Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Future of Turkey's Jewish and Armenian Communities in Doubt


Dr. Barry Rubin writes:

This has been sent to me by a very reliable friend... It is not unthinkable that the future of the Turkish Jewish community is in doubt.

The Prime Minister in Turkey has encouraged hatred against Israel in his speeches which has become obvious anti-Semitic propaganda among the general public.

There are people around the clock besieging the Israeli consulate in Istanbul shouting their hatred against Israel and Jewish people. All around Istanbul billboards are full of propaganda posters against Israel like; “Moses, even this is not written in your book” and “Israel Stop this Crime.” On the streets the people are writing such graffiti as: “Kill Jews,” “Kill Israel,” “Israel should no longer exist in the Middle East,” and “Stop Israeli Massacre.”

The week-end before, some people wrote, “We will kill you” on the door of one of the biggest synagogues in Izmir resulted in the closing down of synagogues. Near Istanbul University, a group put a huge poster on the door of a shop owned by a Jew: “Do not buy from here, since this shop is owned by a Jew.” A group put posters on his wall saying that: “Jews and Armenians are not allowed but dogs are allowed.” Some young people are even threatening others with violence if they are seen as pro-Israel in social networking websites such as Facebook and Hi5.

The document attached is the official statement by the minister of education stating that tomorrow [January 14] at 11am in all the high schools and primary schools the students will pay homage to the women and children dead during the war and furthermore, the teachers of art will organize the session of painting and writing on the subject: “Humanity Drama in Palestine” and the winners will receive awards.

The Jewish community can do nothing in response to what has been going on for the last few weeks, except giving vague statements that the Turkish Jewish Community does not want the war to be continued any more.

We have previously faced some strong reaction regarding previous operations in Gaza and the West Bank but this time is really different from former ones. I feel open anti-Semitism and hatred from all these people. Nobody understood, Even some widely read columnists in Turkey are writing things that lead all these groups toward this hatred becoming much more dangerous day by day.

But I know one thing: that the world should know about the widespread and openly anti-Semitic propaganda which far exceeds anything happening in Europe.

Spread the word.

Monday, January 12, 2009

Exclusive Photo: Global Warming's Tragic Impact on Snorkeling


Ride the wave, dude, ride the wave!

Via Dave, purportedly taken by his in-laws (???)

Seeking the overthrow of the U.S. government but still want a plum position in the Obama administration? No problemo!


So you want to overthrow the U.S. government, but also want a juicy job in the Obama administration?

No problemo!


Executive Summary: A key Obama appointee is an executive with a racially divisive group (hell, it's called "The Race") that implicitly supports the overthrow of the United States government with, as an added bonus, ethnic cleansing thrown in the mix.

In December The National Council of La Raza (NCLR) proudly announced:

"NCLR’s own Cecilia Muñoz will combine substantive policy knowledge and deft political skill in her new job as Director of Intergovernmental Affairs.”

The mission of NCLR is crystal clear.

Immigration: NCLR strives “to encourage immigration policies that are fair and nondiscriminatory, to encourage family reunification, and to enact necessary reforms to the current immigration system.” In short, it favors amnesty for illegals already residing in the U.S., and open borders henceforth. In La Raza’s calculus, any restriction on the free movement of immigrants constitutes a violation of their civil rights, and any reduction in government assistance to illegal border-crossers is “a disgrace to American values.” Thus La Raza supports continued mass Mexican immigration to the United States, and hopes to achieve, by the sheer weight of numbers, the re-partition of the American Southwest as a new state called Aztlan [Ed: in other words, to overthrow the U.S. government in the southwest portion of the country] -- to be controlled by its alleged rightful owners, the people and government of Mexico... At many of the “pro-immigration” rallies that NCLR members have attended in recent times, their signature slogan has been: "La Raza unida nunca sera vencida!" ("The united [Hispanic] race will never be defeated!")

The mythical state of Aztlan, for which the NCLR and its offshoot, racially-aligned groups aspire, is a common theme among many of the radical Marxist-Latino groups.

Consider one of the many "schools" that the NCLR funds:

Aztlan Academy in south Tucson seeks “to integrate a meaningful Chicano Studies program into [students’] lives, language, and academics, as a means of developing their intellects as well as their pride and self-esteem." ("Aztlan" is the separatist name for the Southwestern United States that NCLR hopes will someday reunite with Mexico.)

According to Public Schools Report, Aztlan is almost exclusively Hispanic despite being a public school. And Arizona Indymedia reports that it participates in pro-illegal immigration rallies and collaborates with local chapters of MEChA.

Ethnic cleansing and race hate?


A report by Capital Research (PDF) describes another group funded and supported by NCLR.

La Raza supports groups like the Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan, otherwise known as the Chicano Student Movement of Aztlan (MEChA). Founded in 1969, MEChA members bought into the Reconquista mythology of detaching the southwestern United States to recreate the land of “Aztlan,” a mythical pre-Columbian civilization with territory on both sides of the current U.S.-Mexico border...

MEChA’s motto is “Por La Raza todo. Fuera de La Raza nada,” which translates to “For the Race, Everything. Outside the Race, nothing.”

Let's be clear as to what "La Raza" means. It is a general term that refers to those whose ancestry is indigenous to the area of Mexico (or "Aztlan"). MEChA members frequently refer to themselves as "La Raza" or "Raza," but the term itself is used to indicate affinity with other organizations with similar objectives.


Screen-cap of racist hate site La Voz de Atzlan.

These groups include the afore-mentioned MEChA, La Raza Unida Party, The Brown Berets de Aztlan, OLA (Organization for the Liberation of Aztlan), Nation of Aztlan, and others. Nation of Aztlan, linked to La Voz de Aztlan, markets the same propaganda that MEChA profers including antisemitic propaganda. All are believers in "Aztlan" and many of their publications to refer to the U.S., as "AmeriKKKa."

In 2003 an investigation by immigration lawyer Matt Hayes for Fox News discovered disturbing ties between MEChA, anti-Semitism and other forms of racism.

Rudy Acuna, a Cal State Northridge professor of Chicano studies, is a self-described socialist (search), an advisor to MEChA, and a card-carrying separatist who has reportedly publicly urged Chicanos to get more militant about defending their rights and has warned Chicanos that they are living in a "Nazi U.S." where they are in danger of being taken to "intellectual ovens."

...While Acuna denies that MEChA is anti-Semitic, he is a regular contributor to the rabidly anti-Semitic La Voz de Aztlan. Acuna would no doubt contend that his own articles are not anti-Semitic and that Aztlan.com did not reflect his own opinion of Jews. But that would be no different than submitting editorials to the Ku Klux Klan's newsletter and arguing that the Klan's views do not reflect one’s own opinions.

Another Raza group is Nation of Aztlan. According to the Anti-Defamation League, the Nation of Aztlan organization is devoted to anti-Semitism and racial division:

The Nation of Aztlan (NOA), first organized in the early 1990s, is a California-based Hispanic nationalist organization that claims to represent the desires and aspirations of the Hispanic community. The organization calls for the United States to return "Aztlan" territory - Aztlan being the mythic homeland of the Mexican people, or Aztecs, which according to legend is found in the American Southwest or Northern Mexico.

The group's nationalist message is blurred by frequent appeals anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism, homophobia and other expressions of hatred.

But if NCLR has seemingly endless amounts of money for supporting crackpot schools, racist organizations and implicitly supports an agenda of separatism and ethnic cleansing, who could be funding them?

That would be you and I, my friends. The American taxpayer.

Millions in earmarks for La Raza courtesy of none other than Barney Frank


In May of 2008 non-partisan group Judicial Watch highlighted a bizarre series of earmarks directed at NCLR.

The National Council of La Raza already got $1.3 million from the Department of Housing and Urban Development this year to conduct “comprehensive housing counseling’’ for Hispanics, whether they are in the country legally or not. Now the radical group that advocates the return of the American Southwest to Mexico, will get an additional $15 million thanks to an earmark inserted by Massachusetts Democrat Barney Frank in a housing bill... Frank, the House Financial Services Chairman, is giving the National Council of La Raza $5 million this year and $10 million in each of the next two years... In fiscal 2006 alone, the group got $15.2 million in federal grants.

...[NCLR] caters to the radical Chicano movement that says California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and parts of Colorado and Texas belong to Aztlan... The takeover plan is referred to as the "reconquista" of the Western U.S. and it features ethnic cleansing of Americans, Europeans, Africans and Asians once the area is taken back and converted to Aztlan. While this may all sound a bit crazy, this organization is quite powerful and its leaders regularly attend congressional hearings regarding immigration.

The group uses its U.S. tax dollars to fund projects like a Southern California elementary school with a curriculum that specializes in bashing America and promoting the Chicano movement. The school's founder and principal, a Calexico-educated activist named Marcos Aguilar, opposes racial integration and says Mexicans in the U.S. don't want to go to white schools or drink from white water fountains.

Barney f''in Frank? I'm telling you, you can't make this stuff up. He's like a bad, pudgy penny. He always turns up.

Why is it that -- whenever there's a disaster looming for this country -- the corpulent, yet stunningly moronic, Barney Frank seems to be behind the curtain? His masterful oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, for instance, helped precipitate our current financial criss.

And here he is funding "La Raza" in all its many Hydra-headed forms and its agenda of the violent overthrow of the United States government.

Cecilia Muñoz needs to go


Can't President-Elect Obama find a mainstream Hispanic official qualified to serve in his administration?

Cecilia Muñoz is not an appropriate appointee for any position in the U.S. government.

* * *

Update: And Cecilia Muñoz is not the only troubling appointee. Carol M. Browner, President-Elect Obama's ostensible Global Warming and Junk Science Czarina, was just busted by The Washington Times.

Until last week, Carol M. Browner, President-elect Barack Obama's pick as global warming czar, was listed as one of 14 leaders of a socialist group's Commission for a Sustainable World Society, which calls for "global governance" and says rich countries must shrink their economies to address climate change.

By Thursday, Mrs. Browner's name and biography had been removed from Socialist International's Web page... Her name has been removed from the Gore organization's Web site list of directors, and the Audubon Society issued a press release about her departure from that organization.

Well, I'm sure all of us will gladly shrink our economy during a deep recession to benefit the global warming con artists who can't even convince the environmentalists that their scam is legit.

Those of you who insist Obama's selections are centrist need to do a little more research.

Linked by: Bob McCarty. Thanks!

Larwyn's Link Kerplosion: the ghastly lie that is 'economic inequality'


Video proof: Hamas exploitation of civilians: Israel Matzav
CNN's collaboration with Pallywood's latest production: LiveLeak
My predictions for the Obama 'presidency': Euphoric Reality

Iran using fronts to get bomb parts from U.S.: Washington Post
Joe the Plumber in Sderot: Jerusalem Post
Annals of Global Warming: Pajamas Media (Roger Kimball)

If Hamas is the victim, why is Ramallah so quiet: Scotland on Sunday (Michael Gove)
Obama Site Linked to 'Bush Shoe Toss' Event: ABC News
Michelle rips Obama's simulus plan and GOP complicity with it: Hot Air

Pro-Pali rally attacks cops; NYPD kicks a--: Jihad Press
The myth of the 'Pro-Palestinian Rally': Elder of Ziyon
Mark Levin Show from Jan. 6, 2009 - a must-listen: Mark Levin (Podcast)

The environmental impact of Google searches: Times of London
Forgotten hoard from the 11th century: Times of London
Life as we know it nearly created in lab: LiveScience

Treasury study refutes populist hokum about "income inequality.": Wall Street Journal:

... the 58% of lowest-income earners who moved to a higher income quintile in this study is roughly comparable to the percentages that did so in several similar studies going back to the late 1960s. "The basic finding of this analysis," says the Treasury report, "is that relative income mobility is approximately the same in the last 10 years as it was in the previous decade."

...The great irony is that, in the name of reducing inequality, some of our politicians want to raise taxes and other government obstacles to the kind of risk-taking and hard work that allow Americans to climb the income ladder so rapidly. As the Treasury data show, we shouldn't worry about inequality. We should worry about the people who use inequality as a political club to promote policies that reduce opportunity.

Sunday, January 11, 2009

David Bonior, intellectual midget, and Obama's economic freak show


David Bonier* is a former Congressman from Michigan who is Barack Obama' chief economic adviser. Before the 2008 election, Bonier was best known for his controversial and well nigh treasonous trip to visit Saddam Hussein on the Iraqi intelligence service's expense account.

Put simply, Bonier is an ideological buffoon whose intelligence was overshadowed, for a time, by Anna Nicole Smith. Consider his support of "reparations payments" (apparently the 700,000 Union dead in the Civil War constituted only the down payment).

Or his repeated support of the Marriage Tax Penalty, which is statistically proven to increase single-parent families and crime.

And he staunchly opposes school vouchers despite demonstrated success around the country.

Bonior's genius was on display this morning on Meet the Press, wherein he spent his scant on-air seconds hawking the most ludicrous and ruinous strategies that today's Left has to offer using a breathless imitation of Billy Mays.

David Bonior: Well, from my perspective we’ve got to get a hold of this inequality we have in this country today on, on wages and income, and this Bush tax cut piece is a, is a big part of that. The top–over the last 20 years, the top 10 percent took 90 percent of the income gains in this–in the country. And the top 1 percent took roughly 60 percent. And the top 1/10th of 1 percent took 35 percent of that. I mean, it’s skewed the wrong way. And what we need to do is focus in on not only monetary policy and fiscal policy, as we have talked this morning, but we’ve also got to talk about where we want to end up.

Gee, I thought it was a good thing to have super-rich guys like, say, Bill Gates, who founded Microsoft. Microsoft employs roughly 100,000 people around the world, helped create millions of jobs, and whose efforts helped manufacture literally tens of thousands of millionaires.

Or Larry Ellison (Oracle), Larry Page (Google), Jerry Yang (Yahoo), Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook), Kevin Rose (Digg), John Chambers (Cisco), Pierre Omidyar (eBay), Craig McCaw (McCaw Cellular), Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Ted Waitt (Gateway), or any number of other entrepeneurs who risked everything to start companies that produced hundreds of billions in revenue, millions of jobs, and entire new industries. All since the Reagan revolution, mind you.

Say, Bonier, if you heavily tax all of those highly successful people, I wonder whether they'll still be able to invest in new ventures that might, for example, turn into the next mega-employer like Microsoft?

But that would require understanding a difficult concept called "Economic Mobility." It's a complicated subject, Bonier. It requires that you you understand America, where those at the bottom of the economic ladder can climb into the middle and often, the upper, classes with amazing rapidity.

And it requires that you read a 2007 Treasury Department study, which shows income mobility in the U.S. works down as well as up; and that mobility over the last decade is more vibrant than ever.

But I suppose that's all to difficult for Bonier to understand. Just believe government can do it better, peons!

Like creating "green collar jobs" (whatever the hell those are) and other big government programs bound to be just as successful as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, "The War on Poverty", and the hundreds of other "progressive" programs that have left our children with $54 trillion in unfunded liabilities.

And that's before the Democrats socialize medicine.

Like "make work" infrastructure projects destined to emulate Boston's Big Dig and other multi-billion dollar boondoggles.

Bonier is a blinkered ideologue -- with an extremely low IQ -- who uses meaningless "inequality" statistics as a means of reducing opportunity and increasing poverty.

Let's go back to the videotape:

MR. GREGORY: Mm-hmm.

REP. BONIOR: And the way we end up with helping actually people is to give them the chance to bargain collectively at the table. With 7 percent unionization in this country, you’re not going to get the dispersion that you need. We were successful in this country–after the second World War, the three most profitable decades for working people. Shared prosperity occurred after the second World War because unionization was at 35 percent. The Employee Free Choice Act is an important piece of legislation that President-elect Obama and Biden support, the Congress support, 60 percent of the American people support, and that will help share in the benefits and the bounties of the country.

I'm speechless. So, Bonier believes that the post-World War II economy thrived not because of Eisenhower's "Dynamic Conservatism" -- which emphasized reduced federal spending, balanced the budget, ended wage and price controls, and lowered farm subsidies -- but because of Union membership.

Yes, those would be the same Unions led by officials who've helped bankrupt the automobile companies. And have a troubling history of ties to organized crime. And have fought numerous successful efforts at implementing meritocracies (such as Charter Schools).

On the talk show circuit, Barack Obama demands "sacrifice from every American."

Sacrifice for everyone except government bureaucrats, that is.

Heaven forbid someone ask Government to downsize, to allow citizens to keep more of their earnings, or to incent investment. But those concepts are above David "Dumb-as-a-Rock" Bonier's pay-grade.


What a freak show.

Update: Melissa was depressed by Bonior's pathetic diatribe.

* When pronouncing Bonier's name, the i is silent.

Earth on brink of an Ice Age: Al Gore hits unemployment line


Russian scientists are amassing evidence that the Earth is entering another Ice Age.

The earth is now on the brink of entering another Ice Age, according to a large and compelling body of evidence from within the field of climate science. Many sources of data which provide our knowledge base of long-term climate change indicate that the warm, twelve thousand year-long Holocene period will rather soon be coming to an end, and then the Earth will return to Ice Age conditions for the next 100,000 years...

...Ice cores, ocean sediment cores, the geologic record, and studies of ancient plant and animal populations all demonstrate a regular cyclic pattern of Ice Age glacial maximums which each last about 100,000 years, separated by intervening warm interglacials, each lasting about 12,000 years.

...Since the late 1970s, the Milankovich [cycles have] remained the predominant theory to account for Ice Age causation among climate scientists...

What the hell is Al Gore going to do with himself now?

This climate business is making him look like even more of a buffoon than when he embarrassed himself repeatedly in the political arena (Buddhist Temple much?). Wasn't it just a few days ago that he claimed the polar icecaps would be gone in five years?

Hat tip: Jammie Wearing Fool.

Video of Hamas kidnapping children for use as human shields


Who is violating international law? Who has raped the Geneva Convention? This video will answer that question beyond any shadow of a doubt.






Click any of the images to view the video.

And ask yourself this question: how frickin' hard would it be for CNN and The New York Times to report this kind of stuff, which has gone on for years? And since they don't report it, what is their real agenda?

Update: Residents of a Gaza neighborhood confirm that Hamas militants opened fire from the cover of a U.N. school where hundreds of Palestinians had sought refuge.

Update II: Video of Hamas officials calling on children to form human shields.

Linked by: American Thinker, Fausta, Brutally Honest and Meryl Yourish. Thanks!

Welfare kills


As the government contemplates trillions in new bailout spending, it is worth considering real infrastructure projects. And there is no infrastructure quite as important as that which undergirds the two-parent family.

Consider that, of 23 peer-reviewed U.S. studies since 2000, 20 found that family structure directly affects crime and/or delinquency.

"[R]esearch strongly suggests both that young adults and teens raised in single-parent homes are more likely to commit crimes, and that communities with high rates of family fragmentation (especially unwed childbearing) suffer higher crime rates as a result."

For example, a 23-year study found that nearly 90% of the change in violent crime rates can be attributed to the change in percentages of out-of-wedlock births (divorce rates, on the other hand, had no relationship with crime).

In The Atlantic Monthly, Barbara Dafoe Whitehead noted that the "relationship [between single-parent families and crime] is so strong that controlling for family configuration erases the relationship between race and crime and between low income and crime. This conclusion shows up time and again in the literature. The nation's mayors, as well as police officers, social workers, probation officers, and court officials, consistently point to family break up as the most important source of rising rates of crime."

In addition, the statistical link between the availability of welfare and out-of-wedlock births is conclusive. There have been dozens of studies that link the availability of welfare benefits to out-of-wedlock birth.

One study found that a 50 percent increase in the value of AFDC and foodstamp payments led to a 43 percent increase in the number of out-of-wedlock births.

Research for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services showed that a 50 percent increase in the monthly value of combined AFDC and food stamp benefits led to a 117 percent increase in the crime rate among young black men.

In 1995 Dr. Patrick Fagan wrote a seminal summary of the situation: "Over the past thirty years, the rise in violent crime parallels the rise in families abandoned by fathers... High-crime neighborhoods are characterized by high concentrations of families abandoned by fathers... The rate of violent teenage crime corresponds with the number of families abandoned by fathers... Neighborhoods with a high degree of religious practice are not high-crime neighborhoods... Even in high-crime inner-city neighborhoods, well over 90 percent of children from safe, stable homes do not become delinquents. By contrast only 10 percent of children from unsafe, unstable homes in these neighborhoods avoid crime... Criminals capable of sustaining marriage gradually move away from a life of crime after they get married."

But what caused the breakdown of the American family? There are certainly many factors, but the welfare system; glorification of the single-parent household; and ill-conceived legislation are among the chief culprits.

Welfare: In 1994 the Maryland NAACP published a report that concluded "the ready access to a lifetime of welfare and free social service programs is a major contributory factor to the crime problems we face today."

Author Robert Rector argued that "[f]or thirty years, the welfare system has paid for non­work and non­marriage and has achieved massive increases in both." Rector noted that when New Jersey began denying increases in cash welfare benefits to single mothers who have additional children while on welfare, out-of-wedlock births decreased 10% with no increase in abortions.

Glorification of single-parent households: During a 1994 commencement address at George Washington University First Lady Hillary Clinton stated, "If it ever did, [the American family] no longer does consist of two parents, a dog, a house with a white picket fence, and a station wagon in the driveway."

In 1992 Vice President Dan Quayle ignited a media kerfuffle by criticizing the character of Murphy Brown for raising a child out of wedlock without any discernible father figure. Though mocked for months in the press, Quayle's words now seem prescient: It doesn't help matters when primetime TV has Murphy Brown, a character who supposedly epitomizes today's intelligent, highly paid professional woman, mocking the importance of fathers by bearing a child alone and calling it just another lifestyle choice.

Furthermore, "Feminist" organizations have long opposed measures to reduce single-parent families and revamp welfare accordingly.

But even more important than Hollywood, the media and feminist efforts to glorify single-parent households, legislation played a critical role in the breakdown of the family.

Legislation: Tax law hits married couples directly in their wallets. Studies have determined that the "marriage penalty" disincentivizes both marriage and labor, since "[the] best approach to appear to have a lower family income is to not have an employed spouse in the home."

Research shows that tax and transfer programs have a direct effect on marital stability. Financial stress contributes heavily to family problems, including marital difficulties that can lead to divorce. Therefore, tax policies that penalize married couples by increasing their tax liabilities, contribute directly to the breakdown of families.

Tax policies of the 1940s provided a family-oriented tax structure which preceded the sustained prosperity and social stability of the 1950s and early 1960s. During this time period, the rate of divorce actually declined.

Social researcher Allan Carlson proposed a variety of pro-­family tax policies, saying "a tax code recognizes that tax structure does influence human behavior. It would help children and strengthen families."

Other experts have offered a series of legislative proposals that strengthen the family, including: (a) identifying every child's father, by having states ensure that a document exists at birth to identify the name and social security number of both parents; (b) forcing fathers to take responsibility for their children through programs like Charles Ballard's National Institute for Responsible Fatherhood, in which fathers are strongly encouraged to legitimate their children, attend school, and find gainful employment; (c) rescind no-­fault divorce laws for parents with children; and (d) eradicate the destructive incentives of the welfare system.

Put simply, Congress can pave the way through intelligent legislation based on data, not opinion. If government is going to spend hundreds of billions on "infrastructure projects", no infrastructure is as important as that which underpins the two-parent American family.

Proof that the Detroit school system works


Dave sent this one in:

"This is an actual picture of a Burger King in Detroit."

Vintage computer ads starring a thin, hairy Bill Shatner


FunMansion has some great vintage computer ads from the golden era of crappy, primitive PCs. I myself once owned a Sanyo MBC 550, the IBM-compatible PC that wasn't exactly IBM-compatible.

Larwyn's Link Kerplosion: "The headline-greedy media cheer them on"


CAIR's silence on Hamas: Investigative Project
DRM is a disaster and a fraud: Eric Raymond
The workshops of of identity: Big Hollywood (Bill Whittle)

Rove on Fannie and Freddie: Protein Wisdom
Rangel & Dodd must do the right thing: Post & Courier
CNN meets Joe the Plumber: Pajamas Media (Roger L. Simon)

The UN and Hamas: money-making bedfellows: Forbes
Microsoft Windows 7: Download Dud: The Street
Barack Obama 'kidnaps' Jack Bauer: Telegraph (UK)

The 'oldest hatred': National Review (Mark Steyn)
Israel acts because the world won't defend it: London Times (UK)
Mt. Rainier puts on a show!: KOMO News

Peace lovers love hate: News of Australia (Tim Blair)
Chris Dodd, VIP: Parkway Rest Stop
US rejected aid for Israeli attack on Iran: New York Times (David Sanger)

Anti-Israel Protests in America Cross the Line of Decency: Reut Cohen
Drastic measures: Bush halts all production and import of bulls***: American Digest
Ten of the world's top banks accused of money laundering for Iran: New York Daily News

The demons of Gaza: New York Post (Ralph Peters):

...When Hamas can't kill Jews, it's perfectly willing to drive Palestinian civilians into the line of fire - old men, women and children. Hamas herds the innocent into "shelters," then draws Israeli fire on them. And the headline-greedy media cheer them on...

Now our civilization faces terrorists who regard death as a promotion. They believe that any action can be excused because they're serving their god. And their core belief is that you and I, as stubborn unbelievers, deserve death.

Their grisly god knows no compromise. To give an inch is to betray their god's trust entirely. Yet we - and even some Israelis - believe it's possible to cut deals with them... This is a war to the bitter end. And we're afraid to admit what it's about.

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Ending the Gaza War: Choices, not Solutions


By Barry Rubin of the Gloria Center

Last December, Hamas unilaterally ended its ceasefire with Israel and escalated the kind of cross-border attacks continually attempted even during the ceasefire. With massive public support, Israel struck back against a neighboring regime which daily attacked its citizens and called for its extermination.

For decades, Israel’s history shows a general pattern: its neighbors attack, Israel responds, Israel wins the war, and the world rushes to ensure that its victory is limited or nullified. If, as sometimes happens, the diplomatic process really improves the situation and provides progress for peace that, of course, is beneficial.

Yet Israel’s experience has shown that international promises made in return for its material concessions are often broken. Most recently, in 2006 the international community pledged to keep Hizballah out of south Lebanon and curb its arms’ supply, failed totally, yet took no action in response to this defeat. Israel is understandably skeptical.

In addition, Israelis know that Hamas is totally dedicated to their personal and collective destruction. The group will not moderate, cannot be bought off, and will not respect any agreement it makes. As a result, the usual kinds of diplomatic tools—concessions, confidence-building, agreements, moderation resulting from having governmental responsibilities, will not work. Any solution short of Hamas’s fall from power will bring more fighting in future.

What should happen is that the international community cooperates in the removal of the Hamas regime. It is an illegal government, brought to power by an unprovoked war against the Palestinian Authority (PA) which was the internationally recognized regime in the Gaza Strip. Hamas may have won the elections but it then seized total power, suspended representative government, and destroyed the opposition.

Moreover, Hamas is a radical terrorist group which openly uses antisemitic rhetoric and actively seeks to wipe Israel off the map. It oppresses the Palestinian population and leads them into endless war. It teaches young Palestinians that their career goal should not be as a teacher, engineer, or doctor but as a suicide bomber.

From a strategic standpoint, Hamas is a member of the Iran-Syria alliance which seeks to overthrow every Arab regime in the Middle East and replace it with an anti-Western, war-oriented, radical Islamist dictatorship. Hamas’s survival is a big threat to both Western interests and to those of Arab nationalist regimes. Keeping Hamas in power is equivalent to an energetic Western diplomatic effort to have kept the Taliban regime in power in Afghanistan, despite its role in the September 11 attacks.

If, however, the world is not going to support Hamas’s fall from office, Israel cannot bring about this result by itself. At the same time, the world will be making a big mistake if it pushes for a ceasefire at any price, thus encouraging future violence and terrorism, not only regarding Gaza but also in the region generally.

What then are Israel’s options?

Two possible outcomes are rejected: Israel will not take control of the Gaza Strip again, and Israel will not accept a return to the previous situation in which Hamas repeatedly attacked Israel under cover of a ceasefire.

There are at least six major things Israel can obtain realistically:

--The practical weakening of Hamas. Granted it will continue to be aggressive in future, its losses will reduce Hamas’s ability to hurt Israeli citizens.

-- Deterrence, while retaining its longer-term goals, Hamas will be more reluctant to attack Israel lest it produce another such Israeli response.

--Border control, a change from the situation in which Hamas can import weapons fairly freely to a stricter order in which humanitarian aid but not arms can come in.

--The return of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, seized in a Hamas attack on Israeli soil and held hostage, lacking any contact with international humanitarian groups.

--A reduction of Hamas’s standing among Palestinians. Despite macho and religious rhetoric about Hamas’s strength, Gaza Palestinians are more eager for a return of the PA; West Bank citizens, living under more moderate PA rule, realize that extremism is disastrous.

--Regional perception of Hamas’s defeat, lowering support for the Iran-Syria alliance and encouraging more moderate Arab forces to resist radical Islamism and Tehran’s power.

Despite this being the best realistic program, Israel also knows significant factors that might mean it won’t work entirely:

--Hamas will break any agreement and not change.

--The international community is weak and contains tendencies toward appeasing extremists to avoid trouble.

--Egypt even when well-intended is not so efficient at controlling the border

Thus, even this best-case scenario has problems. First, Hamas will return to building up its forces for future confrontations, teaching a whole generation that it should prepare to sacrifice itself to achieve a “final solution” of the Israel problem. In short, any outcome that leaves Hamas in place is at best a lull until the next round.

Second, it is quite possible that within days or weeks of any agreement, Hamas—partly to prove to itself and others how it remains unbowed—will return to firing rockets and mortar rounds into Israel as well as trying to carry out terrorist attacks across the border. In that case, Israel will have to respond much more seriously than it has in the past to such behavior. A world which guarantees the ceasefire better be prepared to remember Israel’s legitimate interests in enforcing it.

Finally, as long as Hamas survives as rulers of the Gaza Strip, it will be impossible to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The PA will be too intimidated to make compromises and cannot even deliver its own people. There can be no Palestinian state with half the territory being controlled by an organization which will never accept an agreement and will do everything possible to wreck it.

“Saving” Hamas and making the main or sole priority pushing for a ceasefire at any price is a very short-sighted policy for the international community which will be paid for in future. If the Gaza war is going to be ended, it should be in the framework of solving the problems that let Hamas create the war in the first place.


Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal. His latest books are The Israel-Arab Reader (seventh edition), The Truth About Syria, and The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East.

Graph o' the day: Sick


Gallup: Republicans Report Much Better Mental Health Than Others

"It was the Zionists' fault"


Most of the United Nations -- and Islamists around the world -- blame Middle East unrest on "the Zionists". This assertion is even more ludicrous than most of their other statements. Consider:

In Fort Lauderdale, Los Angeles, San Francisco and other cities around the U.S., Muslim protesters chanted "Jews to the ovens", "Long Live Hitler", "Slaughter the Jews", "We will cleanse you, Palestine" and other epithets advocating genocide. It was the Zionists's fault.

In the Sudan, 300,000 have died as Muslims attacked Christians and Animists. It was the Zionists' fault.

In Mumbai India, a terrorist attack by Muslim extremists killed or wounded 500 people in 2008. It was the Zionists' fault.

In London England, Muslim extremists killed 52 and wounded 700 in a series of bombings in 2005. That was the Zionists' fault, too.

In the Philippines, Muslim groups have killed hundreds in a succession of attacks since 2004. It was the Zionists' fault.

In Madrid Spain, Muslims killed 191 and wounded 1,755 people in a series of bombings in 2004. It was the Zionists' fault.

In Iraq, tens of thousands have been killed and many more wounded by Muslim extremists in suicide bombings, car bombings and other attacks since the removal of Saddam Hussein from power in 2003. It was the Zionists' fault.

In Bali, a Muslim extremist group used three massive bombs to kill over 200 tourists and resort workers in 2002. It was the Zionists' fault.

In Afghanistan, hundreds have been killed and thousands wounded by Muslim extremists in suicide bombings, car bombings and other attacks since the removal of the Taliban from power in 2001. It was the Zionists' fault.

In New York City, Washington DC and Pennsylvania, Muslim extremists killed 3,000 people in 2001. It was the Zionists' fault.

In Chechnya, Muslim separatists have battled Russians and waged a series of terrorist attacks since 1999. Between 25,000 and 50,000 have perished in the conflict. It was the Zionists' fault.

For decades, Palestinian and Iranian children's television shows and textbooks have taught hatred of Christians and Jews; suicide bombing; killing; and destruction. This is the Zionists' fault.

Since 2001, Islamic terrorists have carried out more than 11,188 separate attacks on Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Jews, women and others. These attacks were the Zionists' fault.

In 2007 TROP reported that the Muslim and Jewish holy days overlapped for ten days. During this period, "Muslims racked up 397 dead bodies in 94 terror attacks across 10 countries... while Jews worked on their 159th Nobel Prize."

It was the Zionists' fault.

It was all the Zionists' fault.


Related: What really happened.
Linked by: Instapundit, Jack Be Nimble, Great Spiritual Battle, Mental Jog, DaTech Guy, Letters of thought and Jimmy K. Thanks!

Larwyn's Link Kerplosion: Prolonging the Depression


Economists: FDR prolonged Depression by 7 years: UCLA
US on the precipice: Seeking Alpha
CNN fail: Little Green Footballs

Cause and Effect: High Plains Blogger
Fake CNN site hides to Trojan: CNet News
Nielsen starts off 2009 with a cluster****: MediaDaily

40 most obnoxious quotes of 2008: Right Wing News
Open source is liberal? Nah.: CNet (Matt Asay)
NBC's David Gregory stands tall: NewsBusters

Beat Andrew Sullivan in the Weblog Awards: Hot Air
Europe out of control: extremists rampage: Neocon Express
CNN busted running phony Gaza propaganda, doesn't fess up: American Thinker

Hamas rigs entire neighborhood with explosive devices: Jawa Report
USSR's role in the Middle East goes down the memory hole: Volokh Conspiracy
NBC's Andrea Mitchell calls for censorship of blogs: Evil Conservative

War Crimes: Power Line:

[A] video, posted by the IDF on its YouTube channel earlier today, shows how Hamas will position a rocket or (in this case) mortar launcher within a few feet of a school, not because school grounds are somehow ideal locations from which to fire ordnance, but in hopes of causing civilian casualties...

One wonders, too, what was going on at the UN-run school. Why were dozens or hundreds of children present? Is the UN unaware that Gaza is a war zone? Schools have been closed in Israeli towns that are subject to Palestinian rocket attacks. Why on earth would the UN, or whoever, be assembling students in a location where they can easily be turned into "martyrs" by Hamas? Were classes really being conducted in this alleged school, in the middle of a bombardment? There is a story here, waiting to be told.

That story will have to wait. Pinchie, Andrea Mitchell, Chris Matthews and their ilk have devoted all of their resources to investigating Trig Palin's lineage and Joe the Plumber's prostate exam results.

Friday, January 09, 2009

Sea Kittens: the other pink meat


Okay, so PETA wants to call fish 'sea kittens'. Fair enough. That being the case, I'd like to change the following names of animals:

• Cows ==> Pandas of the plain
• Chickens ==> Farm puppies
• Squirrels ==> Trouser monkeys
• Lamb ==> Lamb

Furthermore, I would be happy to call fish "sea kittens" so long as it is legal to eat real kittens.

As an aside, does this mean we should put regular kittens underwater with their sea kitten cousins?

And does anyone wrap raw seakittens with rice and seaweed and a little bit of wasabi?

Why doesn’t PETA care about the senseless slaughter millions of defenseless plants, fruits, and vegetables every year?

Does PETA know that a cat can not in any way survive on a vegetarian diet?

Is a sea kitten a baby catfish?

Ooh….someone pass the lemon-pepper shaker.

I love kittens….with a nice wine sauce.

Not only do I enjoy “sea kittens” , but I have probably unknowlingly enjoyed a few “land kittens” , from the local Oriental restaurant as well.

I think I’ll make sea kitten sticks for lunch today.

Pasture puppies: Steak.

Maybe we should rename rats 'tube puppies'. Think how much nicer the NYC subways would be!

You mean there are land kittens too? Sounds delicious!

Now I want to go to Captain D’s or Long John Silvers and have a Sea Kitten Platter; it comes with Sea Puppies (shrimp)!

Hat tips: Rants & Refinements, Veteran American, Hot Air and Michelle Malkin.

Report: Newspapers in Crisis


eMarketer is offering an up-to-the-minute report on the troubled newspaper industry that's certain to cause some sleepless nights among the Sulzberger clan.

The outlook for newspaper publishers is grim. Their business model is broken and advertisers are bailing. Newspaper advertising revenues in the US declined 16.4% in 2008 to $37.9 billion. By 2012, spending will slide to $28.4 billion. Is there hope for this proud medium?

The Newspapers In Crisis report analyzes the trends that are contributing to a historic downslide in newspaper revenues and readership.

Newspaper circulation continues to deteriorate as people increasingly go online for news that is timelier and free. And the relatively high fixed costs of paper, printing and distribution show no signs of waning.

And there is little relief online, where newspaper revenues are dropping as well. eMarketer estimates that even Internet revenues dipped slightly in 2008, 0.4% to $3.15 billion.

If you've got 695 spare smackers, you can have the full report.

Based on the chart, I think they're optimistic.

Line o' the day: Cork It


Mr. Harper suggested that the [Obama Chief Technology Officer's] role may be more limited than some people envision. "A government CTO is going to run government technology policy the way a cork - or maybe a dinghy - runs the ocean," he said.

Hat tip: Ben.

Larwyn's Link Kerplosion: Reid gets a taste of The Chicago Way


Blame Democrats for the Housing Meltdown: Gateway Pundit
Nonie Darwish interview: Family Security Matters
Obama administration 'prepared to talk to Hamas': Guardian (UK)

Carter's Arab Financiers: Washington Times
Beat Juan Cole in the Weblog Awards Vote Michael J. Totten
Web of contracts and donations bind Burris, Blago: Fox

Keith Ellison's trip paid for by a 'front for extremism': Dinah Lord
Is Chrysler a lost cause?: Yahoo! News
Italian Union: 'Identify, boycott' Jewish-owned shops: YnetNews

Need glass walls that open? These look pretty cool.: NanaWall
Self-Replicating Chemicals Evolve Into Lifelike Ecosystem: Wired
Because 500HP isn't enough: Nissan GT-R V-Spec: 4 Wheel News

The reality of government-controlled medical treatment: National Review (Thomas Sowell)
Video: Hamas shoots Palestinian wedding party for singing: Jawa Report
Obama serves Reid a taste of Chicago Way: Chicago Tribune (John Kass)

Palm pins comeback on 'Pre' smartphone: Information Week
Former Israeli commando teaches Alan Colmes a lesson: Ms. Underestimated
A radical business plan: Salt & Light:

Unfortunately, the cost of running this business, and employing you, is starting to eclipse the threshold of marginal benefit and let me tell you why:

I am being taxed to death and the government thinks I don’t pay enough. I have state taxes. Federal taxes. Property taxes. Sales and use taxes. Payroll taxes. Workers compensation taxes. Unemployment taxes. Taxes on taxes. I have to hire a tax man to manage all these taxes and then guess what? I have to pay taxes for employing him. Government mandates and regulations and all the accounting that goes with it, now occupy most of my time. On Oct 15th, I wrote a check to the US Treasury for $288,000 for quarterly taxes. You know what my “stimulus” check was? Zero. Nada. Zilch.

The question I have is this: Who is stimulating the economy? Me, the guy who has provided 14 people good paying jobs and serves over 2,200,000 people per year with a flourishing business? Or, the single mother sitting at home pregnant with her fourth child waiting for her next welfare check? Obviously, government feels the latter is the economic stimulus of this country.