Menendez and the Demise of American Liberalism. UPDATE: Part 2 with Guiliani

The Middle East Forum

Those who call themselves liberals have been unable or unwilling to name and recognize the affinities between Islamism in its Sunni and Shia variations and deeply reactionary forms of totalitarianism of the twentieth century. Liberalism, which was historically the home of anti-fascism, has, in its predominant currents, ceded that position to centrists and conservatives. 

. . . "He has led the push for deeper sanctions in the perhaps futile hope that economic pressure would lead the Iranians to turn away from the bomb without the need to resort to force.

Sen. Menendez has command of both broad strategic issues and technical details of the negotiations.

"The senator has done so with tact, deep knowledge of the subject and by holding numerous congressional hearings on the subject. In the process, he has earned the respect of senators in both parties because he is formidably well informed and has command of the broad strategic issues as well as the daunting technical details of the negotiations. It is precisely because the President cannot dismiss him as a member of the political opposition that he has been a thorn in the side of the Administration. Yet Menendez has been swimming against the main current of liberalism in the Obama era, one that finds little or no room for the traditions of liberal anti-fascism that were once one of American liberalism's defining features." .  Full article here.

Jeffrey Herf is a professor of History at the University of Maryland-College Park and a fellow at the Middle East Forum. His recent works include: Nazi Propaganda for the Arab World (2009) and The Jewish Enemy: Nazi Propaganda during World War II and the Holocaust (2006).\

Raging Rudy Giuliani Destroys Obama’s Policies on Islamism and Iran

UPDATE: WATCH PART 2: Raging Rudy Giuliani Destroys Obama's Policies on Islamism and Iran

Thankfully, Obama’s Dumb Capital Gains Plan Is Going Nowhere

Chris Edwards  "President Obama’s new tax proposals show that he is not interested in bipartisan tax reform. The plan ... outlined in his State of the Union address is anti-growth, anti-savings, and pro-complexity. Left-wing political consultants might like the plan, but not serious tax reformers. Obama himself has called for simplifying the tax code, but his proposals — including the expansion of tax credits — would make the code more complicated.

"Obama’s worst idea is raising the top capital gains tax rate from 24 to 28 percent, which would come on top of his previous increase from 15 percent. Low capital gains tax rates are not some sort of unjustified loophole. We've had reduced rates virtually the entire time we've had an income tax, and for very good reasons. Low capital gains rates are crucially important for spurring entrepreneurship, investment, and growth." 

. . .

Fear this president, but fear more the millions who elected him into office - twice.TD

Bill Clinton’s libido threatens to derail Hillary — again

NY Post   "She hasn’t even announced, but the question has already resurfaced: Will Bill Clinton’s baggage derail Hillary Clinton’s presidential hopes?

"Just a few weeks ago, reports broke that Bill Clinton had flown at least 11 times on “The Lolita Express” — a private plane owned by the mysterious financier and convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. According to Virginia Roberts, who claims to have been one of Epstein’s many teenaged sex slaves, Clinton also visited Epstein’s private Caribbean retreat, known as “Orgy Island.”. . .

. . . "Hillary took another hit when Claire McCaskill, the prominent Democratic senator from Missouri, weighed in on Bill’s reputation on “Meet the Press.”

"I think he’s been a great leader,” McCaskill said, “but I don’t want my daughter near him.”

“ 'F—k her,” Hillary said.

"McCaskill endorsed Obama." . . .

Nightmare scenario unfolding for Obama at Ayn al-Assad Air base

Thomas Lifson  "The massive air base at Ayn al-Assad in Iraq’s Anbar Province hosts 400 US Service members, who are training Iraq Air Force personnel. They now are in danger of serving as hostages to ISIS, which has conquered the nearby city of Al Baghdadi and already threatened the perimeter of the base."
. . .

"Under the half-hearted leadership of Obama, such engagement could lead to a major disaster. It all seemed so simple under the illusion that if only the malign US presence were ended, peace, love and happiness would result.

"We are living in perilous times."

That ISIS attack on an Iraqi military base was a lot worse than the Pentagon let on
. . . "That’s disturbing. Over the course of the last several months, ISIS has demonstrated its interest in both attacking this base and in getting at American troops. This latest assault’s incredible success – coming within two miles of American troops – is only going to embolden ISIS forces to continue their efforts to penetrate al-Asad."

US coalition against ISIS is fraying. Gulf Arab partners mull withdrawal over Iran’s involvement   . . . "It is feared in Riyadh – and not just in Abu Dhabi – that the joint US-Iranian war effort against the Islamic State is providing a screen behind which the Obama administration is opening doors for Iran to advance its regional aspirations.

"They are adamantly opposed to Obama’s policy in this regard and are loath to lend their air strength for its support. Therefore the entire Gulf component, and not just the UAE, may be quietly taking its leave of the US-led coalition against ISIS."

Judge Jeanine Pirro: “Mr. President, You Need To Get Serious About What’s Going On in the Middle East”

What really destroyed Brian Williams’ credibility?

Jon Stewart announced he's leaving The Daily Show, setting off specualtion that the comic might replace Brian Williams as the NBC News anchor. Nobody saw this coming. A month ago, you would have said before that happens, Charles Manson will call of his wedding because his fiancee is too weird.  Comedian Argus Hamilton

"The vapid nightly news itself, says Bill Maher."

Legal Insurrection   "Bill Maher has some ideas about what really destroyed Brian Williams’ credibility with the American people…and it has absolutely nothing to do with his recent suspension.

From Mediaite:

See, what “destroyed” Brian Williams’ credibility in Maher’s eyes was “ten years of wasting precious news time with bullshit stories.” It really bothers him that national nightly newscasts shirk their “sacred responsibility” to report the news in favor of viral YouTube videos, cutesy human interest stories, and lots and lots of weather coverage.

He called it “journalistic malpractice” for Williams to spend so little time reporting on climate change and instead covering east coast blizzards “like white Godzilla is on the way.”

"Watch:"    (Language advisory)

Full article here.

THE FIRST THREE STORIES ON TODAY'S BBC-NEWS PROVE THAT DUE TO OBAMA'S FAILING POLICIES OUR ENEMIES ARE ADVANCING

The Astute Bloggers

"FROM THESE HEADLINES ONE MUST CONCLUDE THAT OBAMA'S POLICIES ARE FAILING US, BUT AIDING AND ABETTING THE ENEMY:
BBC: Battles rage ahead of Ukraine truce
BBC: Boko Haram attacks Nigerian city
BBC: Canada foils 'mass shooting plot'

MAYBE OBAMA ISN'T A MOLE FOR PUTIN AND IRAN AND THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD, BUT HE MIGHT AS WELL BE.
OBAMA MAKES CARTER LOOK LIKE GEORGE PATTON! " . . .

SpongeBob soaks up 90 minutes, giving little in return

WorldMag

. . . "In the latter half of the movie, they exit the cartoon environs of the ocean and emerge on dry ground in a live action/computer graphics mélange. There they chase Burger Beard the Pirate, played by Antonio Banderas, who also narrates the entire story. The cartoonish action is for kids, but the humor—and, presumably, the several lingering close-ups of (real, not animated) bikini-clad women—is for grown-ups." . . 

Fox Host Bashes Obama For Saying ‘YOLO’ After Kayla Mueller Murdered By ISIS

"President Obama continues to get heat for his BuzzFeed interview, which featured him messing around with a selfie stick, after it was discovered it took place in the wake of him finding out about Kayla Mueller’s death at the hands of ISIS.

"While hosting “America’s Newsroom,” Fox News anchor Heather Childers chided the president over his actions during the interview, which was released Wednesday, during a panel with Juan Williams and Mary Katharine Ham, telling the pair Obama shouldn’t be saying “YOLO” in the wake of such a tragedy.

“ 'The president says, ‘YOLO, man!’ And for people at home who may not know what that stands for, YOLO stands for ‘you only live once,’” Childers told Williams. “Well you know who’s not alive, Juan, now? Kayla Mueller.' ”

Obama Makes Faces, Takes Selfies and Goofs Off in BuzzFeed Video

Brian Williams’s Truth Problem, and Ours

Victor Davis Hanson

. . . "Obscure senator Walsh was forced out of his re-election race. Biden, on the other hand, became vice president. It did not matter much that the Obama biography by Pulitzer Prize–winning author David Maraniss contradicted many of the details from Obama’s autobiography.

"Hillary Clinton may well follow her husband’s trajectory and become president. The Reverend Al Sharpton helped perpetuate the Tawana Brawley hoax; he is now a frequent guest at the White House.

"Why do so many of our elites cut corners and embellish their past or steal the work of others?

"For them, such deception may be a small gamble worth taking, with mild consequences if caught. Plagiarism is a shortcut to publishing without all the work of creating new ideas or doing laborious research. Padding a resume or mixing truth with half-truths and composites creates more dramatic personal histories that enhance careers.

"Our culture itself has redefined the truth into a relative idea without fault. Some academics suggested that Brian Williams may have lied because of “memory distortion” rather than a character defect.

"Contemporary postmodern thought sees the “truth” as a construct. The social aim of these fantasy narratives is what counts. If they serve progressive race, class, and gender issues, then why follow the quaint rules of evidence that were established by an ossified and reactionary establishment?" . . .

http://www.danzigercartoons.com/cartoons/brian-williams-hillary-clinton

Look, Kanye! Another awards ceremony!

Lets see Kanye West crash this ceremony ; Rich Terrell

UPDATE: Dresden, 70 Years After the Firebombing

"She was burned to a cinder, had become very small, but her hand was held up and on it was her gold wedding band, shining, not blackened at all."

PJ Media

. . . "The survivors recall the bombing, in which an estimated 25,000 people were killed — burned alive, sucked into the vortex, their bodies exploding in the heat, heads raining down out of the sky like bowling balls as people were ripped apart in the maelstrom. Here’s one:

Soviet troops were pressing into Germany from the east and the other Allies from the west, but for 12-year-old schoolboy Eberhard Renner the war seemed far away. Dresden had been spared the destruction suffered by other cities like Berlin and Hamburg, and Renner clung to the hope that the Saxon capital would stay off the target list with the war so clearly near its end.

Even as air-raid sirens started screaming 70 years ago Friday, Renner’s father dismissed the attack as another reconnaissance mission. Then the bomb fell into Renner’s backyard. It blew the thick oak door off the shelter where the family had taken refuge, slamming him and his mother to the ground. Somebody yelled that the roof was on fire, and they ventured out into the streets as the bombs rained down.. . .

 "The Atlantic has a vivid and moving collection of photos of the destruction here. And then there’s this:"

UPDATE: BBC's insult to hero pilots: Veterans rage over Dresden coverage that attacks Britain as being 'worse than the Nazis' but ignores RAF's sacrifice

. .  ‘If the war had gone on for another year, how many millions more would have been killed at Auschwitz?

" ‘By all means cover it but the one-sided BBC coverage has incensed me.’

"A woman who wrote a letter to the Daily Mail added: ‘The BBC is beyond belief. Do we hear you “celebrating” the “hell” that was Swansea burning, or Coventry, or Plymouth, or Portsmouth – with the same unctuous sympathy as you are showing for Dresden? We have nothing to be guilty about.’

"Military historians and former military top brass defended the bombing of Dresden.

"Historian Frederick Taylor told the Mail: ‘Thousands of innocent civilians as well as soldiers were dying every day as battles raged in east and west – not forgetting the concentration camp inmates who were still being murdered by starvation, violence, disease, and forced marches.

"‘How could any resource – including the massive Allied air forces – be left unused in trying to shorten the war and save many, many thousands more innocent lives? There should have been more room for another view.’ " . . .

'Obama ignoring reality of Islamic terrorism,' deputy minister says after Paris attack remarks

Jerusalem Post  "Bayit Yehudi's Ben-Dahan takes offense at US president's comments that kosher deli shooting was "random.' " 

 . . . "Speaking to The Jerusalem Post on Thursday, Ben-Dahan of the Bayit Yehudi party said it was impossible that the Islamist terrorist who attacked the kosher supermarket, Amedy Coulibaly, chose the target at random, given the details of the case released by the French police.

"Coulibaly himself told BFMTV, a French radio station he called while he was holding the customers in the store hostage, that he had chosen the shop because he was targeting Jews.

“ 'If you close your eyes and pretend that anti-Semitism and Islamist terrorism doesn’t exist it just leads to more tragedies.

“ 'We’re in a very grave situation when the leader of the US, who is meant to be the leader of the democratic world, ignores reality and does not see with open eyes Islamic terror as it really is and how it appears in many places around the world.' ”. . .