Saturday, December 17, 2011
Ron Paul Says Michele Bachmann "Hates" Muslims
Really? She hates them all because she recognizes the threat of a nuclear Iran? Bit of a leap, huh?
Friday, December 16, 2011
R.I.P. Joe Simon (1913-2011)
William F. Buckley Jr’s Nephew Fires at National Review
Brent Bozell, a nephew of conservative icon William F. Buckley Jr., who founded National Review magazine in 1955, and whose father, Leo Brent Bozell, collaborated with Buckley for many years at NR, today dismissed the magazine as having lost the identity forged for it by its founder.
“National Review's endorsement of Romney & Huntsman proves only that this is no longer the magazine of William F. Buckley Jr. My uncle would be appalled,” said Bozell in postings on Facebook and on Twitter.
In its Dec. 14 “The Editors" page, National Review published an editorial entitled “Winnowing the Field,” which flippantly dismissed many of the strong conservatives running in the race for the GOP presidential nomination and essentially gave its conservative imprimatur--for what it’s worth these days--to Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman.
NR kept a few kind words for Rick Santorum but dismissed Newt Gingrich, Michele Bachmann, Ron Paul, and Rick Perry.
“We fear that to nominate former Speaker Newt Gingrich, the frontrunner in the polls, would be to blow this opportunity,” said NR, whose editor, Rich Lowry, took the reins of NR in 1997. (Buckley had resigned as editor-in-chief in 1990 and he died in 2008.)
“We say that mindful of his opponents’ imperfections--and of his own virtues, which have been on display during his amazing comeback,” reads the editorial. “Very few people with a personal history like his--two divorces, two marriages to former mistresses -- have ever tried running for president. Gingrich himself has never run for a statewide office, let alone a national one, and has not run for anything since 1998.”
As for Rick Perry, he has “seemed curiously and persistently unable to bring gravity to the national stage,” reads the editorial, and “conservatism should not choose a standard-bearer who would have to spend much of his time untying his own tongue.”
Michele Bachmann has “sincere conviction,” according to NR, but this is hindered by apparently poor “judgment.” And Ron Paul’s “dabbling in vile conspiracy theories about September 11 are a reminder that the excesses of the movement he leads are actually its essence,” says NR.
Concerning Jon Huntsman, NR says he "has a solid record" and "his main weakness is his apparent inability, so far, to forge a connection with conservative voters outside Utah."
Mitt Romney, says NR, "won our endorsement last time, in part because some of the other leading candidates were openly hostile to important elements of conservatism. He is highly intelligent and disciplined, and he takes conservative positions on all the key issues. We still think he would make a fine president, but time and ceaseless effort have not yet overcome conservative voters’ skepticism about the liberal aspects of his record and his managerial disposition." Santorum's problem, claims NR, is that the former U.S. senator lacks "executive experience."
Brent Bozell is the president of the Media Research Center, a conservative media watchdog group (and the parent organization of CNSNews.com), and is a long-time conservative activist. He founded the Parent’s Television Council and ForAmerica, and is the author of several books, including Whitewash: What the Media Won’t Tell You About Hillary Clinton But Conservatives Will (with co-author Tim Graham), and Weapons of Mass Distortion: The Coming Meltdown of the Liberal Media.
Bozell’s father, Leo Brent Bozell, married William F. Buckley Jr’s sister, Patricia, in 1949 and they had 10 children. The elder Bozell (1926-1997) was a debating society teammate with Buckley at Yale University, and when National Review started in 1955, Bozell wrote regular pieces on public policy for the magazine. He also ghostwrote the famous and influential book, The Conscience of a Conservative, for Sen. Barry Goldwater.
National Review was long the flagship of the conservative movement throughout the 1960s, 70s, 80s and 90s. But when William F. Buckley Jr. retired, the magazine slowly lost its intellectual vigor and conservative acumen. Its latest political tack indicates that NR is philosophically lost at sea.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Obama Removes Craig Becker FRom NLRB
On Thursday President Barack Obama officially rescinded former Service Employees International Union and AFL-CIO attorney Craig Becker’s nomination to serve on the National Labor Relations Board. The move shapes up as the latest in a growing line of Republican victories surrounding the board.
The NLRB is the federal agency that until recently opposed the Boeing Company’s move to opening a new assembly plant in the right-to-work state of South Carolina.
The board has since dropped its complaint against the aircraft manufacturer, but for months parroted union allegations that Boeing’s South Carolina production line was the product of retaliation against International Association of Machinists workers in the state of Washington.
While serving as a March 2010 recess appointee to the board, Becker has faced criticism for being too radical. The NLRB has made several moves since then that broke new ground in the degree to which they favored union positions — including moves to shorten the time-frame for workplace unionization elections, force employers to display pro-union posters in workplaces, and allow unions to section off workplaces in order to unionize them slowly in smaller “micro-unions.”
When news broke that Becker’s nomination had been rescinded, Fred Wszolek of the Workforce Fairness Institute had harsh words. “Good riddance,” Wszolek said. “Craig Becker will not be missed.”
House Education and Workforce committee chairman Rep. John Kline, a Minnesota Republican, told The Daily Caller that Becker’s absence will be a net positive for America. “A victory on behalf of America’s workers and employers,” Kline said in an email.
Wyoming Sen. Mike Enzi, the ranking member on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee, asked President Obama ten months ago to rescind Becker’s nomination.
U.S. Chamber of Commerce labor policy specialist Glenn Spencer told TheDC that, like Enzi, most senators easily comprehended the message that Becker’s 2009 nomination sent to American businesses.
“Using government as an agent of union activism was never a strategy for economic growth,” Spencer said, “and Becker’s failure to win confirmation shows that a majority of Senators understood that.”
In May TheDC uncovered a group of Harvard Law Review articles in which Becker advocated for government control over the flow of capital.
Reacting to those articles at the time, Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson told TheDC that Becker’s interpretation held that “labor unions can’t possibly succeed unless you guarantee their success.
In his reading of the law, any notion of workers who choose to collectively bargain sitting down with their employer and working out a deal is gone.”
A spokeswoman for the NLRB has not responded to a request from The Daily Caller about President Obama’latest move.
Joe Simon, who co-created Captain America, dies
Joe Simon, the co-creator of Captain America and one of the comic book industry's most revered writers, artists and editors, has died.
His family said Thursday that the 98-year-old artist and writer died Wednesday night in New York City after a brief illness.
Simon, along with artist Jack Kirby, helped create several comic icons, including Captain America for Timely Comics, the predecessor of what is now Marvel. In his first appearance in 1940, Captain America gave Adolf Hitler a hard right hook.
The duo also created the Newsboy Legion, Boy Commandos and others for what is now DC Comics.
Besides heroes and villains, Simon also delved into horror, crime, humor and romance comics.
Simon is survived by two sons, three daughters and eight grandchildren.
Don't support Ron Paul to send a message
A series of recent polls suggest that Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, has emerged as a real threat to win in Iowa, despite his controversial foreign policy views. One survey, by Public Policy Polling, finds him within one point of front-runner Newt Gingrich.
Aside from his normal hodgepodge of libertarian and anti-war supporters, there's evidence suggesting some conservatives are now pulling for Paul in Iowa for broader strategic reasons.
Redstate's Erick Erickson, a conservative with foreign policy views diametrically opposed to Paul's, nonetheless said recently that he was hoping for a Paul victory in Iowa, in part to drag out the GOP primary.
Dean Clancy, vice president of FreedomWorks, tweeted last week that, "Now is the time for all good tea partiers to come to the aid of Ron Paul in Iowa. Even if not that into him."
There is no question that a Paul victory would rattle Washington's GOP establishment. But a Paul victory in Iowa would also help mainstream his noxious foreign policy views -- particularly on Israel.
To be clear, some conservatives hold the principled belief that being in favor of limited government at home should also extend to supporting a more restrained role for America abroad. As such, it isn't fair to automatically brand somebody who describes himself as non-interventionist as being hostile toward Israel. And so whenever Paul is criticized for being anti-Israel, his defenders attempt to argue that critics are unfairly conflating the two.
But the reality is that on numerous occasions, Paul has crossed the line from merely saying America should stay out of all conflicts, to actively attacking Israel and taking the Palestinians' side -- even when the non-interventionists should theoretically remain silent.
Nearly three years ago, Israel launched a counterattack on Palestinian terrorists in Gaza who had been firing thousands of rockets at Israeli civilians. In early January 2009, Paul released a web video in which he charged that Israel was launching a "pre-emptive war," that Palestinians were living in a "concentration camp" and that they merely had "a few small missiles."
He then repeated this claim on Press TV -- the state-owned propaganda channel of Iran's Islamist government. "To me, I look at it like a concentration camp, and people are making homemade bombs," he said of the situation in Gaza, adding sarcastically, "like they're they aggressors?"
Not only did Paul inaccurately portray Israel as the aggressor, and ignore the Israeli victims of Palestinian terrorist attacks, but he also played into the global propaganda campaign to delegitimize Israel. Israel's enemies think that Jews have exploited global sympathy for the Holocaust, so they routinely liken Israelis to Nazis with phrases like "concentration camp." That isn't an isolated instance of Paul employing the term. He also used it in 2010, when the Israeli navy blocked a flotilla funded by a group with terrorist ties as it attempted to break the blockade of Gaza -- a blockade designed to prevent weapons from reaching Gaza terrorists. Nine of the "activists" aboard one ship were killed in the act of attacking the Israeli commandos who intercepted them -- an event well documented on video. In response, Paul again condemned Israel, reiterating his claim that Palestinians were living in "concentration camps" in Gaza.
If Paul won Iowa, his elevated status, at a minimum, would give more credibility to his foreign policy views. It could also allow global propaganda outlets to boast that a leading contender for the U.S. presidency thinks Gaza is a "concentration camp," and argued that the raid that killed Osama bin Laden violated international law. And that's just for starters.
Those who want Paul to win Iowa merely to "send a message" should realize that a Paul victory won't send the message that they hope it will.
Opponents in Philadelphia say bill on Sharia law unfair to Muslims
From: NewsWorks
A bill in Harrisburg that opponents say is targeted against Muslims has followers of that faith upset.
House Bill 2029 would ban Pennsylvania courts from considering any foreign legal code or system that isn't identical with the Constitution. Muslim activists say that it is specifically targeted against the practice of Sharia Law--a religious code for Muslims that has the power of law in some countries. Council on American-Islamic Relations Attorney Amara Chaudhry says this would block freedom of religious expression.
"This is not a new faith we are not a foreign faith and yes this dangerous, clearly stated discriminatory purpose on a publicly circulated document, you just don't get any more troubling than that," said Chaudhry.
Professor Khalid Blankinship of Temple University compares following Sharia to the Catholic teaching that divorce is not allowed.
"That would be like going into the Catholic Church and telling them that you can't marry people the way you want or saying you have to allow divorce of people even if the Pope ruled otherwise," said Blankinship.
State Representative Rosemarie Swanger of Lebanon County, who authored the bill, says it is designed to preserve rights of liberty that do not exist in some foreign legal systems.She has said recognizing foreign laws could allow women to be treated as second-class citizens. In a letter she sent to colleagues,Swanger called Sharia law "inherently hostile to our constitutional liberties."
First of all: QUOTE: "That would be like going into the Catholic Church and telling them that you can't marry people the way you want or saying you have to allow divorce of people even if the Pope ruled otherwise," said Blankinship.
Really? As a Catholic I see through this. When did the Pope get legal authority over Catholic marriages? Plenty of Catholics get divorced without the approval of the Church. It's true that if they want to remarry they may not permit a church wedding, but this comment is a bizarre twist and total misrepresentation of Catholicism and Catholics in America.
Is the good professor really suggesting to his ignorance that Catholics cannot legally divorce if the Pope objects? We, as Americans choose our faith but are as free men and women under no legal obligation to our faith.
There is a clear implication that religious law trumps the laws of American Society.A dangerous commentary.
Then there is the point about wills. You can file a will that is consistent with the tenets of your faith without leaving a broad commentary on how it should be followed. Is he honestly suggesting that the laws of any church or faith supercede the laws of the nation? It sounds like that to me anyway
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
YID With LID: Simon Weisenthal Center Bashes Antisemitism at Media Matters and Center for American Progress
Media Matters for America's Senior Fellow MJ Rosenberg has become infamous for accusing any American Jews who support Israel of dual loyalty (he calls them Israel-firsters), he also has claimed the evil Israel lobby" controls both the media and the U.S. foreign policy. He also uses the term neo-con in a similar fashion to another Jew-Hater Pat Buchanan-- as a slang pejorative term for Jews who are politically conservative. Rosenberg is not the only Jew-Basher at Media Matters just the most vocal.
Rosenberg and his fellow progressive Jew-Haters at MMFA and Center for American Progress have finally picked on the wrong Jews-The Simon Wiesenthal Center. Formed by the famous Nazi-hunter, the center's only purpose is to preach tolerance. Unlike groups such as the ADL and the AJC which have progressive agendas, the Wiesenthal Center is non-political. Also unlike those groups, the Center will criticize and/or praise people on either part of the political aisle.
Last week, Politico published a piece about how the Progressive MMFA and CAP were fighting with the more mainstream Democrats about Israel. They want to change the party to the Anti-Israel party. The article reported the battle was being led by several bloggers at Media Matters and the Center for American Progress' Think Progress blog.
Charge:Hawaii Five-0 Crew Members Disrespect Pearl Harbor Veterans
Twenty-four World War II veterans gathered in Hawaii last Friday to pay their respects to fellow soldiers who died during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor 70 years ago. A Denver-based news reporter on the scene says the elderly veterans, many requiring wheelchairs, were shown very little respect by the crew of a CBS television show on the site.
Steffan Tubbs, co-host of “Colorado’s Morning News” on 850 KOA, posted information about the incident on his Facebook page shortly after the event. Now, both local and national media outlets are investigating what Tubbs calls a “freaking fiasco.”
Tubbs was part of a week-long trip to Hawaii to honor the memories of fallen soldiers as well as thank living veterans for their service. On Dec.9, the group – average age: 91 – held an emotional ceremony at the Punchbowl including the presentation of colors, the National Anthem and Taps, says Tubbs, a board member of The Greatest Generations Foundation, the Denver-based group which organized the trip.
Tubbs and the veterans. all but one Pearl Harbor survivors, weren’t allowed to complete the ceremony in private. Cast and crew from CBS’s “Hawaii Five-O” were also on the scene preparing to shoot footage for the cop show.
“I noticed as Taps was being played people were walking back and forth to their production vans,” he says of roughly 15-20 show crew members on the same area where the ceremony was taking place.
“Immediately what struck me was, it’s going on on the graves,” he says. “All the Hollywood production was literally on the grave sites, not a grassy area.”
Tubbs understands that the crew likely had its own deadlines to meet, and that shooting a major television show isn’t cheap. But he says that can’t explain how some crew members treated the elderly veterans.
“There was a guy with an ear piece walking among the vets, hushing them, in essence, hurrying them along and telling them to be quiet,” he recalls. “I think I was so stunned I didn’t know what to say.”
One of the veterans tried to take a picture of the actors from the program at one point, but a crew representative nixed the plan, saying the actors were “skittish” around still cameras.
The coup de grace for Tubbs came when a caterer for the show walked across the graves – and the veterans laying roses atop them – to bring salmon and blackberries to actors on the set.
“I’m feeling like [the veterans were] shown the ultimate disrespect,” he says.
Over the weekend, Tubbs had a robust exchange with the show’s executive producer, Peter M. Lenkov, via email regarding the incident. The news anchor posted the back- and-forth online, but since doing so hasn’t received any new messages from Lenkov.
“The executive producer tried to make me out to be some right-wing wacko blogger. I’m a news man … my entire career is based on being credible and telling it like it is,” says Tubbs, who admits he DVRs “Hawaii Five-0″ every week. “They’re accusing me of having an agenda.”
CBS Television Studios released a statement to Big Hollywood regarding the incident:
“We were surprised to hear this report and are looking into the matter,” said CBS Television Studios spokesperson. “Our veterans deserve the highest level of respect and reverence for their service, particularly during a ceremony honoring those who paid the ultimate sacrifice.”
Tubbs doesn’t want the event to simply fade away, but he’s also more than happy to see it wrap in an amicable fashion. That starts with an apology from CBS, he says, and perhaps a show of support for the veterans themselves.
“Make a contribution to the Foundation and call it a day, and all is forgiven,” he says.
When atheists attack!
From: Wyblog.com
In Pitman, NJ the local Knights of Columbus hung a banner across Main Street. "Keep Christ in Christmas," it said.
Simple. Poignant. Offensive?
Re: Gingrich and the “Invented People”
Newt Gingrich has created a lot of waves by saying:
“Remember, there was no Palestine as a state. It was part of the Ottoman Empire. We have invented the Palestinian people, who are in fact Arabs and are historically part of the Arab people, and they had the chance to go many places.”Is Newt right? As Jonathan Tobin noted, he is historically accurate. There was no widespread sense of Palestinian nationhood until the last few decades. In fact, there was such widespread apathy among the Palestinians that Yasser Arafat and the PLO initially had little luck in mobilizing a revolt against Israeli rule.
Arabs in Israel proper have been largely peaceful to this day. Even in the West Bank and Gaza Strip there was no widespread uprising until the First Intifada in
Monday, December 12, 2011
Sunday, December 11, 2011
