Neocon Blog Wars! An Update

In an earlier entry, "Neocon Blog Wars!," I made light of the conflict between Joe Klein and the neoconservatives over at Commentary.

Well, it turns out this is not a laughing matter. As Jennifer Rubin relays, the Anti-Defamation League has gotten involved, calling out Klein for allegations of "divided loyalties" among Jewish Americans on the war in Iraq:

Fulfilling its historic role as a nonpartisan watchdog against anti-Semitism, the Anti-Defamation League has acted quickly in the case of Joe Klein and his jaw-dropping use, on the Time Magazine blog Swampland, of the anti-Semitic argument of “divided loyalties” against Sen. Joseph Lieberman and those neoconservatives who supported the war. In a plainly worded letter sent yesterday, the ADL honcho said this:

We were deeply troubled by your outrageous assertion on Time Magazine’s “Swampland” blog that Jewish neoconservatives “plumped” for the war in Iraq and are now doing the same for “an even more foolish assault on Iran” with the goal of making the world “safe for Israel.” (”Surge Protection,” June 24). Whether or not one feels that America’s war on Iraq was justified, the charge that it is being fought by the United States on behalf of Israel is both offensive and categorically false.

There can be no question that in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, legitimate and serious American security and foreign policy interests played a critical role in President Bush’s decision to attack Iraq. Moreover, many top decision-makers in the administration who advocated for war hardly fit the mold of a “Jewish Neocon” – Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell being the most prominent among them.

The notion that Jews with “divided loyalties” were behind the decision to go to war is reminiscent of age-old anti-Semitic canards about a Jewish conspiracy to control and manipulate government….We are disappointed that a respected and thoughtful writer of your caliber you would resort to such stereotyping.

Klein responded quickly, and with the same quiet dignity that characterized his original post:

I have never said that Jewish neocons were the primary reason we went to war in Iraq….But Jewish neoconservatives certainly played a subsidiary role in providing an intellectual rationale for the war. In a 2003 column, I called their arguments “the casus belli that dare not speak its name.” The notion of a “benign domino theory”–benign, that is, for the interests of Israel—was certainly abroad in the community during that time….And there is now, in my opinion, an even more dangerous tendency among Jewish neoconservatives to encourage a pre-emptive attack on Iran’s nuclear program. Their gleeful, intellectual warmongering—given the vast dangers and complexities of an attack on Iran–is nauseating….

I am disappointed, but not surprised, by your claim of antisemitism. But that’s what you do for a living, isn’t it? I find your “outrage” particularly galling because the people you defend are constantly spewing canards against those who favor talking to the Palestinians, or who don’t favor witless bellicosity when it comes to Iran. Their campaign of defamation has cost people jobs, damaged reputations and careers. I am very tired of having reasonable people accused of being “soft on terrorism” or “unpatriotic” or favoring “surrender”–Joe Lieberman’s favorite—by Jewish neoconservatives who seem to have a neurotic need to prove their toughness….

Foxman has now responded:

Our concern is with the term “Jewish neoconservatives” and the distressing claim that those individuals are eager to serve Israel’s interests against the interests of their own country….

Neoconservatives have the right to make their case without having their religion brought up. So, too, do those on the opposite end of the political spectrum, whether Jewish or not….Contrary to your assertion, ADL is extremely careful in making accusations about anti-Semitism and we spend every day in our work all over the country assessing the validity — or lack thereof — of such accusations….

The letters can be read in full here.

I'll update when I have more.

Klein's essay in question, "Surge Protection," is here.

Barack Obama and Progressive Netroots Rage

Anyone who's followed the FISA debate this week will have seen the violent froth around the blogosphere, which is a good indicator as to how totalitarian are those on the extreme left of the political spectrum.

For example, Sam Stein, at Huffington Post, discusses just how angry were some leftists with Barack Obama's support for the congressional compromise on government surveillance:

Only weeks into the general election campaign and already a notable tension is beginning to materialize within the Democratic Party. At question is Sen. Barack Obama's relationship with the progressive netroots, the online community that helped aid the Senator's rise to the presidential nomination, but has since seemingly played second fiddle in terms of courted constituencies.

Obama's decision to embrace a compromise on FISA legislation -- a virtual slap in the face to some progressive bloggers demanding no legal immunity for telecommunications companies -- was the catalyst of the recent chatter. Other concerns arose days prior when Obama cut an advertisement on behalf of a conservative southern Democrat whose primary challenger was favored by the liberal blogosphere.

But for some progressive activists, the issue is not simply one of policy, but a concern that Obama's willingness to snub their political wishes is far more endemic.

"You can see it with FISA. He really doesn't feel that much kinship with the priorities of the netroots and I don't think he has made any secret of that," said Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake. "I have to say he is very consistent. He has gone outside the netroots for his strategy... People who feel betrayed right now, I'm not sure why, because it is extremely consistent with what they should have expected."

Stein notes that not all of those in the radical leftosphere are upset with Obama, which further enrages those steaming at Obama's apostasies. In addition to Jane Hamsher, Glenn Greenwald's been going off on anyone who's not taking HIS position on FISA's alleged extreme criminality.

Rick Moran, at Right Wing Nuthouse, in his post on the "progressives" and FISA, really captures the essence of the far-left's rage:

The hysterically exaggerated, intellectually dishonest portrayal of the workings of the NSA surveillance program by many on the left is something I have catalogued on this site since its existence was revealed by the New York Times way back in December of 2005.

To be honest, the netroots have made themselves ridiculously easy targets for ridicule.

My own reservations about the program remain. Reasonable, honest people can debate how this program skirts the law and may – depending exactly how it works which is something that to this day remains hidden – cross the line of legality. The fact that debate raged in the Justice Department over the legality of the program with many career prosecutors opposed while others supported it should demonstrate to any reasonable person that at worst, the Terrorist Surveillance Program was an extremely close call.

Not so scream the netnuts. To the hysterical three year olds who make up the “reality based community,” facts don’t matter nor does it cross their infantile minds that such a surveillance program is even necessary. The program is illegal – no debate is allowed.

To such an incurious crowd we are now about to hand the reigns [sic] of government.

What is most worrisome is that they have so much invested in denying the reality of the terrorist threat – that the whole thing was dreamed up by Bush to seize power and become dictator – that one can legitimately question just how serious these mountebanks will be about national security. No doubt they will be relentless in their pursuit of terrorists – after we’ve been hit again. Cold comfort for those Americans who die as a result of their “terrorists are innocent until they commit an overt act” mindset.

Holy Christ! Even Barack Obama thinks the NSA surveillance program is indispensable to our national security. Of course, Obama has no better idea that the program is or was illegal despite his claims to the contrary. He is simply “playing the rubes” in the netroots community as Ian Welsh tells it at Firedoglake:

The FISA Cloture vote just passed. The Senate will now consider the motion to proceed with the bill, then they’ll head to the bill itself ... Various motions will be put forward to strip immunity, odds are they will fail. Then a number of the 80 who voted to restrict debate will vote against FISA so they can say they were against the bill. However this was the real vote, and the rest is almost certainly nothing but kabuki for the rubes.

Obama and McCain were both absent, as was Clinton. Unimpressive, but unsurprising, though I suppose I’m disappointed by Clinton (Obama has made it clear he didn’t intend to try and stop the bill.) Clinton and Obama will claim there was no point since it wasn’t close. But, with their leadership, it might well have gone the other way.

The folks who actually voted for the Bill of Rights are listed below. Remember, after the debate there’ll be a larger number of people who vote against this bill, but this was the real vote, and those Senators are just playing the rubes.

In less stressful, less partisan times, it may have been possible to debate the necessity for this surveillance program and even whether or not it actually steps over the line of legality, although how any definitive answers could have been arrived at with key parts of the program still classified and unknown to all but a very select few in government would have been problematic indeed.

Note again Moran's key point: These are the folks we're about to hand the reins of government.

Of course, we've still got the fall campaign, but I'll be relieved if Obama, upon taking office, really does diss the radical lefties. Such a turn could be the biggest act of political statesmanship since Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon.

See also, "Netroots Jilted by Obama FISA Stand."

The Thugs Win? The Liberal Backlash Begins

The ink's barely dry in today's Supreme Court ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller, but the left-wing backlash has begun.

Here's Colbert King at the Washington Post:

There's one group of District residents absolutely unfazed by today's U.S. Supreme Court ruling shooting down the District's strict handgun ban: the dudes who have been blowing away their fellow citizens with abandon since the law was put on the books 32 years ago.

Operating under the notion that it's better to beg forgiveness than to ask permission, our shooters long ago decided not to wait for the high court's thoughts on the matter. They simply arrogated to themselves the right to keep and bear arms and, with that right, license to shoot and kill, with impunity, whatever and whenever the evil spirits moved them.

The record will show that our home-grown shooters have blown through the city's so-called strict handgun ban like John Riggins going up the middle. Over the past 20 years, there have been more than 6,500 homicides in the nation's capital, most committed with firearms, predominantly handguns. In 1976, the year the ban was put in place, the District had 135 gun-related murders, according to CNN. Last year, the number reached 143. Thus far this year, we've had 85 murders.

You thought D.C. stands for "District of Columbia? "Dodge City" is more like it.

If D.C. street thugs are pleased by anything, it's probably the fact that five of the justices - a slim majority, but that's all it takes to win - have come around to seeing things their way.

Well, if D.C. really was more like Dodge City, I'm betting more citizen-cowboys would be shootin' their way to a safer metropolis.

More later...

Supreme Court Favors Gun Owners, Obama Waffles

The big political news this afternoon is the Supreme Court's decision in the D.C. Second Amendment case.

The Los Angeles Times has the background:

Americans have a right to keep a gun at home for self-defense, the Supreme Court ruled today in striking down part of a handgun ban in the District of Columbia.

By a 5-4 vote, the court concluded that the 2nd Amendment and its famous right "to keep and bear arms" protects the gun rights of individuals, rather than just a state's right to maintain a militia.

Justice Antonin Scalia, speaking for the court, said the history of the 2nd Amendment shows its authors intended to protect the "right of the people" as individuals to have weapons, both to defend themselves and their community.

The ruling is the first in the high court's long history to strike down a gun law based on the 2nd Amendment.

But the court's ruling appeared to be narrow. Scalia stressed that nothing in today's decision casts doubts on laws that forbid felons or the mentally ill from having guns.

He also said the government can strictly regulate when and where people have guns. For example, he said guns may be prohibited near schools and in or near government buildings.

"Like most rights, the right secured by the 2nd Amendment is not unlimited," Scalia said.

But the four dissenters faulted the majority for opening the door to legal challenges to various gun-control measures. Justice John Paul Stevens, speaking for the dissenters, said the 2nd Amendment "was adopted to protect the right of the people of each of the several states to maintain a well-regulated militia."

"The court is making new law today" to extend this right to individuals acting on their own, Stevens said.

The White House issued a statement calling the case historic. "The president strongly agrees with the Supreme Court's historic decision today that the 2nd Amendment protects the individual right of Americans to keep and bear arms," it said. "This has been the administration's long-held view. The president is also pleased that the court concluded that the D.C. firearm laws violate that right.

From the campaign trail, Republican John McCain hailed the decision as "a landmark victory for 2nd Amendment freedom" and chided Democrat Barack Obama for not joining him in a friend-of-the-court brief. For his part, Obama issued a statement saying that the court had in effect endorsed his view that while "the 2nd Amendment protects the right of individuals to bear arms" it does not preclude "the need for crime-ravaged communities to save their children from the violence that plagues our streets through common-sense, effective safety measures."

It turns out Obama's trying to get on the right side of public opinion on gun rights (73 percent believes the 2nd Amendment guarantees the right to gun ownership).

For more, see "Obama Camp Disavows Last Year's 'Inartful' Statement on D.C. Gun Law."

Taggers Shoot Business Owner in Hollywood

The Los Angeles Times reports that an auto body shop owner was shot in the chest while confronting graffiti taggers defacing the side of his building:

An auto body shop owner shot in the chest Wednesday during a confrontation with gang-affiliated taggers who had scrawled graffiti on his Hollywood business was in stable condition today, according to authorities and the man's brother.

The midday incident took place in the 5000 block of Hollywood Boulevard shortly after 1 p.m. when workers at the business spotted taggers painting a side wall with 6-foot high black letters and told the owner.

The man and his employees were writing down license plate information when the alleged taggers got out of their car, said LAPD Sgt. Alfredo Flores. The owner told the two youths --described as white males, each not much taller than 5 feet -- not to tag his property, Flores said. One of the youths pulled out a handgun, shot the man in the chest and then got back in the car and drove away.

Authorities said the youths are believed to have ties to a local gang, known as Armenian Power. Surveillance video from the shop is being used by detectives who said they think they have identified the youths and are searching for them now, said LAPD Cmdr. Pat Gannon.

Gannon said other youths had been questioned but no arrests had been made in the case. A vehicle believed to have been used by the suspects was found Wednesday in the San Fernando Valley and seized by officers. The auto body shop had previously been tagged with graffiti and the owner had installed video cameras connected to the store's computers to monitor activity.

At the shop this morning, the wounded man's brother, who would not give his name, said only that his brother was doing fine.

The taggers' bold black letters were still fresh on the building's beige wall. At least one coat of paint already covered a previous paint job. The wall faces the parking lot for a costume rental shop and a Head Start program.

The article continues, at the link.

Neocon Blog Wars!

Let me say right off the bat that it's better to observe blog wars that to engage in them, LOL!!

My reference is the big kerfuffle breaking out between Joe Klein and the neocons.

Max Boot's got his latest installment here, but I was especially intrigued by the outside observations over at the American Scene:

I imagine Joe Klein is in a bind. He was one of the most truculent liberal hawks, when he rightly attracted the ire and condemnation of smart young liberals. He later accepted their criticisms — wisely — but instead of taking on a more humble and thoughtful pose, he has reinvented himself as a liberal firebrand, actively participating in internal debates on the left, paying close heed to the shifting moods and tendencies of the center-left blogosphere. And a good thing too: there’s a lot of wisdom to be mined there, as most readers of The American Scene know firsthand. Yet my sense is that Klein’s community-mindedness is leading him astray.

The American Scene calls the war "not the right thing to do," and links to the left's Patrick Cockburn and his recent article on Iraq, so you can see where the essay's headed.

I've written a little on the Klein/neocon blog wars, highlighting Peter Wehner's deft take down of Klein previously.

You might check out Andrew Sullivan as well, "Iraq = Germany."

It's all good reading, in any case. Enjoy!!

Obama Throws Maoist Hardliner Under the Bus

Via Gateway Pundit, it turns out another one of Barack Obama's community bloggers has been given the boot:

Mike Klonsky, the Maoist Hardliner, Obama supporter and former best friend of the Weatherman terrorist group founders William Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn, received a $175,000 grant from the William Ayers/Barack Obama-led Annenberg Challenge to run the Small Schools Workshop.

Klonsky belonged to the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and was best friends with William Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn who later became famous for their acts of terrorism when the SDS broke up and the Weathermen terror group was formed.

Between 1979 and 1981, Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist) (CPML) chairman and Obama supporter Mike Klonsky was repeatedly feted with state-dinner-level visits to Beijing.

There's more at the link. The Obama campaign's thrown Klonsky under the bus.

I'm frankly at pains to find a reason why these "community blogs" are a good thing.

But at least I'm I know this: It keeps on getting better and better at Obama's official page!

Screenshot Credit: LGF

Differing Concepts of Patriotism in Campaign '08

Newhouse News has an interesting piece on how the candidates embody differing concepts of patriotism:

The thunder of this year's Fourth of July fireworks may provide brief respite from the partisan clamor over who is the truer patriot — John McCain or Barack Obama.

The battle lines are familiar. They were drawn during the Vietnam War, when McCain was a prisoner of war, and Obama but a child.

Four decades later, the contrast between two presidential candidates has never been starker.

Here is the grizzled former Navy flier who has vowed "I will never surrender in Iraq." And there, the brash newcomer with the unlined face whose startling success already is the source of so much lump-in-the-throat pride in the genius of America.

A black father, a white mother and a name that couldn't help but confound. But here he is, and here we are.

John McCain is a classical patriot.

On the Fourth, he could deliver Thucydides' "Funeral Oration of Pericles" virtually verbatim, changing only "Athens" to "America."

It would fit, to a T.

Pericles, the Athenian statesman and military commander, delivered the oration — as recorded by the historian Thucydides — in 431 B.C., to honor those killed in the first year of what would be a very long war with Sparta. It is a paean to courage, duty and honor, but also to what Pericles proclaimed to be the uniquely Athenian virtues of democracy, freedom, tolerance and opportunity. And it is an exhortation to fight and die for the glory of an empire determined in its might — and required by its sense of superiority — to lead the world.

As his choice of Independence Day material, Barack Obama might want something a bit more contemporary, like the 1938 poem "Let America Be America Again." Written by the Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes, it is a plaintive call for America to eschew empty patriotism and live up to its founding ideals:

"O, let my land be a land where Liberty

"Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,

"But opportunity is real, and life is free,

"Equality is in the air we breathe."

"Yes We Can," cried the Obama campaign, as if in reply to Hughes' lament.

"America can change," declared Obama in his March 18 speech on race in Philadelphia. "That is the true genius of this nation. What we have already achieved gives us hope — the audacity to hope — for what we can and must achieve tomorrow."

Almost all Americans consider themselves to be very patriotic, according to the Pew Research Center in Washington. But Pew has also found that Democrats and Republicans have discernibly different tendencies in the tenor of the patriotism.

Republicans tend to be far more likely than Democrats to believe "we all should be willing to fight for our country ... right or wrong," and to support the use of pre-emptive military force. They are less likely to care what the rest of the world thinks of us. (According to a recent Pew survey of citizens in 24 countries, the rest of the world prefers Obama to McCain.)

Over time, as Eric Liu and Nick Hanauer write in their book "The True Patriot," those different tendencies have hardened into a caricature that "says the right loves America, and the left looks down on it. It says conservatives are proud to wave the flag and proclaim America to be the best, and liberals, embarrassed by the whole chest-thumping spectacle, complain about America's errors."

It is a caricature that found unfortunate resonance for the Obama campaign in February, when Michelle Obama declared, "For the first time in my adult life I am really proud of my country because it feels like hope is finally making a comeback."

Before and since, said Liu, who supports Obama, nearly every assault on the Illinois senator has sought to blemish his patriotism, to pose the question, "Is he American enough?"

"This is going to be the dominant frame of the general election," said Liu, who served as a speechwriter and senior domestic policy adviser in the Clinton White House, and who believes Obama must do a better job of articulating an unself-conscious "progressive patriotism."

Well, I've offered my own theories as to why Democrats - and especially prominent Obama backers - announce their antipathy to the United States, and frankly to spin it as a postmodern version of patriotism doesn't sound compelling.

I'll let some of my commenters hash it out, but I'm firmly convinced that the GOP's brand of love-of-country's the appropriate tradition of patriotic support.

See also, "Should Revolutionaries Feel Good About Obama?"

Obama's Egocentrism

Karl Rove's got a great piece up this morning on Barack Obama's egocentrism, "It's All About Obama":

Many candidates have measured the Oval Office drapes prematurely. But Barack Obama is the first to redesign the presidential seal before the election.

His seal featured an eagle emblazoned with his logo, and included a Latin version of his campaign slogan. This was an attempt by Sen. Obama to make himself appear more presidential. But most people saw in the seal something else – chutzpah – and he's stopped using it. Such arrogance – even self-centeredness – have featured often in the Obama campaign.

Consider his treatment of Jeremiah Wright. After Rev. Wright repeated his anti-American slurs at the National Press Club, Mr. Obama said their relationship was forever changed – but not because of what he'd said about America. Instead, Mr. Obama complained, "I don't think he showed much concern for me."

Translation: Rev. Wright is an impediment to my ambitions. So, as it turns out, are some of Mr. Obama's previous pledges.

For example, Mr. Obama has said he "strongly supported public financing" and pledged to take federal funds for the fall, thereby limiting his spending to roughly $84 million. Now convinced he can raise more than $84 million, he reversed course last week, ditching the federal money and its limits. But by discarding his earlier pledge so easily, he raises doubts about whether his word can be trusted.

Last month he replied "anywhere, anytime" to John McCain's invitation to have joint town hall appearances. Last week he changed his mind. Fearing 10 impromptu town halls, Mr. Obama parried the invitation by offering two such events – one the night of July 4, when every ambulatory American is watching fireworks or munching hotdogs, and another in August. His spokesman then said, "Take it or leave it." So much for "anywhere, anytime."

Read the whole thing.

Rove offers even more examples of Obama's hypocritical arrogance and egocentrism. It looks as though there's some empirical support for the claim that Obama's a snob:

See also my earlier entry, "The Obama Seal."

Related: Pandagon, "Rove Should Get A Better Candidate."

Congratulations Fresno State!

While watching Sunday Night Baseball last weekend, I noticed a blurb scrolling at the bottom of my TV screen: Fresno State had reached the national championship in the NCAA's College World Series.

I graduated from Fresno State in 1992.

As any alumnus knows, Fresno takes enormous pride in the university's athletic programs, so I'm proud to report that the Bulldogs not only won the national championship (the first for Fresno State's men's athletics in any sport), but came back from a 1-0 deficit in the series, and that's after being the lowest seeded entry into the tournament.

From "underdogs to wonderdogs" is the banner headline in the papers this morning. Here's this, from the Fresno Bee:

It happened, just as it does in the fairy tales. A happy ending to complete this Cinderella season. A movie based on real-life memories that won't go away anytime soon. Maybe not ever.

Fresno State captured the NCAA championship Wednesday night in front of an announced crowd of 18,932 at Rosenblatt Stadium.

It took a 6-1 victory against Georgia before a national television audience to complete the improbable run, which safely goes down as college baseball's most historic underdog run.

Unseeded Fresno State -- a team that needed to win the Western Athletic Conference tournament simply to make the NCAA Tournament and then was given a No. 4 regional seed survived its sixth elimination game of the postseason.

Fresno State lost the first game of this best-of-three series then came back to win the next two against a team that was seeded No. 8 nationally.

"Isn't this amazing?" said Fresno State outfielder Steve Susdorf as he clutched the NCAA trophy wearing a national champion T-shirt. "I'm shaking."

Wednesday's game, actually, wasn't too nerve-rattling for Fresno State.

There was no need for late-inning heroics to save the day.

Those types of performances were used earlier in Fresno State's run to get to Wednesday.

It really didn't go down to the final inning, though Fresno State coach Mike Batesole took no chances and marched out closer Brandon Burke in the end.

For the most part, all Fresno State needed was pitcher Justin Wilson and outfielder Steve Detwiler.

Despite pitching on three days of rest, Wilson lived up to his big-game reputation with seven shutout innings before finally allowing a run in the eighth.

With his fastball in the low 90-mph range and his offspeed pitches biting, the left-hander from Buchanan High struck out nine and allowed just five hits against a Georgia team that came in with a .311 average and had feasted off fastballs throughout the College World Series.

Often, Wilson would put batters away with an inside fastball that seemed untouchable -- too fast for hitters to catch up to and with too much natural movement to lock on to.

"What he did off three days of rest was unbelievable," Fresno State catcher Danny Grubb said. "They weren't going to touch him. Not when Justin's throwing like that. He found energy somewhere. Man, he was amazing."

Detwiler supplied the offense with a perfect performance at the plate -- going 4 for 4 with two home runs and driving in all six runs.

Moved up two spots in the lineup because Georgia started a left-handed pitcher, the right-handed Detwiler smashed a two-run homer to right field in the second inning then connected for a three-run shot to left field in the sixth.

In between, Detwiler supplied an RBI double in the fourth to pick up a Fresno State offense that seemed spent, having used all of its bullets a night earlier in amassing 19 hits in a 19-10 victory against Georgia on Tuesday.

Take away Detwiler on Wednesday and Fresno State hit 4 for 31 as a team.

And Detwiler did it with a torn tendon in his left thumb, suffered two months ago. He also was hitting just .231 (6 for 26) coming into the CWS finale.

"For him to have the game that he had today, it was perfect for the ballclub," Fresno State coach Mike Batesole said. "He's made of heart. To see him doing what he's doing, it inspires everybody."

The title run completed, Fresno State surely will inspire future underdog teams for years to come, when coaches might recount this 2008 season and tell their team, "If Fresno State could do it, so can we."

Congratulations Fresno State!

Photo Credit: "Fresno State’s Philosophy: One Game at a Time," New York Times.

Beijing's Olympic Nightmare

Betsy Newmark noted that restrooms at Beijing's Olympic facilities feature "squat toilets," and she adds:

I can say unequivocally that I'm not traveling anywhere where they don't have modern sit-down toilets.

I first saw squat toilets in 1973, on a summer vacation in France. I was just a kid and, and while fascinating, I didn't relate the type of restroom facilities to the level of state development in a nation, but Newmark's post got me thinking about China: It turns out that Elizabeth Economy and Adam Segal, at the new Foreign Affairs, offer an eye-popping look China's public relations catastrophy heading into the summer games: "China's Olympic Nightmare":

On the night of July 13, 2001, tens of thousands of people poured into Tiananmen Square to celebrate the International Olympic Committee's decision to award the 2008 Olympic Games to Beijing. Firecrackers exploded, flags flew high, and cars honked wildly. It was a moment to be savored. Chinese President Jiang Zemin and other leaders exhorted the crowds to work together to prepare for the Olympics. "Winning the host rights means winning the respect, trust, and favor of the international community," Wang Wei, a senior Beijing Olympic official, proclaimed. The official Xinhua News Agency reveled in the moment, calling the decision "another milestone in China's rising international status and a historical event in the great renaissance of the Chinese nation."

Hosting the Olympics was supposed to be a chance for China's leaders to showcase the country's rapid economic growth and modernization to the rest of the world. Domestically, it provided an opportunity for the Chinese government to demonstrate the Communist Party's competence and affirm the country's status as a major power on equal footing with the West. And wrapping itself in the values of the Olympic movement gave China the chance to portray itself not only as a rising power but also as a "peace-loving" country. For much of the lead-up to the Olympics, Beijing succeeded in promoting just such a message.

The process of preparing for the Games is tailor-made to display China's greatest political and economic strengths: the top-down mobilization of resources, the development and execution of grand-scale campaigns to reform public behavior, and the ability to attract foreign interest and investment to one of the world's brightest new centers of culture and business. Mobilizing massive resources for large infrastructure projects comes easily to China. Throughout history, China's leaders have drawn on the ingenuity of China's massive population to realize some of the world's most spectacular construction projects, the Great Wall, the Grand Canal, and the Three Gorges Dam among them. The Olympic construction spree has been no different. Beijing has built 19 new venues for the events, doubled the capacity of the subway, and added a new terminal to the airport. Neighborhoods throughout the city have been either spruced up to prepare for Olympic visitors or simply cleared out to make room for new Olympic sites. Official government spending for the construction bonanza is nearing $40 billion. In anticipation of the Olympics, the government has also embarked on a series of efforts to transform individual behavior and modernize the capital city. It has launched etiquette campaigns forbidding spitting, smoking, littering, and cutting in lines and introduced programs to teach English to cab drivers, police officers, hotel workers, and waiters. City officials have used Olympic projects as a means to refurbish decaying buildings and reduce air pollution, water shortages, and traffic jams.

Yet even as Beijing has worked tirelessly to ensure the most impressive of Olympic spectacles, it is clear that the Games have come to highlight not only the awesome achievements of the country but also the grave shortcomings of the current regime. Few in the central leadership seem to have anticipated the extent to which the Olympic Games would stoke the persistent political challenges to the legitimacy of the Communist Party and the stability of the country. Demands for political liberalization, greater autonomy for Tibet, increased pressure on Sudan, better environmental protection, and an improved product-safety record now threaten to put a damper on the country's coming-out party. As the Olympic torch circled the globe with legions of protesters in tow, Beijing's Olympic dream quickly turned into a public-relations nightmare.

Although the Chinese government excels when it comes to infrastructure projects, its record is poor when it comes to transparency, official accountability, and the rule of law. It has responded clumsily to internal and external political challenges -- by initially ignoring the international community's desire for China to play a more active role in resolving the human rights crisis in Darfur, arresting prominent Chinese political activists, and cracking down violently on demonstrators. Although there is no organized opposition unified around this set of demands, the cacophony of voices pressuring China to change its policies has taken much of the luster off of the Beijing Games. Moreover, although the Communist Party has gained domestic support from the nationalist backlash that has arisen in response to the Tibetan protesters and their supporters in the West, it also worries that this public anger will spin out of control, further damaging the country's international reputation. Already, China's coveted image as a responsible rising power has been tarnished.

For many in the international community, it has now become impossible to separate the competing narratives of China's awe-inspiring development and its poor record on human rights and the environment. It is no longer possible to discuss China's future without taking its internal fault lines seriously. For the Chinese government, the stakes are huge. China's credibility as a global leader, its potential as a model for the developing world, and its position as an emerging center of global business and culture are all at risk if these political challenges cannot be peacefully and successfully addressed.

Read the whole thing. Squat toilets are the least of the regime's problems.

See also, American Interests, "China Now Leading Emitter of Climate Change ..."

The Crisis in Zimbabwe

This story from the Washington Post discusses the latest calls by Zimbabwe's opposition forces for international action to stem the nation's crisis:

Zimbabwe's battered opposition called Wednesday for the deployment of thousands of African Union peacekeeping troops to bring order to a nation ravaged by months of political violence as President Robert Mugabe clings to power after 28 years.

The plea came as African leaders increasingly condemned Mugabe's ruthless campaign of retribution against the opposition that has left 86 party members dead and thousands wounded. A key group of southern African leaders urged Mugabe to cancel Friday's presidential runoff election.

Former South African president Nelson Mandela, speaking in London, complained about "the tragic failure of leadership in our neighboring Zimbabwe." Kenya's prime minister, Raila Odinga, warned that Zimbabwe "right now is a disaster in the making."

In Harare, Zimbabwe's capital, Jose Marcos Barrica, an Angolan minister heading an election observer mission for the Southern African Development Community, said, "When a brother beats a brother, that is a crisis."

Reports of assaults by youth militias have not eased since opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai withdrew from the runoff on Sunday. With attacks widespread -- and Tsvangirai spending most of his time in the safe haven of the Dutch Embassy -- opposition officials say that only outside powers can bring peace to Zimbabwe.

Tsvangirai's spokesman, George Sibotshiwe, said the party already has tentative commitments from several regional powers, including Tanzania and Angola, for a peacekeeping force. He estimated that a total of 4,000 armed and unarmed troops are needed.

After briefly emerging from the Dutch Embassy, Tsvangirai told reporters gathered at his home that the African Union and southern African regional powers needed to lead a mediation effort in Zimbabwe.

"The time for actions is now," Tsvangirai said at a news conference. "The people and the country can wait no longer."

In response to a question, Tsvangirai said he "didn't ask for military intervention, just armed peacekeepers."

Leaders of the Southern African Development Community, meeting Wednesday near Swaziland's capital, Mbabane, adopted a four-page statement in which they called for a postponement of the election and negotiations between Mugabe and Tsvangirai.

"The political and security situation in Zimbabwe appears not to be permissive for holding the runoff election in a manner that would be deemed free and fair," the statement said. "Holding the election under the current circumstances may undermine the credibility and legitimacy of its outcome."

Though the statement was far stronger than any previously issued by the 14-member regional body, officials at the summit, including Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, declined to name any actions they might take against Mugabe if the election goes ahead....

Zimbabwe has been locked in political stalemate since the March 29 election in which the opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, won control of parliament and Tsvangirai outpolled Mugabe. Electoral officials, after withholding results for a month, said Tsvangirai narrowly missed an absolute majority, setting up the runoff vote scheduled for Friday.

Even as the crisis has captured the world's attention, conditions within the country continue to deteriorate. The world's worst inflation strains the government's ability to measure it. Ruling party youths patrol many towns and cities. Torture, beatings, arson and false arrests are common. Many of Tsvangirai's key party officials are in jail, in exile or dead.

With global criticism building, Queen Elizabeth II of Britain -- Zimbabwe's former colonial ruler -- stripped Mugabe of ceremonial knighthood, a title he received in 1994 when he was still perceived as a symbol of African liberation. Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa called on Mugabe to resign and likened him in an interview to "a kind of Frankenstein."

See also, "Zimbabweans Make Plea for Help as Runoff Nears."

Cartoon Credit: Tom Toles

Obama 12-Point Lead, in L.A. Times Poll, Draws Controversy

The new Los Angeles Times poll, which finds Barack Obama with a 12-point lead over John McCain, has drawn fire from analysts suggesting an oversample of Democratic respondents.

Don Frederick has the details:

A well-known Republican research firm argues that the voter pool tapped for the new L.A. Times/Bloomberg poll was too skewed toward Democrats - a challenge that causes the GOP strategists to question the double-digit lead the survey gave Barack Obama over John McCain.

The case against the poll, laid out in a memo sent out today by Public Opinion Strategies, in turn sparked a response from survey director Susan Pinkus, who stood by its methodology and findings.

Part of the dispute reflects a long-standing disagreement between independent pollsters and partisan operatives (something The Times wrote about four years ago) -- whether or not to tinker with a poll to make sure its respondents reflect the nation's political composition at some fixed point, such as the most recent election.

Pinkus, like most nonpartisan pollsters, rejects that notion. Discussing the current survey, she says, "The poll was weighted slightly, where necessary, to conform to the Census Bureau’s proportions of sex, race, ethnicity, age and national region. The poll was NOT weighted for party identification since party ID is a moving variable that changes from one election to another, or when one party may be favored more than the other."

As a result, the survey simply asked respondents their party affiliation or inclination, and came up with this breakdown: 39% Democratic, 22% Republican, 8% something else, 4% refused to say.

There's the rub, insists the memo from Bill McInturff, Liz Harrington and David Kanevsky. They write that these figures, and the 17 percentage-point gap between the two parties, are "greatly out of line with what most other surveys are reporting."

The memo cites several other recent polls in which the party ID gap ranged as low as plus 6 percentage points for the Democrats to as high as plus 14.

It then asserts: "McCain’s double-digit deficit is not a reflection of reality, simply a result of an unusual party identification result in this survey.... If party identification on the L.A. Times survey is recalculated to ... 29% GOP / 39% Dem / 27% Ind / 5% Don’t Know/Refused, the ballot would be 40% McCain – 47% Obama."

Pinkus responds, at the link. She suggests that the statistic of 39 percent Democrats was generated from a random sample of "1,115 registered voters (which includes listed, unlisted and cell phone users)."

These numbers look like outliers to me. For example, today's Gallup survey finds Obama and McCain Tied at 45 percent:

The latest Gallup Poll Daily tracking update on the presidential election finds John McCain and Barack Obama exactly tied at 45% among registered voters nationwide.

Voter preferences had been fairly evenly divided for the past week, with Obama generally holding a slight advantage of two or three percentage points. This is the first time since Gallup's May 31-June 4 rolling average that Obama does not have at least a slim advantage over McCain. Obama's largest lead to date has been seven points. (To view the complete trend since March 7, 2008, click here.)

Since the changes from Tuesday's results are well within the margin of sampling error, it is unclear at this point if today's results represent a further tightening of the race. The last two individual nights of polling have, however, been more favorable to McCain that what Gallup has shown for most of June.

That sounds much more accurate, but see also Andrew Romano, "Does Obama Really Have a Double-Digit Lead?", and Marc Ambinder, "McCain Campaign Pushes Back On LA Times/BB Poll."

Supreme Court Spares Child Rapists From Execution

A divided Supreme Court today ruled against the death penalty for convicted child rapists, in what is certainly a decision raising the most disturbing moral and legal issues of the day.

Allahpundit has a long analysis, and I was struck by the question of relative depravity, raised in Samuel Alito's dissent:

With respect to the question of moral depravity, is it really true that every person who is convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death is more morally depraved than every child rapist? Consider the following two cases. In the first, a defendant robs a convenience store and watches as his accomplice shoots the store owner. The defendant acts recklessly, but was not the triggerman and did not intend the killing. In the second case, a previously convicted child rapist kidnaps, repeatedly rapes, and tortures multiple child victims. Is it clear that the first defendant is more morally depraved than the second?

The Court’s decision here stands in stark contrast to Atkins and Roper, in which the Court concluded that characteristics of the affected defendants—mental retardation in Atkins and youth in Roper—diminished their culpability. Nor is this case comparable to Enmund v. Florida, 458 U. S. 782 (1982), in which the Court held that the Eighth Amendment prohibits the death penalty where the defendant participated in a robbery during which a murder was committed but did not personally intend for lethal force to be used. I have no doubt that, under the prevailing standards of our society, robbery, the crime that the petitioner in Enmund intended to commit, does not evidence the same degree of moral depravity as the brutal rape of a young child. Indeed, I have little doubt that, in the eyes of ordinary Americans, the very worst child rapists—predators who seek out and inflict serious physical and emotional injury on defenseless young children—are the epitome of moral depravity.

The Court's ruling stays with previous case history holding capital punishment as available only for the crime of murder. But this issue of ultimate moral depravity becomes even more clear when we look at the background Patrick Kennedy, the child rapist who was to be executed in Lousiana for one of the most heinous crimes imaginable. Here's some of the descriptive background on the crime from Anthony Kennedy’s majority opinion in Kennedy v. Louisiana:

...Petitioner’s crime was one that cannot be recounted in these pages in a way sufficient to capture in full the hurt and horror inflicted on his victim or to convey the revulsion society, and the jury that represents it, sought to express by sentencing petitioner to death. At 9:18 a.m. on March 2, 1998, petitioner called 911 to report that his stepdaughter, referred to here as L. H., had been raped....

He told the 911 operator that L. H. had been in the garage while he readied his son for school. Upon hearing loud screaming, petitioner said, he ran outside and found L. H. in the side yard. Two neighborhood boys, petitioner told the operator, had dragged L. H. from the garage to the yard, pushed her down, and raped her. Petitioner claimed he saw one of the boys riding away on a blue 10-speed bicycle.

When police arrived at petitioner’s home between 9:20 and 9:30 a.m., they found L. H. on her bed, wearing a T-shirt and wrapped in a bloody blanket. She was bleeding profusely from the vaginal area. Petitioner told police he had carried her from the yard to the bathtub and then to the bed. Consistent with this explanation, police found a thin line of blood drops in the garage on the way to the house and then up the stairs. Once in the bedroom, petitioner had used a basin of water and a cloth to wipe blood from the victim. This later prevented medical personnel from collecting a reliable DNA sample.

L. H. was transported to the Children’s Hospital. An expert in pediatric forensic medicine testified that L. H.’s injuries were the most severe he had seen from a sexual assault in his four years of practice. A laceration to the left wall of the vagina had separated her cervix from the back of her vagina, causing her rectum to protrude into the vaginal structure. Her entire perineum was torn from the posterior fourchette to the anus. The injuries required emergency surgery.

There's a bit of moral depravity there, I'd say.

Hat Tip: Michelle Malkin

Obama Takes Issue With Nader Comments

Well, consider this my obligatory daily blog post on race.

The news this afternoon is that Barack Obama's upset with Ralph Nader, who suggested that Obama's "talking white" instead of genuinely discussing the crucial issues facing black America:

Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader accused Sen. Barack Obama, the presumed Democratic Party nominee, of downplaying poverty issues, trying to "talk white" and appealing to "white guilt" during his run for the White House.

Nader, a thorn in the Democratic Party's side since the 2000 presidential election, has taken various shots at Obama in recent days while ramping up his latest independent run for president.

In a wide-ranging interview with the Rocky Mountain News on Monday, he said he is running because he believes Democrats, like Republicans, are too closely aligned with corporate interests.

Nader was asked if Obama is any different than Democrats he has criticized in the past, considering Obama's pledge to reject campaign contributions from registered lobbyists.

"There's only one thing different about Barack Obama when it comes to being a Democratic presidential candidate. He's half African-American," Nader said. "Whether that will make any difference, I don't know. I haven't heard him have a strong crackdown on economic exploitation in the ghettos. Payday loans, predatory lending, asbestos, lead. What's keeping him from doing that? Is it because he wants to talk white? He doesn't want to appear like Jesse Jackson? We'll see all that play out in the next few months and if he gets elected afterwards."

The Obama campaign had only a brief response, calling the remarks disappointing.

Asked to clarify whether he thought Obama does try to "talk white," Nader said: "Of course.

"I mean, first of all, the number one thing that a black American politician aspiring to the presidency should be is to candidly describe the plight of the poor, especially in the inner cities and the rural areas, and have a very detailed platform about how the poor is going to be defended by the law, is going to be protected by the law, and is going to be liberated by the law," Nader said. "Haven't heard a thing."

"We are obviously disappointed with these very backward-looking remarks," Obama campaign spokeswoman Shannon Gilson said.

Continue reading the article at the link.

Nader's just giving some straight talk on race, in my opinion. I haven't written on the issue much lately, but social policy - especially the urban crisis - is a major concern for me, and it should be to all Americans.

Still, Obama's got enough problems with his ties to radical elements in the Hyde Park political milieu, as well as the remnants of the Reverand Wright contoversy. So it's no suprise he's not pushing a big urban agenda.

I don't think Nader's comments are racist, frankly, and hopefully we'll see more generalized discussion of these issues going forward.

One left-wing blogger posting on this has totally ignored the essence of Nader's criticism, to focus instead on the "eccentric use of grammar," and Nader's flaws as a candidate.

Nader's discussion's not "eccentric" in the least. If Obama's going to "target" black voters, he should at least make a real attempt to tackle problems unique to that constituency.

Ideas, Clarity, and American Power

This past week or so has been a difficult time at American Power. I've been engaged in a battle of ideas, and at times the debate's turned painful and ugly.

But I continue doing what I do, knowing in my heart that reason and goodness prevail, and that ultimately the power of one's values will be measured by their success in the marketplace of ideas.

I'm thus pleased to find, at the time of this writing, that one of my morning posts, "Cranky Rednecks and Leftist Bigots," has been picked for distribution on the main page at RealClearPolitics:

Best of the Blogs

Cranky Rednecks and Leftist Bigots - Donald Douglas, American Power
Hoyer Hails FISA Bill - Glenn Greenwald, Salon
Money Grubbing Tax Grabbers - McQ, QandO
Returned to the Battlefield - Hilzoy, Obsidian Wings
McCain and the Internets - Katharine Seelye, The Caucus

This is not the first time I've been cited at RCP, and I normally make no mention of the links. But this particular linkage is significant in confirming to some extent that reasoned discussion of controversial topics is recognized objectively as conducive to improving the political dialog.

Many of those who visit here do not comment, so let me share the timely support of one of my readers, who noted simply, by e-mail:

Your blog continues to be one of the very best out there. Keep up the great work!

So, thanks to everyone who's read through some of the bitterness and backlash of late, and thanks especially to those who've given me support. The names and links are too many to share here, but be assured that the friendship and readership is never underappreciated.

Ideas of moral clarity, progress, and the stewardship of power drive my blogging project.

This is what I do.

Should Revolutionaries Feel Good About Obama?

Zombie Time's photo below, of the revolutionary communist trolling for converts in Berkeley, is pretty intriguing:

Look closely: The young guy's holding a copy of the communist journal, Revolution, with its cover blurb, "The Barack Obama Campaign: Should People Feel Good About This Country?"

So, let's think about it: Should folks feel good about the United States?

I certainly do, and I suspect most of my readers do as well. But just yesterday I posted on Will Smith, who announced on national television that:

You know I just, I just came back from Moscow, Berlin, London and Paris and it's the first, I've been there quite a few times in the past five to 10 years. And it just hasn't been a good thing to be American. And this is the first time, since Barack has gotten the nomination, that it, it was a good thing...

Now, Will Smith is no revolutionary communist, but he does reflect the disturbing anti-American propensity among Obama supporters to state openly that they're not proud of the United States.

But let's be precise: Barack Obama, for all his ties to extremist movements, is the Democratic Party's nominee for president. He's by definition, then, not communist.

Moreover, note too that even the Revolution article comes out clearly against him, saying that Obama's nomination represents his acceptance by the capitalist oppressors - they see and welcome his policies as perpetuating the imperialist hegemony of the international system's dominant criminal state.

Yet the piece contains this extremely suggestive passage (with bold text added):

The Obama campaign is not about—and cannot be about—addressing in any real, fundamental way, the things that make millions of people not feel good about this country. But an important part of what the Obama candidacy is all about, and why it has gotten as far as it has with the blessings of the powers-that-be, is that it is about mis-channeling outrage into making people feel good about this country.

The point here is not that nothing can be done about all the things that the rulers of this country have done, and are doing, here and around the world. It can—but only outside the killing confines of a system that allows nothing more meaningful than participating in a ritual choice of who will preside over the next four years of oppression.

What all this shows even more emphatically is that we need a whole new, radically different system, and a revolution to bring that system into being.

Now, communist ideology explicity predicts that the people's revolution will represent the end stage of history, and amid the final crisis of capitalism the proletarian revolution will seize power, and ultimately society's resources will be distributed from each according to ability, and to each according to need. The state will whither away and community utopia will reign on earth.

The ideology's been completely discredited by history, of course.

But while the doctrinaire publishers of the Revolution state clearly that an Obama campaign will simply continue America's alleged imperial evil, the passage above provides a bit of insight as to why many of the radical members of the left-wing are flocking to the Obama banner: If the Obama campaign's truly about "mischanneling" outrage to make people feel good, then those, like Will Smith, as well as Michelle Obama (who's on record as not being proud of America), see Barack Obama as the personification of Lenin's "vanguard of the proletariat." That is, underneath the Democratic Party window-dressing, many Obama supporters indeed agree with the thesis of America as the irredeemable nation, the ultimate capitalist abomination.

Thus, these people, while not outwardly faithful to genuine Marxist-Leninism, nevertheless see - at some subconscious level - an Obama accession as representing a mid-term Hegelian stage, working toward achievement of the final contradictions in the American system of hegemonic crisis. The country, under Obama, thus moves into a quasi-communist party state of dynamic social-market economics, while the revolutionary consciousness of mass society is cultivated and prepared for next stage of the revolutionary process: the expropriation of the expropriators.

This is the significance of Barack Obama's appeal as the "messiah." This is the ulitmate significance of his candidacy for all of the hardline radicals, like those posting "community blogs" at the Obama campaign's official page.

Barack Obama is not communist himself. But his promise of change for those a bit less doctrinaire than the editorial mandarins at the Revolution provides a wedge-opening to achieve the long-term triumph of the working classes over capital. Obama supporters might not look at it in quite as abstract terms, but when they say they "can't be proud" of the United States, they're naturally implying endorsment for a radically different direction, toward a workers' utopia midwifed by Barack Obama's calls for ethereal "hope" and "change."

So, yes, revolutionaries should feel good about Obama. He's their vanguard icon for the toppling of capitalism.

Israel: Front Line of Western Civilization

Here's a great piece from The Objective Standard, "Israel and the Front Line of Civilization," by John David Lewis:

I just returned from a speaking engagement at Tel Aviv University (pictures from the trip are on my website). My honorarium was four days of sight-seeing in Tel Aviv, Abu Gosh, Jerusalem, En Gedi and Masada, and a series of meetings with writers, policy analysts, academics and writers. I came back with one overriding conclusion, which stands for me stronger than it did before my trip: Israel stands at the front-line of the war between civilization and barbarism. As Eric Hoffer wrote over forty years ago, “as it goes with Israel, so will it go with all of us. Should Israel perish, the holocaust will be upon us all.” (“Israel’s Peculiar Position,” LA Times 5/26/68)

Israel is America’s best friend in the world today. It is Western in every fundamental respect: Its secular government has prevented both civil war and tyranny since its founding; its citizens’ rights are largely protected; its press is free and open; its court system is independent of executive fiat; and its economy is vibrant. It has its share of lunatics, but they have not taken over the culture. It is “middle-eastern” only in location.

While driving through Israel, one cannot help but remember that the area can become a military front at any moment. A sign in the road points left to Ramallah, home of Yasir Arafat—you can drive there (we did not), but an Israeli soldier will soon stop you to warn that the army cannot protect you if you go further. Straight ahead is the road to Jerusalem, which is just a few miles away. It’s all so close.

In less than half hour’s drive, the seacoast climate of Tel Aviv changes to the desert climate of Jordan. Bedouin camps—temporary structures, some with camels in front—squat between towns with high-tech industry. Jerusalem itself is deeply permeated with religious fanaticism of all kinds, and with neighborhoods defined by ethnic identities. The line that divided Israeli tanks from those of Arabs during the numerous attacks on Israel is a street—you can walk down it.
On the highway—a modern road built by the Israelis—I see towns surrounded by trees. The trees were nearly all planted by the Israelis. This is something little known in the U.S.: The Israelis have planted tens of millions of trees in a desert that had never before been planted, and they remain committed to planting in the Negev Desert, especially near Beer Sheva. Trees did not exist here before 1948. The so-called “Green Line” originally dividing Israel from its neighbors is called such because it literally is a line of green.

At one point we come over a hill, and there are two towns ahead. The one on the left is an Israeli “settlement”—to use the popular phrase in the western press today—and on the right is an Arab town. To the left is a sea of trees among the buildings, and to the right, none. What the press and politicians in America call “illegal settlements” are Israeli towns, with factories, high-tech industries, and homes—built on hills where there was previously nothing but sand—bringing economic life and civilization to the desert.

There can be no basis for calling these towns “illegal” because, prior to Israel’s establishment of civilization in the area, no law and no government existed there (so-called “International Law” notwithstanding). It is also little known in the United States that when the Israelis announce their intent to withdraw from these areas, thousands of non-Israeli inhabitants—Muslims and Arabs—pick up and move to Israeli-controlled areas (Daniel Pipes has recounted some of this). Life under Hamas is hell, life in Israel is good, and most locals know it.

As usual, Israel is blamed for the inability to make peace with a foe that is dedicated to destroying her. American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expresses a dominant view in the U.S. State Department when she rants against Israeli towns as an “impediment to peace.” Yet observe the Palestinian leadership’s response to Rice: "With the arrival of that black scorpion with a cobra's head, Condoleezza, I began to worry that she would use her venomous fangs and hiss to kill this initiative and new spirit that we should protect” said Hamas Minister of Culture 'Atallah Abu Al-Subh,in remarksaired on Al-Aqsa TV on June 15, 2008.

The deepest cause of the conflict between Israel and those purporting to lead the Palestinian people is philosophical: the deep inculcation of jihad into the minds of Palestinian youth, in the form of a violent ideology that has nothing to offer except the destruction of Israel and claims to paradise as a reward for death. Samples of this ideological material have been collected at the Israeli Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center; follow the link to “Captured Material.”

Until the motivations for jihad against Israel are admitted, confronted, and repudiated, the causes of war will remain in place, festering in the minds of each new generation of children. All else—the “settlements,” the check-points that prevent non-Israelis from freely partaking of the Israeli economy, the claims to economic devastation, the “historic connection” to a soil that the Palestinians never planted—is pretense. To see this, all one need ask is why Israel’s return to the 1967 borders would remove a cause of war, given that Israel was attacked when she held those borders. And, of course, for Israel to retreat to those borders now would leave foreign enemies a few miles from Tel Aviv. This would be national suicide for Israel, a new holiday for Hamas, and the end of civilization in the Middle East.

Be sure to read the remainder of the essay, at the link.

All I can add is that Lewis captures my sentiments perfectly!

See also, "Israel is the Defining Moral Issue of Our Time."

Related: "'Clean Hands' and the Triumph of Evil?"

Cranky Rednecks and Leftist Bigots

It seems there's going to be some race-related controversy every day throughout the campaign.

The latest racial dust-up involves Don Imus, who deployed racial stereotypes when discussing football star Adam “Pacman” Jones' recent run-ins with the law.

Ed Morrissey, who represents the solid center of the conservative blogosphere, offers his reflections:

Al Sharpton may get another chance to distract everyone from the massive IRS investigation into his personal and professional finances by seizing on another Don Imus eruption. This morning, Imus discussed the case of Adam “Pac-Man” Jones, the NFL player that sat out 2007 with disciplinary suspensions and has been arrested a half-dozen times since being drafted the previous year. While Imus’ news announcer talks about Jones’ desire to drop his nickname — it’s too “negative” now — Imus startled him with a question:

Imus: “What color is he?”

A: “He’s African American.”

Imus: “Well there you go… now we know.”

This may not be quite as overt as “nappy-headed ho’s”, but in listening to the clip, you can almost hear the smirk on Imus’ face as he replied to the answer. Put that together with the preceding “What do you expect at a nightclub?” sequence, and it looks like WABC may find out how it felt to be CBS Radio and MS-NBC in the prior controversy. Imus has not learned much since, it appears.

And what was Imus supposed to "learn"? Perhaps to be careful about making racial slurs.

What's interesting is that Imus seem mostly like a cranky old redneck, and he and his listeners might just be consigned to the margins of the political spectrum, except that whenever something like this erupts, it becomes a major public issue. Recall that Imus is back on the air after making derogatory statements about young black women athletes, and now he's involved in another uproar.

So here it goes: Radical lefties, like TRex, cry foul:

Let’s start with Don Imus. Anyone who followed his egregious missteps in the wake of Nappy-Headed-Ho-Gate knew that these were old Cowboy Don’s true colors. From calling Gwen Ifill “The Cleaning Lady” to the notorious remarks that got him axed from MSNBC and temporarily banned from the radio, Don Imus has always been one gaffe away from getting permanently consigned to the dustbin of no-longer-relevant media personalities.

But note the hypocrisy: TRex spews some of the most vicious anti-Semitism around the leftosophere.

So what we have is cranky rednecks and leftist bigots, and none of it's okay.

I don't think Imus' remarks this time around were that egregious, but he's taking the heat nevertheless for his apparent pattern of racial insensitivity, and the left's propensity to exploit it.

Photo Credit: "Imus Says He's Defending, Not Offending 'Pacman' Jones."

Revolutionary Communists for Obama

The "community blogs" over at Barak Obama's official page just keep getting better and better!

Via LGF, check out this "World Can't Wait" crosspost, "Why Jeremiah Wright Wasn’t Talking About ‘The Past’":

The Sean Bell Murder and the Re-Klanification of America
by Malcolm Shore

This article originally appeared on the website of The World Can’t Wait—Drive Out the Bush Regime (worldcantwait.org) and is reprinted here with permission.

In opening his 2003 speech Revolution: Why It’s Necessary, Why It’s Possible, What It’s All About, Bob Avakian—the Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP)—traced the rivers of Black blood that feed the ocean of American history. After angrily recounting some of the most horrific instances of lynching that occurred on U.S. soil, Avakian quoted an author who had written a book about the subject as saying: “It is doubtful that any Black male growing up in the rural South, in the period from 1900-1940, was not traumatized by a fear of being lynched.”

A few minutes later in this talk, Avakian updated the author’s observation to reflect modern U.S. society. “Today it is mostly the police—who openly, as the police—carry out brutality and terror against Black youth and Black people in general,” Avakian said. “Applying that author’s statement on lynching to the present, we could put it this way: ‘It is doubtful that there is a young Black male growing up in the US today—in the south or the north—who does not have a very real fear of being brutalized or even murdered by the police.’”

Is there really any question that the most radical ideological elements on the spectrum are backing the Obama campaign?

Better ask Reppy!

He's up on this stuff, but at least check out World Can't Wait's home page, as well as the organization's Discover the Network's entry, listed as: "Revolutionary communist movement that stages protests against the Bush administration."

See also, "Barack Obama's Marxist Ties," and "Communists for Obama?"

Plus, there's lots more good stuff at LGF's entry, "At the Official Barack Obama Blog Site: The Revolutionary Communist Party."