Napolitano: Clapper's ignorance of U.K. arrests a PR failure

http://townhall.com/cartoons/chipbok

Politico  "Napolitano's sympathy for Clapper is understandable: she had a high-profile gaffe of her own last holiday season when she tackled a question about an attempted Christmas bombing of an American aircraft by declaring that "the system worked."

Clueless clapper   "At least the White House has finally outlined its true security strategy. "

Step 1: Pretend radical Muslims aren't at war with the US. When that fails . . .

Step 2: Close your eyes.

 

PC Christmas, er, holidays

’Tis the Season to Be Politically Correct  "With that in mind, I offer the following exchange of emails to readers. It was sent to me by one of the parties to the exchange, a doctor who has suffered through the increasingly intolerant and politically correct atmosphere of a large Midwestern medical practice. Our story opens with a seemingly innocuous invitation to a “holiday party” a couple of days ago:"  Roger Kimball

Christmas Greetings, and the World Is Insane  "This agnostic has had just about enough of PC Christmastime."

ACLU Warns Schools to Say "Holiday" vs. "Christmas"  "School superintendents across the state were reminded by the ACLU this week that holiday celebrations focusing primarily on one religious holiday amount to an unconstitutional endorsement of religion.
"The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) letter, addressed to 137 public shool leaders across the state, stated that it was responding to a number of complaints from families about school party activites this Christmas season."

Palestinians: Obama no longer backs Palestinian state within 1967 borders

DEBKAfile  "Palestinian leaders in Ramallah, including Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayad, are sunk in gloom over what they perceive as US President Barak Obama repudiation of his promises to them and greater sympathy for the Netanyahu government's side of the Middle East dispute. They also see a spreading push in Europe, the Arab countries and Moscow for them to bite the bullet and reconcile themselves to partial or interim accords, since no feasible solutions are visible on the outstanding core issues of borders, refugees and Jerusalem."

Photo: http://www.palwatch.org/

Beautiful virgins await Muslim Martyrs in Paradise  "A music video on official Palestinian television (2000-2010) is designed to promote the desire among Palestinian males to be killed in the conflict with Israel in order to achieve the reward: beautiful virgins in Paradise. The video shows a woman being shot dead and joining other virgins in Paradise. Afterwards a man is killed and he is greeted by all the virgins who have been awaiting him. "

Peeling Back Congressional Overreach

Photo: http://freedomist.com/

Heritage   "Americans are all too familiar with the federal government’s intrusion into our daily lives. It sometimes seems that the feds have their hands in nearly every aspect of our daily life: what we drive, how we educate our children, down to the very food we eat. Unfortunately, Americans are less familiar with how the federal government is able to justify such intrusions.

"They should look no further than the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which is embodied in: Article I, Section 8, Clause 3 ."   Hat tip to The Freedomist

NYC Russians Flock to GOP – Say Democrats Are “Too Socialist”

Gateway Pundit  "Many New York City Russians are reportedly flocking to the Republican Party, claiming that the national Democrats’ “socialistic” policies remind them too much of Mother Russia’s top-down oligarchy they fled from in the past."

They have tasted and seen what American liberals cannot imagine.

An ex-Soviet immigrant goes Socratic on his liberal American critics.  "Question Insanity: What to Ask Progressives":

"Dear Americans, these are some questions I have collected in 16 years of living in your country. Please see if you can answer them for me:"...

Obamacare Criminalizes Medicine

The Daily Beast  "The president's health-care plan is one big entrapment scheme, argues Shikha Dalmia of  Reason Foundation —one that will turn both patients and providers into criminals, pushing some families to fudge their tax reports to receive better care."

Obama Returns to End-of-Life Plan That Caused Stir  "When a proposal to encourage end-of-life planning touched off a political storm over “death panels,” Democrats dropped it from legislation to overhaul the health care system. But the Obama administration will achieve the same goal by regulation, starting Jan.1."

Palin's Food Fight

Wall Street Journal  "Mrs. Palin would be more effective if she made some distinctions among the Obama policies that really are worth opposing. ObamaCare further redistributes the cost of obesity and other lifestyle ills by forcing individuals to buy the insurance that Washington says is for their own good, and then subsidizes the cost for some at the expense of others. That really is an affront to liberty. Telling kids to eat their vegetables and run around the block is merely instructing them to take responsibility for their own choices."

Palin’s Counterproductive Complaint "Mocking the First Lady and portraying her anti-obesity campaign as several steps on the Road to Serfdom is exactly the type of thing that will turn the public against the legitimate efforts by conservatives to rein in the reach and scope of government. Ms. Palin might consider this before she takes yet another unfair shot at Mrs. Obama."  Peter Wehner

Obama's new start

Charles Krauthammer  ""Harry Reid has eaten our lunch," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, lamenting his side's "capitulation" in the lame-duck session. Yes, but it was less Harry than Barry. Obama came back with a vengeance. His string of lame-duck successes is a singular political achievement. Because of it, the epic battles of the 112th Congress begin on what would have seemed impossible just one month ago - a level playing field."

START the Damage Control  "Last week’s rushed vote on New START in the lame-duck session of the Senate represented that body’s abandonment of its constitutional obligations to provide to “advise and consent” on treaties, despite the best efforts Sen. Jon Kyl and some of his colleagues to prevent the Senate from being reduced to such a “rubber stamp”. The vote cannot be undone, but the damage can be mitigated if our leadership exercises the political will to do so."

So You Lost Your Election

Iowahawk  "A[n] outplacement transition guide to life beyond Washington for former members and associates of Congress"  H/T to American Thinker.

Jennifer Rubin: Interview with Israeli ambassador Michael Oren

Part One:  "...the ultimate test is whether Iran will cease enrichment on its soil." What about the use of force? He said, "The position of both the U.S. and Israel is that all options remain on the table. But it is important for Iran to take that seriously, to lend that credibility." He declined to offer a specific way of enhancing the credibility of a military option, saying only, "There are ways to communicate that [a military option is real] to the Iranians." "

Part Two:  "...Oren discussed the onslaught Israel now faces -- not on the battlefield, but in the court of public opinion and in international bodies. In recent years, efforts to delegitimize the Jewish state, that is, to challenge its legitimacy as a state and ability to act in its own interests, as does every other country, have increased dramatically."

The 22nd Annual Awards for the Year's Worst Reporting

Media Research Center  "Welcome to the Media Research Center’s annual awards issue, a compilation of the most outrageous and/or humorous news media quotes from 2009 (December 2008 through November 2009).
"To determine this year’s winners, a panel of 48 radio talk show hosts, magazine editors, columnists, editorial writers, and media observers each selected their choices for the first, second and third best quote from a slate of five to eight quotes in each category."  More from MRC:

Rick Moran at American Thinker has this comment: "The rest of the list will no doubt bring back fond memories of liberal cluelessness and lefty doltishness."

Rich Terrell: The Obama Infrastructure Plan

http://terrellaftermath.com/