God, Jerusalem and American foreign policy

Caroline Glick;     About Ms. Glick: "I am the senior fellow for Middle Eastern Affairs at the Center for Security Policy in Washington, DC and travel several times a year to Washington where I routinely brief senior administration officials and members of Congress on issues of joint Israeli-American concern."

"As for Israeli-US intelligence cooperation, under Obama for the first time, the US has systematically leaked Israel's most closely guarded secrets to the media.

"Indeed, critics of Obama's policy towards Israel have their own list. It includes Obama's repeated humiliations of Israel's prime minister. It includes the multiple clashes Obama has initiated with Israel with regards to Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem. It includes Obama's adoption of the Palestinians' position on Israel's borders."....

"They don't want to hear that by leaving Iraq as he did, Obama squandered everything that the US fought for. They don't want to hear that he effectively handed the country over to Iran, which now has the ability to use Iraq as its forward base for operations in Syria, Lebanon and beyond."

Do we really want to give Obama more time to manage this economy?

ANDREW KLAVAN: Obamanomics 101, Understanding How the Obama Economy Works.

Althouse; The unemployment rate fell to 8.1% from 8.3%.  Also from Instapundit: THAT’S CONVENIENT: U.S. August payrolls rise 96,000, jobless rate falls to 8.1%.

How did the jobless rate improve if the jobs number was disappointing? Here's how:

30-year low in workforce participation rate. In other words, if you get everyone to drop out of job hunting, the jobless rate will be 0%.

Rick Moran; Pathetic jobs numbers  "The lowest labor participation rate - 63.5% - in more than 30 years. Falling wages, stagnant work week. Even temp jobs fell -- not because full time jobs became available but because companies don't need workers of any kind.
"Say it with me -- "Four more years..." "

WaPo; Woodward book chronicles Obama’s fiscal policy battle with congressional Republicans  "Woodward portrays Obama’s attempts to woo business leaders as ham-handed and governed by stereotype. At a White House dinner with a select group of business executives in early 2010, Obama gets off on the wrong foot by saying, “I know you guys are Republicans.” Ivan Seidenberg, the chief executive of Verizon, who “considers himself a progressive independent,” retorted, “How do you know that?”..."   Via Jack M. Balkin  

Emily Belz in World Magazine; In his convention acceptance speech, President Obama asks for a second term while telling voters change is slow

Thomas Sowell; 'Bait and Switch' Taxes   "According to the Internal Revenue Service, there are more than 2,700,000 people who earn $250,000 a year or more -- and fewer than one-tenth of them earn a million dollars or more. So more than nine-tenths of the people who would be hit with the higher taxes supposedly aimed at "millionaires and billionaires" are neither."

This video is from the Daily Caller:

Wall Street Journal;  What Obama's critique of Ryan tells us about Obama's budget plans.   "Think about his logic like this: Mr. Ryan's House budget details a long-range plan to equalize spending and tax revenues without—ahem—raising tax rates. But if such fiscal restraint is as deep and draconian as Mr. Obama claims, then as a matter of arithmetic the White House must favor a tax increase of an equal size, or something close to it, in order to pay for the amount of government he wants to sustain."

http://hopenchangecartoons.blogspot.com/

Be very afraid of this Democrat Party

From Black Quill and Ink:   "Posing as an anti-business crusader, Peter Schiff found a number of DNC delegates and attendees who support explicitly outlawing profitability. We deliberately avoided speaking with the occupy protestors camping outside in tents to get a more "mainstream" Democratic perspective!"

http://blackquillandink.com/

The Picture They Painted in Charlotte

The Patriot Post   "Just as she attempted to refurbish the cracked and peeling fresco, however, Democrats at their North Carolina convention tried -- and failed just as miserably -- to improve the image of their own tarnished and faded messiah."

....With all that in mind, we chose a few of the more egregious quotes from the DNC floor -- and believe us, the choosing was hard -- with concise rebuttals to the various attacks, distortions and outright lies. 

...."While the vast majority of voters are more concerned about jobs and the economy, the DNC grotesquely pushed the idea that any woman should be able to get an abortion any time, anywhere -- and taxpayers should pick up the tab if she can't afford it."

Strassel: The Party that Obama Un-Built

Wall Street Journal;  "The focus of this week's Democratic convention was President Obama. Lost in the adulation was the diminished state to which he has brought his broader party. Today's Democrats are a shadow of 2008—struggling for re-election, isolated to a handful of states, lacking reform ideas, bereft of a future political bench. It has been a stunning slide."....
"Mr. Castro, by contrast, was tasked by the Obama team with laying out the bitter Democratic themes of this election. His own eloquent story was weighed down by his job of ridiculing Mitt Romney, lauding government, and stoking class warfare. The comparisons of Mr. Castro in 2012 with Mr. Obama in 2004 are misplaced; Mr. Obama has made them impossible."

State Dept. Again Refuses to Name Capital of Israel!

The Weekly Standard   "Here's the remarkable exchange from today's press briefing, with reporters and press secretary Patrick Ventrell:"  

....MR. VENTRELL: -- the situation is that we have an Embassy in Tel Aviv that represents our interests with the Government of Israel but that the issue of Jerusalem is one that has to be resolved between the two parties. That’s all I can say on this.Anything else? Thank you.

A Tale of Two Conventions

RealClearPolitics.  "This is why the Republicans invested so much time and effort trying to reintroduce their party. It’s a rebranding effort, and I suspect it was meant to pre-empt any attempts to tie Romney/Ryan to the unpopular Bush administration, as well as to inoculate the ticket against a generic “Do you really want to put the Republicans in charge?” argument. I don’t think it was particularly successful, but that is what I think is going on."

On the Democrat convention, the writer, Sean Trende, says: 

Barack Obama’s win in 2008 was based in large part upon this outsized enthusiasm, especially among young voters and minority voters (Latinos in particular). I don’t think he can win if Republicans have a significant edge in enthusiasm on Election Day, especially if the gap persists among Latino voters. This is precisely why almost every speaker mentioned the DREAM Act, while the somewhat surprising emphasis on abortion is probably an attempt to draw more young, single women to the voting booths.

 

“The Daily Show” on Democratic “tolerance”

Hot Air    

The Democratic National Committee officially recognizes 14 caucuses or “communities,” most having to do with race, gender, sexual orientation or ethnicity.

Many of these groups had a purpose in the beginning. African Americans had the ultimate historic complaint. The lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender caucus (LGBT, if you’re scoring at home) worked effectively and won the Democrats’ support for a full roster of human rights, including marriage. The women’s caucus represented perhaps the most successful civil rights movement of our lifetime. Women are moving beyond equality now toward dominance as more of them graduate from college than men–and fewer of them drop out of high school–and take their places atop major companies, government agencies and, someday soon, the presidency.

But if I’m a plain old white insurance salesman, I look at the Democratic Party and say, What’s in it for me? ....

See if you can figure out a connection between the TDS segment and these results:

Alan Caruba's "Obama's Make-Believe Life"; now a viral urban legend

This came today from fellow blogger, friend and sometime mentor, Alan Caruba who blogs at  Warning Signs. The article by Alan was written back in January of 2010 and his authorship has since been misrepresented as an urban legend. 
Here is Mr. Caruba's refutation of the "legend" followed by the article in question.

On January 2, 2010, I posted a commentary, "Obama's Make-Believe Life", to this blog and a strange thing happened. An unknown person misappropriated it, added the phony name of "Eddie Sessions" as its author and further claimed that it had been published in The Wall Street Journal. And stranger still, the commentary began to be shared via email among literally thousands of people. In time, in response to many inquiries Snopes.com confirmed that I was, indeed, its author.
Obama is going to be the focus of worldwide attention when he delivers his acceptance speech, even though he has been campaigning for reelection for well over a year at this point.
I rarely, if ever, repost anything I have written because I want my commentaries to be as timely as possible, but I think this one that has gone around the world several times remains timely. Feel free to share it with family, coworkers, and friends.

Here is an excerpt from the article written by Mr. Caruba:

Obama's Make-Believe Life  "The mainstream political media fell in love with him. It was a schoolgirl crush with febrile commentators like Chris Mathews swooning then and now over the man. The venom directed against McCain and, in particular, Palin, was extraordinary.

"Now, nearly a full year into his first term, all of those gilded years leading up to the White House have left him unprepared to be President. Left to his own instincts, he has a talent for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. It swiftly became a joke that he could not deliver even the briefest of statements without the ever-present Tele-Prompters.

Caruba advises us in a Facebook post:
If you plan to listen to the President's acceptance speech tonight keep a pad of paper in hand and track how many times he blames someone or some thing for how poorly his first and hopefully last term has performed.

Muslims and Democrats; Palestinian Authority blasts Democrats’ affirmation of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital

THE TIMES OF ISRAEL  "Nabil Abu Rdeneh, an aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said the Democrat’s decision might just be “election propaganda.” He said a failure to recognize the Palestinian claim to East Jerusalem will “destroy the peace process” and lead to “endless war.”"

Also from the Times of Israel;The night the Democrats lost control of the Israel message  "....By Tuesday morning, Republican activists were shopping those differences to reporters. 

"The differences were significant enough to justify stories in some Jewish outlets. While the platform still contained strongly pro-Israel language, Democrats had dropped all mention of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, cut the explicit call for Palestinian refugees to return to a future Palestine rather than to Israel, and more.  
"The story quickly spread to political blogs and from there to major American papers. By Tuesday night, Democrats had a real crisis on their hands.....

Irony alert:   "It’s worth recalling that the Democratic convention began with a workshop for Democratic Jewish activists about how to rebuff Republican assaults on Obama’s Israel record.

thegatewaypundit.com

Unhappy Muslim delegates react to vote on Jerusalem at Democratic Convention
"Another Muslim delegate said because Jerusalem is significant to Christians, Jews, and Muslims, it should be treated like Vatican City — as an autonomous municipality that doesn’t belong to any single country. " 

Jumah prayer prior to the 2012 DNC goes off without a hitch or disruption

Ragged, torn American flag used as scarf at Democrat 'Jumah Prayer' service

From the Jerusalem Post; Jerusalem, God, and American politics   

"President Obama,seeking to quell a storm of criticism from Republicans and pro-Israel groups, directed the Democratic Party on Wednesday to amend its platform to restore language declaring Jerusalem the Israeli capital."

"The Republican platform is stronger on both God (two mentions) and Israel. Both parties adopt the two-state solution, but the Republicans are explicit in blaming Arabs for frustrating the peace process." Hebrew University Political Science professor Ira Sharkansky

Democrats at the convention speak (Updated)

Death Threat From DNC Delegate: “Mitt Romney… I Would Like To Kill Him!”..

Update: Freedom Fighter's Journal responds:
(a) Whoever knowingly and willfully threatens to kill, kidnap, or inflict bodily harm upon— (1) a former President or a member of the immediate family of a former President; (2) a member of the immediate family of the President, the President-elect, the Vice President, or the Vice President-elect; (3) a major candidate for the office of President or Vice President, or a member of the immediate family of such candidate; or (4) a person protected by the Secret Service under section 3056 (a)(6); shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both.   Read more...

"Thank you so much"; you gave us just what we expected.

Sandra Fluke: Ryan “Would Allow Women to Die in Emergency Rooms”  "Fluke is bastardizing a portion of the bill stopping taxpayer funding of abortions in Obamacare that reinstates conscience protections for pro-life medical workers who don’t want to be involved in abortions."  Via Weasel Zippers

Speaking of Democrats at the DNC; CNN Washington Bureau Chief: MSNBC's Convention Coverage 'A Cheering Section for the Democrats'

"If you watch MSNBC during convention coverage, you have a cheering section for the Democrats.  "Such was quite accurately said by CNN's Washington bureau chief Sam Feist Tuesday."  
 "Although no network is as biased as MSNBC, here are some recent examples of CNN leaning way too far to the left:"
 More on this...

Benita Veliz was the first undocumented worker to address a party convention.

Dems trotting out H'wood beauties to introduce Obama  "Democrats have secretly scheduled an appearance by Hollywood beauties Scarlett Johansson and Kerry Washington tonight at their national convention, in a bid to counter Clint Eastwood’s surprise speech at the Republican convention last week in Tampa."

Bill Clinton at the Democrat Convention

Tony Branco 

American Thinker; Nice Try Bill  "Clinton air-brushed the man who believes it was his calling to "fundamentally change America" into a politician who believes "we are all in this together." In his best Bubba style, Clinton bit his lip, paused, touted Hillary and himself and rocked the house the way only Bill Clinton can."

Chris Matthews: Bill Clinton so good he would ‘know how to reproduce’ on Mars
Watch Matthews come close to an orgasm over Clinton's speech. (Video)
“Years from now we may look back at tonight and remember Bill Clinton’s speech as one of the greatest in convention history.”  Via Weasel Zippers. More from Matthews on Clinton here.

Big Government; Clinton: 'Conditions Are Improving' "But it was Clinton who demanded more time. According to some sources, Clinton's speech was supposed to run 20 minutes. Instead, it ran 50 minutes. Fifty long, long minutes. 
"At the end of Clinton’s speech, President Obama showed up to try to glom off some of his electricity. Unfortunately, by the end of the speech, there wasn’t much left."

Frontpage    "Clinton denounced and demeaned Republican fiscal policy, stating that “We simply can’t afford to double-down on trickle-down.” Yet, it was this same Bill Clinton who, while he was in office, turned to Republicans when he saw that his liberal policies were destroying his presidency. "....

Jonathan S. Tobin;  Did Bill Clinton Save Obama?  "Though this was probably a better argument that Obama could make for himself, it is a stretch to believe people will believe the president deserves a pass for his struggles just because Clinton says he deserved one."