Displaying posts published in

2013

Don’t Criminalize the Investigations. Immunize the Witnesses! Posted By Michael Ledeen

http://pjmedia.com/michaelledeen/2013/05/22/dont-criminalize-the-investigations-immunize-the-witnesses/?print=1

Keep your eye on the mission, which is to save us from an ambitious tyranny. We cannot accomplish this life-and-death task if we turn it over to the lawyers. It’s a political mission, not a law enforcement roundup. We need to know, in detail, what happened. We have to know the details, which will, if we are good, enable us to dismantle an enormously ambitious attempt to change America in precisely the way Alexis de Tocqueville predicted. As I wrote four years ago [1], American tyranny would not resemble those of the past. It would consist of a series of rules and regulations than would enervate us, and reduce us to objects of manipulation by an arrogant state:

That power is absolute, minute, regular, provident and mild. It would be like the authority of a parent if, like that authority, its object was to prepare men for manhood; but it seeks, on the contrary, to keep them in perpetual childhood: it is well content that the people should rejoice, provided they think of nothing but rejoicing. For their happiness such a government willingly labors, but it chooses to be the sole agent and the only arbiter of that happiness; it provides for their security, foresees and supplies their necessities, facilitates their pleasures, manages their principal concerns, directs their industry, regulates the descent of property, and subdivides their inheritances: what remains, but to spare them all the care of thinking and all the trouble of living?

We can see this impulse at work in an amazing number of governmental initiatives, from the truly terrifying new speech code [2] for all American colleges and universities that receive federal funds, to the previously unimaginable intrusion of the Feds into our privacy, whether via the IRS or the Justice Department, as in the criminalization of journalists doing their jobs. It goes on and on, from Obamacare to the greatly expanded role of Washington in corporate enterprise, and to myriad regulations–many of which we do not even know–and executive orders.

Is Obama the Latest Teflon Man? Posted By Rich Baehr

http://pjmedia.com/blog/is-obama-the-latest-teflon-man/?print=1 New Obama administration scandals are popping up. The latest is the tracking of and threats of criminal prosecution [1] against Fox News Channel reporter James Rosen. Others are deepening, such as news of the IRS scandal investigation reaching top administration officials [2], and the possibility of new whistleblower testimony [3] on Benghazi that will suggest […]

JERROLD SOBEL: BOYCOTTING THE WRONG COUNTRY

http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/05/boycotting_the_wrong_country.html

Along with traditional terrorism and political recalcitrance, the Palestinian Arabs, their fellow Islamists, and a recognizable cadre of their sympathizers continually develop additional pressure tactics to erode the sovereignty of Israel.

As boycott, divest, and sanction (BDS) movements pop up on college campuses, within member states of the European Union (EU), and even certain denominational organizations, pro Israeli Jewish and Christian advocates throughout the world must be prepared to refute libelous accusations against Israel by espousing nonrevisionist, historical facts.

Point in hand: on May 3rd the Church of Scotland issued a disparaging manifesto entitled: “The Inheritance of Abraham?” Laughingly it decries Israel’s biblical connection to the ‘Promised Land.’ It willfully denies thousands of years of well-documented Jewish connection not just to internationally recognized Israel but to Judea and Samaria (West Bank) as well. A connection far predating that of any other people.

Specifically, the church is of the opinion:

Zionism is not a national but a religious ideology, grounded in specific and unconditional biblical claims to the Land of Israel. The position of Zionism is that “God promises the land to the Israelites unconditionally.

The document further states that “Zionists think that Jewish people are serving God’s special purpose.” As such, “Christians should not be supporting exclusive or even privileged divine right” to any territory. “If Jesus is indeed the Yes to all God’s promises, the promise to Abraham about land is fulfilled through the impact of Jesus, not by restoration of land to the Jewish people.”

Talk about stirring up a hornet’s nest. Jewish groups throughout England, Israel, and the United Staes were incredulous over such a hypocritically benevolent claim. One writer for the Jewish Daily Forward labeled the church’s position as supersessionism; “the notion that the truth of the New Testament renders irrelevant the claims of the old.”

The Scottish Council of Jewish Communities described the report as an: “ignorant and tendentious document masquerading as a theological statement.”

3D Printers and the Transformation of Manufacturing By Marion DS Dreyfus

http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/05/3d_printers_and_the_transformation_of_manufacturing.html “Anybody who is new to 3D printing will walk away and remember their first introduction as similar to their first experience with Windows on their PC in 1988, or low-cost digital cellphones in 1996, or Google search on the internet in 1999. Truly transformative.” So said “Michael” on the feedback Meetup thread after the […]

MARK DURIE: “WE MUST FIGHT THEM AS THEY FIGHT US” ****

http://us2.campaign-archive1.com/?u=47498a2e1ad97dd3d09ae19c5&id=d1aa51d9f1&e=ce445aaf82

Today in Woolwich, England, a man reported to be a British soldier was cut down by two Anglo-African Muslims wielding knives and a machete. One of the killers, speaking in a home-grown English accent, is heard on video to say:

“We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you. We must fight them as they fight us. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. I apologise that women have had to witness this today, but in our land our women have to see the same. You people will never be safe. Remove your government, they don’t care about you.”

Eyewitnesses said that the victim had been wearing a ‘Help for Heroes’ t-shirt. Help for Heroes is a charity to help British soldiers wounded in current conflicts.

Eyewitnesses also reported that the killers attempted to behead the soldier, and that they asked bystanders to call the police, and moved towards the police as if to attack them, as soon as they appeared.

While some said the killers were crazed, the contrary seems to be the case. They appear to have been acting in accordance with a theologically determined logic which can be understood on the basis of Islamic teachings. In the midst of perpetrating this carnage, they found time, calmly and clearly, to explain their motivations on camera.

The killer captured on video was referencing passages from Islamic sacred texts. “We must fight them as they fight us” is a reference to a phrase found repeatedly in the Koran:

CALIFORNIA BAY AREA’S MUSLIM POPULATION….READ NOTE FROM JANET LEVY

http://blog.sfgate.com/stew/2013/05/20/bay-area-has-large-muslim-population/ The current count is that 250,000 Muslims live in the S.F. Bay Area,  within 30 minutes drive of my home.  Literally within walking distance.  There are so many relocated Muslims living on my block, and hanging out at the park across the street that I have lost count.  I no longer even try.  I […]

Biden Talks of ‘Outsized Influence’ of Jews: ‘The Influence Is Immense’ Daniel Halper

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/biden-talks-outsized-influence-jews-influence-immense_728765.html At a Jewish American Heritage Month reception last night in Washington, D.C., Vice President Joe Biden talked about Jews, power, and influence.“The truth is that Jewish heritage, Jewish culture, Jewish values are such an essential part of who we are that it’s fair to say that Jewish heritage is American heritage,” Biden said, according […]

WHY DO THEY NOT BOYCOTT ISRAEL? MICHAEL ORDMAN

http://blogs.jpost.com/content/why-do-they-not-boycott-israel Why do they not Boycott Israel?  As promised last week, this article contains just a few of the recent cases of Arabs and Muslims who have benefited by receiving vital medical services from Israel.  These examples totally destroy the lies of the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) mob that Israel is ethnically cleansing Arabs […]

Kerry Returning to Israel for ‘Peace’ Mirages Posted By P. David Hornik

http://frontpagemag.com/2013/davidhornik/kerry-returning-to-israel-for-peace-mirages/

On Thursday Secretary of State John Kerry will be visiting Israel, and presumably also the Palestinian Authority, for the fourth time since accompanying President Obama on his visit here in late March. Four times since late March suggests something like obsession. Indeed, Kerry is reportedly set to unveil a “framework for peace talks” in early June.

The PA, for its part, is making threats about what it will do if the talks don’t start up again. Israel Hayom reports that “The Palestinians have done all the legal work necessary to join 63 U.N. agencies, conventions and treaties [and are] planning to apply as a state to 16 international organizations if peace talks with Israel [do] not resume by June.”

The Palestinians want to make this unilateral-statehood push on the basis of the UN vote last November that gave them the status of a nonmember observer state. The United States (along with Israel, of course) was one of the few countries voting “no” and, at least declaratively, strongly opposed the Palestinian move.

Meanwhile, not for the first time, the Palestinians—both official bodies and civilians—have been engaging in behavior not notably consonant with visions of peace.

Earlier this week it was reported that:

A Palestinian man who was detained by the Palestinian Authority security forces in Hebron has lost the ability to speak as a result of severe torture, according to a report released by the Independent Commission for Human Rights.

Mohamed Abdel Karim Dar of Hebron was hospitalized after being tortured while in detention, the report, which documented 28 cases of torture in PA prisons in the West Bank last month, said.

Dar had been detained by agents belonging to the PA’s Preventive Security Service and held in solitary confinement, the document said.

“He lost the ability to speak and suffered from wounds to his body as a result of banging his head against the wall and tying his hands while being held in solitary confinement,” the report added….

The organization…said that it had received complaints of torture and mistreatment against other branches of the PA security forces in the West Bank—13 against the police, seven against the Preventive Security Service, seven against the General Intelligence Service and one against Military Intelligence.

Earlier this month World Tribune reported that

Britain…has been playing a major role in training and financing Palestinian security forces in the West Bank…. [O]fficials said Britain has been training and advising virtually every major PA security force, often in coordination with the United States.

The report goes on to note that British intelligence “has repeatedly urged PA security commanders to stop torture,” but “acknowledged that torture and abuse continued in PA detention facilities against Hamas suspects and pro-democracy activists.”

CHARLES CRAWFORD: US FOREIGN POLICY AND CLAIMS TO MORAL LEADERSHIP HAVE PLUMMETED UNDER OBAMA

When elections are free and fair – broadly speaking US foreign policy and any claim to moral leadership have plummeted under the current U.S. administration – never more so than in the case of Iran http://www.thecommentator.com/article/3598/when_elections_are_free_and_fair_broadly_speaking One of the problems modern public servants face is the tyranny of the PC. When I joined the FCO […]