Sarah Palin Takes Aim At Obama On Israel..

You go, Governor...here's what Sarah 'Cuda had to say on the matter:

The Obama Administration reaches out to some of the world’s worst regimes in the name of their engagement policy. America and our allies watch as sanctions are eased on Cuba. Letters are written to Iran’s mullahs only to see that regime start killing protestors in the streets of Tehran. Envoys are sent to North Korea as they continue to defy the world’s demand to give up their nuclear weapons. The Burmese military junta’s representative is allowed to travel to our nation's capital. The President’s envoy for Sudan talks about giving that genocidal regime “gold stars,” while the President shakes hands with Venezuela’s tyrannical leader. In the midst of all this embracing of enemies, where does the Obama Administration choose to escalate a minor incident into a major diplomatic confrontation? With Iran, Cuba, Sudan, North Korea or Burma? No. With our treasured ally, Israel.

Last October, Secretary of State Clinton recognized Israel's desire for peace in the Middle East and praised Israel's “unprecedented” concessions for agreeing to halt settlement construction in the West Bank, a concession that did NOT include halting construction of apartments for Jews in Jerusalem. Even last week after planned construction was announced, Vice President Biden still expressed “appreciation” for the “significant” steps taken by the Israeli government to address this minor issue. Now, however, we see the Obama Administration has decided to escalate, make unilateral demands of Israel, and threaten the very foundation of the US-Israel relationship. This is quickly leading to the worst crisis in US-Israel relations in decades, and yet this did not have to happen. More importantly, it needs to stop before it spirals out of control. Vice President Biden should rein in the overheated Obama Administration rhetoric and chill the political spin masters' fire as they visit the Sunday media shows to criticize Israel.

Once again, the Obama Administration is missing the boat on a very, very important issue. They need to go back to the basics and acknowledge Palestinian leaders have not progressed any peace process since President Obama was elected. As Israel makes concessions (and is still criticized by the Obama Administration), Arab leaders are just sitting back waiting for the White House to further pressure Israel. The Obama Administration needs to open its eyes and recognize that it is only Iran and her terrorist allies that benefit from this manufactured Israeli controversy. Vice President Biden was actually right when he said last week, before the construction announcement, that “one necessary precondition for progress is that the rest of the world knows...there is absolutely no space between the United States and Israel when it comes to security.” Right now, thanks to the Obama Administration, there is a chasm. It's time for President Obama to push the reset button on our relations with our ally Israel.

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ObamaCare - Down To The Wire

It appears that we are finally coming close to zero hour on ObamaCare, the make or break.

As this point, it all comes down to the House. And notice, I didn't say the vote in the House. In at least one scheme being hatched by Pelosi and company, there might not even be one.

In fact, I don't think the votes exist in the House at the present time to pass ObamaCare. If they did, the Senate bill would be sitting on Zero's desk right now, waiting for his signature.

The White House will try every bit of bribery, threat and enticement it can think of to get to the magic number, but if I had to make a prediction, I think that we'll end up with the Slaughter Solution, concocted by Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Rules committee head Louise Slaughter.This involves a bogus application of House rules never before attempted that would simply 'deem' the Senate bill passed - without an actual vote or a roll call!

And the fact that this would be blatantly unconstitutional under Article I doesn't matter a bit to these people. Pelosi has already stated that she's all for using this to get Obamacare through.

So again, if I had to predict things at this point, I'd say that the Democrats will 'deem' the Senate bill passed, Obama will sign it and then jet off to Indonesia to chill with his Muslim homies.

There will, of course be multiple court challenges that will hold things up for months, but Obama will be able to claim a 'victory' and say that he 'passed health care reform', even if it's later struck down by the courts.

Meanwhile, he can get off this poisonous turf and move on to other areas of his agenda - like amnesty for illegal aliens.

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Lil' Shrunken Sings Da Blooze - If this Doesn't Cheer You Up, Nothing Will

Thanks, JW!

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Rachel Corrie's Parents To Sue Israel

Some of you are familiar with Rachel Corrie, one of the postergirls of the `anti-Zionist' Left. She was accidentally killed when getting in the way of an Israeli bulldozer involved in collapsing tunnels used to smuggle arms and explosives to Palestinian terrorists involved in murdering Israel's civilian population, and was part of the International Solidarity Movement,(ISM) which really, really likes the idea of killing of Israeli civilians as a `tactic for liberation'.

The myth of Corrie's death as a `peace activist' has been a real goldmine, both ideologically and financially. She's been the subject of a hit play in London, and become a small time cottage industry with a plethora of tee shirts, hats, posters and watches being sold with her image...which of course looks very different than the above ABC news photo of a screaming, hate filled haridan burning an American flag at a Hamas rally. There was even a fundraising `tour' by her parents.

In an effort to raise even more cash out of their daughter's death, the Corries decided to take Caterpillar, the American company that manufactures the bulldozers used by Israel to court and filed a wrongful death lawsuit, on the grounds that Caterpillar knew or should have known the Israeli government would use the bulldozer to commit `human rights violations' and therefore Caterpillar should be civilly liable.

This attempt to raid the deep pockets of an American company failed dismally, as the case was dismissed as being without merit by none other than the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

So now, the Corries have hit on another tactic to try and cash in - They've decided to sue the State of Israel. Their lawyer is one Abu Hussein, who has made a career for himself defending terrorist murderers in Israel.

Al-Guardian reported that four of Corrie's former co-conspirators in the ISM who claim to have been on the scene are going to be allowed into Israel to give what I'm sure will be unbiased, truthful evidence.( sarcasm off) They were formerly banned from entrance into Israel because of their pro-terrorist activities, but the Obama Administration apparently pressured Israel to allow them in to testify.The Obama Administration is also apparently not invoking sovereign immunity as it has with the Saudis and other nations in cases like this. That probably has a lot to do with why the Corries are bringing suit just now.

Rachel Corrie hated America and was nothing less than a classic Jew hater, which she attempted to mask by turning it into `anti-Zionism'. I'd like to feel sympathy for her demise,but frankly, I think she's better off and doing less harm by not being around.

I do feel a certain sympathy for her parents. They obviously share Rachel Corrie's sentiments, but they have probably spent a lot of tee shirt, poster and merchandise money by now on this crusade of theirs and will probably have to dip in even more for this current lawsuit.

So, as a gesture of sympathy, I thought I'd contribute my own idea for merchandising her image so that the Corries can recoup a bit: (scroll down)




















Her real image, that is. Always glad to be of help.

-Selah -

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Are The Palestinians Educating Their Children for Peace? Nope!

Still crazy after all these years...

The original Oslo agreements were based on the 'land for peace' formula and in exchange for the land given to them by Israel, Arafat and the Palestinians agreed to renounce violence and terrorism, recognize Israel's right to exist and refrain from incitement, which specifically included educating the Palestinian people for peace.The Roadmap supposedly reaffirmed these commitments.

Obviously Arafat and Fatah never seriously intended abiding by any of this, and certainly Hamas has no intention of doing so after taking over Gaza. But what about the new, improved Palestinian Authority? Is the PA now educating its children to coexist peacefully with Israel?

Surely you joke, saddiq!

In the Jerusalem Post of Feb 2, 2010 Ben Hartman reported that the British taxpayer watchdog group Taxpayer Alliance published two detailed examinations of how EU foreign aid was being used by the PA to promulgate anti-Israel and anti-Semitic narratives in Palestinian Authority schools.

The reports, “Palestinian Hate Education Since Annapolis” and “Funding Hate Education,” show how the PA is sponsoring what the Taxpayers’ Alliance refers to as a campaign of “demonizing Israel” with the aid of EU funds.

Here are a few details on what they found:

Israel does not appear on any maps of the world in the new PA textbooks, while maps of Israel replace the name Israel with Palestine in all of the new Palestinian Authority school books.

The new Palestinian school books “annex” sites in Israel to Palestine...“Haifa is a Palestinian seaport,” (p. 7) (Lughatuna al-Jamila (Our Beautiful Language) Vol. 2, 5th grade textbook, p. 86). “Galilee, Nazareth and Beit She’an are regions in Palestine,” (p. 7) (Al-Iqtisad al-Manzili (Home Economy), 10th grade textbook, pp. 36-37).

The new Palestinian school books mention Israel only as an enemy, in reference to “occupation of lands” in 1948 and 1967: “There is no doubt that the Israeli occupation has a negative impact on [Palestinian] agriculture and its export,” (p. 8) (Lughatuna al-Jamila (Our Beautiful Language) Vol. 1, 10th grade textbook, p. 102).

The new Palestinian school books present Zionism only as an enemy movement: “The Palestinian people are under an oppressive siege, limiting their movement and way of life,” (p. 9) (Al-Tarbiyah al-Islamiyyah (Islamic Education), Vol. 1, 5th grade textbook, p. 49). Accusation against settlements [from 1948!] of damaging water sources “the influence of settlement on sources of water in Palestine,” (p. 9) (Ulum al-Sihha wal-B’ia (Health and Environmental Sciences), 10th grade textbook, p. 122)....“The Palestinian family has problems … stemming from the occupation … it loses father, mother or son to death or imprisonment … endures the difficulties of life …,” (p. 11) (Al-Tarbiyah al-Wataniyya (National Education), 5th grade textbook, p. 23).

The new Palestinian school books teach that the only ancient inhabitants of Israel were Arabs, ignoring any ancient Jewish presence:“Concentrated … in the land of Al-Sham [Greater Syria] … was the culture of the Canaanite and Aramaic peoples who migrated there from the Arab peninsula,” (p.14-15) (Tarikh al-Hadarat al-Qadima (History of Ancient Civilizations), 5th grade textbook, Foreword).

The new Palestinian school books teach that Palestinians must use war and violence — especially martyrdom — to accomplish their goals: The heroic mother, “who incessantly presents one sacrifice [fida'] after another.” (Lughatuna al-Jamila (Our Beautiful Language), Vol 2, 5th grade textbook, p. 31).

“The warrior goes to war faced with one of the good options: victory or martyrdom in battle for the sake of Allah.” (Ibid. Vol. 1, 5th grade textbook, p. 70).

“Allah gave the people of this land (Al-Sham and Palestine) an important task: they must stand on the forefront of the Muslim campaign against their enemies, and only if they fulfill their duty to their religion, nation, and land will they be rewarded as stated in the scriptures.” (Al-Tarbiya al-Islamiyyah (Islamic Education), Vol 2, 10th grade textbook, p. 50).

Of course the EU doesn't bear total responsibility. Last October, USAID ponied up almost $65 million in aid for the Palestinian occupied areas in Judea and Samaria (AKA the West Bank), on top of another $200 million last June. That money included funds to construct four new schools, as well as a number of 'public works' projects...most of whom were named to honor PLO terrorists.

And none of this takes into consideration what's being taught to Palestinian youth in their mosques, media and those famous PLO 'summer camps'.

Or by their leadership's example.

On Christmas Eve, December 24, Rabbi Meir Chai (HY"D), who left a wife and seven children including a two-month-old was brutally murdered by Palestinian terrorists as he driving along Route 57, between the Samaria communities of Shavei Shomron and Einav.The killing came a scant week after the IDF removed a security checkpoint in the area at the request of the Obama Administration as a gesture to Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas, even though the residents begged them not to.

Fatah's al-Aksa Martyr's Brigade took credit for murdering this unarmed Rabbi.

Three days later, the IDF found out who the actual killers were, and when the Palestinian security forces refused to arrest them the IDF went in and ended up killing all three of the murderers when they refused to surrender.

As it turned out, all three of the killers were long-time members of the Al-Aksa Martyr's Brigade and thus on the Fatah payroll.

The Palestinian response to what happened was not even a pro-forma condemnation of the murder of Rabbi Chai, but to portray the killers as Palestinian heroes and Shahids- holy Martyrs - while describing Israel's response as "murder in cold blood" and "assassination."

Want to know the real problem with Middle East peace? It's the refusal of the Arabs to live next to Jews in peace and equality. And that attitude starts with the sort of 'education' they receive.

Change that, and there might be a decent chance for peace. Just maybe.

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ObamaCare - This Says It All!

Cheerfully swiped via GW

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The Unconstitutional 'Slaughter Solution'

As I revealed previously,the latest Democrat scheme to shove through ObamaCare involves a bogus application of House rules that would simply 'deem' the Senate bill passed - without an actual vote or a roll call!

Pelosi's lieutenant in this scam in Rep. Louise Slaughter(D-NY), head of the rules committee, and as far as Constitutional Law scholar, author and talk show host Mark Levin is concerned, she needs to be recalled for attempting to implement this unprecedented desecration of our Constitution.

Above, he explains brilliantly exactly why the 'Slaughter Solution' is unconstitutional under Article I.

This is a step over the red line, and Obama, Pelosi and Reid can simply not be allowed to get away with it.

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Dan Riehl: "Isn't It Time To Euthanize Reid's Wife?"

Yes he went there:

I'm not sure I quite understand this, given that cost is so important as a burden to taxpayers when it comes to health care. If Democrats want so badly to abort babies because of it, why are we bothering with someone who has a broken neck and back at 69? It sounds to me like she's pretty well used up and has probably been living off the taxpayers for plenty of years to begin with. Aren't we at least going to get a vote on it?

Sen. Reid's daughter Lana Reid Barringer, 48, who was driving the mini-van, and his wife, Landra G. Reid, 69, a passenger, were both injured. Landra suffered a broken back and a broken neck in the crash; Barringer suffered minor injuries, Sen. Reid's office said Thursday.

I realize her crook of a husband and his pals in Congress have excluded themselves from the mess they're going to compel everyone else to join, but we're still paying the bills, are we not? I don't see that she's worth it at this point, frankly. I can't recall her ever doing anything for me.

Come on, Harry - do your civic duty. The nation's broke and counting on you guy. Pull the plug and get back to work. And don't bill us for a full day today, either. This is no time to be sloughing off. Air freight her home, you can bury her during recess on your own time and dime. Or are you going to bill us for that, too?

My, my. This does go a little far, I think.

Now, I understand that Congress and Prez Zero have their own health plan that's much too good for the likes of us peasants and won't be giving it up, but euthanasia?

Shouldn't Mrs. Reid at least get a shot at the Independent Medical Advisory Boards (AKA the Death Panels) that are in the ObamaCare bill before there's any talk of pulling the plug? Only fair.

**********************************************************************


All jokes aside, I don't wish euthanasia on anyone - which is exactly one of the many reasons why ObamaCare is such a lousy, inhumane idea.

And it appears that Mrs. Reid's surgery went quite well, which is good news.

But what if she wasn't a senator's wife? What if she was just one of the disposable peons 'covered' by ObamaCare? What if we were talking about a baby that survived an abortion...you know, one of the children President Obama wanted to deny medical care and let die of neglect?

All Dan Riehl is doing is utilizing Saul Alinsky's Rule 13: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.

Interesting how that works in reverse, isn't it?

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Obama Nominee For Ambassador Has Ties To Cuban Intelligence!

The Obama Administration's nominee for the ambassadorship to El Salvador is going to have some 'splainin' to do on Capitol Hill :

Lawyer Mari Carmen Aponte was previously nominated to be an ambassador under President Bill Clinton, but withdrew her name from consideration after reports of her relationship with Cuban national Roberto Tamayo surfaced.

The Puerto Rican-born Aponte was a White House fellow under Jimmy Carter before spending the next 20 years as a lawyer and activist representing Hispanic-American interest groups in Washington. Her nomination originally was slated to be considered by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday but was pushed to Wednesday, March 16 at the request of GOP lawmakers.

“Serious concerns about this nominee arose when she was nominated for a different position during the Clinton administration. I have asked the committee for additional time to review these matters. So far we have not received all of the information we have requested,” said Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina.

Aponte was first nominated to be ambassador to the Dominican Republic by Clinton in 1998 after she helped raise money for his 1996 re-election campaign. However, soon after her nomination Aponte’s name began to circle Washington in connection with a rumor that Tamayo, with whom she co-habitated for eight years starting in 1986, was an asset to the Cuban intelligence agency DGI. Former Cuban intelligence agent and defector Florentino Aspillaga also alleged Tamayo tried to recruit Aponte.{...}

The Washington Times reported Tamayo was in regular contact with both the FBI and Cuban intelligence services during the late 1980s and early ’90s. One retired FBI counterintelligence officer described him as “a fellow who had interests in all camps.” When questioned by the FBI in April 1994 over Tamayo’s ties to Cuban intelligence, Aponte reportedly refused to take a lie detector test. There are also allegations that Tamayo provided her with a loan from the Cuban secret service that was never paid back.

Whoopsie.

Aponte, of course has no diplomatic background or foreign affairs experience whatsoever, aside from her extracurricular activities.

Her chief activities aside from Democrat fund raising were to serve as a member of the Board of Directors of the National Council of La Raza and as president of the Hispanic National Bar Association.

Lots of unimportant ambassadorships go to heavy donors in the normal course of events, but the post in El Salvador is reportedly a very sensitive one in Latin America that's been reserved for foreign service professionals - until now.

And the idea of appointing someone without any diplomatic experience who might be compromised with ties to Cuba???

Stay tuned..

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A New Reason For 'Palestinian Rage'

Ah, this made me feel good.

The beautiful building pictured above is the historic Hurva Synagogue in the Old City of Jerusalem, which dates from the 1700's.

In 1948, it was vandalized and desecrated by the Jordanians, along with 28 other historic synagogues and shrines in the Old City. But it has now been beautifully restored and will be rededicated this Sunday and Monday, the 28th and 29th of Adar.

And that just drives the Palestinians insane:

Naturally, the Muslims are furious at Jews daring to rebuild a synagogue in a spot that they had lived continuously for well over two thousand years. As I reported a few months ago, what really bugged them was the height of the structure, because in Islamic tradition mosques should always be the tallest buildings in the area. Since the Jewish Quarter is on a hill, the Hurva dome will be higher than the domes on the Al Aqsa mosque and Dome of the Rock.

And we can't have that, can we?

What really fries the Palestinians is two things - first, that the Hurva Synagogue being restored like this gives the lie to their claims that East Jerusalem was ever 'traditionally Arab', except for a brief 19-year period between 1948 and 1967 after they ethnically cleansed the original inhabitants . And second, once again, the very fact that Jews build, while they destroy. That's how it's always been.

Ponder for a moment the mentality of people like that and imagine trying to live in peace next to them.

BTW, below are pictures ( click to enlarge ) circa 1940 showing the old Hurva Synogogue before it was destroyed by the Arabs, and how it dominated the Jerusalem skyline. No wonder the Arabs wanted it to remain merely a memory.





-Selah-


-Selah-

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Watcher's Council Results - Ides Of March Edition

The Council has spoken! Here are this week's winners:

Winning Council Submissions

• First place with 2 2/3 points! – JoshuaPundit - Obama Tells Israel They Have No Right To Their Religious Shrines
• Second Place with 2 points - Bookworm Room - Obama Care and abortions
• Third Place with 1 2/3 points – Right Truth - History of Insurance
• Fourth Place *t* with 2/3 point - The Glittering Eye – The Nightmare Scenario
• Fourth Place *t* with 2/3 point – American Digest - Massa’s Reason for Resigning. Doing (or not doing) Barney Frank’s Job
• Fifth Place *t* with 1/3 point – Wolf Howling – The UK Through Labour’s Looking Glass
• Fifth Place *t* with 1/3 point – The Provocateur - Ideological Wars Bore Me

Winning Non-Council Submissions

• First place with 2 2/3 points! Joel J. Sprayregen/ American Thinker – Obama’s Iran Policy Collapses to the Accompaniment of Mockery Around the Globe
• Second Place with 1 2/3 points - Chicago Boyz – Seizing the Opportunity to Destroy Western Civilization
• Third Place with 1 1/3 points - Big Lizards Palin and Reagan: Together Again for the First Time
• Fourth Place *t* with 2/3 point - American Thinker - Defeat vs. Repeal
• Fourth Place *t* with 2/3 point Across the Bay - Juan Cole’s Social Protest
• Fourth Place *t* with 2/3 point Chicago Tribune/John Kass - 24 Has Jumped the Shark
• Fifth Place *t* with 1/3 point The Volokh Conspiracy - Could National Juries Alleviate the Problem of Political Ignorance?
• Fifth Place *t* with 1/3 point Chesler Chronicles - It’s International Women’s History Month and Where is Secretary Clinton?

Council Note: We currently have a seat open for a qualified blogger on the Council up for grabs. If you're interested, you may apply here...or e-mail me for details.

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

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The Real Banana On Politics With Weekend Monkey

(In response to numerous requests, JoshuaPundit happily announces the return of Weekend Monkey's weekly column on things political)

Hidey Ho, primates! Welcome to the real banana, the inside poop on politics from someone who knows the fetid jungle from the inside out. It's good to be back!

As we take a looky at the healthcare reform debacle and the likely feedback, I gotta tell you...I can hardly believe how screwed up this mess has gotten. It kinda resembles the whole idea of insurance, where the policy holder wins if he loses and loses if he wins. ( take notes and use your fingers, primates. Trust me, it works out)

Old line Donkey pollsters Pat Caddell and Douglas Schoen have a scribble out in today's WAPO that pretty much tells the story when they say that the battle for public opinion on Obama's health care plan has been lost. At this point, they say that if it fails to go through, my Democrats get to pay the price for failure at the midterms. Unless they manage to shove it through, in which case the carnage will be even worse!

I could see the Rethugs with a net pickup of 35-40 seats plus in the House and at least 7 Senate seats...maybe more.And you know I'll be handicapping the races for you as election day gets nearer..some easy shekels to be had!

The primates are simply in an ugly mood no matter which way things swing.It woulda been one thing to pull this off in say, March or February last year, when Obama hadn't quite acquired the odor he has now, It's something else to try and pull this off when his approval ratings are in the low forties and things have shifted downwind.

The smart thing to do would be to throttle everything back and com eup with a more modest, bi-partisan (*choke*) bill that peeled off at least a couple of ReThugs to support it, but at this point, Reid and Pelosi have have peed in the pond so much that it's likely impossible.

No, my Democrats have bought the ticket and will take the ride.

So, the big question remains....can the Donkeys push this through? There's really only two ways it could happen.

Pelosi doesn't have the votes in the House to pass the Senate bill yet, trust me on that. If she did, that bill would be sitting on Obama's desk waiting for his sig. But can she beg, borrow steal or muscle the votes in the next week or so? That's the question. Given how faction ridden and fear-filled the Donkeys are right now,it could happen but I make the odds no better than 6-4 against.

The other way is a weird parliamentary procedure based on an arcane reading of the Rules that would allow the House to simply 'deem the Senate bill passed' without actually taking a vote or a roll call.

This could work, but they would probably need Biden to stomp hard on any naysayers or amending attempts and help muscle it through. The political fall out from doing it this way would be a poop storm to end all poop storms, but I could see where the Donkeys might be thinking that if they've been crazy enough to climb up the tree this far, they might as well go totally out on a limb.

Obama, of course is doing one thing smart. He plans to be out of the country and hobnobbing with his Muslim homies in Indonesia when this all goes down. After making the mess, I gotta give him credit for being smart enough to take himself a little vacation and leave it for others to clean up after him.

Very presidential.

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

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The US-Israel Flare Up - Noise Signifying Nothing

Sending Joe Biden to Israel to try and and convince the Israelis that the Obama Administration has their best interests at heart was about as likely a mission as sending Curly Stooge in to do brain surgery. The fact that it was even attempted spoke volumes to the Israelis...let alone how it turned out.

Biden's ostensible mission was to talk the Israelis into playing ball and warn them that they had better not do anything about the genocidal maniacs in Iran, who threaten to annihilate the Jewish State just about every other day and continue to advance steadily towards possessing the means to do it. Meanwhile the West does absolutely nothing about it and demands Israel sit quietly.

Biden followed John Kerry (did you know he served in Vietnam?) and Admiral Mullen, head of the JCS with essentially the same message for the Israelis - learn to live with a nuclear Iran.

That message wouldn't play well even if the Obama Administration wasn't the most anti-Israel in history. As it is, Biden's little spiel has merely underlined to Netanyahu that they're on their own in dealing with the mullahs.

Sending Biden to do this sent a message in itself. As a senator, Biden voted against sanctions against Iran, has said many times he didn't see anything necessarily wrong with Iranian nuclear ambitions and said on the Senate floor that George W. Bush should be impeached if he ordered American forces to bomb the Iranian nuclear plants.

Topping everything off was Biden's foul little temper tantrum over the announcement that the Israeli government was building 116 homes in an already Jewish neighborhood in Jerusalem.

According to some of the Leftists in the Israeli press who spun this in their own way, Biden apparently went berserk behind closed doors:

People who heard what Biden said were stunned. “This is starting to get dangerous for us,” Biden castigated his interlocutors. “What you’re doing here undermines the security of our troops who are fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. That endangers us and it endangers regional peace.”

The vice president told his Israeli hosts that since many people in the Muslim world perceived a connection between Israel’s actions and US policy, any decision about construction that undermines Palestinian rights in East Jerusalem could have an impact on the personal safety of American troops fighting against Islamic terrorism.

Granted I have no high opinion of VP Biden, but was he actually stupid enough to try and convince the Israelis that the Taliban is going to fight harder against American troops in AfPak because Israel is building apartments in Jerusalem? I doubt it.

Biden's audience in Israel was a lot more critical than to swallow that bolshoi. Did Biden try and bring 'Palestinian rights in East Jerusalem' into the mix after the Israelis have stated time and time again that it's a red line they won't cross? I doubt it. but if he did, it was exactly the right thing to say to evaporate any reasons the Israelis might have left at this point to trust the Obama Administration in any regard whatsoever.

The Obama administration seems to make a virtue of being incapable of confronting an enemy or supporting a friend.

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Hispanic Caucus Threatens 'No' Vote On Obamacare If Illegals Aren't Covered

Si, se puede Obama!

A group of Hispanic lawmakers on Thursday will tell President Barack Obama that they may not vote for healthcare reform unless changes are made to the bill’s immigration provisions.

The scheduled meeting comes as Democratic leaders and the White House are struggling to craft a final bill that will attract 216 votes in the lower chamber.

Unlike abortion, immigration has flown beneath the radar, and almost seemed to vanish altogether as House Democrats have wrestled with how to accept a Senate healthcare bill far different from the one they passed in November.{...)

“It’s still one of those issues that’s out there,” said Rep. Xavier Becerra (Calif.), the Democratic Caucus vice chairman and the only Hispanic member of House leadership.

The Senate language would prohibit illegal immigrants’ buying healthcare coverage from the proposed health exchanges. The House-passed bill isn’t as restrictive, but it does — like the Senate bill — bar illegal immigrants from receiving federal subsidies to buy health insurance.

Hispanic Democrats say they haven’t moved from their stance that they will not vote for a healthcare bill containing the Senate’s prohibitions.

A little reality... both the Senate and the House bill will allow illegal aliens to be covered by ObamaCare because the Democrats took great care to eliminate any kind of enforcement or cross checking provisions. That's one reason why the cost estimates are entirely bogus.

Whatever language is in both bills is largely cosmetic, but apparently that's not enough for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, who want illegal aliens' status to be officially 'normalized'.

ObamaCare was always intended to be the camel's nose in the tent when it comes to blanket amnesty for illegal aliens.

Advocating for illegal aliens may contradict the oath the members of the CHC took when they entered Congress, but it's human nature that they want to make sure they get their turn at the feeding trough.

Oh, and the illegal aliens themselves? Right now, they normally get care by nipping on down to the nearest emergency room, where they are essentially treated for free. It's one of life's ironies that if people like the CHC get their way and ObamaCare passes, those same illegal aliens will find medical care both harder to obtain and a lot more costly!

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The Prince And The FOX

Once there was a very wealthy Saudi prince who was worried about a FOX nipping at his heels and bringing attention to things better left hidden.

The prince thought about trying to fight the FOX, but being intelligent had an even better idea: he would feed the FOX and befriend him, thus insuring that the FOX would do his bidding when he wanted him to.

And that is pretty much the story of why FOX news decided to suddenly go after Geert Wilder as a 'fascist.'

The prince in the story, of course is Saudi tycoon Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, who now owns over 7% of FOX's parent company, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. Some of you may remember Prince Talal as the Saudi potentate who offered Rudy Giuliani $10 milion after 9/11, provided we recognized that the attack was 'Israel's fault.' Mayor Giuliani told him to take his blood money and shove it, but others have been much more accommodating.

Like Rupert Murdoch, the CEO and principal stockholder of News Corps, the parent company of FOX News, who has decided to make Abu Dhabi the headquarters of his global media operations in the Middle East and recently cut a deal to invest $70 million dollars in the Rotana Group, an enterprise controlled by Prince Alwaleed bin Talal.

The attack on Wilders by Glenn Beck, Charles Krauthammer, A.B. Stoddard, and Bill Kristol represents a major change in what we're seeing on FOX - and even more on what we're not seeing.

In the past, the member of the Dutch National Parliament appeared frequently as a guest on FOX News. Last February, for example, Bill O’Reilly welcomed Geert Wilders to America, condemning the UK for refusing him entrance to the country in the face of Islamist threats.

It's also much more common to see the likes of CAIR's Ibrahim Hooper on the air these days providing 'analysis', while experts with first hand expertise on Islamist terrorism like Walid Shobat, Robert Spencer,Steve Emerson and Brigitte Gabriel who used to appear all the time are now conspicuously absent. Dave Gaubatz and Paul Sperry, who in the past would have been sought after as FOX guests as the authors of the surprise best seller "Muslim Mafia" (a major expose of CAIR and the Ikhwan, Muslim Brotherhood), are nowhere to be seen.

As for the Geert Wilders flare up, it literally defies belief.

Beck, of course is a media buffoon who I'm not a particular fan of, so it's to be expected he would take the short sighted view. But I can only view Charles Krauthammer's veiws in the matter to be flawed and naive, something the good doctor is not exactly known for:

What he says is extreme, radical, and wrong. He basically is arguing that Islam is the same as Islamism. Islamism is an ideology of a small minority which holds that the essence of Islam is jihad, conquest, forcing people into accepting a certain very narrow interpretation [of Islam].

The untruth of that is obvious. If you look at the United States, the overwhelming majority of Muslims in the U.S. are not Islamists. So, it's simply incorrect. Now, in Europe, there is probably a slightly larger minority but, nonetheless, the overwhelming majority are not.

But the other issue is free speech. He was speaking in London today. He had been unwelcome, not allowed in a year ago, but it was appealed, and he was [admitted].

And remember, Holland has a really … bad history here. Five years ago, Theo Van Gogh, a filmmaker, had made a film about Islam which was about the oppression of the women under Islam in certain countries — an Islamist in Holland caught him in the middle of the street in broad daylight, slit his throat and impaled a knife on his chest with a letter on the knife — imagine that scene — which threatened the life of a Dutch MP, who was of Somali origin, who had helped him on that script. She is now in the United States as kind of a seeker of asylum.

So this is place in which physical intimidation — it's almost impossible to speak openly about critiques of Islam.

I will give you one other example. The cartoons of Mohammed — Yale University [Press] has issued a book on it. There are no cartoons in the book, and you know why. It's not a matter of sensitivity. It's a matter of sheer fear about what could happen if it was published that way.

If Islamists are such a small minority, why do Geert Wilders, Ayaan Ali ( the other Dutch MP Dr. Krauthammer is talking about) and others need to be under 24-7 security?

How does one define 'Islamist', anyway? Is it limited to al-Qaeda, the Muslim brotherhood and their adherents, or does it extend to the millions who tacitly support and finance them? And what about th emillions of Muslims apparently willing to go with the flow and simply keep quiet about it? Do wahabi financed outlets like CAIR, the Holocaust denying Muslim Council of Britain and the Muslim Public Affairs Council come under the heading?

And how does one define a 'small minority'? Ten per cent? Twenty per cent? With 1.4 billion Muslims in the world, you do the math.

Has Dr. Krauthammer, a Jew, ever pondered on how large the part of the earth there is that he is simply unable to set foot in because someone could cheerfully cut his throat in the name of Allah and suffer no significant penalty?

Geert Wilders and others live with this reality, and have simply decided that this is an issue that bears discussion. And he's been willing to put his life on the line to do it.

As such, he's simply ahead of the curve, when you compare the percentage of Muslims in the Netherlands with the percentage here in America.

In view of the unfortunate tendency of many Muslims not to speak out and provide a viable alternative, so far the answer to whether Islam can co-exist as a sizeable part within a free society or not is trending a lot more towards Geert Wilder's take on things than not.

That's deeply saddening, but it's also simply the truth.

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Drink Up, Ladies! New Study: A Glass Of Wine A Day Keeps The Pounds Away

At least that's what the latest research indicates:

Researchers now say light to moderate drinking may keep women from gaining too much weight.

Normal-weight women who drank 5 to 30 grams of alcohol daily gained less weight and had a lower risk of becoming overweight or obese than either teetotalers or those who drank too much, according to a report in the March 8 Archives of Internal Medicine. {...}

The researchers found an inverse relationship between alcohol consumption and subsequent weight gain. "Weight gain was largest for women who did not consume alcohol and then monotonously decreased with increasing total alcohol intake," they wrote.

After taking into account many other variables, including nonalcohol caloric intake, physical activity, and other lifestyle factors, the relationship strengthened, with the risk of becoming overweight or obese diminishing as women drank more moderately.

Who says there ain't any good news?

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Dems To Try Dodgy End Run To Avoid House Vote On ObamaCare

By now, it's become obvious that Nancy Pelosi is having trouble coming up with the votes in the House to pass the ObamaCare Senate bill.

So what's their latest trick? To avoid a House vote altogether by cobbling together a parliamentary procedure to to deem the Senate bill ALREADY PASSED by the House by rule, even though it clearly never was:

House Rules Chairwoman Louise Slaughter( d-NY) is prepping to help usher the healthcare overhaul through the House and potentially avoid a direct vote on the Senate overhaul bill, the chairwoman said Tuesday.

Slaughter is weighing preparing a rule that would consider the Senate bill passed once the House approves a corrections bill that would make changes to the Senate version.

Slaughter has not taken the plan to Speaker Pelosi as Democrats await CBO scores on the corrections bill. "Once the CBO gives us the score we'll spring right on it," she said. . . .

House members are concerned the Senate could fail to approve the corrections bill, making them nervous about passing the Senate bill with its much-maligned sweetheart deals for certain states.

"We're well beyond that," Pelosi said Tuesday, though she did not clarify.

Aside from dancing on the Constitution, what this says is that the Democrats in the House have zero trust in the Senate passing reconciliation "fixes" after they approve the baucus bill and no trust whatsoever that Prez Zero won't simply sign th ething and leave them hanging out to dry.

And, by the way...let's not have any more bolshoi from Obama and the Dems about an up or down vote or simple "majority rule" as a reason to pass Obamacare.

We all know that they couldn't care less about what the American people want.

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Obama Hits New Low In Polls

Rasmussen:

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Wednesday shows that 22% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-three percent (43%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -21. That matches the lowest Approval Index rating yet recorded for this President (see trends).

Forty-two percent (42%) of Democrats Strongly Approve while 72% of Republicans Strongly Disapprove. Among those not affiliated with either major political party, 17% Strongly Approve and 45% Strongly Disapprove.

Hmmm, Republicans by more than two to one,a chunk of the Democrats and almost half of the independents gone already...must be Bush's fault.

Oh, and the numbers on ObamaCare? About 68% opposed...

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Andrew Sullivan, Jew-Hating Propagandist

Today, Andrew Sullivan continues his descent into the most febrile, frenzied Jew-hatred imaginable.

If there were ever any doubts about Sully's anti-semitism ( there aren't as far as I'm concerned ) and general dementia, he's put them to rest.

Today's racist screed consists of Sully using an unsourced, anonymous video (reportedly from YNET) sung in badly accented Hebrew that could have been made anywhere to accuse Jews of glorifying Baruch Goldstein, a doctor who killed a number of Arabs in a mosque and on whom more later:

Having forcibly evicted Palestinian families from their homes in East Jerusalem, the new inhabitants sing songs in praise of the mass murderer Baruch Goldstein. And you really think the decision to make the site of that massacre a national heritage site for Israel had nothing to do with this association? Maybe AIPAC will wake up one of these days and see the reality that less informed and educated observers cannot miss.

As with most things in life, ol' Muscle Glutes is looking through the wrong end of the telescope.

It's his Arab pals that glorify murderers on a routine basis, not Israel. In fact, I defy this sad excuse for humanity to find me one example of an Arab the Palestinians have punished in any way for killing a Jew. Israel, on the other hand, has a long record of insisting that its citizens obey the rule of law when it comes to the Arabs.

That double standard in and of itself is proof that Sullivan has a 'problem' with Jews.

As for the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, the Israelis actually attempted to share that with the Muslims. Their reward for this open-mindedness was to find anti-Semitic graffiti scrawled all over the shrine and to discover that the Palestinians had actually urinated and defecated in the area used to store the Torah scrolls.

I realize that Sully delights in being a G-dless cretin except when it suits him, but the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron is a Holy site for Jews that the Israelis need to protect because of the routine desecration it receives from the Palestinians, just like every other Jewish religious site the Arabs have ever gotten their hands on.

So...who was Baruch Goldstein anyway? He was a skilled medical doctor who found himself operating as an emergency physician during the Palestinian intifada and was charged with treating the civilian victims of Arab terrorism on a daily basis.

On February 25, 1994, Dr. Goldstein was passing by the mosque in Hebron, allegedly heard the worshippers inside chanting "Chrad al Yahood!" ( "kill the Jews")and snapped. He entered the mosque and opened fire on the assembled Arabs, killing 29 Muslims there and wounding another 150 before he was disarmed and lynched by the survivors.

Far from being honored, Goldstein was vilified by the Israeli government...very unlike the way the Palestinians treat people like child murderer Sami Kuntar and others of his ilk.

One has to condemn Dr. Goldstein's actions, but - just as we're always told about the Palestinians and their murderous rampages - you have to understand his rage.

It's really a pity for Sully that Der Stürmer or The Völkische Beobachter are no longer in publication, as I'm sure he could find a ready market for his talents there. However, I'm certain that Al Ahrum or Al Manar can fill the gap and make up for it.

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Watcher's Council Nominations, 3/10/10

The Watcher's Council is a group of some of the most incisive blogs in the`sphere. Every week, the members nominate two posts each, one of their own and one from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council.

Then we vote, with the results appearing here Friday.

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

Council Submissions

Mere Rhetoric - Obama Giving Up On “Crippling” Iran Sanctions

Colossus of Rhodey - More “logic” from that wisher of death upon Republicans

Wolf Howling - The UK Through Labour’s Looking Glass

Rhymes with Right – Nomination Of LaRouchie By CD22 Dems Points To Failure Of Houston Media

Bookworm Room – Obama Care and abortions

The Provocateur - Ideological Wars Bore Me

American Digest - Massa’s Reason for Resigning. Doing (or not doing) Barney Frank’s Job

JoshuaPundit - Obama Tells Israel They Have No Right To Their Religious Shrines

The Glittering Eye – The Nightmare Scenario

Right Truth - History of Insurance

Non-Council Submissions

Across the Bay - Juan Cole’s Social Protest SUBMITTED by Mere Rhetoric

Reason.com – A Libyan Charm Offensive SUBMITTED by Colossus of Rhodey

Big Lizards - Palin and Reagan: Together Again for the First Time SUBMITTED by Wolf Howling

The Volokh Conspiracy - Could National Juries Alleviate the Problem of Political Ignorance? SUBMITTED by Rhymes with Right

Chesler Chronicles - It’s International Women’s History Month and Where is Secretary Clinton? SUBMITTED by Right Truth

American Thinker - Defeat vs. Repeal SUBMITTED by Bookworm Room

Chicago Tribune/John Kass - 24 Has Jumped the Shark SUBMITTED by The Provocateur

Sippican Cottage - Sippican the Rag Man SUBMITTED by American Digest

Joel J. Sprayregen/ American Thinker - Obama’s Iran Policy Collapses to the Accompaniment of Mockery Around the Globe SUBMITTED by JoshuaPundit

Chicago Boyz – Seizing the Opportunity to Destroy Western Civilization – SUBMITTED by The Glittering Eye

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