About that 3am phone call: "Iranian Official: ‘We Will Use Our Missiles To Protect Other Muslim States’"

Reza Kahlili  "Will the West take this threat seriously, or will we allow the jihadists to expand their power? Delusional leaders bring nothing but destruction and pain to the world; it is certain that the Iranian leaders are delusional. They believe the Islamic prophecies, the Hadith, say they can bring about the Islamic conquest of the world by destroying Israel and America. They intend to try.' "
Maybe it's time for Obama to send the Iranians another friendly video. What a terrible time to have a juvenile-ish amateur in charge of our foreign policy.

http://isurvived.org/Iran-holocaust_contest.html

Is the US deliberately harming Israeli covert ops in Iran?  "The Stuxnet story shows the problematic flipside of trade embargos against rogue states like Iran. The less access you have to enemy markets, the less ability you have to gather information about enemy targets and the less capacity you have to sabotage enemy targets. The more access you have, the more capacity you can build to infiltrate, gather information and sabotage enemy targets."  Caroline Glick

EPA illustrated by Mike Ramirez, Commented upon by Alan Caruba



townhall.com/michaelramirez

If Elected (A Fantasy)  "I would make shutting down the Environmental Protection Agency a priority. It is a rogue agency that appears to think it is not accountable to Congress or the American people. It is filled with fanatics who have no regard for real science. It is costing the nations jobs and thwarting our energy needs. If I was President there would be no further mention of “global warming” or “climate change.” The climate is always changing; it’s called “the seasons” or “warming and cooling cycles.” There will be no regulation of carbon dioxide. That’s a scam." Alan Caruba, blogging at Warning Signs

Those Republican Debates

GOP hopefuls target Obama at first big debate  "For two hours, GOP hopefuls vied to introduce themselves to voters, break out of the pack and score points in a kinetic forum that careened from one topic to another. There were relatively few differences on issues and limited shots at one another as the candidates joined in bashing the Obama administration."
Expect this: Thin-skinned Mr. Obama will chafe at any criticisms and schedule a follow-up lecture in front of smiling admirers in some big room. There he will rebut any points made against him with sarcasm and phrases like, "think about it" and "let me be clear", along with his other Obamisms. Look for this to happen after any attacks on him by candidates and consider the logistics of planning security, aircraft and travel arrangements for his entourage so he can make these appearances.

The strong conservative field solidifies.  "King also failed when he insisted the candidates engage in a lengthy discussion of same sex marriage and how each of the candidates would deal with the repeal of the U.S. military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy." ....
"Indeed, raising the issue in a GOP debate only makes sense if the objective is to derail a campaign or produce a “Gotcha” moment, hardly the job of a non-partisan, neutral moderator. In fact, it makes about as much sense as asking candidates in a Democratic presidential debate to discuss their position on abortion."

As usual, Republicans will be grilled as suspects by liberals in the press, so they can get attaboys from fellow libs at their cocktail parties. This headline will tell you all you need to know about those who will be interviewing Republicans.

"Yeah, “wingnut” is such an objective, descriptive term, isn’t it?  It’s not incendiary in the least."

Who was the night’s biggest winner?  "Frankly, none of them turned in an inspiring or inspired performance, although all of them did at least a competent job.  I spent two hours looking for a breakout candidate or a charismatic performance that would stand out and frame the rest of the primary race." Ed Morrissey
Several columnists commented on interviewer CNN's John King and his moderating of the debates.

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

Mark Steyn weighs in on the debates  "Hmm. What I learned is that John King makes Tim Pawlenty look like Lady Gaga. Other than that, I also got the distimct impression that this season’s debates seem unlikely to be effective forums even for acknowledging the profound and existential crises facing the nation, never mind addressing them."

Debate thoughts: Bachmann and Romney win... "The reality of modern politics is that it takes a large personality and presence to win the Presidency. Merely being right won’t do it. Last night, Romney and Bachmann showed they had the personality and presence to beat Obama, while the others mostly did not."

Bloomberg: Republicans Hammer Obama on Economy, Jostle for Edge at Candidate Debate
"Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney stressed his opposition to the federal health-care law even as he defended a similar state measure he helped to enact. Former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty defended his economic plan, which presumes a high U.S. economic growth rate. Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, who at the debate’s start was the only participant yet to announce a presidential bid, used the occasion to say that she would run."

At last night's debate, one audience member raised the issue of energy infrastructure:  "...while eminent domain is appropriate when the government needs land for roads and highways, eminent domain should not be used to condemn land "for purposes of a private enterprise." And then he pivoted to the question of American energy security more broadly, calling on the nation to produce more oil, natural gas, and clean coal."

Palin's emails, uh, I mean, PALIN'S EMAILS!

http://terrellaftermath.com/

 The real news about Obama that's fit to print   "LA Times Won't Release Obama-Khalidi Tape But Posts 24,000 Sarah Palin Emails"
"In 2008 The LA Times withheld a video that contained footage of Barack Obama celebrating with a group of Palestinians who were openly hostile towards Israel. Barack Obama reportedly even gave a toast to a former PLO operative, Rashid Khalidi, at this celebration. This was something the LA Times hid from the American public before the election. The media refused to release the
video". Ethel C. Fenig   TD found this post to be bold-worthy.

 Can we get Obama's emails to and from the NLRB?  "The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has filed a complaint against Boeing for building a new plant in South Carolina, a right to work state. In the past, union strikes have cost the company billions of dollars, but in good faith they tried to negotiate with the union to build the new plant in Washington state. After the union made ridiculous demands, they decided to open a plant in South Carolina, but they haven’t closed the Washington operation. They created about 1,000 jobs in South Carolina, but the NLRB doesn’t care about workers. They disregard Congress and carry water for the unions. It’s disgusting."

PALIN'S TRIG EMAIL MIGHT BE ONE OF THE 5 GREATEST THINGS EVER WRITTEN BY AN AMERICAN POLITICAN

The Astute Blogger  (The title is all-caps only because I cut and paste the text for accuracy and that is the way it came; not because of my "crazy".)
The AB calls it a "must- read"; that he read it twice and it brought tears to his eyes each time. He adds that if the letter doesn't affect you, youre a post-modern leftist.

Why ObamaCare Is Losing in the Courts

WSJ Opinion Journal  "ObamaCare's defenders have sought to manufacture another limiting principle. They claim that health care is unique because everyone will use medical services, health-care costs can be financially ruinous for uninsured individuals, and others will then have to pick up the slack by subsidizing consumers who do not pay their medical bills. Yet any number of national markets, including the housing market, share these same characteristics."

Messrs. Rivkin and Casey served in the Justice Department in the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations. They represent 26 states in one of the lawsuits challenging ObamaCare's constitutionality.

Common Sense And Courage From Pawlenty

Thomas Sowell  "Gov. Pawlenty fought Minnesota's transit unions over runaway pensions and hung tough during a long strike. "Today," he says, "we have a transit system that gives commuters a ride, without taking the taxpayers for a ride."
"Some fear that Gov. Pawlenty doesn't have the charisma and fireworks rhetoric that they would like to see in a candidate. Charisma and rhetoric are what gave us the current disastrous administration in Washington. .....*
"Politicians and the media may want a candidate with verbal fireworks, but the people want jobs. As Pawlenty put it: "Fluffy promises of hope and change don't buy our groceries, make our mortgage payments, put gas in our cars, or pay for our children's clothes.""

* Deleted a reference to Hitler. Sorry; I couldn't handle another one of those, not even from Mr. Sowell.

Truly Shocking: Feminists Back Anthony Weiner

Dana Loesch "As with Bill Clinton before him, Anthony Weiner has managed to spotlight the ironic discrepancy between what feminists say and the things for which they stand." ....
The head of the Brooklyn/Queens chapter of the National Organization for Women "said she could separate Weiner’s sexcapades from the liberal track record that earned the group’s support."

“I wasn’t happy to discover that my congressman is a 14-year-old boy,” said Julie Kirshner, president of the NOW chapter.

“But he happens to be one of the best politicians out there, so we’re in a bad position. We’re trying to give him the benefit of the doubt.”

Feminist Janeane Garafalo:

During an appearance on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher,” Janeane Garofalo said, “Anthony Weiner deserves to be supported and hopefully he will be mayor of New York one day. I’m serious. He is a Democrat [who] actually fights for the things liberals and progressive and rational people care about.

washingtonpost.com/

Exit Gingrich

Michael Barone   "Through all this, Gingrich always was searching for ideas that commanded 70 percent support. He understood that dovish Democrats’ disdain for American exceptionalism was a grave political liability and sought to exploit it. But after his first moments in the spotlight as speaker, he turned off voters. I think he reminded them of the high-school nerd/egghead whom all the other kids disliked."

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



If you saw "Schindler's List", you know this man; Little known hero Mietek Pemper laid to rest in Augsburg

Phil Boehmke "From 1943 to 1944 Mr. Pemper was imprisoned in the Plaszow concentration camp outside of his native Krakow, where he served as the personal typist to the Nazi commandant Amon Goeth.  Despite great personal risk Pemper read Goeth's official correspondence and used his knowledge of SS plans to help save the lives of his fellow Jews at Plaszow."....

"In the 1993 film Schindler's List, the character of Itzhak Stern (played by Ben Kingsley) was a compilation of Oskar Schindler's accountant (the real Itzhak Stern), Mietek Pemper and one other unidentified person."    
                      

 Amon Goeth   Mieczyslaw Pemper, who worked in the Plaszow camp office, testified during Göth’s trial that he had managed to look at Göth’s personal files and had found a letter from SS-Gruppenführer Globocnik, commander of the Lublin region, addressed to the commanders of Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka. The letter authorised Göth to have access to all areas of those extermination camps, for administration or possibly construction inspections. Under the direction of SS-Sturmbannführer Willi Haase, Göth conducted the final liquidation of the Krakow ghetto, which began on 13 March 1943. SS officers Kunde and Neumann also assisted with the ghetto clearance, during which mass murders were committed. On the orders of Haase, 75 persons were killed in one place. 

Amon Goeth, shooting inmates from his balcony. This incident was
portrayed in  "Schindler's List" by Ralph Fiennes

If you are looking for more World War 2 history, particularly regarding the Normandy landings on D-Day, check these links:

• Omaha Beach D-Day landings from above; Victor Davis Hanson column.
• D-Day- and beyond- Airborne site; one of the best I've ever seen
• 25 photos of D-Day from the Robert Capa collection
• D-Day; Omaha Beach then and now photographs
• REMEMBERING D-DAY
• Some D-Day sites for you history buffs
• RIP Dick Winters

Many more posts on American politics and culture at the Tunnel Wall.

Lloyd Marcus makes a case for Herman Cain as president

Lloyd Marcus and Herman Cain

Lloyd Marcus "Upon the election of Obama, Al Sharpton was asked, "Will the election of a black president confirm that America is no longer a racist country?" In a nutshell, Sharpton replied "No."

"What Sharpton really meant was, "I ain't lettin' white America off the hook that easy. Promoting that blacks are eternal victims of a racist America has been an extremely profitable GREAT GIG over the years. I'm not gonna let a little thing like facts which prove otherwise, stop me from getting' paid."

 "Well, despite Sharpton, so-called "civil rights" race exploitation organizations and the liberal media, America has come a long ways baby in regards to "race relations.""

Liberals Can't Get Over the Fact That Herman Cain Is Black "Jon Stewart Makes Racially Charged Joke at Herman Cain's Expense: He Doesn't 'Like to Read'"
"Daily Kos: Herman Cain Is The Perfect Racist Republican"
"Bill Maher Takes Racist Swipe At Herman Cain: Gingrich is Republican 'Polling Behind a Black Guy'"
Neal Boortz

Herman Cain: 'Don't Condemn Me Because First Black President Was Bad'  ""Now people are over this first black President thing," he said. "But there are some people who will say, 'I'm not going to vote for another black guy because this one didn't work out.'
""And my response is, 'Well, what about those 43 white guys you put in there? How did they work out?'"

American Way: Sarah Palin email frenzy backfires on her media antagonists

UK Telegraph  "The trove of more than 13,000 emails detailing almost every aspect of Sarah Palin’s governorship of Alaska, released late on Friday, paints a picture of her as an idealistic, conscientious, humorous and humane woman slightly bemused by the world of politics.
"One can only assume that the Left-leaning editors who dispatched teams of reporters to remote Juneau, the Alaskan capital, to pore over the emails in the hope of digging up a scandal are now viewing the result as a rather poor return on their considerable investment." ....
"...she sought help from her staff in keeping the alcohol in the governor’s mansion away from young people, stating that it should be boxed up and “removed from the People’s House” – both for practical reasons and as a statement about her administration."....
"The email release could mark the end of a chapter of what conservatives have termed “Palin Derangement Syndrome”. Her enemies in the media appear to have overplayed their hand."
Toby Harnden is the Daily Telegraph's US Editor, based in Washington DC. .... His bestselling new book Dead Men Risen: The Welsh Guards and Britain's War in Afghanistan, about a Battle Group in Helmand in 2009, is available from Telegraph Books.

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