Watcher's council nominations, 2/24/10

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. After that, the members vote - and the results will be seen here Friday.

So, let's see what we have this week....and do check out the Watcher's screed on Senator John McCain and bi-partisanship.

Council Submissions

• American Digest - Obamacare Now! Because What We’ve Got Isn’t Bad Enough
• Wolf Howling - Brown & The Jobs Bill
• Joshuapundit - Obama Appoints Jihad Friendly Ambassador To The OIC
• The Razor - How Global Warming Alarmists Irreparably Damaged Science
• Bookworm Room - Jon Stewart: genuinely ignorant or just hiding the ball when it comes to socialism
• The Glittering Eye - Wishful Thinking from Tom Friedman?
• Rhymes With Right - My Endorsement — Harris County District Clerk — An Endorsement I Didn’t Expect To Make
• Right Truth - Obama Funds Offshore Drilling … in Brazil
• The Colossus of Rhodey - Go Figure
• The Provocateur - MGM Building Up By Tearing Down
• Soccer Dad - Cry havoc and let slip the fog of (agw) lore
• Mere Rhetoric - Aww… Glut Of Gaza Products Putting Small-Time Smugglers Out Of Business

Non-Council Submissions

• Submitted By: The Watcher – Legal Insurrection - Obligatory “Obama Was Against The Nuclear Option Before He Was For It”
• Submitted By: American Digest – Walter Russell Mead - Sunday Jeremiad: Petty Prophets of the Blue Beast
• Submitted By: Wolf Howling – Legal Insurrection - Will Obamacare Kill Miracle Cures
• Submitted By: Joshuapundit – Michael Yon/Big Government - Whispers
• Submitted By: Bookworm Room – Contentions - A world historic find in Jerusalem
• Submitted By: The Glittering Eye – David Bellavia - Our Mission is Finally Accomplished… Anyone Care?
• Submitted By: Rhymes With Right – I Have A Title For This - 75 reasons to be skeptical of “global warming”
• Submitted By: Right Truth – Making Sense of Jihad - Too many dots to connect (expanded edition)
• Submitted By: The Colossus of Rhodey – Delaware Libertarian - CPAC Surprise: Ron Paul Wins Presidential Straw Poll
• Submitted By: The Provocateur – Chicago Reader - It Pays to Have An Alderman in Your Pocket
• Submitted By: Soccer Dad – David Bellavia - Our Mission is Finally Accomplished… Anyone Care?
• Submitted By: Mere Rhetoric – The Fingerman - Jewish Fact Check #6: Who’s really using the term “anti-Semite”?

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MSNBC Commentator Calls GOP Candidate Marco Rubio A 'Coconut"

Mess NBC leftard Donny Deutsch used the racist term 'coconut' to refer to Florida GOP Senate frontrunner Marco Rubio last night on the Joy Behar show. The Urban Dictionary correctly defines the term as referring to someone who is 'brown on the outside but white inside' which is pretty funny coming from the pasty white complected Deutsch. Rubio, of course, is of Cuban extraction. Here's a partial transcript:

JOY BEHAR: Let's talk about the Republican Party. They're becoming- You're a brander. You know about that. They are the party of no. And that's not a good thing.

DONNY DEUTSCH: It's not a good thing. But what they figured out, finally, unfortunately, in the last six weeks, if you think about Brown winning, if you think about in Virginia where they won, if you think about this guy Rubio they're pushing in Florida, they're understanding that just this vitriolic, "We hate Obama. The world is bad," the Sarah Palins of the world, the Dick Cheneys of the world, the Rush Limbaughs, is unelectable. Let's put forward a fiscal conservative, socially- what appears to be socially moderate in terms of whatnot [sic], that's the electable candidate. So they're getting it. There's a difference between-

BEHAR: Who is that person?

DEUTSCH: It's basically it's a Scott Brown. And once again. It's amazing. They're talking about presidential timber. He's never done anything in his whole life. That's the whole thing. It's the blank piece of paper people can assign things to. One of the reasons, interestingly enough, I think we are a society of no right now. One of the reasons Obama got elected, because he was a blank page. You could assign hope to him.

BEHAR: That's true.

DEUTSCH: We're such a media frenzy, 24/7 world that almost anybody that's been around too long, there's so much "no" attached to it, that you almost need that blank piece of paper. That's the new model. Like, you know, this coconut Rubio down in Florida. You know-

Needless to say, überleftard harridan Joy Behar had absolutely nothing to say about Deutch's language...because as we all know, when the Left does racism it's okay.

This act turned unintentionally comic when Behar and Deutsch went on to smear the tea party movement for racism:

BEHAR: So, basically, these people, the tea partiers are basically angry with the right and the left for the same reason, that there's fiscal irresponsibility?

DEUTSCH: No, they're angry- they're basically- their argument is- and I think there's a lot of racism underneath it- is- "He, they, are taking your civil liberties away. They're stomping on the Constitution. They're telling us how many bullets we can have in our guns."

So...is Mess NBC going to call for Deutsch and Behar to apologize? We'll see, but I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you.

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Micheal Steele's Free Spending Ways Anger GOP Donors

As well it should.

Republican National Chairman Michael Steele is spending twice as much as his recent predecessors on private planes and paying more for limousines, catering and flowers – expenses that are infuriating the party's major donors who say Republicans need every penny they can get for the fight to win back Congress.

Most recently, donors grumbled when Steele hired renowned chef Wolfgang Puck's local crew to cater the RNC's Christmas party inside the trendy Newseum on Pennsylvania Avenue, and then moved its annual winter meeting from Washington to Hawaii.

For some major GOP donors, both decisions were symbolic of the kind of wasteful spending habits they claim has become endemic to his tenure at the RNC. When Ken Mehlman served as the committee chairman during the critical 2006 midterm elections, the holiday party was held in a headquarters conference room and Chic-fil-A was the caterer.

A POLITICO analysis of expenses found that compared with 2005, the last comparable year preceding a midterm election, the committee’s payments for charter flights doubled; the number of sedan contractors tripled, and meal expenses jumped from $306,000 to $599,000.

“Michael Steele is an imperial chairman,” said one longtime Republican fundraiser. “He flies in private aircraft. He drives in private cars. He has private consultants that are paid ridiculous retainers. He fancies himself a presidential candidate and wants all of the trappings and gets them by using other people’s money.”

As you can imagine,when GOP donors see their money wasted to pump up Steele's ego, donations to the RNC have fallen off sharply.

When Steele took over last winter, he inherited a $23 million surplus.Since then, the RNC has raised $10 million less than the party did in 2005 and has spent $10 million more.

And a lot of it has gone for perks and high living by Steele and company:

Four years ago, the national committee spent $1.5 million on airfare, including $81,000 with Moby Dick Airways, a private charter firm. Those costs were somewhat inflated because of campaign finance rules. A large chunk of the airfare — about $300,000 — covered the travel of Bush administration officials, who by law had to be charged higher fares.

Last year, the RNC spent $1.8 million on airfare, which included just a handful of pre-Inauguration trips by Bush officials. Meanwhile, the roster of private charter firms working for the RNC grew from one to seven. Among them were Moby Dick, a favorite of Republican presidential candidates, which received $79,000; Altour Air, which is based in Los Angeles and received nearly $51,000; and NewJets, which got more than $27,000.

In all, the RNC’s air charter bills amounted to more than $200,000 — more than double the amount in the 2005 budget.

The RNC’s use of private car services followed a similar pattern.

In both 2005 and 2009, the committee contracted with Carey International car services. But the number of private limousine and sedan firms being used by the committee tripled in 2009. Overall, the RNC’s car service bill was $245,000 in 2005 and $281,000 in 2009.

In addition to traveling in better style, RNC officials spent more once they arrived at their destinations.

The 2005 committee spent $1.35 million on lodging, compared with $1.5 million last year. The locations also improved. There were overnights at Ritz-Carlton hotels in Chicago, Denver, Marina del Rey, Westchester and Boston. The committee dropped $8,000 for two stays at Hotel Vitale, which boasts panoramic views of the San Francisco Bay.

Let's not even mention the $1 million Steele okayed for RINO Dede Scozzafava's campaign in NY 23 while shunning Conservative candidate Doug Hoffman, even after he had endorsements from major conservative Republicans. As it was Scozzafava turned Democrat and took just enough votes away from Hoffman to allow Democrat Bill Owens to win by a whisker.

Since he's been in charge, Steele has done very little that's been positive and a whole lot that's been negative. He's used his position to enrich himself by pimping lucrative speaking tours for himself, accepting paid speaking engagements while he is working as the RNC’s chairman and shilling a book he's written, while spending RNC money like water with so little effect and accountability that a number of high level GOP donors have reportedly closed their checkbooks,taking their money to individual candidates, the Republican Governors Association and the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which are all seeing their coffers swell to record levels .

This is problematic because the midterm campaigns are approaching, and the RNC could face a situation where it simply doesn't have the cash to capitalize on what should be a very good year for Republican candidates, thanks to Steele's mismanagement.

Not only that, but it sends the wrong message when a party that is supposedly for small government, less waste and fiscal responsibility can't keep its own house in order.

The last time the RNC sent me a fundraiser, I returned it with a short, eight word note - "Not a dime until you fire Michael Steele."

That still goes as far as I'm concerned.

Steele probably thinks he invulnerable because of his race. That's understandable, since he only got the gig in the first place because the GOP in the midst of Obamamania wanted to send a message that 'hey, we have black people too! Looky!'

Fire him NOW. And believe me, any black voters bringing a racial angle into this wouldn't be voting against Obama and the Democrats anyway.

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Video: The New Nazis Of Islamofascism March In Front Of The Louvre

The irony of hardline Islamists marching in front of one of the world's great houses of Western art is hysterically funny - almost.

You'll notice the flags...black for jihad, yellow for Hezbollah, green for Hamas. And oh yes, a couple of what looked like home made Israeli flags burned and trampled.

Some of the Arabic chants translate as "We are the soldiers of Mohammad."

The only difference between this and 70 years ago is that the mob is less disciplined and screams 'Allahu Akbar!' instead of 'Heil Hitler!'

Courtesy and a commendation to long time Joshua's Army member Joyce C. for sending this my way.

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The New, Improved Obamacare Rears It's Ugly head

Well, Obama has finally come out his special, last ditch version of ObamaCare...and it's pretty grim, as I expected.

It's based on the Senate bill, and would cost more, $950 billion over 10 years.As I've noted before, because the bill would cover illegal aliens, the costs are severely underestimated.

The latest wrinkle involves a new level of bureaucracy for what amounts to price controls on what private insurance companies may charge for premiums. The new Health Insurance Rate Authority would formulate a policy on what it views as reasonable rate increases, and those considered unjustified would be disallowed.

As the more astute of you probably realize, this will have the same effect such controls always do, a net rise in rates and a limiting of choices as some companies get out of the health insurance business because it's no longer profitable. Some of you might want to look at the results since the feds did this with the credit card industry as an example.

Eventually, it's designed to lead to the government run 'public option' the Obama Administration and the Democrats in Congress want for everyone except themselves.

The new proposed take on the Baucus Bill incorporates much higher penaties on business that fail to insure their workers ( which should slow down any new hiring) and on individuals who fail to buy health insurance.The Obama plan also raises the dollar threshold to define "Cadillac Plans" and defers the tax on them until 2018 for everybody, not just the unions.

Of course, Obama's proposal wants new taxes not mentioned in the bill to make up for that lost "revenue".

Also, to make up for lost 'revenue' and pay for the additional subsidies, the bill applies the Medicare tax to unearned income to so-called 'upper-income households' and increase cuts to the Medicare Advantage program for seniors....AKA rationing. It also increase fees on 'brand name pharmaceuticals', which if course will be passed on to the consumer.

And of course, no tort reform or provision to buy across state lines.

All in all, it's about what I expected, except I assumed that a public option would be a blatant part of it. Instead, Obama and his friends have cunningly set up a scenario where that happens by attrition in a couple of years.

This entire proposal needs to be fought tooth and nail.

Obama has presented this, essentially, as a take it or leave it, with the or else being the threat of passing this via an outright misuse of the reconciliation process.

If the GOP is thinking, they'll call this bluff, boycott the 'summit' and propose their own plan. And yes, it'll be voted down, but the country would get a new perspective on whom the obstructionists really are.

As for the reconciliation threat, if the Democrats had the votes ( and remember, the fight has always been among Democrats, as the GOP has been effectively locked out of the room) I think they would have done it long ago.

Pelosi only got this through the House last time by a bare margin which doesn't exist now...Murtha's seat is empty, Abercrombie of Hawaii is going to resign this week and Wexler of Florida won't be filled until April.

There's always the possibility of another Republican being bribed ala' Joseph Cao to support this, but I think the Dems chances would very slim.

In any event, there's no harm in opposing this and letting the Democrats assume the onus.

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Lockerbie Bomber Still Alive - And Living In A Luxury Villa

Remember when Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, the Lockerbie bomber who murdered 270 innocent people was arbitrarily freed on 'compassionate grounds' because he supposedly only had three months to live?

Remember how he was returned to Libya to a hero's welcome and a personal greeting by Khadaffi himself?

Six months later, as the Telegraph reports, al-Megrahi is doing just fine, thank you:

Megrahi, is now living in a spacious two-storey villa with his wife and their five grown-up children in a prosperous suburb of Tripoli, the Libyan capital.

The property has a spacious garden and an area where the family erects a large tent to entertain visitors for celebrations.

The property has a security gate and there is often a uniformed police officer sitting on a white chair outside.

The Megrahis, who are part of a prominent tribe, are well off and it is understood that his family was paid substantial compensation by the Libyan Government after he was jailed for life.

Sends a real message about how rewarding jihad against the infidels is, doesn't it?

Another thing apparently that's doing fine are the oil deals the Brits made with Khadaffi as part of the bargain for this cockroach's freedom.

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Going Galt

Here's a note to the Angry Left - Try to tax the productive out of existence, and they go Galt and either cut production and investment, go underground or leave.

Here's a great example of how this works, although The Denver Post, of course examines it more as sociological dataspeak rather than look at the deeper story it is:

Sharon Poczatek knows many people would call her rich. Others might say her high income constitutes a just reward for hard work.

All she knows for certain is that her successful Boulder dental practice has her contemplating the fairness of government asking quarter-million-dollar earners to pay higher taxes.

When President Barack Obama first proposed tax hikes on the wealthy to start closing the budget gap, Poczatek had what she calls a "knee-jerk" idea of cutting back her practice to lower her income from $320,000 to just below the $250,000 trigger.

From the moment her musings went public on a national news website, backers of the increase chastised her for not understanding the tax code. Opponents embraced her as evidence that the proposal would destroy incentive and cost jobs. {...}

Poczatek, the Boulder dentist, grew up in Chicago, the daughter of a factory worker whose financial goal echoed the middle-class mantra: Give our children a better life.

As she considers where her income places her on the American financial hierarchy, she settles on a designation of "upper middle class" and ascribes it to her upbringing — a sense that you earn your rewards.

"I worked hard and I made it," Poczatek said. "I'm not a 'trust-afarian.' That, to me, is rich: People who aren't producing something but have wealth. We go to work every day to get that income, so I think of myself as upper middle class.

"But then suddenly you're 'rich.' It's like, how did that happen?"

Read the rest here

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The GOP Steps In It Again

After President Obama announced a televised bi-partisan health care summit, both GOP Minority Whip Eric Cantor and GOP Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell came out with bold statements calling for President Obama to prove he was serious about seeking bi-partisan input by ending his efforts to shove through the highly unpopular monstrosity known as ObamaCare, scrapping the existing nonsense and starting on a real bi-partisan bill from scratch.

Why they're so slow on the uptake is beyond me. Haven't they figured out by now that the way to tell whether Prez Zero is lying is to check whether his mouth is moving?

No sooner did they agree to attend the president's televised dog n' pony show than the news broke that Obama, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi were making plans to push through ObamaCare by a blatant misuse of the 51-vote reconciliation process anyway, come what may.

Now after that bit of blatant treachery,anyone with the normal quotient of gonads would have told Obama exactly what he could do with his summit'. But not the leadership - they plan on attending!

The Senate's top Republican promised Sunday morning that he and his members will attend President Obama's health care summit on Thursday "ready to participate" but said the Democrats are being "arrogant" by refusing to scrap their legislation and start over.

"You know, they are saying, "Ignore the wishes of the American people. We know more about this than you do. And we're going to jam it down your throats no matter what," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on Fox News Sunday.

Republicans have accused the president of using Thursday's summit as political theater, and had raised the prospect of not attending. McConnell dismissed the idea of a GOP boycott, saying that "we're discussing the -- sort of the makeup of the room and that sort of thing, but yeah, I intend to be there and my members will be there and ready to participate."

Is McConnell really that dense? The 'summit' is going to be nothing more a photo-op for Prez Zero, nothing more. Come what may, Obama and the Donkeys are going to self-immolate by pushing this through - so why give Obama the satisfaction of participating in this sordid little circus?

Instead of that, the GOP should boycott the summit and do what I suggested a long time ago - introduce their own common sense, much cheaper health care reform plan as new legislation and let the country watch the Dems vote against it. The ideas already pretty much exist on the GOP website...are they incapable of having someone draft them into a short, easy to understand bill?

Instead of that, they've sat back and let Prez Zero and his pals frame the debate.

ObamaCare is failure on an epic level, but instead of letting Obama and the Democrats wallow in the ordure, the GOP leadership seems obsessed with smearing themselves with the nasty stuff.

Un-freaking-believable.

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AZ Prosecutors Won't Seek Death Penalty In Honor Killing, Citing Islamophobia

Welcome to BizarroWorld:

After sparring with the suspect's defense attorney over its death penalty review process, the Maricopa County Attorney's Office has said it will not seek death for Faleh Almaleki, 49.{...}

The decision not to seek the death penalty comes after Almaleki's attorney, Billy Little, a public defender, asked a judge to take special precautions to ensure the County Attorney's Office wouldn't wrongly seek the death penalty because Almaleki is a Muslim.

Little requested that the office make public the process it uses to determine whether to seek capital punishment.

"An open process provides some level of assurance that there is no appearance that a Christian is seeking to execute a Muslim for racial, political, religious or cultural beliefs," Little wrote, referring to County Attorney Andrew Thomas' Christian faith.

Prosecutors said Almaleki has admitted killing his daughter because she disgraced the family by not following traditional Iraqi or Muslim values.

And yes, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office has confirmed that al-Maleki is still being charged with first degree murder, aggravated assault, and two counts of leaving the scene of an accident.

And there's no controversy over the fact that al-Maleki deliberately ran over his daughter Noor. Her 'crime' was apparently to flee an arranged marriage back in Iraq, return to America and get on with her life.

This is exactly how the poison of sharia creeps into a free society. The next step, of course, is to say that non-Muslim kaffir judges, lawyers and jurors by default are incapable of judging Muslims just like the Qu'ran says, so we need a sharia court system that is mandatory for Muslims to use in 'religious' cases like this one and has equal status with our own courts.

Think I'm exaggerating? It's already a fact of life in Britain, a country where sharia law has equal status with British common law, British police run from Muslim mobs and there are no go areas for non-Muslims in some of Britain's cities where the police only go in armed bands.

We had better take a very clear look at seemingly trivial matters like this and raise hell unless we want to go down the same road.

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Obama's Jihad Friendly Envoy To OIC Lies, Then Backtracks...

My, oh my.

You'll recall the piece I did on Monday regarding White House lawyer Rashad Hussain, whom Obama picked as our ambassador to pander to the anti-Semitic and pro-jihad Organization of Islamic Conference.

As I revealed, Hussain's roots in the Salafist Muslim Brotherhood, the parent group of Hamas go way back. That includes major connections to the International Institute of islamic thought ( IIIT), a jihadist fund raising organization closely connected with our old friend Sami Al-Arian, a convicted terrorist who was Palestinian Islamic jihad's own man in America and formed a whole nest of budding jihadis at the University of South Florida.

Unfortunately, Hussain's Muslim Brotherhood connections aren't getting nearly as much attention as his outburst supporting Sami al-Arian, his referring to the Bush Administration's successful attempt to bring him to justice as a 'politically motivated prosecution' and his subsequent attempts to whitewash those remarks as he became more prominent in the White House staff.It was Hussain, by the way, who contributed a lot of the verbiage present in Obama's fictional recitation in Cairo on the glories of Islamic civilization, the myth of Islam's tolerance for other religions and what our Dear Leader termed its `centuries of co-existence and cooperation' with the West.

After initially denying the al-Arian remarks, Hussain finally fessed up, saying, “I made statements on that panel that I now recognize were ill-conceived or not well-formulated.”

Amazing how he finally reached that conclusion now, after he was outed by the blogosphere. Just a coincidence.

Hussain also admitted that it was he that got the the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, an extremely pro-Arab, anti-Israel publication to edit the sentences that refer to Hussain and his pro-jihad statements out of the current online version.

However, what no one is mentioning aside from Hussain's long time Islamist connections is what's revealed by his co-authoring of a paper called "Reformulating the Battle of Ideas: Understanding the Role of Islam in Counterterrorism Policy" for the Brookings Institution with Al-Husein N. Madhany. For those of you who saw this in the previous piece, forgive the repetition....I'll translate as we go:

First, rather than characterizing counterterrorism efforts as “freedom and democracy versus terrorist ideology,” policymakers should instead frame the battle of ideas as a conflict between terrorist elements in the Muslim world and Islam.

( "Islam is a religion of peace. No need to get overly concerned about how they treat women, Jews, Homosexuals and Christians. Instead, we'll convince the Muslim 'street' that we're more Islamist than the jihadis!")

Second, policymakers should reject the use of language that provides a religious legitimization of terrorism such as “Islamic terrorism” and “Islamic extremist.” They should replace such terminology with more specific and descriptive terms such as “Al-Qaeda terrorism.”

( "Let's definitely continue not to call things by their right name.")

Third, the United States should seek to build a broad and diverse coalition of partners, not limited to those who advocate Western-style democracy, and avoid creating a dichotomy between freedom and Islamic society. Such a coalition should incorporate those who may have political differences, so long as they reject terrorism.

( "See point one. Thou shalt not tick off the Saudis, no matter what quaint beliefs they have that might not jibe with a free western society." )

Fourth, the United States should enlist the assistance of scholars of Islam and the Muslim world to determine how best to frame the mission of the global counterterrorism mission. Rather than framing the conflict as “pro-freedom” or “anti-Jihadist,” these scholars should analyze the most persuasive methods for applying Islamic law to reject terrorism.

( "We definitely need more Imams on the payroll. And of course, let them decide how best to deal with the Islamists. haven't they done a splendid job so far?")

Fifth, the United States should incorporate the Muslim community as well as scholars of Islam and of the Muslim world in the policymaking process to help craft policies that reflect a more nuanced understanding of those targeted.

("Nuke Israel and probably India. { I know, but Mom and Dad will love me for mentioning it}Then the Muslim umma will have absolutely nothing to be steamed about. ")

Sixth, the United States should promote and distribute scholarship such as the North American Muslims Scholars’ Fatwa against Terrorism and the Aal al-Bayt Institute’s anti-terrorism rulings, which carefully analyze issues such as the use of force in Islam and conclude that terrorism must be rejected unequivocally.

( "See point four. Oh, and realize that many Muslims have a slightly different definition of terrorism than you do..but, no worries, eh?" )

Seventh, recognizing the benefit of strengthening the authoritative voices of mainstream Islam, the United States should welcome and encourage the further development of mainstream Muslim organizations and moderate institutions.

( "That means CAIR, the MPAC and the Islamic Society of North America. We need more Wahabi mosques and sharia friendly zones in America, funded by the taxpayers." )

Finally, the United States should continue to promote effective economic and social reforms and to work with allies in crafting fair and peaceful resolutions to conflicts in the Middle East and in other parts of the Muslim world, as these conflicts are often the preeminent grievances fueling extremist violence.

("Like I said, nuke Israel and probably India, but especially Israel. Give us the Jews and we'll let you live...trust me! ")

There's really no doubt which was Rashad Hussain leans, especially if there was a conflict of interest between America's interests and the Muslim ummah's.

Essentially, we have a jihad friendly Muslim Brotherhood sympathizer now serving as a high- ranking White House official. Nor, obviously is he the only one.

The Obama administration hasn't even bothered to comment yet on whether Hussain's statements or what they've revealed are going to have any effect on his appointment.Instead, they're simply going to see if they can get away with it.

And that says volumes.

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Congressional Candidate Lt. Col Allen West On Israel

At an event commemorating the first full year of weekly rallies in support of Israel held at Broward Boulevard and Northeast Third Avenue in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

BTW, the pro-Hamas rally he mentioned featured Arabs and Hamas groupies screaming 'Jews to the gas!' and made news all over the blogosphere.

West is a decorated war hero whose awards and decorations include the Bronze Star, Meritorious Service Medal (two Oak Leaf Clusters), Army Commendation Medal (two Oak Leaf Clusters, one Valor Device), Army Achievement Medal (one Oak Leaf Cluster), Valorous Unit Award, Air Assault Badge and the Parachutist Badge. And now he's running for Congress.

BTW, West's website is here, if you're moved to make a donation.

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General Al Haig, RIP

Another American hero has made the passage.

General Alexander Meigs Haig Jr., who died yesterday at 85 devoted his life to the service of his country.

His military decorations, won in battle in Korea and Vietnam included two Silver Stars, a Bronze Star with Valor device, a DSC and Purple Heart among a slew of others. Haig participated in four Korean War campaigns, including the amazing Battle of Inchon, the Battle of Chosin Reservoir, and the evacuation of Hŭngnam.

Here's an excerpt from one of his citations, for his DSC:

When two of his companies were engaged by a large hostile force, Colonel Haig landed amid a hail of fire, personally took charge of the units, called for artillery and air fire support and succeeded in soundly defeating the insurgent force...the next day a barrage of 400 rounds was fired by the Viet Cong, but it was ineffective because of the warning and preparations by Colonel Haig. As the barrage subsided, a force three times larger than his began a series of human wave assaults on the camp. Heedless of the danger himself, Colonel Haig repeatedly braved intense hostile fire to survey the battlefield. His personal courage and determination, and his skillful employment of every defense and support tactic possible, inspired his men to fight with previously unimagined power. Although his force was outnumbered three to one, Colonel Haig succeeded in inflicting 592 casualties on the Viet Cong... (HQ US Army, Vietnam, General Orders No. 2318 (May 22, 1967)

General Haig went to Washington where he served in the Nixon Administration on the NSC staff, eventually rising to become White house Chief of Staff where he helped guide the country through the Watergate crisis, keeping essential government functions running while President Nixon was preoccupied with the fallout from Watergate.

During the Carter years, Haig wisely got out of Washington and became C in C of NATO forces in Europe. After compiling a superb record there, he retired from the Army as a four-star general in 1979.

In 1981, General Haig once again returned to Washington as President Reagan's first Secretary of State, although he was later left to go into private industry. Among other things, he was a founding board member of AOL.

Moshe Arens in Ha'aretz, the ex-Israeli Ambassador to the US has his own post mortum on General Haig, who was a stauch friend of Israel. ( Hat tip, Joshau's Army member Zeb)

A heroic life, well lived.

At ease, Soldier..rest in peace.

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Holder Admits To Nine Obama DOJ Officials Who Advocated For Terrorist Detainees

This was Holder's official non answer to a question posed by GOP Senator Chuck Grassley last November:

Attorney General Eric Holder says nine Obama appointees in the Justice Department have represented or advocated for terrorist detainees before joining the Justice Department. But he does not reveal any names beyond the two officials whose work has already been publicly reported. And all the lawyers, according to Holder, are eligible to work on general detainee matters, even if there are specific parts of some cases they cannot be involved in.

Holder's admission comes in the form of an answer to a question posed last November by Republican Sen. Charles Grassley. Noting that one Obama appointee, Principal Deputy Solicitor General Neal Katyal, formerly represented Osama bin Laden's driver, and another appointee, Jennifer Daskal, previously advocated for detainees at Human Rights Watch, Grassley asked Holder to give the Senate Judiciary Committee "the names of political appointees in your department who represent detainees or who work for organizations advocating on their behalf…the cases or projects that these appointees work with respect to detainee prior to joining the Justice Department…and the cases or projects relating to detainees that have worked on since joining the Justice Department."

In his response, Holder has given Grassley almost nothing. He says nine Obama political appointees at the Justice Department have advocated on behalf of detainees, but did not identify any of the nine other than the two, Katyal and Daskal, whose names Grassley already knew.

Not only that, but there wasn't even an attempt to make a complete list of jihadi advocates in the Obama justice department. Holder stated explicitly that he didn't bother to survey the entire Justice Department but just took a cursory look at a couple of large offices within the organization.

And while Holder attempts to make the point that these lawyers could recuse themselves from working on terrorist cases, in reality the only cases they would have to avoid working on are cases specifically about their own clients.

But as Holder himself admits, the same lawyers who worked on cases to free Gitmo jihadis could work on cases involving other jihadis held in other locations. And because almost all the same arguments and precedents and legal points carried in those case will apply directly to the ongoing conflict of interest as the same lawyers work to push policies that will get their other clients out of jail.

But let's not question their patriotism or how serious their commitment to US security is, shall we?

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What Bi-Partisanship? Dems Vow To Shove ObamaCare Through

While Barack Obama has been publicly calling for a bi-partisan debate on health care, behind the scenes he and the Democrats have been working feverishly to craft a monstrosity capable of being passed via the reconciliation process:

President Barack Obama is expected to publish his healthcare plan as early as Sunday or Monday, combining features of the two Democratic bills passed by the Senate and House of Representatives, congressional aides and healthcare advocates said on Friday. {...}

Democrats are struggling to push healthcare legislation over the finish line in the face of sagging public support and solid Republican opposition bolstered by recent election victories in Massachusetts, Virginia and New Jersey.

The legislation the White House will post on its website is expected to reflect common ground negotiated over the past several weeks by House and Senate Democratic leaders.

Those agreements are likely to be combined as a privileged budget reconciliation bill, which only needs a simple 51-vote majority to pass the 100-member Senate instead of the 60-vote supermajority that has become routine in the Senate and gives Republicans power to block the healthcare bill.

And yes, it will include government run healthcare..the so-called 'public option.'

Reconciliation would only involve a 51 vote majority ( which could include VP Joe Biden in case of a tie) rather than a 60 vote majority.

The big parliamentary glitch is that the House Democrats would have to pass the Senate bill first for it to be 'reconciled to include all the corrupt special deals like exempting unions from the tax on so-called 'cadillac' health plans the House and the White House want.

This would involve a fairly dicey agreement by the Senate to pass a second bill for these goodies.

Or it may just be that the Democratic majority will simply decide to change the Senate rules of the game again and Obama's bidding anyway.

GOP Whip Eric Cantor released the following statement, which his office says was offered "in light of the Senator Reid's support for changing the rules in the middle of the game by using reconciliation to jam through a health care bill (including the public option) that the American people have already rejected multiple times" :

“If the President is sincere about moving forward in a bipartisan fashion, he must take the reconciliation process – which will be used jam through legislation that a majority of Americans do not want – off the table. By using the reconciliation process, the Administration and Democrat leaders are sending a clear signal that they still refuse to listen to the American people and have no interest in bipartisanship. To be certain, by using the reconciliation process, the Administration makes clear that their promise of bipartisanship is dead.

“If the President's intention for the health care summit is to finally show that he is ready to listen and work in a bipartisan way to produce incremental reforms that the American people support, he is off to a rocky start. The health care bills that the Obama Administration has apparently combined to form a new plan - unfortunately again behind closed doors - have not only been rejected by the American people and Republicans, but by Democrats on Capitol Hill who have spent that past year arguing amongst themselves over them. I urge President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, and Leader Reid to stop trying to subvert the will of the American people and finally start listening to them.”

I doubt Obama has any intention of stopping this. He's simply invested too much of his ego and prestige to stop now, and nothing - the political price, the fact we can't afford it or the fact that the American people simply want no part of it - means anything to this president next to that.

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Never Underestimate The Israeli Sense Of Humor

In this case, it's taking the mickey out of the Brits being all in a lather over whether the Mossad carried out the assassination of a Hamas cockroach in Dubai.

Check out this tweet from the Israeli embassy in London:

Uhhh...except the 'hit' the link refers to goes to a story about Israeli tennis phenom Shahar Peer pulling off an upset and knocking off top ranked Caroline Wozniacki 6-2, 7-5 to reach the quarterfinals of the Dubai Championship!

Heh!

Courtesy of William at the one and only Le'gal In'sur'rec'tion

Oh,by the way, you might remember Shahar Peer..she wasn't allowed to participate in the Dubai open last year because she was a Jew and was refused the visa Dubai gives to the occasional Jew to enter the country..

What changed this year is that the Women's Tennis Association made noises about dropping Dubai after Peer was refused a visa at the last minute, and The Tennis Channel refused to televise it.And Barclay's Bank, who sponsored the tournament reaped a lot of bad press.

I suppose the powers that be in Dubai decided that letting a Jew in to play tennis was worth avoiding the headlines and bad publicity.

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Funny! Obama Sings "Everything Is Bush's Fault"

A little music to start the weekend...Obama and the mmm mmm mmm kids sing "Everything Is Bush's Fault"!

A Paul Shanklin parody from Rush's show, via Ace.

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Gallup Poll Reveals America's Most Favorably Perceived Countries

The Gallup Poll scored Americans' perceptions of 20 nations that figure prominently in the news or U.S. foreign policy and released the results today..and here are the results. Note that Israel scored 5th on the list with a 67% favorable rating...while the Palestinian Authority scored 4th from the bottom with 20% favorability versus 70% unfavorable...and that Iran is dead last:

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Obama Uses TARP As His Personal Slush Fund - Again

It never ends...

Today, President Obama took a trip to Nevada - where he's not exactly popular these days - to do some damage control and try and help Harry Reid and unveiled a brand new way to spend other people's money - a $1.5 billion 'stimulus' to the housing finance agencies in the five states of Arizona, California, Florida, Michigan and Nevada.

Just a mere coincidence of course, but those are all states where a number of Democrats are fighting to take open GOP seats or incumbents are having re-election problems..especially Barbara Boxer and Harry Reid, in the Senate.

The TARP funds, as you know, were originally intended to help lenders deal with toxic and troubled assets and limited to that purpose alone. As the money is paid back with interest, Barack Obama continues to prove that he regards it as 'his ' money, to be used for his own political purposes rather than applying it to the appalling deficit he's run up after a year in office.

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Dems Pick Candidate For Bayh's Seat

Indiana's Democrat party bosses went into the proverbial smoke-filled room and have anointed Indiana Congressman Brad Ellsworth to try to retain the seat being vacated by Sen. Evan Bayh.

Ellsworth is supposed to announce his intentions shortly.

He's certainly better than no one,( or John Mellencamp, who was rumored to be interested) but Hoosiers will be reminded by the GOP of his support for ObamaCare, which is roundly unpopular in Indiana.

It also opens up a House seat in South Indiana that's going to be very difficult for the Democrats to hang on to in 2010.

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A Fatah Connection To The Dubai Killing Surfaces

Yet another dimension has materialized in the mysterious assassination of Hamas kingpin Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai.

Now, the authorities in Dubai have somewhat changed their story again and are saying elements of Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah had a hand in the assassination:

Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader, is facing accusations of collusion with Israel after two former members of his Fatah faction were linked to the assassination of a Hamas commander in Dubai last month.

The two men, who are both in custody in Dubai, supplied logistical support to an assassination squad that carried out the killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, according to police in the Gulf state.

Making a potentially explosive accusation, Hamas alleged that Ahmad Hasnin and Anwar Shekhaiber are employed by a company whose owner is a top confidante of Mr Abbas, the western-backed leader of the Palestinian Authority, which controls the West Bank.{...}

Allies of Mr Abbas sought to deflect the charges of collusion by repeating claims that Hamas had been infiltrated by Israeli intelligence and that at least one of the two men had fled Gaza after his cover as an Israeli double agent had been exposed.

"Hamas should extensively search the scope of penetration within its ranks that has led to the assassination of Mabhouh and other Hamas leaders," a spokesman for the Palestinian Authority security forces said.

Again, I consider al-Mabhouh's death to be a welcome piece of pest control, and if it was the Mossad, excellent. I'm merely saying that there could have been a lot of other people whom wanted this particular cockroach stomped...including Hamas if al-Mabhouh was caught skimming or double dealing.

In other news, the British Daily Mail is claiming from a 'confidential source' that the Mossad not only carried out the killing but that they tipped off M15 and the British Foreign office beforehand that UK passports were going to be used:

A British security source who met the Mossad agent, and has a track record of providing reliable information, told the Daily Mail: 'This is a serving member of Israeli intelligence.

'He says the British Government was told very, very briefly before the operation what was going to happen. There was no British involvement and they didn't know the name of the target. But they were told these people were travelling on UK passports.'

The security source said that the tip-off was not a request for permission to use British passports but more a 'courtesy call' to let the security services know 'a situation' might blow up.

The Mossad man said Israeli intelligence chiefs understand British authorities will have to 'slap them on the wrist' and added: 'The British government has to be seen to be going through the motions.'

The Israeli's claims contradict Foreign Office assertions that the UK knew nothing of the affair until shortly before the Dubai authorities went public over the assassination earlier this week.

The British source told the Mail he has known the Mossad man for more than 20 years and they met as part of a longstanding arrangement.

He said British-Israeli intelligence relations were 'jogging along very nicely when nobody knew - then it all became public'.

The Israeli agent rejected suggestions that intelligence-sharing between the two nations might be damaged.

He said Mossad was handling several sources within the UK Muslim community and added: 'There is no question of jeopardising that information flow.'

Heh!

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