Israeli-Arab Crisis Approaching

STRATFOR  "The U.N. decision raises the stakes in this debate within the Palestinian nation that could lead to intense conflict. As vicious as the battle between Hamas and Fatah has been, an uneasy truce has existed over recent years. Now, there could emerge an internationally legitimized state, and control of that state will matter more than ever before. Whoever controls the state defines what the Palestinians are, and it becomes increasingly difficult to suspend the argument for a temporary truce. Rather than settling anything, or putting Israel on the defensive, the vote will compel a Palestinian crisis."
Israeli-Arab Crisis Approaching is republished with permission of STRATFOR.

Related, and becoming more important: Modernize FISA, But Don't Hobble American Intelligence Operations:  "Congress should make the Protect America Act permanent and enhance its provisions to provide retroactive and permanent liability protection to American businesses that cooperate with reasonable intelligence requests. The House of Representatives should not impose unconstitutional restrictions on the ability of the executive branch to carry out one of its primary, constitutionally mandated functions: protecting Americans from acts of war by foreign enemies."

http://fawstin.blogspot.com/

From Atlas Shrugs: Perry's Pandering: "Much is being of Rick Perry's support of Israel, which is essential. Loving Israel is great but off topic.Bush loved Israel too, but ultimately did it harm in his concessions to Islamic supremacists.

"Anytime Muslims and Jews conflict, Jews get thrown under the bus. You cannot appease the annihilationists while supporting their target.

"We are vetting our candidate now. This is the process. We must voice our concerns now."

Caroline Glick: The Israeli Left's Faustian bargain 

"Arafat ended all pretence of good faith in the summer of 2000 when he rejected then prime minister Ehud Barak's offer of Palestinian statehood and instigated the Palestinian terror war. Ever since Arafat chose terror war over peace, his followers' willingness to admit they reject Israel's right to exists(sic) has grown."

Good grief; I can imagine the American left's fecklessness, but how can Israel's left be so obtuse? The rockets are falling on them! TD

Cartoon: Jerusalem Post

From Debbie Schlussel: HUH? Israel Apologizes; This is What “Peace” w/ Palestinian Muslims Looks Like  "And what will the apology get the Israelis?  Nothin’ (other than snickers).  In fact, the Egyptians won’t be nicer and are already saying the apology is “not enough.”  Egypt won’t stop more HAMAS and Fatah and Al-Qaeda terrorists from attacking Israel from the Sinai and entering Gaza from the Rafah gate. Nothing will get better.  It will only get worse.  And it has gotten worse.  HAMAS has been sending rockets over Israel non-stop, and after murdering people, has a temporary “cease-fire” . . . or as they call it in Islam, “relock and reload.” "

Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ 12 Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 Then you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. 14 I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD.’”  Ezekiel 37:1-14, NIV

The cartoonists on Martha's Vineyard

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

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

The Obama jobs plan cometh soon





Neal Boortz: Laying the path for Obama's job "plan"  "Nothing that people shouldn’t be able to agree on? Just guessing – but let’s see:

•Strengthen unions.

•Government infrastructure work for only union contractors.

•Tax increases. Oops --- I mean “revenues”

•Reform patent laws. This is a biggie!

•No roll-back of the massive number of new government regulations under Obama. More than 379 new government regulations were added to the mix in July ALONE.

•Continue the fight against Boeing for daring to locate a manufacturing facility in a non-forced union state to warn other businesses that they had better not try a similar stunt.

•Continue to sit on the new trade agreements with Columbia, Panama and South Korea so that congress cannot act on them. Unions don’t like these agreements.

•Extend unemployment benefits because they create so many jobs.

"Oh yeah. There’s absolutely nothing there that reasonable people could disagree with, right? What we need to remember is that the people who put this dangerous hack into office were NOT reasonable people."

I'm sure Mr. Boortz means that in a nice way.  He adds this.

Is Obama's "specific" plan now just an outline?  "The president is going to outline a short-term plan to accelerate the economy," Axelrod said on ABC's This Week, "in the face of the hits we've taken, because of the Arab Spring and oil prices, because of the Japanese earthquake, because of Europe that have slowed down economic growth.

"On Meet the Press, Gibbs used similar language, "The president is going to outline some ideas, the president has outlined ideas every day he's been in the White House." " Philip Klein

Meanwhile, heres My Plan: the job will again fall on the Republican-led Congress and Obama will demagogue their proposals. The press will amplify that and public opinion will harden against the right and Obama will show more positive than Congress.

 But, hey; that's just my opinion.

Keep this in mind when Obama proposes "green" jobs, as you know he will:  Surprise! Green Jobs Not Actually Helping Employment Figures  " "Of course, we want to be a part of the new innovation and the green jobs," Rep. Maxine Waters said on MSNBC Thursday. "But you know, the green jobs have been about a lot of talk and not a lot has been happening on that." A few hours later, also on MSNBC, Waters said flatly: "All of this talk about the green jobs never materialized." "

Wall Street looks to the White House to inspire confidence after wild week  "“The president needs to come out and put a stake in the ground and say ‘This is where I stand,’” he said. “That would be the biggest thing he could do, and quite frankly, I don’t know why he hasn’t done it already.”

"It looks as if the president will take a step in this direction in September, when he rolls out a brand new plan to reduce the deficit, which will also offer several stimulus measures and tax breaks intended to get the economy moving again."

http://www.newsday.com/opinion/walt-handelsman-1.812005

Why Hasn’t the Economic Recovery that Obama Promised Happened?  "Now, class, why did the 2008 economic collapse happen? You there, waving your teleprompter: Mr. Obama: what say you? George Bush? Wrong answer.

"I’ve been over this before. Review an earlier reading assignment: “Who caused the global economic crisis (Hint: it Wasn’t George W. Bush“). Here’s the formula:"....Read on.

Roger Kimball

Perfectly Timed Friday Afternoon Obamacare Waiver Dump

Verum Serum  "Ever since the waivers became a news item the administration has been working hard to downplay them. First they changed the website where the new waivers were announced, with no announcement or link to the new site. Now they’ve started waiting until Friday afternoons to release the latest figures:" 

The Obama administration granted another 106 waivers last month from part of the healthcare reform law — the first round of three-year waivers the Health and Human Services Department has approved.

The new approvals bring the total number of waivers to 1,472, according to HHS.

What is a Friday document dump?  "At the Clinton White House, Mr. Fabiani's preference was to release potentially damaging information right before the weekend. "My friends in the media used to call them Fabiani Fridays. … You had hard-copies of stuff. You'd put them all in a room," he said. "We would say to people, ‘Here are six stacks. You go on through them.' "

Just as he promised, Obama has fundamentally transformed America..

Wall Street Journal  "One of the Obama administration's central (and most damaging) beliefs is that tax rates must be raised for what President Obama calls "millionaires and billionaires," which he defines to include individuals and small businesses making as little as $200,000. Interestingly, Christina Romer, who was chairman of Mr. Obama's Council of Economic Advisors, has done some research on the impact of tax increases, and concluded that increasing taxes by 1% of GDP for deficit-reduction purposes leads to a 3% reduction in GDP."  Emphasis added.

DeMint: No American President More Anti-Business Than Obama (video) 

"Jim DeMint says Obama is the worst offender when it comes to promoting American business."

Via Boortz

This cartoon gives a counterpoint to the article

 

Will foreign policy be a campaign issue in 2012?

It was with Neville Chamberlain; who remembers him for sound economic policies in Britain during the 1930's? Or is he remembered for selling out his ally to appease an evil dictator?

Obama Administration’s Eyes Are Closed on Completely Predictable Middle East Crises  "President Barack Obama’s determination not to give headaches to America’s enemies guarantees that he brings them onto U.S. interests. Here are examples happening right now and certain to blow up before the November 2012 elections."

....

"...a time bomb is going to go off in late September or October when the Obama administration vetoes the Palestinian bid and all hell breaks loose as Muslims and Arabs proclaim that Obama is worse than his predecessor! All the president’s apologies and all the president’s courting won’t put his (alleged) popularity together again.

"Indeed, Marwan Barghouti, the Fatah leader who started the bloody 2000 intifadah, is warning that a U.S. veto would be an act of “terrorism” that would wreck Palestinian relations with the United States. All that money and diplomatic support doesn’t count. Unless you do 100 percent of what they want — very detrimental to U.S. interests–it amounts to zero percent in their eyes. And he is openly threatening anti-American terrorism." Barry Rubin

Success Against al Qaeda Depends on Success in Afghanistan  "Simply put, if the U.S. abandons the mission in Afghanistan before achieving the objectives President Obama announced at West Point, the “counter-terrorism” operations in Pakistan will also fail."

about.com/

How the GOP should attack Obama's foreign policy in 2012  "But it is not too early to begin thinking about how they should be distinguishing themselves from President Obama. Herewith a few foreign policy themes that GOP presidential candidates should consider highlighting as challenges to the Obama administration:"....

Diminished American power....

Declining American leadership....

Politics trumping policy....

Deferring problems....

Flailing on free trade....

"GOP candidates should offer agreement where agreement is merited, since as the above points show, there is plenty else to disagree with."

Russia in talks to build more nuclear plants in Iran: report

How Budget Cuts Will Limit the United States’ Global Role "The recent deal over the debt ceiling guarantees that the U.S. government will reduce its spending on foreign policy, which will force America to scale down its ambitions abroad."

The EPA- here it comes!

Getting ready for a wave of coal-plant shutdowns  "The regulations, they say, will cost utilities up to $129 billion and force them to retire one-fifth of coal capacity. Given that coal provides 45 percent of the country’s power, that means higher electric bills, more blackouts and fewer jobs. The doomsday scenario has alarmed Republicans in the House, who have been scrambling to block the measures. Environmental groups retort that the rules will bring sizeable public health benefits, and that industry groups have been exaggerating the costs of environmental regulations since they were first created."  Check out this timeline.

But how will we be able to charge up our Chevy Volts?

Tunnel Dweller's hometown of Garibaldi, Oregon before the EPA struck

The Garibaldi mill today.

Energy prices on rise.

Utilities warn of higher rates because of pollution rules  "The new rule has been in development for several years but the first phase of compliance hits utilities in 2012. WPS said it won't have time to install pollution controls by next year at its plants, but will be able to comply by purchasing credits from other utilities that have cut emissions."

Via Drudge

States Start Realizing that the Obama EPA is Threatening Their Economies (Update: Texas Hits Peak Demand)  "I’ve written quite a bit about the Obama EPA’s regulatory assault on Texas, mainly because I happen to live in Texas. The fact is, the EPA is chipping away at 26 states and their economies via the cross-state rule and the Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT) rule. The MACT rule alone could force enough power plant shutdowns to cost 30 to 70 gigawatts of power (one gigawatt powers about 750.000 homes). Some of the targeted states are starting to wake up to the threat: rate hikes, lost power production leading to outages, lost jobs, worse economies. Here’s a sample of reaction in states beyond the Lone Star."

Alan Caruba: Black America's Gains and Losses

Warning Signs  "As a general observation, blacks in America have chosen to ignore the gains in legally protected civil rights equality.

"By most indices the black community has not changed. In U.S. cities they remain ghettoized, as much from choice, as external circumstances. Instead of moving forward, integrating and assimilating into the larger white population; blacks have emotionally remained apart, nurturing a sense of being victims, holding onto an animus for whites."

....

The Congressional Black Caucus

"When whites became aware of Obama’s preacher, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, saying “God damn America”, they had to actively ignore the fact that Obama had spent many years in his church, that Wright had married him and Michelle, and baptized their children. Theirs was no casual relationship, nor were others from any earlier point in his life such as the Communist Party member, Frank Marshall Davis, who advised young Barack that his white grandmother had a right to be scared of blacks because “She understands that black people have a reason to hate.” " 

Powerful article and a subject addressed in the sidebar to the right on this blog.

Courage in Hollywood: Angie Harmon

whatscookintoday

Townhall  "Hollywood A-list actress and longtime “Law and Order” star Angie Harmon  caused a bit of a stir recently when she made the following comments about our new president: “If I have anything to say against Obama, it’s not because I’m a racist, it’s because I don’t like what he’s doing as president, and anybody should be able to feel that way. But what I find now is that if you say anything against him, you’re called a racist.”

"But Harmon’s brazen outburst of political incorrectness was just getting started."...

For Angie Harmon, her family is her 'badge of honor'  "One of her L.A. obstacles, she says, has been finding a church to connect with. And then there's Harmon's conservative politics. "The thing that is interesting about being pigeonholed in your political party is that everyone thinks, 'Oh, you're a Republican; that means you're intolerant.' And no, I think we're down the middle," says Harmon, speaking for herself and Sehorn."

More here:

• Angie Harmon Defends Bristol Palin's Pregnancy, Says GOP Is More Understanding
• Angie Harmon: A Conservative Voice from Hollywood

Be advised that when speaking to liberals about Harmon, they will point out that she has done nude photo shots for upscale magazines. Just keeping you from getting ambushed with that and I can't explain it; it's something all celebrities seem to feel they can do.

Outrage! Obama’s Latest Perfidy.

Skip MacLure  "Barack Hussein Obama needs these alien votes. Let’s be quite clear about this. Maobama cannot win re-election in 2012 on the merits of his performance or his policies, every single one of which has been, and is, an absolute disaster. He and his DeMarxists need that infusion of illegal voters."

I must have missed the C-Span debate on this.

Facebook Removed Jan Brewer Post Criticizing Obama’s New Immigration Policies  "Barack Obama announced this week that his administration would not enforce the current immigration laws. Just last month Obama admitted he did not have the authority to make such a decision.

"Jan Brewer later posted on Obama’s actions but Facebook removed the post. KFYI reported:"...

Obama’s Constitution Trampling Rages On: Nine Impeachment-Worthy Acts  "One thing we know today is, the Democrat party is not your Mamma’s Democrat party. If the current Democrat Congress had an ounce of integrity, the House would be impeaching Barack Obama and the Senate would be convicting him. But today’s Democrat is willing to let Obama unconstitutionally bypass them. There is no way Republicans can stop it, but they could at least try – and make a hell of a lot of noise doing it. Congress has abdicated their duty and violated their oath of office, just as Obama has violated the Constitution to which he swore."

 

Conspiracy Theory: The Curious Case of the Obama-Osama Movie

PJ Lifestyle  " "There is every reason to believe that this Administration is pressuring legitimate arms of the government to assist popular culture in the making of a propaganda film." --Lionel Chetwynd"

directorblue.blogspot.com

King requests investigation of ‘administration-sanctioned’ film on classified bin Laden raid

“Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates stated that ‘Too many people in too many places are talking too much about this operation, and when so much detail is available it makes that both more difficult and riskier’ for such missions in the future.”

Catholic Charities in IL loses foster care contracts

Rick Moran  "The state of Illinois is about to throw the foster care system in chaos because a large provider - Catholic Charities - opposes placing children with same sex couples.

"The 2200 children placed by Catholic Charities will now be transferred to other social welfare agencies. The state says they will try to keep the kids with the same foster parents, but there are no guarantees that this will occur during the transition." ....

"When the welfare of children takes second place to the very small number of gay couples who would actually want to go through Catholic Charities in the first place to become foster partents, you know that things are royally screwed up in Illinois."

We do live in a Democrat-ruled world, do we not?