Archive for the ‘opinion/news’ Category

after all that’s what Jihad means isn’t it?

In Tehrir square in Cairo, many protesters were charging and screaming at supporters of Mubarak, calling for their death and a “jihad” against Mubarak and anyone who even seems to be supporting him. This is most likely because of the radical Islamic group “Muslim Brotherhood,” which is one of the major players striving for power in Egypt.

This comes hot on the heels of upper Muslim Brotherhood officials calling for a war against Israel and the closure of the Suez Canal:

Robert Stacy McCain notes another thing:

When the “Arab street” does the same thing in Cairo that we’ve seen them do in Jerusalem and Gaza, it’s not racist to interpret today’s violence in terms of a historic pattern of mob violence. And the fact that you, Mr. Moral Superiority, are cheering for the immediate overthrow of Hosni Mubarak doesn’t make me a thought-criminal for suggesting that maybe we don’t want to be so hasty.

For crying out loud, they were actually swooping down on Tahrir Square on horses and camels! At what point do stereotypes stop being stereotypes and instead become, y’know, facts?

…and points out what the “loyal opposition” looks like:

And, honestly, I thought Obama’s speech Tuesday night was just about right: He made it clear he was angry at Mubarak, but explicitly spoke of the “aftermath of these protests.” In other words: OK, you’ve had your protest rallies, Mubarak’s on his way out, “free and fair elections,” yadda yadda — now go back home and stop distracting us the week before Super Bowl Sunday.

Trust me: The next-to-last thing I want is for Barack Obama to be able to claim credit for a foreign-policy success. But the last thing in the world I want is for Islamic extremists to take over a country with 75 million people and modern military weapons, sitting right next door to Israel — a scenario that could lead to Armageddon.

Stacy is right, we are better off for this president to do the right thing and have it work out then to score political points. Of course as Bob Belvedere points out part of that component is actually doing the right thing:

As I have said before, Julius Obamacus Nero Caesar having abandoned his role as Leader Of The Free World has fueled the ambitions of the evil forces that seek to dominate it. That fuel will continue to power more and more violence as it feeds the hubris of those who would initiate a new Dark Age.

and Newsbusters reports that even some on MSNBC are less impressed:

It was 16 degrees warmer in my upstate New York town this morning than it was in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. If any further portent of the apocalypse is necessary, consider that on his MSNBC show this evening, Cenk Uygur compared Barack Obama to Ronald Reagan . . . and clearly came down on the side of Ronaldus Maximus.

The subject was Egypt. Uygur played the clip of Reagan’s immortal “tear down this wall,” and contrasted it with Obama’s wan words on the need for “orderly transition” in Egypt.

But according to Robert Springborg it’s moot.

While much of American media has termed the events unfolding in Egypt today as “clashes between pro-government and opposition groups,” this is not in fact what’s happening on the street. The so-called “pro-government” forces are actually Mubarak’s cleverly orchestrated goon squads dressed up as pro-Mubarak demonstrators to attack the protesters in Midan Tahrir, with the Army appearing to be a neutral force. The opposition, largely cognizant of the dirty game being played against it, nevertheless has had little choice but to call for protection against the regime’s thugs by the regime itself, i.e., the military. And so Mubarak begins to show us just how clever and experienced he truly is. The game is, thus, more or less over.

And lets not forget exactly what these guys are:

He said that only America can help at this point by fully backing the demonstrators against Mubarak. “Does America stand for its ideals or does it stand for its interests?” he asked. On that score, he doesn’t like Obama. But guess what? He liked George Bush!

And apparently sometime after this interview Sandmonkey was arrested.

For myself I’ve already pointed out what is important anything that gets us there is good enough for now, but only for now.

The Hill notices that the SEIU is saying one thing

The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is lobbying hard against the amendment offered by Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) to repeal the healthcare reform law.

SEIU has sent e-mails to Senate offices urging lawmakers to vote against the proposal to unwind President Obama’s signature domestic initiative.

Their lobbying has proved effective:

every last Democrat voted no (Lieberman and Mark Warner missed the roll), which is a credit either to Reid and Durbin in keeping the caucus together or to the nutroots in intimidating vulnerable Dems with the prospect of primary challenges in 2012. For cripes sake, even Ben Nelson voted against it.

Meanwhile as they preserve the law for us for themselves it’s another story

SEIU’s outspoken defense of the law has prompted charges of hypocrisy from Republicans, given that some of the union’s chapters have sought waivers exempting them from a key provision of the law requiring the phaseout of health plans with low caps on annual benefits.

Michelle Malkin has been all over this

And the Service Employees International Union, which poured $60 million into Democrat/Obama coffers in 2008 and millions more into the Astroturf campaign for the federal health care takeover, added four new affiliates to the waiver list:

– SEIU Local 2000 Health and Welfare Fund, representing 161 enrollees
– SEIU 32BJ North Health Benefit Fund, representing 7,020 enrollees
– SEIU Local 300, Civil Service Forum Employees Welfare Fund, representing 2,000 enrollees
– SEIU Health & Welfare Fund representing 1,620

That’s in addition to three other previous SEIU waiver winners: Local 25 SEIU in Chicago with 31,000 enrollees; Local 1199 SEIU Greater New York Benefit Fund with 4,544 enrollees; and SEIU Local 1 Cleveland Welfare Fund with 520 enrollees — which brings the total number of Obamacare-promoting SEIU Obamacare refugees to an estimated 45,000 workers represented by seven SEIU locals.

And a fuller list listing all the other unions, is available here with the following note:

It is worth noting that there are 166 union benefits funds now exempted from this requirement, which account for about 40 percent of the exempted workers. This means that although there are only 14.6 million unionized employees in the United States, and 860,000 of them are already exempted from this provision of Obamacare.

Unions are huge democratic contributes, anyone who think this is a coincidence is fooling themselves

Reid BTW was very smart to get this vote over with ASAP, but I’m REALLY surprised that he didn’t give any of his folks cover. Either he figured it was early enough or that because of the first vote it wouldn’t have made a difference.

The Media will want to move away from this ASAP but the GOP will keep this vote in front of the faces for quite a while and if the opinion of the people I talk to door to door has any weight, it will be crushing come 2012.

Update: Hot air notices

The Obama administration seems very eager to impose regulation on everyone except their bestest buddies. If these policies are so bad that Obama’s friends and political allies need waivers to get around them, then perhaps they shouldn’t be in place at all. And perhaps the Obama administration should learn something about the rule of law, rather than the rule of whim — or as the rest of us call it, The Chicago Way.

Yup.

Well it took a lot of lawyers, cracked and broken election boxes, and some interesting handling of ballots during a recount but the Democratic machine managed to get the result they were looking for:

A Worcester Superior Court judge is ordering a new election for a contested Massachusetts House seat after ruling the November contest ended in a tie.

The ruling by Justice Richard Tucker means Democratic incumbent Geraldo Alicea of Charlton will again face off against Republican challenger Peter Durant of Spencer.

An earlier recount of had placed Durant one vote ahead.

But Tucker ruled a single uncounted vote for Alicea should be included in the official tally, ending in a tie.

Of course the democratic legislature might just choose to steal the election outright:

Representative Michael T. Moran, a Boston Democrat who co-chairs the Legislature’s Election Laws Committee, said the judge’s ruling would now be reviewed by a special House committee of two Democrats and one Republican.

The committee will make a recommendation about next steps to House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo, he said. “The strongest option is to have a reelection,’’ Moran said. “But you have to look at everything.’’

“It’s fair to say this is extremely, extremely rare, and it poses a whole set of different issues and problems,’’ Moran said.

Red Mass. Group:

The correct answer for Moran would have been, “we have asked the Secretary of State to schedule the election for as early a date as possible.” He did not say that. Leaving the door open to the seating of Alicea.

Speaker Deleo and the rest of the Legislature should know that we the people of Massachusetts will march on the State House if they pull this again. As recent events in the Middle East have shown 2011 is a whole lot different than 2000 or 2001. Through the internet we can easily organize demonstrations, and they will be held.

This is what happens when you have a one party state. Remember we have done this to ourselves.

Yet another story that the MSM is not going to report on:

In the video the clinic manager of PP Central New Jersey’s Perth Amboy mill, LPN Amy Woodruff, tells “Joe” and “Gia” how to get abortions, STD treatment, and contraceptives for their brothel of adolescents as young as 14, some here illegally.

Woodruff coaches the pair on how to have the younger girls lie about their age. She gives them the name of a mill that is apparently schlockier than hers, Metropolitan Medical Associates, that will do abortions with fewer questions asked.

The AP story on this came out two weeks ago, but we have seen nothing in the news. Remind you of another story?

The Gosnell story—a story that by any measure deserved in-depth coverage, some serious discussion about regulation and responsibility, and a few features forcing the nation to consider just when a “late-term” abortion slips into the category of “infanticide” or what our leadership and politicians really think of all of this—proved too big and too messy for the mainstream media.

They did not want light shed on dark truths that cannot be prettied up with euphemisms and nebulous notions of “choice.” They did not want to have to ponder the likelihood of Gosnell’s stinking, body-piled-and-bloodstained rooms being replicated in other cities, in other states, where other authorities chose to look away from the carnage, rather than address it.

And the Anchoress asks the question that I’ve been thinking:

So, allow me to ask the impolitic question I have hinted at elsewhere: in choosing to look away, in choosing to under-report, in choosing to spin, minimize, excuse, and move-along when it comes to Kermit Gosnell—and to this whole subject of under-regulated abortion clinics, the debasement of women and the slaughter of living children—how are the press and those they protect by their silence any better than the Catholic bishops who, in decades past, looked away, under-reported, spun, minimized, excused, moved-along, and protected the repulsive predator-priests who have stolen innocence and roiled the community of faith?

Read the whole thing. They are different in that they do not fear a press reporting on their culpability of silence.

Always remember the bias in the media is not just in what they report on, but on what they DON’T.