What Will It Take To Make Us See?

Our enemy is so patently evil.

It's as if Muslims came out of central casting for a bad Hollywood movie.

Cigar-smoking agent says, "Ok, what kind of enemy you want? Whatever kind you want? I got 'em. You want scary, you want ugly, you want Satan himself? I got 'em."

Director:

"I want an enemy who shrouds himself in all black, even covering the face.

"I want an enemy who carries around the entrail of dead humans, who revels in cutting the skin of his children with machetes, letting the blood flow everywhere.

"I want an enemy who is deeply racist, killing blacks, because they are black, in African countries, where they act as imperialist masters.

"I want an enemy whose god cries out for endless blood and sacrifice.

"And most of all, I want an enemy so thoroughly evil that he silences music, and forbids art, and covers over the bodies of women, and all that is beautiful."

Imagine, the cigar-smoking agent delivered up the perfect people to play the part, and we all just sat back and slapped our knees, and laughed, and said, "That's no enemy. Can't you give us something just a bit frightening, for God's sake?"

What will it take for us to see?

THE MORAL FAILURE OF "THE NATIONS" IN A NUTSHELL

NYTIMES/REUTERS:

Tuesday's killing by Israeli shells of 42 people, including women and children sheltering in a United Nations-run school in Jabalya refugee camp, intensified international pressure on Israel to call a halt. U.N. officials denied an Israeli army account that militants had been firing from the school.

Israel has said it will press on until Hamas can no longer hit its southern towns with rockets. Militants fired a handful of rockets at the Israeli towns of Ashkelon and Beersheva late on Wednesday, but there were no reports of injuries.

THIS IS THE CRUX OF THE MATTER, MORALLY:

• HAMAS VIOLATES INTERNATIONAL LAW BY LAUNCHING 7200 ROCKETS INTO ISRAEL OVER THREE YEARS,
  
• AND THEN - WHEN ISRAEL FINALLY RETALIATES - HAMAS VIOLATES ALL THE NORMS OF WAR BY REPEATEDLY AND DELIBERATELY USING HUMAN SHIELDS... AND WHEN SOME OF THESE SHILELDS DIE, THE WORLD CONDEMNS ISRAEL!

• THESE 42 DEAD WERE KILLED BECAUSE OF HAMAS. HAMAS SHOULD BE UNDER INTENSIFYING PRESSURE BECAUSE OF THESE DEAD, NOT ISRAEL.

• AND, WHEN HAMAS ATTACKS ISRAEL IT'S POO-POOHED; THEY WRITE: "Militants fired a handful of rockets at the Israeli towns" AS IF IT WASN'T AN ACT OF WAR, AS IF 15% OF ISRAEL'S POPULATION - WHICH IS UNDER DAILY THREAT FROM HAMAS ROCKETS - DIDN'T MATTER.
• THEY WRITE AS IF THE VERY REAL THREAT TO JEWISH LIVES DIDN'T MATTER.

• WELL, ALL ISRAEL IS DOING IS WHAT PAKISTAN SHOULD HAVE DONE IN THE FATA SINCE 2001.
  
• IT'S WHAT THE PETRAEUS SURGE DID IN IRAQ.
  
• IT'S WHAT ANY OTHER NATION WOULD DO IF UNDER ATTACK.
• BUT ISRAEL IS APPARENTLY HELD TO A DIFFERENT STANDARD THAN ALL OTHER NATIONS.

WHEN YOU HOLD ISRAEL TO A DIFFERENT STANDARD THAN ALL OTHER NATIONS, IT'S NOT ANTI-ZIONISM; IT'S ANTISEMITISM.

THE PSEUDO-REALISM OF PEACENIKS STEPHEN WALT AND JOHN MEARSHEIMER

AMERICAN POWER:

My dissertation, completed in 1999, built on some main research findings in the realist balance-of-power paradigm, of which Walt is a leading scholar. His book, The Origins of Alliances (1987), offered one of the most important emendations to the balancing and alliance literature since the work of Kenneth Waltz in the late-1970s. I've loved the realist paradigm - with its grounding in rationalism and the primacy of the national interest - since my days as a political science undergraduate. Walt, as well as his coauthor John Mearsheimer (who I met in 2002 at the APSA annual meeting in Boston), are great political scientists, worthy of emulation.

But I became increasing less enamored of Walt and Mearsheimer in 2003, with the publication of their attack on the Bush administration's build-up in Iraq in 2003, "An Unnecessary War." It became clearer to me over time that realist academic political scientists were basically antiwar peaceniks with mortarboards and tassels.

Walt and Mearsheimer, of course, have become central players in the debates on U.S. foreign policy toward Israel. Most folks are familiar with the huge controversy over their article a few years back at the London Review of Books, "The Israel Lobby." I had just started blogging at that time, and didn't get too wrapped up in the debate. I read some flurries of the controversy in the pages of Foreign Policy, "The War Over Israel’s Influence," and I recommend Michael Massing's powerful essay reviewing the debate at the New York Review, "The Storm over the Israel Lobby." See also, Richard Baehr and Ed Lasky's, "Stephen Walt's War with Israel."

Yesterday afternoon I picked up a copy of Walt and Mearsheimer's book that grew out of that debate, The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy. I read the preface and introduction last night, and will continue reading this afternoon. I figured I might as well read the whole thing. With Walt now a major blogger at the Foreign Policy website, who will likely provide ample fodder to the nihilist leftists of the online fever swamps, it seemed like now's a good time to consume the full argument in preparation for even more intense debates in the months and years ahead.

Just a look at Walt's page this morning gives one a heads-up on what to expect. In an essay entitled "It's Time to Redefine 'Pro-Israel'," Walt glowingly cites the well-known Bush administration nemisis and eminent sockpuppet Glenn Greenwald:

Over at Salon.com, Glenn Greenwald has posted some typically sharp and forceful comments on the gap between American public opinion on the conflict in Gaza and the public stance taken by our politicians.

I'm telling you, if Stephen Walt - who is the Belfer Professor of International Relations at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government - describes Greenwald, who is perhaps the most loathed hardline leftist blogger among conservatives across the blogosphere, as "typically sharp," then there really is something strange going on in academic political science. To put Walt's blogging endorsements in perspective, see Rick Moran's, "Glenn Greenwald is a Pathological Liar."

It's kind of sad, actually, but this is the postmodern world we live in nowadays. Good thing I became a blogger, I guess.

I'll have more on all of this as things develop. For more on my take on Israel and blogging, click here.

RTWT.

NANCY KILLEFER MAY BECOME THE MOST IMPORTANT PERSON IN WASHINGTON

OBAMA HASN'T APPOINTED A SINGLE BUSINESS-PERSON TO HIS CABINET.

BUT FINALLY HE'S AT LEAST APPOINTED SOMEONE WHO DOES KNOW ALL ABOUT COMPETITIVENESS AND EFFICIENCY:

BW:

George W. Bush may have been the first President with an MBA, but President-elect Barack Obama is filling the role of the country's first "chief performance officer" with a partner from one of the world's top management consulting firms.

Obama announced on Jan. 7 that Nancy Killefer, a senior partner at McKinsey will fill the newly created position, aimed at improving efficiency and stamping out government waste. Killefer has worked in Washington before, serving in the Clinton Administration as the assistant secretary for management, chief financial officer, and chief operating officer of the Treasury Dept. from 1997 to 2000. Before helping launch McKinsey's public sector practice, she consulted with a range of consumer goods and retail companies on strategy, marketing, and organizational effectiveness. She was the chairperson of the IRS Oversight Board in 2002-04.

Line-by-Line Budget Scrutiny

The task ahead of her is exceptional. Even as Killefer is charged with making government more efficient, her new boss has warned of trillion-dollar deficits for years to come. Killefer will oversee the "line-by-line" scrutiny of the vast federal budget Obama mentioned frequently during his campaign.

HERE'S WHAT SHE WROTE IN 2006:

Unproductive Uncle Sam

The past decade has been one of America's finest in terms of productivity growth. Yet a crucial 20% of our economy appears to have been left behind: government. Despite numerous attempts at management reform and a panoply of opportunities to transfer best practices between the private and public sectors, government seems to have missed out on the productivity boom seen in the private sector. That's a shame, because while there are important differences between the public and private sectors, government does an abundance of grantmaking, procurement, property management, customer service, and other jobs ripe for productivity improvement.
So just how far behind is government? We can't say with any certainty because the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which used to measure its productivity, stopped in 1996. Our analysis shows that government kept up with the private sector until 1987, when a gap emerged. It went on widening until 1994, when the data ran out. We believe it has widened further still.

This public productivity deficit couldn't come at a worse moment. Americans today say they want to limit the cost of government, but they also want more homeland security, better-managed borders, more disaster readiness, extra help in the face of global trade, cheaper health care, and better public schools. These demands sit uncomfortably with our budget deficit and our natural desire not to pay more taxes. In short, we are stuck in a productivity bind: We want more output but no more input.

In a white paper our firm, McKinsey & Co., published this week, "How Can American Government Meet Its Productivity Challenge?", we map out an agenda inspired by lessons from the private sector. Having studied productivity growth around the world for over 15 years, the McKinsey Global Institute has shown that competitive intensity at the industry sector level is the prime catalyst for productivity growth. It forces managers to improve performance and allows innovation to diffuse quickly across the sector.

Make no mistake, government is a sector -- structured and regulated in ways that can foster or stunt productivity growth at its "firms" (agencies). And while it may not be possible to use competition in government to exert pressure to perform, Congress and the White House or state legislators and governors have plenty of tools to improve public agencies.

The most natural tool is the budget process, but the reality in Washington and many state capitals is that performance remains a secondary factor in budget decision-making. Congressmen fight for their district or their passions, and accordingly, agencies privately admit that you budget for what you can get, not what you need or deserve. Yet when government performance, or the lack thereof, is highly visible (witness the response after Katrina), everyone takes action.

That's why we think a radical new approach to transparency of how government programs are performing is required. Only this will push Congress to exert performance pressure on government agencies.

RTWT.

• IT SOUNDS GOOD TO ME.
• MAYBE SHE CAN HELP PUT A BREAK ON OBAMA'S SOCIALIST AGENDA.
• WHY WOULD HE PICK HER, AND CREATE A DECENT ROLE FOR HERE - IF SHE'S REALLY THAT GOOD!?
• MAYBE BECAUSE IT GIVES HIM AN "OUT".
• OR MAYBE BECAUSE SHE WILL PUT A "GOOD-HOUSEKEEPING SEAL" ON HIS NEW PROGRAMS...
  

STAY TUNED...

GUESS WHO'S COMING TO ISRAEL FROM OHIO?

Joe the Plumber (via Michelle Malkin):

TOLEDO, Ohio: Joe the Plumber is taking on a new job.

The Ohio man, who became famous during the U.S. presidential campaign after asking Barack Obama about his tax plan, is heading to Israel as a war correspondent for a conservative Web site called pjtv.com.

Dubbed "Joe the Plumber" by McCain's campaign, Samuel "Joe" Wurzelbacher was held up as an example of an American worker who would be hurt economically by Obama's election.

Wurzelbacher says he'll spend 10 days covering the fighting and explaining why Israeli forces are mounting attacks against Hamas.

He tells WNWO-TV in Toledo that he wants "go over there and let their 'Average Joes' share their story."

Wurzelbacher later joined Republican John McCain on the campaign trail.

At one stop, Wurzelbacher agreed with a McCain supporter who asked if he believed a vote for Obama was a vote for the death of Israel.

Joe is a great man and a great friend indeed.

HAS HAMAS BECOME A DIVERSION FOR IRAN?

Caroline Glick wonders if the current war against Hamas is serving to take attention away from Iran deliberately. That's an interesting question. She says:

The second reason that it is possible that Hamas may be defeated is because much to everyone's surprise, Iran may have decided to let Hamas lose.

Here it is important to note that the war today, like the war in 2006, is a war between Israel and Iran. Like Hizbullah, Hamas is an Iranian proxy. And just as was the case in 2006, Iran was instrumental in inciting the current war.

Iran prepared Hamas for this war. It used Hamas's six-month cease-fire with Israel to double both the range and the size of Hamas's missile arsenal. It trained Hamas's 20,000-man army for this war. And as the six months drew to a close, Iran incited Hamas to attack.

So too, in 2006, Iran incited Hamas to attack Israel. That war, now known as the Second Lebanon War, was actually a two-front war that began in Gaza. Ordered by Iran, it was Hamas that started the war when its forces (together with allied forces in Fatah), attacked the IDF position at Kerem Shalom on June 25, 2006 and kidnapped Cpl. Gilad Schalit. Israel fought a limited war against Iran's Palestinian proxies in Gaza for 17 days before the country's attention moved to the North after Hizbullah attacked an IDF position along the border and abducted Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser. [...]

Alas, there is another possible explanation for Iran's apparent decision to abandon a vassal it incited to open a war. On Sunday, Iranian analyst Amir Taheri reported the conclusions of a bipartisan French parliamentary report on the status of Iran's nuclear program in Asharq Alawsat. The report which was submitted to French President Nicolas Sarkozy late last month concluded that unless something changes, Iran will have passed the nuclear threshold by the end of 2009 and will become a nuclear power no later than 2011. The report is notable because it is based entirely on open-sourced material whose accuracy has been acknowledged by the Iranian regime.

The report asserts that this year will be the world's final opportunity to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. And, as Taheri hints strongly, the only way of doing that effectively is by attacking Iran's nuclear installations.

Read the whole item. My theory emerging from this is that, if her analysis makes any sense, Iran has decided to let Hamas go down because they have an even more lethal weapon in store - the nuclear device. And that's why, even as the war with Hamas goes on, Iran needs to be taken down as well.

New York Times Pantywaist, Thomas Friedman, Calls Gaza, "The Mid-East's Ground Zero"

If your family had suffered the tragic loss of a young child due to violence perpetrated by the deliquent son across then street,

and then, just a few days later Thomas Friedman came over to your house and said,

"You know, that family has had a lot of pain as well. Their delinquent son murdered a family and is now in jail. You should feel sorry for them,"

what would you say to that?

I'd say Thomas Friedman is a puddle of gelatinous effluvium slithering around the inside of the pestilent underwear of a syphilitic whore.

Jeez, I hope I'm not overdoing it. Am I overdoing it? Am I?

I really couldn't. Thomas Friedman has insulted my country, comparing the Palestinians reaping of their reward to the completely unjustified attack on 9/11.

From the NYT:

"The fighting, death and destruction in Gaza is painful to watch. But it’s all too familiar."

Reliapundit adds:

WTF!?! "... ALL TOO FAMILIAR"!?

• ISRAEL HAS ATTACKED GAZA MAYBE FOUR TIMES IN 70 YEARS.
  
  MEANWHILE; IN THREE YEARS HAMAS HAS LAUNCHED 7200 MISSILES INTO ISRAEL.
• FRIEDMAN'S OPENING LINE FROM TODAY'S COLUMN REVEALS HE'S A PIECE OF SHIT.
• AND IT RECONFIRMS WHY THE SAUDIS CHOSE HIM TO CARRY THEIR "PEACE PLAN": HE'S A MORAL RELATIVIST WHO CAN BE COUNTED ON TO BEND OVER BACKWARDS FOR THE ENEMY!

REMEMBER, FRIEDMAN IS ALSO AN ECO-NUTSIE - (WHO WANTS THE USA TO BECOME "CHINA FOR A DAY" - SO A BENEVOLENT DICTATOR RULING A POLITBURO CAN PASS ALL THE NECESSARY CARBON LAWS TO "SAVE THE PLANET") - WHO LIVES IN A 17,000 SQ FT HOUSE.

IOW: HE'S A PHONY PIECE OF SHIT. WHO MAKES FALSE MORAL EQUIVALENCES ALL THE FREAKIN' TIME.

THE IDF'S CURRENT POLICE ACTION SHOULD NOT BE LAMENTED AT ALL; IT SHOULD BE LAUDED; IT'S WHAT PAKISTAN SHOULD BE DOING IN THEIR FATA.

• FACT: ISRAEL HAS NOT DONE WHAT IT IS DOING NOW OFTEN; IT HAS DONE SO ONLY RARELY.
• FACT: WHAT HAMAS HAS BEEN DOING TO ISRAEL IS CATEGORICALLY WORSE.
• FACT: BLAMING ISRAEL FOR ANY DEATHS IN GAZA WOULD BE LIKE BLAMING FDR FOR ANY DEATHS IN WW2. ALL THE THE DEAD IN WW2 WERE THE FAULT OF THE AGGRESSORS - THE NAZIS AND THE JAPANESE MILITARISTS.
• ALL THE DEATHS, ALL THE DESTRUCTION IS GAZA IS THE FAULT OF HAMAS.

ONLY DESTROYING HAMAS WILL BRING GAZA PEACE.

ONLY NEUTERING IRAN WILL BRING THE MNIDDLE EAST PEACE.

THE LONGER WE WAIT, THE STRONGER IRAN GETS, AND THE WORSE THE ULTIMATE CONFRONTATION IS GOINNA BE...

SOME IDEAS FOR REAL CHANGE

Click directly on the image to enlarge it:



How many of the above ideas have we heard from "hope-and-change" Barack Hussein Obama or the Democratic Party?

BIRD FLU GETTING WORSE AGAIN IN ASIA/SOUTH ASIA

CHINA: Bird flu claims first victim in almost a year

Bird flu claimed its first victim in China in almost a year when a woman infected with the H5N1 strain died in Beijing on Monday, the local health bureau said yesterday.

Huang Yanqing, 19, a native of Fujian province, died around 7:20, the Beijing municipal health bureau said in a press release. She fell ill on Dec 24 and was hospitalized three days later.

H2H ON BEIJING:Human to Human H5N1 Transmission In Beijing?

The Beijing Municipal Health Bureau said 116 people were in close contact with the victim.

One healthcare professional in contact with Huang contracted bird flu, but recovered, the bureau said.

The above comments describe transmission of H5N1 from the fatally infected patient to a health care work, which is a major red flag signaling an increase in transmission efficiency.

VIETNAM: Vietnam girl tests positive for bird flu: health officials

Vietnam girl tests positive for bird flu: health officials AFP/File – A vendor sells chicken to a customer at a market in Hanoi. A Vietnamese girl has tested positive for …

A Vietnamese girl has tested positive for bird flu, health officials said Tuesday, in the first reported human case of the deadly virus in the Southeast Asian country since early last year.

The eight-year-old girl from northern Thanh Hoa province fell ill with serious pneumonia on December 27 after eating poultry and was admitted to a provincial hospital on January 2, said health officials.

"The test result was available on (Saturday) January 3," Nguyen Huy Nga, director of the national Preventative Medicine Department, told AFP. "She tested positive for the H5N1 virus."

The girl was now feeling better and was expected to be discharged soon, said Nguyen Ngoc Thanh, acting director of the Thanh Hoa health department.

INDIA: H5N1 Spread to Siliguri India Raises Pandemic Concerns

Matigara I and II, Champasari, Sukna, Atharokhai, Jalas and Patharghata are the gram panchayats where the avian flu has been detected. Besides, 34 wards of the Siliguri Municipal Corporation (out of 47) are also affected. Some of these wards are in the Rajganj block. The unaffected wards are from 21-24 and 35-43.

Culling of domesticated fowls in the bird flu hit Matigara and Phansidewa blocks in Siliguri subdivision and the adjacent Rajganj block in Jalpaguri district is progressing in a sluggish rate with mere 388 birds been culled until 5 pm today out of the total 18,000 target. The drive was initiated from 8 pm yesterday.
Culling operations have also begun in Takdah block in the Darjeeling Hills with a target of slaughtering 700 birds. All these four blocks were confirmed of bird flu infection late on Friday but the official notification for culling reached the district administration on Saturday morning.

After unusual mortality of poultry birds was also reported from Dasberia village in Takada block, it was decided that the department would cull all birds in the hill village without waiting for bird flu confirmation reports.”
“If bird flu spreads to the hills rapidly, it would be tough for the department to keep a lid on it as the hills are already boiling over the Gorkhaland agitation. Culling of poultry birds in a large area of the hills would certainly be a problem in a situation like this,” the official added.

The above comments from local media reports describe widespread H5N1 in and around the city of Siliguri (see zoomed map) which has portions in Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri districts of West Bengal, India. 34 of 47 wards in the city are affected, raising concerns of exposure of the more than 500,000 inhabitants. In addition to outbreaks in the city and its suburbs, there are outbreaks as far south as the Phansidewa block, which borders Bangladesh, as well as the north in Darjeeling Hills, about 30 km from the city of Darjeeling.

THINGS ARE GETTING WORSE AGAIN... MAYBE THIS WILL TURN OUT TO BE OUR - AND OBAMA'S - REAL NIGHTMARE...

EUROPE AT THE CROSSROADS: MUSLIMS ATTACK SYNAGOGUE IN LONDONISTAN

THE EVENING STANDARD:

Synagogue set alight during rise in anti-Semitic attacks in London

THE number of anti-Semitic attacks in London has risen sharply following Israel's land assault on Gaza, Jewish community groups said today.

Their leaders have compiled a dossier of attacks against Jews which will be handed to seniors officers in the Metropolitan police.

The attacks include claims of:

● An attempt to burn down a synagogue in north-west London.

● An assault on a Jewish motorist who was pulled from his car and punched.

● A gang of youths chanting anti-Semitic slogans as they tried to enter restaurants and shops in Golders Green.

The Community Security Trust, which is responsible for the safety of Jews in Britain, has also noted the emergence of anti-Semitic graffiti in Jewish areas across London. Slogans sprayed on walls include: "Kill Jews" and "Jews are scumbags."

The trust has now logged 24 anti-Semitic incidents - most of them in London - in the past week. Police are said to be stepping up patrols in Jewish areas.

EUROPE IS AT THE CROSSROADS:

• THEY MUST EITHER CHOOSE ISRAEL OR THE TERRORISTS.

THE FUTURE OF EUROPE IS AT STAKE:

• EUROPE MAY EITHER REMAIN WESTERN, DEMOCRATIC AND CHRISTIAN... OR SLIP INTO A SHORT ERA OF DHIMMITUDE FOLLOWED BY TOTAL ISLAMIZATION AND 1000 YEARS OF DARKNESS.

THE CHOICE IS EUROPE'S...

THE TIME IS NOW...

THE TIME FOR CHOOSING IS NOW...

REAGAN HAD WORDS FOR THOSE WHO WOULD RATHER ACCOMODATE EVIL THAN DEFEAT IT:

They call their policy "accommodation." And say if we only avoid any direct confrontation with the enemy, he will forget his evil ways and learn to love us. ... Alexander Hamilton said, "A nation which can prefer disgrace to danger is prepared for a master, and deserves one." Let's set the record straight. There is no argument over the choice between peace and war, but there is only one guaranteed way you can have peace--and you can have it in the next second--surrender.

Admittedly there is a risk in any course we follow other than this, but every lesson in history tells us that the greater risk lies in appeasement, and this is the specter our well-meaning liberal friends refuse to face--that their policy of accommodation is appeasement, and it gives no choice between peace and war, only between fight and surrender. If we continue to accommodate, continue to back and retreat, eventually we have to face the final demand--the ultimatum. And what then? ...

... You and I know and do not believe that life is so dear and peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery.

If nothing in life is worth dying for, when did this begin--just in the face of this enemy? Or should Moses have told the children of Israel to live in slavery under the pharaohs? Should Christ have refused the cross? Should the patriots at Concord Bridge have thrown down their guns and refused to fire the shot heard 'round the world?

The martyrs of history were not fools, and our honored dead who gave their lives to stop the advance of the Nazis didn't die in vain. Where, then, is the road to peace? Well, it's a simple answer after all.

You and I have the courage to say to our enemies, "There is a price we will not pay." There is a point beyond which they must not advance.

This is the meaning in the phrase of Barry Goldwater's "peace through strength." Winston Churchill said that "the destiny of man is not measured by material computation. When great forces are on the move in the world, we learn we are spirits--not animals." And he said, "There is something going on in time and space, and beyond time and space, which, whether we like it or not, spells duty."

You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on Earth, or we will sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness.

EUROPE MUST NOW CHOOSE... DARKNESS OR LIGHT...

EUROPE MAY EITHER RETREAT UNDER PRESSURE OF THE MUSLIMS... OR FIGHT BACK.

AS REAGAN SAID: There is a point beyond which they must not advance.

TODAY, "they" MEANS THE ISLAMO-THUGS - ALL OVER THE WORLD: IN MUMBAI AND GAZA AND LONDON, IN DENMARK AND TOULOUSE. IN SOUTHERN THAILAND. IN THE PHILLIPINES.

IT'S TIME TO CHOOSE...

THE LUDICROUS AND OBSESSIVE-COMPULSIVE CULT OF OBAMA

It extends to shadowing two children as if they're rock stars. Must have a look at "The One's" children!

Usually the recommencement of classes at a private school don't warrant breaking updates: The girls' motorcade left the Hay-Adams Hotel for Sidwell Friends School. They arrived early! Several hours went by. Then they left!

Meanwhile the Sidwell administration, which is accustomed to hosting the progeny of executive office-holders, did its best to make yesterday seem mundane.

"It's been a very normal day, the first day after winter break," said Ellis Turner, associate headmaster at Sidwell. "Nothing special was prepared for any of our students."

Utterly normal. Except, of course, for the comings-and-goings of the soon-to-be first daughters: Malia, 10, now a fifth-grader at the school's Northwest Washington campus on Wisconsin Avenue, and Sasha, 7, a second-grader at the Bethesda campus not far up the road.

The media did their usual stakeout thing to record the historic occasion. We can reliably report some details, such as: Sasha carried a JanSport Trans backpack with a camouflage pattern of pink, magenta, gray and white camouflage. Attached to the backpack was a turquoise, three-eyed Uglydoll keychain....

Unmentioned in the excerpt is the impact all this craziness had upon yesterday's traffic, both in the downtown area and throughout certain portions of the D.C. area.

I've lived in the Washington, D.C., area all life, as my father before me. This fawning over "The One" and his progeny is most certainly not the norm. Rather, it is the ultimate idiocy and smacks of royalty worship, the very concept of which our Founders condemned.

Jamersonmagwood, one commenter at the above Washington Post article, was spot on with the following caustic quip:

I am SO glad the Washington Post has the time, money, and energy to publish another trapping about the new soon-to-be first daughters. I would think the paper would be smarter about its waste of money, since newspapers are on the crap shoot for business in this burgeoning economy. Could you have tried to publish something substantive? I mean really. This is just objectionable--can we have some actual news? When will the media leave the children alone and stop obsessing over the mundane. I think I would take Hearst's yellow journalism over this filth. Get a grip. The first family puts on their pants legs just like every other human being. Once we realize that, I think we would all be better served and better informed.

Yes, indeed. The Washington Post could start by reporting some of the stories that matter, including those about the anti-Semitic calls to genocide on the part of pro-Hamas demonstrators in various demonstrations all over the West.

THE ECONOMY HAS BOTTOMED OUT: THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS SCOOPS KUDLOW/NRO BY A WEEK

THE GREAT LARRY KUDLOW TODAY:

Bottoming Signs [Larry Kudlow]

Here and there are some small signs that the economy is at least bottoming — a crucial stepping stone to meaningful recovery.

For example, the ISM non-manufacturing services report released today for December came in at 40.6 on the composite index, compared to 37.3 in November. New orders, employment, backlogs, and exports all ticked higher than the previous month. So did the overall-business-activity index. It’s still a recession reading, but a small increase is better than a decline.

The November factory-orders report showed non-defense capex rising at a 3.9 percent annual pace, the first increase in four months and the best gain in 10 months. Computer orders surged 12.5 percent.

Pending home sales — which tracks home re-sales under contract, according to the National Association of Realtors — declined again overall. But out West pending sales continued to increase, and they are up 27 percent since the August 2007 bottom.

Commercial construction rose 0.7 percent annually in November, and is up 12.1 percent over the past three months.

And in the November personal-income report, real disposable income jumped 1 percent for the month and is up 7.1 percent at an annual rate over the past three months. Real consumer spending in that report rose 0.6 percent in November.

... The gasoline drop is probably worth $350 billion as a consumer-purchasing-power tax cut. This is a key recovery mustard seed. So is the outsized growth in the money supply as measured by M1 and M2, fueled by the gigantic increase in the monetary base as the Fed continues to expand its balance sheet.

Additionally, the credit freeze continues to thaw.

01/06 04:28 PM

THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS A FULL ONE WEEK AGO:

SOME PROOF THAT THE ECONOMY HAS BOTTOMED OUT AND IS HEADING UP...

CNNMONEY: BONDS ARE STEADY: Bonds hold tight in thin trading

With little money going in or out of Treasurys to close the year, bonds make very small movements despite two dour economic reports.Treasurys were little changed Tuesday, even after more dour reports on housing and consumer confidence.

Bonds have traded in a close range for the past two weeks, with very subtle changes brought on by ultra-thin trading heading into the last days of the year.

"With year-end trading, a lot of people are staying on the sidelines," said Peter Cardillo, chief market strategist at Avalon Partners.

"Bonds have been strong, so it will take a lot in the market to change them significantly," he added.

THE FLIGHT HAS PANICKED ENDED...

CNNMONEY: Jobless claims down sharply

Filings ease in Christmas week to below the 500,000 level, backing away from 26-year high.

The number of Americans filing for first-time unemployment benefits fell sharply last week, according to a government report released Wednesday, as a year filled with layoffs and income cuts draws to a close.

The Labor Department said initial filings for state jobless benefits fell to 492,000 for the week ended Dec. 27, a decline of 94,000 from the 26-year high of 586,000 claims a week earlier.

BLOOMBERG:Libor at Four-Year Low as Central Banks Offer Cash, Cut Rates

Dec. 31 (Bloomberg) -- The cost of borrowing in dollars in London for three months dropped for the third day, ending 2008 at the lowest level in more than four years as policy makers provide cash and lower interest rates.

The London interbank offered rate, or Libor, for such loans fell one basis point to 143 basis points, the least since June 8, 2004, according to British Bankers’ Association data. Singapore’s comparable rate for U.S. funds slipped one basis point today to 1.44 percent, the lowest level since June 2004. The Libor-OIS spread, a measure of cash scarcity, narrowed.

“There’s no reason for the easing in rates not to continue,” said David Keeble, head of fixed-income strategy in London at Calyon, the investment-banking unit of Credit Agricole SA. “The banking sector is more stable and cash is coming into the system.”

• I PREDICT: THINGS ARE GONNA GET BETTER FASTER THAN MOST PEOPLE THINK.

• APRIL-MAY THINGS ARE OKAY.

• WE CITED DIFFERENT, EARLIER DATA, BUT WERE RIGHT ON TARGET - BOLDLY ASSERTING WHAT FEW OTHERS HAD THE BALLS TO ASSERT.

• NOW KUDLOW COMES ALONG AND FINDS NEWER DATA WHICH CORROBORATES WHAT WE FIRST WROTE.

• PROVING ONCE AGAIN THAT WE DON'T JUST FOLLOW THE PACK; WE LEAD.

• REGULAR READERS KNOW THAT THIS HAPPENS ALL THE TIME.

SPREAD THE WORLD. BOOKMARK US. BLOGROLL US.

BY THE WAY:

THIS EXPLAINS WHY OBAMA AND BIDEN ARE TRASH-TALKING THE ECONOMY (SEE EARLIER POSTS HERE AND HERE):

THEY NEED TO TRASH-TALK THE ECONOMY IN ORDER TO CREATE THE FEAR NECESSARY TO PASS THEIR SOCIALIST AGENDA WITH THE MEGA-DEFICIT AND ALL THE PORK.

WHY THE CULTURE WAR IS A CENTRAL FRONT IN THE GWOT

STEYN:

Liberalism is the default mode of the culture - to the point where the left-of-center position is so pervasive it's no longer a position at all, but rather something uncontentious, received wisdom, part of the air we breathe.

... If the non-political sphere is permanently left-of-center - the movies, the pop songs, the plays, the sitcoms, the newspapers plus the churches, schools and much else - it's simply unreasonable to expect people to walk into a polling booth every other November and vote conservative. The culture is where the issues get framed and the boundaries set.

RTWT.

TO DEFEAT THE JIHADISTS ABROAD - "THE SALAFIAN FRONT" - WE NEED TO DEFEAT THE LEFTISTS AT HOME.

TO DEFEAT THE LEFTISTS AT HOME WE HAVE TO WIN THE CULTURE WAR - "THE GRAMSCIAN FRONT".

Why Obama Won

The Boston Globe explains why Obama won. He took in most of the urban votes, and scientists have determined that living in a city makes you stupid:

Now scientists have begun to examine how the city affects the brain, and the results are chastening. Just being in an urban environment, they have found, impairs our basic mental processes. After spending a few minutes on a crowded city street, the brain is less able to hold things in memory, and suffers from reduced self-control. While it's long been recognized that city life is exhausting -- that's why Picasso left Paris -- this new research suggests that cities actually dull our thinking, sometimes dramatically so.

"The mind is a limited machine,"says Marc Berman, a psychologist at the University of Michigan and lead author of a new study that measured the cognitive deficits caused by a short urban walk. "And we're beginning to understand the different ways that a city can exceed those limitations."

One of the main forces at work is a stark lack of nature, which is surprisingly beneficial for the brain. Studies have demonstrated, for instance, that hospital patients recover more quickly when they can see trees from their windows, and that women living in public housing are better able to focus when their apartment overlooks a grassy courtyard. Even these fleeting glimpses of nature improve brain performance, it seems, because they provide a mental break from the urban roil.

As H.L. Mencken observed, "nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public." An urban public, may I add.

THE BIDEN DEMENTIA UPDATE

POLITICO:

Vice-president-elect Joe Biden likened the country’s economic crisis to the attacks of 9/11 Monday in a private meeting on Capitol Hill.

“We’re at war,” Biden told congressional leaders of both parties during their sit-down with Barack Obama in the Capitol, according to two sources familiar with the exchange.

It’s not the first time the vice-president-elect has used stark language to underscore the perilous state of the economy. In an interview last month on ABC’s “This Week,” Biden said that a stimulus package was needed to keep the economy from “absolutely tanking.”

• THIS KIND OF TALK IS COUNTER-PRODUCTIVE AND EMBARRASSING.
• SURE: BIDEN'S MOUTH HAS ALWAYS WORKED OVERTIME WHILE HIS MIND WAS ON VACATION, BUT NOW IT'S SO BAD I THINK IT'S CLINICAL:
• I HAVE FELT FOR A LONG TIME THAT BIDEN HAS EARLY DEMENTIA.
• THIS LATEST OUTBURST IS ANOTHER EXAMPLE.
• BIDEN IS SO SICK HE CAN'T EVEN ACT VICE PRESIDENTIAL.
• AND THAT DOESN'T REQUIRE MUCH.

ISRAEL'S COUNTER-ATTACK AGAINST HAMAS IS BOTH NECESSARY AND MORAL

ISRAEL'S CRITICS - WHETHER PACIFIST, OR "REALIST" - ARE WRONG.

PANETTA: A GREAT PICK FOR COMMERCE, NOT AT CIA

Leon is a great guy - for a lib.

But DCIA!?!?!? The spooks there will demolish him.

HE'D BE A GREAT SECRETARY OF COMMERCE.

This is a VERY BAD OMEN: Obama is kowtowing to the pacifistic left, and subverting global security to politics.

THIS IS AVERY BAD OMEN.

*******UDPATE: YORK AND GOLDBERG AT NOR AGREE WITH ME:

Panetta, Obama, and the Senate [Byron York]

On Panetta — in addition to opinions in The Corner, there is the ever-so-slightly more important opinion of the new chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sen. Dianne Feinstein:

I was not informed about the selection of Leon Panetta to be the CIA Director. I know nothing about this, other than what I’ve read. My position has consistently been that I believe the Agency is best-served by having an intelligence professional in charge at this time.

Ouch. It is interesting that Obama would settle on a CIA director without even giving a heads-up to the Intelligence Committee chairman, especially one of his own party. Word is Obama didn't tell outgoing chairman Jay Rockefeller, either.

01/05 07:14 PM

Panetta [Jonah Goldberg]

I think Michael's take is probably right in many respects. I like Panetta, too. He's a grown-up and, while his politics aren't mine, he's enough of a wonk, mensch and political craftsman that I think he's open to listening to smart people, but also not intimindated by them either. Nonetheless, his appointment strikes me as just the mother of all cop outs on Obama's part (as Byron suggests below). During a period when intelligence gathering is huge important, Obama either won't or can't appoint someone with an intelligence background who agrees with him. That should speak volumes about the intelligence community, Obama, his positions, or all three.

THIS IS A VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY BAD PICK, AND WAS HANDLED HORRIBLY.

OBAMA TRASH TALKS THE ECONOMY - AGAIN!

• REAGAN LED LIKE GREAT LEADERS DO: WITH OPTIMISM.
  
• REAGAN LED US - WITH OPTIMISM - THROUGH A RECESSION WHICH WAS WORSE THAN THE ONE WE'RE IN, AND BROUGHT US THE GREATEST SUSTAINED ERA OF GROWTH IN OUR HISTORY.

• OBAMA - LIKE CARTER - IS TRASH TALKING THE ECONOMY.

WHY!!?

• PERHAPS SO HE CAN TAKE EVEN MORE CREDIT WHEN IT COMES BACK THIS SUMMER?
• OR PERHAPS SO HE CAN JUSTIFY ALL THE PORK-BARREL SPENDING - OH ER UM I MEAN "STIMULUS"?

EITHER WAY: IT'S BAD FORM AND AUGURS BADLY.

GLOBAL SEA ICE AT 1979 LEVELS: THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS SCOOPS GATEWAY AND HOT AIR BY 24 HOURS

WHAT'S AT HOT AIR AND GATEWAY TODAY...

(A STORY ABOUT HOW GLOBAL SEA ICE IS BACK AT 1979 LEVELS; IOW: MORE PROOF THAT AGW = BS)...

WAS AT THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS YESTERDAY.

REGULAR READERS KNOW THE HAPPENS ALL THE TIME.

SPREAD THE WORD. BOOKMARK US. BLOGROLL US.

Israel: Erdogan's Words Unacceptable

Turkey's Prime Minister Erdogan had very harsh words for Israel's actions in Gaza the other day. Harsh. In fact, they were, to my mind, similar to, though not as extreme, as the calls for genocide of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Israel has made it official now. They deem Ergodan's words unacceptable.

From the Jerusalem Post: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's toxic comments Sunday that Israel's actions in the Gaza Strip would lead to punishment from Allah and Israel's "self-destruction" drew a protest from the Foreign Ministry, which told Turkey's ambassador to Israel that these words were "unacceptable" among friendly nations.

Erdogan, speaking at a municipal election campaign rally in Anatolia, said Israel was "perpetrating inhuman actions which would bring it to self-destruction. Allah will sooner or later punish those who transgress the rights of innocents."

While the Foreign Ministry registered a protest with the Turkish ambassador, it did not issue a formal statement about the remarks - not wanting, according to diplomatic officials, to exacerbate the already tense situation with the Turks.

While Erdogan, who returned Sunday from an unsuccessful tour to the region with the hopes of mediating a cease-fire, has been extremely critical of Operation Cast Lead, Sunday's comments were by far the most caustic. Diplomatic officials said that when Operation Cast Lead was over, it would be necessary to evaluate the damage to the relationship that these comments have caused.

RELIAPUNDIT ADDS:

* ERDOGAN IS ABIUT AS MODERATE AND AS DEMOCRATIC AS MUSLIM LEADERS ACTUALLY COME.

* AND YET HE TOO SEES ALLAH AS EMBRACING HAMAS.

* THIS TELLS ME THAT ISLAMISM IS FUNDAMENTALLY OPPOSED TO CIVILIZATION.

* AND IT ULTIMATELY MEANS THAT EITHER ISLAM REFORMS ITSELF - SO ITS LEADERS DON'T EXPLICITLY OR IMPLICITLY EVER ENDORSE TERROR - OR IT MUST BE DEMOLISHED AS WE DEMOLISHED NAZISM.

PERHAPS AFTER HAMAS IS UTTERLY VANQUISHED, THEN I HOPE THESE ISLAMISTS ALL TAKE A LOOK IN THE MIRROR.

OR THEY CAN LOOK AT THE LAST FEW YEARS WORTH OF HEADLINES:

* ALLAH IS NOT EXACTLY FAVORING THE RADICAL MUSLIMS WITH VICTORIES;

* HE IS HAVING JEWS AND CHRISTIANS KILL THEM AND DEFEAT THEM.


THAT SHOULD TEACH THEM SOMETHING. MAYBE IT WILL REFORM THEM A LITTLE.

HAMAS COUNTER ATTACKS IN COPENHAGEN

A peaceful anti-Israel demo outside the Israeli embassy disintegrated into a small scale riot including rock throwing at the police and vandalism. 35 were arrested - two cars overturned.

DENMARKS LARGEST WEAPONS HEIST

Danish Police Intelligence units are investigating the nations largest weapons theft - where three men overpowered 3 guards ( 2 were sleeping!!!) at a military base and made off with 200 automatic weapons. Stealing weapons from military depots has been a favored channel for left wing extremists - such as the Blekingegadebanden - to secure weapons for their own criminal activity, or to support mideast terror groups, such as the PFLP. The Hells Angels and Bandido's have also gotten hold of armor piercing munitions via the same channel. The police are circulating the theory that the weapons are likely destined to the drug gang wars which were being waged between Danish motorcycle gangs and immigrant gangs from Pakistan or Palestine this past fall. The storage facilities in question also contained armour piercing munitions - perhaps even antitank missiles! I doubt the authorities would admit that these have also been stolen...but it is safe to assume that they have been taken - and whoever has these weapons, be they criminals or terrorists - they are not good people.

UPDATE: Reports of the weapons inventory secured thru this operation are:

11 Heavy Machine Guns usually mounted atop armored vehicles and tanks. (50 cal?)

20 Light Weight Machine Guns

140 Assault Rifles

35 Pistols

More "details" of the operation: Initial reports said keys were available to the perpetrators in the guards reception area, and that the perps forced the guards to disable the alarms. (There was no perimeter control post to stop vehicles from entering the base!) Now it is being reported that the perpetrators knew which container to open - and which steel cabinets to blow open with plastic explosives. They were professional enough to use the correct amount of explosive to open the cabinets without damaging its contents. And they knew where to find the parts to make the firing chambers ready for action. Authorities conclude that the extensive inside knowledge of the bases security systems points to former or current soldiers. They point out that rockers and immigrant gangs have in the past recruited soldiers because of their access to and expertise with weapons.

We do not know how much of this is cover story. The weapons were supposedly packed and ready to be sent to Afghanistan. Maybe the cases were clearly labeled?

The police would like us to believe the weapons are destined to the criminal underworld. I hope they will not be used in a terror action - perhaps against the coming Climate Conference.

HUFFPO SPEAKS OUT AGAINST GLOBAL WARMING

Al Gore must feel like a drowning polar bear at this point.

From the Huffington Post:

You are probably wondering whether President-elect Obama owes the world an apology for his actions regarding global warming. The answer is, not yet. There is one person, however, who does. You have probably guessed his name: Al Gore.

Mr. Gore has stated, regarding climate change, that "the science is in." Well, he is absolutely right about that, except for one tiny thing. It is the biggest whopper ever sold to the public in the history of humankind.

What is wrong with the statement? A brief list:

1. First, the expression "climate change" itself is a redundancy, and contains a lie. Climate has always changed, and always will. There has been no stable period of climate during the Holocene, our own climatic era, which began with the end of the last ice age 12,000 years ago. During the Holocene there have been numerous sub-periods with dramatically varied climate, such as the warm Holocene Optimum (7,000 B.C. to 3,000 B.C., during which humanity began to flourish, and advance technologically), the warm Roman Optimum (200 B.C. to 400 A.D., a time of abundant crops that promoted the empire), the cold Dark Ages (400 A.D. to 900 A.D., during which the Nile River froze, major cities were abandoned, the Roman Empire fell apart, and pestilence and famine were widespread), the Medieval Warm Period (900 A.D. to 1300 A.D., during which agriculture flourished, wealth increased, and dozens of lavish examples of Gothic architecture were created), the Little Ice Age (1300 to 1850, during much of which plague, crop failures, witch burnings, food riots -- and even revolutions, including the French Revolution -- were the rule of thumb), followed by our own time of relative warmth (1850 to present, during which population has increased, technology and medical advances have been astonishing, and agriculture has flourished).

So, no one needs to say the words "climate" and "change" in the same breath -- it is assumed, by anyone with any level of knowledge, that climate changes. That is the redundancy to which I alluded. The lie is the suggestion that climate has ever been stable. Mr. Gore has used a famously inaccurate graph, known as the "Mann Hockey Stick," created by the scientist Michael Mann, showing that the modern rise in temperatures is unprecedented, and that the dramatic changes in climate just described did not take place. They did. One last thought on the expression "climate change": It is a retreat from the earlier expression used by alarmists, "manmade global warming," which was more easily debunked. There are people in Mr. Gore's camp who now use instances of cold temperatures to prove the existence of "climate change," which is absurd, obscene, even.

2. Mr. Gore has gone so far to discourage debate on climate as to refer to those who question his simplistic view of the atmosphere as "flat-Earthers." This, too, is right on target, except for one tiny detail. It is exactly the opposite of the truth.

Indeed, it is Mr. Gore and his brethren who are flat-Earthers.

Looks like the Astute Bloggers scooped the HuffPo by several years on this story.

MORE PALLYWOOD PROPAGANDA FROM GAZA

HOT LINKS TO A GRRRRRREAT POST BY FORMER TAB CO-BLOGGER OMRI - who privdes links to stories which prove the Gazans are adeptly using all of the same propaganda tools used by other islamo-thugs - most recently in the Hizballah War:

Zombietime's definitive taxonomy of Lebanon II photo fraud:

The four types of photographic fraud perpetrated by Reuters photographers and editors are:

1. Digitally manipulating images after the photographs have been taken.

2. Photographing scenes staged by Hezbollah and presenting the images as if they were of authentic spontaneous news events.

3. Photographers themselves staging scenes or moving objects, and presenting photos of the set-ups as if they were naturally occurring.

4. Giving false or misleading captions to otherwise real photos that were taken at a different time or place.

Omri has the links!

MY TWO CENTS:

Maybe Senator Kerry can hold hearings and get pro-Pali “newsmen” to testify about how the IDF razed Gaza "in a way reminiscent of Genghis Khan".

Seriously: this propaganda crap is right out of the KGB’s Vietnam era playbook.

IT FIGURES:

The Left wants the USA to abandon Israel the way we abandoned South Vietnam - and the way they tried to get Bush to abandon Iraq.

I betchya they feel that they'll have better luck with Barack Hussein Obama Junior than they did with Bush.

I betchya the IDF felt this way too - and that this was a major factor leading them to attack Hamas now and not to wait for Obama to be inaugurated.

ANOTHER BIG ANTI-ISRAEL LIE - OUT OF GAZA AND THE LEFT: CLUSTER BOMBS OVER GAZA

RWN:

the unhinged Left at Firedoglake

There's more evidence today of Israeli use of cluster bombs, originally noted by Laura Doty at Oxdown. The Times of London features a photo in it's coverage (see Gaza Conflict slide show) with the following description..

An artillery round sends out bomblets above Gaza City, which continues to be attacked by Israeli forces

So, let's see: The post at FDL sources another post at FDL which sources another at FDL, which was sourcing one from a Palestinian in Gaza writing a blog.

No actual other verification.

And the link to the Times Of London slide show has no photo or description such as that posted.

... there is no actual confirmation that the Israeli's are using cluster munitions...

RTWT AT RWN.

THE ISLAMO-THUGS - WITH THE ACTIVE ASSISTANCE OF THEIR COMRADES IN THE LEFT AND WITH THE TACIT ASSISTANCE OF THEIR LIBERAL FRIENDS IN THE MSM - LIE ALL THE TIME: AL DURA; JENINGRAD; GAZANS STARVING DUE TO EMBARGO; IDF MASSACRING GAZANS, AND NOW USING CLUSTER BOMBS.

IT'S ALL A BUNCH OF ANTISEMITIC, LEFT-WING PROPAGANDA.

THE "POWELL DOCTRINE" VERSUS "PROPORTIONALITY"

Scowcroftians have long favored the use of American military force only when the Powell Doctrine can be applied.

Powell - a disciple of Scowcroft - articulated this post-Vietnam policy as simply this: that no US military forces should be used except when there's popular support and unless they're applied in overwhelming numbers, and only if there's an exit strategy.

I think this "doctrine" is bullshit; sometimes you have to fight back - mount a counter-offensive before you can cover all the points in the doctrine. FDR didn't use the Powell Doctrine, and he wouldn't have had it been around back then. And GW Bush ignored it when he counter-attacked Afghanistan after 9/11.

But many MANY heavy-weights in foreign policy and military affairs regard the Powell Doctrine very highly and use it as the ultimate test - the Occam's Razor, if you will - to determine if the use military force is wise.

MOST SIMPLY RESTATED:

• use overwhelming force
• attack only after gaining popular support
• and have an exit strategy

[ASIDE: Tom Friedman referred to the Powell Doctrine this way - (he was referring to a deficit-increasing stimulus package last November): "I am worried about a deficit, but I'm much more worried about another d-word, and that's depression. I think we need not only a bailout, I think we need, to put it in Colin Powell terms, overwhelming force."]

Well, Many of the very same pundits who laud the Powell Doctrine are currently berating Israel because they say that Israel's counter-attack against Hamas is DISPROPORTIONATE.

And they criticize Israel's counter-attack despite the fact that the Olmert Government waited and waited and WAITED before counter-attacking and even pleaded with Hamas to renew the truce - EVEN THOUGH AN OVERWHELMING PERCENTAGE OF PUBLIC OPINION HAD FOR A LONG TIME DEMANDED A COUNTER-ATTACK TO WHAT HAD BEEN NEARLY 7200 UNANSWERED ROCKET ATTACKS BY HAMAS ON ISRAEL.

And they criticize Israel for Israel's goal: wanting to so severely degrade Hamas's command structure and military assets and smuggling networks as to make it impossible for them to threaten Israel for several years.

Er, um... it seems plain to me that all Israel is doing now is APPLYING KEY ASPECTS OF THE POWELL DOCTRINE, and the Weinberger Doctrine:

• Israel is using overwhelming force
• Israel is attacking only after gaining popular support
• and Israel has an exit strategy

• THEREFORE: Scowcroftians - and everyone else criticizing Israel's counter-attack as "disproportionate" - should STFU.

ISRAEL - AFTER ABSORBING 7200 ROCKET ATTACKS AND PLEADING FOR A CONTINUATION OF A MEANINGFUL CEASE-FIRE - IS MERELY USING OVERWHELMING FORCE.

IT'S ONLY WHAT ALL OTHER NATIONS WOULD DO.

HOLDING ISRAEL TO A DIFFERENT STANDARD THAN ALL OTHER NATIONS IS NOT ANTI-ZIONISM; IT'S ANTISEMITISM.

SIGNS THAT HAMAS MAY BE READY TO THROW IN THE TOWEL

HAMAS WANTS A CEASE-FIRE AND ANNOUNCES THEY'RE SENDING A DELEGATION TO CAIRO:

TVNZ:

Hamas plans to send a delegation to Egypt for the first diplomatic talks since the launch of a 10-day-old Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip, an official of the Islamist group said.

Hamas official Ayman Taha said a Hamas delegation would head to Cairo answering an Egyptian invitation to hold discussions.

A senior Palestinian official said on Friday that Egypt had launched contacts with Hamas to achieve a truce.

The Hamas visit to Egypt would coincide with the expected visit there of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has also launched a European-backed diplomatic push for a ceasefire.

HAARETZ:

Israel would like to see a diplomatic agreement bring the military operation in the Gaza Strip to an end - so long as the deal excludes Hamas, according to a decision made yesterday by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his Foreign and Defense ministers, Tzipi Livni and Ehud Barak.

Israeli leadership will convey that message to visiting European statesmen today, stressing that an agreement on the Gaza Strip should include both regional and international components.

Olmert is scheduled to meet today with visiting French President Nicolas Sarkozy, and Livni will meet with a troika of foreign ministers from the European Union.

In addition to the foreign ministers of Sweden, France and the Czech Republic, which currently holds the rotating presidency, two senior officials charged with EU foreign policy, Javier Solana and Benita Ferrero-Waldner will also attend the meeting.

HERE'S MY READ:

• HAMAS IS GETTING WHAT'S COMING TO THEM, AND THEY DON'T LIKE IT.

• BECAUSE THEY CANNOT DEFEAT ISRAEL IN A HEAD-TO-HEAD FIGHT, THEY MUST NOW PLEAD FOR A CEASE-FIRE.

THE TERMS SHOULD INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING:

• HAMAS RESIGNS FROM GAZA'S GOVERNMENT
• ANOTHER ELECTION IS HELD QUICKLY IN GAZA -
• AN ELECTION IN WHICH ONLY NON-MILITARIZED/NON-ARMED PARTIES MAY BE ON THE BALLOT.

EITHER HAMAS VERIFIABLY DISARMS, OR THEY CANNOT BE IN THE ELECTION OR IN GAZA GOVERNMENT.

BLAIR MADE THIS A CONDITION FOR THE IRA IN NORTHERN IRELAND; IT SHOULD BE ONE FOR GAZA SELF-RULE, TOO.

REPEAT: THE TERMS OF ANY CEASE-FIRE SHOULD BE THAT

• HAMAS RESIGNS,
• CALLS FOR ANOTHER ANOTHER ELECTION IN GAZA -
• ONE IN WHICH ONLY NON-MILITARIZED/NON-ARMED PARTIES MAY BE ON THE BALLOT.

YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST.

GRAMSCIANS WIN ANOTHER ROUND IN BRITAIN:

DAILY MAIL:

Sex clinics 'to open' in EVERY school
so pupils as young as 11 can be tested...
without their parents' consent

Sexual health clinics could soon be open in every secondary school and college. All pupils would have easy access to emergency contraception and pregnancy testing without their parents being told.

Around a third of secondary schools in England - almost 1,000 - already have clinics. Now an influential study has recommended extending the coverage in a drive to cut teenage pregnancies.

• THE LEFT WONDERS WHY ON EARTH SHOULD PARENTS OF AN 11 YEAR CARE ABOUT THEIR CHILD'S SEXUAL ACTIVITY!?!?
• LET THE GOVERNMENT TAKE CARE OF IT.

SHEESH.

• (1) THIS IS PART OF THE CULTURE WARS FOLKS - THE GRAMSCIAN FRONT: THE LEFT KNOWS THAT THEY HAVE TO DEMOLISH THE FAMILY IF THEY'RE EVER GONNA HAVE THE STATE BECOME ALL POWERFUL NANNY.

• AND (2) THE LEFT WANTS FEWER CHILDREN TO BE BORN - TO USE UP LESS GAIA'S PRECIOUS FLUIDS.

• AND (3) THE LEFT DOESN'T CARE THAT THE ONLY PEOPLE HAVING KIDS IN BRITAIN IN SELF-SUSTAINING NUMBERS ARE MUSLIMS - NOT CHRISTIANS...

IT'S ACTUALLY FREAKIN' LEFTIST TRIFECTA: THIS POLCIY HURTS FAMILY COHESION; REDUCES "UNNECESSARY" HUMAN POPULATION; AND EFFECTIVELY RESULT IN INCREASING MUSLIM COLONIST'S RELATIVE NUMBERS BECAUSE THEY'LL IGNORE THE WHOLE SHEBANG AND EVEN MORE RAPISLY TAKE OVER AND FURTHER DIMINISH THE JUDEO-CHRISTIAN WEST

MORE PROOF THAT AGW = BS: MORE BITTER COLD IN BRITAIN - EVEN AFTER COLDEST WINTER START IN 30 YEARS!

Daily Mail:

Snow, black ice and sub-zero temperatures threaten travel chaos for the big return to work tomorrow as Britain shivers in the arctic grip of what is set to be its longest cold snap for more than a decade.

The Met Office predicted temperatures could again plummet to -9C (15.8F) in some areas tomorrow - around ten degrees below the overnight average for this time of year - with the South East bearing the brunt of the severe weather.

Temperatures as cold as that were recorded in Benson, Oxfordshire, and South Farnborough, Hampshire, on Saturday night, making it the coldest night in the latter since 1997.

... The current bitter spell follows the coldest start to winter in three decades and a blast of snowy weather which hit Britain in early December.

BOTTOM-LINE: SINCE MAN-MADE CO2 HAS STEADILY CLIMBED THIS PROVES THAT AGW = BS.

12,000 IN PARIS RALLY IN FAVOR OF ISRAEL - AND NO CARS WERE TORCHED

GO FIGURE.

D'YA THINK THERE'S MAYBE LIKE A LITTLE IDDY-BIDDY DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TYPES OF PEOPLE WHO SUPPORT HAMAS AND THE TYPES OF PEOPLE WHO SUPPORT ISRAEL?

YES.

In Memory of Dvir Emanueloff

Haaretz reports:

An Israeli soldier was killed in a gunbattle with Gaza militants on Sunday, the first fatality suffered by Israel since it launched a ground operation on Saturday night against the coastal territory's Hamas rulers.

The soldier, from the Israel Defense Forces Golani infantry brigade, was killed in the densely populated Jabalya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip.

The fallen soldier was identified as Staff Sergeant Dvir Emmanueloff, 22, from Givat Ze'ev, near Jerusalem.

King David's lament, from II Samuel 1, 17-27:

The beauty of Israel is slain upon thy high places: how are the mighty fallen!

Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Askelon; lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph.

Ye mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew, neither let there be rain, upon you, nor fields of offerings: for there the shield of the mighty is vilely cast away, the shield of Saul, as though he had not been anointed with oil.

From the blood of the slain, from the fat of the mighty, the bow of Jonathan turned not back, and the sword of Saul returned not empty.

Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they were not divided: they were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions.

Ye daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you in scarlet, with other delights, who put on ornaments of gold upon your apparel.

How are the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle! O Jonathan, thou was slain in thine high places.

I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan: very pleasant hast thou been unto me: thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women.

How are the mighty fallen, and the weapons of war perished!

BREAKING: AWESOME: RICHARDSON WITHDRAWING FROM CABINET-NOMINATION DUE TO PAY-TO-PLAY CORRUPTION SCANDAL

THIS IS JUST WHAT WE EXPECTED FROM THE CORRUPT SENATOR FROM COOK COUNTY!

AND THIS IS JUST THE START OF THE UNRAVELING OF THE CORRUPT OBAMA ADMINISTRATION.

NEXT UP: RAHM AND JARRETT...

AND THEN REZKO AND BLAGO WILL START TO SING! AND THEN WHO KNOWS WHERE IT WILL ALL LEAD!

MORE HERE.

ROUND UP HERE.

TWO NEW COLUMNS BY BARRY RUBIN

Two op-eds recommended for reading. In the first one, Rubin talks about the problems of debating international issues these days. And in the second one, he talks about the current war in Gaza and what led up to it.

True Crime Comix: The 'Most Ethical Congress Ever'

I'm considering authoring some comic books that will help edumacate the liberals progressives since they don't appear too interested in book learnin'.

For instance, how about a comic illustrating Nancy Pelosi's "most ethical Congress ever", considering that Pelosi, Rangel and Dodd all made Judicial Watch's Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians of 2008?

Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY): Rep. Charles Rangel, Chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee [is being investigated by the] House Ethics Committee... The initial transgressions that led to the ethics panel probe involve: Rangel's failure to pay taxes on $75,000 in rental income he earned from his off-shore rental property; his efforts to use his influence to keep hold of highly coveted rent-controlled apartments in Harlem; and misusing his congressional office to fundraise for his private Rangel Center. Now Congress is looking into whether or not Rangel preserved a tax loophole for an oil drilling company in exchange for funding for the Rangel Center as well...

Last year House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made the "most corrupt" list for sneaking a $25 million earmark for her husband into a $15 billion Water Resources Development Act passed by Congress. This year, Pelosi ran afoul of federal election law by participating in an illegal advertising campaign funded by Al Gore's non-profit Alliance for Climate protection. The advertisement featuring Pelosi ran at least 300 times nationally, including in the House speaker's district, during campaign season, representing an illegal in-kind contribution to her campaign. Perhaps more disturbing than this incident, however, is the fact that Speaker Pelosi has allowed corruption to run rampant in Congress and has ignored serious incidents of crooked behavior within her own party...

Question: Which member of the U.S. Senate took the most campaign money from corrupt institutions Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? Answer: Chris Dodd, Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. Given this fact there is little reason to wonder why Senator Dodd blocked reform proposals for Fannie and Freddie, calling them "ill advised." Dodd's willingness to protect Fannie and Freddie would alone merit a spot on the "ten most corrupt list," but there is much more. Dodd was also nabbed for accepting preferential treatment and loan terms from Countrywide Financial. The Connecticut Senator admitted earlier this year that he was told in 2003 when he refinanced two properties that he was being placed in Countrywide's "VIP Program," but said he believed this was simply a courtesy that had nothing to do with his position in the U.S. Senate. This is either a blatant lie or horribly naïve for a man who has served in the Senate for more than 25 years and currently chairs the Senate Banking Committee that regulates the mortgage industry...

Related:
• Rangel's Spanish Excuse
• The world’s first Conservative comic book: Liberality for All

Update: Another apparent quid pro quo starring the Clinton Crime Family, this courtesy of The New York Times.

An upstate New York developer donated $100,000 to former President Bill Clinton’s foundation in November 2004, around the same time that Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton helped secure millions of dollars in federal assistance for the businessman’s mall project.

Robert J. Congel donated $100,000 to the Clinton Foundation as Hillary Rodham Clinton pushed bills to help his mall project... Mrs. Clinton helped enact legislation allowing the developer... to use tax-exempt bonds to help finance the construction of [an] entertainment and shopping complex... Mrs. Clinton also helped secure a provision in a highway bill that set aside $5 million for Destiny USA roadway construction.

Stinky. Like bad fish.

Update II: Sweetness & Light points us to another Times article (you can tell election season is over because Pinch is publishing articles that reflect poorly on Democrats):

On April 21, 2008, [Rep.] Rangel met with officials of [AIG], to ask for a donation to a school of public service that City College of New York was building in his honor... [He] had already helped secure a $5 million pledge for the project from a foundation controlled by [a] former [AIG] chief executive...

You can actually smell the putrification that is today's Democratic leadership.

DOVE-PERES: NO CEASE-FIRE; HAMAS NEEDS TO BE TAUGHT A LESSON!" - FIRST IDF SOLDIER KILLED IN GAZA: RIP

HAARETZ: IDF soldier killed, another seriously wounded in Gaza ground operation

An Israeli soldier was killed in a clash with Gaza militants on Sunday, the first fatality suffered by Israel since it launched a ground operation on Saturday night against the coastal territory's Hamas rulers.

The soldier, from the Israel Defense Forces Golani infantry brigade, was killed in the densely populated Jabalya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip. Another IDF soldier was seriously wounded in the clash.

The wounded soldier was later evacuated for treatment to the Soroka medical center in Be'er Sheva. Both soldier's families have been informed of the incident.

UPDATE: Soldier identified. RIP.

HAARETZ: Peres: No Gaza truce right now, Hamas needs a 'real lesson'

President Shimon Peres on Sunday rejected the possibility of a cease-fire as the IDF pressed its offensive against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip, but said Israel does not intend to occupy Gaza.

"We don't intend neither to occupy Gaza nor to crush Hamas, but to crush terror. And Hamas needs a real and serious lesson. They are now getting it," Peres said in an interview on the ABC News program "This Week."

THE COST OF FREEDOM IS HIGH.
BUT THE PRICE OF SERVITUDE IS HIGHER.

GODSPEED TO THE IDF.