Tuesday Lunch at Ruby's

I took my boys out to lunch yesterday at Ruby's Diner in Costa Mesa.

We had to run a quick errand first, though, getting some paperwork signed at the doctor's office. Look carefully below. My boys are heading into the new medical building. I love the flags (and I appreciate them so much more knowing that so many leftists don't):

Ruby's is a SoCal 40's-style chain of diners. We visited the restaurant at South Coast Plaza's Crystal Court. It was mid-afternoon, about 2:30pm or so, and uncrowded:

The view from our table. That's Bristol Street out the window. A walk-bridge connects the main mall at SCP to the Crystal Court facility to the west:

Kids can play with the toy folding-box cars, this one a Chevy Bel-Air:

The restaurant wasn't empty. People are seated in a windowed section close to the entrance:

My copy of The World Turned Upside Down: The Global Battle over God, Truth, and Power. I never go anywhere without a book:

The waiter brings our vanilla shakes:

This is my oldest son's bacon cheeseburger (I had BLT&A):

That's me, Dr. D. ---- publisher of American Power! Behind me, notice how the Art-Deco styling comes out in this shot. Look at the clock and the stools at the lunch-counter:

We stopped into the Apple store on the way back to the car. You'd never know we're just coming out of recession from the looks of it --- it's always packed:

Youth Suspect in Seattle Police Punching Case Had Prior Criminal Rap Sheet

Update on today's big viral video. The main story's at Seattle Post-Intelligencer, "Police Guild: Officer Did Nothing Wrong in Videotaped Punch." That piece doesn't identify the teen girl suspect, but at the Seattle Times it turns out the girl, Angel L. Rosenthal, has quite a criminal record:

Rosenthal appeared Tuesday in King County Juvenile Court, where supporters said that she lives at the Virginia Miller House, a residential facility with behavior-modification programs for teen girls, but was in contact with her family. It's unclear why the girl is not living with her family.

King County Superior Court pro-tem Judge Ann Danieli found that Seattle police had probable cause to arrest Rosenthal for investigation of third-degree assault and obstruction. However, the judge agreed with the girl's defense attorney that she should be released ....

Rosenthal was charged in November with second-degree robbery. According to prosecutors, she punched a 15-year-old boy in the face while she and a group of youths were on their way to a rave in South Seattle last Aug. 28. The boy told police that his cellphone and $20 were stolen in the incident. A 14-year-old boy told police that he was punched in the head and his hat was stolen.

Authorities say the case was dismissed when the boys refused to testify.

In April 2008, Rosenthal was charged with third-degree theft after she allegedly stole a minivan in Tukwila, prosecutors said. Kent police said she used a screwdriver to break the ignition and start the vehicle.

The charge was later amended to theft of a motor vehicle. Rosenthal was given a deferred disposition — charges would be dropped if she stayed out of trouble — because it was a first-time offense, said Ian Goodhew, deputy chief of staff for Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg.

More at the link.

The World Turned Upside Down

Listen to Melanie Phillips discuss her book, The World Turned Upside Down: The Global Battle over God, Truth, and Power:

Hat Tip: Mark Humphrys (more here).

Governor Chris Christie: Day of Reckoning

Via Pundit & Pundette:

James Carville Stars in New RNC Ad Hammering Obama's Oil Spill Response

At Weasel Zippers, "New RNC Ad Uses James Carville Against Obama, Asking “What Took You So Long?” – Video":

Also, at OTB, "Obama Oil Spill Speech Reax: Epic Fail" (via Memeorandum). And RWN, "The Right Side of the Blogosphere’s Reaction to Obama’s Speech."

Obama's Marxist Allies Move Forward on Healthcare, Socialist Agenda

At Key Wiki and New Zeal:

Democratic Socialists of America, is despite its deceptive name is the U.S.'s largest and probably most influential Marxist based organization.

Many of its several thousand members operate through the Democratic Party, New York's influential Working Families Party and the organization also counts thousands of of labor unionists, religious activists, journalists and college professors in its ranks.

D.S.A. helped establish and continues to support the more than 80 strong Congressional Progressive Caucus and is particularly close to "single payer" healthcare champions Rep. John Conyers of Michigan and Caucus founder Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

Dr. Quentin Young of Chicago is the father of the "single payer" healthcare lobby in the U.S. he is also a former Young Communist League member, a long time D.S.A. activist and a one time personal physician and long time friend and mentor to Barack Obama.

President Obama, himself has a more than 25 year history of involvement with D.S.A. members.

D.S.A. means to use its considerable power and influence to push for completely socialized health care in the U.S. in the next few years.

RTWT.

PHOTO CREDIT: Looking at the Left.

David Petraeus Faints During Senate Testimony

Please join me in holding good thoughts and well-wishes for Gen. David Petraeus. It's amazing that this morning's Los Angeles Times is just now reporting on this, "Petraeus Appears to Faint During Senate Testimony." I'm almost positive folks had already analyzed the event up and down on Twitter more than 24 hours ago. Strange. I'd be interested to know how many Americans are just learning of the fainting spell this morning over coffee. It's good to have the legacy media in terms of resources and institutional expertise and memory. But man, it's not "breaking news" anymore. In any case, check for the picture at the link especially, which shows Petraeus leaning forward from the front. The videos, thankfully, show John McCain's questioning just as Gen. Petraeus is heard to fall forward; and it's fascinating to juxtapose the shorter clip at top with the longer one below. If you're a policy wonk, you'll get a kick out of this long discussion over the administration's July '11 pullout date for the Afghan deployment. McCain is obviously unhappy about that, and tries to get Petraeus to make the case for a longer stay for U.S. forces. See also, Jennifer Rubin, "Bipartisan Criticism of Obama Timeline for Afghanistan."

Tainted Love/Where Did Our Love Go

Feels like a rip-off when some radio stations play "Tainted Love" but cut off the second half of the medley, "Where Did Our Love Go?" Don't you love it (with no apologies to Gen X-ers, Gen Y-ers, etc.)? Really takes you back to the '80s:

Pre-Order The Post-American Presidency

"Truth is the new hate speech."

Remember that? It sums up not just the Atlas Shrugs battle against Pay Pal, but the battle all good moral folks are fighting in our post-reason world. More on the story at the blog, "PJM Pamela's Paypal Power Play."

And remember, readers can pre-order, The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration's War on America:

Why America Will Still Lead the World in 2050

Joel Kotkin at ReasonTV:

World Cup Soccer Blogging

Professor Daniel Drezner's going for some World Cup blog traffic. See, "This Blog's Official Position About Soccer."

Meanwhile, I mainly wanted to get something more attractive at top after the downer of President Obama's BP Oval Office address. This un-named totty c/o Theo Spark:

RELATED: At Sports Illustrated, "Body Painting: World Cup (Sarah Brandner, Abbey Clancy, Bethany Dempsey and Melissa Satta)."

President Obama's National Address on BP Crisis ... UPDATED!!

It was dreadful.

NYT's has its report, "In Oval Office Speech, Obama Presses BP on Compensation," and also Politico, "President Obama: 'We will make BP pay'." WSJ's got the text of the speech via Memorandum, and this should be leading by the end of the evening. I'll have more later, but the president was dishonest in claiming the feds have been on the scene since day one and Obama exudes no urgency in crisis. Most of all, the speech was mostly propaganda fear-mongering on the alleged dangers of environmental collapse. I'll have more later, but watch the clip. Dreadful:

UPDATE: Check Real Clear Politics, "Krauthammer: Obama Gave It A Shot, But The Story Will Not Be His Speech"; Chris Cillizza, "President Obama's Oval Office Address: First Thoughts"; and New York Times, "In Oval Office Speech, Obama Calls for New Focus on Energy Policy." Plus, more at Memeorandum.

Al Gore Extramarital Affair – An Inconvenient Truth?!!

Hey, found this at Jawa Report. Speculative or the real deal? See Star Magazine, "Exclusive: Al Gore Cheats with Larry David's Ex." And starting to get picked up, e.g., at USA Today, "'Star' Mag: Al Gore Affair Broke Up Marriage":

It was only a matter of time before the celeb mags started prognosticating about what really caused Al and Tipper Gore's marriage ended after 40 years.

On June 1, the couple said it was "very much a mutual and mutually supportive decision that we have made together following a process of long and careful consideration." Friends said they had "grown apart."

Now, Star magazine is reporting -- with no official comment or confirmation -- that the former vice president has been having an affair with Larry David's ex-wife, Laurie David. Larry and Laurie split in 2007. Laurie was a producer on Al's 2006 Oscar-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth.

No doubt most people knew all along, as I quearied wrote on June 1st, "any John Edwards moments for the Gores?"

IMAGE CREDIT: No Sheeples Here!

Taking Down Eric Boehlert

Patrick Frey and Matt Welch are just hammering useful tool Eric Boehlert of Media Mutters for America. We're talkin' utter devastation --- total Maximus Decimus Meridius takedown territory for the useful clown at MMFA.

Matt's piece is especially killer, "Don't You Go Calling Obama an 'ex-state senator, 'Hater!'."

Turns out Boehlert can't get out from under this comment:

And I don't even have to do a Google search to know for a fact that when President Bush was in office, there was nobody on staff at the Times, and certainly nobody writing off the opinion pages, who was allowed to so casually insult the office of the presidency on a regular basis.

Clear and unambiguous indictment, right?

So, Matt nails him on it, for example:

As the Internet kidz like to say, let me Google that for you. There'll you see a Bush-era L.A. Times columnist – one of the most consistently popular among the paper's stable at the time – who used these phrases to describe Obama's predecessor:

* "Bubble Boy"
* "willfully blind"
* "distracted and incompetent"
* "homegrown authoritarian"
* "Torturer-in-Chief"
* "a bad dream, a shameful, inexplicable interlude in American history"
* enabler of "the so-called Big Lie theory of political propaganda, articulated most infamously by Adolf Hitler."
* "if you dilute civilian control of the military, you end up with fascism or a Latin American-style military junta....we're already well on the way to having that kind of regime."
* "being a citizen in George W. Bush's America is like being a passenger in a car driven by a drunk driver."
* "I don't hate George Bush. But I sure hate what he's done to my country."

Incidentally, that columnist above, Rosa Brooks, has since gone on to take a job in Obama's Pentagon.

QED!

Well, except that obviously there's no meaningful reality for useful tool Eric Boehlert. He writes hopelessly in response, "Thanks to Matt Welch at Reason for proving my point about LA Times hating Obama."

I'll refer readers back to Matt Welch for more. But I'm thinking this is a good time to refer Eric Boehlert to Karen Alloy:

But to continue, go to Patterico for some epic smash-mouth politics: "Eric Boehlert: No, Seriously! Kick Me!" In what has to be the funniest investigation EVAH!! turns out Boehlert denied that he cross-posted his stuff to "Smirking Chimp," the Bush-era Bush-hating website. It's too good (so follow the links above), but Patterico went over there, signed up, and posted this:

There's lots more (so again, check those links). But hey, give it up for Patterico!

And FWIW, follow Boehlert's further circus performances on Twitter.

'Death to Israel' (in Hebrew and Arabic)

See Jawa Report, "'Death to Israel' Shirt at Irish 'Peace' Protest."

RELATED: At Blazing Cat Fur, "Alleged 'Fauxtilla Peace Activist' Kevin Neish Too Stupid To Keep His Stories Straight."

What Does It Take...

Here's Garland Jeffreys' 1982 cover of Junior Walker & the All Stars' 1969 chart-topper, "What Does It Take (To Win Your Love)":

I listened to Jeffreys in the early '80s. It turns out his biggest hit was "Wild in the Streets." And funny timing, the Circle Jerks came out with a cover of "Wild in the Streets" in 1982, the lead track of the album of the same name.

At the Jeffreys clip above, notice Harvey Keitel in the opening scene (likely an MTV viddy, but I don't recall seeing it). [Added: Is that Joe Piscopo in there as well?]

The original song from Junior Walker & the All Stars is here.

RELATED: More music at PA Pundits International, "Sunday Music – All Along The Watchtower – The Bob Dylan Series (Part 11)."

Who's the Enemy in the War on Terror?

From Senator Joseph Lieberman, at WSJ:

The U.S. is at war with violent Islamist extremism, and the Obama administration does moderate Muslims no favor by refusing to recognize this.

In the new National Security Strategy released by the White House last month, the Obama administration rightly reaffirms that America remains a nation at war. Unfortunately, it refuses to identify our enemy in this war as what it is: violent Islamist extremism.

This is more than semantics. As military strategists since Sun Tzu have appreciated, the first rule in war is to know your enemy so you can defeat it. The 2006 National Security Strategy did this: It correctly identified our enemy as "the transnational terrorists [who] exploit the proud religion of Islam to serve a violent political vision." The Obama administration removed those accurate and important words.

One argument administration officials use to defend their avoidance of terms like "violent Islamist extremism" is that they are imprecise and lump together a diverse set of organizations with different goals, motivations, and capabilities. Yet the administration's preferred alternative term—"violent extremism"—is much more vulnerable to such criticism.

To state the obvious, there are many forms of "violent extremism" with which America is not "at war." The strategies and capabilities needed to counter the specific threat of violent Islamist extremism are very different from those needed to deal with white supremacist extremists in the U.S. or genocidal militias in sub-Saharan Africa. Yet at no point does the 2010 National Security Strategy explain or defend its repeated use of the nebulous euphemism "violent extremism," which also has appeared in other strategy documents over the last year ....

There is no question that violent Islamist extremists seek to provoke a "clash of civilizations," and that we must discredit this hateful lie. We must encourage and empower the non-violent Muslim majority to raise their voices to condemn the Islamist extremist ideology as a desecration of Islam, responsible for the murder of tens of thousands of innocent Muslims and people of other faiths. How can we expect those Muslims to have the courage to stand and do that if we are unwilling to define and describe the enemy as dramatically different from them? ....

After Obama? Progressives Getting Fed Up With 'The One'

Via Allahpundit, some interesting developments in the long-building Obama backlash on the progressive left. Actually, Allah's taking about British MP Daniel Hannan's buyer's remorse, but my interest is in Joan Walsh's piece at Salon, "Protecting the Obama Brand":

Two stories about President Obama this weekend pushed my growing unease with his recent moves into full-blown anxiety. They come on the heels of Tim Dickinson's devastating Rolling Stone piece laying out concrete problems with Obama's response to the BP oil spill – from delays in cleaning up the Minerals Management Service, distrusting scientists who correctly reported the spill was much bigger than BP said, and waiting more than a week to declare the crisis "an Oil Spill of National Significance," which corralled new services. Maybe the most damning section of Dickinson's piece comes when he quotes the president proudly announcing he'd reversed his stand against offshore oil drilling. "It turns out, by the way, that oil rigs today generally don't cause spills," the president said. "They are technologically very advanced." Dickenson notes: "Eighteen days later, on the eve of the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, the Deepwater Horizon rig went off like a bomb."

Of the weekend's worrisome Obama stories, the first was Politico's Roger Simon's interview with Obama, published in full today, in which his self-defense about how he's handled the BP oil disaster sounded whiny and juvenile, and raised big questions about whether he's capable of fighting the battles he needs to enter and win to move the country forward. The other was Matt Bai's "Democrat in Chief?" in the New York Times Magazine, which showed that Obama and his team seem more focused on protecting the "brand" that they believe galvanized millions of new voters, young voters and independents in 2008, to potentially realign American politics, than with helping Democrats hold the House and Senate.

Not sure why Walsh doesn't link to NYT's Sunday Magazine, so here goes, "Democrat in Chief?"

But be sure to finish Walsh's piece. She can't help laying some of the blame on the tea parties:

There are two pressing reasons that I find Obama's current stasis so worrisome. One is that we're at a dangerous time, given the world economy, and on the right, Obama's election has worsened a 20-year pattern of Republican obstruction and destruction (and it's got an undercurrent of hate and demonization that can't be denied.) At the same time, Obama has an incredible moment to articulate what Democratic leadership stands for: Improving the lives of ordinary Americans, protecting the country from the unbridled, deregulated dangerous corporate excess, and moving boldly on problems, like climate change, that require boldness and leadership.

And "boldness" on climate change? Well, it takes boldness to pass off that much B.S. on the public, especially since the AGW consensus has been completely destroyed.

(Note that unhappiness with Obama's been growing for some time, and if this progressive dissent keeps building look for Jane Hamsher and her henchmen to back a 2012 primary challenge a la Eugene McCarty '68.)

And by the way, Melanie Phillips has a fabulous discussion of the AGW fraud and more at her new book, The World Turned Upside Down: The Global Battle over God, Truth, and Power. I'm really enjoying it. Most important book I've read this year.

'Alejandro' Fashion Credits

A pretty wild photo-portfolio, at NICOLA FORMICHETTI'S BLOG!! (Lady Gaga's stylist.)

Click on the image and enlarge for full effect. And lots more pics at the link at top.

See also Nicola's, "LADY GAGA AT RAINFOREST FUND SHOW -- WITH STING AND ELTON JOHN" (and Blondie too!)

And don't forget, I've had a little crush on Gaga for some time now, despite the Katy Perry backlash. I just don't think about her politics (or racial double standards). She's doing some pretty wicked stuff no matter your ideological or musical take on things. (Although she'll score some points with a production riff on Muhammed!)

Midnight Blue Eye Candy!

That's cool.

My good friend Tania Gail is featured in my other good friend Chris Muir's political cartoon, "Day-by-Day":

See beautiful Tania here: "Pennsylvania Conservative Council in 2010" and "Beautiful, Smart Conservative Women."

Renee Ellmers: Let's Stop the Obama Bullying Thug Congress

The Democratic Party is circulating a set of talking points in response to the Bob Etheridge college journalist assault --- Dems are making outraged allegations that a GOP "tracker or intern" maneuvered to "incite this very type of reaction."

But WaPo's Jonathan Capehart is having none of it:

It doesn't really matter what prompted it. By grabbing the arm of someone who said he was a student working on a project and then grabbing him by the neck after not being told where he went to school, Etheridge displayed thuggish behavior that must never be condoned. Not when it's done by rowdy Tea Partiers outside the Capitol, and certainly not by people who are elected to serve there.

The event is obviously a career-killer for Etheridge.

Renee Ellmers is the GOP challenger for North Carolina's 2nd congressional district. And my blogging colleague John Hawkins obtained an exclusive response for Ellmers on the incident, "Bob Etheridge’s Opponent, Renee Ellmers, Responds To His Assault On A Student Film Crew":

I reached out to Renee Ellmers' campaign and they have released their FIRST written statement about the incident to Right Wing News. Here's what Renee Ellmers has to say,

If a teacher or principal treated a student this way – it would raise serious questions and he would be suspended. This kind of behavior is equally unacceptable in a Congressman. Bob Etheridge needs to make a full, complete and candid public explanation for this behavior. His describing his behavior as “a poor response” is not adequate. Most important of all, Congressman Etheridge should apologize – in person – to the two students.

You can donate to Renee Ellmers' campaign here. Additionally, you can follow Renee Ellmers on Facebook and Twitter.

Gather Your Armies

“Now, I took an oath to defend that with my life, and I can’t stand by while these evils are perpetrated.” More at Hot Air:

UC Irvine Suspends Muslim Student Union for Disrupting Speech by Israel Ambassador Michael Oren

At Instapundit, " UC Irvine suspends Muslim student group for disrupting Israeli ambassador’s talk," and at LAT, "UC Irvine wants Muslim student group suspended":

The Muslim Student Union at UC Irvine should be suspended for one year for its involvement in repeated disruptions of a February speech by Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren, according to a disciplinary report released by the university.

The Muslim Student Union has appealed the recommendation.

The speech about U.S.-Israeli relations was interrupted 10 times by students who got up and yelled out things like, "Michael Oren, propagating murder is not an expression of free speech."

And be sure to read the UCI administration's May 27th letter to the Muslim Student Union.

The Left's Reaction to Afghanistan's New Mineral Riches‎

Okay, NYT's got what's apparently a big deal, "U.S. Identifies Vast Riches of Minerals in Afghanistan." I'm just now checking Memeorandum, and boy folks are excited. The Times' story is sensational. The mineral find is estimated at $1 trillion, and "Afghanistan could eventually be transformed into one of the most important mining centers in the world..."

The U.S. does not fight wars for treasure, of course (which is actually kinda dumb, when you think about it, considering how China's reaping the strategic-economic gains from America's military sacrifices). But my first thought upon seeing the headline is "Great, now all the netroots neo-communists will be attacking the Afghan deployment as an imperialist boondoggle all along, blah, blah, blah ..."

It's not, but that won't deter a new round of unhinged attacks from folks on the left who just a few short years ago argued that Iraq was distracting the U.S. from our real, more important war in Afghanistan. Michael J.W. Stickings pretty well sums up the left's cravenly antiwar political opportunism:

I will admit that, like many, I was an early supporter of the Afghan War. But I was a supporter specifically of the effort to topple the Taliban government and to remove al Qaeda from its safe haven. Since then, though, it has been a badly mismanaged war, largely because Bush shifted focus to Iraq, but also because the war, with the Taliban overthrown and al Qaeda pushed back into the mountains and the Pakistani border regions, lacks a compelling purpose, let alone any sort of realistic objective.

So, let's take a look around the 'sphere. What do we find?

At:

* AmericaBlog, "Without a strong environmental protection organization, chances are high that the dash for cash will lead to grabbing minerals in the fastest way possible without considering the environmental impact."

* Attackerman, "And now, naturally, someone’s telling [NYT'S James] Risen about the specter of great-power resource competition that just so perfectly implies a new rationale for extended war and post-war foreign influence."

* Balloon Juice, "Maybe it’s just my sour nature and dim view of humanity, but I fail to see why the discovery of trillions of dollars of minerals in Afghanistan is Good News for America®."

* Daily Kos, "We have no need to worry that Afghanistan is suddenly going to transform itself in a stable, China-friendly minerals exporter any time soon. After we leave, it will probably collapse into civil war, which is none of our business. These discoveries are no reason to stay in Afghanistan."

* Democracy Arsenal, "The only thing this story shows is the desperation of the Pentagon in planting pie-in-the-sky news stories about Afghanistan and trying to salvage the lost cause that is our current mission there."

* Digby's Hullabaloo, "As if people and nations never fought to the death to possess humongous mineral resources."

* Kevin Drum, "I have a very bad feeling about this. It could quickly turn into a toxic combination of stupendous wealth, superpower conflict, oligarchs run wild, entire new levels of corruption, and a trillion new reasons for the Taliban to fight even harder."

* Matthew Yglesias, "In general, though, waging war for control of natural resources makes a lot of sense for third world bandits & militias or would-be coup leaders, but doesn’t cost out for citizens of a developed market oriented democracy."

* Marc Ambinder, "The general perception about the war here and overseas is that the counterinsurgency strategy has failed to prop up Hamid Karzai's government in critical areas, and is destined to ultimately fail. This is not how the war was supposed to be going, according to the theorists and policy planners in the Pentagon's policy shop ... What better way to remind people about the country's potential bright future -- and by people I mean the Chinese, the Russians, the Pakistanis, and the Americans -- than by publicizing or re-publicizing valid (but already public) information about the region's potential wealth?"

* Melissa McEwan, "I don't know what the perfect word is to describe the reserved happiness I feel on behalf of the many average people of Afghanistan who just want a functional country with a modern infrastructure bought by a stable economy, shot through with a steely bolt of panic that the very discovery which might allow that very thing will instead bring a whole new fresh hell for them as colonialists and warlords and corrupt members of their own government stake out positions around the vast reserves of minerals which have been discovered in Afghanistan by Pentagon officials and US geologists."

* Naked Capitalism, "This vastly ups the stakes. It now isn’t hard to see that we will continue to pour resources and young men’s lives into Afghanistan to make sure we control these riches, just as we continue to throw money and personnel into Iraq to hold the prize of the second largest oil reserves in the world."

* Newshoggers, "When the NYT published Risen's story to the web last night, I tweeted "What a convenient time to find $1 trillion, eh?" and "Just as McChrystal's in big trouble, liberal thinktanks starting to shift anti-war, Pentagon publicizes $1 trillion Afghan treasure trove," because this is a zombie story, resurrected yet again for political purposes."

* No More Mister Nice Blog, "If anything, this will further alienate Obama's onetime supporters from the anti-war left, just in time for 2010 -- blood-for-treasure is a recognizable narrative -- and it means Ralph Nader will have to do very little rewriting of his old campaign speeches when he runs in 2012. (An Obama defeat in 2012 isn't going to reverse this course, however -- do you really think Mitt Romney or Sarah Palin will reject the opportunity to get sanctimoniously choked up at the noble sacrifice of young men and women dying in Afghanistan for niobium?)"

* Political Carnival, "We’re never leaving now, never..."

* Prairie Weather, "You can forget about socially-awkward burqas and Taliban insurgents as viable reasons for war and occupation. The capitalist market demands Afghanistan's mineral deposits. Who does mining better than the US?"

* Steve Benen, "As a growing number of observers, here and around the world, raise questions anew about whether Afghanistan's future offers any hope at all, along comes a carefully leaked story about nearly $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits, which could fundamentally improve the country's economy, stability, and long-term prospects."

* Talking Points Memo, "Afghanistan's a pretty out of the way place. But it's not like it hasn't gotten a good bit of attention from great powers in the past. First the Brits, then the Russians, now us. So no one else ever looked or they didn't find anything ... And with so much in play right now about the future of the US mission in the country, the timing of the revelation is enough to raise some suspicions in my mind."

* Taylor Marsh, "Instead of pushing for people to help Afghanistan and offer troops, Afghanistan could end up being the poor girl at the prom who just won the lottery. And we all know where most lottery winners end up."

* Unqualified Offerings, "For my part, I would be content to leave Afghanistan alone and say that if somebody there somehow finds himself in control of minerals and manages to dig them out of the ground, we are willing to pay cash on delivery. We are NOT, however, willing to do our own pick-up or provide armed escorts for those who do the pick-up or the mining. The terms are cash on delivery ... Some will say that it is ruthlessly amoral to not do anything to ensure that the extraction is done by “good guys” rather than “bad guys” but I say that going in with force to ensure that the mining is done by (and profits are received by) some particular government, company, warlord, or whoever is by far a greater evil in practice than simply paying cash on delivery to whoever manages to show up with the minerals."

* Wonkette, "If you thought Afghanistan was only profitable for opium wholesalers and the defense industry, think again! According to some convenient new geological study of the mountainous, wild land that has broken the backs of so many empires, the whole place is chock full of precious metals..."

BONUS: Steve Saideman offer a thoughtful political science take on the story, "Resources in Afghanistan!?"

**********

UPDATE: Linked at Andrew Bolt, Instapundit, Shout First, and Where Are My Keys. Plus, at Right Truth, "Problems With Afghan Mineral Deposits."

Thanks!

Sunday in San Francisco

Looks like unusually good weather in San Francisco. Below is the Bay Bridge. More great pics via TigerHawk:

Change! Near-Record 49% Say Democratic Party 'Too Liberal'

At Gallup:

In the past two years, Americans have become increasingly likely to describe the Democratic Party's views as "too liberal" (49%), and less likely to say its views are "about right" (38%). Americans' views of the Republican Party, on the other hand, have moderated slightly, with a dip in the percentage saying the GOP is too conservative from 43% last year to 40% today, and an increase in the percentage saying it is about right, from 34% to 41%.

The recent increase in perceptions of the Democratic Party as too liberal could be a response to the expansion in government spending since President Barack Obama took office, most notably regarding the economic stimulus and healthcare legislation.

The 49% of Americans who now believe the Democratic Party's views are too liberal is one percentage point below the 50% Gallup measured after the 1994 elections, the all-time high in the trend question first asked in 1992.

*****

In their efforts to attract widespread voter support in general elections, parties and their candidates generally want to avoid being perceived as too ideologically extreme. Indeed, a common strategy in U.S. electoral politics is for Republican candidates to try to paint their Democratic opponents as too far left, and Democratic candidates to try to convince voters that their Republican opponents are too far right. Currently, by 49% to 40%, more Americans perceive the Democratic Party as too liberal than say the Republican Party is too conservative, giving the Republicans an advantage in an important election year. With Election Day more than four months away, however, the Democratic Party has an opportunity in the 2010 campaign to try to alter voters' perceptions of the party's ideology.

IMAGE CREDIT: iOWNTHEWORLD.

Democrats Are Thugs

A metaphor for ObamaCare itself.

A couple of points: First is that YouTube [initially] pulled the video from its site, which means someone threatened them, not the least of these being this congressman's staff. Second is a response to those who say "they all do it": Well, I guess so, but only Democrats beat young college kids asking about ObamaCare. This congressman might as well be a rep for SEIU. The report's at Big Government, and Ed Morrissey adds this, "Video: Rep. Etheridge assaults student on street; Update: Video restored" (via Memeorandum):

His opponent is Renee Ellmers, who works in the health-care industry and is a staunch opponent of ObamaCare, opposes the bailouts and Obamanomics, is pro-life, wants to try terrorists in military courts, and demands immigration enforcement. It doesn’t appear that Ellmers is a big fan of assaulting students on the street, either. Perhaps this R+2 district might be ready to exchange their current Congressman for someone who understands the proper relationship between elected officials and their constituents — and the laws regarding assault and battery.

UPDATE: The jerk apologizes, kinda, "Etheridge Statement on Viral Video." Meanwhile, Mediate blames the young videographer.

Flotilla Sickness and the 'Progressive' Mind

From Melanie Phillips:

We have endured the fabricated claims of Israeli massacres in Jenin, the 2006 Lebanon war and Cast Lead; the charge that Israel is an ‘apartheid’ state, that it has committed genocide, ethnic cleansing and is starving the people of Gaza; that it is the aggressor in the Middle East.

How is it possible that so many believe all these lies? How can so many Jews believe them? As I have described in my new book, The World Turned Upside Down (please forgive the commercial) the witch-hunt against Israel is the pivotal example of the West’s repudiation of reason itself, leading to a widespread inversion of truth and lies, justice and injustice, right and wrong.

The ‘progressive’ left-wing intelligentsia now subscribes to a world-view that, over a wide range of issues, subordinates truth to ideology. This manifests itself in utopian creeds that hold that the world would attain a state of perfection if only it wasn’t for capitalism/America/ industrialisation/men/the nation state/those damned Jews.

Since these creeds are axiomatically the embodiment of virtue, all who dissent must be treated as moral outcasts and their views stifled.

From this Manichean mindset, which decrees that all who are not the left are a) the right, and b) intrinsically evil, it follows that anyone who challenges the lies generated by ideological dogma is by definition right-wing and evil. As a result of this knee-jerk name-calling, people dismiss such inconvenient truths even when they stare them in the face.

This terrifying mindset is the left’s default position. That is why this madness towards Israel is not confined to gentiles. Indeed, even Jews who consider themselves to have the interests of Israel at heart sometimes tragically end up believing the lies and supporting positions that would destroy it.

Hey, no problem on the commercial. Buy the book here, The World Turned Upside Down: The Global Battle over God, Truth, and Power.

Sarah Palin's For Real (IYKWIMAITYD)

At People's Cube:

We need to shine the headlights of truth on this issue. Why can't these boobs get a handle on this. I personally don't give a hoot er whatever. People are simply trying to rack up points. Get back into the fields comrades. What has this to do with the price of melons.

And at Hot Air, "Palin: No, I haven’t had implants":

Daily Kos on Helen Thomas: Jews Back to Poland Just 'Human Nature'

Hey, when the whole of society is irredeemably racist, sexist, and homophobic, who cares about a little anti-Semitism among the left-wing media elite.

At Daily Kos, unsurprisingly, "Helen Thomas and the Veneer of Civilization":

Bigotry lies just below the surface in many of us. Below the level of consciousness. Strip away the veneer of what we consider civilized deportment, and it will appear in more of us than most people realize. It occasionally shows itself in flickering glimpses. Romanticizing the Confederacy. Attempting to forget the internment of the Japanese during the Second World War. Ignoring the continuing suffering of the descendants of those that survived the genocide of this continent's native peoples. Omission can be every bit as revealing and damaging as commission.

Bigotry reveals itself when the GLBT community is criticized for demanding basic rights, and people are shouted down and told to be patient with what is characterized as their special agenda. When immigrants are blamed for lost jobs or increased crime, despite statistics proving they are responsible for neither. When people confuse Israel with Jews, or call AIPAC, which enjoys support from but a minority of the American Jewish community, the "Jewish lobby." The ease with which the Bush Administration used a terrorist attack executed by a small band of Saudis and Egyptians, and planned in Afghanistan and Germany, to foment a pandemic hatred that ended up directed at a nation of Arabs and Muslims that had had absolutely nothing to do with that attack. The welfare "reform" signing ceremony that used black women as props for the photo op. The irrational fury unleashed by the election of this nation's first black president ...

The lesson of Helen Thomas should not be taken as a statement only about Helen Thomas ...

RTWT. It's. Just. Really. Sick.

Kinda like the KKKos-kiddie's virulently anti-Semitic diary, "Eulogy before the Inevitability of Self-Destruction: The Decline and Death of Israel."

And no matter if it's a front-page essay, deep-buried diary, or hate-filled comment thread: Hey, the entire Kos community adds values. It's all one big happy commentocracy of hate. According to Kos editor Susan Gardner, "They’re giving community what the community wants, which is different than the outside world."

RELATED: Jeff Dunetz at Big Journalism, "How the Media Got It Wrong Re the Helen Thomas Affair."

Iran's Green Movement Protests at Foreign Policy

A photo-essay at Foreign Policy. (The picture below captures the essence of power. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gets the blessing from Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.)

Plus, "'Even the Regime Hates the Regime': Don't be fooled by Tehran's show of strength. The revolutionary rot runs deep."

The Veil and the Challenges

I recently saw a woman with a full-length black burka at the bank. My response was a bit of surprise (although it shouldn't be), and I wanted to take a picture.

Anyway, at New York Times, "Behind the Veil." Photo slide-show is here. (And notice how the staff cover the windows with paper when Sarah Ahmed works out.)

And recall previously at Sissy Willis, "Exposed: What really goes on beneath the burka."

Flashback Obama: 'My Muslim Faith'

Follow-up to yesterday's post, "Obama Tells Egyptian Foreign Minister: 'I am a Muslim'."

But Althouse warned at the time, "let's not stoop to portraying "Muslim" as the equivalent of evil. That's ugly and destructive."

Well, don't blame me. Egypt's Ahmed Aboul Gheit started it (at page 3):

Obama Bails Out Public Sector Unions While Deficits Spiral Out of Control

At WaPo and Memeorandum:

President Obama urged reluctant lawmakers Saturday to quickly approve nearly $50 billion in emergency aid to state and local governments, saying the money is needed to avoid "massive layoffs of teachers, police and firefighters" and to support the still-fragile economic recovery.

In a letter to congressional leaders, Obama defended last year's huge economic stimulus package, saying it helped break the economy's free fall, but argued that more spending is urgent and unavoidable. "We must take these emergency measures," he wrote in an appeal aimed primarily at members of his own party.

But see Heritage Foundation, "Federal Spending by the Numbers 2010."

Videos c/o Blog Prof and Nice Deb:

Electronic Armageddon: Nuclear Explosion in the Sky

At Fox News, "Electronic Armageddon? Congress Worries That Solar Flares Could Spell Disaster." And National Geographic:

What do future presidents need to know about existential dangers this country could face? Explorer investigates the science behind the dangers of a high-altitude electromagnetic pulse, or HEMP. Picture an instantaneous deathblow to the vital engines that power our society, delivered by a nuclear weapon designed not to kill humans but to attack electronics. What could happen if an electromagnetic pulse surged to earth, crippling every aspect of modern society's infrastructure?

All About That Personality Crisis...

At New York Dolls, a couple of live clips, "Personality Crisis":

And you're a prima ballerina on a spring afternoon
Change on into the wolfman howlin at the moon hooowww

All about that Personality Crisis you got it while it was hot
But now frustration and heartache is what you got...

RELATED: "Charles Johnson's Latest Bid for Relevance." And, "Ace of Spades Smacks Charles Johnson in a Post Every New* Blogger Should Read."

Charles Johnson's Latest Bid for Relevance

Charles Johnson picked up one of my throwaway tweets the other day:

CJ's been making a schizophrenic bid for relevance of late. He attacks so-called wingnuts and slanders his old nemeses Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer. Meanwhile, he's been trying to regain some of the Dan Rather mojo of yore, which hasn't turned out too well, considering how he stole his Reuters "scoop" from other bloggers. AOSHQ masterfully takes him to task, "Charles Johnson Whines: Why Isn't The Story About Me Anymore?", and "Blog Drama":

As to whether he grabs credit and swipes stories: This is a bit of complicated issue, involving blog courtesy and such. Since the rest of this post is so inside-blogball, I guess there's no harm in going further down this rathole.

Let me talk about "swiping stories." Johnson believes that if he throws in a lame hat-tip at the end of a post, he hasn't "swiped a story," because he's given you attribution.

That's not the case. A lame hat-tip at the end of a post covers one's ass, I suppose, in terms of attribution, but it fails to do what a proper link is supposed to do: Throw some traffic.

Some blogs are deliberately "gateway blogs," throwing out traffic wide and far in general furtherance of good-guy blogger boosterism. is deliberately, and most famously, this kind of blog.

Instapundit looks for excuses to link blogs -- not media stories, though he links them too of course; but his primary goal is to call attention to other blogs and "share the wealth." He has a very good reputation along these lines; the only problem with an Instapundit link is that it doesn't throw as much traffic as you'd think it would, but that's largely because he's linking so many blogs during the day that you're just getting a small slice of his readers.

Crucially, if a blog mentions, say, a Reuters story, Instapundit tends to link the blog which tipped him, rather than the Reuters story itself; anyone interested in that story, then, has to at least go through the blog to get to the story. They'll end up at Reuters, but they go through the tipping blog first.

On the other hand, some blogs are very jealous and ungenerous about throwing links and traffic to "competitors." Some blogs fancy themselves not "gateway blogs" but "destination blogs," and attempt to set themselves up as the only blog you need to read.

Not a portal, then, but a terminus.

It has always been my belief that Charles Johnson fancied his blog as that...

It's all goodness, so more at the link --- and I don't know if I'm throwing Ace much traffic, LOL!