The only columnist in the publication worth reading on a regular basis has been fired in a cost cutting move.

The troubled Village Voice laid off three employees Tuesday, including Nat Hentoff, the prominent columnist who has worked for the paper since 1958, contributing opinionated columns about jazz, civil liberties and politics.

* * *

“Nat Hentoff wrote liner notes for every great musician that I’ve ever loved, from Billie Holiday to Bob Dylan and Aretha Franklin, and that’s not even what he’s been writing about for the last 30 years,” said Tom Robbins, a Voice staff writer.

More importantly, Hentoff has been one of the great voices on issues of freedom of speech and freedom of the press over the last couple of decades. I was first introduced to him in graduate school, when one of our ancillary readings was his classic book, The First Freedom. Even though I depart with him on the Crusade Against Jihadi Terrorism, I have never doubted that his views are worthy of respectful consideration. Indeed, he is one of only two syndicated columnists whose work I insist upon reading as soon as it comes out. To see the Village Voice dump him is a shock.

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Pretty badly -- but not badly enough to keep Obama from appointing the head of the Chicago's public schools to the top spot at the Department of Education. And it is even worse than I have mentioned in earlier posts -- the district has received five straight failing grades under NCLB with Arne Duncan at the helm.

The Chicago Public Schools, whose superintendent, Arne Duncan, has been tapped by President-elect Barack Obama to be the next education secretary, failed to meet the Illinois state standards set under the No Child Left Behind Act for the last five years.

From 2004 to 2008, the Chicago district (District 299) failed to make “Adequate Yearly Progress” (AYP) in key areas, according to the district’s progress report on the Illinois State Board of Education Web site.

Now I am a critic of NCLB, and think it needs serious revision to do a better job of measuring student learning. But a district in which only 60% meet the minimum standard in reading and only 20% of special needs students meet the minimum standard is clearly not up to snuff.

If he can't lead effectively at the district level, why should we believe that Arne Duncan can be an educational leader at the national level? The US Senate must reject Duncan's nomination.

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I do a lot of work with political campaigns, and have found that there is always a need for good looking stickers and labels. After all, a candidate needs to increase his or her name recognition, right? That's why they are so important to a campaign.

Of course, the same is true in any field of business -- labels are an important way to sell a product to sell or establish a brand identity. packaging and advertising are key -- and the use of labels and Stickers can be very important in that regard.

Frontier Label is a company that prints custom labels and Stickers. They are a leader in the field, creating their own machinery to enable them to create the best in stickers and labels to take advantage of their knowledge of marketing and establishing a brand.

Now you may wonder -- why would you want to buy Stickers and labels on the internet rather than finding a local supplier. Well, how about price? I know how much things like bumper Stickers cost, and I was surprised at how well Frontier Label stacked up against the competition. Similarly, the cost for their other labels was quite reasonable. So if you need labels or stickers for your product or business, why not check them out?

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After all, they must kill Jews wherever they are found -- even if all they are doing is selling cosmetics.

Palestinian Authority Arab terrorists attacked a group of young Israelis at a stand in a Danish mall early Wednesday evening.

Local police said the attack took place at approximately 3:20 p.m. at the Rosengirdscentret Center, one of the largest shopping centers in the city of Odense, located about 200 kilometers from Copenhagen.

According to Foreign Ministry spokesman Yossi Levi, an undetermined number of Palestinian Authority gunmen approached the group of young Israelis at a "basta", or stand which sells Dead Sea products and other items from Israel and opened fire "with guns or rifles."

I'm curious -- how long until the world is willing to acknowledge that there is something fundamentally dysfunctional within the so-called "religion of peace" that leads its followers to be decidedly unpeaceful?

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In my life, I've made a few interesting and exciting trips, including a couple out of the country. Lately that hasn't been an option, as health issues, deaths, and an unpleasant meteorological event called Hurricane Ike have turned the lives of my wife and I upside down. But 2009 will be different -- this I pray.

What brought all this to mind? Well, the impending new year, of course -- but also a couple of YouTube videos that I came across. Both are humorous takes on what can happen when one goes on vacation. I could easily see myself being this Americans in Paris, given my success with building and rebuilding things. Hopefully i would not be the cause of any sort of international demolition -- and I certainly would not get myself into the sort of jam that teh fellow in their Brazillianvideo did -- clearly he needs to be on the internaional equivalent of jerry Springer.

Of course, these videos are quite fun, but vacationing is a serious business. Like they say, what happens on vaction is, in the end, your own business (well, maybe not for the folks in these videos). All I know is that they have helped reignite my wanderlust, and perhaps they will inspire my darling wife and I to travel to our preferred destination this year -- probably some place with a glacier to beat the Texas heat.

Posted by: Greg at 06:36 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevic is truly the gift that keeps on giving.

What has he given us today? An eminently qualified African-American nominee to replace Barack Obama in the US Senate -- and a full-blown constitutional crisis on both the state and federal level.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich is expected today to name former Illinois Atty. Gen. Roland Burris to replace President-elect Barack Obama in the U.S. SenateÂ…

Shortly after ObamaÂ’s Nov. 4 victory, Burris made known his interest in an appointment to the Senate but was never seriously considered, according to Blagojevich insiders. But in the days following BlagojevichÂ’s arrest, and despite questions over the taint of a Senate appointment, Burris stepped up his efforts to win the governorÂ’s support.

Though he is 71, Burris has said that ObamaÂ’s replacement should be able to win re-election and he has noted that despite a string of primary losses in races ranging from Chicago mayor to governor and U.S. senator, heÂ’s never lost to a RepublicanÂ…

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada previously warned Blagojevich, following the governorÂ’s Dec. 9 arrest, that Senate Democrats would not seat any appointment the two-term Democratic governor made. ReidÂ’s warning was contained in a letter signed by all 50 sitting Democratic senators, including the No. 2 Democrat in Senate leadership, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois.

Now I lived the better part of two decades in Illinois. I remember Roland Burris as a public official and a candidate for office. He always struck me as a fundamentally decent man, well-qualified and eminently worthy of public trust. And even though I voted against him at every opportunity, I always believed him to be the sort of Democrat I could live with if my Republican candidate lost. And I will say this loud and clear -- given the failure of the Illinois legislature to act to strip Blagojevic of his power to appoint Barack Obama's successor, I fully support his decision to appoint Burris.

Of course, this action by the corrupt governor has given rise to several interesting responses.

Consider this response from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, with Illinois Senator Dick Durbin giving him a measure of cover.

Senate Democrats said Tuesday they would refuse to seat the man Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has picked to succeed President-elect Barack Obama, saying that the taint of scandal would follow the new senator to Washington.

"Anyone appointed by Gov. Blagojevich cannot be an effective representative of the people of Illinois and, as we have said, will not be seated by the Democratic Caucus," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and his deputy, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, said in a statement.

Well, the Senate DOES have the right to judge the qualifications of its members -- but there could be a constitutional problem with this declaration. More on that in a bit.

And then there is this statement from Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White.

The appointment was instantly rejected by Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White who said he would refuse to certify Burris' selection....

His argument amounts to a claim that the current legal cloud under which Blagojevic finds himself makes the appointment illegitimate. However, does that apply to all appointments, or just to this one -- and on what basis does he make and enforce that judgment. Another constitutional crisis, this on the state level.

And wherein lie the constitutional crises?

Well, let's start with the state constitutional crisis. After all, state law REQUIRES the Secretary of State to perform the following acts, and the state constitution (Article V, Section 16) obliges him to carry out the duties prescribe by this law.

1. To countersign and affix the seal of state to all commissions required by law to be issued by the Governor.

2. To make a register of all appointments by the Governor, specifying the person appointed, the office conferred, the date of the appointment, the date when bond or oath is taken and the date filed. If Senate confirmation is required, the date of the confirmation shall be included in the register.

There is nothing optional or discretionary in this. His failure to do so will lead to state court action to require White to do his job. That means lots of drama on another front in Blago-gate.

And the federal constitutional crisis? I'll let Eugene Volokh explain this one.

If there's some evidence that Burris's appointment was indeed the result of a bribe or some illegal maneuvering, then indeed the Senate can refuse to seat him. But if there is no such evidence, then for reasons I noted earlier, I think their position is legally unsustainable, given the Supreme Court's Powell v. McCormack precedent.

Given that Burris meets all the requirements set by the US Constitution to hold a Senate seat, any failure to seat him will almost certainly be struck down -- just as any attempt to toss ted Stevens would have failed if the Senate had tried to expel him following his reelection after a bribery conviction. Of course, that will require another nasty court fight.

Now as a Republican, I see a great political upside for my party if White refuses to certify or Senate Democrats refuse to seat Burris. The ensuing court battles as the Democrats try to keep a black man out of the Senate seat previous held by the only black member of the US Senate (by then the first black president) would be entertaining -- and would likely serve to drive a wedge between some elements of the black community and the Democrat Party. That could only serve to help turn Illinois (and perhaps some other states) from blue to red.

But to be honest, I don't want it to come to that. I actually agree with Bobby Rush on this score -- words you may never see again.

"This is a good decision," Rush told reporters. "Roland Burris is worthy. He has not, in 20 years of public service, had one iota of taint on his record as a public servant. He is an esteemed member of this state and this community."

"I would ask you not to hang or lynch the appointee as you try to casitgate the appointor," Rush added. "Separate, if you will, the appointee from the appointor. Roland Burris is worthy."

Let's be honest -- at 71, Roland Burris is unlikely to be a Senator for more than two years. He will certainly face challengers in the Democrat primary in 2010, and the Blagojevic connection will not serve him well. The GOP will put up a strong candidate as well, who will have a better than even chance to win. In other words, he is a sear-warmer -- and one whose service to the people of Illinois would be capped by this honor, and who has the stature to rise above the current scandal. He should be accepted by all parties as the ideal compromise appointee.

UPDATE: Obama says not to seat Burris -- and here I thought he knew enough constitutional law to know that the Senate really has no choice.

Others Blogging: Top of the Ticket, Ace (twice), Malkin, Hot Air (twice), Gateway Pundit, Sister Toldjah, Bench Memos, Concurring Opinions, Patterico, The Glittering Eye, Don Surber

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Could you imagine the howls of outrage if George W, Bush appointed as Secretary of Education a school administrator from a district where 83% of eight graders tested below grade level in reading and less than half of all entering freshmen graduate from high school? We'd hear words like "incompetence", "failure", and "the destruction of public education".

But when Obama makes precisely such an appointment, we are told that the new Cabinet member is an "innovator" and "reformer" who will continue "experimentation on a national scale".

City schools chief executive Arne Duncan, President-elect Barack Obama's choice for education secretary, pushed that performance-pay plan and a host of other innovations to transform a school system once regarded as one of the country's worst. As Duncan heads to Washington, the lessons of Chicago could provide a model for fixing America's schools.

"Obama chose Arne Duncan for a reason, and part of that reason is the experimentation that Duncan has done in Chicago and his real attention to data and outcomes," said Elliot Weinbaum, assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education. "Duncan's willing to try new things and see if they work, hopefully keep the ones that do and drop the ones that don't. I expect that experimentation to continue on a national scale."

Now I will give Duncan some credit -- he has introduced some meaningful reforms into a district that has been troubled for decades by corruption, incompetence, and union intransigence. But the reality is that, by virtually every measure, the district remains a failure in terms of its primary mission -- educating every student to his or her fullest potential, and preparing them to function as productive citizens.

As a teacher, I am NOT reassured by this appointment -- and I am shocked by the whitewashing that the press are giving Duncan and his record.

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1 Íàïèñàíî õîðîøî. Íî ó ìåíÿ, âîçìîæíî, ëó÷øå ïîëó÷èëîñü áû! (Øó÷ó! Àâòîð ìîëîäåö!)

Posted by: beftraurgevat at Mon Dec 29 22:29:29 2008 (fN8DX)

2 Ìíå î÷åíü íðàâèòñÿ âàø áëîã. ß óæå äàâíî åãî ÷èòàþ. È ïî÷òè âî âñåì ñ âàìè ñîãëàñíà. Ìíå íðàâèòñÿ òî, êàê âû ïèøèòå. Âû òàê òî÷íî âûðàæàåòå ñâîè ìûñëè. Êàê áû ìíå õîòåëîñü îáëàäàòü õîòü ñîòîé äîëåé âàøåãî òàëàíòà. Ïîæàëóéñòà, ïðîäîëæàéòå ïîïîëíÿòü âàø áëîã! Ñïàñèáî âàì! Âàø âåðíûé ÷èòàòåëü.

Posted by: veksteessyCag at Tue Dec 30 08:18:09 2008 (xEFAk)

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Sixty years ago, at the establishment of the state of Israel, the civilized world was united in the cry of "Never again!" in response to the Holocaust. Today, as Israel seeks to guarantee the end of near-daily attacks upon its territory and people, there are too many folks who cry out "Do it again!" as they support the Hamas-led government of the Terrorstinian Anarchy.

I think the sign says it all.

So not only does this low-life support terrorism, he supports genocide against an ethnic group he cannot even spell. And yet this is the side that the liberal elite and the UN seems to think operates from the moral high ground.

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Here are the results of the last two votes by the Watcher's Council!

December 26, 2008

Winning Council Submissions

• First place with 2 2/3 points! - The Razor - The Symbol of Oppression
• Second place with 1 2/3 points - (T*) - Joshuapundit - Cheney Slaps Biden Upside The Head


• Second place with 1 2/3 points - (T*) - Mere Rhetoric - Smug Liberal Sophistication Undisturbed By Decades Of Disastrously Wrong Domestic And International Predictions
• Third place with 1 points - Bookworm Room - Destruction of Property


• Fourth place with 2/3 points - (T*) - Soccer Dad - DonÂ’t get too chummy with that flaming dummy
• Fourth place with 2/3 points - (T*) - Rhymes With Right - Impeach Jerry Brown


• Fourth place with 2/3 points - (T*) - The Glittering Eye - How to Give a Bonus
• Fifth place with 1/3 point - Cheat-Seeking Missiles - Gay Anger At Warren Unwarranted

Winning Non-Council Submissions

• First place with 2 1/3 points! - John Stossel - Arrogance and Conceit WonÂ’t Fix the Economy
• Second place with 1 2/3 points - (T*) - Larrey Anderson/American Thinker - Climate Crisis = Logic Crisis


• Second place with 1 2/3 points - (T*) - Dhimmi Watch - Fitzgerald: If we cut off the jizya, could things become even worse?
• Third place with 1 1/3 points - (T*) - Pajamas Media - The Op-Ed the New York Times WouldnÂ’t Run


• Third place with 1 1/3 points - (T*) - Counterterrorism blog - Jihad by the Shoe: Who Was Behind it and why?
• Third place with 1 1/3 points - (T*) - Simon Deng - Hudson New York - Bishop Tutu and “Israeli Apartheid”


• Fourth place with 2/3 points - The American Spectator - Coffee and Closure
• Fifth place with 1/3 point - Jewcy - Madoff the Jew: The MediaÂ’s Hypocritical Obsession With the FraudsterÂ’s Faith

T* - Denotes Tie

December 19. 2008

Winning Council Submissions

• First place with 2 2/3 points! - Bookworm Room - Selfish is as selfish does


• Second place with 2 points - Mere Rhetoric - Obama: Since We All Know That Engagement With Iran WonÂ’t Work, How About A US Nuclear Umbrella For Israel?
• Third place with 1 2/3 points - The Glittering Eye - The Ministry of Silly Suggestions


• Fourth place with 1 1/3 points - Soccer Dad - Falk - moonbattery a feature not a bug
• Fifth place with 1 point - Joshuapundit - Newsweak Shills For Same Sex Marriage - In ItÂ’s Religion Section!


• Sixth place with 2/3 point - (T*) - Rhymes With Right - Sense At Daily Kos?
• Sixth place with 2/3 point - (T*) - The Colossus of Rhodey - How dumb was this?


• Sixth place with 2/3 point - (T*) - Cheat-Seeking Missiles - DubaiÂ’s Lobbyist As Climate Czar?
• Seventh place with 1/3 point - Right Truth - Death With Dignity

Winning Non-Council Submissions

• First place with 2 1/3 points! - The Brussels Journal - On Deconstructing the Majority: Nothing To Do With Islam? Really?
• Second place with 2 points - ShrinkWrapped - Some Disparate Dots


• Third place with 1 2/3 points - Althouse - AG Lisa MadiganÂ’s argument to the Illinois Supreme Court about ousting Governor Blagojevich
• Fourth place with 1 point - Dick Morris - The Collapse of Our Enemies


• Fourth place with 1 point - (T*) - Pundita - To the man who threw his shoes at President Bush and missed
• Fourth place with 1 point - (T*) - Treppenwitz - Some points worth making


• Fifth place with 2/3 point - (T*) - Biz Lizards - American Special Forces in Afghanistan Accidentally Defend Themselves
• Fifth place with 2/3 point - (T*) - Danger Room - IRA Historian: TodayÂ’s Terrorists Are ‘AmateursÂ’ - and Still Deadly


• Fifth place with 2/3 point - (T*) - Yourish.com - Euphemism of the year: Suicide bombings are “Violent, politically motivated attacks”

T* - Denotes Tie

Congratulations to the winners, and to all participants.

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Best wishes to new parents Levi Johnston and Bristol Palin on the birth of their son.

Bristol Palin, the 18-year-old daughter of former Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, gave birth on Sunday to a healthy 7 lb., 4 oz., baby boy in Palmer, Alaska.

"We think it's wonderful," said Colleen Jones, the sister of Bristol's grandmother Sally Heath, who confirmed the news. "The baby is fine and Bristol is doing well. Everyone is excited."

The baby's name is Tripp Easton Mitchell Johnston, according to Jones.

Baby Tripp takes his surname from his dad, Levi Johnston, an apprentice electrician and former Wasilla High School hockey player who has been dating Bristol for three years.

Bristol Palin is currently residing in Wasilla and completing her high-school diploma through correspondence courses.

Baby Tripp's parents are planning a 2009 wedding.

And to those on the Left who want to accuse me of hypocrisy for not condemning the new parents, please realize that my attitude is not yours. Every birth is a moment of beauty and wonder -- a miracle of new opportunities contained in new life. I therefore rejoice, even if I view the choices made by the child's parents to be less than ideal.

Oh, and by the way -- will this finally lay to rest the absurd conspiracy theories regarding young Tripp's mother, grandmother, and uncle perpetuated by folks who now ought to publicly admit that they were not just wrong, but also malicious.

H/T Hot Air

Posted by: Greg at 02:18 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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Last July, Barack Obama made an important point about the right and obligation of Israel to defend itself in the face of attacks from Gaza by Hamas.

Today, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak quoted Obama in his remarks to the Knesset regarding Israel's action against the Terrorstinians.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak said upon completing his daily briefing that the Israel Defense Forces will use every resource to bring about an end to Palestinian rocket fire.

Speaking at the end of the third day of deadly aerial assaults on the Gaza Strip, Barak said "if the criminal rocket fire aimed at Israeli civilians does not stop immediately, Israel will use all its resources and all the legal tools it possesses to force the enemy to stop this aggressive, illegal behavior," Barak declared.

* * *

Barak also cited a comment made by U.S. President-elect Barack Obama, who visited Sderot during his election campaign earlier this year.

"Obama said that if rockets were being fired at his home while his two daughters were sleeping, he would do everything he could to prevent it," Barack told the plenum.

Let's consider precisely what Obama said during his World Tour on Unicorn One last summer.

In reference to the rocket attacks, Obama said that "I think that no country would accept missiles landing on the heads of its citizens."

Obama emphasized Israel's security, saying, "I came to Sderot with a commitment to Israel's security. Israel has the right to defend itself, and peace should not undermine its security."

He expressed his admiration for the citizens of Sderot who remained in place even though their homes had come under fire. "Israelis must not suffer a threat to their lives, to their schools," he said, adding that "if missiles were falling where my two daughters sleep, I would do everything in order to stop that."

Now this raises an interesting point three weeks before the inauguration -- once again there is the possibility that Obama's campaign rhetoric may come back to haunt him as president. Obama recognized the legitimacy of Israel defending itself from rocket attacks directed against its civilian population -- which is precisely the course of action that Israel is engaged in today. To follow a different policy after his inauguration would be worse than a betrayal of (another) campaign promise, it would be a sign that Obama expects Israel to accept and endure things that he has publicly stated no nation should accept, ant that he would not accept if directed at his own children. As such, Ehud Barak may have backed the president-elect into a policy corner.

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Not only that, but the Israeli government is warning civilians away from likely military targets.

RESIDENTS at certain addresses in the Gaza Strip have been receiving unusual phone calls since the Israeli air assault began on Saturday -- a request that they and their families leave their homes as soon as possible for their own safety.

More unusual than the recorded message is the Arabic-speaking caller, who identifies himself as being from the Israeli defence forces.

Dipping into their bag of tricks for the updated Gaza telephone numbers, Israel's intelligence services are warning Palestinian civilians in Gaza living close to Hamas facilities that they may be hurt unless they distance themselves from those targets.

In some cases, the warning comes not by telephone but from leaflets dropped from aircraft on selected districts.

So much for the notion that Israel is being indiscriminate in its attacks. they know where they are going to attack and are trying to get the civilians out -- a tricky task given that Hamas has located its facilities of military value in the midst of the civilian population.

And Israel has done a pretty good job of avoiding those civilian casualties, based upon the statistics here.

But there are conflicting reports about how successful the air force has been avoiding civilian casualties. On Sunday, Israeli officials, citing Palestinian sources, said of the almost 300 fatalities reported until then in Gaza, all but 15 were members of Hamas. Hamas officials said yesterday that one-third of fatalities were civilian.

Last night the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said at least 51 civilians had been among those killed.

I'd be willing to guess that the actual number is probably somewhere between those put out by Israel and the staunchly anti-Israel UN group, which is often little more than a mouthpiece for the Terrorstinians. In other words, only about 10% of the casualties are civilians, while the rest are legitimate military targets -- predominantly members of the military wing of Hamas and Hamas-controlled police forces that have been involved in terrorist activities. Even the attack on the Islamic University of Gaza was intended to pinpoint military research being conducted in laboratories at the school -- another legitimate goal for a nation that has decided to put an end to military attacks on its people.

Hamas, of course, offers no such warnings to the civilian population of Israel before launching unguided missiles into civilian areas -- but those who support the terrorist government of Gaza don't want to address that little detail.

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The terrorist front that is the Council on American Islamic Relations has spoken out on the current conflict in the Middle East. As expected, they sided with the Hamas terrorists rather than Israel.

A prominent national Islamic civil rights and advocacy group today condemned Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip that left more than 200 people dead and called the death toll a “massacre carried out using U.S. taxpayer-funded weapons.” More than 700 people, including women and children, were injured in the attacks.

I won't quote further, and will only note that they use all the standard buzzwords found in the statements of terrorism supporters whenever the victims of terrorism fight back. Indeed, they claim to base their position, in part, on their respect for the sanctity of human life.

A quick perusal of their website, however, will show that not a single word critical of the years of rocket attacks from Gaza exist there. Apparently they view dead and wounded Jews as less significant than dead Terrorstinians. Could it be that the folks from CAIR, with its long history of connection to anti-Semitic Islamic terrorist groups in the Middle East do not view Jews as human beings?

Of course, it shouldn't be surprising that CAIR would speak out on behalf of Hamas -- the organization was an unindicted co-conspirator in the recently concluded trial related to illegal terrorist fundraising activities on behalf of Hamas.

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Let us remember the people people who Israel defends when it acts against the Terrorstinians in Gaza.

Larissa Yaakobov stands before me sobbing. Her young daughter and nine-year-old son look on helpless. “I can’t do it anymore,” she says in broken Hebrew, “I can’t live here.” “Here” is Sderot, an Israeli border community adjacent to the Gaza Strip where Larissa has lived since she emigrated from Russia fifteen years ago. Larissa ’s son does not say a word. He hasn’t said much, she tells me, since the two watched a Qassam rocket slam into a woman a few feet away killing her instantly.

Less than twenty four hours before Israel unleashed its air-force on the Gaza Strip, I sat with four families in Sderot who have been injured and traumatized by Hamas rocket fire. In the hours before Israel ’s incursion, the mood was tense—even by Sderot standards. The streets were barren; everyone is bracing for new waves of rockets.

Sderot has no shortage of children’s playgrounds—twisty blue and yellow slides, swings and handle-bars. But children are no where to be seen. I do see plenty of bomb shelters. Every bus-stop in Sderot has been turned into a lime-colored enforced shelter with a single shrapnel-proof window. I enter one of these rooms to see what it is like inside. A car screeches to a halt and the driver dashes out to join me in the shelter. He is panicked and out of breath. Seeing me enter the shelter, he mistakenly thought a rocket was headed our way. I apologize sheepishly for the confusion as he returns to his car and speeds away.

I scan the looming gray clouds above for any indication of incoming rockets or mortars. A single fish-shaped white balloon sitting high off in the distance is my sole source of comfort. It is the Israeli armyÂ’s preferred method of identifying incoming rockets. It triggers an alarm which gives residents a few seconds to find shelter. I cannot shake the feeling that at any moment a rocket will fall from the sky and strike me directly. I note the location of every bomb shelter along the way in case I must make a mad dash to safety.

This feeling of unremitting and ubiquitous terror is the norm in a community of 20,000 residents.

Remember -- these are people in a town that is indisputably a part of Israel. After all, it is part of the pre-1967 territory of the Jewish state. It was missile barrages against Sderot and other Israeli towns near Hamas-controlled Gaza that led to the blockade of Gaza -- and despite the cease-fire that began six months ago, the attacks from Gaza continued. Homes and schools are regularly hit by the unguided missiles lobbed across the border between Israel and the Terrorstinian Anarchy. Yet somehow the world community expects Israel to continue to "take it" rather than act to root out the terrorist threat from within Hamas-controlled territory.

Pray for the people of Sderot, who have endured eight years of aggression from within Gaza -- and for the success of the military operations designed to protect them and their fellow Israelis from Hamas-sponsored terror attacks.

Posted by: Greg at 09:12 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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I find this particularly disturbing.

What we've all been waiting for — a little hope, and Barack's the man for the job. We made him purple, because we here at dugshop feel that he's a true uniter, there are no red or blue states, we're all purple.

Just as I have no interest in shirtless pics of Obama on vacation, I also have no interest in having him stare at me naked in the shower. Indeed, I can't think of a politician who I want in the shower with me.

H/T Moonbatery

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Sink the blockade runners -- and rid the world of this anti-Semitic publicity hound.

Free Gaza Group spokeswoman Caoimhe Butterly said their 20-meter yacht Dignity would leave Larnaca port around 5 p.m. (1400GMT) Monday with 3.5 tons of donated supplies.

She said the yacht would carry 16 passengers, including former US Congresswoman Cynthia Mckinney, Cypriot lawmaker and doctor Eleni Theocharous and activists from Britain, Australia, Ireland and Tunisia.

Remember, this is the same Cynthia McKinney who is noted for her history of anti-Semitism. She is going to help those who are actively involved in trying to kill Jews, and demanding that Israel stop defending its citizens from those who have engaged in repeated terror attacks on Israeli. As such, she and her fellow-travelers are entering a war zone with contraband -- and are legitimate military targets.

H/T LGF, Malkin

Posted by: Greg at 08:25 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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There are a great many ways to explain what is going on right now between Israel and the Hamas-controlled Terrorstinian Anarchy. However, I found the clearest explanation in this editorial in the Jerusalem Post.

On Friday, a Hamas spokesman made Israel the following proposal: You keep the stream of humanitarian aid and supplies flowing into Gaza and we will keep launching rockets and mortars at Israeli civilians.

It was an offer Israel had little choice but to refuse.

For weeks Israel has been imploring Hamas to stop shooting across the border, to stop tunneling in preparation for the next round of violence, and to allow our farmers to tend their fields. The Islamists responded that they were not afraid of the IDF and that they reserved the right to resist "the occupation" - meaning the existence of a Jewish state. They brazenly told Israel to get used to the idea that no amount of humanitarian gestures would stem their behavior.

At 11:30 a.m. Saturday, Israel finally told Hamas that it would not be bled, slowly, to death. Thanks to excellent intelligence and superb training, a haughty enemy was caught off-guard. Targets up and down the Strip were hit and large numbers of Hamas personnel including senior military figures were killed. Key facilities were turned into rubble; well-camouflaged equipment was destroyed.

Imagine, if you will, that Canada was lobbing missiles into the US on a daily basis. Imagine that decades of attempts to negotiate a settlement to the conflict and years of foreign aid to the attackers had done little or nothing to stem the tide of the attacks, nor regular suicide bombings in our nation's cities. And what's more, imagine that the Canadians informed us that it was expected that the US lay back and take it while continuing to cough up ever more foreign aid to the Canadian government even as the Canadians continued to express the intent to continue attacks and ultimately destroy the United States.

How long would the people of the United States be prepared to accept the attacks? How long would it be until they demanded that the government respond militarily to crush the attackers? We know the answer to those questions -- and we know that the United States government (whether in the hands of Republicans or Democrats) would act to crush the Canadians via military force -- hopefully disproportionate force designed to forever neutralize the ability of the Canadians to do attack and kill Americans.

Last week a truce between Israel and the Hamas-led government of the Terrorstinian Anarchy that began on June 19, 2008 came to an end. During that time of truce, Israel faced regular missile attacks from within Gaza in violation of the truce. Israel faced a number of terror attacks originating from Gaza. A blockade intended to protect Israel's citizens from such attacks was implemented -- and received international condemnation from those who sympathize with the Terrorstinians and their stated desire to murder Jews and destroy Israel. Israel was expected to stay its hand because of the truce, even as the other side violated it with impunity.

And when the truce ended, Israel said "No more!" Indeed, it acted in precisely the manner that Americans would demand in the scenario I outlined above -- though with less force than Americans would demand in that scenario.

And that is the problem.

Israel has, over the years, failed to kill a sufficient number of Terrorstinians.

The evidence of this?

The obvious lack of deterrence of the relatively merciful policies followed by the Israeli governments over the last 60 years.

Until Israel responds in a manner that is sufficiently ruthless to lead the Terrorstinians to fear Israel more than they hate Israel, thereby leading them to reject terrorism in order to preserve their lives and those of their children and grandchildren, the Terrorstinians will continue to make the rational choice to engage in aggression against Israel because the cost (a relative handful of dead compared to what they desire to inflict upon Israel) is sufficiently low to allow them to continue to practice terrorism.

In short, the solution to Terrorstinian attacks on Israel is for the Israelis to continue the military response and to step it up -- adding a ground component to the air component. While I'm not -- quite -- suggesting that the Terrorstinians be driven into the sea (a favorite and oft expressed dream of the Terrorstinians with regard to the people of Israel), I do suggest that the Israeli response be truly disproportionate, regardless of the sentiments of the world community. When one's enemy interprets mercy and proportionality with weakness, massive retaliation (and massive enemy casualties) becomes the only way to stop them -- and that is the situation in which Israel finds itself today.

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For the last eight years I've heard Democrats tell us that tax cuts are irresponsible. Indeed, during the last campaign we heard Joe Biden define patriotism as paying higher taxes. So what gives with this?

A top adviser to President-elect Barack Obama said Sunday that the country's slowing economy won't keep the new administration from fulfilling its plans for a middle-class tax cut.

"We feel it's important that middle-class people get some relief now," Obama adviser David Axelrod said.

"This package will include a portion of that tax cut that will become part of the permanent tax cut that he'll have in his upcoming budget," Mr. Axelrod said.

The adviser appeared Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press" and CBS's "Face the Nation."

The incoming administration is considering tax cuts of $1,000 for couples and $500 for individuals that will be delivered by reducing the tax withheld from paychecks. That plan has been estimated to be worth about $140 billion in 2009 and 2010.

Odd, but wasn't that the argument used by George W. Bush to reduce the the amount of income tax paid by every American who paid income tax when he entered office in 2001? Indeed, didn't those tax cuts have the very impact that the incoming administration says this cut will have -- putting money in the pockets of Americans? Does this mean that the Democrats are admitting that Bush was right?

Oh, and I cannot help but be struck by this twisted bit of illogic.

The lump-sum rebates issued earlier this year were used by many people to pay down debt, rather than spending the money and boosting the economy as the administration had hoped.

Now wait -- if (hypothetically speaking) my wife and I took our $1200 and used it to pay down our credit card debt or student loans, wouldn't this have had the effect of dribbling money into our pockets the same way this Obama tax cut will do? After all, the amount of the Obama cut will be about $80 a month -- roughly the same as would be left by the reduced payments on the bills in question.

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Could it be "honor killing"?

After all, consider the scenario here and tell me that it is not th emost obvious explanation of what we see here.

Sahar Daftary would have turned 24 on Christmas Day -- but instead of celebrating her life, family members of the British beauty queen mourned her death, laying flowers and lighting candles outside the apartment building from which she plunged 150 feet to her death.

Police say the case is under investigation and have not ruled out a suicide or accident, but last week they arrested and released on bail Rashid Jamil, 33, the man Daftary married in 2007 in a lavish Muslim ceremony, but not under British law.

Daftary was found in critical condition last Saturday after Jamil called police to his waterfront apartment building. She plunged 12 stories from his waterfront flat in Salford Quays, Manchester, and later died in the hospital.

What happened? It would certainly appear that Jamil murdered his Daftary because she objected to his continued marriage to a previous wife -- and his sexual assault perpetrated upon her this spring. She wanted a divorce under Islamic law (especially important since the marriage was not valid civilly and because women have very limited rights to initiate divorce under sharia), and it would appear that he instead chose to dissolve the bond in a different fashion -- via murder of a wife whose refusal to submit to him tainted his honor.

What a pity that the MSM is unwilling to label such killings what they clearly are -- out of a misguided desire, no doubt, to avoid casting the religion that justifies such barbarism in a negative light.

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In an effort to make sure that the laws of the Terrorstinian Anarchy conform with sharia law, the Hamas government has passed a law authorizing the use of crucifixion.

The Hamas parliament in the Gaza Strip voted in favor of a law allowing courts to mete out sentences in the spirit of Islam, the London-based Arab daily Al Hayat reported Wednesday.

According to the bill, approved in its second reading and awaiting a third reading before the approval of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, as the Palestinian constitution demands, courts will be able to condemn offenders to a plethora of violent punitive measures in line with Sharia Law.

Such punishments include whipping, severing hands, crucifixion and hanging. The bill reserves death sentences to people who negotiate with a foreign government "against Palestinian interests" and engage in any activity that can "hurt Palestinian morale."

Interesting, isn't it, that those who complain that playing rock music to annoy terrorists or putting women's undies on their heads constitutes torture can't find their voices when it comes to the authorization of a truly cruel form of torture and death when it is authorized BY terrorists.

After all, consider this description of what crucifixion does to a person.

The length of time required to reach death could range from a matter of hours to a number of days, depending on exact methods, the health of the crucified person and environmental circumstances.

Death could result from a variety of causes, including blood loss and hypovolemic shock, or infection and sepsis, caused by the scourging that preceded the crucifixion or by the nailing itself, and eventual dehydration. A theory attributed to Pierre Barbet holds that, when the whole body weight was supported by the stretched arms, the typical cause of death was asphyxiation. He conjectured that the condemned would have severe difficulty inhaling, due to hyper-expansion of the chest muscles and lungs. The condemned would therefore have to draw himself up by his arms, leading to exhaustion, or have his feet supported by tying or by a wood block. Indeed, Roman executioners could be asked to break the condemned's legs, after he had hung for some time, in order to hasten his death. Once deprived of support and unable to lift himself, the condemned would die within a few minutes.

Experiments by Frederick Zugibe have revealed that, when suspended with arms at 60° to 70° from the vertical, test subjects had no difficulty breathing, only rapidly-increasing discomfort and pain. This would correspond to the Roman use of crucifixion as a prolonged, agonizing, humiliating death. Zugibe claims that the breaking of the crucified condemned's legs to hasten death, as mentioned in John 19:31-32, was administered as a coup de grâce, causing severe traumatic shock or hastening death by fat embolism. Crucifixion on a single pole with no transom, with hands affixed over one's head, would precipitate rapid asphyxiation if no block was provided to stand on, or once the legs were broken.

I don't know about you, but this certainly sounds like torture to me. But I guess when terrorists (even elected terrorists like Hamas) use such methods, torture doesn't seem like a big deal to the "no torture for terrorists" crew.

And lest you doubt that this penalty is in keeping with the dictates of Islam, consider this Quaranic injunction allegedly revealed to the false prophet Muhammad.

'The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger, and strive with might and main for mischief through the land is: execution, or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands and feet from opposite sides, or exile from the land: that is their disgrace in this world, and a heavy punishment is theirs in the Hereafter.' Surah 5:33

Just call this effort to bring back one of the more barbaric aspects of Islam one more reason to hold the Terrorstinians -- and Islam -- in utter contempt.

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No, not for his part in the Blagojevich scandal. That could come later.

I mean for the illegal dumping of human remains.

Secret Service security keeps a close watch as Obama, oldest daughter Malia and sister Maya Soetoro-Ng, among others, make their way down to the rocky shoreline. Together, they spread the ashes of Madelyn Dunham. It's the same spot Obama paid tribute to his mother last August. She died in 1995.

However, consider what the law is on the matter. In Hawaii, it is required that the dumping of human remains take place at least three nautical miles from shore. Federal regulations impose a similar requirement. And while I am not necessarily an expert on such matters, I feel that I am competent to state that this is not taking place three nautical miles from shore..

That's right -- President-elect Obama is demonstrably breaking federal and state environmental laws by dumping the dearly departed less than three feet from shore.

As the folks at NewsBusters point out, our nation's lapdog media has not been willing to cover this mini-scandal -- just as they are willing to accept his self-absolution in the Blagojevich scandal.

But my question is one even more basic -- will the authorities apply the law regarding the illegal dumping of human remains in this case against Barack Obama? Or will he be given a pass on his public lawbreaking?

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For those who wish to argue that Islam is merely another path to God, please recognize the blasphemy that the Quran contains.

“In the name of Allah, the most beneficent, the most merciful, Say (O Muhammad): He is Allah, (the) One and Only. Allah, the Eternal, the Absolute. He begetteth not, nor was begotten, and there is none like unto him.” -- Surah 112:1-4

Where were these words of blasphemy "revealed" by the false prophet Muhammad displayed? In the city of Nazareth, directly across from the Basilica of the Annunciation. You know, one of the holiest sites in Christendom, at the spot where Christians believe that Gabriel the Archangel informed the Virgin Mary that she was to bear the Son of God without knowing man. And when? At Christmas, when we of the Christian faith mark the miracle of the Incarnation, when the Word became Flesh and dwelt among us.

As NazarethÂ’s Christians prepare to celebrate Christmas, they are playing down the appearance of a confrontational Islamic banner that challenges an elemental Christian belief.

Journalists visiting the city saw two large banners--one in English, one in Arabic--hanging in the plaza in front of the Basilica of the Annunciation, with a verse from the Koran (112:1-4) contradicting the New Testament proclamation that Jesus is the “only begotten” of God.

“In the name of Allah, the most beneficent, the most merciful, Say (O Muhammad): He is Allah, (the) One and Only. Allah, the Eternal, the Absolute. He begetteth not, nor was begotten, and there is none like unto him,” the banner reads.

Nazareth's mayor refused to take action against this provocation against Christians during one of the two holiest time of the year for Christians. He claims he did so to avoid giving Islamic radicals an opportunity to spread their malign beliefs further. However, I wonder whether he would have allowed a sign declaring Muhammad to be a false prophet to be hung in front of the local mosque during Ramadan, or whether the Muslim population of the city would have been expected to peacefully accept the calculated insult. Indeed, would not such an anti-Islamic sign be the cause of riots, both in Nazareth and around the world?

Perhaps the most interesting thing to note is that Christians around the world have not rioted. There have been no attacks on mosques or individual Muslims in retaliation. Moreover, the justifiable outrage at the sign has been confined to the written and spoken word -- something that we have noted time and again is in sharp contrast to the response of Muslims to provocations that are even less extreme. Which faith is, therefore, more accurately described as the religion of peace?

And let's not forget -- the words on that sign are fundamental to the beliefs of Islam. Those words come from the book of lies that Muslims revere as the literal word of Allah, and are held by Muslims to be sacred truth and unchangeable. Is it not therefore clear that Muslims worship some other god than the God of the Old and New Testaments?

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Though with a headline like this, it ought to be.

Oldest bat in captivity to mark birthday today at Cranbrook Institute

Here's a little more information.

Tanner, the oldest bat in captivity in the world, turns 23 today at the Cranbrook Institute of Science.

But don't expect loud horns or funny hats at this birthday party.

And instead of cake, he'll get a luscious cup of papaya, mango and melon at noon.

Tanner is a golden bat, a rare species found in nature only on a 13-square-mile island in the Indian Ocean, about 1,300 miles off the shores of Madagascar. The species is critically endangered, with only 1,000 in captivity.

Tanner is only 23. Helen Thomas is 88.

Which do you find more creepy and frightening?

Seems to me she has the battle won hands down.

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Let us not forget why we mark this day each year in celebration of the fact that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

Prepare for another move towards successful private space travel -- the carrier for SpaceShip Two has made its first flight.

A carrier aircraft designed to be the first stage of a commercial spaceline system made its maiden test flight Sunday at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California.

Designed by Scaled Composites, the huge and unique White Knight Two mothership rolled down the runway and muscled itself into the air using four Pratt and Whitney PW308A turbofan engines. The White Knight Two flew for about an hour, departing the runway at roughly 8:17 a.m. PT, safely touching down at the Mojave airport at approximately 9:17 a.m. PT.

"It's a big day," said Stuart Witt, general manager of Mojave Air and Space Port. "I think it's a real reflective time. When everybody's looking for a bailout, there are still people that are doing something for a much larger reason," he told Space.com.

SpaceShip Two will be the second step towards Virgin Galactic's suborbital space service. And once it succeeds, who knows what the future will hold for us. My question -- will Sir Richard Branson's venture beat NASA's next generation spacecraft into earth orbit.

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Some details are just priceless.

ON Thursday, Dec. 11, Jim Donnelly got the call at his office on Jay Street in Dumbo for the biggest job he had ever had. Emmett Beliveau, the executive director of the Presidential Inaugural Committee, told him that Precise Continental, Mr. DonnellyÂ’s 26-year-old printing company, had won the bid to produce one million gold-and-black engraved invitations for the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama.

Insert your joke here.

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That's what the statistics show.

This holiday season is a time to examine whoÂ’s been naughty and whoÂ’s been nice, but IÂ’m unhappy with my findings. The problem is this: We liberals are personally stingy.

Liberals show tremendous compassion in pushing for generous government spending to help the neediest people at home and abroad. Yet when it comes to individual contributions to charitable causes, liberals are cheapskates.

Arthur Brooks, the author of a book on donors to charity, “Who Really Cares,” cites data that households headed by conservatives give 30 percent more to charity than households headed by liberals. A study by Google found an even greater disproportion: average annual contributions reported by conservatives were almost double those of liberals.

Other research has reached similar conclusions. The “generosity index” from the Catalogue for Philanthropy typically finds that red states are the most likely to give to nonprofits, while Northeastern states are least likely to do so.

The upshot is that Democrats, who speak passionately about the hungry and homeless, personally fork over less money to charity than Republicans — the ones who try to cut health insurance for children.

What is pretty clear here is that while we on the right may question the propriety and effectiveness of government programs, we do more to actually help the poor than liberals do. Support for high taxes and yet another government give-away leads liberals to absolve themselves of the need to actually do something personally for the poor -- while conservatives at all financial levels give more to charitable causes than do liberals at the same income level. And when you include volunteer time, you see the disparity grow. Only if you exclude giving to religious organizations (which would include not just churches, but religious hospitals, religious schools, and other religious charities that engage in their work for religious reasons) does the gap close. But such an exclusion, besides being intellectually dishonest, is also an example of the essential religious bigotry that permeates much of contemporary secular liberalism.

That isn't to say that liberals are bad people -- most of them are not. But when they call for sacrificial giving, they are unwilling to engage in it themselves unless they are forced to do so by the government -- and everyone else is forced to do so with them.

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Certainly not after the head of the Organization of Islamic Countries gets the UN to again condemn "defamation of religion"

The world's top diplomat for Islam called on Friday for an end to what he termed efforts to equate the religion with terrorism and said the 'demonization' of Muslims around the world must be fought.

But speaking soon after the U.N. General Assembly passed an Islamic-sponsored resolution condemning "defamation of religion" for the fourth year in a row, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu said his group was committed to respecting freedom of expression.

There was a "rising tide of incitement to religious hatred and discrimination and intolerance targeting Muslims," he told a meeting called by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) at the United Nations in Geneva. The 57-nation OIC, based in Saudi Arabia, represents 1.5 billion Muslims.

"Attempts to equate Islam with terrorism should be stopped. Stereotyping and demonization of Muslims should be combated," said Ihsanoglu, a Turkish history professor who became OIC Secretary-General in 2005.

Frankly, I wish that we didn't have to link Islam and terrorism. Unfortunately, these folks do.

Given that each and every one of these indicted terrorist fugitives is a Muslim, I don't see how we can avoid making a connection between their religion and terrorism -- especially when they themselves make that connection, claiming to engage in their foul acts under the rubric of "jihad", which is the duty of every Muslim.

For that matter, there is this comment, too -- making a clear statement about how terrorism will get you into heaven if you are a Muslim, from a spokesman from a major Muslim organization.

The Muslim Public Affairs Committee (MPAC) is one of the media's favourite Muslim organisations - radical and outspoken but not extremist, we're led to believe. One of its spokesmen, Asghar Bukhari, is a particular favourite of the BBC, whose Asian Network describes how he has "set up Media response workshops to educate and engage Muslims about dealing with the media" .

So I was interested to see how Bukhari would "deal" with me when I rang him to ask about an interesting discovery by The Centre for Social Cohesion, in my opinion the most formidable of the think-tanks monitoring Islamic extremism, which has been rooting around Facebook discussions.

In one recent thread, Bukhari says: "Muslims who fight against the occupation of their lands are 'Mujahadeen' and are blessed by Allah. And any Muslim who fights and dies against Israel and dies is a martyr and will be granted paradise ... There is no greater oppressor on this earth than the Zionists, who murder little children for sport."

Well, Bukhari didn't evade the question. He confirmed that the Facebook discussion was authentic, and said: "I stand by that [his comments], and I think any Muslim in the world stands by that ... if you think I'm going to tap dance for you and say 'These Muslims are really bad and should sort their own house out', then I'm not going to."

Indeed, he added, if that was my view then I could "p--- off".

Seems like this Bukhari shares a view of Islam with the terrorists above, but not with the OIC.

But I'm prepared to make a deal with Professor Ihsanoglu -- when his religion quits producing the overwhelming majority of terrorists and its apologists, I'll quit drawing a connection. Until then, I'll stand by the position that there is clearly something dysfunctional in a faith that produces a disproportionate number of terrorists.

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The omission is pretty glaring here.

Former Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann used his campaign account to bankroll home repairs and family vacations, according to a newspaper review of state investigative reports.

The reports are part of a complaint filed last week with the Ohio Elections Commission by state Inspector General Tom Charles. Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner also filed an elections commission complaint against Dann last week alleging misuse of campaign funds.

The Ohio Elections Commission will address both complaints Jan. 22. And state Auditor Mary Taylor plans Monday to release her own investigation into Dann's spending.

Dann resigned in May amid a sexual harassment scandal in his office that included his admission that he had an affair with an employee.

The first four paragraphs are representative of the rest of the article in that they leave out Dann's party. Nowhere does this AP article identify this corrupt public official's party, which seems to me to be pretty shocking. Isn't that relevant information?

Of course, Dann is a Democrat -- something that could have been inferred from the absence of the party label. After all, if Dann were a Republican, we know it would have been included.

H/T Instapundit, Hot Air

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Using the arguments made by California AG Jerry Brown, it could be. After all, his argument that certain sorts of amendment are impermissible could just as easily be used to make the following argument put forward (tongue-in-cheek) at Discriminations.

If only slaveholders (or, arguably, former slaveholders) had been as smart as Jerry Brown, they could have urged the Supreme Court to invalidate the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery, on the Brownian ground that the Constitution as adopted protected property, including property in slaves, and that that right should not be sacrificed to the whims of a tyrannical majority.

Fortunately for African-Americans in this nation, the US Supreme Court of the United States is unlikely to rule that constitutional amendments are unconstitutional. Will the California Supreme Court exercise similar restraint, even with Brown's urging that they make precisely such a ruling?

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While our government is trying to save the banking and auto industries, Italy has its own economic crisis to be overcome by government intervention.

The Italian government says it's shoring up the parmigiana market by buying 100,000 wheels of the famed cheese to give to charity.

Despite a strong demand for the cheese in Italy and abroad, parmigiana producers are struggling to make money, which puts parmigiana's future at risk, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

The government is buying the chunks of cheese, which weigh about 77 pounds each, with money from a special European Fund meant to feed poor people, the Journal reported.

And in all seriousness, makers of mozzarella producers are upset, arguing that they need a bailout as well.

Well, at least the Italian government is getting something tangible for its money -- is the US government getting anything similar for all the billions in taxpayer cash being tossed around in bailout plans?

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When your obligation under the state constitution is to defend the laws of the state -- and any constitutional amendments passed by the people of your state -- your duty should be pretty clear.

Unfortunately, California Attorney General Jerry Brown doesn't believe he has to fulfill the duty he owes to the people.

In a surprise move, state Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown asked the California Supreme Court on Friday to invalidate Proposition 8. He said the November ballot measure that banned gay marriage "deprives people of the right to marry, an aspect of liberty that the Supreme Court has concluded is guaranteed by the California Constitution."

It is the attorney general's duty to defend the state's laws, and after gay rights activists filed legal challenges to Proposition 8, which amended the Constitution to ban same-sex marriage, Brown said he planned to defend the proposition as enacted by the people of California.

But after studying the matter, Brown concluded that "Proposition 8 must be invalidated because the amendment process cannot be used to extinguish fundamental constitutional rights without compelling justification."

In other words, Brown has arrogantly taken it upon himself to substitute his view of the matter for the view of the people of the state of California who passed an amendment to the state constitution to formally establish the definition of marriage as that which it has been since the founding of the American Republic -- one man and one woman.

In other words, what Brown has done here is to promulgate as the official position of the state of California the position taken by the losing side in the last election. What's more, he has taken the position that right of the people to govern themselves and to alter or abolish their form of government does not exist -- and that they have no recourse in the face of judicial tyrants who impose novel interpretations of the very document from which they derive their authority. In other words, he has rejected the notion that the people are sovereign and instead seeks to have the California Supreme Court rule that the people of that state are mere subjects. As such, he has actively violated his oath of office and should be immediately impeached and removed from office.

That will not happen, of course, given the predilection of some members of the gerrymandered General Assembly to ignore the vote of the people on the same issue and attempt to legalize what the people of California had banned when they voted for a proposition against gay marriage in 2000 -- despite explicit constitutional prohibitions on repealing such initiatives through legislation.

What is even more frightening is that the California Supreme Court may take it upon itself to use Brown's filing to overturn Prop 8 -- after all, it is a specific rebuke to that activist court that overturned the previous vote of the people because it overturns last spring's decision legalizing gay marriages.

What we may have here, then, is a situation in which it may become the obligation of the Federal Government to intervene in California, under the authority conveyed by Article IV, Section 4 of the US Constitution.

The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence.

After all, if the ruling of the court is that the people may not alter or abolish the government established by their state constitution and that the voice of the people on matters of public policy carry no force, then it is clear that there does not exist a Republican Form of Government in that state.

And of Congress or the Obama Administration were to fail to act in such a situation? Jefferson addresses that matter well.

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."

Like the patriots of old, prepare the tar and feathers -- and like the people of Italy at the end of WWII, prepare the piano wire and meat hooks.

More At Malkin, Patterico, Gateway Pundit, Jules Crittenden, NewsBusters, STACLU, Don Surber, Pirates Cove, Jane Q. Republican

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For crying out loud! Did someone really make a decision to do something this absurd?

Students at St. Stephen Elementary School found out last week that Santa Claus can have the same skin color as them.

That's because two Santa Clauses — one white, one black — were invited to the rural Berkeley County school at separate times last Friday to take pictures with students of the same skin color.

Principal Willa Norton's decision to invite two Santas has drawn criticism from a few parents and from two civil rights organizations, which said the school shouldn't have divided the students by race without asking parents first.

Marguerite Lyons, who found out about the two Santas while picking up her son outside the school Thursday, said dividing the children by race smacked of prejudice. All the children should have seen one Santa, she said.

"I don't care if (Santa) was Chinese or Puerto Rican," said Lyons, who is black. "Everyone's the same."

For the record, I agree with Lyons, who seems to have adopted the philosophy of racial equality much more fully than the principal or the civil rights organizations, which were willing to concede the propriety of such racial separatism “if the parents wanted it.” There should have been only one Santa, with no racial division – and had she brought a black Santa into her school that is ¾ black, I can’t imagine having anyone object (or caring if anyone did). After all, I was not troubled when, during my two years on Guam as a kid, we had a Santa who looked just like the Pacific Islanders who made up the bulk of the non-military population there.

Now mind you, Norton was trying to do a good thing here, and I won’t attack her goal. But the execution is really problematic – and even she and her district indicate there will be a different procedure in place next year. So Merry Christmas to them all.

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Now IÂ’ve said in the past that I donÂ’t care that Congressman Keith Ellison is a Muslim. IÂ’m not offended that he took his oath of office using a Koran. And I personally consider it a wonderful thing that he went on the hajj this year.

However, Scott at Power Line bring up an interesting point today.

John Hinderaker wrote about the Star Tribune's W3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUUT">puff piece by Mitch Anderson earlier this week on the pilgrimage of Minnesota Fifth District Rep. Keith Ellison to Mecca for the Muslim Hajj. The brief piece relied heavily on comments by Ellison spoksman Rick Jauert, who told Anderson "that Ellison paid for the journey himself." (Incidentally, the Star Tribune seems to have tinkered with the version of the story on which John commented)

Today the Star Tribune devotes a second W3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aULPQL7PQLanchO7DiUsX">puff piece by Anderson to Ellison's Hajj The rationale for another piece on the same subject is obscure. Apparently adding weight to Ellison's greatness in the eyes of the Star Tribune, Anderson quotes Ellison: "This is just me trying to be the best person I can be."

Anderson buries the sole item of journalistic interest at the end of the article. Anderson reports: "[Ellison's] expenses were paid for by the Muslim American Society of Minnesota." Despite the fact that it was Anderson himself who previously quoted Ellison's spokesman asserting that the trip was on Ellison's own nickel, Anderson drops the subject there.

Now IÂ’m not going to delve into the prolems with the MAS or its various branches, the groupÂ’s origins or its somewhat alarming connections to some troubling groups abroad. Power Line does a great job of that later in the piece IÂ’ve quoted above, and I wonÂ’t reproduce it here. Go read it there, and give them the traffic.

No, I’m concerned about another issue – one related to ethics. After all, democrats have for years raised questions about what Republican went where on what company or group’s dime. And there are, of course, some rather straightforward requirements on what can be accepted as well as when and how the travel must be reported on official disclosure forms. Not only that, but there are requirements for advance approval of such privately funded trips. Has Ellison complied with all those disclosure and reporting guidelines? I checked the House website, and there is no filing there. Do we have another potential ethical lapse by a House Democrat?

Posted by: Greg at 01:13 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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We have a local blogger over at Bay Area Houston who has taken it into his head that he is the leading watchdog on government ethics in the state. After all, he regularly makes posts attacking pols who have been cited for various ethical lapses. Now I’d find this admirable except for one minor detail – he only reports on the REPUBLICANS – as a Democrat activist, he won’t touch the ethics problems of Democrats with a 10-foot poll.

That’s why he managed to miss this tidbit about a Texas legislator with a host of such problems – one who wants to be Speaker of the House.

Representative Sylvester Turner has been a busy little beaver. He has managed to amass enough campaign finance violations in the last two years to fill a 37 page ethics complaint, along with167 pages of campaign finance reports to back up the complaint. Since the complaint runs 37 pages I obviously cannot do all of his violations justice but I will hit some highlights for you.

• $220,905.33 (cumulative errors) is missing and unaccounted for out of his campaign funds, and also did not report any interest accrual on the account as well. This is fraud and perjury.
• Accepted $13,500 in direct contributions from corporate entities which is illegal.
• $500 of which was from Zachry Construction, the prime contractor for the Trans-Texas Corridor construction and a major contractor to TXDoT. Knowingly accepting Corporate donations is a third degree felony. He did this a total of 16 times in the last two years, listed the corporations on the forms, and then signed them, so he will have a hard time claiming he did not know. Maybe he didn't read them, but he SHOULD have read them. He signed the form which means he is accepting responsibility for what is in them.
• Made six payments to Ford Motor Credit in the amount of $736.46 for what appears to be his personal vehicle. Amounting to $4418.76. This is personal enrichment from campaign funds and he would be civilly liable for the amount, even if it's a lease with residual value to the lessor.
• Made a total of 141 payments to himself and others from the fund without disclosing the names of payees, dates, amounts, or purposes of the payments.

Now mind you, this covers just TWO YEARS worth of violations.

Personally, I donÂ’t know if Turner is actually guilty of the offenses with which he is charged, and I am willing to wait to see what the outcome is. And IÂ’d even cut John some slack here were it not for the fact that he has recently filed an ethics complaint against the current speaker, and has implied on his blog that the mere fact that the Texas Ethics Commission accepted his complaint as properly filed is indicative of Speaker CraddickÂ’s guilt. That means, I suppose, that John is seeking to protect his partyÂ’s own corrupt pols, since he is only reporting on actions against his political opponents.

And interestingly enough, he himself would be one of the corrupt Democrats he has been protecting. After all, he’s the guy used by the Office of the Inspector General as a case study in what not to do with regards to the Hatch Act – which he was determined to have violated and for which he received a 180 day suspension from his job at NASA. Interestingly enough, John didn’t see fit to comment on that ethical lapse on his blog – and nor did he offer any criticism of the candidate for whom he illicitly raised funds on government time using government resources and facilities in violation of federal law. I guess that lapses of political ethics are in the eye of the beholder, right?

But then again, why should we be surprised? After all, he’s jut following the Pelosi Paradigm for improving political ethics – cleaning out the ethical swamp to make room for his own unethical alligators.

UPDATE: I'll be damned -- Coby actually reports today on the ethics issues of a Democrat. Of course, she is one of the "Craddick Democrats" who support the current speaker, so John is still only commenting on the ethical issues of those he identifies as political enemies.

UPDATE II: I love it when John brags about his threats of physical violence against me. Just more of barack Obama's "new tone" in American politics, I guess.

Posted by: Greg at 01:11 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Under their interpretation of the parable, the priest and the Levite got it right.

Being a good Samaritan in California just got a little riskier.

The California Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a young woman who pulled a co-worker from a crashed vehicle isn't immune from civil liability because the care she rendered wasn't medical.
The divided high court appeared to signal that rescue efforts are the responsibility of trained professionals. It was also thought to be the first ruling by the court that someone who intervened in an accident in good faith could be sued.

Lisa Torti of Northridge allegedly worsened the injuries suffered by Alexandra Van Horn by yanking her "like a rag doll" from the wrecked car on Topanga Canyon Boulevard.

Torti now faces possible liability for injuries suffered by Van Horn, a fellow department store cosmetician who was rendered a paraplegic in the accident that ended a night of Halloween revelry in 2004.

But in a sharp dissent, three of the seven justices said that by making a distinction between medical care and emergency response, the court was placing "an arbitrary and unreasonable limitation" on protections for those trying to help.

In other words, folks, the prudent rule to follow in California is “LET THAT SUCKER DIE!” After all, the alternative is being saddled with an insurmountable debt if someone decdes your course of action was incorrect – and that someone will always be a lawyer.

Oh, and when this case gets to a jury, hereÂ’s hoping for a bit of jury nullification.

Posted by: Greg at 01:05 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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After all, if you are going to waive a requirement for all those who do not meet it, how can you keep a straight face by labeling it a requirement?

Many Maryland high school seniors at risk of not graduating may be able to earn diplomas through a waiver of the state's new exit-exam requirements under a policy approved yesterday.
The waiver process, approved unanimously by the Maryland State Board of Education, provides another path to a diploma for some of the 4,000 seniors who have not passed or not taken one or more of the High School Assessments, a set of four exams in algebra, English, biology and government.

The estimate of 4,000 at-risk seniors is sharply reduced from an earlier statewide estimate of 9,000 because, state officials said, thousands of students have met graduation standards in recent months.

State Superintendent of Schools Nancy S. Grasmick said the waiver was likely to affect "a small cohort" of students who have not completed courses or remedial work. Many of those affected would be students learning English as a second language or others in special education programs, she said.

"It's very hard to predict. The determination literally has to be made at the school level," Grasmick said. "I could say several hundred, and I'd probably be somewhat safe."

In other words, the state of Maryland has said you must pass a test to graduate, and if you can’t there are other options – unless you can’t fulfill any of them, in which case you don’t have to bother with any of it at all. All I can say in response is that instead of raising the value of a Maryland diploma, they have managed to lower it.

Posted by: Greg at 01:03 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I love the conclusion in the NY Times article on the new freedom of conscience rules put in place for medical professionals.

Opponents of abortion, including the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Catholic Health Association, which represents Catholic hospitals, support the new regulations and say they are needed to protect health-care providers from being forced to perform abortions and sterilizations.

They are opposed by the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, the American Hospital Association and the American Medical Association, among others. Opponents contend that the regulations are a threat to a womanÂ’s right to choose to have an abortion, and that they are not needed in any event because the Civil Rights Act of 1964 already prohibits employment discrimination based on religion.

Now look at that last sentence. It shows the propensity of anti-lifers like the NACDS, AHA and AMA folks to lie about anything in an effort to ensure that abortion is available any time, anywhere, with as little restriction as possible. After all, absolutely nothing in the regulations forbids women to have abortions – they simply ensure that those who have a moral objection to abortion are not forced to participate in them. After all, must every doctor be forced to become an abortionist in order to guarantee a woman the freedom to take the life of her unborn child? Of course not. And since the 1964 Civil Rights Act argument has not generally been successful in protecting the conscience rights of pro-life medical professionals, the latter argument is fatuous

But the assertion made by the proponents of death does lead to a question that no reporter for the Grey Lady would dare ask – if they are opposed to regulations that they claim essentially duplicate protections found in the 1964 Civil Rights Act, are they also opposed to the protections found in that seminal piece of civil rights legislation? Do they, in fact, believe that even the religious liberties of Americans must take the back seat to the needs of the abortion industry? But while asking such questions would be good journalism, doing so might expose the anti-freedom agenda of these acolytes of death – meaning that the answers to such questions will never make it into the MSM.

Posted by: Greg at 01:02 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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IÂ’m personally surprised that the New York Times included the party affiliation in this story.

City Councilman Hiram Monserrate, a Queens Democrat who was elected to the State Senate last month, was arrested and charged with assault on Friday morning in connection with an injury to his girlfriend, law enforcement officials said.

Paul J. Browne, the Police DepartmentÂ’s top spokesman, said that Mr. Monserrate had been arrested and charged with assault in the first degree.
Officials said that Mr. Monserrate had taken his girlfriend, Karla Giraldo, 30, to Long Island Jewish Medical Center with what appeared to be a serious injury in or around her left eye.

Ms. Giraldo told hospital staff that it was Mr. Monserrate who had assaulted her, officials said. It appeared that she had been punched and slashed in or around her left eye with a shard of glass, and officials said it took 20 to 40 stitches to close the wound. A doctor at the hospital, which straddles the border between Queens and Nassau County, called the police at 4:50 a.m.

New York City police detectives arrived at the hospital, arrested Mr. Monserrate and took him to a Queens precinct house for questioning. The alleged assault occurred in Mr. MonserrateÂ’s apartment, at 37-20 83rd Street in Jackson Heights, officials said.

What a prince of a man – just one more example of the way in which New York Democrats show their respect for their women. After all, in the last year we have seen a pair of New York governors exposed for engaging in affairs behind the backs of their wives (one with a hooker, the other with a staffer). And let’s not forget the way in which New York’s junior senator was treated by her husband a few years back. I guess this sort of stuff proves that NY Democrats view women as doormats – and I’m prepared to call them on it in light of the propensity of Democrats to be outraged by the peccadillos of Republicans.

Posted by: Greg at 01:00 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I'm a long-time science fiction fan. Tonight I mark the passing of an important figure in Star Trek -- Majel Barrett Rodenberry.

Majel Barrett Roddenberry, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry's widow and a fixture of nearly every incarnation of the space travel franchise, died on Thursday. She was 76.

Roddenberry, who suffered from leukemia, died at home in Bel Air, Calif., according to a spokesperson.

Before Star Trek, the Ohio-born actress worked on a range of television shows, including Bonanza and Leave it to Beaver.

She was romantically involved with Roddenberry when he launched Star Trek in the mid-1960s. Though he cast her as the USS Enterprise's unnamed first officer in his pilot, she would go on to fame as the secondary character Nurse Chapel in the original series and in subsequent films. The couple married in 1969.

Roddenberry reappeared in the revamped Star Trek: The Next Generation as one of its beloved recurring characters: Betazoid ambassador Lwaxana Troi and as the voice of the starship's onboard computer — a job she would also hold on spin-offs Deep Space Nine and Voyager, audio books, animated series, video games as well as on the forthcoming J.J. Abrams prequel film.

As noted above, she appeared as three characters in the series -- two of who became fan favorites. But it is her voice work as the voice of the computer, so ubiquitous throughout the entire run of the franchise, that we who love Star Trek may find ourselves missing the most.

In addition to her tie back to the Star Trek's creator, of course.

Rest in Peace, Majel -- and know that you are missed.

Posted by: Greg at 03:29 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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