservation took advantage of my generous offer of link whorage and earned honorable mention status.

You can, too! Want to see your work appear on the Watcher’s Council homepage in our weekly contest listing? Didn’t get nominated by a Council member? No worries.

Simply head over to the ‘Contact Me’ page at Joshuapundit and post a link to the piece you want considered along with an e-mail address ( which won't be published) in the comments section no later than Monday 6PM PST to be considered for our honorable mention category, and return the favor by creating a post on your site linking to the Watcher’s Council contest for the week.

It's a great way of exposing your best work to Watcher’s Council readers and Council members. while grabbing the increased traffic and notoriety. And how good is that, eh?

So, let's see what we have this week....

Council Submissions

• The Noisy Room – Super Congress: Echoes of Tyranny Rising


• Right Truth – Dissecting the Oslo Terror Attacks


• New Zeal – Left Calls for Huge Defense Cuts - Just as Predicted by Former Terrorist Mark Rudd


• Joshuapundit-Norwegian Ambassador : The Oslo Attacks And Palestinian Terrorism Are 'Different'


• Simply Jews – Legislative fervor - not an issue of right vs left


• The Colossus of Rhodey – "Captain America" review


• GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – Syria Soft!


• The Razor – Europe Paying the Price For the Amnesia of Its Past


• VA Right - Obama’s ‘Balanced Approach’ Is, Well… UNBALANCED


• The Glittering Eye -What's a Pro Growth Policy?


• The Political Commentator – The U.S. will NOT default on its debt!


• Rhymes With Right – I Back Allen West!


• Snapped Shot – The Race


• Bookworm Room – Bookworm has a “Wow” moment in Ephesus

Honorable Mentions

• Maggie's Notebook - Paul Ryan Backs Boehner Plan: House – Not Enough Votes to Pass?
• Restoring Honor Starts Here - Principles That Protect


• Capitalist Preservation - The Shrink Wrapped Obama, Part One

Non-Council Submissions

• Gulag Bound–Rep. Allen West Says ‘Marxist,’ Now Who Else Will Tell the Truth? submitted by The Noisy Room


• Sultan Knish -Anders Behring Breivik and the High Cost of Muslim Immigration submitted by Right Truth


• JR NyQuist – What Will China Do? submitted by New Zeal


• Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion – They will convince no one outside of their small circle of friends submitted by Joshuapundit


• The Blog Quebecois – Hen-Pecked submitted by Simply Jews


• Hot Air Green Room – Anders Breivik, post-modern Crusader submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey


• Line of Departure – A Woman For All Reasons submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD


• Uncoverage –Norwegian Murders Should Not Distract from the Threat of Islam Worldwide submitted by The Razor


• Gateway Pundit – Norway’s Ambassador to Israel Defends Palestinian Terror After Oslo Massacre submitted by VA Right


• Zenpundit – Guest Post: John R Hall: “Norway’s cultural Christian apocalyptic crusader?” submitted by The Glittering Eye


• TobyToons – The Unbiased Media Strikes Again submitted by Rhymes with Right


• American Thinker-Kerry spokesman stripped of Silver Star submitted by The Watcher


• The Mellow Jihadi-Charleston, California submitted by The Watcher


• Liberty's Spirit – Lessons From Norway submitted by Snapped Shot


• Victor Davis Hanson – The Great Madness of 2004-10 submitted by The Watcher

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

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White House Press Secretary Jay Carney Beclowns Himself Spinning Obama's AWOL Stance

This has to be one of the most pathetic examples on record of someone openly lying in public since Baghdad Bob during the invasion of Iraq.

And at least Baghdad Bob actually sounded liked he believed what he was saying.

Here's Jay Carney, the president's press secretary actually being sneered at by the normally servile White House press corps as he tries to cover up for the president's total lack of leadership.

This, of course, is the bitter end of President Obama's manufactured use of the debt ceiling as a class warfare drum and re-election strategy. We get to watch his hired spokesmouth soil himself in public while the reporters ask at the end of all the political posturing and with only days left before the country goes into default, why the president hasn't produced his own formal, score-able plan.

After all the bluster, obstruction, and veto threats, they want to know where the president's proposal is. And all Carney can do call a legitimate question a talking point, sputter and thread water.

Since his budget was unanimously defeated in the Senate, President Obama hasn't offered much of anything in the way of specific plans of his own. Instead, what we've gotten are speeches...speeches that blame his political opponents for his own non-leadership.According to Carney, those constitute a plan, or something.

Let's recap again.In just the last few days, The House Republicans and every Republican in the Senate voted for one fix, cut cap and balance' that would not only have solve the immediate problem but put the country on the road to fiscal responsibility. The president said he would veto it, and the Senate Democrats voted it down in a straight party line vote.

Speaker Boehner and Majority leader Eric Cantor then went to the president and worked out a compromise bill that the House Republicans agreed would be acceptable and the White House agreed to - only to have the president deliberately wreck it at the last minute by asking for $400 billion in additional tax increases.

Then we had a bipartisan bill crafted over the weekend by Speaker Boehner, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, only to have the president again refuse to accept it, simply because it didn't go past the November elections.

Next, we had to suffer through the president making yet another speech about how this is all George W. Bush's fault, after which he painted the Republicans as the intractable extremists.

And now, after peeing in the water supply, he's standing on the sidelines waiting for others to do the work for him and sending his hired shill out to try and obscure the fact that this is his mess and he's waiting for others to clean it up.

There's no real leadership here because frankly, the president is incapable of it.He's an empty suit, and in over his head.

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Norwegian Ambassador : The Oslo Attacks And Palestinian Terrorism Are 'Different'

I've long been aware that Norway is one of the most anti-Semitic countries in Europe, but this is a rather unique bit of supremely ugly hypocrisy.

In an interview with the Israeli daily Maariv, Norway's ambassador to Israel Svein Sevje patiently explained that he wanted to "outline the similarity and the difference in the two cases."

Palestinians, the ambassador told Maariv, "are doing this because of a defined goal that is related to the Israeli occupation. There are elements of revenge against Israel and hatred of Israel. To this you can add the religious element to their actions."

"In the case of the terror attack in Norway, the murderer had an ideology that says that Norway, particularly the Labor Party, is forgoing Norwegian culture," Sevje said, referring to Anders Breivik.

"We Norwegians consider the occupation to be the cause of the terror against Israel," he said. "Those who believe this will not change their mind because of the attack in Oslo."

This came after Israel was one of the foirst countries to reach out to Norway after the attacks and offer its condolences and assistance.

Norway, by the way, actively engages with Hamas, an organization that openly preaches genocide against Jews worldwide, not just in Israel. And according to the Ambassador, Israel 'engaging' with Hamas is a necessity.

I'm sure Ambassador Sevje would not have spoken to the press unless his remarks had been cleared by his government. And in view of that, I think it's worth my mentioning something I had planned on letting go by, out of sympathy for the victims of the Oslo killings.

The fact is, the youth gathering on Utøya Island sponsored by the ruling Norwegian Labor had an anti-Semitic rally aimed at deligitimizing Israel as a major component.

The photo above was taken on the island was taken the day before the killings. It shows Norway's Foreign Minister, Jonas Gahr Store en route to address the Labor Party youth. And what did he have to say to them? That the Palestinians "must have their own state, the occupation must end, the wall must be demolished and it must happen now," said the Foreign Minister to cheers from the audience.

Yes, Norway's foreign minister wants Israel's defensive barrier destroyed, to make it easier for homicide bombers to kill Jews.

And it didn't end there. The main activity at the Utøya Island Meeting were mock "Break the Israel blockade" games. In one event , Palestinian aid boats would try to break the Israeli blockade, with whoever gets through first as the winner. The sign says "defeat the blockade" (opphev blokkaden - Gaza).
























In fact, Norway's Labor Youth are noted for their vociferous anti-Israel activities, with the fond approval of their elders for the most part.

Glenn Beck may have been a little over the top, but he wasn't too far off in referring to the Utøya Island gathering as 'kind of like a Hitler Youth meeting."

Am I saying that the Labor Youth deserved to be shot down and murdered? Not at all. And based on his 'manifesto' the killer or killers had very little sympathy for Israel. Quite the reverse, in fact. But given that the victims of the Oslo killings and their government support groups that seek the genocide of Jews, let's just say I'm not overly consumed with sorrow for them.

When you negate someone else's humanity, you open up a door. And you have to live with what comes out of it.

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Soccer Dad's Mideast Media Sampler 07/26/11‏

My old pal DG, formerly of the unfortunately deceased blog Soccer Dad gives us a daily sampler of noteworthy pieces and worthy reads on the Middle East out today:


1) The Times on Norway

There are no words strong enough to condemn the massacres in Norway committed by Anders Behring Breivik. He is an evil man.

Still there's something troubling about the coverage of this evil by the New York Times.

The title of the news report says a lot, Killings in Norway Spotlight Anti-Muslim Thought in U.S.

This is a key argument of the article:

Marc Sageman, a former C.I.A. officer and a consultant on terrorism, said it would be unfair to attribute Mr. Breivik’s violence to the writers who helped shape his world view. But at the same time, he said the counterjihad writers do argue that the fundamentalist Salafi branch of Islam “is the infrastructure from which Al Qaeda emerged. Well, they and their writings are the infrastructure from which Breivik emerged.”
“This rhetoric,” he added, “is not cost-free.”

The reporter, Soctt Shane got an expert to say (in sequence) 1) you can't tie the actions Breivik to the ideas in the anti-Islamist blogs but 2) if you use their own standards, then their writings did indeed encourage Breivik. In other words, in a rather roundabout way, Shane got his expert to confirm the thesis of the article.


Contrast that with how Isabel Kershner dealt with the subject of Palestinian incitement following the Fogel murders:

Yossi Kuperwasser, a retired Israeli general given responsibility by the Israeli government for monitoring Palestinian incitements to violence and to hatred of Israel, said in a telephone interview that while Mr. Abbas and the Palestinian Authority prime minister, Salam Fayyad, had been careful in their words, “they too encourage an atmosphere of terrorism.”
He noted, for example, that a senior Abbas aide had paid a call to the families of three Fatah militants killed by the Israeli military, conveying condolences from Mr. Abbas. Israel held the three responsible for the fatal shooting of a rabbi in the West Bank in December 2009. In addition, Israeli officials note, streets, summer camps and youth tournaments in the Palestinian Authority have been named for people who committed terrorist attacks.
The new focus on incitement against Israel, together with Israeli dissatisfaction over the Palestinian response to the brutal attack, seemed to pose a question about the Israeli government’s readiness to deal with Mr. Abbas as a serious peace partner — even though Mr. Abbas and Mr. Fayyad are widely considered moderates who have repeatedly said they would never resort to violence.

Instead of making the case that Palestinian incitement leads to terror, Kershner allows the Israelis to make the case. Then she inserts herself into the debate arguing that 1) incitement is a means Israel uses to avoid making a deal with the Palestinians and 2) even if it's it true Abbas has nothing to do with it. Of course, given that much of the Palestinian incitement takes place in the official media or official mosques of the PA, it really doesn't matter what Abbas utters when microphones are on, his government is promoting the incitement. Of course, unlike Shane this week, Kershner portrays the effects of Palestinian incitement as non-existent.


The other thing that's missing from Shane's report is any reason the anti-Jihadist bloggers might feel as they do.


A quick search of the New York Times website, shows that since January 1, 2009, there has been precisely one article that contained both the words "Malmo" and the word "Jews" in it. And it was a letter to the editor written by Abraham Foxman of the ADL, Antisemitism in Sweden.

The Swedish Committee Against Anti-Semitism has also lamented that “prejudice against Jews is spreading under a very thin veneer” of anti-Israel activity. Riots greeted an Israeli tennis team at a Davis Cup match in Malmo, whose mayor said (on another occasion), “We accept neither Zionism nor anti-Semitism,” equating Jewish national self-determination with the oldest form of bigotry in the world.

Yet Malmo has been in the news, because the increased antisemitism has been pushing Jews to leave. And one of the driving forces of the antisemitism have been the Muslim immigrants. As Haaretz reports:

But Per Gudmundson, chief editorial writer for Svenska Dagbladet, a leading Swedish newspaper, is critical of politicians who blame anti-Semitic actions on Muslim living conditions. He said that these politicians offer “weak excuses” for Muslim teenagers accused of anti-Semitic crimes. “Politicians say these kids are poor and oppressed, and we have made them hate. They are, in effect, saying the behavior of these kids is in some way our fault,” he said.
According to Gudmundson, some immigrants from Muslim countries come to Sweden as hardened anti-Semites.

The article in Ha'aretz also points to the lack of assimilation of the immigrants.



The anti-Islamist sentiment, while often harsh, does not exist in a vacuum. Instead of providing the full context, the Times makes it seem that it is only white people who are capable of being prejudiced.

The New York Times has demonstrated that it believes that incitement leads to murder (when it's politically convenient to do so) except when it doesn't. It also refuses to acknowledges the challenges and, sometimes, the threats that go along with the growing Muslim population in Europe, preferring instead to portray those who see the problems as ignorant bigots. Both positions are hypocritical and revealing of the biases that are regularly on display at the Times.


If the Times news reporting is one sided; columnist Roger Cohen has completely gone off the deep end. Cohen who is infamous for defending the official antisemitism of Iran, now sees the Islamaphobia of Europe and declares it just as loathsome as antisemitism. In Breivik and his Enablers, Cohen concludes:

Nothing, however, can excuse the widespread condoning of an anti-Muslim racism once reserved for the Jews of Europe. Not on the weekend when Amy Winehouse, a Jewish girl from East London whose artistry would once have been dismissed by a racist and murderous European right as degenerate “cosmopolitan” trash, died. A good way to remember her is finally to confront the latest iteration of a European bigotry that kills.

This is sick and tasteless. Cohen conjures up phantoms of antisemitism so he can use the recently deceased singer to "show" the dangers of bigotry.


2) The demographic time bomb


A familiar trope of Thomas Friedman and other critics of Israel is that Israel will soon be outnumber in the area between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River. Yet according to David Goldman, population trends are changing. (via Daily Alert)

• Most of the phantom population, the report argues, comes from births that never occurred: The Palestine Central Bureau of Statistics “projected that the number of births in the Territories would total almost 908,000 for the seven-year period from 1997 to 2003. Yet, the actual number of births documented by the PA Ministry of Health for the same period was significantly lower at 699,000, or 238,000 fewer births than had been forecast by the PCBS.”

• Jewish births rose from 96,000 in the year 2000 to 125,000 in 2010, while Arab births fell slightly over the same period – from about 40,781 to 40,750, according to a study by Yaakov Faitelson at the Institute for Zionist Strategies. The percentage of students in the Arab educational system out of all Israel’s total first grade student body will decrease from 29.1% in 2007 to only 24.3% in 2016 and 22.5% in 2020.
  

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Oslo Killer Breivik's 'Far Right Christian Fundamentalist' Label Cracks - The Mystery of The Two Facebook Profiles

The narrative of Anders Behring Breivak as a 'far right Christian fundamentalist' continues to unravel.

Originally, the killer assured the police through his attorney that he had worked alone, something I was sure had to be bogus because of the number of casualties on Utøya Island, the fact that someone had to provide hands on training to Breivik on making fertilizer bombs and the fact that witnesses reported that at least on Utøya Island, there was a second shooter.

All of a sudden, Breivik has a new story. Now, he claims to have been part of an organization with "cells all over Europe", very convenient for the media narrative and for forces on the Left seeking to use this for their political advantage. All of a sudden, he's not a lone wolf wacko anymore.

However, there's definitely new evidence he wasn't alone in this, and that Breivik was deliberately painted with the 'far right Christian fundamentalist' tag.

Simple computer forensics provide us with two interesting screen shots. As soon as Breivik's identity became public, people began looking up his original Facebook page in Norwegian, which vanished within minutes. It was replaced by a second Facebook profile in English that appears to have been embellished and deliberately altered to emphasize that Breivak was motivated by his “Christian conservative” beliefs.

In short, the Facebook profile and Breivik's statements about being part of an 'organization' are exactly made to order for a Leftist smear designed to shut down their political opposition - and to take the heat off of Europe's Islamists.

One thing we do know. Breivik obviously did have accomplices. Whomever deleted his original, far more moderate Facebook page in Norwegian and substituted the 'far right, fundamentalist Christian' page in English had access to his account and made the change while Breivik was still in custody.

Who were the accomplices? That can best be answered by the old Latin question, 'cui bono' - who benefits? Who gains from Anders Behring Breivik being painted as a member of a shadowy far right Christian terrorist organization?

Who ever it is, it certainly isn't Christians or conservatives. And we will eventually find out.

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Soccer Dad's Mideast Media Sampler 07/25/11‏

My old pal DG, formerly of the unfortunately deceased blog Soccer Dad gives us a daily sampler of noteworthy pieces and worthy reads on the Middle East out today:


1) " More widely and accurately understood"

From an interview of Alan Solow by Shmuel Rosner (h/t my father)

2. Is it possible that this isn't just about PR, but rather that the President pursues policies that some Jewish voters don't feel comfortable with? Do you see some sections of Jewish voters that you have no chance of convincing because of such policies - other than those Jewish voters who did not support President Obama to begin with?

This effort has nothing to do with PR, but has everything to do with policy. President Obama believes it is in America's interest for a secure Jewish State of Israel to live in peace within the region and every step that he has advocated is consistent with this objective. I agree with President Obama and believe that the likely alternative is a bi-national state that will mark the end of the Zionist dream. President Obama received 78 per cent of the Jewish vote in 2008. It is too early in the election cycle to predict the 2012 result with any degree of precision, but I am confident that as President Obama's policies are more widely and accurately understood, he will have the support of Jewish-American voters.

Let's go back to 2009. Jackson Diehl interviewed Mahmoud Abbas:

Yet on Wednesday afternoon, as he prepared for the White House meeting in a suite at the Ritz-Carlton in Pentagon City, Abbas insisted that his only role was to wait. He will wait for Hamas to capitulate to his demand that any Palestinian unity government recognize Israel and swear off violence. And he will wait for the Obama administration to force a recalcitrant Netanyahu to freeze Israeli settlement construction and publicly accept the two-state formula.

Until Israel meets his demands, the Palestinian president says, he will refuse to begin negotiations. He won't even agree to help Obama's envoy, George J. Mitchell, persuade Arab states to take small confidence-building measures. "We can't talk to the Arabs until Israel agrees to freeze settlements and recognize the two-state solution," he insisted in an interview. "Until then we can't talk to anyone."

Diehl then explains what has prompted Abbas to dig in his heels:

Obama, in contrast, has repeatedly and publicly stressed the need for a West Bank settlement freeze, with no exceptions. In so doing he has shifted the focus to Israel. He has revived a long-dormant Palestinian fantasy: that the United States will simply force Israel to make critical concessions, whether or not its democratic government agrees, while Arabs passively watch and applaud. "The Americans are the leaders of the world," Abbas told me and Post Editorial Page Editor Fred Hiatt. "They can use their weight with anyone around the world. Two years ago they used their weight on us. Now they should tell the Israelis, 'You have to comply with the conditions.' "

The reason there have been no serious negotiations since President Obama has been because of the President's stance towards the Middle East. So the "secure Jewish state of Israel living in peace" that Solow seeks has been made less likely by the actions of President Obama. Once this is understood, I doubt supporters of Israel, whether they're Jewish or not, will be supportive of President Obama's re-election bid.

2) Don't go to the UN

Ziad Asali of the American Task Force on Palestine argues against Palestinian efforts at the UN for a unilateral declaration of a state.

First, the United States indicated unequivocally that it would veto in the Security Council a Palestinian application for U.N. membership, making such membership impossible at this time. Moreover, Congress has sent a strong message that U.N. action on Palestinian statehood would result in a cutoff of U.S. aid, and the United States is the single biggest donor to the Palestinian Authority.
Second, Palestinian hopes for securing support for U.N. membership from a unified European community have been dashed by the open opposition of some countries, such as Germany and the Netherlands, and by a lack of support from nations such as Britain and France, which hold key swing votes.
Third, Israel is threatening unspecified unilateral retaliation.
Fourth, there is a significant danger of widespread outrage among Palestinians if a U.N. effort fails, with serious potential for unrest. Outrage can also be expected if a U.N. initiative succeeds but produces no improvement or even leads to deterioration in Palestinians’ living conditions.

The American veto remains important. I doubt many countries in Europe would have the resolve to vote against the effort if the American veto wasn't certain. Asali, of course, puts none of the blame on the Palestinians. As he explained earlier in the op-ed:

Palestinians are impelled by frustration and despair about the impasse in the peace process — a frustration shared by many Israelis, Americans and others. It is, however, Palestinians who live under occupation, which gives them a justified sense that the status quo is intolerable. The diplomatic impasse created a demand for any mechanism for progress; hence the appeal of approaching the United Nations with a request for membership.

What's fascinating here is the idea that the situation is "intolerable" for the Palestinians. And yet Dr. Asali gives a pass to Abbas for refusing to negotiate. If Abbas has the luxury of demanding preconditions, the situation isn't intolerable.

A letter published today takes issue with Dr. Asali and insists the the unilateral declaration ought to go ahead.

This dangerous trend of provocative settlements and violent reactions, sustained since 1967, then justifies Israeli refusal to withdraw. This pattern has repeated over and over. No more delays. Do it now.

The author is a former Commerce Department official, Charles Kestenbaum.


3) Speaking about unilateral declarations


Excerpt from The Kurdish Case in the Jerusalem Post (h/t Martin Kramer)



Far more numerous than Palestinians, they’re estimated at between 30 million and 35 million. They form an obvious separate nationality, non-Arab, with its own culture and readily distinguishable language (a subcategory of the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian group of Indo-European languages.) They were around far before any Arabs had learned of the Palestinian moniker, and the Kurds struggled for independence long into the 19th century, before the advent of Arab nationalism. They established the short-lived Republic of Ararat in 1927 but it was soon vanquished. Both Turkey and Iran cruelly suppressed numerous Kurdish uprisings. Kurds are still fighting for their freedom.

The contrast between how the world treats the Palestinians and the Kurds couldn’t be more marked. Palestinians are spoiled with international succor and are pampered financially. They were offered an independent state back in 1947 but rejected it, preferring to destroy the twin Jewish state instead.

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As Expected, The Left Happily Uses The Oslo Killings To Push 'The Narrative'

As Rahm Emanuel famously said, the Left is never one to let a good crisis go to waste.The meme that is being pushed over and over again is 'far right Christian fundamentalist', and that's exactly how papers like the New York Times are referring to Anders Behring Breivik. They use the tag constantly, to drive home The Narrative. Can you ever imagine them referring to someone as 'far left' or as a 'hardline Muslim fundamentalist'?

Washington Post columnist/blogger Jennifer Rubin is being demonized because she wrote a post merely mentioning that there might be jihadi involvement - an entirely reasonable conclusion
given the m.o., and recent history. The Norwegian authorities, by the way, did exactly the same thing, saying 'foreigners were involved' in early reports, and a jihadist group, "Helpers of the Global Jihad" even posted a message online claiming responsibility..which they later suddenly withdrew. For that matter, we still don't know much at all about Anders Behring Breivik, his motivation, his associations or where he was trained to make fertilizer bombs or fire an automatic weapon. Contrary to what the hacks at Pravda-on-the Hudsom and elsewhere might tell you, he didn't learn it online reading Gates of Vienna or The Elder of Ziyon.

Witnesses report that at least on Utøya Island, there was a second shooter, something that's highly likely given the number of casualties even though Breivik is now claiming he acted alone. That also may or may not be true,but it's highly unlikely that one man, without assistance could have pulled off the Oslo attacks.

And as for his 'far right Christian fundamentalist' bonifides, they're all suspiciously of recent origin, a paper trail that was created well after the operational planning for the Oslo attacks would have to have been well underway. There's no real history of Breivik interacting with fascist groups, let alone any with a history of violence.

As I discussed earlier, there are many reasons to suspect an Islamist false flag operation here, and a deadly beginning to a new trend if I'm right.

But that doesn't matter in the least, because the Left have their poster boy and a tool to smear their political enemies with, and they're going to use it - regardless of how dangerous that is, or what further attacks that might lead to. And they now have a vested interest in not answering some of the very relevant, even vital questions the Oslo killings have raised.

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Obama's Shameful Debt Crisis

As members of Congress race to try and beat the August 2nd deadline, the chief obstacle is proving to be none other than President Barack Obama. After having spent the country into near bankruptcy and avoided the whole subject for most of his presidency,it's obvious that he now seeks to make politics out of this situation, regardless of the cost to the country.

The president gave a press conference late Friday at around 6PM local time, and informed a servile press that Speaker John Boehner had called a half hour ago and informed him he was 'walking out of negotiations'. The president, not to put to fine a point on it, was simply lying. As I pointed out earlier that day, the reason for the so-called walk out was that President Obama had crafted a deal with the Speaker that would have allowed the raise in the debt ceiling the president wants, cut spending by up to $3.5 trillion over the next 10 years and increased tax revenues by $800 billion, largely by reforming the tax code. Cantor and Boehner were prepared to accept that as a compromise.

The president flat out 'misstated when he said, “You had a bipartisan group of senators, including Republicans who are in leadership in the Senate calling for what effectively was about $2 trillion above the Republican baseline that they've been working off of. What we said was give us $1.2 trillion in additional revenues.”

The White House and the House Republicans had already agreed to accept $800 billion in new revenues, AKA tax increases. The talks broke down when the deal was almost completed and President Obama demanded an additional $400 billion in tax increases - a 50% upping of the ante he knew the House Republicans weren't going to accept.

Boehner had exactly right in his own press conference. “The White House moved the goalpost. There was an agreement, some additional revenues, until yesterday, when the president demanded $400 billion more, which was going to be nothing more than a tax increase on the American people.”

In other words, the current occupant of the White House deliberately torpedoed a deal to solve this problem at the last minute, one he'd already agreed to.

As Boehner put it in his letter to the House Republicans, explaining his decision to pull out of the talks:

"It has become evident that the White House is not serious about ending the spending binge that is destroying jobs and endangering our children's future. A deal was never reached, and was never really close."

"The president is emphatic that taxes have to be raised. ... The president is emphatic that we cannot make fundamental changes to our entitlement programs....For these reasons, I have decided to end discussions with the White House and begin conversations with the leaders in the Senate in an effort to find a path forward."

If an e-mail from Jennifer's Rubin's inside source is correct, Boehner was able to exactly that over the weekend..until President Obama once again quashed it:

“The Speaker, Sen. Reid and Sen. McConnell all agreed on the general framework of a two-part plan. A short-term increase (with cuts greater than the increase), combined with a committee to find long-term savings before the rest of the increase would be considered. Sen. Reid took the bipartisan plan to the White House and the President said no.”

At that point, during a short meeting on Saturday, Speaker Boehner reportedly told the president, “Congress writes the laws and you get to decide what you want to sign.”

Let's recap briefly here. The House Republicans and every Republican in the Senate have voted for one fix, cut cap and balance' that would not only have solve the immediate problem but put the country on the road to fiscal responsibility. The president said he would veto it, and the Senate Democrats voted it down in a straight party line vote.

Speaker Boehner and Majority leader Eric Cantor then went to the president and worked out a compromise bill that the House Republicans agreed would be acceptable and the White House agreed to - only to have the president deliberately destroy it at the last minute by asking for $400 billion in additional tax increases.

And now, we apparently have a bipartisan bill crafted over the weekend by Speaker Boehner, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, only to have the president again refuse to accept it.

This should make clear that every time the president refers to 'Republican obstructionism' or comes up with cute quotes about how the Republicans don't know the meaning of yes, he's simply lying on a grand scale.

It's pretty obvious where the president is going on this one. This entire masquerade is being played out because he either wants the debt ceiling raised with no concessions on his part so it looks like a political victory for him or a government shutdown, during which he'll deliberately refuse to prioritize spending so he can make political fodder and talking points while those Social Security checks, military paychecks and Medicare payments don't go out and the American people suffer to make sacrifices at his altar.

It's simply despicable that he's doing it, disgraceful that his own party is enabling him and especially obscene that the mainstream press is pretty much giving him a pass on it.

What we have here is a president who puts his ego, his self-aggrandizement and his political agenda above the good of the country to a degree never before seen in our history. He is simply unworthy of his office.

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The Oslo Killings And Anders Behring Breivik: The Ultimate False Flag?

The death toll in the Oslo terror attacks stands at 76, with at least 68 people reported dead so far from the shooting attack when a gunman opened fire at a summer camp on Utøya Island and 7 reported deaths from coordinated bomb blasts that took place in central Oslo near the government quarter in Regjeringskvartalet.

The killer at Utøya has been identified as a Norwegian named Anders Behring Breivik, 32 who was charged over both attacks. According to the police, he surrendered when they approached him.

Given the sophisticated planning behind the attacks and the coordinated timing, a couple of my sources who are familiar with these matters tell me that this was almost certainly a group effort. I'd say it's virtually a certainty.

The suspect's lawyer said that Breivik admitted responsibility for the attacks, which he described as "atrocious" but "necessary". He also originally claimed he worked alone.

This man reportedly bought six tons of fertilizer and constructed sophisticated, remotely detonated explosives with them. These are not the kind of devices one can learn to construct on the Internet; hands on training or assistance in the bombings from people who've had that training is necessary. Where did Breivik receive it?

Because fertilizer bombs have been used before in some high profile terrorist bombings, most merchants in western countries would report a purchase that large from someone they didn't know to the authorities. Did they do so in this instance? And if they did, what did the authorities do with the information?

Most interesting is how Breivik is being tagged as a 'right wing, Christian fundamentalist' There are no such groups in Norway with any history of violence, nor does Breivik have any major, long-time connection with any of them.

The whole thing just appears too perfect, right down to the obvious manipulation of his Facebook page. His original Facebook page, in Norwegian, appeared only days before the killings, and paints a portrait of a moderate conservative whose heroes were Winston Churchill and Max Manus, the leader of the Norwegian anti-Nazi resistance in WW II.

Oddly enough, within minutes of his identity being made public, that page vanished and was replaced by a page in English with far more radical postings and the tag words 'Christian' and 'Conservative' inserted. That's what publications the New York Times and their political ilk are gleefully using to label Breivik as a 'far right, fundamentalist Christian'. The Facebook manipulation also proves that Breivik wasn't in this alone, It was done by someone else who had access to his account while he was in custody.

In fact, his Facebook page and profile appears as if it was deliberately meant to deceive anyone looking into his background. Ditto with his 1500 page 'manifesto', which appears to have whole chunks cut and pasted from Unabomber Ted Kaczynski's similar 'manifesto'.

It's an obvious paper trail, constructed after the fact. And in Europe especially, there are a great many people happy to have a European 'Timothy McVeigh' to take the spotlight off of the far more prevalent and dangerous Islamist terrorism and provide them with an excuse to smear their political opponents.

Actually, McVeigh and the Oklahoma City bombing may be a closer fit than anyone realizes, when one does some research and looks at the Middle East connections to the Oklahoma City bombing and to Ramzy Youseff, who used the same m.o. and equipment adopted in the Oklahoma City bombings in the first World Trade Center bombing.

Al-Qaeda, Hizb-al-Tahrir and the Muslim Brotherhood have all said a great deal in the post 9/11 environment about the desirability of recruiting what al-Qaeda's leader Ayman Zawahiri has termed 'white moors' - white, European Christians who have converted to Islam - to conduct terrorist operations.

This has actually happened before in Europe, and I noted at the time I thought we could expect more `white Muslims' to be a part of jihad. In America for instance, we have a number of American blacks who have been engaged in Islamist terrorist activities, and we also have al-Qaeda senior operative Adam Yehiye Gadahn, AKA Adam Pearlman, AKA `Azzam the American'.

Riddle me this, if you please - what if Anders Behring Breivik is a radicalized Norwegian Muslim who was groomed and trained to perform this mission, and is utilizing the Muslim doctrine of taqqiya which permits a Muslim to deceive non-believers to advance Islam? And what if he was then trained to pose as a 'far Right, Christian fundamentalist' to get authorities in Europe to take their eye off of Islamist groups and crack down on thus far non-violent anti-Jihadist groups? If you were planning an Islamist terrorist operation, can you think of a more likely or desirous scenario?

Especially since Breivik has now changed his story and is talking about being a member of a shadowy far right 'organization' with several cells?

I expect Breivik to go to court and mouth a great many of the expected far Right talking points. And perhaps that's really whom he is. But usually people this leave a long trail of statements, associations and activities, like white supremacist Buford O. Furrow, Jr., the man who shot up the North Valley Jewish Community Center in Granada Hills, California in 1999 with a semiautomatic weapon.

Breivik is obviously a disturbed fanatic. But I wonder if we're going to see a real investigation of who Anders Behring Breivik really is? Will we see an investigation of his travel record, his associations, his friends, any possible romantic relationships, his finances and business dealings if any? Have his phone records and e-mails been checked? Where did he learn to fire an automatic weapon? Why did the Islamist group "Helpers of the Global Jihad" post a message claiming credit and then suddenly withdraw it? Witnesses reported that at least on Utøya Island, there was a second shooter. Who was he?

These are all questions that need to be asked, and it remains to be seen if there will be a thorough and honest investigation to find the answers or if the 'far Right, Christian fundamentalist' narrative is going to be pushed regardless of whether it's true or not. There are a great many figures in the Leftist establishment who are only too eager to do so.

Which brings us to the ultimate issue, best summarized by the old Latin question, 'cui bono' - who benefits? Who gains from Anders Behring Breivik being painted as a member of a shadowy far right Christian terrorist organization?

Whoever it is, it certainly isn't Christians or conservatives.

But after the Narrative has made it's way through the usual channels, we will undoubtedly find out. And we may just find out that this was the ultimate False Flag operation.

UPDATE: * The death toll has now been revised to 76.

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The Latest Latma! SOTA Israeli Satire

Here's the latest from the crew at LATMA...enjoy!

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Talks On Debt Ceiling Break Down Over Obama's Demand For New Taxes

Speaker John Boehner ended talks with President Obama today on a 'grand bargain' to raise the debt ceiling in exchange for spending cuts and tax and entitlement reform.

The deal they were working on would have cut spending by up to $3.5 trillion over the next 10 years and increased tax revenues by $800 billion, and reportedly Cantor and Boehner were prepared to accept that as a compromise.

The talks broke down when President Obama demanded an additional $400 billion in tax increases.

Boehner sent a letter to the House Republicans explaining his decision to pull out of the talks:

"It has become evident that the White House is not serious about ending the spending binge that is destroying jobs and endangering our children's future," he wrote, adding, "A deal was never reached, and was never really close.

"The president is emphatic that taxes have to be raised. ... The president is emphatic that we cannot make fundamental changes to our entitlement programs," Boehner wrote.

"For these reasons, I have decided to end discussions with the White House and begin conversations with the leaders in the Senate in an effort to find a path forward."

Apparently President Obama threw a tantrum as well during the meeting.Right after President Obama's press conference today, in which he claimed the Republicans 'don't have the capacity to listen', the press secretary for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Brad Dayspring, tweeted:

"As if there's really a question whether President Obama threw a tantrum at the White House last week - same guy just appeared."

This is kabuki theater by President Obama in my view.At this point, he either wants one of two things; either the debt ceiling raised with no concessions on his part so it looks like a political victory for him or a government shutdown, during which he'll deliberately refuse to prioritize so those Social Security checks, military paychecks and Medicare payments don't go out and he can blame the 'obstructionist' Republicans.

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Mass Layoffs In Recovery Summer, The Sequel; Interview With H. Davidowitz

CEO and restructuring expert Harold Davidowitz takes apart the Obama economy in this interview with The Ticker's Jeff Macke and Aaron Task.

Money quote: "There has never been in a situation in my lifetime where a guy increases the debt by 40%, GDP growth is on the way down, Food Stamps are up, millions more are unemployed -- and to accomplish this we spent $4 trillion."

( h/t and a cold one to longtime Joshua's Army member Louie Louie)

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Oslo Attack - Latest Updates

At least seven people, possibly more are reported to have died in the bombings that took place in Oslo's Regjeringskvartalet, the Government quarter located in central Oslo. There are people still trapped in the buildings.

In the related shooting attack at the youth camp on Utøya Island, Norway's Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg confirmed that the current number of people killed at the youth camp was nine or 10, but said police, "fear that there could be more."

The shooter identified himself as security and was allowed to get close to the campers before he opened fire. When some of the campers attempted to flee by jumping into the water and swimming to the mainland, the shooter targeted them, and some bodies that still appear to be floating in the water have yet to be recovered.Police reported that most of the casualties were teens of about 15 and 16 years old

The police have the Utøya Island shooter in custody, and he is said to be Norwegian, although no information has been given out about his affiliations, identity or motivation. He was seen both at the site of the bombings and on the island, not at all improbable since the road to the island is only a short distance away from central Oslo and can be reached easily by car in a matter of minutes.

Given the scope and the synchronized timing of the attacks, it's almost impossible that he acted alone.

More as it comes in.

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