Book Review: "Clarence Thomas, A Biography"

Writing a biography of a living person is always a challenge, especially when the person involved is noted for the extreme guarding of his privacy and decides not to cooperate.

That's exactly the challenge Andrew Payton Thomas undertook in the first full length biography of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, published originally on the tenth anniversary of his confirmation hearings in the US Senate.

Thomas ( no relation) traces back the history of Clarence Thomas' family to slavery days, and where Justice Thomas fits in to the story. He documented his days in Pin Point, Georgia and the foundation in basic principles Thomas received from his grandfather who raised him, a man who proudly owned his own business (where Clarence was expected to work after school and in summer) and whom had as a favorite saying, "Old Man can't is dead, and I helped bury him."

In writing about Thomas' days in a Catholic seminary, his time at law school and his days as a young lawyer in Missouri, the author gives us a remarkable portrait of not only how his experiences affected Thomas' personality but how it affected his intellectual development. You can see where Thomas' originalist views of the Founders and the Constitution came from, and there are some decent examinations of some of Thomas' opinions on key cases as well as an interesting look at how the High Court functions day to day.

The book also gives a good and balanced portrait of exactly what happened during Thomas' confirmation hearings, a look at the real Anita Hill and at the Democrat strategy to turn Clarence Thomas into another Robert Bork. Had it succeeded, America would have been denied a unique and powerful voice on the Supreme Court.

Recommended.

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UPDATE: Arizona Shooter Charged With Murder, Police Now Say He 'Acted Alone'

Authorities have now charged Jared Loughner, the man who allegedly shot Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and 19 others in Tucson Saturday at a political rally at a Safeway market with five federal counts -- two for murder and three for attempted murder.

Six people died in the shootings; Tucson's chief federal judge, John Roll, nine-year-old Christina Green, Dorothy Murray, 76; Dorwin Stoddard, 76, who was killed as he acted as a shield to protect his wife; Phyliss Schneck, 79; and Gabriel Zimmerman, 30, a staff aide to the congresswoman.

"This is an attack on out institutions and our way of life," Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Robert Mueller said Sunday at a news briefing held at the Pima County Sheriff's Department in Tucson.

There had been some speculation earlier that Loughner had an accomplice, but a man had been considered a possible second suspect has now been cleared. Th eman was apparently just the cab driver who had brought Loughner to the scene of the shootings.

Doctors are reportedly optimistic over Giffords' chances of recovery after brain surgery.

"We are all very happy at this stage," said Dr.Peter Rhee, head of the trauma section of the University of Arizona Medical Center, although he cautioned that the consequences of brain swelling could be potentially dangerous. Dr. Rhee said it wasn't uncommon to see people achieve "tremendous types of recovery" from similar wounds after a rehabilitation process. That process could last "weeks or months."

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Roundup On The Arizona Shooting

Christina Green, 9/11/01 - 1/08/11...RIP


It appears that my disgusted reaction to the way the Left is exploiting the tragic Arizona shootings was shared by a number of other observers.

Howard Kurz, of all people defends Sarah Palin and is frank about saying: "This isn't about a nearly year-old Sarah Palin map; it's about a lone nutjob who doesn't value human life."

He scolds the Left, saying: "It would be nice if we briefly put aside partisan differences and came together with sympathy and support for Gabby Giffords and the other victims, rather than opening rhetorical fire ourselves."

Blogpal Professor William Jacobson over at Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion cites two sicknesses on display - the sickness living inside gunman Jared Loughner's head and "the swiftness and the vigor with which the left-wing blogosphere and some more mainstream Democrats immediately sought to blame Sarah Palin and right-wing "vitriol" in general for the shooting."

Pam over at Atlas Shrugs points out the obscene hypocrisy of Angry Lefties like Markos at Daily Kos accusing anyone of violent rhetoric, using a screen shot of a post on Giffords the Commandante of Kos quickly scrubbed and sent down the memory hole.

Dana Loesch over at Big Journalism likewise has a superb piece on how the Left is, vampire-like, exploiting this tragedy for political ends. She fisks a particularly egregious interview given by Far Left Congressman Raul Grijalva to Mother Jones, and astutely reminds us that anyone who remembers how the Paul Wellstone memorial service was used by the Left shouldn't be surprised.

And speaking of matters Breitbart, Andrew is delving to the heart of the matter as usual by simply retweeting the screeds the Left is throwing his way. Money quote: "I miss the 60s - when lefties at least pretended to be lovable peaceful hippies."

Jim Hoft over at Gateway Pundit is all over this story, pointing out that the dinosaur media interviewed one Loughner's friends without reporting on her claims that Loughner was"Left-wing" and "quite Liberal". Jim also points out that a Democrat operative admitted to the Politico that there was an active plan to blame the Tea Party for the carnage.

Greg over at Rhymes With Right takes the entire Leftist meme to the point of absurdity, while Deborah over at Right Truth has a useful rundown of the facts surrounding the shooting.

Don't be surprised to get Democrat fund raisers in the mail using this...they will.

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Happy Anniversary, 'President' Abbas!

As As Rick Richman points out, today, January 9th is the second anniversary of the end of 'President' Mahmoud Abbas' term as president of the Palestinian Authority.

Here's to many more years of non-elected, corrupt, and dictatorial rule for the capo del tutti d'Ramallah!

After all, every mafia needs its capo, and Fatah is no exception.


(h/t, Daled Amos)

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The Left Exploits A Tragedy In Arizona

By now, most of you know of the horrendous occurrence in Arizona.

One man, possibly with the aid of an accomplice opened fire on a crowd in Tucson, Arizona gathered for a political meeting at a Safeway market with a semi-automatic pistol at close range. He shot Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, a 40-year-old Democrat in the head, seriously wounding her, and killed six other people including federal judge John Roll, chief judge of the U.S. District Court of Arizona. Also murdered was Gabe Zimmerman, 30, the congresswoman's director of community outreach, and a 9-year-old girl.

The assailant, Jared Lee Loughner, was finally tackled to the ground by two bystanders and arrested.

Even more shocking than this tragedy is the ghoulish way the Left is trying to make political capital out of it.

Because Giffords is a Democrat ( albeit of exactly the conservative,Blue Dog variety the Left loves to despise) they are literally frothing at the mouth blaming Talk Radio, FOX, Sarah Palin, the Tea Party, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and other icons of 'right wing hate' for what happened.

The hypocrisy is astounding. In throwing down against 'hate speech and vitriol in politics' the Left is using exactly that kind of language to go on the attack...sometimes crudely expressed, sometimes with more subtlety.

Alinsky-like, they are willing to cynically use Giffords to demonize their political opponents. Frankly, it's exactly the sort of despicable behavior I would expect of them.

For that matter, Judge Roll was a Bush appointee and a conservative, who was at the event because he and Giffords were friends. Should the Right be blaming the likes of HuffPo, Kos and MSNBC and the language they habitually use for his death?

Giffords is a Jew, and took her Oath of Office on a Torah. Should we be blaming the Muslim world for her being shot because of the constant demonization of Jews that goes on there?

Sadly, the shooter Jared Lee Loughner was, as Arizona authorities are referring to him, a severely disturbed man. Among other things, his YouTube videos featured on of him burning an American flag, hardly a sentiment one would associate with the Right.

He was simply a loose cannon, and such people sometimes commit horrible acts.

The minions of the Left using his violence for their own ends have no such mitigating circumstances.They're fully aware of what they're doing.And reveling in it.

As for Congresswoman Giffords, she's in critical condition but her doctors are cautiously optomistic.

My G-d grant her and the other victims who were wounded a refuah shlemah" (a full recovery).

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Sarkozy: Christians In The Middle East Are Victims Of ' Religious Cleansing'

French President Nicolas Sarkozy was unusually frank in pointing out the plight of Christians in the Middle East, who are being targeted by adherents of the Religion of Peace and Rapidly becoming a disappearing species.

"We cannot accept and thereby facilitate what looks more and more like a particularly perverse program of cleansing in the Middle East, religious cleansing," said the French president, at an address to religious leaders on the day Coptic Christians, who follow the Orthodox liturgy celebrate Christmas.

This was a response to a number of attacks on Christians in the Muslim world during the Christmas holidays, including an attack on a Coptic church in the Egyptian city of Alexandria on January 1 that killed 21 people and a horrendous attack on a Catholic church in Baghdad that took the lives of 68 worshipers and injured hundreds.

Nor are these isolated events, either in Iraq, Egypt, Lebanon, The 'Palestinian' occupied territories of the Holy Land in Gaza, or any other areas where the remnant of what was once a major home of Christianity survives.

In fact, the violence is spreading beyond the Middle East and into Europe. Police in France and other European countries including Britain have reported a number of threats to Coptic churches and have bolstered security. French security sources launched a terror investigation this week after a priest received online threats against his Coptic church in France.

President Sarkozy stated, "The threats that targeted the Coptic churches in France are unacceptable and I have asked the government to take them very seriously."

Those who died in Alexandria and Bagdad were "collectively our martyrs", said Sarkozy. "They are the martyrs of the freedom of conscience. The rights that are guaranteed in our country to all religions must be reciprocally guaranteed in other countries," he said.

Interesting choice of language, to use the term 'martyrs', right out of the typical Islamist lexicon. However, his idea that non-Muslims are going to receive the same rights in the Muslim world that Muslims do in the West is pure fantasy, and Sarkozy has to be aware of that.

Ditto this statement: "The Muslim community in France is horrified by these crimes committed in the name of Islam."

Really? Have you got any evidence of that, Monsieur Le President? And if you have, isn't it odd you couldn't find a Muslim leader to say that?

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Giuliani Gearing Up For A White House Run?

That's the scuttlebut...as the New York Post reports, he's reportedly gathering together his top political advisers for a possible 2012 presidential run has even scheduled a trip to New Hampshire next month to press the flesh and meet people.

Could he win? Possible, provided he ditches some of those 'top political advisers' who ran such a lousy campaign for him in 2008.

He has a number of positives. He's a great debater who would make haggis out of Obama in a one on one. He has a demonstrated record of accomplishment in solving seemingly insurmountable problems, and knows how to get reluctant democrats to get with the program, as he demonstrated in New York City.He also is a fiscal conservative who's proven he can bring a near bankrupt economy back to health.

As someone who still enjoys high approval ratings in New York State, he would effectively put that state in play in the general election, and his national defense and security views are rock solid. He's definitely one who could take that 3 AM call and handle it.

Negatives? He's got 'em. His position as a New Yorker with moderate and frequently common sense positions on various social issues is a two edged sword. It works for Republicans and independents who lean that way and is a negative for those with more socially conservative views,especially those in the Heartland.

Even worse, as I pointed out before, the circumstances surrounding his divorce are going to have an effect on the female vote. If the mayor had been the dumpee rather than the dumper, that would have been one thing, but the fact that he was the one to make the decision to do the split and the unfortunate way that went down is all a significant amount of female voters will want to know about him. He would have to work hard to overcome that.

As some of you know, Mayor Giuliani was my personal choice for Republican nominee in 2008 based on his resume and accomplishments...because I always view elections as a hiring decision. I still say that had he been the nominee rather than McCain,the results of the 2008 election might have been very different.That's especially true if we were talking about a Giuliani-Palin ticket.

It still may come down to that, in the end if Sarah Palin runs. Giuliani might very well position himself as the GOP alternative to Sarah Palin, and even if he loses the nomination the two of them, who have good personal relationship, would be natural partners.

A Palin-Giuliani ticket would not only unite the GOP and be a likely winner, but would put the country in superb hands. The only problem would be Giuliani's age. He'll be 68 in 2012 and might not be able to follow 8 years of a Palin administration with his own presidential term.

Perhaps a cabinet post.

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The Council Has Spoken!

The votes have been cast, the sacred runes read and the results of the first Watcher’s Council contest of 2011 are history.

Our winner this week, Bookworm, took a winter cruise to the Mexican Riviera, and came up with a highly interesting sketch of what she saw entitled What's the matter with Mexico?:

To begin with, Mexico has no middle. This wasn’t just my impression; this was something I heard from several people, in many of the places we visited. Mexico has a small number of very wealthy people at the top, a huge number of very poor people struggling along at the bottom, and almost no discernible middle class.

In other words, although ostensibly capitalist, Mexico doesn’t have a balanced capitalist economic structure. Instead, its structure more closely reflects either a socialist structure (peons and party apparatchiks) or a rural aristocratic structure (nobles and laborers). Both models make sense, given Mexico’s overwhelming government (high taxes; massive, although often ignored, regulation; and a massive military presence) and its development under the Spanish aristocratic model (as opposed to the 18th Century British enlightenment model that gave America its initial social and economic structure).

Our non-Council winner was Victor Davis Hanson for Raging Against 'Them' an essay that went to the core of why various groups are angry and raging - when after all , they only got exactly what they wanted and voted for!

Here are this week’s full results:

Council Winners

• *First place with 2 2/3 votes! – Bookworm Room -- What’s the matter with Mexico?
• Second place with 1 1/3 votes – VA Right-Filibuster Change May Put Sarah Palin on Supreme Court
• Third place *t* with 1 vote – The Glittering Eye – Declining Home Prices Dampen Year End Spirits
• Third place *t* with 1 vote – Rhymes With Right – JustAs It Has Always Been
• Third place *t* with 1 vote – Right Truth – The mysterious "silver knight on the white horse"
• Fourth place with 2/3 vote -The Razor- The Power of Random Events: Coping with Black Swans
• Fifth place with 1/3 vote – GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – Forsaken

Non-Council Winners

• First place with 2 votes! – Victor Davis Hanson- Raging Against 'Them' submitted by The Watcher
• Second place *t* with i 2/3 votes – Gates of Vienna – A Passage To Israel submitted by Joshuapundit
• Second Place *t* with 1 2/3 votes – RedState – Epiphany, the Founders, and freedom of religion submitted by Rhymes With Right
• Second place *t* with 1 2/3 votes –Sense of Events – The Crush Depth of Debt submitted by The Glittering Eye
• Third place with 1 vote - Don Surber – Ezra Klein; Honest Lefty submitted by Bookworm Room
• Fourth place with 2/3 votes - Jihad Watch -Demonising Iran submitted by Snapped Shot
• Fifth place with 1/3 vote -Pajamas Media – Burma: The World’s Next North Korea submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD

See you next week!

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Catch And Release - Abbas Frees Terrorist After Murder Of 4 Israelis

Four months ago, 'Palestinian' gunmen from Hamas murdered four Israeli Jews near the town of Beit Chaggai in Judea, at the Bani Naim junction just south of Hebron.

The Israelis were fired upon as they drove down the highway, after a checkpoint was removed to 'bolster the Palestinian Authority'. Removing the checkpoint also helped the murderers escape.

Investigation showed that the gunmen approached the vehicle after it went off the road, pulled the bodies from the car and shot the victims multiple times at point-blank range to make sure all of them were dead.

Yitzchak and Talya Imas (Z"l) left six children orphans, and Talya Imas was nine months' pregnant when she was brutally murdered by the terrorists.

Kochava Even-Chaim(Z"l) was a teacher in Efrat who left behind her husband and an 8-year-old daughter, and Avishai Shindler(Z"L) had only recently moved to Beit Haggai with his wife.

The killers were subsequently arrested by the Palestinian Authority, and the Israelis were assured that they would be tried and sentenced under 'Palestinian' law.

Today, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas decided to release one of the killers. Wael Bitar was let out of a PA prison along with five other Hamas terrorists, according to Voice of Israel radio.The release of the others is expected shortly.

There has been a great deal of noise about the 'Palestinians' so-called increased security co-operation. The reality is that not only has the Palestinian Authority never punished anyone for murdering Jews, they actually have a ministry that pays a monthly salary to terrorists convicted in Israeli civilian courts of of killing civilians.

This should hardly surprise anyone. Abbas refers to these thugs as 'heroes of freedom' and has insisted that there will be no peace agreement without these murderers being freed. Indeed the 'Palestinian' fetish for murder of Jews even extends to granting honorary citizenship to brutal child killer Samir Kuntar

The question in my mind is not what Abbas has done or will do, but what the Israelis are going to do.

Are they going to let this go as collateral damage, part of the farcical 'peace process'? Or are they going to finally acknowledge reality?

I guarantee you, this story won't appear in Western mainstream media. It doesn't fit the script.

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Nancy Pelosi Gives Up The Gavel - And Leaves $5.34 Trillion in New Debt Behind

The 111th Congress will go down in history as one of the worst, most corrupt and most irresponsible congresses in history.

Their fearless leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) served as speaker of the House for 1,461 days. During her tenure, the national debt increased by a total of $5.343 trillion ($5,343,452,800,321.37) or $3.66 billion per day ($3.657,394,113.84), according to official debt numbers published by the U.S. Treasury.

Here's a telling quote from Pelosi upon assuming the Speakership in 2007:

"After years of historic deficits, this 110th Congress will commit itself to a higher standard: Pay as you go, no new deficit spending,” she said in her inaugural address from the speaker’s podium. “Our new America will provide unlimited opportunity for future generations, not burden them with mountains of debt."

A number of her fellow Democrats see her as a hero. They just voted overwhelmingly to make he House Minority Leader and there's no question but that if they regain their House majority they'd make her Speaker again.

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Juan Williams: "NPR Has An Ingrown Culture That's Not Open To Real News"

NPR just finished a review conducted by a well known, politically connected law firm of the circumstances that led to Juan Williams' contract being terminated.

The official result: they found NPR's termination of Williams' contract 'full legal'(no surprise there)but also concluded it was 'handled poorly' and that a sacrificial lamb was needed to appease people who saw something rather intolerant in what happened to Williams,and more importantly to act as a push back against any efforts to get them off the Federal gravy train and cut their funding.

So Senior Vice President for News Ellen Weiss, the one who fired Williams over the phone 'resigned', and NPR CEO Vivian Schiller( whose orders Weiss was carry out) will forfeit her bonus for 2010.

As you can imagine, Juan Williams had a few things to say about what goes on in the belly of the beast.

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A Message For The 112th Congress

Courtesy of Joshua's Army member Jesse Comeau!

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Watcher's Council Nominations, Hello 2011 Edition

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, only The Political Commentator and The Grouch 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 e-mail me a link at rmill2k@msn.com with the subject heading ‘Honorable mention’ 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.

The Council doesn’t vote on a winner in Honorable mentions, but it is a great way of exposing your best work to Watcher’s Council readers and Council members. And how good is that, eh?

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

Council Submissions

• The Razor – The Power of Random Events: Coping with Black Swans
• GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – Forsaken
• Joshuapundit -Why Israel Is Losing The Information War
• Snapped Shot – Literal Symbolism
• Right Truth – The mysterious "silver knight on the white horse"
• The Colossus of Rhodey – It's comics, after all
• Rhymes With Right – Just As It Has Always Been
• VA Right - Filibuster Change May Put Sarah Palin on Supreme Court
• The Glittering Eye -Declining Home Prices Dampen Year End Spirits
• Bookworm Room -What’s the matter with Mexico?
• Simply Jews – Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Ali Akbar Siadati: reusable villains

Honorable Mentions

• The Grouch - New Football Rules for 2011
• The Political Commentator - South Korea: Between the DMZ and a hard place

Non-Council Submissions

• Pajamas Media - Alberto de la Cruz – Failed State Watch: How Much Longer for Mexico? (Part One) submitted by The Razor
• Pajamas Media – Burma: The World’s Next North Korea submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD
• Gates of Vienna – A passage To Israel submitted by Joshuapundit
• Jihad Watch – D.C. Imam says Iran's Khamenei is "the best leader in the world" submitted by Snapped Shot
• Commentary Magazine: Contentions, Alana Goodman - Did the Media Get Played by New ‘Pallywood’ Hoax? submitted by Right Truth
• The Weekly Standard Blog – Saudis Erroneously Blame Gitmo for Jihadism
  submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey
• RedState – Epiphany, the Founders, and freedom of religionsubmitted by Rhymes with Right
• RedState – Fight Back! submitted by VA Right
• Sense of Events – The crush depth of debt submitted by The Glittering Eye
• Victor Davis Hanson – Raging Against 'Them' submitted by The Watcher
• Don Surber – Ezra Klein; Honest Lefty submitted by Bookworm Room

Enjoy!

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Col. Allen West Slaps The NYT Around

You have to love how Colonel West handled an interview with Pravda-on-the-Hudson.I bet they're still trying to figure out what hit them:

When the 112th U.S. Congress is officially sworn in on Jan. 5, two black Republicans will be among the new majority in the House of Representatives. Do you think the G.O.P. has made progress in attracting African-Americans to the party?
One thing that you guys aren’t talking about is the fact that there were 42 African-Americans that ran on the Republican ticket in this election cycle; 14 made it to the general election, and 2 of us were elected to the House.

Right, you from Florida and Tim Scott from South Carolina.
I think that there is a changing wind. There are black conservatives out there, and their voices need to be heard.

Like other Tea Party candidates endorsed by Sarah Palin, you came from a nonpolitical background. A longtime Army officer who rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel, you retired in 2004 after being investigated for firing a handgun close to the head of an Iraqi policeman during an interrogation. Is that correct?
Yes, I did that, but let me tell you what happened. I went through what is called a nonjudicial punishment, where I was fined $5,000. I redeployed from Iraq, and I retired with full rank and benefits and an honorable discharge, and that’s the end of it.

Do you consider President Obama a good leader?
Not really.

Do you think those in the military respect him?
I don’t know, you gotta ask guys in the military, but I will tell you this: I think that going in in the middle of the night doesn’t show leadership.

Are you referring to that recent three-hour trip to a base in Afghanistan? He needs to consider his own safety, doesn’t he?
Leaders lead by example, and if I’m asking my young men and women to go out there and puttheir lives on the line, I should be willing and able to do the exact same thing. As I told my soldiers when I was commander in Iraqin 2003, the most expendable person in our battalion was me.

Didn’t George W. Bush go in for a surprise visit to Iraq under similar circumstances? Remember the platter-of-turkey photo op on Thanksgiving Day?
I’m not saying that’s right, either. I’m saying that my understanding of leadership is a little bit different. Leadership is about being a servant first.

Even though you’re a Republican, did you feel a sense of pride when President Obama was elected?
I don’t look to a man to get pride in myself. It’s not about having a black president, it’s about having a good president, and I think that’s the most important thing. This country needs a good leader, and I don’t care if he’s purple or green but yes, there are some people that saw in him a sense of pride.

Michael Steele, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, said last year that blacks don’t have a reason to vote Republican because Republicans haven’t given them one.
I think that there are some objective criteria that you can look at that Chairman Steele needs to try to work through.

What made you become a Republican?
When I retired out of the military, I registered myself as a Republican because my views and perspectives were more in line with that party.

You were raised in Atlanta, in a military family of Democrats, and were the middle of three boys. Are your wife and two daughters Republicans?
After all of the crap that I was put through in this election campaign, I don’t think they’ll be liberals any time soon.

What do you mean by crap?
When you turn on the television and people are accusing you of being a member of a white outlaw motorcycle gang and saying that you run drugs and deal with prostitution, I think that’s a little bit over the top. My opponent was very nasty.

You haven’t started your new job. But you probably feel ready to retire.
No. I have not yet begun to fight, as John Paul Jones said.

INTERVIEW HAS BEEN CONDENSED AND EDITED.

(I'll just bet it was...Go West!)

(h/t, Bookworm Room)

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Priceless! Boehner Responds To Democrat Senator's Warning On Repealing ObamaCare

Ooh, this is going to be good.

As I mentioned earlier, the new GOP dominated House has a vote on repealing ObamaCare slated for January 12th.

Once that got out, the Senate Democrats, led by Harry Reid have sent a letter to incoming Speaker John Boehner warning him that they would block any attempt at repeal.

Boehner's response? Classic:

Senators Reid, Durbin, Schumer, Murray and Stabenow:

Thank you for reminding us — and the American people — of the backroom deal that you struck behind closed doors with ‘Big Pharma,’ resulting in bigger profits for the drug companies, and higher prescription drug costs for 33 million seniors enrolled in Medicare Part D, at a cost to the taxpayers of $42.6 billion.

The House is going to pass legislation to repeal that now. You’re welcome.

John Boehner, Speaker.

You think maybe they made a mistake demonizing him during the campaign?

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Why Israel Is Losing The Information War

Many people who are informed about what's actually happening in the Middle East constantly wonder why Israel fares so badly in the information wars. The following example gives us a pretty good idea why.

Jawaher Abu Rahmah, a 'Palestinian' activist, died on January 1st. Saeb Erekat, the right fork of Yasser Arafat's tongue, claimed that she died during a demonstration in the 'Palestinian' town of Bil'in, killed by "poison" contained in tear gas fired at the demonstration by Israeli soldiers after it deteriorated into what could best be termed a riot.

'Palestinian' President Mahmoud Abbas called Abu Rahmah's death a "new Israeli crime carried out by the occupation army against our helpless nation."

She was given a martyr's funeral as a victim an Israeli "war crime", with crowds of mourners and the usual Palestinian stringers who work for the dinosaur media in attendance.

The story was almost instantaneously reported around the world as fact by the AFP, the Guardian, The AP, The Independent, UPI, Voice of America, and even the Jewish Telegraphic Agency among others, while TIME's resident Israel basher Tony Karon got off a piece celebrating this as the occasion of an alliance between 'Palestinian' activists and Israeli Leftists.

The real story? According to the IDF, there's no evidence Abu Rahmah was even at the Bil'in demonstration, nor does she show up on any of the videos. There's no evidence that she died from inhaling tear gas ( if it was in fact 'poisonous' why weren't there other deaths?) and the death certificate shows the cause of death as "Inhaling gas of an Israeli soldier according to the family."

This is an indication that no doctor actually examined Abu Rahmah, but that the death certificate was simply filled out by a nurse or orderly. And the accounts of her actual health are contradictory.

Was Abu Ramah the victim of an honor killing exploited by the PA? It certainly wouldn't be the first Pallywood production we've seen.

And really, none of the facts matter at this point.

Run with me for a second.Let's say that evidence surfaces that Abu Ramah was never at the demo, and that this was an honor killing rather than death by teargas. What changes?

By the time the truth comes out, the Palestinian propaganda machine and their allies have already publicized their version, it's gone around the world and the media has already gone on to the next story. The Muslim world will certainly never hear the truth, Israel's enemies in the West will simply take the Pal version as factual and the media circus has moved on

And that's the core of the problem.

Jews culturally are geared toward parsing facts and evidence, which is one reason so many of them are attracted to the legal profession. Anyone studying the Talmud or Gemara (commentaries on Jewish Law as given in the Torah)essentially receives a legal education in miniature.

But what happens when you're up against people that care nothing for facts and everything about impact and propaganda? What happens when you fight an information war against people who care nothing for the truth and merely want to consume your flesh?

In today's media climate, you're left foundering trying to decipher the facts while the other side has already made its impact.

This is the sort of thing that happens when you play defense instead of offense..the other side controls the game and you're limited to reacting.

That's why Israel has been losing the information war.

Israel would be far better off going on offense by publicizing the Palestinian Authority's inherent corruption, the status of women and homosexuals, its official endorsements of terrorism against Israel's civilians, and its refusal to make a single concession in any negotiations

As for Abu Ramah, instead of reacting to the 'Palestinian' narrative with frantic attempts to dredge up facts, Israel would get a lot further by going for impact and simply calling out Erekat and Abbas for lying, challenging them to prove Abu Ramah was there and that the IDF killed her, and reminding the world of all the other fairy tales the Palestinians have spun over the years.

Cross posted at American Thinker and Big Journalism.

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Sarah Palin Sees Gays As Human Beings - Why The Surprise?

Whenever the media is desperate for a story during a slow news cycle, they go to Old Reliable - Governor Sarah Palin.

Today's non-story involves prominent gay blogger, author and talk show host Tammy Bruce ( a staunch Palin supporter, by the way) who announced with pleased surprise that Governor Palin had retweeted her on a tweet Bruce sent out supporting the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell:

"But this hypocrisy is just truly too much. Enuf already–the more someone complains about the homos the more we should look under their bed.”

Bruce of course was absolutely thrilled with Palin’s re-tweet, saying it constitutes a clear signal the former Republican vice presidential nominee is a friend of the gay community.

“I think @SarahPalinUSA RT my tweet is her first comment on DADT, treatment of gays & attempts to marginalize us–thank you Governor,” Bruce replied.

But why the surprise? As governor, Palin vetoed a bill in 2006 that would have denied benefits to employees in same-sex relationships, saying it was unconstitutional. While she opposes same-sex marriage ( something consistent with her religious beliefs, after all), there has never been a hint in her public or private life to show that she endorses hatred of homosexuals.

Yet needless to say, CNN , HuffPo, the Politico, Gawker and a number of other outlets found this worthy of headlines, and archly questioned Sarah Palin's 'motives.'

It never ends.

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House Slates ObamaCare Repeal Vote For January 12th

The new Republican-led Congress has set January 12th as the date to vote on legislation repealing ObamaCare.

"Obamacare is a job-killer for businesses small and large, and the top priority for House Republicans is going to be to cut spending and grow the economy and jobs," Brad Dayspring, spokesman for incoming House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), said in a statement.

This is likely going to be symbolic in nature, since the Senate Democrats, led by Harry Reid have already sent a letter to incoming Speaker John Boehner warning him that they would block any repeal. And even if they didn't President Obama would certainly break out his veto pen. But as a first step, it's still important.

It once again puts Democrats on record as supporting this deeply flawed and unpopular legislation, and it essentially sets out a goal for the future.

And it is a lead in to attacking the bill bit by bit by tightening the purse strings on the funding that would need to be allocated to the Department of Health and Human Services and other agencies to fund the legislation's implementation.

That's when the showdown will begin.

(via Memeorandum)

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Obama Re-Elected In 2012?

The New Year is barely upon us and the usual suspects are pushing the 'Obama can't lose in 2012' meme. The source is always some Journolista Obamabot on the Left or, as in this case,some GOP establishment hack who used to work on the McCain campaign, one of the most inept in living memory.

The message is the same too..looky at all the supposedly Red States Obama won in 2008! That, together with the black vote and the mighty, all encompassing (and of course, monolithic) Hispanic vote will turn the tide for the Mighty Obama. Observe ye and despair, o ye Republicans...you better vote for amnesty!

Myra Adams, an ex-McCain campaign functionary sees Arizona, Florida, Colorado, New Mexico, and Nevada as problematic for the GOP 'due to changing Hispanic demographics and Hispanics’ group loyalty to President Obama and the Democratic Party in general'.

Adams writes, "Assume for a moment (and this is a HUGE assumption) that what I call the “Red Rogue States” of Florida, Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina, and Indiana that turned Obama blue in 2008 will shake off the magic fairy dust he sprinkled over them and return to the red Republican barn in 2012. These five “must win” states total 86 electoral votes, bringing our generic un-named Republican presidential candidate up to 266."

The 266 number comes from these states, plus the states McCain managed to win in '08.

She conveniently forgets Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, and Wisconsin in her analysis, all three of whom are trending red and just electing new GOP senators and a slew of new GOP congressmen..a total of 35 electoral votes.

She also conveniently forgets that Hispanics in Florida are mostly Cubans, who vote Republican and just elected Marco Rubio to the Senate along with a huge batch of Republican congressmen, and that the Arizona immigration law is hugely popular in that state. And she credits the rest of the Hispanic vote with being too stupid not to see that a continuing flow of illegal aliens puts their own jobs, wages, tax rates and access to services in jeopardy.

She also fails to take into account that the US economy is not likely to be much better by 2012, or that a lot of democrats are disaffected after seeing what they voted for in action, or that people simply know a lot more about Obama than they did in 2008. Or how unpopular ObamaCare is, or what affect the investigations of what's been going on the last two years are likely to have. So that 'magic fairy dust' she speaks of is going to be in pretty short supply come 2012.

Here's how the numbers add up.Take the 173 electoral votes McCain got in 2008, all of them deep Red states unlikely to change. Add 11 to that, for the new electoral votes in Red states provided by the last census, to get to 184. Add in Florida, Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina, and Indiana for another 86 electoral votes, a total of 270, already enough to win. And then add in New Hampshire and Pennsylvania, another 25 for good measure. That's a total of 295 electoral votes without New Mexico, Colorado or Nevada,all of whom are still on the table.

Of course, a lot depends on whom the GOP nominee is, and how th enew Congress performs in DC and whether they dismantle Obama's agenda, which is what trhey were elected do. If they don't , and the candidate is another establishment yawner like McCain who's too self-absorbed and PC to go after Obama on his many weak points, that's one thing.

But if it's a bright, aggressive candidate with a knack for turning a phrase who can articulate conservatism and a clear program for turning the country around while attacking Obama on his record, that's something very different.

A certain housewife in Wasilla come to mind...

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Europe - Governments Seize Private Pensions To Cover Budget Shortfalls

As you know by now, the aim of President Barack Hussein Obama and his Democrat allies, among other things, is to transform America into a European style welfare state, AKA 'a Social Democracy'.

Ironically, that's happening at the same time some European governments are realizing what a horrendous idea that was in the first place and are having to take unprecedented measures to stay afloat.

One of those measures, for some countries, involves essentially stealing private pension funds in order to pave over budget shortfalls.

In Hungary for instance, the government told its citizens that they could either turn over Their individual retirement savings ( estimated at about $14 million) to the state, or lose the right to the basic state pension while still having to pay contributions for it.

Bulgaria did something similar, trying to transfer $300 million of private early retirement savings to the state pension fund. The government backed down after the unions protested, but still instituted a partial plan.


In Ireland, the government simply 'borrowed' 4 billion Euros from the National Pension Reserve Fund to rescue the country's banks..and last November, the remaining 2.5 billion in the fund was seized as part of the EU bailout.

France took a different route, using an old accounting trick to get access to the private pensions..the one called robbing Peter to pay Paul. In November, the French parliament decided to use 33 billion Euros from the national reserve pension fund FRR to reduce the short-term pension deficit. That allows the long term retirement savings intended for the years 2020-2040 will be used earlier for the years 2011-2024. Which of course means that the French government can spend the saved up resources on other purposes now and will let 2020 take care of itself...when it will be another French government's problem!

Lest you delude yourselves that this is going to be confined to the antics of foreigners across the pond, rest assured that President Obama and his political soulmates are eagerly taking notes, which is why we heard noises earlier about an American Value Added Tax (VAT), something that has politicians literally drooling at the prospect of automatically stealing millions of your hard earned dollars without the necessity of having to take any responsibility for raising taxes at election time.

And they have an additional wedge here in the US for grabbing onto your pension funds. Some of the EU government pension funds actually had money in them. But in the US, ever since Lyndon Johnson and the Democrats first allowed the Social Security trust fund to be accessed to pay for the War on Poverty,that money has been treated as general revenue and is now essentially one huge IOU backed by government paper.

A government grab of private pensions could be sold as necessary to lower the deficit, or to keep old people from starving or going without healthcare because Social Security and Medicare are bankrupt. And of course, the Federal government's poor management, spendthrift ways and outright theft will never be mentioned.

Some of the states, especially the Blue ones with huge unfunded public employee union pension mandates would absolutely adore this as well, since it would get them off the hook and be a bailout without actually having the odor of one.The only people to really get hit would be the ones who took these jobs in the first place with the idea that the money being put aside would actually go to fund their retirement.

Suckers.

Besides, after all, we have to spread the wealth around just like Chairman Obama said, don't we?

Watch carefully what's going on in DC-land. And if and when this comes up, be prepared to scream bloody murder at your representatives in Congress.

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Chuck Berry Falls Ill During Chicago Show

The brown-eyed handsome man may finally be winding down.

About an hour into a New year's Eve show at the Congress Theater in Chicago,Chuck Berry had to be helped off stage after he simply ran out of gas and collapsed over his accompanist's piano.

He apparently signed a release and declined to be hospitalized. The last report is that he's resting comfortably at his St. Louis home.

Chuck Berry at 84 is in semi-retirement these days, but he still plays out regularly and had just finished two shows in New York City the night before. That legendary vitality of his may finally be wearing down.

I hope not..almost all of the old rockn'rollers have passed on to that Great Concert in the Sky, and when they're gone something unique will have gone with them.There's always been an ageless quality to Berry, something about that old spine and leg catharsis that still seems young, powerful and ageless.

Two personal memories of Chuck Berry...two sides of the same coin.

A hot, humid summer night on the road, checking into a hotel in the Midwest, the name and exact place lost in the memory banks. Not a roach hole or a five star, but the sort of moderately priced place you stay at if you're on tour and trying to keep the costs down.

And who should I see checking out and headed towards the door with a guitar case and a small, black, travel bag in hand than Chuck Berry.

I walked over, ascertained that it really was him, introduced myself politely, told him what band I was playing with and made a remark about how much I loved his music. The response? "Thanks, kid" and then out the door..no smile, no chit chat, no handshake, no nuthin'. It was as if I had insulted him somehow, it was that detached and frigid.

I shrugged, and went back to the hotel desk.

Take two...a night at the Aquarius theater in Hollywood, at a filming of the old TV show, 'In Concert'. I was there courtesy of a backstage pass from the manager one of the eminently forgettable bands set to be filmed that night, some of them with actual records on the radio and in the charts.

Loads of roadies and plenty of heavy duty equipment, Marshall stacks, huge drumsets, big hair, flashpots and pyrotechnics, nubile young ladies checking out the bulges in the spandex, a slight smell of marijuana in the air, schmoozing and those little white lines laid out backstage...a typical concert scene for the times.

One by one, the bands came on, did their shtick, and all got a nice, enthusiastic response from the crowd.

And then out walked a fifty-ish Chuck Berry...one small Fender Twin amp, one guitar, and an obvious pickup band consisting of a bass player and a drummer, probably hired for scale from the local union for that night's show.

What happened next was sheer magic.

Chuck checked his tuning..and then he did one of those metallic signature intros to 'Johnny B. Goode', and the left foot came down.

Within ten minutes, he had the whole theater shaking, literally.

Most of that night's audience were probably still in diapers when most of the songs he played that night first came out, but there was something magically seminal about it that just connected.

Security tried to keep people from crowding the stage and dancing in the aisles, but it was a losing battle and they just gave up after awhile. And me, I just stood in the wings and marveled.

This was the true, anarchistic spirit of rock 'n roll unleashed and it didn't sound like an oldies show in the least..it sounded new, wild and untamed, and I could catch a glimpse of how it must have hit the teenyboppers at places like the old Brooklyn Paramount right between the eyes back when Chuck, Jerry Lee, Buddy and Elvis laid it on them in the fifties.




One guy, a guitar, an amp and a two man rhythm section. It was perfect.

The band that appeared after Chuck finished with the crowd looked positively ill by comparison, and seemed glad to just get the whole ordeal over with. A real, actual case of the rockin' pneumonia and the boogie woogie flu perhaps, and I betcha it wasn't the first time Chuck Berry gave that particular version of the disease to somebody scheduled to follow him on stage.

I have a soundboard tape of what went down that night, and it's one of the things I still listen to when I want to remember what real live rockn'roll sounds like.

Get well soon, Mr. Berry.

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A Passage To Israel

My good friends over at that fine site Gates of Vienna have a must read post up - a personal account by several European politicians and writers of a recent trip to Israel. Here's a slice:

From Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff:

It is quite simple: if one understands Eurabia and its provisions regarding the “Palestinian” question, and combines this with rudimentary knowledge of the relevant Quranic suras, then one is but a step away from understanding basic Israeli reality. There can be nothing but utter support for the Jewish state; nothing but utter support for Israel holding on to and defending land that is publicly and politically called the “West Bank”, what Israelis call Judea and Samaria. Without Judea and Samaria there is no military defense of the State of Israel. It is as simple as standing right there on a mountain overlooking the Jordan valley to realize that giving up Judea and Samaria is tantamount to committing national suicide, especially given the Muslim chant “Khaybar, Khaybar, oh Jews, the army of Muhammad will return”, referring to the expulsion of Jews by the Muslim armies from the oasis of Khaybar.

It is precisely the half-knowledge of historical facts, the ignorance of realities on the ground, and myths that have been propagated since the inception of Eurabia more than twenty-five years ago that drive the critics of Israel to demonize it. A trip to Israel, such as the one I had the honor and privilege of being a part of earlier this month, dispels the ignorance very quickly. While even a cursory glance at a map of Israel should suffice, assessing the situation first-hand delivers the final blow to those unwilling to listen and to learn.

Our educational trip started in the country’s southeast, in the city of Ashkelon, which has been the target of rocket attacks from the nearby Gaza Strip. According to Wikipedia,

On 1—2 March 2008, rockets fired by Hamas from the Gaza Strip (some of them Grad rockets) hit Ashkelon, wounding seven, and causing property damage. Mayor Roni Mahatzri stated that “This is a state of war, I know no other definition for it. If it lasts a week or two, we can handle that, but we have no intention of allowing this to become part of our daily routine.” On May 12, 2008, a rocket fired from the northern Gazan city of Beit Lahiya hit a shopping mall in southern Ashkelon, causing significant structural damage. According to The Jerusalem Post, 4 people were seriously injured and 87 were treated for shock. 15 people suffered minor to moderate injuries as a result of the collapsed structure. Southern District Police chief Uri Bar-Lev believed the Grad-model Katyusha rocket was manufactured in Iran. In March 2008, 230 buildings and 30 cars were damaged by rocket fire on Ashkelon.

In March 2009, a Qassam rocket hit a school, destroying classrooms and injuring two people.

In July 2010, a Grad rocket hit a residential area in Ashkelon, damaging nearby cars and an apartment complex.

The Western media are bending over backwards to diminish these rocket attacks. I ask the reader to imagine the following to understand the situation Israel is facing:

Vienna during the hottest times of the Cold War. The Soviet troops who have garrisoned nearby Bratislava have decided to shell Vienna with rockets on a daily basis, targeting schools and hospitals, causing terror among the civilian population in addition to killing and wounding. The Austrian government, after 100 rockets have landed in Vienna and its vicinity, decides to retaliate, while the United Nations condemns the Austrian government and calls for restraint. I am an Austrian citizen whose daughter attends school. Would I allow for the UN to call restraint while the enemy, who incessantly calls for the total and utter destruction of my country, continues to terrorize me and my family? You decide.

The delegation was also invited to tour the last Israeli military post close on the border of the Gaza Strip. Contrary to liberal belief, the Gaza Strip is no longer occupied by Israeli troops. Hamas, the rulers of Gaza, thank Israel for its withdrawal by sending rockets into the Israeli cities of Ashkelon and Ashdod.

For Europeans like us who are not used to a military presence, it was very unusual to see soldiers like this young fellow manning the IDF military base. These 22-year-olds are considered the very best of their generation. Their demeanor shows awareness of the importance of their duty to defend their country.

In essence, what these young people are doing day and night is defending us and our freedom. Instead of demonizing them, we should thank them. Perhaps one day, when we have lost this freedom, we will understand what it means to patrol in the desert, in the heat, in the dust, while we in the West rant about “evil Israel”.

From Paul Weston:

From just outside the Gaza Strip we headed north and found ourselves on a bullet-proof bus heading into what the unknowledgeable/Liberal/Left know as the West Bank, but what historians — Israelis and others — know as Judea and Samaria.

The Western liberals who proclaim the area as “occupied” are known historically as the Useful Idiots. The City of Ariel, which did not exist in 1978, is now inhabited by Jews. And they inhabit it for a very good reason.

Israel is only 70 km wide. From a mountain-top just outside Ariel, one can view with the naked eye Jordan on one side and the Mediterranean on the other. And through the valley that cuts through this mountainous region there are two roads. Just two roads.

One road leads to Iran, via Iraq and Jordan. An armored column would come this way and this way only, so to control the hill tops around the area is a matter of geo-political importance.

During the 1967 war, the Muslim Arabs installed “Long Tom” cannons on the mountain tops, from where they shelled the civilians living in Tel Aviv, a mere 45 KM away.

When you next get involved in an argument with a liberal/leftist about the “occupied territories of the West Bank”, it might be a good time to point out the political/war realities. Islam wants the area back, because the Israelis would be rendered defenceless if they gave it up. Hence the concerted efforts of Islam and their Western useful idiots to do just that.

“But land for peace is how we will achieve peace in Israel!” squeal the Western liberals. Tell that to the inhabitants of Sderot. Israel gave up Gaza and the peace loving “Palestinians” turned it into a terror state from which they could attack Israeli civilians.

Read the whole thing (complete with a few telling photos) here.

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