Afghanistan: Obama Surrenders

From Robert Spencer, at FrontPage Magazine:

“The Afghan War is coming to an end,” said Barack Obama on May 23, but it is not ending well. NBC News reported Tuesday that “U.S. and Taliban representatives will meet soon for the first time to begin what are expected to be long and complex negotiations for a peaceful settlement to the war in Afghanistan.” The U.S. entered Afghanistan to topple the Taliban from power and end their influence in the country. In light of that, these talks in themselves constitute an admission of failure. But these talks are far from the first of those.

In an incident emblematic of American policy failure in Afghanistan, American and Afghan officials in Afghanistan’s Farah province were holding an inauguration ceremony last August for new recruits to a village police force. As part of the ceremony, the new policemen were given weapons that they would use for training. As soon as one of the recruits, Mohammad Ismail, received his, he turned it on the American soldiers who were present, murdering two.

Such attacks epitomize just how foolish and wrongheaded our national adventure in Afghanistan has been. In that instance, Farah’s provincial police chief, Agha Noor Kemtoz, explained: “As soon as they gave the weapon to Ismail to begin training, suddenly he took the gun and opened fire toward the U.S. soldiers.” Ismail had just joined the Afghan Local Police force the Sunday before his attack. Nonetheless, according to the Associated Press, “the NATO-led coalition has said such attacks are anomalies stemming from personal disputes.”

In the intervening months, NATO has not grown more honest or forthright about the genuine cause of these green-on-blue attacks, which have continued. They have gone even farther in other attempts at face-saving, claiming that the attackers are not part of the Afghan jihad against NATO forces. According to ABC News, “officials have said most of the attacks are motivated not by support for the Taliban, but for ‘private reasons’ including grievances against local Afghan commanders, ethnic feuds, and depression. Senior U.S. officials have insisted the attacks don’t indicate a high level of Taliban infiltration into the army.”

Continue reading.

Ireland's Clare Daly Slams Childish 'Slobbering' Over President Obama's Two-Day Visit to Northern Ireland

She's a socialist parliamentarian from the Republic of Ireland, and obviously a freak.

I just like that bit about "slobbering" over the Presidential Derp Obama. I can relate to that...

More at the Hill, "Irish parliamentarians spar over 'war criminal' Obama's summit visit."

Serena Williams Steubenville Controversy

Lee Stranahan has it, "Serena Williams: Attacked For Asking Common Sense Questions On Steubenville."

And at ABC News yesterday:

And a tremendous amount of coverage at Google, especially on the apology.

Men's Wearhouse Fires Founder George Zimmer

The Men's Wearhouse was big in Fresno back in the late-1980s, when I started at Fresno State. George Zimmer reminds me of that time of my life especially. It's only been more recently that I've shopped there, and my oldest boy rents his formalwear there as well. Good bargains and good service, overall. It's not exactly clear why Zimmer's out, however.

At the New York Times, "Dumping the Face, and Founder, of Men’s Wearhouse."

It seems that George A. Zimmer is no longer suited for Men’s Wearhouse.

The clothing retailer announced on Wednesday that it had fired Mr. Zimmer, who started the company in 1973, as executive chairman. For three decades, he had starred in its commercials, telling customers, “You’re going to like the way you look. I guarantee it.”

A disagreement between Mr. Zimmer and the board appeared to be the reason for the sudden dismissal, though it was not immediately clear what that disagreement was. Some analysts suggested that the conflict might be over the company’s efforts to appeal to younger customers, which could have been hampered by Mr. Zimmer’s continued presence in ads.

“Over the past several months I have expressed my concerns to the board about the direction the company is currently heading,” Mr. Zimmer said in a statement provided to CNBC. “Instead of fostering the kind of dialogue in the board room that has in part contributed to our success, the board has inappropriately chosen to silence my concerns through termination as an executive officer.”

The company gave no reason for Mr. Zimmer’s dismissal in its statement. A spokesman for the company declined to comment.

Showing just how abrupt the decision was, Mr. Zimmer’s firing was announced the same day as a scheduled shareholders’ meeting, which has been postponed “to renominate the existing slate of directors without Mr. Zimmer,” the company said Wednesday. The board released a statement Wednesday saying it “fully supports C.E.O. Doug Ewert and his management team.”

The company has more than 1,100 stores nationally, under the flagship Men’s Wearhouse brand along with Moores and K&G. The stores primarily sell suits and rent tuxedos.

Financially, it has been performing solidly, with sales increasing 5.1 percent in the quarter ended May 4 to $616.5 million. Sales for 2012 were $2.5 billion, up 4.4 percent, with profits rising to $2.55 a share from $2.30 a share.

Mr. Zimmer, 64, had been easing out of a leadership role at the company recently.

“He had been managing a transition, I thought, very effectively the last two years,” said Richard Jaffe, an analyst with Stifel Nicolaus. In 2011, Men’s Wearhouse promoted Mr. Ewert to succeed Mr. Zimmer as chief executive, and recently hired the designer Joseph Abboud as creative director along with a new chief financial officer. Perhaps Mr. Zimmer “was reluctant to give up the reins,” he said.

Well, London's Daily Mail said something about how Zimmer became eccentric, about how he brought Deepak Chopra to the board in 2004. Yeah, Deepak Chopra, that avatar of men's fashion sense, or something.

See, "Founder of Men's Wearhouse - famous for his slogan 'You're going to like the way you look. I guarantee it' - is FIRED abruptly 40 years after setting up the chain."

Obama's 'Running Biggest Terrorist Operation That Exists...'

Wow, Obama's even getting thrashed by the most hardened America-hater, Noam Chomsky:

And Chomsky's also at the Guardian UK, "NSA surveillance is an attack on American citizens, says Noam Chomsky."

'Secure the Border, Period...'

I've been watching baseball all afternoon, the Dodgers at the Yankees, and now the Mariners at the Angels.

So I missed this Michelle Malkin live appearance on Hannity's tonight. She looks great.

And earlier, "The Amnesty Mob vs. America."

The Amnesty Mob vs. America

From Michelle Malkin:

You can try to put “conservative” lipstick on the lawless amnesty mob. In the end, however, it’s still a lawless mob. The big government/big business alliance to protect illegal immigration got a lot of mileage using foolish Republicans Marco Rubio and Paul Ryan as front men. But the true colors of the open-borders grievance-mongers always show through.

After America said no to a pork-filled security-undermining amnesty bill in 2007, the No Illegal Alien Left Behind lobbyists changed their overtly thuggish tactics. They put down their upside-down American flags, stopped wearing their commie Che Guevara T-shirts and cloaked their radical reconquista aspirations in the less divisive rhetoric of “reform” and “opportunity.”

It was all just an act, of course. Inevitably, the mask has slipped. Over the weekend, illegal alien protesters descended on the private residence of Kansas Secretary of State and immigration enforcement lawyer Kris Kobach. As Twitchy.com reported on Saturday, 300 amnesty activists marched into Kobach’s neighborhood and barged up his driveway and right onto his doorstep. It’s how the Alinskyite “community organizers” roll.

Shouting into a bullhorn and waving their fists from his front porch, the property rights-invaders dubbed Kobach “King of Hate” for his work representing border security activists and federal customs enforcement agents who are fighting the systemic sabotage of immigration law. Thankfully, Kobach, his wife and their four young daughters were not home at the time. (See The Right Scoop for interview with Kobach on Hannity.)

But the aggrieved amnesty demanders are not done yet. And Kobach is not the only one in their crosshairs.

After tea party activist turned Kansas state representative Amanda Grosserode condemned the mob action publicly on Facebook, racist insults and threats littered her page. Roberto Medina Ramirez wrote: “I’ll give her something to be disgusted about!” Doris Lynn Crouse Gent chimed in: “OMG! Maybe her drive should be next.” Matt S. Bashaw echoed the call: “Maybe her house should be next.” Facebook user Jude Robinson also ranted on Grosserode’s page: “Since Kobach steals taxpayer money spreading hate around the country, he deserves what he gets.”

Dennis Paul Romero left this message for Grosserode: “(N)azi kkk and she is proud of it.” A user writing as “Paul-says Fckmarkzuck” left death threats under Romero’s comment: “Gotta start killing all the Nazis. Politicans (sic), bankers, and priests. Cops, lawyers, and Judges. ASAP.” The same user added: “Just another b*tch that needs to die off already.” (Note: Many of these comments have now been deleted. Trying to cover their tracks.)

Continue reading.

They're freaks.

Alice Walker, Anti-Semitism, and BDS

Jonathan Tobin has an absolutely essential essay, "Alice Walker’s Undisguised Jew Hatred":

Any movement that treats one nation differently than any other and denies it—as BDS advocates do of Israel—the same right to exist and to self-defense that are not in question elsewhere is advocating prejudice. That’s why BDS, which advocates economic war against Israel and routinely calls for its destruction, is a form of anti-Semitism. But one needn’t resort to such arguments when it comes to Walker.

Alice Walker’s hatred of Jews, Judaism and Israel is so open and so vicious that there is no way even for those who are unsympathetic to Zionism to avoid the conclusion that the author is an anti-Semite. That’s why it is incumbent on those who have embraced her in the past as well as those institutions, like the 92nd Street Y, that have welcomed her as an honored guest and voice of reason to condemn her statements in an unqualified manner and to apologize for their role in promoting her crackpot theories. More to the point, she is an example of exactly why BDS advocates do not deserve to be treated as legitimate voices that deserve a place at the table either in the Jewish community or in public discussions of the Middle East.

And even that's being charitable.

Still, a great essay that should be read in full.

RELATED: "Alicia Keys Urged to Cancel 4th of July Concert in Israel."

James Gandolfini Has Died

This is just breaking:

Actor James Gandolfini, who played Tony Soprano on HBO's "The Sopranos," has died at age 51, HBO has confirmed.
— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) June 19, 2013

Man, he checked out early.

I'm 51. Gulp.
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) June 19, 2013

I'll post some of the obituaries later...

The New York Times has an obit, "James Gandolfini, ‘Sopranos’ Star, Dies."

Also a Memeorandum thread now...

Dana Loesch Speech at Audit Abolish the IRS Rally on Capitol Hill

Man, I've never seen her quite this fired up.

And photos at Instapundit.

And at Town Hall, "Thousands of Tea Partiers Pack Capitol For 'Audit the IRS' Rally."

Obama Barely Clears 4,000 in Attendance at 2013 Berlin Speech

He's beaten down and abused, no longer the glorious redeem of 2008.

At the Weekly Standard, "Berlin Speech: 200,000 for Obama in 2008; Only 6,000 Today."

Six-thousand was the estimated turnout. Folks are reporting around 4,000 now, the washed up hack. See also, the Atlantic, "Berlin Looks a Lot Different to Obama in 2013 Than It Did in 2008." (At Memeorandum.)

'Why I Got My CCW Permit and Why You Should Too'

This is an essay from Mr. Mac at the Survivalist:

Over the last few months I have given it quite a bit of thought. Am I really that concerned about crime…we live in a pretty low-incident area. Was I on some ego trip? Was I trying to prove my masculinity? All of these may have had some minor influence, but, as I probed, I found that there were other, more significant motivations that sprung more from who I am as a man, and reflected certain core values that comprise my person. I’d like to put those down on paper.

1) I am both disturbed and frustrated by much of what I see in this country’s politics these days, and am often left wondering how to properly respond. It occurs to me that, as just one man, I have very little impact on this nation, just one voice out of 280,000 million. Yet, this country means a great deal to me. I lost my father to the Korean Conflict, all my uncles served in WWII, and I have studied and understand what unique and precious rights are afforded the citizens of this country I am privileged to live in.

Additionally, I hold as a strong value the opinion that every man and woman has the God-given right to be responsible for his or her own personal safety, that no one is obligated to be a victim, and that this right is not a privilege bestowed on me by some governmental entity. I also believe that, if a person of good character is willing to do the work necessary and takes the responsibility, then that person has the basic right to carry a defensive weapon. However, it seems that there are those in this country who disagree with me, who fear that I, and others like me, are a danger to society; that this freedom which is so basic to natural law and so thoroughly entrenched in the Constitution, must be taken from us.

These usurpers are even now furiously working to legislate that right out of existence. Mistakenly believing that this issue is “guns”, they feel quite comfortable trampling on my freedom. And so, it is to the anti-gun fascist, those who would deny me my rights as a free man and an American citizen that I am responding. It is in the spirit of those American’s before me who cried out “give me liberty, or give me death,” “damn the torpedoes,” and “let’s roll” that I acted. As a political statement, as an act of patriotism, as my way of hoisting the flag, and my finger, in enraged defiance of those despots who say I can’t, I got my permit to carry a gun; it was my patriotic duty.

That's an amazing essay that taps into the exact feelings I was having early this year when the gun control debate was peaking.

But read it all at the link (via Instapundit).

Latest Trend? Women Stripping Down for Group Photo Shots

This was even featured on GMA this morning (not my favorite, but my wife was watching ABC).

At the New York Post, "The latest girl-power trend? Getting naked in front of the camera for a sexy group photo shoot."

Also at London's Daily Mail, "The brides-to-be stripping off to pose nude with their girlfriends in risque 'boudoir bachelorette party' shoots."

Daniel Ellsberg and Glenn Greenwald on Piers Morgan Tonight

I caught some of this last night:

Russell Brand Slams Host Mika Brzezinski on 'Morning Joe'

This exchange has been getting a lot of attention.

Time to Worry About Fourth Amendment Rights?

ZoNation:

Remembering Journalist Michael Hastings

Well, I don't want to speak ill of the dead, but this is the guy who shived Gen. Stanley McChrystal. And for that, the dude's now a martyr to the leftist antiwar stab-the-troops-in-the-back cause.

At KTLA Los Angeles, "Journalist Michael Hastings Dies in Fiery Hollywood Crash."

Also at Rolling Stone, "Michael Hastings, 'Rolling Stone' Contributor, Dead at 33," and Foreign Policy, "Michael Hastings, 1980-2013."

And a flashback to 2010, at the Other McCain, "Gen. McChrystal Relieved of Command."

In the great scheme of things, Michael Hastings may have cost the U.S. clear victory in Afghanistan. See Kimberly Kagan, at the Weekly Standard, "A Winnable War."

And from my report, "Pentagon Clears Gen. Stanley McChrystal After Rolling Stone Hit Job":

What a tragedy. Progressives stabbed McCrystal in the back. Progressives stabbed the people of Afghanistan in the back. Progressives stabbed our uniformed men and women in the back. And they're currently destroying our nation from within and without. As Andrew  [Breitbart] said to the Trumka-Obama hordes in Madison: "Go to Hell."

Steve Gleason Accepts Apologies

At ESPN.

And at CNN, "Fired radio host admits he'd be offended by segment mocking ill player."

Marquese Scott

This guy is freakin' unreal, via my youngest son's YouTube playlist:

Dude From Greencastle, Indiana, Could Do Time for Bald Eagle Possession

Maybe he wasn't "saving" it.

Just capturing it, in fact.

At the Indianapolis Star, "Police seize bald eagle from Greencastle man."

The dude, Jeff Henry, posted all kinds of videos to his YouTube page, which is why he got busted, no doubt. See, "Bald Eagle Chick in rehab."