Muslim Brotherhood Riots In Egypt; The Army Pushes Back

In the Muslim world, Fridays are the prime day for what I call Islamo-seethe....explosions of religiously directed violent rage.

Unlike Christianity or Judaism, there's no concept of a 'sabbath' in Islam - observant Muslims go to mosque and then go about their normal affairs. It's not a day of rest and contemplation. But Fridays are when the imams make their sermons, exhorting the faithful and frequently whipping them into a tempestuous frenzy against the Jews, non-believers, Christians, uppity women, what have you.

Fridays are Islam's Days of Rage.

Today, the Muslim Brotherhood and their fellow Islamists, whipped up by their clerical inciters came out in a slew of 'protests' which would more accurately be described as violent riots.

They swarmed across a bridge over the Nile River toward the state TV building and Tahrir Square, and attacked army units guarding the Republican Guard office where deposed Muslim Brotherhood president Mohammed Morsi is believed to be held under arrest.

After being pelted by stones, firebombs and reportedly a few gunshots, they fired on the crowd.

The AP is reporting that Health Ministry official Khaled el-Khatib confirmed that one protester was killed Friday and a number wounded, but he did not know the exact number. The Brotherhood's political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party reported five killed, but that's probably inflated. I have heard more reliable reports of 3 dead, plus a lot of wounded. According to the AP, many of those injured had the pockmark wounds typical of birdshot, which is the sort of ammo used by fards, a cheap,poorly constructed, locally manufactured and notoriously inaccurate and unstable type of shotgun people buy here on the black market.

That's not the sort of firearm the army would be using, so some of the wounds (not that it matters, obviously)could be due to misdirected friendly fire or misfires.

Of course, no Islmo-seethe would be complete without an attack on the kuffars. In southern Egypt,the Islamists attacked the main church in the city of Qena on Friday, while in Dabaiya, a small city Luxor, Islamists attacked Christians, burned their homes and reportedly set a local church on fire. .

In El Arish, a city about 40 miles (60 kilometers) from the Gaza border,things were more serious. The Islamists attacked the airport at dawn today as well as a security forces camp in Rafah on the border with Gaza, along with five other military and police posts. It was an obvious attempt to establish a base for 'resistance which would likely include the Hamas run Gaza Strip. According to my sources, Hamas fighters took part in that attack,as did other jihadi groups in Sinai. The attacks involved RPGs, anti-aircraft guns and other heavy weapons, which of course, came from Libya after President Obama's ill-advised intervention there. The attack was described as sustained and intense,with one soldier killed and several others wounded. But in the end, the Islamists were beaten back and the army has declared a 'state of emergency' in Suez and the Sinai, with General Ahmed Wasfi now in el-Arish to lead what the army is now calling a "war on terrorism" in Sinai.

A crowd of Brotherhood supporters also tried to storm the governor's office in el-Arish but were dispersed by security forces.

It's worth noting that these violent attacks came after an olive branch was extended to the Islamists by Adli Mansour, the chief justice of the Supreme Constitutional Court who is now the nominal head of the country, even though the army is obviously calling the shots.

Mansour tossed the Islamists an olive branch, calling for new elections as soon as possible and saying the Islamists were part of Egyptian society and deserved to participate in the political process. The National Salvation Front, an umbrella group of the opposition who provided the popular will to push Morsi’s out of power, also praised the army's intervention and called for the Brotherhood to be included in politics.

Mansour's words were underlined by army spokesman Col. Ahmed Mohammed Ali, who warned against "gloating," vengeance or attacks on Brotherhood offices, calling for "national reconciliation" and saying there must not be an "endless cycle of revenge."

The Brotherhood has apparently decided to try a Samson strategy. There's no way they'd be elected to power again, so they're going to try to destabilize the country in hopes of picking up the pieces...or perhaps provoking foreign intervention from th elikes of President Obama.

Stay tuned...

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

 

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

Be careful what you wish for..because you just might get it.



This week's winner, The Razor for Why a Supporter of Gay Marriage Isn't Happy with the Supreme Court Decision on Gay Marriage   is an interesting commentary on the recent Supreme Court decidions on same sex marriage. Here's a slice:

I should be pleased with today’s Supreme Court rulings supporting Gay Marriage since I support gay marriage. So why am I not happy with today’s rulings?

Part of it is the fact that today’s rulings do not end the government’s involvement in marriage. I believe that marriage is a purely religious institution and a secular government has no role in it. The traditional role of government in marriage is due to two reasons. First it provides a legal basis for the treatment of property particularly in regards to inheritance. This has been stretched to include the division of property in the case of divorce, but it should be remembered that until relatively recently divorce was uncommon and in many cases all but illegal. Secondly government involvement in marriage is to insure the nurturing and growth of future citizens – children. In the past marriage provided the economic means necessary to keep children out of poverty, and even today poor children are more likely to live in single parent homes than in homes with two married people. One of the best arguments I have heard against poverty is “If you don’t want to be poor, stay married.” It is a truism I have seen firsthand, and one that I take to heart whenever the Road of Marriage becomes bumpy.

But this traditional involvement for the “sake of the children” has been corrupted by Leftists who have seen the success of other institutions like the Catholic Church in successfully inculcating its values in the young under its tutelage. All Communist and Socialist political parties have “youth wings” whereby the State or (or state-wannabees if the socialists have yet to take power) indoctrinate children in party ideology. In the United States and Europe Leftists have been successful at turning public education into youth indoctrination camps which is why children fear global warming more than car crashes even though they are more likely to die or suffer serious injury in a car wreck than the consequences of rising global temperatures. Libertarians have traditionally opposed state sponsored education, and this indoctrination is one reason why, so that chops at that leg of support for government involvement in marriage.

As for property there is nothing in existing law that couldn’t handle that separately from marriage. All that is required is that one must be of legal age to participate in a contract. If a New Zealander decides to marry his ewe, he must find a church willing to accept such an arrangement, but he won’t be able to leave his house to Bessie and the minute he touches her he will be subject to animal cruelty laws and existing laws against bestiality. But if a man decides to set up a household with his two wives from a Muslim marriage, so be it. He can enter into a property contract that specifies who gets what when the household is dissolved according to civil (not religious) law. As for spousal rights granted by marriage, we already have Power of Attorney, a contract that specifies who is responsible for someone in the event they are disabled or unconscious. If a lesbian wants her lover to decide whether to pull the plug on her in an ICU, then so be it, as long as there exists a power of attorney. The State has a traditional function as the enforcer of binding legal contracts that is separate from marriage, so removing itself from the “marriage business” will not impact that function.

So without these two supporting pillars the State has no reason to be involved in marriage. Expanding the definition of marriage to include gay people isn’t going to change that . Perhaps in the long run it will accelerate the disentangling of the State from the religious basis of marriage, but in the long run we are dead to quote Keynes.

In our non-Council category, the winner was Barry Rubin  with  As Slander and Hatred Mount: Where is the Rallying for Israel?  submitted by Simply Jews. In it the always stimulating Professor Rubin compares the hatred and bias directed towards Israel today with a similar climate existing towards Jews in the 1930's.


OK,  here are this week’s full results. Only The Noisy Room was unable to vote this week, but was not subject to the usual 2/3 vote penalty:

Council Winners

• *First place with 2  2/3 votes! The Razor – Why a Supporter of Gay Marriage Isn't Happy with the Supreme Court Decision on Gay Marriage


• Second place with 2  votes – Liberty's Spirit-We The People


• Third place *t* with 1 2/3 votes – Joshuapundit-An Update On The Zimmerman Trial


• Third place *t* with 1 2/3  votes – Simply Jews-Yes, President Morsi Is Jewish


• Fourth place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – The Right Planet-Strategem for Republicans: On the Issue of Issues


• Fourth place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – Nice Deb-Why Do Republicans Want To Prop Up A Scandal Plagued President?


• Fifth place *t* with 1 vote – The Noisy Room- It’s “Not An Invasion,” If We Think They Belong Here


• Fifth place *t* with 1 vote – Bookworm Room –Marriage's open frontiers in America


• Sixth place  with 2/3 vote – The Political Commentator – Iran and the U.S. Commander-in-Competent!


• Seventh  place *t* with 1/3 vote – The Colossus of Rhodey –Celebrities Love Social Media ... Except When They Don't


• Seventh place *t* with 1/3 vote – The Mellow Jihadi –Sexual Assault and Harassment in the United States Navy 

Non-Council Winners

• First place with 2 1/3 votes! – Barry Rubin- As Slander and Hatred Mount: Where is the Rallying for Israel? submitted by Simply Jews


• Second place *t* with 2  votes – Roger L. Simon – Is America in a Pre-Revolutionary State this July 4th?   submitted by Joshuapundit


• Second place *t* with 2  votes – Mark Steyn – The Simulacrum of Self-Government   submitted by The Watcher


• Third place with 1 2/3 votes -Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion -Zimmerman Update — How Much Injury Is Required Before Self-Defense is Justified?   submitted by The Glittering Eye


• Fourth place with 1 1/3 votes -Claire Lopez/Gatestone Institute -Can We Actually Even Tell if Humans Are Affecting the Climate?    submitted by The Noisy Room


• Fifth place *t* with 1 vote - Victor Davis Hanson – Liberal Apartheid   submitted by The Right Planet


• Fifth place *t* with 1 vote -TF Stern's Rantings  – They Chose...Poorly   submitted by Rhymes With Right


• Sixth place *t* with 2/3 vote -Charlie Martin/PJ Lifestyle –Can We Actually Even Tell if Humans Are Affecting the Climate? submitted by Bookworm Room


• Sixth place *t* with 2/3 vote -Michael Totten –Bluffing In Cairo   submitted by The Razor


• Sixth place *t* with 2/3 vote -Emet m'Tsiyon –Obama's Hero, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, an enemy of the Jews And Holocaust Facilitator submitted by The Political Commentator


• Seventh place *t* with 1/3 vote -The Compass –America's terorrism Strategy Makes No Sense   submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD


• Seventh place *t* with 1/3 vote -Bruce Bawer –If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Join ‘Em?   submitted by The Watcher

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

Huge! Qatar Expels Brotherhood's Sheik Qaradawi, Hamas Leader Mesha'al

The coup in Egypt has already had an effect on the Muslim Brotherhood and the Caliphate.

The emirate of Qatar reacted to Wednesday's events by stripping Sheik Qaradawi, the Brotherhood's spiritual leader of his citizenship, closing down all Brotherhood offices and expelling Qaradawi and Hamas leader Khalid Mesha'al from the country.

The link's in Arabic..here's a loose translation, adjusted so it makes more sense in English:

Tamim bin Hamad bin Khalifa second, the Emir of Qatar, on Tuesday evening, said that Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi must leave the country, and ordered the withdrawal of Qatari nationality from him, and the closure of all offices of the Muslim Brotherhood in order of state policy not to choose a political faction or movement. Confirmed Prince Tamim, in an interview, we are all Muslims, but not the Muslim Brotherhood, and are dealing with matters of State and Government and not allied with any political faction. Al-Nahar reported that Prince Tamim gave Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal, 48 hours to leave the country.

The Emir has always been a huge supporter of the Brotherhood, until now. As a matter of fact, Sheik Qaradawi (a foul, genocidal maniac who is not allowed into the U.S. for very good reasons) is (or was) a major star on al-Jazeera, which is owned by the Emir and his family.I have a feeling his show has been cancelled for lack of a sponsor, as they say in showbiz.

Mesha'al is the political head of Hamas, who took refuge in Qatar after he was forced to leave Syria by Assad after the Syrian Civil War broke out and Hamas refused to send fighters to his aid.

You can expect Qatar to cease all financial support for the Brotherhood as well.Deposed Egyptian president Morsi and his friends made a few too many friendly overtures to Iran, which put them on the wrong side of the Sunni-Shi'ite war led by Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

Now that Wednesday's coup removed them from power, expect Qatar and Saudi Arabia to establish ties to the Egyptian junta and support it financially. The Brotherhood has now been revealed as a weak horse, and we know what happens to weak horses uin this part of the world.

This is absolutely huge, and very good news for the West.

President Reagan's Speech To His Countrymen, Independence Day, 1986

Remember back when we had a real president? One of President Reagan's overlooked gems.

Happy Fourth.

The Coup In Egypt And Why It's Important

The military coup in Egypt is pretty much a done deal. Former president Morsi's in jail, along with the real people who were pulling the strings, the top figures from the Muslim Brotherhood including its chief Mohammed Badie and his deputy Khairat el-Shater.

I first saw this coming back in late June, and those of you who were awake and online at 3 AM Left Coast Time got the first reports of the army's move, thanks to a couple of my notorious Lil' Birdies.

So why is this important? To put that together, we have to get into the back story on what happened. Thanks to the Lil' Birdies, I have some new details on how the whole deal went down.

The Egyptian Army is not like the U.S. Army. Like China's PLA, it owns farms, companies and private businesses that are often staffed by conscripts.

A lot of the 'military aid' from us goes to the army directly to fund these enterprises.

Morsi had purged a number of the top generals of the Egyptian military and replaced them with men whop were either fellow Islamists or apolitical.. or so he thought. With the Muslim Brotherhood government receiving support and patronage from President Obama, Morsi figured he had the Army under his thumb.

One of his appointments, as defense minister and chief of the Army was General Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, a former junior member of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), the junta that ruled Egypt until the Brotherhood took over.

As Egypt's economy spiraled out of control, Morsi and his Brotherhood allies began leaning heavily on al-Sissi and the military to eliminate a number of their prerogatives and to transfer most of the military aid they receive back to the government, so the government could use it for their own purposes.

Morsi and the Brotherhood were fairly certain that they would be able to put the squeeze on al-Sissi with President Obama's help. They were wrong.

After his phone call with Morsi, President Obama tried exactly that, telling al-Sissi and the other generals that a military coup would have a loss of U.S. aid as a consequence. That had worked before for the president, when the SCAF tried to limit Morsi and the Brotherhood's power and President Obama intervened.

This time, Al-Sissi and the other generals decided to call Obama's bluff. They realized that giving in to Obama and Morsi would lead to them losing any vestige of independence and freedom they had, and since Morsi was already poised to take their aid money away they had nothing to lose anyway. In the end, al-Sissi and his fellow general's first loyalty was to Egypt and the army, not the Brotherhood.

Not only that, but not only had Morsi and the Brotherhood become deeply unpopular, so had President Obama. The Egyptian street was very much familiar with Obama's role in putting the Brotherhood in power and keeping them there.

 

Once the decision was made, the coup proceeded smoothly, without any hesitation from the army generals or the soldiers under their command.

So what does this mean? Why is it important?

Today's events amounted to a tremendous loss of prestige for the genocidal Muslim Brotherhood. It was one thing to be the romantic opposition, operate a few soup kitchens, schools and clinics and tell everyone that if only Mubarak was out and they were in power, they would bring true greatness and prosperity to Egypt by following Allah's divine sharia-licious path.

But when they finally got in power, things were different. They were almost as corrupt, far more dictatorial and brutal and far more incompetent than Mubarak ever was. They will not be trusted with power for years, if ever. And their loss extends to other countries aside from Egypt, like Jordan, Libya, the rest of the Maghreb and the Arabian Peninsula. Egypt was the Muslim Brotherhood's chance to show that their version of a Sunni Islamist state could work. They failed miserably, and not only did they lose Egypt but they did major damage to the Caliphate President Obama and his administration were trying so desperately to put together in the Arab World. People who were prepared to put the Islamists in power are now looking at what happened in Egypt are having second thoughts.

That is probably one of the most important effects of the coup - the damage it did to the Muslim Brotherhood and the nascent Caliphate that was forming.This is huge and cannot be underestimated.

As Dave Burge (IowaHawk) wittily tweeted, the only Muslim Brotherhood fans left are in Washington DC.

President Obama also suffered a tremendous loss of prestige. The Prevaricator-In-Chief is having his people work overtime to spin this and revise what happened here, saying he was, you know, always pimping for freedom and democracy in Egypt.

The people of Egypt know better. Obama was for the Muslim Brotherhood first, last and always.




It's an open question how much influence the U.S. has with the new junta.If President Obama offers them aid, they need it and will probably take it. But they're not going to forget how this president tried to muscle them into knuckling under to Morsi.

The junta could very well decide that they've had enough of Mr. Hopey-changey and decide to switch sponsors. The Russians are the most likely candidate. With Syria in turmoil, the Russians might well find another warm water strategic Mediterranean port useful. On the other hand, there are bad memories in Egypt from the last time it was a Russian client state.

Another source of non-US funding is apparently coming from the Saudis and GCE countries,  whom want Egypt as an ally in the ongoing Sunni-Shi'ite war in the region. This support involves pledges so far, which the Arab countries are notorious for reneging on. But it could very well be that the generals set this up with the Saudis before making their move. The Brotherhood regime, after all, had been making some friendly noises towards Iran.

But if the Saudi money comes through, the junta  may very well decide to go along with the U.S. for the present,especially  if fresh financial aid is forthcoming. That's especially true of the army, whose gear is all American made  and dependent on U.S. supplied spare parts.

In any event, Egypt's economy is in crisis mode, and the breakdown of simple law and order is something the country's new rulers are going to have to devote an awful lot of time and attention to if they're to succeed in governing.

While the Obama Administration has certainly suffered a major loss of influence and prestige, one winner here is Israel. Instead of a hostile, Hamas friendly regime in Cairo, they will now have a much more pragmatic and coldly neutral Egyptian government to deal with. While anti-semitism and Israel Derangement Syndrome is firmly engrained in Egypt, the new junta, to put it bluntly, needs stability and has other things to worry about. In addition, they will undoubtedly do a lot more than Morsi did to keep the Brotherhood regime in Gaza  isolated, in their own self interest. Just as Mubarak and SCAF did before, they will crack down on the smuggling tunnels and keep the Egyptian border with Gaza shut. And due to Egypt's financial difficulties, the junta might even welcome some discreet trade with the 'Zionists'.

Egypt's chief tasks in the immediate future will be creating stability in the country  and doing something about the execrable economic situation. The first is probably doable, since the military is widely respected.The second one is systemic and probably not doable in the short term. But  if the Army can at least tread water or even improve things slightly economically, especially when it comes to food supplies, they should be able to hang on.

UPDATES: Since I wrote this, the following has already happened...The Saudis and the Emirates have already kicked in $8 billion in aid to bolster then new regime, Egypt has isolated Hamas and closed down the Rafah crossing from the Egyptian side to Gaza indefinitely, and most importantly - wait for it - the new Emir Of Qatar did a 180 degree turn from his father's policies and stripped the Muslim Brotherhood's spiritual leader Sheik Qaradawi of his citizenship, closing down all Brotherhood offices and expelling Qaradawi and Hamas leader Khalid Mesha'al from the country.

The Brotherhood has now been revealed as a weak horse, and we know what happens to weak horses in this part of the world. If they try and institute a civil war as it looks like they're starting to do, they'll be crushed.

This is absolutely huge, and very good news for the West, if not for an Islamist friendly President Obama and his cabal in Washington.

Gettysburg - A Fourth Of July Long Ago

Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor:What place is this? Where are we now? I am the grass.Let me work. - Carl Sandburg

One hundred and forty-nine years ago today, brave men fought in and around a small town in Pennsylvania to determine whether the Union would endure or whether it would not.

The Battle of Gettysburg broke the tide of the advance of Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia and while the war itself didn't end for another 22 months, Gettysburg decided the outcome.

Lee's objective was psychological as much as strategic. By 1863 there was substantial sentiment in the North to allow the Confederacy to go its own way and end what had become an increasingly bloody, unpopular and costly war. By subjecting the North to the same sort of invasion the South had been subjected to - in essence, bringing the war home - Lee hoped to increase this sentiment and force the North to negotiate a settlement.

Gettysburg was very much an accidental battle. Neither side was really looking to fight here, but the armies accidentally collided, largely because Lee was deprived of Jeb Stuart's cavalry in the early stages of the battle and thus lacked his usual awareness of where the Union forces were. Once the initial impact was made,on July 1st 1863 in a battle between Brigadier General John Buford's Union cavalry division and two corps of Union infantry and two large Confederate corps that attacked from the north and northwest under General Richard Ewell, the armies came together and the battle was on.

An astounding fact about Gettysburg is that the victorious commander of the Union forces, General George Gordon Meade, had only been in command of the Army of the Potomac for a scant three days, after General Joseph Hooker was relieved of command. Meade was caught by surprise with the sudden collision of the two armies, but he reacted with coolness and unexpected courage at several points when the battle could very well have been lost with a different sort of general in charge.

The missing man at Gettysburg, one who might very well have altered the course of the battle and of history was Confederate General Stonewall Jackson, who was accidentally killed by his own troops after his amazing victory at Chancellorsville.

The key to Gettysburg was the control of the high ground, the hills and ridges outside the town. After Gen. Buford's troops were scattered into the hills that first day of battle, they could easily have been driven out of the high ground with an assault by the victorious Confederates, and had Stonewall been in command there's no doubt he would have driven his troops to do exactly that, digging them in on the high ground and reinforcing them with Longstreet's divisions to wait for General Meade's Union Army to come at them. Gettysburg would then have been a very different battle. But the troops Jackson would normally have commanded were under the command of General Richard Ewell.

General Ewell, even after he was ordered by Lee to take the Union position on Cemetery Hill "if practicable" chose not to make the attack. When he finally did, on the second and third day of the battle, it was the Union forces who were reinforced and dug in and the Confederates who were forced to assault them. Ewell's hesitancy likely cost the South the battle.

On the second day of the fighting, July 2nd, General Lee sent General Longstreet's divisions against the Union Left flank in an attempt to roll it up and knock the Union forces off of the high ground. Meade sent reinforcements to the Left flank to shore up positions that later became legendary - the Peach Orchard, the Wheatfield, Plum Run Valley and the Devil's Den. The Union forces held on in spite of horrendous casualties. One of the most amazing exploits of that day happened in the defense of Little Round Top, where Colonel Joshua Chamberlain, a former college professor in command of the 20th Maine maintained a precarious hold on the Union's extreme left flank under assault from General John Hood's troops.When the 20th were almost out of ammunition, Colonel Chamberlain led them in a surprise bayonet charge downhill that swept the Confederates off the hill, saved the position and likely the Union, a deed for which he later won the Medal of Honor.



On the third day, July 3rd, Lee decided to risk everything on a frontal assault on the right center on the Union lines, and 12,500 Confederate troops advanced from the ridge line three-quarters of a mile (1,200 meters) towards Cemetery Ridge in that gallant attempt to reverse fortune known to history as Pickett's Charge.

It was a slaughter. The Union artillery had deliberately held its fire during the Confederate bombardment prior to the Charge, but as the Confederate troops approached they were hit with fierce artillery fire from Union positions on Cemetery Hill and north of Little Round Top, and from the Union center. Nearly one half of the Confederate troops who participated in the Charge failed to return from the attack.

Somehow, some way, Confederate General Lewis Armistad's brigade managed to make it through the withering fire and briefly breach the Union lines at a place called the "Angle", a place with a low stone fence near a small wooded area. But they were quickly hurled back, and with that, the battle was essentially over.



After the battle it rained, something that occurred frequently enough to give rise to a belief among soldiers on both sides that the smoke and gunpowder somehow brought on the weather.

The two armies, both licking their wounds and having been through almost more than men should be able to bear gazed at each other across the field of battle on that long ago July Fourth. On both sides combined, there were over 50,000 casualties from three days of battle.

Late in the evening, Lee began the torturous retreat southwards. Did he understand at that point that the war was lost? We have no way of knowing. But on that July Fourth, one nation's hopes for independence were doomed and another nation's hopes reaffirmed.

After the battle, there were huge amounts or corpses that needed to be disposed of, and the Union decided to make the site a national cemetery, for convenience as much as anything else. Four months after the battle, on November 19, the cemetery was dedicated, and a ceremony was held.

The main speaker was a nationally known orator, Edward Everett. In those days of oratory as a national sport, he was expected to deliver a real rip snorter of a speech, and he reportedly did just that.

Oddly enough, Everett's isn't the speech that's remembered.Almost as an afterthought, the organizing committee invited President Abraham Lincoln to participate a scant two weeks before the ceremony, where they requested that he appear and "make a few brief remarks to honor the occasion".

So after Edward Everett finished his speech, which clocked in at close to an hour, the President rose and delivered those few brief remarks, ones that started with "Four score and seven years ago" and have come down to us through the mists of history.

Gettysburg today is a living version of Sandburg's poem. The grass has done its work, much of the original landscape has been altered and it takes some effort to visualize what happened there.

To do that, you have to go there when its quiet and listen to the ghosts. Trust me, they're there in abundance and they'll tell you the whole story if you feel like listening.

Have a wonderful July Fourth...and take a moment to remember and honor the ghosts of July Fourths past. They deserve that much, at least.

(reposted by request)

Late Term Abortion Supporters In Texas Chant "Hail Satan!"

This is creepy even to someone like me, whose by no means wants abortion outlawed.

Outside the Texas state capitol in Austin, a Christian woman, an obvious pro-lifer is speaking about her beliefs vis a vis abortion ...and at some points she's almost drowned out by late term abortion fans chanting 'Satan!'.

The capitol of Texas where the legislature meets is located in Austin, which is quite different from most of Texas and is known by most Texans as 'Austin-tatious'. Leftist loons abound.

Since the reality of what late term abortions actually consist of surfaced in the Gosnell trial, a number of states have passed laws limiting late term abortions.

In Texas, where a local Dr. Gosnell clone surfaced recently, the House State Affairs Committee passed a pro-life bill to ban abortions in the state after 20 weeks of pregnancy and hold abortion facilities accountable for obeying health and safety laws. The law is set to got to the state senate, where it will probably pass, although there have been the usual rabid demonstrations from the Democrats, whom I suppose at this point we could call the party of abortion.

I have no problem with limiting abortions to 20 weeks ( FIVE MONTHS) unless the mother's life is endangered or there are other special circumstances the law provides for. The other provisions, which are going to limit the number of abortion clinics has good points and bad points. It will eliminate butcher shops like Dr. Gosnell's but it will conceivably make it more difficult for some women in outlaying areas to terminate a pregnancy.Planned Parenthood, of course, will still be around.

On the other hand, there's always the option of traveling a bit or simply being more cautious about getting pregnant, and it's also a fact that no hospital is going to refuse to provide and abortion for someone without means or who is the victim of non-consensual sex.

But to hear people who favor abortion on demand chanting 'Satan!' ? That puts things in an entirely different perspective. If this is what it's come to...

UPDATE: Well, well...it appears that a number of these protesters are being shipped in and paid for their loathsome efforts.

Obama's Nakedly Political And Illegal Delay of ObamaCare

With everything else that's going on, this hasn't gotten as much notice as it should. Even the drones at CBS can't conceal what a trainwreck this is. And now the President is simply manipulating things to move past the 2014 midterms, and not even the Obama Media can avoid it.

Oh, one more thing...it's totally illegal.The law does not allow any discretion whatsoever in its timetables. The President is simply taking unprecedented powers - again- while the media covers for him and the Republicans in the House let another opportunity go by.

The truth of the matter is that ObamaCare is truly a poorly thought out piece of legislation. That's because it was shoved through in a quasi-legal fashion using the reconciliation process reserved for budget matters to avoid having to bring the House bill to a confirming vote in the senate after Scott Brown was elected in Massachusetts.

The individual provisions of ObamaCare, the taxes, the fines, the obscene diktats - still remain and will kick in 2014. After the midterms, in 2015, you will indeed see massive layoffs and workers thrown out of their company health plans to be forced into ObamaCare health exchanges...which are still in the process of being defined!

One thing we already know is that a minimum coverage Bronze level policy will cost $20,000 per year for a family of five, that rationing will be the new normal and that long waits to see a doctor if you're even allowed to have a procedure will be standard. And amnestia? Any bill that provides amnesty for the 11 to 12 million illegal aliens now in the U.S. and gives them access to Obama Care (and it's difficult to see how they can or should be excluded)is going to exacerbate these problems.

 Needless to say, the Leftist elites from President Obama on down who lied to you aren't going to be faced with this choice...they have their own plan that covers themselves and their families that's far cheaper, better and more inclusive.

 I agree with talk show host Mark Levin here. Instead of allowing the Prevaricator-in chief to get away with this, what if Boehner(or hopefully someone more articulate) went on television and simply told the American people that they were shutting down the government for a week or however long it takes to slash the money going into ObamaCare to protect their healthcare, to keep their premiums from going up, to allow their employer to keep from laying them off or make them switch to part time work. That President Obama was acting illegally to try and shove through a poorly thought out and highly damaging law, and that the House, with the power of the purse was going to act for the benefit of all Americans by exercising this oversight.

 As a matter of fact, the House could have stopped ObamaCare or any of this president;s other serial abuses of power at any time simply by refusing to fund them. But that would have taken courage and  principle.

 How long, O Lord?


 

Live From Egypt - The Celebration!!

It's official. Defense minister and army chief General al-Sissi has announced that the Islamist constitution has been suspended, Morsi has been removed (he's been jailed in an undisclosed location) and that that the chief of the Constitutional court would be named as civilian head of government during a transitional period before another election. Under the army's control, of course, although al-Sissi didn't say that.

My sources tell me that period will likely be anywhere from 9 months to a year.

Al-Sissi said the new government would be “diverse and include all the people,” and that the constitution would be revised to reverse changes made by the Muslim Brotherhood and President Mohammed Morsi.

Travel bans have been imposed on Morsi and the top figures from the Muslim Brotherhood including its chief Mohammed Badie and his deputy Khairat el-Shater.

Heh!

Confirmed! Morsi Under Arrest, Confined By Army

Al-Arabiya is reporting that Egypt's Morsi has been arrested by the army and is now confined in the Ministry of Defense 'for his own protection'.

It's all over.Good riddance to bad Islamist garbage.

Morsi, in one of his last statements told his Muslim Brotherhood followers to engage in 'non-violent resistance' to the military coup.

That's quite different from the rhetoric he was spouting just a few hours ago.

Report: Egypt's Islamist Leader Morsi In Custody, Under House Arrest

 

The Egyptian State TV is reporting that Islamist leader Mohammed Morsi has been arrested by the army and is under house arrest:

 from ABC News.

#Egypt’s Al Hayat TV reports #Morsi under house arrest. Working to confirm. #EgyptABC

— Jon Williams (@WilliamsJon) July 3, 2013

Tanks Move On Cairo; Morsi Defiant; Massive Anti-Obama Sentiment

 The Muslim Brotherhood Regime in Egypt appears to be within hours of being toppled.

As I write this, the army is already moving tanks into Cairo to take up key positions and according to one report, communications with President Morsi have already been cut off and State TV is in the army's hands.

As I reported earlier, the military has rebuffed President Obama's threat to cut off aid to Egypt if they removed his pet Islamist from power, and is moving ahead to consolidate control of the country and restore stability.

Last night, civilian political leaders met with the top generals. One of them was Mohamed ElBaradei, the former head of the U.N. nuclear weapons agency and a critic of Morsi.

An unidentified leading Muslim cleric and Pope Tawardos II, the head of Egypt’s Coptic Christians were also at the meeting.

Morsi remains defiant, refusing to step down and saying that he is Egypt’s "guardian of legitimacy". You couldn't convince the millions of Egyptians who have thronged the streets in three days of nationwide pro- and anti-Morsi and anti-Muslim Brotherhood protests.

Morsi's speech was answered by loud chants of "irhal!" - "leave!" from the protesters.

And the Islamist rats are leaving the sinking ship. Foreign Minister Kamel Amr tended his resignation, becoming the sixth minister to quit within the past 48 hours. Two of Morsi’s presidential spokesmen also quit, as did Sami Enan, Morsi's military adviser.

Another thing about the protests that isn't being mentioned here is the massive anti-Obama sentiment. Doug Ross has an entire gallery of 15 photos showing some of the sort of signs the protesters are carrying around excoriating President Obama and US Ambassador Anne Patterson, who they correctly see as enabling Morsi and the Brotherhood's tyranny.

 

The real story is what happens next. If Morsi is ousted, that would be a huge blow against the Muslim Brotherhood and the Islamist Caliphate President Obama appears to have been aiding and abetting in the Arab world, which is a wonderful thing.

But Egypt still has terrific problems that need to be solved. Will military chief and defense minister General Abdel Fattah al-Sissi take over as strongman? Will the military midwife a government? And if so, what kind of government? Have the Egyptians finally developed a taste for freedom and democracy? We'll see.

Report: Military To Take over Egypt Within Hours

I'm getting a lot of info from my sources that Islamist president Morsi is toast, and will either be toppled or resign within hours.

The semi-official Al-Ahram is already saying that the army will form a presidential council to run the country.If this goes down, General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the armed forces commander appointed by Morsi last year will likely be Egypt's new strongman.

I'm also hearing that senior Muslim Brotherhood officials have been put under hpuse arrwest and even taken into custody by the army.

If things go down in this fashion, it means that (A) the Army called President Obama's bluff about cutting off aid if they pulled a coup (B)US influence on Egypt is negligible, thanks to our president.

Stay tuned..tomorrow should be interesting.

Watcher's Council Nominations - Independence 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:

First off, a little inspirational music for our friends Garry and Terresa:





Happy landings, you two!

This week, Ask Marion, Maggie's Notebook and The Pirate's Cove took advantage of my generous offer of link whorage and earned honorable mention status with some great pieces.

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. Then return the favor  by creating a post on your site linking to the Watcher’s Council contest for the week when it comes out Wednesday morning

Simple, no?

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

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

Council Submissions

• The Colossus of Rhodey – Celebrities Love Social Media ... Except When They Don't


• Liberty's Spirit – We The People


• Simply Jews – Yes, President Morsi Is Jewish


• The Noisy Room – It’s “Not An Invasion,” If We Think They Belong Here


• Joshuapundit-An Update On The Zimmerman Trial


• The Political Commentator – Iran and the U.S. Commander-in-Competent!


• The Mellow Jihadi – Sexual Assault and Harassment in the United States Navy


• GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – Egypt's Next Revolution


• The Right Planet – Strategem for Republicans: On the Issue of Issues


• Rhymes With Right – My One And Only Comment On The Abortion Law Debate In Texas


• VA Right! - Va Governor Bob McDonnell Billing State for Sunscreen, Dog Vitamins and Colon Detox Cleanser


• The Glittering Eye -VRA Now, VRA Tomorrow, VRA Forever


• The Razor – Why a Supporter of Gay Marriage Isn't Happy with the Supreme Court Decision on Gay Marriage


• Bookworm Room – Marriage's open frontiers in America


• Nice Debs – Why Do Republicans Want To Prop Up A Scandal Plagued President?

Honorable Mentions

• Ask Marion - Freedom Party or GOP Overhaul… You Be the Judge


• Maggie's Notebook - Amina Sboui Tyler Trial July 4: FEMEN Topless Protests – In a Mosque: My Body Not Your Honor – Topless Jihad Day


• The Pirate's Cove - Obama Calls For “Calm” In Egypt While Offering Toast To Tanzanian Dictator

Non-Council Submissions

• Douglas Ernst – Matt Lauer grills Paula Deen over the N-word, NSA listens, laughs submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey


• Melanie Phillips – A Hysterical and Ignorant Response submitted by Liberty's Spirit


• Barry Rubin – As Slander and Hatred Mount: Where is the Rallying for Israel? submitted by Simply Jews


• Claire Lopez/Gatestone Institute –U.S. Keeps Joining the Forces of Jihad submitted by The Noisy Room


• Roger L. Simon – Is America in a Pre-Revolutionary State this July 4th? submitted by Joshuapundit


• Emet m'Tsiyon -Obama's Hero, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, an enemy of the Jews & Holocaust Facilitator submitted by The Political Commentator


• Maggie's Farm –What could have beens in Vietnam submitted by The Mellow Jihadi


• The Compass – America's terorrism Strategy Makes No Sense submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD


• Victor Davis Hanson – Liberal Apartheid submitted by The Right Planet


• TF Stern's Rantings – They Chose...Poorly submitted by Rhymes with Right


• The Right Scoop – FANTASTIC: Mark Levin asks what if Boehner gave a Lincolnesque speech on Obamacare like this? submitted by VA Right!


• Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion – Zimmerman Update — How Much Injury Is Required Before Self-Defense is Justified? submitted by The Glittering Eye


• Michael Totten –Bluffing In Cairo submitted by The Razor


• Charlie Martin/PJ Lifestyle-Can We Actually Even Tell if Humans Are Affecting the Climate? submitted by Bookworm Room


• Andrew Malcolm, IBD -The disturbing pattern: Obama rids America's military of yet another top general submitted by Nice Debs


• Mark Steyn – The Simulacrum of Self-Government submitted by The Watcher


• Bruce Bawer/FrontPage – If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Join ‘Em? submitted by Watcher

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

Update On Young Dutch Reporter Gang Raped In Egypt

Few more details have emerged on the Dutch reporter gang raped by at least five men in Cairo's Tahrir Square during the protests.

The 22-year old was apparently an intern taking pictures of the protests. As I mentioned before, she was badly injured and had to undergo surgery, but has now been repatriated back to the Netherlands.

Local news reports also claim that a grandmother and a seven-year-old child were sexually assaulted as well.

Last night Jeremy Bowen, the BBC’s Middle East editor, tweeted: “Sadly #tahrir revolutionary atmosphere of people behaving well with common purpose long gone. Sexual assault common. No cops in sight.”

There were 44 reports of sexual assaults and harassment on June 30th alone, according to
the Egyptian activist group Operation Anti-Sexual Harassment. Even if they're exaggerating the numbers, the Egyptian protests are obviously no safe place for women, and any news organization that sends a woman out to report on Egypt ought to be liable for contributory negligence.

What respect for women does anyone expect out of a Muslim society that performs clitorectomies and mutilates the genitalia of 90% of its female population?

FL Prosecutor Indicted For Falsifying Arrest Warrant Against Zimmerman

Now this is huge.

Angela Corey, Florida’s state attorney and the special prosecutor tasked with making a case against George Zimmerman in the Trayvon Martin shooting has just been indicted by a grand jury for falsifying the arrest warrant and the complaint that led to Zimmerman being charged with the second-degree murder:

The indictment of Corey, which was handed down last week (see www.citizensgrandjury.com), charges Corey with intentionally withholding photographic evidence of the injuries to George Zimmerman's head in the warrant she allegedly rushed to issue under oath, in an effort to boost her reelection prospects. At the outset of this case, black activists such as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, who whipped up wrath against Zimmerman, demanded that he be charged with murder, after local police had thus far declined to arrest him pending investigation. 

Following Corey's criminal complaint charging Zimmerman, legal experts such as Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz condemned her for falsely signing an arrest affidavit under oath, which intentionally omitted exculpatory evidence consisting of the photographs showing the injuries Zimmerman sustained, and rushing to charge him with second degree murder under political pressure. Dershowitz called her actions unethical and themselves crimes (http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/drop-george-zimmerman-murder-charge-article-1.1080161).

This doesn't even mention prosecutorial misconduct in withholding and destroying evidence, both of which lead prosecutor Bernie De la Rionda and his team have already been caught at.

Simply disgraceful.

Update On The Zimmerman Trial

 

It's hard to even take this seriously any more as anything but a lynching.

The prosecution's own case seems to be exonerating George Zimmerman of second degree murder by default.





















The first prosecution witness, Rachel Jeantel claims to have been talking to Trayvon Martin at the time of the altercation, saying he told her 'some creepy ass cracker' was following him, and that she heard a bump and a voice she identified as Trayvon's yelling 'get off! get off!' followed by a bump.

The only problem with that is she's changed her story several times, came across as borderline illiterate and even the prosecution admitted she had perjured herself a number of times under oath. Not a lot of credibility, and she undoubtedly sunk even further in the jury's estimation when defense Attorney Don West asked her if she thought 'cracker' was a racist term and she said without missing a beat that it wasn't.

To add to the mix, either she or the prosecution engaged in a wholesale purging of Jeantel's Twitter account, removing over half of her published tweets, just as the prosecution did with Trayvon Martin's phone and social media accounts.

Not exactly the most credible witness.

Then we come to the only real eyewitness to what actually occurred, John Good. Keep in mind that he was called as a prosecution witness.

Good testified under oath that it was Trayvon Martin who was the aggressor, that he was on top of Zimmerman, straddling him and raining down blows on him.Good also testified that Zimmerman was the individual screaming for help as he was being punched by Martin.

Then there was Sanford, Florida detective Doris Singleton.



She was the first police officer to interview George Zimmerman, and made two important points - but not for the prosecution. First she testified that George Zimmerman did not show any anger or ill-will toward Trayvon Martin during questioning after the shooting.

This is important, because to convict for second degree murder, you have to show that the defendant had anger or hostility towards the victim. Aside from that, she testified that Zimmerman was apparently unaware he had killed Trayvon Martin:

The first police officer to interview George Zimmerman the night he shot Trayvon Martin testified Monday that Mr. Zimmerman appeared “shocked” when she told him Trayvon was dead.testified Monday that Mr. Zimmerman appeared “shocked” when she told him Trayvon was dead.

“He’s dead?” Detective Doris Singleton, the Sanford police investigator, recalled Mr. Zimmerman saying in an interview at the Sanford police station the night of Feb. 26, 2012.

“I thought you knew that,” Detective Singleton told the court she said in reply. “He kind of slung his head and just shook it,” she testified.

To add to the debacle, prosecutors called to the witness stand an experienced FBI voice analyst who testified that the 911 call that captured shouts for help was too short and too far away to be used for evaluation.

"That type of sample is not fit for voice comparison," the analyst, Hirotaka Nakasone, said.

Nakasone was one of the audio experts whose testimony at a pretrial hearing discredited state voice experts who said Trayvon Martin was the one screaming for help.

Finally today we saw an interview Zimmerman did with detective Christopher Serino, who was the most aggressive in wanting to charge Zimmerman with manslaughter. Even he admitted under cross examination to Zimmerman defense attorney Mark O'Mara that the Zimmerman story remained consistent and that he was cooperative. He also said that he believed Zimmerman's story - in Serino's words, "either he was telling the truth, or he's a pathological liar".

What was one of the things that convinced him? Serino testified Monday that when he told Zimmerman that the encounter between he and Trayvon Martin had been caught on video, Zimmerman's immediate response of "Thank God" changed his mind.

That had such an impact on the jury that Judge Debra Nelson ordered the six-women jury to ignore that exchange, stating that it was the jury's business to decide who to believe. She's correct up to a point...but where was she when witnesses were impugning Zimmerman's credibility and saying he wasn't believable? If a policeman's testimony about the impression the defendant made on him isn't  admissible, what is?

That's where things stand at the moment.

The bottom line is this...there's no real evidence that Zimmerman stalked Trayvon Martin and deliberately murdered him. In fact, all the evidence points towards self-defense.

If Zimmerman was on the ground and being beaten (and it appears he was) it doesn't matter if he was following Martin or not. That's not against the law...although assault is, which is what Zimmerman claimed happened, and there's no evidence to the contrary.

My own opinion on what likely happened? A person in their right mind who was confronted by a neighborhood watch person (and again, there's no evidence Zimmerman actually confronted him) is to tell him you're a registered visitor and on your way home,and if Martin had done that it probably would have been the end of it.

Could it be that Martin was high on choom or something else, not in his right mind and instigated things? That could explain why no drug testing was done by the county during the autopsy.

Another fact that no one's brought up yet...I have a bit of experience with firearms myself. The very first thing you're taught is that you never point a loaded weapon at anyone unless you're prepared to kill.

If I was stalking someone I intended to shoot, I'd have my gun out and that person would never get close enough to me to lay a finger on me or anyone else again. They'd be dead.

If Zimmerman was the psychotic racist just looking to shoot a black man that  the prosecution contends he was, there's no way he would have let Martin get close enough to him to inflict the kind of head injuries and the broken nose he received. He would have had his gun out, not holstered. And there's no way that Martin would have been shot at point blank range in the midst of a scuffle as he was.

Unless it really was self-defense and happened pretty much as Zimmerman described.

UPDATE:Whaddya know..Angela Cory, the special prosecutor who put together the case aqainst Zimmerman has just been indicted for falsifying the arrest warrant and the complaint that led to Zimmerman being charged with the second-degree murder. This fits in beautifully with the prosecution already being busted for withholding and destroying evidence.

Turkey's Islamist Leaders: Anti-Erdogan Protests 'A Jewish Conspriracy'

Turkey's Islamist deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay has joind Turkish PM Tayyip Erdogan and other members of the Islamist AKP Party in finding a convenient and traditional scapegoat for the unrest and protests sweeping the country - it's the Jews, of course:

Turkey was rocked by violent protests last month when a small effort to save Gezi Park in central Istanbul from redevelopment mushroomed into a mass demonstration by tens of thousands of people opposed to what they see as Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's increasingly authoritarian rule.

Erdogan, in power for ten years, and other officials have cited conspiracies involving "foreign circles", an "interest-rate lobby", foreign media and terrorists engineering the protests to undermine Turkey's economy and political clout. Atalay's comments pointed the finger at the 'Jewish diaspora".

"There are those inside and outside the country who are envious about Turkey growing too much," said Atalay, one of four deputy prime ministers.

"They are all uniting. On the one side you have the Jewish diaspora. You have seen the foreign media's attitude over the Gezi Park events, how quickly they bought into it and how quickly and widely they started broadcasting before any assessment was made," he said.

While Erdogan used a thinly disguised code, ATalay came right out and named the Jews as Turkey's enemies, like the Islamist he is. So did the Turkish capitol of Ankara's AKP Mayor Melih Gokcek, who referred to the protests as "a game of the Jewish lobby".

Needless to say, the Obama Administration is not asking their Islamist friends in Turkey for an explanation.

There are 23,000 Jews in Turkey, mostly represented by the Turkish Jewish Community organization and they're petrified that this new 'dual loyalty' accusation could lead to violent reprisals by the regime. After all, it wouldn't be the first time this mostly Muslim country has engaged in murderous violence against non-Muslims in Turkey.

The Armenian Genocide,which Turkey still has yet to acknowledge occurred just 99 years ago:

"We are trying to obtain information about the meaning, the scope and details of Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay's statement about the 'Jewish Diaspora being behind Gezi protests'", the Turkish Jewish Community and chief rabbinate said in a joint statement on the community's website.

"Turkish Jewish citizens, as well as other Jewish people living all around the globe, may be affected and pointed (out) as a target of such a generalization, we wish to express our concerns and share our apprehension and worry of the consequences that such perceptions can cause."

I'd say that worry is well founded.

Our New Al-Qaeda Allies Behead Catholic Bishop In Syria

(warning - this is an extremely disturbing and bloody video)

President Obama's new Syrian allies in the al-Qaeda group Jabhat al-Nusra beheaded a Catholic Bishop, François Murad. He was murdered on Sunday, June 23, in Gassanieh, in northern Syria, in the convent of the Custody of the Holy Land where he had taken refuge.

He and the two other unidentified Christians in this video were beheaded because they were accused of collaborating with the Assad regime, which could mean anything or absolutely nothing.

The religious motive behind the beheadings can be heard in the initial dialogue from the jihadis saying they are carrying out Allah's law - and the crowd cheering and screaming the old war cry against the infidel, 'Allahu Akbar' as the helpless victims are slowly decapitated with knives.

I put this video up for one reason - as disturbing as it is, the reaction of these people to these brutal murders needs to be seen to get an idea of what we're facing, just as we needed to know about the atrocities of the Nazis and the Japanese fascists to truly understand our enemies. So if you feel you can stomach this, I urge you to watch this video and think about it, especially when our political class wants to import these people into our countries and seeks to fund and arm them.

Look at how the crowd cheers this on, and how they greedily hold out their cell phones to catch every last squirm and cry of the victims for their own private jihadi videos.

And remember that the next time some idiot with multiculturalism on his mind tells you that Islam is a religion of peace and all cultures are equal.

Yes, there are peaceful Muslims, but Islam is not a peaceful religion.

Even more disgraceful is the Church's attitude. Instead of taking a clear stand and becoming a moral leader in this war, they are appeasing and accommodating radical Islam at every turn.

-Selah-

Obama To Egypt's Morsi: Call Early Elections

Apparently President Obama made a determination after his phone call with Mohammed Morsi that the Islamist regime our president had a major part in putting into power can no longer govern.

He's now telling Morsi to call for new elections:


The Obama administration is urging Egyptian President Mohammed Morsy to call early elections and has warned the Egyptian military that it risks losing U.S. aid if it carries out a military coup amid the political crisis, senior administration officials tell CNN.

At the same time, the officials stopped short of saying Morsy should step down immediately.

"We are saying to him, 'Figure out a way to go for new elections,'" one senior official said. "That may be the only way that this confrontation can be resolved."

The idea here, I'm sure, is that new elections can buy time and can ultimately be manipulated to go the right way and keep the Islamists in power.

At the same time,as I predicted, the Obama Administration is putting pressure on Egypt's military and warning them that a new military coup would result in the US cutting off all aid.

We'll see how this develops...

Egypt: Morsi Reject's Military's Ultimatum

 

Egypt's Islamist president Mohamed Morsi has rejected an ultimatum by the Egyptian army to come to terms with the protesters within 48 hours, starting Monday.

Morsi's office put out a statement saying a "modern democratic state" was what the anti-Mubarak uprising was about, adding, "With all its force, Egypt will not allow itself to be taken backward."

The statement also said that the military's ultimatum "could cause disturbances in the complicated national scene."

Let's translate this.

First of all, Morsi is just a figurehead for the Muslim Brotherhood.They're the one's calling the shots, and they were the ones who refused to give up power.

According to the White House, Morsi and President Obama talked on the phone yesterday. While the White House report had our president counseling Morsi that democracy meant more than just elections and that the voice of the people needed to be heard, you can safely assume that President Obama said nothing remotely like that.

The conversation was more along the lines of Morsi asking President Obama, "Do you have my back? Can I count on your support against the Army?"

And President Obama asking Morsi whether he felt able to hold on. As you'll recall, this wouldn't be the first time President Obama has directly intervened with the army to keep Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood in power.

That's the cynical nature of the calculation going on here.  While President Obama would like nothing better than muscling to army to stand down again by threatening to cut off their aid, if Morsi and the Brotherhood truly can no longer govern it's an open question whether he feels it's worth it to risk having Egypt spiral into anarchy...or into the rule of a  military junta with memories of how he attempted to sandbag them.

Stay tuned.

'Let's Kick That Little Jew Out Of Britain'

Chip Cantor is  an American Jewish student from Kansas. He was headed to the UK to serve a summer internship and to help in a charity event. He had his visa, all of his documentation and his paperwork in order. He left Kansas City on Wednesday, May 29 and after an uneventful flight, he landed at Heathrow in Britain after 10 p.m. London time and waited in line to go through customs.

That's when the fun started:

When he got to the front of the line, a female customs agent began looking at his passport. Chip’s father, Chuck Cantor, said his son told him the customs agent was very pleasant toward him until she saw the Israel stamps in his passport. Then she simply walked away with his passport without speaking a word to him. Chip told his father he estimates she was gone 45 minutes to an hour. He never saw her again.

“He has a lot of Israel stamps,” Chuck said. Chip has been to Israel several times including two programs sponsored by Young Judea — the six-week Machon program and a gap-year program. Chip Cantor graduated from Shawnee Mission East High School in 2009 and will be a senior in the fall at Florida Gulf Coast University.

Finally, according to Chuck, a different, uniformed customs agent came to see him and told him the agents would be taking his bags and detaining him for questioning. He was not told why.

Once in the interview room Chip told his father that he was told if he changed any of his answers to any questions, he was going to go to prison.

“He said, ‘Why would I change my answers? I told you the truth,’ ” Chuck said.

According to the Chronicle, Chip wasn’t allowed to be in sight of his luggage and eventually was put into what he described to his father as a detention cell.

“At some point a woman who was wearing a burka came to the cell to photograph him,” Chuck said. At that point he was fingerprinted as well.

As she was doing this, she said to him, “We’re putting your name and fingerprints and photos into a database. From now on it is going to be very difficult for you to ever travel in the United Kingdom or anywhere in the E.U. It will be up to each individual country to decide if they want to admit you.”

Chuck said Chip kept telling the customs agents he had not committed any crimes or done anything wrong. Eventually another agent came to tell Chip he was being deported.

After being held in detention for several hours, Chip was given the opportunity to call his father. His father spoke directly to the customs agent involved one Philip G. Yeomans.

According to Chuck Cantor, the conversation with Yeomans went nowhere and ended up with Yeomans hanging up on him. He then phoned Kevin Shilling, the managing director and owner of Shilling Communications, the British company where Chip was supposed to be employed for the summer. What happened next is revealing:


It was about 3 a.m., London time. Shilling, who is not Jewish, called Yeomans.

Shilling noted that while the conversation didn’t accomplish anything, Yeomans made several anti-Semitic comments. At one point, Shilling recounted, when Shilling was explaining the reason Chip was in the country, the customs agent told Shilling that Chip should have lied to the customs agent, adding, “A Jewish kid would find that easy.”

Yeomans, the custom agent, also told Shilling any additional attempts to aid Cantor would be useless and “the little Jew will be on his way back to his rich daddy,” in a matter of hours.

Chip said he was given only a half of a sandwich and very little water throughout the nine hours of detention. In the morning, Chip was escorted to the plane by another customs agent for a flight back to the United States. “The guy walks him onto the plane and in front of everyone, like a prisoner, he says here is this man’s passport. Do not give him his passport until you land in the United States,” Chuck said he was told. The American Airlines purser told Chip that, in 17 years flying internationally, he had never seen anything like it.

It used to be that it was only Arab countries that would refuse to allow anyone in with Israeli stamps on their passports. Apparently the UK is adopting this standard as well.

This is simply one of a number of anti-semitic incidents that are becoming more common in Britain as the country's restless Muslim population and those that are anxious to appease them become more open.

Let’s not forget that until recently, Israelis in general could not safely travel to Britain without the danger of being arrested if they’d served in the military (which is almost everyone) or worked for the Israeli government.Apparently the definition of 'Israelis' has been extended somewhat.

You know, it’s a funny thing…a lot of people have written before on how those nations whom have oppressed the Jews always end up on the short end of history, no matter how powerful they were.

When Britain controlled the Palestine Mandate, it did its very best to exclude Jews and import Muslims wholesale into what was legally supposed to be the Jewish homeland, even on the eve of the Holocaust when European Jews were desperate for refuge.

In 1948, less than 3 years after Auschwitz was liberated, Britain did it’s best to see to it that Israel was destroyed at birth, even arming and training the Arab armies in spite of their openly expressed goal of a jihad that would murder or drive out every Jew in Palestine. It was British officers under the notorious anti-semite Col. John Glubb who oversaw the ethnic cleansing of every Jew in Judea, Samaria and East Jerusalem by Jordan’s Arab Legion.

It may be coincidental, but after 1948, Britain lost its empire and much of its role as a world power.

It seems nowadays they are more than happy to appease the increasingly restless Muslim population they imported at the Jew’s expense.

I can’t help wondering if in response, they will end up losing what’s left of themselves as a free country.

That aside, there's a message here for certain American Jews. You can be as 'anti-Zionist' as you want...but you're still considered a Jew and a pariah to your fellow 'anti-Zionists' when it really comes down to it.

To these people, all Jews are 'Israelis'. Much more convenient for them that way.

What probably happened here is that several Muslims who worked in this department(and my correspondents tell me that customs at Heathrow is notorious for being staffed by a great many of them) decided to exercise their power in this noxious way. I guarantee you that nothing will happen to them.

Although I don't doubt that Cantor may receive some kind of bogus 'apology', seeing as it's tourist season.

Anyone planning a trip to Britain ought to consider this story before making their holiday plans.

The more things change, the more they stay the same...

(h/t Louie Louie, Gates of Vienna, and Vlad for the video)

Foreign Reporter Gang Raped In Tahrir Square

 

What's an Egyptian mob without some gang rapes? Especially of a ferenghi reporter.

The recent revolution in Egypt ha spawned at least 43 sexual assaults according to the semi-state run al-Ahrum.

One of them was a Dutch reporter who was gang raped by five men in Cairo's Tahrir Square a few days ago, as the anti-Morsi festivities were starting:

Dina Zakaria, a journalist reporting for the "Egypt 25" news channel affiliated with the January 25 revolution, shared the incident on her Facebook page Sunday: "A Dutch journalist in Tahrir was raped by men who dub themselves revolutionists. Her condition is severe and she is hospitalized."

She apparently was injured pretty badly, because she underwent surgery, although it's been reported that she's been released.

After what happened to Lara Logan, any news organization that sends a female reporter into the midst of these people ought to sued silly for gross negligence.

More as this develops.

Egypt Falls Apart

Huge protests against Mohamed Morsi and Muslim Brotherhood rule rocked Egypt today.

Massive crowds surged the streets of Cairo and cities around the country, and even marched on the presidential palace in an attempt to force out the Islamist president with some of the most gigantic protests Egypt has seen in 2 1/2 years of turmoil. The BBC actually estimated the crowds at something like 17 million, although a number of those could have been pro-Morsi supporters and the regime's rent-a-thugs.

The gangs have been armed by the regime ( just as in the days of Mubarak) and have killed and injured a number of protestors, while the protesters have responded with Molotov cocktails and their own weaponry, even launching an attack at the Muslim Brotherhood headquarters in Cairo and destroying it.

The anti-Morsi protests were organized by a movement known as Tamarod, or “rebellion” in Arabic.

What's going on can't simply be seen as 'liberal, pro-democracy protestors' versus Islamists.The Tamerod itself is a loose organization of various groups with one real shared point of agreement - having voted them in, they now have decided they want Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood out of power.

This could loosely be summarized for a number of these people as 'we found out you can't eat sharia'.

You see, it was one thing for the Ikhwan, the Brotherhood to be the romantic opposition to Mubarak, to claim they they could solve all of Egypt's problems by bringing Allah into the mix.It was quite another to actually have power, to be the government and to be faced with coming up with real solutions.

Broadly stated, Egypt's problems are threefold; not being able to feed it's 80 million plus people, the collapse of the economy and an almost complete breakdown of public order.

Inflation is rampant, especially on food staples and cooking fuel.Egypt, once the breadbasket of the ancient world in now a net food importer, with only 3-5 months of foreign exchange left to continue to do so, according to who's counting. And the Muslim Brotherhood has proven to be as crony friendly and corrupt as Mubarak was,if not more so.

The regime admits to 13.5% unemployment, but it's almost certainly far higher, particularly in those thirty and under. Which has led to another problem..skyrocketing crime.

In certain neighborhoods in Cairo and other cities,the police have pretty much abdicated authority to well organized criminal gangs, who engage in racketeering, trafficking, and prostitution with total impunity. In some neighborhoods, gangs are operating protection rackets,extorting 'insurance payments' from shopkeepers and business owners in exchange for protection from theft, break-ins and violence. According to one report, a number of them are using Pharaonic tombs that were unearthed in the middle of a densely populated neighborhood over a decade ago and neglected by Egypt’s Antiquities Ministry for a unique scam. Among the deteriorating ruins, the gangs are illegally constructing slum tenements and charging rent from tenants.

Arms trafficking is also a big, if illegal business. Aside from arms smuggled in from Libya and Sudan, there's a booming market in weapons looted during the revolution from police facilities, crude home made guns and knives and machetes. Egyptians with more money to spend are employing private forces of baltagiyya (thugs for hire) as their own private guards and security forces to guard their homes, businesses and persons.

Even many of the roads outside the cities are no longer safe, especially in Sinai and northern Egypt where gangs control whole sections of the highways. Aside from out right pillage, the well-armed gangs extort 'tolls' for safe passage from companies shipping goods by truck.

Egypt seems to be reverting to anarchy, making a mockery of President Obama and every asinine columnist and pundit who cheered on the Islamist Arab Spring.

The protests are growing in intensity and violence, and there's very little possibility of any agreement between the Islamist regime and the various parts of the Tamerod movement. Morsi is hated as much as Mubarak was, and the same sort of rhetoric and posters are being used to demonize him:



Yes, Morsi is now a Jew, the worst insult  apparently that an Egyptian can utter. Lovely.

So, what now?

Three possibilities, really.

Morsi-appointed Egyptian army chief and defense minister General Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi surprised a great many people when he said flatly that the army would not intervene on the side of the regime but that they felt a duty to step in and take control if the country became ungovernable or if civil war was threatened.

Al-Sissi doubled down on those statements by essentially giving Morsi a 48-hour ultimatum, saying that he has until Wednesday evening to "meet the demands of the people" or it will step in to restore order. That statement was carried nationwide on radio and television,( much to the delight of the Tamerod), with the military calling it "a final chance to shoulder the burden of a historic moment in our country."

After a couple of years of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egyptians might just be ready for another Mubarak-style strongman.

Another possibility is outright civil war. I personally don't see this happening unless the Army decides to simply stand aside, simply because the Tamerod are so diverse and relatively disorganized except when it comes to destruction,  assault and gang rape, which we'll discuss  more presently.

For instance, one group of people who are tacitly participating in the Tamerod are Salafists from the hard line al-Nour Party, whom fault Morsi and the Brotherhood for not instituting enough sharia and governing according to Islam's  diktats.They're extremely well organized, and in a country like Egypt  where Islam frequently trumps everything, it's just possible they could garner enough support to govern as th enew, improved, hard core Islamists.

Those are really the only factions out there with any cohesiveness that  the Tamerod might coalesce around...the Army, which most Egyptians approve of, or the hard line Salafis of the al-Nour Party.

As for Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood, unless the army is actively united in intervening, there's nothing to lose on their part from instigating a civil war. A third possibility is that the army splits, with part of it remaning loyal to Morsi and the Brotherhood...in which case, we have a real civil war.

Stay tuned, and pass the popcorn.