Protests Against Mohammed Morsi

AT Telegraph UK, "Violence breaks out across Egypt as protesters decry Mohammed Morsi's constitutional 'coup'":

Violence broke out in cities across Egypt yesterday (Friday) as demonstrators took to the streets and besieged Muslim Brotherhood offices in anger at authoritarian new powers seized by President Mohammed Morsi.

Headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood’s political front, the Freedom and Justice Party, were ransacked and burned in Alexandria, Port Said and Ismailiya. Protesters described Mr Morsi as “Egypt’s new pharaoh” and said his declaration on Thursday night was a “constitutional coup”.

In Cairo, the biggest demonstrations for months filled Tahrir Square, reviving the spirit and chants of last year’s revolution against the country’s former leader, ex-President Hosni Mubarak. “Out, out,” the crowd chanted. The people want the downfall of the regime.”

Mr Morsi publicly defended his decision to make his decrees unchallengeable by law as necessary to complete Egypt’s transformation. He told a crowd of supporters gathered in front of the presidential palace that he was trying to stop a “minority” trying to “block the revolution”.

He also alleged that money stolen under the old regime was being used to fund new protests, including by "thugs" - a politically loaded term suggesting that the pro-democracy protesters were the same as Mr Mubarak's hired henchmen.

"There are weevils eating away at the nation of Egypt," he told them, insisting that he by contrast, was trying to assure "political stability, social stability and economic stability".

"I have always been, and still am, and will always be, God willing, with the pulse of the people, what the people want, with clear legitimacy," he said.

Mr Morsi, fresh from his success in negotiating a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas on Wednesday night, made the unexpected announcement of his new powers on Thursday.

As noted earlier, developments in Egypt are of huge, structural significance and will have deep impact on U.S. foreign policy. I'll have more later, but meanwhile check out Barry Rubin, "News Flash: Egypt’s Islamist President Assumes Dictatorial Powers." (Via Memeorandum.)

Mohammed Morsi Appoints Himself 'Egypt's New Pharaoh'

This is not a joke.

At Telegraph UK, "Mohammed Morsi grants himself sweeping new powers in wake of Gaza."

And Twitchy, "President of Egypt grants himself dictatorial powers."

There's a longer clip here.

And check the Los Angeles Times, "Mideast shifts may weaken Iran's pull with Palestinians":

CAIRO — Iran for years has supplied Hamas with weapons as part of its own struggle against Israel, but the conflict in the Gaza Strip reveals a shift in regional dynamics that may diminish Tehran's influence with Palestinian militant groups and strengthen the hand of Egypt.

The longer-range missiles fired by Hamas over the last week — believed to be modifications of Iran's Fajr 5 missiles — startled Israel by landing near Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. A front-page story in Iran's conservative daily, Kayhan, boasted: "The missiles of resistance worked." Tehran would not confirm the weapons' origin, except to say it sent rocket "technology" to Hamas.

Instead, Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told reporters: "What is important is that the people of Palestine must be equipped to defend themselves, and it is the responsibility of all countries to defend the rights of the people of Palestine."

But the Gaza fighting erupted during a new era in the Middle East brought about by the rise of Islamist governments, notably in Egypt, that have replaced pro-Western autocrats. The political catharsis has spurred anti-Americanism, which Iran relishes, but it also has upset Tehran's regional designs.

In Syria — which along with the militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah has been Iran's proxy opposing Israel — a revolt inspired by the "Arab Spring" could force President Bashar Assad from power and bring in a government less friendly to Tehran. Hamas angered Iran by opposing Tehran's continued support of Assad and siding with the Syrian rebels, who are mostly fellow Sunni Muslims.

Iran's immediate concern in Gaza is keeping Hamas from strengthening its ties to Arab capitals. This may be difficult, as evidenced by the fact that Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, which inspired the founding of Hamas and now is in charge of the Egyptian government, played a key role in brokering the cease-fire announced Wednesday.

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi is likely to press the militant group not to further agitate the region — and Egypt's many domestic problems — with sustained violence against Israel. But Egypt has been criticized for tacitly arming Hamas by not tightening its border with Gaza to stop weapons smugglers from Libya and Sudan.

"The Iranians [had] better understand the paradigm is shifting in the Middle East," said Nabil Fahmy, former Egyptian ambassador to the U.S. and founding dean of the School of Public Affairs at the American University in Cairo. "Hamas needs Cairo tremendously. It really has no other interlocutor to deal with Israel."

But he added that the region is so fluid and unsettled that it is too early to predict winners and losers: "If there are peaceful resolutions, this will lead to a reduced Iranian role. If, on the other hand, you have an increased use of violence," he said, "then ultimately any player that has been supportive of a more aggressive posture will gain ground."

This reminds me of Henry Kissinger in early 2011: "Kissinger on Egypt: 'Classic Pattern of Revolution'."

The Times of Israel is also reporting that Israel ruled out a ground invasion to prevent the possibility of a collapse of regional peace agreements and the emergence of a three-front war. See: "TV report: Warnings that peace deals with Egypt, Jordan could collapse led Israel to end Hamas assault with no ground offensive."

Big changes. All while President Obama's busy pardoning turkeys. He's so insignificant in the global sweep of things, and so wrong. So deeply wrong. Americans will be choking on some of the biggest buyers remorse ever.

More on all of this later ...

Patriotic Thanksgiving Wreath

I came home from work on Wednesday and my wife had mounted this wreath on the front door.

Stuff like this makes up for some of that "dwindling optimism" I mentioned earlier:

Democrats Vote the Mentally Disabled

From David Horowitz, at FrontPage Magazine:

I am incredibly steamed this Thanksgiving Holiday over what the Democrats are doing to my country. Everybody by now knows – or should know – how readily Democrats conduct election fraud, and how determined they are to defend it. Dan [James?] O’Keefe and others have taken videos of paid Democratic operatives encouraging citizens to vote twice. O’Keefe was even able to claim Attorney General Eric Holder’s own ballot at a district polling place by claiming to be him, and then to vote in his place. Democrats have promoted Motor Voter laws and same day registration, and month-long election days to help them mobilize the votes of people who are so unconnected to the political process and so uninterested in the country’s future, and perhaps so incompetent to understand what voting entails that they require keepers to see that they get to the polls and then vote the “right” way.  In the election that put Al Franken in the Senate by a few hundred votes, more than a thousand felons voted illegally because of the loose laws that govern the polling booth – laws the Democrats want to make even looser. It is in fact the number one civil rights issue of the NAACP this year to give felons the right to vote. So we know that Democrats have little respect for the election process, and we should assume they will attempt to pursue their victories by any means necessary.

But even knowing this, I was not prepared for a conversation I had at Thanksgiving dinner today with my brother-in-law, Henry, who has lived most of his life in a home for the mentally disabled, and though now in his forties has the intelligence level of a six-year-old.

“Obama saved me,” he said to me out of the blue.

“What do you mean?”

“I voted for him for president and now he’s saving me.”

I was taken aback by these words, since Henry had no idea who Obama was, or what a president might be, and would be unable to fill out a registration form let alone get to the polling place by himself. So I asked him how he knew that and how he had registered and cast his vote. In halting, impeded speech he told me that the people who take care of him at the home filled out “the papers” to register him to vote, told him how Obama cared for him, even taught him the Obama chants, and then took him to the polling place to vote. They did the same for all of the mentally disabled patients in their care, approximately sixty in all...

More at the link.

Cathy McMorris Rodgers Delivers GOP's Thanksgiving Address

She's a good lady, recently elected conference chairwoman.

More at the Los Angeles Times, "Obama, GOP lawmaker deliver Thanksgiving messages."

Video Allegedly Shows Workers Abusing Turkeys at Butterball Plant

My wife bought a Butterball and it was delicious. The birds should be treated humanely, however.

At NBC Los Angeles, "'Shocking Abuse': Butterball Accused of Kicking, Stomping Turkeys at World's Largest Turkey Plant."

And here's the secret camera report: "Hidden Camera Video: Shocking Truth Behind Butterball Thanksgiving Turkey."

The abuse is awful, but the radical left's animal rights groups have freakin' jumped the shark. See Dustin Stockton, "PETA: The Plight of Turkeys is Like That of Blacks, Women and Gays."

Union Thuggery Emboldened by Obama's Re-Election

At the Los Angeles, "Unions, buoyed by election results, are taking a stand":

They're fed up and they're not going to take it anymore.

That's the case for thousands of employees across the country who are striking and walking out of jobs rather than accept changes to their pay and benefits. It might be a shot in the arm for a labor movement that had been left for dead but saw big gains in the November election as voters elected pro-labor candidates.

The number of union-related work stoppages involving more than 1,000 workers, which reached an all-time low of just five in 2009, rose to 13 this year as of October. And unions aren't done yet.

Nurses are striking this week at hospitals operated by Sutter Health in California; workers voted against concessions at Hostess Brands Inc., forcing the company's hand; pilots at American Airlines are wreaking havoc on the airline's schedule as it tries to cut pension and other benefits.

"There's a lot of agitating going on," said Julius Getman, a labor expert at the University of Texas. "People are unhappy. They feel that they're not being well-treated. There is a swelling of annoyance at the rich."

This week, labor faces a pivotal test of just how strong this movement is, with a group called Our Walmart asking associates to strike at stores across the country during the retailer's busiest days of the year.

The group says it is protesting Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s retaliation against workers who seek to unionize. It wants to get the corporation to sit down with the group and listen to workers' complaints.

"There comes a time when you have to stand up and you have to fix what is broke, and Wal-Mart is broken," said Evelyn Cruz, 41, who works at a Wal-Mart in Pico Rivera and walked off the job there Tuesday.

PREVIOUSLY: "West Coast Port Shut Down," and "Progressives Sink Knives Into Walmart."

Cartoon Credit: Legal Insurrection, "Branco Cartoon – Stuffed Turkey."

'Doom and Gloom'

At the Los Angeles Times, "First impression: Rolling Stones' new single, 'Doom and Gloom'."

BONUS: At Telegraph UK, "Evocative images of the Stones published."

Lindsey Stone Fired for Vulgar Facebook Photo at Arlington National Cemetery

The Other McCain reported on this earlier, "Lindsey Stone of Plymouth, Mass., Has ‘Been Placed on Unpaid Leave Pending the Results of an Internal Investigation’."

But she's gone now, according to the Boston Herald, "Shamed Facebook poster loses her job":

Lindsey Stone — the Plymouth woman taking an online beating for posting a photo of herself flipping the bird at Arlington National Cemetery on Facebook — has lost her job.

“Lindsey resigned and we accepted her resignation,” LIFE Inc. CEO Diane Enochs told the Herald tonight.

LIFE Inc. of Hyannis — a Cape Cod nonprofit that helps adults with special needs — announced tonight that Stone, along with the woman who snapped the offending photo, are not working there.

Ironically, the formal announcement was made on Facebook.

“We wish to announce that the two employees recently involved in the Arlington Cemetery incident are no longer employees of LIFE. Again, we deeply regret any disrespect to members of the military and their families. The incident and publicity has been very upsetting to the learning disabled population we serve. To protect our residents, any comments, however well-intentioned, will be deleted. We appreciate your concern and understanding as we focus on the care of our community,” the statement reads.

There's more at that top link, but see this from the Herald as well, "Father ‘appalled’ by disrespectful Facebook pic":

The mortified father of a Plymouth woman under cyber assault for posting a photo of herself flipping the bird at sacred Arlington National Cemetery said his only daughter apologizes to anyone she’s offended — especially soldiers.

The controversial Facebook photo shows Lindsey Stone with her mouth wide open and giving the finger near what appears to be the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and a sign that reads: “Silence and Respect.”

“She’s totally apologetic. She apologizes to anybody she’s offended,” her father, Peter Stone, told me last night. “She was reacting, I guess, to the sign instead of the place and didn’t intend it to be what it turned out to be.

“She had a lack of judgment,” added her father, who learned of the controversy yesterday. “I think they were just being funny, which is sad. It’s not how she or the family feels by any means.”

The photo wound up in the blogosphere and has sparked a “Fire Lindsey Stone” Facebook page that had fetched more than 9,000 likes as of last night.

Stone and Jamie Schuh, the woman who snapped the photo, have been put on unpaid leave from their jobs at the Hyannis-based LIFE Inc. — a nonprofit that helps adults with special needs — while it investigates the incident.

Well, it's permanent unpaid leave for the both of them now.

And extremely poor judgement it was. No doubt the company considered the woman to continuing liability to the concern and had to cut her loose.

And head back over to The Other McCain for a bit on the sordidness of Ms. Stone's actions. Word has it she was visiting Arlington on a company-paid trip, so that would make it look like the non-profit was financing the vulgarity. There's no way they could keep her on, although as bad as it was, for all it's vulgarity, flipping off the Tomb of the Unknowns is a form of political speech. Perhaps the outcome would have been different had Ms. Stone visited on her own time and her own dime. She would at least have had a better case for keeping her job. Either way, she's paying for her stupidity as much as her speech.

'Hey, I also made you a video...'

Samsung's got some smokin' advertisements. This one's been running pretty frequently of late, including during the Dallas-Washington game a little while ago:

Danica Patrick to Divorce After Seven Years of Marriage

Well, I image racing fans won't be too sad at the news. Ms. Patrick is quite the looker and will no doubt inspire romantic dreams in the hearts of many.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Danica Patrick announces divorce on Facebook."

And in case you were wondering, from Lance Burri, "Yes, we here at The Trog are aware that Danica Patrick has announced her divorce…":

We here at The Trog do not celebrate divorce, as necessary as divorce may sometimes be. As the (un)official blog of Wisconsin native Danica Patrick, we wish both her and Paul the best, and hope they can overcome whatever bitterness (if any) might remain between them.

Divorce is a bummer, that's for sure. Both my wife's and my parents divorced when we were children. It's traumatizing.

'This is how you change the culture and the narrative...'

From Pamela Geller, "IBD Editorial: 'Israel Vs. Hamas is Civilization Vs. Savagery'."

Pamela's doing the most vital work ever, fighting against the maul of progressive evil. She writes:

More proof that we are right and we are righteous, and that our ads, despite the bloody howls from evildoers and the useful idiots in their service, are essential. We hit a nerve. And why? Because the enemedia so furiously spins an anti-human, anti-goodness narrative that the truth is a shock to the senses. But good people respond to it. Applaud it. Want it. Which is why we were able to raise the money to take the campaign nationwide. From San Francisco to NY, DC, Portland, Chicago, Denver .... you made that happen.

This is how you change the culture and the narrative. This is how you defeat the forces of evil in the information battle-space. This is how you begin to win.

Check the link for more.

Pamela posts this from IBD, "Israel Vs. Hamas is Civilization Vs. Savagery":

Celebration within Gaza after the bombing of a bus filled with innocent Israeli civilians is an object lesson on the so-called Palestine question. Those who would celebrate such a cowardly act are savages.

No one can imagine Washington's troops firing shots to celebrate a supporter of American independence trying to kill a group of Royalist civilians. During the Cold War, U.S. support for Lech Walesa's Solidarity would have dried up if he handed out candy after a Polish nationalist targeted, say, innocent Muscovites going to work.

We may live in a complex world, but evil is identifiable even when its practitioners claim their cause is good.

The gunfire across Gaza celebrating an explosion on a bus in central Tel Aviv on Wednesday is evil. And the Iranian-backed Hamas' rulers praising the bombing, which injured 15 passengers, is evil. "Hamas blesses the attack in Tel Aviv and sees it as a natural response to the Israeli massacres ... in Gaza," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters.

The "Israeli massacres," i.e. self-defensive airstrikes, are exactly how the U.S. would react if, let's say, Mexico were doing to us what Hamas has been doing to Israel: firing hundreds of rockets into populated areas.

It is, in fact, what any civilized nation would be doing.

Continue reading.

IMAGE CREDIT: Blazing Cat Fur.

Amusing Bunni ROLL CALL!

Zilla put out the call the other day, "ROLL CALL! Amusing Bunni needs us RIGHT NOW!"

I just hit Bunni's tip jar, which is accessible through Zilla's entry. I meant to get to it earlier, but I'm just now having some down time with the Thanksgiving holiday.

Bunni's got incurable cancer of the liver. If you can, hit her tip jar and say a prayer or two as well.

Bunni's page is here.

Wishing you as much health and happiness of God's grace during this season, Bunni.

Dwindling Optimism This Thanksgiving

I'll be enjoying some tasty leftovers today, grading papers and watching football. I'll also be blogging the holiday. I noted last night that I'm thankful that we have our wonderful U.S. Constitution to safeguard against tyranny, and right now boy do we need all the protection we can get. But notice how I argued that the current progressive ascendancy is "brief." Sure, we'll always have the idiot big government types who think their ideology has an answer for every public problem through more statism, but ideological trends run in cycles, and when things get bad enough there'll be a shift back to markets and federalism to invigorate our economy and polity. We may have a long way to fall before that happens, and literally millions of American lives could be harmed, if not destroyed by leftist failures, but in time the economy simply won't be able sustain all that the left imposes on it. California is America's Greece. Prop. 30 is just a breather to a fiscal reckoning that won't be long in coming. The national government's going to have its own reckoning, but alas it won't be during the second half of the Obama interregnum. We'll have to wait for a resurgence of pro-American values in our national political leadership. It will come. The hardships will be in enduring the interim.

In any case, I was inclined to riff further on this by Alan Caruba and his essay, "Memories of Thanksgiving's Past":

I have always been an optimistic person, but that optimism has been drained by four years of Obama’s regime and the prospect of four more. It is compounded by a Congress that has steadily marched toward turning America into a European socialist economy now on the brink of financial collapse and, worse, by a nation that has abandoned many of the values and shared beliefs that made it great; a beacon of freedom for those who chose to come here, a superpower following World War II, a compassionate and largely tolerant nation.

Continue reading.

I'll have more throughout the day.

Too Few Oppressors, Too Many Victims

That's the title from a Victor Davis Hanson essay at PJ Media the other day.

But check out Maggie's Farm as well, with the results from some comment trolling from Hanson's piece, "Sorry to tell you this..."

Andrea Alarcon, President of Los Angeles Board of Public Works, Under Investigation for Child Endangerment

Democrat family values, at the Los Angeles Times, "Top L.A. official's daughter, 11, found unattended at City Hall":

The president of the Los Angeles Board of Public Works is under investigation by Los Angeles police after her 11-year-old daughter was found unattended at City Hall last week, sources familiar with the case said Wednesday.

No charges have been filed against Andrea Alarcon, 33, and she was not arrested.

Sandi Gibbons, spokeswoman for Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley, confirmed an investigation regarding Alarcon had been referred to her office but said prosecutors requested more evidence before determining whether to file any charges.

"If police present us new evidence, we of course will review it and make a determination as to how to proceed. However, we cannot comment on the case because we have nothing pending at this time," Gibbons said.

Alarcon, an appointee of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, declined to discuss the investigation, saying she is celebrating the holiday with her family.

"My daughter and I have an extremely close relationship and as a single mother, she often accompanies me to special events for work," Alarcon said. "Out of respect for my daughter's privacy and because she is a minor, I really have nothing further to say about this matter."

Few details about the case were released. Sources told The Times that officers found Andrea Alarcon's daughter at City Hall at around 11:45 p.m. Friday and took her to the Los Angeles Police Department's Central Division station. Police tried to locate Alarcon, who turned up at around 2 a.m., said the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the case was ongoing.

Police opened a child endangerment investigation and contacted the county's Department of Children and Family Services, the sources said.

The incident took place the same night that City Hall's rotunda and Spring Street entrance were used for a party thrown by Project Restore, a group devoted to restoring city-owned landmarks...

Still more at the link.

Ms. Alarcon was also arrested on suspicion of DUI last December, and that was with a child in the car.

Can I Still Keep Kicking You in the Balls Without You Retaliating?

This is LOL material, via Bruce Kesler at Maggie's Farm.

The Great Destroyer: Barack Obama's War on the Republic

I'm reading David Limbaugh's book, available at Amazon.

I've read a lot of Obama books, but Limbaugh's has a precision and comprehensiveness to it that's scholarly. Highly recommended.

How the New York Times Covers Evil

From Dennis Prager, at National Review:

The way in which the New York Times reports good vs. evil is one of the most important stories of our time.

Take the war between Israel and Hamas that is taking place right now.

This war is as morally clear as wars get. Hamas is a terrorist organization dedicated to annihilating the Jewish state. It runs a theocratic totalitarian state in Gaza, with no individual liberty, and no freedom of speech or press. In a nutshell, Hamas is a violent, fascistic organization.

Israel, meanwhile, is one the world’s most humane states — not to mention a democracy that is so tolerant that Arab members of its parliament are free to express admiration for Hamas.

Over the past decade, Hamas had launched thousands of rockets into Israel with one aim: to kill and maim as many Israeli citizens as possible — Israelis at work, at play, asleep in their homes, in their cars. Finally, Israel responded by killing Ahmed al-Jabari, the chief organizer of Hamas’s violence — the Hamas “military commander” as he was known among Palestinians.

The next day, three more Israelis were killed by rockets.

Then Hamas targeted Tel Aviv, Israel’s most densely populated region, and Israel shelled Hamas rocket-launching sites.

In other words, an evil entity made war on a peaceful, decent entity, and the latter responded.

How has the New York Times reported this?

On Friday, on its front page, the Times featured two three-column-wide photos. The top one was of Gaza Muslim mourners alongside the dead body of al-Jabari. The photo below was of Israeli Jews mourning alongside the dead body of Mira Scharf, a 27-year-old mother of three.

What possible reason could there be for the New York Times to give identical space to these two pictures? One of the dead, after all, was a murderer, and the other was one of his victims.

The most plausible reason is that the Times wanted to depict through pictures a sort of moral equivalence: Look, sophisticated Times readers! Virtually identical scenes of death and mourning on both sides of the conflict. How tragic.

If one had no idea what had triggered this war, one would read and see the Times coverage and conclude that two sides killing each other were both equally at fault.

This is the mainstream (i.e., liberal) media’s approach...

Still more at the link.

Entitlement America

An outstanding O'Reilly Factor from a couple of nights back, worth every minute:

And I think this is the WaPo editorial he's referencing, "Mitt Romney’s parting ‘gifts’."

And here's O'Reilly's election night rant, on video.

O'Reilly's politically incorrect. For progressives that's RAAAAACISM!!

Church of England Votes Against Ordination of Women Bishops

At the New York Times, "Crisis in Church of England After Rejection of Female Bishops":

LONDON — In a sign of deepening crisis in the Church of England after it rejected the appointment of women as bishops, its spiritual leader said Wednesday that the church had “undoubtedly lost a measure of credibility” and had a “lot of explaining to do” to people who found its deliberations opaque.

The archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, was speaking after an emergency meeting of bishops called to debate Tuesday’s narrow balloting by its General Synod rejecting the ordination of women as bishops, even though female priests account for one-third of the Church of England’s clergy members.

Female priests hold senior positions like canon and archdeacon, and some had been hoping to secure appointments as bishops by 2014 if the change had been approved.

The vote represented a direct rebuff to Archbishop Williams’s reformist efforts during his 10 years as head of the church and a huge setback to a campaign for change that has been debated intensely and often bitterly for the past decade.

More than 70 percent of the 446 synod votes on Tuesday were in favor of opening the church’s episcopacy to women. But the synod’s voting procedures require a two-thirds majority in each of its three “houses”: bishops, clergy and laity. The bishops approved the change by 44 to 3, and the clergy by 148 to 45. The vote among the laity, though, was 132 to 74, six votes fewer than the two-thirds needed.

The Church of England is the so-called established church, meaning that it is recognized by law as representing the official religion, enjoys special privileges and is supported by the civil authorities.

Some lawmakers suggested on Wednesday that the synod vote would create a crisis of church-state relations, since the rejection of female bishops contradicted national laws on gender equality. Prime Minister David Cameron, already at loggerheads with the church over the government’s plans to legalize same-sex marriage next year, urged the church authorities on Wednesday to devise a way out of the impasse.

“I’m very clear the time is right for women bishops; it was right many years ago,” he told Parliament on Wednesday. “They need to get on with it, as it were, and get with the program. But you do have to respect the individual institutions and the way they work while giving them a sharp prod.”

Baby Boy Dies From Meningitis After Doctors Twice Fail to Spot Symptoms

This was at yesterday's Daily Mail, "One-year-old boy, died of meningitis because doctors ignored his mother: Instinct told Jane that her son was gravely ill - but she was dismissed as hysterical."

DAILY MAIL FRONT PAGE: "Boy died because doctors ignored his mother" #skypapers twitter.com/SkyNews/status…
— Sky News (@SkyNews) November 20, 2012

And these were National Health Service physicians, the same folks who were immortalized at the London Olympics opening ceremonies last summer. And it's coming to America!

Victoria's Secret Fashion Fittings

The fashion show's coming up on December 4th.

Some of the most beautiful women in the world.

West Coast Port Shut Down

Keep your eyes peeled for more "worker" agitation this weekend at the West Coast ports.

See Michelle, "More Big Labor-induced misery: The looming port strike."

No, Not Zimbabwe, Newark

Via iOWNTHEWORLD:

Gaza is the Epicenter of Jew Hatred

A profound commentary, from Glenn Beck:

Via Caroline Glick, "The liberal anti-Semitic projection syndrome."

Charlie Zahm: 'Prayer for a Soldier'

Via Theo Spark:

Kate Moss Poses for Spanish Vogue With Matador José Mari Manzanares

At London's Daily Mail, "Kate Moss wears just a cape to cover her nudity... as matador Manzanares stands guard in new Vogue photoshoot."

Dispatch From Israel: Liberal Rabbi's Rebuttal to Criticism of Israel

From Bruce Kesler, at Maggie's Farm:

Rabbi Bill Berk, who retired from a large Reform congregation in Phoenix to lead educational cultural tours in Israel, is definitely a liberal -- by US or Israeli standards -- politically. Regardless of liberal or not, almost all Israelis are unified in supporting the Israeli actions in Gaza. That may come as a shock to many Western liberals who have become accustomed to taking positions negative toward Israel.

Below is Bill Berk's "Letter To My Old Friend" in the US who wrote to him criticizing Israel's actions against Hamas in Gaza. Berk's old friend wrote him (as Berk summarizes)...

Continue reading.

Thanksgiving Dinner 2012

My wife's working Thanksgiving, in the afternoon, so we thought it'd be easier to have a full dinner tonight and then the family can have leftovers tomorrow. I tweeted out a message as well.

I am first and foremost thankful for my family. But I feel this year more thankful than ever for my --- and our nation's --- liberty. I see huge chunks of that eroding as government becomes more expansive and progressive ideology enjoys its brief ascendance. But thank goodness especially for the U.S. Constitution, for in that document is enshrined the principles of limited government and the protection of private property. If Americans preserve and protect that document, even amid dramatic social change, I'm confident that our historic emphasis on personal independence and self-sufficiency will continue to keep the greedy clutches of the Democrat Party away.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my loyal readers as well.

I'll continue plugging away. And I hope you'll join me for the ride.

London Teenager Knocked Unconscious in Street Attack

This is true evil.

At London's Daily Mail, "'I hope I'm his last victim': Girl, 16, punched so hard by stranger she was knocked out cold speaks of sickening ordeal caught in THAT video."

Fabulous Naomi Watts in Stunning Black Gown for London Premier of 'The Impossible'

She looks great.

At London's Daily Mail, "Pulling off The Impossible: Smiling Naomi Watts looks every inch the Hollywood superstar in daring gown at film premiere."

Hamas Rocket Fire Continues After Cease-Fire Announced

JTA reports, "Israel-Hamas cease-fire goes into effect, rockets launched at Israel shortly after."

And at Astute Bloggers, "EVEN AFTER THE CEASEFIRE, MORE MISSILES."

Cease fire between Israel and #GAZA holding perfectly...well, except for 12 rockets fired at 1 million people#IsraelUnderFire
— ASoldiersMother (@ASoldiersMother) November 21, 2012

And Hamas backers are celebrating their "victory" over Israel.

Those celebrating in the street in #Gazafeel that this is a victory 4 them, that they withstood #Israel aggression
— Arwa Damon (@arwaCNN) November 21, 2012

And here's Melanie Phillips, "A Most Uneasy Truce" (via Memeorandum):

The way this cease-fire was reached sounded alarm bells from the get-go. It was brokered by the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, with the driving actor apparently being her protégé the President of Egypt, Mohamed Morsi.

But Egypt is hardly a neutral actor in this drama. Morsi owes allegiance to the Muslim Brotherhood -- the parent body of the very Hamas that Israel has been fighting. The Brotherhood is pledged to wage both cultural and military jihad upon the west in order to Islamise it.

It is the mortal enemy of both Israel and the west. Yet the Obama administration, along with the UK and France, actually helped put the Brotherhood into power in Egypt by helping get rid of President Mubarak. Under Morsi, Sinai has been allowed to become a real threat to Israel; in the past week, there were reports that Egypt was doing nothing to prevent jihadis from all over the region from going through Sinai into Gaza to join the war against Israel. In addition, Morsi is cosying up to Iran. Indeed, even Obama himself blurted out recently that

‘the U.S. would no longer consider the Egyptian government an ally, “but we don’t consider them an enemy.”’

Hillary Clinton, moreover, has astoundingly expressed her enthusiasm for the Brotherhood as ‘moderates’. There are also claims (which have been denied in a furious row) that her long time adviser Huma Abedin comes from a family with Brotherhood ties; and also that the State Department has been cosying up to the Brothers in a most alarming fashion.

In other words, this ceasefire seems to be some kind of nightmarish joke.

The left's hyenas are circling.

I'll have updates throughout the night...

Not Impressed

Via The Looking Spoon: "A Brief History of the Terrorist Attack In Benghazi."

RELATED: From Ed Morrissey, at Hot Air, "CBS: “Office of the DNI” cut al-Qaeda and terrorism references from Benghazi talking points." And especially, The Blaze, "KRAUTHAMMER DOUBTS INTELLIGENCE HEAD JAMES CLAPPER REALLY EDITED BENGHAZI TALKING POINTS — HERE’S WHY."

Not impressed with that Benghazi cover-up, you know?

Terrorist Bus Blast at Tel Aviv's Shaul Hamelech Street

At the Jerusalem Post, "Terror attack on Tel Aviv bus injures 21 people":

Terrorists detonated an explosive device on a public bus on Tel Aviv's Shaul Hamelech Street around noon Wednesday. A total of 21 people were injured the attack.

One person was severely injured, one moderately and one light to moderately, according to a spokesperson from the city's Ichilov Hospital. The remainder of the casualties were lightly injured or suffering shock.

Of the 21 victims brought to the hospital, the two most seriously wounded are teenagers, head of emergency medicine Prof. Halperin said, although he noted that none of them had life-threatening injuries.

And at Telegraph UK, "Gaza Israel conflict: Tel Aviv bus bomb - live updates."

Progressives Sink Knives Into Walmart

In all my years of politics and political science, I can't recall as aggressive or intense attacks on American business than the current era. It's nothing short of demonization of private property and the right to earn profits. The collectivist mentality asserts that if businesses are successful, it's because workers have been raped. And of course Walmart's the biggest criminal of them all, especially as it's a non-union shop and is among the richest companies in the world. It must, therefore, pay for its crimes. You can just feel the contempt and hatred dripping off the screen at this MSNBC clip:

And here's this, from Cole Stangler, at The American Prospect, "Wal-Mart: Always Low Wages" (via Memeorandum):

Part of why the recent actions are so remarkable is that Wal-Mart is one of the most notoriously anti-union companies in the country. Based in right-to-work Arkansas, the retailer has maintained an almost entirely union-free workforce for most of its existence, even once resorting to shutting down a store in Quebec shortly after a successful union drive there. The company has never before dealt with coordinated labor protest on this scale. “In the past, Wal-Mart would fire people, would threaten people … and that would be enough to stop people in their tracks,” said Dan Schlademan, director of Making Change at Walmart, another organization backed by the UFCW which works closely with OUR Walmart. “The difference now is workers are using Wal-Mart’s own tactics to challenge the company and not backing down. Really, for the first time in Wal-Mart’s history, the tools that are used to keep people silent and under control are now being used against them. That’s significant.”

Indeed, OUR Walmart has framed its strikes and the upcoming Black Friday action as an “unfair labor practice strike”—that is, as a response to the company’s alleged retaliation against employees. Workers have already filed a handful of unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board—the independent federal agency that governs labor relations in the private sector. While Wal-Mart employees aren’t unionized, they’re still covered under the National Labor Relations Act, which protects the right of nonunion workers to go on an unfair labor practice strike without being permanently replaced.

Venanzi Luna, a deli manager at the Wal-Mart in Pico Rivera, California, said she’s witnessed management retaliate against her co-workers. At Luna’s store, where she and some of her co-workers went on strike in October, workers have filed two unfair labor practice charges. “If an associate speaks out, they retaliate by taking their hours, not giving them full-time hours, they write them up, they can ‘coach' them,’” Luna says. “It’s the little things that that they do, whatever they can file, anything for them to retaliate against associates that are either part of OUR Walmart or speak out against [Wal-Mart]. They’ve gotten to the point where they’ve fired associates because of it.”

When asked to address those allegations, Fogleman said that the company has “strict policies prohibiting retaliation.” He adds: “If someone feels they have been retaliated against, we want to know about it, so we can look into it and take the appropriate actions to resolve the situation,” Fogleman says.

OUR Walmart isn’t trying to push for union representation for Wal-Mart workers. The campaign is organizing behind a broad set of demands by building a network of allies and trying to pressure the company. “The fundamental difference is this isn’t a collective-bargaining organization, it’s a rights-based organization. At this point, there’s not a battle for a collective-bargaining agreement, there’s a battle to change the company,” Schlademan said of OUR Walmart. “All the other things that are the heart and soul of the labor movement and of workers’ organizing are there, which is collective action, workers pulling their resources together so they have a bigger voice, and utilizing the public to educate and build power to change the company.” As the organization builds toward a Black Friday strike, OUR Walmart is partnering with the nonprofits Engage Network and Corporate Action Network to spread the message to Wal-Mart workers and potential allies nationwide. Organizers have set up a website where the general public can access a list of picket lines and “sponsor” strikers by making a donation.

"OUR Walmart" stands for "Organization United for Respect at Wal-Mart." And it's a bullshit meme that the groups isn't pushing for collective bargaining. Frankly, if they're using the NLRA to pressure the company, they're already acting as if they have union power. The right to strike is a collective bargaining right protected under the law. They're making distinctions without a difference. This New York Times report confirms it, "Wal-Mart Labor Protests Grow, Organizers Say." And keep in mind who these organizers are. The United Food and Commercial Workers is a self-proclaimed Marxist workers revolutionary organization committed to the overthrow of capital. Heres's this from Labor Union Report, "Marxists Meet, Part I: UFCW Rep. Calls for Seizing Private Property & World Socialism." And the union's website spouts the same bullshit boilerplate from the Occupy Wall Street movement:

Workers have the right to stick together on the job, to go to the boss and negotiate the kind of wages, benefits, and safe working conditions we need to raise our kids, to live a decent life, to put a little something aside for a rainy day, and to retire with dignity.This right to stick together is a basic, fundamental right at the heart of the labor movement, and our union.

We join together in our union because we know the fate of the American worker can’t be left entirely in the hands of the wealthiest one percent. After all, no one knows the issues that impact working America better than the workers themselves.

So that's really what this is all about. Forget this bunk about decent wages and "respect." This is really all about overthrowing private property and establishes a people's dictatorship over the business sector. It's coming to America. The Obama administration is the vanguard fomenting a "fundamental transformation" of America.

Hamas Rockets Obliterate Obama's 'Hope and Change' in the Middle East

Frank Gaffney's slamming the Obama administration's Arab appeasement policies, "Middle East melting down into ‘Obamawar’." (via Memeorandum).

And Gaffney, who leftists constantly attack as a "racist" and a "neocon," isn't the only one. Check the Los Angeles Times, "Gaza conflict threatens Obama's plans for Mideast diplomacy":

WASHINGTON — The increasingly bloody conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip is threatening the Obama administration's plans to reinvigorate its Middle East diplomacy, creating new obstacles across the region as the president prepares for his second term.

With negotiators struggling to craft a cease-fire agreement, diplomats and experts say the strife is hampering administration efforts to help resolve the civil war in Syria, improve relations with Egypt's new government, support moderate Palestinian leaders and check Iran's growing ambitions.

In a region thrown into turmoil by the "Arab Spring" uprisings, U.S. support for Israel and its right to defend itself has been one of the few constants. That has not changed, despite the well-publicized rocky relationship between President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

But by all accounts, the damage to U.S. influence in the region is likely to grow if Israel sends ground troops into Gaza to stop the Hamas militant group from firing rockets into Israel.

"The bottom line is that this will poison everything the United States is trying to do in the region," said Shadi Hamid, research director at the Brookings Institution's Doha Center in Qatar.

President Obama has spoken repeatedly with leaders in Israel and Egypt, and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has spoken with other officials while she and Obama went ahead with a visit to Thailand, Myanmar and Cambodia that was intended to emphasize the administration's efforts to refocus U.S. foreign policy on Asia.

Ben Rhodes, the president's deputy national security advisor, told reporters on the trip that the U.S. position is that "those nations in the region, particularly nations that have influence over Hamas, and that's principally Egypt and Turkey, also Qatar… that those nations need to use that influence to de-escalate the conflict. And de-escalation has to begin with, again, an end to rocket fire from Gaza."

U.S. officials don't have direct contact with Hamas, which they consider a terrorist organization.

Daniel Kurtzer, a former U.S. ambassador to both Israel and Egypt, said the crisis appeared close to a tipping point. If Israel sends armored columns into Gaza, Washington would be caught between pressing Israel to stop a conflict that has Obama's support, or being seen in the Arab world as complicit in the bloodshed.

"We will be put in the same corner as Israel," said Kurtzer, now with Princeton University. "This will be an extremely awkward position."

While U.S. officials have sought to avoid judging Israeli tactics, Obama said at a news conference Sunday in Bangkok, Thailand, that it was preferable for Israel to avoid sending troops into Gaza, for the sake of both Palestinians and Israelis.

Washington has struggled to regain its influence in the Middle East since the Arab Spring uprisings of 2011 brought to power populist Islamist governments that are more wary of Washington and more responsive to pro-Palestinian public opinion.

Struggled?

Jeez, you'd think Baracky built some creds with his Middle East apology tour? Folks sure thought that Cairo speech was da bomb, IYKWIMAITYD!

RTWT.

Hamas Rocket Hits Rishon Lezion Apartment Building

At Jerusalem Post, "IDF soldier, civilian killed as over 140 rockets hit Israel."

Gazan fire killed an IDF soldier and an Israeli civilian on Tuesday, as over 140 rockets rained down on Israel throughout the day.

Cpl. Yosef Partuk, 18, of Emanuel was killed Tuesday morning in a mortar attack in the Eshkol Regional Council area, the IDF released for publication Tuesday evening. Partuk was posthumously promoted to corporal. The civilian killed was a Beduin from one of the South's unrecognized villages.

The announcements came on the heels of a Gaza rocket attack that lightly injured six people after striking an apartment building in the central city of Rishon Letzion.The upper floors of the building went up in flames, according to Channel 2.

Also Tuesday evening, a person was moderately to seriously wounded when a rocket fired from Gaza struck a building in Ashkelon.

Continue reading.

Cindy Crawford Shape Magazine Cover Girl

She's 46-years old and smokin'!

At London's Daily Mail, "Still got it! Cindy Crawford returns to the cover of Shape magazine 20 years on... and still looks as amazing as ever."

What? No Israel-Hamas Cease Fire?

Seems like hostilities are escalating to me, but Hillary Clinton's swooped in for some shuttle diplomacy, so who knows? Maybe she'll work some magic in the end after all?

At the Los Angeles Times, "Hope for cease-fire fades":

GAZA CITY -- Hopes rose Tuesday for a halt to hostilities after seven days of devastating fighting between Israel and Hamas, with officials from the militant group predicting a cease-fire would take effect at midnight.

But as the evening wore on, Israeli and Egyptian officials began downplaying expectations, warning that no deal had been signed.

According to one senior Hamas official, the parties reached a “major breakthrough” Tuesday when Israel agreed to halt attacks against the Gaza Strip, stop targeted killings of Hamas leaders and ease border restrictions.

Israel is seeking an end to the rocket fire into its territory by Gaza militants and assurances – backed up by Egypt and the international community – that Hamas won’t be allowed to rebuild the weapons caches that Israel has destroyed.

Israeli officials have not commented on the talks, which are being conducted in Cairo through Turkish and Egyptian intermediaries since Israel and Hamas don’t formally recognize one another.

All sides hinted that a deal might be reached Wednesday. Arab League leaders and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon have sought to help negotiate the deal; President Obama also sent Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to the region from Cambodia.

By sending Clinton, "we are all hoping for a de-escalation, we are all hoping for a restoration of calm, we’re all hoping to open space for deeper, broader conversations," U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters Tuesday in Washington.

PHOTO: The Israeli Prime Minister's Office, on Twitter.

Added: From Robert Spencer, at FrontPage Magazine, "Should Israel Agree to a Cease-fire?"

Mediation Fails: Hostess Will Shut Down and Liquidate Assets

So much for union compromise.

At USA Today, "Hostess mediation fails, so Twinkie company to liquidate":

Hostess announced Tuesday night that mediation with its bakers' union has failed and that the 82-year-old company will proceed with liquidation plans.

In an update on its talks with the striking Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco and Grain Millers Union, the company behind Twinkies and Wonder Bread said it would have no further comment before a bankruptcy hearing scheduled for 11 a.m. ET Wednesday in White Plains, N.Y.

The union, which represents about 30% of the company's 18,500 workers, walked out Nov. 9. Hostess closed its 33 plants on Friday and sent workers home as it seeks court approval to wind down its iconic brands and sell its assets.

Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain urged Hostess and the union to mediate. "Not to have gone through that step leaves a huge question mark in this case," he said Monday.

More at the link.

Gaza's Motorcycle Lynch Mob

Well, no doubt international human rights groups will be all over this.

At London's Daily Mail, "Six Israeli 'spies' executed before baying mob in Gaza City, before motorbike gang drags one bloodied victim through the streets."

And see this amazing post at Twitchy, "Horrible (Graphic pic): Anderson Cooper tweets pic of Hamas dragging a man behind motorcycle in Gaza; Update: Sick defense of Hamas; Update: 6 men viciously brutalized, killed by Hamas."

And here's this clip from Ofir Gendelman, Israeli Prime Minister's spokesperson to the Arab media,  on Twitter, "Video: Hamas' ruthlessness and brutality: execution of 6 Palestinians in Gaza by Hamas' terrorists":

Added: From Israel Matzav, "How Hamas treats collaborators and how Israel treats collaborators."

And at Atlas Shrugs, "#Savages Six Israeli 'collaborators' executed before baying Muslim mob in Gaza City."

Mary Breckinridge Treks Across the High Sierra

This piece at the Los Angeles Times came out before the election. The woman makes an annual trek across the Sierra Nevada, a way for her to keep alive the spirit of American exceptionalism and rugged individualism ---- traditions that are fading fast in the hardening regime of the Obama dependency state. She's getting too old for the expedition, but she was able to do it again this year with the companionship of an old mountain packer she used to work with.

An amazing piece, "A High Sierra state of mind":

MONO PASS TRAIL — Mary Breckenridge crosses the High Sierra every year, with only her horse and two mules for company.

She always leaves in September, when heat still tents the Central Valley but cool mountain breezes stir silvery-green aspen leaves.

Higher up, the nights could be so cold that the water in her coffee pot turned rock-hard. It's happened. She kept going. Packing and unpacking 300 pounds of gear daily, making and breaking camp, starting her fire from twigs.

It made her feel thrillingly self-reliant. A true Western woman.

Except, now she's 64, and she's not sure she can do it anymore. Not alone.

Bucko Davis had sworn he was done with packing. He'd had enough of being so tired that he would unload a pile of gear from a mule, plop down on top of it and have people walk by without realizing there was a limp body beneath the cowboy hat pulled over his face.

Then Mary tracked him down. They've been friends for 30 years, since he was a packer and she was a cook on commercial High Sierra trips. She needs him as backup.

Once long ago, Bucko said he would never tell her "no." He agrees to the trip.

He's spent his whole life in these mountains. He loves how the junipers line up for sentry duty along the ridges, the way edible mushrooms pop out amid the damp undergrowth.

Maybe now he can know if they will ever let him leave in peace.

Read it all at the link.

Rachel Maddow's Morally Bankrupt Campaign Against Israel's Right to Exist

I don't know. I guess I endure MSNBC's vile global solidarity programming so you don't have to.

I watched Rachel Maddow last night, and I'll tell you, it's not easy. She's not only unintelligent but also unbelievably dishonest (as readers recall, I've chronicled her mendacity many times at this blog). But last night's program reached new levels of depravity with its truly evil propaganda dump against Israel. Watch especially the introduction until about 6:20 minutes into the clip (or more briefly, after about 4:00 minutes for the key smear regarding the so-called global consensus on "deescalation" in Gaza):

After the first six minutes Maddow goes off on a truly bizarre attack on the GOP's foreign policy, using a long history of John McCain outtakes as some kind of evidence that Republicans haven't a clue on foreign affairs. I'm not commenting on that except to say that if Rachel Maddow had a single shred of the moral fiber that Senator McCain possesses she would not be hosting hate-Israel fests on cable's most anti-American network. But I'm not breaking new ground here with that.

No, the key is her roundup on the alleged world agreement on a deescalation in Gaza. Maddow cites President Obama's comments yesterday on Israel's right to self-defense, although the president's position is particularly nefarious. As noted here previously, Obama is pressing Netanyahu against a ground incursion, while simultaneously muttering about Israel's right to self-defense. The stupid actually burns on this, because if one says that self-defense is justified by definition that means the potential resort to force by all means, not just by use of targeted air power. Boots on the ground are going to be required to root out the key Hamas strongholds and rocket positions, a campaign that would in fact preserve civilian lives, since ground troops would be more discriminating than air power and rocket strikes.

But notice, even more importantly, that for Obama and Maddow --- and also all the global sources she cites --- the burden of deescalation is on Israel and Israel alone. There is no condemnation of Hamas' reign of terror against Israel civilians. This is nothing less than blood libel against the Jewish people, for failing to correctly identifying the nature of the military escalation in the first place serves only the needs of global solidarity's program of delegitimation. It's sickening. Look whom Maddow cites. The United Nations. Egypt. The EU. Hello? And she throws in the British foreign minister as well, although the idiot makes the same attack on Israel as everyone else. (And don't forget that virtually the entire British establishment has repudiated Israel's legitimate right to self-preservation in the face of this barbaric onslaught from Islamic terrorists.)

The left is implicated across the board in what is nothing less that a worldwide resurrection of the Nazi regime's program of Jewish annihilation. Israel is not the aggressor. Israel is the subject of a international campaign of repudiation and terror. It's actually shocking to watch. Today's Democrat Party rejects Israel's right to self-defense as measured in that CNN poll out yesterday. And here's Obama mouthpiece Maddow spouting these exterminationist talking points on MSNBC and she's citing the United freakin' Nations as a source of authority? I think people have lost their minds. This is the world turned upside down. Israel is the beacon, as I've been saying. If Israel's democracy can be destroyed by the world's progressives and communists then God help those who come after that. There is no hope that the current administration in Washington will stand up for liberty against global Islamic hegemony. Americans are already dying in diplomatic outposts and the Democrats threw their bodies under the bus to win reelection. It's perverted, truly. All people can do is hold up the light of truth against these people, because their lies are relentless. It's not just media bias anymore. People like Maddow are state propagandists. Only on MSNBC could their top-ranked anchor devote almost a complete opening segment to the character assassination of an American who spent 5 1/2 years in a communist prison camp in North Vietnam. But we're in a new era. People have to resist the natural inclination to futility and surrender. At times it seems like the messages of decency and right can't gain traction anywhere. But I'm a dissident now and recent history shows that dissidents have toppled tyrants and that's what I intend to do with these progressive freaks like Maddow and her lying scumbag of a Democrat mountebank president.

I'll have more later...

ADDED: My good friend Norm Gersman writes: "Great post. I cannot even watch her because she is such a shallow and transparent person. Keep on her!!!"

MORE: Dana Pico links, "Rachel Maddow, Donald Douglas, and the questioning of our friends on the left of Israel’s right to exist, free and in peace."

Progressives Are the Biggest Threat to Freedom of Speech in America

An excellent clip from FIRE.

Rauch, who is a far-left progressive, nails it on who's the biggest threat to freedom of speech, thought and expression in the country today. What's surprising, though, is that harassment-blogger Walter James Casper III "liked" it on Twitter --- tweeting it out a couple of times in fact. And it's ironic too, since Repsac3 is the epitome of the hateful, speech-controlling progressive that Rauch is denouncing. From racism to anti-Semitism to the recent attacks on Ann Coulter at Fordham, Repsac3 is down with it. He never, ever speaks out against it, and in fact joins in with his progressive hate-commentariat in mounting campaigns of personal destruction against those with whom he disagrees. I've chronicled Repsac3's criminal campaigns of intimidation many times. If he truly "likes" the ideas of Jonathan Rauch he should in fact practice them. Sadly, the record shows that while the demonically hate-addled Repsac3 purportedly champions this kind of classical liberal thought, his actual political loyalties are with those who stand against it. It's not just that Walter James Casper III is a stupid man. It's that he's also been psychological corrupted by progressive evil. Where there's a bodily inclination in him that says leftist thought suppression is not just wrong but massively vile, his raging primordial rage at conservatives kicks in to advance the exact kind of censorship that Rauch excoriates above. Repsac3 is a rodent of a person, and hardened, blackened chip of human refuse. Honestly, his only hope is to follow the words of people like Rauch and literally repent his ideology of hatred and secular demonology.

PREVIOUSLY: "Wall Street Journal Weekend Interview: Greg Lukianoff, 'How Free Speech Died on Campus'."

The Left's War on Israel

More commentary from the lovely Katie Pavlich.

And bear in mind the discussion here is the left's war on Israel. As I reported earlier, just 4 in 10 Democrats consider Israel's self-defense justified in the latest CNN poll. And don't even get me started about the current global communist delegitimation campaign. These are the same folks from the Occupy movement who got big huzzah endorsements from President Obama and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. These people are the foundation of today's left, from the White and the halls of Congress to the worldwide progressive-communists protesting Israel's right to exist.

There's evil in the world. The left embodies it.

PREVIOUSLY: "Israel is Beacon of Liberty Against Global Communist Solidarity and Mainstream Media's Enablers of Extermination."

Democrat Media Complex Hammered Romney in Last Days of Campaign

From Pew Research, "Obama Enjoys Surge in Positive Coverage the Last Week of the Race; Attention to Romney Drops."

The report indicates that both Fox News and MSNBC became "extremely" negative in the final weeks, especially the sick progressive hacks at MSNBC:

In the final week of the campaign, both Fox News and MSNBC became even more extreme in how they differed from the rest of the press in coverage of the two candidates. On Fox News, the amount of negative coverage of Obama increased-from 47% in the first four weeks of October to 56% the final week. Meanwhile, positive discussion of Romney grew, from 34% of segments to 42%. On MSNBC, the positive coverage of Obama increased from 33% during most of October to 51% during the last week, while Romney's negative coverage increased from 57% to 68%.

The "voice of Obama's America" was just pounding on the GOP nominee. These people are like freakin' animals.

'Isn't It Totally Awesome That Nate Silver Sucks Cock?'

Ha!

This is what happens when Robert Stacy McCain discovers Huffington Post's "Gay Voices" homosexual hub:

Shorter HuffPo: Isn't It Totally Awesome That Nate Silver Sucks Cock? huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/19/pol…
— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) November 19, 2012

And at The Other McCain, "HuffPo and the Homo-Supremacy Agenda."

Funny thing, I didn't even know Silver was flippy-floppy on the side, but that does explain why flaming baker-boy Kevin Robbins has a perpetual woody for the dude. These people are freakin' disgusting.

Stacy Peralta's 'Bones Brigade' Marketing Campaign

A fascinating interview with the skateboarding pioneer, at the Los Angeles Times, "Bones Brigade's wheeler dealer":

Pro skateboarder turned filmmaker Stacy Peralta takes a suitably maverick approach to the marketing of his new 'Bones Brigade: An Autobiography.'

Read it all.

PREVIOUSLY: "Stacy Peralta's 'Bones Brigade'."

Naftali Bennett Eviscerates Terror-Apologist Mohamed Mahbub 'Ed' Husain on CNN

Outstanding.

Via Israel Matzav.

Katie Pavlich Analyzes GOP's Electoral Prospects

An interesting discussion, and note that Pavlich eschews the Democrat Hispanic realignment thesis.

RELATED: At Legal Insurrection, "Demography Schmemography."

Fox News Anchor Brian Kilmeade Jokes That Network Hires Female On-Air Talent by Flipping Through Victoria's Secret Catalog

This was during a segment on Kilmeade's radio show, who was joined by Alisyn Camerota at the time. I guess some folks thought that was inappropriate, but hey, Fox boasts the hotties.

See London's Daily Mail, "Fox News anchor Brian Kilmeade sparks outrage after joking his network 'hires women by flipping through the pages of Victoria's Secret catalog'."

'Only four in ten Democrats think the Israeli actions in Gaza are justified...'

And that's compared to 74 percent of Republicans and 59 percent of independents. But this isn't shocking at all. What's shocking is the Jews still overwhelmingly support President Obama and Democrat Party (although the numbers are down substantially).  Talk about voting against your interests.

See Daniel Halper at the Weekly Standard, "Only 40 Percent of Democrats 'Think the Israeli Actions in Gaza Are Justified'."

And check the full report at CNN. Fifty-seven percent of Americans support Israel right to self-defense against Hamas. (Via Memeorandum.)

IDF Calls Up Thousands of Reservists for Operation Pillar of Defense

It's only a matter of time now.

And at the Times of Israel, "As Israeli airstrikes continue, US warships reportedly on the way."

Israel's Necessary Ground War

At the Jerusalem Post, "Ground invasion?":

As Israel enters the sixth day of Operation Pillar of Defense, Hamas and other terrorist organizations operating in the Gaza Strip continue their assaults on civilian centers.

Southern cities such as Beersheba, Ashdod and Ashkelon (just to name the largest) have been bombarded constantly since the start of the operation on Wednesday. Out of an apparent desire by Hamas and the Iran-aligned Islamic Jihad and other Salafi and jihadi terrorists to escalate the conflict, the scope of fire has expanded to the Tel Aviv and Jerusalem areas.

Gazans have fired more than 500 rockets and mortar shells at Israeli communities since the start of the IDF offensive. Attempts by Egypt to mediate a cease-fire that would bring about long-term quiet are under way.

At the same time, Israeli leaders are seriously considering implementation of the next potential stage in the operation – a ground invasion.

Over the weekend, the cabinet authorized the call-up of up to 75,000 reservists for military service. Defense Ministry director-general Udi Shani noted that there has been a nearly 100 percent positive response.

In pondering a ground operation, our leaders are no doubt weighing the pros and cons. The five Iron Dome batteries deployed since the beginning of the present round of escalation – which have so far shot down about 250 potentially deadly rockets at almost a 90 percent success rate – provide our leaders with the precious breathing room to make a balanced, logical decision regarding the efficacy of a ground invasion.

The most obvious outcome of a major ground incursion would be a spike in the number of noncombatant casualties on the Palestinian side.

In Operation Cast Lead, for instance, 1,166 Gazans were killed, 709 of them combatants, according to IDF figures. This is about one civilian for every three combatants.

In contrast, according to a 2001 study by the International Committee of the Red Cross, there have been on average 10 civilian deaths for every soldier killed in wars fought since the mid-20th century.

During the 1999 Kosovo War, NATO forces killed four civilians for every Serbian soldier. Clearly, even the most moral armies make mistakes, particularly in dense urban areas.

Although the international community has generally been supportive of Israel’s right to defend itself, it has in the past shown little understanding of its need to complete its mission. The purpose of the current operation is to halt all rocket and mortar fire from the Gaza Strip.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu called this the “Goldstone threat,” after the so-called “fact-finding” mission appointed by the UN Human Rights Council and headed by Richard Goldstone. In the event of a ground invasion, we must, therefore, be prepared for a new wave of delegitimization focused against Israel, no matter how unjustified and unsubstantiated.

Keep reading at that top link.

And see Gilad Sharon, "A decisive conclusion is necessary."

PHOTO: Israeli troops near the Gaza border, c/o Elder of Ziyon.

Diplomats Try to End Israel-Gaza Conflict

At the Wall Street Journal:

The five-day conflict between Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers reached its deadliest point yet, as diplomats in Cairo and elsewhere tried to forestall an Israeli ground invasion that would lead to a far bloodier battle.


An Israeli envoy traveled to Cairo, where he met briefly with Egyptian security officials, as Hamas and other regional powers met for cease-fire talks whose outcome will help determine whether the thousands of troops Israel is massing along the Gazan border will be ordered to enter the coastal enclave.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday that "the Israeli military is prepared to significantly expand the operation." Israel's military has already called up 40,000 reservists, in addition to its regular standing army of about 175,000, and said it could yet call up another 35,000.

The conflict saw its most violent day yet, lending greater urgency to the cease-fire talks, as Israeli missiles killed 30 Palestinians and Gazan militants fired dozens of rockets deep into Israel, whose defense system destroyed two of them headed toward Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

Israel faces the painful decision of whether to launch a ground offensive, which would likely raise casualties on both sides, risk international reproach and further inflame a region already confronting a civil war in Syria and widespread unrest.

The U.S. and Britain both reiterated their support for Israel's right to defend itself against Palestinian rocket fire on Sunday, but both countries also warned against a ground attack, suggesting the robust Western support Israel has enjoyed so far may not last if it invades.

"My message to all of them was that Israel has every right to expect that it does not have missiles fired onto its territory," President Barack Obama said during a visit to Thailand. "If that can be accomplished without the ramping up of military activity in Gaza that's preferable. That's not just preferable for the people of Gaza. It's also preferable for Israelis, because if Israeli troops are in Gaza, they're much more at risk of fatalities or being wounded."

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke with top officials in Egypt, France, Qatar and Turkey this weekend in an effort to end the hostilities, her office said.

In Cairo, the leaders of Qatar, Egypt, Turkey and Hamas are aiming for an ambitious cease-fire proposal aimed at ending the cycle of violence in Gaza once and for all by convincing Israel to end the blockade of the coastal strip it enforces to keep out arms and materiel.

"After this aggression, I think the cost for achieving any cease-fire should be higher than the normal things," said Ahmed Youssef, an adviser to Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh. "The minimum people would like to have is a cease-fire that would end the siege of Gaza."

Israel is looking for a cease-fire deal that brings it more than a brief window of calm before rocket fire resumes again. It also wants Hamas to take responsibility for the security situation in Gaza, allowing Israel to hold Hamas responsible for any attacks, said a person close to the negotiations in Cairo.

Israel will go in on the ground. It's only a matter of when.

An Ever-Weakening America Has Invited War

At IBD, "Obama Re-Election Brings Israel Mideast War":

The re-election of a U.S. president with a weak foreign policy has, on cue, brought war to Israel. Islamist aggressors have sized up the next four years based on the last four years.

The month after his inauguration, after meeting with the woman who would help him win the Cold War, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, President Ronald Reagan recited a favorite Churchill quote.

It was a grave warning that "peace will not be preserved without the virtues that make victory possible in war. Peace will not be preserved by pious sentiments expressed in terms of platitudes or by official grimaces and diplomatic correctitude, however desirable these may be from time to time. It will not be preserved by casting aside in dangerous years the panoply of warlike strength."

President Obama's re-election telegraphed that the world's lone superpower will continue the sentimentalist diplomacy of the last four years.

It also confirmed that America would continue gutting its military, shutting down the production of key weapons systems like the F-22 Raptor, which the Air Force calls critical in sustaining U.S. tactical air power.

As House Armed Services Committee Republicans have warned, cuts will mean the Army and Marines losing 200,000 troops, and the Navy shrinking from 300 to 238 vessels while losing two carrier battle groups.

Hamas, whose rockets now target Jerusalem, know that America is weakening both its military and its support for the Jewish state — just as they know our "tough diplomacy" against Iran is a dismal failure as Tehran nears nuclear weapons capability.

The thousands of Egyptians who on Friday began protesting Israel's self-defensive air strikes on Gaza, from which the rockets are launched, know it.

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And ICYMI, "Israel is Beacon of Liberty Against Global Communist Solidarity and Mainstream Media's Enablers of Extermination."

So You Want to End the Israel-Hamas War? Here's How to Do It

From Barry Rubin, at PJ Media:

A lot of people have asked the purpose of Israel’s defensive war against Hamas.  Some, including those supposedly expert on the region, have been mystified. They cannot seem to figure out what is going on or what the goal of this Israeli operation could be.

The answer is simple. Given the premise that Hamas is in a permanent state of war with Israel and will attack Israel whenever it can get away with it, Israel needed to do three things.

First, Israel had to show Hamas that it cannot daily attack Israel and Israeli civilians without a cost.

Second, Israel had to show Hamas that the cost is unsustainable and that it needs to keep the peace or suffer massive losses to its governmental, economic, and military infrastructure. This includes a personal cost to those who have taken the lead in attacking Israel and especially to those who have organized terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians.

Third, Israel had to remove from Hamas the means of making war by destroying its rockets, missiles, and other weaponry. Of course, they will rebuild, but it is better to have an enemy that must start over again from near-zero than one that is adding thousands of weapons onto the thousands it already possesses, including the addition of more advanced arms and especially longer-range missiles.

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