Search Continues for MoveOn Finger-Biter: William Rice Interview - Doctors Unable to Reattach Finger, 'I'm No Hero' (VIDEO)

This is the photo released by the Ventura County Police Department:

This image provided by the Ventura County Sheriff's Department shows the beginning of an altercation between William Rice, at right in the khaki shirt and olive shorts, and an unidentified man wearing black, who authorities say bit off Rice's little finger. The sheriff's department is seeking the public's help in identifying the man in black at far right, by calling the investigations bureau at (805)494-8201.

My previous report is here, "MoveOn Finger-Biter Remains At-Large: Leftists Blame 'Anti-Reform' Forces for Violence."

The angle of the picture above looks similar to the shots taken by Karoli Kuns, who reported on the event here. As Kuns states, "I've given this report to the police along with my photos." However, from the start MoveOn impeded the investation with its dissemination of disinformation, and Kuns' allies have not given up the identification of the attacker to the authorities. Also, Kuns tweets that her photographs are appearing on CNN (so folks might keep checking back to her Twitter page for possible information on the whereabouts of the MoveOn perpetrator).

It turns out that doctors were not able to reattach William Rice's finger, "Healthcare-Reform Opponent Says Bit-Off Finger Could Not Be Re-Attached" (via Memeorandum). Here's a report from Fox News:

Meanwhile, Ian Gurvitz at Huffington Post is slurring concerned citizens as "monkey-shitters." See, "The GOP Strategy: Operation Monkeyshit":

The GOP's goal from the second the president took office was to bring him down. Their strategy: Operation Monkeyshit. Just like a monkey in the zoo will wildly fling his shit at tourists, the GOP started flinging their shit with the sole intention of diminishing the president's popularity, tarnishing his image, and hurting his brand, all to lay the groundwork for the 2010 midterms and 2012 presidential elections. Tea parties. "Mortgaging our children's future." "The TARP didn't work." "Death panels." "Killing grandma." Birthers. "He's going to take your guns and house terrorists in your neighborhood." "He's weakening the country." "He's going to give Bin Laden the keys to your city where he will take your job and sleep with your daughter."

Now it's the professional tailgaters in town halls holding Hitler signs, screaming about Fascism and Socialism -- as if they could either define those ideas, or spell them. It's Rove 101. Take your opponent's biggest strength and turn it into a weakness. John Kerry the veteran fabricated his injuries. Obama is Hitler.

I swear, everyday I'm more convinced that the left is in league with the devil. Not only are ObamaThugs, SEIU goons, and MoveOn finger-biters resorting to violence to turn back the conservative tide, they add insult to injury by slurring everyday Americans as ignorant racists and "monkey shitters" who can't spell.

God help this country.

MoveOn Finger-Biter Remains At-Large: Leftists Blame 'Anti-Reform' Forces for Violence

I attended the counterprotest to MoveOn.org's "candlelight vigil" in Irvine last night. There were two instances when MoveOn's ObamaCare thugs crossed the street to mix it up with the smaller group of conservative activists on the northwest corner. Leftist agitators have become even more aggressive of late. This heightened belligerence comes just as MoveOn and HCAN have been have been prepping their activists for confrontations and shout-downs. There's little doubt that the same context of leftist agitation and intimidation helps explain Wednesday's MoveOn finger-biting controversy at the "candlelight vigil" in Thousand Oaks.

The initial reports were a bit unclear as to the origins of the altercation, but MoveOn is claming to "condemn the violence" while its activist cadres are busy pinning blame on the "anti-reform" forces. One MoveOn activist, "Karoli" (who is Karoli Kuns), has written an eyewitness report and sent tweets in real time:

What's interesting to me is that most mainstream reports indicate that the MoveOn protester began a "verbal confrontation" with members of the conservative anti-ObamaCare demonstrators. And now, as the Los Angeles Times reports, police are still looking for the MoveOn finger-biter:

Authorities are searching for a healthcare reform activist today who they said bit off the finger of a 65-year-old counter-demonstrator during a fight at a MoveOn.org rally in Thousand Oaks.

There's a couple of troubling implications here for the MoveOn activists: First is that if Karoli Kuns' first-hand report is accurate, there should be additional eyewitness accounts supporting allegations that conservatives were aggressive and instigated violence against MoveOn demonstrators. Kuns has published a report, but her account is sketchy and her conclusions tentative.

More troubling is that if Kuns' story is correct, why hasn't the MoveOn finger-biter turned himself into the police? People don't usually evade the authorities unless they've got something to hide (or are in fact guilty of lawbreaking). Moreover, these MoveOn "candlelight" protests are social networking events. Participating activists are well-connected through online media and telecommunications. So why haven't the MoveOn people reported the name of the finger-biter to the police? Indeed, the word is out the MoveOn specifically spread disinformation initially to confuse the press and the authorities as to what really happened.

So, while the exact details and criminal ramifications are still being investigated, the event does remind us of the fact, as Ed Morrissey notes, "that most of the violence in these protests have come not from Tea Party activists or gun-carrying protesters, but from the counterprotesters from unions and left-wing groups."

Here's the video report, from Freedom's Lighthouse:

Barack-trination! Critics Decry Obama's 'Indoctrination' Plan for Students

From Fox News, "Critics Decry Obama's 'Indoctrination' Plan for Students":

A suggested lesson plan that calls on school kids to write letters to themselves about what they can do to help President Obama is troubling some education experts, who say it establishes the president as a "superintendent in chief" and may indoctrinate children to support him politically.

But the White House says the speech is merely "designed to encourage kids to stay in school."

Obama will deliver a national address directly to students on Tuesday, which will be the first day of classes for many children across the country. The address, to be broadcast live on the White House's Web site, was announced in a letter to school principals last week by Education Secretary Arne Duncan.

Obama intends to "challenge students to work hard, set educational goals and take responsibility for their learning," Duncan wrote. Obama will also call for a "shared responsibility" among students, parents and educators to maximize learning potential.

"The goal of the speech and the lesson plans is to challenge students to work hard in school, to not drop out and to meet short-term goals like behaving in class, doing their homework and goals that parents and teachers alike can agree are noble," Tommy Vietor, a White House spokesman, told FOXNews.com. "This isn't a policy speech. This is a speech designed to encourage kids to stay in school."

For commentary, see Grizzly Mama, "President Obama's Speech to American Students." Plus, Dr. Sanity, "FAVORITE WEAPONS OF THE TYRANT" and "THE NEW EDUCATIONAL INDOCTRINATION - OBAMA STYLE."

Also, Atlas Shrugs, "Obama in the Classroom: Keep Your Kids Home from School September 8."

WWF's 9/11-Tsunami Ad Approved From Get-Go

I've been running around today and blogging's been spotty. My ace commenter Dave at Dave's Notepad has forwarded me the updates on the WWF's 9/11-Tsunami Ad. It turns out there's a video version of the spot [Added: From Ed Dricoll, "Video Saved From The Memory Hole: The Pulled DDB-B/WWF 9/11 YouTube Clip"]:

The original ad was approved by WWF in December 2008. And yet: After initially denying paternity for the spot, DDB Brasil and the WWF issued a statement chalking it up to "inexperience of some professionals on both sides, and not bad faith or disrespect toward American suffering." The team also denies the video version was authorized in house. But that make no sense, as Allahpundit notes:

So some wily amateur video producer out there happened to stumble across a print ad that only ran once in South America and was so taken with it that he churned out a slick animated version on his own dime? Humor me for a moment and assume that this is, in fact, the handiwork of DDB. If so, exactly how many “inexperienced professionals” contributed to — and approved — the spot?

This story is so convoluted it's ridiculous.

The denials of responsibility are just as bad as the creation of the ad in the first place. And lefties couldn't get out of the blocks fast enough to decry the spot as a "fake." See, Mediabistro, "That WWF Ad: Yeah, It's Fake."

And this blogger takes the cake:

Yeah yeah, it's all planned, scripted and fully authorized, no matter what they say, and the USA never made it to the moon, controlled detonations brought down the buildings on 9/11, and the train bombers in the UK were just hapless patsies for the real villains. Oh and I did I mention Obama is Adolf Hitler in disguise?

Okay, how about a serious and earnest dissection of the scandal ...

Well you know what? I believe the WWF. I accept their denial. I believe what they're saying. I don't believe they'd be that silly, as an organization looking to raise funding in the United States and other countries. Especially running an ad like that in Israel, as if it wouldn't find its way back to the USA licketty splits. But then I believe Obama isn't a reincarnation of Adolf Hitler, so what would I know.

If I'm wrong, and the WWF were in on the deal - send me your hard evidence now - I'll recant and apologize to anyone who will listen.

Oh look? Where? There. Out the window. There's reality flying past, along with several pigs. Pity you missed it, quite a sight.

Well, reality's a bitch sometimes.

I'm tracking back to this blogger, and I'll update with the "recant and apology" when the pigs fly.

**********

UPDATE: Dorothy Parker, at The Loon Pond, has updated with an apology:

Since the intertubes is full to overflowing with error, I've deleted the erroneous post from this site. No need to keep perpetuating a myth. For anyone offended or mislead, apologies. Clearly the WWF Brasil and DDB Brasil are dummies.

The St. Louis Whole Foods 'Buycott'

This is Gina Loudon at the first video. She's with the St. Louis Tea Party, talking about the "Whole Foods Buycott," which the local conservatives have mounted in response to the left's idiotic Whole Foods boycott. The second video below is from Dana Loesch, "Entire Whole Foods “Buycott” Footage ..."

Some background is here, "St. Louis Whole Foods Buycott One of Several Nationwide."

Radley Balko's doing some fascinating blogging on this. See, "Whole Foods, Ct’d…"

Plus, see the essay that started the "whole" thing from CEO John Mackey, "The Whole Foods Alternative to ObamaCare."

I'm stopping at my local Whole Foods on the way home from the office in a few minutes!

I Pledge: To Resist the Barack-trination!

I vaguely remember this video first coming online around the time of the inauguration. I try to be civic-minded when listening to stuff like this (it's always good to try to be more volunteeristic), but some of the "pledges" are just plain loony, if not extremist. I don't pledge to drive slower to conserve energy, for example. Been there, done that ... in the 1970s!

Anyways, it turns out some parents aren't digging the Barack-trination: "Parents Upset Over 'Leftist Propaganda' Video: Principal Apologizes for Showing 'I Pledge' to Students":

A school principal has apologized for showing a video at an assembly that a politically conservative group leader is calling "radical, leftist propaganda."

Children at Eagle Bay Elementary School in Farmington were shown a short video called "I pledge" on Aug. 28. The video opens with an image of President Barack Obama and part of a speech in which he says, "Let us summon a new spirit of patriotism, of responsibility where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves but each other." The video then features celebrities making pledges about how they will help the president and the world -- and that's where some say the problem lies.

Many pledges, such as supporting local food banks, smiling more, and caring for the elderly are noncontroversial. But other pledges, such as "to never give anyone the finger when I'm driving again," "to sell my obnoxious car and buy a hybrid" and to advance stem cell research cross the line, some say.

"Showing the video in a public school is completely inappropriate," said Jennifer Cieslewicz, whose daughter is a first-grader at the school. "I don't believe a video such as this that promotes certain values should be shown to elementary students, especially without parents being aware. "

Chris Williams, Davis School District spokesman, said school principal Ofelia Wade and school PTA leaders decided to show the video as part of an assembly about the school's theme for the year, service. He said the PTA board chose the video and Wade did not see it before it was shown in the assembly.

"It got to a point where she turned to her assistant and said, 'Oops, I wish I would have seen this before. I don't think I would have shown it,' " Williams said. He said Wade could see how some adults might find the video political.

"She acknowledges she was wrong and apologizes for it and says she's sorry," Williams said. Attempts to reach school PTA leaders Tuesday evening were unsuccessful.

Read the whole thing.

I just love the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and it bums me that Anthony Kiedis is at the video pushing the Obama-Kool Aid on this one - although I'm not suprised. (His line would be funny if it wasn't offered in the context of Obamania: "I pledge allegiance to the funk, to the united funk of funkadelica.")

Anyway, this isn't some fringe group trying to ram this crap down people's throats (what that freak Repsac3 would say). This is more hard-left ideological programming straight from the mainstream Democratic Party establishment - and it is not okay.

See also Michelle Malkin, "'I Pledge to Be of Service to Barack Obama'," and "Obama’s Classroom Campaign: No Junior Lobbyist Left Behind." (Via Memeorandum.)

Charles Gibson to Retire From 'World News Tonight'

My wife and I watch our local news on L.A.'s ABC-7 Eyewitness News. Normally I'm going to watch Sean Hannity at 6:00pm, but when my wife's hanging out in the living room, channel 7 will be on; and at 6:30 "World News Tonight" comes on, and we'll watch that. I've always admired Charles Gibson, and if he's a liberal, it's never really bothered me that much, even during times like this:

So, I'm not that happy to see him retire from the news business, which ABC News is reporting, "Charles Gibson to Retire from 'World News': Diane Sawyer Will Replace 'World News' Anchor in January":

Charles Gibson, who has served as anchor of "World News" since May of 2006, announced this morning that he will step down from the post at the end of this year and retire from full-time employment at ABC News.

"Good Morning America" anchor Diane Sawyer will serve as the next "World News" anchor, beginning in January.

"It has not been an easy decision to make," Gibson said in an e-mail to the "World News" staff. "This has been my professional home for almost 35 years. And I love this news department, and all who work in it, to the depths of my soul."

ABC News President David Westin said that he and Gibson have been talking about the decision for several weeks and that Gibson "has persuaded me that this is both what he wants and what is best for him."

More at the link. (Via Memeorandum.)

The One Club Deletes The One Show 'Merit Award' for WWF 9/11-Tsunami Ad

UPDATE: This post is corrected to removed reference to the BBC, which is in error. Thanks to Repsac3 for the correction ...

*******

I posted the link yesteday to the The One Club's "Merit Award - Public Service/Political Print - Newspaper or Magazine - Single."

But as Darleen Click reports, "The print award this ad won has disappeared from the link above with no explanation. Luckily, I found a screenshot":

So much for all of those denails yesterday from the WWF and its lefists allies.

I've got an anonymous commenter trolling around periodically, who left this:

Please don’t twist this story for your own extreme political agenda, and please check your facts:

This was a fake ad created by Bazillians, it was never authorized or approved by WWF, and has nothing to do with the ‘leftist movement’ or whatever you’re trying to imply.

Sure, it was awarded a merit at One Show (what were there thinking?!) but that is a non-profit organization – based in New York, it’s in no way connected to the BBC.

God, the denial is almost killing me!

The ad ran in Israel, of all places (check Adver-To-Log Advertizing Archive). And DDB, WWF's Brazilian affiliate, has long been known to produce outrageously nihilist ad products - like this viral Volkswagen "Polo" ad of a suicide bomber detonating a bomb inside the vehicle near a coffee shop (here). "Small but tough" is the tag-line, when the explosion is contained inside the car. Both DDB and Volkswagen denied responsibility, of course. Wait, a denial? Hey, maybe a pattern here!

Darleen added this at her post:

While the Left worldwide is knee-jerk anti-American, there is something else at work in this ad that is both a goal of the Left and a consequence of it. If you asked the people who conceived it, those that applaud it and those that went so far as to bestow awards on this ad if they see a difference in the deaths between the tsunami and 9/11, they’d merely blink in confusion. For them, dead is dead and the most important issue is number. 200,000 vs 3,000. And if you push them, they would admit that the 200,000 “more deserving” of attention because it was poor melanin-enriched people dying.

These are the priorities of the collectivist Left. Economics and class.

More at Memeorandum.

'The Road to World War II: Why Wasn't Hitler Stopped?'

The image is from Wiki Commons. The text is German, but the photo is dated September 16, 1938, and titled, "Obersalzberg." This shot places Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain at Hitler's retreat - the Eagle's Nest - near Berchtesgaden during his initial diplomatic visit to Germany to stave off war over the Sudetenland.

I'm moved to post this after reading Der Spiegel's essay today, "The Road to World War II: Why Wasn't Hitler Stopped?" Here's the introduction:

World War II began 70 years ago when Germany invaded Poland on Sept. 1, 1939. It would last six years and claim millions of lives. But the Allies missed several opportunities to stop Hitler in the run-up to the war.

And here's this from the text:

Like a massive earthquake, Hitler's war forever destroyed a world order with Europe at its center. After 1945, the United States became the world's principal driving force. The shift of Poland's borders to the West, the Soviet Union's dominance of Eastern Europe, which would last until 1989, and the partition of Germany -- none of this would have happened without World War II.

And at the root of it all was a man who -- if one is to believe his contemporaries -- was just 1.75 meters (5 foot 9 inches) tall and who weighed a mere 70 kilograms (154 pounds), a man whose guttural pronunciation betrayed his Austrian origins: Adolf Hitler, born in the town of Braunau am Inn.

But is it possible for one man, no matter how powerful a dictator, to set the entire world on fire? For some time, there have been growing doubts about the previously generally accepted view, and the consensus today is that the situation was far more complex than once believed. It remains indisputable that World War II would not have happened without Hitler. But it is also clear that a number of factors helped to turn the Nazi leader's war fantasies into reality.

One of those factors was the compliance of conservative elites in the military, the civil administration and the world of business. They did not share Hitler's crude concept of racial superiority, and many of them feared a war with the Western powers. Nevertheless, they dreamed of acquiring global power and had aspirations to create a Greater Germany that would, at the very least, dominate Eastern Europe. They included men like Franz Halder, the commander-in-chief of the army, who announced in the spring of 1939 that his men had to overrun Poland and would then, "filled with the spirit of having emerged victorious from enormous battles, be prepared to either oppose Bolshevism or be thrown to the West."

The rest is here.

The piece notes as well that public opinion in Germany on the eve of war was nationalist and hardly pacifist. It turns out, not surprisingly, that there was a 'rally 'round the Reichsadler" effect after the initial conquest of Poland.

Cited here as an authority is Ian Kershaw, whose recent two-volume psycho-biography of Hitler has been re-released in an abridged, single-volume edition, Hitler: A Biography. Still, I'm not sure how much more "complex" is the academic consensus today on the origins of World War Two in Europe. Historians and political scientists have been researching these issues for decades; and my take on Kershaw's work was more an exhaustively-researched and innovative interpretation of Hitler rather than a raw, wholesale paradigm shift on the outbreak of the conflict.

The war in Europe has long been considered overdetermined: We had the unfinished conflict with Imperial Germany, which left the defeated German state intact and at restless following the punitive peace settlement at Versailles. Changes in the international system and choices of the leading states of the realm contributed to the permissive circumstances for a new continential conflagration. The United States stayed out of the League of Nations. American power was withdrawn from the European balance. British and French policies chose appeasement on the late-1930s when a softer line in the 1920s might have helped the Weimar regime survive. These counterfactuals are discussed by Joseph Nye in his book, Understanding International Conflicts.

My own work has focused on pacifist (antiwar) opinion in contributing to the phenomenon of "underbalancing" in the 1930s. Democratic regimes are often difficult to rouse to action, but by 1938 Britain and the U.S. (and to a lesser degree France) had moved well on the way toward a material counterbalance to German power. It's a frustrating exercise, figuring out what delayed the Western response to Hitler's drive for hegemonic conquest. Thank goodness that the Western democracies prevailed in the end.

World Wildlife Fund 'Condemns' Award-Winning Ad Desecrating 9/11 Memory

Via Astute Bloggers, "World Wildlife Fund Runs Disgusting Ad Desecrating the Memory of 9/11." Check out this World Wildlife Fund advertisement created by affiliated ad agency DDB Brazil/Sao Paulo:

The New York Times reports, "Wildlife Group Condemns a 9/11-Tsunami Ad."

But The One Show lauded the ad with the "Merit Award - Public Service/Political Print - Newspaper or Magazine - Single."

The ad's sales pitch reads:

"The tsunami killed 100 times more people than 9/11. The planet is brutally powerful. Respect it. Preserve it."

Ed Morrissey responds:

Wow! Sounds like the Earth is the real terrorist ....

Whoever thought of trivializing and commercializing the murders of 3,000 people for an ad campaign about conservation needs to search deep within themselves to determine whether their soul exists.

But here's the thing: An ad like this is no big deal for the leftist establishment, and not just in Europe. This stuff is standard fare among the folks at Daily Kos, where they're known to celebrate "Happy Twin Towers Day." Moreover, in the non-shocker of the month, the Obama administration is busy with its push to eradicate the historical memory of September 11, which is alleged as a "Republican day and "an obstacle to winning over the hearts and minds of the American people."

So, forget this faux condemnation: The WWF ad is totally of a piece with both the ideological foundations of the global anti-American left AND the core agenda of the Obama administration's ideological program.

*******

UPDATE: Reference to the BBC has been corrected ... credit to Repsac3.

James Taranto: Dick Cheney for President in 2012

Sam Stein's not too pleased, "Cheney In 2012? Some Key GOPers Aren't Kidding." But James Taranto makes a lot of sense at the video:

Hat Tip: Freedom's Lighthouse.

See also, Johanna Neuman, "Cheney in 2012? Now There's a Real September Surprise," and Memeorandum.

Public Option's Just the Beginning: 'Why the Right Opposes ObamaCare'

I got this video clip from Jimmie at Sundries Shack. It's an awesome brief explanation of right-wing opposition to ObamaCare, from Duane at All American Blogger. It's great stuff. As Jimmy notes:

I really like how Duane actually produced this video, unlike a lot of bloggers who pretty much just talk into the camera for a few minutes.

More at All American Blogger.

Related: From Gateway Pundit, "CAUGHT ON TAPE: Obama HCAN Organizer Instructs Supporters How to Shout Down Opponents & Take Over Meetings." The town hall is Rep. Jan Schakowsky's (and she's cited at Duane's video above).

Neptunus Lex: The Two Dorks, Glenn Greenwald and Joe Klein

I dislike Glenn Greenwald so much that I deeply appreciate when folks hammer him for hate-filled America-basher that he is. That said, I don't like Joe Klein all that much either, so I wasn't sure how to approach his delicate balancing act between hammering Greenwald and maintaining his own position as a pretty-hard left-wing goon.

The problem is resolved by Neptunus Lex in his post on the blow-up, "When Two Dorks Collide"

Pretty much inside blogball, but Time’s Joe Klein and Salon’s Ellison Rick Ellensberg Thomas Ryan Ellers Wilson Glenn Greenwald are having a bit of a spat. Summat to do with leaked emails and national security concerns according to Klein. Stuff and nonsense insists M. Soque Poopette.

I believe Tom Maguire may have the best analysis of this particular “who’s libbing who” dust up:

Joe Klein wastes his pixels and our time lighting into Glenn Greenwald. Whatev – Klein will never be able to move far enough left to placate his audience, as much as he tries – the Atrios/Greenwald screamers have had good success in their goal of working the refs (OK, Bush helped…). However, I *may* be burying the lead – in the email leaked by Greenwald, Klein makes no attempt to conceal his partisan rooting interest in Democratic success, which *may* have led to some awkward moments with his editors. That is pure guesswork, BTW – I can think of plenty of commentators who make no attempt to hide their party preference; I just can’t recall how Klein is marketing and positioning himself.

None of this is particularly important in the grand scheme of things even if the blogger and the hack are relatively influential in their respective corners of the dorkosphere.

There's more at the link, but I've shamelessly reposted the good stuff here.

The whole (little) debate is a Memeorandum.

White House Freaked Out by Dems' Antiwar Base on Afghanistan

From the Politico, "White House Fears Liberal War Pressure":

White House officials are increasingly worried liberal, anti-war Democrats will demand a premature end to the Afghanistan war before President Barack Obama can show signs of progress in the eight-year conflict, according to senior administration sources.

These fears, which the officials have discussed on the condition of anonymity over the past few weeks, are rising fast after U.S. casualties hit record levels in July and August.

The aides also expressed concern that Afghan election returns, still being tallied, will result in a narrow reelection for President Hamid Karzai that could result in qualms about his legitimacy — “Tehran II,” as one official put it, in reference to the disputed Iranian election.

The result: some think Afghanistan - not health care - will be the issue that defines the early years of the Obama administration.

“There’s no question that the drumbeat is going to get louder and louder on the left, and you’ll see some fall-off on the right,” said Matt Bennett of the think tank Third Way, the moderate voice of the progressive movement. “His supporters on the Hill are fighting a really serious political battle to keep the criticism under control.”

The Afghanistan conflict, which has gotten relatively little attention in part because Obama talks far more often about domestic concerns, is roaring back to the top of the Obama agenda as Congress is about to return from weeks of meetings with often unhappy voters.

Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) last week called for a timetable to pull U.S. troops out of Afghanistan — the same tactic he and other war opponents used to build congressional support for forcing an end to the Iraq war.

But Obama officials — including National Security Adviser James Jones and Defense Secretary Robert Gates — know the problem is much bigger than Feingold and timetables. They anticipate a growing number of anti-war liberals will call, with increasing force, for an end to the conflict when lawmakers return. Cost could become an issue, too. With deficits high, there will be heavy pressure on Obama to find savings somewhere in 2010 — and war critics see Afghanistan as a good place to start.

George F. Will opened a new fissure among conservatives with a column Tuesday calling for the U.S. to pull all ground troops out of Afghanistan, on the theory on the French general Charles de Gaulle that genius “sometimes consists of knowing when to stop.”

But it’s Democratic opposition that could force Obama to retreat on what he has called a "war of necessity."

Forget George Will for now.

With the exception of the hardline revolutionary socialists, mosts lefists were arguing that the Bush administration's Iraq war was a "distraction" from our "real" war in Afghanistan." That line was always politically expedient, and even more so now that the Obama administration's in power.

Spencer Ackerman is representative of the America-bashing left. On January 23, Ackerman sounded the tocsin, "Progressives Launch Attack on Afghanistan." And yesterday, Ackerman questioned Anthony Cordesman's call for more troops in the conflict, "Wait, We Need How Many More Troops For Afghanistan?"

It's not about national sucurity for these people. It's about hatred and power, as always.

Totally unserious.

Station Fire in Los Angeles Claims 2 Firefighters, 74 Structures

The video's from KABC-TV Los Angeles, "Station Fire Grows to 105,000+ Acres."

But see also the Los Angeles Times, "L.A. County Fire Has Destroyed 74 Structures, Remains Out of Control":

The number of structures burned by the Station fire has surged to 74 as the out-of-control wildfire pushed west and north, officials say.

Fifty-three homes, mountain cabins and other buildings were destroyed when the fire swept through the hamlet of Stonyvale in Tujunga Canyon. Earlier officials had said 21 homes were lost, mostly in remote areas in Tujunga Canyon and south of Acton.

The fire showed little sign of slowing down this afternoon as it threatened 12,000 homes in suburban tracts and desert communities, along with a historic observatory and major array of television and radio transmission towers.

“The fire is headed just about anywhere it wants to,” L.A. County Fire Deputy Chief Mike Dietrich said. “This is a very angry fire. Until we get a change in the weather conditions, I am not overly optimistic.”
With afternoon winds picking up, the Station fire, the largest of eight burning in the state, was plowing through dense hillside vegetation and steep terrain toward residential areas of Sunland and Santa Clarita on the west.

As billows of white and black smoke danced ominously close, Chuck Horn ushered his family and his two prized collectors' automobiles out of his home in the Sunland-Tujunga area.

"We took pictures, tax returns, insurance forms, the dog, the chicken, and that's it," Horn, 61, a retired L.A. County public works employee, said as he prepared to drive away in his baby blue 1931 Plymouth three-window coupe. Horn was next planning on moving his black 1911 Buick Model 33 away from the blaze.

To the east, firefighters were hoping that a concerted effort to cut fire breaks and lay down fire retardant would save the Mt. Wilson Observatory and a key complex of communications towers.

Because of the intensity and unpredictability of the blaze, which continued shifting directions, fire crews had to pull out of the mountaintop area today and wait for the firestorm to pass.

More at the Link.

Plus, click on this: "Los Angeles Fire Map: Tracking the Spread of the Flames [Updated]."

And, "Fallen Firefighters Remembered for Their Courage."

Tedmund "Ted" Hall and Arnaldo Quinones

Organizing for America Slurs Concerned Citizens as 'Heirs to Bin Laden'

From Obama's Organizing for America thugs:

All 50 States are coordinating in this – as we fight back against our own Right-Wing Domestic Terrorists who are subverting the American Democratic Process, whipped to a frenzy by their Fox Propaganda Network ceaselessly re-seizing power for their treacherous leaders ....

DEFEAT ANTI-DEMOCRATIC FORCES OF HATE WHO CONSPIRE TO REMAIN HEALTHY + WEALTHY WHILE THE PUBLIC LANGUISHES UNDER THE BURDEN OF OUR PRESENT HEALTH CARE SYSTEM ....

---* RECLAIM OUR LAND FROM THE HEIRS OF, YES: BIN LADEN *---* YOU KNOW IT'S TRUE *---

Click here for full size.

Hat Tip: Gateway Pundit, "Obama Website: Critics of Obamacare Are Heirs of Bin Laden."

ObamaCare Thought Police at St. Louis Town Hall!

Great photos and video at Sharp Elbows, "Thought Police at the ObamaCare Rally":

I love this line, "Those Who Claim To Be The Most Tolerant Are Always The Most Intolerant."

So true!

Hat Tip: Dana Loesch, "Astroturfers Unite at IBEW Protest."

Also, Gateway Pundit posted the same picture from Sharp Elbows, "Harry Reid: Teddy's Death Will Help Us Pass Obamacare."

Darcy Burner, Netroots' Epic Fail, Now Helping Leftist House Members ... Fail

I couldn't resist the schadenfreude of leftist Darcy Burner's defeat in last November's election.

Some of my thought are here, "Bachmann and Burner: Epic Electoral Fail for Netroots, and here, "Update on Darcy Burner's Epic Fail for Netroots."

The left poured all their resources into electing Burner, and she lost her congressional bid for the second time in a row - and this was in Washington State's 8th District, with its Democratic voter advantage and 15-point margin for Democratic nominee Barack Obama in 2008.

Burner, who is about as hardline radical as they come, is now executive director of the American Progressive Caucus Policy Foundation. This leftist cell's mission is to "is to bring together the collective wisdom of progressives inside and outside of Congress to promote peace and global security, energy independence, environmental sustainability, human rights, civil liberties and the health and economic well-being of us all."

It turns out that Representative Barbara Lee, and Nation editor and publisher Katrina Vanden Heuvel, are on the Board of Directors of Burner's organization. As I wrote regarding Representative Lee at my Pajamas essay, "A ‘National Day of Service’? Or a Political Hijacking of 9/11?", she's "the only member of Congress to vote against the Bush administration’s authorization of force following the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in 2001." She also chairs the Hip Hop Caucus Advisory Board, the organization of the "Reverend" Lennox Yearwood, who leads the White House group seeking to hijack September 11 for a National Day of Service and "eradicate the significance of the day as one of remembrance."

As for Katrina Vanden Heuvel, here's how FrontPage Magazine describes The Nation:

As the flagship publication of the political Left, The Nation consistently champions leftists’ lost causes, supporting totalitarian and Communist regimes while simultaneously rejecting any suggestion the United States is justified in military, or even philosophical, opposition to these rogue states.

It's clear that Darcy Burner is "burning it up" with some hardcore capitalist-bashing cadres.

Now it turns out that Burner's lobbying congressional "liberals" to "hang together" in support of the ObamaCare public option. Roll Call reports, "Burner Helping House Liberals Hold Firm on Public Insurance Option":

An organizer for liberal House Democrats says the bloc “isn’t bluffing” as it prepares to take a reputation-defining stand to protect a public insurance option in the health care overhaul.

Darcy Burner, executive director of the American Progressive Caucus Policy Foundation, said the health care debate has rallied traditionally disparate Congressional liberals to hang together, while galvanizing support for their position from an array of left-leaning outside groups. The result, she said, is that Democratic leaders will not be able to clear a package through the House if it does not include the public plan.

“We have never had the Progressive Caucus organized the way it is right now,” Burner said during a Friday roundtable with Roll Call. “This is not the normal scenario. And Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi [D-Calif.] knows it.”

Whoo hoo!

A "reputation-defining stand"! That's awesome. A two-time congresssional loser now spearheading the left's plan to resurrect the DOA public-socialist option!

Hey, sounds like a winner!

More at Memeorandum. And Daily Kos too!

Sarah Palin in Demand!

TrogloPundit comes up with the post title of the day, "I Wonder How That Compare to the Number of Guys Who Asked Her to the Prom?"

Troglo's talking about today's piece at the Politico, "Sarah Palin Gets 1,070+ Invitations":

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin this week will begin accepting and rejecting the more than 1,070 invitations she has received for paid speeches and political appearances since she resigned from office, aides said.

Twenty speakers’ bureaus made offers to represent her. She has signed with Washington Speakers Bureau, which represents everyone from George and Laura Bush to Bob Woodward and Katie Couric to Alan Greenspan, Colin Powell and Rudy Giuliani.

More than 950 requests for speeches have poured in for Palin, and over 120 candidates for office have asked her to appear, including folks running for Senate, House and state Legislature, aides said.

Palin will be doing both paid speeches, which are expected to go for six figures apiece, and unpaid speeches for political and charitable causes, including Christian organizations, groups that support families with special-needs children and military families.

Palin has made no commitments so far, and Washington Speakers Bureau will start responding to the invitations this week.

She’s about 85 percent finished with her book, due out this spring from HarperCollins. Then she’ll begin looking through the inch-and-a-half thick file her lawyer, Robert Barnett, has built of offers for network and cable pundit gigs, documentaries and business opportunities.

Check the Troglo post for a leggy photo of Mrs. Palin.

Also, Memeorandum (where Jezebel snarks that "The quitter's life looks pretty sweet for Sarah Palin ...").

Rep. Joe Barton: ObamaCare a 'Massive Socialization of Health Care' ... 'We'll Repeal It'

From The Hill, "Key Republican: GOP Would Repeal Health Bill If They win in 2010":

Barton says, "in the next Congress, I'll be chairman Joe Barton of the Energy and Commerce committee, and we'll repeal it."

Nice Deb adds, "Repeal the stimulus bill, too, while you’re at it. I believe a majority of Americans would favor it."

More at Memeorandum.