This Week's Forum: Whom Would Your Choice Be For Person of the Year?

Every week on Monday morning , the Council and invited guests weigh in at the Watcher's Forum, short takes on a major issue of the day. This week's question:Whom would your choice be for Person of the Year?

 The Independent Sentinel: This is an easy one for me. Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani girl who was shot in the head by the Taliban for going to school has my vote. She has been speaking up for her rights since she was 11, knowing she was risking death. She is my hero.

The Noisy Room:  My choice for person of the year would be Col. Allen B. West. He is a man that has not only shown the strength of his convictions in battle, he has shown leadership and responsibility for those under his command in the past and in the present. Now, back at home, Allen West shows the same depth of courage and the will to lead on the political battlefield in the name of conservatism and the Constitution.

This is a man who is unafraid to call a Marxist a Marxist. A man who, regardless of the fallout, is willing to call out radical Islam, corrupt politicians and those who lie for political gain. West is a man's man... While the progressives have at every turn besmirched and belittled him, this man has stood his principled ground and never backed down. When he was defeated this last election, he fought voter fraud to the end and went as far as he deemed prudent.

If a man can be judged by his word and his actions, Allen West would be a giant among men in my opinion. I have not agreed with everything he has signed off on, but overall Allen West has stayed true to the principles of our founding fathers. He has bravely stood against the Keynesian spending run amok in our government. He has supported our bravest in the military and he has vociferously stood against terrorists. He is a warrior against radical Islam and unafraid of their threats and thuggishness. He is a friend to Israel and a Christian who is at peace with himself and G-d.

His crowning glory though, in my viewpoint, is the stance he took against progressives - including those in the Congressional Progressive Caucus. He went fearlessly where few other politicians have dared to go... Into the Marxist den. There is indeed a very thin line between progressivism and communism. West has the intestinal fortitude to call out the enemies within and do battle with them. One day, he will most likely be president of the United States. For now, he is my person of the year.

The Colossus of Rhodey: My choice, as I noted briefly on Colossus a week or so ago, would be Barack Obama. Who would have thought that this man-child of a candidate could have been re-elected given the economic conditions that he faced? That he did shows 1) what a sub-par candidate Mitt Romney was, 2) how our political culture and demographics have changed, and 3) how skillful the president (and his team) are politically.

JoshuaPundit: Interesting...

Being an optimist, I tend towards the positive, and there was a lot of negative this year, wasn't there? I couldn't really make up my mind between a couple of folks...Sgt. Dakota Meyer, whose story I heard about from a friend or the courageous Canadian PM Stephen Harper, who along with Benyamin Netanyahu is apparently the leader of the free world now.

Both men show that there's hope for the future. Take your pick.

Bookworm Room:If we're talking about a person who was a force for good, no one springs to mind. If we're talking about a person who had an outsized impact on the year, I'd have to say Barack Obama.

It is impressive that, despite a terrible economy and an increasingly unstable world, due in significant measure to his foreign policy approach, Obama was able to preside over the nastiest, most dishonest campaign in history, using a complicit media, violent unions, and good technology, to retake the presidency. Obama is neither a good man nor a good president, but he dominated 2012.

David Gerstman, AKA Soccer Dad : Mohammed Morsi

Mohammed Morsi is person of the year, not just on the strength of who he is but what he represents.

Morsi, is the Muslim Brotherhood affiliated President of Egypt. In recent weeks, he has consolidated his hold on power (and by extension the power of his party). Only recently have the true liberal forces in Egypt started to push back. The latest I've seen is that Morsi's backed off of a threat to implement martial law. But whether that is a victory for Egyptian liberals or simply a tactical retreat remains to be seen.

But what Morsi represents may even more important that he is likely to be another despot leading the most powerful Arab state. He represents a failure of the West's political and academic elites to recognize the danger that the Muslim Brotherhood represents.

To anyone paying attention to the Muslim Brotherhood, the organization has been hostile to the West not moderate. Specifically, there was no evidence that Morsi was moderate. It should have been little surprise that the day after the elites of American foreign policy and journalism praised Morsi for facilitating a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, he continued his power grab.

The blindness that affects the West's view of Islamists persists and Morsi if the most recent symbol of that failing.

Weekend Monkey: No question...my pal Elizabeth Warren.

Has there ever been a more courageous saga in politics, I mean, next to my own presidential campaign?

When I first met her, she was a gutsy class warrior minority Native American college professor, battling the entrenched prejudice and right wing noise at Harvard and trolling the internet for kindred souls.

From there, she rises to being an underdog Democrat senatorial candidate running against a vicious Tea Party ReThug who will stop at nothing to knock her out of the race, even using a few innocent gaffes to try and trash her claim to privileged minority status.She's downhearted. But she comes back, after her trusted adviser (namely me) on the eve of her speech at the Democrat convention tells her to be who she is...

There's the scene, with her at the dais, opening for Bill Clinton and absolutely stealing the show, fists in the air, yelling "If it's socialism because I care, then call me a socialist, damn it"!The crowd goes wild,baying like baboons in heat.

And then the votes are counted, tick tock...and the puppetheads at MSNBC finally announce "Elizabeth Warren is the new senator from the State of Massachusetts"!

Scott Warren drives his pick up truck into the Charles, a symbol that the old prop's days are over and so is the Tea Party.

Pan to a shot of her addressing her cheering supporters at her victory speech, waving a tomahawk in the air and yelling "The kulaks must pay"! And "The East is Red"!

Fade out. Credits.

Is this a modern take on "Mr.Smith Goes to Washington" or what? I got the script written already thanks to a little chemical assistance, now all I gotta do is get the Hollywood suits to bite. I'm thinking James Wood at his creepiest for Scott Brown, Joe Pesci for his mobbed up campaign manager and either Angela Jolie or maybe even Nicole Kidman (more mature look) for Liz.Maybe even Zollwegger.

Meanwhile, with my new DC gig as Senator Warren's Special Adviser, I'm picking out my office and the decor I want, and you're paying for it, losers! Hee hee hee!

 The Razor: That’s an interesting question. I’d say it’s a tie between Bashir al-Assad on the foreign policy front and George “judenrat” Soros on the domestic.

The rebellion in Syria has turned that nation into a mini-World War 1, drawing in all its neighbors as well as the EU, China, Russia and the United States. It has become the battleground between the Arab world and Iran, jihadis on a mission from g-d, an opportunity for Turkish expansion and a return to the glory days of the Ottoman empire, a possible opening for a Kurdish state, and a deterioration of relations between the EU and the USA on one side and China and Russia on the other. Fate has elevated this one petty tyrant to a decisive role to shape the Middle East for the coming decades. What’s ironic is al-Assad will likely not survive the outcome of the decisions he made during his 12 year regime and won’t see the aftermath.

Soros is the man behind the progressive movement in the United States. The billionaire has bankrolled liberal candidates and causes culminating in the reelection of Barack Obama and the election of numerous progressive candidates including Elizabeth Warren and Patrick Murphy, who defeated Allen West in the closely contested 18th congressional district of Florida. He funds Human Right Watch, ThinkProgress and MoveOn.org as well as several other political action committees dedicated to spreading a repackaged blend of socialism and crony capitalism in the United States. His success in the 2012 elections makes him my person of the year at least in terms of the US.

GrEaT sAtAn"S gIrLfRiEnD: Malala Yousafzai.

She's a school student and education activist from the town of Mingora in the Swat District of Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. She is known for her education and women's rights activism in the Swat Valley, where the Taliban had at times banned girls from attending school. In early 2009, at the age of 11/12, Malala wrote a blog under a pseudonym for the BBC detailing her life under Taliban rule, their attempts to take control of the valley, and her views on promoting education for girls. The following summer, a New York Times documentary was filmed about her life as the Pakistani military intervened in the region, culminating in the Second Battle of Swat. Malala began to rise in prominence, giving interviews in print and on television and taking a position as chairperson of the District Child Assembly Swat. She has since been nominated for the International Children's Peace Prize by Desmond Tutu and has won Pakistan's first National Youth Peace Prize. A number of prominent individuals, including the Canadian Minister of Citizenship, are supporting a petition to nominate Malala for the Nobel Peace Prize.

On 9 October 2012, Malala was shot in the head and neck in an assassination attempt by Taliban gunmen while returning home on a school bus. In the days immediately following the attack, she remained unconscious and in critical condition, but later her condition improved enough for her to be sent to a hospital in the United Kingdom for intensive rehabilitation. On 12 October, a group of 50 Islamic clerics in Pakistan issued a fatwā against those who tried to kill her, but the Taliban reiterated its intent to kill Malala and her father, Ziauddin.

Former British Prime Minister and current UN Special Envoy for Global Education Gordon Brown launched a United Nations petition in Malala's name, using the slogan "I am Malala" and demanding that all children worldwide be in school by the end of 2015. Brown said he would hand the petition to Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari in November. UN secretary general Ban Ki-Moon has announced that November 10 will be celebrated as Malala Day.

  Well, there you have it.

Make sure to tune in every Monday for the Watcher’s Forum. And remember, every Wednesday, the Council has its weekly contest with the members nominating two posts each, one written by themselves and one written by someone from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council. The votes are cast by the Council, and the results are posted on Friday morning.

It’s a weekly magazine of some of the best stuff written in the blogosphere, and you won’t want to miss it.
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Under Pressure, Egypt's Morsi Annuls Most of Dictatorial Decree - But Gets What He Wanted

 

Apparently, Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammed Morsi reacted to domestic unrest in Cairo
and perhaps even some pressure from Washington.

He has annulled a large part of the decree he issued on November 22 that gave him near-absolute dictatorial power..except for the most important part, the part he really wanted.

Morsi chiefly wanted to protect his Islamist-dominated constitution-writing panel from dissolution by Egypt’s highest court. The new sharia-licious constitution was duly passed by the Islamist dominated parliament and the December 15 referendum vote on accepting it that the opposition had wanted canceled is going to go ahead as planned. Martial law, of course, will still continue.

The Islamist constitution will likely pass, and when it does, Morsi is going to get everything he wanted anyway. And all done democratically too.

Hitler, where ever he is would applaud this masterstroke. It's reminiscent of how he and the Nazis came to power.

Hanukkah..The Festival Of Lights And Freedom

This Saturday night ight marks the first night of Hannukah, the Festival of Lights .

While many of you may be familiar with the story of the Miracle of the Oil, what is frequently overlooked is that Hannukah celebrates another miracle - the miracle of a group of farmers and tradesman utterly defeating the professional armies of the Seleucid Empire, a victory for freedom that belongs to all of us, Jew and Gentile.

Hanukkah celebrates one of the important miracles in Jewish history and reminds us of the triumph of faith. It takes place every year in mid to late December. While its date varies if you go by the western calendar, in the Hebrew calendar Hanukkah always falls on the 25th day of Kislev.

Hanukkah celebrates the victory Jewish war for independence in the second century B.C. E. The story is told in the First Book of Maccabees, and retold in the Second Book of Maccabees. A contemporary military history of the war can be found in Battles of the Bible, coauthored by Chaim Herzog and Mordechai Gichon.

After his death, Alexander the Great's empire broke into several parts, and Israel was under the control of the Seleucid empire, based in Syria. Israel had lived peacefully under the Persian Empire and under the Ptolemaic empire (of Egypt), both which tolerated Judaism; but the Seleucid Emperor Antiochus Epiphanes was an arrogant, bigoted Hellenizer, who attempted to force the Jews to abandon their religion and to adopt Greek customs and worship.

There were those Jews who considered themselves `modern' and `assimilated' who were willing to go along with this, even to the extent of having surgical operations to reverse circumcision.

Others did not, and they were prosecuted vigorously and brutalized by the Greeks.

The start of the Maccabean Revolt sprang from a single spontaneous act of resistance. In the foothills village of Modi'in in 167BCE, a Greek army unit set up an altar, and ordered the local Jewish rabbi, Mattathias, to sacrifice a pig and eat it. He refused, as did his five sons. When a Jewish collaborator came forward to offer the sacrifice, a furious Mattathias "ran and killed him on the spot, killed the king's officer who was forcing them to sacrifice, and tore down the altar" (1 Mac. 2:15-25).

Mattathias, his sons and their followers then headed for the Judean hills, to launch a guerrilla war. They were farmers who had no military training,fighting a professional army. There had not been a Jewish army since Babylon had destroyed the Judean kingdom four centuries before. Their only weapons were farming tools and whatever simple weapons they could construct, such as maces or slings. During this first year, Mattathias died, and his middle son Judah took over command as his successor.

Nicknamed "the hammer" ("Maccabee," in Hebrew), Judah constructed a guerrilla army that staged daring nighttime raids on the Greek outposts, then melted back into the countryside. His successes attracted more supporters, and the revolt spread.

The war went on for 25 years, one of the most singular wars for independence in history. The miracle, perhaps is that it was fought at all, let alone won.

The Seleucids and Antiochus sent huge, well equipped armies into Israel to subdue the Jews. They were all defeated, at odds that seem miraculous even today. Judah Maccabee turned out to be a tactical genius, using unheard of tactics, leading the Greek phalanxes into the hills where they could not maneuver and destroying them.

To give you an idea of how essential the Jewish heartland of Judea and Samaria was and is to Israel's survival then and now, the map below shows where the major battles of the war took place.(hat tip, Carl) Click on it to enlarge it:



One thing that is seldom mentioned about the war is the fact that a significant part of it took place against the Hellenized, `modern',`assimilated' Jewish traitors I mentioned earlier, who were more than willing to abandon the Jewish way of life and supported their Seleucid masters against their fellow Jews.

As Ecclesiastes famously said in the Megillot, there's nothing new under the sun.

In 164 BCE, the Jews defeated a force commanded by the Viceroy Lysias that outnumbered them two to one. That battle took place six miles north of Hebron, near the Jewish fortress of Beth-zur. The victory allowed Judah and his army to retake Jerusalem.

When they entered Jerusalem, Judah and his followers entered the Holy Temple on the Temple Mount. The Temple had been wrecked and horribly desecrated, with profanities scrawled on the walls and the Ark by the Seleucids.

The Maccabees built a new altar. When the time came to light the N'er Tamid, the Eternal Light of the Temple, the Jews could find only one sanctified jar of oil marked with the seal of the High Priest. It was only enough to last one evening. On the 25th of Kislev, in the year 164 BCE,the lamp was lit with this small jar of oil and, miraculously, stayed lit for eight days, until more oil suitable for the temple was made. The eight days of Hanukkah celebrate that miracle, as well as the divine intervention that had led the Jews to amazing victories over well-equipped professional armies far superior in numbers. "Therefore, carrying ivy-wreathed wants and beautiful branches and also fronds of palm, they offered hymns of thanksgiving to Him who had given success to the purifying of His own holy place" (2 Mac. 10:7).

The war itself continued. In 160 BCE, near modern-day Ramallah, Judah was killed, but Judah's brother Jonathan, and then his brother Simon took command of the Jewish army, finally winning complete independence in 142 BCE. At last, "All the people sat under their own vines and fig trees, and there was none to make them afraid" (1 Mac. 14:12).

The War of the Maccabees was the first war ever fought for religious freedom. Somehow, a group of farmers with no military training who refused to bow to their oppressors defeated a mighty empire and its immense standing armies. There seems to be no plausible explanation for the victory of the Jews except that it was a miracle.

Towards the end of the war, Antiochus and the Seleucids became so obsessed with defeating the Jews that they sacked their own cities and sold their own citizens into slavery to get money to pursue the war against the Jews.

Hanukkah reminds us that with G-d's help, victory over evil is assured and no miracle is impossible. Modern Israel and the survival of the Jewish people against all odds are proof of that.


Symbols in Hanukkah

Aside from the Hanukkiah (candlesticks), the other great symbol of Hanukkah are those small spinning tops known as dreidels.













The four letters which appear on the four corners of a dreidel allude to the miracle of Hanukkah. They spell out: Nes (N-miracle), Gadol (G-great), Haya (H-happened) and Sham (S-there, meaning in Israel). Or, `a great miracle happened there.'

Indeed it did.

Chag Sameach! Happy Hanukkah!

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The Council Has Spoken!1 This Week's Watcher's Council Results

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



This week , we were treated to an interesting spectacle.

Every EU country except the Czech Republic either voted for or abstained from voting against the recognition of 'Palestine' as a a state, something that essentially gutted the international  treaties of Oslo Accords and the Road Map. A day or so later, these same countries were calling Israel's ambassadors on the carpet and accusing them of 'jeopardizing the two state solution' because they decided to build some badly needed housing on a vacant hillsisde!



As this week's winner, Joshuapundit's 'Palestine' - A Celebration At The Funeral   points out, the celebration  over the recognition of 'Palestine' is not a new beginning but a wake. Here's a slice :

 The UN has finally taken the step of openly endorsing 'Palestine'. In response to the PLO's request, the General Assembly issued Resolution 67/19, giving 'Palestine' observer status, which means it is a non-voting member who can join other international bodies like UNICEF or the International Criminal Court.
Prior to the vote, Mahmoud Abbas made a typical speech in which he accused Israel of racism numerous times. Coming from the lips of a man whose thesis at Moscow University denied that the Holocaust occurred, this added yet another touch of comedy to the proceedings.
There was never any doubt about the outcome. Given the 51 nation OIC Muslim bloc, those nations like France, Sweden and others with a restive Muslim population and those they were able to influence, Abbas was certain to get what he asked for. The UN General Assembly could probably be relied on to pass a resolution saying Jews had horns on their heads with a decent majority.
What the UN did, essentially, was to flush two international treaties, the Oslo Accords and The Road Map down the toilet, as if they never existed. The resolution unilaterally grants Abbas and the PLO statehood status and 'the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and to independence in their State of Palestine on the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967' ( never mind that there was no 'Palestinian territory' at that time) 'including East Jerusalem' without any pretense of negotiating anything whatsoever. No surprises there, since that's been the PLO's real position all along.
Even more farcically, the resolution calls for 'the urgent need for the resumption and acceleration of negotiations within the Middle East peace process.'
After what the UN General Assembly claims it granted to the PLO in this resolution, why would they suppose there's anything left to negotiate? Who makes the best felafel? And why would the Israelis even bother, seeing how the PLO and the so-called international community regards treaties and agreements when it concerns Jews and Israel?


Speaking of which, to those of you whom celebrate it, Hanukkah begins  this Saturday night, right after the Jewish Sabbath...take time to celebrate and remember that Israel and the Jewish people have triumphed over much greater odds in the past before. Ma'ale Adumim, after all, is not so far from Modi'in, where a group of Jewish farmers decided that enough was enough and their G-d and their freedom weren't negotiable anymore...Chag Hanukkah Sameach

 




In our non-Council category, the winner was Victor Davis Hanson with Waiting for the GOP’s Populist Turn submitted by Joshuapundit. In it VDH examines the next direction for the GOP to go to reclaim its popularity.  Unfortunately , given the Republican establishment's current war on conservatives and anyone associated with the Tea Party, it's beginning to look more an dmore like that new direction of conservative populism might end up coming from a third party.

OK,  here are this week’s full results:

Council Winners

• *First place with 4 votes! Joshuapundit - 'Palestine' - A Celebration At The Funeral
• Second place *t* with 1 2/3 votes – The Right Planet -Obama Admin Refuses to Criticize Egypt’s New Constitution That Allows Slavery  
• Second place *t* with 1 2/3 votes – Bookworm Room-From the same people who brought you the constitutional right to privacy: “You have no privacy.”
• Third place *t* with 1 vote – The Independent Sentinel - Dear Sarah Palin – Is A Third Political Party Being Formed?
• Third place *t* with 1 vote – The Mellow Jihadi- Self-Reliance Versus the Collective
• Third place *t* with 1 vote – The Razor- Why I Oppose the Nomination of Susan Rice to Secretary of State (and You Should Too)
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote – The Noisy Room- Policing the Schutzstaffel
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote – Gay Patriot – Cut off* NPR & PBS in return for higher tax rate on “wealthy”?
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote – The Glittering Eye – The Chicken Game
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote –  The Political Commentator – Obama first-term critique! Failure, failure, failure...!
• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote – The Colossus of Rhodey – Why I *still* don't watch Sunday Night Football
• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote – Simply Jews –The phantoms of ceasefire, proportionality and other Middle East myths - Part I 

Non-Council Winners

• First place with 2 2/3 votes! – Victor Davis Hanson-Waiting for the GOP’s Populist Turn  submitted by Joshuapundit
• Second place with 2 votes – Sultan Knish –The Working Class and the Governing Class   submitted by The Noisy Room
• Third place *t* with  1 2/3 votes – Melanie Phillips –Sanitising Hamas in the worship of power   submitted by The Watcher
• Third place *t*  with 1 2/3 votes -The Big Pharaoh -Is The US Repeating The Same Mistake In Egypt? submitted by Simply Jews
• Fourth place with 1 1/3 vote TownHall -7 Reasons Socialism Will Make You Poorer Than Capitalism submitted by The Mellow Jihadi
• Fifth place *t* with 1 vote - Dennis Prager –The World's Most Dynamic Religion   submitted by Bookworm Room
• Fifth place *t* with 1 vote - Taki's Magazine –Happy to Be on the Wrong Side of History   submitted by The Right Planet
• Sixth place *t* with 2/3 vote -Killer Apps –  France joins the stealth drone club submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD
• Sixth place *t* with 2/3 vote -Dr. Housing Bubble – Is the middle class dream an illusion for Californians? What we can learn from domestic and foreign migration patterns.   submitted by The Glittering Eye
• Sixth place *t* with 2/3 vote -RedState – Self-Awareness Matters submitted by Rhymes With Right
• Sixth place *t* with 2/3 vote -Seraphic Secret –The Drones Done Did It  submitted by The Watcher
• Seventh place *t* with 1/3 vote -The Lid – Fiscal Cliff UPDATE: Obama Rejects GOP Counter-offer   submitted by The Independent Sentinel
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote -Timothy Wheeler @ The Corner –The Wickedness Inside All of Us?   submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey 
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote -Sunshine State Sarah –Rubio-sponsored amendment to protect military voting rights passes unanimously submitted by VA Right!

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 guests take apart one of the provocative issues of the day and weigh in...don't you dare miss it. And don't forget to like us on Facebook and follow us Twitter..'cause we're cool like that!

The GOP's War On The Tea Party Continues

There's a quiet war being waged in Washington these days.

The Republican establishment is systematically engaged in marginalizing it's conservative base.

Conservative congressmen, especially any associated with the Tea Party are being denied committee seats and chairmanships they obviously qualify for as a 'punishment' for apparently not going along with some of the GOP leadership's more outrageous cave ins.

It's purge time for conservatives and anyone associated with the Tea Party, and I'm certain that's going to be even more obvious when the funds from the RNC get doled out.

Another obvious sign of this is Jim DeMint's decision to leave the senate to head the Heritage Foundation.

Jen Rubin, the supposed conservative voice at the Washington Post had an unthinking and fairly vicious reaction to this that is probably typical of how the GOP leadership feels about DeMint.

At leqst Rubin shows her true colors. She's obviously not aware that the entire GOP resurgence in 2010 was largely the work of two people - Sarah Palin and Senator DeMint. The largest segment of the party's bench, consisting of people like Marco Rubio,Kelly Ayotte, Nikki Haley, Susana Martinez, Pat Toomey and a host of others in the sneate, house and state offices benefited for their channeling the energy of conservatives and the Tea Party into a GOP resurgence.

Palin's reward for working herself silly in resurrecting the GOP by speaking,endorsements and raising funds through SarahPac was to be denied a speaking role at the 2012 convention, even though she's one of the most effective and dynamic communicators of conservative ideas in America. DeMint's was to have to swim uphill against a dysfunctional GOP establishment until he got sick and tired of it and decided to leave.

Obviously, the GOP leadership figures that they can win elections by becoming Democrat lite, not realizing that people who lean ion that direction would much rather vote for the real thing. If they continue on that path, they will certainly continue to lose elections. 3 million self-described Republicans stayed home last November. If the Republican Party continues to marginalize conservatives in this fashion, even more will do so next time.

Cut off from their base and their principles, the GOP will go the way of the Whigs and be replaced by a new party..and they'll deserve it.

Nature always abhors a vacuum, and vacuums always get filled...especially in politics.

Egypt: The Army Steps In To Quash Anti-Morsi Protests

 

What's left of Egypt's liberal democratic activists, secularists and Christians aren't going quietly.

They've staged massive protests over Islamist President Mohammed Morsi's assuming what amounts to dictatorial powers pretty much along the lines of his predecessor, Mubarak, with the exception that it's all now being done in the name of Allah.

Clashes between the demonstrators, pro-Muslim Brotherhood counter demonstrators rounded up by the regime and security forces have left seven people dead, and Morsi actually had to exit the presidential palace yesterday when a few demonstrators momentarily broke through the police line.

Female anti-Morsi demonstrators in particular have been deliberately targeted for sexual assault by what appeasr to be organized gangs.

The Army had stayed out of this entirely, preferring to retain their popular image as the Egyptian people's protectors..until today.

This morning, army tanks surrounded the presidential palace, blockades were set up and the protestors were instructed to leave Tahrir Square immediately. Most of them did just that.

The commander of the Republican Guard, the army unit that guards the palace said their intent was to separate the rival demonstrations and the ensuing violence, not to repress them.

"The armed forces, and at the forefront of them the Republican Guard, will not be used as a tool to oppress the demonstrators," General Mohamed Zaki told the state news agency, MENA.

Which is why they ordered Tahrir Square cleared, of course.

The Egyptian military gets $1.3 billion in direct U.S. aid. Those tanks you see above (and believe me, the demonstrators know it) are American.

A lot of that money doesn't go for outright military expenditures. It goes to help fund and maintain private businesses the Egyptian Army owns outright, many times with army recruits working in them at government expense for the price of their army pay rather than for what a private employer would have to pay in wages.

I'd say that a signal has been sent from the Obama White House, one way or the other.

Either Morsi has been told quietly that he needs to back off and the army instructed to end the violence, or more likely, he received a message from the White House backing him but advising he step a bit more lightly while he's consolidating power, and the army was privy to it.Especially since their higher command was recently purged of every member of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces and most of the other Mubarak holdovers and replaced by Islamist officers loyal to Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood.

The majority of Egyptians want Islamist, sharia based rule.That's what the election was all about. If it copmes to a showdown, Morsi and the Brotherhood will win. It remains to be seen how they finesse it to avoid making the Obama Administration move to cut their funding.

Given our president's liking for Islamists and the Muslim Brotherhood, that might not be all that difficult, at least for awhile.

We've seen this movie before, when President Eisenhower courted Egyptian strongman Gamal Abdul Nasser back in the 1950's. Ike eventually got wise, but a lot of taxpayer money was spent before that happened.

HS Principal Retracts Order That All Students Stand For 'Black National Anthem'

There's been a policy change at Capital High School in Charleston, WVA concerning what's called its morning observance policy.

Mornings at Capital High formerly featured the Pledge of Allegiance and our national anthem, "The Star Spangled Banner".

Principal Clinton Giles,pictured above, added a new wrinkle, the mandatory playing of "Lift Every Voice and Sing", long considered by many African-Americans to be 'the black national anthem'. He demanded that all students stand in respect for all three.

When some students objected to standing, feeling that making "Lift Every Voice and Sing" the equivalent to our national anthem was disrespectful,Principle Giles blew his top:

Kim Bailey is the mother of one student who chose not to stand. She said the song is considered the "African-American National Anthem" and it was disrespectful to make students stand for it.

Her son chose not to stand and was sent to the office several times because of his decision, she said. She also said Giles made statements over the loudspeaker about the situation that "ostracized" her son.

She was glad to learn late Wednesday that the policy would change but was still upset about the situation.

After an investigation by Mark Milam, assistant superintendent for Kanawha County high schools, and a conversation with Superintendent Ron Duerring, Giles decided to change the policy:

Giles said he was "completely and totally exonerated" following the investigation, but the school is adding the words "or sit" to its policy regarding student participation during the Pledge of Allegiance.

"It was determined that if I reinsert that language . . . it would put the whole issue to rest," Giles said Wednesday in a phone interview.

The policy will now read, "during the Pledge, nonparticipating students are expected to stand or sit silently and are not to engage in any disrupting or distracting activity."

Giles said no student was ever punished for not standing during any portion of the morning observances. He spoke about the situation at an assembly but said he did so only to give students the facts. He said the idea he belittled students is a lie.

"There has never been an announcement made for students to stand for the playing of the African American National Anthem at Capital High School. That has never happened, won't happen," Giles said.

Giles apparently isn't saying why a number students were sent to the office for not standing respectfully during the playing of "Lift Every Voice and Sing" if it wasn't policy and his denial that he never made demeaning comments about children who wouldn't stand is contradicted by a number of students and parents.

The district authorities originally weren't going to touch this one, and ignored letters from parents. What finally brought it to a head was a letter from a parent to Kanawha County Board of Education President Pete Thaw, who demanded the district superintendent look into it and take action.

"I just want to have a class. Why are we doing this? Why are we interfering with our business? Our business is to educate children," Thaw said Wednesday.

Ah, but they're being educated.Trust me on that.

After the fit hit the Shan, Giles reportedly threw a mini-tantrum and the national anthem and pledge were not played that Monday at the school. Giles' story is that said he "postponed" them "so that the good people could speak out" in support. But the key to whom he is and where he's coming from is his statement that the district should really be looking at other schools and whether they play the national anthem and recite the pledge every day before school.

So, while students will no longer be required to stand for the national anthem, the pledge and whatever else Principal Giles thinks they should be required to hear, he'll still be able to play it to a captive audience.

In fact, the principal now says he is going to play a different song, one that reflects 'his feelings about the nation'. I can only imagine.

Is there something wrong with "Lift Every Voice and Sing"? Not particularly, in its proper context as a relic of the civil rights era.The lyrics and the use to which it's been put over the years make that pretty clear.Sung in a black church or a private gathering, the song is not at all inappropriate.

But touted as 'the black national anthem', positioned as the equivalent or a substitute for "The Star Spangled Banner" and played before a captive audience in a public school is something very different.

It sends a message to both blacks and non-blacks of separatism and disdain for our shared heritage as Americans. Simply put, it's racist. To do that to children whom have no choice is absolutely disgraceful.

The Pledge and our national anthem are something all Americans share, and denying that is deliberately choosing to put yourself outside that common experience.

Let's spin this and imagine that Principal Giles was white and chose to force students to stand in respect while "The Bonnie Blue Flag", "Dixie" or something else characterized as 'the white national anthem ' was played.

Would he still have a job?

Detroit To Obama: 'We Voted You In..Now Give Us That Obama Money!"

After the voting comes the demands for payment using other people's money, of course:

The city of Detroit faces a major financial crisis and one member of city council thinks President Barack Obama should step in and help.

City Council member JoAnn Watson said Tuesday the citizens support of Obama in last month's election was enough reason for the president to bailout the struggling the city. (Click the video player to listen)

"Our people in an overwhelming way supported the re-election of this president and there ought to be a quid pro quo and you ought to exercise leadership on that," said Watson. "Of course, not just that, but why not?"

"After the election of Jimmy Carter, the honorable Coleman Alexander Young, he went to Washington, D.C. He came home with some bacon," said Watson. "That's what you do."

I trust you know exactly whom Ms. Watson means by 'our people'. And given the almost certain probability of voter fraud in Wayne County, what she means by 'support'.

I love the mention of former Detroit mayor Coleman Young, an advanced practitioner of racial politics. A former member of the Communist Party and the National Negro Labor Council, a communist front group Young started with Soviet agent Paul Robeson, Young was Detroit's first black mayor who used to habitually refer to himself as 'the chief muthaf**ker in charge'.

He served five terms as the city's demographics changed, essentially presiding over the city's decline. By the end of his last term, the population of Detroit had shrunk by more than half as middle class taxpayers and businesses fled and the crime rate was far higher than it was before he became mayor.

And bacon? Whatever Young got from President Carter, he and his cronies certainly cut themselves a healthy slice. When Coleman's close friend and political adviser William L. Hart was convicted for stealing $2.6 million from city funds and when other Young cronies in the police department, school boards, sanitation, and other departments likewise took the fall in what the FBI called 'a large circle of corruption surrounding the mayor', a substantial amount of the evidence they used was from wiretaps on Mayor Young's home telephone.

The only reason he stayed out of jail is because the Carter Justice department thought it inadvisable to indict a popular black Democrat mayor and risk antagonizing a reliable voting bloc.

Young's successors like Kwame Kilpatrick, now a guest of the State of Michigan have continued this legacy with gusto, if not the same ability to get away with it.

For that matter, there are certain rumblings about Councilwoman Watson's own tax situation.

Detroit is flat broke,after decades of Democrat rule, leftist high tax and spend policies, corruption and racial politics.

But because it is essentially a black-run city, any attempt to step in with an intervention has led to charges of racism.

Michigan Governor Rick Scott actually tried to set up an $80 million bail out of Detroit in exchange for the creation of a nine-member Financial Advisory Board to oversee the city's financial restructuring,with six members appointed by the Governor and two by the city council. As an example of how corrupt the current city council is, instead of the money going directly through their hands it was to be put into an escrow account that could be drawn on after expenditures were approved by the committee.

The city council turned it down, and the city attorney, Krystal Crittendon, sued the State of Michigan for what she claimed where monies owed by the state to Detroit.The suit was tossed out of court, and Detroit's situation is essentially in limbo.

The idea of bailing out the current city government of Detroit and throwing good money after bad is not something that inspires confidence.

Watcher's Council Nominations - Playing Politics With Other People's Money Edition

 

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

Council News:


This week, Ask Marion and The Pirate's Cove took advantage of my generous offer of link whorage and earned honorable mention status with some excellent pieces they sent in.

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 just 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 Noisy Room – Policing the Schutzstaffel
• The Razor – Why I Oppose the Nomination of Susan Rice to Secretary of State (and You Should Too)
• The Political Commentator – Obama first-term critique! Failure, failure, failure...!
• Joshuapundit-'Palestine' - A Celebration At The Funeral
• The Independent Sentinel – Dear Sarah Palin – Is A Third Political Party Being Formed?
• Simply Jews – The phantoms of ceasefire, proportionality and other Middle East myths - Part I
• The Mellow Jihadi – Self-Reliance Versus the Collective
• GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – More Than Air
• The Colossus of Rhodey – Why I *still* don't watch Sunday Night Football
• Bookworm Room – From the same people who brought you the constitutional right to privacy: “You have no privacy.”
• The Right Planet – Obama Admin Refuses to Criticize Egypt’s New Constitution That Allows Slavery
• Gay Patriot – Cut off* NPR & PBS in return for higher tax rate on “wealthy”?
• Rhymes With Right – Bob Costas Uses Halftime Show To Trash Second Amendment
• The Glittering Eye -The Chicken Game
• VA Right! - Over the River and Through the Woods and Off the Cliff We Go

Honorable Mentions

• Ask Marion - AMERICA'S FUTURE... WHERE DO WE GO NOW… HOW TO WIN THE BATTLE… -
• The Pirate's Cove - Owning A Gun Is Like Being A KKK Member

Non-Council Submissions

• Sultan Knish –The Working Class and the Governing Class submitted by The Noisy Room
• Bias Breakdown –Barack Obama’'s Country for Kids Who Can’t Add Good submitted by The Razor
• Pravda/Xavier Lerma -Obama's Soviet Mistake submitted by The Political Commentator
• Victor Davis Hanson – Waiting for the GOP’s Populist Turn submitted by Joshuapundit
• The Lid – Fiscal Cliff UPDATE: Obama Rejects GOP Counter-offer submitted by The Independent Sentinel
• The Big Pharaoh – Is The US Repeating The Same Mistake In Egypt? submitted by Simply Jews
• TownHall – 7 Reasons Socialism Will Make You Poorer Than Capitalism submitted by The Mellow Jihadi
• Killer Apps – France joins the stealth drone club submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD
• Timothy Wheeler @ The Corner – The Wickedness Inside All of Us? submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey
• Dennis Prager-The World's Most Dynamic Religion submitted by Bookworm Room
• Taki's Magazine – Happy to Be on the Wrong Side of History submitted by The Right Planet
• Neo-Neocon -So, Mr. Whittle submitted by Gay Patriot
• RedState – Self-Awareness Matters submitted by Rhymes with Right
• Dr. Housing Bubble – Is the middle class dream an illusion for Californians? What we can learn from domestic and foreign migration patterns. submitted by The Glittering Eye
• Sunshine State Sarah – Rubio-sponsored amendment to protect military voting rights passes unanimously submitted by VA Right!
• Melanie Phillips – Sanitising Hamas in the worship of power submitted by The Watcher
• Seraphic Secret – The Drones Done Did It submitted by The Watcher

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

'Palestine' - A Celebration At The Funeral

 

The UN has finally taken the step of openly endorsing 'Palestine'. In response to the PLO's request, the General Assembly issued Resolution 67/19, giving 'Palestine' observer status, which means it is a non-voting member who can join other international bodies like UNICEF or the International Criminal Court.

Prior to the vote, Mahmoud Abbas made a typical speech in which he accused Israel of racism numerous times. Coming from the lips of a man whose thesis at Moscow University denied that the Holocaust occurred, this added yet another touch of comedy to the proceedings.

There was never any doubt about the outcome. Given the 51 nation OIC Muslim bloc, those nations like France, Sweden and others with a restive Muslim population and those they were able to influence, Abbas was certain to get what he asked for. The UN General Assembly could probably be relied on to pass a resolution saying Jews had horns on their heads with a decent majority.

What the UN did, essentially, was to flush two international treaties, the Oslo Accords and The Road Map down the toilet, as if they never existed. The resolution unilaterally grants Abbas and the PLO statehood status and 'the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and to independence in their State of Palestine on the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967' ( never mind that there was no 'Palestinian territory' at that time) 'including East Jerusalem' without any pretense of negotiating anything whatsoever. No surprises there, since that's been the PLO's real position all along.

Even more farcically, the resolution calls for 'the urgent need for the resumption and acceleration of negotiations within the Middle East peace process.'

After what the UN General Assembly claims it granted to the PLO in this resolution, why would they suppose there's anything left to negotiate? Who makes the best felafel? And why would the Israelis even bother, seeing how the PLO and the so-called international community regards treaties and agreements when it concerns Jews and Israel?

Abbas and the PLO, of course, are not stopping with just East Jerusalem. As they've said before, they want all of it eventually, and free of Jews. In the victory celebration at Ramallah, Abbas made a speech and claimed that one day, "the Palestinian flag would fly over Jerusalem, its eternal capitol".



(Fatah leader Abbas Zaki's speech on Palestinian TV courtesy of PMW)

The ululations,the flag waving, the cries of 'itbah al-Yahood'('kill the Jews') and the sound of guns being fired into the air might have seemed festive,but all they really were was a celebration at the funeral.

Abbas accomplished a number of things, but none of them are going to lead to an independent Palestinian state.

The majority of Israelis fully realize now, except for the bitter enders on the left, that Oslo is over.It always was a fantasy, but one that a certain amount of people clung to. For the most part, they know better now. Even more, it has strengthened the position of those who always argued that 'land for peace' and 'the two state solution' were ridiculous policies doomed to failure. After all, how can you negotiate anything with someone to whom agreements and treaties mean nothing? Especially when they expect tangible things like land in exchange for words on paper?

The European reaction - with France avidly pushing this and influencing countries like Spain, Italy and Portugal, who are dependent of France's good graces for eurozone bailouts likewise has convinced Israel that future concessions 'for peace' with the EU's reaction in mind are a waste of time.

The Israelis have already started taking concrete steps with this in mind.

Israel's government has now approved plans to build 3,000 homes in an area known as E-1, essentially a small mountain area traversed by a highway  between Jerusalem and the Jewish community of Ma'ale Adumim.

 

No one whom identifies themselves as Palestinian has ever lived there, and it's barren except for a police station along the highway. It's always been public land.



But as can be seen from the map, it connects two Jewish communities in a contiguous bloc..so the Israelis held off building on it for years in order to give peace negotiations a chance. No more. After all, what do they have to gain any more by waiting? An Israeli community in E-1 is going to make a significant difference in any land available for 'Palestine'.

The Israelis have also approved a 1,600 home building project in the Ramat Shlomo area of Jerusalem:

Ramat Shlomo is one of five Jerusalem ring neighborhoods, along with Gilo, Ramot, Pisgat Zev, and East Talpiyot, which are located across the 1967 Green Line. The District Planning and Construction Committee last discussed the project in August of 2011, during the height of the social justice tent protests, when Yishai trumpeted the project as a way to build affordable housing for young people.

Even if there had been a sincere effort at negotiations by Abbas, there was no way Israel was ever going to redivide Jerusalem again or allow Fatah gunmen within firing range of these neighborhoods. This just makes it official.

The U.S. State department, along with a number of European foreign offices ( apparently at President Obama's instigation) condemned the projects, but since most of the UN General Assembly chose to legitimize an unelected regime that has signed a aaliance with a genocidal organization both the EU and U.S. list officially as a terrorist group, there's not much to say,at least from the Israeli standpoint. It was never a reality anyway, but what happened at the UN was a clear message that the idea of two states living next to each other in peace is over.

Israel has also said that it will start withholding the tax monies it collects for the Palestinian Authority, about $100 million per month and applying them to the huge unpaid bills owed to Israel for electricity and water. Perhaps the PA could make up some of the difference by stopping salary payments to convicted terrorists in Israeli prisons, or by cutting Sufa Arafat's lavish allowance in Paris from $100,000 per month down to oh, say $10,000. And of course Abbas, his sons and the rest of the Fatah Old Guard could simply steal less.

The grimmest joke of all is that 'Palestine', Abbas and the Palestinian Authority wouldn't last for more than a month without Israel.

It is the IDF that guards the security of the PA's territory and keeps Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood elements at bay.Without that protection, Fatah would be dependent on the small army U.S. General Keith Dayton armed and trained. You saw how they fared against Hamas in Gaza the last time, aside from the fact that it's an open secret that Abbas' security forces have been thoroughly infiltrated by Hamas sympathizers. Israel protects Abbas and the PA because the U.S. wants it that way and because the Israelis don't want Hamas in control right next door.

More than 40% of Gaza's water and electricity comes via Israel, and the bills are never paid. In the Arab occupied areas of Judea and Samaria, it's 100%. Israel does this, again, because the U.S. and the international community want it that way, it was built into Oslo and the Road Map and Israel hasn't wanted to deal with the diplomatic fallout.

Now with the international community gutting those treaties, the Israelis would be well within their rights to simply hit the switch, and they might just do it.

The entire idea of 'Palestine' provoking Israel by taking this and other steps is farcical, as well as a death knell for the idea of an independent Palestine. The Israelis are holding all the cards, and only they have the ability to allow a Palestinian state next door.

After what just happened at the UN, they realize they'd be fools to do so.

The EU can continue to fund 'Palestine' as long as it likes, and I'm sure President Obama will bypass Congress again to see to it that Abbas and his friends continue to get their jirzyah. But no one is going to go to war for 'Palestine', least of all the Arabs.

From now on, every provocation by 'Palestine' will get an appropriate answer..or to quote Israeli PM Netanyahu, "There will be no Palestinian State until Israel is recognized as a Jewish State, alongside a resolution to end the conflict.Unilateral actions by the Palestinians will be answered by unilateral actions by Israel."

Admittedly, some of those reactions are likely to be over the top. But the Palestinians and their groupies in the international community are going to be the ones to blame in that instance, no matter how it gets spun. Oslo might have been on life support, but it was the UN that pulled the plug.

The Oslo era is over, and so, at least for now, is an independent Palestine. All of the flag waving,speeches and posturing were just a celebration at the funeral.

Prosecutors in Trayvon Martin Case Finally Release Picture of Zimmerman Showing Broken Nose

The prosecutors in the Trayvon Martin case finally released a clear, digital photo taken by police on the night of the incident showing George Zimmerman's injuries.The B&W next to it is what the prosecution originally released..which,as you can see, is a lot less explicit and open to a lot more interpretation.For instance, the blood is not clearly visible.

As you can see, his nose is clearly broken and he appears to have been pummeled MMA style..exactly as witnesses said originally.It backs up Zimmerman's story, that he was in fear of grave bodily harm.

The media, of course isn't reporting on this at all. Remember when they were saying Zimmerman had no injuries?

The photo and other evidence was released in what was called 'supplemental discovery'. What that means in LegalSpeak is that this wasn't released originally in discovery, the legal process in which both sides are supposed to reveal their evidence to each other before trial.

When there's supplemental discovery, that normally means that one side found out about evidence that should have been released to them originally under the rules of discovery and had to make a formal request to the court to obtain it.

Since this picture definitely helps Zimmerman's defense and was withheld, I think we're talking prosecutorial misconduct.

Zimmerman is up for Murder 2.I don't see how they convict him unless the jury is racially motivated.

Watcher's Forum: The Fiscal Cliff: Let It Happen Or Grand Bargain?

Every week on Monday morning , the Council and invited guests weigh in at the Watcher's Forum, short takes on a major issue of the day. This week's question:The Fiscal Cliff: Let it happen or Grand Bargain?

For those of you whom may not be aware, 'the Fiscal cliff'  refers to automatic and draconian spending cuts and the end of the Bush-era tax cuts and a general hike in taxes as many Americans now exempt form th Alternative Minimum Tax become subject paying it.  This was agreed to the last time  by both parties as part of a deal to raise President Obama's credit card limit ( AKA the debt ceiling) last year. It goes into effect January 1st, 2013 if there's no agreement between President Obama and the House Republicans on taxes, the debt limit and spending. The president  wants  to raise taxes on 'the rich', another binge of stimulus spending, an increase in the nation's debt ceiling and sole authority  to raise the debt ceiling as he sees fit. The Republicans say they're open to some tax increases but want significant cuts in spending as part of any deal and are not willing to see another stimulus or  give the president the authority he wants to raise the debt ceiling unilaterally.

 The Razor:Republicans have put themselves in a position where “heads you win tails I lose.” Given this option we have to look at what concerns the GOP House, the ones who must actually make this bargain.

These members, many elected with Tea Party support in 2010, are ideological and concerned about their reelections. Any compromise the Democrats will offer at this point will be ideologically repugnant. The Democrats and their propaganda wing in the mainstream media have fabricated this November’s election into a progressive landslide even when in reality it was anything but. They will not compromise enough to help these members of the GOP at all, and are on a “mission from g-d” or whatever the equivalent is for fired up atheistic liberals.

So the choice is whether to accept a package of tax increases with minimal if any entitlements cuts IF the Democrats offer such a thing, or allow the country to go off the cliff. That’s a big IF at this point, whether the Democrats will offer anything; I half expect them to keep demagoging the issue in the Press to beat up the Republicans through December while failing to negotiate in good faith. The other choice is to stick to their beliefs, fully aware that the Democrats are likely not serious about negotiations. These members will be pilloried by the Press in January, but they are going to be attacked by the MSM no matter what. At least when the primaries come around in a year they will won’t face Tea Party challengers who claim they sold out to the Dems on the tax issue.

Given such a Hobbesian choice, if I were a conservative member of Congress I would publicize the fact the Democrats have not negotiated seriously because they believe the election was a landslide. I would point out that it wasn’t, and as a consequence cannot offer any compromise on my part because it takes two to reach a deal. Every time I was in front of a microphone I would repeat this mantra. I full expect John Boehner to wobble on this issue and I would resist his calls for my vote. After January I would actively work to unseat him.

The Democrats believe the GOP will take the hit if we go off the cliff, but managed properly, I believe it is still possible to portray the Democrats as overreaching. Besides, by the time these members are up for re-election the country will be more receptive to fiscal conservatism than it is today. In the meantime, unfortunately, the half of the voting public that re-elected Obama needs to be taught that elections have consequences and that handing Democrats money is like giving heroin to a junkie.

 The Independent Sentinel: President Obama wants to go over the fiscal cliff. It's a win-win for him. He gets automatic cuts (he wants the military cuts), higher taxes. and he can blame the Republicans, eliminating them once-and-for-all.

In an interview with The Des Moines Register before the election, which he immediately after asked the paper not to print, he spoke about sequestration and the end of the Bush tax cuts ( Clinton tax hikes) as if they were a done deal.

He always makes the political decision over what is right for Americans. His ideology trumps all.

The deal he offered to Republicans yesterday not only didn't cut anything, it increased spending and it even has a new stimulus. It caused Mitch McConnell to burst out laughing when he saw it. It was more an insult than a joke however. The Republicans can't even use it as a starting point.

We did vote for revenge as Obama asked.

We should plan to go over the cliff unless Obama extends the artificial deadline until March.

I think he has made it perfectly clear - no compromises!


JoshuaPundit: In politics, perception is always more important than reality.  So let's start with a little bit of reality. The $1.2 trillion of deficit reduction we're taking about as the Fiscal Cliff works out to $153 billion over ten years. The federal government borrows that every month.

That said, it's important to remember that there's no incentive for President Obama to make any compromises. He wants to raise taxes anyway, many of the mandated cuts will come out of our military budget and best of all, he feels he can blame Republicans for it. This makes absolutely no common sense but the way the president sees it, it makes political sense and he sees it as a win-win situation: either they'll knuckle under and give him what he wants, or they won't, and he'll make political capital out of while getting some things he wants anyway.

I hold no particular allegiance for the Republican Party except as (in some respects) an alternative to what I see as ruinous policies. So my main concern now is the coming midterms and 2016, which means the GOP needs to take steps to make sure their fingerprints aren't on the coming debacle, especially since the non FOX media will side with the president in pushing his narrative.

If I were John Boehner, I'd go on national TV (or have someone who's a much better speaker do it) and tell the American people in plain terms exactly what's going on, and why the GOP can no longer support this irresponsible and childish behavior. And I would directly point the finger at the president, in no uncertain terms, including his failure to present any kind of meaningful compromise.

Finally, I would draw a line in the sand and offer Simpson-Bowles, (the plan of the president's own bi-partisan commission that he later rejected)  as the Republican's final offer. And walk away.

As an even more extreme alternative, I might even  tell the American people that if the president failed to come up with a reasonable offer to get our financial house in order,  every Republican legislator was going to vote 'present' on President Obama's proposals, in protest. I would tell the American people that Republicans have no intention of allowing this president to blame his failures on others again.

Make him own the Obama economy.

 The Noisy Room: In response to this week's question: 'The Fiscal Cliff: Let it happen or grand bargain?' I wholeheartedly say to the Republicans, jump off the cliff! When this whole monstrous mess started, I predicted it would come to this. I don't know how anyone can be surprised at the outcome. The two choices are now bend over and take massive tax hikes with no meaningful spending cuts, or go off the cliff. I say take the plunge. It's the only sane choice at this point.

If the Republicans agree to raise taxes, they will lose what little support they have with conservatives and will go the way of the Whigs. And those spending cuts, well... Reagan never saw the ones he was promised when he raised taxes and the Republicans have just about as much chance of seeing these newly promised ones as North Korea has of verifying their unicorn lair. We are sick to death of the Charlie Brown Party. Read my lips: Progressives lie.

Either way, the Left and the media will make the Republicans out to be the bad guys. So, in the face of that, just do the right thing. Stick by conservative principles, close your eyes and jump. I hear the water is fine. It will give the Republicans time to find their moral bearings, grow a spine and start righting the USS Titanic. Make the message about cutting spending which is the real problem anyway. There is no way to tax your way out of this hole.

Do real financial reform... Cut the hell out of government spending, cut taxes and bring America back to greatness. It will create jobs and prosperity. It will create confidence and freedom. It will free us from the shadow of Marxism. It's an easy choice; it's the right choice - the question is, does anyone up there have 'tener cojones' to do the right thing anymore? They will if they care more about Americans and the Constitution than their crappy political careers.

To do what Obama and the Liberals want is madness. Raise taxes while increasing spending will speed up America's death spiral. Want massive growth? Go over the fiscal cliff, do away with the IRS and go to a flat sales tax, let small businesses do their own thing and watch America catapult once again into the strongest nation on earth. Or, compromise and push millions into poverty, slavery and violence. I say, let the cliff diving begin!


 The Right Planet:It looks to me like the Republicans are faced with a no-win scenario. This became abundantly clear to me when I saw Robert Reich state on Twitter that the Republicans want to "hold the middle class hostage" by denying 98% of Americans a tax cut. Obama is trumpeting a similar theme. (Funny how all of a sudden the progressives are for Bush-era "tax cuts.") If I understand correctly, the Obama Administration is proposing freezing the tax rate for 98% of Americans for one year if the Republicans agree to raising taxes on the top two tax rates. A number of conservative pundits, like Rush Limbaugh and Charles Krauthammer, are urging the Republicans to just "walk away" from the deal. The problem I have with this approach is it gives Obama everything he wants. It even lets the president raise the debt limit at will, thereby taking away more power from Congress to control the purse strings.

So, if the Republicans walk away from the deal, the liberal media and the Obama Administration will accuse the GOP of raising taxes on the middle class in order to protect "the rich." But if the Republicans agree to raising taxes on the wealthy, while agreeing to freeze tax rates for the middle class, then they will be accused of selling out. The only reason I believe the Obama Administration is offering to freeze the tax rate on the middle class right now is simply for political expediency; it serves their agenda and backs the GOP into a corner. Looks like Obama and ilk are holding the Republicans hostage.

What's particularly odious about the maneuvers by the White House et al. is the fact the Obama Administration has not passed a budget in the entire time it has been in office. Obama has offered no serious proposal to reduce any federal spending. As a matter of fact, he wants another stimulus out of the deal. The fact is taxes are going up, period. And I wouldn't be surprised if the Republicans get all the blame.

The Glittering Eye: I've posted on this very subject several times this week. I find both the White House's and Congressional Republicans' positions on this subject very frustrating. Both sides are taking positions that appear purely political to me. They appear to be taking an unnecessarily zero-sum view of the negotiations.

Since I opposed the "Bush tax cuts" in 2002-2003, opposed their renewal in 2010, and am still opposed to them as being the wrong taxes to cut, I have no particular fondness for renewing them now. However, I find the notion that raising taxes on just the highest income earners will do much about income inequality, balancing the budget, or much of anything else for that matter pretty far-fetched.

I'd like to see good faith negotiations from both sides. I have no real hope that's going to happen. I'd also like to see a pro-growth agenda but I have no greater hope that will happen, either.

I don't think that any nation in the history of the world has either taxed or cost-reduced its way to greatness or prosperity.

 Bookworm Room: The Republicans, who still control the house, have three choices: (1) Give Obama everything he wants; (2) Give Obama nothing; and (3) Compromise. Believe it or not, I prefer option (1).

To begin with, compromise is out. Any type of compromise will work to Obama's benefit. Obama understands this, which is why he presented the Democrats with a laughable compromise offer, one that gives fiscal conservatives absolutely nothing. If the Republicans actually try to negotiate and he slides a little in their direction, he still wins. Obama knows that, with an utterly compliant press, he will take credit for any slight upticks in the economy, while lambasting the Republicans for the economy's continued slide.

Giving Obama nothing is no better. The Republicans in the House can hark back to the Reagan era and "just say 'No.'" The problem with that course of action is that it will result in a stalemate. Unfortunately, this stalemate has ticking bombs in it -- sequestration and tax increases. Once these happen, the compliant media will again blame the Republicans, while Obama walks away spotless.

The only approach that offers some hope for long-term American stability and fiscally-sound, constitutional capitalism is the most painful one: The Republicans should give Obama everything he wants. They should turn to the American people and say "By re-electing Obama and keeping the Senate majority Democrat, this is what you asked for, so this is what you'll get. We wash our hands of it. This is truly Obama's economy now." Things will happen quickly (and badly) under this scenario, but the Republicans will have kept their noses clean and will have spelled out very clearly for Americans the differences between socialism and constitutional capitalism.

In the short term, these are all Hobson's choices, since they are all awful. However, it's only Option (1) -- saying to Obama "you own the economy" -- that will provide a short, sharp shock sufficiently horrific to scare people away from a Fabian slide into perpetual socialism.

 Well, there you have it.

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White House Opposes New Iran Sanctions Approved By The Senate 94-0

 

The Obama White House is now opposing new, stricter sanctions against Iran after the U.S. Senate approved them 94-0:

The White House announced its opposition to a new round of Iran sanctions that the Senate unanimously approved Friday, in the latest instance of Congress pushing for more aggressive punitive measures on Iran than the administration deems prudent.

On Thursday, Sens. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Mark Kirk (R-IL) introduced the amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, which the Senate passed 94-0. The new legislative language would blacklist Iran's energy, port, shipping, and shipbuilding sectors, while also placing new restrictions on Iran's ability to get insurance for all these industries. The legislation would also vastly expand U.S. support for human rights inside Iran and impose new sanctions on Iranians who divert humanitarian assistance from its intended purpose.

"The window is closing. The time for the waiting game is over," Menendez said on the Senate floor Thursday night. "Yes, our sanctions are having a demonstrable effect on the Iranian economy, but Iran is still working just as hard to develop nuclear weapons."

But the White House told several Senate offices Thursday evening that the administration was opposed to the amendment. National Security Spokesman Tommy Vietor sent The Cable the administration's official position, explaining the White House's view the sanctions aren't needed and aren't helpful at this time.

"As we focus with our partners on effectively implementing these efforts, we believe additional authorities now threaten to undercut these efforts," he said. "We also have concerns with some of the formulations as currently drafted in the text and want to work through them with our congressional partners to make the law more effective and consistent with the current sanctions law to ensure we don't undercut our success to date."

The real story, of course is that the new sanctions threaten to undercut the administration's ability to water them down by issuing waivers to most countries on abiding by them..just as they did with the last set of sanctions. That's why. although there's been a certain amount of economic turmoil, it hasn't stopped Iran from pursuing its illegal nuclear weapons program one iota:

One of the White House's chief concerns is that Congress is not providing the administration enough waivers, which would give the United States the option of negating or postponing applications of the sanctions on a case-by-case basis.

The White House also said that secondary sanctions should apply only to those Iranian persons and entities that are guilty of aiding Iran's nulear and missile programs. The new legislative language would designate entire categories of Iranian government entities to be sanctioned -- whether or not each person or entity is directly involved in such activities.{...}

"The truth is that the U.S. Congress continues to lead a comprehensive and unrelenting international sanctions program against the Iranian regime despite a comprehensive and unrelenting campaign by this administration to block or water down those sanctions at every move," a senior GOP Senate aide told The Cable. "We beat them 100-0 last year and while they tried to kill this amendment more quietly this time, we beat them again 94-0. Hopefully House and Senate negotiators will stay strong and resist the administration's strategy to dilute these sanctions in conference."

Actually, if the Obama Administration really wanted to stop Iran's nuclear program in a heartbeat, all they'd have to do would be to forbid any U.S. bank from doing transactions with any bank processing Iran's oil payments, or any insurance company insuring Iran's oils shipments from doing business with American citizens or financial outlets.

That's exactly how President George W. Bush dealt with outlets like the BCCI that were financing terrorism, and it's one of the few things he got right. The world's banking system is still wired into New York, and the inability to process oil payments or insure cargoes would pretty much end the game.Even the Russians and the Turks would have to comply.

Instead, we've been tasking half measures while the centrifuges turn and having them undercut by the President Obama and his team, sheer foreign policy geniuses that they are.

And this is just another example.