Watching Jason's Statham's 'Death Race'

Cool flick:

Obama Tells Egyptian Foreign Minister: 'I am a Muslim'

No lie.

It's at Israel Today, May 2010, page 3:

The feeling among the Israeli public is that Obama is appeasing the Muslim world at the expense of Israel. “The American President told me in confidence that he is a Muslim,” said Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit on Nile TV.

That could explain why Obama has instructed that the term “Islamic extremism” no longer be used in official government documents and statements. Furthermore, the US is now accusing Israel of harming American interests in the Middle East. General David Petraeus, the head of US Central Command, said Israel’s intransigence on resolving the conflict with the Palestinians is endangering US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. Even the US Congress considers Obama’s behavior toward Netanyahu humiliating. Three-quarters of the House of Representatives, 337 of 435 members, signed a bipartisan letter to Clinton expressing “deep concern over recent tension” between the two countries, and demanding that it be smoothed over quickly and in private.

“Obama is a real problem for Israel,” a senior official told told Yediot. “He is Israel’s biggest strategic catastrophe.” The newspaper also quoted another official who believes that for the first time Washington has switched sides. “The Obama White House is putting pressure only on Israel

Pamela has more (via Memeorandum).

Save Mosab Hassan Yousef

Some of my blog budds have started a new effort: Save Mosab Yousef: Help Him Stay In The U.S.

More at Bob Belvedere's, "HELP SAVE MOSAB YOUSEF FROM CERTAIN DEATH," and Steven Givler, "Please Support Mosab Hassan Yousef."

Background at Maggie's Notebook, "Mosab Hassan Yousef Homeland Security: Homeland Security to Deport Mosab Hassan Yousef," and WSJ, "Deporting 'Son of Hamas': The U.S. may send an antiterror agent back to the West Bank":

Mosab Hassan Yousef is a best-selling author who wrote "Son of Hamas" about his life as a Palestinian who became an informant for Israeli intelligence. He's probably near the top of every Islamist terror hit list, yet, incredibly enough, the U.S. may soon deport him as a terror threat.

In 2007, Mr. Yousef came to the United States, where he converted to Christianity from Islam and applied for political asylum. The request was denied in February 2009, Mr. Yousef says, on grounds that he was potentially "a danger to the security of the United States" and had "engaged in terrorist activity." His case has automatically proceeded to the deportation stage, and on June 30 at 8 a.m. he will appear before Judge Rico Bartolomei in Homeland Security Immigration Court in San Diego.

Homeland Security is well aware of the author's history, and in fact is using it against him. According to Mr. Yousef, a letter from Homeland Security attorney Kerri Calcador cites passages in "Son of Hamas" as evidence of his connection to terrorist leaders and suggests that the work he did for Hamas while spying for Israel provided aid to terrorists. "At a bare minimum, evidence of the respondent's transport of Hamas members to safe houses . . . indicates that the respondent provided material support to a [Tier I] terrorist organization," the U.S. lawyer wrote.

But unless Ms. Calcador knows more than she's saying, this is bizarre. As a spy for Israel, Mr. Yousef had to make his colleagues believe he was a loyal member of Hamas. He used that trust to gain information that he provided to Israeli intelligence, which used it to prevent terror attacks and save lives. One of Mr. Yousef's handlers at Shin Bet confirmed his book's account to the Israeli daily Haaretz, and his father, Sheikh Hassan Yousef, has disowned him from the Israeli prison he has occupied since 2005. (See our Weekend Interview with the younger Yousef, "They Need to Be Liberated From Their God," March 6, 2010.)

The problem seems to be that, under a provision of U.S. immigration law, anyone who is shown to have provided "material support" for terrorist organizations is automatically denied asylum. In the relentless way that bureaucracy works, this is being interpreted as leaving little discretion for deserving exceptions like the case of Mr. Yousef ...

RTWT.

Gold! It's Never Too Late to Secure Your Future With ... Gold!

I often see this commerical multiple times a day during the business week. And now here comes NYT with a background report. I guess it's not just G. Gordon Liddy types either, "Uncertainty Restores Glitter to an Old Refuge, Gold":

It is the resurgent passion of the doomsday crowd, a bet that everything will go wrong. No matter what has you worried, they say, the answer is gold.

Inflation, deflation, government borrowing or the plunging euro — you name it — the specter of these concerns has set off a dash to gold, driving the precious metal to new highs and illustrating how fears of economic turmoil have moved from the fringe to the mainstream.

And gold bugs, often dismissed as crackpots who hoard gold bars in the basement, are finally having their day.

“I just think you’re in a world where a lot of chickens are coming home to roost,” said John Hathaway, manager of the Tocqueville Gold fund. “Gold is an escape hatch.”

The most visible new gold enthusiasts range from the Fox News commentator Glenn Beck on the right to the financier George Soros on the left, with even some sober-minded Wall Street types developing a case of gold fever. While their language may differ, they share a fundamental view that the age-old refuge of gold is relevant again, especially as other assets like stocks and national currencies show signs of weakness.

Now, individual investors are following their example around the world. The United States Mint is running short of gold coins, and the South African mint increased Krugerrand production by 50 percent late last month, to its highest level in 25 years, on brisk European demand.

The debt crisis in Europe and the ensuing drop in the value of the euro are the most recent catalysts for gold’s spike last week to $1,254 an ounce, a record before adjusting for inflation, but the deeper concern is that even in the United States, government borrowing is unsustainable and the day of reckoning is at hand. Sales of American Eagle one-ounce gold coins tripled in May from the month before.

If governments print more money to pay off their debts, the logic goes, inflation will destroy the value of the dollar, the euro and other paper currencies — thus enhancing the value of gold. What is more, with tax increases unlikely and with Europe on the brink, the unthinkable — a sovereign debt default or the collapse of the credit system — has suddenly become thinkable.

RTWT.

The piece discusses Goldline, which advertises on Glenn Beck's show. That was too much for Democratic Congressman Anthony Weiner, it turns out, "Rep. Anthony Weiner targets Glenn Beck and Goldline International."

Also, "GLENN BECK HITS BACK AT REP. ANTHONY WEINER OVER GOLD SCAM CLAIM."

Truth is the New Hate Speech

I've been finding this out at my college, but it's all around. If you so much as offer facts that effectively debunk the leftist narrative, you'll be attacked as racist and charged with making "hate speech." At my school, once I posted information on illegal immigration, someone --- again, probably faculty members in the history and sociology departments --- complained that my bulletin board constituted "hate speech." I've filed a complaint against the administration, but that immediately got turned into a counter "investigation" against me, since obviously the college's double standards could raise civil rights liabilities, so they had to push back.

So, it's tough and grinding sometimes, fighting the good fight.

A couple of examples:

At Atlas Shrugs, Pamela reports that PayPal's cutting her off by designating her blog a "hate site." See, "Paypal Cuts Off Atlas: Truth is the New Hate Speech."

And Caroline Glick reports, "YouTube Silences Latma, Removes 'We Con the World'."

As Israel went offline for the Jewish sabbath, YouTube removed most versions of Latma's hit parody song We Con the World. If you try to access the song on YouTube you receive the notification: This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Warner/ Chappell Music, Inc.

Copyright experts we advised with before posting the song told us in no uncertain terms that we were within our rights to use the song because we did so in accordance with the Fair Use Doctrine. The Fair Use Doctrine, copied and pasted below from the US Copyright Office stipulates that it is legal and permissible to use copyrighted material under the fair use doctrine for purposes of parody.

Copyright attorneys also warned us that given our clearly lawful use of the song We are the World, if anyone wished to silence our voices, they wouldn't target us. Instead they would target YouTube. It is YouTube's standard practice to remove any material that they receive even the flimsiest threat for because the company wishes to avoid all litigation.

More at the link. And in Caroline adds, in another post:

YouTube's decision to pull Latma's hit song We Con the World after 3 million viewers shows that Israel's enemies are afraid of us. Since they cannot refute our points, they are trying to silence us. First they threw ridiculous accusations at Latma that our parody of We are the World was racist. When that didn't stick and more and more people continued to watch our song, they decided to silence us.

Obviously this means that we need to redouble our efforts. It also means we'll have to diversify our posting options to make sure that a call to YouTube won't suffice to silence us.

Ed Morrissey is hopeful that Eyeblast will demonstrate more balls:

Native Americans Lost the Indian Wars

Stogie left a nice compliment yesterday, suggesting that my "posts lately are substance on steroids!" I'm flattered. It's kinda funny, though, since all I'm really doing sometimes is just putting down what's on my mind instead of posting what others have written.

Anyway, I was thinking of that "steroids" remark just now while reading the New York Times. Turns out there's an interesting book review in the Sunday paper on General George Custer and the "Last Stand" at Little Big Horn. See, "Books About the Indian Wars." The piece is by Bruce Barcott, and he reviews Nathaniel Philbrick's The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn, and S. C. Gwynne's, Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History. The first section of Barcott's review covers familiar territory --- that Custer's Last Stand was a blunderous, even ignoble, military defeat, yet American myth-making has romanticized the defeat in popular culture.

The more interesting passage is found in the discussion of Gwynne's book on the Comanches. I'm especially fascinated by the indenfication of the Comanche tribe as a "superpower":

Gwynne opens with the May 1836 Comanche raid on the Parker homestead. The Parkers were a clan of Illinois pioneers working 16,100 acres near present-day Dallas. In 1836 they represented the leading edge of white westward expansion into Comanche territory, which the tribe didn’t like one bit. They expressed their displeasure by killing the Parker men (though a few escaped) and taking two women and three children captive.

The term “Indian raid” glosses over the atrocities. Men and babies were killed as a matter of course. Mutilation, rape and torture were common. The lucky died quickly. “This was the actual, and often quite grim, reality of the frontier,” Gwynne writes. “This treatment was not reserved for whites or Mexicans; it was practiced just as energetically on rival Indian tribes.”

The Comanche weren’t merely one of many tribes steamrolled by Manifest Destiny. They were a Native American superpower, a thesis put forth in Pekka Hamalainen’s Bancroft Prize-winning study, “The Comanche Empire,” oddly not cited here. Gwynne presents the Great Plains wars of the mid-19th century as the clash of three empires: the United States, Mexico and the Comanche nation, which controlled most of modern-day Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas and Oklahoma.

“They held sway over some 20 different tribes who had been either conquered, driven off or reduced to vassal status,” Gwynne writes. “Such imperial dominance was no accident of geography. It was the product of over 150 years of deliberate, sustained combat against a series of enemies over a singular piece of land that contained the country’s largest buffalo herds.” At the height of their power in the late 1830s, the Comanche contemplated a full-scale invasion of Texas and Mexico.

What interests me is how the Comanche tribe is described as acting as a nation-state in terms of classic balance-of-power politics and maximization of rational self-interest. There's little in the discussion to indicate a helpless victimhood among the Comanches, and therefore the larger continental diaspora of Native American tribes. This fact is in diametrical opposition to the claims of contemporary radical left organizations that claim indigenous peoples are victims of genocide. As I covered in my recent reporting from Phoenix, the Mexica Movement is a fringe indigenous-people's group calling for the expulsion of European Americans from all of North and South America. The Mexica Movement combines victims' grievance claims with a vicious ideology of indigenous supremacy. They're a hateful bunch.

Yet historical analysis and theoretical exposition debunk the claims of an American Indian holocaust. There was no genocide, just simply defeat in warfare. (An interesting aside here, although not the key point in my discussion, is Guenter Lewy's, "Were American Indians the Victims of Genocide?" And see the letters to the editor in response, "American Indians." See also, "No Genocide on the Plains.") I look it this in terms of state survival in the interstate system. And that's why Barcott's discussion is interesting, in as much as the Comanche's themselves, as a great warrior nation, acted much like we'd describe today as "great powers." But note further: In 1994, scholar Neta Crawford published "A Security Regime Among Democracies: Cooperation Among Iroquois Nations." The emphasis in the paper is on how the rival Iroquois tribal units were able to escape the conflict-inducing anarchy of their international system to create a security regime of mutual cooperation. What's important for my argument is the understanding of Native Americans tribes as sovereign units responsible for their own security and survival. Thus, in contrast to popular mythologies of peaceful existence and organic close-to-the-land wholesomeness, in functional terms Native Americans operated in precisely the same way as did the so-called European colonial oppressor states. As Professor Crawford argues:

Are the units comparable? Yes, if one makes a distinction between the forms of "states" and the functions of "government." The forms of Native American and European states certainly were different from each other, but their governments performed similar functions-functions that normally are associated with states: there were within Iroquois nations decision-making structures and ways to provide collective goods; there were elected and appointed representatives as well as hereditary leadership. Further similarities exist in the area of international relations: the nations of North America used diplomatic envoys, recognized the "sovereignty" of other nations, and negotiated binding treaties. Finally, Iroquois governments had a monopoly on the use of force, although the egalitarian structure of the state meant that force could only be deployed after consensus was reached by all adult members of the nation. The Iroquois League nations of, for example, 1500 were different from European nations in that they were in general smaller, less urban, less industrialized, and more democratic than European states of the same period. But, just as the ideal of the "state" does not quite correspond to the Iroquois nations, it also does not correspond to all European-type states. In fact, there is wide variation among the states that comprised the European international system (for example in terms of provision of collective goods, the criteria for political leadership, and the degree of democracy), both in comparison with one another and over time. So, although the units of analysis are not identical, if one understands states as institutional arrangements--performing certain "governing" functions--that vary along several dimensions and change over time, then one can compare the international relations of Native North America with international relations in Europe.

The Native American tribes were not victims of genocidal European conquerors. They were ruthless warriors in their own right who ultimately failed to defend their sovereignty and national integrity on the North American continent. As Barcott notes in his conclusion, "The Comanche of the 1800s were truly a nation more like Germany. And you crossed them at your peril." Unfortunately, history lessons like this aren't the kind students are getting in their ethnic studies courses at the university.

Arizona's Next Immigration Target: Children of Illegals

The main story's at Time.

Also, at Say Anything, "Arizona Governor: Illegal Immigrants Can Take Their Kids With Them When They Leave."

As I've said before, Arizona's doing the jobs the feds won't do. And Governor Jan Brewer is AZ's real maverick:

Bonus Freakout: Zandar the Stupid. (Arizona's crackdown doesn't seem to be having the political effect lefitists were hoping for.)

What Really Goes on Beneath the Burka?

Check out Sissy Willis on this advertisement from Liaison Dangereuse lingerie: "Exposed: What Really Goes on Beneath the Burka?"

Saudi Arabia Gives Israel Green Light for Preventive Military Srike on Iran

About three years ago, Whitney Raas and Austin Long, MIT doctoral candidates, published "Osirak Redux? Assessing Israeli Capabilities to Destroy Iranian Nuclear Facilities." I love this piece, mainly because it realistically --- and unapologetically --- sets the intellectual table for an Israeli preventive attack on Iran. The authors analyze all kinds of difficulties, for example, the operational logistics facing the Israeli Air Force; potential defensive emplacements and anti-aircraft systems of Israel's enemies; and the political-diplomatic impediments to an Israeli strike. The military-logistical analysis comprises the first few sections of the article. But at page 17 the authors discuss "possible attack routes." They discuss three: A northern route, over the Mediterranean to Turkey then Iran; a northeastern route, over Jordan and U.S.-occupied Iraq; and then a southeastern route, along the Iraq-Saudi border. Raas and Long favor the second route as strategically favorable, but politically unlikely. And they suggest that the third route would pose the most logistical problems in terms of refueling and Israel would face the most advanced anti-aircraft batteries among any of the three options.

But now, according to a new report from the Times of London, Jerusalem won't have to worry about evading Saudi forces in the event of a strike on Iran's nuclear facilities. See, "Saudi Arabia Gives Israel Clear Skies to Attack Iranian Nuclear Sites":

Saudi Arabia has conducted tests to stand down its air defences to enable Israeli jets to make a bombing raid on Iran’s nuclear facilities, The Times can reveal.

In the week that the UN Security Council imposed a new round of sanctions on Tehran, defence sources in the Gulf say that Riyadh has agreed to allow Israel to use a narrow corridor of its airspace in the north of the country to shorten the distance for a bombing run on Iran. To ensure the Israeli bombers pass unmolested, Riyadh has carried out tests to make certain its own jets are not scrambled and missile defence systems not activated. Once the Israelis are through, the kingdom’s air defences will return to full alert.

“The Saudis have given their permission for the Israelis to pass over and they will look the other way,” said a US defence source in the area. “They have already done tests to make sure their own jets aren’t scrambled and no one gets shot down. This has all been done with the agreement of the [US] State Department.”

Sources in Saudi Arabia say it is common knowledge within defence circles in the kingdom that an arrangement is in place if Israel decides to launch the raid. Despite the tension between the two governments, they share a mutual loathing of the regime in Tehran and a common fear of Iran’s nuclear ambitions. “We all know this. We will let them [the Israelis] through and see nothing,” said one.

The four main targets for any raid on Iran would be the uranium enrichment facilities at Natanz and Qom, the gas storage development at Isfahan and the heavy-water reactor at Arak. Secondary targets include the lightwater reactor at Bushehr, which could produce weapons-grade plutonium when complete.

The targets lie as far as 1,400 miles (2,250km) from Israel; the outer limits of their bombers’ range, even with aerial refuelling. An open corridor across northern Saudi Arabia would significantly shorten the distance. An airstrike would involve multiple waves of bombers, possibly crossing Jordan, northern Saudi Arabia and Iraq. Aircraft attacking Bushehr, on the Gulf coast, could swing beneath Kuwait to strike from the southwest.

RTWT.

The Obama administration has refused a green light for an Israeli Iraq flyover, although the government of Benjamin Netanyahu has not ruled out military action. The U.N.'s latest round of sanctions are just a political sop to the peace movement and won't do a thing to halt Iranian nuclear proliferation.

Frankly, about the only thing stopping Israel, I would imagine, is the guaranteed worldwide condemnation of a unilateral strike by Jerusalem. The question is at what point will Israel place national survival above the risk of futher diplomatic isolation?

'Who's Nailin' Paylin?' and Other Hoped-For Newsweek Covers

No, that's not really the cover of this week's Newsweek. The editor's actually do a kinda bait-and-switch. On the one hand, you've got a supposedly respectable cover story, "Saint Sarah." It's written by the magazine's religion writer, Lisa Miller, a writer who doesn't actually know much about religion, apparently. And frankly, while Miller tries hard not to alienate the mainstream readers Newsweek no doubt needs to survive, she can't help writing a piece that essentially condescends and "otherizes" Palin as some kind of freakishly submissive "new model" feminist whose only genuine appeal to women voters is her "family, beauty-queen figure, and glossy hair." Not the kinda resume you'd expect from a former state governor and major party vice-presidential nominee. But hey, that's just for starters. On the other hand we have David Graham's companion piece at Newsweek, "Cult of Palin," which turns Sarah Palin's appeal into a commodity, with special emphasis on the cheapest, sleaziest dehumanizations found in the porny, sex-for-sale/left-wing progressive media industry:

And that's just Newsweek. You've also got the radical left-wing Jezebel's excoriation, "Sarah Palin, False Prophet":

... this idea that the Christian right has gained so much ground because liberals and feminists are out of touch with the "real America" is fiction, one of the lies they tell to carve a path through their thicket of contradictions. It's actually because charismatic people like Sarah Palin go out there and tell people whatever they want to hear without being bound by logic or facts. If they can inspire pure faith and loyalty, they can get people excited about the idea of a theocracy with liberty and justice for all, and a pro-woman patriarchy, and a unicorn in every pot. That doesn't make any of it real. It doesn't make Sarah Palin a feminist. And it doesn't make the left exclusive and intolerant and out of touch. It just makes people like Sarah Palin powerful enough to tell lies and have a substantial number of people believe them.

Okay, inspiring "faith and loyalty" with a bunch of lies? Not very specific as to the nature of those "lies," but this is coming from a publication going by the name of "Jezebel."

And how about Vanity Fair, "'Sarastopheles', 'Sarah Pagan', and Other Discarded Newsweek Covers"? Here you get Sarah Palin the demonic "Mephistopheles" and a sort of naughty occultish medieval prostitute, or something. It can't ever just be a woman who blends traditional values and professionalism with respect for nation, family, and the protection of life. In our extremely progressive postmodern Democratic-feminist milieu, that kind of pragmatique is, well, evil. So leftists want to take it down. Destroy it. Kill it. Or whatever it takes to get the eminently superior Palin model out of the freakin' way.

Emily Henochowicz, American Anti-Israel Activist, Is Left's Next Rachel Corrie

Here's yet another example of why independent citizen bloggers and journalists are more vital than ever before.

Emily Henochowicz, a young American student-turned activist, lost an eye during running battles with Israeli security forces in Jerusalem on Monday. In yesterday's Washington Post, columnist Robert McCartney martyrs Henochowicz as an innocent American-Jewish student attending college in Israel, who tragically gets caught up in events, "U.S. student pays devastating physical price to protest Israel's actions":

Emily Henochowicz wasn't thinking about protests or Palestinians or tear gas canisters when she went to Israel in February for a one-semester college exchange program.

The 21-year-old art student from Montgomery County wanted to study animation, and Jerusalem's Bezalel Academy had a good program.

It was a plus to spend time in Israel. Henochowicz grew up in an observant Jewish household and had her bat mitzvah at Potomac's Har Shalom synagogue. Her father was born in Tel Aviv, and his parents are Polish Holocaust survivors.

But Henochowicz became critical of Israel in the spring, after accompanying a friend to a demonstration in East Jerusalem against the eviction of Palestinian families. Very quickly, she began participating regularly in protests against Israeli policies, especially the expansion of Jewish settlements on the West Bank.

She "accompanied a friend to a demonstration ..."

Like the keffiyeh-clad Intifada-style "friends" who are said to be carrying her away at the video (at 1:00 minute):

It turns out her "friends" are Palestinian cadres with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM). See, "US activist loses eye after being shot in face with tear gas canister." The International Solidarity Movement is a pro-terrorist group co-founded by Adam Shapiro, the lead organizer of the Gaza "Peace" Flotilla. According to Discover the Networks, ISM is a "Radical, anti-Israel organization that recruits westerners to travel to Israel to obstruct Israeli security operations," and the group "Justifies Palestinian terrorism against Israeli civilians." (And see Gerald Steinberg, "The War Against Israel: Terror, lies and slander are the main tools of the Leftist-Islamist alliance against the Jewish state.")

But hey, WaPo's Robert McCartney reassures us that "Henochowicz grew up in an observant Jewish household." She couldn't possibly be rabidly anti-Zionist, you know?

And that's not all. According to the article, Henochowicz "has become a minor celebrity and martyr among Palestinian supporters."

Boy, what a surprise!

Seriously, and with all due respect, too bad for the leftist-Islamists that useful Emily wasn't killed. The global media complex just loves U.S. martyrs like Rachel Corrie to help build condemnation of Israel as a rights-violating "apartheid regime." The Free Gaza Movement even named the next ship after the self-flattening anti-bulldozer activist.

Hello??!!

It's called information warfare.

Thus, the communist CounterPunch is on the case, "While Israel Kills and Maims ... The Outrage at Helen Thomas."

But for lamestream columnists like Robert McCartney, all these folks are "non-violent" demonstrators, just like those "peace activists" with steel bars on the Hamas-backed Mavi Mara.

Katy Perry Slams Lady Gaga's 'Alejandro' as Cheap Blasphemy

Hey, two Lady Gaga posts in one day! It's Friday blogging around here, so expect the unexepected!

At ABC News, "It's War: Celeb Feuds: Katy Perry criticizes Gaga's 'Alejandro' video":

Katy Perry took to Twitter to discuss her distaste for Lady Gaga's new video, "Alejandro," in which the singer dresses in a red-and-white latex nun's habit, sucks on rosary beads and, dressed in a crucifix-emblazoned robe with a cross over her crotch, becomes the center of a gay orgy. "Using blasphemy as entertainment is as cheap as a comedian telling a fart joke," Perry wrote on her Twitter account.

Katy Perry's tweet is here.

Plus, at NYDN, "Katy Perry suggests Lady Gaga's 'Alejandro' music video uses blasphemy for cheap entertainment."

This is the kind of stuff Robert Stacy McCain loves! Or maybe Theo Spark? Crazy catfights over allegedly blasphemous music videos! Whoo hoo!

Birthers Are Back!

I guess the "birther" controversy is kicking up again.

I'm not into it, really. I generally go as far as Andrew McCarthy, "Suborned in the U.S.A.: The birth-certificate controversy is about Obama’s honesty, not where he was born." That said, Aaron Klein is calm and even-handed on the issues in his Chapter 5 of The Manchurian President: Barack Obama's Ties to Communists, Socialists and Other Anti-American Extremists. So now it turns out that WND's got a new breaking report, "Hawaii elections clerk: Obama not born here; Official who oversaw ballots in 2008 race says hospital birth certificate non-existent." And in response, Charles Johnson attacks Tim Adams, WND's source, as a "white supremacist." Typical.

In any case, Mediaite's got a piece on this, and more at Memeorandum. Below is Susan Nordyke's official medical birth transcipt from Hawaii, not Barack Obama's:

Beautiful, Smart Conservative Women

Be sure to read Skye's awesome smackdown, "L’Affaire Newsweek." A snippet:

Every woman on the Top 20 list can be credited for amazing, ground breaking work in the conservative movement. I am truly honored to be included with these women. This is a list of women one can use to inspire the next generation of young women to succeed and the confidence to reject the feminist construct of perpetual victim-hood. Breaking free of the vicious cycle is good for women, not bad as the author would lead you to believe. Freedom will always trumps perpetual victim-hood.

In case you missed it, Skye's referring to Newsweek's response to John Hawkins', "The 20 Hottest Conservative Women In The New Media (2010 Edition)."

I'm just proud to be friends with so many hot conservative women I can't count them all!

Michelle Malkin's one of those, by the way! And don't miss her great road-trip blogging, "The Great American Road Trip: Reflections, RV tips & Rushmore-to-Yellowstone pics."

Jose Lara, Los Angeles Social Studies Teacher, Took Students on Revolutionary 'Freedom Ride' to Protest Arizona's SB 1070

You know, I actually found this viddy a couple of weeks ago, while I was doing my reporting on the Phoenix anti-immigration march. It's taken a little time, but the viral distribution's now made it to Fox News. See, "With Revolutionaries 'Looking On,' Teachers Take Kids on a Protest Trip to Arizona."

Standing in front of a wall-to-wall mural featuring a who's who of revolutionaries, including Ho Chi Minh, Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, and boldly displaying the motto Patria o Muerte, Venceremos!!! (Fatherland or Death, We Shall Overcome!!!), a group of teachers, students, parents and community activists in the Los Angeles Unified School District gathered last month for an unusual field trip — to Arizona, to protest that state's controversial immigration law.

A video posted on YouTube shows LA social studies teacher Jose Lara interviewing teachers and students on May 28 at the headquarters of an organization calling for a Mexican revolution on U.S. soil. Soon after he shot the video, many in the group left for an overnight "freedom ride" to Phoenix to protest what Lara tells the camera is a "racist and outrageous" law.

Four days later, the school board president implored the superintendent of schools to ensure that students in the district be taught that Arizona's law is "un-American" and Jim Crow-like. The law, passed in April, empowers law enforcement officials to question the immigration status of people they think may be in the country illegally.

Lara, who made the video, teaches at the Unified School District's Santee Education Complex with Ron Gochez, another social studies teacher who came under fire last month after he was identified making incendiary remarks in a widely circulated YouTube video that shows him speaking at a 2007 rally for La Raza, a revolutionary group calling for Mexican revolt inside the United States ....

More at the link.

Not sure if I bumped into Jose Lara, but here's another shot of Ron Gochez, holding his Che Guevara standard:

Both Lara and Gochez are active in numerous revolutionary groups, including Union Del Barrio, a La Raza organization that Gochez helped establish across the street from Santee High School.

In the video shot before the trip to Arizona, students, teachers and others are seen gathered at the Union Del Barrio meeting hall and cultural center in Los Angeles, called Centro Cultural Francisco Villa — a nod to one of the leaders of the Mexican Revolution — where wall murals picture revolutionary leaders — including Ho Chi Minh — holding machine guns.

Beside portraits of the revolutionaries is a hand-painted rendering of the famous and long-living revolutionary motto: Patrio o Muerte, Venceremos!!! Popularized by Fidel Castro during the Cuban Revolution, it’s been used by Latin American leaders including Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Evo Morales of Bolivia, who declared it the official motto of his nation's army three months ago.

Gochez confirmed to FoxNews.com that he participated in the caravan to Arizona, though he does not appear in Lara’s video blog entry. Gochez did, however, give numerous on-camera interviews to local news outlets from Centro Cultural Francisco Villa that same night.

Lady Gaga at New York Mets Game

Pics at MLB's Twitter page (here, here, here, here):

And at NYDN, "Lady Gaga give photographers the middle finger during New York Mets' loss at Citi Field." But it's a non-story at NYT, "Santana Gets Little Support, Then Niese Needs Almost None."

Arizona's SB 1070 About Justice, Not Profiling

A supportive editorial, at the Florida Times-Union:

The fury over a law in Arizona meant to stop illegal immigration has produced more heat than light.

Arizona's law went after potential illegal immigrants but came perilously close to profiling.

An amendment to the law provides that this only kicks in after an arrest. At that point, the law enforcement officer is supposed to determine probable cause that the suspect is in the country illegally.

The original arrest must be legitimate, however, not a pretext to get at immigration status. The law also states that "race, color or national origin" may not be considered except as permitted by the state or national Constitution.

During this controversy, however, several facts have been obscured ...

More at the link.

That's my pic above, but more at Just My Truth.

Rabbi Nessenoff, Helen Thomas Interviewer, Gets 25,000 Hate Emails

Saw it first at The Daley Gator, but check Newsbusters, "Rabbi That Filmed Helen Thomas's Anti-Semitism Gets 25,000 Hate Emails."

And BE SURE to click Blazing Cat Fur, "Boy and I thought I got hate mail..."

Thousands of Illegals Flee Arizona Amid SB 1070 Crackdown

At CSM, "Hispanics abandon Arizona, fleeing economy, immigration law."

And at Fox 10 Phoenix, "Hispanic Exodus Out of Arizona?"

Hmmm ... In other news ... At Politico, "Dems' tough new immigration pitch" (via Memeorandum):

Long pilloried for being soft on illegal immigration, top Democratic officials have concluded there’s only one way they can hope to pass a comprehensive immigration bill:

Talk more like Republicans.

They’re seizing on the work of top Democratic Party operatives who, after a legislative defeat in 2007, launched a multiyear polling project to craft an enforcement-first, law-and-order, limited-compassion pitch that now defines the party’s approach to the issue.

The 12 million people who unlawfully reside the country? Call them “illegal immigrants,” not “undocumented workers,” the pollsters say.

Strip out the empathy, too. Democrats used to offer immigrants “an earned path to citizenship” so hardworking people trying to support their families could “come out of the shadows.” To voters, that sounded like a gift, the operatives concluded.

Now, Democrats emphasize that it’s “unacceptable” to allow 12 million people to live in America illegally and that the government must “require” them to register and “get right with the law.” That means three things: “Obey our laws, learn our language and pay our taxes” — or face deportation.

Just a coincidence, I'm sure.

Arizona. Doin' the job the feds won't do, and it shows.

Tina Brown Slams Women GOP Primary Winners as 'Blow to Feminism'

At Newsbusters, "Editor Tina Brown Slams Female GOP Primary Winners: These 'Wingnuts' Are a 'Blow to Feminism'" (via Memeorandum). But Cassy Fiano's on the case, "Fascist feminism strikes again: victorious conservative women are 'a blow to feminism'":

One would think that feminists would rejoice to see women victorious in political elections. But today’s feminism is not after equality; the movement has been hijacked by rabid fascist feminists. These new feminists require that, in order to be a “real” feminist, you have to walk in lock step with them, toe the fascist feminist line, and never disagree with them on a single issue. And their stance on every issue is always, of course, liberal. They want unlimited taxpayer-funded abortions available right up until the moment of birth, universal health care, universal day care, open borders, a weaker military, massive welfare systems, the government taking the place of fathers in families — basically anything you can think of to destroy western civilization.

Word.

More at the link.