And at ABC News, " EXCLUSIVE: Inside the Compound Where Osama Bin Laden Was Killed: Photos from Inside the Osama Bin Laden Kill Zone."
Monday, May 2, 2011
Inside Osama's Compound (VIDEO)
Teachers Scramble to Incorporate News of Bin Laden's Death Into Lessons
I had the presidency scheduled for two classes today anyway, and it was interesting, especially because lots of students were shocked to find out that the death pictures of Osama Bin Laden were fake. But we had some great discussion. It occurred to me especially that President Obama's tenure will be defined more than ever as a wartime president. He's already presiding over three wars, and the frequency of U.S. predator drones strikes accelerated under this adminsration, but we're now at a turning point in the war on on terror, and last night's success will redound to this president's benefit. (See CSM, "Osama bin Laden's death will boost Obama approval rating, but for how long?") Indeed, one student asked how developments will help Obama's public approval ratings?
In any case, here's this at the Orange County Register, "Schools quick to integrate bin Laden death into lessons":
Across Orange County, many teachers scrambled Monday to change lesson plans to incorporate news about Osama bin Laden's death.More at the link above ...
Teachers led discussions of the significance of killing the world's most-wanted man, while students debated everything from whether the world is now a safer place, to the root causes of terrorism.
At Dale Intermediate in Anaheim, seventh-grade world history teacher Grant Schuster began his classes Monday with a slide show of images from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. He followed that with the video from Sunday of President Barack Obama's announcement that bin Laden had been killed by American special forces.
Students in all three of his morning classes applauded at the conclusion of Obama's recorded speech.
"Many of students don't have memories of 9/11 because they were too young," he said. "Some of my students are asking if terrorism is over. But others are quick to explain that no, it's not. And we still have to be very careful."
Schuster also explained to his classes that bin Laden's death will allow families of victims of the terrorist attacks to continue their emotional healing.
"I would have been remiss if I didn't spend at least half of the period today talking about bin Laden," he said. "This served as a valuable teaching tool."
The Secret Mission to Kill Osama Bin Laden
And at ABC News, "White House Officials Debate Releasing Photographs of Bin Laden’s Corpse."
Progressives Claim Credit in Osama Bin Laden Killing
A lot of the people celebrating this victory would have impeached Bush for doing the same thing; some of them didn’t even want us to collect some of the intel that helped us accomplish this.And Michelle's got it, "All About Obama: Who’s politicizing bin Laden kill?":
Leftists are swarming Twitter to chastise any conservatives who dare give any credit to President Bush for his resolve and role in leading the post-9/11 counterrorism/national security response to the worst attack on American soil.Steve Benen's first update appeared after he Googled around a bit, and found: "On March 13, 2002, George W. Bush said of bin Laden, 'I truly am not that concerned about him'."
Meanwhile, Democrat hacks are burning the midnight oil making this All About Obama.
Americans Cheer Death of Bin Laden!
And check Patrick Ishmael's huge roundup at Hot Air.
More later ...
Debra Saunders: 'Intolerant Left Strikes Again'
On April 25, gay-rights advocates -- led by the Human Rights Campaign -- scored a victory after the HRC applied pressure on a law firm hired to defend the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as a union between a man and woman and denies federal benefits to same-sex partners. The firm fired its client. There are two reasons you should be outraged, no matter what your position is on DOMA.Go read it all. One of the more outraged commentaries I've read on the case. Earlier I meant to juxtapose William Jacobson's commentary on this, "Is There Now A Hostile Environment For Pro-Traditional Marriage Views At King & Spalding?", to that of Dale Carpenter's. William writes, for example:
For whatever their reasons, the supporters of gay marriage have chosen the path of intimidation rather than persuasion. I think this is a mistake, but time will tell.The comment assumes that this kind of intimidation is new, unprecedented. But is it? Dale Carpenter had an interesting piece at the New York Times the other day, "How the Law Accepted Gays:
THE prestigious law firm King & Spalding has not fully explained its decision this week to stop assisting Congress in defending the law that forbids federal recognition of same-sex marriage. But its reversal suggests the extent to which gay men and lesbians have persuaded much of the legal profession to accept the basic proposition that sexual orientation is irrelevant to a person’s worth and that the law should reflect this judgment. The decision cannot be dismissed simply as a matter of political correctness or bullying by gays.Well, folks should finish the essay, and they might be a little more convinced, although I'm not. There's something fundamentally different about the struggle for civil rights for gay Americans, and since 2008 that difference has been a level of demonization and intimidation of the opposition that's unprecedented in my political lifetime. But go back and read Debra Saunders once more. Even the leadership of HRC admits they're again ready to pounce and destroy at the next instance of politically incorrect non-compliance to the gay narrative.
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Dead Pictures of Osama Bin Laden
PREVIOUSLY: "Osama Bin Laden Dead."
Added (May 2nd, 9:50am PST): At Astute Bloggers, "Osama bin Laden: is this photo a fake? YES!" Also, at N.Y. Daily News (12:22pm PST), "Osama Bin Laden dead: Gruesome photo is hoax, but White House debates release of real ones."
Osama Bin Laden Dead!
Updates coming ...
8:25pm PST: Bethany Murphy tweets: "Okay, this made me cry. Thank you George W. Bush. G-d bless you:
8:45pm PST: The president just spoke. It was a good speech. I'll be checking around from some analysis and will update. There's a feeling of celebration, obviously, but deliverance as well. The president closed his address with the unifying conclusion to the Pledge of Allegiance: "... one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all."
9:00pm PST: Bruce Kesler comments, at Maggie's Farm, "President Obama's Mushy Announcment That Osama Bin Laden Is Dead."
9:05pm PST: Via Blake Hounshell on Twitter, a Facebook page in Arabic, "We are all Osama Bin Laden."
9:30pm PST: Checking some progressives on Twitter, Karoli's not pleased with the response on the right.
9:37pm PST: Here's the president's address:And at New York Times, "Obituary: Osama bin Laden was the Most Wanted Face of Terrorism."11:05pm PST: Glenn Reynolds has a roundup, and note this from Austin Bay:
Would that we had him in Fall 2001. However, time has worked against Bin Laden. He dies tarnished. A man who hides in a cave for ten years is no martyr. He quickly lost the aura of divine sanction — he was driven out of Afghanistan, and the US stayed. Moreover, the US took it’s counter-terror war into the heart of the politically dysfunctional Arab Muslim world. What’s the choice between tyrant and terrorist? Iraq provides a choice. Al Qaeda made Iraq a battleground and lost — lost to the Iraqi people and the US.
Holocaust Remembrance Day
The Germans slaughtered 1.3 million human beings in Auschwitz, of whom 1.1 million were Jews. Six of those Jews were my father’s parents, David and Leah Jakubovic, and their children Franceska, Zoltan, Yrvin, and Alice. Gassed to death in 1944, they represent 1 one-millionth — 0.000001 — of the 6 million European Jews annihilated in the Holocaust.RTWT. No need to guess where today's evil resides.
On this Holocaust Remembrance Day, it hardly needs to be said that mass murder didn’t end with the defeat of the Third Reich. In the decades since 1945, innocent men, women, and children beyond number have been massacred — in Mao’s China and Pol Pot’s Cambodia, in the Soviet gulag and North Korean slave camps, in Rwanda and Bosnia, Sudan and Syria, Congo and Uganda. Yet even in an epoch that has shattered every record for bloodiness and barbarity, the Holocaust is unique. What sets it apart from other campaigns of butchery is not its body count or its brutality or its genocidal nature. Nor is it the rapidity with which it was carried out, or the international indifference against which it unfolded.
The destruction of European Jewry stands alone because it was not a means to any end. The “Final Solution’’ was an end in itself. Jews were not murdered by the millions in the context of a struggle for power or land or wealth. There was no political or economic rationale for wiping out the Jews; they had nothing the Nazis coveted, and Germany gained nothing by their deaths. There was only the maniacal ideology of eliminationist anti-Semitism — the determination to track down and kill anyone born of Jewish ancestry. “It was precisely this — the fact of being born — that was the mortal sin, to be punished by death,’’ the historian Yehuda Bauer has observed. “That had never happened at any time — or anywhere — before.’’
Violence at 'Day of Anger' Protests Calling for 'Worldwide Social Revolution' Against Capitalism (VIDEO)
Berlin/Hamburg - Radical left-wing demonstrators clashed with police in Berlin on Sunday, while May Day marches remained mostly peaceful across the rest of Europe.More at Deutsche Welle, "Police Battle Rioters in May Day Clashes."
At 6 pm (1600 GMT) more than 9,000 radical left-wing protesters began their annual 'Revolutionary May 1 Demonstration' in Berlin, where more than 6,000 police officers were on duty.
Demonstrators dressed in black and masked with sunglasses and hoods threw stones at banks and shops, and in isolated incidences police officers were targeted with bottles and fireworks.
Protesters carried banners proclaiming a 'Day of Anger' and calling for a 'Worldwide Social Revolution' whilst rallying against capitalism, the political establishment and the police.
The march expressed solidarity with the uprisings in the Arab world. From the top of a building protesters unveiled a huge banner proclaiming 'Yalla,' or 'let's go!' in Arabic script, as they set off fireworks.
The riot police initially held back as the mood became heated but later emerged in large numbers to face demonstrators with water cannons. Shortly after the onset of darkness, the authorities ended the march. Police said they made several arrests.
James B. Webb: The SpongeBob of 'Sophisticated' Political Analysis
One doesn't become president by being stupid, one does so by taking advantage of the stupidity of the other side, which your party has cultivated in spades in recent years.Really. Stupid is as stupid does, then, since going after Donald Trump last night at the White House Correspondents' Dinner wasn't too smart. As Glenn Reynolds indicates, "Sucker":
You don’t punish Donald Trump by giving him attention. A more experienced politician would know that. Nor is building Trump up good for Obama — Trump has actually hurt him more than all the others combined. Because, you know, Trump has actually been willing to criticize him without being afraid of the Big Media retribution. The various traditional GOP candidates still have the old cringe-reflex where Big Media criticism is concerned.Exactly.
Not only that, responding to Trump makes Obama look desperate and unpresidential. Dumb, in other words, like SpongeBob (and James B. Webb --- and scroll forward to about 2:30 minutes at the clip for JBW-level of sophistication.)
And speaking of JBW's "sophisticated" political analysis (from last year), if I were a betting man my ace commenter SpongeBob would owe me $100:
If however Don is so certain about Obama's dismal approval ratings translating into epic failure then I'll offer him this meager yet serious wager: $100 says that the Republicans fail to gain a majority in either house of congress this November.Crack analysis!!
Photo Essay: The Mike O'Callaghan – Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge, at Los Angeles Times
Republicans Push to Widen the Field of Candidates for 2012
MANCHESTER, N.H. — Republican leaders, activists and donors, anxious that the party’s initial presidential field could squander a chance to capture grass-roots energy and build a strong case against President Obama at the outset of the 2012 race, are stepping up appeals for additional candidates to jump in, starting with Gov. Mitch Daniels of Indiana.RTWT at the link above.
“I’m getting letters from all over the damn country, and some of them are pretty moving,” Mr. Daniels said in an interview last week at the Capitol in Indianapolis, where his friends believe he is inching closer to exploring a candidacy. He added, “It can’t help but affect you.”
The first contests of the primary are about eight months away, and most of the candidates have yet to fully open their campaigns. But some party leaders worry that Republicans are making a bad first impression by appearing tentative about their prospects against Mr. Obama and allowing Donald J. Trump to grab headlines in the news vacuum of the race’s early stages.
“The race needs more responsible adults who can actually do the job,” said Fergus Cullen, a former chairman of the New Hampshire Republican Party.
Things definitely feel different this pre-primary season. A good comparison would be 2004, when folks might recall that Howard Dean had campaigned for over a year for the Democratic nomination. Dean was in fact widely expected to take either Iowa or New Hampshire on the strength of his antiwar message. We know what happened of course. The people spoke in Iowa and Dean when down in a screaming fit of fury immortalized in political lore as the "Dean Scream." Howard Dean was the antithesis of tentative, and look what it got him. So for Republicans in 2012, while it seems late in terms of the "invisible primary" of money, media, and polling, in fact there's still plenty of time for other candidates to throw their hats in the ring, and the field shaping up isn't as bad as the media makes out. Mitt Romney's going to be formidable, despite talk that RomneyCare is a killer (and I've even suggested RomneyCare's an albatross). All Romney has to do is denounce his own healthcare record in Massachusetts as a colossal mistake, make reference to polling there looking for a change, and then turn around and say never again! It might be tough in the primaries against fellow Republicans, but with a GOP Congress looking to repeal ObamaCare, Romney can ride his mea culpa on top of a wave of conservative opposition to big government. He's telegenic and an experienced campaigner, and the press will take him seriously, unlike Donald Trump.
In any case, like I said, let's get on with the debates and see how things shake out. And keep an eye on the money. Michele Bachmann's been raising funds like the devil, and fundraising's one of the factors facilitating media coverage, so things can snowball for a candidate that way.
RELATED: Check the 2012 GOP primary calender at Frontloading HQ.
Republican Candidates Strain to Break From Trump's Shadow
It's pretty fascinating that Donald Trump's sucked up so much oxygen in a relatively short period of time.
Reporting from Las Vegas - Speaking to Republican activists here, Donald Trump touted something other than his potential presidential bid and hit reality television show: Trump International Hotel and Tower, a gleaming luxury high-rise and his sole Las Vegas venture.More at that link above.
"It's one of the greatest signs of all time," Trump said Thursday of the building's marquee, rising 64 stories above Las Vegas Boulevard. "You drive down that Strip, what do you see?"
"Trump!" the crowd shouted in unison.
"We got it built, it's doing great and we're very proud of it," the real estate mogul said, in remarks that were otherwise laced with profanity and attacks on President Obama.
But the reality of Las Vegas' tallest residential building — which Trump described as "very, very successful" — is different from the hype.
Conceived as a high-end hotel-condominium development in Las Vegas' go-go years, the project opened in 2008 amid the economic meltdown. Most investors pulled out and demanded their deposits, leaving Trump and his partners holding the bag.
The casino-free building, wrapped in 24-karat-gold-infused glass, now rests in the boneyard of the Las Vegas Strip, a collection of vacant lots, barren scaffolding and silent cranes left over from abandoned resort projects.
These days, the 645-foot Trump tower might be a metaphor for his nascent campaign: lots of splash, little in the way of substance.
As Trump touts his own business acumen, his Las Vegas hotel makes it clear that he fell prey to the speculative fever that gripped the nation — and particularly wounded Nevada, a state that will play a key role in determining the Republican presidential nomination next year.
Maybe there'll be more critical reporting on Trump's business success. So far only Michelle Malkin's had anything to say that contradicted's the fawning MFM reporting.
Also at Politico, "'Sorry' state of affairs at GOP forum."
The Paranoid Style: The Persistence of Conspiracy Theories in American Politics
The fact that many Americans — and many Republicans in particular — have told pollsters that they doubt the president’s citizenship is less surprising when you consider the sizable percentages of Americans who subscribe to other conspiracy theories, said Robert Alan Goldberg, a history professor at the University of Utah and the author of “Enemies Within: The Culture of Conspiracy in Modern America.”RTWT at the link.
Eighty percent of Americans, he said, believe that President Kennedy was killed by a conspiracy, rather than a lone gunman, as a government commission affirmed. Thirty percent believe that the government covered up aliens’ landing in Roswell, N.M., and a third of American blacks believe that government scientists created AIDS as a weapon of black genocide. Sept. 11, of course, has inspired conspiracy theories — it was plotted, variously, by “the Jews,” the Bush administration or Saddam Hussein.
By definition, Professor Goldberg said, a conspiracy theory is a belief that cunning forces are seeking to bend history to their will, provoking terror attacks or economic calamity to move the world in the direction they wish.
“I look at this birther conspiracy as a typical example,” he said. “This is far beyond the issue of whether this is a legitimate president. The real issue for them is this belief that this is a ploy by this hidden group to get power, to move Americans toward socialism or globalism or multiculturalism using Barack Obama as a pawn.”
This is the Day the Lord Hath Made
A close-up of William and Catherine at 3:40 minutes:Also, at Los Angeles Times, "Britain celebrates the royal wedding."
Camp Pendleton Memorial for Fallen Marines
"These Marines did what Marines always do," Lt. Col. Jason Morris, the battalion commander, told the gathering. "They took the fight to the enemy and they won."
When the Marines of the 3/5 arrived in the Sangin district of Helmand province in late September, Taliban flags flew boldly throughout the region, the schools were closed by Taliban order and the marketplace was virtually abandoned.
Seven months later, after hundreds of firefights and the discovery of hundreds of roadside bombs, Sangin is a different place. The Taliban flags are gone; the schools, including those for girls, are open; and the marketplace is flourishing.
The long-term future of Sangin, indeed all of Afghanistan, is yet to be determined, but for the moment, the Afghan government has a chance to establish itself in a region that has long been a stronghold of the Taliban, the narcotics cartel and their allies in neighboring Pakistan.
In those seven months, 25 Marines from the 3/5 were killed in combat and more than 200 were wounded — more dead and wounded than from any Marine battalion in the 10-year war in Afghanistan.
May Day! — Democrat-Socialists Rally Around Unions
It's May Day, the "International Day of the Worker."
And right on cue, at Los Angeles Times, "California Democrats rally around unions":
Framing the union battles taking place across the nation as a fundamental attack on working Americans, Democratic leaders on Saturday accused Republicans of scapegoating public employees for political gain.Right.
"They are intent on dismantling the very economic ladder that lifted our middle class and made California the richest and greatest state in the greatest nation in the world," Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris told thousands of delegates and supporters gathered at the Democrats' annual convention in Sacramento.
As cities, counties and states struggle to balance budgets, public employee unions have come under fire from critics arguing that their benefits, especially their pensions, are overly generous. Some of the most notable battles are in Wisconsin, where Gov. Scott Walker sought to eliminate collective bargaining rights for many state workers, and Ohio, where an anti-union measure is the subject of a proposed voter referendum.
Several speakers tied the Wisconsin controversy to Costa Mesa. A budget shortfall in the Orange County city led officials to issue layoff notices to much of its workforce and to push to privatize many city services.
Orange County Employees Assn. General Manager Nick Berardino described Costa Mesa as "ground zero for working men and women in California" and said the actions there "represent a direct threat to the Democratic Party and democracy itself."
Because for socialists "democracy" is always defined in terms of economic redistribution. Like as found at University of Missouri's labor studies seminar, which featured Tony Pecinovsky, Communist Party USA, who indicates:
In my opinion... I think in the opinion of the Communist Party, politics is all about nuance. Just like there’s different trends and tenedencies within the labor movement, the Democratic Party is very much the same. It’s not one hegemonic whole. There’s different perspectives and points of views within a spectrum, right? And so we tend to focus on and help those candidates who as Don said, share our values."Don" would be Don Giljum, who was fired by the university for advocating violence.
This are what Democrats are all about.
May Day! — Police Prepare for Communist Open-Borders Rally in Los Angeles
This year's May Day rally is expected to draw fewer immigrant rights activists to downtown Los Angeles than in past years, but police said they would be prepared for any problems that might occur.
Marchers will assemble at 10 a.m. Sunday at the intersection of Broadway and Olympic Boulevard and walk north on Broadway toward City Hall, officials said. The march will conclude with a rally on Broadway between First and Temple streets near City Hall.
Organizers said the demonstration could draw more than 50,000 people, but permits sought for the march estimate a crowd of about 10,000.
Whatever the turnout, police said, they would be ready with a significant deployment of officers.
"We are going to have a large enough deployment to handle anything," said LAPD Deputy Chief Jose Perez. "Our posture will be consistent with what we've had the last two years. We want to keep a lid on anything, but, ideally, we are going to maintain a low profile and facilitate allowing everybody to express their 1st Amendment views in a peaceful and organized manner."