Tuesday, March 31, 2015

How Long Can South -African/ African- American Noah Tread Water?

PowerLine Blog  "The Daily Show has announced little known South African comic Trevor Noah as Jon Stewart’s replacement, and going with an unknown talent is an understandable move for such an iconic show. (Some initial media reports predictably referred to this South African as “African-American” because they’re afraid to say “black,” because PC.)


"But speaking of PC and compromised comics, the furor that has erupted over some of Noah’s old un-PC tweets reminds me of that old Bill Cosby punch line: “Noah—How long can you tread water?” Because it looks as though Trevor Noah may come undone for making jokes about un-petite women and Jews. Dave Weigel notes over at Bloomberg that Noah has gone from Progressive hero to villain in 24 hours." One of several Noah tweets here:

 Noah 3 copy
...Rush Limbaugh/31/liberal_hate_tweets_obama_regime_economist_and_new_daily_show_host
 "But the new Daily Show host said that present day America has worse race relations than apartheid South Africa."
 
. . . "Hands up, don't shoot," and he said, "I never thought I'd be more afraid of police in America than in South Africa. It kind of makes me a little nostalgic for the old days back home." So why move here? If you're more afraid of the cops in the United States than you were during Apartheid in South Africa, why move here? Why move to such a violently racist country? What was he thinking? Anyway, the audience of The Daily Show loved it. They ate it up. So all of this lying bigotry and discrimination and hatred is perfectly fine wherever it occurs on the left.

"They have to make things up about conservatives and white police officers! They have to make things up and then perpetuate the lies that they tell. This Religious Freedom Restoration Act, think of it as it's a shield. It's protection is right there is in the name of the law. It's not a gun; it's not a weapon. It's not a sword, as people say. It's a shield. It protects people. And, boy, has it been distorted way out of the ballpark." . . .

Commentary relating to the Kerry/Obama - Iran deal

The White House insisted Friday that Barack Obama's Mideast strategy is working. Right now the U.S. government Mideast policy is backing the Iranians against Sunnis in Iraq while backing the Sunnis against the Iranians in Yemen. Laurel and Hardy looked better pushing a piano up the staircase.

Saudi Arabia demanded nuclear weapons Friday when the U.S. conceded a nuclear lab bunker to Iran and released photos of Israel's nuclear bomb facility. You know this won't end well. It's like overhearing the flight attendant saying over the PA system that she can't get the captain to stop crying. Comedian Argus Hamilton
 DEBKAfile: Nuclear talks reach dead end. Partial document to be released  "Officials close to the nuclear talks in Lausanne between the six power and Iran confirm that this round has come to a dead end, having failed to reach agreement on fundamental questions by the March 31 deadline.. DEBKAfile has reported consistently that supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s radical clergy and Revolutionary Guards had set their faces firmly against this deal, preferring to leave a diplomatic void for Tehran to continue to develop a nuclear weapon, without US interference. Sources in Lausanne report that the diplomats gathered there are working on a joint partial communiqué to mask the fiasco and justify the continuation of negotiations up until the next deadline in late June."

. . . " Wynes refused to answer my questions about why the RJC is hosting Fiorina, who traded with Iran in violation of the U.S. trade embargo and sanctions. Wynes also refused to answer my questions regarding why the RJC is hosting a woman who praised and palled around with Jesse “Hymietown” Jackson, who has a history of Jew-hatred and anti-White racism. “I’m not gonna answer that,” he responded. " . . .  Debbie Schlussel

Jewish leaders call on Fiorina to apologize for HP sales in Iran [VIDEO]  "A small group of Jewish leaders is calling for Republican Senate candidate Carly Fiorina, a former Hewlett-Packard CEO, to apologize for the company’s alleged sale of printers and other products to Iran through a distributor during her six-year tenure.
 . . .
"Fiorina’s campaign, however, says the allegations are not true." . . Full article in the Jewish Journal
 Political Cartoons by Glenn McCoy
The Iran nuke deal and the greenies  "Politics isn’t the only thing that stops at the water's edge.  It looks like the administration's climate change agenda and war on oil are for domestic consumption only."
 Hold it.  Didn’t President Obama just veto the Keystone pipeline project because of the evils of oil?  And now he’s the driving force behind the lifting of sanctions on Iran, which in turn will  open of the oil well valves?


The Germanwings co-pilot did incalculable damage.

"It is far easier for an individual to do great evil than to do great good"


Political Cartoons by Dana Summers

Dennis Prager   . . . "Yet every one of us knows one or two depressed individuals, and it is inconceivable that they would commit mass murder. As a number of Lincoln biographers have noted, most recently Richard Brookhiser, the great president was probably depressed all his life. And he was a moral giant." . . .

The nuclear deadline is upon us...well... maybe not

Political Cartoons by Bob Gorrell 

 WaPo/ABC poll: 59% support Iran deal, same percentage not confident it will prevent Iran nuke    "Maybe Barack Obama really does represent the American people best … or perhaps he’s left the electorate as confused as his administration."
. . .
 "Why make this deal at all? Michael Ramirez makes the point clearly in his editorial cartoon for Investors Business Daily:"
ramirez-iran-deal

The French fear Obama’s destabilizing shift toward Iran over Saudis, Israelis
. . . "Fearing correctly that they had lost the faith of the American president, Israeli officials turned to France in mid-March in the effort to ensure that at least one Western nation had Jerusalem’s interests in mind while negotiating a nuclear deal with Iran." . . . 

The UK Guardian cited above reports: Israeli officials head to France in last-minute bid to block nuclear deal  . . . "France has been more hawkish than the US at the negotiating table, reportedly demanding more stringent restrictions than other western delegations."

 Obama wants to turn America against Israel  . . . " When questions first arose regarding his controversial relationship with the anti-American, anti-white, and anti-Semitic Jeremiah Wright (whom he called his “moral compass” and “political mentor”), the media were eager to dismiss allegations that he shared -- or even heard Wright express -- such beliefs."
. . . 
"The New York Times quoted Wright as predicting that if more people knew about his closeness to Barack Obama and his own views, "a lot of his Jewish support will dry up quicker than a snowball in hell.' " 
Political Cartoons by Nate Beeler

The New Intolerance; Indiana isn’t targeting gays. Liberals are targeting religion.



Wall Street Journal  Entire article reprinted below:

Begin quote:

"In the increasingly bitter battle between religious liberty and the liberal political agenda, religion is losing. Witness the media and political wrath raining down upon Indiana because the state dared to pass an allegedly anti-gay Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The question fair-minded Americans should ask before casting the first stone is who is really being intolerant.

"The Indiana law is a version of the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) that passed 97-3 in the Senate and that Bill Clinton signed in 1993. Both the federal and Indiana laws require courts to administer a balancing test when reviewing cases that implicate the free exercise of religion.

 To wit: Individuals must show that their religious liberty has been “substantially burdened,” and the government must demonstrate its actions represent the least restrictive means to achieve a “compelling” state interest. Indiana’s law adds a provision that offers a potential religious defense in private disputes, but then four federal appellate circuits have also interpreted the federal statute to apply to private disputes. 



The federal RFRA followed the Supreme Court’s Employment Division v. Smith ruling in 1990 that abandoned its 30-year precedent of reviewing religious liberty cases under strict scrutiny. Congress responded with RFRA, which merely reasserted longstanding First Amendment protections.

In 1997 the Supreme Court limited RFRA’s scope to federal actions. So 19 states including such cultural backwaters as Connecticut, Rhode Island and Illinois followed with copy-cat legislation, and Indiana is the 20th. Courts in 11 states have extended equally vigorous protections. 

 Indiana was an outlier before the new law because neither its laws nor courts unambiguously protected religious liberty. Amish horse-drawn buggies could be required to abide by local traffic regulations. Churches could be prohibited from feeding the homeless under local sanitation codes. The state Attorney General even ruled Indiana Wesleyan University, a Christian college which hires on the basis of religion, ineligible for state workforce training grants.

 In February, 16 prominent First Amendment scholars, some of whom support same-sex marriage, backed Indiana’s legislation. “General protection for religious liberty is important precisely because it is impossible to legislate in advance for all the ways in which government might burden the free exercise of religion,” they explained.

 That hasn’t stopped the cultural great and good from claiming Indiana added the religious defense in private disputes as a way to target gays. If this is Indiana’s purpose, and there’s no evidence it is, this is unlikely to work.
The claim is that this would empower, say, florists or wedding photographers to refuse to work a gay wedding on religious grounds. But under the RFRA test, such a commercial vendor would still have to prove that his religious convictions were substantially burdened.

And he would also come up against the reality that most courts have found that the government has a compelling interest in enforcing antidiscrimination laws. In all these states for two decades, no court we’re aware of has granted such a religious accommodation to an antidiscrimination law. Restaurants and hotels that refused to host gay marriage parties would have a particularly high burden in overcoming public accommodation laws. 

In any event, such disputes are rare to nonexistent, a tribute to the increasing tolerance of American society toward gays, lesbians, the transgendered, you name it.

The paradox is that even as America has become more tolerant of gays, many activists and liberals have become ever-more intolerant of anyone who might hold more traditional cultural or religious views. Thus a CEO was run out of Mozilla after it turned out that he had donated money to a California referendum opposing same-sex marriage.

Part of the new liberal intolerance is rooted in the identity politics that dominates today’s Democratic Party. That’s the only way to explain the born-again opportunism of Hillary Clinton, who tweeted: “Sad this new Indiana law can happen in America today. We shouldn’t discriminate against ppl bc of who they love.” 

 By that standard, Mrs. Clinton discriminated against gays because she opposed gay marriage until March 2013. But now she wants to be seen as leading the new culture war against the intolerant right whose views she recently held.

The same reversal of tolerance applies to religious liberty. When RFRA passed in 1993, liberal outfits like the ACLU were joined at the hip with the Christian Coalition. But now the ACLU is denouncing Indiana’s law because it wants even the most devoutly held religious values to bow to its cultural agenda on gay marriage and abortion rights.

Liberals used to understand that RFRA, with its balancing test, was a good-faith effort to help society compromise on contentious moral disputes. That liberals are renouncing it 20 years after celebrating it says more about their new intolerance than about anyone in Indiana.
End quote.  

Indiana really needs to calm down.

 It can't be too bad because Al Sharpton doesn't like it " In the opening segment of MSNBC’s “PoliticsNation,” host and notorious tax-evader Al Sharpton compared the newly-enacted Indiana Religious Freedom Restoration Act to Jim Crow and slavery. “This is a key moment for the country,” he said." . . .

"I’m Only Going to Do Business in States That Support the First Amendment From Now On"



"This protest movement against Indiana’s Religious-Freedom Restoration Act has gotten completely out of hand. The outrage is based on lies, misinformation, and propaganda about things that are not even in the law.

"Apple CEO Tim Cook wrote in a Washington Post editorial that the new law says “individuals can cite their personal religious beliefs to refuse service to a customer or resist a state nondiscrimination law.” That’s a complete fabrication and the Washington Post allowed him to get away with it.

"You will not find one word in the law that allows someone to refuse service to a customer. All it says is that the government must show a compelling interest if it’s going to force people to violate their religious beliefs and if people believe the government has done so, they are allowed to raise religious liberty as a defense in a court case. That’s all. Not one word about gay lunch counters and no separate drinking fountains, despite the hyperbole comparing the RFRA to Jim Crow laws." . . .
 Political Cartoons by Steve Kelley
NRO: In Defense of Indiana "The anti-RFRA backlash is a perfect storm of hysteria and legal ignorance. Indiana is experiencing its two minutes of hate.
. . .
"All the Indiana law says is that the state can’t substantially burden a person’s exercise of religion, unless there is a compelling governmental interest at stake and it is pursued by the least restrictive means. The law doesn’t mandate any particular outcome; it simply provides a test for the courts in those rare instances when a person’s exercise of religion clashes with a law."   Rich Lowry

Monday, March 30, 2015

The Rules of Racialists — Part One

Victor Davis Hanson

On a Wednesday, March 18, 2015 photo, a barista at a Seattle Starbucks store writes on a cup for an iced drink as she wears a “Race Together” sticker. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)
On a Wednesday, March 18, 2015 photo, a barista at a Seattle 
Starbucks store writes on a cup for an iced drink as she 
wears a “Race Together” sticker.


. . . "We live in such a strange world. Our government compiles exhaustive statistics on race and crime, but to cite them can be racist. Authors write, properly so, according to canons of racial propriety and careful consideration, and then newspapers print scary racist commentary that follows without worry over its repercussions. Elites of all races navigate around race and class in matters of choosing homes, schools, and entertainment, and then lecture others on their illiberal Neanderthalism for trying to poorly emulate, according to their reduced stations, the patterns of picking a home, school, or golf course embraced by a Barack Obama or Eric Holder — or Rev. Wright.

"For now we need to review the rules that racialists use and to navigate carefully around them. The stakes are quite high." . . .
. . .
"We live in a surreal age in which the two most powerful men in the United States — President Barack Obama and Attorney General Holder — can both periodically accuse others of racism and therefore themselves dip into it (“typical white person,” “cling to their…,” “punish our enemies, “nation of cowards,” “my people,” etc.).

"The president warns of stereotyping on the basis of race all the time, and therefore was free to stereotype the working class of Pennsylvania, his own grandmother, the Cambridge police, and Darren Wilson. And when we descend to Al Sharpton, tragedy becomes farce. Is there one group that Sharpton has not slurred — homosexuals, Jews, whites? And how exactly did such a lurid history of racist disparagement and petty crime earn him exemption from the IRS for chronic tax avoidance, or over 70 visits to the White House to counsel the administration on matters racial?"

 starbucks_race_together_3-22-15-1

The clash of “religious freedom” and civil rights in Indiana

Volokh Conspiracy    "Supporters of the new Indiana Religious Freedom Restoration Act argue that it is substantially modeled on the 20-year-old federal RFRA and on the many other state mini-RFRAs that have not been used to erode civil rights. Moreover, they note that the new Indiana law does not even mention, much less target, the group (LGBT people) most vulnerable to discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations.  Therefore, they argue, there is nothing for anyone to fear from the new law.

"The newly proposed RFRAs being considered in a number of states do in fact differ textually from the older RFRAs in ways that somewhat expand their application and that resolve disputed interpretations of the original federal RFRA in favor of more expansive readings (e.g., on the question whether RFRA can be used as a defense in private litigation).  The Indiana law does both of these, although its core provisions establishing the strict scrutiny test for substantial burdens on the exercise of religion are the same as the federal law’s." . . .

Dale Carpenter is the Distinguished University Teaching Professor and Earl R. Larson Professor of Civil Rights & Civil Liberties Law at the University of Minnesota Law School. He teaches and writes in the areas of constitutional law; the freedoms of speech, association, and religion; and sexual orientation and the law

 What will the Indiana religious freedom law really do?

The Incredible Moment Stray Dogs Paid Their Respects At The Funeral Of The Woman Who Fed Them

Buzzfeed
 

"It’s very painful to tell you that my mother has passed away. Thanks to everyone who prayed for her health. I’ll share photos of the saddest day of my life, only because something marvelous happened that I want to share. My mother was an animal lover – she couldn’t come across any without giving them a little bit of food.

"Upon arrival at her wake, out of nowhere a group of dogs came into the salon and stayed there all night as if on guard. This morning they left and couldn’t be found anywhere, but one hour before we brought my mom out the dogs came back and grouped around as if to say goodbye. 
"I swear by God that it was beautiful, marvelous."

Photos from Patricia Urrutia's post

Indiana and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act

 

NRO: Liberals against Religious Liberty in Indiana "Indiana has adopted a state-level version of the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), thereby imposing a “strict scrutiny” legal standard when the state government or local powers pass laws that interfere with the free exercise of religion. For this, Governor Mike Pence and Indiana’s legislators have been denounced as gay-hating monsters, a claim that was never made about President Bill Clinton, who signed the federal RFRA, or about the people and powers of such liberal states as Connecticut, which is one of the 20 states with a RFRA. Another dozen or so states have constitutional provisions similar to those in RFRA." . . .

NRO: On “discrimination,” Jim Crow, etc.  . . . "To allege that RFRA incites rampant discrimination on the level of Jim Crow–era segregation ignores a fundamental distinction: Jim Crow segregation was state-sponsored discrimination. Regardless of what opinion a shopkeeper or a business owner had toward racial minorities, the law required him to discriminate. To give relief to a particular wedding vendor who feels uncomfortable servicing a gay wedding isn’t in any way comparable to state-sponsored discrimination." . . .

If you read only one of these articles, make it be this one:
NRO: A calm look at Indiana’s new Religious Freedom Restoration Act and its precedents.  . . . "This opinion generated an immediate backlash: How could a person be punished for exercising his sincerely held religious beliefs? In 1993, then-Representative Charles Schumer of New York introduced the Religious Freedom Restoration Act in the House of Representatives. Its counterpart bill in the Senate was co-sponsored by Senator Edward Kennedy. The bill enjoyed such wide-ranging bipartisan support that it passed the House on a voice vote, passed the Senate by a vote of 97 to 3, and was promptly signed into law by President Clinton. (Imagine such a significant law passing today with this kind of vote!)" . . .
The law states that the federal “Government shall not substantially burden a person’s exercise of religion” unless it “is in furtherance of a compelling governmental interest” and “is the least restrictive means of furthering that compelling governmental interest.” At a minimum, RFRA attempted to reverse the Court’s construction of the Free Exercise clause in the Smith case.


Close to crunch time; how are the Iran nuclear talks going?

 Political Cartoons by Gary Varvel

Yeshiva World News  "Negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program entered a critical phase on Monday with differences still remaining less than two days before a deadline for the outline of an agreement. With the March 31 target fast approaching, the top diplomats from the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, Germany and Iran were meeting to try . . ."

NRO: Iran’s Breakout Capacity . . . "The success of any accord, however, hinges on what “breakout” means and whether a year is enough time to detect and stop an Iranian drive to the bomb. A closer look at both questions suggests that a year is not nearly as long as it might sound." . . .

ObamaCaroline Glick: Managing Obama’s war against Israel
 . . . "As Max Boot explained Wednesday in The Wall Street Journal, the administration’s animosity toward Israel is a function of Obama’s twin strategic aims, both evident since he entered office: realigning US policy in the Middle East toward Iran and away from its traditional allies Israel and the Sunni Arab states, and ending the US’s strategic alliance with Israel." . . .
"Obama has thrown caution to the winds in a last-ditch effort to convince Iranian dictator Ali Khamenei to sign a deal with him. Last month the administration published a top secret report on Israel’s nuclear installations. Last week, Obama’s director of national intelligence James Clapper published an annual terrorism threat assessment that failed to mention either Iran or Hezbollah as threats."
 Michael Ramirez Cartoon
Is Iran building nukes in North Korea? . . . " Now comes word that North Korea may be harboring an Iranian nuclear bomb facility.  If true, it would make any deal with Iran an exercise in futility – which is probably why the White House isn't saying anything about it." . . .

Lt. Gen. Flynn – “Incredible Policy Confusion” While There Is A Complete Breakdown of Order in the Mid-East  . . . " The key is the verification system and CIA Director John Brennan has assured Americans that we would know what Iran is doing with their nuclear program. When asked about Brennan’s statement, Flynn responded with a question, how can we know what Iran is doing, we didn’t even know that one of our closest allies, the Saudis, were going in to bomb Yemen?' ” . . .

Obama Creates Chaos and Calls it 'Peace'  'President Obama has surrendered to Iran’s fanatical thirst for nukes, and now all of Iran’s Muslim enemies are going to war, because they understand the mullahs a lot better than Obama does." . . .
. . . "But our guy Obama has made everything worse, by siding with the two most extreme and murderous forces in the region, the mullahs of Iran on the Shi’ite side, and the Muslim Brotherhood on the Sunni side."

Bye-Bye Harry Reid

. . . " For nearly a decade Judicial Watch has investigated and exposed Reid’s involvement in a multitude of transgressions and JW even warned the Senate Ethics Committee, but not surprisingly, no action was ever taken. On multiple occasions the Senate minority leader appeared on JW’s “Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians” list for his role in a number of political scandals that got more serious as his seniority and clout in Congress increased."

Political Cartoons by Gary Varvel

Harry Reid, partisan brawler, gets pattycake treatment from the press . . . “Faced with Republican obstruction over Obama judiciary nominees, Harry Reid blew up the filibuster. Faced with Republican obstruction against ObamaCare, Harry Reid used the reconciliation process — a budgeting process — to pass ObamaCare. On the campaign trail, Harry Reid made stuff up, using his vantage point as Majority Leader to get media credibility. Who remembers his nonsense about Mitt Romney’s taxes?” (Reid falsely claimed he had information that Romney hadn’t paid any taxes for years.)" . . .


Political Cartoons by Jerry Holbert 

Legal Insurrection  "There have been few people as destructive to our political process and discourse as Harry Reid. His pugnacious antics have been a feature here since the inception of this blog.
"Finally, he’s retiring."
 Krauthammer: Harry Reid ‘A Disgrace’ To The Senate [VIDEO]  “ 'He failed as a partisan because nine Senators of his party lost reelection, but he succeeded in protecting the president from having to exercise the veto,” Krauthammer added. “And in order to achieve that, he killed his own institution.' ”

Claim: White House adviser Valerie Jarrett once said she seeks "to help change America to be a more Islamic country."



"The level of influence Jarrett holds with the Obama administration has prompted many detractors to complain she wields too much control over the President and decisions about who should have access to him, and one expression that detraction commonly takes is the assertion Jarrett is a foreign-born Islamic "mole" who is pushing for (or furthering) a Muslim agenda through the executive branch. The quote cited above is a typical example, holding that while Jarrett was an undergraduate psychology student at Stanford University in 1977, she proclaimed herself to be an Iranian who sought "to help change America to be a more Islamic country" and she felt "like it is going well in the transition of using freedom of religion in America against itself.' "
 . . .
"Valerie was born in Shiraz during the Bowmans' sojourn in Iran; she returned to the U.S. with her parents in 1962 (when she was five years old). . . We've found no evidence Valerie Jarrett is (or ever was) Muslim, her only apparent connection to that religion being the incidental one that she temporarily lived in a predominantly Muslim country with her American parents for the first few years of her life."

With that being said. . .

Valerie Jarrett was offered a role as a White House Senior Advisor at the very beginning of the Obama administration in January 2009 and now holds the position of Senior Advisor to the President of the United States. President Obama has said he consults Jarrett on every major decision, and the New Republic's Noam Scheiber reported thus of her influence with the White House:  Read more

Sunday, March 29, 2015

What have those fifty million voters in 2008 and 2012 inflicted America with?

Obama's One Fine Mess of Potage
 "In the Bible, Esau sold his birthright for a mess of potage -- some red lentil soup, to be exact. Looking at the week’s events, it seems that this country has sold its glorious birthright of constitutional government by honest men and women for a mess of potage -- a false promise of hope and change delivered by a glib huckster and his shady friends. The deceit and lawlessness of Obama and those around him and the consequences have never been clearer than they were this week." . . .
 Nothing shows better the unprincipled nature of the administration and the acquiescence of the media than the stories of Bowe Bergdahl, who this week was charged with desertion and misbehavior before the enemy, and Hillary Clinton’s destruction of her email server’s records. Both Obama and Clinton operate on the not unreasonable assumption that voters have memories no longer than a nanosecond and the complaisant press will be all too ready to help bury history.    More.
Max Boot: A White House That Can’t Admit a Mistake  "It is a danger in all White Houses: the longer an administration stays in office, the more detached it becomes from reality. The Obama administration is now exhibiting advanced signs of this political malady."
 But sticking with a story (stories!) that doesn’t pass the laugh test does critical damage to an administration’s credibility.  Full article.
 : The Conversation About Iran Obama Wants
"Even at the 11th hour, as we may be days away from the signing of a bad deal with Iran, it is not too late for the U.S. to step back from the brink of folly. A demonstration of strength and principle on Obama’s part, however unlikely it may seem today, would be a devastating blow to Iran and perhaps actually compel them to start making concessions that might enable the president to keep his campaign promises about the nuclear threat."


 Roger L Simon:  Obama the Crazy Pilot 
"Obama and his minions are huddled wherever they’re huddled, busy destroying the Western World with their bizarre policies and eagerness to make a deal with Iran that is so desperate it makes the word pathetic seem pathetic. The results of this desperation have been wretched, a fascistic new Persian Empire emerging from Libya to Yemen . . ."

Pro-Hassan Rouhani Iranian editor defects while covering nuclear talks in Lausanne
 . . . “The US negotiating team are mainly there to speak on Iran’s behalf with other members of the 5+1 countries and convince them of a deal,” he said.?"

Black Quill & Ink on the climate change debate

"The issue of global warming is one of several issues which currently divides America and yet it is one that can be so easily resolved.

"Clearly there are two camps regarding the issue of global warming. There are the enthusiasts who see the planet literally melting away and there are the deniers who see a global attempt to redistribute wealth from western democracies in the name of global warming

"There are at least two venerable and public supporters of these two positions; Al Gore, former Vice President of the United States who supports addressing global warming and an opponent of man made global warming, Chris Horner, a senior fellow at the climate contrarian Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI). These two outspoken men are informed and passionate for their respective position and thus, out of respect for all Americans and in an effort to put this issue aside,they should have a widely publicized national debate."  . . .
 Climate change deniers should be punished, Al Gore has said, adding that politicians in particular should be made to pay a price for rejecting “accepted science”. He stopped short of suggesting what that punishment might be.

 The tip of the climate spending iceberg
 

"Getting a hand on Climate Crisis, Inc.’s fear and money machine is not easy – and few people understand just how enormous, interlocking and self-perpetuating it is. My article this week presents an overview that will hopefully begin opening people’s eyes. It summarizes the six strategies the alarmist industry is using to advance its agenda and protect its access to tens of billions in taxpayer and consumer dollars: climate research, renewable energy research and implementation, regulatory fiats, a new UN climate treaty, vicious attacks on anyone who contests climate chaos claims, and thought control in every venue of possible debate." . . .

Former Navy SEAL To General: Disobey Obama If Necessary And Have Bergdahl Trial (Video)

The Gateway Pundit


" Carl Higbie, former U.S. Navy SEAL and author of “Battle on the Home Front,” joined Steve Malzberg to discuss his take on the Bowe Bergdahl fallout as well as the latest from the battle against ISIS.

"Higbie told Steve there are safeguards in place to assure that if you have a gripe against your commanders in the field that the Army is required to investigate the charges. So, the White House argument that Bergdahl left base to search for another unit to complain to is ridiculous.
"Higbie added this on the Bowe Bergdahl investigation:

“I call on the general, right now, who is ever overseeing this to make sure this goes to trial no matter what. And if you have to disobey a direct order from the president, do it.”

Alan Caruba: But What Does the Supreme Leader Say?

"What Americans have a hard time understanding is that, for all the Iranian negotiators, the outcome of the nuclear arms deal that the United States is leading all comes down to just one man, Sayyed Ali-Khamenei, otherwise known as the Supreme Leader of Iran.

"In the 21st century, it is hard to comprehend that a nation could be ruled by a man whose powers supersede that nation’s president, its civil government, its judiciary and its military. Iran has had only one other Supreme Leader since its founding in 1979, Ruhollah Khomeini who held the position until his death in 1989. The 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran overthrew the Shah in order to secure greater freedom, but the Iranians ended up more servile than before." . . . 

 Jeanine Pirro: America Needs To Stop Sleeping With the Enemy ((Video)
 "On Saturday night’s Justice,  Judge Jeanine used the phrase “sleeping with the enemy” to describe the creepy, cozy relationship between Obama Regime and the Iranian Regime.

“ 'More American blood has been spilled by Iran and the terrorism it sponsors in the Middle East than by any other country,” Pirro stated. “Iran says its within its rights to enrich uranium. That’s like saying a proven mass murderer living next door to a daycare center has the right to buy as many AK-47s as he wants. Mr. President, America needs to stop sleeping with the enemy, dancing with the devil, and writing love letters to those who want to kill us.' ” . . .

SEE ALSO:
The Weekly Standard: Iranian Defector: ‘U.S. Negotiating Team Mainly There to Speak on Iran’s Behalf’:

Saturday, March 28, 2015

NBC: Allies Fear U.S. Leaking info to Iran

Legal Insurrection   “Saudi Arabia and other countries simply don’t trust the United States any more.” From...from...MSNBC?

"As if things in the Middle East couldn’t get any worse, we’re now at a point where our allies don’t trust us. It’s becoming quite clear that the only person who thinks Obama’s pursuit of a deal with Iran is a good idea, is Obama.

"Daniel Bassali of the Washington Free Beacon:

Richard Engel: Military Officials Say Allies No Longer Trust Us, Fear Intel Might Leak to Iran

NBC’s Richard Engel reported Friday that U.S. officials were stunned they were not given any notice before Saudi Arabia launched attacks against Houthi rebels. According to Engel, military leaders were finding out about the developments on the Yemen border in real time.

Engel said officials from both the military and members of Congress believe they were not given advanced warning because the Arab nations do not trust the Obama administration after they befriended Iran.

“Saudi Arabia and other countries simply don’t trust the United States any more, don’t trust this administration, think the administration is working to befriend Iran to try to make a deal in Switzerland, and therefore didn’t feel the intelligence frankly would be secure. And I think that’s a situation that is quite troubling for U.S. foreign policy,” Engel said.
. . .

Why the chaos in Yemen could force Obama to take a harder line with Iran

Michael Ramirez Cartoon


. . . "As chaos and sectarian bloodshed have spread, the White House is facing heavy pressure from its traditional Sunni Arab allies, Congress and some in the U.S. military to confront Iran more forcefully over its support for militant groups.

"Such a pivot carries big risks for the White House, which doesn’t want to be drawn into a worsening conflict between Sunnis and Shiites that its policies didn’t start and that it cannot stop. “We’ve always had concerns about Iran’s destabilizing behavior and abetting some of the worst actors in the region,” said a senior administration official who was authorized to speak on the issue, but not be quoted by name. “We also have a realization of the precise limitations of how much we can impact that behavior.”

"In recent days Saudi planes and Egyptian warships have launched attacks against Iranian-backed, Shiite rebels in Yemen. The United States has supported the Saudi attacks with intelligence and logistical help." . . .

 If so, then good for the President, sincerely.


 

Lena Dunham’s “Quiz” is Same Jew-Hatred My Relatives Faced in Nazi Europe; Roseanne Barr Supports Anti-Semitism

Debbie Schlussel   "Actress/director Lena Dunham’s anti-Semitic “Dog or Jewish Boyfriend?” “quiz” in the New Yorker, is eerily similar to the Jew-hatred faced by my relatives both in Nazi Europe and right here in Michigan, where I live. That’s not to mention the Jew-hatred today in the Islamic world. And I find it notable that Roseanne Barr, whom so many people insisted to me has changed from her self-hating slant against Israel and Jews, applauded Lena Dunham’s Nazi-esque Jew-hatred."

Actress Lena Dunham is no stranger to controversy, and she's in hot water again. This time it's because she compares her Jewish boyfriend to a dog in the latest issue of the New Yorker.
"The playful, satirical quiz, presents 35 statements and asks the reader to decide if they refer to a dog or to her Jewish boyfriend. Dunham, the creator of HBO's hit show Girls, has said she is half-Jewish herself. She dates musician Jack Antonoff." . . .

Why this strikes a nerve with Israelis " Israeli tourists who visited Petra, Jordan, were taken aback to see a number of stores have posted signs “Sorry, we do not receive dogs and Israelis”. Apparently the posting of the signs followed Operation Cast Lead.

"Members of the tour group reported they were treated with hostility, with the locals making their ill feelings well-known to them."

Ever wonder about Mesquite? The tree and the town?

The Ubiquitous Mesquite 
“I could ask for no better monument over my grave than a good mesquite tree, its roots down deep like those of people who belong to the soil, its hardy branches, leaves and fruit holding memories of the soil. . . .”
— J. Frank Dobie, Texas writer
[Mesquite is] “the devil with roots. It scabs my cows, spooks my horses, and gives little shade.”
— W.T. Waggoner, pioneer northwest Texas rancher
 "Opinions of 21st-century Texans on the subject of mesquite are as divided as the two 20th-century views quoted above:"

• Ranchers consider it a noxious weed, whose thorns injure cattle, horses and cowhands. Worst of all, its extensive root system uses more than its fair share of water, which otherwise could grow cattle-nourishing grasses.
• Botanists know mesquite (genus Prosopis), a member of the legume family, as a nitrogen-fixing plant. Rather than depleting the soil of nitrogen, as do most plants, mesquites enrich soil by returning nitrogen to it.
• Most gardeners wouldn’t consider using the misshapen mesquite in their landscapes.
• Cooks value mesquite chips and charcoal for the luscious flavor they impart to grilled meats and fish.
• Some artisans and furniture makers prize mesquite for its deep colors, rich patina and interesting irregularities.
You may want to print this next thing out:
Medicines  "Aztecs made a lotion to soothe sore eyes from ground mesquite leaves mixed with water. Yuma Indians treated venereal disease with an infusion of leaves, and Comanches relieved toothaches by chewing the leaves. Yaquis treated headaches with a poultice made from mashing leaves to a pulp, mixing them with water and binding the mixture to the forehead.
"Gum, or sap, that oozed from mesquite bark was mixed with water to treat sore throats and diarrhea, aid digestion, and help wounds heal. The Yavapai rubbed a mixture of mud and mesquite gum into their hair to simultaneously kill lice and dye their hair."

The city:
Texas State Historical Association   [Mesquite was]"established by the Texas and Pacific Railway in May 1873 and named after nearby Mesquite Creek." 

Texas Confederate Army units
 
TEXAS REGIMENTS AND UNITS IN THE CONFEDERATE ARMY
We are currently researching what units of the Confederate Army came from the Masquite - Dallas area. We will update this post as we can. TD
 
A civil rights source

Dave Barry: Don’t even think you can do a DIY project

. . . "The worst offender is Home Depot. This is the giant store chain that runs TV commercials in which eager, attractive young couples, assisted by helpful smiling Home Depot employees, look excitedly at tile samples or pieces of wood and then — approximately eight seconds later, after a brief scene in which they are wielding paintbrushes or drilling a hole while wearing safety glasses — they’re standing happily in a brand-new modern kitchen that they did entirely themselves.

"Really, Home Depot? That has not been my experience with your store. I do not see attractive couples there, eager to tackle major projects. I see beaten-down people whose houses are broken, glumly pushing huge orange carts down endless aisles and standing in utter bafflement in front of vast, daunting displays of house parts they do not understand, knowing in their hearts that whichever one they pick, it probably won’t work." . . .

Subversive Rep. Luis Guitierrez Releases a Toolkit to Help Illegal Immigrants Evade the Law

Independent Sentinel "Luis Guitierrez is touring the country to inform illegal immigrants how to break our laws and avoid deportation, not that we are deporting anyone since our president is also lawless. Gutierrez is doing it all on company time.

"He released a new video toolkit on how to evade the law (below) with what appears to be his office in the background so the people here illegally will see this as their right.

"He has his own set of laws which he implements without any repercussions. He thinks only the president can deport people." . . .

On the Iran deal

Menendez: U.S. ‘Leaping with Both Feet’ Toward Iran Demands, ‘Any Deal for a Deal’s Sake’   "Menendez, whose Iran sanctions legislation and bipartisan bill have drawn veto threats from the Obama administration, has previously accused the White House of moving the goalposts to tempt Iran into a deal.

“ 'We have pivoted away from demanding the closure of Fordow when the negotiations began, to considering its conversion into a research facility, to now allowing hundreds of centrifuges to spin at this underground bunker site where centrifuges could be quickly repurposed for illicit nuclear enrichment purposes,” he said in a statement moments ago. “My fear is that we are no longer guided by the principle that ‘no deal is better than a bad deal,’ but instead we are negotiating ‘any deal for a deal’s sake’.” Read more:

. . . "The other large fissure is America’s current refusal to participate in military ground operations abroad. Added to the Russo-Chinese lock-up of the Security Council, all of this has contributed to blowing apart the Western bloc. A new world stage is being put in place. The only thing missing is agreement on the Iranian nuclear issue — at the end of this month!"   Published in L'Expression (Algeria) on 18 March 2015 by Zouhir Mebarki

 Kerry on Chances of Iran Deal: 'Inshallah!'   "Did John Kerry just use a Muslim term meaning "Allah willing" to express hope for a deal with Iran?

"That's what a reporter for Al Monitor claims on Twitter. Laura Rozen, who covers the Middle East for the online publication posted on the comments just after 3:30pm ET on Friday just as news was breaking of a possible deal." Lets give him the benefit of the doubt and consider it was done in jest.

Obama's Iran Deal: The SALT Precedents   "President Obama’s decision to avoid congressional scrutiny of his emerging nuclear deal with Iran led 47 GOP senators to write a letter warning Iran – and the president – that the Senate expects to be consulted.  A subsequent bipartisan letter signed by 367 members of the House of Representatives also urged the president to consult Congress.  A look at major 20th-century strategic arms accords lends decisive weight to the position taken by Congress."



 Political Cartoons by Glenn McCoy

Secret U.S. Documents Stolen by Shia Militias Are Now In the Hands of Iran
"Arab press, and particularly the Saudi press, have harshly criticized the Obama administration’s policy in the region – especially its Iran policy, which they term “destructive”, “idiotic”, “dangerous” and “narrow-minded.” Writers are calling for a rebellion against any agreement the P5+1 signs with Iran that does not absolutely prevent it from possessing nuclear weapons.

"Iran is now in possession of secret stolen U.S. documents which include the names of locals who informed on Iranian-backed rebels and Al Qaeda. Their lives are in danger but we won’t be there for them." . . .

George Floyd Revisited: Derek Chauvin Was Wrongfully Convicted

  The American Spectator | USA News and Politics Derek Chauvin and his colleagues did not murder George Floyd. Chauvin’s prosecution and tri...

https://spectator.org/