Political Digest May 24, 2010

I post articles because I think they are of interest. Doing so doesn’t mean that I necessarily agree with every—or any—opinion in the posted article. Nor that I disagree with them, of course.

GOP's Djou wins Hawaii special election for Congress
http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artikkel?Dato=20100522&Kategori=BREAKING01&Lopenr=100522028&Ref=AR&om_rid=Mqh-D0&om_mid=_BL$SUBB8JfFoDf&
The real test will be holding the seat in November. I declined to run for Congress in 1980, though I think I had a shot. One reason was that MA was going to lose a seat, and it would have been me. Lot of effort and money to raise, to have a shot at only two years. Excerpt: Honolulu City Councilman Charles Djou has won the special election in urban Honolulu's 1st Congressional District, the first Republican sent to Washington, D.C., to represent the Islands in two decades. According to final count from the state Office of Elections, Djou had 39.4 percent of the vote, followed by 30.8 percent for state Senate President Colleen Hanabusa and 27.6 percent for former congressman Ed Case. The remaining 11 other candidates attracted the rest of the vote. The results are for ballots mailed in or dropped off through Friday and ballots received today, accounting for all of the votes cast in the winner-take-all special election.

Ground Zero Mosque Plans Might Be Derailed
http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local-beat/Ground-Zero-Mosque--94611604.html
Excerpt: The plan to build a mosque two blocks from Ground Zero may have hit a snag, due to an over 20-year pending landmark status. The American Society for Muslim Advancement purchased the 152-year-old building at 45 Park Place last year for $4.8 million. Their controversial plan to tear down the building and construct a 13-story mosque and community center has had many critics who feel it's disrespectful to those lost during the September 11th attacks. A 1989 decision by the Landmarks Commission to propose the landmark status of the building may now prevent the building from being razed and the $100 million mosque from being constructed

Arizona’s Support Our Law
http://www.numbersusa.com/content/nusablog/jenksr/may-21-2010/read-it-here-every-detail-arizona-enforcement-law-originally-sb-1070.htm?jid=515574&lid=9&rid=3526&tid=79100
For those who might be interested in what the law actually says. Attorney Generals excepted. Excerpt: During the course of “any lawful stop, detention, or arrest” made by any state or local law enforcement officer “in the enforcement of any other law or ordinance,” if the officer determines that there is reasonable suspicion that the person is an illegal alien, “a reasonable attempt” shall be made to determine the immigration status of the person by verifying immigration status with the federal government pursuant to federal law (8 U.S.C. 1373(c)). (This should, but probably won’t, alleviate President Obama’s deep concern that Hispania-Americans going out for ice cream will be hassled, despite what his teleprompter told him.)

Global warming: Michael Mann finds a new research plaything
http://www.examiner.com/x-9111-Environmental-Policy-Examiner~y2010m5d21-Global-warming-Michael-Mann-finds-a-new-research-plaything?cid=exrss-Environmental-Policy-Examiner
Your tax dollars being ripped off. Excerpt: In the Guardian today there is an article following on about the story of malaria and climate change. I like the quote from Peter Gething of Oxford: "If we were to go back to the 1900s with the correct climate change predictions for the 20th century, modellers would predict expansion and worsening of malaria and they would have been wrong, and we believe they are wrong now." That's because despite global warming for the past 30 years, the geographic extent of malaria has lessened, leading logical thinkers to guess that climate change has not worsened the spread of malaria. Gething was referring to his study published yesterday in Nature that found that bednets and drugs will influence the spread of malaria far more than will climate change, challenging fears that warming will aggravate the disease in Africa.... But Matthew Thomas thinks differently. Matthew Thomas said that the study "plays down the potential importance of climate [change]". Who is Matthew Thomas? He is a researcher at... Penn State. Matthew Thomas is a researcher... at Penn State... who has just won a $1.8 million grant to study the influence of environmental temperature on transmission of vector-borne diseases. Think he has a dog in this hunt? Ask his co-investigator on the project. Michael Mann...

It’s the Sun, stupid
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2010/05/21/its-the-sun-stupid/
Excerpt: Four years ago, when I first started profiling scientists who were global warming skeptics, I soon learned two things: Solar scientists were overwhelmingly skeptical that humans caused climate change and, overwhelmingly, they were reluctant to go public with their views. Often, they refused to be quoted at all, saying they feared for their funding, or they feared other recriminations from climate scientists in the doomsayer camp. When the skeptics agreed to be quoted at all, they often hedged their statements, to give themselves wiggle room if accused of being a global warming denier. Scant few were outspoken about their skepticism. No longer. Scientists, and especially solar scientists, are becoming assertive. Maybe their newfound confidence stems from the Climategate emails, which cast doomsayer-scientists as frauds and diminished their standing within academia. Maybe their confidence stems from the avalanche of errors recently found in the reports of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, destroying its reputation as a gold standard in climate science. Maybe the solar scientists are becoming assertive because the public no longer buys the doomsayer thesis, as seen in public opinion polls throughout the developed world. Whatever it was, solar scientists are increasingly conveying a clear message on the chief cause of climate change: It’s the Sun, Stupid.

Results of Kandahar offensive may affect future U.S. moves
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/22/AR2010052203486.html?wpisrc=nl_headline
Excerpt: The Obama administration's campaign to drive the Taliban out of Afghanistan's second-largest city is a go-for-broke move that even its authors are unsure will succeed. The bet is that the Kandahar operation, backed by thousands of U.S. troops and billions of dollars, will break the mystique and morale of the insurgents, turn the tide of the war and validate the administration's Afghanistan strategy. There is no Plan B. The deadline for results is short: Administration officials anticipate that the operation will form the centerpiece of a major strategy assessment due in December and will justify the first withdrawals of U.S. troops from elsewhere in Afghanistan in July 2011. Although operations initiated last winter in southwestern Helmand province will continue, and new troop deployments are scheduled this year for northern and eastern Afghanistan, little else will matter if the news from Kandahar is not good.

N.Y. bomb plot probe shows radicalism might be on the rise among Pakistani elite
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/22/AR2010052203438.html?wpisrc=nl_headline
Pakistan has a Tea Party? Who Knew? Excerpt: A crescendo of violence has steadily cramped the lifestyles of well-heeled Pakistanis and expatriates in this tidy city by targeting elite hotels and eateries. Now militancy may have infiltrated one remaining social reserve of those groups: private, canapé-laden parties in manicured compounds. A Pakistani intelligence official said Saturday that the U.S.-educated co-owner of a catering firm to swanky events, including American Embassy functions, might have given money to the suspect in the Times Square bomb plot and been asked to aid attacks on diplomats' gatherings. Salman Ashraf Khan, 35, is among several detained in a widening Pakistani probe into the attempted bombing in New York that has netted a former army major, a computer salesman and other professionals.

Obama decides to unilaterally announce secret U.S. missile tests, satellite launches
http://commonamericanjournal.com/?p=14678
See, I was confused. When BO promised transparency, I thought he was talking about having the healthcare negotiations on C-Span, not about opening our military secrets to our enemies. Silly me. Excerpt: President Obama has decided to pre-announce to the world once-secret American ballistic missile tests and satellite launches. The Democratic administration’s goal is to show a friendlier face to other countries and to coax Russia to do the same. It’s part of a confidence-boosting initiative launched, so to speak, last fall when Obama suddenly abandoned the U.S. missile-defense system in Eastern Europe that had exercised the Russians, though it was aimed at potential future missiles from Iran.

Bam's daze of the weak
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/bam_daze_of_the_weak_EiUUfDbjnfUa3SxyR0d24O
Excerpt: President Obama is the backward man. Teddy Roosevelt's advice to "speak softly and carry a big stick" was meant as a guide to successful foreign relations. Obama has completely muddled the message. He speaks softly to foreign adversaries and uses the big stick on American dissenters. Iran and Syria are wooed endlessly with carrots, apologies and promises of grand bargains. They respond with taunts and threats and pay no penalty. North Korea sinks a South Korean ship, and our secretary of state says it means no more business as usual. That's an admission it has been business as usual even after the loony kingdom tested nukes. The Mexican president comes to Washington and berates American citizens for expressing their views through the democratic process, and Obama shamefully nods in agreement. A State Department aide apologizes to China -- to China! -- about our treatment of illegal immigrants. Meanwhile, American "fat-cat bankers" and "greedy" doctors and sundry opponents are demonized as enemies of the state. They respond by sullenly surrendering the health-care and financial industries to Big Government. Welcome to a double disaster. America now has a foreign policy that is a dangerous flop and a homeland as bitterly divided as ever. And don't forget 10 percent unemployment and skyrocketing deficits and debt. Heckuva job, Mr. President.

Why losers have delusions of grandeur: The less you know, the more you think you do
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/why_losers_have_delusions_of_grandeur_kmSEG1YrE1Uhfh1fL4tdWP
This is why Congressmen didn’t read the healthcare bill, or Holder the AZ law. Excerpt: Charles Darwin observed that “ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge.” That was certainly true on the day in 1995 when a man named McArthur Wheeler boldly robbed two banks in Pittsburgh without using a disguise. Security camera footage of him was broadcast on the evening news the same day as the robberies, and he was arrested an hour later. Mr. Wheeler was surprised when the police explained how they had used the surveillance tapes to catch him. “But I wore the juice,” he mumbled incredulously. He seemed to believe that rubbing his face with lemon juice would blur his image and make him impossible to catch.

Romanoff tops Bennet at Democrats' assembly
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_15142371
Excerpt: Andrew Romanoff won more than 60 percent of state Democratic delegates Saturday, pushing him to the top line of the primary ballot over Sen. Michael Bennet and giving his supporters new hope for August. The former House Speaker won 60.4 percent of more than 3,500 delegates at the Democratic State Assembly, improving on his earlier caucus totals of about 57 percent.

Take pride in being a reservist, Blumenthal
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/take_pride_in_being_reservist_blumenthal_ibLzM87NR7HFSEW041UkUN
Excerpt: Westchester resident Lu Caldara was a Marine Corps Reserve gunnery sergeant during the Vietnam War, serving in Throgs Neck. He responds to Connecticut senate candidate Richard Blumenthal, also a reservist, who repeatedly said he served “in” Vietnam. I have no problem telling people I’ve been a Marine Corps Reservist. I am not ashamed of it. I enlisted in the Reserves when things were getting hot in Vietnam in 1967. I was just fortunate that I wasn’t called to active duty. When Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said he served in Vietnam it was a mistake. It was self-aggrandizing. He should have been proud of serving — period. Joining the Reserves wasn’t avoiding service. We all could have had the opportunity to be called. You just don’t know when your turn comes. Blumenthal has not been honest. He’s a politician and wants to be a hero. You see continual posers wearing an award or medal that they never achieved. I think it’s a shame and even more of a shame he was a Marine. I joined the Marine Corps in February 1953, during the Korean War and for six years served as a non-combatant at Camp Gifu Japan with the 3rd Marine Division. I never saw battle. I did my job. I never say I am a combat war veteran. I say I served. I am proud enough of that.

Out: Flag Pins. In: Demagogue Bracelets
http://www.newsrealblog.com/2010/05/22/out-flag-pins-in-demagogue-bracelets/
Excerpt: Capping off a week wherein Democrats in Congress cheered and gave standing ovations to a foreign leader denigrating our country from our own house floor and the head of ICE said he won’t do his job because Arizona is yucky, now comes denigration jewelry.

McCollum throws support behind Arizona's tough new immigration law
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/florida/fl-arizona-law-mccollum-20100513,0,687656.story
As crime and costs from unrestricted immigration grow, people will be increasingly scared and angry, a dangerous combination for politicians. Democrats are trapped between what the people want and what their party demands. Again. Excerpt: The Republican Party's front-runner for Florida governor, Attorney General Bill McCollum, threw his support Thursday behind a tough new immigration law in Arizona that he criticized as "far out" just two weeks ago. The law makes it a crime for immigrants not to carry legal papers and gives local police the power to question people suspected of being in the U.S. illegally. Passed in a Capitol 1,600 miles away from Tallahassee, the law is nevertheless emerging as a campaign issue in the nonborder state of Florida as candidates jockey for the conservative voters who dominate Republican primaries. By coming out in favor of the law, McCollum joined U.S. Senate contender Marco Rubio in abandoning his previous opposition to the toughest crackdown on illegal immigration in the nation. Both have said they changed positions in light of amendments that aimed to outlaw ethnic and racial profiling by the police. "I support Arizona's law as amended, and if the federal government fails to secure our borders and solve the problem of illegal immigration, I would support a similar law for Florida," McCollum said in a statement Thursday.

Princeton Scientist Tells Congress: Warming Hockey Stick is Bogus, CO2 Good for Mankind
http://www.redstate.com/jeffdunetz/2010/05/21/princeton-scientist-tells-congress-warming-hockey-stick-is-bogus-co2-good-for-mankind/
Excerpt: William Happer Professor of Physics Princeton University spent much of his professional life studying the interactions of radiation with gases, which is one of the of the main physical phenomena behind the greenhouse effect, he has published over 200 papers in peer reviewed scientific journals on the subject. He was also the Director of Energy Research at the Department of Energy (DOE) from 1990 to 1993, where he supervised all of DOE’s work on climate change. In other words the guy knows what he is talking about. Yesterday Happer testified before the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming and gave them an earful. He told them why the hockey stick graph was wrong, that global warming and cooling are natural phenomena, CO2 is beneficial for man, and that the Global Warming Moonbats are suppressing research contrary to their positions. Let me state clearly where I probably agree with the other witnesses. We have been in a period of global warming over the past 200 years, but there have been several periods, like the last ten years, when the warming has ceased, and there have even been periods of substantial cooling, as from 1942 to 1975. Atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) have increased from about 280 to 385 parts per million over past 100 years. The combustion of fossil fuels, coal, oil and natural gas, has contributed to the increase of CO2 in the atmosphere. And finally, increasing concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere will add a warming trend to the natural warmings and coolings of the earth’s surface. The key question is: how much warming will there be, and will the warming, and any other effects of the CO2, be good or bad for humanity? I, and many other scientists, think the warming will be small compared the natural fluctuations in the earth’s temperature, and that the warming and increased CO2 will be good for mankind.

Resigning DOJ Attorney Worried about “Violent,” “Criminal” Black Panthers
http://www.newsrealblog.com/2010/05/22/resigning-doj-attorney-worried-about-violent-criminal-black-panthers/
I wonder if the Black Panthers are on the SPLC’s list of hate groups? Excerpt: Christian Adams, a key attorney working on the Department of Justice’s voter intimidation case against the New Black Panthers, has recently resigned. His primary reason — and what has been emphasized in the resignation coverage — is the controversy Adams and some of his colleagues have been embroiled in after the Department’s dismissal of the case. Was it a miscarriage of justice? No one is really sure at this point (although the video evidence in the case is damning.) But Adams did express that the actions of the DOJ appeared to have left him between a rock and a hard place; in his resignation letter, he seemed nonplussed at what to do. Whatever the facts may be in this regard, what has been understated in the case is that a significant portion of Adams’ resignation letter expresses serious concern over the violent, criminal proclivities of the New Black Panther Party and the alarming tenor of their response to the case. Adams claims that the New Black Panthers had been becoming “increasingly belligerent,” issuing disconcerting statements. For instance, the Panthers released a scathing response to the “phony” case which they claimed was brought against them by

Obama Promise Foiled: No Where to Go for Gitmo
http://www.newsrealblog.com/2010/05/22/obama-promise-foiled-no-where-to-go-for-gitmo/
Not like it was his only promise to the rubes that can’t be kept. My plan is to release the detainees on the south side of Chicago, with $1,000 and a bag of drugs. In ten minutes the problem would be over. Excerpt: Another campaign promise will not be kept. During the election, then Illinois Senator Barack Obama repeatedly vowed that he would close the Guantanamo Bay (Gitmo) terrorist detention center within his first year as president. He claimed the facility hurt national security, because he was convinced it was used for terrorist recruitment. Well, Obama’s inaugural year in office has passed, and this week news came out that the President’s plans to close Gitmo might never come to fruition. The New York Times reported yesterday that The House Armed Services Committee unanimously approved legislation prohibiting the creation of a detention center in the United States. The Obama administration had previously requested $350 million dollars to turn a northwest Illinois prison in the town of Thompson into a detention center for terrorists. The midwest state’s Governor Quinn was happy to do the deal with the federal government. But now the governor admits the deal is “less likely” to happen. Late Wednesday the House committee approved a defense budget for 2011 that bans any money be spent for renovating or building detention centers for Gitmo detainees.

Yemeni cleric advocates killing US civilians
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100523/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_yemen_radical_cleric
Didn’t get the “Islam is a religion of peace” memo. BO, give him a call—he doesn’t understand Islam like you do. Excerpt: An American-Yemeni cleric whose Internet sermons are believed to have helped inspire attacks on the U.S. has advocated the killing of American civilians in an al-Qaida video released Sunday. Anwar al-Awlaki has been singled out by U.S. officials as a key terrorist threat and has been added to the CIA's list of targets for assassination despite his American citizenship. He is of particular concern because he is one of the few English-speaking radical clerics able to explain to young Muslims in America and other Western countries the philosophy of violent jihad. The U.S.-born al-Awlaki moved to Yemen in 2004 and is in hiding there after being linked to the suspects in the November shooting at an Army base in Fort Hood, Texas, and the December attempt to blow up a U.S. jetliner bound for Detroit. "Those who might be killed in a plane are merely a drop of water in a sea," he said in the video in response to a question about Muslim groups that disapproved of the airliner plot because it targeted civilians. Al-Awlaki used the 45-minute video to justify civilian deaths — and encourage them — by accusing the United States of intentionally killing a million Muslim civilians in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

LA Lakers to Boycott Second Game of the Western Conference Finals Against Phoenix Suns
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/23378?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
Hard to believe this could be true. Excerpt: “There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance—that principle is contempt prior to investigation.”- Herbert Spencer. Nothing quite aggregates the inerudite fog that the Obama administration, the Democratic led Congress, and the heterogeneous disposition that various states and cities wander around in, than the above quote. And the Attorney General of this “nation of cowards,” epitomized the Obama administration last week when asked by the House Judiciary Committee if he had read the new 10 page Arizona immigration law. Holder, after spending weeks denouncing, criticizing, and demonizing the law because it “has the possibility of leading to racial profiling,” was “unfortunate,” and because he questioned whether the law was unconstitutional, answered, “I have not had a chance to—I’ve glanced at it. I’ve just expressed concerns on the basis of what I’ve heard about the law. But I’m not in a position to say at this point, not having read the law, not having had the chance to interact with people are doing the review, exactly what my position is.”….. Pitted against reality in an epic battle in which it long ago decidedly submitted to defeat, the City of Los Angeles has persuaded the Los Angeles Lakers to withdraw from the NBA finals against the Phoenix Suns unless their home games are moved to Austin, San Francisco, Mogadishu, or any other bureaucracy that harbors a vapid disdain towards the rule of law in favor of moral and cerebral ineptness. The Phoenix Suns have also decided to boycott the city of Phoenix and the state of Arizona; refusing to play any more games within the Great State, they will only wear jerseys inscribed with Los Suns, and concur that Mogadishu should be their surrogate home city.….. “The Lakers are critical to continuing the momentum,” says Los Angeles City Council member Jose Huizar, who was born in Mexico. His statement was referencing the momentum of the Los Angeles boycott of Arizona. Of what “momentum” he is referencing is anyone’s guess, as the only momentum to be found is the rapidly increasing national support for the Arizona law, and comically, a poll from the LA Times regarding Los Angeles’ boycotting Arizona. The result of the poll of Los Angeles residents was a resounding, “No. The city should mind its own business. 93.4%.” Los Angeles City Council member Ed Reyes, one of the co-authors of the Arizona boycott legislation, is also holding out high hopes for the Lakers. “It would be huge,” says Reyes, hoping the Lakers would boycott the playoffs against Arizona. Mind that Reyes was born in Los Angeles, and is only an American citizen in the academic sense. It would be huge for Los Angeles alright, as boycotting an NBA playoff as a team would probably be the demise of that team as it is known, in that city. Reyes would love to see “Laguneros”—Spanish for Lakers—on the team’s jersey for at least one of the games against the Suns.

South African cartoonist gets death threats for drawing in which Muhammad tells shrink, "Other prophets have followers with a sense of humor!"
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2010/05/south-african-cartoonist-gets-death-threats-for-drawing-in-which-muhammad-tells-shrink-other-prophet.html
Good cartoon, check it out. Excerpt: Days after an alleged al-Qaeda operative detailed sketchy plans to attack World Cup teams over cartoons of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad, the Mail & Guardian newspaper has made waves locally and internationally by also publishing a cartoon of the Prophet. A cartoon by award-winning satirist Jonathan Shapiro, known as Zapiro, in the M&G yesterday depicts the Prophet grumbling to a psychiatrist about the furore in the Muslim world created by a Facebook page called Everybody Draw Muhammad Day. "Other prophets have followers with a sense of humour!" complains the turbanned, bearded figure, stretched out on the psychiatrist's couch. [...] Yesterday, the paper reported it was receiving a flood of calls about the cartoon, and had even received death threats against the cartoonist.

U.S.: 228,000 women have undergone or are at risk for female genital mutilation
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2010/05/us-228000-women-have-undergone-or-are-at-risk-for-female-genital-mutilation.html
Hope AZ doesn’t pass a law against FGM—that would require profiling. Excerpt: "Cutting" doesn't describe it. "Circumcision" doesn't, either. It is mutilation, plain and simple, and must be recognized as such. But at least this story doesn't entirely tiptoe around the prevalence of the practice in Muslim countries. It may be a millennia-old practice, but the fact remains that Islamic law embraced it, and that is the reason for its persistence -- it is not at all merely "cultural." From the Shafi manual of Islamic jurisprudence, Umdat al-Salik (Reliance of the Traveler), certified as "reliable" by the Misunderstanders of Islam Al-Azhar University in Egypt: "Circumcision is obligatory (O: for both men and women. For men it consists of removing the prepuce from the penis, and for women, removing the prepuce (Ar. bazr) of the clitoris (n: not the clitoris itself, as some mistakenly assert). (A: Hanbalis hold that circumcision of women is not obligatory but sunna, while Hanafis consider it a mere courtesy to the husband.)" -- 'Umdat al-Salik e4.3 Regional variances of the practice in Muslim communities depend just as much on the justification of the principle in Islamic law. Those who would defend "just a little" cutting as somehow more acceptable -- including the American Academy of Pediatrics, with their approval of a "ritualized nick" (background and commentary here and here)-- miss the point: Mutilation is mutilation, and must not be allowed to happen on U.S. soil. Period.

Israel Tests Public's Attack Readiness With Major Drill
http://www.aolnews.com/world/article/israel-tests-publics-attack-readiness-with-defense-drill/19488073
Excerpt: Amid tensions between Israel and Hezbollah, Israel today began a five day civil defense drill meant to test the public's readiness to cope with a large-scale rocket attack. The drill, the largest in Israel's history, will include police, soldiers, firemen, medical emergency crews and the public. Later this week, a siren will sound throughout the country and everyone will be asked to go to bomb shelters or stay sealed rooms for 10 minutes

The Senator from Sandy Berger
http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/05/the_senator_from_sandy_berger.html
Excerpt: The question that the media should have asked is "Why Weldon?" What about the man inspired Sandy Berger, the Clintons, the Democratic Alliance, CREW, and just about every key player in the Clinton national security apparatus to want him gone. The question the media should be asking now is "Why Sestak?"

Demonstrations and Dependency
http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/05/demonstrations_and_dependency.html
Excerpt: What makes taking to the streets so alluring is its ease. As the Greeks can tell you, joining a rally far outshines paying taxes or any other personal remedy. Instant messaging and e-mail lists make assembling a group a snap, while electronic social networking means that all the old-fashioned chores of political planning can be done comfortably online. Another version is the text-messaged "flash mob," where youngsters spontaneously agree to meet and wreak havoc. Direct action, the old anarchist term, is also stupidity-friendly. A body is a body, and the news media reporting attendance can't tell the difference. There are no practical constraints on what can be demanded, no matter how harmful. Want to save lives in Africa? No problem. Just pressure Pfizer to hand out free drugs to sick Africans by trashing its headquarters while shouting "people not profits." Protesters need not worry about being quizzed on how "free" drugs discourage future research, how "free" medicine bankrupts local pharmacies, or how these "free" drugs are easily stolen by corrupt leaders and profitably resold outside of Africa. Mob action is even less demanding than voting -- there's no prior registration, age or residency requirement, or citizenship question. You don't even have to decide among multiple candidates -- just show up and scream. This is Politics for Dummies.

The Armageddon Scenario: Israel and the Threat of Nuclear Terrorism
www.biu.ac.il/SOC/besa/MSPS84.pdf
Excerpt: For the past 15 years, Israel's focus on the Iranian nuclear program has been nearly all-encompassing, eclipsing virtually all other threats. A nuclear Iran would undoubtedly pose a severe threat to Israel, indeed, possibly even an existential one. The preoccupation with Iran, however, may have distracted Israel from another threat, one which may be no less likely and actually far more difficult to counter: nuclear terrorism. Experts and policymakers are divided on the probability of nuclear terrorism, much as they are on the likelihood of Iran using nuclear weapons, should it succeed in attaining them. On one issue, however, they are in agreement; the threat of nuclear terrorism is not just a mirage. The risk is real, and cannot be discounted or wished away.

Mocking Arizona border law critics
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/05/mocking_arizona_border_law_cri.html
Very funny. Excerpt: Laughter is one of the most powerful political weapons, and Arizona Governor Jan Brewer is taking advantage of that principle in a new television ad. In it, a frog puppet, reminiscent of Kermit from Sesame Street, extols the virtues of reading - with specific regard to the Arizona law.... The ad is far more than merely clever. It hits the Obama administration critics where they live - in their inflated image of their own intelligence.

Vote on Daley's most scrootened-up quote
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/ct-met-kass-0523-20100521,0,6637353.column
Too funny. Quotes in column on left. Vote early and often. Excerpt: On his brother dropping a bid for governor: "Scrutiny? What else do you want? Do you want to take my shorts? Give me a break...Go scrutinize yourself! I get scrootened every day, don't worry, from each and every one of you. It doesn't bother me."

War of Wordcraft
http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/05/war_of_wordcraft.html
Excerpt: The newest tactical weapon of this administration against our terrorist enemies appears to be one constructed of language. Its deployment began when the term "War on Terror" was replaced by "Overseas Contingency Operations," and terrorist attacks were renamed "man-caused disasters." More recently, as witnessed in the exchange with Attorney General Eric Holder and Rep. Lamar Smith, it consists of a complete absence or rejection of particular words to describe the threat if such descriptions include the term "Islam," even when combined with the modifying adjectives "radical" or "extremist." While these overtures may appease the politically correct tastes of the liberal American mainstream, one wonders how these messages translate to our enemies, as well as how these enemies view the messenger.

Copy Machines Security Risk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iC38D5am7go
Yikes.

The Enemies Within
http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/05/the_enemies_within.html
Excerpt: It is not entirely clear what possessed New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to disclose his peculiar suspicions that a yet-to-be-apprehended terrorist could very well turn out to be a right-wing enthusiast driven to violence because of his strong disagreement with President Obama's health care plan. What the consequences would have been had his suspicions proved accurate we cannot now predict, since said miscreant has already confessed. It turns out that he is, after all, merely another SUV-driving, stand-by Islamic jihadist commissioned to bring the war on terror to our shores.... In short, the mayor's impolitic statement exposes the currently accepted form of profiling that has effortlessly gained traction among many of today's most prominent media pundits, Hollywood elite, and left-wing politicians, which casts all conservatives as highly imbalanced bigots and malcontents known for instinctively resorting to violence any time they don't get their way. In other words, these are people who cling to their guns and religion.... But when people who hold positions of power and influence are swayed by these outlandish misconceptions, arguably, it should be a matter of great concern, as one can often find a direct link between the theoretical absurdities they have accepted as gospel truth and the far-reaching social and economic ordinances that spring forth from such delusions, which they then try to impose upon the unsuspecting masses.... It was not long ago that Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano unveiled a national safety report singling out peaceful pro-life protesters as potential terrorists. Yet hereto, the only person officially charged and subsequently arrested for threatening to kill a public official in connection with the Obama health care debate happens to be a loyal DNC donor.... And finally, let us not forget that it is so-called progressives, and those influenced by their ideology, who have traditionally employed violence as a vehicle toward social change.

Free Pass to commit crimes
http://www.gulf1.com/columns/ABates/AbateslFrame.htm
Excerpt: During last year’s national elections, two members of the New Black Panthers---a black supremacist group---intimidated Philadelphia voters at a polling site. One was recorded on video wielding a billyclub. This week however, Eric Holder announced that the Justice Department had decided not to prosecute these criminals because ‘there was not enough evidence to prosecute them’. Free pass to armed criminals at polling places as long as they are not white males. In Washington, DC hundreds of ranting chanting SEIU protesters invaded private property, surrounding the home of a Bank of America lawyer whose young son was the only one home at the time. The young boy hid in a closet and called police. The DC police response? None---they were ‘afraid of inciting some protesters to violence.’ Free pass to group protesters who trespass on private property because the police are afraid to enforce the law against the Administration’s partners in crime. John Morton, assistant secretary of Homeland Security for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, announced that he would not necessarily cooperate with Arizona law enforcement with respect to processing detained illegal immigrants. Free pass by the Obama administration to criminal violators of America’s illegal immigration laws. This, by the way, is a violation of law by Obama and ICE who are sworn by oath to enforce existing laws.

Chicken costumes banned at Nev. polling places
http://dailycaller.com/2010/05/22/chicken-costumes-banned-at-nev-polling-places/
Actually, I know a psychologist in a very rural, chicken-producing area, who has gotten chicken parts as his co-pay from people too poor to pay cash. Excerpt: Voters dressed in chicken costumes won’t be allowed inside Nevada polling places this year. State election officials on Friday added chicken suits to the list of banned items after weeks of ridicule directed at Republican Senate candidate Sue Lowden. The millionaire casino executive and former beauty queen recently suggested that people barter with doctors for medical care, like when “our grandparents would bring a chicken to the doctor.” Democrats responded by setting up a website, “Chickens for Checkups,” and by sending volunteers in chicken suits to her campaign events.

Reasons not to be fearful
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/book_reviews/article7131434.ece
I dunno—bet he couldn’t have sold many in Europe in 1939. Excerpt: Fifty years ago bookshops couldn’t sell enough hysterical potboilers about how we would all starve as a result of overpopulation; then, in the 1970s, the fad was for tomes on how we would run out of energy resources; in the 1980s “acid rain” was the overhyped danger, complete with artists’ impressions of annihilated forests. In the last decade of the 20th century, the “millennium bug” was the publishers’ bogey du jour. Now global warming is the latest apparently existential threat to every man, woman and child on earth, born or unborn. Matt Ridley’s The Rational Optimist, in glorious contrast, tells us what we really should want to hear: that the human species, through our unique ability to exchange ideas and thus innovate at the speed of thought, has overcome all the challenges that have ever confronted us, and will do so in future. Ridley’s particular contribution is to combine the insights of Adam Smith (how all benefit through trade and the specialisation of functions) with those of Darwin (how species evolve through breeding). Ridley calls this “ideas having sex” and the characteristic of the modern interconnected world is that ideas are having it away with each other with ever-increasing frequency: “The telephone had sex with the computer and spawned the internet.”

So Who Is Wrong?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJLejs_0ZR0&feature=youtu.be&a
This could blow up in BO’s face. No wonder he’s stopped holding press conferences. Which Democrat is lying?