Political Digest June 7, 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.

Israel’s Position
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/ct-vp-0606voicelettersbriefs-20100606,0,3439019.story?page=3
My letter on Israel is at bottom.

The cute kids of Gaza
http://tartanmarine.blogspot.com/2010/06/hamas-kids-cute-tykes.html
Don’t seem to be getting the “Islam is a religion of peace” message.

Bibi's Unlikely New Fan Club
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-06-05/israels-flotilla-opinion-is-amazingly-unified/?om_rid=Mqh-D0&om_mid=_BMC6MYB8LBF2xX&
Excerpt: At the protest there were “straights, gays, Russians, Ethiopians, and even French tourists,” said Gene Epshteyn, 35. “Ninety-nine percent of the people there were secular. This was not a right-wing rally. It was average everyday Israelis who’ve had enough.” In politically splintered Israel—the joke about "two Jews, three opinions" is an understatement in a country with over thirty political parties—Israelis are massively divided about issues like settlements and the peace process. But this week, fed up with what they view as an onslaught of unfair global criticism of their country, young Israelis—the ones who don’t typically care about politics, and even many from the left-wing—were atypically unified and mobilized in full nationalist fervor in defense of Israel. Pro-Israel demonstrations have been held across the country, and huge numbers of Israelis are enlisting their Facebook pages and email accounts to present Israel’s side of the story to the world.

'The beginning of the end for Israel'
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=129195§ionid=351020101 It wasn’t about humanitarian aid. It was about destroying the Jews. Excerpt: The Head of the Cultural Committee of Majlis, Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel, says the Israeli assault on the Freedom Flotilla is "just the beginning of the end for Israel." He made the remarks on Saturday during a meeting with Press TV correspondent Hassan Ghani, a Freedom Flotilla activist who was recently released by the Israelis. Haddad-Adel said the attack "opened a new horizon to the world" and that the world can now see the true nature of the Israelis. He added, "The Israelis showed that they are enemies of humanity, not only Arabs or Muslims, but every human being." "Israel had only two solutions: one, to allow the ships to go to Gaza, and the other one was what they did. In both cases, they would have been defeated. If they had allowed the ships to reach Gaza, they would have lost their power… "In the other case, that happened when they attacked people, they chose the other solution, which was much worse. They couldn't find any other way. There was no third way.

My solution
Every country that opposes the Israeli Gaza blockade should be required to have 1,000 of it’s civilians including children live in Israel in the Gaza rocket zone. Then end the blockade and deal with your public opinion when your civilians are murdered by Hamas along with the Jews.

Candidates for Obama’s old Senate seat throw mud at each other
http://dailycaller.com/2010/06/06/candidates-for-obamas-old-senate-seat-throw-mud-at-each-other/#ixzz0q5hKP1yq
Excerpt: The candidates in one of the nation’s most closely watched Senate races aren’t saying much about health care, the Gulf oil spill or even the economy. Instead, they’re discussing who’s the least trustworthy. Republican U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk says Democrat Alexi Giannoulias is a “mob banker.” His allies compare Giannoulias to Tony Soprano and criticize him for wrongly claiming to still head a charity that’s actually defunct. Meanwhile, Giannoulias argues Kirk has a problem with the truth. His campaign highlights every new development related to Kirk exaggerating his military service. Illinois finds itself in an odd parallel universe in this midterm election as the rest of the country watches an ideological clash between the parties over the size of government and the best answers for the recession, with the insurgent tea party movement fanning the debate. Illinois’ candidates, while competing for President Barack Obama’s old seat, are talking mostly about each other. The disparity is causing confusion among some voters. “I want to hear what they propose will help Illinois and get the state out of the mess it’s in,” said Wayne “Ren” Sirles, 68, a peach and apple grower in rural southern Illinois, where both candidates have campaigned. “Come and tell me what you’re proposing.”

Sinking of ship provides welcome distraction for North Korea
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-norkor-kim-20100606,0,6529548.story?om_rid=Mqh-D0&om_mid=_BMC6MYB8LBF2xX&
Excerpt: Whether or not Kim Jong Il personally ordered the torpedo attack that sank a South Korean warship, the ensuing atmosphere of crisis has given the ailing dictator an opportunity to distract a population that might otherwise be complaining that they're eating weeds instead of rice.... The big loser has been South Korea's conservative ruling party, which was trounced in local elections Thursday. The Grand National Party had hoped that outrage over the Cheonan would boost its popularity; instead the electorate appeared to be more concerned that President Lee Myung-bak was exploiting the incident with his hard-line stand toward North Korea. Results of an investigation of the sinking were not released until May 20, two weeks before the election.... In Seoul, demonstrations against North Korea have drawn sparse crowds of mostly elderly war veterans, while in Pyongyang, the regime mobilized 100,000 people last weekend to demonstrate against what the official Korean Central News Agency denounced as a "smear campaign escalated by the South Korean puppet warmongers in collusion with the U.S." (In South Korea, like here, those being protected don't appear to be feeling any real connection to the protectors. Nor do they seem to feel any particular danger from the aggressors. Just "business as usual," ho hum. As this story makes clear, the Cheonan sinking may well have been ordered by the twenty-something youngest Kim son in a bid to give himself legitimacy to take over his father's job when daddy dies. The danger of such poor judgment--especially in the hands of a nuclear power's top leadership--should be obvious to everyone in the South. Is it possible an entire nation is whistling past the graveyard, hoping they won't see their own headstones within? Ron P.)

Memo elevates ‘Offer-gate’ to full-blown scandal
http://dailycaller.com/2010/06/03/memo-elevates-offer-gate-to-full-blown-scandal/#ixzz0q5jBTs45
Excerpt: “There is a cancer on the presidency. It has been growing daily for the past three months. It’s compounding, it grows geometrically now because it compounds itself. And there is no assurance that it won’t bust.” Former White House Counsel John Dean spoke those words to President Richard Nixon almost 40 years ago as the Nixon White House was desperately trying to cover its role in the Watergate scandal—ultimately unsuccessfully. The cancer did bust, the administration was laid low, and succeeding generations of Americans learned that the cover up is often worse than the crime. Now, the Obama administration finds itself in the middle of its first genuine Washington scandal. And the White House’s ham-fisted effort to sweep the budding scandal under the rug—failing to heed the lesson of Watergate—is largely to blame. White House Counsel Robert Bauer’s memo detailing the White House’s version of events in the case of Pennsylvania Democratic Senate nominee Joe Sestak raises far more questions than it answers. Released last Friday, at the beginning of both a three-day holiday weekend and a weeklong Congressional recess, the memo was intended to be the Obama administration’s last word on the matter. But the memo’s self-serving explanation and lack of detail have turned a minor annoyance for the administration into a full fledged Washington scandal, virtually guaranteeing that there will be much more written and said about Sestak, the administration’s interference in the Pennsylvania Senate primary, and what looks to be a politically motivated cover up.

Tea Party Member stuns crowd
http://www.theodoresworld.net/archives/2010/06/tea_party_member_stuns_crowd_a.html
Worth seeing short video. Marine. Stunning version of fourth verse of national anthem.

More Political Climate Science
http://townhall.com/columnists/PatrickJMichaels/2010/06/06/more_political_climate_science
Excerpt: In today’s odd academic culture, including the world of climate science, academic freedom applies selectively. People use their positions and their email for politicking and electioneering and have no trouble retaining their jobs. But using your email to send out some inconvenient, apolitical weather data that says something your boss or your governor may not like can get you fired. I can’t count the number of emails I received in my thirty years at University of Virginia where this faculty member or that administrator urged me to support some piece of legislation. But the latest email kerfluffle, involving Phil Mote, director of the Oregaon Climate Change Research Institute at Oregon State University, goes a bit further. Mote was upset that Art Robinson, a physician from Cave Junction, Oregon, won the Republican primary for Oregon’s fourth congressional district.

Climate Scandals--More than You Can Shake a Stick At
http://pgosselin.wordpress.com/2010/06/06/climate-scandals-more-than-you-can-shake-a-stick-at/
Excerpt: Well, now here’s the updated and improved list, which includes new scandals. It’s the science that never stops giving. In fact, the gates of today produce the gates of tomorrow! To say it like an old Vermonter like myself would: There are more scandals out there than you can shake a hockey stick at.

Abu Sayyaf gunmen kill 3 hostages in Basilan
http://www.gmanews.tv/story/192754/abu-sayyaf-gunmen-kill-3-hostages-in-basilan
Didn’t get the “Islam is a religion of peace” memo. Note they are called “bandits,” not Muslim extremists, in order not to offend them. Excerpt: Abu Sayyaf bandits fatally shot three abducted rubber plantation workers in Sumisip municipality on Basilan island Friday, after their families failed to pay a ransom, a military task force commander said Saturday.

Caucasus: More random acts of jihad by "youths"
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2010/06/caucasus-more-random-acts-of-jihad-by-youths.html
The article does mention the "ideology of global jihad" -- we'll give them that -- but softens the assertion by saying the "youths" under its sway are "driven by poverty." The problem there is, of course, that the jihadist ideology does not depend on poverty, which is why we see so many well-off or even privileged jihadists who defy that stereotype -- the would-be Time Square jihadist, for one. For the eager jihadist, there is always an excuse or grievance on which to deflect responsibility. "Blasts, shootings kill five in Russia's N. Caucasus," from Reuters, June 4:
Near the town of Malgobek in Ingushetia, a policeman was killed and 25 people injured when a second bomb exploded in a shop bombed earlier in the day, a police spokesman told Reuters.
Police at the scene told Reuters an insurgent was also killed in a gunfight that ensued between officers and militants. In a separate incident, a woman selling vodka from a kiosk was shot dead in Malgobek by unidentified gunmen, sources close to the police said. The mainly Muslim North Caucasus is plagued by violence. Youths, driven by poverty and the ideology of global jihad, stage attacks almost daily. Many want to carve out a separate sharia state where strict Islam is practiced.

Arrests 'frustrate' area Muslims
http://toledoblade.com/article/20100604/NEWS02/6040338/0/sports04
CAIR, naturally, blames the FBI: Excerpt: Ibrahim Hooper, national spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which has several offices in Ohio but not in Toledo, said it was too soon to jump to conclusions about yesterday's arrests. However, he said the fact that an FBI informant was involved in building a case against the Akls raises questions about the strength of the charges. "Whenever you have a case where the government is initiating the action, it raises red flags in terms of possible concerns about who really was the initiator of the alleged violation," Mr. Hooper said. "We will have to wait and see how the case develops and we'll obviously monitor it to make sure everybody's due process rights are maintained."

Oil leak in the Gulf
http://tartanmarine.blogspot.com/2010/06/oil-leak-in-gulf.html
Letter from former BP engineer

Sarah Palin: Remembering D-Day
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=396451853434
Excerpt: Today, on the 66th Anniversary of D-Day, let’s remember the courage and sacrifice of our Greatest Generation whose actions helped liberate a continent. I’d like to share with you excerpts from President Reagan’s beautiful speech on the 40th Anniversary of D-Day honoring the Rangers who took the cliffs at Pointe du Hoc: “Behind me is a memorial that symbolizes the Ranger daggers that were thrust into the top of these cliffs. And before me are the men who put them here. These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc. These are the men who took the cliffs. These are the champions who helped free a continent. These are the heroes who helped end a war. Gentlemen, I look at you and I think of the words of Stephen Spender’s poem. You are men who in your “lives fought for life and left the vivid air singed with your honor.”....

Life inside the North Korean bubble
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/8701959.stm
Ah, the joys of a socialist paradise. Wonder leftists aren’t fleeing the US for NK. Remember what they say, “All cultures are equally valid.” BO must envy their control of the media. Excerpt: At the hotel our government minders had booked rooms alongside ours, and on the one occasion that we tried to leave without them we were reported and reprimanded. From exchanges with our minders, we also learned that our rooms were bugged. But then we were not being singled out, the entire country lives in a bubble of unreality, cut off from the outside world and watched by an army of informers. There are only two mobile phone networks. The diplomatic corps and NGO workers use one of them to contact one another. A relatively small elite of North Koreans use the other system, but this still denies them access to foreigners inside the country and to anyone outside. Newsnight had been invited to North Korea for the celebrations marking the birthday of the Great Leader, Kim Il-sung, the founder of the country. But the invite came with a catch - we were only allowed to film model farms, model villages, model schools and model homes. We were instructed to film statues of the Great Leader, who although dead is still president, and portraits of his son the current Dear Leader, Kim Jong-il. We were never allowed to film anything off the official programme or speak to anyone unscripted.

Napolitano border 'facts' disputed
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/2010/06/06/20100606sunlets063.html
Excerpt: Napolitano wrote on Friday that the nation's border is more secure than ever ("If you look at facts, border is more secure than ever," Opinions). She goes on to proclaim that the Obama "administration has made every conceivable effort to secure our border." Let's look at what the administration has allegedly accomplished. Secretary Napolitano claims that Border Patrol agents have doubled from 10,000 to 20,000. But the build-up was well under way before President Obama was even elected. There were already 18,000 agents along the border in 2008, and 2,000 more were already funded and being hired before January 2009. She states that the president has requested 1,200 National Guard troops to be sent to the border, but that's only one-fifth of the amount that was deployed in 2006 (and the situation today is far worse than it was then). Moreover, the 1,200 Guardsman she mentions would be assigned to desk jobs, not border security.

With oil spill, White House struggles to assert control of the unknown
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/05/AR2010060503827.html?wpisrc=nl_headline
Excerpt: In a time of crisis, no resource is so precious, or so perishable, as credibility. Last weekend, the Obama White House discovered that it had sprung another leak.

Obama DNI choice believes Syrians have Saddam’s WMD?
http://hotair.com/archives/2010/06/05/obama-dni-choice-believes-syrians-have-saddams-wmd/
He probably did, but have to stretch to prove it. Excerpt: On Iraq, Gen. Clapper said in an interview with The Washington Times in 2004 that “I think probably in the few months running up prior to the onset of combat that … there was probably an intensive effort to disperse into private homes, move documentation and materials out of the country. I think there are any number of things that they would have done.” The comments came amid the debate over Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction programs, which some U.S. officials had said were moved out of Iraq prior to the invasion of Iraq with the assistance of Russian military intelligence forces