Wednesday, December 07, 2011

Watcher's Council Nominations - One Sunday Morning In Hawaii 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's contest is dedicated to the fallen...and to the living, who endured, preserved our beloved Republic and provided us with a path and an example for these times.

Council News:

This week, Liberty's Spirit, 912 Super Seniors, The Independent Sentinel , Arthur Hu 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 Joshuapundit and post the title 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 in order 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



Honorable Mentions



Non-Council Submissions



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

please donate...it helps me write more gooder!

Tuesday, December 06, 2011

The GM Volt's One Hot Car - Recent Fires Show Safety Findings May Have Been Suppressed

http://www.rokemneedlearts.com/carsindepth/wordpressblog/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/car-fire-2-JPEG-500x375.jpg

Government Motor's flagship product, the vastly underselling Volt has some additional problems to contend with. Its lithium-ion battery system has shown a disturbing tendency to catch on fire in test crashes, even crashes at relatively slow velocity.

Even worse,evidence has been discovered indicating that both Government Motors and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration delayed disclosure of their original safety findings about the fire by months:

Apparently, way back in June, General Motors heard about a Volt fire that happened three weeks after said vehicle was crash tested, yet it wasn’t until November that the company, or NHTSA disclosed there was a potential problem, urging both dealers and customers to drain the battery pack immediately following an accident.

As a result the public relations nightmare surrounding Chevy’s halo vehicle appears to be deepening, though a good deal of the blame in this case also rests with NHTSA.

Joan Claybrook, a former adminstrator at NHTSA believes part of the reason for the delay was the “fragility of Volt sales.” Yet she also believes that “NHTSA could have put out a consumer alert, not to tell them [customers] for six months makes no sense to me.”


Hmmm..it doesn't make sense? Yes, I see. I mean, who would have imagined that a government agency would fail to publicize negative safety information that might kill sales on a product put out by Government Motors and its union owners..especially with a highly publicized IPO for GM coming up before investors earlier this year..

I don't know about you, but I'd be very cautious of any GM dealers offering unMATCHED prices or red hot deals if you know what I mean.

please donate...it helps me write more gooder!

Obama To Use Veto To Shelve Tough Iran Sanctions


There has been a great deal of rhetoric from the Obama Administration and its loyal foot soldiers about how 'tough sanctions' on Iran are the way to get Iran to curb it's nuclear weapons program. Yet the president has always shied away from th eonly real sanctions that might carry some bite - on companies supplying Iran's refined fuel imports and financial institutions dealing with Iran's Central Bank, which is how the Islamic Republic processes its oil payments from other countries.

Well, the Senate just unanimously approved a defense bill that had an amendment in it that would contain a ban on transactions with Iran’s Central Bank. It mirrors bill the House passed already, so the measure has gone to President Obama for his signature.

Unfortunately, President Obama was able to twist the arms of enough of the Democrats in the Senate to make two key changes. He persuaded the Senate to water the amendment down by giving the president the power to waive enforcement of the law at his discretion, and a six month waiting period before the measure goes into effect.

So the Iranians aren't going to have to worry a swift shutdown of the oil income they get from transactions that are run through their Central Bank. They have ample time to set up as new mechanism to handle it. And the president can simply use his waiver to not enforce the law at all if he feels like it.

Even after he got the changes he wanted, Obama shafted his supporters in the Senate by threatening a veto.

Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ), who co-sponsored the amendment with Illinois Republican Mark Kirk was absolutely livid at being treated in this fashion after he had watered down the bill at the president's request:



Had Menendez resisted Obama’s pressure to include the waivers, the bill would have had to be enforced. As it is, the president's actions guarantee that even if it survives a veto, the sanctions against Iran's Central Bank will simply be shelved as though they didn't exist.

This president has obviously been lying all along when he claims that he will never allow Iran to go nuclear...and his defenders among the Democrats,particularly Jews who continue to shill for him need to take a look at exactly who they're standing with.

There are only two reasons for President Obama's poisonous vacillation. Either he's decided he can live with a nuclear Iran and his many statements on the matter are sheer snake oil, or he's cynically decided to pull a strike on Iran in eight or nine months or so to help his re-election.

If it's the latter, the fact that Iran will be much better prepared, will have hidden and hardened their nuclear facilities to a much greater degree and will inflict greater casualties on US forces taking part in the operation isn't bothering him one iota.

Nor are the possible Iranian retaliations against Israel or the Saudis a problem for him, if that's what it comes down to. Not compared to his re-election.

please donate...it helps me write more gooder!

Obama Administration To Use Gay Rights As A Condition for Foreign Aid

Yes indeed.

So, I would expect all aid to the 'Palestinian Authority' and pretty much all of the Muslim World to be suspended immediately.

And of course, the Administration will do an about face and immediately grant this man asylum.

Ri-ight.

please donate...it helps me write more gooder!

Monday, December 05, 2011

Obama To Bypass Congress And Hit US With UN 'Climate Tax'



President Obama has a wonderful new scheme to raise taxes - oh,sorry, 'new revenues' - on America's collective back in the making. And this time, it's not even for America but for the UN!

President Obama's negotiators at the at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Durban, South Africa are apparently prepared to approve an agreement calling for a tax on foreign currency transactions designed to pay for a "Green Climate Fund."

Negotiators at the conference are considering "a new tax on every foreign currency transaction in the world," according to the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT). "Every time you travel abroad, you'll have to pay a climate tax," explains CFACT, the group that released the "Climategate" emails. "More importantly, every time we import goods, every time we export our fine products (think jobs) we will do so with a climate tax skimming off the top."

European countries would evade much of the tax burden, however, because "transactions within the Eurozone won't have to pay this new tax."

CFACT suggests that Obama is open to implementing this tax and similar policies in the absence of a full climate treaty, which would require congressional approval. "We have learned that while many have discounted this conference, knowing that a full climate treaty is difficult to achieve especially with a U.S. Senate that will not vote to ratify," CFACT says. "Obama and his fellow climate travelers are working around the Senate and planning to stick America with the bill."


Higher taxes, punish America, do an end run around Congress - tell me that doesn't sound exactly like a wet dream for the current occupant of the White House.

please donate...it helps me write more gooder!

The Eurozone Under The Gun: France And Germany At Odds

http://l2.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/sj1Lo4Aiu992O3xOVyLoxQ--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9aW5zZXQ7aD0zNDE7cT04NTt3PTUxMg--/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/Reuters/2011-11-24T122625Z_1315977415_GM1E7BO1L0Y01_RTRMADP_3_EUROZONE.JPG

Saving the eurozone has come down to two countries, France and Germany. President Sarkozy and Chancellor Merkel are meeting today to try and craft a common proposal to save the eurozone and the EU,but their differences are fairly wide.

The Germans are desperate to preserve the eurozone because their economy depends on exports, and returning to the Deutschmark would create a rise in the prices of German products. On the other hand, German taxpayers are fed up with costly bailouts.

Merkel wants a 'federalized' eurozone to enforce budget discipline and to have euro zone states surrender the control of their budgets to a European authority with veto power and the ability to punish governments that step out of line.

France opposes this, and Sarkozy, with only five months to go before elections, is taking major criticism from his political opposition and the press over handing French sovereignty to unelected EU officials.

At that, a proposal along the lines of what the Germans want might necessitate a change in the EU treaty.

It'll be interesting to see what they come up with.

Meanwhile, Italy has joined Greece, Spain, Ireland and Portugal as another country whose debt is out of control and may need an EU bailout.


please donate...it helps me write more gooder!

Sunday, December 04, 2011

Netanyahu Was Blackmailed By Germany To Release 'Palestinian' Funds

You may remember last week that Benyamin Netanyahu and the Israeli cabinet caved in to pressure and made the decision to resume the release of tax funds to the Hamas-allied 'Palestinian' Authority.The funds were suspended after the 'Palestinians' violated the Road Map and the Oslo Accords by making an attempt to bypass negotiations with Israel with an unsuccessful unilateral declaration of statehood at the UN and a successful bid to become a full member of UNESCO.

I along with many others criticized Netanyahu for folding, but I also cautioned my readers that such decisions don't happen in a vacuum and Israel and Netanyahu obtained a quid pro quo behind the scenes for acquiescing to this folly.

It turns out that Netanyahu didn't cave in at all - he was simply blackmailed.

http://www.jpost.com/HttpHandlers/ShowImage.ashx?ID=176942

According to the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag, German Chancellor Angela Merkel threatened Prime Minister Netanyahu with cancelling a German agreement to deliver a sixth Dolphin-class submarine to Israel unless Israel resumed the transfer of funds to the Palestinian Authority.

Directly after Israel announced it would resume transferring the funds, a German government official announced that Germany would not only build and deliver the submarine to the Israeli navy, but pay up to one-third of the construction cost.

At the time of this writing, the sum the Germans have agreed to underwrite amounts to 135 million euros, the equivalent of $182.4 million dollars while the amount of money released to the 'Palestinian' Authority amounted to about $130 million.

In addition the new submarine, which like all of Israel dolphin subs can fire cruise missiles and support nuclear weapons enhances Israel's deterrent strike capability quite nicely, especially if things heat up with Iran.

So in retrospect, Netanyahu didn't cave. He made a rational choice and received a sixth submarine Israel needed at a 30% discount that amounted to substantially more than he was giving up to the 'Palestinians'. I would have made the same decision.

Now, why the Germans would do this is another story. Germany's ship building industry is in dire straits and they certainly needed the work. But on the other hand, Germany is one of Iran's biggest trading partners, and the new submarine might be used in hostilities that could affect that particular bottom line severely.

It may simply have been a case of political correctness run amuck and coalition politics with the German left needed by Merkel to sell the new eurozone preservation deal she's working on to the Bundestag.

( hat tip, Carl)

please donate...it helps me write more gooder!

Anarchy In The UK - Muslim 'Honor' Killing Numbers Spike


A freedom of information request by the Iranian and Kurdish Women's Rights Organisation in Britain revealed that there were at least 2,823 honor attacks in the UK in 2010. I say 'at least' because out of 52 police forces queried, only 39 responded. The rest, roughly 25% were unable or unwilling to provide the data.

The BBC article linked here defines 'honour attacks' as 'punishments on people, usually women, for acts deemed to have brought shame on their family. Such attacks can include acid attacks, abduction, mutilations, beatings and in some cases, murder.'

Of course, al-Beeb never mentions Islam:

IKWRO said its research, carried out between July and November, is the best national estimate so far of the extent of honour violence in Britain, although the charity says the figures do not give the full picture.

They found that eight police forces had recorded more than 100 honour-based attacks each in 2010.

The Metropolitan Police had the most at 495, followed by West Midlands (378), West Yorkshire (350), Lancashire (227), Greater Manchester (189), Cleveland (153), Suffolk (118) and Bedfordshire (117).

Of the 12 police forces able to provide 2009 comparison figures, nine recorded a rise in attacks and three saw totals fall.

The biggest rise was in Northumbria, which saw figures leap by 305% from 17 in 2009 to 69 in 2010, followed by a 154% jump in Cambridgeshire from 11 to 28.


Even more revealing must be the figures on what percentage of violent crime in general is perpetrated by Muslims in Britain.

How's that multiculturalism working out for you, cousins?

please donate...it helps me write more gooder!

DOJ On Fast And Furious: 'Hey We Lied. So What' ?


President Obama's Department of Justice has formally withdrawn an 'inaccurate' letter on Fast and Furious it admits was sent to Congress earlier this year to answer formal inquiries about the program that saw over 2,000 weapons deliberately placed in the hands of Mexican drug cartels. The program led to at least 200 murders,including a US Border Patrol officer.

In a document dump late last Friday afternoon, Deputy Attorney General Jim Cole sent nearly 1,400 pages of emails and other documents to the investigative committee of Rep. Daryl Issa and Senator Chuck Grassley that, among other tidbits, laid bare the details of how the bogus February 4th letter to Grassley was drafted.

The February 2011 letter in response to Grassley's statements in committee that the Senate Judiciary Committee had received allegations the ATF had sanctioned the sale of hundreds of assault weapons to suspected straw purchasers. The letter said in response that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) makes "every effort" to interdict weapons that have been purchased illegally before they cross into Mexico. It added that the allegation that the ATF had "sanctioned or otherwise knowingly allowed the sale of assault weapons" to suspicious people was false.

As we now know, both of those statements were outright lies.

The paper trail shows that Dennis Burke, a former U.S. attorney who has since 'resigned', and William Hoover, then the deputy director of the ATF who has since been reassigned, were the parties that mostly provided the false information to those officials who drafted the letter. What the documents don't show, of course, is the all-important intent. Misleading Congress is a felony - but only if it can be proven that the perpetrator knew the information was false and intended to deceive.

This is also known as the Hillary Clinton get-out-of-jail-free card. It's not enough to prove that someone prepared fraudulent legal documents and profited thereby. You have to prove intent.

And of course, Attorney General Eric Holder has told lawmakers that so far he has no evidence anyone intended to deceive them. But he's going to look into the matter!

The e-mails also show that Lanny Breuer, the assistant attorney general for the department’s criminal division, received versions of the letter on four occasions via email. Breuer forwarded the emails to a personal account but somehow forgot about it - he testified to the investigative committee that he “cannot say for sure” whether he viewed the drafts.

Breuer admitted on Oct. 31 he knew federal officials allowed assault weapons to be trafficked by straw buyers to the Mexican drug cartels as early as April 2010, 10 months before the department denied doing it in the letter to Grassley.

“Any instance of so-called gunwalking was unacceptable. This tactic was unfortunately used as part of Fast and Furious,” Holder admitted to Senators at a Judiciary Committee hearing Nov. 8. “This should never have happened.”

Ah, but it's obvious that someone intended it to happen. Here's a revealing e-mail exchange between US Attorney Dennis Burke and former ATF Deputy Director Hoover:

“What is so offensive about this whole project is that Grassley’s staff, acting as willing stooges for the Gun Lobby, have attempted to distract from the incredible success in dismantling [southwest border] gun trafficking operations ... but, instead, lobbing this reckless despicable accusation that ATF is complicit in the murder of a fellow federal law enforcement officer,” he wrote in a Feb. 4 email.

“Well said Dennis. Thank you!” Hoover replied.

Senator Grassley, who along with Rep. Issa has been leading an investigation into Fast and Furious for most of this year, has been quite outspoken about the operation and the attempted coverup. Th elatest batch of documents raises a lot of new questions about who knew what and when they knew it. Expect a number of them to come up when Attorney General Holder testifies in a House oversight hearing December 8th.


please donate...it helps me write more gooder!

Adam Corolla Explains The OWS Generation



And does a pretty good job of it. I particularly like his linking the mentality of the OWS protesters to jihadis...he's spot on there.It's also one reason why the surrounding Arab countries harbor such a deep hatred of Israel, by the way.

WARNING - NSFW language in the extreme.

(hat tip, Crazy Bald Guy)

please donate...it helps me write more gooder!

Turkey's Erdogan To Give Hamas $300M In Aid


Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has written Ismail Haniyya, Prime Minister of the Hamas-led government in the Gaza Strip, inviting him to visit Turkey, and informing him that he has instructed Turkey's Ministry of Finance to allocate $300 Million in aid for Hamas.

Hamas sources said that Erdogan was responding positively to Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal's call for closer relations between Turkey and its fellow Islamist government in Gaza.

The Turkish aid will go a long way towards allowing the genocidal Hamas to continue its War Against the Jews. And yet, our Secretary if Defense Leon Panetta claims that Turkey is interested in 'regional stability' and that it's Israel's responsibility to mend fences with them!

US law states unequivocally that any person or nation associating with or providing aid to a terrorist group is subject to legal penalties if a US citizen and sanctions if a foreign nation. Both the EU and the US have named Hamas an officially designated terrorist group. Are sanctions on Turkey forthcoming ?

And shouldn't someone warn President Obama that his man crush with Erdogan is contrary to US law?

(hat tip Challah Hu Akbar)

please donate...it helps me write more gooder!

Saturday, December 03, 2011

Heart Of Darkness; Obama's Campaign To Make Israel A Scapegoat And Fool America's Jews


The Obama Administration is obviously very concerned about its fading support among America's Jews. And to counteract it, there's a subtle but growing campaign going on to convince America's Jews that not only is the president the most pro-Israel in history, but that it's those ungrateful Jews in Israel that caused the death of the so-called peace process and cause all the rampant Muslim Jew hatred rather than President Obama's arrogant, amateurish and deceitful behavior. And the president and his handlers are using committed foot soldiers who are either Jews or people posing as 'friends' of Israel to do it.

The president, speaking in front of a fundraiser to group of American Jews in the Manhattan home of Obama donor Jack Rosen,the chairman of the American Jewish Congress made this incredible statement: "I try not to pat myself too much on the back, but this administration has done more for the security of the state of Israel than any previous administration. We don't compromise when it comes to Israel's security ... and that will continue."

A whole chorus of the administration's allies has come out full force to echo this fantasy.

For instance, the U.S. ambassador to Belgium, Howard Gutman, recently told a conference hosted by the European Jewish Union that Israel was to blame for Muslim Jew hatred :

"A distinction should be made between traditional anti-Semitism, which should be condemned and Muslim hatred for Jews, which stems from the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinians,” Gutman reportedly said, according to the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth. “He also argued that an Israeli-Palestinian peace treaty will significantly diminish Muslim anti-Semitism.”

According to the account in the Israeli paper, “The legal experts at the event were visibly stunned by Gutman’s words, and the next speaker offered a scathing rebuttal to the envoy’s remarks.”


Gutman apparently never read the Qu'ran or the Hadiths and is clueless as to the real roots of Muslim anti-Semitism, which predates the re-establishment of Israel by centuries.

But of course, Gutman is infinitely qualified for his post as ambassador, having bundled $500,000 in 2008 for Obama, according to OpenSecrets.org.

It's worth repeating the words of the next speaker after Gutman,German attorney Nathan Gelbart:


"The modern Anti-Semite formally condemns Anti-Semitism and the Holocaust and expresses upmost sympathy with the Jewish people. He simply has created a new species, the “Anti-Zionist” or – even more sophisticated – the so-called ‘Israel critic,’”

“The ‘Israel critic’ will never state ‘Jews go home’ but is questioning the legality of the incorporation of the State of Israel and therefore the right for the Jewish people to settle in their homeland. He will not say the Jews are the evil of the world but claim that the State of Israel is a major cause for instability and war in the region,” he said. “There is no other country, no other people on this planet the ‘Israel critic’ would dedicate so much time and devotion as to the case of Israel.”

“For no other country he would criticize or ask to boycott its goods or academics. And this for one simple reason: Because Israel is the state of the Jewish people, not more and not less.”

Gelbert's remarks were received with loud applause, while Ambassador Gutman left the conference hurriedly, claiming prior obligations.

The White house has reportedly backed away from Gutman, issuing a hurried statement that his views do not reflect theirs. Actually they reflect the Obama Administration's views exactly, but the White House is a lot more subtle, what with elections coming up.

In another instance,you have SecDef Leon Panetta's recent remarks at a forum at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy in Washington DC. Apparently the Secretary took some time off from hollowing out America's military to explain to an audience of American Jews that really, the problems in the Middle East are all Israel's fault:

"I understand the view that this is not the time to pursue peace, and that the Arab awakening further imperils the dream of a safe and secure, Jewish and democratic Israel. But I disagree with that view," Panetta said.

He said Israel needed to take risks, including by breathing new life into moribund peace talks with Palestinians. When asked by a moderator what steps Israel needed to take to pursue peace, Panetta said: "Just get to the damn table."


As if it was Israel that was refusing to negotiate!

"I believe security is dependent on a strong military but it is also dependent on strong diplomacy. And unfortunately, over the past year, we've seen Israel's isolation from its traditional security partners in the region grow," Panetta said.

Panetta suggested that Israel reach out and mend fences with countries like Turkey, Egypt and Jordan which "share an interest in regional stability."

Panetta said that while Israel is not solely responsible for its isolation, it could more actively attempt to reverse the trend: "For example, Israel can reach out and mend fences with those who share an interest in regional stability – countries like Turkey and Egypt, as well as Jordan," he said.

"This is not impossible. If the gestures are rebuked, the world will see those rebukes for what they are. And that is exactly why Israel should pursue them."

"It is in Israel's interest, Turkey's interest, and US interest for Israel to reconcile with Turkey, and both Turkey and Israel need to do more to put their relationship back on track," Panetta said.


As if Israel hasn't made ample gestures to these countries, only to have them slapped away each time? And exactly how is Israel supposed to 'mend fences' with Islamist governments in Turkey and Egypt? Or Jordan,where King Abdullah toes the anti-Israel line because he's scared stiff of his mostly 'Palestinian' subjects tossing him out on his behind and claiming Jordan as yet another 'Palestinian' state?

Egypt, Turkey and Jordan aren't committed to 'regional stability' and Panetta knows it. What they're committed to is Israel's disappearance,because it is a Jewish state. But Panetta and the Obama Administration would have us believe that this is Israel's fault. Just as the dead-in-the-water 'peace process is Israel's fault, rather than President Obama's:

Panetta further urged Israel to "lean forward" to achieve peace with the Palestinians. Peace talks have been moribund for more than a year.

"Rather than undermining the Palestinian Authority, it is in Israel's interests to strengthen it by ... continuing to transfer Palestinian tax revenues and pursuing other avenues of cooperation," he said.


Rather than 'lean forward', what Panetta really means is 'bend over'. And he's telling Israel that after you get raped, give up territory and important and irreversible strategic concessions and pay in blood because of it, the world will of course take your side and forcefully condemn those who attack Jews...just like they did when Israel retreated from Gaza.

It's worth noting that Panetta's remarks are not directed at Israel, but at American Jewish voters.

Panetta's speech took place at at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy... established and funded by Obama contributor and major Democrat fund raiser and contributor Chaim Saban. And just by coincidence, it was the Saban Center who also funded this bogus poll, designed to convince American Jews that Israelis absolutely love Obama, so it's just fine to vote for him.

Even Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was pressed into service, making remarks at - what a coincidence- a closed Saban Forum.

According to our Secretary of State, pending Knesset legislation to limit foreign donations to far Left anti-Israel NGOs like Peace Now, B’Tselem and the Holy Land Trust and stop Israeli Supreme Court justices from naming their own successors are 'assaults onIsrael's democracy'. She even had the nerve to claim that Israel's women are 'excluded from public life'. Aside from the prominent judges and Knesset members in Israel who are female, apparently no one told her that the MK who is a prime mover in favor the bill to cut funding is Faina Kirschenbaum.

Secretary Clinton, of course, would never say such a thing about her 'Palestinian' friends or Jordan, where honor killings of uppity females are endemic. Nor would she make such remarks in Israel, where she would have been laughed off the stage and severely challenged. No, the idea here was to slime Israel's democracy here in the US to make it easier for American Jewish voters to feel good about voting against Israel's present government and re-electing President Obama.

Ignorant Jewish quislings like Gutman and Rosen are already in the bag.The regime may even recall Ambassador Gutman to try to show their 'pro-Israel' bonifides. But this campaign - and there's no other word for it - is directed at American Jews to try to convince them that black is white so that they'll line up and pull the lever for the most anti-Israel president in history.

I don't know what's in President Obama's heart. But I know that many of his most intimate associates are rabid anti-Semites, or 'Anti-Zionists' to use the more fashionable new term for these creatures. I know he has little or no respect for the Jewish religion. I know that he's supported Islamist movements throughout the Middle East like the Muslim Brotherhood that have rabid Jew hatred as a primary feature. And I know he's done more to delegitimize Israel and distance America from a major ally than any president in history. And that's all I or anyone else should need to know.

This latest cynical campaign of contempt ought to send a message to those still sitting on the fence. As far as I'm concerned, any Jew - or for that matter, anybody - who votes for Obama cannot claim to be pro-Israel. End of story, and it goes beyond any Republican or Democrat affiliation.

UPDATE: Per Journolista Ben Smith, the campaign intensifies as George Soros' zombies weigh in.

please donate...it helps me write more gooder!

Politico Beclowns Itself Again - 'Barack Obama's Approval Ratings Rising With Jews' - In Israel

In spite of its obvious agenda and its staff riddled with ObamaBot Journolistas, the Politico continues to masquerade as a serious news site, and some people actually treat it as such.

In its latest spinfest, written by one Mackenzie Weinger, the Politico claims that President Barack Obama's approval ratings are growing by leaps and bounds among Jews in Israel:

In just a year, Jewish Israelis’ opinion of President Barack Obama has turned on its head, according to a new Saban Center for Middle East Policy poll.

A majority, or 54 percent, now say they have a favorable view of the U.S. president — a year ago, just 41 percent of those polled viewed Obama in a positive light.

In 2011, 39 percent say they have a negative opinion of Obama, another far cry from his 2010 numbers when 51 percent said they were not fans of Obama. That’s a net 25-point upswing for Obama in Israel.

The good news from Israel offsets the slight negative turn Obama has seen from Jewish American voters: In a Gallup poll released in September, four out of 10 said they disapproved of Obama, and his approval ratings fell from 60 percent in June to 55 percent.{snip}

The 2011 Public Opinion Poll of Jewish and Arab Citizens of Israel, conducted in conjunction with Zogby International, surveyed 1,010 people living in Israel in November 2011.


Gee, isn't it funny that the Politico story never mentions that the Saban Peace Center, who conducted the poll is run and financed by Chaim Saban, a major Democrat donor and financier?

And that the poll was conducted by an anti-Israel Arab-American John Zogby's firm, whose brother James is president of the vociferously Israel hating Arab American Institute?

Not only that, but the poll even admits it focused on1,010 Jewish and Arab citizens in Israel. What do you suppose the ratio of Jews to Arabs was, and how did they screen the kind of Jews they polled? Want to bet that a lot of them were American Jews living in Israel who still are Democrat voters, and Jews affiliated with far Left parties like Meretz?

This is nothing more than a transparent attempt to convince American Jews that President Obama isn't the most anti-Israel president in US history, and that they should line up like good little sheep and pull the lever for him again.

For the Politico to run this story without letting its readers know who was behind the poll and their obvious agenda is simply disgraceful.


please donate...it helps me write more gooder!

Herman Cain: The Show's Over

http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/CqTP9PgmyQPOw4oP14afNg--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9aW5zZXQ7aD0zNDI7cT04NTt3PTUxMg--/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/afp.com/134649536.jpg

Herman Cain officially ended his presidential campaign today.

OK, he 'suspended' it,but the show's over.

He made the announcement in his home town of Atlanta,with, of course, his wife Gloria onstage with him.

He said the allegations have cast a "cloud of doubt over me and this campaign."

"As of today, with a lot of prayer and soul searching, I am suspending my presidential campaign," he said. "I am suspending my presidential campaign because of the continued distraction, the continued hurt . . . on me, on my family, not because we are not fighters, not because I am not a fighter."

"I have made many mistakes in life -- everybody has. I made mistakes professionally, personally, as a candidate, in terms of how I run my campaign. And I take responsibility or the mistakes that I have made," he said. "But because of these false and unproved accusations, it has … had a tremendous painful price on my family."

Of course, it wasn't just the allegations of adultery or sexual harassment that did Herman Cain in. it was his obvious ignorance of anything outside of a very narrow focus, his disastrous ( albeit catchy) '999 plan', his gaffe ridden public utterances and his poorly run campaign.

A recent Iowa poll showed his support plummeting to less than 8% and falling.

Cain says Cain said he will be launching "plan B" of his public career, a new website where he will discuss economic and get this, foreign policy issues. I'm certain his book will also be for sale onsite, if you can't find it at your local thrift shop or garage sale.He also said he's planning to endorse a Republican candidate for president "in the near future."

A presidential campaign is also a job interview, or at least it should be. Americans have already seen the result of putting a man with no experience and no discernible qualifications into the White House, and there's no benefit in repeating that mistake.

It will be interesting to see where his support goes. I would personally guess that Michele Bachmann and perhaps Newt Gingrich would be the chief beneficiaries.

please donate...it helps me write more gooder!

Friday, December 02, 2011

The Latest LATMA - Cutting Edge Israeli Satire!



Jamil and Awad are back again..and there's an interview with President Obama's Middle East adviser.

please donate...it helps me write more gooder!

Krauthammer: "Arrogant Amateur" Obama Has Done More To "Undermine" Israel Than Predecessors



President Obama made an incredibly egregious remark about Israel the other day at a Manhattan fundraiser attended by a number of servile Jews at the home of Obama donor Jack Rosen,the chairman of the American Jewish Congress, who threw the president a softball, saying "it would be remiss for me not to say there are many in the Jewish community who are concerned" about the relationship between Israel and the United States.

Obama's answer? "I try not to pat myself too much on the back, but this administration has done more for the security of the state of Israel than any previous administration. We don't compromise when it comes to Israel's security ... and that will continue."

Above, Dr. Charles Krauthammer absolutely rips the president for this ridiculous nonsense:

"This president has done more to delegitimize and undermine Israel’s position in the world than any other president and he did it by arriving on the scene and imposing and demanding of Israel a freeze on settlements including the building of the Jewish homes in the Jewish quarter of Jerusalem, of all places, something that had never been precondition in 17 years of negotiations."

"The Palestinians had to insist on it as well once the president did and that destroyed the negotiations. It made Israel the fall guy for an error, an error of an amateur -- an arrogant amateur that imposed this at the beginning of his term. As a result there are no negotiations."

Dr, Krauthammer also went on to discuss the president's fatally flawed policy on Iran,who are now on the brink of nuclear weapons and have openly threatened to destroy Israel numerous times.

I simply can't imagine how much more plain the president's feelings on Israel could be. Have people like Jack Rosen forgotten the calculated insults towards Israel and its government, or how this president trashed previous agreements with Israel, told them they have no right to their religious shrines , threatened an aid cutoff, and instituted what amounted to a de facto arms embargo ?

Are they unaware of how the Obama Administration is supporting Islamist governments in the Middle East, or how the Administration is funding a 'Palestinian' Authority now allied in a unity agreement with the genocidal Hamas?

There are obviously some Jews to whom the right to kill Jewish babies in the womb in America is more important than standing with living ones in Israel.


please donate...it helps me write more gooder!

The Real Numbers On Unemployment

http://blog.heartland.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Christmas-Grinch.jpg

There's this Drudge headline today...HO HO HO: UNEMPLOY RATE 8.6%. Only when you delve into the numbers do you realize that far from being anything to celebrate, it means things are getting worse.

Seasonally, this time of year normally sees an uptick in employment numbers because of temporary jobs, mostly in retail. That uptick is normally between 1 and 2%. An reduction in unemployment of a measly .3% is a sign that not only is the economy not getting better but that retailers expect meager holiday sales and have adjusted their seasonal hiring accordingly.

Another sign of the times is the emergence of a company that allows parents whose budgets are strained to rent toys for their children instead of buying them retail.

It's also worth repeating that the 8.6% is the 'official' U-3 unemployment rate. It accounts only for the people who are receiving or have applied for unemployment benefits and are actively seeking work.

The U-6 rate, which government never trumpets is a lot closer to reality. It includes people no longer actively seeking employment, people who are not covered by unemployment, like people hired as independent contractors or the owner of the small dry cleaning business or restaurant that closed its doors in your neighborhood last week or people let go with not enough quarters of employment to qualify for benefits or from part time and seasonal jobs. As of November, 2011, that rate was 15.6%.

In that context it's worth noting that new claims for unemployment rose last month to a seasonally adjusted 402,000, the first time it's been over 400,000 in months. And this, again is at a time when such claims normally decrease because of seasonal employment.

The president, his apparatchiks and their allies in the media will point to this 'drop' in unemployment as a sign that we have begun a recovery from recession and that President Obama's policies are working just fine. it isn't and they aren't.

please donate...it helps me write more gooder!

The Council Has Spoken!! This Week's Watchers Council Results


The Council has spoken, the votes have been cast, and the results are in for this week, carved eternally in the akhasic records of cyberspace.

This week's winner, Joshuapundit's Rats in the Kitchen: A Parable is an interesting little tale indeed. Rather than try to describe it, I'll just provide you with a slice, let you head to the link to read the whole thing and allow you to draw your own meaning from it:

Once, there was a man who had to deal with rats when he had a major infestation in his home.

The rats' normal environment became unable to support them all, and they began coming down from the hills looking for new digs... and decided they liked the man's house. They were perfectly happy to hunker down in the attic, garage and basement with free access to the goodies in the kitchen and pantry. And once they had moved in and saw what rich booty was to be had, they were determined to take over.

At first the problem wasn't evident. The man would see an occasional rodent scurrying around in the basement, and being a live and let live sort, it never bothered him too much.

As more and more rats began showing up, their presence became much more noticeable. The man made an effort to understand the rats and their needs. The thought even crossed the man's mind that he and his neighbors, by living in the area, owed it to the rats to try and coexist peacefully.After all weren't they entitled to live on the planet too?

The man talked to a local expert on rats, who owned a pest control business. The expert warned him that he had to get rid of the rats now, and act decisively when things were at an early stage, or he would be faced with a major problem in the future. The man listened politely, but thought `well, this guy has his own agenda...after all, he makes his living scaring people about rats. I don't see it as any kind of major problem yet...nothing that can't be handled.'

So he tried what he thought was the most compassionate way out, taking bread and putting it out in the fields, figuring that the rats would be satisfied with that and leave. No luck..having learned to enjoy the basement and access to the goodies in the pantry and the kitchen within, they weren't content to scrounge in the fields any more. Next he tried purchasing a number of those electronic gizmos that claim to drive rats away using high frequency sound. Not only didn't they work, but the rats became even more blatant and bold. The high-pitched electronic sound drew them like an Islamic prayer call or a rock concert.

And as the rats became more bold, they began coming into the house at will. And their numbers continued to increase.


In our non-Council category, we had the unusual situation of a three way tie, which means I had to pick the winner as Watcher. And it wasn't easy choosing between The Passing Parade's OWS IT GOING, AND IT SHOULD GO FASTER submitted by Simply Jews, a hilarious send up of the OWS movement versus small town America;Sultan Knish's The Myth of the Arab Spring Underdog submitted by The Noisy Room,the Sultan's fine exposition on why the West's sympathy for the Arab Spring protesters is largely misplaced; and Caroline Glick's Calling Things By Their Proper Names submitted by The Political Commentator, in which the always scintillating Ms. Glick writes on how President Obama's Middle East policies are shuffling the cards there - and not in our favor.

All three of these pieces are must reads, frankly. But I have to admit, still being indignant over how the mayor and city council of Los Angeles endorsed the OWS movement there based strictly on Democrat party politics and cheerfully allowed them to break the city's laws with impunity, I simply had to give The Passing Parade the nod.It struck home, you might say.

Los Angeles' almost entirely Blue municipal government will spend nearly $1 million in taxpayer dollars to remove what amounted to a large, rancid trash dump created by the OWSers next to City Hall, pay for the police and other personnel involved and reconstruct a public park. They have no respect for the city they're in charge of or the people they govern whatsoever.

http://wiki.urbandead.com/images/c/cf/Rant.gif

OK, OK, rant over. Here are this week’s full results:

Council Winners



Non-Council Winners



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

please donate...it helps me write more gooder!

Thursday, December 01, 2011

Occupy LA Is Evicted...And Leaves Behind A Destroyed Park And 30 Tons Of Trash

http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/lTaHI2c8Ly2BX_TbSpw2yA--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9aW5zZXQ7aD0zNDg7cT04NTt3PTUxMg--/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/afp.com/000_134291716.jpg

The Los Angeles City Council, the Mayor and the LAPD finally evicted the squatters from Occupy LA yesterday. It took about 1,400 police, some of them wearing hazmat suits to do it, which meant they weren't on the streets fighting crime or answering radio calls. Almost 300 people were arrested.

The City Hall Park,in downtown Los Angeles used to have grass in the area shown above. It doesn't anymore, even with the rain Los Angeles has had lately and will have to be reseeded at taxpayer expense.

Over 30 tons of trash will have to be removed from the site, and 3,000 gallons of water in what amounts to a small swamp in a catch basin was vacuumed up and tested for hazardous materials.

Sanitation workers, many of them wearing hazmat suits complained about the stench and the vermin present. Many of them described it as a garbage dump, which is exactly what it was.Except garbage dumps are usually better maintained.

The estimated cost to the taxpayers for the cleanup alone is estimated at $500,000. That doesn't account for the costs incurred during their stay, police overtime, use of city facilities, the cost of incarcerating those protesters who refused to leave or the cost of repairs to the park.

Mayor Tony Villaraigosa went public about how proud he was that there was no violence surrounding the eviction of the Occupy protesters. It amazes me that he or anyone else could be proud of anything connected with this sordid affair.

It was the mayor and the majority of the city council who welcomed Occupy LA,passed a resolution applauding what they were doing and allowed them to break the city's laws with impunity. The fact that the mayor and most of the Council are Democrats likely had something to do with that.Particularly in the case of the mayor, who's making noises about running for governor next time out.

After making these vagrants welcome on public owned land at taxpayer expense, they were forced to pull the plug when it became an actual health hazard. And now,the mayor and the council expect the taxpayers of Los Angeles to pay the bill for their party.

You know what? You invited them to stay, you applauded them, you stood by as they created a garbage dump on publicly owned land.

It's your mess. The cost to an already cash strapped city is probably just shy of a million dollars. You pay for it - out of your own pockets.

please donate...it helps me write more gooder!

Watcher's Council Nominations: The Clock Is Ticking 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.

Council News:

This week, The Independent Sentinel, The Grouch, 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 Joshuapundit and post the title 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 in order 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



Honorable Mentions



Non-Council Submissions



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

please donate...it helps me write more gooder!