It's Come to This? 'Health Reform Video Challenge' Pushes Guilt-Mongering to the Limit

It's just the way I was raised, but in my family there was never any expectation to win the pity of others. Personal responsibility was the guiding identity, especially from my father, whose mother died when he was 12 years old. My father never finished high school, but many years later attended NYU for his BA and MA degrees. A proud man, he expected people to work hard for security in life. A Roosevelt Democrat, I wonder what my father would think of the party now? Like all socialists, today's Democrats attack the "harsh" competition of free markets, and they practice supreme guilt-mongering to browbeat individualist Americans into supporting their agenda. While the "desecrated flag" video has created a stir online today, I find videos like these below - among the top 20 finalists at the Organizing for America "Health Reform Video Challenge" - to be even more pernicious. If there are some who continue to reject the Democrats as socialist, just take a look at some of these entries:

It's just pathetic. Is this what Democratic Party arguments for nationalized healthcare have been reduced to? Tearjerker images of folks drowning at sea, asking if "you'd help this person if you could?" Or young, politicized little Obamunists with the browbeating line, "everyone should have healthcare".

Like my father, I've worked hard to get where I am, and I'm confident that others who work hard will do well in providing health security for themselves. And for those facing setbacks and hardships, as I've shown before, there's phenomenal health resources and clinical networks at the state level pushing to achieve universal coverage closer to home. There's simply no good reason to add another gargantuan federal bureaucracy (with an increased tax burden) to the political system today. The Democrats have failed to convince the American people of a national health crisis, but OFA goons are obviously still trying to pull a what-would-Jesus do guilt-trip on us, just as ObamaCare comes down to the wire.

Dems Totally Freaked at Hoffman Surge in NY-23!

Markos Moultitsas, who earlier endorsed Dede Scozzafava in New York's 23rd congressional district, sums up Democratic fears with five days to go in the race, "NY-23: Hoffman Surges at Scozzafava's Expense":

If Scozzafava's fade continues, Hoffman will win this thing. Democratic chances hinge on halting the Hoffman surge, which is why the DCCC has trained its guns on the conservative party candidate.

No doubt Kos' reference is to this ad, "Doug Hoffman: Looking Out for Himself":

And actually, Kos is more right than even he realizes (or admits), since his internal polls are badly skewed toward the Democrats. (More at Memeorandum.)

Democrats Unveil Crypto-Marxist ObamaCare Monstrosity!

From the Washington Post, "House Health-Care Reform Bill Includes Public Option" (via Memeorandum):

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) unveiled a health-care reform bill Thursday that includes a government insurance option, as well as a historic expansion of Medicaid, and seemed to have the potential to draw support from a broad range of Democratic lawmakers.

Democratic House aides said party leaders had yet to resolve long-standing disputes over provisions to block illegal immigrants from receiving benefits and to prevent federal funds from being used to subsidize abortions. But lawmakers also said there was a growing realization among Democrats from across the political spectrum that the time had arrived to compromise and move forward after weeks of internal battling.

"At the end of the day, we've got to pass something," said Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.). "The whole debate, I hope, has been about more than just therapy."

Yeah, that's Jim McGovern of the Progressive Democrats of America, where he serves on the Advisory Board with terrorist-enablers Medea Benjamin and Jodie Evans of Code Pink, Tom Hayden, the '60s radical and founder of SDS, and Congressional Black Communists Barbara Lee of Oakland and Maxine Waters of Los Angeles - both of whom have made many a junket to Castro's Cuba and have praised Cuba's healthcare system as a model for America.

Great going Democratic (Socialist) Party)!

RELATED: Voting Female Speaks!, "Socialist Maxine Waters, a Political Terrorist, Tells Obama to Use All Weapons to Force ObamaCare on an unwilling America."

Plus, a copy of the 1,990 page monstrosity is here!

The Other Special Election: California's 10th Congressional District

From the Politico, "California Race in New York's Shadow":

With Washington’s gaze fixed on the contentious, three-way House special election in upstate New York on Nov. 3, California’s 10th District contest on the same day has been largely overlooked.

But with just over a week to go before Election Day, California Republicans continue to hold out hope for an upset victory by Republican David Harmer in his bid to replace former Democratic Rep. Ellen Tauscher.

Harmer faces Democratic Lt. Gov. John Garamendi in the Bay Area special election, held in a district where Democrats hold an 18-point voter registration advantage. Tauscher traded her House seat for a top job at the State Department earlier this year.

While the National Republican Congressional Committee and the Republican National Committee have been spending far more time and money in the GOP-held New York district where Republican Dede Scozzafava faces Democrat Bill Owens and Conservative Party nominee Doug Hoffman, Harmer’s campaign contends that the West Coast race could prove to be a sleeper.

“I understand they’re tied up in New York, but the fact is, we think we’ve pulled close,” Tim Clark, Harmer’s lead strategist, told POLITICO. “We are not yet a target [race]. We would like to be a target, but we do anticipate some help” with getting out the vote.

Plus, check Jim Geraghty, "David Harmer Might Be Running the Right Race at the Right Time." And, "Race to Replace Tauscher May Be Closer Than First Thought."

Also, at American Thinker, "Why a Harmer Win Would Be Huge."

U.N. Shaken as Taliban Target World Organization in Afghanistan

The terrorists in Afghanistan are hoping to get their own Sergio Vieira de Mello. In August 2003, the United Nations left Iraq after the organization's top diplomat was killed in a massive truck bombing at the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad. The attack, which killed another 22 along with de Mello, was denounced by then-U.N. chief Kofi Annan - who promptly pulled the organization out of Iraq, signaling a victory for the terrorists.

Now, in Afghanistan, Taliban terrorists attacked a U.N. guest house, killing 8, and raising questions about continued multilateral humanitarian operations in the country. From the Los Angeles Times, "Afghan Attack Puts Aid Programs at Risk":

The deaths of five U.N. employees in a Taliban assault on a Kabul guesthouse Wednesday is forcing the world body and humanitarian agencies to reevaluate the way they operate in Afghanistan, officials said, putting at risk programs aimed at helping millions of people and stabilizing the war-torn country.

U.N. special representative Kai Eide said the attack, which killed eight people, including an American, would not deter his organization from continuing its reconstruction and development work.

But already the ability of U.N. workers to deliver aid has been compromised. With less than two weeks to go before Afghanistan holds a runoff presidential election that is the focus of the world body's current efforts, all employees across the country were placed under lockdown, said Adrian Edwards, spokesman for the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan.

"This is the most serious incident that we have experienced in Afghanistan," Edwards said. "Previously when U.N. staff have been killed, they have usually been in close proximity to the military. It is not often that we are specifically targeted."

See also, London's Daily Telegraph, "Afghanistan: U.N. Staff Killed in Attack on Kabul Guesthouse."

There's a horrible irony here for the Obama administration. The election of Barack Obama to the presidency lifted the hopes of liberal internationalists, seeing the Democratic victory as a validation of Obama's call for "a new era of global partnership" and of building "bridges of cooperation with the U.N. and other nations." Of course, now the president - who is stalling a decision on U.S. General Stanley McChrystal's request for troop reinforcements - is himself destroying that very vision of a new era in international relations.

It's a tragic shame.

God bless the families of those who were lost in Kabul.

Added: From This Ain't Hell...But You Can See It From Here, "Boehner: Time for a decision on Afghanistan." Plus, from the Thunder Run, "From the Front: 10/29/2009."

Obama Honors Fallen Troops at Dover

From the Washington Post, "Obama in Dover as Fallen Troops Arrive Home":

President Obama made a solemn pre-dawn visit to this military outpost Thursday to honor 18 Americans killed in Afghanistan earlier this week.

Obama--who is deliberating over how to reshape his war strategy in the face of growing violence and political unrest in Afghanistan and deepening public unease at home--left the White House by helicopter just before midnight on Wednesday, flying through the crisp night sky to pay homage to the fallen as their remains were flown back into the United States.

Marine One came to a halt just behind the military transport plane that brought the remains of 15 soldiers and three Drug Enforcement Agency agents killed in two different incidents Monday and Tuesday.

Wearing a suit and a topcoat, Obama was greeted by the airlift wing commander before getting into car for the short drive to a base chapel, where he met with family members of the deceased.

Afterward, the president took part in the military's precise, solemn transfer of the cases holding the bodies of the fallen from the plane to the vehicles that would transport them to a base mortuary.

Four times, Obama marched up the ramp of the transport plane and bore witness as Maj. Richard S. Bach, an Air Force chaplain, offered a prayer over the remains. Afterward, he joined other officials, including Attorney General Eric C. Holder, standing at attention and saluting. The officials held their salutes during the silent transfer, as a six-person Army carry team wearing fatigues, black berets and white gloves moved the flag-draped cases holding the bodies to a white mortuary van.

The carefully choreographed visit to Dover, the nation's entry point for U.S. military personnel killed in action, brought Obama face-to-face with the grimmest realty of war as his administration mulls the best way forward in Afghanistan.

See also, "Obama Considering Scaled-Down Afghan War Plan." Plus, "A Resignation in Afghanistan Reverberates."

'Why Not Just Kill All Conservatives?'

From the Tyrgrrrr Express, "Why Not Just Kill All Conservatives?":

Although I am a conservative, I have noticed that liberals in Congress feel that the very existence of conservatives is a threat to this nation. Since it is the job of our leaders, currently on the left, to protect Americans and keep us safe, why don’t they just pass legislation to kill all conservatives?

No, I have not fallen off the cliff of sanity. Far from it. I am following the logical train of thought.

The Nazis felt that the Jews were an enemy of Germany. They were subversives, an enemy within. Now as the son of a Holocaust survivor, I will be the first to attest to the pure evil that the Holocaust was. Yet at least the murderers followed a logical progression. They dehumanized the Jews first. Once the Jews were reduced to mere vermin or insects, treating them with the dignity that one treats human lives was unnecessary.

According to the liberals in Congress, conservatives are not human beings. They are a scourge. Therefore, it makes perfect sense to just eliminate them forever.

This is not me deciding this. I am just listening to their own words.

One Florida Congressman decided to take over the role of leading bigoted lunatic in Florida now that Robert Wexler is leaving. His words were inspiring to anybody who found warmth in hatred.

“People who watch Fox News are collaborators with the enemies of America.”

Collaborators? I had no idea that people who watched Fox News favored putting my relatives into ovens.

For those who think that using the word “collaborators” is a reference to anything besides the Holocaust, separate your liberal head from your liberal hide. It is absolutely a Nazi reference.

Enemies of America? Would that be Al Queda? Saddam Hussein? Khadafi Duck? Armageddonijad?

This cannot be, given that Fox News does not seem supportive of any of these men, based on what I have seen on the network.

I watch Fox News. Maybe he means me. Apparently I collaborate with enemies of America.

Read the whole thing (here).

And check out the Tygrrrr Express book, Ideological Bigotry: A Politically Conservative and Morally Liberal Hebrew Alpha Male Hunts Left-Wing Vipers and Sucks the Political Poison From Their (Redacted).

Living an Ayn Rand Novel

From Veronique de Rugy "We Are Living in an Ayn Rand Novel":

A year or two ago, only the most radical leftists would have dreamed that we’d be living in a country where the government owns a majority share in GM, bailed out private insurers, took over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and handed over billions of dollars to the financial sector ....

But as I am listening to the hearing on executive compensation and TARP special master (how crippy is this title?), I realize we are now officially living in a world that resembles an Ayn Rand novel.

Read the whole thing at the link.

Hat Tip: Glenn Reynolds. (Video: Reason.tv, "Radicals for Capitalism: Celebrating the Enduring Legacy of Ayn Rand.")

Soft Power Hotness!

From Great Satan's Girlfriend, "Soft Power":

As best understood, 'Soft Power' is the ability to attract people to the fun, free and totally cool League of Hot! Democrazies side without coercion.

Legitimacy is central to soft power. If a people or nation believes Great Satan's objectives to be legitimate, more better and more likely to persuade them to follow that lead without using threats and bribes.

Legitimacy can also reduce opposition to—and the costs of—using hard power when the sitch demands.

Appealing to others’ values, interests, and preferences can, in certain circumstances, replace the dependence on carrots and sticks. Cooperation is always a matter of degree, and it is profoundly influenced by attraction.And that is the rub.

Unfree, unfun and nigh unhinged illegit regimes generally have ZERO values, interests and preferences in common with Great Satan and all she stands for.

More a GSGF!

RELATED: "Obama's Soft Power Slump."

'So In the Morning ... Please Don't Say You Love Me...'

Following-up, "The Faces, Featuring Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood, Reportedly Recording New Music."

In the morning
Don't say you love me
Cause I'll only kick you out of the door

I know your name is Rita
Cause your perfume smelling sweeter
Since when I saw you down on the floor
guitar

Won't need to much persuading
I don't mean to sound degrading
But with a face like that
You got nothing to laugh about

Red lips hair and fingernails
I hear your a mean old jezebel
Lets go up stairs and read my tarot cards

Stay with me
Stay with me
For tonight you better stay with me

Stay with me
Stay with me
For tonight you better stay with me...

Obama Donors Get Clinton-Era Perks: White House 'Transparency' Spin Begins

Dana Loesch has the background, "Democrat Donors Awarded with White House Perks."

But here comes the White House cover up, from Fox News, "White House Fires Back at Report Claiming It Gave Special Access to Donors":

The White House on Wednesday fired back at a report claiming President Obama gave special access top Democratic donors, claiming it has "instituted the toughest ethics and transparency rules of any administration in history."

While the administration acknowledged that it allowed the Democratic Party to distribute tickets to White House events among supporters and contributors, it downplayed a Washington Times report that said Obama had "rewarded" donors with "VIP access."

Fundraisers who pledged to individually donate $30,400 or to bundle $300,000 in contributions toward the 2010 congressional elections were promised access to senior White House staff, according to The Washington Times.

That access also covered VIP privileges ranging from a birthday visit to the Oval Office to use of the White House bowling alley to a golf outing with the president in Martha's Vineyard.

"We're the first administration in history that will soon provide a list of each and every person that visits the White House -- something that's never been done before," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters during his daily briefing.

"The Democratic National Committee does not accept contributions from registered federal lobbyists or political action committees and hasn't done so since President Obama became the party's nominee last year. I think as the statement that we issued said, a contributor -- contributing doesn't guarantee a visit to the White House, nor does it preclude it," he said.

Mocking a question about whether the White House has engaged in quid pro quo, Gibbs quipped about his son, "I can report to you that Ethan Gibbs, with the bumpers down, bowled a couple of games while eating chicken fingers.

Actually, this just continues a long pattern of deception and cover-ups. See my report from last year, "Obama’s Fundraising Fraud."

RELATED: From the Washington Post, "White House Rebuts Allegation That Big Donors Get Special Perks" (via Memeorandum).

Image Credit: Voting Female Speaks, "Barack Obama, a Kamikazi Communist; All In, Win Lose or Draw."

Swine Flu Hysteria: Perfect Timing for Democrats' National Health Emergency

From Fred Burks, "Swine Flu Cases: CBS Reports CDC Deception on Swine Flu Cases":

President Obama has declared a national emergency for the swine flu, noting a "rapid increase in illness." A recent CNN article covering this critical topic goes on to quote CDC director Dr. Thomas Frieden, "since the H1N1 flu pandemic began in April, millions of people in the United States have been infected, at least 20,000 have been hospitalized and more than 1,000 have died."

Yet excellent investigative reporting by CBS News shows that the number of swine flu cases is being significantly exaggerated. The lead paragraph of this CBS article states, "If you've been diagnosed 'probable' or 'presumed' 2009 H1N1 or swine flu in recent months, you may be surprised to know this: odds are you didn’t have H1N1 flu. In fact, you probably didn’t have the flu at all. That's according to state-by-state test results obtained in a three-month-long CBS News investigation."

The CBS report goes on to point out that the CDC strangely advised states to stop testing and to stop counting the number of swine flu cases last July. The CDC website explains that states are no longer differentiating between the regular flu and the swine flu, reporting instead all influenza and pneumonia-related hospitalizations and deaths in one count.

Naturally, then, from Bloomberg, "Swine Flu Vaccine Scarcity Stirs Anger in U.S. Cities."

And see, "Swine Flu Emergency: What Obama's Declaration Means":

While illnesses are normally designated public-health emergencies, in which hospitals and medical personal are subject to various procedures for providing information and disposing of bodies (among other things), President Obama’s motivation for escalating H1N1 to national-emergency levels can be found in his formal declaration: “The rates of illness continue to rise rapidly within many communities across the nation, and the potential exists for the pandemic to overburden health care resources in some localities.” This parallels the World Health Organization’s June upgrade of H1N1 from phase 5 to a phase 6 pandemic (the WHO’s highest level), meaning that while swine flu may lack the drama and spectacle of terrorism, it does constitute a real risk to the American public.

Although conditions like martial law (which would be allowed under any state of emergency) are still possible, the governmental changes invoked by Obama’s declarations have a far more benevolent intent. Hospitals are given the power to set up care sites outside of hospitals—in parking lots, schools, and the like─without federal interference. This not only slows the spread of the speedy virus but allows additional space for treatment and frees emergency rooms for more severe cases. While hospitals are generally limited to setting up alternate treatment centers within 250 yards of the hospital to qualify for federal funding, reimbursements for vaccinations will be given where they would otherwise be restricted. In some cases, hospitals can modify patient check-in procedures, minimizing paperwork and other time-consuming practices to allow faster treatment during busy times. Medicare, Medicaid, and Children’s Health Insurance program requirements that might interfere with treatment, including seasonal rules and one-time vaccination coverage, can be changed or waived for the length of the emergency. Simply put, hospitals are given the ability to fight swine flu without getting wrapped in the red tape of federal procedure and, in turn, Americans will have faster treatment for and defense against the spread of the virus.

See also, "Swine Flu Increases State Power." And, "Why You Can't Get the Swine Flu Vaccine."

Cartoon Credit: William Warren at Americans for Limited Government.

Damn! Too Bad Schwarzenegger's RINO

For all of "Ahnold's" disappointments since 2003, he's always been good for a kicker or two.

Jules Crittenden's got the story, "Live & Learn":

It’s about that partisan civility thing. Turns out, if you yell “You Lie!” and say things like “Kiss my gay ass!” there can be consequences. Not just consequences, but cleverly embedded snark! It’s Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s two-fer response to California Assemblyman Tom Ammiano’s request for help and his rude outburst.

See also, "Schwarzenegger Gives California Legislature a Hidden Finger."

McCain to Obama: Make Afghanistan Decision Now!

From the Boston Globe, "McCain to Obama: Send Troops Now":

Senator John McCain, President Obama's Republican foe last year, has largely supported his rival since the election.

But now, the Vietnam War hero and Iraq troop surge supporter is putting increasing pressure on Obama to send more troops to Afghanistan -- and do it soon.

The president has held six war councils and counting to decide the strategy going forward, and some expect him to wait on deciding on his top commander's request for as many as 40,000 additional troops until after the Nov. 7 Afghan presidential run-off election.

But McCain said on "The Early Show" on CBS this morning that the war policy in Afghanistan "has been reviewed time and again" and it's time to act because the long delay "is not helpful to our effort" and is frustrating military commanders and making allies nervous.

And in an op-ed posted online on CNN today, McCain calls on Obama to move as quickly as possible to grant General Stanley McChrystal's request for additional troops.

McCain notes that he supported the Afghanistan strategy that Obama laid out in March, when he announced his decision to dispatch 21,000 more US troops. And the senator also stresses that he backed Obama's appointment of McChrystal as the top US commander on the ground -- so the president should listen to the general now.

See McCain's article at CNN, "Why We Can — And Must — Win in Afghanistan."

RELATED: Common Sense Political Thought, "Is President Obama's Foreign Policy Making a Difference Yet?"

Car Bomb Kills Dozens in Pakistan: Hillary Clinton to Islamabad, 'No Biggie, Our Relationship Goes Beyond Medieval Slaughter of Innocents'

From London's Guardian, "Bomb Kills Dozens in Pakistan as Hillary Clinton Arrives":

The deadliest Taliban bombing in two years ripped through a women's market in the Pakistani city of Peshawar today, killing almost 90 people.

The attack happened as the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, began a three-day visit to Pakistan.

The blast ripped through cosmetics stalls and clothes shops in Peshawar's old city, filling the narrow streets with burning debris and trapping dozens of victims under wreckage and charred roof beams. A two-storey building collapsed as firefighters doused it with water.

Television footage showed wounded people sitting amid debris as others attempted to rescue survivors and get them to hospital.

A spokesman for the Lady Reading hospital said it had received the bodies of 87 victims, many of them women and children. Provincial officials said over 200 people were injured ....

Clinton said the US was turning a "new page" in the decades-old relationship to include more than just security-related issues.

"Our relationship goes far beyond security... the terrorists can destroy but they cannot build. That is where we have an advantage," she said, pledging funds to rebuild the dilapidated electricity infrastructure that has led to large-scale power rationing in recent years.

The US has for years pressed Pakistan to hunt al-Qaida militants hiding in its tribal belt.

Earlier, Clinton admitted relations between the two countries had developed a lot of "scar tissue" and said: "We also recognise that it's imperative that we broaden our engagement with Pakistan."

Great. Blame the U.S. for a "deterioration" in relations. That'll send a message to the barbarians!

See also, the Los Angeles Times, "Car Bomb Kills More Than 80, Wounds 200 in Pakistan":

Video Hat Tip: Gateway Pundit, "Massive Car Bomb Kills 80 In Peshawar, Pakistan."

Obama Tees-Up, Leaves Troops Hangin' in Afghanistan

From Cold Fury, "'I Will Never Rush the Solemn Decision of ... Hand Me the 5-Iron, Would You?'"

AN ADDRESS TO THE TROOPS, GOOD SPORTS THAT THEY ARE

"At ease, team.

I will never rush the solemn decision of sending you into harm’s way … or of sending you reinforcements once you’ve already been sent.

Nor will I rush through the sandtraps to send more equipment even though I’ve consistently said we must win this war. I shall not be hurried through the water hazards to have more helicopters; I will not–no, must not fly through my fairway game to approve more F-22s. That is my pledge to you...

And, from Andrew Klavan, "Obama Hits the Golf Course, Dithers over Afghanistan."

Also, Allahpundit, "Obama to Troops: 'I Will Never Rush the Solemn Decision of Sending You Into Harm's way'."

Democratic Values: Carol Shea-Porter Extols Alan Grayson's 'Moral Compass'

Representative Carol Shea-Porter illustrates once more the total bankruptcy of today's Democratic Party. From Big Gov't, "Rep. Shea-Porter: I Love Alan Grayson and His Moral Compass Is Wonderful to Behold":

“I love both of these men and I will tell you that they are both driven by a moral compass that is just wonderful to behold,” said Shea-Porter while appearing with Rep. Grayson on a panel at the Netroots Nation summit in August. “And we share almost all the same kinds of goals and values and Alan and I do as well.”

Also, from Kim Priestap, "Democrat Alan Grayson Calls Federal Reserve Senior Advisor a 'K Street Whore'":

What a pig. I mean, really, does he kiss his mother with that mouth? That he refers to anyone in such a disgusting manner is unbecoming language from a member of the United States House of Representatives.

Where does Nancy Pelosi stand on Grayson's calling a female Federal Reserve senior advisor a whore? More importantly, where do his constituents stand?

Actually, Speaker Pelosi blew off Grayson's "die quickly" smears from the House floor, so no doubt she'll be standing up for him again. See, "Pelosi Plays Down Grayson Remark."

Plus, Grayson's not apologizing, "Alan Grayson Stands by "K Street Whore" Comment" (via Memeorandum).

Fred to Newt: STFU

I'm impressed with the way Fred Thompson's getting organized for the 2012 primaries. He's definitely on the right track with his dissing of Newt Gingrich's RINO defense campaign. From the Politico, "Fred to Newt: We're Not 'Deaf, Dumb'" (via Memeorandum):

Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson brushed back former House Speaker Newt Gingrich on Tuesday over Gingrich’s warning that the Republican Party is wrong to thrown in its lot with the Conservative Party nominee Doug Hoffman over Dede Scozzafava, the GOP’s candidate, in the special election in New York’s 23rd congressional district.

Gingrich has called the many prominent national Republicans – including Thompson – who have endorsed Hoffman over Scozzafava in recent days “misguided,” arguing they are making a “mistake” to back a third-party candidate over the party’s nominee.

The conservatives who back Hoffman point to Scozzafava’s support for abortion right and ties to local union leaders ....

Thompson, a 2008 GOP presidential candidate ... asked of Gingrich: “Who’s applying the litmus test here?”

“Are we saying that as Americans you’ve got to have an ‘R’ by your name before you vote for them? Where do you draw the line?” he continued. “If somebody with a record like this gets our seal of approval, regardless, only because she’s got an ‘R’ by the name… You know, just because we’re Republicans doesn’t mean that we’re deaf, dumb, and blind.”

Pro-Israel, Pro-Peace; or, Pro-Palestinian Destruction of the Jewish State...

Sorry for the French again (or British urban, be that as it may), but Spencer Ackerman's just an bleeding-asshole here, a concern troll par excellence who couldn't care one goddamned bit about Israel's right to exist:

If Israel doesn’t get out of the West Bank soon, demographic realities will force Israel to make the most painful existential choice of its life: whether to abandon Jewish democracy or whether to abandon Jewish statehood in favor of a binational homeland. Both of these options, in fundamental ways, represent the end of Israel. Not from an Iranian nuclear weapon. Not from a super-empowered Palestinian intifada. But from political failure and international diplomatic failure, the end of Israel can, actually, be achieved.

In question is Matthew Yglesias' post, "Pro-Israel, Pro-Peace." It turns out that Yglesias debated Jonathan Chait during an Israel panel at the J Street conference (the one where no one who is anyone of the big-name attendees ending up attending in the end). I've long identified Yglesias as one of the most hardline leftist foreign policy commentators around, and he's actually pulling some punches above, considering his propensity for Hamas-Intifada Halloween costumes:

Yglesias' proxy demonization for Israel is the "nation-state" - if we didn't have them, we wouldn't have Israel. He can only go so far in this, for in getting rid of the nation state one doesn't stop at Israel, but the entire international system (and its most important actor, the United States). So, in his roundabout way Yglesias can condemn Israel to destruction without actually saying so, and he can in fact say he's pro-Israel when he's really not:

Readers will know that I’m not a big fan of nationalism and I am a big fan of trans-national projects like the European Union and the United Nations. And it’s even true that I really kind of hope that hundreds of years from now there won’t be national states at all, instead we’ll all be lumped in with the Vulcans and the Andorians in a United Federation of Planets and off we’ll go. But there’s clearly no prospects for the abolition of the nation-state in the short-term. And the Jewish people’s claim to a nation-state is just as strong as the Finnish or Dutch or Thai claim. Or, for that matter, as the Palestinian claim. By far the best way to secure a just resolution of those conflicting claims is through a two-state solution—an independent Palestine, and a democratic Jewish Israel.

As you can see, it's quite smooth to elevate Palestinian aspirations to the existentialism of Israel's future. Either way, it's about destroying the Jewish state, for folks on the left simply don't stop with the "two-state" solution: In the end, they always demand the "right of return," and that of course is the direct path to Jewish annihiliation. The slow path is Ackerman's demographic time bomb of legitimizing a multicultural Israeli state that ultimately becomes non-Jewish. Yglesias is silent on this eventuality, but Ackerman's lobbying for it, demonically - and remember, Ackerman's one who peppers his commentaries with Arabic prayers for jihadi success: insh'allah (God willing).

But let's not forget Robert "Moral Abomination" Farley. He too wants his cake and to eat it too, claiming to be pro-Israel while also condeming the establishment of the Jewish state as "brutal, murderous work," just like the founding of the United States and the European democracies. You see, there's nothing special (that'd be American exceptionalism) about the United States for Farley (and Yglesias and Ackerman, for that matter). He'll condemn the U.S. and the whole lot of great power national states, and let them perish. That'll clear the way for the heavenly neo-communist utopia that's the real end stage of history for these pro-Palestinian airheads.

It's pretty convoluted, but not hard actually, once you figure out where these fools are coming from.

See also, Michael Goldfarb (a near-somebody who went ahead and attended J Street after all), "The Space Between Pro-Israel and Anti-Israel."

More at Mememorandum.

Hoffman, Palin at Center of GOP Future

It's not a big deal for anyone who's been toiling away all year in the trenches of conservative activism. But for the press, the ideological insurgency against the Republican Party in New York's 23 congressional district is political apostasy.

Here's a look at the headlines:

* Chris Cillizza, "NY-23 as 2012 Litmus Test?"

* The New York Times, "Right Battles G.O.P. in a Pivotal Race in New York."

* The Politico, "Gingrich: NY-23 'Purge' 'Guarantees Obama's Reelection'." (Via.)

* The Washington Post, "Ideology Trumps Party for Palin."

But Janet Hook's piece at the Los Angeles Times really captures how different establishment thinking is from conservatives on the ground and in the know, "New York Race at Epicenter of a GOP Mutiny":

Silvan Johnson adores Sarah Palin, belongs to a conservative discussion group and fumes at President Obama's spending policies. But when it comes to picking a new congressional representative for her upstate New York district, she is in no mood to help the Republican Party.

In fact, Johnson and many other conservatives want to use a Nov. 3 special election to teach the GOP a lesson about sticking to conservative values -- even though that lesson could mean the party loses a House seat it has held for decades. The conservatives are backing a third-party candidate, splitting the Republican vote and giving the Democrat a lead in some recent opinion polls.

"Both parties seem to be more for big government," said Johnson, a probation clerk in Fulton, N.Y. "The Republicans need to learn that the people they are running [for office] do not represent the views of the people."

The conservative rebellion in northern New York is showing that the anger among disaffected voters, which became prominent this summer during the "tea party" anti-spending rally in Washington and at town hall meetings on healthcare, has become a baffling political force that even Republicans are having a hard time harnessing.

The fight on the right has also made this district the epicenter of a national debate about the future of the Republican Party -- leaving party leaders to ask whether they are better off emphasizing the GOP's small-government and socially conservative values, or trying to broaden their appeal to reach independent and moderate voters.

That part about a "third-party candidiacy" is factually correct, but it misses so much of the reality at issue. Dede Scozzafava's RINO. Virtually the entire modern conservative establishment - including top personalities in the Republican Party - has backed Doug Hoffman in the race. Newt Gingrich - whoa to him - continues to berate the right-wing; but from California to New York, activists are telling the GOP where to put it.

Frankly, for conservatives, winning office in 2010 and 2012 will be less important than upholding moral values of protecting life, limiting government, and securing ethics and competence. Dede Scozzafava's the exact opposite for anyone with a brain in partisan politics today. If there's any lesson for the GOP from last year's presidential race, it's that Sarah Palin was the necessary ingredient to McCain's campaign; her addition to the ticket prevented a Democratic rout of genuine landslide proportions.

It's mindboggling today that folks like Newt Gingrich have forgotten how utterly wrenching were the Republican primaries last year. Perhaps the Democratic drama of identity politics overshadowed the shakeout on the right. But the right's ideological fissues were bright and lasting, particularly when it became clear that the Arizona Senator would be the party's standard-bearer. There's simply not going to be room in the GOP coalition for half-hearted big-government, open-borders Republicans. Someone like Olympia Snowe - who's currently enjoying fleeting power as a swing-vote Republican on health - is the last of a dying breed. It's totally inconceivable that a pro-ObamaCare, bailout-backing Republican today will have any truck with the tea-party/town hall base. Folks on the ground have seen the enemy, and he's both Blue and Red.

But check out J. Robert Smith for more on that, "A Conservative Earthquake, in New York and Beyond":

Smug GOP establishmentarians are proving again that their political seismographs are badly calibrated. The GOP has lined up behind the wrong candidate at the wrong time. Conservatives aren’t going to follow their lead, in New York or elsewhere, anytime soon. Party bosses need to get back in touch or risk hard-to-fix ruptures with conservatives in 2010 and beyond. Conservatives, great and small, are coalescing behind Doug Hoffman, the Conservative Party nominee..

New York allows minor parties on election ballots, giving the establishment Republicans a false sense of security as most other states don’t make such allowances. But the old logic that conservatives will have to fall in line elsewhere or risk electing Democrats may not hold. Conservatives are playing by new rules now, and the GOP isn’t showing any signs of getting it.

And one more thing about that "third party" deal. Doug Hoffman is really the legitimate conservative in this race, and he'd be the GOP candidate had not county Republicans picked Dede. This is not a moment of third party ascendency in American politics. If Hoffman loses in New York, he'll immediately emerge as the conservative frontrunner for the 2010 primary, and activists will redouble their efforts elsewhere. RINO's are dead meat. Nationally, Sarah Palin's got the pulse of the party. Her decisionmaking's been exquisite since leaving office earlier this year, and the timing of her new book couldn't have been better. It's just a bit over 12 months until the 2010 midterms. After that, the race for the GOP nomination will begin, and then as now, folks like Doug Hoffman and Sarah Palin will be at the center of the GOP future. Establishment RINOsaurs better get with the program or face extinction.