The Tragic Decline of American Foreign Policy

From Ian Bremmer, at the National Interest.

There's little there to which I object, although I don't really think the objective global balance of power is shifting away from the U.S.

Jews Ordered to Register in East #Ukraine?

An extremely troubling development if true, at Legal Insurrection, "Jews told to register in eastern Ukraine? Facts still murky."

But see Julia Ioffe, at the New Republic, "Ukraine Is Not Ordering Its Jews to Register."

Debunking the Left's Latest Blame-Righty Smear Campaign

Inveterate propaganda pimps and shameless liars.

At Michelle Malkin's, "Debunking the Blame Righty propagandists…again":

Here we go again. Liberal media outlets CNN and MSNBC have joined forces with the biased, numbers-cooking Southern Poverty Law Center and New America Foundation to foment renewed fear and hatred of conservative Americans.

Their latest talking point: “Right-wing” terrorists have caused more American deaths than Islamic jihadists since 9/11.

CNN ran with the “story” first. MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow hopped on the bandwagon tonight and the Blame Righty echo chamber is whipping up another witch-hunt frenzy.

According to these divisive and demagogic fear-mongers, “right-wingers” have killed 34 people since 9/11 for “political reasons,” including the three innocent victims of last week’s Kansas City Jewish community center shootings, while jihadists have killed 21. MSNBC and CNN viewers are eating it all up with ghoulish enthusiasm. It’s the Obama DHS right-wing terrorism report all over again.

A closer look at the rigging of this latest phony factoid simply confirms the malevolent intention of so-called objective journalists to marginalize conservative political speech and dissent. And it confirms once again the corruption of purportedly objective “hate watch” groups, which are staffed and supported by progressives bent on criminalizing their opponents out of the public square.

Let’s start with the terror toll count date. Carving out the 2,997-person death toll from the 9/11 jihadist attacks is a rather convenient way to rig the scales, isn’t it? Only if we close our eyes and pretend away the bloodiest terrorist attack on American soil perpetrated by Islamic murderers is it possible to promote the Left’s moral equivalency on who our real enemies are.

Once you whitewash 9/11 out of your calculations, the rest of the smear job is easy-peasy. As usual, it involves dishonest inflating of “right-wing” incidents and dishonest deflating of left-wing and jihadist incidents.

The conservatives-are-worse-than-jihadists casualty data, for example, counts Holocaust Museum shooter James Von Brunn, who killed a heroic security guard, as a “right-winger.” As I’ve pointed out before, Von Brunn was neither “left” nor “right.” He was a rage-filled maniac and 9/11 truther who hated Fox News and Rupert Murdoch.

Also counted as “right-wing” in the CNN/MSNBC/SPLC data: Andrew Joseph Stack. He’s the lunatic who flew a small plane into an Austin, Texas, office complex that contained an Internal Revenue Service office in 2010. He injured several people and killed himself. Within minutes of the story breaking, a furious left-wing blogger at the popular Daily Kos website — where countless Democratic leaders have guest-posted — fumed: “Teabagger terrorist attack on IRS building.” The article immediately cast blame on the anti-tax Tea Party movement: “After months of threats on the United States government, and government institutions, the Anti-Government forces known as the teabaggers have struck with their first 911 (sic) inspired terrorist attack.” But as I reported at the time, Stack’s ranting suicide manifesto:

…targeted “puppet” George W. Bush, murderous health care insurers and the pharmaceutical industry.

The “manifesto” ended:

The communist creed: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.

The capitalist creed: From each according to his gullibility, to each according to his greed.

*****

The dishonesty of violence-politicizing leftists — once again forcing Americans of good will to defend themselves against conniving “hate watch” haters — is beyond sickening. It’s evil.

Read it all at that top link.

And yes, they're evil, to the core.

RELATED: "The Democrat Party's Racial Regression."

Never forget: the Democrats are the party of hate.

"Russia's diplomats warned the U.S. that it ought to learn how to spell a country's name before spreading 'spam' and offered their proofreading services to the State Department's press office..."

Remember Victoria Nuland's comment about Russian espionage being "pretty impressive statecraft"?

Well, here's more on that, from Kevin Rothrock, at the New Republic, "The U.S. Is Being Routed by Russia in the Information War Over Ukraine."

PREVIOUSLY: "U.S. Scurries to Shore Up Spying on #Russia."

Epic Blog-Traffic #Fail at Chuckles Johnson's Little @Green_Footballs

LOL!

Oh, how the once-mighty have fallen.

My post the other day, "Frazier Glenn Miller, Jr., Kansas Jewish Murder Suspect, Made Democrat Congressional Bid in 2006," received lots of attention, and heavy linkage among the TCOT crowd, including an Instalanche.

My SiteMeter was rolling over pretty good, but not because of the Husky Ponytailed Loser Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs, who happened to come across my post while trolling Instapundit.







I noticed the sad little Chuckles link on Monday.

As you can see, iOWNTHEWORLD was throwing a mini IOTW-alanche, and Fire Andrea Mitchell sent over a few hits as well. Ed Driscoll also linked, and even Barcepundit --- throughout the day --- threw more traffic than the late-great LGF.

You see there at #73 at the SiteMeter page? That's the lone blog hit Chuckles sent my way all day on Monday. I've literally seen two more hits from the Lizardoid loser since then, at most.

Seriously. Does anyone even read that blog anymore? I don't think so.

I'm not linking the stalking asshat, although for some lulz check out Diary of Daedalus, "Charles attacks Bloggers for mentioning Frazier Glenn Miller was a Democrat:

Nowhere in his rant, does Charles contradict the fact that Frazier Glenn Miller was a Democrat at one point. At the end he once again ... ties Ron Paul into this whole shooting to prove Miller was not a Democrat. Charles presents no evidence an[d] once again just flings poo...

Well, of course.

Fact is, Frazier Glenn Miller first ran for office as a Democrat and returned home to racist party of hate in 2006. And most important, Miller was a grand dragon of Ku Klux Klan, the home of the Democrat Party since Reconstruction. And further, ideologically, hardline Jew hatred is virtually exclusively found on the far-left of the spectrum, and thus it's no surprise that Miller found inspiration in the vile ravings of Democrat Max Blumenthal.

It's not a pretty picture, which explains why Chuckles just won't go there and instead had to settle for squealing about some non-existent "right-wing" racist threat.

20 More Killed in Nigeria as Islamist Attacks Continue

At the New York Times, "Nigeria: Teenagers Are Freed, but Militants Continue Attacks."

And at Jihad Watch, "Nigeria: Islamic jihadists murder 20 in rampage, fourth jihad attack in three days":

Not to worry. Obama Administration official Samantha Power is on the case, denouncing religion-inspired violence in…the Central African Republic and everywhere else that Muslims are victims. But not in Nigeria, where the Islamic jihadists can apparently act with complete impunity, secure in the knowledge that the Nigerian government can’t stop them and that no other force has the will to do so.

“Islamic extremists kill 20 Nigerians during rampage,” from the Associated Press, April 16...

More.

And a great discussion at the clip.

Evidence of #BLM Death and Destruction of Cliven Bundy Cattle — #BundyRanch

An ugly, ugly situation all around.

At 21st Century Wire, "EXCLUSIVE: Evidence of BLM’s Deadly Abuse of Animals Taken from Bundy Ranch."

And at Pat Dollard's, "WATCH: Apparent Federal Mass Grave of Bundy Cows Discovered."

Here's the clip, "Greta - Possible BLM mass cattle grave at the Bundy Ranch."

Bwahaha! Vulnerable Dem Mary Landrieu Hammered for Reenacting Senate Hearing in Campaign Advertisement

Thankfully, she's likely to be flushed out to sea in this November's GOP wave.

At Yid With Lid, "Mary Landrieu's Bogus Ad is Met With Media Distain."



F-king morons.

Ukraine Push East Falters as Militants Seize Army Vehicles

At the New York Times, "Ukraine Push Against Rebels Grinds to Halt":

SLOVYANSK, Ukraine — A military operation that the Ukrainian government said would confront pro-Russian militants in the east of the country unraveled in disarray on Wednesday with the entire contingent of 21 armored vehicles that had separated into two columns surrendering or pulling back before nightfall. It was a glaring humiliation for the new government in Kiev.

Though gunshots were fired throughout the day, and continued sporadically through the evening in this town that is occupied by pro-Russian militants, it was unclear whether anybody had been wounded.

One of the armored columns stopped when a crowd of men drinking beer and women yelling taunts and insults gathered on the road before them, and later in the day its commander agreed to hand over the soldiers’ assault rifles to the very separatists they were sent to fight.

Another column from the same ostensibly elite unit, the 25th Dnipropetrovsk paratrooper brigade, surrendered not only its weapons but also the tracked and armored vehicles it had arrived in, letting militants park them as trophies, under a Russian flag, in a central square here.

More.

I think developments make that Max Boot piece from earlier look even more profound.

Failed HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius Weighs Kansas Senate Run

Look, most MSM outlets were putting the nails in the coffin of Sebelius' political career last week.

And now she's considering a Senate bid from Kansas, where she served two terms as governor?

Hmm, even leftist Ed Kilgore suggests she'd be a "glutton for punishment."

But see the New York Times, "Sebelius Said to Weigh Run for Kansas Senate Seat":

WASHINGTON — In her darkest hour last fall, Kathleen Sebelius suffered one of the deepest cuts from an old family friend who accused her of “gross incompetence” over the rollout of the Affordable Care Act and demanded that she resign as secretary of health and human services. Now she is weighing revenge.

Ms. Sebelius is considering entreaties from Democrats who want her to run against that old friend, Senator Pat Roberts, Republican of Kansas.

Several Democrats said this week that Ms. Sebelius had been mentioned with growing frequency as someone who could wage a serious challenge to Mr. Roberts, 77, who is running for a fourth term and is considered vulnerable. One person who spoke directly to Ms. Sebelius said that she was thinking about it, but added that it was too soon to say how seriously she was taking the idea.

It was only last week, after all, that Ms. Sebelius, 65, said that she would step down from her cabinet job.

Even if Ms. Sebelius had not presided over the Department of Health and Human Services at a time of turmoil and self-inflicted distress — and while carrying out a law that inspires such anger on the right — her candidacy would be a tough sell in Kansas. Democrats have not held a Senate seat in the state since 1939. And even before the president’s popularity started to take a steep slide last year, he fared especially poorly in Kansas, winning only 38 percent of the vote there in 2012.

Well, "tough sell" is putting it mildly. The disastrous health law has put so many Americans in dangers that she'd practically be putting her life on the line out there. She's the signature face of the administration's biggest failure, that is, just after the administration's biggest failure, Barack Hussein.

Via Memeorandum.

Sofia Vergara for Women's Health Magazine

A lovely lady.

At London's Daily Mail, "'I have a great a**!': Sofia Vergara, 41, shows off her perfect figure in a seductive shoot for Women's Health."

Lourdes Torres-Manteufel Sues Douglas Phillips of Vision Forum Ministries

My god this is disgusting.

At the Other McCain, "‘Repeated Requests for Phillips to Stop Masturbating and Ejaculating on Her’."

And at WND, "Christian Giant Sued For 'Using Nanny as Sex Object'":

The former leader of a popular Christian ministry – who resigned from his position after confessing to an “inappropriate” relationship – is now the subject of a lawsuit that claims he “methodically groomed” and made unwanted sexual contact with a young woman after serving as an authority figure in her life for more than a decade.

Doug Phillips, a husband and father of eight children, had been a popular and controversial figure in the homeschooling movement and a leading advocate of “biblical patriarchy” before his resignation from Vision Forum Ministries and Boerne Christian Assembly, a Baptist church outside San Antonio, Texas, at which he had served as an elder and preached hundreds of sermons.

Phillips was also founder of the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival and of the National Center for Family-Integrated Churches.

According to the teachings of the patriarchy movement, also known as the stay-at-home daughters or quiverfull movement, young women remain at home under the protection of their fathers. They’re generally expected not to work outside their home or go to college, and they’re taught to abide by strict gender roles in which men have authority over women.

‘A personal sex object’

Asked if she ever believed she loved Phillips, Torres, who was over the age of 21 at the time of the sexual contact, told WND, “Oh, yes, definitely.”

Torres said she met Phillips and his wife, Beall, at a homeschooling conference in November 1999 when Torres was 15 years old. Torres spent many hours in the Phillips home, cared for their children and helped run the family farm. She was invited on trips with the family to Hawaii, Virginia, Mexico, Florida and other states.

By 2007, according to the complaint, Phillips began “to pay special attention” to Torres, complementing her beauty and devotion to his family, giving her money, touching her, asking her personal questions about her thoughts and life plans and telling her he would take care of her.

By October of that year, the lawsuit states, Phillips invited Torres’ family to live with him as they were moving into a new home: “Phillips entered [Torres'] bedroom and without her consent began touching her breasts, stomach, back, neck, and waist.” Torres alleges she began to cry and ask Phillips to stop as he rubbed his genitals on her and “masturbated and ejaculated on her.” She claims the behavior continued, and Phillips told her he loved her and intended to marry her and “blatantly disregarded her requests” that he stop...

Read the complaint here.

Then check back over at the Other McCain for a discussion.

And for your added pleasure (or not), here's Amanda Marcotte's analysis of this depraved Christo-fascist godbag;

http://t.co/2kaIOkmIWf Friend of Duggar family accused of masturbating on a crying, protesting woman. Repeatedly.

— Amanda Marcotte (@AmandaMarcotte) April 16, 2014

The Democrat Party's Racial Regression

Yep, I've been hammering the regressive leftists for years now.

From E.W. Jackson, at American Thinker, "The New Liberal Racism":

One hundred and fifty years after slavery, a new generation now claims ownership of the thoughts and behavior of Americans of African descent. These ersatz masters believe they deserve absolute fealty. Slave owners usually think themselves beneficent, but those who thirst for freedom have a different perspective.

We have largely rid ourselves of the old racism. It is time to rid ourselves of the new form. The burden is on the liberal elites in the Democrat Party and the media to end the paternalism and condescension with which they treat the black community, and renounce the hateful attempts to destroy black conservatives. They need to stop pointing the finger of racism at others and take a hard look at themselves. They are not the racial conscience of the country, but the cause of racial regression.

I have been calling for unity across racial and cultural lines for decades, reminding audiences of the last line of our Pledge of Allegiance - "one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all." It is time for Democrat elites to stop dividing us and start bringing us together in fulfillment of that pledge.

Actually, we haven't entirely eliminated the old Democrat racism of the Ku Klux Klan. The new racism Jackson's correctly identifies just piles on exponentially to the eliminationist white supremacy and anti-Semitism that resides historically at the base of the Democrat Party.

PREVIOUSLY: "Frazier Glenn Miller, Jr., Kansas Jewish Murder Suspect, Made Democrat Congressional Bid in 2006," and "Frazier Glenn Miller, Jr., #Democrat-KKK Suspect in Kansas Jewish Shooting, Indicted on Capital Murder Charges."

The West Is Emboldening Putin

From Max Boot, at Commentary:

U.S. and European leaders have made clear they are so paralyzed by fear of provoking Vladimir Putin that they dare not do more. Only if Putin went further and extended his aggression to the rest of Ukraine would the Russian dictator suffer more severe “repercussions.” Or so we were told by Secretary of State John Kerry and his European counterparts.

It is by now obvious that the West’s self-restraint—so reminiscent of similar self-restraint after Adolf Hitler’s military buildup, militarization of the Rhineland, Anschluss with Austria, and seizure of the Sudetenland—has not convinced Putin to exercise self-restraint in response. Instead he has, correctly, read the West’s non-response as an expression of weakness that he can exploit to make further territorial gains toward his ultimate dream of reestablishing the Russian Empire, of which Ukraine was a satrapy until 1991....

The only hope that Ukraine now has of emerging as a whole and democratic state aligned to the West is to see dramatic action on the part of the U.S. and Europe to demonstrate to the Kremlin that the cost of further aggression is too high to be borne. What would this mean in practice? Practical steps would extend from rushing military aid to Ukraine, to reversing the dangerous drawdown of U.S. military strength, to rushing U.S. army brigades to Poland and the Baltics, to expelling every Russian financial institution from access to the Western financial system and seizing the ill-gained loot that Putin and his cronies keep in Western banks.

Simply to lay out what a serious response from the West would look like is to make obvious how unlikely it is to be implemented by the feckless leaders on both sides of the Atlantic. Ukraine, I fear, has pretty much no chance of prevailing, because it is clear that the spirit of Neville Chamberlain, rather than that of Winston Churchill, is in charge of the Western response. The most that Ukraine can hope for is that Putin will choose not to annex its eastern territory outright, at least not yet, preferring for the time being to keep the region in an uproar to blackmail Kiev into remaining in the Russian orbit. (Nice country you have, he may be saying implicitly, in the fashion of movie gangsters, it would be a shame if anything happened to it.)

Alas the consequences of Western pusillanimity will be felt far outside Ukraine’s borders...

Nah. That's crazy neocon warmongering talk!

PREVIOUSLY: "Ukraine Mobilizes Against Russia-Backed Separatists."

The Implosion of First Look's 'The Intercept'

A genuine laugh riot.

At Gigaom, "If you want more news from First Look Media’s The Intercept, you’re going to have to wait."

Via Louise Mensch:

Oh boy, the implosion of First Look Media. The BTL comments here are hilarious, including #Greenwald's whine https://t.co/tMwzvWHWhK

— Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) April 15, 2014

Greenwald is justifying himself here at 12:37. FirstLook doesn't let you link to comments. https://t.co/tMwzvWHWhK Made of Fail

— Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) April 15, 2014

On a scale of Rob Zombie to Lady Stoneheart, just how dead is @Pierre's $250m @FirstLook? #Greenwald #Snowden https://t.co/tMwzvWHWhK

— Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) April 15, 2014

Comments on John Cook's "passover greetings from the editor" Intercept post are a bloodbath. Almost feel sorry for him.

— Paul Carr (@paulcarr) April 15, 2014

Cook admits he's deleting negative comments on his Intercept q&a. Transparency. pic.twitter.com/SCcRAgPolX

— Paul Carr (@paulcarr) April 14, 2014

Beginning to think karma deserves her reputation. @Guardian plunges to below 200k circulation, @FirstLook implodes. #TeamBond

— Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) April 15, 2014

First Look also states its hiring policy "Not white. Not male." What was Glenn's severance package? Oh.

— Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) April 15, 2014

The Slow Death of Free Speech

From Mark Steyn, "The 'Safe Space' is Where Cultures Go to Die."

Linking his new essay at the Spectator UK, "How the Left, here and abroad, is trying to shut down debate — from Islam and Israel to global warming and gay marriage":

I heard a lot of that kind of talk during my battles with the Canadian ‘human rights’ commissions a few years ago: of course, we all believe in free speech, but it’s a question of how you ‘strike the balance’, where you ‘draw the line’… which all sounds terribly reasonable and Canadian, and apparently Australian, too. But in reality the point of free speech is for the stuff that’s over the line, and strikingly unbalanced. If free speech is only for polite persons of mild temperament within government-policed parameters, it isn’t free at all. So screw that.

But I don’t really think that many people these days are genuinely interested in ‘striking the balance’; they’ve drawn the line and they’re increasingly unashamed about which side of it they stand. What all the above stories have in common, whether nominally about Israel, gay marriage, climate change, Islam, or even freedom of the press, is that one side has cheerfully swapped that apocryphal Voltaire quote about disagreeing with what you say but defending to the death your right to say it for the pithier Ring Lardner line: ‘“Shut up,” he explained.’

A generation ago, progressive opinion at least felt obliged to pay lip service to the Voltaire shtick. These days, nobody’s asking you to defend yourself to the death: a mildly supportive retweet would do. But even that’s further than most of those in the academy, the arts, the media are prepared to go. As Erin Ching, a student at 60-grand-a-year Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, put it in her college newspaper the other day: ‘What really bothered me is the whole idea that at a liberal arts college we need to be hearing a diversity of opinion.’ Yeah, who needs that? There speaks the voice of a generation: celebrate diversity by enforcing conformity...

Oh pshaw!

What'a all this talk about crushing free speech?!! Ayaan Hirsi Ali can come to Brandeis and speak whenever she wants, lol!

F-king morons.

'More crazy Moscow newspaper covers, please...'

Yes, please!

Via Nataliya Vasilyeva:

"We have everything! Except medicine, airplanes..." Russian paper advises readers to buy local. Good luck with that. pic.twitter.com/I5TGs2yYdS

— Laura Mills (@lauraphylmills) April 16, 2014

'X-Men: Days of Future Past'

Heh, what a wicked flick.

At LAT, "'X-Men: Days of Future Past': Wolverine center stage in final trailer."

About Those AC/DC Retirement Rumors...

At Billboard, "AC/DC Not on Cusp of Retirement: Sources":

Rumors of AC/DC's imminent demise appear to be exaggerated.

Reports surfaced Monday in the group's native Australia that the quintet was on the verge of announcing its retirement due to one band member's (presumably guitarist Malcolm Young's) serious illness. But insiders tell Billboard that there's no truth to the rumor, though the group's management and Columbia Records, its current label, have chosen not to comment on the matter...

Hmm. Expect updates.

Hopefully the boys will be able to keep on jammin'. And best wishes to Malcolm Young.

Background at London's Daily Mail, "AC/DC guitarist Malcolm Young 'too sick to play live', according to friends," and the Orstrahyun, "RIP AC/DC: 1973 - 2014, UPDATES ON MALCOLM YOUNG."

Petra Nemcova in Thailand for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit

She's a beauty.