The Left and Their 'Good Victims'

Robin of Berkeley  "A number of years ago, I was the victim of a brutal street crime. Although I was left with a broken nose and two black eyes, I learned soon thereafter that I wasn't a "good victim."
"A progressive friend, Fran, clued me in. When I told her what happened, she said, "What you went through wasn't half as bad as what he has suffered." Fran was referring to the fact that I am white and the assailant was black. In other words, my suffering didn't matter."

Saudi king conducts stormy phone call to Obama

Shawarma Mayor  "Saudi king conducts stormy phone call to Obama. Obama is a petulant child intent on demolishing sand castles. The biggest problem is that these are not made of sand - it's the somewhat peaceful world order we live in.

"To be clear, this is an international diplomatic crisis, with ramification to the energy markets, observe the following quote:"

The revelation of Saudi concerns sheds new light on America's apparent diplomatic paralysis and lays bare the biggest rift between the nations since the oil price shock of 1973.

Obama in the foreign press

Islam Is Taking Over the Middle East under Obama  "America has abandoned its role as the global policing force and has, in effect, made it possible for radical Islam to spill over into new territory. Tzvika Fogel cautions us to be skeptical of the illusion of a democratic revolution in the Arabic world."
 Tzvika Fogel, Israel

Barack Obama is not Jimmy Carter  "But there is no Egyptian Lech Walesa or an Iraqi Vaclav Havel - not to mention the enormous pro-American sentiments that were shared by the Eastern Europeans who had been ruled by the Soviets, and that are nonexistent in Egypt and much of the Arab world today. That means that Obama has his work cut out for him in the Middle East. Israelis who hope to maintain some modicum of U.S. influence in the region should wish him luck. He is no Carter. And no Reagan is waiting in the wings."
Haaretz

Op-ed: President Barack Obama has good intentions, but reality keeps on getting in the way
"Obama wants democracy in Egypt; he wishes to promote human rights and improve the status of women. This is a noble notion, yet democracy means Muslim Brotherhood, radicalism, and Iran-style human rights. Indeed, there is nothing wrong with dreamers like Obama, but not in this profession." ynet news

Uncertain future for US policy after Egyptian revolution "For many people in Egypt, they were years of oppression, corruption and poverty; but for the U.S., Mubarak was an anchor of stability at the helm of the world's largest Arab nation, enforcing a peace treaty with Israel and protecting vital U.S. interests, including passage for oil through the Suez Canal."  Ahram online

The U.S. president is confident that radical Islamic organizations will not get hold of power. "The U.S. president parried a question about whether Hosni Mubarak, after stepping down, would make public details of secret deals between the Egyptian and American governments. The secret deals include an agreement to release people suspected of terrorist activity and American intelligence-oriented operations in the territory of Egypt."  Kirill Belyaninov,  Kommersant, Russia

Feel The Hate

iowntheworld  Videos: the best of left-wing hate of 2010.  Some pretty rough language from this crowd.

Heritage on Egypt and the Muslim Brotherhood

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood Lurks as a Long-Term Threat to Freedom  "An offshoot of the Brotherhood, Egyptian Islamic Jihad, assassinated President Anwar Sadat in 1981, perpetrated a series of terrorist attacks in Egypt in the 1990s, and became part of al-Qaeda. Another offshoot, the Palestinian Islamist extremist group Hamas, won elections in Gaza in 2006, staged a coup in 2007 to transform Gaza into a terrorist base, and remains committed to destroying Israel.
"The Muslim Brotherhood’s strategy is to lie low in the current crisis and work behind the secular gadfly ,
 Mohamed ElBaradei, a spokesman for the broad opposition coalition who is far better known outside of Egypt than inside the country. "

Five Steps to Meeting the Crisis in Egypt and the Middle East "... the Obama Administration should embrace the following principles: don’t lose focus on Iran, remain firmly committed to preserving a stable and free Iraq, reassert the need for close strategic, cooperation with Israel, stay engaged in Lebanon, and support and encourage Egypt’s army to safeguard a transition to freedom. This agenda would make a substantial difference in the Middle East; it would demonstrate that the U.S. is a faithful ally, a champion of supporting the cause of liberty and economic freedom, and a strong, resilient, and confident nation prepared to defend itself, its allies, and its interests."  James Phillips, James Carafano

Gary Varvel, World Mag.

Egypt moves to reassure allies they will honor all treaties

BBC  "The announcement, which was read by a senior officer on state TV, implicitly confirms that the country's peace treaty with Israel will remain intact.
The military also vowed to oversee a peaceful transition to civilian rule."
 Those who come to know the Arab people say they can be duplicitous. Lets hope this is not one of those occasions.
Via Weasel Zippers

Israel's military caught unready for Sinai front. Tantawi is no friend   "King Abdullah was so incensed by Washington's abandonment of his friend and ally Hosni Mubarak that he ordered the kingdom's diplomatic and military ties with Iran upgraded and strengthened. It is anyone's guess today whether the generals in Cairo opt for Washington or decide to patch up Mubarak's quarrel with the ayatollahs instead."  

From DEBKAfile

Bob Gorrell: http://www.mideasttruth.com/cartoons.html

Bubbles, Bubbles Everywhere

Victor Davis Hanson  "America is a naturally rich country. Unlike Russia, China, Egypt, or Greece, it is stable, transparent, tolerant, and free of civil strife. The result is that we are not doomed to see these bubbles expand and burst with the attendant social unrest. We need only return to our old American creed that wealth is created only with hard work and delayed gratification. In other words, America must get back to producing real, rather than imaginary, riches and ignore pleasing rhetoric that masks unpleasant reality — the faster the better."

Al Gore's Incredibly Shrinking Credibility

Warning Signs  "With the advent of record-setting low temperatures and blizzards bringing U.S. cities to a standstill, Gore has been telling anyone who would listen that the cold and snow was the result of—you guessed it—global warming.

"On January 31st, noted meteorologist, Dr. Roy W. Spencer, blogged that “No serious climate researcher—including the ones I disagree with believes global warming can cause colder weather unless they have become delusional as a result of some sort of mental illness.”"
Alan Caruba
And still a bitter, bitter man.

Was Obama Too Indecisive on Egypt? Or did his refusal to meddle actually speed Mubarak's fall?

Slate  "If the United States had overplayed its hand, say administration officials, it would have allowed Mubarak and his allies to claim outside forces were meddling (he did claim that; it didn't work). It also would have suggested the United States had more power to shape events than it did. Most important, it would have detracted from the power and appeal of the protests: They were organic and peaceful and growing even without official commentary from the United States. In the end, this wasn't about America, and the more that is made clear, administration officials hope, the more it will help the movement for freedom in the Middle East. In addition, it will put responsibility for success in Egypt not on the United States, but on the Egyptians."

http://townhall.com/cartoons/chipbok

Out of Egyptian protests a new Obama doctrine is born   "By totalitarian, Krauthammer and similar thinkers mean Islamists of all complexions – for them, Islam is the new "red peril".
"Obama is unlikely to embrace this definition. But in beginning to enunciate a foreign policy doctrine guided by clearly established democratic values and mutual respect, he may not only avoid more Egypt-style dilemmas, he may also be on his way to bridging the gulf between pragmatism and principle."

What transpires in the coming months with Egypt and other Middle Eastern countries will determine if more Obama puff-pieces like this will be written. This writer assumes Obama knew what he was doing all along and acted with wisdom, something not apparent by his performance as president thus far. For the sake of our national security, lets hope this writer is correct.

Imam Yusuf al-Qaradawi

Keep your eye on this guy   "The prospect that Qaradawi and the Brotherhood could play significant roles in Egypt’s near-term future is an unhappy one for U.S. policymakers – torn between their support for democracy and the realization that in Egypt, the beneficiaries could well be enemies of liberal democracy and the Egyptian-Israeli peace agreement. Washington needs to face the unpleasant reality that the more political power the Muslim Brotherhood wields, the more likely war becomes in the region, Smith writes."

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.