Sunday, August 10, 2014

Race Riot, Blacks Looting in Ferguson, Missouri! — #STL

The background's at London's Daily Mail, "'No justice, no peace': Hundreds gather to protest death of 18-year-old black teen who was shot dead by a cop as police chief says victim got into fight with an officer."

Well, no peace, that's for sure.

At the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, "Violence breaks out near site of vigil for teen killed by police."




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'Illegal Immigration = Human Trafficking' — #Anaheim Overpass Protest to #SecureTheBorder (PHOTOS, VIDEO)

Another overpass protest in Anaheim yesterday. Organizers are looking to keep the momentum going all the way to November.


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Horrors of the Islamic State

Part II of the VICE series, via Blazing Cat Fur, "Grooming Children for Jihad: Exploring the Horrors of the Newly Formed Islamic State."


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Bikini Sunday Is Quite Relaxing

It is!

At Bro My God!

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How to Take a Picture of a Severed Head

From Sebastian Meyer and Alicia P.Q. Wittmeyer, at Foreign Policy:
In the buildup to the premier of part one of VICE News' documentary, the company touted its journalist's "unprecedented access." Indeed, VICE's cameras appear to go deep into the caliphate, and the footage they capture is chilling: In the first two installments, based in Raqqa, Syria, children as young as 11 pledge loyalty to the caliphate, and IS members give brazen interviews that include pledging to "raise the flag of Allah in the White House." There are also happy scenes, of a sort: Men living under IS rule play with children in a river. And front and center, of course, are the demonstrations of Islamic State power: a tank spinning in circles; IS's signature black flag waving from a turret; a parade of stolen Iraqi weapons; a rally in which a crowd is prodded into a call-and-response: "The Caliphate!" "Established!"

In an email statement to Foreign Policy, VICE offered no details about the terms of the embed, nor did it share them in an interview with the Huffington Post. It said it offered "a previously unseen look at life under the control of this terrifying extremist group" and said filmmaker Dairieh "has worked in the region's most challenging environments ... and has extensive contacts."
Part I of the VICE series is here: "The Spread of Islamic State."
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Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces, "Sunday Funnies."
William Warren photo Silver_Lining_zpsfb856662.jpg

Also at Randy's Rountable, "Friday Nite Funnies (early edition)," and Reaganite Republican, "Reaganite's SUNDAY FUNNIES."

Still more at Legal Insurrection, "Branco Cartoon – Smidgen."

CARTOON CREDIT: William Warren.


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Obama's Craven Political Fear of 'Another Benghazi' Drove Decision for #ISIS Airstrikes

Everything is political for Obama. He never makes a decision simply out of concern for the well-being of the American people.

At Director Blue, "NYT: Fear of "Another Benghazi" Political Debacle, Not Genocide, Drove Obama to Call For ISIS Airstrikes."



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#Hamas Solidarity Gang Terrorizes School Bus in Australia, Shouts 'Kill the Jews'

More on the global outbreak of annihilitionist Jew-hatred.

At Australia News.com, "Bondi racist bus attack: Jewish schools on alert after eight males threaten to cut schoolchildren’s throats, five teenagers arrested."

And Arutz Sheva, "Australia: Anti-Semites Attack School Bus, Shout 'Kill the Jews': Drunken anti-Semites threaten Jewish girls: 'we're going to cut your throats!' Children, parents left traumatized."




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Readin’, Writin’, and Social Justice Agitatin’

From Michelle Malkin:
It’s back-to-school season across the country. But in an increasing number of districts, “back to school” doesn’t mean back to learning. Under the reign of social justice indoctrinators, academics are secondary to political agitation. Activism trumps achievement.

In Massachusetts, the John J. Duggan Middle School will open on August 25 with a new name and mission. It is now a “social justice magnet school.” As a hiring advertisement for teachers explained earlier this year, the emphasis will be on “helping students develop the necessary skills to analyze and synthesize information and to generate empathy by looking at multiple sides of important issues facing the world, be that hunger, water quality, racial barriers, child labor or imbalance of power.”

Concise writing, as you can see, is not on the social justice pedagogues’ agenda.

Oh, and forget about memorizing times tables or mastering the scientific method. The new principal says the school’s primary job is teaching “fairness.” Duggan Middle School’s junior lobbying factory is “serious about creating 21st century global citizens, and it begins with understanding who we are as members of each of those communities.”

The ultimate goal of these social justice prep schools: creating left-wing political advocates.

At the Crescent Heights Social Justice Magnet School in Los Angeles, children will work on “action projects” tied to the “United Nations Millennium Development Goals.” Students will spend the academic year transforming into “agents of change.” Yes, they will learn language arts. But basic reading and writing are only a focus of the magnet school, the founders explain, because “we want our students to recognize injustice in their world or the world at large and be able to fully express their outrage, their plan of attack, their progress in this endeavor.”

In Chicago, Ground Zero for social justice brainwashing, the Social Justice High School (SOJO), follows a similar mission.

Activist teachers openly foster identity politics and systematically undermine individualism. Their specialties: “struggle and sacrifice.” SOJO’s mission statement sounds like a pot-addled Oberlin College freshman’s — er, freshperson’s — Sociology 101 term paper:

“Through collective community power, we commit to a conscious effort to overcome the intended historical obstacles that have been designed to disempower and divide our communities.”

At the Paulo Freire Social Justice Charter School, also in Massachusetts, students won’t learn math. They’ll be taught “social justice math.” (Freire was a Brazilian leftist who wrote a social justice teacher’s Bible called “Pedagogy of the Oppressed.”)

His acolytes explain the push for radicalization of math: “Math is an instrument for detailing social justice issues and developing critical consciousness.” In the hands of progressive teachers, math “becomes an analytic tool to bring awareness to important world issues.”

In other words: One plus one equals “That’s unfair!”

New York City schools have been infested for years with city-funded math teachers who “train students in seeing social problems from a radical anticapitalist perspective,” as City Journal’s Sol Stern reported. As I’ve noted previously, the “Rethinking Mathematics: Teaching Social Justice by the Numbers” guide rejects traditional white male patriarchal methods of teaching computation and statistics in favor of politically correct number-crunching.

Out: Algebraic equations, geometric proofs and advanced calculus.

In: “Racial profiling, unemployment rate calculation, the war in Iraq, environmental racism, globalization, wealth distribution and poverty, wheelchair ramps, urban density, HIV/AIDS, deconstructing Barbie, junk food advertising to children, and lotteries.”
More.

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VIDEO: NASCAR's Tony Stewart Hits and Kills Rival Kevin Ward During Racetrack Confrontation

I'm not embedding the clip, since YouTube will probably yank it. You can plainly see Kevin Ward get plowed over by Tony Stewart, and then Ward's limp, perhaps lifeless body is lying on the dirt track. Here, "Kevin Ward DIES - Tony Stewart Hits Kevin Ward And Killed Him."

The clip is embedded at the New York Times, "Nascar Star Tony Stewart Kills Driver During Confrontation on Racetrack."



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MUST SEE VIDEO: Judge Jeanine Slams Obama's 'Feckless' and 'Political Not Military' Foreign Policy

She's on fire, and be sure to stay with it to the panel, including Brigitte Gabriel especially, who just eviscerates Obama's ridiculously dangerous incompetence.


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Angels' Albert Pujols Walk-Off Home Run Beats Red Sox 5-4 in 19th Inning

One of the longest games I've ever watched. My wife wanted to stay up but she had to hit the hay for work.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Angels start fast but need Albert Pujols' HR in 19th to beat Boston."



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Kate Moss Tells Off Justin Bieber

At HuffPo UK, "Kate Moss ‘Tells Justin Bieber He Needs To Behave' After Orlando Bloom Incident":

The Sun reports that Biebs approached Kate at fashion designer Riccardo Tisci’s birthday bash, where he was hoping to impress the model, however, it didn’t exactly go to plan.

"She was giving Bieber some choice words like a teacher after the singer asked to be introduced,” a source tells the paper. "He'd gone up to say hi to her like his usual cocky self expecting her to gush over him. It was quite a slap in the face."
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Saturday, August 9, 2014

Jihad Black Flag, Communist Hammer & Sickle at #Hamas Anti-Israel Terror March in London (VIDEO)

Story at the Time of Israel, "Third London mass protest for Gaza in one month."

Also at Twitchy, "‘Farewell, Western Civilization': London overtaken by pro-Gaza demonstrators [photos]."



FLASHBACK: From William Jacobson, on Thursday, "Anti-Semitism Erupts Globally."

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VIDEO: New York City 'Day of Rage' — #Hamas Solidarity March for Extermination of Israel

A Day of Rage, sponsored by ANSWER Syracuse.



And at Arutz Sheva, "New York: Hundreds Protest Against Israel":
The protesters called for an end to U.S. aid to Israel.

Many demonstrators told 1010 WINS it’s no longer just about the firing across the border, it’s about Israel’s blockade of Gaza.

Some protesters said they don’t believe Israel has the right to exist as a Jewish state.

“Israel has the power, Israel has political power, Israel has the money, Israel has everything, everything is at their resource. But the only option they think they have is to kill,” one protester said, according to 1010 WINS.

“Our tax dollars are going to Israel in support of this genocide,” Rula Yousef said. “Innocent children in Gaza have been slaughtered, bombs are being thrown at their houses as we speak and American stands by Israel.”

Some of the demonstrators chanted: "Free, free Palestine! Occupation is a crime!", according to The Associated Press (AP).

Mostafa Asadi, an engineer from Philadelphia who came to New York for the protest, said the current violence in the Middle East started more than six decades ago.

"The Zionists took Palestinian land and expelled them in 1948, and now Israel is trying to control the area," said Asadi, an Iran native who hoisted a sign that said: "Stop the U.S.-Israeli blockade of Gaza."

"The Israelis are racist," he told AP.
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New Ellie Goulding Bikini Pics

At Egotastic!, "Ellie Goulding Bikini Boating Continues Nautically Natural in Spanish Waters."


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Richard Nixon Resignation 40 Years Ago Today

Here's the archived report from the Washington Post, August 9, 1974, "Nixon Resigns."

At the video, historian Kenneth Davis offers a very interesting discussion of the impeachment, the history, and how it could happen again:


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Pro-Terror #ANSWERLA Organizers: 'We Stand with Hamas!"

It turns out that Waylette Thomas, a 22-year-old organizer for Los Angeles ANSWER, was arrested at the August 2 protest on Wilshire. Her bail was set at $20,000 and the group sent out an appeal for donations.


Well, according the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, Ms. Thomas is on record of enthusiastically supporting Hamas and its goals of the extermination of Israel. She stands with Hamas terrorism against the Jewish state.

See, "Supporting Palestinians should not mean supporting Hamas":

Last Saturday, our reporter Ryan Torok covered a massive anti-Israel rally in front of the Federal Building in Westwood. The crowd swelled to an estimated 1,500 to 3,000 people, outgrew the plaza, then spontaneously spilled onto the street, shutting down Wilshire Boulevard as it made its way east toward the Israel Consulate. The protesters chanted “Free Palestine!” and waved posters reading “Zionists, Get Out of Gaza Now!” and “Israel Is Mass Murdering Children.”

That was the message they wanted to send to Zionists. So, naturally, Ryan asked them: What message do they want to send to Hamas?
This is what they told him:

“They have to fire more rockets, and they have to fire stronger. They have to be more aggressive,” Darka Raicevic, a Serbian woman, said.

Jami King, 41, who lives in San Diego and drove to Saturday’s rally with her boyfriend, Ammar Khan, said: “I don’t have a direct message for Hamas. ... I just want the [Israeli] siege to stop and for people to sit down and figure out a solution. It’s not for me to say what Hamas’ part in that is.”

Khan, 36, a Pakistani and engineer: “Hamas, their biggest problem is not having a vision for the future and not having a long-term view. ... what we [the United States and Israel] do in response doesn’t justify that. ... Who are we to lecture them? The U.S. has lost its moral high ground.”

Waylette Thomas, 22, a member of the pro-Palestinian group ANSWER and a student at Cerritos College, to Hamas: “We stand with you.”

It’s not for me to say what Hamas’ part in that is. ... Who are we to lecture them? ... We stand with you. ... Fire more rockets.
Of all the hypocrisies in the Gaza conflict, this has got to be the most galling: There is no pro-Palestinian outcry against Hamas. No messages on Facebook or slogans on protest posters addressing its leaders. No pro-Gazan street protests calling on Hamas to stop firing rockets and stop digging tunnels.

Hamas is proud of the fact that its military wing, the Qassam Brigades, uses suicide bombers, rockets and hidden tunnels to kill or threaten Israeli civilians, including women and children. If people at a “peace” rally can’t stand in moral judgment of child murderers — well, we can forget peace.

Here’s the issue: If you want to scream at Israel for inflicting civilian casualties, fine. And if you want to protest President Barack Obama for supporting Israel, OK. But if you really care about the fate of the Palestinians, if you would prefer innocent Palestinians live rather than die, you should also send a simple, two-word message to Hamas: “Stop shooting.”

Hamas needs to get the message from the worldwide pro-Palestinian movement: Resistance to Israeli control and occupation is legitimate. Violent resistance is not. Pick your reason: because violence against Israeli civilians is immoral, or because it will never, ever work. Either reason will do, but just stop.

If Hamas had stopped shooting rockets, and the Palestinians instead had used all the tools of mass nonviolent protests to draw attention to their plight, is there any question that thousands of innocent Palestinians would be alive today, living in homes untouched by bombs?

Why is the pro-Palestinian movement not marching for justice and against violence? Why does it conflate support for the doomed tactics of Hamas with support for Palestinians?

That well-meaning souls on the streets of Los Angeles misguidedly support Hamas’ violence is especially mystifying because so much of the Muslim world opposes it. When the conflict began, Palestinian Authority officials lambasted Hamas. They know violence and unrelenting terror won’t bring about a lasting solution. How do they know? Because they’ve already tried it.

In the early 1960s, Yasser Arafat, influenced by the Muslim Brotherhood, proclaimed, “Liberating Palestine can only come through the barrel of a gun.” Arafat’s Fatah movement set off on a course of terror, which grabbed headlines, left thousands dead and pushed a just solution further and further away.
More.

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Could Mitt Romney Ride to the Rescue of the Republican Party?

I'd love to see another Romney run, although I think Rick Perry's looking really good for 2016. So we'll see.

At Telegraph UK, "American Way: Could Mitt Romney ride to the rescue of the Republican Party?"


...since his 2012 defeat, Mr Romney has been proved right about a variety of issues. When he called Russia a "geopolitical foe" during a 2012 presidential debate, Mr Obama gibed: "The 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back, because the Cold War has now been over for twenty years."

Since that time, of course, Russia has annexed Crimea and massed troops on Ukraine's border. The shooting down of a Malaysian passenger plane in the east of the country is widely believed to have been carried out by Russian separatists. Advantage Mr Romney.

Within seconds of taunting Mitt over Russia, during that same debate, Mr Obama crowed: "Just a few weeks ago, you said you think we should have more troops in Iraq right now."

As I write these words, Islamic State militants are slaughtering Iraqi minorities having taken over Iraq's largest Christian city. This crisis might have been averted had Mr Obama decided to leave a small reserve force in Iraq. Another round for Mr Romney.
He was prescient about some other details, too, including Mali, where he was criticised for mentioning the rise of Islamist extremists in the northern part of the country.

More importantly, his more proactive foreign policy world-view seems to have been redeemed as the crumbling world we witness today stands as evidence of Mr Obama's failed foreign policy strategy, which has been dubbed "leading from behind".

But it wasn't just foreign policy. On the domestic front, Mr Romney warned about ObamaCare, saying that some of the "people who counted on the insurance plan they had in the past" would "lose it". In 2013, Politifact named the "if you like your plan, you can keep it" line their "lie of the year".

Perhaps this explains why a CNN poll released a couple weeks ago showed Mr Romney leading Mr Obama 53 to 44 in a hypothetical rematch of the 2012 election, though according to that same poll, he would lose to Hillary Clinton...
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San Diego College Student Taylor Woolrich Lobbies for Concealed Carry at Dartmouth (VIDEO)

At KGTV-ABC10 News San Diego, "College student wants right to carry gun on campus."

Also at Fox News, "Ivy Leaguer plagued by stalker may drop out over school’s anti-gun policy."

And Ms. Woolrich has a commentary, "Dear Dartmouth, I am one of your students, I am being stalked, please let me carry a gun to protect myself."

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'Cajon Crawl'

Good thing I had no plans to take the family to Vegas this weekend.

Via CBS News Los Angeles:



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'Today, feminism has a major image problem...'

An interesting piece, at the New Republic, "Women's Studies Departments Are Failing Feminism."

Hat Tip: Instapundit, who writes: "THE NEW REPUBLIC: “Far from being sites of activism and empowerment, Berkeley’s Women’s Studies classes were weighed down by theory and jargon.” True, but since this article mindlessly parrots the discredited one-in-five-college-women-are-raped claim, maybe that’s just as well.."
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Obama 'Is Not a Humanitarian President...'

Kirsten Powers slams President Obama for "sitting quietly by" while Christians are massacred in Northern Iraq.

After the 2:00 minute mark:


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The Spread of Islamic State

At Vice, "The Islamic State (Part 1)."


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Obama Returns to Quagmire U.S. Had Exited in Iraq

At the Los Angeles Times, "Obama returns to the quagmire he exited in Iraq":
For three years, President Obama has declared himself the man who closed the door on a dark decade of U.S. war in Iraq. Now he has opened the door again.

Other than insisting no U.S. combat troops will return to Iraq, Obama's advisors outlined few clear limits and no definitive end to America's latest military mission, which began Friday with airstrikes against Sunni militants and drops of humanitarian aid. Given Obama's stated reluctance to use military force in Syria and other hot spots, the White House faced pressure to explain why Iraq was different, what airstrikes would achieve and whether Obama was launching a new phase of an old war.

I see this as a watershed event," said retired Army Lt. Gen. David W. Barno, the top commander in Afghanistan from 2003 to 2005. "Now that we are using lethal force in Iraq, that's a huge bridge to cross, and it's very difficult to get back across once you are over it."

The president for months resisted taking that step. In June, Obama began sending hundreds of advisors to Iraq to help train and supply government security forces under siege from the Al Qaeda offshoot known as Islamic State. Obama opted against airstrikes, aides said at the time, at least until Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's authoritarian government instituted democratic reforms.

Behind the scenes, however, the U.S. factories that produce Hellfire missiles began "working seven days a week in order to meet the need and push them out to Iraq," a senior administration official said. Both manned and unmanned surveillance aircraft and satellites provided near round-the-clock intelligence on Irbil, the Kurdish regional capital, and other key areas.

Then last Saturday, Islamic State fighters launched what U.S. officials called a sophisticated and multipronged attack with armored vehicles and artillery across a broad swath of northern Iraq. By Wednesday night, the militants launched assaults that raised fears of a siege on Irbil and the White House was prepared to act.

The U.S. is flying armed drones and fighter jets over the approaches to Irbil, looking for targets to hit, officials said. As long as the militants can be kept out of major cities, the air campaign can degrade their strength with targeted strikes against vehicles and heavy weapons that are relatively easy to hit in the open, military officials said. That would give Kurdish fighters in the north, and the Iraqi army closer to Baghdad, time to regain their footing...
More.

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Friday, August 8, 2014

'So You Want to Be a Rock & Roll Star'

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, from yesterday morning while out to errands:


Pride (In the Name of Love) -U2 9:45 AM

One - U2 9:40 AM

Desire - U2 9:37 AM

Up Around the Bend - Creedence Clearwater Revival 9:35 AM

I Heard It Through the Grapevine - Creedence Clearwater Revival 9:25 AM

Have You Ever Seen the Rain? - Creedence Clearwater Revival 9:23 AM

So You Want To Be A Rock & Roll Star (Live) - Tom Petty 9:12 AM

Don't Come Around Here - Tom Petty 9:07 AM

BREAKDOWN - TOM PETTY 9:05 AM


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Only the U.S. Can Prevent a Humanitarian and Strategic Disaster in Iraq

At the Wall Street Journal, "The Jihadist March in Iraq":
Perhaps history will mark this as the week that President Obama recognized that evil unimpeded will devour everything before it. We say perhaps because with this President you never know.

President Obama said Thursday night he authorized limited air strikes against the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) to stop the Sunni jihadists from carrying out a genocide in northern Iraq. What he didn't do, but should, is make a larger U.S. military commitment against ISIS both to avert a humanitarian catastrophe and protect American security interests.

After routing Iraq's army from Mosul and most of northern Iraq in June, ISIS has grown as a military force. It captured significant war materiel, including armored U.S. Humvees, and has attracted hardened jihadist fighters from Syria and elsewhere. In addition to the sums it looted from Mosul's banks, the group has the potential to gain access to revenue from oil fields in northern Iraq.

ISIS is also threatening the obliteration of the Christian population in northern Iraq. An assault by ISIS's forces in northern Nineveh province has emptied towns of their Christian populations. Some 40,000 Yazidis, a minority who have lived in Iraq for millennia, are now isolated with little food or water on Mount Sinjar. ISIS controls all roads out and has proven it will have no compunction to slaughter those who try to flee.

When ISIS captured Mosul, it often painted an "N" on the houses of Christians, denoting they are of Nazareth, the birthplace of Jesus. The Christians' confiscated properties have been given to Muslims. Ancient Christian churches have been razed. The self-proclaimed "Islamic State" is a barbaric, pre-modern movement whose goal is to expand its dominion with mass killings. Unresisted, it will not stop.

Despite ISIS's obvious threat to the viability of Iraq—it now also threatens Kurdistan in the north—the Obama Administration to this point has done nothing significant for more than two months to help the Iraqis fight back. Instead, it has insisted that the Iraqis in Baghdad first depose Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and form a more "inclusionary" government.

Under current circumstances, this policy defines "beside the point." It has become a pretext for not acting, as if ISIS will pause while Baghdad organizes itself in a way that meets Mr. Obama's standards. It is past time for the U.S. to intervene...
More at that top link.

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Is #ObamaCare Actually Helping People?

Michelle Fields interviews Edmund Haislmaier of the Heritage Foundation:



Disapproval of the law has been inching up, at RealClearPolitics polling averages, "Public Approval of Health Care Law."

Another thing to weight down Democrats prospects in the fall. Can't say I'm complaining.



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Hateful Anti-Zionists Demand Academic Freedom while Violating the Academic Freedom of Israel Academics

Another awesome entry from William Jacobson, at Legal Insurrection, "Steven Salaita controversy points to the hypocrisy of anti-Israel academic boycotters."


Steven Salaita photo Twitter-_-stevesalaita_-When-Israel-slaughters-endorse-BDS_zps13753267.png


Also at the Illinois AAUP, "Illinois AAUP Committee A Statement on Steven Salaita and UIUC."

And from Professor Michael Bérubé, "The following is the text of a letter sent to University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) Chancellor Phyllis Wise by Michael Bérubé regarding the university’s apparent decision to revoke a job offer to Professor Steven Salaita."
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'We Have to Reach Out to People': Cathy McMorris Rodgers for Reason TV

I still like her.

An interview with Nick Gillespie:



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Obama Approves Targeted Airstrikes on Islamic State in Iraq

At the Wall Street Journal, "Barack Obama Approves Airstrikes on Iraq, Airdrops Aid: Bid to Protect Refugees Fleeing Extremists: Bid to Protect Refugees Fleeing Extremists":

President Barack Obama authorized targeted airstrikes and emergency assistance missions in northern Iraq, saying Thursday the U.S. must act to protect American personnel and prevent a humanitarian catastrophe in the face of advances by violent Islamist militants.
The U.S. military said it completed a delivery of meals and water to thousands of members of a religious minority who fled the town of Sinjar and are trapped in nearby mountains by the group calling itself the Islamic State.

Mr. Obama said he ordered the use of U.S. airstrikes if necessary either to stop militants from closing in on the northern city of Erbil or to allow local forces to aid the Yazidis, the religious minority. No U.S. strikes had been conducted by late Thursday, officials said.

His remarks at the White House capped a day of soaring concern about militant advances in Iraq, where extremist fighters seized control of areas long considered safe and took over the Mosul Dam, the country's largest, according to local reports.

But Mr. Obama also acknowledged domestic jitters about renewed military involvement in Iraq, where America fought an eight-year war.

"American combat troops will not be returning to fight in Iraq because there is no American military solution to the crisis in Iraq," he said, emphasizing the word "American."

"The only lasting solution is reconciliation among Iraqi communities and stronger Iraqi security forces," he said. Separately, Secretary of State John Kerry in a statement stressed the U.S. view that Iraq can only regain stability through the formation of a new, more inclusive government.

The sudden acceleration of U.S. military activity reflected White House concern over a burgeoning crisis in the semiautonomous Kurdish region of Iraq. An Iraqi military official said the Iraqi air force conducted its own airstrikes in the area Thursday.

The White House and Pentagon previously have said they reserve the right to use force in Iraq to protect Americans, and repeated that stance Thursday. The U.S. troops in Erbil are part of a force of planners and advisers working in joint U.S.-Iraqi centers.

Washington has held off on any direct military involvement as the Obama administration pressures Iraqi lawmakers to form a new government.

"We are sending a clear message to the Iraqi government," said a U.S. official...
Also at the New York Times, "American Forces Said to Bomb ISIS Targets in Iraq."

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Thursday, August 7, 2014

Outrageous! Almost 90 Percent of Uninsured Won't Pay Tax as White House #ObamaCare Waivers Surge

The entire law has been a complete clusterf-k. And polls still show a majority of Americans disapproving of it.

The law's becoming another welfare dependency giveaway program that socks it to the middle class. Voters are already pissed about the economy and fearful for their children's future. This just piles on the anxiety when it hits your wallet but not those getting these waivers. Indeed, middle class taxpayers are subsidizing the Obama waiver scofflaws, who were supposed to pay a tax penalty as the law was originally designed.

And now this, at the Wall Street Journal, "Fewer Uninsured Face Fines as Health Law's Exemptions Swell: Almost 90% of Uninsured Won't Pay Penalty Under the Affordable Care Act in 2016" (via Google):

Almost 90% of the nation's 30 million uninsured won't pay a penalty under the Affordable Care Act in 2016 because of a growing batch of exemptions to the health-coverage requirement.

The architects of the health law wanted most Americans to carry insurance or pay a penalty. But an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Committee on Taxation said most of the uninsured will qualify for one or more exemptions.

Daphne Gaines expects to be one of them. She said recently she got an electricity shut-off notice, which is one way Americans can get out of paying a fine. "I don't think I should have to pay any penalty," said Ms. Gaines, 52 years old, of Jasper, Ala., who works part time at a church preschool and a drug-recovery clinic.

The Obama administration has provided 14 ways people can avoid the fine based on hardships, including suffering domestic violence, experiencing substantial property damage from a fire or flood, and having a canceled insurance plan. Those come on top of exemptions carved out under the 2010 law for groups including illegal immigrants, members of Native American tribes and certain religious sects.

Factoring in the new exemptions, the congressional report in June lowered the number of people it expects to pay the fine in 2016 to four million, from its previous projection of six million. Also bringing down the total: At least 21 states have opted not to expand the Medicaid insurance program for lower earners under the health law, and those residents may be exempt from the penalty.

A legal battle over subsidies provided through the federally run insurance exchange could increase the number of Americans entitled to exemptions. In July, a Washington, D.C., appeals court struck down the federal exchange's authority to issue insurance tax credits on the grounds that the health law limits them to state-run exchanges. A Virginia appeals court upheld the subsidies, setting up a legal fight that is likely to go before the Supreme Court.

More than 4 million Americans get subsidies on the federal exchange used by up to 36 states. If the subsidies ultimately are struck down, more people could qualify for hardship exemptions based on their inability to afford coverage.

The exemptions are worrying insurers. The penalties were intended as a cudgel to increase the number of people signing up, thereby maximizing the pool of insured. Insurers are concerned that the exemptions could make it easier for younger, healthier people to forgo coverage, leaving the pools overly filled with old people or those with health problems. That, in turn, could cause premiums to rise.

Patrick Getzen, vice president and chief actuary at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, said he saw more "older and sicker people" enrolled in 2014 than projected. He attributed some of that to the weakened mandate. "With a stronger penalty and less broad exemptions, that would be better for the risk pool."

The Obama administration argued before the Supreme Court in 2012 that the individual mandate was an essential component of the law's insurance-market changes, and the court narrowly upheld it on the grounds it is a tax. Now, Republicans who oppose the law say the administration has undermined that requirement with the exemptions and should waive the mandate entirely.

"If your pajamas don't fit well, you don't need health insurance," said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, former director of the Congressional Budget Office and president of the American Action Forum, a conservative think tank. "It basically waives the individual mandate."

The White House referred questions about the exemptions to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, which oversees implementation of the health law. CMS spokesman Aaron Albright said the legislation allows those facing a hardship to apply for an exemption, and their applications are reviewed on a case-by-case basis. "The Affordable Care Act requires people who can afford insurance to buy it, so that their medical bills are not passed onto the rest of us, which drives up health care costs for everyone," he said.

The idea that Americans carry insurance or pay a penalty has been contentious since its inception. In an early version of the legislation, former Sen. Max Baucus (D., Mont.), then chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, floated a penalty of up to $3,800 a year for families who went without insurance. Republicans were turning against the requirement as the tea party gained momentum, and Mr. Baucus began whittling the penalty in hopes of gaining their votes.

That didn't happen, but lower penalties stayed in place in the final legislation. The fine for not carrying insurance in 2014 is $95 per adult, or 1% of family income, whichever is greater. That increases to $695 per adult, or 2.5% of family income, by 2016. The total family penalty is capped at 300% of $695—$2,085 in 2016.

While the health law was being written, President Barack Obama had pledged that Americans who liked their insurance plans would be able to keep them. But last year millions of people were informed their plans would be discontinued because their policies didn't comply with minimum-benefit requirements.

The resulting furor caused the administration to allow insurers who had planned to discontinue policies to extend them by a year. Some insurers and states, however, decided not to do so.

In an effort to address the problem without disrupting the roll out, the administration said consumers with canceled plans could qualify for a hardship waiver, then could buy minimal coverage initially intended only for individuals under age 30.

That sparked objections from an insurance industry long concerned the mandate was already too weak. "To make these new reforms work, there needs to be broad participation in the system," said Karen Ignagni, president and CEO of American's Health Insurance Plans, the industry's largest trade group.

The exemption was initially for one year. The administration has since extended it for two more years through October 2016.

In December, a hardship application form was released that laid out the 14 exemptions. Among other things, people could avoid the penalty if a close family member had died recently, if they were facing eviction or if they had medical expenses that couldn't be paid in the last 24 months and resulted in substantial debt.

Critics have assailed one exemption for people who "experienced another hardship obtaining health insurance" as too broad. That exemption asks for documentation if possible but doesn't require it.


Posted by AmPowerBlog at 11:25 AM 0 comments
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Anti-Semitism Erupts Globally

From Professor William Jacobson, at the Hill, "Anti-Semitism flares up with Gaza crisis."

William recounts the wave a vicious Jew-hatred erupting around the world over the last month, and seen in the U.S. as well. These are not isolated incidents but a new phenomenon of global anti-Zionism manifesting itself as eliminationist hatred of the Jews.

William concludes:
The boycott, divest and sanctions (BDS) movement is the modern mother’s milk of anti-Semitism.

BDS was founded at the 2001 Durban conference, which was so anti-Semitic that the U.S. walked out.  The extreme anti-Zionism of BDS fuels the hatred of Israeli Jews as colonial occupiers, even in Tel Aviv, and seeks to dehumanize the right of the Jewish people to a homeland in the Jewish homeland.

It’s no surprise that BDS banners and shirts were seen at some of the anti-Semitic protests listed above.

Certainly, in theory, one can be anti-Zionist but not anti-Semitic.

There are ultra-religious Jews who do not believe in Zionism for religious reasons. And there are some left-wing Jews who side against Israel.

There also are those who truly just want Israel to leave Judea and Samaria (the “West Bank”), although the Israeli departure almost a decade ago from Gaza calls such a strategy into question.

But the exceptions prove the rule. Intellectually one can distinguish anti-Zionism from anti-Semitism. But in the real world, on the streets of Paris, Berlin, London, Boston, Miami and elsewhere, they are one and the same.

It’s time we stopped pretending otherwise.
RTWT.

Posted by AmPowerBlog at 12:00 AM 0 comments
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Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Professor Steven Salaita Loses Job Over Anti-Israel Tweets

It's mostly anti-Israel tweets, but this Professor Salaita ranges widely in far-left derangement and obscenity.

At Legal Insurrection, "Anti-Israel Prof. Steve Salaita loses job offer at U. Illinois over hateful tweets."

And at Blazing Cat Fur, "Professor Reportedly Loses Position over Anti-Israel Tweets":


Professor Steven Salaita photo Twitter-_-stevesalaita_-Lets-cut-to-the-chase_-If-defending-Israel-horrible-person_zpsf943645a.png


More at Inside Higher Ed, "Out of a Job." (Via Memeorandum.)

The Electronic Intifada rebuts the account of Professor Salaita's termination, saying he was "fired" rather than having his position "revoked."

Plus, from Professor Corey Robin, at Crooked Timber, "Another Anti-Zionist Professor Punished for His Views (Updated)." Professor Robin goes after Cary Nelson, the former president of the American Association of University Professors:
Once upon a time I wrote an essay for an anthology Nelson edited on unions in academia. When I was the leader of the grad union drive at Yale, he came to campus and spoke out on our behalf. I thought of him as not only a champion of academic freedom but as an especially acerbic—some might even say uncivil—commentator willing to throw a few elbows at his fellow academics. One time, he even compared a fellow English professor to a vampire bat, and proceeded to make fun of his bodily movements and facial gestures. In an academic publication subject to peer review.

But in recent years Nelson has become an outspoken defender of the State of Israel and a critic of the BDS movement. A man who once called for the boycott of a university now thinks boycotts of universities are a grave threat to academic freedom. A man who serially violates the norms of academic civility—urging fellow academics to “give key administrators no peace. Place chanting pickets outside their homes. Disrupt every meeting they attend with sardonic or inspiring public theater”—now invokes those same norms against a critic of Israel. A man who once wrote that “claims about collegiality are being used to stifle campus debate, to punish faculty, and to silence the free exchange of opinion by the imposition of corporate-style conformity,” now complains about an anti-Zionist professor’s “foul-mouthed presence in social media.” A man who once called the movement against hostile environments and in favor of sensitive speech on campus “Orwellian,” now frets over a student of Salaita’s fearing she “would be academically at risk in expressing pro-Israeli views in class.”

I bring this up not to pick on Nelson, but to ask him, and all of you, a simple question: Should Nelson be deemed ineligible for another job at a university simply because of these statements he has written? Should l be deemed ineligible for another job at a university simply because of some “foul-mouthed,” perhaps even intemperate, tweets that I’m sure I have written?

But I bring up Nelson’s case for another reason. And that is that his hypocrisy is not merely his own. It is a symptom of the effects of Zionism on academic freedom, how pro-Israel forces have consistently attempted to shut down debate on this issue, how they “distort all that is right.” Nelson’s U-Turn demonstrates that we’re heading down a very dangerous road. I strongly urge all of you to put on the brakes.
As you can see from the highlighted section, it's not just academic freedom that concerns Professor Robin, but "the effects of Zionism."

Seems to me that Professor Salaita made a big mistake thinking that he could expound his noxious views without any consequence to his employment. My personal recommendation is for academics not to engage in partisan politics until they have the protections of tenure, and even then you'll want to be careful. But as you can see, it's the larger issue at stake, especially for the left, which is apparently that eliminationist radical anti-Israel advocacy should have free rein in higher education. And that is "a very dangerous road" leftists are travelling, academic freedom or not.

Posted by AmPowerBlog at 4:30 PM 0 comments
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Racing Shut Down at Del Mar Thoroughbred Club After 10 Horses Die

From Sunday at the New York Times, "Worries About Surface at Del Mar Track."

And at the O.C. Register, "What's wrong at Del Mar? 10th horse dies on track."




Posted by AmPowerBlog at 6:00 AM 0 comments
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Small Biplane Overturns at Oceanside Airport: Pilot, Passenger Walk Away

My wife saw the biplane flipped upside down as we were driving out to Harrah's Resort yesterday.

And here's a report, at KGTV-ABC10 News San Diego, "Biplane overturns at Oceanside Airport, injuries minor."

Also at LAT, "Pilot, passenger walk from wreckage after Oceanside plane crash."

Posted by AmPowerBlog at 5:00 AM 0 comments
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Hamas Activities Understood on the Basis of Law

From Professor Michael Curtis, at American Thinker:
To paraphrase the line in a Richard Rodgers ballad, I do not know a day when I did not behold Hamas rockets attacking Israeli civilians. Calculations suggest that more than 13,000 missiles have been fired by Hamas in Gaza against those civilians. During July 2014, Hamas fired more than 800 rockets before Israel responded by Operation Protective Edge seeking to eliminate or reduce the aggression. According to international law, the concept of military necessity justifies Israeli attacks on legitimate military targets. Regrettably, those attacks may have adverse consequences for civilians.

Well-meaning people like the President of the European Council and President of the European Commission in a joint official statement of August 3, 2014 on the Gaza situation spoke of the need to move beyond “these cycles of violence.” But there is no “cycle of violence.” Hamas’ position is unequivocal: it denies the legitimacy of Israel; it demonizes Israel; it wants to eliminate the State of Israel.

Unexpected parties have made clear who is responsible for the conflict in Gaza. On August 1, 2014, Abdullah, the King of Saudi Arabia, called the Gaza War “a collective massacre” caused by Hamas. He denounced the Hamas violence that had led to various forms of terrorism. He omitted to say that the war has led to a virtual alliance, for differing reasons, between Israel and Arabs including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, and the Palestinian Authority, weak though the latter is.

Even those living in the fantasy world where Hamas is blameless for the current conflict, such as the Spanish celebrity actors, Penelope Cruz and Javier Barden, have qualified their partisanship. In a public letter of July 27, 2014 they, together with other show business celebrities, unilaterally condemned Israel for “its attacks in the Gaza Strip,” and spoke of Israeli genocide, a war of occupation and extermination against a whole people. No one had thought of Cruz as having a perfect, or even an imperfect, understanding of Middle East politics. However, two days after the letter, Cruz and Barden, or their publicists, “clarified” their position. Cruz explained with undue modesty, “I do not want to be misunderstood on this important subject. I’m not an expert on the situation.” Her husband Barden similarly explained, “My signature (on the letter) was solely meant as a plea for peace… I have great respect for the people of Israel and deep compassion for their losses.”

Cruz and Barden, and various critics of Israel, such as other celebrities, the mainstream media and churches, and all those who have been concerned about the loss of life, especially of children, in the fighting might now examine in the context of international law the extent of the responsibility of Hamas in committing war crimes and violations of international law. Hamas leaders, Muhammad Deif, Chief of Staff, and Ismail Haniyeh, the leader, have taunted Israelis, “We desire death like you desire life.” The best way to examine Hamas’ accountability is by analyzing a number of the Protocols Additional to the Geneva Conventions of August 12, 1949...
More.

Posted by AmPowerBlog at 3:00 AM 0 comments
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Newt Gingrich: 'Growing Panic' in Democrat Party Over Obama Executive Order on Illegal Aliens

It's Speaker Gingrich on the Laura Ingraham radio show.

Listen at the link, via RCP, "Gingrich: Obama Executive Order on Immigration Will Create 'Civil War In His Own Party'." (At Memeorandum.)

Allahpundit's got an analysis up at Hot Air (via Memeorandum). He's pretty skeptical of the Democrat Party "Civil War" thesis. We'll see. Although at this point we know that Democrat incumbents facing reelection are running scared ahead of November. I'm just focused on 2014. A lot can happen this year and then I'll worry about the "long game," which isn't looking so bad for the GOP on the demographic side after all.

Posted by AmPowerBlog at 2:00 AM 0 comments
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Britain's Millie Mackintosh Bikini Photos from Ibiza

This is a bikini-palooza.

At Egotastic!, "Millie Mackintosh in a Bikini in Ibiza."

And at London's Daily Mail, "Made in Ibiza! Millie Mackintosh shows off her toned and tanned physique in bandage bikini top and high-waisted bottoms."

Still more at the Mirror UK, "Millie Mackintosh's hubby Professor Green shares video of her sleeping and a snap on Instagram."

Posted by AmPowerBlog at 1:00 AM 0 comments
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'How Israel’s hawks intimidated and silenced the last remnants of the anti-war left...'

That subtitle's written if intimidating the antiwar left was a bad thing, lol.

From Gregg Carlstrom, at Foreign Policy, "The Death of Sympathy":

TEL AVIV — Pro-war demonstrators stand behind a police barricade in Tel Aviv, chanting, "Gaza is a graveyard." An elderly woman pushes a cart of groceries down the street in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon and asks a reporter, "Jewish or Arab? Because I won't talk to Arabs." A man in Sderot, a town that lies less than a mile from Gaza, looks up as an Israeli plane, en route to the Hamas-ruled territory, drops a blizzard of leaflets over the town. "I hope that's not all we're dropping," he says.

Even before the war, Israel was shifting right, as an increasingly strident cadre of politicians took ownership of the public debate on security and foreign affairs. But the Gaza conflict has accelerated the lurch -- empowering nationalistic and militant voices, dramatically narrowing the space for debate, and eroding whatever public sympathy remained for the Palestinians.

The fighting seems to be winding down, but it leaves behind a hardened Israeli public opinion: There is a widespread feeling that Israelis are the true victims here, that this war with a guerrilla army in a besieged territory is existential.

Hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has found himself under pressure from politicians even further to his right. The premier has suspended negotiations with the Palestinian Authority, arrested more than 1,000 Palestinians, demolished the homes of several people convicted of no crimes, and launched an offensive in Gaza that has killed more than 1,800 people. That's not enough, even for some members of Netanyahu's own party, who see worrying signs of weakness.

"We've seen the influence of [Tzipi] Livni over the prime minister," Likud Knesset member Danny Danon told Foreign Policy, referring to the justice minister and her centrist party. "My position is to make sure we're not becoming a construct of the left.... As long as he stays loyal, he'll have the backing of the party."

Netanyahu fired Danon from his post as deputy defense minister last month, because he was too critical of the government's strategy in Gaza. But Danon cannot be dismissed as a marginal figure: He took control of the Likud central committee last year, and has used the post to steer the party further right -- an ironic turnabout, as Netanyahu used the same tactics to drive out former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon a decade ago. Even before his election, the 2012 Likud primary turned Netanyahu into perhaps the most liberal member of his own party.

Public opinion polls confirm the Israeli right's gains during the current conflict. A survey conducted by the Knesset Channel last week found that the right-wing parties would win 56 seats in the next election, up from 43 last year. The center-left bloc would shrink from 59 seats to 48. Other surveys suggest that the right could win a majority by itself, without needing religious parties or centrists to form a coalition.

But perhaps more striking is the public's near-unanimous support for the Gaza war, from Israelis across the political spectrum. Roughly 90 percent of Jewish Israelis support the war, according to recent polls. Less than 4 percent believe the army has used "excessive firepower," the Israel Democracy Institute found, though even Israeli officials admit that a majority of the 1,800 Palestinians killed so far are civilians.

Meanwhile, Labor Party leader Isaac Herzog, the ostensible head of the opposition, is doing public relations work for Netanyahu, defending the war at a gathering of foreign diplomats. Livni herself at times sounds more hawkish than the prime minister, arguing that Israel should topple Hamas and build a moat to separate itself from Gaza. "I have two words for you: Get lost," she told the U.N. Human Rights Council after it voted to investigate possible Israeli war crimes in Gaza.

And Finance Minister Yair Lapid, who once threatened to bolt the coalition if talks with the Palestinians collapsed, has been another vocal advocate. "This is a tough war, but a necessary one," he said last month.

Decades ago, a commentator coined the phrase "quiet, we're shooting" -- a reflection of the Israeli public's tendency to rally behind the army in wartime. But this time, public dissent hasn't just been silenced, it's been all but smothered. A popular comedian was dumped from her job as the spokeswoman for a cruise line after she criticized the war. Local radio refused to air an advertisement from B'Tselem, a rights group, which simply intended to name the victims in Gaza.

Scattered anti-war rallies have drawn small crowds, mostly in the low hundreds; the largest brought several thousand people to Tel Aviv on July 26. But most of the protests ended in violence at the hands of ultranationalists, who attacked them and set up roving checkpoints to hunt for "leftists" afterwards. Demonstrators have been beaten, pepper-sprayed, and bludgeoned with chairs...
Heh, "hunt for leftists." You gotta love it.

More.

Posted by AmPowerBlog at 12:25 AM 0 comments
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'Amanda Marcotte needs to be hit in the face with a whip cream pie...'

That's the fabulous first comment at Althouse, "The conundrum of the monogamous bisexual."

Via Instapundit, "RULE OF THUMB: IF AMANDA MARCOTTE IS BASHING YOU, YOU’RE NOT THE “DUMB GUY”."

Posted by AmPowerBlog at 12:00 AM 0 comments
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Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Renewed Predictions of a Third Intifada

I wrote about this last week.

And now here's Khaled Elgindy, at Foreign Affairs, "Welcome to the Third Intifada: After Gaza, Palestine's Uprising Will Spread to the West Bank":
Given the intensity of the ongoing war between Hamas and Israel in Gaza, it is easy to forget that the current crisis began in a different part of Palestine. The kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank led to a severe Israeli crackdown on Hamas, which responded with a barrage of rocket fire at Israel from Gaza. Meanwhile, the murder of a Palestinian teenager by Jewish extremists sparked several days of violent protests by Palestinians in East Jerusalem and elsewhere. The shift in venue served Israel’s interests, diverting the conflict away from sensitive and strategically vulnerable areas. For Israeli policymakers, another concentrated war against Gaza was preferable to the possibility of another West Bank uprising against Israel, akin to the so-called intifadas that occurred in the late 1980s and the early 2000s. Contrary to what Israelis may have hoped, however, the present war has made a third intifada more, not less, likely...
More.

This Elgindy guy looks like he favors a third intifada, actually, given the nature of his pro-Palestinian advocacy.

Posted by AmPowerBlog at 11:45 PM 0 comments
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Monthly Credit: California Assemblywoman Introduces Bill to Provide Diaper Stipend to Low-Income Women

Makes sense for dependency state leftists, especially in California. They have a "welfare stipend" for just about everything nowadays.

At KGTV-ABC10 News San Diego, "A welfare program for diapers? Diaper stipend proposed for low-income families."

Posted by AmPowerBlog at 11:05 PM 0 comments
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The Palestinian people vs. the Israelis

"HELPFUL COMPARISON CHART FOR JOURNALISTS," via Director Blue.

Posted by AmPowerBlog at 10:50 PM 0 comments
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WSJ/NBC News Poll: Widespread Economic Anxiety, Fear; Next Generation Will Have Fewer Opportunities

At the Wall Street Journal, "Poll Finds Widespread Economic Anxiety: Respondents in WSJ/NBC Poll Fear Their Children's Generation Will Have Fewer Opportunities—And They Blame Washington Politicians (via Google and Memeorandum):

Still scarred by a recession that ended five years ago, Americans are registering record levels of anxiety about the opportunities available to younger generations and are pessimistic about the nation's long-term prospects, directing their blame at elected leaders in Washington.

A new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll found that despite the steady pace of hiring in recent months, 76% of adults lack confidence that their children's generation will have a better life than they do—an all-time high. Some 71% of adults think the country is on the wrong track, a leap of 8 points from a June survey, and 60% believe the U.S. is in a state of decline.

What's more, seven in 10 adults blamed the malaise more on Washington leaders than on any deeper economic trends, and 79% expressed some level of dissatisfaction with the American political system.

"The American public is telling its elected representatives that the economic distress that a significant proportion of them are feeling is directly their fault," said Democratic pollster Fred Yang, who conducts the Journal poll with Republican Bill McInturff. "The public seems to have moved beyond the plaintive cry of 'feel our pain' to the more angry pronouncement of 'you are causing our pain.' "

That frustration is taking its toll on President Barack Obama and members of Congress. Mr. Obama registered his lowest-ever approval rating for his overall job performance and handling of foreign policy in the new Journal poll, as well as the worst personal favorability ratings of his presidency.

The president's approval rating dropped to 40% in this latest poll from 41% in a June survey, and he notched a disapproval rating of 54%, matching a previous high. Meanwhile, 36% approve of Mr. Obama's handling of foreign policy, compared with the 60% who disapprove—his worst-ever marks.

Congressional Republicans fared even worse, with 54% of adults viewing them negatively and just 19% expressing positive views, a gap of 35 percentage points. Democrats in Congress were viewed negatively by 46% and favorably by 31%, a difference of 15 points.

This gloom sets the stage for a midterm election in which Americans, according to the early data, are less motivated to vote than in many previous cycles, a trend bound to complicate Democratic efforts to hold the Senate. But the lingering frustration with Washington also presents a hurdle for Republicans, who continue to fall further out of favor with women.

"If there was ever a hold-our-nose election, this certainly would be it," Mr. Yang said.

The latest Journal poll of 1,000 adults, conducted between Wednesday and Sunday night, found some signs of improvement in American views of the economy. Half of those polled said the economy is improving, and 49% think the U.S. is still in a recession, down from 58% last summer and 77% in 2008.

Sixty-four percent of those polled said they are still feeling some impact from the recession, down from the 71% who said they initially felt effects from the downturn when it began more than six years ago. Forty percent said someone in their household had lost a job over the last five years, and one of three said someone they live with was forced to take a job with a significantly lower income.

While hiring has picked up and job openings are at a seven-year high, growth in inflation-adjusted wages and family income has been distressingly slow. The Census Bureau says the income of the median, or typical, American family in 2012 was $51,017, or about the same as in 1995 adjusting for inflation. Median family income is about 8% below 2007 levels.

"I was doing better five years ago than I'm doing now," said Laura Colvin, 29, a fast-food worker in Jonesboro, Ark., whose hourly wage has risen less than a $1 over that period while her utility costs and the price of other goods and services have risen.

"We've always wanted our kids to have it better than we did, whether it's an education or a good job, and it just doesn't seem like I see that for my kids," said Luis Gomez, 64 years old, a land surveyor from Overland Park, Kan., who is worried about the costs of higher education for his 17-year-old son. "It feels like we're Japan, that the economy has flatlined."

In the survey, roughly a quarter of adults said they or their child has more than $5,000 in student-loan debt, and 25% said someone in their house had to take a second job just to pay the bills. The groups most impacted by the recession include: Latinos, white women between the ages of 35 and 49, people who make less than $30,000 and white working-class Americans.

A majority of those polled agreed with the statement that growing income inequality between the wealthy and everyone else "is undermining the idea that every American has the opportunity to move up to a better standard of living." Those impacted most by the recession were far more likely to hold that view.

This widespread discontent is evident among just about every segment of the population. Fifty-seven percent of those polled said that something upset them enough to carry a protest sign for one day. That included 61% of Democrats and 54% of Republicans, as well as 70% of adults who identify with the tea party and 67% of self-described liberals. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

With congressional approval ratings still hovering near all-time lows, a plurality of those polled said they want their vote in this fall's midterm election to be seen as a message that the country needs incumbents of both parties to lose to usher new people into Congress. Adults split more or less evenly between those who want their votes to be a referendum for, or a check on, Mr. Obama.

"I don't think they're working for the middle class," said Evan Coley, a 22-year-old resident of Albermarle, N.C., who works in an auto shop. "They're trying to help themselves more than anyone else."
Well, I think both parties have a lot to worry about going into November, but especially the Democrats, since their hold on power in the Senate looks increasingly tenuous.

More at the Lonely Conservative, "Poll Finds American Pessimism Is At An All Time High."

Posted by AmPowerBlog at 7:45 PM 0 comments
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VIDEO: RAF Fighter Jet Intercepts, Escorts Qatar Airlines Flight QR23 After Terrorist 'Bomb Threat'

Lovely.

At London's Daily Mail, "'There is a bomb on board this plane': Terror on Flight QR23 as RAF Typhoon escorts it to Manchester Airport before armed police storm on to arrest man, 47, over 'bomb threat hoax'."



More video at the Sydney Morning Herald, "Man arrested for hoax bomb threat on plane escorted by fighter jet to Manchester Airport."

Posted by AmPowerBlog at 2:35 PM 0 comments
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U.S. General Killed in Afghanistan

This is horrible.

At Regular Right Guy, "U.S. General Murdered by Afghan ‘Ally’."

At the New York Times, "U.S. General Is Killed in Attack at Afghan Base, Officials Say":


KABUL, Afghanistan — An Afghan soldier shot a United States Army major general to death and wounded a German brigadier general and at least 14 other foreign and Afghan military service members on Tuesday at a military training academy on the outskirts of Kabul, officials of the American-led coalition said Tuesday. The major general appeared to be the highest-ranking member of the American military to die in hostilities overseas since the Vietnam War.

The coalition officials said a senior Afghan commander also was among the wounded. The officials declined to identify any of the victims by name. The identity of the gunman was not disclosed, either, but a Pentagon spokesman told reporters in Washington that he had been killed.

The Pentagon spokesman, Rear Adm. John Kirby, also said officials believed the gunman was “a member of the Afghan national security forces,” but he had no other details about him or the circumstances of the shooting.

Admiral Kirby also said the shooting, the first so-called insider attack in months in Afghanistan, was an inherent risk of the war, calling it “a pernicious threat and always difficult to ascertain.”

The German military confirmed that one of its brigadier generals serving in Afghanistan was among 15 coalition-led troops wounded in the shooting, described as “presumably an internal attack.” The general was being treated for his injuries, which were not life-threatening, the Germans said in a statement.

Other details of the shooting were sketchy, and the coalition, in an official statement, would only confirm that one of its service members had been killed in what it described as “an incident” at the Marshall Fahim National Defense University in Kabul. The coalition declined to specify any further details, saying it was still working to notify the family of the deceased.
More (via Memeorandum).

Posted by AmPowerBlog at 12:30 PM 0 comments
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Westwood Demonstrators Call for Peace in #Gaza

Here's KTLA's report on the "phony" ANSWER protest from last Saturday: "Pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli demonstrators gathered outside the federal building in Westwood on Saturday and called for an end to the bloodshed in Gaza."

PREVIOUSLY: "Communists, Hamas Solidarity Protesters Demand Israel's Extermination in Los Angeles — #ANSWERLA."

Posted by AmPowerBlog at 12:00 PM 0 comments
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