Breaking: Glenn Beck Endorses Michele Bachmann

On his radio show this morning. Claims he likes many of the candidates, but only Rep. Bachmann has the ability to really bring about change in Washington, has the exceptional strength of character to be a president along the lines of Washington or Lincoln and understands the Constitution like he does.

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Epic fail - Super Committee Folds Without Agreement

The Congressional Super Committee that was such a big part of Minority leader Mitch McConnell's sucker's deal with President Obama has admitted failure...just as I predicted, here and here. Instead of presenting cut cap and balance, passed by the House and by every Republican in the Senate as a final offer and letting the president take the onus for shutting the government down, McConnell gave the president everything he wanted..including a brand new higher credit card limit.

The way it was set up, President Obama won either way, thanks to McConnell's gutless approach. With the sort of Democrats that were appointed to the committee, they were never going to agree to any compromises. Either the GOP was going to go along with the massive tax hikes the Democrats love - oh, sorry, 'new revenues' - and destroy itself politically or the committee, which like the President favors hollowing out our military and defense budget would just sit on their hands and let the massive automatic cuts in those areas take place.

And the cuts aimed at defense are downright irresponsible. SecDef Pannetta has already targeted the military with over $450 billion in cuts as it is. Add that to the proposed $600 billion and we're talking over one trillion in cuts from our defense budget.

President Obama is channeling his model Tony Blair and New Labour once again. This is exactly how Blair and his cronies destroyed Britain's armed forces.

Even the Republican's craven offer to accept $500 billion in tax hikes wasn't enough - the Democrats insisted on one trillion. In other words, they never had any attention of seriously making a deal.

McConnell and the Republicans who signed on to the budget deal and the supercommittee scam got nothing except a screwing done without the benefit of any sort of lubrication.

President Obama, sporting one of his trademark smiles happily announced that he will veto any attempt by Congress to try and protect our military or defense establishment from any of the mandated cuts. He and the Democrats got exactly what they wanted, more money to use on domestic spending to reward the president's political allies in the run up to the elections.

A number of political figures are pointing fingers at each other in an effort to assign blame, but I put this squarely on the shoulders of the Republican leadership for allowing themselves to be conned in the first place.

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Egypt Explodes

Massive riots occurred throughout Egypt this weekend as protesters in major cities challenged army rule of the country.

Hundreds were injured, and the death toll, depending on who's counting, ranges from 12 to 15 people. According to my sources, it was even higher.

The protest was directed against the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces and its head Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, the de facto transitional rulers of the country.





The army has shown signs of being reluctant to give up power. With the first set of staggered parliamentary elections set to start November 28th, The protestors are accusing the army of trying to retain power from behind the scenes as it oversees the transition, which could see military rule until the presidential elections that have no set date at this time and may not happen until late 2012 or early 2013.

Additionally, the army is involved in a dispute with various political groups and the army-picked cabinet over ground rules for the drafting of Egypt's new constitution. The army wants provisions that could leave the military essentially free of civilian control, free of any oversight over the army's budget and the 'guarantors' of Egypt's new constitution once it gets written. This, as you might recognize is the old Turkish model, and Egypt's Islamists have no intention of going to the trouble of taking power if the army can legally depose them.

The initial clash came when the Egyptian police attempted to clear out the protesters in Tahrir Square in Cairo. As the police moved towards them the protesters in the front lines used a tactic that worked during the clashes that brought down Mubarak, kneeling in an attitude of Islamic prayer. Last time, the army backed off. This time they didn't.

For the first time since the initial revolt, Egypt's state police force, a symbol of the Mubarak regime was deployed in force, and they were openly backed up by the army. The protesters were badly beaten without any regard for age or sex, and protesters later showed reporters spent shotgun cartridges, bullet casings and empty teargas canisters. Some of the tear gas canisters had been purchased by the Mubarak government from America, the UK and Israel had English and Hebrew markings on them, which caused fresh outrage

Here's the back story and it's an interesting one. The Brotherhood and other Islamist groups have been a major force in gradually fomenting discontent against the army's rule since it became obvious that the army was not quite ready to completely cave in to Islamist rule.

According to my sources, the Muslim Brotherhood initially instigated the protests after Friday prayers in anger over the army's refusal to obey what amounted to an ultimatum from them to bar ex-members of former Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak's National Democratic Party from running for office in the upcoming parliamentary elections. They used the excuse of the army's rather heavy handed rule as a sparking point.

Then, once the festivities were under way, the Brotherhood officially pulled back from the protests as they ramped up so as not totally antagonize the army while leaving just enough 'independent' Islamists in the crowd to give them credibility with the protesters.

What passes for Egypt's current government played right into this . Mansour el-Essawy, the interior minister whose resignation the protesters demanded sounded just like his predecessor in the Mubarak era, claiming that the police hadn't fired at anyone and that the demonstrators had shot at each other. And the generals stuck to a hard line.

"If security is not applied, we will implement the rule of law," said General Mohsen al-Fangari, a member of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, Egypt's de-facto government. "Anyone who does wrong will pay for it."

I have to admit this was a master stroke. Initially, the army was seen as the people's hero for not participating in crushing the initial revolt against Mubarak. After this weekend, they're seen as oppressors and the chief obstacle to 'democracy' and it's the Brotherhood that's now seen as the heroes. Watch for the Brotherhood to use this to get even more of the army and police lower ranks and officers on their side.

The Brotherhood was expected to get a 40% majority in the upcoming parliamentary elections. Assuming the elections are fair and honest and the results implemented, their majority will probably be even greater after this weekend's events, and they will be seen as the saviors of Egypt's 'democracy'. And if the elections are rigged or not held, look for Egypt to explode again.

It's a perfect lead in to the establishment of a new Islamic Republic.

UPDATE: My sources were apparently proven correct once again. The reported death toll has risen to 35. Meanwhile, Egypt's interim civilian cabinet has resigned en masse.

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Why People Spend So Much To Get Into Congress

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A Song Of Corruption In Washington - How Crony Capitalism Really Works

Here's an interview by Glenn Beck with my friend Peter Schweizer on his hot new book, Throw Them All Out, a brilliant expose of how the Obama Administration raped the American Treasury out of billions to reward Obama campaign donors and bundlers via 'green energy' scams. Like Solyndra, and Robert Kennedy Jr.'s Brightsource

The book also details how corrupt congress members use their knowledge of pending legislation to do insider stock trading that would be illegal for private individuals, and use their influential positions on various committees to milk campaign contributions and get access to the inside track on Initial Public offerings ( IPO's ) of hot stocks worth millions not accessable to the general public or even many stockbrokers.

Ex-Speaker Nancy Pelosi is a good case in point. Others include Senator Diane Feinstein ( D-CA), our old pal Senator John Kerry ( D-MA), and of course Rep. Charlie Rangel.

Nor is it just Democrats, although they're by far the most prominent, especially since President Obama took over. At Schweizer relates above, an influential GOP Congressman who was ranking member of a key committee during the 2008 financial crisis was actually using sensitive information to short specific stocks - in essence, he had a financial interest in the US economy declining.

This sort of obscene plundering of the taxpayers is business as usual in Washington, and those whom realize it sometimes form an interesting political juxtaposition...like former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and Left leaning WAPO columnist Dana Milbank, both of whom have items up on the subject you should take the time to read.

If the OWS crowd had the brains G-d gave a goat, they wouldn't be occupying Wall Street - they'd be occupying Congress, and stalking President Obama at his fundraisers.

(hat tip to longtime Joshua's Army member Louie Louie for the video)

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Weekend Monkey On Politics: The GOP's Dance Of Death

Hidey Ho, Primates! Welcome to the one and only Real Banana, your source for the real poop on politics.

Let's do it and get to it..

I have to admit,I'm getting a lot of chuckles out of watching the Rethugs pull themselves to pieces. You'd think they'd know better.

Lessee...you got Ron Paul, who I guess plays Grandpa Geezer to this crowd. He's nuttier than a jar of Planter's finest. You got Ricky Santorum, who acts like he forgot to take his ritalin or maybe has to pee, you got Crazy Eyes Bachman, who looked a lot better wrestling a corn dog back in Iowa...


















Hee hee hee, talented!

Yeah, and then we get to what they call the serious candidates.

There's Rick Perry, some kinda weird genetic match up with Reaganesque looks and Bozo the Clown's brain.

You have Captain Pizza, AKA the Herman Cain clown show who probably still doesn't know that China 's a nuclear power and who's latest line is 'we need a leader, not a reader.' Tell me with a straight face that this guy isn't looking to land a reality show gig!

Cain is the funniest guy to run for office since my old pal Alvin Greene. Maybe even funnier, because there are still a number of ReThugs who take him seriously!

So then we get to the bottom of this bunch of bananas and looky who pops up - Newt Gingrich! Now,I thought he was dead, tell you the truth but apparently he's the new hero of the Tea Party set who really hate the other guy who's left, Mitt Romney.

What's funny about him being the Tea Party flavor of the week - well maybe of the month - is that they're supposed to be outsiders who are against the Washington establishment and ol' Newt has been hanging around DC land so long that there are probably sandwiches at K Street restaurants named after him - probably a combo of tongue and baloney with cheese whiz on white bread.

You gotta give him credit. He always thrived in the fetid jungle that is DC land, even after he was out of Congress.Hey, the guy made money, consulting and shilling for hire in a big way.

Good ol' Newt brings back a whiff of the heady days of Mr. Bill,when blue dresses and knee pads were in fashion and the phrase 'have a cigar' took on a whole new meaning.

Watching a colorful character like Newt duking it out with Romney the Robot to be the ReThug's leader is gonna be great and enliven the dull lives of you primates.it'll be like a freakin' video game, hee hee!

What kills me is that this election was the GOP's to lose, what with the economy still reeking like a baboon's rear end. But the way things look now, I call it at even money that the Bamster slides in for another term what with the poop slinging and knife fighting that's gonna be going on as the ReThugs fight for the top spot.

If Newty gets the nod,there's a whole buncha stuff that can be used against him , seeing that he's been around so long and he's not pristine in the least. I mean the ads write themselves. If Romney the Robot wins out, you gotta wonder how many ReThugs are gonna sit on their hands and not vote because they can't stand him.I mean, are enough of them gonna overcome their dislike of Mittens in favor of dumping Obama? If Romney the Robot gets the pick, that'll be the question.

Smell yah later, Primates!

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

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

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

Both our winners seemed to echo a common theme this week.

In our Council category, this week's winner,The Noisy Room's Book Burning – It’s All The Rage is a great piece that dealt with an old curse getting a new life,the destruction of knowledge and the burning of books with 'improper' and dangerous ideas...dangerous, that is to certain ideologies. Here's a slice:

As echoes of: ‘This is what Democracy looks like! reverberate across the Middle East, Egypt has fallen to the Muslim Brotherhood as a direct result of the Arab Spring. Now, the Royal Library of Alexandria in Egypt, one of the greatest libraries of the ancient world, is the target of The Muslim Brotherhood who want to burn it to the ground and build a mosque on its literary ashes.

The library was burned once before accidentally by Caesar. It has been damaged and restored numerous times since then. The library dates from the time of Alexander the Great:

The Royal Library of Alexandria, or Ancient Library of Alexandria, in Alexandria, Egypt, was the largest and most significant great library of the ancient world. It flourished under the patronage of the Ptolemaic dynasty and functioned as a major center of scholarship from its construction in the 3rd century BC until the Roman conquest of Egypt in 30 BC. The library was conceived and opened either during the reign of Ptolemy I Soter (323–283 BC) or during the reign of his son Ptolemy II (283–246 BC).

Plutarch (AD 46–120) wrote that during his visit to Alexandria in 48 BC, Julius Caesar “accidentally” burned the library down when he set fire to his own ships to frustrate Achillas’ attempt to limit his ability to communicate by sea. After its destruction, scholars used a “daughter library” in a temple known as the Serapeum, located in another part of the city.

Intended both as a commemoration and an emulation of the original, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina was inaugurated in 2002 near the site of the old library.

In 2004, a Polish-Egyptian excavation team announced that they had discovered the remains of the Library of Alexandria.

Radical Islamists call the library a den of depravity because of its arts programs in music and dance. They want to destroy this historic monument to knowledge and intellect and rejoice while it burns baby, burns to the ground. The current dictators in Egypt are either supportive of, or willfully negligent of, The Brotherhood who could well shift into becoming the controlling power through parliament there in Egypt in the next election.

And this is just the beginning of a new dark age that could spread across the planet and will certainly consume Egypt and other Islamic nations if it is not stopped and soon. The rise of the Caliphate is now a very real possibility and before some liberal envisions Arabian Nights or some other such nonsense, remember, this is a militant coalition of Islamists. They are warriors and conquerors and in their wake of conquest and rule, they will leave blood and death as their calling card. Liberals, you are at the top of the ‘death’ list for these guys.

The government in Egypt has already curtailed free speech at the library. The destruction of the library will most assuredly mark the beginning (if not the ongoing escalation) of Egypt’s fall into the hands of the Islamists. The elections will take place on Nov. 28th and the prognosis currently is not good for avoiding a capitulation to The Muslim Brotherhood.

In our non-Council category, the winner was Gates Of Vienna's “An Iron Burka Has Descended Across the Continent” submitted by Joshuapundit . It's an unusual and inventive piece on a similar falling shadow by Council alumnus Baron Bodissey that imagines the ghost of Winston Churchill re-delivering his famous 'Iron Curtain ' speech in our own time - but slightly altered, with a very different foe of freedom in mind. Do read it.

Without further ado, here are this week’s full results:

Council Winners

• *First place with 2 2/3 votes! The Noisy Room–-Book Burning – It’s All The Rage



• Second place with 2 1/3 votes – Bookworm Room-Penn State and the slow death of American self-reliance



• Third place *t* with 2 votes – The Razor-The Clash of Western and Islamic Values - Part 1



• Fourth place with 1 2/3 votes – TJoshuapundit-The 'Peace Process' R.I.P.



• Fifth place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – The Right Planet – ‘Fundamental Transformation’: Recreating the Soviet



• Sixth place *t* with 1 vote – The Political Commentator – #OWS and Zuccotti Park: Have you ever been to Christiania, Woodstock or a Further concert at Red Rocks?



• Sixth place *t* with 1 vote – Simply Jews – A fairy tale for the kids of Tehran



• Seventh place *t* with 2/3 vote – Rhymes With Right – Something For All The Romney-Hating Conservatives To Consider



• Seventh place *t* with 2/3 vote – Right Truth – Causing Undue Hardship



• Fourth place *t* with 1/3 vote – New Zeal – Is Richard Trumka a DSA Socialist?



• Eighth place *t* with 1/3 vote – The Glittering Eye – No Heroes



• Eighth place *t* with 1/3 vote -GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD- Vicious Rumors

Non-Council Winners

• First place with 1 2/3 votes! – Gates Of Vienna- “An Iron Burka Has Descended Across the Continent” submitted byJoshuapundit



• Second place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – Whatever – Omelas University submitted by Rhymes With Right



• Second place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – American Thinker – De-Christianizing Dr. King submitted by The Right Planet



• Second place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – Victor Davis Hanson – "Rage On — and On and On..." submitted by The Watcher



• Second place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – Sarah Palin – Fire Eric Holder submitted by The Watcher



• Second place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – Justin Timberlake – My Night At The Marine Corps Ball submitted by Bookworm Room



• Third place *t* with 1 vote -Charles Cameron/Zenpundit – One Hadith, One Plan, One Video, And Two Warnings submitted by The Glittering Eye



• Third place *t* with 1 vote - The Passing Parade – UNCLE PADDY AND THE CRAPPING HAT, AND OTHER ADVENTURES IN THE UNKNOWN submitted by Simply Jews



• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote -The Arabist – Mapping Egypt's Political Parties submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD



• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote -Sultan Knish – The Devil's Smile submitted by The Noisy Room



• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote -Commentary – #OWS Supporters Confirm: Violence an Essential Component submitted by The Political Commentator



• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote -Patterico's Pontifications – After The Green Rush submitted by Right Truth



• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote -Way North – Veteran's Day 2011 submitted by The Mellow Jihadi

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

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Jon Stewart Examines The Rigid Class Divisions In the OWS Movement - Brutal!

Absolutely brutal. A reporter from Jon Stewart's Daily Show visits the Occupy Wall Street encampment and finds major class divisions in 'Da Movement'

Classic - a guy who condemns private property refuses to allow "those shiftless hobos down in Bum-Town" use his iPad, because that's personal property.

But he's against private property, AKA stuff that belongs to other people. Completely different!

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Israel's Secret Electronic Warfare Weapons

Much of this has been known to anyone who's been paying attention, ( in fact, there are other things I've heard tell of that are equally devastating) but this article by defense expert Eli Lake does a pretty good job of giving you an idea of some of the tools the IDF has available to take out Iran's nukes:

For much of the last decade, as Iran methodically built its nuclear program, Israel has been assembling a multibillion-dollar array of high-tech weapons that would allow it to jam, blind, and deafen Tehran's defenses in the case of a pre-emptive aerial strike.

A U.S. intelligence assessment this summer, described to The Daily Beast by current and former U.S. intelligence officials, concluded that any Israeli attack on hardened nuclear sites in Iran would go far beyond airstrikes from F-15 and F-16 fighter planes and likely include electronic warfare against Iran’s electric grid, Internet, cellphone network, and emergency frequencies for firemen and police officers.

For example, Israel has developed a weapon capable of mimicking a maintenance cellphone signal that commands a cell network to “sleep,” effectively stopping transmissions, officials confirmed. The Israelis also have jammers capable of creating interference within Iran’s emergency frequencies for first responders.

In a 2007 attack on a suspected nuclear site at al-Kibar, the Syrian military got a taste of this warfare when Israeli planes “spoofed” the country’s air-defense radars, at first making it appear that no jets were in the sky and then in an instant making the radar believe the sky was filled with hundreds of planes.

Israel also likely would exploit a vulnerability that U.S. officials detected two years ago in Iran's big-city electric grids, which are not “air-gapped”—meaning they are connected to the Internet and therefore vulnerable to a Stuxnet-style cyberattack—officials say.

A highly secretive research lab attached to the U.S. joint staff and combatant commands, known as the Joint Warfare Analysis Center (JWAC), discovered the weakness in Iran’s electrical grid in 2009, according to one retired senior military intelligence officer. This source also said the Israelis have the capability to bring a denial-of-service attack to nodes of Iran’s command and control system that rely on the Internet.

Tony Decarbo, the executive officer for JWAC, declined comment for this story. The likely delivery method for the electronic elements of this attack would be an unmanned aerial vehicle the size of a jumbo jet. An earlier version of the bird was called the Heron, the latest version is known as the Eitan. According to the Israeli press, the Eitan can fly for 20 straight hours and carry a payload of one ton. Another version of the drone, however, can fly up to 45 straight hours, according to U.S. and Israeli officials.

Unmanned drones have been an integral part of U.S. wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, gathering intelligence and firing missiles at suspected insurgents. But Israel's fleet has been specially fitted for electronic warfare, according to officials.

The Eitans and Herons would also likely be working with a special Israeli air force unit known as the Sky Crows, which focuses only on electronic warfare. A 2010 piece in The Jerusalem Post quoted the commander of the electronic warfare unit as saying, “Our objective is to activate our systems and to disrupt and neutralize the enemy’s systems.”

Read the rest here.

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Auto Bailout Losses From Obama's Gift To His Union Supporters Skyrockets To $23.6B

In its monthly report to Congress, the Treasury Department now says it expects to lose $23.6 billion from its $85 billion bailout of the auto industry. This is a mere $9 billion jump from its previous estimate of $14.33 billion.

Since Democrats are constantly claiming to be concerned about 'new revenues', it's worth mentioning that the above figures don't include that $45.4 billion dollar tax credit against future profits at the American taxpayer's expense given to them by the Obama Administration that could keep GM and its UAW owners tax free for years.

It also doesn't include $5 billion the government set aside to guarantee payments to auto suppliers in 2009.

What's going on here is a sharp decline in the value of GM's stock price. GM's Sept. 30 closing price is $20.18, down one-third over the previous quarterly price.

As I told you early this year, the Initial Public Offering (IPO) of stock for Government Motors was a huge bust, and the Feds were forced to sell a large block of shares it was holding as 'collateral' for the $85 billion bailout at a below break even price (otherwise known as a loss) of $33 per share. For those of you whom are math challenged, the current price reflects over a 38% decline in value since January from even that fire sale price.

In order for the taxpayers to have broken even, the price of the stock would have to rise to at least $52 and by some estimates as high as $103. It'll take years to get there, if it ever does, and the Obama Administration was simply being deceptive when it suggested that the stock price of $45 per share ( which it never even came close to hitting) would be enough for the taxpayers to recoup their considerable investment.

Part of the reason the stock has declined so rapidly is that GM is simply not making cars the public wants to buy. The Volt was a huge bust, even with the $10K government subsidy..it had sold only 3,895 units as of September. The Nissan Leaf, a similar hybrid car sold over twice as many cars during the same period, and did it without the American taxpayers paying people to buy it.

Overall productivity and quality control have also plummeted sharply since the government and the unions took over the reins.

The other reason the stock price has tanked is, well, poetic justice.

When the Obama Administration took over, the existing private stockholders, many of them retirees, saw their investment become virtually worthless overnight, as they were placed in the food chain behind the federal government and the UAW. In the restructuring, their 'equity' was reduced to 10% by government decree.

Stuff like that tends to be remembered. Is it any wonder no one wants to buy the stock as a private or institutional investor after that hosing?

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Ann Coulter Endorses Romney

Ann Coulter makes the case for Mitt Romney, with her usual eloquence. Here's a slice:

So now, apparently, we have to go through the cycle of the media pushing Newt Gingrich. This is going to be fantastic.

In addition to having an affair in the middle of Clinton's impeachment; apologizing to Jesse Jackson on behalf of J.C. Watts -- one of two black Republicans then in Congress –- for having criticized "poverty pimps," and then inviting Jackson to a State of the Union address; cutting a global warming commercial with Nancy Pelosi; supporting George Soros' candidate Dede Scozzafava in a congressional special election; appearing in public with the Rev. Al Sharpton to promote nonspecific education reform; and calling Paul Ryan's plan to save Social Security "right-wing social engineering," we found out this week that Gingrich was a recipient of Freddie Mac political money.

(Even I will admit, however, that Newt was great when he was chairman of GOPAC back in the '90s with Gay Gaines at the helm.)

Although Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- the institutions most responsible for the nation's current financial crisis -- were almost entirely Democratic cash cows, they managed to dirty up enough Republicans to make it seem like bipartisan corruption.

Democrats sucked hundreds of millions of dollars out of these institutions: Franklin Raines, $90 million; Jamie Gorelick, $26.4 million; Jim Johnson, $20 million.

By contrast, Republicans came cheap. For the amazingly good price of only $300,000 apiece, Fannie and Freddie bought the good will of former Reps. Vin Weber, R-Minn., Susan Molinari, R-N.Y., and Newt Gingrich, R-Ga.* Former Sen. Alfonse D'Amato, R-N.Y., was even cheaper at $240,000.

[*Correction: After Gingrich admitted last week to receiving $300,000 from Freddie, we found out this week that it was actually closer to $1.6 million.]

So now conservatives shy away from denouncing these crooked organizations for fear of running into Vin Weber at a cocktail party.

Sorry, guys -- on the plus side, you're millionaires, but on the downside, you've earned the contempt of your fellow man.

The mainstream media keep pushing alternatives to Mitt Romney not only because they are terrified of running against him, but also because they want to keep Republicans fighting, allowing Democrats to get a four-month jump on us.

Meanwhile, everyone knows the nominee is going to be Romney.

That's not so bad if you think the most important issues in this election are defeating Obama and repealing Obamacare.

There may be better ways to stop Obamacare than Romney, but, unfortunately, they're not available right now. (And, by the way, where were you conservative purists when Republicans were nominating Waterboarding-Is-Torture-Jerry-Falwell-Is-an-Agent-of-Intolerance-My-Good-Friend-Teddy-Kennedy-Amnesty-for-Illegals John McCain-Feingold for president?)

Among Romney's positives is the fact that he has a demonstrated ability to trick liberals into voting for him. He was elected governor of Massachusetts -- one of the most liberal states in the union -- by appealing to Democrats, independents and suburban women.

He came close to stopping the greatest calamity to befall this nation since Pearl Harbor by nearly beating Teddy Kennedy in a Senate race. (That is when he said a lot of the things about which he's since "changed his mind.") If he had won, we'd be carving his image on Mount Rushmore.

He is not part of the Washington establishment, so he won't be caught taking money from Freddie Mac or cutting commercials with Nancy Pelosi.

Also, Romney will be the first Republican presidential nominee since Ronald Reagan who can talk. Liberals are going to have to dust off their playbook from 30 years ago to figure out how to run against a Republican who isn't a tongue-tied marble-mouth.

Read the rest here.

What Ann Coulter is doing is applying Reagan's rule - you vote for the most conservative candidate that can get elected. It makes a great deal of sense.Or, as th e old song says, you can't always get what you want,but if you try real hard, sometimes you get what you need.

Another problem with Newt Gingrich La Coulter could have mentioned but didn't is his close relationship with closet GOP Islamist Grover Norquist. That alone should give pause to anyone considering jumping on the Gingrich bandwagon.

-Selah-

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A Free People Comes Home - Hebron

This week's Sabbath is a special one, as it celebrates the first purchase by of land in Israel by the first Jew, Abraham, and the beginning of the first Jewish city,Hebron.

As you may know, observant Jews read a different part of the Torah every week, and this week's Torah portion is called Hayei Sarah, because it relates how Abraham purchased the land known as Me’arat Hamachpela, the Cave of the Patriarchs as a tomb for his wife Sarah and himself.

I intended to write a little something about this, but found something that expresses my feelings about the matter quite well, written by David Wilder a spokesman for the Jewish community of Hebron. Read it, and you'll understand what this all means and how deep it goes:

Several years ago, on the anniversary of the liberation of Hebron in 1967, I was interviewed by a journalist who queried me about various problems facing Hebron’s Jewish community. His concluding question/statement was, “Well, I guess you’re not celebrating today?”

“Why not?” I replied.

“Well, you have all these problems and issues, how can you celebrate?”

“You just don’t understand,” I answered. “Look at where were we 70 years ago, or 60 years ago. Were we in Hebron? Today I’m here, in the first Jewish city in Israel. I live here, I work here, I’m bringing up my children here. This is my home. True, we have problems. There are ups and downs. Issues must be dealt with. And they will be overcome. But I’m here. And as long as I’m here, I have what to celebrate, and that’s exactly what I’m doing today!”

One of our most special celebrations will occur this weekend. The Torah portion of Hayei Sarah, otherwise known as “Shabbat Hebron,” is an extraordinary event. It is not an ordinary shabbat (which in Hebron is also unique). Rather, it is an event.

Over the past decade, some 20,000 people have capitalized on this special Sabbath to crowd into Hebron and nearby Kiryat Arba to rejoice. Starting on Friday morning, Israelis young and old will begin flocking to the city. Jews from the United States and other countries fly to Israel to be in Hebron for this exceptional occasion.

Well over six months prior to this Sabbath we begin receiving phone calls and emails requesting places to sleep and eat on this auspicious day. Dozens of tents are pitched outside Me’arat Hamachpela, the Cave of the Patriarchs, and Matriarchs. Public buildings are transformed into dormitories, with separate facilities for men and women. It’s the only time of the year when my living room is wall-to-wall people sleeping on the floor.

One year, on Saturday night, a young woman walked into our kitchen to thank my wife. She asked what for. The woman said she had slept in one of our rooms. We had no idea she was there, or where she slept, because the room was already packed.

A huge tent is constructed outside the Avraham Avinu neighborhood, providing meals thousands of guests. Literally every nook and cranny in Hebron is utilized, with people sleeping and eating wherever they can find a few free meters.

All hours of the day and night the streets are full of people walking to and from the various neighborhoods in Hebron. Saturday afternoon, multitudes tour the city, visiting the Hebron Heritage Museum at Beit Hadassah, the tomb of Jesse and Ruth in Tel Rumeida, and the Avraham Avinu synagogue in the Avraham Avinu neighborhood. Special Casba tours are also included in the day’s agenda.

The heart of the day’s events takes place at Me’arat Hamachpela. On Friday night, literally thousands of people gather at this holy site, inside and out, to offer joyous Sabbath prayers. Singing and dancing during a huge “Carlebach minyan,” conducted in the Machpela courtyard, is unbelievably uplifting.

But the pinnacle and actual raison d’être for the ingathering begins early Saturday morning.

By 5:15 a.m., thousands make their way to early morning prayers at the Machpela. The entire building is open to Jewish worshipers, including “Ohel Yitzhak,” the Isaac Hall, available to Jews only ten days during the year. The first vatikin service, with the sunrise, is a spiritually inspirational way to start the day.

However, the peak takes place about an hour into the service. A Torah scroll is removed from the Holy Ark and opened. The first person, usually a cohen, or priest, is called up to the Torah. Following recitation of a blessing, the reader begins:

“And the life of Sarah was a hundred and seven and twenty years; these were the years of the life of Sarah. And Sarah died in Kiryat Arba –the same is Hebron – in the land of Canaan; and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her... and Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver...four hundred shekels of silver... And Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre – the same is Hebron – in the land of Canaan...” (Gen: 23, 1-20).

HERE, AT Machpela in Hebron, some 3,800 years ago, Abraham, the first Jew, purchases the first Jewish property in Eretz Yisrael, the Land of Israel. It is an amazing thought: here we are, almost 4,000 years later, the offspring of the first Jew, present at that very site which we read about in the Torah. It is all the more astonishing considering that fact that this sacred site was off-limits to Jews for seven centuries, following the 1267 Mamluk conquest of Israel. Only since our return to Hebron in 1967 has this holy place again accessible to any and all who wish to visit or worship here.

If that isn’t a reason to celebrate, what is?

As a result of political anti-Semitism, the first Jewish site of national heritage has become an object of international controversy. UNESCO has recognized our first holy site as a “Palestinian heritage site,” demanding it be removed from Israel's list of “national heritage sites.”

Should this site again be placed under Muslim control, Jews (and Christians) will no longer be allowed to enter and worship at this holy place, as was the case for 700 years, as the Arabs consider it to be a mosque. According to Islam, only Muslims may enter and pray in a mosque.

Support for a continued Jewish presence in Hebron and at Machpela is tangible. Some half a million visitors of all religions visit Hebron and Machpela annually, letting their feet do the talking. Polls show that almost 90 percent of Israelis reject relinquishing Me’arat Hamachpela. Rejection of Hebron and Me’arat Hamachpela is equivalent to chopping off our roots. And we all know what happens to a tree when you sever its roots.

Shabbat Hayei Sarah in Hebron is an affirmation of our people’s right to live and worship freely in our land. This is the embodiment of the Israeli national anthem, Hatikva: Lehiot am hofshi, b’artzeinu – to be a free people in our land. Can we be a free people in our land without the first Jewish city in Israel; without free, unlimited worship at the first Jewish holy site in our land?

This Sabbath, some 20,000 people from Israel and around the world will answer that question, at Machpela, in Hebron.

Believe it or not, after the massacres that drove the Jews out of Hebron, after the Arab attempt to commit genocide in 1948, after the 19 year occupation by Jordan that denied Jews any access to this holy place, one of the first thing the Israelis did was to attempt to share this shrine with the 'Palestinians', who likewise claim Abraham as a father.

Israel's reward for this unbelievable generosity was repeated desecration of the shrine by the Arabs and of course, constant incidents of terrorism and murder, including the deliberate shooting by a PA sniper of 10-month-old Shalhevat Pas in her stroller.

Will the Jews ever give up Hebron in exchange for more empty words and promises of peace in the future? I don't think so. That ship sailed a long time ago.

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Israeli Village Saved From Death

Migron is a small Israeli community situated in the hill country about five miles north-east of Jerusalem. It was established back in 2002 as small village within easy commuting distance from Jerusalem, and has a population of about 500 people. Some would refer to the small community as an 'outpost'.

Shortly after Migron’s construction, Migron became a target of Peace Now, who started a legal campaign on behalf of several 'Palestinian' Arabs who claimed that their families owned the land upon which Migron sits. According to the Arabs, the land had been given to them by King Hussein of Jordan.

The residents of Migron claimed that they had legally purchased the land, and showed paperwork recording the sale and giving them legal title. The resident's attorneys made the argument all of Judea and Samaria were illegally occupied by Jordan between 1948 to 1967, and that therefore King Hussein had no right to 'give' land to anyone.

Israel's Supreme Court chose to ignore both the history of the area and the villager's legal paperwork showing ownership and ruled in favor of the Arabs. The Court ordered the army to remove the Israeli inhabitants and destroy all structures.

After several appeals which saw three homes demolished,a final 'death sentence' was pronounced on Migron on August 2, 2011, with the court ruling that Migron must be demolished and the inhabitants removed by March 31, 2012.

What happened next is poetic justice.

The Arabs and their supporters in Peace Now got greedy and filed a lawsuit in the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court, demanding that the Israeli government compensate them for the years during which Migron existed on what they had said was their land.

The Magistrate’s Court, just as a matter of routine, asked that the Arab plaintiffs provide their proof of ownership to the court.

Following that,the Arabs, who had managed to skate through Israel's Supreme Court without being asked this simple question suddenly withdrew their lawsuit.

Because the Arab plaintiffs had no proof of ownership and refused to provide any explanation of why they had withdrawn their suit, the Magistrate’s Court stopped the demolition of Migron's homes and the eviction of the families that live there.

This was fairly major news in Israel and a huge embarrassment for the Supreme Court, especially at a time when the Israeli government is crafting new legislation on new procedures in how Supreme Court justice are selected . The only explanation the Court gave was that “The High Court does not debate evidence.”

The entire fiasco sheds a great deal of light on the necessity of the pending legislation curbing the foreign funding of Israel's Left wing Organizations.

Peace Now is funded almost entirely by the EU and grants from places like the Tides Foundation and the New Israel Fund in America.The UK alone, for example, gave Peace Now £310,000 (about $500,000) in the period of 2008-11.

What they've done with the money, among other things, is to challenge the existence of any community in Israel they oppose as a 'settlement' in court with the idea of harassing Israelis who live in Judea and Samaria and flooding Israeli courts with bogus lawsuits no matter how weak the evidence is, all designed to make it more difficult for the Israeli government to build housing and infrastructure.

In the recent past they tried exactly the same strategy they used in Migron - better known as lawfare - in unsuccessful attempts to have the Israeli communities of of Kiryat Netafim and the Jerusalem suburbs of Ma'aleh Adumim and Har Homa destroyed and the land turned over to Israel's enemies. Needless to say, they have never done anything to challenge the widespread illegal 'Palestinian' construction in Judea and Samaria or in East Jerusalem. In fact they've even attempted to intervene when the City of Jerusalem has attempted to demolish unsafe and illegal structures built by Arabs without permits or any compliance with building and safety codes that were actually hazards to adjacent structures.

Given the state of Middle East peace, one could be forgiven for considering Peace Now's activities as borderline treason.

For now, their attempt to throw their fellow Jews out of their homes in Migron has been foiled, appropriately, by their own greed and zeal to accomplish it at all costs. Hopefully, when Israel limits foreign funding for groups like Peace Now their contemptible efforts to wage lawfare against their own country will be curtailed.

Meanwhile, their fellow citizens can do what Israelis do best,build. Let a thousand bulldozers bloom!

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Watcher's Council Nominations: Ending The Occupation 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, Liberty's Spirit, The Grouch, Maggie's Notebook and Capitalist Preservation took advantage of my generous offer of link whorage and earned honorable mention status.

You can, too! Want to see your work appear on the Watcher’s Council homepage in our weekly contest listing? Didn’t get nominated by a Council member? No worries.

Simply head over to Joshuapundit and post the title and a link to the piece you want considered along with an e-mail address ( which won't be published) in the comments section no later than Monday 6PM PST in order to be considered for our honorable mention category, and return the favor by creating a post on your site linking to the Watcher’s Council contest for the week.

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

And today,the Watcher's Council sends out Birthday Greetings to our own Tom White!! Many More!



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

Council Submissions

• The Noisy Room – Book Burning – It’s All The Rage



• The Political Commentator – #OWS and Zuccotti Park: Have you ever been to Christiania, Woodstock or a Further concert at Red Rocks?



• Simply Jews – A fairy tale for the kids of Tehran



• Joshuapundit-The 'Peace Process' R.I. P.



• The Colossus of Rhodey – Our mainstream media at "work"



• Rhymes With Right – Something For All The Romney-Hating Conservatives To Consider



• The Right Planet – ‘Fundamental Transformation’: Recreating the Soviet



• Right Truth – Causing Undue Hardship



• Bookworm Room – Penn State and the slow death of American self-reliance



• VA Right! - EXPOSED: Mayor Jones Screws Taxpayers of City of Richmond! City Paid $7,000 on Behalf of Occupy Richmond – HERE ARE the INVOICES!



• The Razor – The Clash of Western and Islamic Values - Part 1



• The Mellow Jihadi – OWS T-Shirts and Frank Miller's Holy Terror



• The Glittering Eye -No Heroes



• New Zeal – Conyers Addresses Atlanta Marxists on the “Occupy” Movement and “Broken” Capitalism



• GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – Vicious Rumors

Honorable Mentions

• The Grouch - The Jesus Card



• Maggie's Notebook - George Soros: Everything Thing You Want to Know



• Liberty's Spirit - Republican Foreign Policy Debate



• Capitalist Preservation - Hillary Clinton accusation not hurting poll numbers of GOP front runner Linden Borden

Non-Council Submissions

• Sultan Knish –The Devil's Smile submitted by The Noisy Room



• Commentary -OWS Supporters Confirm: Violence an Essential Component submitted by The Political Commentator



• The Passing Parade – UNCLE PADDY AND THE CRAPPING HAT, AND OTHER ADVENTURES IN THE UNKNOWN submitted by Simply Jews



• Gates Of Vienna – “An Iron Burka Has Descended Across the Continent” submitted by Joshuapundit



• OpenMarket.Org – Supreme Court Grants Review in Case Challenging Obamacare as Unconstitutional submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey



• Whatever – Omelas State University submitted by Rhymes with Right



• American Thinker – De-Christianizing Dr. King submitted by The Right Planet



• Patterico's Pontifications -After The Green Rush submitted by Right Truth



• Justin Timberlake-My Night At The Marine Corps Ball submitted by Bookworm Room



• John Hawkins – 5 Things You Can Learn About The Occupy Movement From Occupy Denver submitted by VA Right



• The Weekly Standard Blog –Since Obamacare’s Passage, Millions Have Lost Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance submitted by The Razor



• Way Up North –Veteran's Day 2011 submitted by The Mellow Jihadi



• Charles Cameron/Zenpundit – One Hadith, One Plan, One Video, And Two Warnings submitted by The Glittering Eye



• The Arabist – Mapping Egypt's Political Parties submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD



• Sarah Palin – Fire Eric Holder submitted by The Watcher



• Victor Davis Hanson – "Rage On — and On and On..." submitted by The Watcher


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




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Solyndra - Obama Administration Asked Company To Postpone Layoffs Until After Midterms

Some evidence surfaced today that showed that Solyndra, one of the Obama Administrations Green Energy scams that saw Obama's donors and bundlers getting loans with little or no oversight was 'asked' by the Adminstration not to announce planned layoffs until after the 2010 midterm elections.

The Obama administration urged officers of the struggling solar company Solyndra to postpone announcing planned layoffs until after the November 2010 midterm elections, newly released e-mails show.

Solyndra, the now-shuttered California company, had been a poster child of President Obama’s initiative to invest in clean energies and received the administration’s first energy loan of $535 million. But a year ago, in October 2010, the solar panel manufacturer was quickly running out of money and had warned the Energy Department it would need emergency cash to avoid having to shut down.

The new e-mails about the layoff announcement were released Tuesday morning as part of a House Energy and Commerce committee memo, provided in advance of Energy Secretary Steven Chu’s scheduled testimony before the investigative committee Thursday.

Solyndra’s chief executive warned the Energy Department on Oct. 25, 2010, that he intended to announce worker layoffs Oct. 28. He said he was spurred by numerous calls from reporters and potential investors about rumors the firm was in financial trouble and was planning to lay off workers and close one of its two plants.

But in an Oct. 30, 2010, e-mail, advisers to Solyndra’s primary investor, Argonaut Equity, explain that the Energy Department had strongly urged the company to put off the layoff announcement until Nov. 3. The midterm elections were held Nov. 2, and led to Republicans taking control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

“DOE continues to be cooperative and have indicated that they will fund the November draw on our loan (app. $40 million) but have not committed to December yet,” a Solyndra investor adviser wrote Oct. 30. “They did push very hard for us to hold our announcement of the consolidation to employees and vendors to Nov. 3rd – oddly they didn’t give a reason for that date.”

Hmmm..they couldn't figure out that the quid pro quo had something to do with the upcoming election? Oh, my sides!

In any event, Solyndra made the announcement as asked, on Nov. 3, 2010 that would lay off 40 workers and 150 contractors and shut down its Fab 1 factory. Just as a coincidence, the Obama Department of Energy agreed to continue giving Solyndra the installments of its federal loan even though the company was in default of the terms, and restructured the loan in February to give the investors a chance to recover the $75 million in new money they put into the company before taxpayers would be repaid.

What a coincidence, eh?

Not only that,but other e-mails that have surfaced show that Rahm Emmanuel was in this up to his neck.

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OWS Evicted From NYC's Zuccotti Park - Not!

New York City's Mayor Bloomberg finally realized that his constituents were fed up with the antics, the crime, the filth and the smell of the OWS encampment at Zuccotti Park, so he ordered the NYPD into action to clear the park.

The mayor's original idea was a temporary, peaceful eviction for 'cleaning', after which the protesters would be allowed to return to the park, but without their tents and sleeping bags to prevent the illegal campground from being set up again.

The eviction was far from peaceful, with over two hundred being arrested and several police injured. And as it turns it, the OWS crowd got assistance from the communist front National Lawyer's Guild and found a like-minded judge willing to issue a court order that effectively stripped New York City of its ability to enforce park rules,which would have prohibited the OWS crowd from bringing their tents, tarps and sleeping bags into the park.

Mayor Bloomberg has vowed to fight the court order, so we'll see what develops.

UPDATE: New York State Supreme Court Justice Michael Stallman has ruled in agreement with the City of New York that camping in a park wasn't free speech protected by the First Amendment. The OWS protesters can be allowed back in,but they won't be allowed to camp out there anymore.

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Four British Wanna-be Jihadis Arrested In Birmingham

Of course the linked article reveals nothing about them except they're being charged with 'traveling to Pakistan to undertake terrorist training and of raising funds for terrorist purposes.'

I suppose one could take a few wild guesses based on that.

Apparently the arrests were part of a larger investigation.

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SNL's Spoof Of The Last GOP Debate...

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The 'Peace Process' R.I. P.

The so-called Middle East peace process between the Israelis and the 'Palestinians' is essentially dead, and it will be quite some time before there's an attempt to revive it.

Israeli statesman Abba Eban's famous quote about the 'Palestinians' never missing an opportunity to miss an opportunity has come true once more, although in fairness they had a large assist this time from President Obama.

Mahmoud Abbas has once again refused to enter direct negotiations with Israel, telling new US envoy David Hale that the Palestinians would not return to the negotiating table with Israel unless the Israeli government met the preconditions of freezing all construction in what the 'Palestinians' consider settlements,including East Jerusalem and accepting the pre-1967 cease fire lines as the basis for future borders in any two state solution.

In other words, Abbas is willing to sit down with the Israelis only if there's nothing much left to negotiate. This is roughly the equivalent of agreeing to go to Las Vegas and place a bet on the roulette wheel only if your winnings are guaranteed in advance.

Another settlement freeze is not on the table and Abbas knows it. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu already gave the 'Palestinians' a 10 month freeze as a unilateral concession in an attempt to get talks going, something that caused him considerable political damage at home. In response,the 'Palestinians' stonewalled for 9 1/2 months and then used Netanyahu's refusal to extend the freeze indefinitely as an excuse to bail out of talks.

Netanyahu has made it quite clear that he's not going to be fooled again. He's especially not going to do it when the Israeli public is already upset over high housing costs.

Abbas also knows that no Israeli government is going to redivide Jerusalem, especially since Abbas and his friend in the 'Palestinian' Authority have made it clear that no Jews will be allowed in their little reichlet. An Israeli government that agreed to that would not only be creating a large number of homeless Jewish refugees but would be placing Judaism's most holy sites under Muslim control while making them off limits to Jews. The Israelis have experienced in the past what that means. It isn't going to happen, and Abbas' demands have only made the vast majority of Israelis realize that Abbas and Fatah are not serious about a genuine peace and likely never were.

Abbas maneuvered things to a dead end with three steps guaranteed to kill off any chance of a realistic deal. First he and his minions declared the Oslo Accords dead , thus nullifying the entire basis of the agreement between Israel and the 'Palestinian' Authority. Next, he signed a unity agreement with the genocidal Hamas while vowing he would not make a single concession to Israel . And finally, he abrogated both Oslo and the Road Map in an attempt to have the UN Security Council unilaterally declare 'Palestine' a member state based on the borders the 'Palestinians' claimed - all of Judea and Samaria and all of East Jerusalem.

The only real result of this gambit was to get 'Palestine' elected to membership in UNESCO. That turned out to be a Pyrrhic victory that resulted in the organization's budget being slashed to the bone when the US, Canada and several other large donors ended their funding and the Israelis voted to no longer forward the approximately $100 million per month they collect in taxes and duties to the 'Palestinian' Authority. Aside from the UN fiasco, the final straw for the Israelis was Mahmoud Abbas personally greeting the terrorist murderers freed in the Gilad Shalit deal as 'holy warriors' and gifting them with $5,000 each and a free house.

While the Palestinians bear primary responsibility for the current state of affairs, the midwife to the stillborn corpse known as the Middle East peace process was none other than President Barack Obama.

Coming into office with an animus against Israel nurtured by long time associates like Reverend Wright, Bill Ayers and Rashid Khalidi, convinced that Israel was the problem and that pressuring them was the solution, the president not only created a hostile climate with the Israelis but gave assurances to Abbas and the 'Palestinians' that he could deliver the Jews on a platter.

He started out by having Secretary of State Hillary Clinton blatantly lie about President's Bush's 2004 letter and assurances to Ariel Sharon that recognized Israel’s claim in any peace agreement to the parts of Judea and Samaria (AKA The West Bank) that contain large Jewish communities. Along with US and EU guarantees that Gaza would never be a security problem once the Israelis pulled out, President Bush's assurances were the entire basis under which then Israeli PM Ariel Sharon signed on to the Road Map. President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton simply claimed it never happened and reneged on it.

The president continued by choosing Arab-American ex-Senator George Mitchell as his special envoy for Middle East peace, whose sole real contribution was to threaten Israel with a cut off of aid and to remain in a fog about how the Israeli-Arab conflict was really just Northern Ireland redux.

While Abbas may never have actually had any serous intent on negotiating anything, it was President Obama who created the two preconditions that now hold things up, at least according to the 'Palestinians'. As Mahmoud Abbas himself related, it was President Obama's idea to make a building freeze a major issue when it wasn't before, even to the point of creating a major diplomatic incident between the US and Israel over what was essentially a local zoning issue and then harshly criticizing Israel for rejecting an offer to resume the freeze that the US never made in the first place.

There was the frosty and humiliating reception for PM Netanyahu at the White House that would have been rude and dismissive of a fourth world despot, let alone the leader of an American ally.

And last May, the president decided to double down on his previous failures by attempting to ambush PM Netanyahu while he was en route to address a joint session of the US Congress. After assuring the Israelis that an upcoming speech would not advance any new proposals, this president endorsed borders based on the pre-'67 lines as the official US position, a radical stance no US president had ever embraced before.

It's hardly any wonder that the Israelis have no trust in the current administration.In view of what's occurred since his inauguration, President Obama's recent conversation with French President Sarkozy on what a 'liar' Netanyahu is and how hard the Israeli PM is to deal with provokes unintended laughter in anyone who's actually been following what been going on.

From Mahmoud Abbas' point of view, he has no reason to trust anything President Obama says either. Approaching his third anniversary as the 'Palestinian' Authority's unelected dictator, Abbas can voice his frustration over President Obama with a certain amount of justification.

After observing President Obama's creation of a hostile relationship with Israel and its leaders (and not understanding how Congress and elections work here in America), Abbas had no reason not to believe that President Obama wasn't going to be able to deliver on the promises he made to Abbas, the first world leader the president phoned once he took over.

When President Obama made a building freeze and the pre-'67 borders America's new line in the sand, Abbas hopped right on board. After all, how could he be less intransigent and demanding than an American president?

Now, Abbas is stuck with that position and can't afford politically to back down. Instead, he bet his people's future on a crap shoot at the UN - and rolled snake eyes.

Not that Abbas and his cronies are going to lose out personally. As ousted Fatah official Muhammad Dahlan admitted, Abbas personally stole at least $1.3 billion from the Palestine Investment Fund, money Yasser Arafat skimmed off humanitarian aid and 'taxes' paid to Fatah from 'Palestinian' businessmen as a price for being allowed to operate. Abbas' sons Yasser and Tareq have similarly benefited, as have a number of other well connected Fatah cronies. Sufa Arafat still lives in her chic apartment in the best part of Paris on her 'allowance' from the PA of $100,000 per month.

The Fatah money is squirreled away in Europe and the Emirates, and Fatah's old guard and their families will relocate there, or to Jordan as things unravel, since most of them have Jordanian citizenship. The remainder of the 'Palestinians' who are not well connected or monied will likely come under Hamas rule, which the majority of them favor anyway.

This is the end result of a shockingly bad idea of President Clinton's , that signing the Oslo Accords and bringing a thug like Yasser Arafat and his friends over from Tunis to rule over the 'Palestinians' would somehow end up as peace.

A lot of people have paid in blood and anguish for that mistake, and there may be more before its over.

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