Democrat Culture Of Corruption #94: ACORN Indictiment

Posted by: Evrviglnt on Tuesday, January 6th, 2009 (6 hours ago)

Gateway Pundit reports on another example of the deep corruption of the left.  Remember ACORN?  Barack Obama sent hundreds of thousands of dollars their way, and why not - he used to work for them!  ACORN activists like to hang out in nursing homes and forge voter registration cards so they can have their ‘volunteers’ drive around the city voting all day under false names.  This kind of voter fraud is exactly why the Democrats don’t want laws demanding voter identification.  Democrats profit from the corruption of our voting system.

From the St. Louis Post Dispatch:

ST. LOUIS — A voter registration worker with the group ACORN has been indicted on two felony counts of voter registration fraud.

Deidra Humphrey, 44, of East St. Louis, is expected to appear in U.S. District Court in St. Louis this week after a grand jury indicted her on the charges Dec. 31, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

Humphrey is accused of submitting forged and false voter registration cards for the Nov. 8 general election — including forging cards for nursing home residents — U.S. Attorney Catherine Hanaway said Monday.

These people think we’re stupid.

ACORN workers have been tied to voter registration problems all over the country. In 2007, eight ACORN workers were indicted in St. Louis for fraudulent registration cards submitted for the previous year’s general election.

ProVote’s interim executive director, Joan Suarez, said Humphrey was dismissed this summer from her position as an hourly worker for failing to meet voter registration goals. Suarez said she didn’t know Humphrey was the target of a criminal probe until the FBI contacted her office.

“It’s such tripe,” Suarez said. “I can’t understand why anybody would commit fraud.”

Suarez said that while Humphrey was paid by the hour and not by the number of registration cards submitted, she was expected to meet a certain threshold.

Now, either you is, or you ain’t, an ACORN floozy fired by a leftist gang of ideological thugs demanding “a certain threshold” of voter registration cards.  Ms. Suarez can’t understand why anybody would commit fraud?  Maybe because if they don’t, they’ll get fired!

Book them all, Danno.

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Topics: Democrat Culture Of Corruption | No Comments »

Liberal Intolerance #117: Anti Prop 8 Hatemongers Vandalize Catholic Church In San Fransisco

Posted by: Uncle Seth The Noble on Monday, January 5th, 2009

KCBS has the details…

Vandals may have marked up the wrong church Saturday night in an apparent revolt against Proposition 8 supporters.

Black spray-painted swastikas marred the front of Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in San Francisco’s Castro district. Though the church itself is gay friendly, the proposed ban on gay marriage had support from prominent Catholics up to and including Pope Benedict.

Pastor Steve Meriweather told KCBS his parishioners actually share the vandals’ sentiment against Prop 8. “I think it’s unfortunate that they selected our community to attack,” said Meriweather, “because it’s the wrong one.”

Some attending mass at Holy Redeemer in the heart of the Castro are calling it a hate crime. San Francisco Police have been called in to investigate.

I find it hilarious when Leftists try to make the Conservative/Fascism comparison because it shows how ignorant of history these people are. Let me remind all you liberals out there, fascism is a monstrous child of the Left, not the Right. Both Hitler and Mussolini were proud socialists! So please… read a book and stop making asses of yourselves!

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Topics: California Politics, Christianity, Homosexual 'Rights', Liberal Intolerance | No Comments »

Israel Kills Child Star Assoud In Gaza

Posted by: Evrviglnt on Monday, January 5th, 2009

Guess what just landed on the menu?

I’ll transcribe all those squiggly lines on the bottom of the picture. In the red section:

“Assoud asked the doctors to give him something for the pain.”

The green section says:

“Palestinian doctors say Assoud’s last request was some boiling water, two spoonfuls of butter, a teaspoon of salt, half a lemon, some chopped onions, a couple celery tops, a little pepper and a bay leaf.”

Maybe we can talk peace over dinner?

Hat Tip: Weazel Zippers

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Topics: Israel, Palestine | 2 Comments »

2008 Ice Sea Levels Equal That Of 1979

Posted by: Uncle Seth The Noble on Monday, January 5th, 2009

Daily Tech has the details…

Thanks to a rapid rebound in recent months, global sea ice levels now equal those seen 29 years ago, when the year 1979 also drew to a close.

Ice levels had been tracking lower throughout much of 2008, but rapidly recovered in the last quarter. In fact, the rate of increase from September onward is the fastest rate of change on record, either upwards or downwards.

The data is being reported by the University of Illinois’s Arctic Climate Research Center, and is derived from satellite observations of the Northern and Southern hemisphere polar regions.

Each year, millions of square kilometers of sea ice melt and refreeze. However, the mean ice anomaly — defined as the seasonally-adjusted difference between the current value and the average from 1979-2000, varies much more slowly. That anomaly now stands at just under zero, a value identical to one recorded at the end of 1979, the year satellite record-keeping began.

Paging Al Gore! It’s time to think about doing a revision of your scaremongering bullshitumentary!

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Topics: Climate Change | No Comments »

Ronald Reagan Museum

Posted by: Evrviglnt on Sunday, January 4th, 2009

Yesterday I went to the Ronald Reagan Museum in Simi Valley, California.  It was beautiful, and poignant.  It does make one understand the power of one man to change the world, but it also makes you long for the day when we were far more serious about the world and its challenges.  Here are some of the pictures I took.

This is the statue at the entrance of the Reagan Museum.

A chunk of the Berlin Wall.

A prime feature of the Museum is Air Force One, used by President Reagan.

Here is Marine One, used by President Reagan.

This is a perfect replica of the Oval Office during President Reagan’s term.  The red sign on the desk reads “It Can Be Done.”

It’s me and the Fat Man.  First rule: Don’t feed the fat man!

There were a lot of political cartoons featured.  This one caricatures Reagan as California Governor.

The resting place of President Ronald Reagan.

I’ll quickly add that the museum was quite crowded, and it’s was good to see so many people honoring the late president.  His museum focused on his travel around the world, his fight against communism and socialism, and his love of this country.  You could hear his recorded voice throughout the museum describing the objects and pictures on display - that added a real warmth to the exhibits, like he was telling you his story through his eyes.  Air Force One was very interesting to walk through as well.  I’ve promised myself that I’ll visit the museum once a year, rotating through the seasons because it is situated in a beautiful area looking over the mountainous terrain.  Most important, the legacy he left is one we can all be proud of.  Thank you, Mr. President.

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Topics: Ronald Reagan | No Comments »

Slavery Still Exists… In Southern California?

Posted by: Uncle Seth The Noble on Sunday, January 4th, 2009

Dan Walters of the Sacramento Bee has the story…

The Associated Press gave us a peek into the underground world of California slavery recently with an article about one Egyptian girl, Shylma Hall, whose parents sold her into slavery at age 10 and, when her Egyptian owners moved to Orange County, was brought along as an unpaid servant and treated like chattel.

Hall was removed from the family when authorities finally intervened, but she is just one of many California slaves, women mostly, who continue to labor in sweatshops, in brothels, and in the homes of wealthy expatriates, particularly those from the Middle East, where slavery is still a way of life in many countries.

Exactly how many is unknown, which is why a state task force on human trafficking, in a report issued a year ago that got scant media attention, recommends that authorities cooperate in identifying victims and prosecuting their owners. A University of California study, covering five years, easily discovered at least 500 people from 18 countries working in slave-like circumstances. The UC study said 80 percent were female and half were children.

There is an underground railroad of sorts in Southern California that helps slaves escape from their masters and receive shelter. Those involved say that thousands of slaves continue to be held, especially in urban centers, either lured to the state by false promises of paid work or physically transported from other countries. Hall, now 19, was kept in servitude by loans that her masters had made to her parents.

The good news is that human trafficking is now a specific crime in California. The bad news is that it is almost never prosecuted because the victims are largely invisible. It remains, therefore, a shameful fact of life in 21st-century California.

Orange County has had a huge Arab/Middle East immigration influx over the past decade or so, a population that can be very isolated from the rest of society at times. Don’t quote me, but I can see the possibilities.

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Topics: California Politics, Social Issues | No Comments »

Liberal Intolerance #116: Nutroots Conspire To Defame Sarah Palin Supporters

Posted by: Uncle Seth The Noble on Sunday, January 4th, 2009

From some of the posts that I have read through on Democratic Underground and YA For Obama, it does not appear to be an organized effort. The nutroot kooks involved are saying they just want to have a little fun while posing as racist ‘Team Sarah’ community supporters. Either way, whether it’s an organized effort or one of individual spontaneity, it’s wrong and it could cause that community a tremendous amount of problems especially when your seeing more support for shutting down the freedom of the internet. When the excrement hits the fan, the PC groups are not going to be interested in verifying who the contributors of that community really are.

RedState has the details…

TeamSarah.org, an online community of over 63,000 who admire Sarah Palin and all she stands for, currently is experiencing an attempt at framing the whole community as guilty of unsavory racist behavior.  This apparently is part of an overall attempt by the the worst elements of the progressive faction, conduct for which all liberals should be ashamed to be associated, even indirectly.

This was started, for example at DemocracyUnderground (which brags that it intends to turn the word conservative “radioactive”) — well before that unfair and arguably defamatory piece was published in The Huffington Post, an extremist liberal website that evidently does not police its own content for accuracy.  It is shocking that the HuffPo dropped any pretense of journalistic standards — like, for instance, simply calling TeamSarah and its proprietor, the Susan B. Anthony List, for a balanced picture, before running a recent attack on TeamSarah.

Thanks go out to Kelley S who serves TeamSarah brilliantly as a guardian, going out on patrol, looking for invaders who are attempting to frame and defame the community.

Thanks to Kelly, we now have screen shots, ID’s, and IP’s of a number of individuals who have planned an effort, and attempted to implement it, to act as agent provocateurs and discredit Team Sarah by planting racist and other unsavory material as if they were members.

Today, January 2, people have seen weird posts from individuals who seemed overwhelmingly racist, bigoted, and in general unsavory sorts posing as Palin, and traditionalist values, supporters.

As you well know, the Huffington Post alleged that Team Sarah was racist, bigoted, and hateful.  Not so!  TeamSarah strives  to live up to the high standards of decency and humanity exemplified by Gov. Palin. And we do a good job of it.  We moderate posts, guide members, and work intently to keep the standards of the site high.  The most unsavory leftist elements are doing something weirdly similar, in cyberspace, to the arson committed against Gov. Palin’s church in Wasilla, Alaska.  And trying to set us up to take the blame for their vile actions.

We now have the evidence of what we suspected all along: the liberal extremists have been creating “sock puppets,” fake people whose sole mission is to come to TeamSarah, post horrible things, and then make copies of these posts to “prove” that we are bigots and cretins.  It is the equivalent of framing the innocent, it is pure dirty tricks.  And it is vile.  We call upon all principled Liberals to condemns these actions.

It’s too easy to simply say that these Leftards are a disgrace, we already knew that!

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Topics: Liberal Intolerance, Nut Root Kooks | No Comments »

Utah Perfection At The Sugar Bowl!

Posted by: Uncle Seth The Noble on Friday, January 2nd, 2009

ESPN has the details…

Out of their element, out of their league — and still perfect.

Brian Johnson and sixth-ranked Utah came down from the mountains to SEC country and established themselves as the best of the BCS busters, finishing 13-0 with a convincing 31-17 win over No. 4 Alabama in the Allstate Sugar Bowl on Friday night.

Johnson threw for 336 yards and three touchdowns on his way to being selected the game’s most outstanding player, a fitting finish to the career of Utah’s winningest quarterback (26-7).

Say what you want about the Utes playing inferior competition because of the weak conference they play in. Alabama ranked number one in the top 25 polls for 5 weeks and their only loss came to Florida in the SEC championship, who is now playing for the national title. Utah fans have much to celebrate and after an impressive victory over a division one powerhouse,  have every right to stick a finger in the faces of all the naysayers who questioned if they should be included in national champion discussions. Congratulations to the state of Utah… tonight was your night!

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Topics: Sports | No Comments »

The Kennedy Family, Catholicism And Abortion

Posted by: Uncle Seth The Noble on Friday, January 2nd, 2009

The Kennedy clan

Anne Hendershott has a great Wall Street Journal piece on the political history of the Kennedy family’s  contradiction between their pro-abortion political stance and their Catholic faith. It’s a real insight for many Catholics who who have fought the fight against the barbaric practice of abortion in the name of Christ. Here’s a small part of it…

Even Ted Kennedy, who gets a 100% pro-choice rating from the abortion-rights group Naral, was at one time pro-life. In fact, in 1971, a full year after New York had legalized abortion, the Massachusetts senator was still championing the rights of the unborn. In a letter to a constituent dated Aug. 3, 1971, he wrote: “When history looks back to this era it should recognize this generation as one which cared about human beings enough to halt the practice of war, to provide a decent living for every family, and to fulfill its responsibility to its children from the very moment of conception.”

But that all changed in the early ’70s, when Democratic politicians first figured out that the powerful abortion lobby could fill their campaign coffers (and attract new liberal voters). Politicians also began to realize that, despite the Catholic Church’s teachings to the contrary, its bishops and priests had ended their public role of responding negatively to those who promoted a pro-choice agenda.

In some cases, church leaders actually started providing “cover” for Catholic pro-choice politicians who wanted to vote in favor of abortion rights. At a meeting at the Kennedy compound in Hyannisport, Mass., on a hot summer day in 1964, the Kennedy family and its advisers and allies were coached by leading theologians and Catholic college professors on how to accept and promote abortion with a “clear conscience.”

The former Jesuit priest Albert Jonsen, emeritus professor of ethics at the University of Washington, recalls the meeting in his book “The Birth of Bioethics” (Oxford, 2003). He writes about how he joined with the Rev. Joseph Fuchs, a Catholic moral theologian; the Rev. Robert Drinan, then dean of Boston College Law School; and three academic theologians, the Revs. Giles Milhaven, Richard McCormick and Charles Curran, to enable the Kennedy family to redefine support for abortion.

Mr. Jonsen writes that the Hyannisport colloquium was influenced by the position of another Jesuit, the Rev. John Courtney Murray, a position that “distinguished between the moral aspects of an issue and the feasibility of enacting legislation about that issue.” It was the consensus at the Hyannisport conclave that Catholic politicians “might tolerate legislation that would permit abortion under certain circumstances if political efforts to repress this moral error led to greater perils to social peace and order.”

That last line is interesting - it’s the kind of equivocation made by ideological minds seeking a way around a moral absolute.  Can one sanction murder if it is done with good intention?  What perils to social peace and order are we talking about?  Overpopulation leading to starvation and plundered resources?  Crime by the poor and the colored?  Would political efforts to repress negative eugenics be grounds for supporting that moral error?  The contortions Rev. John Courtney Murray goes through to rip a hole through the moral fabric that separates man from monster reveal his loyalty to God to be one sensitive to the whims of political ideology.  Obviously he worships a different God than we do.

In any case, it appears to this observer that the Kennedy’s found themselves in a quandary as the pro abortion platform began to take center stage in the Democratic Party throughout the 1960’s. It was the Camelot era and the height of power for the Democratic Party, the Kennedy’s had a choice that many perceived then as now as complete polar opposites. Their choice was made.  It was party over faith.

Did the Kennedy’s sell their souls for political power? That will be for God to judge!

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Topics: Christianity, History, Pro-Life/Abortion, The Kennedy's | 3 Comments »

Liberal Intolerance #115: Liberals Attacking Liberals

Posted by: Evrviglnt on Thursday, January 1st, 2009

Over at Dr. Helen’s blog she posts about an attack on Democratic ex-senator Bob Kerrey by students of the very university he happens to be the president of - the New School For Social Research.  Professors there are upset that he isn’t sufficiently liberal enough, and so have inspired the students to harass him:

A little after 11:30 p.m., Mr. Kerrey emerged from a university building on Fifth Avenue south of 14th Street to a sea of a few hundred protesters chanting for his resignation. As Mr. Kerrey walked down Fifth Avenue toward 12th Street, about 30 protesters began following him, some of them shouting insults.

As the crowd’s pace quickened, so did Mr. Kerrey’s. Then, Mr. Kerrey, who lost a part of his leg in Vietnam and wears a prosthesis, broke into a run. The protesters gave chase. Mr. Kerrey turned left on a cross street and ducked into a brownstone.

At some point in the confrontation, a protester threw a tomato at Mr. Kerrey.

Mr. Kerrey, the former governor and United States senator from Nebraska who was given an overwhelming vote of no confidence from the university’s faculty in recent days, showed up at 11:30 a.m. asking to address the dissident students, but they voted not to hear him out.

The student demonstration began Wednesday evening in the ground-floor cafeteria, with about 50 of them staying overnight citing a list of grievances with the Kerrey administration, dating back to his early support of the Iraq war. They adopted a list of eight demands including a greater student voice in university affairs and the resignations of Mr. Kerrey; James Murtha, the executive vice president; and Robert Millard, treasurer of the board of trustees, who students said was connected to a private security firm working in Iraq.

As the demonstration began, a university official told the students, “You’re going about this the wrong way.” Later on Wednesday, after the building’s official closing time of 11 p.m., a university security official, Tom Iliceto, warned them they were “here without authority” but said they could stay.

“Anyone who leaves will not be permitted to re-enter,” Mr. Iliceto said. “However, no one’s safety has been threatened and no property has been damaged. So long as this remains the case, we will permit you to remain in the building this evening.”

It looks like a repeat of 1960’s, where deranged students took over university buildings and started making demands.  It’s also obvious that the impotence of university administrators then continues today.  At some point the average American gets sick and tired of appeasing hoodlums on financial aid, and that frustration gave birth to the “Hard Hat” counterattack in the sixties.  If our leaders won’t face down such infantile ingrates, aren’t they inviting us to do so?

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Topics: Liberal Intolerance | No Comments »

Golda Meir: War And Wisdom

Posted by: Evrviglnt on Thursday, January 1st, 2009

Prime Minister Golda Meir

I’m reading a book containing 14 of Oriana Fallaci’s interviews with the world’s most powerful people as of 1974 (it’s an out of print book titled “Interview With History“). It’s astounding for its raw glimpse into leaders that during the 1970’s were headlining newspapers and affecting nearly every family in the world in one way or another.  With the current battle in the Gaza Strip raging right now in Israel, I thought it would be interesting to let you read a little of what Golda Meir said about Israel’s prospects for peace in November of 1972.  She had been prime minister of Israel for over three years by then.  (Note: I’ve edited some of her answers for brevity, always keeping in mind the power of the scalpel)

Oriana Fallaci: Mrs. Meir, when will there be peace in the Middle East?  Will we be able to see this peace in our lifetimes?

Golda Meir: You will, I think.  Maybe…I certainly won’t.  I think the war in the Middle East will go on for many, many years.  And I’ll tell you why.  Because of the indifference with which the Arab leaders send their people off to die, because of the low estimate in which they hold human life, because of the inability of the Arab people to rebel and say enough.

Do you remember when Khrushchev denounced Stalin’s crimes during the Twentieth Communist Congress?  A voice was raised at the back of the hall, saying, “And where were you, Comrade Khrushchev?”  Khrushchev scrutinized the faces before him, found no one, and said, “Who spoke up?”  No one answered.  “Who spoke up?” Khrushchev exclaimed.  And again no one answered.  Then Khrushchev exclaimed “Comrade, I was where you are now.”  Well, the Arab people are just where Khrushchev was, where the man was who reproached him without having the courage to show his face.

We can only arrive at peace with the Arabs through an evolution on their part that includes democracy.  But wherever I turn by eyes to look, I don’t see a shadow of democracy.  I see only dictatorial regimes.  And a dictator doesn’t have to account to his people for a peace he doesn’t make.  He doesn’t even have to account for the dead.  Who’s ever found out how many Egyptian soldiers died in the last two wars?  Only the mothers, sisters, wives, relatives who didn’t see them come back.Their leaders aren’t even concerned to know where they’re buried, if they’re buried.  While we…

Fallaci: While you?…

Meir: Look at these five volumes.  they contain the photograph and biography of every man and woman solider who died in the war.  For us, every single death is a tragedy.  We don’t like to make war, even when we win.  After the last one, there was no joy in our streets.  No dancing, no songs, no festivities.  And you should have seen our soldiers coming back victorious.  Each one was a picture of sadness.  Not only because they had seen their brothers die, but because they had had to kill their enemies.  Many locked themselves in their rooms and wouldn’t speak.  Or when they opened their mouths, it was to repeat a refrain: “I had to shoot, I killed.”  Just the opposite of the Arabs.  After the war we offered the Egyptians an exchange of prisoners.  Seventy of theirs for ten of ours,  The answered, “but yours are officers, ours are fellahin!  It’s impossible.”  Fellahin, peasants.  I’m afraid…

Fallaci: Will you ever give up Jerusalem, Mrs. Meir?

Meir: No.  Never.  No.  Jerusalem no.  Jerusalem never.  Inadmissible.  Jerusalem is out of the question.  We won’t even agree to discuss Jerusalem.

Fallaci: Would you give up the West Bank of the Jordan?

Meir: On this point there are differences of opinion in Israel.  So it’s possible that we’d be ready to negotiate about the West Bank. Let me make myself clearer.  I believe the majority of Israelis would never ask the Knesset to give up the West Back completely.  However, if we should come to negotiate with Hussein, the majority of Israelis would be ready to hand back part of the West Bank…

Fallaci: And Gaza?  Would you give up Gaza, Mrs. Meir?

Meir: I say that Gaza must, should be part of Israel.  Yes, that’s my opinion.  Our opinion, in fact.  However, to start negotiating, I don’t ask Hussein or Sadat to agree with me on any point…

Fallaci: And the Golan Heights?

Meir: It’s more or less the same idea.  The Syrians would like us to come down from the Golan Heights so that they can shoot down at us as they did before.  Needless to say, we have not intention of doing so, we’ll never come down from the plateau. Nevertheless, we’re ready to negotiate with the Syrians too.

Fallaci: And the Sinai?

Meir: We’ve never said that we wanted the whole Sinai or most of the Sinai.  We don’t want the whole Sinai.  We want control of Sharm El Sheikh and part of the desert, let’s say a strip of the desert, connecting Israel with Sharm El Sheikh.  Is that clear?  Must I repeat it?…

Fallaci: And so it’s obvious you’ll never go back to your old borders.

Meir: Never.  And when I say never, it’s not because we mean to annex new territory.  It’s because we mean to ensure our defense, our survival.  If there’s any possibility of reaching the peace you spoke of in the beginning, this is the only way.  There’d never be peace if the Syrians were to return to the Golan Heights, if the Egyptians were to take back the whole Sinai, if we were to re-establish our 1967 borders with Hussein.  In 1967, the distance to Natanya and the sea was barely ten miles, fifteen kilometers,  If we give Hussein the possibility of covering those fifteen kilometers, Israel risks being cut in two and…They accuse us of being expansionist, but believe me, we’re not interested in expanding.  We’re only interested in new borders.  And look, these Arabs want to go back to the 1967 borders.  If those borders were the right ones, why did they destroy them?

Fallaci: But since the 1967 cease-fire, the war in the Middle East has taken on a new face: the face of terror, of terrorism.  What do you think of this war and the men who are conducting it?  OF Arafat, for instance, of Habash, of the Black September leaders?

Meir: I simply think they’re not men.  I don’t even consider them human beings, and the worst thing you can say of a man is that he’s not a human being.  It’s like saying he’s an animal, isn’t it?  But how can you call what they’re doing “a war”?  Don’t you remember what Habash said when he had a bus full of Israeli children blown up?  “It’s best to kill the Iseaelis while they’re still children.”  Come on, what they’re doing isn’t a war. It’s not even a revolutionary movement because a movement that only wants to kill can’t be called revolutionary.  Look, at the beginning of the century in Russia, in the revolutionary movement that rose up to overthrow the czar, there was one party that considered terror the only means of struggle.  One day a man from this party was sent with a bomb to a street corner where the carriage of one of the czar’s high officials was supposed to pass.  The carriage went by at the expected time, but the official was not alone, he was accompanied by his wife and children.  So what did this true revolutionary do?  He didn’t throw the bomb.  He let it go off in his hand and was blown to pieces.  Look, we too had our terrorist groups during the War of Independence: the Stern, the Irgun.  And I was opposed to them, I was always opposed to them.  But neither of them ever covered itself with such infamy as the Arabs have done with us.  Neither of them ever put bombs in supermarkets or dynamite in school buses.  Neither of them ever provoked tragedies like Munich or Lod airport.

Fallaci: And how can one fight such terrorism, Mrs. Meir?  Do you really think it helps to bomb Lebanese villages?

Meir: …Maybe more than any other Arab country, Lebanon is offering hospitality to the terrorists.  The Japanese who carried out the Lod massacre came from Lebanon,  The girls who tried to hijack the Sabena plane in Tel Aviv had been trained in Lebanon.  Are we supposed to sit here with our hands folded, praying and murmuring, “Let’s hope that nothing happens”?  Praying doesn’t help.  What helps is to counterattack.  With all possible means, including means that we don’t necessarily like.  Certainly we’d rather fight them in the open, but since that’s not possible…

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Topics: Israel | No Comments »

Newspaper Bailout: A Free Press Sells Itself

Posted by: Evrviglnt on Wednesday, December 31st, 2008

I guess we knew it had to come to this.  The reasons behind government crossing the line separating the free market from a subsidized economy are eloquent and self-serving.  We are dismissing every tenet we’ve been taught protects the integrity of capitalism, and we’re doing so with the serpentine logic that subsidizing failure will ensure success.  We are buying the rope we’ll hang ourselves with.

So it’s with no humor that we watch as the media that mocked journalistic ethics this election season turn to the government it work to seat to save it.  It’s a quid pro quo that would send stock traders to jail.  While rumors abound about a bail out for major newspapers like the Times, in Connecticut a state legislator is looking to save two state newspapers that are on the verge of collapse.

That is because publisher Journal Register, in danger of being crushed under hundreds of millions of dollars of debt, says it cannot afford to keep them open anymore.

Frank Nicastro and fellow legislators want the papers to survive, and petitioned the state government to do something about it. “The media is a vitally important part of America,” he said, particularly local papers that cover news ignored by big papers and television and radio stations.

It’s not media that important, Frank.  It’s a free press that is.  But he has his supporters:

Former Miami Herald Editor Tom Fiedler said that a democracy has an obligation to help preserve a free press.

“I truly believe that no democracy can remain healthy without an equally healthy press,” said Fiedler, now dean of Boston University’s College of Communication. “Thus it is in democracy’s interest to support the press in the same sense that the human being doesn’t hesitate to take medicine when his or her health is threatened.”

It’s truly dizzying logic.  It’s like arguing that if we let organized crime subsidize law enforcement, we’ll have more police on the street.  But who can trust them?  We thought the profit motive might keep the media honest to some extent, but they’ve proven to be motivated more by ideology than professionalism, and the business be damned.  But the golden goose has been gutted of credibility, and no one is buying anymore.  It says a lot that the creativity they might have used to make themselves worth paying for, they use instead to find another way into our wallets.

No democracy can survive without an independent and curious media.  Because we’ve lacked one for a long time, our nation is in real danger.  We find ourselves today with a president elect who has no business being this close to the most powerful position on earth, with a government undermining our economic system and endangering our freedoms, and a judicial system that in many ways prioritizes the rights of the aggressors over their victims.  It’s no wonder so many Americans have lost faith.

What will it cost us to regain that faith?

More: Michelle Malkin: Fishwrap has its privileges…

More: Fausta’s Blog: No more bailouts.

More: Hot Air: Their rationalizations make clear that the lawmakers have no concept of media, democracy, or common sense.

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Topics: Journalism | 4 Comments »

Obama’s First 100 Days: Paying Back The Unions With ‘Card Check’

Posted by: Evrviglnt on Wednesday, December 31st, 2008

With the incoming administration of Barack Obama will come a hard turn to the political left in the areas of labor, environment, law and judiciary appointments.  President-elect Obama’s choice of hyper-partisan Hilda Solis as Labor Secretary is an unmistakable sign that labor unions will wield increasing power in the administration.  In the symbiotic relationship between the Democratic Party and America’s labor unions, One of their first goals will be to increase their revenue base.  They’ll do this by increasing union membership, which brings us to the Orwellian “Free Choice Act.”  It’s a concoction created to allow greater influence by union organizers who believe that the current law is unduly restrictive because it mandates a election by employees using private ballots.  The unions want the vote by employees about whether to unionize to be made in public, by signing cards in front of union organizers.  What does that have to do with free choice?  Nothing really, and actually it might endanger the principle, making it unconstitutional.  Unions have a long history of intimidation and corruption (The Teamsters Union is currently trying to get Obama to release them from federal oversight, and he has already said he supports the idea).  Forcing employees to make their vote public is no different than forcing Americans to make their national election votes public.  Can you imagine having to declare publicly you voted for John McCain while standing outside of a voting booth in Manhattan?  Consider the attacks on those who donated to the California proposition 8  campaign.  Their names were released to the public and their addresses, phone numbers and employer information were used by activists to harass and intimidate them.  The left has no qualms about making politics personal.

If this were really about free choice, the unions would abide by the wishes of the union members themselves.  Poll after poll reveals that Americans both unionized or not are against card check, and that’s why you’ll never hear of the unions running propositions instituting card check state by state.  They’d rather try to force it through congress.  In 2007 it passed the house by 56 votes but failed in the senate.  After the successful 2008 election, the unions are calling in their chits.  Barack Obama announced his support during the election, and union leaders intend to make him consummate the deal.

So what are the implications of increased unionization?  In the Washington Times this morning Gary Shapiro offers his educated opinion:

Card check would dramatically change U.S. labor laws, overturn a half-century of balance in labor-management relations and strip workers of core protections. By depriving workers of a secret ballot vote in union elections, this legislation would allow for coercion of workers who don’t want to unionize and could force millions of Americans to join unions against their will.

Democratic members of Congress struggle in how to say card check is good for the nation, for productivity or for creating jobs. Yet they are eager to pass this legislation to pay back unions for their support. One prominent union leader said publicly he would gladly use union opposition to pending free trade agreements as a political bargaining chip to get card check passed quickly.

In an economy in recession, how wise it is to burden business right now?

Unions once shouldered a burden of protecting worker safety, but these protections are now law and unions and their supporters ignore that we are competing on a world stage. More, they are using their political force to block free trade agreements with countries that can add to American jobs by removing tariffs on our exports. Unions are making our companies less competitive.

Today, our nation is a world leader in technology and all the content creation it allows. From our semiconductor companies to our computers, from Hollywood to music, from games to Internet services, the United States remains the world’s innovator. Our strategy should be to allow these companies to prosper and export - not to burden exports with tariffs, tax their output at the second highest rates in the world, or restrict their flexibility with union rules.

A fast-moving, successful tech company with differential compensation and incentive compensation and the need to adapt quickly is inconsistent with the straitjacket of a union environment. The tech industry executives I represent simply can’t believe Congress would enact a card check law that could force jobs overseas.

We’ll find out soon enough what President Obama’s priorities are - America’s workers, or America’s unions.

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Topics: Union Politics | 2 Comments »

Paris Hilton: You Go Shopping Girl!

Posted by: Uncle Seth The Noble on Wednesday, December 31st, 2008

For the record, I am not the biggest Paris Hilton fan.  In fact, as someone who has commanded so much media attention, the damage that she has done to young ladies all across globe is immeasurable, and for that, we should remain skeptical whenever her narrow backside is plastered on our television screens. With that said however, Breitbart ran the story of her being criticized for going on a $3,800 shopping spree in Australia…

American socialite Paris Hilton has declared herself a saviour who shops for the greater good in tight economic times.In Sydney to host an exclusive New Year’s dance party, the 27-year-old heir to the Hilton hotel fortune this week drew criticism for spending 5,560 Australian dollars (3,844 US dollars) in a 40-minute shopping spree.

Local charities accused her of callous excess but Hilton Wednesday defended the splurge.

“I’m in Australia, I think it’s important to help out, you know, the economy out here, everywhere in the world,” she told reporters, ahead of her New Year engagement.

“And what’s wrong with doing a little shopping? It’s New Year’s, I need a New Year’s dress.”

In these tough economic times, we need more people like Paris shopping. It’s time that many of us get off our envy high horse and realize that businesses and jobs are supported by consumers who are buying their products. Unless these charities want more people suckling off their teat (which sometimes may be the case), they will soon realize that as consumers become more hesitant with their dollars, so too will their charitable donations.

Shane adds: With prosperity comes increased charitable giving - that is the reason America is such a generous country.   If we were smarter, we’d be sending Paris to every weakened economy and letting her loose!

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Topics: Economics, Hollywood | No Comments »

Concealed: Murder Rate In Black Community Skyrockets

Posted by: Uncle Seth The Noble on Tuesday, December 30th, 2008

Reuters has the details…

Murders involving young black males — as victims and killers — have soared in the past few years, bucking national trends and underscoring the need for more spending on at-risk youth programs, according to a U.S. study released this week.

The study by researchers at Northeastern University in Boston said national statistics showing total homicide rates stabilizing concealed the worsening situation among black U.S. males.

“While overall homicide levels in the United States have fluctuated minimally in recent years, those involving young victims and perpetrators — particularly young black males — have surged,” the study said.