Antiwar Traitor Jodie Evans Says U.S. Sailor 'Deserved to Die in Iraq' — Plus, Code Pink Hosting $500-Per-Person Fundraiser for Jerry Brown

In other big news today, "Code Pink Tells Gold Star Mom: Your Son Deserved to Die."

In 2008 they [Code Pink] barricaded the recruiting office in Berkeley with the blessing of the Berkeley City Council. We at Move America Forward had all we could stomach when we heard them tell the Marines they were unwelcome, unwanted intruders, not in Iraq or Afghanistan but on American soil in Berkeley, California. Americans from across the nation joined us in Berkeley to counter-protest these anti-war hippies. Numerous times they told me they support the troops but not the war, yet over and over when I asked if they had sent care packages, phone cards, written letters, or helped the families left behind in anyway, they conveniently couldn’t remember anything they had done. Yet they had a successful fundraiser to send $600,000.00 to our enemies in Iraq? Yet Jodie Evans and her Code Pink degenerates taunted me and made light of my son’s sacrifice telling me, “Your son deserved to die in Iraq if he was stupid enough to go over there.” It took every ounce of reserve in my body to not level these idiots to the ground. These same people who call terrorists “freedom fighters” says that my son, who gave up his life for their freedoms, deserved death.

Recall that I met Jodie Evans last year, when she declaimed media reports that Code Pink was "rethinking" its opposition to the U.S. mission in Afghanistan. In fact, Evans' group had just returned from Afghanistan where they met with members of the Taliban, so chalk that up to inept messaging on her part, and that of her traitorous cohorts.

A few others are posting on this today. See Weasel Zippers, "Code Pink Taunted Gold Star Mom: “Your Son Deserved to Die in Iraq”…"

And at Power Line, "An Appalling Story":

This episode tells us something about Jerry Brown. He is sometimes viewed as a harmless eccentric, a left-over hippie, a crazy uncle who means well. But he is much worse than that. He is a dyed-in-the-wool leftist, as shown by his willingness to align himself with the vicious anti-Americanism of the Code Pink loonies.

And also previously at Sweetness & Light, "Code Pink's 'Sugar Mommy' – Jodie Evans."

'American Power' Now Available at 'NewsReal Blog'

I'm pleased to announce that I'll be cross-posting some of my work at David Horowitz's NewsReal Blog. I want to give a special thanks to Managing Editor David Swindle, who asked me to come on board at NewsReal.

My work is available at a number of locations around the sphere, and I'd like to extend a thank you to the folks at Pajamas Media, Right Wing News, and Theo Spark's for the opportunity to publish at those outlets as well.

Never give up the fight friends. And get into the arena if you're still sitting on the sidelines. There's a war of ideas to be won.

It Begins: 'WikiLeaks Founder Charged in Sweden With Rape' -- UPDATED!! Sweden Withdraws Arrest Warrant!

It's rape charges now. Later he'll be up for violating the Espionage Act and for providing material support to terrorism.

At New York Times (via Astute Bloggers and Memeorandum):

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Sweden has issued rape and molestation charges against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, whose whistle-blowing website last month published secret U.S. military files on Afghanistan.

Assange, whose whereabouts were unclear, told WikiLeaks' Twitter page the charges were "without basis and their issue at this moment is deeply disturbing."

Assange was in Sweden last week to discuss his work and defend his intent to publish further documents on the war in Afghanistan.

He has close contacts in the Nordic country, which has some of the world's strictest laws on the protection of sources and where WikiLeaks also keeps many of its servers.

"We can confirm that he's wanted. He was charged last night -- the allegation is suspected rape," said Karin Rosander, Director of Communications at the National Prosecutor's Office.

"One is rape and one is molestation," she said. She did not elaborate.

WikiLeaks wrote on Twitter that it had not been contacted by police.

"We were warned to expect 'dirty tricks'. Now we have the first one," WikiLeaks, whose page has more than 100,000 followers, tweeted. It also provided a link to the right-leaning tabloid Expressen, which first published the allegations.

WikiLeaks was not available when contacted by Reuters and Stockholm police declined to comment.

There's a statement at the WikiLeaks blog. The Expressen article is here. And the conspiracy theories are already percolating: "Did US Government Fabricate Charges Against Julian Assange? WikiLeaks founder ‘Wanted In Sweden For Rape’ (UPDATE 9)."

**********

UPDATE: "Sweden withdraws arrest warrant for WikiLeaks founder" (via Memeorandum). Sure. And of course this is just the beginning. Assange has some enemies out there (and he's still charged on lesser counts). The dude should watch his back.

Once More From New York Times (Sigh): 'U.S. Anti-Islam Protest Seen as Lift for Extremists'

Yep, from the same paper that repeatedly aids and abets global jihad, now we're told that Ground Zero Mosque opponents are "lifting extremists." This is truly perverted:

Some counterterrorism experts say the anti-Muslim sentiment that has saturated the airwaves and blogs in the debate over plans for an Islamic center near ground zero in Lower Manhattan is playing into the hands of extremists by bolstering their claims that the United States is hostile to Islam.

Opposition to the center by prominent politicians and other public figures in the United States has been covered extensively by the news media in Muslim countries. At a time of concern about radicalization of young Muslims in the West, it risks adding new fuel to Al Qaeda’s claim that Islam is under attack by the West and must be defended with violence, some specialists on Islamic militancy say.

“I know people in this debate don’t intend it, but there are consequences for these kinds of remarks,” said Brian Fishman, who studies terrorism for the New America Foundation here.

He said that Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born cleric hiding in Yemen who has been linked to several terrorist plots, has been arguing for months in Web speeches and in a new Qaeda magazine that American Muslims face a dark future of ever-worsening discrimination and vilification.

“When the rhetoric is so inflammatory that it serves the interests of a jihadi recruiter like Awlaki, politicians need to be called on it,” Mr. Fishman said.

Evan F. Kohlmann, who tracks militant Web sites at the security consulting firm Flashpoint Global Partners, said supporters of Al Qaeda have seized on the controversy “with glee.” On radical Web forums, he said, the dispute over the Islamic center, which would include space for worship, is lumped together with fringe developments like a Florida pastor’s call for making Sept. 11 “Burn a Koran Day.”

Yes. Of course.

And who else does NYT cite as authoritative on "lifting extremists"? Well, an extremist, who else?

Dalia Mogahed of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies said the outcry over the proposed center “plays into Awlaki’s arguments and Osama bin Laden’s arguments” by suggesting that Islam has no place in the United States.

She said that extreme anti-Muslim views in the United States ironically mirror a central tenet of extreme Islamists: “That the world is divided into two camps, and they’re irreconcilable, and Muslims have to choose which side they’re on.”

Not mentioned by NYT is that Mogahed has been denounced as a pro-sharia (yet well-spoken) Islamist fanatic working the inside angle to appease the Muslim Brotherhood. I mean, seriously, if these are America's "moderate Muslims," who needs global jihad? We'll just burn the house down from within, preparing the way for the next victory mosque on hallowed ground.

Thoughts on 'A Film Unfinished'

I make it a point to see most World War II films at the theaters. And I have a special interest in the Holocaust. As longtime readers may recall, my dissertation focused on the problem of "under-balancing" against the Nazi threat in Europe during the interwar period. And while not a subject of my research, the fate of the Jews has always animated my thinking on this topic, and of course in international politics more generally. It's pretty much the case that each new film dealing with WWII and the Holocaust is deeply moving (life-affirming and life-changing), and sometimes it seems each one improves on those before it in some ways. Commercial successes "Saving Private Ryan" and "Schindler's List" showcased Steven Spielberg's masterwork on the war and Shoah. "The Pianist" was powerful in different ways, based on the life of Warsaw Ghetto survivor Władysław Szpilman --- although I get a creepy feeling seeing films directed by Roman Polanski, so while great, there's just something still not quite perfect about it. "Downfall" --- the German production on the last days of Hitler's Bunker --- was also different (being a German film, for one thing) and probably is one of the greatest war movies of recent years. There might be a few others more forgettable, and hence I'm forgetting them in this list. (And I'm deliberately omitting more commercial movies like Tom Cruise's recent "Valkyrie," which I thought excellent but in a different category from those highlighted here; and the more artsy "Life is Beautiful," both wonderful and comparable to those discussed above, is sometimes too fantastic and doesn't rank as one of the greatest for me).

Considering all of that, I'm sure Director Yael Hersonski's "A Film Unfinished" is the best Holocaust movie I've ever seen.

I've read all the news stories on the film highlighed at the homepage. Not to rehash, the key to the movie is the set of four reels of German propaganda footage that have never been put together for a single production. While widely seen in the Jewish film community, only snippets have been used in documentaries over time. Ms. Hersonski, a 34 year-old Israeli filmmaker, had worried that "there would be no Holocaust survivors left to bear witness to the atrocities they once experienced," so she saw in this recently discovered material the opportunity to make an existential commentary on the Jews and memory, the science of documentary filmmaking, and the aims of Nazi propaganda.

There is some mystery as to what exactly the Nazi propagandists were planning with the footage. A great deal of staging --- especially scenes of well-to-do Jews contrasted and combined with the poor and ragged --- was used most likely to make the case for a decadent, uncaring class of Jews indifferent to the death and dying of those with less. These families didn't in fact seem "rich" to me. They appeared the way I would expect Jewish people to live in 20th-century industrialized Poland. Perhaps there were some luxuries of furniture and style and cuisine, but these appeared not so socially exorbitant in isolation from the horrors of was happening without. In fact, perhaps it will take more viewings, but for me it's the 100 percent genuine documentation of man's inhumanity to man that is central to the experience of "A Film Unfinished." One word summed up the first half of the movie: starvation. The raw, searing clips of emaciated people, walking corpses many of them, is authentic by definition in this picture, and the viewer feels as though she's let in on a secret, since much of this kind of documentary record was destroyed. There is little physical violence perpertrated against the Jews by the Nazis seen here. It's the systematic killing by starvation that shocks the soul. Inhabitants of the ghetto received a ration of 186 calories a day. It was not known at first that the ghetto's population was to be deported to Treblinka. But we see dead bodies strewn along the sidewalks, and the most emotion generated by the film comes from the interviews with five Warsaw Ghetto survivors who agreed to watch the Nazi footage. This is astonishing filmmaking. And there's more to it, but I'll hold off on commenting on the final reel, which concludes the film.

Perhaps another Holocaust movie will come along and I'll say once again, "this is the best one I've ever seen." I don't know. I simply know that for me --- and for what I've experienced in my life, from childhood to my career --- it's been this question of Jewish 20th-century existentialism that has compelled a moral understanding of life and politics. Perhaps there are even bigger problems to humanity than the Holocaust. I think Yael Hersonski wants those who see this movie to remember and then apply their experience to improving the goodness of the world. But because there are so many things that are unique to this history, and because Americans are implicated in it in so many ways, I doubt that I'll lose my fascination with the topic any time soon.

RELATED: I posted the film's trailer previously here.

Desperate Democrats Invoke George W. Bush in New Campaign Ad -- UPDATED!! Dems Yank Ad! -- WAIT!! DNC Posts New Version!

Combine Bush-hatred and exteme political desperation and it looks like the Democrats have arrived on a party platform for November.

They're right, though: The choice is clear. We can vote for a president and party who are presiding over massive and rising unemployment nationally and in the high double-digits in Democratic states. The horrible job numbers are raising fears of a "double-dip" recession. More and more people have come around to the fact that the Democrats' vaunted "stimulus" didn't do jack. But when all else fails, blame the Congress! (Yeah, that'll work). Meanwhile, it can't be a good sign that the president's making the pitch to elderly voters hoping they'll remain in the Democratic column. This ain't Franklin Roosevelt's party no more, who can blame him?!! And don't even get me going about foreign policy! Sheesh, if Obama's losing key sectors of the U.S. electorate, at least his got Hamas, Hezbollah, and the rest of global jihad in his corner. And he can claim a phenomenal record on facilitating Iran's acquisition of nuclear capabilities. That's nothing to blink at!! And darn, what is wrong with all of these respondents on Gallup's Ground Zero polling? "More Disapprove Than Approve of Obama Mosque Remarks." These people are dolts — dolts I tell you! The president even said it himself: "We are no longer just a Christian nation." I can't imagine a better rallying cry! What is wrong with you people? And you miss George W. Bush? Impossible!!

*********

Update: William Jacobson has the news, "DNC Pulls Bush Ad." (Via Memeorandum.) ... UPDATE II: Check William's post. It look like the DNC took the ad down to make revisions, but the Bush evocation remains. Hot Air Pundit has the full story.

Miranda Kerr Pregnant!

Hey, that's great news, and perhaps a quick post on the Victoria's Secret hottie and newlywed to Orlando Bloom might light up my Sitemeter a bit this weekend (and Linkmaster Smith's on the case as well). Besides, it's always nice to see this beautiful lady at these video clips:

Review — 'A Film Unfinished'

From Kenneth Turan, at LAT:

Squeezing half a million Jews into the 3 square miles of the Warsaw Ghetto led to almost unimaginable poverty and desolation. The beggars in pathetic rags, the starving people dying on the streets, the sick and destitute living in squalor, these make the most powerful of impressions.

Just as disturbing are the original footage's numerous close-ups of ghetto residents, close-ups that are simply awful to look at. Living faces haunted by knowledge of a sure death, these are among the most purely despairing images ever put on screen.

As bad, if not worse, are scenes that almost beggar description. There is the horrible humiliation of forcing women to disrobe and then filming them, clearly terrified, using a mikvah, or ritual bath. And shots of the numberless corpses piled one on top of the other in the ghetto's massive cemetery leave one speechless with despondency.

The Nazis, obviously, were not interested in a film that emphasized Jewish suffering. The aim of "The Ghetto," as far as can be determined, was to contrast this pain with the alleged callous indifference of better-off Jews, to show, as the voice-over says, "the paradise the Jews lived in." Only, there were no better-off Jews, let alone a paradise, which is where the Nazi fakery and manipulation came in.

Outtakes show that key scenes were staged over and over again from multiple angles. As a voice-over reading from the journals of Adam Czerniakow, the head of the ghetto's Jewish Council, makes clear, the sequences we see of Jews putting on evening dress to go to Champagne banquets were completely fabricated. As a survivor of the ghetto laconically says on watching a dinner with flowers on the table, "We would have eaten the flowers."

See also, NYT, "An Israeli Finds New Meanings in a Nazi Film."

I posted the trailer previously. I'll have some comments on the film later today.

The Rod Blagojevich Sleaze Show

Blago's just the headliner.

From Professor Charles Lipson, at Chicago Tribune, "Jersey Shore Politics in Illinois":

Rod Blagojevich may have escaped criminal conviction on most counts, but his trial offers no comfort to the state's long-suffering voters. It was a sleazy reality show, featuring insider deals and pay-to-play politics. Blago's closest aides either testified against him (acknowledging their role in a criminal conspiracy), or, like Tony Rezko and Stuart Levine, couldn't be trusted to testify.

And so ends another exciting season of Illinois' version of "Jersey Shore," starring the former governor as "The (Bad) Situation." On reality TV, the popular themes are casual sex and catty talk. In Springfield, they are sweetheart deals and cold cash, passed under the table or funneled into political campaigns. Friends of the governor whisper that the state is eager to fund your hospital, but first, let's discuss that $50,000 contribution you'll want to make to his campaign. Or maybe you'd like to hold a big fundraiser. Separate matters, ya understand. It's been a major national story for two years, and it makes Illinois a laughingstock. The joke, unfortunately, is on us, the state's voters and taxpayers.

Chicago has attracted the same kind of attention, and for good reasons. The city provides better services than the state — the parks are beautiful and the garbage gets picked up — but the corruption is just as bad. Aldermen are regularly carted off to jail for pocketing bribes, some 29 convictions over the past four decades. Hiring practices are notorious, despite federal rulings to restrict them. Mayor Richard Daley's former patronage chief, Robert Sorich, was convicted of rigged hiring. Al Sanchez, boss of the powerful Streets and Sanitation department, has been convicted of bribery and patronage. Sanchez helped create a vital cog in the Daley political machine, the Hispanic Democratic Organization, which collapsed when several big shots were implicated in crimes ranging from perjury and fraud to the Hired Truck scandal.

If bribery and patronage hiring aren't bad enough, consider the city's notorious zoning practices. Top real-estate lawyers won't go near these cases. Just ask yourself, why would the city's most prominent law firms pass up rich hourly fees? Why would they hold their noses, back away and refer clients to politically connected lawyers? Puzzling, huh?

The real issue here is political control over land use, which translates into ready money for politicians. Remember, each alderman essentially controls zoning in his own ward. Let's say your land is worth more — perhaps much more — if the city gives you permission to build what you want. Corrupt politicians will want to share this windfall. In exchange for a zoning variation, an alderman may want you to make a campaign contribution, hire her favorite law firm, buy insurance from her husband, or use her brother as your real estate agent. Insider contracts work the same way, effectively dividing the profits between politicians and connected businessmen. Politicians grant valuable favors and receive contributions in exchange.

More at the link.

I'm just tripping on Blago's trial. Ace of Spades has this: "Breaking: Blago Holdout Retired State Employee Who Once Handed Out Campaign Literature For Relative Seeking Office; NPR and Liberal Talk Radio Listener."

This woman, this ward-heeler's moll, just sprung a guilty man free and cost the taxpayers millions.

Professor Lipson notes that U.S. Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has been one "squeaky clean" exception to the Illinois machine, but his days of fighting corruption in the Land of Lincoln may be over. See New York Times (FWIW), "Blagojevich Trial Ends Fitzgerald’s Successes."

Who Knows Obama's Religion?

That's the major finding at Pew's recent survey, "Growing Number of Americans Say Obama is a Muslim." Forty-three percent have no clue. Understandable too, since the guy hasn't really settled on one yet. He is leaning toward Islam, though. And more and more folks are starting to think so, and that's before he came out for the Ground Zero Mosque before he was against it. No wonder folks are in the dark. Obama's the Commander-in-Chief of Indecisiveness. Oh wait! Here's some decisiveness, or, well, maybe not. Shoot, I just don't know!

The Islamic Response to Pamela Geller

And this isn't Pamela's first death threat from Ibn Ali al-Turki, a.k.a, IslamicJihadi (background here).

The context is Pamela's entry yesterday, "Washington Post Headline Incites Violence Against Ground Zero Mosque Opponents." It turns out that Michelle Boorstein of the Washington Post changed the headline of the recent article on Pamela and Robert. I commmented on it previously, although I didn't see the original title: "In flap over mosque near Ground Zero, conservative writers gaining influence." That was changed to "The pens of anti-Muslim conservatives impact N.Y.C. mosque debate mightily." And that's likely to incite jihadis to violence, the kind threaten above obviously with the Ibn Ali al-Turki. Pamela post Robert's letter to Ms. Boorstein of the Post:

Ms. Boorstein

Your article was silly and stupid enough as it was originally, especially with your misuse of my words about being deliberately provocative at the end, and your lazy repetition of the falsehood that Pamela Geller promoted the idea that Barack Obama is the son of Malcolm X.

But the new headline labeling us "anti-Muslim" is not just silly and stupid; it is malicious, libelous, and dangerous to us personally.

"Anti-Muslim" is a term that Islamic supremacists and their Leftist enablers like to use of people who are fighting for human rights against Sharia -- and it's easy to see why: it frames their opponents as "bigots" and "haters," takes the focus away from their anti-woman, anti-free speech, anti-free thought, anti-equality of rights agenda, and has the added bonus of stirring up their more bloody-minded coreligionists to violence.

And above all, despite the promiscuous Goebbels-style Big-Lie application of the term to Pamela Geller and me by the likes of Honest Ibe Hooper of Hamas-linked CAIR and his tool Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs, it simply isn't true. I am not "anti-Muslim." I am anti-Sharia, anti-jihad, anti-oppression, anti-terror, and you should be also.

I ask you to have the decency to correct this headline.

Robert Spencer

Revving Up Weekend Rule 5 — Maggie's Farm Guidebook Edition

Check Maggie's Farm for some mindblowing Rule 5.

And as usual, prepping for the Linkmaster Smith's Sunday entry. (And check Pirate's Cove for some of recent roundups.)

Plus, check American Perspective for some hot blogging.

**********

And be sure to visit some of other friends of American Power:

* Another Black Conservative.

* Astute Bloggers (Honorary).

* Blazing Cat Fur.

* Bob Belvedere.

* Cold Fury.

* Classical Liberal.

* Daley Gator.

* Left Coast Rebel.

* Mind Numbed Robot.

* Not a Sheep.

* Paco Enterprises.

* Panhandle Perspective.

* Political Byline.

* POWIP.

* Proof Positive.

* The Other McCain.

* Reaganite Republican (Honorary).

* Right Klik (Honorary).

* Saberpoint (Honorary).

* Serr8d (Honorary).

* Snooper's Report (Honorary).

* Stormbringer.

* Theo Spark.

* TrogloPundit.

* Washington Rebel.

* WyBlog.

BONUS: Don't forget Instapundit.

And drop your link in the comments to be added to the weekly roundups!

Google and Verizon's Scary Net Neutrality Plan

At Popular Science:

Google and Verizon announced a joint vision for the future of net neutrality this afternoon [August 9] -- a plan that may wield significant influence in the ever-intensifying debate over who controls the internet and its content. The plan calls for strictly regulated openness for today's wireline broadband--the DSL or cable internet you likely have at home. But for wireless networks ... the story is different.

For those that may be unaware of the issue, an exceedingly simplified fifteen-second net neutrality primer: The debate pits network providers (like Verizon) against companies and individuals who use said networks to deliver products and services to customers (like Google). As web applications become more central in nearly every aspect of public and private life, the network providers have grown increasingly interested in recouping the massive amounts of money they spend on building and maintaining network infrastructure by charging those companies who use an inordinate amount of bandwidth (like Google) for privileged access and delivery to customers. The internet has never worked this way, so the idea is obviously upsetting to many people, who cite the web's inherent openness as a key, if not the key detail that has allowed it to fundamentally change all of our lives in such a powerful way, and will allow it to continue to do so at the same breakneck pace in the future.

Google and Verizon's plan lays out specific rules to ensure that wireline internet services can not be used for any such tiered or paid access, and that all applications and services delivered over them (as long as they're legal) can be given no preference over any other traffic. That means established bandwidth hogs like YouTube and brand new bandwidth hogs built by Russian teenagers in their bedrooms like Chat Roulette will all get equal access to your eyeballs. This will also theoretically prevent broadband providers from intentionally limiting the speed of all BitTorrent traffic, something they've shown interest in doing in the past to avoid clogging their network with copyrighted materials; the protocol can just as easily be used legally.

But what has net neutrality activists worried--in my opinion, rightly so--is that in the new plan, almost none of these protections apply to wireless networks. Nor do they apply to a more ambiguously defined category of "additional, differentiated online services, in addition to the Internet access and video services (such as Verizon's FIOS TV)" using current wireline networks.

But it's the wireless exemption that strikes the most worry in the hearts of free-internet proponents. As anyone watching the future of telecommunications and the internet will tell you, wireless web access will almost certainly one day overtake traditional wired networks as most people's primary means of getting online. With the last five years' explosion of smartphone usage, we're already watching this happen. Heck, if your home is in a good coverage area, it's entirely feasible today to scrap your monthly cable or DSL broadband services for something like a wireless MiFi hotspot from Verizon or Sprint for all but the most intensive surfing.

Should Google and Verizon's suggested plan be implemented, whoever beams the signal to your MiFi hotspot can shape the traffic of the web however they choose. This means blocking high-bandwidth sites like YouTube, giving preference to one streaming service over another (like only allowing Netflix's Watch Instantly vs. any other movie-streaming service), or blocking certain protocols like BitTorrent altogether.

I don't like the sound of it, especially given the Democrat Party's love of "net neutrality." See, "Sen. Smalley and the Left Are Wrong on Net Neutrality."

The Cordoba Conquest at Ground Zero

Steven Taylor has an essay up at Outside the Beltway: "Ok, So What is the Problem with Cordoba House?" Unfortunately, Taylor hasn't actually focused on the question. Instead he offers a blanket condemnation of opponents of mosque construction projects elsewhere (this is Taylor's attempt to identify alleged anti-Muslim bigotry). The problem, not address by Taylor, is that Cordoba is code word to Muslims for conquest and domination, and it's a term that's historically flexible, and hence a bit devious and subterranean. This is (one more reason) why there's a "Problem with Cordoba House." See David Stein at Yes, But, However, "The “Ground Zero Mosque” – The “Cordoba” Question":

I believe Imam Rauf’s “hypocrisy” has a purpose, and I think many of his critics have missed it. Remember – this is a man who has been feted by three White Houses (including the Bush White House). By using Cordoba as his brand, he can appeal to U.S. political leaders and radical Islamists at the same time. The Cordoba name conjures up images of tolerance and plurality and savagery and persecution, depending upon which century you focus on. It was meant to be a Rorschach test.

To denounce Rauf as an “extremist” is to miss the point. He is an opportunist, reaping the fruits of presidential dinners, White House engagements, and U.S.-sponsored trips abroad, while retaining enough “street cred” to avail himself of the funding opportunities that come from radical Islam (hence his refusal to condemn Hamas – to do so would completely kill his cred).

Mission Accomplished

GSGF dubs it the "Surge Climax."

It's a climax, alright, although I'd use a bit of a different metaphor than does GSGF. I'm thinking of a V-E Day comparison, although the politics of the Iraq war aren't so conducive to ticker-tape celebrations. I'd suggest the magnitude is comparable, even though the historical eras differed as much as the nature of the wars. Americans have much to celebrate in bringing American troops home and in leaving behind a democracy in Iraq that will stand on its own, even though tough challenges remain. And worth your while (surprisingly), at LAT, "Iraq In the Rear-View Mirror."

Mama Lionesses

William likes Mama Warthogs. But it's hard to beat this clip of a mama lioness killing a cheetah. And note: "Lionesses do the majority of the hunting for their pride, being smaller, swifter and more agile than the males, and unencumbered by the heavy and conspicuous mane, which causes overheating during exertion."

Don't mess with the mamas!

9/11 Families Respond to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi

From Debra Burlingame:

New York, NY, August, 18 — For the last four months, 9/11 families, first responders, survivors and concerned citizens have been asking where developers are getting funding for a $100-million dollar mosque and Islamic center planned for Ground Zero. The imam who is heading the project has refused to identify the source of the $5 million cash that was used to purchase the building, and told an Arab newspaper that he will get funding for the project from Arab and Muslim countries. Given the imam’s statements, that America was “an accessory to the crime” on 9/11, that “Osama Bin Laden was made in the U.S.A.” as well as his repeated refusal to condemn Hamas, we believe he has an obligation to come clean to the public on his financial sources. Our concern has been amplified by news that the imam’s worldwide “Shariah Index Project” is being funded by the Malaysian government, and that he is a principal figure in the Perdana Global Peace Project, the number one funder of the Gaza Flotilla, a violent attempt to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza.

Today we learn that instead of taking our concerns seriously, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi suggested that the opponents of the Ground Zero mosque should be investigated. This comment is clearly intended to intimidate those of us who are speaking out to preserve the sanctity of Ground Zero, where more than 20,000 human remains have been recovered, 1,845 in the last five years. We can assure Ms. Pelosi that whatever funds we have spent to get our message out, they pale in comparison to the price we have personally paid since that day, and continue to pay as a result of the mosque project. The vast majority of the American people support us. They lived through September 11 with us, and they know, as we do, that this not a “local issue.” What happened on 9/11 affected all Americans.

Debra Burlingame
Tim Sumner
Co-founders, 9/11 Families for a Safe & Strong America

See also Power Line (c/o Memeorandum).

VIDEO: Keep America Safe.

Who’s Extreme?

Via National Review and Nice Deb (c/o Memeorandum):

Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer Make Impact Nationally — And Get Smeared For It at WaPo

At Washington Post, "The pens of anti-Muslim conservatives impact N.Y.C. mosque debate mightily." (Via Memeorandum.) It's amazing that you can't read a story in the mainstream press that doesn't strain with incredulity at the moral righteousness of folks like Pamela Geller. She's flamboyant. Uh oh, that makes her untrustworthy? And not only that, the piece picks up on the smears forwarded by people like Charles Johnson and offers them as fact. For example, Pamela has never said President Obama is Malcolm X's love child. Robert Spencer responds: "This is lazy propagandizing at its very finest masquerading as journalism." And the Post identifies Charles Johnson's Little Green Footballs as a "national security blog," to which Robert responds: "That's the funniest thing I've heard in weeks."

RELATED: "FOX Money Rocks: Pamela Geller on Imam Rauf's Ground Zero Mosque Money."

U.X.A.

And now for something different --- U.X.A.:

More here.

Hey Monday

I'm bored with the Ground Zero controversy, so check out Cassadee Pope while I go read myself to sleep:

Check Atlas Shrugs, GSGF, The Other McCain, and Theo Spark as well.

Howard Dean Goes Off the Reservation...

...And radical leftists are not pleased:

'He's a Kind of a Spokesman For a Post-American World, and We Think He Represents an Important Piece of the Puzzle For Us'

That's Time Managing Editor Richard Stengel on the announcement that Fareed Zakaria will leave Newsweek to join Time Magazine as a contributing editor.

There is no "Post-American" world, of course. Or at least not outside of the ideological constructs of the Beltway media elite. As noted recently, international theory expects a continued long reign of American dominance in the international realm (see, "Do States Ally Against the Leading Global Power?"). The U.S. is not as preponderant as it once was, but to speak of a "Post-American" era is about as meaningful as the notion, from just a few years back, of "The Rise of the European Superstate" (to rival American power). How's that working out?

Tolerance and Suicide

A truly phenomenal presentation. From Bill Whittle, at Pajamas Media:

In related news, media outlets are playing up the "split" in the GOP establishment over the Victory Mosque. The Los Angeles Times has a front-page story today, "New York mosque debate splits GOP." Also, at WSJ, "Norquist and Gingrich: Debating a Mosque Near Ground Zero." (And at Memeorandum.)

Frankly, while this is a central issue, I'm surprised the debate's gone on --- as a front-burner issue --- for weeks now. I've discussed the debate in my classes as an excellent example of both freedom of religion and freedom of speech, but also of political polarization. House Speaker Nance Pelosi also provided yet another example of Democratic Party authoritarianism. See, "Pelosi's Preposterous Pontificating On the Ground Zero Mosque." Plus, "AUDIO - Rep. Pelosi calls for investigation of WTC mosque opposition."

Hey, Hey, Hey!

Have you heard the news, baby?

Van Halen's back together! See, "Van Halen Recording New Album With David Lee Roth."

I heard the news baby
All about your disease
Yeah, you may have all you want baby
But I got somethin' you need. Oh, yeah!
Ain't talkin' 'bout love
My love is rotten to the core
Ain't talkin' 'bout love
Just like I told you before. Yeah, before

You know you're semi-good lookin'
And on the streets again
Ooh yeah, you think you're really cookin' baby
You better find yourself a friend, my friend

Ain't talkin' 'bout love
My love is rotten to the core
Ain't gonna talk about love
Just like I told you before! Before! Uh, before! Uh, before! Before!

(Guitar Solo)

Ain't talkin' 'bout love
Babe, it's rotten to the core
Ain't talkin' bout love
Just like I told you before. Uh, before

I been to the edge
And there I stood and looked down
You know I lost a lot of friends there baby
I got no time to mess around

Mmm, so if you want it, got to bleed for it baby
Yeah! Got to, got to bleed, baby
Mmm, you got to, got to bleed, baby
Hey! Got to, got to bleed baby

Ain't talkin' 'bout love
My love is rotten to the core
Ain't talkin' 'bout love
Just like I told you before! Before! Before!

Ain't talkin' 'bout love
Don't wanna talk about love
Don't need to talk about love
Ain't gonna talk about love
No more! No more! Ahhh!

(Guitar Solo)

Hey, hey, hey!
Hey, hey, hey!
Hey, hey, hey!
Hey, hey, hey!
Hey, hey, hey!
Hey, hey, hey!
Hey, hey, hey!
Hey, hey, hey!
Hey, hey, hey!

'I Want to Be Able to Say What's On My Mind Without Some Special-Interest Group Deciding This Is the Time to Silence Dissent'

It's an abbreviated quotation, from Dr. Laura Schlessinger, upon her announcement that she'll "end her radio career at the end of the year."

Shoot, I'd quit too (leftist ayatollahs are a pain, no doubt), except I'm hardly near the same income bracket as Dr. Laura.

EARLIER STEREOTYPICAL LEFTIST EXAMPLE: "Dr. Laura Apologizes For N-Word, But She's Still A Racist."

RELATED: "Dr. Laura Schlessinger to End Radio Show."

Toronto Star Denies Hacking Rob Ford's Wikipedia Page

Toronto City Councillor and mayoral candidate Rob Ford's in the news. He's apparently at the center of a Wikipedia "contributor" hacking allegations scandal. Ford's Wikipedia page was fixed so that readers who clicked his campaign link were sent to satirical site instead. An alert reader noticed, and checked who last edited Ford's entry, and traced the IP back to the Toronto Star. I probably wouldn't have even noticed, but Kathy Shaidle links to her hubby Blazing Cat Fur, "Toronto Star Linked To "Edits" of Rob Ford Wikipedia Page." And see also Toronto Sun, "Toronto Star Denies Ford Wikipedia Change":

The anonymous poster who traced a Wikipedia edit on Rob Ford to the Toronto Star’s corporate parent says he was just trying to get himself up to speed on the civic election.

“I was reading through some of the Wikipedia entries on the candidates because I wanted to get informed about the election,” ES, who didn’t want his name used, said in an interview.

The Star denied the IP address that made the edit is associated to the newspaper.

ES said he was surfing about on Aug. 5 when he noticed a link on mayoral candidate Rob Ford’s Wikipedia entry, purporting to be “Rob Ford’s Personal Blog,” was actually a satirical website.

“It was basically set up to make fun of him,” ES said.

“It is supposed to be official links related to Rob Ford,” he said. “If you look at other people’s Wiki pages, it generally doesn’t list satire pages as official blog sites. It kind of struck a red flag for me. I was a little concerned because I don’t want to see that for any candidate.”

ES deleted the link, only the second time he’s ever contributed to a Wikipedia article and then checked the history of who had added it to find the IP address. A check of that address showed it was related to the Star, although a spokesman for the newspaper denied any involvement.

“It is inaccurate, these allegations that we are editing Rob Ford’s Wikipedia page,” Bob Hepburn said.

Instead, Hepburn said the address is used by several other publications owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Ltd., including Sing Tao, Metro and the Metroland newspapers.

“We’re trying to track it down, where specifically it came from,” Hepburn said. “It may be impossible given the number of publications.

“We don’t have a policy that firm but we would frown heavily on people going in and changing things in Wikipedia,” he said.

Wikipedia describes itself as “the free dictionary that anyone can edit.” But while it’s assembled from largely anonymous contributors, every edit can be tracked on the site.

There's a history there, it turns out. Ford plans to sue the Star for stories published earlier.

But be sure to check Blazing's post.

NewsBusted — Obama Endorses Ground Zero Mosque

Via Theo Spark:

'The Center of Interactive Media — Increasingly, the Center of Gravity of All Media — Is Moving to a Post-HTML Environment'

At Wired:

You wake up and check your email on your bedside iPad — that’s one app. During breakfast you browse Facebook, Twitter, and The New York Times — three more apps. On the way to the office, you listen to a podcast on your smartphone. Another app. At work, you scroll through RSS feeds in a reader and have Skype and IM conversations. More apps. At the end of the day, you come home, make dinner while listening to Pandora, play some games on Xbox Live, and watch a movie on Netflix’s streaming service.

You’ve spent the day on the Internet — but not on the Web. And you are not alone.

This is not a trivial distinction. Over the past few years, one of the most important shifts in the digital world has been the move from the wide-open Web to semiclosed platforms that use the Internet for transport but not the browser for display. It’s driven primarily by the rise of the iPhone model of mobile computing, and it’s a world Google can’t crawl, one where HTML doesn’t rule. And it’s the world that consumers are increasingly choosing, not because they’re rejecting the idea of the Web but because these dedicated platforms often just work better or fit better into their lives (the screen comes to them, they don’t have to go to the screen). The fact that it’s easier for companies to make money on these platforms only cements the trend. Producers and consumers agree: The Web is not the culmination of the digital revolution.

A decade ago, the ascent of the Web browser as the center of the computing world appeared inevitable. It seemed just a matter of time before the Web replaced PC application software and reduced operating systems to a “poorly debugged set of device drivers,” as Netscape cofounder Marc Andreessen famously said. First Java, then Flash, then Ajax, then HTML5 — increasingly interactive online code — promised to put all apps in the cloud and replace the desktop with the webtop. Open, free, and out of control.

But there has always been an alternative path, one that saw the Web as a worthy tool but not the whole toolkit. In 1997, Wired published a now-infamous “Push!” cover story, which suggested that it was time to “kiss your browser goodbye.” The argument then was that “push” technologies such as PointCast and Microsoft’s Active Desktop would create a “radical future of media beyond the Web.”

“Sure, we’ll always have Web pages. We still have postcards and telegrams, don’t we? But the center of interactive media — increasingly, the center of gravity of all media — is moving to a post-HTML environment,” we promised nearly a decade and half ago. The examples of the time were a bit silly — a “3-D furry-muckers VR space” and “headlines sent to a pager” — but the point was altogether prescient: a glimpse of the machine-to-machine future that would be less about browsing and more about getting.

Actually, there's some debate on this as well.

House Republican Conference — 'Working For You'

From the GOP Congressional Caucus:

'Israel Is a Bulwark. If Israel Wasn't There You Have No Idea How Much Evil Would Be Unleashed On the World'

That's a key quote from Pamela's lecture last night. She actually prefaced that by saying "You have no idea how much terrorism Israel absorbs" from the Middle East, thus providing the West with a bit of under-appreciated inoculation from Jihad. This was an extremely interesting point. I was really impressed with Robert Spencer's profound knowledge on the issues as well.

David Swindle has more at NewsReal Blog.

RELATED: "Preserving Our Freedoms."

Preserving Our Freedoms

Both AoSHQ and R.S. McCain have this posted:

Today's my long day at the college (Tuesdays and Thursdays during the semester). Posting will be light. I'm thinking about last night's lecture and book signing with Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer. I need to write down some thoughts about it, but if you get the chance to hear them speak don't miss it. Folks who want to preserve liberty can't be shy in proclaiming the majesty of our nation. You get that and more from Pamela Geller. She's a patriot of the first order. My batteries were recharged big time. And my thinking was clarified too. We have a purpose as Americans, as part of our citizenship, to give back to the country. There are responsibilities to uphold. Pamela reminded people not to lose hope. She urged people to get involved in their communities. She pointed out that as the tea parties grew last year the despicable "racist" attacks on them escalated, but they just keep getting bigger. The tea parties are not our salvation. They are the sign that Americans haven't lost the determination to resist tyranny. The beauty of this country is in its founding principles opposing tyranny. We're in a tyrannical era of progressive rule. It's not even a soft tyranny, in the sense that the damage to our nation will take great time and effort to undo. The ramifications are not just national but global, with this president being the first in history who's using global institutions to suppress the rights of Americans. It was Robert Spencer who spoke of this last night, and he's noted this at Jihad Watch previously (see, "Obama Declares War on Free Speech"):

The Obama Administration has now actually co-sponsored an anti-free speech resolution at the United Nations. Approved by the U.N. Human Rights Council last Friday, the resolution, cosponsored by the U.S. and Egypt, calls on states to condemn and criminalize "any advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence" ...

Now no less distinguished a personage than the President of the United States has given his imprimatur to this tyranny; the implications are grave. The resolution also condemns "negative stereotyping of religions and racial groups," which is of course an oblique reference to accurate reporting about the jihad doctrine and Islamic supremacism -- for that, not actual negative stereotyping or hateful language, is always the focus of whining by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and allied groups. They never say anything when people like Osama bin Laden and Khaled Sheikh Mohammed issue detailed Koranic expositions justifying violence and hatred; but when people like Geert Wilders and others report about such expositions, that's "negative stereotyping"...

So go back and listen to Ronald Reagan once more above.

I'll have more on all of this tonight.

Pamela Geller Book Signing!

I was surprised to see Robert Stacy McCain out in front of the Skirball Center when I arrived at 7:00pm. Almost soon as we went inside we were posing for photos with Pamela Geller.

I also spoke with Robert Spencer, and both Pamela and Robert signed my book. I was also pleased to meet Dave Swindle, who is Associate Editor at FrontPage Magazine and Managing Editor of NewsReal Blog. Extra bonus was seeing my good friend Opus #6 . We talked while I waited to have the authors sign my book.

I'll have some substantive comments on the full lecture when I have more time. Meanwhile, Robert's got more pictures, "Pamela Geller Goes Hollywood."

'A Film Unfinished'

Opens Friday in Los Angeles. I should be able to make it. And from LAT:

Four years ago, Yael Hersonski was struck by an unthinkable concept: In the foreseeable future, there would be no Holocaust survivors left to bear witness to the atrocities they once experienced. So the Israeli filmmaker set out to find the kind of unforgettable footage she might cinematically use to help keep this horrific chapter of history alive. What Hersonski uncovered, with an assist from producer Noemi Schory, was a 62-minute, 35-millimeter rough cut of a never-released 1942 Nazi propaganda film simply labeled "Das Ghetto."

The film, discovered by Schory in a Jerusalem Holocaust museum but first unearthed in an East German film archive in 1954, was particularly curious as it was apparently abandoned after it was shot without evidence of who was behind it, its exact purpose or why it was never completed. More remarkable was the fact that it even still existed, given that a reported 90% of film footage shot by the Nazis was destroyed at the end of World War II. But this one, lost and recovered several times through the decades, had already been examined in the years following the war, its footage thought to be a starkly real depiction of life inside the Warsaw Ghetto, the largest of the Jewish ghettos established by the Nazis in occupied Poland.

It was one of many such films produced by the Third Reich to promulgate its policies, help gain and maintain power, vilify the Jews and, in some segments, portray Jews seemingly living the high life under the Nazis' "compassionate" protection.

But what Hersonski came across as she watched four unfolding reels of emaciated captives, corpse-strewn streets and even scenes of the Jewish elite attending posh Champagne balls, was a staggering fifth reel of outtakes that had been discovered in 1998 by a British researcher. In those images could be seen entire scenes being reshot, cameramen in the background and signs of staging. It was proof that the film, while capturing some genuine suffering, was being manipulated by SS cameramen.

This soundtrack-free assemblage so inspired the director it would wind up as the centerpiece of her own unique and gripping Holocaust documentary, "A Film Unfinished," which opens in Los Angeles theaters Friday.

RTWT.

The film's official homepage is here.

Heading Out to L.A. Book Signing for The Post-American Presidency

L.A readers!

Are ya'll in?

See you out there tonight at Skirball Center for the book signing! The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration's War on America:

China Passes Japan as Second-Largest Economy

This is really interesting, since I was discussing balance of power and changes in the world economy today while introducing my World Politics course. At NYT:

After three decades of spectacular growth, China passed Japan in the second quarter to become the world’s second-largest economy behind the United States, according to government figures released early Monday.

The milestone, though anticipated for some time, is the most striking evidence yet that China’s ascendance is for real and that the rest of the world will have to reckon with a new economic superpower.

The recognition came early Monday, when Tokyo said that Japan’s economy was valued at about $1.28 trillion in the second quarter, slightly below China’s $1.33 trillion. Japan’s economy grew 0.4 percent in the quarter, Tokyo said, substantially less than forecast. That weakness suggests that China’s economy will race past Japan’s for the full year.

Experts say unseating Japan — and in recent years passing Germany, France and Great Britain — underscores China’s growing clout and bolsters forecasts that China will pass the United States as the world’s biggest economy as early as 2030. America’s gross domestic product was about $14 trillion in 2009.

“This has enormous significance,” said Nicholas R. Lardy, an economist at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “It reconfirms what’s been happening for the better part of a decade: China has been eclipsing Japan economically. For everyone in China’s region, they’re now the biggest trading partner rather than the U.S. or Japan.”

For Japan, whose economy has been stagnating for more than a decade, the figures reflect a decline in economic and political power. Japan has had the world’s second-largest economy for much of the last four decades, according to the World Bank. And during the 1980s, there was even talk about Japan’s economy some day overtaking that of the United States.

But while Japan’s economy is mature and its population quickly aging, China is in the throes of urbanization and is far from developed, analysts say, meaning it has a much lower standard of living, as well as a lot more room to grow. Just five years ago, China’s gross domestic product was about $2.3 trillion, about half of Japan’s.

No time for a discussion, but I'll come back to this topic in upcoming days. (What are some of the broader strategic implications especially?)

Academic Bankruptcy

Saw this over the weekend, and Glenn Reynolds is now linking as well. From Mark Taylor:

WITH the academic year about to begin, colleges and universities, as well as students and their parents, are facing an unprecedented financial crisis. What we’ve seen with California’s distinguished state university system — huge cutbacks in spending and a 32 percent rise in tuition — is likely to become the norm at public and private colleges. Government support is being slashed, endowments and charitable giving are down, debts are piling up, expenses are rising and some schools are selling their product for two-thirds of what it costs to produce it. You don’t need an M.B.A. to know this situation is unsustainable.

More specific examples at the article, and the call for reform.