Victor Davis Hanson: What’s Off the Table in 2012?

Victor Davis Hanson  "There is much talk about what some are perceiving as the fringe religiosity of Republican candidates such as Michele Bachman and Rick Perry. But the media established the precedent four years ago that no candidate can be held responsible for his church. Barack Obama’s pastor of more than 20 years, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, was an unapologetic racist, an anti-Semite, and a raving conspiracy theorist whose parishioners gave him standing ovations for his hate-filled “G*d damn America” rants."
....
"Obama will be forced to argue, as did incumbent Herbert Hoover in 1932, that after four years his borrow/print/spend remedies still have not kicked in. And so he will claim that he needs eight years, not four, for Keynesian economics to finally work. Good luck with that silly argument."




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



Comments on 9-11 and the anniversary

It is said that General Grant in the Civil War never cared in the least what his enemy was going to do; he only thought of what he would do to his enemy.  Rather than this nation worrying about what Islamists will do to us on the 10th anniversary of 9-11, let the US instead take it to them on this occasion. What a great day to strike every known al Qaeda target just to remind every one that 9-11 was one great day for them followed by ten years of looking over their shoulders and waiting for obliteration. TD

Holding Out For A Hero  "As we have already noted, the commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks shapes up as a disappointment–paeans to multiculturalism, peace quilts, and the like. So far, I have seen only one news story that unreservedly celebrates the heroism that was shown by so many on that day. Fittingly enough, it relates to Flight 93."
.... "But have we really reached the point in our liberal media culture when a man can only be hailed for his indisputably heroic actions if he also happened to be gay? "

9/11/11: How to remember  "Like Rothstein, Professor McClay notes the ambivalence and ambiguity that suffuses our memorials and commemorations of 9/11. He characterizes the state of affairs as “a national disgrace.” Yet he finds reason for hope amid the intellectual rubble:"...
Pajamas Media — Ten Years After 9/11  "NRO’s Deroy Murdock discusses the dangerous sanitization of the language of 9/11. People did not “perish “ on 9/11. They were “murdered.” "

Memorializing September 11th   "But it also need hardly be said that the cumulative spectacle of hundreds and hundreds of plaintiffs with their hands out cannot help but take a toll on public sympathies. All Americans felt profound compassion for the families of the victims, but the family members who complained at the size of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund awards — which averaged $2.08 million per victim — or who exploited their standing to support political causes only barely related to the attacks, or who attempted to make money from their status in various ways, have badly strained that compassion."

The decision to treat the 9/11 attacks as acts of war rather than crimes was crucial..  "Civil liberties would certainly have suffered far worse had al Qaeda succeeded in landing a second blow on a par with 9/11. Instead, the Bush administration successfully handed off a secure homeland to its successor. Mr. Obama fumbled with his failed effort to close Gitmo, try al Qaeda leaders in Manhattan, and prosecute CIA officers. Yet reality and political opposition forced the administration to return to many of its predecessor's core terrorism policies.
"In the last decade, our nation has certainly paid a price in the lives of the brave men and women who have defended us. But who would say, after 10 years, that it wasn't worth it to keep our nation safe?"
John Yoo is a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley. He was an official in the Justice Department from 2001-03, and is co-editor of "Confronting Terror: 9/11 and the Future of American National Security," just published by Encounter Books. 

“You lost the war!” UK MUSLIMS plan to disrupt 9/11 Moment of Silence

"“We will be holding a big demonstration and it’s going to begin at the time the first plane hit the building – when everybody is holding their minute’s silence. “We will be very noisy during that time. It will be to expose the crimes of the American government over the past ten years and showing how they have failed."

NEVER FORGET: 9/11 Jumpers from HELL
Graphic images.

People are leaving Islam in droves, but we rarely hear about them. Listen to this narration from an ex-Muslim debunking Islam   "There are many famous people here whom you may not have realized are ex-Muslims."

Obama and Big Labor

The text of Obama's speech in Detroit  "I'm glad I was able to bring a friend -- a proud daughter of the Teamsters, your Secretary of Labor, Hilda Solis, in the house. (Applause.) "
 Via Heritage  in this article: Big Government Rising?:

And now, as 14 million unemployed Americans wait for the hope and change they were promised, they’re getting more of the same from their President and politicians on the left: a movement toward bigger government that will only make matters worse.

Obama ratings sink to new lows as hope fades    "Of the more than six in 10 who now disapprove of Obama’s work on jobs and the economy, nearly half of all Americans “strongly” disapprove."  You won't guess that from the photo that goes with this article. 

The White House and Big Labor Use Labor Day to Demean and Advocate Violence

"We members of the Tea Party Movement know full well how the establishment in the Democrat Party and Media would have reacted if anyone of us had advocated violence against our political opponents, oh that right, the establishment has been trying to manufacture that storyline since the Tea Party began."  Kevin L. Martin

Obama Declares He’s ‘Proud’ of Hoffa–After Hoffa Declares ‘War’ on Tea Party ‘Sons-Of-Bitches’   Don't you find this video a bit chilling?  Remember the TEA Party has been a movement of average citizens protesting the takeover by the government of so much of our lives and businesses.

From American Thinker:  Dems' new civility: 'Let's take these son of a bitches out'
Hoffa said he'd say the exact same words all over again

."I would because I believe it," he said. "They've declared war on us. We didn't declare war on them, they declared war on us. We're fighting back. The question is, who started the war?"

This is what happens to those who dare to oppose socialists.

Growing Proof of Obama's Imperial Presidency  "President Barack Obama's National Labor Relations Board ... is on a job-killing rampage. It's claiming unprecedented powers far beyond what federal law allows. Taken with Obama's other agencies, these executive actions paint a picture of what has become an imperial presidency."

How Much More ‘New Tone’ Can We Handle?  "I had to laugh when I heard one of the morning news show talking heads wondering aloud if President Obama would denounce what Teamster President Jimmy Hoffa Jr. said yesterday. Sure, and maybe Michael Moore will speak out against Twinkies today."

AWFUL! DNC Chair Wasserman Schultz Refuses to Condemn Hateful Speech at Obama Rally (Video)    "After Carlson prompted several times for a specific response to Hoffa’s shot at the tea party, Wasserman Schultz asked the host “are you kidding me?” "

Capitalism; the enemy of Socialism

http://terrellaftermath.com/

NLRB Heralds Labor Day with an Attack on Workers’ Rights"The NLRB has decided that workers who do not want to take these risks will not get to vote. That certainly makes life easier for union organizers, but it hardly enhances workers’ rights.

"In a second ruling, Lamons Gasket Co., the NLRB took another swipe at the secret ballot. Under current law, unions do not have to organize workers through secret ballot elections. If a company agrees to it, unions can solicit signatures on union authorization cards."

A Jobless Labor Day  "The union movement has helped lead to the staggering loss of manufacturing jobs in the United States, and the demands it has made on employers and governments help create the very conditions leading to the tragic unemployment in Detroit and across the country. But they are strong political allies of the President..."

Contentions: Obama’s “Country Before Party” Nonsense  " Obama isn’t truly asking Republicans to put country before party. He is asking them to elevate the interests and ideas of the Democratic party higher than their own ideas, their sense of what is best for the nation, and their deeply held convictions about the moral hazard posed by a too-large government and a populace too reliant on it."

biggovernment.com/laborunionreport

 

For Those Who Don’t Know What Racism Is

Moonbattery    Racism has been defined as rejecting policies of overbearing regulation on our economy; of resisting forces of socialism that regard all personal income as belonging to the government; of being personally attacked for taking a conservative stand on any issue; of wanting the regime to leave us alone to live our lives and do our jobs; of not wanting our children to be treated to liberal indoctrination in school and on television; of not being coerced to pretend acts we know to be immoral and perverted are normal; of voting down programs that we know to be expensive, corrupt failures; of wanting those who callously break our laws to be swiftly and properly punished; of naming those who want to kill Americans by the hundred thousands and sending our forces against them.  The Tunnel Dweller.

For you liberals and Democrats in general, this is racism:

Here's how to say the above in nicer words.

Remember that many of this man's race reject him completely.

Gassing Up with Obama

Video from rightchange.com

Newspapers that worked with Wikileaks denounce massive release of unredacted cables

Spiegel: How many have died at the hands of the anti-war crowd?

Hot Air  " Read the Spiegel piece, which isn’t long, and read this short but gripping account from the inside by former Wikileaks staffer James Ball, who explains how the group’s recklessness has already led to dissidents being rounded up by oppressive governments. The grand irony of this little experiment in total transparency, of course, is that Wikileaks has become the authoritarian’s best friend, not only leading state police straight to the doorsteps of informants but giving potential informants every reason to keep their mouths shut when it comes to exposing their government’s crimes. Fantastic work for a “human-rights organization.” "  (Emphasis added)

Wikileaks Killed 1300 People And Counting  "OK, not killed but led to their deaths. Not our opinion but that of fame-hungry Julian Assange, who has undone the brilliant site by steering it towards an anti-USA agenda and media prominence."

‘Its an AQ/Taliban execution team’s treasure trove.’”  "If I were a Taliban operative with access to a computer — and lots of them have access to computers — I’d start searching the WikiLeaks data for incident reports near my area of operation to see if I recognized anyone. And then I’d kill whomever I could identify. Those deaths would be directly attributable to WikiLeaks."



Soulmates of the anti-war left.



Taliban prepare to punish WikiLeaks Afghan informers   "Qari Yousef Ahmadi, a spokesman for the Taliban told the Daily Telegraph. "We read everything and we will read these documents.

" "We will look for the names of people, but it will be a judge who decides. We won't act unless we are 100 per cent sure. We are not just going to trust these documents, we will make our own inquiries. "

....

"Taliban fighters (right) routinely behead, hang or shoot dead those considered to be spies or associated with foreign troops"

Happy Labor Day

http://www.worldmag.com/editorialcartoons/

Jewish Media, ADL, Snopes Work Overtime Whitewashing Anti-Israel Whole Foods; Here Are the FACTS

Debbie Schlussel  "Here are the facts I reported–facts which remain solid and unrefuted:"

"Whole Foods dumped Israel’s best-selling product, Israeli olive oil, and replaced it with Palestinian Terrorist Olive Oil a/k/a Palestinian Canaan Fair Trade olive oil, which supports Muslim HAMAS and Fatah farmers and funds scholarships to HAMAS Terrorist University a/k/a An-Najah University in Nablus, which recruits for HAMAS, displays exhibits celebrating and mocking homicide bombings of Jews, where photos of Islamic terrorist leaders of Hezbollah, HAMAS, etc. line the walls, and where the American and Israeli flags are permanently affixed to the floor for students, faculty, and visitors to step on. "

"Whole Foods officially recognizes HAMAS’ “Palestine” as a state and said so in writing to people who complained about its anti-Israel stance."  More....

* Whole Foods Funded Radio Intifada on KPFK radio station. 

* Whole Foods’ London store doesn’t carry Israeli couscous because it does not want to offend British Muslims. Instead, Whole Foods London sells Palestinian Zaynoun couscous.

*  Whole Foods’ Ramadan promotion was not “just like any other holiday promotion for Christmas or Passover,” because it spent a lot of money from its foundation to promote Ramadan and never any other holiday.  

The Hamas Terror Exhibition At Nablus University - More amazing video clips are a click away

Presidential disrespect went around and now comes around

Legal Insurrection  "G.O.P. vs. Obama: Disrespect or Just Politics? "

"That is the deeply probing question asked by The NY Times with regard to G.O.P. opposition to Obama.

"There was no such question when it came to Democratic treatment of George W. Bush, it was pure disrespect.

"Please dig deep into the history books and show me another President who was booed at his successor’s inauguration:"

"And another President who had sit not only through the booing, but also listen to his successor lay into him during the inaugural speech. As The Times itself noted, we have to go back 75 years for an inaugural speech as cutting as Obama’s:

It was a delicate task, with Mr. Bush and Dick Cheney sitting feet from him as Mr. Obama, only minutes into his term as president, described the false turns and the roads not taken….

"Yet not since 1933, when Franklin D. Roosevelt called for a “restoration” of American ethics and “action, and action now” as Herbert Hoover sat and seethed, has a new president so publicly rejected the essence of his predecessor’s path.

"Obama is being treated no worse than he and his supporters treated Bush. What goes around comes around."

From the NY Times article linked:

But White House officials, echoing their boss’s aversion to suggestions of racism, never play that card, not even in private conversations with reporters.

One administration official said that Mr. Obama “made it clear” when he came into office “that there wouldn’t be people crying wolf on race every day.”

For which we must praise Mr. Obama.

Zero Jobs 101 — the Psychology of Alienating Employers

Victor Davis Hanson  The Great Sit-Down Strike

"In the last 30 months, the Obama administration has created a psychological landscape that finally just seemed, whether fairly or not, too hostile to most employers to risk new hiring and buying. Each act, in and of itself, was irrelevant. Together they are proving catastrophic and doing the near impossible of turning a brief recovery into another recession."

....

"Highly publicized visits to bankrupt subsidized green plants, blaming George Bush, new racially-driven invective from some congresspeople against the Tea Party, sermons about the sensitivities of illegal aliens, politically-correct tutorials about Islam — all that might rally the base or in isolation be understandable, but again fairly or not, such liberal rhetoric simply adds to the problem from yet another dimension: confirming perceptions that employers are about the last people in the world that this administration is worried about."   (Emphasis added)

Will President Obama’s Thursday address be the worst speech ever?    "...some presidential historians made the connection to Carter’s moment three decades ago.

"“It was a make-or-break speech,” said John Kenneth White, a political science professor at Catholic University. Carter had “gone to Camp David to assess what had gone wrong in the energy crisis, but also what had gone wrong with his presidency, to hit the restart button.”"

....

"And it’s not like the president has announced a cabinet shakeup or fired any of his army of czars.

"It’s not looking too good so far."

(Updated) Wikileaks makes public hundreds of thousands of unredacted State Department docs

Rick Moran  "The juvenile hackers who run Wikileaks have probably just murdered dozens of people around the world. They have dumped their entire cache of State Department cables into the public domain - without redacting names of informants."

....

"And this is the guy the left has put on a pedestal and lionized? "

Update: Taliban Use Wikileaks to Hunt, Murder Named Afghans  

One example from 2006 described an encounter between US officers and an Afghan. The Times has redacted the report to ensure that no individual or their relatives could be targeted.

Yesterday the account of Mr [X]’s meeting was accessible to anyone on the internet with the thousands of others published by WikiLeaks. When The Times sought to track down Mr [X] to ask his response, he was found to be dead.

He was killed by the Taleban two years ago after being suspected of spying for American forces.

"Anyway, so the Taliban are doing exactly what I said they would do, in my pieces for PBS and CJR: they are vowing to hunt down and murder anyone who is identified in the Wikileaks archive as having worked for the U.S."

Google being Google, you have to look pretty deep past a list of pro-Wikileaks articles that all deny that anyone has been hurt ("there is no evidence,,,"). Mr. Assange, who is angry over the "collateral damage" caused by US strikes seems to have no worries about causing it himself.