Progressive Democrats Challenge Constitutionality of Military Action Against Libya

Well, it's not like we didn't see this coming. The only problem, again, is that these are not "liberal" Democrats. They're communists, members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus --- Michael Capuano, Barbara Lee, Jerald Nadler, Maxine Waters --- and pathetic neo-communist hangers-on, like Rep. Dennis Kucinich. See Politico, in any case, "Liberal Democrats in uproar over Libya action" (via Memeorandum). These are the reflexively antiwar asshats I mentioned previously, but William Jacobson's got the lowdown on the folks from Daily Kos, who seemed quite the interventionists at the news of the attacks: "Strange Days - Daily Kos Takes On A Martial Look."

Sadly No! Tintin Attacks Community Colleges as 'Shitty'

Progressive asshat Tintin at Sadly No! took to Twitter to slam community colleges as "shitty," and also to slam me personally as lacking, or something. The Twitter exhange is here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

The key screencaps pretty much tell it all, in any case. Community colleges are obviously not "shitty," hence my use of quotation marks. Tintin's a liar, and not too bright, Sadly No!

These are totally unoriginal attacks, by the way. Demon TBogg has long slurred junior colleges, and folks might remember the progressive demonosphere's "I can't believe he's really a professor" attacks on this blog: "You're a Professor, Really?"

Sigh. Progressives, they don't really care about the poor or disadvantaged. They care only about leveraging their totalitarian agenda --- and enabling terrorist savages.

Britian's PC Enforcers Attack Melanie Phillips Over Column Denouncing Palestinian Terrorists as 'Savages'

The story's at London's Guardian, "PCC investigates Melanie Phillips' Spectator blog" (via Blazing Cat Fur and Memeorandum). As readers here of course know, Phillips is one of the most penetrating writers on the moral depravity not just of Islamist jihadists, but of their progressive enablers in the press, left-wing parties and online fever-swamps. Robert Spencer offers an excellent response, "UK columnist investigated for referring to jihad murderers of Jewish family as 'savages'." And check the commentary at Spectator's "Coffee House" blog, "The threat to a British liberty":

We have no First Amendment protection in this country, and we're suffering from it. Freedom of expression under attack in Britain, from our notorious libel laws to this new phenomenon of police forces being asked to investigate what people put on their blogs.

Well, even the First Amendment is no guarantee against the kinds of assault on liberty progressives have mounted on truth-tellers worldwide. (Hat Tip: Israel Matzav.)

VIDEO: Night Sky Explosions Over Tripoli, Libya

Awesome clip:

And see the news updates at New York Times, "Allies Open Air Assault on Qaddafi’s Forces in Libya," and Telegraph UK, "Libya: British forces launch missile attacks on Gaddafi." Also at Memeorandum.

'Taxi Driver' - 35th Anniversary, Digitally Restored

I took my oldest son and he had a blast. He asked me on the way out, "Why did he do that? Was he kinda crazy?" I said, "Yeah, crazy but in a good way."

From the AMC homepage:

It was playing at The District in Tustin, minutes from my home. Also showing Tuesday night. The movie's riveting climax is here.

The Absentee Administration: Obama Falls Silent Amid World Crises

I've forgotten now, but I saw some progressive network bloviator the other day defending President Obama's lame Brazil trip while the rest of the world was literally melting down. The jokes write themselves at this point: Hillary Clinton campaigned against Barack Obama's unpreparedness for the crucial "3:00 AM" moment, and then she ends up announcing she won't hang around for a second term at precisely the crucial foreign policy crisis where Americans would have preferred she was answering the red phone. Kimberley Strassel was on this the other day, "President 'Present'." And here's this classic summary from Donald Sensing:

There is nothing at all in Obama's pre-presidential resume that shows he ever made highly difficult decisions that depended, at the end, on his own personal reservoir of wisdom and experience. So he does not tackle the inbox because its contents are above his competence. (One is reminded of Obama telling Rick Warren that when an unborn child gets human rights is "above my pay grade.") He tends instead to lesser matters that match his lower level of competence, such as filling out basketball brackets and flying down to Rio on a five-day trip of little importance, but which conveniently corresponds to his daughters' spring break. So tourism time will be a heavy feature of the agenda. But will anything presidential be accomplished?

See also, Rex Murphy, "When crisis strikes the world, Obama falls silent" (at Memeorandum).

Long Beach City College Announces Cuts, Layoffs

Below is Ann-Marie Gabel, Vice President for Administrative Services, speaking on the fiscal situation last month. Turns out the college administration is making haste on those reductions she's talking about. Budget chopping begins right now. At Long Beach Press-Telegram, "LBCC to Cut 222 Courses Next Fall":

LONG BEACH - About 1,000 fewer students will be able to attend Long Beach City College this fall due to a string of budget cuts that include the elimination of 222 course sections, college officials announced Friday.

The cuts for new academic year also include layoffs, furloughs, salary reductions and the suspension of the golf and tennis programs.

Like schools across the state, LBCC is experiencing one of its toughest financial years in its history. Governor Jerry Brown's proposed budget calls for a minimum of $290 million in reductions to community colleges and $1 billion in cuts to the University of California and California State University systems.

LBCC, which serves more than 30,000 students between its two campuses, is facing a $7 million shortfall in its roughly $110 million general fund.

And that's the best-case scenario.

More at the link.

The college faculty union reached agreement with the administration in January.

War in Libya!

Well, what do you know? The most antiwar president since at Jimmy Carter has authorized his very own military engagement. Frankly, I wondered if he had it in him. It'll be interesting to watch how this frazzles the Democratic coalition. These freaks are reflexively antiwar. Some progressives will hammer the administration as capitulating to Cheneyesque warmongering, while neocon wannabe interventionists will slam Obambi for his useless dithering. Add on top of that the feminist angle --- that Hillary, Samantha, and Susan are hot for high-value targets --- and this makes one hella progressive battle royal!

The feminist angle is at Christian Science Monitor, "A 'gender gap' in Obama administration’s approach to war?", and Althouse, "A feminist milestone: Our male President has been pulled into war by 3 women" (via Memeorandum). And the big headline is a Fox News, "U.S. Launches Cruise Missiles Against Qaddafi's Air Defenses." And at Los Angeles Times, "U.S. warships launch airstrikes on Libya":

U.S. and British warships launch more than 110 Tomahawk missiles at defense facilities on the Libyan coast, a naval commander at the Pentagon says. The strikes are intended to help an international coalition establish a no-fly zone in Libya ....

The U.S. is on the "leading edge" of the coalition military action that is designed to prevent further attacks against Libyan citizens, especially around the city of Benghazi, the main stronghold of rebels seeking to overthrow Kadafi's regime. The U.S. strikes are intended to defeat the Libyan government's ability to resist the implementation of a no-fly zone, said a senior U.S. military official.

The U.S. moved ahead Saturday with a three-pronged approach in what has been code named Operation Odyssey Dawn: launch targeted cruise missiles against Libyan air defenses, jam communications of Kadafi's forces and establish the central command and control for the operations.

Also previously at Wall Street Journal, "Allies Rally Against Gadhafi: Obama Demands That Libya Halt Attacks on Civilians as World Leaders Plot Military Strategy."

Middle East Turmoil Messes Up Progressive Foreign Policy

There's a lot out there on this, so it's a surplus of fodder for hammering progressive moral bankruptcy in foreign policy. Note first how Glenn Reynolds couldn't resist pointing out the laughable hypocrisy of Andrew Sullivan (yeah, I know, the world's moved on from Sully, but it's irresistible):

ANDREW SULLIVAN, who once complained that Bush wasn’t interested enough in invading Iraq, is now unhappy with Obama on Libya. Yeah, I know, who cares — but it’s worth recording for posterity.

That second link goes to Sully's post, "The Imperial President." And you gotta love this:

To launch a war on these grounds is to set a precedent that would require a kind of global power and reach that not even the most righteous neocons have pushed for.

Really? I guess Sully's not hip to Great Satan's Girlfriend!

More on that later.

I'm especially tripping on Hillary Rodham Clinton, who's basically said "f**k this s**t" on Obama's FUBAR foreign policy. See New York Times, "Shift By Clinton Helped Obama Take a Harder Line" (via Memeorandum). And just breaking, "France Sends Military Flights Over Libya."

Caroline Glick: 'Israel's indivisible legitimacy'

Another great essay, at Jerusalem Post.

The Left's Enduring Shame

I want to take another moment and really rub dolt-douche Thers' face in it. Like Scott Eric Kaufman, no doubt this guy would do Itamar-style violence to conservatives if he could. People like this --- Thers, SEK, and more --- are consumed by ideological bigotry. It's a vile blackness that warps both reason and compassion. And of course it's impossible to argue with them, for they promptly retreat into their bestial comment-thread cocoons, where the likes of REPSAC = CASPER spew the devil's frenzied caterwauls of hate. So here we have --- today and over the last few weeks --- the "empirical reality" of a systematic, widely reported progressive descent into newfound depths of pathological hatred. In response, again and again, Thers has issued bald-faced lies declaiming the seething demonology. Just today he's got two posts smearing Ann Althouse, who had the temerity to denounce the militant manifesto that announced: "WE WILL FUCK YOU UP!" Baseballs on the lawn seemed to be the out for Thers, making it easy to dismiss Shankman's threat to "beat the ever loving shit out of" Meade if he dared to "to get all tough with us." More innocent baseballs, no doubt.

In any case, check Patterico, "The Greatest Blog Post Ever Written?" And the topic there, which I found earlier, is Lee Stranahan's essay at Huffington Post, "Shame: Ignoring Death Threats to Wisconsin Politicians Is Media Bias." It's best to just read it in full. And after that, head over to the dude's Twitter feed. The guy's way left wing, but different: He's honest and willing to denounce the violent advocacy that's become the signature identity of today's progressives.

VIDEO: Alyssa Miller Sports Illustrated Swimsuit 2011

At Blazing Cat Fur, "Because it's Friday...and it's Pin-Up Wars Round 2."

Let see if the lovely Alyssa Miller rates a link at the roundup:

More blogging later ...

Intimidation in Wisconsin

There's a lot developing in Wisconsin. A Dane County judge has halted the state's new collective bargaining statute. That'll be a big story throughout the day, so we'll see.

What's even more interesting is the left's escalation of progressive thuggery. William Jacobson comments: "And On the 21st Day the Intimidation Did Not Rest In Wisconsin." And following the link there takes us to John Nolte at Big Government, "20 Days of Left-Wing Thuggery in Wisconsin: When Will Obama, Democrats, and MSM Call for Civility?":

Most of all though is the mind-blowing threat/manifesto against Ann Althouse: "Union thuggery against Althouse and Meade."

We are NOT radically nonviolent. We comply with the laws of the Citybecause it is our City and we love it, but OH MY GOD do we hope Meade tries to get alltough with us. WE LOVE IT. LOVE IT. Just last night we saw a Jimmy John's worker who we know beat the ever loving shit out of some idiot drunk asshole who wouldn't be civil and polite in his workplace. We have the numbers and we don't back down from anyone. We all know each other. We know each other from Service Industry Night at the Orpheum, because we're regulars at the same coffee shops, restaurants and bars,we know each other from the co-ops, we know each other because we've had a million jobs each (and we all worked at CapTel at least once), because we live in every shitty townie house in ever-changing groups of 2 – 7 people, because we are young and horny and screw each other incessantly, because we're all on facebook, and because we aren't anti-social, life-denying, world-sterilizing pieces of human garbage like the two of you. WE WILL FUCK YOU UP.

That's not intimidating at all, right? RTWT at "Operation: Countertroll."

And amazingly, Dan Riehl has interviewed this progressive asshat, "Exclusive Interview With Jim Shankman, the Man Behind the Ann Althouse Threat." It's pretty interesting. Shankman self-identifies as a "radical progressive," but then denies he's a "socialist" or "Marxist." Apparently Shankman was previously a member of International Workers of the World (IWW/AI), an anarchist syndicate, which makes sense since the dude's anti-Althouse manifesto is all about the F**KING OCCUPATION!

BONUS: It turns out, incredibly, that dolt-douche Thers has a bigger crush on Althouse than REPSAC = CASPER has on me. Thers, who thinks he's smarter than the entire universe, denies that Shankman's threatening Alhouse and Meade, focusing on the part about throwing "f**king baseballs" on Althouse's lawn, with the address posted at the manifest as well, naturally. See the entries from dolt-douche Thers here and here. Then compare to Kenneth Anderson at Volokh, who suggests this might be a bit more serious than tossing baseballs.

Not So Fast on Japan's Chernobyl

From The Blog Prof, "Vlog: Fukushima is No Chernobyl, and Here's Why":

RELATED: At New York Times, "Data Show Radiation’s Spread; Frantic Repairs Go On at Plant." And more at Memeorandum.

'To hint that those who grew up in a household with a mother and father are somehow less black than those who did not is beyond ridiculous'

An incredible essay (in that it had to be written at all), and powerfully uplifting. At New York Times, "Grant Hill’s Response to Jalen Rose."

United Nations Approves Military Action Against Libya's Muammar Gaddafi

At Los Angeles Times, "U.N. authorizes military action against Kadafi":

U.S. and allied forces began preparing for military operations against Libya despite doubts the outgunned rebels can be saved.

At New York Times, "U.N. Approves Airstrikes to Halt Attacks by Qaddafi Forces." Also, from Roger Cohen, "Be Ruthless or Stay Out":

What’s clear to me is that there is no halfway house. Spurn conscience-salving gestures. The case against going in prevails unless the West, backed and joined by the Arab League, decides it will, ruthlessly, stop, defeat, remove and, if necessary, kill Qaddafi in short order. I’m skeptical that determination can be forged. Only if it can be does intervention make sense.

But who takes power after Gaddafi's gone? That's one "con" that Cohen doesn't address?

Body-Slammed Bully Should Apologize

I saw the video previously. But here's this right now Fox News, "Mother of Bully Body-Slammed in Video Demands Apology From Her Son's Victim." That may be erroneous, however. See Australia's Daily Telegraph, "Clarification - an apology to Tina Gale":

IN an article published in The Daily Telegraph yesterday headlined "Bully's angry mum wants victim to apologise", it was written that bully Ritchard Gale's mother Tina wanted her son's victim to apologise for slamming her son to the ground.

But she had, in fact, said she wanted her son to apologise to his victim.

The Daily Telegraph apologises for the error.

By way of analogy, Casey Heynes is the American taxpayer slamming the progressive union thugs to the cold cement. These Big Labor bullies have been practically getting away with murder. The GOP's righteous smackdown will continue beyond Madison.

Keffiyeh-Clad Communists Call for Revolution in Chicago

Because, you know, it's all just a bunch of "imaginary communists" --- just ask Tintin, the blogging asshat at Sadly No!

"Because we do in fact hate commies, at least real commies, not the imaginary commies that community college Assistant Associate Professor Douglas sees lurking behind every potted plant."

More potted plants in Chicago.

At Rebel Pundit, "Anti-American, Pro-Socialist & Communist Immigrant Youth: “Open The F**KING BORDERS!!”":

Also, "COMING SOON – ChicagoSocialists.org & Immigrant Youth Justice League Join Forces In Chicago Preview," and "Communist Revolutionary Comes out of the Shadows to Protest in Chicago."

The keffiyeh is the universal symbol of anti-colonialism and murderous pro-Palestinian radicalism. It's the symbol of anti-Semitism and diabolical evil. Stupidity is no justification for such cheap and easy death-to-Jews advocacy. These people are a disgrace --- the dregs of humanity, along with their pro-terror enablers on the progressive left. Yeah, that's you pro-terror Tintin Sadly-Nihilist.

Jews in Settlement Community Save the Life of Palestinian Woman and Her Newly Born Infant Wednesday

This kinda goes against the bloodthirsty libel of the global anti-Semitic campaign against Israel. At Elder of Zion, "Evil, extremist settlers save Arab baby's life. Leftists don't notice." And following the link there takes us to Ynet, "IDF, settlers save Arab baby."

After reading those pieces, check over at Jerusalem Post, where this letter was published yesterday, "So it’s our fault?" An excerpt:

Sir, – I sit here in shock as Gershon Baskin looks to blame Israel for the lack of progress in the so-called peace negotiations (“The clock is ticking,” Encountering Peace, March 15). He babbles on and on about a Palestinian narrative of how Israel stole all the land, made the Palestinians refugees and now denies them their dignity...

We are all grateful – and I’m sure the Fogel family is very comforted – that Baskin condemns, along with all Palestinians, the slaughter at Itamar. But he does note that Itamar is home to some of the most fanatical settlers. I am sure that a three-month-old infant fits into this group.

Perhaps Baskin should look for another place to live. Why be part of such an awful nation that, unlike the loving and caring Palestinian people, doesn’t want to be a partner for peace?

JONATHAN SURASKY
Ra’anana

More letters at the link.

The Neocon Cudgel

I wanted to comment earlier on this Politico piece attacking the emerging GOP field as a bunch of "neo-cons" on foreign policy. I thought it simplistic, for one thing, and as usual, the essay wrongly generalizes neoconservatism as exclusively an expansionist foreign policy ideology. It's not. But because questions of war and peace (and support for Israel) have become among the most contentious political issues of recent years, the neocon label has become the all-purpose slur to demonize and marginalize political opponents. That said, it's interesting to see Matt Lewis jumping in here to disaggregate the simplicities. See, "Abusing and Misusing The ‘Neo-Con’ Label":

Perhaps seeking to contrast himself with the rest of the 2012 Republican crowd, Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour recently said the U.S. should consider reducing forces in Afghanistan.

Noting that Barbour is the lone voice among likely GOP candidates making this argument, Politico’s Ben Smith and Byron Tau argue that neo-cons are “winning the fight for the direction of the [Republican] party.” (As far as I know, Barbour did not use the term neo-con).

The term “neo-con” originally was used to describe former Democrats (often Jewish intellectuals — but not always) who were, as Irving Kristol put it, “mugged by reality”.

Over time, the meaning has evolved — so much so that apparently the modern definition includes anyone who isn’t an isolationist. Today, neo-con is essentially shorthand for “quixotic warmonger.” (That Pawlenty, Romney, Gingrich — and the rest of the GOP field — are all essentially being labeled neo-cons speaks to the bastardization of the term.)

Putting aside whether or not Governor Barbour’s position on Afghanistan is correct or not, I can’t help thinking the label is now just a cudgel, casually employed by people who don’t know the original definition of the word — or are merely looking for a cheap way to discredit their adversaries. (And for journalists, the term is simply a good shorthand — which makes its overuse all the more common).

Unfortunately, anyone who disagrees with a given instance of military intervention can dismiss their intellectual adversaries by simply labeling them with the term. This, of course, dispatches with the messy work of actually debating the merits of intervention on an ad hoc basis (I would argue that sometimes intervention is good and sometimes it is bad).

I'd just simply remind folks of the deeply moral dimension of neoconservative thought, which is the key reason it's despised by the America-hating left. And in case you missed it, Irving Kristol's posthumous collection of essay is out, The Neoconservative Persuasion: Selected Essays, 1942-2009.

RELATED: At GSGF, "Regional Strategery."

Maybe It's Worth Stopping for a Moment to Reflect on the Fogel Family Murders

Listen to Glenn Beck's commentary, one of the only mainstream commentators who has taken a moment or two to reflect on the unspeakable evil visited upon the Fogel family, all of Israel, and the moral universe. At the second half of the clip Beck makes a reference to Bernadine Dohrn, whose hero was Charles Manson. The thought of Dohrn's murder-worship is soul-crushing, but so is progressivism. See Walter Hudson as well, "Horrific Stabbing of Infant Shows Flaw in Leftist Worldview."

I'll have more on all of this. Folks have been appreciative of these essays.

The Signature Moral Issue of Our Time

From Melanie Phillips, "A Terrible Resonance" (via Blazing Cat Fur):

Religious fascism as thus displayed by Arabs from Ramallah to Gaza City is bad enough. But it is the evil that now consumes Britain and the west which so completely chills the heart and prompts a terrible despair. For such moral blindness and worse means that, facing the heirs of the Nazis, the Jews once again find themselves abandoned, their victimisation once again dismissed and themselves once again blamed for their own persecution. Listen to the BBC, read the British newspapers or the New York Times, read the vicious readers’ comments on so many websites (including this one) and you will see that the blind eye to deranged racism and totalitarian mass murder that paved the way for so much slaughter under Nazism and Stalinism is rampant once again, showing us once more that civilisation is merely a thin veneer for barbarism.

In the face of this crisis of western civilisation and its chilling implications for the Jewish people, Israel itself is worse than useless. This is because -- contrary to the brutish power ascribed to it by its enemies -- Israel is pathologically timid. And so, even when faced with the terrifying consequences for its own security from the moral inversion of the west, it has chosen to stay silent.

It does not say what it should be shouting from the rooftops, that it is being forced by Britain, America and Europe to cut its own throat and that it refuses to do so; that it stands for truth, justice and international law while Britain, America and the EU stand for their negation; that it is not Israel but these western powers that are the cause of the Middle East impasse, because from the get-go the more the Arabs massacred the Jews the more Britain and the west rewarded them and punished their Jewish victims, a pattern which continues to this day.

The question now has to be asked of every person in Britain and the west who promotes the boycott of Israel, or wears the keffiyeh in solidarity with the ‘Palestinians’, or so obsessively demonises the ‘settlers’ or ‘apartheid’ Israel, or makes vicious comments at the dinner tables of the elite about the bloody Jews and shitty Israel, why these ‘enlightened’ folk turn a blind eye to the slaughter of infants as they sleep, and assist Jew-hating fanatics in their racist aim of destroying Israel and denying to the Jews alone the right to live in their own historic country – and all because Israel is reluctant to reward these fanatics by giving them the territory from where they can finally achieve their murderous aims. These ‘progressives’ need to be outed for what they are – the fellow-travellers of psychotic religious fascism.

Israel is the signature moral issue of our time. Which side people choose to be on in the Arab and Muslim war against Israel tells us whether they are on the side of truth, justice and basic humanity – or the side of evil. The sickening response to the slaughter of the Fogel family shows us all too horrifyingly which side the west is on.

Legacy of Hiroshima Heightens Fears in Japan

As we discussed the earthquake and tsunami on Monday in class, I noted that Japan was the world's only country that had previously faced a nuclear holocaust. The potential (and now real) meltdown of nuclear reactors there has an enormous historical significance for the Japanese, beyond the comprehension or experience of any other nation. At WSJ, "Hiroshima's Legacy Heightens Fears":

TOKYO—Mikiso Iwasa was 16 years old when the atomic bomb struck Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945. He was in the backyard of his house, a little less than a mile away from ground zero. He was smashed onto the ground by the force of the bomb.

Mr. Iwasa escaped, but the deadly effects of radiation caught up with him later: He suffered from skin cancer twice as well as prostate cancer. He lost his hair. His nose and gums bled. He developed rashes all over his body.

For the only country ever to have experienced the atomic bomb and the horrific effects of concentrated radiation exposure, the nuclear crisis escalating in Japan has had a crippling effect on the nation's collective psyche.

As the World Looks Away...

A thoughtful and acutely urgent essay, from Zilla of the Resistance, "Don't Let Them Sweep this Horror Under the Rug":

Please, do not let what happened to these people be forgotten, do not allow the media to get away with whitewashing the islamist slaughter of innocents. The MSM won't honestly report on what is happening, or why, so it falls to the rest of us. Get on your blogs, your Twitter, Facebook and other social networks, write/email/call fax news agencies and do not let this horror be ignored.

Remember what happened the last time the world looked the other way as Jews were massacred? Think it can't happen again? Well people back then thought that it could never happen in the first place.

Lots more at the link.

Silicone Snake Death Photoshoot: Israeli Jewish Model Orit Fox

At London's Daily Mail, fulsome coverage of the snake attack on model Orit Fox in Israel, "Snake dies from silicone poisoning after biting model's breast during photoshoot." The story's getting more coverage than the Fogel family killings, and that's not just at Daily Mail. Turns out the press likes large Jewish breasts. Jewish settlers. Not so much. See Closet Conservative: "New Seekrit Zionist Weapon of Massive Boobie Destruction."

HAT TIP: Blazing Cat Fur: "Decapitated Jewish babies? Nowhere."

Danny Ayalon, Israel Deputy Foreign Minister, Statement on Itamar Massacre

From an interview with Seth Mandel, at Big Peace:

Ayalon said the brutal stabbing of a Jewish family in Itamar in their sleep cannot be looked at in a vacuum, but is more evidence that without true recognition, the delegitimization of Israel and the ubiquitous incitement in Palestinian media reinforces an environment of violence that will only continue if this atmosphere of hatred isn’t reformed:

“So of course when we talk about the fact that we would like the Palestinians to recognize Israel as a Jewish state or the homeland of the Jews, it’s something which is more than symbolic. It’s not just something that is verbally pronounced. It’s something which is very deep. Because if we sign a peace treaty between the Israeli people and the Palestinians, it also must reflect the end of the conflict, and the end of the claims. And so long as they claim the entire land, and we see it through a systematic incitement through a systematic culture which talks about the Israelis, the Jews as colonialists that do not deserve a state, that came here from… Europe, deny 3,500 years of Jewish history and presence here. And of course glorification of terrorists. But so long as they do not accept in the fullest meaning that we are here by our own right–they are not doing any favor to us by recognizing this–then we have a problem.”

More at the link above.

Occupy Michigan!

What have I warned?!!

These are not protests or sleepovers! They're militant anarcho-communist occupations!

At The Michigan Messenger, "Activists Confirm Plans to Peacefully Take Capitol":

A group of Michigan activists has confirmed that it plans to stage a protest in the state Capitol building at 4 p.m. today.

Lance Enderle, a former Democratic candidate for Michigan’s 8th Congressional district, confirmed moments ago that he is leading the protest.

“We are planning to exercise our free speech rights in a non-violent way,” Enderle said. “We will take the Rotunda, and we are not leaving.”

The Capitol building closes at 5:30 p.m. and officials have told Michigan Messenger that anyone remaining in the building after 5:30 will be given a 10 minute warning to leave. If they don’t leave, Michigan State Police troopers could eject them or arrest them for trespassing.

Turns out that the ...

... protesters were kicked out around 5:45 this afternoon, but many of them are sitting down and refusing to leave, yelling, “This is a war on the middle class!”

Right.

So much for that big "occupation." See, "Tuesday Capitol protests anti-climatic: Crowd disperses once threatened with arrest."

But communist Michael Moore is undeterred, with plans for a big event tomorrow night, "Letter to My Fellow Michiganders":

Please show up at noon on Wednesday for our first mega-rally against this insanity. Hundreds of groups are already organizing car pools and buses. You can right now just declare yourself an organizer and get your friends and neighbors committed to being in Lansing. If ever there were a day to call in sick, Wednesday is it (because this IS sick). Students, if ever there were a day to cut class and become a participant in your democracy, Wednesday is it. This event needs to be HUGE -- and I believe it will be if you will simply be there and take a stand.

Gotta love it. Have public employees call in sick when they're not sick, and students will be truants as well as participants. Progressives just want to overthrow the entire legal and moral realm.

That is sick.

Anti-Semitism at UC Santa Cruz

Impossible!

Not.

See SantaCruz.com (via Instapundit). The U.S. Department of Education is looking into it:

The investigation comes in the wake of a 2009 complaint by lecturer Tammi Rossman-Benjamin. Rossman-Benjamin, who teaches Hebrew on campus, has also published a paper titled “Anti-Zionism and the Abuse of Academic Freedom: A Case Study at the University of California, Santa Cruz.” According to her, no other group on campus has been subjected to “such hostile and demonizing criticism” as Jewish students.

And from that paper, published at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs:

Over the past several years, faculty members at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) have injected anti-Zionist rhetoric into their courses and departmentally-sponsored events. For example, a community-studies class designed to train social activists was taught by an instructor who described herself in her online syllabus as an activist with the "campaign against the Apartheid Wall being built in Palestine," and whose recommended readings included such unreferenced statements as: "Israeli massacres are often accompanied by sexual assault, particularly of pregnant women as a symbolic way of uprooting the children from the mother, or the Palestinian from the land."

The previous summer, the same lecturer taught a community-studies course on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in which she used the class email list to encourage students to participate in a demonstration against Israel's "destructive actions" in Lebanon and Gaza outside the Israeli consulate in San Francisco. UCSC students also report that some professors insert into class lectures anti-Israel or anti-Zionist materials unrelated to the course, as when a full class period in a course on women's health activism was devoted to a lecture on the allegedly ruthless treatment of Palestinians by Israeli soldiers.

At the departmental level, since 2001 more than a dozen events dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have been sponsored by a number of UCSC departments and research centers, and all of these have been biased against Israel.

Nope. No anti-Semitism here. Nothing to see. Move along.

Baby Hadas Fogel Beheaded! — Palestinians and Progressive Terror-Enablers Deny Responsibility for the Attack!!

The depths of evil just got deeper.

Claire Berlinski reports, "Writing in Cold Blood About Itamar" (via Pundit & Pundette):

We went yesterday to Itamar, the West Bank settlement where Udi and Ruth Fogel, and their children--Yoav, age 11, Elad, age 4, and Hadas, their 3-month-old daughter--were murdered. A detail that wasn't widely reported, or reported anywhere that I've seen, is that their newborn baby was decapitated.

And see Aaron Worthing's post, "The Hate That Killed Hadas Fogel":

It is fashionable in some circles to excuse Palestinian terrorism as being motivated by injustice ... The murder of babies gives lie to the claim that Palestinian terror is motivated in their violence by anything but jew hate, pure, simple and ugly.

Word.

See also Bret Stephens, "Are Israeli Settlers Human?":

Unquestionably pleased are residents of the Palestinian town of Rafah in the Gaza Strip, who "hit the streets Saturday to celebrate the terror attack" and "handed out candy and sweets," according to the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth. The paper quoted one Rafah resident saying the massacre was "a natural response to the harm settlers inflict on the Palestinian residents in the West Bank." Just what kind of society thinks it's "natural" to slit the throats of children in their beds?

The answer: The same society that has named summer camps, soccer tournaments and a public square in Ramallah after Dalal Mughrabi, a Palestinian woman who in March 1978 killed an American photographer and hijacked a pair of Israeli buses, leading to the slaughter of 37 Israeli civilians, 13 children among them.

I have a feeling that years from now Palestinians will look back and wonder: How did we allow ourselves to become that? If and when that happens—though not until that happens—Palestinians and Israelis will at long last be able to live alongside each other in genuine peace and security.

But I also wonder whether a similar question will ever occur to the Palestinian movement's legion of fellow travelers in the West. To wit, how did they become so infatuated with a cause that they were willing to ignore its crimes—or, if not quite ignore them, treat them as no more than a function of the supposedly infinitely greater crime of Israeli occupation?

That's an important question because it forms part of the same pattern in which significant segments of Western opinion cheered Ho Chi Minh and Fidel Castro and Robert Mugabe and even Pol Pot. The cheering lasted just as long as was required to see the cause through to some iconic moment of triumph, and then it was on to the next struggle. It was left to others to pick up the pieces or take to the boats or die choking in their own blood.

Right.

Western progressives cheer socialist butchers and give pass to the most heinous totalitarian crimes imaginable. These are crimes against humanity. So objectively bad, in fact, that Palestinians and their progressive pro-terror enablers have launched a campaign of denial, declaiming any Palestinian responsibility for the attack. See Jerusalem Post, "PA-linked sites: 'Foreign worker behind Itamar killings'." See also Jew-hating Max Blumenthal and the communist-backed Mondoweiss:

Everyone is rushing to condemn the gruesome murder of a family in the illegal Israeli settlement of Itamar. Even President Barack Obama felt compelled to offer his “unequivocal condemnation” of the murders. For what it’s worth (very little), I offer my own denunciation of the killings. Murdering kids can not be justified on any human level. However, even if the motives of the killer seem obvious to everyone, journalists covering the incident must be reminded there is no hard evidence that a Palestinian terrorist committed the crime. No viable armed faction has taken credit, and Israeli police are even treating Thai workers as suspects.

Itamar is heavily guarded, surrounded by an electrified fence, and monitored 24/7 by a sophisticated system of video surveillance. Yet there is no video of the killer. Like it or not, until the identity of the killer is confirmed, the murder can only be described by journalists as an “alleged terror attack.” Legitimate outrage is no excuse to flout the basics of journalism 101.

Pro-terrorist Max Blumenthal conveniently neglects to mention that Fatah's militant wing claimed responsibility for the attack: "Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades Claims Responsibility for Terror Attack on Israeli Family…" And rival Palestinian terrorists Hamas issued a celebratory approval of the killings: "Hamas Praises Savage Attack on Jewish Settlers in Arabic, Denies Responsibility in English." Now there's massive backtracking and repudiation of responsibility, but to any honest, decent thinking person there's no question about what happened. The horror is only magnified by the silence of the world community, as Mark Steyn notes at his essay, "Dead Jews Is No News." And see also Caroline Glick, "Three Jewish Children":

The enlightened peoples of Europe, and growing numbers of Americans, have no interest in hearing or seeing anything that depicts Jews as good people, or even just as regular people. It is not that the cultured, intellectual A-listers in Europe and America share the Palestinians’ genocidal hatred of the Jewish people.

The powerful newspaper editors, television commentators, playwrights, fashion designers, filmmakers and professors don’t spend time thinking about how to prepare the next slaughter. They don’t teach their children from the time they are Hadas and Elad Fogel’s ages that they should strive to become mass murderers. They would never dream of doing these things. They know there is a division of labor in contemporary anti-Semitism.

The job of the intellectual luminaries in Western high society today is to hate Jews the old-fashioned way, the way their greatgrandparents hated Jews back in the days of the early 20th century before that villain Adolf Hitler gave Jewhating a bad name.

And I'm still waiting for the activist left's denunciation of the murders. We've had faux-denunciations and febrile hand-wringing. But as I've pointed out previously, it's been mostly silence on the left. Why speak up when mass murders help your cause?

Progressives Think They Gained Momentum in Wisconsin — They Should Think Again

I wasn't able to get to it earlier, but there were a few huzzahs on the left over the size of last weekends latest protest in Madison. Was the crowd size 100,000? Impressive. But the comparison to the tea party falls flat. Conservatives have set the new standard for a sustained populist movement, and it's about returning to core values, not about confiscating other people's money. I'll have more on all of this. But meanwhile, Mona Charen writes, "Who Won In Wisconsin?"

Who won the battle of Wisconsin? Republican governor Scott Walker got a legislative victory. On the other hand, Democrats, with a wary eye on 2012 and noting the worrying drop in support for President Obama in union-heavy states like Pennsylvania and Michigan, claim to be delighted that Governor Walker has picked this fight. “Republicans have done organized labor a great favor by putting the movement back in [the] labor movement, creating a level of passion and activism for workers’ rights that hasn’t been seen in generations,” crowed Democratic strategist Mike Lux.

Maybe so. Though the three-week tantrum by union protesters in Madison (which escalated to harassment of Republican legislators by the Party of Civility), along with the flight of Democratic legislators to Illinois may well offend more Americans than it energizes ....

During the last election cycle, the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) contributed $90 million to Democratic candidates. In 2006, then New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine addressed a rally of 10,000 public employees in Trenton, declaring “We will fight for a fair contract.” Corzine was supposed to be management. With whom was he fighting?

The answer, as even Democratic governors like Andrew Cuomo and Jerry Brown are discovering is — other middle-class people, i.e. the taxpayers. The taxpayers are the ones left holding the bag when elected officials team up with public-sector unions. Middle-class taxpayers, only 65 percent of whom have access to retirement plans, are picking up the tab for the 90 percent of government employees who do. Nearly 70 percent of lower-wage government workers receive health benefits, compared with only 38 percent of private-sector workers.

Many state workers avail themselves of the option to retire in their early to mid 50s at nearly full pay. If they were New Jersey teachers, they can collect free health benefits for life ...

RTWT.

More later ...

Japan Faces Potential Nuclear Catastrophe as Workers Flee Plant!

The front image at the New York Times' homepage includes an overhead picture with the caption, "The worst nuclear accident since the Chernobyl explosion in 1986 is unfolding in northern Japan at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant ..." The article link is here. See also Telegraph UK, "Japan crisis: third explosion at Fukushima nuclear plant" (via Memeorandum).

A fresh explosion rocked Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant on Tuesday and some workers were ordered to leave the site, a sign that the situation may be getting more serious.

Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism — State of the News Media 2011

The Pew report is here, "Overview." (And click through to the longer, detailed overview, which is fascinating.) And from the key findings:

Digital: In December 2010, 41% of Americans cited the internet as the place where they got “most of their news about national and international issues,” up 17% from a year earlier. When it came to any kind of news, 46% of people now say they get news online at least three times a week, surpassing newspapers (40%) for the first time. Only local TV news is a more popular platform in America now (50%). The new wild card in digital is mobile. A new survey released as part of the State of the News Media find finds that 47% of Americans now say they get some kind of local news on mobile devices such as cellphones or other wireless devices (such as iPads). As of January 2011, just 7% of Americans owned electronic tablets, according to our new survey, but that is nearly double from four months prior; and 6% of American adults have e-readers.

A summary of the findings is at LAT, "For the first time, more people got news from the Web than newspapers in 2010, Pew report says."

NYT chooses a different angle, NPR viability: "At NPR, Strong Journalism and Weak Management": After discussing the key findings, NYT announces:

Amid all that creative destruction, there was a one large traditional news organization that added audience, reporters and revenue. That unlikely juggernaut was NPR.

Isn't that great. NPR gets a crutch from the far-left New York Times. Wonders never cease. Good thing too, since the folks at National Palestinian Radio are pushing back against the O'Keefe investigation, pushing back hard: "NPR: O'Keefe 'Inappropriately Edited' Video; Exec's Words Still 'Egregious'," and "Elements Of NPR Gotcha Video Taken Out of Context" (at Memeorandum). And more from Lindsay Beyerstein, "James O'Keefe and Journalistic Malpractice." This is like calling the fire truck after the house has burned to the ground. No need to watch the full two-hour clip to know exactly what NPR execs think, and of course we have the Betsy Liley e-mails to show exactly how NPR executives act. They wanted the money and they were willing to make a Muslim Brotherhood-style organization an "anonymous donor." O'Keefe's a muckraker --- and thank goodness for that. Beyerstein practically wet herself with feigned indignation. Not a peep about NPR's extreme progressive bias. All this talk, at NYT above, about outstanding reporting, blah, blah, blah, is great if you're a granola cruncher of the Berkeley Birkenstock and Harvard Yard pedigree. For the rest of America, it's a bunch of elitist crap.

It's no surprise that newspapers are dying off. Even cable is tanking, especially CNN, which saw less viewers in 2010 than the lowly MSNBC: "CNN's Primetime Viewership Falls Below MSNBC's In 2010; Network Evening News Audience Continues A 30 Year Decline."

More later ...

Intervention in Libya?

Following-up on my earlier piece, "Regime Change Libya?"

I'm actually not all that gung-ho on U.S. military intervention, although the case is not just a matter of democracy promotion at this point. Gaddafi's now waging an all-out war on his own people. William Kristol echoes Niall Ferguson's point on Egypt a few weeks back, noting the utter bankruptcy of the Obama administration's foreign policy.

Progressives are up in arms about the possible use of force, which is a classic left-wing knee-jerk reaction to deployment of military power, no matter how limited. It's pretty shameful, especially as these tools claim Barack Hussein's doing a fabulous job with his comments on the crisis so far. Problem is, that's not going to be nearly enough, as William Kristol points out:

Perhaps progressives might wrap their tiny minds around the call from Princeton's Anne-Marie Slaughter:

The United States should immediately ask the Security Council to authorize a no-flight zone and make clear to Russia and China that if they block the resolution, the blood of the Libyan opposition will be on their hands. We should push them at least to abstain, and bring the issue to a vote as soon as possible. If we get a resolution, we should work with the Arab League to assemble an international coalition to impose the no-flight zone. If the Security Council fails to act, then we should recognize the opposition Libyan National Council as the legitimate government, as France has done, and work with the Arab League to give the council any assistance it requests.

Slaughter's a genuine "liberal interventionist," while Kristol is perhaps today's most prominent neoconservative hawk on regime change in the Middle East. That their arguments are dovetailing like this, in such a compelling way, makes for an interesting smackdown against the lame antiwar peanut-brains.

RELATED: At Los Angeles Times, "Libyan rebels flee Port Brega as Kadafi's forces advance" (via Memeorandum).

TBogg of Firedoglake a Liar? Well It Depends On What the Meaning of the Word 'Long' Is

I'd pretty much planned to ignore the latest vile and steaming hatred over at Lawyers, Gays and Marriage. It's the same old baloney. But you know, if Scott Eric Kaufman wants to write post after post whining about my objections to him saying he was gonna "end me," then maybe he shouldn't have threatened that he was going to "end me," or something. But he's at it again, in any case, bloviating with a bunch of nonsense about how he's got some attorney friends spoon-feeding him litigation tips, which sounds totally impressive --- and totally unimportant. That said, the thread's a fabulous case of a bunch of fever swamp dickwads with too much time on their hands. Talk about getting sucked into the Douglas Vortex! I love the feedback, as demented as it may be. No doubt I'm over the target and killing these mofos. Indeed, Demon Tbogg at Firedoglake --- thinking he's some kinda netroots bigshot --- ends up lying through his effin' teeth:

I long ago decided to quit responding to or otherwise acknowledging Douglas. Back when he was going apes-hit about the budget in California I pointed out that it could come back to bite him in the ass since he is a public employee. He took that to mean I was somehow threatening to his job when I was pointing out that he had a family to watch out for.

Some people are just too stupid to be helped. Fuck ‘em.

So, Tbogg "long ago decided to quit responding to or otherwise acknowledging Douglas." And of course, he signs off his rant with the obligatory FDL profanity. Gotta love these guys. "Dumbasses", as dolt-douche Thers might say. Since naturally it was just exactly two weeks ago when TBogg in fact commented here at the blog, on February 27th. The "JuCo" dig is meant to be a slam on my position at a community college professor, but as we serve the most disadvantaged in society, it's a reminder of how out of touch progressives are with the people they profess to champion:

Tell me Donald, does your JuCo employer have anyone on staff who teaches remedial reading?

"As a pudgy FreedomWorks Warrior For Freedom demands that a Union guy discuss Freedom with him, Tabitha Hale shows up and and decides to shove her iPhone in the Union guys face..."

Even by your standards...very sloppy.

The quote's from TBogg's attack on Tabitha Hale, of which he suggests I should be correcting, since he can't write decent prose, I guess. Either way, that's a real awesome job there of not "responding to or acknowledging in any way." And just two Sundays ago --- which I'm sure we'll be learning from those in the "reality-based community" is in fact a really, really long time ago! Because, you know, it just all depends on what the meaning of the word "long" is!

And if that doesn't do it, perhaps progressives might stretch their timeline back to December, which was the last time TBogg was not acknowledging me in any way, with "Donald Dick."

But hey, you gotta love these mofo troll-freaks. They hate me so much they really like me. Sally Field would be proud!!

Japan Quake Toll May Reach Tens of Thousands

AP has that tsunami video that was replayed over and over on cable this afternoon.

And there's dramatic coverage at Los Angeles Times, "Japan quake toll could number in tens of thousands":

Reporting from Sendai, Japan, and Tokyo - With a death toll expected to climb into the tens of thousands, more than a half-million people displaced and a nuclear crisis continuing to unfold, rescuers converged Monday on Japan's devastated earthquake zone while workers in relatively unaffected areas struggled to return to offices and factories.

A new explosion rocked the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power complex, wire services reported, sending a plume of smoke into the air. Japan's nuclear safety agency said it could not confirm whether the hydrogen explosion at the plant's No. 3 reactor had led to an uncontrolled leak of radioactivity.

The government reported Monday that radiation levels again rose above legal limits outside the crippled nuclear complex at quake-battered Fukushima, about 150 miles north of Tokyo, where authorities have been pumping seawater into overheated reactors to try to cool them down. Several other nuclear installations were under close watch for potential problems.

Across a wide swath of earthquake-hit territory, hundreds of thousands of hungry survivors roused themselves from a third cold night spent huddled in darkened emergency centers, cut off from rescuers, aid and electricity. At least 1.4 million households had gone without water since the quake struck and some 1.9 million households were without power. Rolling blackouts to conserve energy were scheduled across much of the country on Monday.

The developments there have been rapid fire and overwhelming. Danger of radiation fallout is now exacerbated by news of a volcanic eruption. And the New York Times reports, "Minister Calls Disaster Country’s Worst Since WWII." See also, "Radioactive Releases in Japan Could Last Months, Experts Say." (More at Hot Air and Memeorandum.)

Palestinians Call for New Violent Uprising, a 'Third Intifada' — Israel Says 'Murders Are Reminder of Struggle for Our Existence'

There's a glut of important news of happenings around the world, but given the scale of the atrocity in the West Bank, the response to the Fogel family massacre among progressives and the lamestream media is pathetic, if not predictable.

Importantly, despite the stern denials of the PA leadership, the Palestinian street has once again expressed the true sentiment toward Israel and Middle East peace. At Ynet, "Facebook page calls for 3rd intifada." There's a video a the link, anonymously sourced and in Arabic, announcing the launch of a new Intifada on May 15, the alleged anniversary of the Nakba. And at Commentary, "So, Who Controls the Palestinian Street?" Frankly, the it's one big happy family of Muslim fanatics: "Palestine Today: Stabbing of 3 year old, infant 'heroic and courageous'." Contrast that to the rituals denials and fake denunciation of violence: "Palestinian Arabs' new meme: 'We would never kill children!'"

In related news, last night I was ready to post this video from My Israel, "Massacre of the Israeli Fogel family by a Palestinian terrorist – Names and Faces." But just as I was about to publish, the clip was taken down by YouTube: "Video of Friday’s slaying of Jews by Palestinians banned by YouTube and Facebook." Pamela has the video, plus photos from the scene, "Islamic Jew Hatred: **GRAPHIC** Muslims Stab Jewish family of Five to Death." And Israel Matzav posts the statement from the Fogel family on the release of the Itamar photos:

Dear colleagues,

These photos were released by the family. They have given full permission for their use and they to ask you to report on the horrific reality of murdering children and babies in their sleep, simply because they are Jewish.

https://picasaweb.google.com/picsyesha/Itamar

The photos are high resolution and can be reproduced in your website and newspaper.

For more information, pls contact Roni Arazi, spokesman of the Yesha Council, Israel; 972-54-566-5999.

Plus, it turns out Power Line picks up my post from last night, "Scenes From a Massacre."

And at Los Angeles Times, "Israel vows to expand settlements after stabbings":

As thousands of Israelis gathered Sunday to bury five members of a family of Jewish settlers who were stabbed to death in their beds over the weekend, the government said it would respond to the attack by building an additional 500 homes in the West Bank.

Israeli security forces continued their manhunt for unknown infiltrators who broke into the heavily guarded settlement of Itamar, south of Nablus, and killed Udi and Ruth Fogel and three of their children, including an infant. The military has named no suspects, but officials are blaming Palestinian militants for the attack.

The government decision to expand housing construction in several large settlement blocs was intended to signal that Israel's presence in the West Bank will not be deterred by violence, officials said.

"This murder reminds everyone that the struggle and conflict is not about Israel's borders or about independence of a repressed nation, but a struggle for our existence," Vice Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon said at the funeral. "In this difficult hour we must rise from the rubble and do the most natural thing — continue building and developing Israel."

Plus, at Jerusalem Post, "PM visits Itamar victims' families: 'They shoot, we build'."

Added: More from Israel Matzav, "The New York Times blames the 'settlers'."