Professor Scott Lemieux: Lone Pro-Life Wacko More Threatening to Americans Than Phony, Unconstitutional Global War on Terror, or Something

Scott Lemieux's Spencer Ackerman moment.

No doubt this kinda stuff got Lemieux booted from Hunter College. He's now flailing away at The College of Saint Rose. Yeah, they've probably got some social justice types who like such filth. Shoot, Lemieux's far left-wing fanaticism might even look good for the tenure review committee.

Anyway, check Lawyers, Guns and Murder:

Backround at Reuters: "Wisconsin man charged with plan to attack abortion clinic." The suspect's a nut-job. But in the sick progressive mindset, someone like this is even more dangerous than the September 11 attackers or the likes of Khalid Shaikh Muhammad. See: "The troubled mind of a would-be abortion doctor assassin."

RELATED: Lemieux's got a piece on the Goodwin Liu filibuster fiasco, "Let My Judges Go!"

The piece is getting ripped in the comments:

Where the heck was your similar article when the Democrats deep-sixed a bunch of George W. Bush's nominees!? You Progressives are really something else. The one-sided reporting makes this article complete garbage.

And:

It is totally ridiculous to try to portray Liu as anything other than the radical left extremist that he has shown himself to be by his writings. Not to mention the fact that he has absolutely no judicial experience.

Perhaps Obama should consider nominating people who are not guaranteed to be activist judges who believe that they can interpret the Constitution any way they like.

Progressives only hate the filibuster when it messes up their side. Just ask George W. Bush appointees Miguel Estrada, Priscilla Owens, etc. Democrat filibusters at the time were unprecedented. Lemieux is an America-hating hack. He's lucky to have landed a post with a bunch of liberation theologists, or whatever.

Poliwood: 2011 Cannes Film Festival — Anti-Semitic or Simply Boring?

With Roger L. Simon and Lionel Chetwynd:

Also, a Steven Crowder clip at Barking Moonbat.

'America in the World' — The Last Speech by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates

The text is available from the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs).

And at Wall Street Journal, "The Gates Farewell Warning: America can be a superpower or a welfare state, but not both":

Robert Gates, who steps down next month after four-plus years at the Pentagon, is making his retirement lap a tutorial on America's defense spending and security needs. His message is welcome, especially on Memorial Day, and even if he couldn't always heed it in his time as Secretary of Defense.

In a series of farewell speeches, Mr. Gates has warned against cuts to weapon programs and troop levels that would make America vulnerable in "a complex and unpredictable security environment," as he said Sunday at Notre Dame. On Tuesday at the American Enterprise Institute, Mr. Gates noted that the U.S. went on "a procurement holiday" in the 1990s, when the Clinton Administration decided to cash in the Cold War peace dividend. The past decade showed that history (and war) didn't end in 1989.

"It is vitally important to protect the military modernization accounts," he said, and push ahead with new capabilities, from an air refueling tanker fleet to ballistic missile submarines.

More at the link at top. The statistics on "entitlement overstretch" are staggering.

The Lessons of Netanyahu's Triumph

From Caroline Glick, at Jerusalem Post:

In the coming weeks and months, the threats to Israel will surely only increase. And with these escalating threats will come also the escalating need for strong and certain leadership.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was hoping to avoid his clash with US President Barack Obama this week in Washington.

Four days before his showdown at the White House with the American leader, Netanyahu addressed the Knesset. His speech was the most dovish he had ever given. In it, he set out the parameters of the land concessions he is willing to make to the Palestinians, in the event they ever decide that they are interested in negotiating a final peace.

Among other things, Netanyahu spoke for the first time about “settlement blocs,” and so signaled that he would be willing to evacuate the more isolated Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria. He also spoke of a longterm military presence in the Jordan Valley rather than Israeli sovereignty along the militarily vital plain.

Both strategically and ideologically, Netanyahu’s speech constituted a massive concession to Obama. The premier had good reason to believe that his speech would preempt any US demand for further Israeli concessions during his visit to Washington.

Alas, it was not to be. Instead of welcoming Netanyahu’s unprecedented concessions, Obama dismissed them as insufficient as he blindsided Netanyahu last Thursday with his speech at the State Department. There, just hours before Netanyahu was scheduled to fly off to meet him in the Oval Office, Obama adopted the Palestinian negotiating position by calling for Israel to accept that future negotiations will be based on the indefensible – indeed suicidal – 1949 armistice lines.

So, just as he was about to board his plane, Netanyahu realized that his mission in the US capital had changed ...

Read it all.

Sarah Palin Releases Video Ahead of Bus Tour

Via New York Times:

Background at Los Angeles Times, "Sarah Palin to launch bus trip through U.S":

Reporting from Washington— In the clearest indication to date that she is seriously considering a presidential run, Sarah Palin plans to launch a nationwide bus tour Sunday from Washington.

"Gov. Palin and the SarahPAC team will begin a trip through our nation's rich historical sites, starting from Washington, D.C., and going up through New England," said a statement posted Thursday on Palin's political action committee website. "The 'One Nation Tour' is part of our new campaign to educate and energize Americans about our nation's founding principles, in order to promote the fundamental restoration of America."

The website RealClearPolitics, which first reported the story, said the tour could last several weeks and would be divided into separate geographical stretches, according to unnamed sources close to the former Alaska governor and 2008 vice presidential nominee.

The first stop will be at the Rolling Thunder Memorial Day weekend motorcycle rally in Washington. A New England tour would seem to suggest a visit to New Hampshire, which hosts the first 2012 presidential primary.

Palin said as recently as last week that she was still considering a run, but refused to offer any clues as to her timetable for making a decision. Her website said the tour was being funded through her PAC.

Also, from Chris Cillizza, "Fast Fix: Is Sarah Palin back? (VIDEO)."

NewsBusted: '7-year-old caught with heroin'

Via Theo Spark:

Kate Upton Sports Illustrated Photoshoot — It's Friday Rule 5

I'm gonna bug the hell out of the progressive PC ASFLs this weekend, so here's getting off to an early start. Besides, I don't see Blazing Cat Fur's Friday entry (last week's is here).

Also, a huge shout out to Bruce at Maggie's Farm, who's been doing fantastic work with the news-link roundups. Also, at The Other McCain: "Christina Hendricks Talks About Her Breasts: ‘They’re So Obviously Real …’"

Leading off is Pirate's Cove with his latest in "you must be a warmist" series. Plus, nearly NSFW at Theo's.

And don't miss Bob Belvedere's fabulous Rule 5 entry: " A Little Hump Day Rule 5: Lorrie-Menconi."

Anyway, here's some link around action: Astute Bloggers, Bob Belvedere, CSPT, Dan Collins, Eye of Polyphemus, Gator Doug, Irish Cicero, Left Coast Rebel, Mind-Numbed Robot, Legal Insurrection, Lonely Conservative, PA Pundits International, PACNW Righty, Pirate's Cove, Proof Positive, Saberpoint, Snooper, WyBlog, The Western Experience, and Zion's Trumpet.

Plus, top it off with with American Perspective, Maggie's Notebook and Zilla of the Resistance.

Let me know if I need to add your blog to the roundup.

It's Hard Out There for a Slang Expert

I guess JBW's bailed out on AmPow, or, well, at least since I dissed him as the "SpongeBob of 'Sophisticated' Political Analysis."

Hey, nah. My bad. JBW's cool — or at least not a 24/7 ASFL (and you gotta love this Photoshop!). Not only that, he keeps me honest on the slang, so I'm sending this out to my homie James B. "Sweet Tits" Webb. At Wall Street Journal, "As Slang Changes More Rapidly, Expert Has to Watch His Language":

BERKELEY, Calif. — Tom Dalzell was thrilled last month when he came across a weird new verb: "rickroll."

Then he went online and saw that "rickrolling"—the Internet prank that involves sending someone a link to the music video for Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up"—has been around for four years. That's an eon in the world of slang, enough time to render a term stale.

For most people, being late to a language trend isn't a problem. But Mr. Dalzell, a 59-year-old union leader by day and slang expert after hours, is now in the process of updating the New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English. And as informal language evolves faster than ever, Mr. Dalzell is finding it trickier to keep up.

"Yesterday's cutting-edge is today's ho-hum," he says.

The problem: Slang is born when groups outside the mainstream invent their own language—verbal code that can quickly lose its punch once others catch on. That process used to take a while. But now that social media sites like Facebook and Twitter let people post messages for anyone to see, slang gets exposed much more quickly.

"It's really shortened the shelf life," says Mr. Dalzell, who is considered to be a real "big noise," or a very important person, among word whizzes like Jesse Sheidlower, editor-at-large at the Oxford English Dictionary.

More at the link.

COME BACK JAMESSSSS!!!!!!!

End of Spring 2011 at Long Beach City College

Folks following the flame wars with the ASFL progressives will have noticed that variations of the "shitty community college" slur is routinely deployed as if that's some kind of an epic put-down. The only people who ever say such things are leftists. But of course the two-year colleges serve the constituencies progressives purportedly claim to champion, so the attacks once more show the monumental hypocrisy of the Democrat-Socialist ASFLs.

That's LBCC President Eloy Oakley at the clip. And I got a tickle out of a card a student gave me during the last week of classes, where she writes:

I had a great time in class. I was always tired from work but your personality made the class fun, and refreshing ...

She's a very nice young woman, a legal immigrant from Mexico who supports strict border enforcement. I don't think she'd approve of students dropping f-bombs, or their professors who award them for it.

A lot more happened this semester, including a student who ended her pregnancy at the beginning of classes and was miserable for the remainder of the term. During discussions we talk a lot about the right to privacy and questions of choice, when covering civil liberties, etc., so that must have been rough. And it turned out that another one of my students had just had a baby, so her child was just a couple of month old when school started. She talked about her son all the time. And she was so happy. It was enriching and invigorating. I worked with both students very closely. The range of life satisfaction was like day and night, or, well, life and death, unfortunately.

More later ...

Brazen Big Media Lies on Israel

From Melanie Phillips, "The Brazenness of the Lie Just Makes You Gasp."

A sample:

So just how do America’s media finest manage to write the exact opposite of the truth? Why, by interviewing Israel’s finest from the media and intelligentsia, and treating as authoritative their views – which basically consist of little more than ‘Bibi is a menace because he is not left-wing, and all not-left-wing people are right-wing and thus an interruption to the natural order of things’.

That’s the prism through which the western media and intelligentsia generally refract so much of their reporting, not to mention their opinions. The western intelligentsia basically has its head stuck firmly up its own fundament. Small wonder the west is being led up the garden path and off the edge of that cliff.

Proposed Santa Monica Ballot Measure Could Ban Circumcision

My wife hadn't heard of the San Francisco ballot measure to ban the practice, so when we were watching the news last night she had to laugh: "So next we'll be having back-alley circumcisions?" Well, yeah. And she continued: "No grown man remembers being circumcised as a baby, but an 18 year-old will never forget." Ouch.

At KABC-TV Los Angeles, "Santa Monica Ballot Measure Wants to Ban Circumcision."

Egypt to Open Border-Crossing into Hamas-Controlled Gaza

See Boston Herald, "Open Border to Trouble":

While the president and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were debating the shape of a future two-state solution, the Egyptian government was exercising its own options in the region.

Tomorrow Egypt will open its only crossing into Hamas-controlled Gaza — a crossing that under the “cold peace” it has observed with Israel had remained closed since the Hamas take-over four years ago.

Of course, Gazans had improvised over those years, making their way into Egypt and back home again by way of a series of illegal tunnels — but not so illegal that Hamas didn’t attempt to collect taxes on goods coming into Gaza at their checkpoints...

Israel’s very real fear is over the possible flow of weapons and/or militants into Gaza, putting residents of southern Israel in further danger of ever more powerful rockets coming over the border from Gaza — not a pretty side of the Arab Spring.

RELATED: At ABC News, "Israel Struggles to Stop Weapons Smuggling at Sea."

Soquel Students Suspended for Wearing Plain White T-Shirts Deemed Offensive Signals of 'White Supremacy'

These kinds of stories are basically a daily occurrence nowadays. Saberpoint has a report: "Soquel High School Students Suspended for Wearing White T Shirts (They're Signs of "'hite Supremacy')":

Personally, I am at a loss as to how a white t shirt can endanger anyone's safety. It is absurd that a school principal could suspend students for such a lame-ass reason, in effect, acting as judge, jury and executioner. It seems he has punished these students for "thought crimes," even though he doesn't know for sure what they were thinking. He punished them "just in case" they might do something wrong in the future, and that greatly offends my sense of justice.

Mine too.

Kimberley Strassel: 'Who's Winning the Budget War?'

At Wall Street Journal:

Here's the Washington headline of the week that nobody in America got to read: Paul Ryan, 40. Barack Obama, 0.

Forty is the number of Senate votes that went in favor of Mr. Ryan's reformist budget, a tally that included nearly every Senate Republican. Zero is the number of votes President Obama got for his own tax-and-spend budget, a blueprint that not one of his own party had the backbone to support. It went down, 97-0.

Washington is in a game of high-stakes chicken over raising the debt limit, though so far only one side is flinching. According to the headlines (and Democrats), Republicans are on defense over Mr. Ryan's plan, are risking America's creditworthiness, and are delaying sensible compromise by refusing tax increases. It is only a matter of time, goes the betting, before the party swerves.

This has little relation to reality, in which it is Democrats who keep calling their own bluffs. It was Mr. Obama who first swerved, submitting a "do-over" of his initial, embarrassing budget. It is Democrats who have since swerved on the debt-limit debate, agreeing to spending-cut negotiations, then continuing to up the size of a package.

By refusing to blink, Republicans keep forcing Democrats to acknowledge a very simple political reality: Voters do want spending reform, and do not want tax hikes. That's why this debate has so far moved in the GOP's direction.

RTWT. Strassel mentions NY-26's special election, and she predicted the Democrat victory a couple of weeks ago in any case, "A New York Warning for the GOP":

Good news for a politics-weary nation: Come May 24, the debate over the Paul Ryan budget reform plan will be over—almost before it began. Democrats win. Republicans lose. Long live blowout entitlements.

That, at least, is the narrative being cast on the upcoming special election in New York's 26th congressional district. GOP candidate Jane Corwin had been handily ahead until several weeks ago, when Democrat Kathy Hochul began attacking her for supporting Mr. Ryan's plan. Polls have tightened, and Democrats and the media are now pitching the race as a "referendum" on GOP hopes to cut spending and reform entitlements such as Medicare. A Hochul victory, goes the line, will prove the Ryan plan is a bust even with conservative voters.

Fascinating, if utterly untrue. In their drive to nationalize this story, Democrats and the media are deliberately ignoring the real (if mundane) reasons why the Corwin campaign is struggling—namely, GOP infighting that has allowed a third-party candidate to siphon votes. New York 26 does offer the GOP some important lessons about the entitlement debate—just not any that Democrats are flogging.

See also, John McCormack, "NY-26: Democrat Kathy Hochul Wins with 47% of Vote."

Net-a-Porter Jumpin'

Via Harper's Bazaar:

And see Net-a-Porter while you're at it.

CWCID: Bob Belvedere.

Laura Ingraham Accepts Ed Schultz's Apology

Laura's been quite gracious though all of this.

But don't miss Dana Loesch's essay, which just hammers the progressive misogyny that animates the left, and notes that Schultz is the only one to apologize for the hate so far: "Ed Schultz: Sorry For Calling You a Slut."

I wish Schultz’s behavior was more the exception rather than the rule but sadly, it isn’t. The majority of progressive males with whom I come in contact always seem to exhibit a vicious hatred for conservative women, one I can’t explain, one that transcends rational disagreement and goes deeper than the basic chauvinistic stereotypes. It’s disturbing and it’s especially disturbing how our society, for the most part, looks the other way. I could spend a week daily highlighting the various examples here on Big Journalism but the time wouldn’t be enough.

When I heard Ed Schultz’s remarks, I heard an angry, older man lashing out at a woman because she thinks differently about politics than he. I heard in him the voice of the many progressive males who send me hatemail daily, telling me I should suffer any number of indignities, some of which I am obligated to report to the police and the cyber crimes division. It’s not just me – every conservative female of my acquaintance with a voice in politics endures the same political cat-calling. It’s despicable.

Disagreement is par for the course with this business. Sexism and outright neanderthal behavior is not.

Rae Abileah at Mondoweiss: 'Why Did I Disrupt?'

It's a regurgitation, but interesting that Abileah is posting at the reviled Mondoweiss. These people are literally insane:

Young Jews like me hear stories like Samouni’s, and we see clearly that Israel’s actions do not embody our deepest Jewish and humanistic values, which have taught us to love our neighbors and work for justice. We read in the Torah (Leviticus 24:22), “You shall have one standard (mishpat ehad) for stranger and citizen alike. . .” We also read in the Israeli equivalent of the Declaration of Independence, the Megillat ha-Atzmaut, that “[the State of Israel] will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex. . .” This rich and long Jewish commitment to social justice and equality bears no relation to Zinad Samouni’s experience of living under a crippling blockade and losing her loved ones to a brutal military onslaught that made no distinction between civilians and combatants.

It was this schism that we sought to expose during disruptions of Netanyahu’s speeches at the AIPAC conference and in Congress. Some decried our actions as “rude”, and “inappropriate.” But after countless fruitless attempts to petition lawmakers through traditional channels, we felt the time was ripe for a nonviolent direct action that would speak truth to this head of state. Netanyahu is, after all, responsible for the violation of Palestinians’ lives and human rights.

My neck pain is a small price to pay compared with the sacrifices made by numerous Palestinian, Israeli, and international nonviolent protesters who’ve risked their bodies and lives to defend the basic human rights of the Palestinian people. For example, recently the Israeli army arrested brothers Bassem and Naji Tamimi, who have organized unarmed protests in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh, and they are currently imprisoned without trial. Israel sent Palestinian Abdallah Abu Rahmah of Bil’in to prison for his role in organizing nonviolent protests against Israel’s illegal, land-confiscating wall. In March 2003, the Israeli Army bulldozed 23-year-old American Rachel Corrie to death when she attempted to prevent the demolition of a Palestinian home in Gaza. In March 2009, the army shot 38-year-old Tristan Anderson of Oakland, Calif., who was participating in a nonviolent anti-wall demonstration in the West Bank, with a high-velocity tear gas canister, causing a near-fatal head wound and brain injuries. These are only some of most egregious and visible examples of the daily violence faced by Palestinians and their supporters in their struggle to uphold human rights and international law.

There's more at the link above. Basically disinformation and propaganda, and not a single mention of terrorism against Jews, with the final solution of driving Israelis to the sea.

Recall my entry from last night, which puts anti-Zionist self-hating Jews in perspective: "B'Tselem: The World's Most Destructive Anti-Israel Organization."

(The video's an interview from Al Jazeera.)

Ratko Mladic, Bosnia War Crimes Suspect, Arrested in Serbia

At the Charleston Post Courier, "Serbia Arrests Mladic on War Criminal Charges":

BELGRADE, Serbia -- After 16 years on the run, a frail and haggard Ratko Mladic was hauled before a judge Thursday -- the first step in facing charges for international war crimes, including the slaughter of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica in 1995.

No longer the fearsome, bull-necked military commander, Mladic was arrested by intelligence agents in a raid before dawn at a relative's house in a village in northern Serbia. The act was trumpeted by the government as a victory for a country worthy of European Union membership and Western embrace.

Mladic, 69, was one of the world's most-wanted fugitives. He was the top commander of the Bosnian Serb army during Bosnia's 1992-95 war, which killed more than 100,000 people and drove another 1.8 million from their homes. Thousands of Muslims and Croats were killed, tortured or driven out in a campaign to purge the region of non-Serbs.

He was accused by the U.N. International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes for the massacre of Muslims by Bosnian Serb forces in eastern Bosnia and the relentless four-year siege of Sarajevo.

Also, at Christian Science Monitor, "After Ratko's arrests, a look back at the Srebenica massacre."

Buy American? DNC's Debbie Wasserman Schultz Drives 2010 Infiniti FX35!

The Hill reports, "DNC chairwoman doesn't drive American" (via Memeorandum):

The chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) appears to drive a foreign car, despite criticizing Republican presidential candidates for supposedly favoring foreign auto manufacturers.

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), the chairwoman of the DNC, ripped into Republican presidential contenders who opposed President Obama's 2009 bailouts for General Motors and Chrysler.

"If it were up to the candidates for president on the Republican side, we would be driving foreign cars; they would have let the auto industry in America go down the tubes," she said at a breakfast for reporters organized by The Christian Science Monitor.

But according to Florida motor vehicle records, the Wasserman Schultz household owns a 2010 Infiniti FX35, a Japanese car whose parent company is Nissan, another Japanese company. The car appears to be hers, since its license plate includes her initials.

The Christian Science Monitor's piece is here: "DNC chair: Without the auto bailout, we'd all drive foreign cars (VIDEO)." And see John Pitney, "Buying American."

Harvard's Stephen Walt Speaks at Code Pink's Move Over AIPAC! Summit, May 21, 2011

Alana Goodman had the heads up last month: "Move Over AIPAC, Here Come the Geriatric Anti-Semites."

It's shameful. The schedule is here. And check the group's list of ORGANIZATIONAL ENDORSEMENTS & PARTNERS. It's a one-stop shop for the global left's international solidarity movement. And of course Code Pink's the premiere fifth column organization working against both American interests and Israel's existence.

It's shameful for Stephen Walt, and it's shameful for Harvard and the political science profession.

RELATED: "Stephen Walt, Harvard's Israel-Bashing Political Scientist, Implicated in Libyan Influence-Peddling Scandal."

EXTRA: While enjoying sensational success on the anti-Israel left, Walt's book, The Israel Lobby, hasn't held up well to scholarly scrutiny. See Itamar Rabinovich, "Testing the 'Israel Lobby' Thesis."

Supreme Court Upholds Legal Arizona Workers Act of 2007

At Los Angeles Times, "'Business death penalty' for hiring illegal workers is upheld by Supreme Court." (Via Memeorandum. Also at New York Times, "Justices Uphold Law Penalizing Hiring of Illegal Immigrants.")

The Supreme Court on Thursday gave Arizona and other states more authority to take action against illegal immigrants and the companies that hire them, ruling that employers who knowingly hire illegal workers can lose their license to do business.

The 5-3 decision upholds the Legal Arizona Workers Act of 2007 and its so-called business death penalty for employers who are caught repeatedly hiring illegal immigrants. The state law also requires employers to check the federal E-Verify system before hiring new workers, a provision that was also upheld Thursday.

The court's decision did not deal with the more controversial Arizona law passed last year that gave police more authority to stop and question those who are suspected of being in the state illegally. But the ruling is likely to encourage the state and its supporters because the court majority said states remained free to take action involving immigrants.

Thursday's decision is a defeat for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, several civil-rights groups and the Obama administration, all of whom opposed the Arizona law and its sanctions on employers. They argued that federal law said states may not impose "civil or criminal sanctions" on employers.

PHOTOS: "South O.C. Patriots Rally for Arizona!"

B'Tselem: The World's Most Destructive Anti-Israel Organization

A really important piece at the new Commentary, from Noah Pollak, "The B'Tselem Witch Trials." Grab a cup of coffee. In fact, you might want to print this one for reference. I'd have to post extremely long excerpts not to do damage to the argument, but two parts stuck out for me in particular. One is the discussion of Anat Biletzsky, a Professor of Philosophy at Tel Aviv University and Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. Here's a passage, and this is even segmented:

Biletzky’s activism reached its apogee in 2004, when she helped write what is known as the “Olga Document,” a rambling tract named for the location in Israel where it was written. Israel, the letter says, is a “death trap” and “the biggest ghetto in the entire history of the Jews”; “military operations and wars has [sic] become the life-support drug of Israel’s Jews.” It goes on to state that “we are living in a benighted colonial reality—in the heart of darkness”; and that Israel seems “determined to pulverize the Palestinian people to dust” by subjecting them to “the nightmare of apartheid, the burden of humiliation and the demons of destruction employed by Israel unremittingly, day and night, for 37 years.” Out of “racist arrogance,” the document claims, Israelis across the political spectrum “depict the Palestinians as subhuman.”

The Olga Document continues: “We are united in a critique of Zionism, based as it is on refusal to acknowledge the indigenous people of this country and on denial of their rights, on dispossession of their lands, and on adoption of separation as a fundamental principle and way of life.” Besides adopting the self-evidently racist claim that only Arabs are “indigenous” to the land of Israel, Biletzky also called for the repeal of all laws and the end of all practices that make Israel a Jewish state. This, she said, along with creating an Arab majority in Israel through the Palestinian “right of return,” would finally absolve Jews of the moral stain that is Israel.

Biletzky has also acknowledged that she has been working to end Israel as a Jewish state since the late 1960s. She stated that “Israel [today] is like the Nazis or like Germany in ’34” and that life for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza “is something that I do not hesitate to call a concentration camp.”

Biletzky is not merely an apologist for terrorism. At times, she has given terrorists moral support, as she did in the case of Azmi Bishara. He was a member of the Knesset from the Balad Party, an anti-Zionist Arab faction. In 2006, Bishara fled Israel after coming under investigation for espionage and high treason. When the gag order on the case was lifted in May 2007, it was revealed that Bishara had acted as a paid informant for Hezbollah during the Second Lebanon War, apparently helping the group select targets in Israel for missile attacks. It was also discovered that he had stolen millions of shekels from Arab charities. Biletzky responded to these devastating revelations by publishing a statement of solidarity in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that read, in its entirety, “Azmi Bishara—we are brethren.”

Throughout her history of apologetics for violence and terrorism against Israel’s Jews, as well as her advocacy for the dismantling of the Jewish state, Biletzky has always been called a human-rights activist. For reasons that may be disturbing to contemplate, the journalists who eagerly report her organization’s accusations against Israel have never taken her biases into consideration when assessing the veracity of B’Tselem’s accusations. Most telling of all, perhaps, at no point did members of B’Tselem itself—its board, its employees, or its army of supporters—protest the extremism in its own ranks.

Also, Pollak's conclusion answers some questions relating to the development of the international campaign of delegitimation against Israel:

The story of those Israeli Jews who have made careers out of attacking Israel’s right to exist, such as Biletzky and [Oren] Yiftachel, illustrates the degradation of the once mighty Israeli peace movement. Originally, the movement sought legitimacy and prominence in Israeli politics, and received it for a time—and because it was part of the political process, it was constrained by the need for electoral support and popular legitimacy. Yet the collapse of the Oslo Accords in 2000 and the Palestinian terror war that followed presented the peace movement with an existential crisis: With whom, exactly, were Israelis supposed to make peace? The withdrawals from Lebanon in 2000 and Gaza five years later, and the entrenchment in the vacated territory of Iranian-backed terrorist groups, further disillusioned Israelis and called into question the central proposition of the peace movement: if Israel makes the right concessions, peace will follow. And so, over the past 15 years, the peace movement has fallen from a position of influence in Israeli politics to one, today, of irrelevance, an anachronism that no longer has realistic answers to Israel’s problems.

What remains of the peace movement is a white-hot core of activists who refuse to acknowledge their failure and yet cannot gracefully recede from the political stage. They have discovered an innovative formula for rebuilding their political relevance completely outside the democratic political arena: reconstitute themselves as NGOs and conceal their political agenda in the apolitical rhetoric of human rights and international law. In this guise, the peace movement no longer has any need to win elections or offer a serious platform for governance. The NGOs instead position themselves as a blunt opposition force working against mainstream Israeli society, which is viewed as unsophisticated, provincial, racist, and stricken with “security hysteria.” This “human-rights community” has thus not only opposed every consensus Israeli security measure—Operation Defensive Shield during the
intifada, the security fence to stop suicide bombers, the targeted killings of terror-group leaders, the Lebanon War, and the Gaza War—but has branded them war crimes and human-rights violations for which Israel should be punished.

In these circumstances, where there is no point in trying to succeed at the ballot box, leftist Israeli activism now directs itself internationally in the hopes that fomenting a narrative of Israeli criminality will invite enough sanction and condemnation from Europe, the United Nations, and America to force Israel to accede to the demands of these otherwise powerless radicals.

The policies they support would constitute nothing less than Zionism’s destruction. And they apparently have no compunction about seeking its destruction from without, since they have learned to their disappointment and rage that Israel is too strong a nation to allow itself to be destroyed from within.

The full article is here. At top is a recent B'Tselem video. The destruction of Israel. Once again, that's what all of this is about.

John Edwards Facing Indictment for Alleged Campaign Law Violations Tied to Affair Cover-Up

At ABC News, "John Edwards: U.S. Green-Lights Prosecution for Alleged Campaign Law Violations Tied to Affair Cover-Up." Also, at Los Angeles Times, "John Edwards 'did not break the law,' attorney says."

And excellent commentary from TigerHawk, "The Poetic Prosecution of John Edwards":

I have long thought that the media's disparate treatment of John Edwards and Sarah Palin was the most powerful evidence of structural bias toward the left. Edwards was having an affair and the media turned a blind eye. Palin was pregnant by her husband, and the media accused her of faking it and swarmed Alaska with investigators. Edwards had no useful experience -- he was a trial lawyer, which is training for essentially nothing important, and a one-term Senator -- and nobody in the press questioned his qualifications. However one might weigh Palin's resume, she was no less experienced than Edwards (that would be difficult) and the press hammered her constantly for it. Edwards was vain as can be and the press did not even suggest that he was a narcissist (which he obviously is). Palin bought some better looking clothes for campaigning and the whole press pool jumped on it. Edwards could not make a speech without reminding us he was the son of a "mill worker" who had gotten rich and the media ate it up as evidence of humble beginnings. The Palins actually built a successful small business and the media mocked it as a stunt. One could go on.

KINDA RELATED: I saw this the other night at Michelle's: "How to become a leading Democrat’s blogmaster; Updated/Correction–and more wit and wisdom of Amanda Marcotte." And more at the "Amanda Marcotte" search. A really bad woman. Reminds me of Carl Salonen.

Hosni Mubarak Facing Murder Charges

At WSJ, "Murder Trial for Mubarak: Egypt's Ex-Leader Could Face Death Penalty in Historic Case":

CAIRO — Egypt's former President Hosni Mubarak will become the first Arab head of state to face trial after being deposed by his own people, marking a pivotal moment in the revolutions that have swept across more than half a dozen nations since the start of the year.

Mr. Mubarak and his two sons, Alaa and Gamal, will face charges of "intentional murder, attempted murder of demonstrators, abuse of power to intentionally waste public funds and unlawfully profiting from public funds for them and for others," Egypt's attorney general said Tuesday.

If found guilty of murder charges, Mr. Mubarak could face the death penalty, said Nasser Amin, an Egyptian lawyer and member of the International Criminal Court.

The date for the trial hasn't been announced. But the decision to try Mr. Mubarak, who ruled Egypt for nearly 30 years, raises the stakes for uprisings in Libya, Syria and Yemen.

For the U.S., the spectacle of a trial could prove embarrassing and will likely complicate its diplomatic efforts in the region. Mr. Mubarak was for decades one of America's staunchest allies in the Arab world and a leading recipient of U.S. aid. Prosecution of an Arab leader who agreed to step down and hand over power is likely to undermine U.S. efforts to persuade other Arab leaders to give up power peacefully.

Check the Google page if WSJ's behind the paywall.

A really interesting development.

'Sanctimonious Jackass Brad DeLong vs. Political Philosopher Chris Bertram'

From Brian Leiter, going after "Brad DeLong, a professor of economics at U.C. Berkeley" (c/o Instapundit).

Leiter slams DeLong as a "a dishonest scumbag." And, while yeah, there's plenty of those, looks like DeLong's got the upper hand, actually.

Follow the links at Leiter's place, especially to DeLong: "'Washed-Up, Marginal, Authoritarian, and Unappealing Leftist Watch: "Castro Did Lots of Good and Humane Things, Despite Being a Dictator; but the Bottom Line Is U.S. Hatred of Castro Had Nothing to Do with His Being a Dictator...'"

And you know, it's an intra-progressive debate, so they're all pretty much scumbags. Frankly, Leiter himself comes off the epic prick, and truth be told, strip away Bertram's fancy bullshit parsing, the commie dicks at Crooked Timber are a bunch of social justice "sick fuck"* losers.

* Birds of a feather. See Amy Alkon, "sick fuck adult losers ..."

Ed Schultz Apologizes for 'Vile' Attack on Laura Ingraham

Not something you'd ever see from the Sadly No! clowns, or the commies at Lawyers, Guns and Murder. Frankly, the sick freaks'll be throwing the likes of Ed Schultz under the bus:

Previously: "MSNBC's Ed Schultz Suspended After Attacking Laura Ingraham as 'Right-Wing Slut'." And lots at Memeorandum.

Palin May Run

At New York Times, "Signs Grow That Palin May Run" (via Memeorandum).

Also, at NewsMax, "Palin Fundraiser, Home Purchase Fuels Speculation of 2012 Run." See also, "Townhall Magazine Cover Story: Is She In or Out?"

I'll believe it when I see it.

MSNBC's Ed Schultz Suspended After Attacking Laura Ingraham as 'Right-Wing Slut'

Here's this from the network: "STATEMENT FROM MSNBC REGARDING ED SCHULTZ." (Via Memeorandum.)

Brian Maloney broke the story, "DEPRAV-ED: Libtalker Ed Schultz Uses Vulgarity to Attack Conservative Host":

Michelle reported on Schultz this morning, before he was suspended, and she's updated, "More misogyny at MSNBC: Neanderthal host attacks Laura Ingraham as a “slut;” Update: Schultz off air one week, apologizes":

In January, I published “The progressive ‘climate of hate:’ An illustrated primer, 2000-2010.”

Review it here.

Part IV was a section on anti-conservative female hate, with tons of links on the sexist rhetoric of the Left.

You’ll recall that the “M” in MSNBC stands for misogyny.

Here’s a new entrant in the race to the bottom, from syndicated radio host and MSNBC talk show host Ed Schultz, via Radio Equalizer Brian Maloney ...

RTWT.

Also, Ingraham's responded quite succinctly on Facebook.

Typical progressives. At least Ed Schultz isn't anonyomous, like the cowards at Sadly No!, who match this misogyny on a daily basis, "sick fuck adult losers."

Benjamin Netanyahu on Sean Hannity's Show

At Fox News, "Cable Exclusive: Israeli PM Netanyahu Talks Candidly About Mideast Conflict, Relationship With U.S.":

Code Pink Activist Rae Abileah Accuses Israel of War Crimes on Democracy Now!

And she says that the United States is "not the kind of democracy I want to live in."

Well, duh. These idiots hate Western liberal democracy and are doing the damned-well best to bring an end to it.

I think that the act I took of courageously standing up in front of Congress doesn’t—the opportunity to do that doesn’t come along very often. But every day, as Americans, we have an opportunity to stand up. And whether it’s putting our money where our hearts are, by participating in economic pressure against Israel through the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, or calling our Congress people or taking other actions, it’s time for us to say no to this terrible policy that, just as Dr. Barghouti has illustrated, will not bring about peace. Netanyahu proved yesterday that he is the primary obstacle to peace and justice for Israelis and Palestinians. And to see our Congress giving away three billion of our tax dollars every year to Israeli war crimes, while our economy suffers, while our kids can’t go to college, while our needs aren’t being met here at home, is absolutely an outrage ...

I just wanted to say that the people that were sitting around me in the gallery of Congress yesterday were mostly wearing badges from the AIPAC Israel lobby conference. And I did not expect that people holding such power and representing such a huge lobby group would respond so violently to my peaceful disruption. And after I spoke out, Netanyahu said, you know, "This is what’s possible in a democracy. And you wouldn’t be able to get away with this in other countries like Tunisia." And I think that is ridiculous and absurd. If this is what democracy looks like, that when you speak out for freedom and justice, you get tackled to the ground, you get physically violated and assaulted, and then you get hauled off to jail, that’s not the kind of democracy that I think I want to live in.

Alas, another Islamofascist tool. Israel Matzav has more: "The Moron Who Heckled Netanyahu." And Weasel Zippers, "Leftist Who Heckled Netanyahu Whines: Da Joooos Tackled Me And Now I’m In The Hospital Draped With a Protest Flag Mugging For The Camera With a Concerned Looking Dr. And a Neck Brace On."

PREVIOUSLY: "Code Pink Disrupts Netanyahu Speech to Congress."

Obama's Mideast Plan Strains Jewish Ties

At LAT, "Obama's Jewish backers on edge over his Mideast peace plan."

Well, you know, perhaps LAT's got a skewed sample. Folks at the Times should check with M.J. Rosenberg and his Jewish pro-terror allies.

And ICYMI, Bret Stephens, "An Anti-Israel President."

Stephens is also at the video and just destroys Simon Schama:

RELATED: At Haaretz, "Israel preparing itself for Twitter war over Palestinian state: Foreign Ministry bracing for a flood of pro-Palestinian tweets ahead of the UN session on a Palestinian state."

Looking Back at the Apollo Mission, 50 Years Later

At New York Times:

It was the spring of 1961. President John F. Kennedy, speaking of new frontiers and projecting the vigor of youth, had been in office barely four months, and April had been the cruelest.

On the 12th, Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit Earth — one more space triumph for the Soviet Union. Though the flight was not unexpected, it was nonetheless deflating; it would be more than a month before Alan Shepard became the first American in space, and that was on a 15-minute suborbital flight. On the 17th, a force of anti-Castro exiles, trained by the C.I.A., invaded communist Cuba at the Bay of Pigs — a fiasco within 36 hours. Mr. Kennedy’s close aide Theodore Sorensen described him on the 19th as “anguished and fatigued” and “in the most emotional, self-critical state I had ever seen him.”

At one meeting, his brother Robert F. Kennedy, the attorney general, “turned on everybody,” it was reported, saying: “All you bright fellows. You got the president into this. We’ve got to do something to show the Russians we are not paper tigers.” At another, the president pleaded: “If somebody can, just tell me how to catch up. Let’s find somebody — anybody. I don’t care if it’s the janitor over there.” Heading back to the Oval Office, he told Mr. Sorensen, “There’s nothing more important.”

So, 50 years ago, on May 25, 1961, President Kennedy addressed a joint session of Congress and a national television audience, declaring: “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth.”

There it was, the challenge flung before an adversary and to a nation on edge in an unconventional war, the beginning of Project Apollo.

RTWT.

We had good Democrats back then.

(I wasn't quite born yet, but I'll be 50 later this year.)

Scott Eric Kaufman Awards Students Who Like to Say F**k!

Well, it's no big f**king deal if you're a scumbag postmodern academic like UCI Composition Lecturer Scott Eric Kaufman. Nope. No qualms about it. See: "Fuckity fuck fuck. Fuck fuck fuckity fuck. Q.F.E.F.D. (F.F.)." I guess that's where Dolt Douche Thers gets HIS oeuvre. But hey, five'll get you ten SEK calls his buddies "cocksuckers" in private, or well, maybe that'd be more of Carl Salonen's patter.

In any case, check Scott "F**kity f**k" Kaufman's winning submission for the comic Scott McCloud assignment, "Every quarter I present my students with five panels from McCloud..." And get this: The winner "wishes to remain anonymous." Well, yeah. Scoring GPA points for profanity probably isn't the highlight of the grad school/law school apps (or, well, it's been a while since I took the GRE, so who knows?). The student's a beam in SEK's eyes, apparently: "Congratulations! I hate you! You're awesome!" At least he didn't say "I'll end you"!!

Freakin asshat.

Cynthia McKinney Statement on Libya: 'NATO – A Feast of Blood'

Longtime readers will recall that McKinney spoke at LBCC a few years back. I've been on her list-serve ever since. Normally I delete these, but she's been getting sensational coverage of late, so her latest communique is worth sharing (below).

See also Michelle, "Cynthia McKinney: Islamofascist Tool," and Gary Fouse, "Cynthia McKinney Speaks Out for Ghaddafi":

NATO – A Feast of Blood

While serving on the House International Relations Committee from 1993 to 2003, it became clear to me that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was an anachronism. Founded in 1945 at the end of World War II, NATO was founded by the United States in response to the Soviet Union's survival as a Communist state. NATO was the U.S. insurance policy that capitalist ownership and domination of European, Asian, and African economies would continue. This also would ensure the survival of the then-extant global apartheid.

NATO is a collective security pact wherein member states pledge that an attack upon one is an attack against all. Therefore, should the Soviet Union have attacked any European Member State, the United States military shield would be activated. The Soviet Response was the Warsaw Pact that maintained a "cordon sanitaire" around the Russian Heartland should NATO ever attack. Thus, the world was broken into blocs which gave rise to the "Cold War."

Avowed "Cold Warriors" of today still view the world in these terms and, unfortunately, cannot move past Communist China and an amputated Soviet Empire as enemy states of the U.S. whose moves any where on the planet are to be contested. The collapse of the Soviet Union provided an accelerated opportunity to exert U.S. hegemony in an area of previous Russian influence. Africa and the Eurasian landmass containing former Soviet satellite states and Afghanistan and Pakistan along with the many other "stans" of the region, have always factored prominently in the theories of "containment" or "rollback" guiding U.S. policy up to today.

With that as background, last night's NATO rocket attack on Tripoli is inexplicable. A civilian metropolitan area of around 2 million people, Tripoli sustained 22 to 25 bombings last night, rattling and breaking windows and glass and shaking the foundation of my hotel.

I left my room at the Rexis Al Nasr Hotel and walked outside the hotel and I could smell the exploded bombs. There were local people everywhere milling with foreign journalists from around the world. As we stood there more bombs struck around the city. The sky flashed red with explosions and more rockets from NATO jets cut through low cloud before exploding.

I could taste the thick dust stirred up by the exploded bombs. I immediately thought about the depleted uranium munitions reportedly being used here--along with white phosphorus. If depleted uranium weapons were being used what affect on the local civilians?

Women carrying young children ran out of the hotel. Others ran to wash the dust from their eyes. With sirens blaring, emergency vehicles made their way to the scene of the attack. Car alarms, set off by the repeated blasts, could be heard underneath the defiant chants of the people.

Sporadic gunfire broke out and it seemed everywhere around me. Euronews showed video of nurses and doctors chanting even at the hospitals as they treated those injured from NATO's latest installation of shock and awe. Suddenly, the streets around my hotel became full of chanting people, car horns blowing, I could not tell how many were walking, how many were driving. Inside the hotel, one Libyan woman carrying a baby came to me and asked me why are they doing this to us?

Whatever the military objectives of the attack (and I and many others question the military value of these attacks) the fact remains the air attack was launched a major city packed with hundreds of thousands of civilians.

I did wonder too if the any of the politicians who had authorized this air attack had themselves ever been on the receiving end of laser guided depleted uranium munitions. Had they ever seen the awful damage that these weapons do a city and its population? Perhaps if they actually been in the city of air attack and felt the concussion from these bombs and saw the mayhem caused they just might not be so inclined to authorize an attack on a civilian population.

I am confident that NATO would not have been so reckless with human life if they had called on to attack a major western city. Indeed, I am confident that would not be called upon ever to attack a western city. NATO only attacks (as does the US and its allies) the poor and underprivileged of the 3rd world.

Only the day before, at a women's event in Tripoli, one woman came up to me with tears in her eyes: her mother is in Benghazi and she can't get back to see if her mother is OK or not. People from the east and west of the country lived with each other, loved each other, intermarried, and now, because of NATO's "humanitarian intervention," artificial divisions are becoming hardened. NATO's recruitment of allies in eastern Libya smacks of the same strain of cold warriorism that sought to assassinate Fidel Castro and overthrow the Cuban Revolution with "homegrown" Cubans willing to commit acts of terror against their former home country. More recently, Democratic Republic of Congo has been amputated de facto after Laurent Kabila refused a request from the Clinton Administration to formally shave off the eastern part of his country. Laurent Kabila personally recounted the meeting at which this request and refusal were delivered. This plan to balkanize and amputate an African country (as has been done in Sudan) did not work because Kabila said "no" while Congolese around the world organized to protect the "territorial integrity" of their country.

I was horrified to learn that NATO allies (the Rebels) in Libya have reportedly lynched, butchered and then their darker-skinned compatriots after U.S. press reports labeled Black Libyans as "Black mercenaries." Now, tell me this, pray tell. How are you going to take Blacks out of Africa? Press reports have suggested that Americans were "surprised" to see dark-skinned people in Africa. Now, what does that tell us about them?

The sad fact, however, is that it is the Libyans themselves, who have been insulted, terrorized, lynched, and murdered as a result of the press reports that hyper-sensationalized this base ignorance. Who will be held accountable for the lives lost in the bloodletting frenzy unleashed as a result of these lies?

Which brings me back to the lady's question: why is this happening? Honestly, I could not give her the educated reasoned response that she was looking for. In my view the international public is struggling to answer "Why?".

What we do know, and what is quite clear, is this: what I experienced last night is no "humanitarian intervention."

Many suspect it is about all the oil under Libya. Call me skeptical but I have to wonder why the combined armed sea, land and air forces of NATO and the US costing billions of dollars are being arraigned against a relatively small North African country and we're expected to believe its in the defense of democracy.

What I have seen in long lines to get fuel is not "humanitarian intervention." Refusal to allow purchases of medicine for the hospitals is not "humanitarian intervention." What is most sad is that I cannot give a cogent explanation of why to people now terrified by NATO's bombs, but it is transparently clear now that NATO has exceeded its mandate, lied about its intentions, is guilty of extra-judicial killings--all in the name of "humanitarian intervention." Where is the Congress as the President exceeds his war-making authority? Where is the "Conscience of the Congress?"

For those of who disagree with Dick Cheney's warning to us to prepare for war for the next generation, please support any one who will stop this madness. Please organize and then vote for peace. People around the world need us to stand up and speak out for ourselves and them because Iran and Venezuela are also in the cross-hairs. Libyans don't need NATO helicopter gunships, smart bombs, cruise missiles, and depleted uranium to settle their differences. NATO's "humanitarian intervention" needs to be exposed for what it is with the bright, shining light of the truth.

As dusk descends on Tripoli, let me prepare myself with the local civilian population for some more NATO humanitarianism.

Stop bombing Africa and the poor of the world!

RELATED: At New York Times, "NATO Bombs Tripoli in Heaviest Strikes Yet." And at National Journal, "Heavy NATO Action in Libya, While Rebels Invited to Open D.C. Office."

Code Pink Disrupts Netanyahu Speech to Congress

At Haaretz, "Heckler yells 'stop Israeli war crimes' during Netanyahu's speech to Congress: Jewish-American activist identified as Rae Abileah, a 28-year-old of Israeli descent and member of the group CODEPINK."

And see Move Over AIPAC!, "Protester disrupting Netanyahu in Congress arrested at hospital." Medea Benjamin's press release is at Code Pink's homepage.

Also, at The Blaze, "CODEPINK TAKES RESPONSIBILITY FOR NETANYAHU HECKLER — CLAIMS SHE WAS HURT." (And Director Blue, "Highlights of Netanyahu's Address to Congress With Special Non-Appearance by Rand Paul and Prayers for a Balkanized Jerusalem by Joe Biden.")

RELATED: From the comments at that YouTube thread:

He is a war criminal and mass murderer, also a liar, and a pathetic excuse for a human. Listen to all those retarded people clap for him. Democracy is 2 wolves and a sheep voting on whats for dinner. We are supposed to be a Republic. Fuck Netanyahu piece of shit ass.

Sounds like one of Charli Carpenter's commenters at Lawyers, Guns and Murder.

FULL VIDEO: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Speech to United States Congress

Did you watch it? The text is at Facebook (via Memeorandum).

Netanyahu beats Obama on standing ovations, and that's without a teleprompter.

BONUS: If you haven't yet, be sure to check out M.J. Rosenberg on Twitter. The dude slurred Netanyahu as a "terrorist" the other day, but that tweet went down the memory hole. No worries though. Rosenberg's going all out at Talking Points Memo, "Congress to Palestinians: Drop Dead." And there's more anti-Jewish slurs on Twitter.

This is What Happens When You Trade Land for Peace

From Israel: You're Not Alone:

Netanyahu's Speech to Congress

At WSJ, "Netanyahu Maintains Firm Stance on Mideast," NYT, "Netanyahu Repeats Stiff Criteria for Peace," WaPo, "Netanyahu, Addressing Congress, Lays Out Vision for Mideast Peace."

Also, Jonathan Tobin, "Netanyahu’s Triumph," and Jennifer Rubin, "Bibi Does Not Disappoint, Rocks the House."

And video at The Right Scoop: "Benjamin Netanyahu's Epic Speech Before Congress." And from WaPo, "Transcript: Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s Address to Congress."

'The Best Part of Easy Rider is the Last 20 Seconds'

See Kathy Shaidle, "Leftists strangely silent about Peter Fonda’s death threat against Obama."

Well, actually Joe Gandelman sees an opening to slam the "fringe" right-wing: "Further Proof that Not All Nuts are in Stores or on the Right."

Full story at Telegraph UK, "Cannes 2011: Peter Fonda encourages his grandchildren to take up arms against President Barack Obama" (via Memeorandum). Says Fonda: "I’m training my grandchildren to use long-range rifles," with Barack Obama in mind.

BONUS: An amazing flashback. Exactly two years ago, I attended a 40th anniversary screening. Hey, great flick, "'Easy Rider' in 40th Anniversary Screening at L.A.'s Nuart Theatre."

Move Over AIPAC! Protests Netanyahu Speech

It's a Code Pink joint.

See Weasel Zippers, "Code Pink Does The Islamists Bidding at AIPAC: Continuously Interrupts Netanyahu’s Speech…"

IN THE MAIL: Subversion, Inc.: How Obama's ACORN Red Shirts are Still Terrorizing and Ripping Off American Taxpayers

From Matthew Vadum, Subversion, Inc.

It's a great read. I'll post some passages later ...

An Anti-Israel President

From Bret Stephens, at Wall Street Journal:

Say what you will about President Obama's approach to Israel—or of his relationship with American Jews—he sure has mastered the concept of chutzpah.

On Thursday at the State Department, the president gave his big speech on the Middle East, in which he invoked the claims of friendship to tell Israelis "the truth," which to his mind was that "the status quo is unsustainable, and Israel too must act boldly to advance a lasting peace." On Friday in the Oval Office, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered his version of the truth, which was that the 1967 border proposed by Mr. Obama as a basis for negotiating the outlines of a Palestinian state was a nonstarter.

Administration reaction to this reciprocal act of friendly truth-telling? "That was Bibi over the top," the New York Times quoted one senior U.S. official, using the prime minister's nickname. "That's not how you address the president of the United States."

Maybe so. Then again, it isn't often that this or any other U.S. president welcomes a foreign leader by sandbagging him with an adversarial policy speech a day before the visit. Remember when the Dalai Lama visited Mr. Obama last year? As a courtesy to Beijing, the president made sure to have the Tibetan spiritual leader exit by the door where the White House trash was piled up. And that was 11 months before Hu Jintao's state visit to the U.S.

When this president wants to make a show of his exquisite diplomatic sensitivity—burgers with Medvedev, bows to Abdullah, New Year's greetings to the mullahs—he knows how. And when he wants to show his contempt, he knows how, too.

The contempt was again on display Sunday, when Mr. Obama spoke to the Aipac policy conference in Washington. The speech was stocked with the perennial bromides about U.S.-Israeli friendship, which brought an anxious crowd to its feet a few times. As for the rest, it was a thin tissue of falsehoods, rhetorical legerdemain, telling omissions and self-contradictions. Let's count the ways ...

RTWT.

Netanyahu v. Obama

Some folks might not know, but Benjamin Netanyahu is a former Israeli commando and military hero who took part in a rescue operation for Sabena Flight 571, in 1972, which had been hijacked by terrorists from the Black September organization. The Bloodthirsty Liberal has the story, "The Rescue Of Sabena Flight 571."

IMAGE CREDIT: Theo Spark, " Netanyahu vs. Obama, at the same age ..."

PREVIOUSLY: "Netanyahu at AIPAC."

Netanyahu at AIPAC

At Jerusalem Post, "PM: 'Israel cannot return to indefensible 1967 lines'." And, "Prime Minister Netanyahu's AIPAC Speech."

Also, from Joel Rosenberg, at National Review, "Netanyahu to AIPAC: Stop Iran or Israel Will":

After the worst week in U.S.-Israel relations in 35 years, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to Washington Monday and gave a powerful and effective speech at the AIPAC gala dinner at the Washington Convention Center, warning the world to stop Iran — or Israel will – and respectfully but directly challenging the Obama administration on Jerusalem and the peace process.

Netanyahu received scores of standing ovations from the 7,800 guests in attendance, the biggest event in the history of AIPAC (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee). More than half of the members of the U.S. House and Senate were there, as were ambassadors from more than fifty countries and many top Israeli officials, including defense minister Ehud Barak and opposition leader Tzipi Livni. The longest and most sustained came when the prime minister firmly resisted the policy of President Obama, who seeks to divide Jerusalem and stop Israel from building “settlements” in East Jerusalem.

“Jerusalem is not a settlement,” said Netanyahu. “It is our capital.”

More at the link.

RELATED: At WSJ, "Palestinian Statehood Vote Looms Over U.S.-Israel Rift."

Defund the Orange County Human Relations Commission

I received this e-mail today:

The most important thing that we may do this year is urge the Orange County Board of Supervisors to pull funding for the unconstitutional Human Relations Commission.

Also, please urge every OC taxpayer to write the Board of Supervisors to ask them to defund the Orange County Human Relations Commission. The simple message is that no government sponsored group should criticize or condemn any exercise of free speech. This group is not accountable to voters, has no legal or political power and has no business passing judgment on exercise of constitutional rights. This is crucial since free speech is the key to all of our other freedoms and the only tool we have to challenge groups that want to veto our speech rights. The very fact that this group dares to censor speech based upon their view of what "creates an environment of hate" is shocking. They have become a law unto themselves and their subjective judgments must stop.

Please write the supervisors below and tell them that free speech means exactly that: FREE speech. Our First Amendment does not say that speech is free unless a county commission thinks that it is offensive!!

bill.campbell@ocgov.com
john.moorlach@ocgov.com
shawn.nelson@ocgov.com
patricia.bates@ocgov.com
janet.nguyen@ocgov.com

A sample of the commission's anti-speech campaign: "OC Human Relations Commission Calls for a Return to Civility in Reaction to Muslim Charity Speakers and Protests."

The background, of course, is the manufactured outrage of political correctness that followed the protests by some breakaway activists in Yorba Linda in February, at an Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) fundraiser. The event was ruthlessly exploited by the Muslim Brotherhood's Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and its neo-communist allies at George Soros' Center for American Progress. Gary Fouse has the background: "What Happens When Political Correctness Runs Wild."

RELATED: If folks have been reading Blazing Cat Fur, then what's happening in Orange County might sound familiar. Frankly, the O.C. commission sounds like a clone of the Canuckistan version, or vice versa: The Canadian Human Rights Commission. Or, some might remember the case of Mark Steyn: "The Kafkaesque Show Trial of Mark Steyn." (And some of Steyn's offending material, "The future belongs to Islam.")

Complaints were also filed against Ezra Levant for publishing the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons. Blazing Cat Fur has more on that today, "You only have to give "average" head to get a job at the CHRT...":

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor at AIPAC Policy Conference: VIDEO

At Weasel Zippers, "GOP Leader Eric Cantor Rips Obama at AIPAC Conference, Says Arab “Hatred” of Jews to Blame For Lack of Peace…" (Via Memeorandum.) And at Weekly Standard, "Eric Cantor: 'It Is Not About the '67 Lines'."

Plus, a long analysis from Jennifer Rubin, "Reaction to Obama’s AIPAC Speech."

Added: From Ron Radosh, "Eric Cantor Gives AIPAC Delegates a Lesson on Which Political Party Really Supports Israel and America’s Alliance with the Jewish State."

Joplin, Missouri, Tornado: VIDEO

Robert Mackey has a video roundup, "Video Shows Missouri Tornado Damage."

And at ABC News, "Tornadoes Rip Across Midwest; 89 Dead in Joplin, Mo."

ALSO: A first-person video, riding out the storm, here.