Thursday, July 17, 2014

Moral clarity in Gaza

Charles Krauthammer
An Israeli army flare illuminating the sky above the northern Gaza strip on 17 July 2014. Israel and Hamas denied reports 17 July 2014 that they had agreed to a ceasefire, following a brief lull in hostilities for humanitarian reasons and after 10 nights and days of cross-border fighting that killed 231 Palestinians and one Israeli. (Mohammed Saber/EPA)
 
... "Apologists for Hamas attribute the blood lust to the Israeli occupation and blockade. Occupation? Does no one remember anything? It was less than 10 years ago that worldwide television showed the Israeli army pulling die-hard settlers off synagogue roofs in Gaza as Israel uprooted its settlements, expelled its citizens, withdrew its military and turned every inch of Gaza over to the Palestinians. There was not a soldier, not a settler, not a single Israeli left in Gaza.
 
"And there was no blockade. On the contrary. Israel wanted this new Palestinian state to succeed. To help the Gaza economy, Israel gave the Palestinians its 3,000 greenhouses that had produced fruit and flowers for export. It opened border crossings and encouraged commerce.
...
"And how did the Gaza Palestinians react to being granted by the Israelis what no previous ruler, neither Egyptian, nor British, nor Turkish, had ever given them — an independent territory? First, they demolished the greenhouses. Then they elected Hamas. Then, instead of building a state with its attendant political and economic institutions, they spent the better part of a decade turning Gaza into a massive military base, brimming with terror weapons, to make ceaseless war on Israel." ...
 
Just as they will do with all the West Bank if it is turned over to the Arabs. Think what devastation and death they can inflict on the Jewish population from this territory jutting into the very waist of tiny Israel.
 
New “Palestinian” jihad group pledging allegiance to Islamic State claims responsibility for killing the three Israeli teenagers  
IslamicStatedemonstrators
"A new Palestinian jihadist group pledging allegiance to the Islamic State (formerly known as ISIL) has claimed responsibility for the killing of three Israeli teenagers last month in the West Bank, as well as other recent deadly attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians.

"In a statement posted on jihadi websites Tuesday, the Supporters of the Islamic State in Bayt al-Maqdis said it was behind the capture and killing of “the three soldiers” in Hebron (actually, it was in the nearby Etzion bloc), sniper attacks in Hebron and Tarqumia, and missile launches from Gaza into Israel a month and a half ago."

 HAMAS TV


We Are All Border States Now

Mark Steyn   "President Obama took it upon himself to dissolve the southern border of the United States (it's a different matter on the 49th parallel, as Canadians or tourists bearing Kinder eggs well know). So, if there is no southern border de jure, where is it de facto? Try Massachusetts:
DARTMOUTH, Mass. - Bristol County Sheriff Tom Hodgson said Monday that he's dealing with a problem in Dartmouth that shouldn't be his responsibility.
It's not a new theme for him. He's sounded the alarm about illegal immigrants before, but now he says it's getting closer and closer to home.
Illegal immigrants come across the border in the American Southwest. When they are detained, the wave of humanity has overwhelmed local capacity. The illegal immigrants are being sent all over the country, including Massachusetts.
"We're all becoming border states now... We know there are going to be more coming here from Texas. We've already got two groups coming off the planes here," Hodgson said.

 Political Cartoons by Chip Bok

Political Cartoons by Dana Summers

The Israeli- Muslim conflict as explained to the the low-information crowd

Netanyahu: “We’re using missile defense to protect our civilians, and they’re using their civilians to protect their missiles.'

UN Shocked To Find Hamas Rockets Found In One Of Their Schools…

 
... "It said the incident was the first of its kind, warning that it “endangered civilians including staff and put at risk UNRWA’s vital mission.”
"The statement said UNRWA “informed the relevant parties and successfully took all necessary measures for the removal of the objects.' ”

Hamas’s Suicidal Tendencies    "Its rejection of the Egyptian ceasefire shows how it has a crazy ideology, not a strategy."
...
 "But in reality, Hamas is a movement of totalitarian zealots. After winning elected power in 2006, Hamas proceeded to destroy Palestinian democracy by massacring its Fatah opponents."

 The Palestinian ‘Genocide’ Lie 
‘" Here’s the difference between us,” Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu explained on Fox News Sunday. “We’re using missile defense to protect our civilians, and they’re using their civilians to protect their missiles.' ”... Emphasis mine, TD
 
... "It’s a moral scandal that it’s even necessary to bring up this inconvenient truth. But it is necessary because even many of the people who would never say “Hitler was right” have nonetheless internalized another lesson from the Nazis. It was Joseph Goebbels who said, “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.' ”

 Pat Condell speaks about The great Palestinian lie
Mr. Condell tells us honestly, when you demonstrate for Palestinian Arabs, you are in the company of people who want Jews to be gassed to death.
 

Russian Intelligence Moves Back Into Cuba

Noisy Room
Raul Castro welcomed Vladimir Putin, where they met to discuss bilateral agreements
 
"Russia and Cuba have signed an agreement to reopen Russia’s intelligence base in Castro’s paradise. It was one of their largest bases ever and Russia used to pay them two million a year in rent for it. Now, Russia will be listening in on the U.S. and the entire Western Hemisphere unmolested. While this rages, Obama just implemented toothless sanctions that are nothing more than smoke and mirrors in the diplomatic shuffle among dictators (but it does include gun control):" ...

 

Detroit police chief gives credit to armed citizens for drop in crime

Detroit News

 

"Fed up with crime, some armed Detroiters have developed itchy trigger-fingers — and Police Chief James Craig said lawbreakers are getting the message.

"In the latest incident, police say an 88-year-old who was beaten and robbed inside his east side home last week probably thought he was defending himself against attackers when he opened fire Monday on a television news crew.
"On Thursday, a woman appeared on his front porch asking for help, and when he opened his door, two men rushed in, assaulted him and tied him up with a phone cord before robbing him of several items.  

From The Detroit News:
http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20140716/METRO01/307160034#ixzz37jbv8zvI


Why do states treat ordinary citizens as gun criminals?
"Earlier this year, a 27-year-old medical professional named Shaneen Allen drove peacefully out of her home state of Pennsylvania and into neighboring New Jersey. Today, she faces the prospect of three years in prison." ....

Armed Gun Store Robber Never Saw This Coming   
 

 
The lawsuit against this store owner will begin in three...two...one...

Jonathan Turley to Congress: You face self-destruction if you don’t rein in Obama

Hot Air   "Via the Daily Caller, an elegant opening statement from today’s House Rules Committee hearing on Boehner’s separation-of-powers lawsuit. You’ve heard him make this argument before but he’s getting more apocalyptic with each appearance before Congress — and who can blame him?"
...
"Today Turley calls O’s rhetoric about unilateral action “extreme” and warns the committee that Congress will effectively self-destruct if the executive is allowed to do what he wants whenever there’s gridlock. ...

"That’s the end of Congress, and the end of checks and balances."
Sorry for the commercial before the video.
 

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Illiberal Immigration ‘Reform’; People who call for “comprehensive immigration reform” seldom mean it.

Victor Davis Hanson

President Obama delivers a statement on immigration reform, June 30, 2014 Photo by Mark Wilson via Getty Images
 
"The last thing a liberal proponent of immigration reform wants is liberal immigration reform. Remember that paradox, and the insanity at the border makes some sense.

"Each day a worried politician or pundit, with creased brow and pained expression, lectures us about the need for “comprehensive immigration reform” to avoid the sort of chaos we are witnessing on the border.

"Then a funny thing happens. The speaker never defines the term. If on rare occasions advocates are asked, they fumble around, annoyed that anyone would press them to explain what they mean." ...   More...

Obatoons

From Watchdog News on Facebook
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

EXCLUSIVE: Obama Pulls Immigration Judges From Cases, Gives Illegal Aliens Many More Years to Stay

Children at the Border

Debbie Schlussel      "DebbieSchlussel.com has exclusively learned that Barack Obama is using the Southern border crisis as a way to stop immigration courts around the country from functioning and allow many illegal aliens already in our interior to stay. In a clever and tricky move, he’s pulling immigration judges off cases they were set to hear, allowing illegal aliens to start all over again at the back of the line and stay here for many more years, if not forever, as a document DebbieSchlussel.com exclusively obtained, shows. This is his “comprehensive immigration reform” by personal fiat.

Whether or not Barack Obama gets the billions of dollars he’s seeking allegedly to deport the “child” illegal aliens at the Southern border (and most of the money won’t go for that), DebbieSchlussel.com has exclusively learned that the President is already pulling immigration judges off of scheduled cases in states like Colorado and allowing the illegal aliens they were set to try and deport to stay here for many more years, if not for life. Immigration lawyers have sent out e-mails like the one below, notifying their colleagues that the Obama Justice Department (which operates immigration courts) has suspended immigration hearings for illegal aliens because the judges have been sent by Obama to the Southern border to hear cases there.

Click on the image to read it in its entirety . . .

immmigrationcourtletter

The condescension of this president toward all of us. (Updated)

Bloviating Zeppelin is much more blunt:

Obama Lies
"And the Washington Post calls Mr Obama out on it.

"Obama’s claim that the GOP has ‘blocked every serious idea’ "

by Glenn Kessler
“So far this year, Republicans in Congress have blocked every serious idea to strengthen the middle class.”
"–President Obama, weekly address, July 12, 2014

This has become a standard line in the president’s oratory, as part of making his case that he’s “acted this year to help working Americans on my own– when Congress won’t act.”

"The Pinocchio Test

"We make no judgement on which side has the surplus of “serious ideas,” but the president is engaging in rhetorical overkill. Certainly this congressional session has resulted in few major laws. Perhaps he could make a case that Republicans have blocked many bills that he has sought—or even that his most prized initiatives have been stymied.
But to claim that “every serious idea” has been blocked is going too far–given that the president lauded at least three bills as aiding the middle class. (Update: In a speech the morning this column appeared, the president adjusted his language appropriately: “Republicans in Congress keep blocking or voting down some of the ideas that would have the biggest impact on middle-class and working families.”)

"Therefore, the Washington Post gives Mr Obama: Three Pinocchios

  

Political Cartoons by Henry Payne
 
Yet, still he manages to find a chorus of adoring, happy faces to stand behind him at every speech.
 
"Speaking of “you lie,” let’s revisit an event during an Obama speech in the House regarding the ACA, on September 9th of 2009, wherein Representative Joe Wilson of South Carolina shouted “you lie” in the midst of the address: "
 


"It turns out that Rep Wilson was prescient: it has been made abundantly clear that illegal aliens will have their healthcare covered, despite the fact that they have done absolutely nothing to earn it."

But WAIT! There's more!
A Quick Stroll Down Memory Lane with Obama. Seven Lies in Two Minutes.
" ...in this video from the archives.
  • I will make our government open and transparent…..that our business is the people’s business.
  • I will make it impossible for lobbyists or Congressmen to slip pork barrel projects into law when no one is looking.
  • Law making will not be done in secret but open to public viewing.
  • No more secrecy.
  • Meetings between lobbyists and government agencies will be placed on line for viewing.
  • The public will have the opportunity to read, on line for five days, bills prior to Presidential signing.
  • Names of corporations and how much money they would get from tax legislation would be made public.  Corporate tax breaks and pork barrel projects will be placed on line with the names of those who asked for them.   Also here.

Ex-Taliban POW Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl Has Hired a Lawyer

ABC News  


"Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the former Taliban POW who was just returned to active duty, has lawyered up, asking prominent military affairs attorney Eugene Fidell to take his case.
 
"Fidell, who teach military justice at Yale Law School, told ABC News today that he has been representing Bergdahl for about a week and is working pro bono.
 
“ 'I think it’s important that people, particularly people who have been vilified, have proper representation, and every lawyer has a responsibility to represent even unpopular clients and that’s why I’m involved in this,” Fidell told ABC News. Bergdahl also has an Army lawyer who will be representing him, but he approached Fidell for additional help, Fidell said.
 
"The Army said when it put Bergdahl back on regular duty this week that it would continue to investigate the details of his capture by the Taliban in 2009. He was freed in a controversial swap of Taliban prisoners being held in Guantanamo earlier this year.