http://pjmedia.com/blog/mother-jones-source-may-be-in-a-mother-lode-of-trouble/?print=1 Left-wing magazine Mother Jones made news this week [1] with a report based on a secret recording of a Feb. 2 meeting of Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell with campaign strategists. Federal and state law prohibits publication of information acquired through secret recording, but a 2001 Supreme Court ruling gives publishers like Mother Jones […]
http://pjmedia.com/claudiarosett/ok-so-lets-call-it-the-axis-of-supreme-leader-and-great-leader/
“Axis of Evil” is a phrase rarely heard in today’s political debates. But however you characterize the two remaining charter regimes of that trio (“evil” seems to me quite accurate)– North Korea and Iran — there is definitely an axis there. The more you look, the more you find, from conventional weapons traffic to a long-running partnership in proliferation, including interlinked procurement networks, and the Scientific Cooperation Agreement these two governments signed last September in Tehran.
But here’s an aspect of that axis that few in the West now seem to recall. It didn’t begin with President George W. Bush linking the two countries in a post-Sept. 11 speech. It goes back much earlier than that. It’s an axis that specifically received a joint and personal stamp of approval more than two decades ago from North Korea’s founding tyrant, the late Great Leader Kim Il Sung, and Iran’s current Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Great Leader and Supreme Leader met in person in 1989, when Khamenei traveled to Pyongyang, to lavish praise on Kim Il Sung for daring to confront the Great Satan, the country that Khamenei described as their mutual enemy, the United States of America. Khamenei told Kim, Sr., that anti-Americanism could be “the most important factor” in Iran’s cooperation with North Korea.
To this day, the Kim family totalitarian regime continues to explore the limits of just how much regimes profoundly hostile to America can get away with, and Iran avails itself of the findings. This grows ever more dangerous, as North Korea discovers it can carry out long-range missile and nuclear tests, threaten to incinerate Washington and Seoul, advertise its intentions to conduct additional tests, and the U.S. superpower will do … nothing that actually stops this trajectory. More about this in my column on “The Pyongyang-Tehran Proliferation Playbook.”
Here they are, up close, hand-in-hand, the Axis of Supreme Leader and Great Leader, Dateline: Pyongyang, May, 1989. (Khamenei was then president of Iran; he became Supreme Leader following the death of Ayatollah Khomeini, less than a month after this meeting in Pyongyang took place.)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323741004578414980116448440.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEFTTopOpinion
The president proposes more debt and bigger government, despite ample evidence that the approach doesn’t work.
Presidents use their budgets to set priorities, make choices and provide leadership. Budgets are one of the most important tools for guiding and managing a large, complex organization.
The White House budget released Wednesday was a disappointment not just because it doesn’t balance and is too late to matter, but also because the budget doesn’t lead or inspire private-sector confidence. The message is that the government wants to grow (spending would rise 60% from 2012 to 2023) and wants the private sector to pay for it (revenues would more than double, up 113%, yet still not enough to stop the deficits).
The U.S. government is already the biggest spending and borrowing machine the world has ever seen. America can’t do well without restraint—an aging nation yearns for better choices in government spending, not more taxes.
To prepare the country’s finances for slower growth in the labor force and the retirement of millions of baby boomers, what is needed is an administration that makes more spending choices and shows that there is a process of restraint. Waiting for a grand compromise on taxes or entitlements will take too long. The best federal programs should be augmented, and the less necessary ones wound down, with the net result that the massive buildup in federal debt can be reversed relative to GDP.
http://daphneanson.blogspot.com/2013/04/amid-oxfords-dreaming-spires-new-gown.html To Oxford, the most illustrious English seat of learning of them all, a new student is bound, all the way from Gaza. The young woman in question is described thus by BBC reporter Jon Donnison: “Rawan Yaghi is a bookish 19 year old who, appropriately for a student of literature, arrives to meet me […]
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2013/04/weiner_wants_to_run_for_mayor_with_the_new_york_times_help.html
Anthony Weiner is attempting to run for Mayor of New York this year. The Huffington Post TODAY reported that:
According to an interview in The New York Times Magazine, published online Wednesday morning and in print next Sunday, Weiner’s political committee has already spent more than $100,000 on polling and research.
The polling showed that New Yorkers were willing to forgive his 2011 misdeeds, but voters also wanted to know what the disgraced congressman has done to get over his scandalous past.
The in-depth interview by Jonathan Van Meter, which focuses on Weiner and his publicity-averse wife Huma Abedin, appears to be the beginning of a mea culpa campaign back to a seat of power.
“I don’t have this burning, overriding desire to go out and run for office,” Weiner said. “It’s not the single animating force in my life as it was for quite some time. But I do recognize, to some degree, it’s now or maybe never for me, in terms of running for something. I’m trying to gauge not only what’s right and what feels comfortable right this second, but I’m also thinking, How will I feel in a year or two years or five years? Is this the time that I should be doing it? And then there’s the other side of the coin, which is . . . am I still the same person who I thought would make a good mayor?”
These polls are a prime example of people not wanting to be confrontational to a pollster either in person or on the telephone. And one would want to see how the questions were constructed. I recently took my own unscientific poll when I happened to mention Weiner in a conversation with my dentist, a Democrat, who said, “Who’s Anthony Weiner?” –and his assistant started laughing.
http://www.americanthinker.com/printpage/?url=http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2013/04/wonder_how_many_women_want_to_go_on_an_anniversary_trip_to_engage_in_people_to_people_diplomacy.html
Jaw dropping explanation from State Department for why Jay-Z and Beyonce got permission to travel to Cuba for their wedding anniversary.
Here is one to try on your wife later today. Go home and tell your wife that you have a great anniversary vacation in mind. Yes, tell your wife that you want to take her on an anniversary celebration to promote “people to people” diplomacy with a country that we don’t have diplomatic relations with.
Let me give you a hint: Bring some flowers and tell her that you were just kidding! My guess is that most wives would show you their version of a Mohammed Ali left hook and threaten to hit you between the eyes!
The “we think you are very stupid” Obama administration has come up with an explanation that leaves me speechless and I am not talking about the budget that just came out today.
It turns out that the “Carters” (Jay-Z and Beyonce) got around the law by having their 5th wedding anniversary declared “people to people” contact or some kind of “educational mission”?
This is so insane that it leads to a couple of conclusions;
1) The Obama administration really thinks that we are stupid;
2) Jay-Z may need a course on romantic getaways. I can assure him that no “romantic advisors” would recommend such a trip. After all, isn’t the idea of an anniversary trip to spend time with each other rather than make public displays?;
3) Did the Carters’ personal relationship with the Obamas influence the State Department? Am I the only one who thinks that this loose definition of educational missions is reserved for people who contribute heavily to the campaign?
On a serious note, repression did not take a vacation during the time that Carters were on the island. “The Carters” got to walk down the street with a cigar and government protection. The “Ladies in White” marched down the street harassed by government thugs and no explanation of the incarceration of their husbands and sons.
http://politicalmavens.com/index.php/2013/04/10/passing-the-buck/
There was a time, before the sixties, when the function of a university was to act in loco parentis, offering guidance, direction and discipline to students seeking to benefit from older, wiser minds. After that decade’s watershed capitulation of authority by administrators and faculty empowered to know better, nothing has been quite the same. The latest kerfuffle to illustrate this abandonment of reason is the one currently unfolding at Cardozo Law School. The editors of the Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution have chosen Jimmy Carter as the recipient of their International Advocate of Peace Award. This has angered many people, especially alumni, since Cardozo is a part of Yeshiva University, a school singularly dedicated to the support and well-being of Israel. Jimmy Carter, a long-time beneficiary of Saudi Arabia’s payroll, has been unsurprisingly and selectively critical of Israel, characterizing its policies towards Palestinians as apartheid.
The president of Yeshiva U, Richard M. Joel, has explained that it is the students’ job to run the Journal and make all decisions regarding the award. The dean of Cardozo, Matthew Diller, has fudged the issue further by stating that one of the necessary attributes of a law school is to be an “open and diverse community with a cacophony of ideas which people are free to express.” Neither of these men in supposed command is willing to distinguish between the concept of freedom of speech and the bestowal of an honor upon an individual who stands antithetically opposed to the essence of a university’s commitments. Imagine students at West Point deciding to honor a pacifist or students at Barnard selecting a known misogynist – would the top administrators simply forfeit the responsibilities of their office and refuse to intervene? Every student organization on a campus is subsidized by the university and must be subject to its inherent mandate, just as individuals have to abide by school guidelines. When a line gets crossed, administrators are the ones paid to restore the proper decorum – the buck must ultimately stop there. At Rutgers now, we see the clamor for removing the president of the university for not doing enough to stop a coach from expressing abusive behavior and homophobic comments to the members of the basketball team.
http://bit.ly/YeoLp9
1. “The flow of natural gas from Israel’s Tamar reservoir in the Mediterranean to the Ashdod reception facility was inaugurated on March 30, 2013, ushering in a new era in Israel’s energy sector [led by the Houston-based Noble Energy]. Israel will not only become independent in being able to supply its own energy needs, but it is likely to become an energy exporter as its maritime gas fields are further developed…. The amount of gas discovered offshore now dwarfs any feasible, projected Israeli demand for at least half a century….Israel will become a net exporter of gas….Europe would seem to be the natural export market for Israeli gas….Yet Asia may emerge as Israel’s preferred export destination. The Australian firm, Woodside, which acquired about a third of the rights to the Leviathan field, is oriented toward marketing gas in Asia, and envisions building a liquefaction plant to service that trade….Israel will view with apprehension any scheme to anchor its critical infrastructure in countries beyond its own borders, such as Jordan, Cyprus, or Turkey…. (Dr. David Wurmser, April 4, 2013).
2. Hewlett-Packard (HP) is the second largest investor – trailing Intel – in Israel’s information technology sector, with 6,000 employees. HP’s Israel-developed products carry the Indigo and Scitetx Vision brands (Southeast-Israel Business News, March, 2013).
3. The Chicago-based AllScripts acquired Israel’s dbMotion for $235MN (Globes Business Daily, March 6, 2013).
4. The globe’s largest biotech company, Roche of Basel, Switzerland, concluded a joint venture with Israel’s Chiasma, developing and commercializing Chiasma’s Octreolin for acromegaly and neuroendocrine tumors. Roche received a worldwide exclusive license in return for an upfront payment of $65MN and additional $530MN in milestones and royalties (Globes, February 19).
5. Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) and Israel’s Amdocs are establishing a joint development center in Israel. Amdocs operates a similar center with AT&T. SingTel intends to invest in a few Israeli start-ups, following its acquisition – in March 2012 – of Israel’s Amobee for $321MN (Globes, March 4). Germany’s global optical giant, Zeiss, is establishing a research and development center in Israel. Five years ago, it acquired Israel’s Pixer (Yedioth Achronot daily, April 4). Michael Dell’s MSD Capital invested $22MN in Israel’s food chain, Rami Levy, increasing its holding to 6.1%. The Boston-based Fidelity acquired 5% of Rami Levy for $27MN (Globes, March 29 and April 8).
6. Hong Kong’s investment mogul, Li Ka Shing’s Horizon Ventures, led an$ 8MN round of private placement by Israel’s Nipendo (Globes, March 12). The Waltham, MA-based Battery Ventures – joined by the Menlo Park, CA-based Opus Capital – led a $10MN second round by Israel’s SiSense (Globes, April 4). The Menlo Park-based Sequoia Capital – joined by T-Mobile – led an $11MN round by Israel’s Innovid (Globes, March 8). Israel’s StarCom raised $4MN at the London Stock Exchange for smaller companies, AIM (March 6).
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3666/germany-islam-elections The study — which corroborates the conclusions of other recent surveys — concludes that the image of Islam in Germany is “devastating.” Germany’s opposition Social Democrats are courting disgruntled Muslim voters in a desperate bid to unseat German Chancellor Angela Merkel in federal elections set for September 22. Peer Steinbrück, the 66-year-old chancellor candidate […]
http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2013/04/video-cbs-news-of-great-neck-synagogue-cancellation-of-pamela-geller-talk.html
Due to relentless intimidation, bullying and threats, the Great Neck Synagogue is cancelling my talk at the Great Neck Synagogue on Sunday. Ironically, the subject of my talk was the war on free speech, and this incident shows how urgently this topic needs to be discussed. Leftist thugs, pushed and prodded by Islamic supremacist Habeeb Ahmed and his co-conspirators, threatened a march on the shul (among other things).
It is a very sad day for freedom-loving peoples when fascist tactics trump free speech. This reinforces a terrible precedent: that Islamic supremacists and leftists can get whatever they want, and silence their opponents, by keeping up pressure on decent people until they cave in. In America, they don’t assassinate their foes, but they assassinate their character. While I understand the synagogue’s action, I deplore the cancellation. It shows the inroads that Islamic supremacists and leftists are making in their larger war on the freedom of speech. It hands a victory to thugs and foes of the freedom of speech, as well as the other freedoms and rights that I am dedicated to defending.
In mosques and Islamic centers, the most vitriolic jihad supporters and preachers of hate speak freely. No one complains. No one demonstrates. No one utters a word of protest. But my work that has been consistently in defense of human rights is not allowed to be given a hearing. Mine is a message of freedom, and that message has been forbidden.
“As the notoriety and media exposure of the planned program this Sunday have increased, so has the legal liability and potential security exposure of our institution and it’s [sic] member families. In an era of heightened security concerns it is irresponsible to jeopardize the safety of those who call Great Neck Synagogue home, especially our children, even at the risk of diverting attention from a potentially important voice in the ongoing debate. Accordingly, the Great Neck Synagogue Men’s Club will no longer be sponsoring the appearance of Pamela Geller this coming Sunday, and no event will be taking place in our facility.”
Executive Board
Great Neck Synagogue
