Friday, February 11, 2011

Prosecution of Students Who Disrupted UC Irvine Speech by Israeli Ambassador

Volokh Conspiracy  "1. The relevant statute, Cal. Penal Code § 403, says: “Every person who, without authority of law, willfully disturbs or breaks up any assembly or meeting that is not unlawful in its character ... is guilty of a misdemeanor.” In re Kay (1970) held that, to be convicted under the statute, the prosecution must show “that the defendant [1] substantially impaired the conduct of the meeting by intentionally committing acts [2] in violation of implicit customs or usages or of explicit rules for governance of the meeting, of which he knew, or as a reasonable man should have known,” and [3] “the defendant’s activity itself — and not the content of the activity’s expression — substantially impairs the effective conduct of a meeting.” "

Rep. Tom Price Confronts Don Berwick on Rationing

Donald Berwick
Big Government   "Rep. Tom Price (R-Georgia) took the time to chat with us for a brief podcast today regarding his impressions of Don Berwick’s fractious testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee. A physician himself, Price pressed Berwick, the controversial head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, on questions regarding the rationing of care, whether it was a falsehood for the White House to claim “if you like your health care plan, you can keep it” and other key matters."

Pat Condell On Multiculturalism

Alwaysonwatch  "Will American heed the warning coming from multiple sources, including the voices of Angela Merkel of Germany and Nicholas Sarkozy of France — in addition to the voice of David Cameron of the UK?" Video and sound.

Jon Kyl’s Retirement: Major Loss for Senate Republicans

Fred Barnes  "For Republicans, losing Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona is a bit like the Chicago Bulls when Michael Jordan retired. Not only is Kyl the MVP among Republican senators, but he also makes the other senators look good and perform better. I can’t think of a member of Congress who will be missed more than Kyl when he retires in 2012."




ElBaradei: Tear Up Egypt’s Constitution

Sweetness and Light  "Maybe because people like Mr. ElBaradei have said that Mubarak made the peace treaty with Israel. Not the Egyptian people."
"But the people of Egypt — the grandmothers in veils who have dared to share Tahrir Square with army tanks, the jubilant young people who have risked their lives for their first taste of these new freedoms — are not so easily fooled.
Weren’t they easily fooled just yesterday? It seems to me the ‘Arab Street’ – which also believes, for instance, that 9/11 was an inside job instigated by the Jews — is very easily fooled.
The United States and its allies have spent the better part of the last decade, at a cost of hundreds of billions of dollars and countless lives, fighting wars to establish democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Mr. ElBaradei opposed the war in Iraq, claiming that "regime change" is against international law. He also questioned whether it was worth the cost to get rid of the dictator Saddam.
Indeed, Mr. ElBaradei has pronounced the US policy in Iraq and Afghanistan to be "a total failure."

Egypt and the US

Mubarak resigns, hands power to military  ""In these grave circumstances that the country is passing through, President Hosni Mubarak has decided to leave his position as president of the republic," a grim-looking Suleiman said. "He has mandated the Armed Forces Supreme Council to run the state. God is our protector and succor.""
Egypt Crisis Puts Spotlight on Weakness in US: El-Erian  "The US should consider the lack of a move into traditional US assets as "a warning that if we don't get our house in order we will no longer command the global standing" in currency and debt markets, El-Erian said.
"However, should the situation escalate and start spreading through the region, that could change.
""If we get widespread violence in the streets you will get a massive risk-off trade," El-Erian said. "You will see equities sold off, oil go up and you will see a Treasury rally."

 Crisis Flummoxes White House "The White House is now squeezed between Arab and Israeli allies, who have complained that Mr. Obama was pushing Mr. Mubarak too hard to step down, and lawmakers who accuse the White House of not pushing hard enough. Now, the White House finds itself largely a bystander."  Wall Street Journal.

Egypt Exposes Obama Doctrine Happy Talk  "But the Obama Administration’s intelligence fumbling did not end there. Just 30 minutes after Panetta passed off CNN headlines as CIA intelligence, General Clapper created his own entire reality when he testified that Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood is “largely secular.” This is, of course, completely false. In reality, the Muslim Brotherhood, founded in 1928, is the Middle East’s oldest and most influential Islamist movement."
http://townhall.com/cartoons/mikelester

















The U.S.-Egyptian Breakup "The original sin was Sadat's separate peace with Israel, which Mubarak inherited and scrupulously upheld.
"From the perspective of many Egyptians, this arrangement hopelessly constrained Cairo's power while freeing Israel and the United States to pursue their regional interests unencumbered."  Foreign Affairs magazine

Iran Uses Egyptian Turmoil to Push West   "Saudi rulers may also have drawn certain conclusions from US President Barack Obama‘s treatment of Mubarak. King Abdullah is reported by our Persian Gulf sources as so enraged by what he sees as “Obama’s betrayal” of the Egyptian president – virtually giving him his marching orders – that the White House felt compelled to send a special personal envoy to the Saudi palace in Morocco this week to smooth his ruffled feathers and explain the game the administration has been playing in Cairo."
An Iranian super-plan to annex Sinai to Gaza for a radical Palestinian state. Emphasis added
  Radical murderous states must love it when the US elects Democrats to our leadership.

New ‘WikiLeaks’ Book Out Tomorrow: Take Down Of Assange?

Big Peace  "“Controversial Wikileaks founder Julian Assange allegedly boasted about fathering children all around the world and preferred his conquests to be 22 or under, according to an explosive new book.
"Former Wikileaks insider Daniel Domscheit-Berg describes Assange as a paranoid megalomaniac whose lack of personal hygiene and table manners suggest he was ‘brought up by wolves’."

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Mubarak’s Decision to Stay Puts Obama in a Tight Spot

Jonathan S. Tobin "Mubarak’s attempt to hold on has created a crucial moment in which America and its allies in the Arab world must do what it can to prevent Egypt from becoming the new focus of Islamist terror. The possibility of such a terrible choice makes it all the more important for President Obama to use whatever leverage the United States still has in Egypt to influence Mubarak and the army to step back from the precipice."

So Mubarak Isn’t Stepping Down  "This four-hour mania about Mubarak’s resignation is a sobering example of what can happen when credulous Western news organizations attempt to report in the rumor-driven culture of the Middle East."  John Podhoretz

Video: Greatest Moments in Liberal History

Facts listed: Justice Department Only Selectively Complies with Freedom of Information Act

Pajamas Media  "Eric Holder’s Justice Department has even politicized compliance with the Freedom of Information Act. According to documents I have obtained, FOIA requests from liberals or politically connected civil rights groups are often given same day turn-around by the DOJ. But requests from conservatives or Republicans face long delays, if they are fulfilled at all."

Death Knell For Multiculturalism?

Powerline  "French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Thursday declared that multiculturalism had failed, joining a growing number of world leaders or ex-leaders who have condemned it.
""We have been too concerned about the identity of the person who was arriving and not enough about the identity of the country that was receiving him," he said in a television interview in which he declared the concept a "failure.""
http://www.theblogofrecord.com/2009/01/02/the-real-suicide-bomb/

Pat Oliphant on Egypt