Former Palin Aide Writes Tell-All Book — Is There An AP Fact Checker in the House? ::crickets::

Look out, Sarah! He's behind you!

Doug Powers   "Brace for hard-hitting revelations like this:

The book describes cameras rolling as Palin strode through the door at an Anchorage hotel “over and over and over,” for an RGA ad.”

"Hey, if staging is good enough for Obama it should be good enough for Palin.
"Another of Bailey’s revelations: Palin hates meetings. If he’s trying to make me like her even more, he just did."

Path of the Joplin Tornado

Tripline map   "JOPLIN, Missouri -- On Sunday, May 22, a powerful tornado ravaged parts of Joplin, Missouri, killing at least 89 people as the powerful storm took out hundreds of homes and businesses.
"The destructive Joplin tornado first touched down at about 5:35 p.m. CDT (2235 UTC) and tracked eastward across the city and then across Interstate 44 into rural portions of Newton and Lawrence counties. It was reported to have been at least 1 mile (1.6 km) in width and possibly wider. Many houses and businesses were flattened and some even were blown away in Joplin, particularly in the section between 13th and 32nd Streets across the southern part of the city. (Wikipedia)"

An apology to Israelis (Updated) Related: Bosch Fawstin artwork and bio

American Thinker  "I hate to say such things about an American president, but, as the old saying goes, if you can't be kind, be honest. We who criticize him for his words and deeds are called racists and other bad things, mostly by the people who side with the self-loathing Jews. So, you see the pattern. These people seem to ignore realities for their ideologies.

"Please, therefore, don't hold it against us that we elected him. We're better than that. We're coming around, though."...

http://terrellaftermath.com/

Obama clarifies remarks on borders at AIPAC  "Rarely has a US president caused such a stink with no prospect whatsoever that anything could possibly come of it. He has needlessly angered an ally at a time when we need them the most. His plan has no chance of starting peace talks again and all he has done is angered both sides and levied unrealistic expectations on Israel."

Do you know what a “sovereign and contiguous” palestinian state means?  President Obama "continued his attack on the Jewish state today at AIPAC, calling AGAIN not only for the 1967 borders but for a sovereign and contiguous state which would cut Israel in half."

This map visualizes what contiguous Palestinian territories could look like. It takes Obama's words as declared policy because words spoken by a national leader have great import.

Abdul Rahman Al-Rashid  : Israel and the new Arab reality "Without any doubt, the Palestinian cause will not die or fall into oblivion just because Netanyahu said no, or because Obama is preoccupied with mobilizing voter support for his presidential election. The cause will return strongly to the forefront, and the Palestinian people's demands for liberating their soil and establishing their country will by no means be ignored. "  Saudi Research and Publishing company

Moscow: Hamas must recognize Israel  "In a bid to outmaneuver Washington's role as sponsor of the peace process, Abbas turned to Russia in deference to its veto power at the UN Security Council. He offered to transfer negotiations on the next phase of Fatah-Hamas reconciliation to Moscow."  More effects of a leftist, liberal administration.

Who Made the “Hard Choices” on Peace?  "Just that—“Obama Presses Israel to Make Hard Choices.” Not his lengthy description of U.S.-Israel security cooperation. Not his pledge to preserve the security of the Jewish state. Not his vow to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons. What the world heard and what the world understood—even if many Jewish Democrats prefer to remain in denial—is that Obama believes Israel must be pressured hard if there is to be peace. His condescending manner at AIPAC made it clear that he considers Israel to be the primary obstacle to peace." Jonathan S. Tobin

Barry Rubin:  Obama at AIPAC: Beneath the Flattery, He Revealed His Indifference to Israel’s Needs and His Tilt Against It   "I expected President Barack Obama’s AIPAC speech would be a bunch of feel-good clichés to persuade the audience that he is Israel’s best friend. Thus there would be nothing worth analyzing in it. But as I read the speech carefully I was astonished at how thoroughly Obama reveals his underlying miscomprehension, indifference, and even hostility toward Israel.
"Examine this speech and you see everything wrong — far more than in his Cairo or State Department speeches on the Middle East — with Obama’s view of Israel and why he cannot be trusted on this issue."


newsrealblog.com

 Who is Bosch Fawstin?
The creator of cartoons such as the one on the left and the oft-used one below, "Against the World".  Read this man's fascinating story to see what inspires his artwork.

Update: Obama shouldn’t go to Israel   "In other words, with each utterance Obama convinces more Israelis that he is not their friend. And Obama knows this, so he certainly wouldn’t risk going there. And therefore Jewish leaders should stop asking. It merely confirms the suspicion that these “leaders” are clueless and hold very little sway with this president.  Jennifer Rubin 

Ryan Challenges Democrats to Propose Alternative to His Budget (Updated)

Fox News    "The architect of the House Republican plan for overhauling Medicare says it's time to move beyond petty politics and focus on dealing with the nation's fiscal problems, and he's challenging Democrats to show leadership on budget cuts...."

"But Ryan said that Democrats "haven't even proposed or passed a budget for 753 days." He added that while he's willing to negotiate on his plan, he's not going to talk about alternatives with people who don't offer concrete solutions and only want to score political points.

""We have nothing, nothing from the president or from the Senate Democrats that come anywhere close to averting a debt crisis and fixing our problem," he said. "If you want to be a serious leader, you've got to deal with this.""  Emphasis added.

Republicans and Mediscare    "Paul Ryan's GOP critics are ObamaCare's best friends."....
 "Mr. Gingrich has done great harm to his party and the cause of reform with his reckless criticism of Mr. Ryan, forfeiting any serious claim to be the GOP nominee. But equally as culpable are the self-styled conservative pundits who derided Republicans for dropping the reform mantle during the Bush years but now tremble that Mr. Ryan has gone too far."

Krauthammer: Criticisms of Ryan plan are pure demagoguery  (April 13, 2011) "That depends on whether (a) President Barack Obama counters with a deficit-reduction plan of equal seriousness, rather than just demagoguing the Ryan plan till next Election Day, (b) there are any Republicans beyond super-wonky Ryan who can explain and defend a plan of such daunting scope and complexity, and (c) Americans are serious people.
"My guesses: No. Not really. And I hope so (we will find out definitively in November 2012)."

Obama's Running Mate "Mr. Romney's refusal to appreciate this, then and now, reveals a troubling failure of political understanding and principle. The raucous national debate over health care isn't about this or that technocratic detail, but about basic differences over the role of government. In the current debate over Medicare, Paul Ryan wants to reduce costs by encouraging private competition while Mr. Obama wants the cost-cutting done by a body of unelected experts like the one emerging in Massachusetts."

Paul Ryan on Medicare Reform: 'Leaders Are Elected to Lead'  “If people are describing this accurately in polls, it is far more popular. More importantly, leaders are elected to lead. I don’t consult polls to tell me what my principles are or what our policies should be…. We are not seeing this kind of leadership from the President of the United States.” (video)

Update: Sen. Scott Brown attacks Ryan plan, but did he read it?  "Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) is apparently so nervous about his reelection prospects that he has taken to Politico to write an opinion piece announcing he’d opposed to Rep. Paul Ryan’s Medicare plan. After all, savaging Ryan and undermining the House Democrats worked out so well for Newt Gingrich. Unfortunately, Brown’s objections don’t suggest he understands the problem of rising medical costs or Ryan’s plan."  Jennifer Rubin 

Obama praises CIA for bin Laden Kill by Saying 'I' 35 times

Conservative Blogs Central   ..."On my first visit, just months after taking office, I stood here and I said that this agency and our entire intelligence community is fundamental to America’s national security. I said that I believed that your best days were still to come and I pledged that you would have my full support to carry out your critical work.
"Soon after that visit, I called Leon into the Oval Office and I directed him to make the killing or capture of Osama bin Laden the top priority in our war to defeat al Qaeda."....

When finished, go back and count the me's, mine's and any other first-person references. When did Democrats last come up with a president who was a serious leader with international respect instead of a self-absorbed autobiographer and celebrity favorite of talk shows?

Obama: Israel's borders to differ from 1967 lines. Withdrawal against security

DEBKAfile  "At the same time, he offered Israel some important commitments:
"The US will maintain Israel's qualitative military edge and has an unbreakable commitment to Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people. He vowed to prevent Iran acquiring nuclear weapons and oppose any effort to "chip away at Israel's legitimacy."
"Israel cannot be expected to negotiate with a party dedicated to its destruction, namely Hamas, he said. The US will stand up against any attempt to single out Israel at the UN or any international forum."
And, taking a page from Newt Gingrich's book, Obama said anyone using clips from his previous address will be lying.

Obama's Embarrassing Try For A Walk Back At AIPAC 
"Next, note the phrase, 'Israel must be able to defend itself – by itself - against any threat.
"I mentioned this before. Since Israel has never demanded a single US soldier to fight its battles, what President Obama appears to be saying is that in the event of hostilities, the US will be neutral, will not supply Israel with arms or supplies, and that Israel is on its own as far as he's concerned."

Hoyer bucks Obama on Israeli borders  "Pushing back against President Obama, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) suggested Sunday that Israel should not be required to shrink its borders as a precondition of peace talks with the Palestinians."

Obama’s Three Lies to AIPAC  "Add to these three lies Obama’s rosy portrayal of his appeasement of Iran, his failure to explain why he broke his 2008 promise to AIPAC to insist on an “undivided Jerusalem,” and the fact that his latest fight with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is only the latest of many Obama has picked, and Obama’s speech to AIPAC is revealed as nothing more a resort to spin and sentiment to save an unsafe policy."

politicalhumor.about.com

That highly charged AIPAC Policy Conference

American Israel Public Affairs Committee  "The American Israel Public Affairs Committee ... is a lobbying group that advocates pro-Israel policies to the Congress and Executive Branch of the United States.  ...
"Describing itself as "America's Pro-Israel Lobby," AIPAC is a mass-membership, American organization whose members include Democrats, Republicans, and independents. The New York Times calls it "the most important organization affecting America's relationship with Israel.""  Wikipedia

AIPAC: A critical day for Israeli-American relations  "...Soon Obama will enter the room. I suspect many of the attendees share the view of Rep. Theodore E. Deutch (D-Fla.), who put out a statement that read in part: “Should Israel find a partner for peace who is willing to join Prime Minister Netanyahu at the negotiating table, Israel cannot be expected to make any territorial concessions that do not acknowledge the reality on the ground. The 1967 borders are indefensible.”
"If Obama had said that, he wouldn’t be in the current fix."....
"The high tensions speak volumes about how Obama is perceived by friends of Israel." Jennifer Rubin

From Al Jazeera :  Obama gives up, AIPAC wins ;plus a number of articles critical of Mr. Obama, but not for the same reasons supporters of Israel are,
 
Obama Has Failed to Isolate Netanyahu  "They calculated Netanyahu would have no choice but to accept this last-minute slap across the face from his country’s only ally. And if he did talk back, they figured he would find himself isolated without the backing of Israel’s allies in Congress and with most of the American media lined up solidly against him.
"But Obama appears to have misread the situation. Netanyahu’s strong reply rightly declaring that the 1967 borders were indefensible may have infuriated the White House, but, contrary to their plan, not everybody is jeering his defiance." Jonathan S. Tobin

Sarah Palin Lectures Obama on His Anti-Israel Plans Too (Video) "…America is on the wrong side on this issue and that’s what the Israeli Prime Minister on Friday tried to explain to our president even though our president tried to lecture Prime Minister Netanyahu on the meaning of the importance of peace. Netanyahu does not need to be lectured by President Obama on peace..."

 Little Man, Big Man  "The left is rabid that Netanyahu schooled Obama on statesmanship, integrity, history, and leadership. True to form, they ignore the substance and instead, handwring and wail that their man was badly shown up on Friday. The stark difference between statesman and incompetent could not have been more glaring. Netanyahu was so formidable; Obama looked tiny, petulant, defeated.....utterly out of his league.
"Contrast the speech Obama gave with that of Canada's stalwart Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, last November with Obama's (peace be upon him) recent betrayal." Pamela Geller,  Atlas Shrugs

Media Shielded Voters from Obama's Israel Intentions  "When President Barack Obama publicly endorsed the Palestinian view of Israel's future this week, he took many Americans, including many of his Jewish-American supporters, by surprise. Had the media been doing their job, he would not have surprised anyone."  American Thinker

Obama Middle East Speech: A Big and Revealing Mistake That Nobody Has Noticed

Barry Rubin "There is a small detail at the end of Obama’s big Middle East speech that everyone has overlooked up until now but which shows how inept this administration is at understanding the IsraelI-Palestinian issue and why it continually makes Israel mistrustful."  Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal. His latest books are The Israel-Arab Reader (seventh edition, Viking-Penguin), the paperback edition of The Truth about Syria (Palgrave-Macmillan), and The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East


Rewriting Obama’s Speech  "“We made a huge mistake in crucifying my predecessor for being a ‘neocon’ and wanting to bring self-determination to the peoples of the Mideast, particularly the dysfunctional Arab states. It turns out George Bush was right, and I apologize for having acted stupidly in trashing him and his policies...."

Charles Krauthammer;  The news in Obama’s speech  ..."Normal U.S. boilerplate except for one thing: Obama refers to Palestinian borders with Egypt, Jordan and Israel. But the only Palestinian territory bordering Egypt is Gaza. How do you get contiguity with Gaza? Does Obama’s map force Israel to give up a corridor of territory connecting the West Bank and Gaza? This is an old Palestinian demand that would cut Israel in two. Is this simply an oversight? Or a new slicing up of Israel?"

comicallyincorrect.com

The End of the World According to Harold Camping (Updated)

From Ligonier Ministries :   The End of the World According to Harold Camping (Part 1)  "...I first met Camping in the late 1950s. I learned a great deal from him then, and so I find what follows a very sad story. I pray for him that the Lord will deliver him from the serious errors into which he has fallen." W. Robert Godfrey

The End of the World According to Harold Camping (Part 2) "His repeated failures in calculating the end of the world have not led to repentance on his part or any basic revision of his method of interpreting the Bible."

Part 3   "Not surprisingly no Reformed denomination would accept Camping and his congregation on the basis of his revised catechism. At this point he had become schismatic."

Part 4  "Camping’s calculations and allegorical readings eventually led him to a truly heretical conclusion: that the age of the church was over and that all Christians were required to separate themselves from all churches."

Part 5  "Camping’s presentation of God’s mercy is from beginning to end unbiblical and unchristian. He has no Trinity, no cross, no faith alone in Jesus alone, and no assurance. His vision of God and mercy is more Muslim than Christian. If Camping still believes in the Trinity, in Jesus and his cross, and in justification by faith alone, then his recent teaching shows that he is a failure as a teacher of the Gospel and his call to repentance lacks enough content for sinners to find salvation in Jesus."

Colson Center for Biblical Worldview  "What, then, are the characteristics of this age? And how should we as Christians respond to it? The most outstanding feature of our age of lawlessness is its increasing secularity. In his masterful work, A Secular Age, Charles Taylor describes ours as a day in which “God’s presence receded” from the stage of history and events. In His place, “something other than God” has determined the standards and meanings by which everyday life must be lived."

For your research on this subject: Christ’s Olivet Discourse on the End of the Age; Part One "In this discourse, Christ answered their questions concerning the signs of the end of the age and of His second coming. This revelation becomes increasingly vital to understanding the meaning of events that are occurring today. Matthew 24 and 25 present Christ’s discourse on the end of the age, His predictions of the events which lead up to and climax in His second coming to the earth. In addition, Matthew 25:31-46 reveal the events which immediately follow His second advent. A study of these prophecies will help one to understand the headlines of our newspapers today, and major events and trends of our twentieth century."  John F. Walvoord  via Bible.org

Part Two: Prophecies Fulfilled in the Present Age   "Taken as a whole, the opening section of the Olivet Discourse is best interpreted as an enumeration of general signs, evidence of progress of the age, but not clear indications that the end of the age has come. While the modern world increasingly corresponds to these predictions, the specific signs of the end of the age will follow rather than precede the rapture of the church."

 Christ’s Olivet Discourse  on the end times from the Gospel of Matthew.

9 PM, central time and we're still here. Guess we'll go to church tomorrow.

http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/natebeeler

Letter to Ariel Sharon from George W. Bush supporting disengagement plan

Wikisource  "As part of a final peace settlement, Israel must have secure and recognized borders, which should emerge from negotiations between the parties in accordance with UNSC Resolutions 242 and 338. In light of new realities on the ground, including already existing major Israeli population centers, it is unrealistic to expect that the outcome of final status negotiations will be a full and complete return to the armistice lines of 1949, and all previous efforts to negotiate a two-state solution have reached the same conclusion. It is realistic to expect that any final status agreement will only be achieved on the basis of mutually agreed changes that reflect these realities."

http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/natebeeler

U.S. Policy Does Not Seek Israel's Return to the 1967 Borders  By Dr. Dore Gold

The material in this post and here should give you context and background for the post that follows.

Obama's speech on Israel and the Arabs: Credibility Is Obama's Biggest Weakness In Middle East Strategy

James Jay Carafano  "Mr. Obama has promised to negotiate away the Iranian nuclear threat and failed.
'He has promised to negotiate an Israeli-Palestinian peace and failed.
'His 2009 Cairo speech was so vacuous, it promised nothing, so I suppose you could argue he delivered on that one.
'Still, it’s hard to take seriously the words of a leader who has so abjectly failed to make good on previous promises." ....
"The bulk of speech consisted of warmed over promises and calls for more dead-end dialogue. This was an exercise in cheerleading, not leading."  James Jay Carafano is director of the Heritage Foundation’s Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies

Hold That Tiger  "In giving his speech the president may have done three things, none of which he quite intended. First, he has essentially denounced as evil and misguided, though in a lukewarm fashion, decades of American policy in the Middle East. Second, he has delegitimized Israel, at least within the context of its current borders. Third, he has by implication suggested that the rule of many of his allies is undemocratic and, in consequence, declared himself King of Arabia. He has assumed ultimate responsibility for the political development of the region now. He’s declared it broken. Now he owns it."  Richard Fernandez

Peace and the ‘Right of Return’  "And contrary to initial reports in the Guardian, the Palestine Papers* do not reveal conciliatory Palestinians pitted against inflexible Israelis. For example, whereas Israel is prepared to welcome a small symbolic number of refugees, the PA seeks to preserve an unlimited flow that would, by sheer numbers and deliberate intention, end Israel by turning it into an Arab-majority state.
(*pdf; And contrary to initial reports in the Guardian, the Palestine Papers do not reveal conciliatory Palestinians pitted against inflexible Israelis. For example, whereas Israel is prepared to welcome a small symbolic number of refugees, the PA seeks to preserve an unlimited flow that would, by sheer numbers and deliberate intention, end Israel by turning it into an Arab-majority state.)

America Drowns, But Obama Throws the Mideast Our Life Preserver  "It's the kind of stupid you can only afford with other people's money."

Standing Strong with Israel  "When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits President Barack Obama at the White House today for three hours of meetings, he will likely ask the President a very important question: Do you stand by the long-standing U.S. commitments to Israel’s future as a Jewish state?" Heritage


The Golden Gates (the two enclosed arches on the Eastern Wall)
 were cemented shut centuries ago to prevent the
 prophets from returning to the Temple Mount



Obama Misses Opportunity in “Moment of Opportunity” Middle East Speech



Congressman Allen West on Obama's two-state solution for Israel  ...“Resorting to the pre-1967 borders would mean a full withdrawal by the Israelis from the West Bank and the Jewish neighborhoods of East Jerusalem. Make no mistake, there has always been a Nation of Israel and Jerusalem has been and must always be recognized as its rightful capital."...Via Infidel Blogger's Alliance

Text of the speech by Mr. Obama  by the Council on Foreign Relations.

http://terrellaftermath.com/

Osama and Obama Both Praise "Muslim Spring"

Far Left Israel Hater* Jeffrey Goldberg Attacks Netanyahu For Defending Jewish Homeland  "...Israel depends on the U.S. for its survival, while America, I imagine, would continue to exist even if Israel ceased to exist — I would find myself feeling resentful about the way Netanyahu speaks about our President." *Their words, not mine. 

Obama Gives Israel to Hamas 

• The real Palestinian homeland is now known as Jordan.

• Remember that Yassir Arafat was an Egyptian, not a Palestinian.

• Those we call “Palestinians” are essentially cannon fodder for Arab Countries that want to destroy the State of Israel.



•If Israel is forced back to its 1967 boundaries the country may well become indefensible. Several larger Israeli cities will be in range of rocket fire, and you can bet the ranch that Hamas, Hezbollah or some other anti-Israeli Muslim faction will load up the rocket launchers sooner or later.  Nealz Nuze

The 1949 armistice lines

 Obama’s Strategic Ambiguity On ‘1967 Lines’    

"The dovish Israeli diplomat Abba Eban once referred to Obama’s new proposed border as the “Auschwitz” lines, meaning that they placed Israel in such a vulnerable position–making the country just a few miles wide at one point–that they were a constant temptation to Israel’s enemies.

"Yet was Obama’s proposal really a departure from past U.S. policy? The AP thinks so, as does NPR and the BBC. ...President Bush called for a Palestinian state in 2005 based on the 1949 armistice lines, stating that “changes to the 1949 Armistice lines must be mutually agreed to.” And though Obama referenced 1967 rather than 1949, he used the term “lines,” not “borders.” Via Big Peace.

http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/ericallie

Reflections on Obama's Israel/ Arab speech

 Elliott Abrams on Obama’s Empty Speech "I would feel better about it had it been discussed with the Israelis instead of being dumped on their heads this morning with zero advance notice or warning or explanation, leaving them scrambling to figure out what it all meant. That alone suggests that whatever the “balanced” rhetoric, the administration persists in treating Israel as a problem rather than as an ally. The Israelis, by the way, responded cleverly to the president’s speech: Their statement said, “Prime Minister Netanyahu expects to hear a reaffirmation from President Obama of U.S. commitments made to Israel in 2004, which were overwhelmingly supported by both Houses of Congress.” Remember those posters with a photo of Bush and the caption “Miss me yet?” We know the Israeli answer."

The Jews Will Never Understand Obama is Against Them

conservativeblogscentral

Netanyahu told Obama to take it back. "Equally, the Palestinians, and not just the United States, must recognize Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people, and any peace agreement with them must end all claims against Israel.”"


Goodbye Nation-Building, Hello Nation-Facilitating  King Abdullah of Jordan and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel "came to Washington to hear that Obama had already made up his mind: He is going to push the butcher of Damascus around as much as he possibly can, no matter how bad a short-term impact this might have on Syria's neighbors. He is going to support the restive Syrians, even though he has no way of knowing what the outcome of regime change in Damascus might be." Slate

Obama Abandons Decades of U.S.-Israeli Diplomacy  "In the former case Israel gave up a core claim to ancient Jewish heritage. In the latter case it risked and eventually saw an Iranian proxy occupying Israel’s southern border. Those territorial concessions are functionally irreversible, which is why the US had to provide ironclad assurances in the first place.
"The Obama administration, upon taking office, immediately and with public relish unburdened itself of the Bush assurances. On the issue of borders, the White House refused to commit to ensuring “defensible borders,” instead reverting to vague “secure and recognized borders.” " Omri Ceren