The Guns of August; What World War I Wrought

Weekly Standard   "David Adesnik goes on camera to explain what World War I wrought:"
 

 

"Check out Adesnik's piece on the subject in the last issue of the magazine, "Why America Fought: The lessons of World War I.' "

 

 The documentary,"The Guns of August"

Newly Discovered Hamas Combat Manual Reveals 'Benefits' of Human Shields

The Grid

 

The Israeli Defense Forces recently discovered the Hamas manual on "Urban Warfare," which notes in part the benefits for Hamas when the IDF destroys civilian homes:

 

The destruction of civilian homes: This increases the hatred of the citizens towards the attackers [the IDF] and increases their gathering [support] around the city defenders (resistance forces[i.e. Hamas]).

 Also - Learn about 14 Way Hamas Weaponized Palestinian Women, Children, and Animals against Israel here

 

The Israeli Defense Forces recently discovered the Hamas manual on "Urban Warfare," which notes in part the benefits for Hamas when the IDF destroys civilian homes:

 

The destruction of civilian homes: This increases the hatred of the citizens towards the attackers [the IDF] and increases their gathering [support] around the city defenders (resistance forces[i.e. Hamas]). 

Finnish reporter confirms rocket fire from hospital but furious people quoted her

Legal Insurrection
"Claims her report being used for pro-Israel propaganda, has cousin arrested in West Bank."
 

http://legalinsurrection.com/2014/08/branco-cartoon-brotherhood/

Happy Birthday Mr. President

www.allrightmagazine.com/political-cartoons/comically-incorrect-

It’s That Time Of Year Again…President Selfie Is Celebrating Another Big Birthday  ... "After giving himself credit for creating jobs and saving the economy, he said exasperatedly, “I thought that you guys were going to ask me how I was going to spend my birthday. What happened to the birthday thing?' ”

 

Tweet from the DNC

GOP Gives Obama A Copy Of The Constitution For His Birthday…

"Or as Obama calls it, toilet paper.

"Via Washington Examiner:

Here’s the latest indication of how tough the political climate has become for President Obama: Even the Republican Party is raising money off his birthday today.
While Democrats for weeks have been using his 53rd to raise funds via email birthday cards, the Republican National Committee on Monday got into the action offering its donors to send the president a copy of the U.S. Constitution, a not so subtle reminder that the GOP believe the president is not enforcing key laws.

Americans support Israel, which irks much of the media

Hot Air    "America’s sentiments are not unfounded or chauvinistic display of support for a historic ally. In spite of being lectured endlessly by the American government to expend even more energy in order to limit civilian casualties in Gaza, Israel’s rules of engagement are far more self-limiting and crippling than any to which the U.S. would agree to abide by.

"Front Page Magazine quotes a report which summarizes the extensive lengths to which the Israeli Defense Forces go in order to limit civilian casualties, often resulting in decreased operational capacity and IDF casualties.

 Testimony that is reaching us from fighter pilots who provide close air assistance to the combat soldiers who are currently fighting in the field,” Channel 2′s military correspondent Nir Dvori reported, “about growing frustration over the fact that they hear the forces below them on the ground asking for cover and close air support when they see the terrorists drawing near from short range, firing at them, and there is no approval, because of various limitations, so as not to hit innocent civilians, and out of concern not to hit uninvolved people, and for this reason they cannot always give covering fire, cannot always fire, and so the frustration is that to some extent, they are leaving the fighters on their own to fight on the ground…”  More...

 

The 8 Worst Hamas-Supporting Media    "For a brief moment in time, the media seemed willing to call evil by its name. In the aftermath of open acknowledgment that Hamas has been shielding its rockets with civilians, including women and children, and building tunnels designed to kidnap and murder Israeli civilians, the media seemed to understand Israel’s plight and sympathize with Israel’s quest to protect its citizens.

"And then the media reverted to type." ...
...
Hamas is losing its war against Israel militarily, as it knew it would. But by co-opting the pathetic Western media – and by the Western media adopting Hamas’ line – Hamas is winning the battle of world opinion, thereby making more civilian deaths, both Jewish and Arab, an inevitability. The world media – and the politicians who act in accordance with them -- have blood on their hands for providing the only true support Hamas has left.

MSNBC Guests Deny 'Deep' Anti-Semitism in Middle East; Claim Only 'White Conservatives' Back Israel    ... "On MSNBC's Melissa Harris-Perry program on Saturday, Dean Obeidallah injected race into the debate inside the U.S. over the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict: "You saw a poll last week, young people 18 to 29: only 25 percent think it's justified what Israel is doing; 50 percent said, no. People of color, same numbers...It's really the Obama coalition versus white conservatives. That's the only group saying – the majority saying what Israel is doing is justified.' "  ...
Emphasis in the original.

Hamas supporter Geraldo Rivera rages against Israel’s “imprecise attacks” on Gaza

... "Geraldo has been a long time supporter of the terrorists in Gaza. But his anti-Israel rant was even more nonsensical and outrageous in this interview than in times past."

 

Finally: this Al Jazeera cartoon

The Economist on The lawsuit against Obama

So sue me   "BARACK OBAMA is taking a somewhat irreverent approach to the lawsuit House Republicans voted to wage against him for exceeding the constitutional bounds of the presidency. “We could do so much more if Congress would just come on and help a little bit,” he said on Wednesday, scolding GOP lawmakers during a speech in Kansas City. “Stop just hatin’ all the time.” Chuckling, Mr Obama betrayed no anxiety about being sued. “I know they’re not that happy I’m president, but that’s OK,” he said. “I’ve only got a couple years left. Come on! Let’s get some work done.”

 

http://comicallyincorrect.com/2014/08/01/stop-hating-obama-1/

 

"The irony of the lawsuit is lost on no one. Republicans cite a number of unilateral executive actions in their criticism of Mr Obama’s "imperialism", but the lawsuit concentrates on delays he has ordered in the implementation of several provisions of the Affordable Care Act." ... 

...

"In John Locke’s "Second Treatise of Government", a source of inspiration for America’s founders, the legislative branch of government stands above the others: “there can be but one supreme power, which is the legislative, to which all the rest are and must be subordinate.” So if Mr Obama is really usurping legislative authority, as the GOP claims, the lawsuit may in fact be justified."   

 

 

Political theatre, political pain   ..."The Affordable Care Act is meant to work by applying pain to those who fail to comply with its mandates. Republicans believed this pain would help them win the senate and repeal Obamacare. They're outraged that Obama should get to delay and thereby possibly avoid altogether the potentially self-negating political consequences of his signature legislation simply by unilaterally amending its timeline to better suit his party's interests. Mr Obama effectively denied the Republicans the political theatre they wanted by refusing to bring the pain he had promised voters. So the Republicans are doing their best to bring the pain to Mr Obama by theatrically accusing him of imperial lawlessness—a move sure to rouse their base—in a way that reminds voters of the pain of Obamacare that will soon descend upon them ... unless the Democrats are chucked out of the Senate.

"Mr Boehner's suit may be terrible law, but it's not bad theatre, and it's very possibly smart politics. " ...    

How vets can survive

http://netrightdaily.com/category/cartoons/branco-toons/

 

Hat tip to Harley Standlee; Placerville, CA

Put Down the Cupcake: New Ban Hits School Bake Sales

New Requirements May Squeeze Out Gooey Fundraising Fare; Fat Standard

WSJ

"At Chapman School in Nebraska, resourceful students hawk pizza and cookie dough to raise money for school supplies, field trips and an eighth-grade excursion to Washington. They peddle chocolate bars to help fund the yearbook.

"But the sales won't be so sweet starting this fall. Campus bake sales—a mainstay of school fundraisers—are going on a diet. A federal law that aims to curb childhood obesity means that, in dozens of states, bake sales must adhere to nutrition requirements that could replace cupcakes and brownies with fruit cups and granola bars." ...

Pointless Studies Week at College Insurrection; Interesting Video on Teachers Unions

College Insurrection    "Your weekly foray into the strange world of higher education."

 

Who’s up for wasting some time and tax dollars?

• Yale and NYU Get $200K Government Grant to Study why Wikipedia is Sexist

Maybe we really do need an extra grade.

• Freshman Year of College to Become Grade 12.5?

We can use it to focus on spelling.

• University of Texas Misspells ‘Texas’
• UC Berkeley Diploma Features Unusual Typo

To be fair, Texas is getting some things right.

• Admiral William McRaven Named New Chancellor of University of Texas System 

...
Let’s learn something about teachers unions.

• Prager University – Teachers Unions vs. Students

Let's hope this lawsuit by Congress turns out to be a good idea.

Alan Caruba: Yes, Sue Our Lawless President!

 

... "Americans and many around the world are increasingly fearful of a President who has demonstrated no regard for the checks and balances of our incredible Constitution, the oldest in the world that still functions to protect individual rights and which sets forth the divisions between our legislative, judicial and executive departments of government.

"Congress, however, will not impeach President Obama, but the House will sue him on the basis of just one of the many examples of his dictatorial use of executive orders to ignore the power of the legislative branch to pass laws he took an oath to enforce. He has unilaterally and illegally altered the Affordable Care Act 27 times..."

 

Larry Kudlow asks, Rather than a lawsuit, why not a growth plan?   "In other words, is the GOP sending voters a clear message about what it will do if it captures the Senate and House?"

(July 30) Top Ten Myths about the House’s Proposed Suit Against Obama   "H.Res. 676 raises some interesting legal issues, but much of the pushback against it is misguided."

...Myth 10: President Obama issued far fewer executive orders than did other presidents, which proves he has not abused his executive authority. A president can abuse his powers in many ways other than issuing formal executive orders, and the number of such actions is much less important than the scope and nature of those that are illegal. It was a serious abuse for Richard Nixon, and perhaps one other president, to provide any form of encouragement or tacit approval to appointees in the IRS to give special scrutiny to his political “enemies.”

Going Viral

HopeN'Change

 

... "Off the top of our heads, we're thinking your garden variety death-to-America type terrorists. Because getting the highly-contagious virus into the United States could do inconceivable damage.

"But how to do it? Even an airport TSA officer is going to be made suspicious by a fuzz-filled petri dish in someone's shoe, or an alleged bottle of V-8 that is coagulating into layers of blood plasma.

"Which is why the best way to smuggle in the virus is to smuggle in someone who's infected. Sure, it could be your standard suicide vest-wearing nitwit who's anxious to start boinking virgins in the hereafter...but how much better would it be if the viral timebomb was inside a child who might not even know he or she was infected? A child whose unrestricted movement into and around our country was actually facilitated by our government?

"Consider this scenario: terrorists obtain vials of infected blood in Liberia (not hard since everything there is spinning off the rails). Transport those vials into Central America, pay off a few "coyotes," and start giving "free vitamin shots" to unsuspecting kids heading for the American border. Then just sit back and enjoy the apocalypse!" ...

Reprise: Clueless in Gaza; John Kerry has legitimized Hamas’s criminality.

Charles Krauthammer

 

... "Which is what provoked the severe criticism Kerry received at home. When as respected and scrupulously independent a national security expert as David Ignatius calls Kerry’s intervention a blunder, you know this is not partisan carping from the usual suspects. This is general amazement at Kerry’s cluelessness.

 

"Kerry seems oblivious to the strategic reality that Hamas launched its rockets in the hope not of defeating Israel but of ending its intra-Arab isolation (which it brilliantly achieves in the Qatar-Turkey peace proposal). Hamas’s radicalism has alienated nearly all of its Arab neighbors. "

....

"Remember the complaints that the heartless Israelis were not allowing enough imports of concrete for schools and hospitals? Well, now we know where the concrete went — into an astonishingly vast array of tunnels for infiltrating neighboring Israeli villages and killing civilians. (More than half a million tons, estimates the Israeli military.)"   Emphasis added, TW

You mean THIS concrete the heartless Israelis tried to block from getting into Gaza?

The tunnels have changed the balance of power: Israel is under siege by Hamas- not the Arabs who are under siege by Israel.

 But Kerry is carrying out the policies of his clueless boss, who continues to swagger and taunt before adoring crowds.

 

Photo below from this post by Weasel Zippers