A State Transformed: Immigration and the New California

Heritage Insider "Legal immigration is a far more important factor shaping California than is illegal immigration. Our research and that of the Department of Homeland Security indicate that about three-fourths of California’s immigrants are in the country legally. Absent a change in immigration policy, large numbers of less-educated immigrants (legal and illegal) will continue to settle in the Golden State, adding further to an already large unskilled work force."

Marriage Petition Case Was Not a Defeat for Traditional Marriage

Townhall  "The record of atrocious harassment in the wake of California’s Proposition 8 makes perfectly clear that these marriage supporters can make a strong case that they could be harassed. As such, by the standard the Court announced today, the marriage supporters should win.

"The question will then be how the liberal justices that voted for this standard today will rule once that issue comes before them. Will they acknowledge the likelihood of harassment? Or will any of them adopt the attitude expressed by many leftist politicians that gay marriage is like the civil rights movement, that it’s a fundamental right, and that they don’t mind subjecting those they consider narrow-minded bigots from being subject to abuse by having their names (and addresses, and maps to their houses) made public." Ken Klukowski is Townhall’s correspondent at the U.S. Supreme Court and the coauthor of the new #1 bestselling book The Blueprint: Obama’s Plan to Subvert the Constitution and Build an Imperial Presidency,

Obama Courts Latinos by Suing Arizona

Dick Morris and Eileen McGann "The answer: It is a desperate, last-ditch attempt to rebuild his sagging popularity with America's Hispanic voters. Furious at Obama for failing to keep his election-year promise to promote comprehensive immigration reform when he had a super-majority at his disposal, they are deserting the president and his party in droves. Unemployment, a sagging economy and their sharp disagreement with Obama over social issues don't help the president's cause any."

Al Gore jumps twenty-five sharks

Roger L Simon "Would any honest person trust him? Isn’t it time to go to different, more credible, sources? Why not, say, invite MIT’s Sloan Professor of Atmospheric Science, Richard Lindzen, to testify on the subject — a real scientist, also one who is not currently employed by a government or UN program and therefore not deriving his income from the Global Warming Machine."...."This would all be one of the greatest black comedies, surpassing even Dr. Strangelove. Only it’s for real. Some people — notably many in authority — still do think AGW is “settled science” and they do so, largely, because they were inspired by Al Gore." 
"Well, until now."

Petraeus Ready to Loosen Rules of Engagement in Afghanistan

Gateway Pundit "It looks like McChrystal’s resignation may be a blessing in disguise…

General Petraeus will likely modify the controversial rules of engagement and make it easier for U.S. troops to engage in combat with the enemy according to a source close to the general."

Even with Petraeus in Charge, Afghanistan Remains a Conundrum

Charles Krauthammer " Problem is, Afghans are not quite as sophisticated in interpreting American intraparty maneuvering. This kind of Washington nuance does not translate into Pashto. They hear about an American departure date, and they think about what will happen to them when the Americans leave. The Taliban will remain, and what they lack in popular support — they poll only 6 percent — they make up in terror: When they return to a village, they kill “collaborators” mercilessly, and publicly.

"The surge succeeded in Iraq because the locals witnessed a massive deployment of U.S. troops to provide them security, which encouraged them to give us intelligence, which helped us track down the bad guys and kill them. This, as might be expected, led to further feelings of security by the locals, more intelligence provided to us, more success in driving out the bad guys, and henceforth a virtuous cycle, as security and trust and local intelligence fed each other.

"But that depended on a larger understanding by the Iraqis that the American president was implacable — famously stubborn, refusing to set any exit date, and determined to see the surge through. What President Bush’s critics considered mulishness, the Iraqis saw as steadfastness." Emphasis added.

Mike Ramirez, Townhall

The Two Faces of the Ground Zero Mosque

Pajamas Media "While the Cordoba Initiative appears to Americans as a sign of good faith and a new beginning with the Islamic world, to Muslims it represents conquest, dominance — even suicidal jihad against the infidel."  Raymond Ibrahim is the associate director of the Middle East Forum, the author of The Al Qaeda Reader, and a guest lecturer at the National Defense Intelligence College.

Garbage In, Garbage Out: The Media As Propagandists

BigJournalism "My Mother’s Intuition tells me there something more at play here than just trying to sell newspapers or juice up their Internet traffic. Judging from these two reports on the study, it would appear that this idea of the SAT being racist is a movement sweeping across the nation. In truth it isn’t and in fact, both stories have many of the elements of classic propaganda techniques. Here are a few choice excerpts from the GMU treatise, which relies on the work of Edward Filene, who created the Institute for Propaganda Analysis:"...Interesting reading.

Propaganda techniques "These techniques are designed to fool us because the appeal to our emotions rather than to our reason.The techniques identified by the Institute for Propaganda Analysis are further refined by Aaron Delwich in his website, Propaganda where he "discusses various propaganda techniques, provides contemporary examples of their use, and proposes strategies of mental self-defense." By pointing out these techniques, we hope to join with others who have written on this topic to create awareness and encourage serious consideration of the influence of contemporary propaganda directed at us through the various media and suggest ways to guard against its influence on our lives."

Federal Government Punishes Arizona – Cancels Conventions in State

Gateway Pundit  " “It is very troubling when the federal government becomes involved in a boycott against our state,” Giffords said in a written statement. “Although I personally disagree with the immigration law, it came about because of growing frustration over the federal government’s unwillingness to secure the border. The federal government’s participation in this boycott only adds to that frustration.” "  Jim Hoft

The McChrystal Mess: Two from Victor Davis Hanson

Victor Davis Hanson "If one really wishes to warn the public about a growing crisis in Afghanistan brought on by ignorance, egos, and duplicity in the administration, one surely does not talk to the likes of Rolling Stone. The proper way is to send warnings in private channels up the chain of command to the Pentagon and then to the White House. And when one feels the level of ignorance is overwhelming the chances of success, then one resigns and goes public to warn the nation. One cannot otherwise have it both ways."

A McChrystal Endnote   "...It is one of ironies of our present warped climate that Petraeus will face far less criticism from the media and politicians than during 2007–8 (there will be no more “General Betray Us” ads or “suspension of disbelief” ridicule), because his success this time will reflect well on Obama rather than George Bush. It is a further irony that Obama is surging with Petraeus despite not long ago declaring that such a strategy and such a commander were failures in Iraq. And it is an even further irony that he is now rightly calling for “common purpose” when — again not long ago, at a critical juncture in Iraq — Obama himself, for partisan purposes on the campaign trail, had no interest in the common purpose of military success in Iraq."

General Betray Us Ad Removed By MoveOn.org

Screen shot of the MoveOn.org ad posted at Weasel Zippers

Will Obama listen to anybody?

Washington Examiner "...In other words, Obama is forging ahead with the very policy the judge just ruled unconstitutional. And the chief executive is challenging the thousands of Gulf Coast oil industry employees to try and stop him in the appeals court. This response is the latest evidence of a disconcerting pattern with this president and his cronies in the executive branch and Congress: Their "progressive" ideological agenda comes first; everything else, including the will of the people and the letter of the law, is at most an obstacle on the road to "change we can believe in." "
Photo from Weasel Zippers

McChrystal No Loss for Conservatives

Linda Chavez "McChrystal's first mistake was to vote for Barack Obama. McChrystal told Rolling Stone that although he had voted for Obama, his first meeting with the president didn't go well. In a thinly disguised reference to "sources familiar with the meeting," Rolling Stone quotes its source -- unmistakably McChrystal -- as describing the president as "uncomfortable and intimidated" in a roomful of military brass. Well, what did he expect? He voted for a man who not only had zero military experience but no executive experience whatever -- and one, moreover, who positioned himself as the anti-war candidate during the Democratic primaries. And it is not as if Obama was running against a Republican with similarly unimpressive credentials. How could anyone whose top priority was the U.S. military pick Barack Obama over war hero John McCain?"

Obama's Impressive Choice  "There was only one choice that could have vindicated presidential authority over the military while ensuring the continuity of operations in Afghanistan -- and Obama made it. Gen. David Petraeus is the intellectual architect of modern counterinsurgency strategy. He is revered by American troops and trusted by Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Most urgently, Petraeus knows how to show deference to civilian control of the military without abandoning his own military views." Michael Gerson

The McChrystal affair has revived doubts about Barack Obama's qualities as a war president   "It is ingenious—far more so than the refusal of Mr Bush to believe the experts who told him the Iraq war was lost. But winning a war can require a single-minded will as well as a subtle brain. Mr Obama has the latter; whether he has the stubbornness to stick to an unpopular war remains to be seen."

Last Man Standing " "The United States must overcome the 'trust deficit' it faces in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where many believe that we are not a reliable long-term partner... The United States must look for a way out of the war in Afghanistan. There's got to be an exit strategy."
"- President Obama's "new" Afghanistan Strategy March, 2009"
Posted by Greyhawk, in Mudville Gazette