Rule 5 Rescue: Heidi Montag

Well, considering the news that Heidi Montag has posed for the September issue of Playboy, I thought I'd go ahead and juice some hormones with a lovely shot of the shortlived "I’m a Celebrity" star ...

She looks good, but you'll have to check with Stacy and Cassandra for expert opinion on Heidi's upstairs assets. (Or Stacy's hot cousins Mandy and Lizzy!)

I also want to thanks The Rhetorican for linking my up routinely, as well as my regular battalion of blogging buddies:

Steven Givler, The Astute Blogger, Chris Wysocki, Moonbattery, Sweating Through the Fog, Three Beers Later, PA Pundits, Paco Enterprises, Ken Davenport, Sister Toldjah, Blazing Cat Fur, The Daley Gator, Just One Minute, Dave's World, Sparks From the Anvil, Right Truth, Dave's Notepad, Pat's Daily Rants, Bob's Bar & Grill, Power Line, Melanie Morgan, Dave in Boca, Neo-Neocon, Right in a Left World, Flag Gazer, Politics and Critical Thinking, Riehl World View, Midnight Blue, Caroline Glick, The Average American, The Griper, FouseSquawk, The Other McCain, Cheat Seeking Missiles, Roger Simon, Classical Values, Samantha Speaks, Grizzly Mama, The Capitol Tribune, The Patriot Room, The Real World, RADARSITE, Serr8d's Cutting Edge, Bloviating Zeppelin, Born Again Redneck The Educated Shoprat, Gateway Pundit, Political Pistachio, Liberty Pundit, Not One Red Cent, Phyllis Chesler, Right View from the Left Coast, Generation Patriot, Macsmind, Flopping Aces, Edge's Conservative Movies, Stop the ACLU, The Conservative Manifesto, Gates of Vienna, Joust The Facts, Panhandle Poet, The Red Hunter, Maggie's Farm, The Next Right, This Ain't Hell, Stop the ACLU, Right Wing Nuthouse, Melissa Clouthier, Paula in Israel, Pamela Geller, Vanessa's Blog, St. Blogustine, Yid With Lid, Pondering Penguin, Betsy's Page, The Anchoress, Ace of Spades HQ, Right Wing Sparkle, Thunder Run, The Classic Liberal, Conservative Grapevine, Cassy Fiano, Jim Treacher, NetRightNation, Q and O, Urban Grounds, Ed Driscoll, Cold Fury, Michelle Malkin, Neptunus Lex, Neo-Neocon, The Astute Bloggers, The Liberty Papers, The Monkey Cage, Law and Order Teacher, Mike's America, AubreyJ, Dan Collins, The Jungle Hut, Wake Up America, Dan Riehl, Nikki's Blog, Big Girl Pants, Maggie's Notebook, Hummers & Cigarettes, Mark Goluskin, Jawa Report, Darleen Click, The Skepticrats, Fausta's Blog, Clueless Emma, Obob's World, Seymour Nuts, Red State, Dr. Sanity, The Desert Glows Green, Not One Red Cent, Vinegar and Honey, Sarge Charlie, Thoughts With Attitude, Kim Priestap, Swedish Meatballs Confidential, Five Feet of Fury, Amy Proctor, Blonde Sagacity, Liberty Papers, TigerHawk, Point of a Gun, Right Wing News, And So it Goes in Shreveport, Nice Deb, Becky Brindle, GrEaT sAtAn'S gIrLfRiEnD, Fishersville Mike, Ann Althouse, The Blog Prof, Monique Stuart, No Sheeples Here!, Dana at CSPT, Glenn Reynolds, Obi’s Sister, Right Truth, Gold-Plated Witch on Wheels, Chicago Ray, Ace of Spades HQ, Natalie's Blog, Jimmie Bise, Little Miss Attila, Moe Lane, Private Pigg, Pundit & Pundette, The Rhetorican, R.S. McCain, Saber Point, Stephen Kruiser, Suzanna Logan, TrogloPundit, Doug Ross Journal, Villainous Company, PoliGazette, Prying 1, The Western Experience, The Oklahoma Patriot, Right Wing Sparkle, Conservatism With Heart, Duck of Minerva, Wolf Howling, Right Wing Nation, Stephen Green, The Tygrrrr Express, The News Factor, Gayle's Place, Israel Matsav, The BoBo Files, Grant Jones, Tapline, New Testament News, Wizbang, and William Jacobson.

Tune in this weekend for my regular installment of Full Metal Saturday!

Hat Tip: We Smirch.

Travel Tips for the Uighurs!

You're not going to believe this, but the freaks at Ordinary Gentlemen are actually well-wishing the freed Guantanamo terrorists!

"Free Advice to Released Uighurs":

If you are headed to Palau–where I spent 1 week of my life, 3 days of which was in a small to medium range typhoon, 2 other days of which I spent on the can–good luck. It’s a beautiful place. The people are also beautiful (especially the women) but tend to be a bit cold towards outsiders. But definitely get somebody to take you out on a boat ride to the Jellyfish Lake. LSD’s got nothing on that trip.

Do these idiots remotely know WTF is going on?!!

How about those Uighurs? (Hat Tip: Reliapundit):

China ... has been affected by the ascendance of the Taliban. Beijing shunned the civil war in Afghanistan until February 1999, when it first made overtures to the Taliban in an attempt to stem the tide of Afghan heroin flooding Xinjiang. The heroin was helping fund Islamist nationalist opposition to Beijing among the Uighurs and other Muslim ethnic groups. Uighur militants have trained and fought with the Afghan mujahideen since 1986, and Chinese officials say the arms and explosives the rebels have used against Chinese security forces come from Afghanistan. Taliban officials have assured China that they are not harboring fugitive Uighurs, but some Uighur militants are known to be involved with Yuldashev and with bin Laden-if not the Taliban itself.

Oh, golly, what a swell bunch of fellas!

And they sure had some nice things to say about the U.S., "Uyghur Detainees at Gitmo Compare U.S. to Hitler."

Cool! Let me buy those guys a drink at the pool!

As Pamela notes, hey, it's the "TERRORISTS' EXCELLENT VACATION"!

More at Memeorandum.

Proud To Be a Left-Wing Extremist?

Here's the post by Kyle at RightWingWatch, "Is The Right Still "Proud To Be a Right-Wing Extremist?"

Mark at Snooper Report responds, "Is The Left Still 'Proud To Be a Left-Wing Extremist'?" An excerpt:

The Leftinistra are the singularly most ugly, mean-spirited pieces of trash outside your viral Haji yet the Leftinistra support the enemy over their own nation and those that protect their very rights to exist. And yes, the Leftinistra toss the term "neocon" around like they know what a "neocon" is or something. I merely laugh in disdain because their use of the term "neocon" is allegedly a term of derision - tolerance at work I am sure. If they ever learn what a "neocon" is, they would drop it like a hot Pelosi panty.

The Leftinistra labeled the holocaust Museum shooter a right-winger when it has been shown that he was/is nothing of the sort. All we hear no is silence from their sheeple He was one of their own - a hater of Christianity, an anti-Semite (there are no anti-Semites on the right-wing) and a hater of the "neocon". Amazing isn't it? Yet the fools on the left try and blame others for what they themselves partake in on a regular basis and call it good. Why? Because they did the deed and the Leftinistra never do anything wrong. Just ask this buffoon Kyle.

Right Wing Watch? By all means, watch. We are watching back and we are better at it and I wear my Right Wing Extremist Badge with honor and courage. The Leftinistra do not because they are the very cowards they hate. The self-loathing of the Leftinistra is all too obvious.

Perhaps the Left-Wing Extremist Report by the DHS is "right" after all, eh?

I have a question for these cretins on the left-wing. If the right-wing is as you all claim that we are, seeing that there are millions of us and we are all killers, murderers and such, is it wise to back us into a corner and piss us off?

Just sayin'. Think about that.

We can debate issues and beliefs and argue various programs, policies and laws on their constitutionality or not. We are willing but the Leftinistra are not because they would lose every time. Remember, Conservatism wins every time in elections and that is why in tough races, democrats put up conservative candidates against liberal republicans...and win. John McCain lost because he might as well join the DNC because he is in fact one of them at heart, just like his esteemed colleague Arlen Specter and Lindsey Graham. There isn't a conservative bone in their bodies. This is why candidates like Sarah Palin frighten the Leftinistra on the democrat side and the republican side. I am neither.

If I have a label, I am a conservative libertarian constitutionalist. Neocon? Don't make me laugh.

Catch the chatter of those that agree with little boy Kyle at Memeorandum.

Another Leftinistra moonbat spanked.

ADDENDUM: Here's this from the DHS report, "Leftwing Extremists Likely to Increase Use of Cyber Attacks over the Coming Decade:

Anarchist extremists generally embrace a number of radical philosophical components of anticapitalist, antiglobalization, communist, socialist, and other movements. Anarchist groups seek abolition of social, political, and economic hierarchies, including Western-style governments and large business enterprises, and frequently advocate criminal actions of varying scale and scope to accomplish their goals.

Hmm ... it's not like we have too many of those folks to worry about!

Sonia Sotomayor: "A Product of Affirmative Action" (VIDEO)

Michael Goldfarb nails it on Sonia Sotomayor:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

From the moment Sonia Sotomayor was nominated, Democrats have pointed to her academic pedigree as evidence that she is highly qualified for the job. Some conservatives doubted whether those credentials were, on their own, evidence of anything other than the success of liberal social policies like affirmative action. This blog stated that Sotomayor, because of her ethnic background, had been the beneficiary of preferential treatment from both Princeton and Yale. Such a statement would seem beyond dispute -- affirmative action policies were in place at both schools and designed specifically to provide someone with Sotomayor's background an easier path to admission. Yet the left was outraged that anyone would suggest Sotomayor had benefited from affirmative action.

Now the New York Times reports that among the documents Sotomayor submitted to the Senate in advance of her hearings is a videotape in which she concedes the point entirely and without any qualification ...

Goldfarb's Times link goes to this piece, which links to this long-version video, "Practising Law Institute Panelist: When Judge Sonia Sotomayor submitted background information to the Senate for her nomination to the Supreme Court, she included video clips of past speeches, interviews and panel discussions. In this early 1990s clip, she appeared on a panel organized by the non-profit Practising Law Institute."

Miranda Rights for Terrorists!

From The People's Cube:

Seriously!

See also, Michelle Malkin, "Miranda rights for terrorists: Next, Toothbrushes and Teddy Bears!"

Hat Tip: Pamela Geller.

Is Charles Johnson Gay?

I recently found this comment on one of my posts on Little Green Footballs:

Charles Johnson did a lot of good early work in exposing Islam. However, Charles is now in an awkward place ideologically due to his own homosexuality and the contradictions of this position vs the outlook of the rest of Western Conservatism/Rightwing thought.

Interestingly, I've actually noticed something of a meeting of the minds recently between Charles Johnson and Andrew Sullivan, who is gay (see, "Charles Johnson and Andrew Sullivan: Separated at Birth?"). I don't see any mention of Johnson's sexual orientation at his Wikipedia entry. Neither is there mention at a Washington Post essay cited therein. It notes at the New York Sun that Johnson was "profoundly scarred by a bitter divorce in the late 1990s." But as he's in California, it's safe to assume that was a heterosexual marriage.

Johnson's sexual orientation is his own business. AND TO REPEAT: To each his own. My interest here is that a confirmed homosexual orientation would tell us a great deal about Johnson's blogging. Like Andrew Sullivan, Johnson's a Catholic who's losing his religion (Wikipedia identifies him as "agnostic").

A Google search turned up a mention of Johnson's possible homosexuality here: "I had heard several times that Johnson is homosexual, but knew nothing about it and never commented on it."

Apparently, the readers there were involved in a flame war with Little Green Footballs, and Johnson redirected the incoming links to A BRIGHT FLASHING WEBSITE WITH THE MESSAGE "YOU ARE AN IDIOT" (so, DON'T CLICK the link if you're a photosensitive epileptic). As a result, one reader with a neural disorder suffered a seizure. Check the entire thread, here.

In any case, I was thinking about Charles Johnson's blogging in the wake of the shooting at the Holocaust Memeorial. At his first post, Charles reports that "A white supremacist is the suspect in a shooting at the U.S. Holocaust Museum." In the updates, he notes that the suspect, James von Brunn, is a "nirther" (an Obama birth certificate activist) and a Holocaust denier. Yet he concludes by noting that how Brunn's attack would "vindicate" the DHS report warning of right-wing extremism.

If so, that would "vindicate" all the agitation against the extreme right at Little Green Footballs. Funny, notice how Johnson introduces his post on Nick Griffin, the new British National Party MEP who was egged the other day:

The Holocaust-denying leader of the British National Party, Nick Griffin, now a member of European Parliament, was forced to abandon a press conference today when demonstrators showed up throwing eggs.

Basically, a U.S. Holocaust denier gets a boost if he "vindicates" widely rebuked the DHS report, but a British Holocaust denier get a Scarlett Letter before his name, since such identifcation would further Johnson's jihad against Pamel at Atlas Shrugs, Robert at Jihad Watch, and Sammy at Yid With Lid.

I'll have more later. As my friend Shoprat once said of Johnson, at this post, "He's done an Andrew Sullivan. No other way to put it."

And that's that thing. If he's really done an "Andrew Sullivan," then he's not really a conservative blogger any more ...

See also, "Charles Johnson and the Truth about Atheism."

The Second Sex in American Higher Education

I just covered gender equality in class today. At least one of my students is well trained in the ideology of "institutional racism and sexism." I normally just nod my head and say, "good point," unless there's an immediate factual issue in dispute. I do often mention that more women attend college and graduate these days than do men. Another student raised the point that on average women make 75 percent of a man's earnings. It's about 80 percent nowadays, so the gap is closing. I expect the gap to close entirely if we see increasing returns to education in the years ahead, and if boys and men continue to fall behind women at all levels of education.

See, Christina Hoff Sommers, "Baseless Bias and the New Second Sex," and Mark Perry, "Women Now Dominate Higher Education at Every Degree Level; The Female-Male Degree Gap Grows."

Hat Tip: RealClearPolitics.

A Neoconservative Hate Crimes Prevention Act

Congress must act now to pass a Neoconservative Hate Crimes Prevention Act.

Such legislation should give federal authorities increased capabilities to engage in hate crimes investigations against those motivated by left-wing hatred who intend to cause injury or death to neoconservatives. Such legislation should give the FBI power to gather data on progressive-leftists who excoriate neoconservative activists, writers, and organizations. Additional provisions could include federal grants to local agencies to investigate groups fomenting hate crimes against neoconservatives. Additionally, such legislation should include a concealed-carry provision allowing neoconservatives to carry handguns for self-protection; and the legislation should allow for the interstate transfer of weapons from one state to another in accordance with concealed carry laws. Recent proposed amendments to the Matthew Shepard Act may serve as a model.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Such legislation is now necessitated by evidence from yesterday's tragic Holocaust Memorial shooting that William Kristol's Weekly Standard may have been a target of suspected killer James von Brunn.

As Ben Smith reports, FBI agents visited the office of the Weekly Standard after finding the magazine's address during the investigation. According to Smith, "Von Brunn attacked "JEWS-NEOCONS-BILL O’REILLY," and the suggestion that neoconservatism is a specifically Jewish conspiracy is common on the racist fringe."

Yes, it is common, and the leftist media is inflaming the anti-Semitic, anti-neocon anger. As Robert Stacy McCain reports, neocon-hating is now the norm among many mainstream pundits. And we've long seen members of the radical netroots commentariat advocating violent suppression of neoconservative views. The netroots hordes are now on the verge of taking things to their logical conclusion. At this Daily Kos thread, "Bush Bites" suggests Democrats should "squash" the neocons: "We have the government on our side right now, and it can squash these pear-shaped losers like bugs if they start any trouble."

This is clearly media-generated extremist incitement. As R.S. McCain notes, Joan Walsh's recent commentary is inflammatory (Newsbusters has more); indeed, Walsh's extreme excoriation of neocons can be seen as part of the larger left-wing environment where folks like James von Brunn have started plotting attacks on neoconservatives. See, for example, Walsh's, "Wild Dick Cheney at the Neocon Corral." Then you've got the Huffington Post publishing interviews with Representative Ron Paul, who argues that President Obama is "as much of a neo-con now as Bush was with this issue and other issues." Such loose talk then gets picked up by the 9/11 Truthers, "Neocon Org Targets Ron Paul, Democrats for Opposing Snoop Bill."

As Kathy Shaidle points out today, genuine conservative have long distanced themselves from such extremism:

In addition, von Brunn is now being associated with the LIberty Lobby. William F. Buckley famously purged the mainstream conservative movement of the John Birch Society, and anti-semitic groups like the Liberty Lobby, way back in the early 1960s. For his pains, the Liberty Lobby accused Buckley of being a "mouthpiece" for the Jewish Anti-Defamation League. (After 14 years, Buckley won a libel judgement against the group.)

My thoughts and prayers go out to the family of Stephen T. Johns, the security officer who was killed yesterday in the line of duty at the Hololcaust Museum.

But let us not kid ourselves. The extremist rhetoric on the far-left, along with that on the antiwar, anti-Semitic paleoconservative right, has created threatening circumstances for members of the neoconservative movement (see Paul Bogdanor for background). So please, take the time and log onto USA.gov and let your elected representatives know that the hour is long past for the introduction and passage of a Neoconservative Hate Crimes Prevention Act.

I'm Not Waiting on a Lady...

The Rolling Stones have reissued digitally-remastered releases of Some Girls, Emotional Rescue, Tattoo You, and Undercover. The backround story is here. Interestingly, a few weeks back, out of the blue, I just started singing to myself, "Waiting on a Friend." Embedding has been disabled at YouTube, so hopefully this grainy video's not too bad. I saw the Stones at the L.A. Coliseum in 1981. Enjoy:

Back in 1978, Keith Richards was asked why the Stones called their new album Some Girls. He replied, "Because we couldn't remember their fucking names." Well argued, sir! Some Girls stands as the craftiest rock & roll comeback in history — after years of sucking in the Seventies, the Stones suddenly sounded like nasty bitches again. It kicked off a five-year run that's ripe for re-appreciation: the Mall-Rat Years. The Stones seduced a new breed of Eighties parking-lot kids who didn't give a crap about the band's legacy but shook mullet when "She's So Cold" or "Little T&A" hit the radio in between Journey and Foreigner.

Some Girls is where the whip came down, with Mick Jagger dishing about groupies, drugs, cops, hustlers, ex-wives, paternity suits and other joys of life in the Big Apple. From the funk strut of "Miss You" to the punk sludge of "Shattered," these were songs that could only have been written by insanely rich rock stars in a pissy mood. It put them back on top — but for millions of American shagheads, Some Girls may as well have been a debut album from their new favorite band. The Stones kicked these kids' asses with Emotional Rescue, Tattoo You and Undercover, going for lean guitar propulsion and twitchy beats at a time when other megastars got bogged down in synths and overdubs.

All these albums have treasures worth digging up. Emotional Rescue soars with brilliant goofs like "Where the Boys Go" (for a "Saturday-night piece of ass") and "Let Me Go," on which Jagger muses, "Maybe I'll become a playboy/Hang around in gay bars/And move to the West Side of town." Tattoo You has fab-rock scuzz ("Hang Fire," "Neighbours"), space-soul ballads ("Heaven") and Keef's "Little T&A." Who else could sing the line "She's my little rock & roll" 17 times without sounding like an idiot? Nobody, that's who.

All over these records, Jagger chronicles after-hours adult loneliness, the kind that nails you when you're a rock god with girlfriends stashed in hotels around the world but nobody you can cry to or protect. In "Too Tough," from Undercover, he sees an ex on TV, acting in some late-night rerun soap, and it crushes his soul, like the temporary lovers who haunt him in "Feel On Baby" and "She Was Hot." Tough stuff indeed — but after these albums, nobody would ever count the Stones out again.

James von Brunn: Christian-Hating Socialist

Andy Ostrow, at the Huffington Post, capitalizing on the Holocaust Museum shooting, pretty much captures the emerging push on the left to silence conservative talk radio:

Perhaps law enforcement authorities should begin investigating the role conservative commentators like O'Reilly and Limbaugh play in the death of innocent people. Maybe then these despicable hate-mongering loudmouths will shut up once and for all.

Actually, we saw the virtually identical demonization of right-wing talk after the death of George Tiller. Here's Frank Schaeffer, also at Huffington Post:

The moron class of Americans who stocked up on guns and ammunition when President Obama was elected, because of fears that he would "take our guns away;" the willful fools to whom Glenn Beck is a hero, are the same population that -- right now - have their TV remotes set on Fox News 24/7. They are listening to Rush Limbaugh too as they rattle around in their pickup trucks driving to wherever they're practicing on targets but fantasizing about putting the president, or other people they hate, in their scope's cross hairs.

It happens every time: As soon as we have an attack by an alleded right-wing fanatic, the entire conservative movement is demonized as shock troops of the Third Reich.

It's insulting, actually. What's interesting, and as others have pointed out, is that James von Braun hated everyone. He mounted ugly anti-Semitic diatribes against the "evil" neocons, much like the left has done the last eight years. Naturally, that's kind of hard for our nihilist antagonists to swallow, but it's true. Think about it while reading Ben Johnson's piece, "Holocaust Museum Shooter: Christian-Hating Socialist":

Never apt to let facts get in the way of slander, the Left immediately branded Von Brunn a conservative – and found a way to tie his actions to their favorite demons: President Bush and Fox News. Upon learning of the tragedy, Huffington Post blogger Michelle Kraus wrote simply, “Thank you very much Karl Rove and your minions.” Fellow HuffPo scribbler Joseph Palermo, – also, surprise, an Associate Professor of History at California State University-Sacramento – accused Fox News host Glenn Beck of “using the public airwaves to incite violence,” calling his program “a white reactionary tour de force – incendiary, stupid, and racist.” The usually more staid Alan Colmes smeared the mainstream conservative website FreeRepublic.com, an attack quickly recycled by a ThinkProgress.org reader, who added this sterling political analysis: “There isn't really a line drawn between the right wing ‘base’ and neo-Nazis any more. It's a single continuum, and freepers is right there in that gray area.”

Read the whole thing, the link and at Memeorandum. Johnson ays out Von Brunn's leftist ties as a Christian-hating socialist, than adds this:

The ideology of Von Brunn and his contemporaries does not comport in any way with conservatism. Yet the Left chose to exploit the death of a black man as a paraphrase of Rahm Emanuel’s dictum” they never let a tragedy go to waste. President Clinton blamed the Oklahoma City Bombing on Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich; leftists hinted George Bush caused Sen. Paul Wellstone’s plane crash; Cindy Sheehan become a momentary folk hero by championing a cause her slain son opposed; and some managed to muffle their glee over President Reagan’s affliction with Alzheimer’s Disease just long enough to call for public funding of embryonic stem cell research.

One can expect no more decency when a self-proclaimed socialist murders a minority in cold blood in a shrine to one of collectivism’s most shameful accomplishments.

Understanding Iran's U.S. Policy

Mohsen Milani, at Foreign Affairs, "Tehran's Take: Understanding Iran's U.S. Policy." The piece argues from the "rational actor" perspective, and I disagree with much of it. There's a bit of a "going Iran" approach that's too "Foggy Bottom-ish" for me. But Milani makes an intriguing suggestion that the Obama administration might mimic Nixon-Kissinger's Sino-U.S. policy by "opening Iran" to the West. In any case, it never hurts to read widely on the issues:

Although a great deal has been written about the United States' policy toward Iran, hardly anything comprehensive has been produced about Iran's policy toward the United States. Given Washington's concerns that the United States faces "no greater challenge from a single country than from Iran," as the 2006 National Security Strategy put it, this lack of serious attention is astonishing. What does exist is sensationalistic coverage about Iran's nuclear ambitions and about mad mullahs driven by apocalyptic delusions and a martyr complex. That picture suggests that Iran's policy consists of a series of random hit-and-run assaults on U.S. interests and that its leaders, being irrational and undeterrable, must be eliminated by force.

In fact, Tehran's foreign policy has its own strategic logic. Formulated not by mad mullahs but by calculating ayatollahs, it is based on Iran's ambitions and Tehran's perception of what threatens them. Tehran's top priority is the survival of the Islamic Republic as it exists now. Tehran views the United States as an existential threat and to counter it has devised a strategy that rests on both deterrence and competition in the Middle East.

To deter any possible military actions by the United States and its allies, Iran is improving its retaliatory capabilities by developing the means to pursue asymmetric, low-intensity warfare, both inside and outside the country; modernizing its weapons; building indigenous missile and antimissile systems; and developing a nuclear program while cultivating doubts about its exact capability. And to neutralize the United States' attempts to contain it, the Iranian government is both undermining U.S. interests and increasing its own power in the vast region that stretches from the Levant and the Persian Gulf to the Caucasus and Central Asia. Although it is being careful to avoid a military confrontation with the United States, Tehran is maneuvering to prevent Washington from leading a united front against it and strategically using Iran's oil and gas resources to reward its friends.

Iranian foreign policy today is as U.S.-centric as it was before the 1979 revolution. Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi relied on Washington to secure and expand his power; today, the Islamic Republic exploits anti-Americanism to do the same. Policy has been consistent over the years partly because it is determined by the supreme leader, who is also the commander of the security and armed forces and serves for life. Iran's defiance has in some ways undermined the country's national interests, but it has paid huge dividends to the ruling ayatollahs and helped them survive three tumultuous decades in power.

Today, Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Khamenei is the supreme leader, and he makes all the key policy decisions, usually after Iran's major centers of power, including the presidency, have reached a consensus. This means that the outcome of the presidential election in June will have some, although probably limited, ramifications for Iran's foreign policy. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his two major reformist rivals, Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, have all supported engaging in negotiations with Washington -- a political taboo just a few years ago. Ahmadinejad would be less likely to compromise than his more moderate competitors, but, thanks to the support he has among major anti-American constituencies inside and outside the Iranian government, he would be in a better position to institutionalize any shift in policy. Although Iran's president can change tactical aspects of the country's foreign policy, he cannot single-handedly alter its essence. Only Khamenei, the ultimate decider, can do that. And he will do that only if a fundamental change in policy would not undermine his own authority and if it enjoys broad support from among the major centers of power.

Read the whole thing, here.

Related Photo Slideshow: "Excitement Builds for Iran Elections, " New York Times.

Charles Krauthammer Accepts Eric Breindel Award

From the New York Post, Charles Krauthammer, accepting the 2009 Eric Breindel Award for Excellence in Opinion Journalism: "How Fox News Opened America":

When I left psychiatry to start writing, I did so not out of any regret for the seven years I had spent in medicine - years that I treasure for deepening and broadening my sensibilities - but because I felt history happening outside the examining-room door.

That history was being shaped by a war of ideas and I wanted to be in the arena. Not for its own sake. I enjoy intellectual combat, but I don't live for it. I wanted to be in the arena because some things matter, some things need to be said, some things need to be defended.

That little snippet tells a little about why I blog myself. But I'm no match for Charles Krauthammer's intellect.

Read the whole thing, here. Krauthammer speaks truth to power.

Russians Upstage U.S. in Central Asian Power Politics

From the Wall Street Journal, "Russians Outfox U.S. in Latest Great Game":

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan -- One at a time the government's top critics seemed to go to jail, or simply disappear.

Syrgak Abdyldayev, a local journalist, began to investigate whether the attacks had anything to do with a team of Russian-speaking specialists who arrived last year to advise the Kyrgyz government. He published several scathing articles accusing the government of shunting aside its opponents and turning to Moscow for financial support, including one in February that likened Russian aid to "oxygen for a sinking submarine."

Then Mr. Abdyldayev became a victim. Three men attacked him with metal pipes as he left his newspaper one evening in March, broke both his arms, his ribs and a leg, and stabbed him 26 times in the buttocks.

Times are changing in Kyrgyzstan, a mountainous Central Asian republic that not long ago was a hoped-for springboard for Western-style democracy in the former Soviet Union.

The president, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, has steered Kyrgyzstan sharply back into the orbit of Moscow. In January, Mr. Bakiyev jolted Washington by announcing he was evicting the U.S. from an air base that has been crucial to the supply of troops fighting in Afghanistan. And political freedom here, as in Russia, is in decline. The Kyrgyz and Russian governments deny any link to the attacks on Kyrgyz critics.

In the West, hopes were high that the global financial crisis would rein in Vladimir Putin's assertive foreign policy. But here, as in other parts of the former Soviet Union, hard times have had the opposite effect: The Russians are coming back.

Russia has been hit by the crisis, but remains far richer than its former satellites, and it has used its largess to regain clout near its borders, in what President Dmitry Medvedev calls the "zone of privileged interests."

Read the whole thing, here.

I wonder if neoconservatives are vindicated by this turn of events? See Robert Kagan, "End of Dreams, Return of History: International rivalry and American Leadership."

Glenn Beck: "Witch Hunt Against Jews and Conservatives" (VIDEO)

This video's posted at Media Matters. Glenn Beck argues there's now a "witch hunt" against Jews and conservatives" in the current environment.

But check this from the comments at Media Matters:

-- The conservatives and the right-wing extremists are marching in lock-step.

-- ... the reaction from the Noise Machine proves that they are right-wing extremists and provocateurs of domestic terrorism. And should be investigated and prosecuted as such ...

Also, from the Huffington Post, "DHS Report Warned Against Anti-Semitic Violence."

But check the video: Beck says at the beginning of the segment: "This guy is a lone-gunman nutjob."

And don't forget, James Von Brunn "wasn't even right wing."

See also, Debbie Schlussel, "So What if Holocaust Museum Shooter is White Christian: We Know Who Crescented, er . . . Created This Atmosphere; 9/11 Truther," via Memeorandum.

Shooting at National Holocaust Museum - UPDATED!!

May God have mercy ...

Dana Goldstein's headline says it all, "Holocaust Museum Shooter is White Supremacist."

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

The spin on the left is that the suspect, James Von Brunn, is an agent of the GOP's "Christian-fascist" base. The truth is, via Melissa Clouthier, this guy's a deranged Holocaust denier. He represents no one on the conservative right - not me, nor any of those with whom I associate.

Charles Johnson, of course, says the shooting vindicates the discredited DHS report on the extremist right?

Little Green Footballs has officially joined the other side. Compare Charles to Digby at Hullabaloo: "It's pretty clear that the right wing has lost whatever restraint it had and that the ongoing paroxysms of violent, extreme rhetoric are having their effect."

More at Memeorandum.

I'll update with more reactions. It's going to be a long night ...

**********
UPDATE: This post has been picked up by ...

* Michelle Malkin, "Shooting at National Holocaust Museum Updated: Museum guard dies; shooter wasn’t “left” or “right,” just plain loony."

* William Jacobson, "Taking Advantage of The Holocaust Museum Shooting."

See also, Kathy Shaidle, "Holocaust Museum shooter von Brunn a 9/11 'truther' who hated 'neo-cons', Bush, McCain." As Kathy notes:

That this shooting occurred shortly after President Obama's former mentor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, blamed "the Jews" for his lack of access to his former parishioner is a troubling confluence of events.

See Kathy's blog for more information and links ...

Also: Officer Stephen Tyrone Johns, the heroic guard at the Holocaust Museum, has died: "Holocaust Museum guard killed in shooting, gunman wounded."

**********

UPDATE II: Gawker's running this headline, "The Rise of Right-Wing Violence."

Andrew Sullivan's running right along with Charles Johnson: "Time To Apologize To Napolitano?"

Greg Sargent is even more specific, "D.C. Shooting: Time To Revisit Criticism Of “Right Wing Extremists” Report."

Yeah. Right.

But see Greyhawk's post, " “Told Ya So” - 89 year-old shooter “confirms DHS report”."

**********

UPDATE III: Robert Stacy McCain links, and he's also got another post up, on Glenn Greenwald, "Pot, Meet Kettle." Greenwald's link is here. Ed Morrissey responds as well: "Glenn Greenwald calls me “fear stricken,” which is rather humorous from the man shrieking with fear over the Bush administration’s surveillance programs."

Plus, Media Matters spins the DHS meme to its warped conclusion, "Will Republicans Admit That Their Partisan Outrage Over The DHS Report Was Misplaced?"

Oh, great. The Politico's getting in on the act: "Attacks validate DHS report, some say."

Convicted Rapist, Registered Sex Offender, Loses Tongue in Attack (VIDEO)

From KABC-TV Los Angeles, "Convicted Rapist Loses Tongue in Attack":

Jon Voight: Obama "Bringing Us to Chaos and Socialism" (VIDEO)

Here's Jon Voight on last night's "O'Reilly Factor":

See also, Pat's Daily Rants, "Jon Voight Hollywood Hero vs Barack Obama Kenyan Fascist."

Punk's Not Dead...

The Los Angeles Times features an interview with Nicholas Rombes, author of, A Cultural Dictionary of Punk, 1974-1982.

Here's the link, "Punk's Not Dead, and This is Your Guide: Q&A With Author Nicholas Rombes."

The 10 Hottest New Media Guys On The Right

Maybe I'll make the 2nd edition?

From Melissa Clouthier at Right Wing News, "The 10 Hottest New Media Guys On The Right."

The post is updated with the famous photo of Robert Stacy McCain semi-nude!

Added: Now at Memeorandum.

John Ziegler Hammers MSNBC's Contessa Brewer!

Via Conservatives for Sarah Palin "Smackdown: Ziegler Returns to MSNBC to Discuss Palin, and They Cut His Mic!":

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Brewer freaks out at the end of the tape: "Cut the mic, please ..."

Good for Ziegler!

Jason Linkins, at Huffington Post, illustrates the true sickness on the left, "Contessa Brewer Steamed By Palin Defender: You're Insulting Me, 'Cut His Mic'."

Actually, it's Brewer who's insulting. At one point she she questions Ziegler incredulously, "Why is she so offended by David Letterman ..."

Hmm, I wonder ...

**********

Don't miss The Anchoress, "Lileks on Letterman on Palin." See also, Hot Air, "Video: Ziegler gets his mike cut off by MS-NBC," via Memeorandum.

The 30 Best Conservative Columnists

Here's the list, from John Hawkins at Right Wing News.

Hat Tip: Robert Stacy McCain (who didn't make the list).

Letterman Brings It On

Roy Edroso calls the right's response to the Willow Palin controversy the "Conservative War on Letterman."

It's not immediately evident why Roy thinks he's got conservatives pinned down. Dan Collins responds:

I want to stress to you scum-sucking morons that I don’t care whether Letterman and his writers thought he was addressing the presence at the Yankees game of Bristol Palin or Willow Palin. Either way, his “joke” was a sick and assaultive act directed at a young woman who has done nothing to merit such treatment on national television, you gutter-dwelling hobgoblins of putrescence.

I'll update with more links later ...

The Case for Fiscal Conservatism

The timing on this one is strangely coincidental, considering the Obsidian Wings post last night.

It turns out David Leonhardt at the New York Times has offered a detailed analysis of CBO budget data going back to the Bill Clinton-ear surpluses, "For U.S., a Sea of Perilous Red Ink, Years in the Making":

Interestingly, pinning blame for the deficits on Repuplicans actually helps Republicans. Conservatives in 2012 will be running against both the Bush legacy of government expansionism and the Obama disaster of Democratic big-handout liberalism.

The U.S. has monumental economic, fiscal, and social issues to address. Democrats and netroots leftists spin the data on the budget and Social Security as if it's all a Republican problem, that it's all the GOP's fault. But America's unsustainable economic commitments are bipartisan. We're going to need a presidential candidate committed to restoring the founding vision of real fiscal federalism in the United States. Anything else will be a harbinger for national collapse. Think California on a national scale.

Graphic Credit: New York Times.

In Phoenix, Smugglers Prey on Immigrants

From the Wall Street Journal, "Immigrants Become Hostages as Gangs Prey on Mexicans":

A whispered 911 call from a cellphone early one January morning brought police to a home on West Columbine Drive in this Phoenix suburb. Inside, they found more than 30 half-naked and shivering men -- prisoners, police say, of a gang that had smuggled them in from Mexico.

Beaten and threatened with a 9-mm Beretta pistol, a local detective's report said, the men were being shaken down for as much as $5,000 apiece, a ransom above the $1,000 that each had agreed to pay before being spirited across the border.

Such cases are increasingly common in Phoenix, which is gaining notoriety as the kidnapping capital of America. Authorities blame forces ranging from Mexico's rising drug violence to a gang takeover of the immigrant-smuggling business.

Another factor: the volatile housing market in the city, which has left it strewn with thousands of rental houses on sometimes sparsely populated suburban blocks, handy places for smugglers to store either drugs or people. The police call these "drop houses." They say federal, state and local authorities discovered 194 such houses in 2007, then 169 last year and dozens more so far in 2009.

While most of Phoenix's abduction cases relate to the drug trade, as dealers snatch rivals to demand ransom or settle debts, increasing numbers involve undocumented migrants. "Of 368 kidnap cases last year, 78 were drop-house cases involving illegal aliens," says Sgt. Tommy Thompson of the Phoenix Police Department. Officials say that in 68 alleged drop houses identified in the first five months of 2009, authorities found 1,069 illegal immigrants.

What's happening here marks a shift in the people-smuggling business. A couple of decades ago, workers commonly traveled back and forth across the U.S.-Mexico border, going to the same American farm or construction job each year. To make the passages they often would use the same smuggler, called a "coyote," each time.

Now, organized gangs own the people-smuggling trade. According to U.S. and Mexican police, this is partly an unintended consequence of a border crackdown. Making crossings more difficult drove up their cost, attracting brutal Mexican crime rings that forced the small operators out of business. The Phoenix area also was affected because tougher enforcement at the border focused on traditional routes in Texas and California -- funneling more traffic through Arizona along desert corridors controlled by Mexico's Sinaloa drug cartel.

Read the entire article, here.

E.D. Kain: "Am I Missing Something?"

Check out the lefties who're totally freaking, at Obidian Wings, over a two-month old graph which shows the gargantuan annual budget deficits the Obama administration will run through 2016.

Conservatives have practically killed and buried this story, but E.D. Kain, just now wiggin' out, asks, "Am I missing something here? Isn’t this years [sic] deficit owned by the Bush administration? Don’t the war expenses bring these numbers much higher?"

Ah, yeah ... you're missing something ...

A quick check around would have turned up the Heritage Foundation's post on the graph, which accompanied this article: "Deficit Projected To Swell Beyond Earlier Estimates."

The Heritage report is here. It answers E.D.'s question:

Many Obama defenders in the comments are claiming that the numbers above do not include spending on Iraq and Afghanistan during the Bush years. They most certainly do. While Bush did fund the wars through emergency supplementals (not the regular budget process), that spending did not simply vanish. It is included in the numbers above. Also, some Obama defenders are claiming the graphic above represents biased Heritage Foundation numbers. While we stand behind the numbers we put out 100%, the numbers, and the graphic itself, above are from the Washington Post. We originally left out the link to WaPo. It has been now been added.

CLARIFICATION: Of course, this Washington Post graphic does not perfectly delineate budget surpluses and deficits by administration. President Bush took office in January 2001, and therefore played a lead role in crafting the FY 2002-2008 budgets. Presidents Bush and Obama share responsibility for the FY 2009 budget deficit that overlaps their administrations, before President Obama assumes full budgetary responsibility beginning in FY 2010. Overall, President Obama’s budget would add twice as much debt as President Bush over the same number of years.

But do check out the Obsidsian Wings post. The author's getting attacked like a seal in shark-invested waters (via Memeorandum).