The White House and the Wisconsin teachers kerfuffle

Obama’s Attempt to Distance Himself From Wisconsin Rally Fails  "...But apparently someone forget to tell the DNC’s communication director Bob Woodhouse to scrub his Twitter feed to reflect this new strategy. Doug Ross has pointed out a Feb. 17 Tweet from Woodhouse saying that the White House was “proudly” playing a role in the protest."

Wisconsin Puts Obama Between Competing Desires   "The battle in Wisconsin over public employee unions has left President Obama facing a tricky balance between showing solidarity with longtime political supporters and projecting a message in favor of deep spending cuts to reduce the debt."

Barack Obama’s Stand With Unions in Wisconsin is Hurting Him  "Supporting public sector unions in Wisconsin must be hurting Barack Obama. We know because he is using the New York Times to back away from his earlier statements and the tactics of his own Organizing for America."

Why Obama and the Dems Blundered in Wisconsin  "The White House, which for the last two years seemed so tone deaf over health care, jobs, and the economy, may again be displaying a stunning political miscalculation. Unless the Democrats pull the plug on their ill-conceived Wisconsin campaign, the statewide and national backlash now beginning to emerge may continue to resonate all the way to the 2012 presidential elections."

http://townhall.com/cartoons/ericallie

Lovely: Kathy Griffin to Play Palin-esque Tea Party Candidate on 'Glee'

Newsbusters  "This is the same Kathy Griffin who said she would "like to push Sarah Palin down the stairs" and was heartily booed at a USO event after mocking Palin's daughter Bristol.

"Griffin's lowlights also include calling Sen. Scott Brown's daughters prostitutes, and telling both Jesus Christ and "View" host Elizabeth Hasselbeck to "suck it."
"In short, Griffin's appearance will be exactly what you'd expect from a Palin impersonator on "Glee"."

With Governor Walker’s Proposal, Wisconsin Once Again Leads the Nation in Education Reform

Heritage  "Far from draconian, Walker’s proposal would limit collective bargaining power and reform public employee benefit plans. For the first time, state employees would be responsible for making a 5.8 percent contribution into their pension plans and pick up the tab for 12 percent of their health care benefits. As it currently stands, Wisconsin taxpayers bear 100 percent of the costs."

http://townhall.com/cartoons/garyvarvel

Collective Bargaining in the Public Sector

National Review  "By leveraging their numbers and resources, their organizations can become major players in politics. At election time, public employees can therefore play a large role in choosing their own employers or bosses (by getting certain people elected and not others), which of course no private-sector union can do. At all levels of government today, public-worker unions are among the biggest political donors. Between elections, they can use that political power to influence those elected officials and the political process more generally to improve their pay, benefits, or conditions, and also to increase demand for their services through legislation that increases the size or role of government..."

US warships box in Iranian flotilla, delay Suez passage

DEBKAfile  "The repeated delays and contradictory statements about the two Iranian warships' transit of the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean is accounted for by a standoff between the Iranian flotilla and five US warships deployed in recent days at the waterway's southern entrance and along its course, debkafile's sources disclose."

Cairo and Tehran connive to slip Iranian warships through Suez after fake delays  "debkafile reports: Israel has learned that the Iranian cruiser Kharg is carrying long-range missiles for Hizballah which it plans to unload at a Syrian port or Beirut harbor.
"US State Department spokesman P.J Crowley said he was "highly skeptical" of the Syrian claim that the two ships' visit was for training. "If the ships move through the canal, we will evaluate what they actually do. It's not really about the ships. It's about what the ships are carrying, what's their destination, what's the cargo on board, where's it going, to whom and for what benefit," Crowley told a news conference."

Media Silence As Tolerant Left Wishes Death on Governor Scott Walker

Big Journalism "You may remember President Obama’s recent call for civil discourse this past January. Well, it appears that the Left is still very much struggling with the #newtone online. Unless, of course, you consider a persistent stream of steady death threats against Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker a display of etiquette straight from the Emily Post Etipedia of manners."

A reminder to let Wisconsin Republicans known you’ve got their backs  "If you haven’t already sent emails expressing support to Wisconsin Gov. Walker and the Republican Senators, you must. Here are the email addresses:"  From BookwormRoom

Rent a Mob - Wisconsin Protests Intensify  "Today's post is about the Wisconsin Protests that are happening in Madison over Governor Walker's plan to have the Public Sector Unions contribute a little more to their health care and pension. Specifically, The bill, which also bans collective bargaining rights for teachers, requires educators to contribute 5.8 percent to their pensions and 12.6 percent to their health care. Currently, educators pay 0.2 percent for their pensions and 4 to 6 percent of their health care costs." Numerous links on this subject from Common Cents

A LITTLE REMINDER: WHO OBAMA REALLY IS AND WHAT AND WHO HE REALLY STANDS FOR...

Astute Blogger  Obama in his own words, speaking to the SEIU. (Video and sound.)

Hezbollah might attack Israeli target to help Iran

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Jerusalem Post  "IDF Northern Command believes regime in Iran may initiate attack if it feels under pressure due to anti-government protests."

Hezbollah chief tells IDF: Watch your heads "Hassan Narallah calls on 'Islamic resistance fighters' to 'be ready for the day when war is forced on Lebanon'; Hezbollah leader who escaped Egyptian prison appears at rally where Nasrallah spoke."   Hat tip to AstuteBlogger

Angry Violent Mob Attacks FOX Reporters in People’s Republic of… California (Video)

Gateway Pundit  "Within moments, however, several people approach from further down the sidewalk. A man in a purple t-shirt shoves Little’s camera away; then a woman in a white button-down sweater is seen in the video screaming at the photojournalist. Little is forced backwards as the woman stomps towards her.
"Three other women hold the lady in the white sweater back, but another runs in from further up the sidewalk, grabs Little’s hair, and throws her to the ground in video captured by ABC 10 News. Lobertini attempts to help his coworker, but appears to get punched by the man in the purple shirt."

Something momentous is happening in the United States right now and Barack Obama doesn't get it.

Neal Boortz  sends us this British tidbit of some significance: American Way: Barack Obama, cult figure of 2008, left behind by new anti-spending zeitgeist "Although you may have read about the Tea Party being a collection of fringe racists and lunatics, their activists in places like Wisconsin were mainly ordinary Americans sick to the back teeth with out-of-control spending.
"Walker’s proposals are relatively modest ones for someone facing a $3.6 billion shortfall. He was elected on a platform of balancing the budget and he’s got to find the money to do that from somewhere.

http://terrellaftermath.com/

"Budget crises are brewing in Ohio, New Jersey and a slew of other states."

Diversity Sitcoms?

American Thinker  "Following Katie Couric's lead, comedian Bill Cosby is seriously promoting the idea of a Muslim Cosby show. The 73-year old even gave some suggestions for would-be producers:
"The bottom line: No, the show wouldn't be a perfect solution. But yes, it would be a good idea. Like The Cosby Show, it would have to start off by tiptoeing around people's prejudices by keeping things comfortable and familiar."....
"But instead of a sitcom depicting an upwardly mobile Muslim family how about a comedy involving a Tea Party mom, dad and kids; surely no group has been subjected to more scapegoating and false stereotypes in the past two years than this bunch."

Michelle Obama's big 'sacrifices' on her Vail vacation

Jeannie DeAngelis  "Despite the extravagant entourage, when it comes to frugality Mrs. Obama is a pro. A flight from DC to Colorado is 1,700 miles and takes approximately 3 hours. Although the First Lady usually employs a large Air Force jet to ferry her from vacation spot to vacation spot, this time she answered the call to live within the Obama family means in the following way: To save money, instead of Air Force One, which costs about $100,000 per hour to fly, Michelle chose a less expensive jet."