Protests Against Mohammed Morsi

AT Telegraph UK, "Violence breaks out across Egypt as protesters decry Mohammed Morsi's constitutional 'coup'":

Violence broke out in cities across Egypt yesterday (Friday) as demonstrators took to the streets and besieged Muslim Brotherhood offices in anger at authoritarian new powers seized by President Mohammed Morsi.

Headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood’s political front, the Freedom and Justice Party, were ransacked and burned in Alexandria, Port Said and Ismailiya. Protesters described Mr Morsi as “Egypt’s new pharaoh” and said his declaration on Thursday night was a “constitutional coup”.

In Cairo, the biggest demonstrations for months filled Tahrir Square, reviving the spirit and chants of last year’s revolution against the country’s former leader, ex-President Hosni Mubarak. “Out, out,” the crowd chanted. The people want the downfall of the regime.”

Mr Morsi publicly defended his decision to make his decrees unchallengeable by law as necessary to complete Egypt’s transformation. He told a crowd of supporters gathered in front of the presidential palace that he was trying to stop a “minority” trying to “block the revolution”.

He also alleged that money stolen under the old regime was being used to fund new protests, including by "thugs" - a politically loaded term suggesting that the pro-democracy protesters were the same as Mr Mubarak's hired henchmen.

"There are weevils eating away at the nation of Egypt," he told them, insisting that he by contrast, was trying to assure "political stability, social stability and economic stability".

"I have always been, and still am, and will always be, God willing, with the pulse of the people, what the people want, with clear legitimacy," he said.

Mr Morsi, fresh from his success in negotiating a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas on Wednesday night, made the unexpected announcement of his new powers on Thursday.

As noted earlier, developments in Egypt are of huge, structural significance and will have deep impact on U.S. foreign policy. I'll have more later, but meanwhile check out Barry Rubin, "News Flash: Egypt’s Islamist President Assumes Dictatorial Powers." (Via Memeorandum.)

Mohammed Morsi Appoints Himself 'Egypt's New Pharaoh'

This is not a joke.

At Telegraph UK, "Mohammed Morsi grants himself sweeping new powers in wake of Gaza."

And Twitchy, "President of Egypt grants himself dictatorial powers."

There's a longer clip here.

And check the Los Angeles Times, "Mideast shifts may weaken Iran's pull with Palestinians":

CAIRO — Iran for years has supplied Hamas with weapons as part of its own struggle against Israel, but the conflict in the Gaza Strip reveals a shift in regional dynamics that may diminish Tehran's influence with Palestinian militant groups and strengthen the hand of Egypt.

The longer-range missiles fired by Hamas over the last week — believed to be modifications of Iran's Fajr 5 missiles — startled Israel by landing near Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. A front-page story in Iran's conservative daily, Kayhan, boasted: "The missiles of resistance worked." Tehran would not confirm the weapons' origin, except to say it sent rocket "technology" to Hamas.

Instead, Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told reporters: "What is important is that the people of Palestine must be equipped to defend themselves, and it is the responsibility of all countries to defend the rights of the people of Palestine."

But the Gaza fighting erupted during a new era in the Middle East brought about by the rise of Islamist governments, notably in Egypt, that have replaced pro-Western autocrats. The political catharsis has spurred anti-Americanism, which Iran relishes, but it also has upset Tehran's regional designs.

In Syria — which along with the militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah has been Iran's proxy opposing Israel — a revolt inspired by the "Arab Spring" could force President Bashar Assad from power and bring in a government less friendly to Tehran. Hamas angered Iran by opposing Tehran's continued support of Assad and siding with the Syrian rebels, who are mostly fellow Sunni Muslims.

Iran's immediate concern in Gaza is keeping Hamas from strengthening its ties to Arab capitals. This may be difficult, as evidenced by the fact that Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, which inspired the founding of Hamas and now is in charge of the Egyptian government, played a key role in brokering the cease-fire announced Wednesday.

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi is likely to press the militant group not to further agitate the region — and Egypt's many domestic problems — with sustained violence against Israel. But Egypt has been criticized for tacitly arming Hamas by not tightening its border with Gaza to stop weapons smugglers from Libya and Sudan.

"The Iranians [had] better understand the paradigm is shifting in the Middle East," said Nabil Fahmy, former Egyptian ambassador to the U.S. and founding dean of the School of Public Affairs at the American University in Cairo. "Hamas needs Cairo tremendously. It really has no other interlocutor to deal with Israel."

But he added that the region is so fluid and unsettled that it is too early to predict winners and losers: "If there are peaceful resolutions, this will lead to a reduced Iranian role. If, on the other hand, you have an increased use of violence," he said, "then ultimately any player that has been supportive of a more aggressive posture will gain ground."

This reminds me of Henry Kissinger in early 2011: "Kissinger on Egypt: 'Classic Pattern of Revolution'."

The Times of Israel is also reporting that Israel ruled out a ground invasion to prevent the possibility of a collapse of regional peace agreements and the emergence of a three-front war. See: "TV report: Warnings that peace deals with Egypt, Jordan could collapse led Israel to end Hamas assault with no ground offensive."

Big changes. All while President Obama's busy pardoning turkeys. He's so insignificant in the global sweep of things, and so wrong. So deeply wrong. Americans will be choking on some of the biggest buyers remorse ever.

More on all of this later ...

Patriotic Thanksgiving Wreath

I came home from work on Wednesday and my wife had mounted this wreath on the front door.

Stuff like this makes up for some of that "dwindling optimism" I mentioned earlier:

Democrats Vote the Mentally Disabled

From David Horowitz, at FrontPage Magazine:

I am incredibly steamed this Thanksgiving Holiday over what the Democrats are doing to my country. Everybody by now knows – or should know – how readily Democrats conduct election fraud, and how determined they are to defend it. Dan [James?] O’Keefe and others have taken videos of paid Democratic operatives encouraging citizens to vote twice. O’Keefe was even able to claim Attorney General Eric Holder’s own ballot at a district polling place by claiming to be him, and then to vote in his place. Democrats have promoted Motor Voter laws and same day registration, and month-long election days to help them mobilize the votes of people who are so unconnected to the political process and so uninterested in the country’s future, and perhaps so incompetent to understand what voting entails that they require keepers to see that they get to the polls and then vote the “right” way.  In the election that put Al Franken in the Senate by a few hundred votes, more than a thousand felons voted illegally because of the loose laws that govern the polling booth – laws the Democrats want to make even looser. It is in fact the number one civil rights issue of the NAACP this year to give felons the right to vote. So we know that Democrats have little respect for the election process, and we should assume they will attempt to pursue their victories by any means necessary.

But even knowing this, I was not prepared for a conversation I had at Thanksgiving dinner today with my brother-in-law, Henry, who has lived most of his life in a home for the mentally disabled, and though now in his forties has the intelligence level of a six-year-old.

“Obama saved me,” he said to me out of the blue.

“What do you mean?”

“I voted for him for president and now he’s saving me.”

I was taken aback by these words, since Henry had no idea who Obama was, or what a president might be, and would be unable to fill out a registration form let alone get to the polling place by himself. So I asked him how he knew that and how he had registered and cast his vote. In halting, impeded speech he told me that the people who take care of him at the home filled out “the papers” to register him to vote, told him how Obama cared for him, even taught him the Obama chants, and then took him to the polling place to vote. They did the same for all of the mentally disabled patients in their care, approximately sixty in all...

More at the link.

Cathy McMorris Rodgers Delivers GOP's Thanksgiving Address

She's a good lady, recently elected conference chairwoman.

More at the Los Angeles Times, "Obama, GOP lawmaker deliver Thanksgiving messages."

Video Allegedly Shows Workers Abusing Turkeys at Butterball Plant

My wife bought a Butterball and it was delicious. The birds should be treated humanely, however.

At NBC Los Angeles, "'Shocking Abuse': Butterball Accused of Kicking, Stomping Turkeys at World's Largest Turkey Plant."

And here's the secret camera report: "Hidden Camera Video: Shocking Truth Behind Butterball Thanksgiving Turkey."

The abuse is awful, but the radical left's animal rights groups have freakin' jumped the shark. See Dustin Stockton, "PETA: The Plight of Turkeys is Like That of Blacks, Women and Gays."

Union Thuggery Emboldened by Obama's Re-Election

At the Los Angeles, "Unions, buoyed by election results, are taking a stand":

They're fed up and they're not going to take it anymore.

That's the case for thousands of employees across the country who are striking and walking out of jobs rather than accept changes to their pay and benefits. It might be a shot in the arm for a labor movement that had been left for dead but saw big gains in the November election as voters elected pro-labor candidates.

The number of union-related work stoppages involving more than 1,000 workers, which reached an all-time low of just five in 2009, rose to 13 this year as of October. And unions aren't done yet.

Nurses are striking this week at hospitals operated by Sutter Health in California; workers voted against concessions at Hostess Brands Inc., forcing the company's hand; pilots at American Airlines are wreaking havoc on the airline's schedule as it tries to cut pension and other benefits.

"There's a lot of agitating going on," said Julius Getman, a labor expert at the University of Texas. "People are unhappy. They feel that they're not being well-treated. There is a swelling of annoyance at the rich."

This week, labor faces a pivotal test of just how strong this movement is, with a group called Our Walmart asking associates to strike at stores across the country during the retailer's busiest days of the year.

The group says it is protesting Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s retaliation against workers who seek to unionize. It wants to get the corporation to sit down with the group and listen to workers' complaints.

"There comes a time when you have to stand up and you have to fix what is broke, and Wal-Mart is broken," said Evelyn Cruz, 41, who works at a Wal-Mart in Pico Rivera and walked off the job there Tuesday.

PREVIOUSLY: "West Coast Port Shut Down," and "Progressives Sink Knives Into Walmart."

Cartoon Credit: Legal Insurrection, "Branco Cartoon – Stuffed Turkey."

'Doom and Gloom'

At the Los Angeles Times, "First impression: Rolling Stones' new single, 'Doom and Gloom'."

BONUS: At Telegraph UK, "Evocative images of the Stones published."

Lindsey Stone Fired for Vulgar Facebook Photo at Arlington National Cemetery

The Other McCain reported on this earlier, "Lindsey Stone of Plymouth, Mass., Has ‘Been Placed on Unpaid Leave Pending the Results of an Internal Investigation’."

But she's gone now, according to the Boston Herald, "Shamed Facebook poster loses her job":

Lindsey Stone — the Plymouth woman taking an online beating for posting a photo of herself flipping the bird at Arlington National Cemetery on Facebook — has lost her job.

“Lindsey resigned and we accepted her resignation,” LIFE Inc. CEO Diane Enochs told the Herald tonight.

LIFE Inc. of Hyannis — a Cape Cod nonprofit that helps adults with special needs — announced tonight that Stone, along with the woman who snapped the offending photo, are not working there.

Ironically, the formal announcement was made on Facebook.

“We wish to announce that the two employees recently involved in the Arlington Cemetery incident are no longer employees of LIFE. Again, we deeply regret any disrespect to members of the military and their families. The incident and publicity has been very upsetting to the learning disabled population we serve. To protect our residents, any comments, however well-intentioned, will be deleted. We appreciate your concern and understanding as we focus on the care of our community,” the statement reads.

There's more at that top link, but see this from the Herald as well, "Father ‘appalled’ by disrespectful Facebook pic":

The mortified father of a Plymouth woman under cyber assault for posting a photo of herself flipping the bird at sacred Arlington National Cemetery said his only daughter apologizes to anyone she’s offended — especially soldiers.

The controversial Facebook photo shows Lindsey Stone with her mouth wide open and giving the finger near what appears to be the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and a sign that reads: “Silence and Respect.”

“She’s totally apologetic. She apologizes to anybody she’s offended,” her father, Peter Stone, told me last night. “She was reacting, I guess, to the sign instead of the place and didn’t intend it to be what it turned out to be.

“She had a lack of judgment,” added her father, who learned of the controversy yesterday. “I think they were just being funny, which is sad. It’s not how she or the family feels by any means.”

The photo wound up in the blogosphere and has sparked a “Fire Lindsey Stone” Facebook page that had fetched more than 9,000 likes as of last night.

Stone and Jamie Schuh, the woman who snapped the photo, have been put on unpaid leave from their jobs at the Hyannis-based LIFE Inc. — a nonprofit that helps adults with special needs — while it investigates the incident.

Well, it's permanent unpaid leave for the both of them now.

And extremely poor judgement it was. No doubt the company considered the woman to continuing liability to the concern and had to cut her loose.

And head back over to The Other McCain for a bit on the sordidness of Ms. Stone's actions. Word has it she was visiting Arlington on a company-paid trip, so that would make it look like the non-profit was financing the vulgarity. There's no way they could keep her on, although as bad as it was, for all it's vulgarity, flipping off the Tomb of the Unknowns is a form of political speech. Perhaps the outcome would have been different had Ms. Stone visited on her own time and her own dime. She would at least have had a better case for keeping her job. Either way, she's paying for her stupidity as much as her speech.

'Hey, I also made you a video...'

Samsung's got some smokin' advertisements. This one's been running pretty frequently of late, including during the Dallas-Washington game a little while ago:

Danica Patrick to Divorce After Seven Years of Marriage

Well, I image racing fans won't be too sad at the news. Ms. Patrick is quite the looker and will no doubt inspire romantic dreams in the hearts of many.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Danica Patrick announces divorce on Facebook."

And in case you were wondering, from Lance Burri, "Yes, we here at The Trog are aware that Danica Patrick has announced her divorce…":

We here at The Trog do not celebrate divorce, as necessary as divorce may sometimes be. As the (un)official blog of Wisconsin native Danica Patrick, we wish both her and Paul the best, and hope they can overcome whatever bitterness (if any) might remain between them.

Divorce is a bummer, that's for sure. Both my wife's and my parents divorced when we were children. It's traumatizing.

'This is how you change the culture and the narrative...'

From Pamela Geller, "IBD Editorial: 'Israel Vs. Hamas is Civilization Vs. Savagery'."

Pamela's doing the most vital work ever, fighting against the maul of progressive evil. She writes:

More proof that we are right and we are righteous, and that our ads, despite the bloody howls from evildoers and the useful idiots in their service, are essential. We hit a nerve. And why? Because the enemedia so furiously spins an anti-human, anti-goodness narrative that the truth is a shock to the senses. But good people respond to it. Applaud it. Want it. Which is why we were able to raise the money to take the campaign nationwide. From San Francisco to NY, DC, Portland, Chicago, Denver .... you made that happen.

This is how you change the culture and the narrative. This is how you defeat the forces of evil in the information battle-space. This is how you begin to win.

Check the link for more.

Pamela posts this from IBD, "Israel Vs. Hamas is Civilization Vs. Savagery":

Celebration within Gaza after the bombing of a bus filled with innocent Israeli civilians is an object lesson on the so-called Palestine question. Those who would celebrate such a cowardly act are savages.

No one can imagine Washington's troops firing shots to celebrate a supporter of American independence trying to kill a group of Royalist civilians. During the Cold War, U.S. support for Lech Walesa's Solidarity would have dried up if he handed out candy after a Polish nationalist targeted, say, innocent Muscovites going to work.

We may live in a complex world, but evil is identifiable even when its practitioners claim their cause is good.

The gunfire across Gaza celebrating an explosion on a bus in central Tel Aviv on Wednesday is evil. And the Iranian-backed Hamas' rulers praising the bombing, which injured 15 passengers, is evil. "Hamas blesses the attack in Tel Aviv and sees it as a natural response to the Israeli massacres ... in Gaza," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters.

The "Israeli massacres," i.e. self-defensive airstrikes, are exactly how the U.S. would react if, let's say, Mexico were doing to us what Hamas has been doing to Israel: firing hundreds of rockets into populated areas.

It is, in fact, what any civilized nation would be doing.

Continue reading.

IMAGE CREDIT: Blazing Cat Fur.

Amusing Bunni ROLL CALL!

Zilla put out the call the other day, "ROLL CALL! Amusing Bunni needs us RIGHT NOW!"

I just hit Bunni's tip jar, which is accessible through Zilla's entry. I meant to get to it earlier, but I'm just now having some down time with the Thanksgiving holiday.

Bunni's got incurable cancer of the liver. If you can, hit her tip jar and say a prayer or two as well.

Bunni's page is here.

Wishing you as much health and happiness of God's grace during this season, Bunni.

Dwindling Optimism This Thanksgiving

I'll be enjoying some tasty leftovers today, grading papers and watching football. I'll also be blogging the holiday. I noted last night that I'm thankful that we have our wonderful U.S. Constitution to safeguard against tyranny, and right now boy do we need all the protection we can get. But notice how I argued that the current progressive ascendancy is "brief." Sure, we'll always have the idiot big government types who think their ideology has an answer for every public problem through more statism, but ideological trends run in cycles, and when things get bad enough there'll be a shift back to markets and federalism to invigorate our economy and polity. We may have a long way to fall before that happens, and literally millions of American lives could be harmed, if not destroyed by leftist failures, but in time the economy simply won't be able sustain all that the left imposes on it. California is America's Greece. Prop. 30 is just a breather to a fiscal reckoning that won't be long in coming. The national government's going to have its own reckoning, but alas it won't be during the second half of the Obama interregnum. We'll have to wait for a resurgence of pro-American values in our national political leadership. It will come. The hardships will be in enduring the interim.

In any case, I was inclined to riff further on this by Alan Caruba and his essay, "Memories of Thanksgiving's Past":

I have always been an optimistic person, but that optimism has been drained by four years of Obama’s regime and the prospect of four more. It is compounded by a Congress that has steadily marched toward turning America into a European socialist economy now on the brink of financial collapse and, worse, by a nation that has abandoned many of the values and shared beliefs that made it great; a beacon of freedom for those who chose to come here, a superpower following World War II, a compassionate and largely tolerant nation.

Continue reading.

I'll have more throughout the day.

Too Few Oppressors, Too Many Victims

That's the title from a Victor Davis Hanson essay at PJ Media the other day.

But check out Maggie's Farm as well, with the results from some comment trolling from Hanson's piece, "Sorry to tell you this..."

Andrea Alarcon, President of Los Angeles Board of Public Works, Under Investigation for Child Endangerment

Democrat family values, at the Los Angeles Times, "Top L.A. official's daughter, 11, found unattended at City Hall":

The president of the Los Angeles Board of Public Works is under investigation by Los Angeles police after her 11-year-old daughter was found unattended at City Hall last week, sources familiar with the case said Wednesday.

No charges have been filed against Andrea Alarcon, 33, and she was not arrested.

Sandi Gibbons, spokeswoman for Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley, confirmed an investigation regarding Alarcon had been referred to her office but said prosecutors requested more evidence before determining whether to file any charges.

"If police present us new evidence, we of course will review it and make a determination as to how to proceed. However, we cannot comment on the case because we have nothing pending at this time," Gibbons said.

Alarcon, an appointee of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, declined to discuss the investigation, saying she is celebrating the holiday with her family.

"My daughter and I have an extremely close relationship and as a single mother, she often accompanies me to special events for work," Alarcon said. "Out of respect for my daughter's privacy and because she is a minor, I really have nothing further to say about this matter."

Few details about the case were released. Sources told The Times that officers found Andrea Alarcon's daughter at City Hall at around 11:45 p.m. Friday and took her to the Los Angeles Police Department's Central Division station. Police tried to locate Alarcon, who turned up at around 2 a.m., said the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the case was ongoing.

Police opened a child endangerment investigation and contacted the county's Department of Children and Family Services, the sources said.

The incident took place the same night that City Hall's rotunda and Spring Street entrance were used for a party thrown by Project Restore, a group devoted to restoring city-owned landmarks...

Still more at the link.

Ms. Alarcon was also arrested on suspicion of DUI last December, and that was with a child in the car.

Can I Still Keep Kicking You in the Balls Without You Retaliating?

This is LOL material, via Bruce Kesler at Maggie's Farm.

The Great Destroyer: Barack Obama's War on the Republic

I'm reading David Limbaugh's book, available at Amazon.

I've read a lot of Obama books, but Limbaugh's has a precision and comprehensiveness to it that's scholarly. Highly recommended.

How the New York Times Covers Evil

From Dennis Prager, at National Review:

The way in which the New York Times reports good vs. evil is one of the most important stories of our time.

Take the war between Israel and Hamas that is taking place right now.

This war is as morally clear as wars get. Hamas is a terrorist organization dedicated to annihilating the Jewish state. It runs a theocratic totalitarian state in Gaza, with no individual liberty, and no freedom of speech or press. In a nutshell, Hamas is a violent, fascistic organization.

Israel, meanwhile, is one the world’s most humane states — not to mention a democracy that is so tolerant that Arab members of its parliament are free to express admiration for Hamas.

Over the past decade, Hamas had launched thousands of rockets into Israel with one aim: to kill and maim as many Israeli citizens as possible — Israelis at work, at play, asleep in their homes, in their cars. Finally, Israel responded by killing Ahmed al-Jabari, the chief organizer of Hamas’s violence — the Hamas “military commander” as he was known among Palestinians.

The next day, three more Israelis were killed by rockets.

Then Hamas targeted Tel Aviv, Israel’s most densely populated region, and Israel shelled Hamas rocket-launching sites.

In other words, an evil entity made war on a peaceful, decent entity, and the latter responded.

How has the New York Times reported this?

On Friday, on its front page, the Times featured two three-column-wide photos. The top one was of Gaza Muslim mourners alongside the dead body of al-Jabari. The photo below was of Israeli Jews mourning alongside the dead body of Mira Scharf, a 27-year-old mother of three.

What possible reason could there be for the New York Times to give identical space to these two pictures? One of the dead, after all, was a murderer, and the other was one of his victims.

The most plausible reason is that the Times wanted to depict through pictures a sort of moral equivalence: Look, sophisticated Times readers! Virtually identical scenes of death and mourning on both sides of the conflict. How tragic.

If one had no idea what had triggered this war, one would read and see the Times coverage and conclude that two sides killing each other were both equally at fault.

This is the mainstream (i.e., liberal) media’s approach...

Still more at the link.

Entitlement America

An outstanding O'Reilly Factor from a couple of nights back, worth every minute:

And I think this is the WaPo editorial he's referencing, "Mitt Romney’s parting ‘gifts’."

And here's O'Reilly's election night rant, on video.

O'Reilly's politically incorrect. For progressives that's RAAAAACISM!!