Did anyone besides me catch this bit from an article about the Libyan revolution:
Armed men in green armbands, along with uniformed security forces, checked those trying to enter the district, where graffiti that said “Gadhafi, you Jew,” “Down with the dog,” and “Tajoura is free” was still scrawled on walls. They turned away motorists who were then stopped at a second checkpoint by armed men in uniform. Those officers searched cars and checked IDs of drivers and passengers. Emphasis mine
Like the Egyptians before them the Libyans like all people deserve to be governed by a government of their own choice and not by a dictator. It is however a bad sign that “Jew” in an execration of choice.
Then again with a revolution in process, a dictator who may have stockpiles of mustard gas I suspect the last thing on Libyan minds is going after Jews.
Over at the blog Mind Stain and Firedoglake they tell the story about a restaurant that choose to discriminate against a patron based on his political views :
Wisconsin blogger Naomi Houser reports tonight (via Howie Klein on Twitter):
The M******t [a restaurant] in Madison, WI confirms that on Friday night, ******* (one of the owners) politely asked Scott Walker to leave the establishment when other customers began booing him. A bartender at The M*****t said that ‘his presence was causing a disturbance to the other customers and management asked him to leave.’
Maybe he should have stayed home and ordered pizza instead? Okay, maybe not; there might be a long wait.
Houser adds regarding The M******t that readers might want to “give your patronage and thanks in person the next time you are in Madison.”
The restaurant in question is apparently The Merchant Restaurant and by the sound of what went on the trouble in question was not from Walker but from the patrons.
Lets play a game. Lets pretend a black man entered a restaurant and the all white patrons decided to boo and heckle him and the owner asked him to leave. Would you see the same love fest in comments at Firedoglake and at Mindstain over the denial of service. Look at the comments at both sites and see the civility of the left.
However there is yet another twist. There is a real debate if this actually happened or if this was a stunt to try to get attention as Badger blogger reports:
Well my friends, this is the case of a Madison restaurant trying to gain liberal credibility by making up a total lie about how they booted out Scott Walker out of their establishment. When BadgerBlogger called them to confirm the story, the staff refused to confirm or deny, and continued to obfuscate until they hung up the phone… But in fact, they didn’t hang up, it appears that they accidentally put the phone on speaker…. And BadgerBlogger tapes continued to roll.
Our audio captures the restaurant staff talking about how they have to take down the blog posting because people are starting to call about it, you can actually hear them logging into the blog and deleting it. Too late.
We confirm with Governor Walker’s staff that the Governor has never been to that restaurant, this was an attempted “punking” by employees of The Merchant Restaurant, but look who got punked… In the words of Joe Wilson, You Lie! Here is the audio:
Was he there or was he not? Apparently true or false the restaurant ran with it, got publicity and got burned.
It will be interesting to see how or if this plays out, but its more interesting to see the reactions of the left. Their cheering of the exclusion of a patron from a public place because of political views. As American Power puts it:
What gets me, if you go back to the Firedoglake entry, is that for progressives, discriminating against Governor Walker would be a cool thing to do — that they would applaud the kind of action they would vehemently denounce if done to a minority, or even a progressive Democrat. This is not how students learn about democracy in school. And frankly, this isn’t how politics should be conducted. Governor Walker is not an arch segregationist. His programs are not about to exterminate the sick and aged. Progressives know this but they’ve shown they’ll do anything to distract from the issues at hand: the sweetheart deals between the unions and the Democrats and the fiscal sinkhole the State of Wisconsin is facing. Public opinion doesn’t favor the Democrats. And refusing the governor’s budget will only delay the reckoning and further blemish the left’s reputation.
My latest for the examiner notes the silence of the Media Hounds:
Last month after the shootings in Arizona where several people were murdered and Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was severely injured there was a lot of talk about civility in politics. Members of congress, the president and news organization both print and visual bemoaned the lack of civil discourse and attempted (and still attempt despite established facts) to blame the Tea Parties and Sarah Palin for inciting violence.
Over the last few days several incidents have taken place nationwide that are contrary to the media’s wish for a new spirit of civility in public discourse.
You can read the rest here. The actions of the supporters of the public sector unions is the real untold story of this issue.
When civil order vanished from Egypt a few weeks ago, the Copts appealed to the army for protection. They were told that the military could not protect them, that they must protect themselves. And so they did, building protective fences around the monastery.
Unfortunately, it seems the army prefers that the monasteries remain unprotected: on Sunday soldiers with bulldozers arrived and began destroying the fences. Any Copts who attempted to interfere are being shot at by troops.
Apparently it’s not only the government that in Egypt that came down. It’s the facade that Egyptians are Egyptians first. As Assyrian International agency reported:
Father Hemanot Ava Bishoy said the army fired live ammunition and RPGs continuously for 30 minutes, which hit part of the ancient fence inside the monastery. “The army was shocked to see the monks standing there praying ‘Lord have mercy’ without running away. This is what really upset them,” he said. “As the soldiers were demolishing the gate and the fence they were chanting ‘Allahu Akbar’ and ‘Victory, Victory’.”
He also added that the army prevented the monastery’s car from taking the injured to hospital.
The army also attacked the Monastery of St. Makarios of Alexandria in Wady el-Rayan, Fayoum, 100 km from Cairo. It stormed the monastery and fired live ammunition on the monks. Father Mina said that one monk was shot and more than ten have injuries caused by being beaten with batons. The army demolished the newly erected fence and one room from the actual monastery and confiscated building materials. The monastery had also built a fence to protect itself after January 25 and after being attacked by armed Arabs and robbers leading to the injury of six monks, including one monk in critical condition who is still hospitalized.
And its spreading:
Thousands of demonstrators protested in the city of Assiut following the murder of Father Daoud Boutros. The priest was stabbed several times by Islamists who shouted “Allahu Akbar” as they fled from the scene.
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