After Crimea, Is Estonia Next?

At the New York Post, "Vladimir’s next move":

Biden channels Khrushchev - updated: http://t.co/w8yq1db6X1 #TCOT pic.twitter.com/UvSNQLgMVi

— The People's Cube (@ThePeoplesCube) March 21, 2014

Is Estonia next? In language disturbingly similar to that used by Vladimir Putin before Russia moved into Ukraine, a top Moscow official has now expressed “outrage” over the treatment of ethnic Russians in the former Soviet republic.

Some dismiss these fears as overwrought. We direct them to Mikheil Saakashvili, former president of Georgia, who says that in 2008 “almost every Western politician to whom my government raised concerns in those days said that Russia would not attack and urged us to keep calm and not react to Russian moves.” Today Russian troops still occupy a good slice of Georgia, and the sanctions we imposed in the wake of that invasion were reversed in Obama’s “reset” of US-Russian relations, in hopes our good will would be reciprocated.

We now know how that turned out.

On Thursday, President Obama announced new sanctions directed at 20 individual Russians and a Russian bank. He said he had also signed an executive order giving him the authority to sanction specific areas of the Russian economy as well.

Unfortunately, sanctions amount to little more than a tax on an action that the secretary general of NATO calls “the gravest threat to European security and stability since the end of the Cold War.” The NATO chief says Putin aims to intimidate Russia’s neighbors from seeking closer integration with Europe and the West.

President Obama himself says “we need action.” We agree. There remain many options far short of American boots on the ground, ranging from restoring the promise of missile defense for Eastern Europe to loan guarantees for Ukraine — and the threat of military assistance to Kiev if Putin moves farther than Crimea.

As for Crimea, even Ukraine’s leaders concede it is lost. The question is whether America and Europe have the will to stop further aggression...

Keep reading.

'Cold War-Hungry Neocons' Stage-Managed Liz Wahl's Resignation from Russia Today? — ROTFLMFAO!!

OMG this is too much!

The epic Israel-hating scumbag Max Blumenthal posted a huge write-up to the communist rag Truthdig:

Wow. @MaxBlumenthal and @Truthdig reveal Neocons staged Liz Wahl's onair resignation from RT. http://t.co/aGIYllHDEQ
— Sean Kerrigan (@SeanJKerrigan) March 21, 2014

And hilariously Russia Today's picked it up and pumped the "neocon conspiracy" meme during its programming.



Hey, no doubt dreaded neocons are pushing for a bombing run on Moscow! World War III! We're on our way to a new clear day!



Meanwhile, left-wing whackjob Kevin Gosztola's been hassling Ms. Wahl on Twitter, even at one point misrepresenting himself as a reporter for Glenn Greenwald's First Look startup.

@kgosztola It's really sad when someone lies about their employment demanding answers. Please stop harassing me.

— Liz Wahl (@lizwahl) March 21, 2014

In any case, secure your tinfoil hat because there's more on this, from Dave Weigel, at Slate, "Your Guide to the Developing and Hilarious War Between RT and Neocons":

Yesterday afternoon I belately sat down with Liz Wahl, the former RT reporter who resigned on the air in protest of the Crimean incursion. We happened to meet up right after the left-leaning site TruthDig ran a piece that connected a bunch of facts that had never been concealed—for example, that the Foreign Policy Initiative was founded by Bill Kristol, and that Wahl's champion James Kirchick worked for it—so Wahl and I ended up talking about that.

A few readers have informed me that this controversy was impenetrable. Let me explain, because it's a deeply strange story and I'd hate for you to miss out.

Oh that is juicy. Keep reading! The suspense is excruciating!

And bonus! Here's even more lulz from Daniel Greenfield, at Frontpage Magazine, "Max Blumenthal Now Shilling for Putin":

Max Blumenthal, a creepy fellow you may know as Clinton aide Sid Blumenthal’s son who caught some public attention for writing a book that even critics of Israel referred to as a selection of the Hamas Book of the Month Club, is going Full Greenwald.

After an anchorwoman for Putin’s RT propaganda network resigned, Max Blumenthal wrote up an “expose” claiming that “Cold War-Hungry Neocons” were behind it.

By “Cold War-Hungry Neocons”, Blumenthal means James Kirchik, a gay writer for the Daily Beast who was around 9 when the USSR fell.

Apparently a “cadre of neoconservatives” hungry for Cold War and Hot Dogs targeted a propaganda news network that 99 percent of its viewers only encounter while searching for dashcam accidents on YouTube…. “to deepen tensions with Russia.”

Forget invading Crimea. The real tension deepening comes from an on-air resignation.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to head down for a supply check in my underground bomb shelter, lol.

Obama's Pathetic Response to Putin's Invasion of Crimea

From the inimitable Charles Krauthammer, at the Washington Post (via Memeorandum):

Early in the Ukraine crisis, when the Europeans were working on bringing Ukraine into the EU system and Vladimir Putin was countering with threats and bribes, one British analyst lamented that “we went to a knife fight with a baguette.”

That was three months ago. Life overtakes parody. During the Ukrainian prime minister’s visit to Washington last week, his government urgently requested military assistance. The Pentagon refused. It offered instead military ration kits.

Putin mobilizes thousands of troops, artillery and attack helicopters on Ukraine’s borders and Washington counters with baguettes, American-style. One thing we can say for sure in these uncertain times: The invasion of Ukraine will be catered by the United States.

Why did we deny Ukraine weapons? Because in the Barack Obama-John Kerry worldview, arming the victim might be taken as a provocation. This kind of mind-bending illogic has marked the administration’s response to the whole Crimea affair.

Why, after all, did Obama delay responding to Putin’s infiltration, military occupation and seizure of Crimea in the first place? In order to provide Putin with a path to de-escalation, “an offramp,” the preferred White House phrase.

An offramp? Did they really think that Putin was losing, that his invasion of Crimea was a disaster from which he needed some face-saving way out? And that the principal object of American diplomacy was to craft for Putin an exit strategy?

It’s delusional enough to think that Putin — in seizing Crimea, threatening eastern Ukraine, destabilizing Kiev, shaking NATO, terrifying America’s East European allies and making the West look utterly helpless — was actually losing. But to imagine that Putin saw it that way as well and was waiting for American diplomacy to save him from a monumental blunder is totally divorced from reality.

Keep reading.

Patterns of Education Inequality Along Racial Lines

A crying shame. The obvious problem, of course, not discussed at the piece, is that those cities with the highest concentrations of at-risk minority students are Democrat Party strongholds.

It's just like the old days. Jim Crow is alive and well for large numbers of America's black youth.

At the New York Times, "School Data Finds Pattern of Inequality Along Racial Lines":

Racial minorities are more likely than white students to be suspended from school, to have less access to rigorous math and science classes, and to be taught by lower-paid teachers with less experience, according to comprehensive data released Friday by the data released Friday by the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.

In the first analysis in nearly 15 years of information from all of the country’s 97,000 public schools, the Education Department found a pattern of inequality on a number of fronts, with race as the dividing factor.

Black students are suspended and expelled at three times the rate of white students. A quarter of high schools with the highest percentage of black and Latino students do not offer any Algebra II courses, while a third of those schools do not have any chemistry classes. Black students are more than four times as likely as white students — and Latino students are twice as likely — to attend schools where one out of every five teachers does not meet all state teaching requirements.

“Here we are, 60 years after Brown v. Board of Education, and the data altogether still show a picture of gross inequity in educational opportunity,” said Daniel J. Losen, director of the Center for Civil Rights Remedies at the University of California at Los Angeles’s Civil Rights Project.

In his budget request to Congress, President Obama has proposed a new phase of his administration’s Race to the Top competitive grant program, which would give $300 million in incentives to states and districts that put in place programs intended to close some of the educational gaps identified in the data.

“In all, it is clear that the United States has a great distance to go to meet our goal of providing opportunities for every student to succeed,” Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said in a statement.

One of the striking statistics to emerge from the data, based on information collected during the 2011-12 academic year, was that even as early as preschool, black students face harsher discipline than other students....

In high school, the study found that while more than 70 percent of white students attend schools that offer a full range of math and science courses — including algebra, biology, calculus, chemistry, geometry and physics — just over half of all black students have access to those courses. Just over two-thirds of Latinos attend schools with the full range of math and science courses, and less than half of American Indian and Native Alaskan students are able to enroll in as many high-level math and science courses as their white peers.

“We want to have a situation in which students of color — and every student — has the opportunity and access that will get them into any kind of STEM career that takes their fancy,” said Claus von Zastrow, director of research for Change the Equation, a nonprofit that advocates improved science, technology, engineering and math education, or STEM, in the United States. “We’re finding that in fact a huge percentage of primarily students of color, but of all students, don’t even have the opportunity to take those courses. Those are gateways that are closed to them.”

The Education Department’s report found that black, Latino, American Indian and Native Alaskan students are three times as likely as white students to attend schools with higher concentrations of first-year teachers. And in nearly a quarter of school districts with at least two high schools, the teacher salary gap between high schools with the highest concentrations of black and Latino students and those with the lowest is more than $5,000 a year.

Now, keep in mind the discipline problem is endemic to the black culture, and I don't blame teachers one bit. Still, it's an abomination that courses as basic as algebra II and chemistry aren't offered to so many of America's minorities. And believe me, all the Common Core crap won't do a thing to change this crisis of Democrat urban machine politics. Those f-kers own it.

Nancy Pelosi Calls #ObamaCare — Wait, I Mean the 'Affordable Care Act'! — a Winner for #Democrats in 2014

This lady is certifiably insane.

At U.S. News, "Pelosi says health care law a political plus for Democrats."

And at the NRCC, "6 Awful Moments From Nancy Pelosi’s News Conference “Celebrating” ObamaCare."

Also from Ericka Johnsen, at Hot Air, "Pelosi: Stop calling it ObamaCare. It’s the Affordable Care Act. Affordable, affordable, affordable."

Of course, it's simply not "affordable." At the Hill, "O-Care premiums to skyrocket."

It's going to be a Democrat bloodbath in November. I can't wait.

Amy Green for Zoo Today

She's nice, "X-rated, fair-haired fittie Amy Green presents Blondes: Uncensored!"

YouTube here: "Amy Green: Blondes Uncensored Teaser Video!"

Starbucks to Expand Alcohol Sales Across U.S.

I'm not exactly sure why I'd be going to Starbucks for a drink.

I rarely have coffee over there any more as it is. But hey, it's business.

At the New York Post, "Starbucks to expand beer, wine sales throughout U.S."

And checking Google I see this previously from the O.C. Register, "Starbucks adds beer, wine in south O.C."

"Starbucks Evenings" they're calling it. I'm sure all the cool hipsters will be swarming over there for cheese and Cabernet.

Reason's Remy Slams Dianne Feinstein on Surveillance Hypocrisy

Heh. A good one.

At Reason, "Isn't it Ironic: Government Surveillance Version (with Remy)."

Obama Ups Sanctions on Russia Over Crimea

At WaPo, "Obama expands sanctions against top aides, associates of Putin over annexation of Crimea." And Politico, "Obama expands sanctions against Russia."

Also, from Max Boot, at Commentary, "A Much-Improved Slate of Russia Sanctions."

None of these things will drive Putin out of Ukraine, but at least the response is grudgingly moving in the direction toward greater firmness. See the editors at the Washington Post, "TThe U.S. should keep tightening the sanctions on Russia":

THE SANCTIONS against Russia that President Obama announced Thursday were far tougher than those previously taken in response to the invasion and annexation of Crimea. But they remained carefully calibrated: Mr. Obama aimed to inflict economic pain on Vladi­mir Putin and his inner circle of financiers and cronies, not on the Russian economy as a whole. Mr. Putin was not named, but his personal banker and bank were locked out of the U.S. financial system, as were key aides and several longtime friends who have become billionaires under his regime and who may handle some of his investments.

The U.S. strategy could have the advantage of punishing Mr. Putin while minimizing the collateral damage to the U.S., European and global economies that could come from a broader economic war. At the same time, Mr. Obama sought to deter further Russian aggression by granting authority for sanctions against Russian economic sectors, including the energy industry, and making clear that they would be imposed if other parts of Ukraine were attacked....

If the latest sanctions do not quickly sober them up, Mr. Obama must not hesitate to expand the range of sanctions from Mr. Putin’s inner circle to the pillars of the Russian economy.

Word.

Universities: The Least Free Places in America

Following up from yesterday, "UCSB Police Department Releases Report on Professor Mireille Miller-Young."

Don't miss Darleen Click, at Protein Wisdom, "Female supremacy and the “rape culture” meme," and the video linked there:



More at Blackmailers Don't Shoot, "Trigger Warning: Butthurt; Excessive Self-Regard."

NATO's Anders Fogh Rasmussen: Crimea Tensions 'Greatest Threat' Since Cold War

Well, acknowledging you have a problem is a first step.

At the Washington Post, "Russia’s moves in Ukraine are ‘wake-up call,’ NATO’s Rasmussen says in speech":

Russia’s aggression in Ukraine is a “wake-up call” for the Atlantic military alliance and other international institutions that have buttressed European security and stability for decades, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Wednesday.

“We live in a different world than we did less than a month ago,” Rasmussen said in a previously scheduled Brookings Institution speech that was adjusted to reflect a sudden crisis that he called Europe’s “gravest threat . . . since the end of the Cold War.”

Irony: No Funeral for Hate-Preaching, Funeral-Protesting Westboro Church Founder Fred Phelps

I despise Westboro Baptist. Their funeral protests against America's service personnel are probably the most evil form of free speech this side of the KKK. But it's their right to do it, and frankly, Phelps has never been a model for conservatives on opposition to the radical left's homosexual agenda.

So it's pretty ironic that Phelps' own family won't hold a funeral for the old man. At WIBW Topeka, "No Funeral, After Death Of Westboro Church Founder Fred Phelps."

And a rare expression of decency on the left, from Erica Cook, at Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters, "Show love to Fred Phelps's family instead of hatred":

The very post I saw his death reported also had a call to picket his funeral as he has done to so many. This was by a friend who has seen his hate, and understandably wants to exact revenge. But if the actions of his life have shown anything it is that the funeral is no place for revenge or the spirit of hate. We may not feel sorrow at his death. It may even be a day of relief. But this is the time to show why he was wrong to protest the funerals of our family.

This is the chance to show the world how we are better people. We aren’t people who make the death of a man the reason to celebrate, no matter who that man is. We are the better people. And no matter who he is to us, he was someone’s father, grandfather, brother, and uncle. We may still be fighting against them, but today they need the respect they didn’t have the capacity to give when it was us. If we act in any way other than respectful we become no better than them. In stooping to that we relinquish the right to call what they do wrong.

Like I said, a rare example of leftist decency.

I'm sure there was plenty of leftist joy around today, for example:

Yes, this queer person is happy phelps is dead. He made life harder for people. May he rot.

— aliceinthewater (@aliceinthewater) March 20, 2014

Leftists dance on conservative graves every time a right-winger dies. And leftist hatred of conservatives hasn't abated in recent years (Duck Dynasty anyone?). But hey, leftists always need someone to hate. Might as well be Fred Phelps.

Tucker Carlson Apologizes to BuzzFeed's Rosie Gray

At TPM, via Memeorandum, "Tucker Carlson Forced to Apologize for His Reporter's Disgusting Tweets."

It's been awhile since I blogged about Tucker Carlson, for good reason. He was right to apologize here, though. Maybe he'll fire his reporter, Patrick Howley, if he hasn't already. The latter's deleted his Twitter page, so obviously stupidity caught up to him.

The tweets that will hopefully haunt @PatrickHowleyDC for awhile. Team @RosieGray, obviously. pic.twitter.com/NFb5t75NAB
— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) March 19, 2014

.@ryanjreilly @tuckercarlson he has. I accepted his apology.
— Rosie Gray (@RosieGray) March 20, 2014

And it turns out Firedoglake got this whole party started, the losers.

Unbelievable, grotesque, sexism toward a young reporter from the progressive @firedoglake. http://t.co/3teaD3aqmp pic.twitter.com/cKk7DIy5Ik
— Ben Smith (@BuzzFeedBen) March 19, 2014

Via PuffHo, "Tucker Carlson Forced to Apologize to BuzzFeed Reporter for Awful Tweets."

Duke University Porn Star Belle Knox Returns to Campus Despite Threats

A news report at ABC, "Porn Star Student Returns to Duke University Campus."

She says she's "empowered" by making porn flicks to pay her way through college. Okay, whatever.

And one of the ladies interviewed at the clip says Knox is getting threats for being "assertive." Yeah, I'm sure.

More at the Other McCain, "On ‘The View,’ @Belle_Knox Says ‘Most People’ Start Watching Porn at Age 12," and "Also, @Belle_Knox Is a Psycho."

Leftists Slam Film Critic Anthony Lane for 'Creepy' Profile of Scarlett Johansson

At LAT, "Anthony Lane criticized for 'creepy' Scarlett Johansson profile":

Pregnancy looks pretty good on Scarlett Johansson. http://t.co/nYmYqi3PNs pic.twitter.com/5KaIya9fxr
— Maggie Coughlan (@MaggieCoughlan) March 20, 2014

New Yorker film critic Anthony Lane is catching heat for his recent profile of Scarlett Johansson, which detractors say fawns over the actress without bothering to comprehend her.

Johansson has two films coming out on the same day (April 4):  "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" and "Under the Skin," and has recently been linked to separate controversies involving SodaStream and Woody Allen.

As critics of Lane's profile point out, he devotes much of it to cataloging Johansson's allure, describing "the honey of her voice" and declaring that she "looks tellingly radiant in the flesh" or seems to be "made from champagne." And yet, these critics say, the profile tells readers very little about Johansson as an actress or an individual.

Slate's Katy Waldman, for example, criticizes Lane's "inappropriate-uncle creepiness" in the profile.

The problem with the piece, Waldman writes, "is not [just] that it salivates over ScarJo, but that it refuses to treat her as a human subject, with qualities of mind. (If this is because Lane didn't have much time with Johansson, maybe the magazine shouldn't have run the piece.) When Lane isn't characterizing Johansson as strangely blank and opinionless, he’s trafficking in the dream of the remote, unknowable Woman — a flat projection of male desire."

She adds, "The worst part, however, is that Lane wants it both ways: He pants over ScarJo as the generic representative of a certain erotic fantasy and then has the chutzpah to critique her, slyly, for lacking substance."

Esther Breger of the New Republic similarly writes, "Lane's piece, the worst profile I can remember reading in The New Yorker, can be reduced to one basic takeaway: Anthony Lane thinks Scarlett Johansson is radiant, and wants to tell you all about it."

Breger, whose post is titled "Anthony Lane's Scarlett Johansson Profile Turns The New Yorker into a Men's Magazine," also writes, "Try to imagine The New Yorker running this about Matthew McConaughey, or Michael Fassbender. Sadly, this kind of fawning isn't unusual, as far as profiles of attractive actresses go … but I prefer my glossy-mag sexism sans highbrow pretensions."

Kay Steiger of Talking Points Memo doesn't mince words either, calling Lane's profile "gross." It's also indicative of another issue, she says: the dearth of female editors at major magazines.

And here's Lane's profile, "HER AGAIN: The unstoppable Scarlett Johansson."

Look, she's a smokin' hot movie star. But for idiot leftist feminists, to notice ScarJo's a smokin' hot movie star is "objectification" and all "uncle creepy" sexism.

Seriously. You can't win with idiot progressives. They're terrible people who've bled the lusty fun out of life --- and believe me when I say I know about this first hand, the f-kers.

(Thankfully, the New York Post isn't so obsessed with political correctness, at that top Twitter link.)

Lucy Pinder for Nuts March 2014

She's often called the "perfect" gal.

Honestly, it's hard to disagree on that count. What a beauty.

At Egotastic!, "Lucy Pinder Lingerie Goodness for Feel Good Feelings."

UCSB Police Department Releases Report on Professor Mireille Miller-Young

Instapundit snarks, "Lefty thinking in a nutshell."

At the Santa Barbara Independent, "UCSB Police Department Releases Professor-Protester Incident Report: Mireille Miller-Young Said She Had ‘Moral Right’ to Take and Destroy Anti-Abortion Activists’ Sign":

The UC Santa Barbara Police Department has released its official report on the confrontation between Professor Mireille Miller-Young and a group of anti-abortion activists during which Miller-Young stole one of the activists’ signs, tussled with a teen girl trying to get it back, and then destroyed the sign with the help of her students.

In the report, Miller-Young, who is pregnant, said she was “triggered” by the graphic images of aborted fetuses on the large posters and said she felt the demonstrators didn’t have a right to be on the university’s campus, because their messages were upsetting to her and students. When asked by police if there had been a struggle between her and the activists when she took the poster, Miller-Young responded, “I’m stronger, so I was able to take the poster.”

America's college campuses: literally the most f-ked-up places in the nation.

More.

Plus, background at the Other McCain, "Feminist Professors Gone Wild."

Reds Closer Aroldis Chapman Drilled by Line Drive, Hospitalized

Hardball. Never take the brutality of the game for granted. It's tough out there sometimes.

At Fox Spots, "Reds pitcher Aroldis Chapman hospitalized after being hit in face by line drive."

And watch at MLB, "Chapman carried off on stretcher after hit in head." Be sure to RTWT.

Mick Jagger Statement on L'Wren Scott's Death

They were together for 10 years. He's crushed.

At Rolling Stone, "Mick Jagger on L'Wren Scott: 'I Will Never Forget Her'."

Suspected Immigrant Stash House Bust in Houston

Because our immigration system is working so well, and new immigrants are so law-abiding.

At LAT, "Authorities rescue 108 people from squalid Houston stash house."