DANIEL GREENFIELD: THE SPEED OF PROGRESSIVISM ****

http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/

The transformation of Chick Fil A from a fast food place that most liberals had never even heard of into the “Enemy of the People” is a reminder of the speed at which progressivism travels forward and backward in time. A few months ago the CEO of Chick Fil A would have done nothing worse than echo a consensus so mainstream that it was adopted as a campaign position by the leftiest Democrat to sit in the White House. A few months later that same position is so outrageous that it leads to mass boycotts, threats of violence and mayors of dysfunctional urban centers threatening to drive the reactionary chicken franchise out of their cities.
One of the wonderful things about progressivism is that it defies the laws of physics and history. When the Democratic Party, a once notable national party that has been turned into a red shill for the sort of people who used to hang out in cafes and plot to blow things up in between free verse recitals, adopts a progressive position, that position instantly travels backward in time to alter history and create an entirely new past.

For example when the Democratic Party decided that its future lay not with racist white gerrymandered districts but racist black gerrymandered districts, its adoption of civil rights, formerly a Republican position that good Democrats had fought tooth and nail, actually traveled back in time transforming our nation’s history.

When the Democrats belatedly decided that black people were human beings, or at least a better bet for votes than Southern white men who were in danger of deciding that they didn’t have much in common with a party of corrupt Northern elites being painted by a corrupt Northern media as saints, the energy from this decision transformed Lincoln into a Democrat, segregation into an idea that Ike and Dick came up with in between dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and the Trail of Tears, and turned the Community Organizers who had been busy torching black orphanages and Republican newspapers in New York City and Boston as part of an organized wartime campaign to defeat the Union, into a lost page of history.

SOL SANDERS: THE CULTURE OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

The culture of economic development

Poor ol’ George Romney! He forgot politicians are supposed to cater to the media. And when he spoke truth to power of the leftwing comme il faut Anglo-American journalist mob, they came down on him like the proverbial ton of bricks.

And so what were all those uncommon observations labeled “gaffes”– which might have been travel notes by a 19th century visitor — setting off another fusillade in the boisterous presidential campaign?

Romney said our British cousins seemed to be making a balls up of their Olympics preparations. By any criteria it was true — just as early stages of the 2002 Salt Lake City winter games which he allegedly “rescued”. And who else would the Salt Lake worthies have chosen for the clean-up other than a successful Mormon entrepreneur! Not that the Olympics in Montreal, Athens, and a half dozen other places over the last half century haven’t been total economic disasters. [You ain’t seen nothing yet – wait for the Russians’ Sochi winter Olympics 2014!]

Even less controversial – if equally uncomfortable for his critics – was Romney’s suggestion the Palestinians might look to their Israeli neighbors for notions on how to build the economy of their hoped for future state. That too was hardly earthshaking
In the early post-colonial days, before bilateral and multinational aid agency bureaucrats took over “development”, scholars assumed culture was indivisible from economic progress. Remember Max Weber’s iconic “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism”, required reading for an earlier generation?

ED KOCH FOR OBAMA….PATHETIC

Support for Jews, Israelites, all people translates into support for Obama

“If you trust my judgment, vote for President Obama. I look forward to voting for our president in November, and I hope you will, too.”

NO ED KOCH I DON’T TRUST YOUR JUDGEMENT AT ALL AND THIS COLUMN VITIATES ANYTHING GOOD YOU’VE EVER DONE…..SHAME ON YOU…BUT THEN AGAIN I REMEMBER YOUR STATEMENT IN 1980…” I AM GOING TO HOLD MY NOSE AND VOTE FOR CARTER”…..RSK

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/fl-guest-koch-wed0801-20120803,0,1235882.story

In an effort to establish his qualifications to be president of the United States, Gov. Mitt Romneyrecently visited England, Israel and Poland, and there is now an added interest in the views of the presidential candidates on Israel.

Last year, I criticized President Barack Obama after he urged the Palestinian Authority and Israel to resume negotiations and stated that Israel should use the 1967 boundaries, with mutually agreed-upon land swaps, as a template for drawing the lines for the new Palestinian state. Wanting to send the president a message of opposition to this stance, I supported a Republican candidate in a special congressional election, and he won.

I am now often asked why I am supporting the president’s reelection.

In his first presidential race, President Obama received 74 percent of the Jewish vote. Last year, it looked like those numbers might be significantly lower in 2012. However, as last Friday’s Gallup poll illustrates, the president’s numbers in the Jewish community have almost completely rebounded. Maybe other Jewish voters have seen in the president what I have seen.

I believe the president heard the Jewish community’s concerns. His actions, certainly for me, verify that fact. His speech at the United Nations supporting Israel was the strongest statement of its kind ever made by a U.S. president. Even more important was his personal, and successful, involvement at the Security Council preventing the Palestinian Authority from gaining entry to the United Nations as an independent state. That action was clear, unambiguous evidence of his commitment to the Jewish state. His urging of the Israelis and Palestinians to engage in negotiations without preconditions was extremely important, and his reiterating and demanding that Hamas give up violence, recognize the legality of the state of Israel and all prior agreements, showed real leadership.

The statement of Israel’s Defense Minister Ehud Barak about the cooperation between Israel and the United States on intelligence gathering and military supplies provided by the United State to Israel was the best ever in the long relationship between the two countries. That, too, was clear evidence of President Obama’s commitment to Israel.

Further, President Obama’s leading the U.N. Security Council to take much harsher sanctions against Iran and make clear that the United States was committed to preventing Iran from developing a nuclear bomb – not simply to a policy of containment – made clear to me his absolute commitment to the security and defense of the State of Israel.

I have no intention of attacking Gov. Romney or the Republican Party for their support of the State of Israel. In fact, I commend them for it. I believe both presidential candidates and parties are committed to standing with Israel if it were to be attacked by Iran. As a Jew and a supporter of that state, I am grateful.

GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL….SEE NOTE PLEASE

NO NATION THREATENED ON EVERY SIDE BY IMPLACABLE ENEMIES CONTINUES TO MAKE THESE INCREDIBLE, SCIENTIFIC, LIFE ALTERING AND HUMANITARIAN ADVANCES….BRAVO TO MY E-PAL MICHAEL ORDMAN WHO KEEPS ME PROUD AND OPTIMISTIC…..RSK

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com
In the 5th August edition of Israel’s good news, the highlights include:

· An Israeli surgeon restored the use of the hand of a young boy from Latvia.
· A young Israeli suffering from cerebral palsy has qualified as an IDF officer.
· Future computers can get much smaller thanks to an Israeli transistor made of 60 carbon atoms.
· An amazing Israeli material soaks up oil spills in eight minutes.
· A big scandal in Lebanon as they realise that they like Israeli cosmetic products.
· Tel Aviv is to be the first free “Wi-Fi” city and Israel is to have the first free “Social Wi-Fi”.
· This newsletter of Israel’s positive news makes news in San Diego.
ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Any cell you need. Scientists at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem have identified the processes that turn human embryonic stem cells into any type of body cell. It could eventually lead to their use to implant healthy new cells into humans suffering from degenerative diseases like Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and diabetes.
http://www.jpost.com/LandedPages/PrintArticle.aspx?id=278068

Why good cells go bad. A team led by scientists at the Weizmann Institute have discovered a link between cancer and changes external to the genetic code. Known as epigenetics, this little explored area of study could answer questions about how the body works, grows, gets sick, and cures itself.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/cancer-could-be-caused-by-bad-labels-researchers-say/

A nano-sized drug delivery system. Israel is investing $11 million to develop nanometer-sized drug delivery systems for the treatment of a wide range of diseases. Eleven labs at several universities will try and create an “inter-body robot” – nano-sized particles that can direct medicine and imaging systems to any part of the body.
http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000768752&fid=1725

Israeli surgeon fixes hand of Latvian boy. 12-year-old Kyril suffered from brachial plexus palsy, a rare congenital defect making his right hand useless. Dr. Eidelman, of Rambam hospital in Haifa, rotated the boy’s wrist 65 degrees, moved his shoulder bone and applied an innovative locking plate. (See also next article.)
http://www.jpost.com/Health/Article.aspx?id=279362

33 operations in 4 days. Rambam’s Dr Eidelman has just returned from performing a marathon series of orthopaedic operations in Ecuador, mostly on children, as organised by the voluntary California-based ‘Operation Rainbow’. At Rambam, surgeons perform a maximum of ten similar operations a week.
http://www.rambam.org.il/Home+Page/About+Us/News+and+Events/News+2012/Thirty-three+Operations+in+Four+Days.htm

ON IRAN INTENTIONS: TALK US LETGITIMATE, AIRING DETAILS IS NOT

http://www.jpost.com/IranianThreat/Home.aspx

‘Iran strike talk legitimate, airing details is not’ Former Mossad chief Yatom concerned by former senior security officials’ statements over strike on Tehran’s nuclear facilities.

Public detailed discussion by former senior security officials over a strike on Iran harms state security, former Mossad chief Danny Yatom said Sunday morning in an interview with Army Radio.

Yatom expressed concern about statements released by former security officials recently, saying, “It is legitimate to discuss whether or not to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, but going into detail, harms state security.”

His comments came a day after former Mossad chief Efraim Halevy told Channel 2 that Israel should not, and likely will not, act against Tehran’s nuclear program without the consent of the Unites States.

“It would not be wise for Israel to operate on its own, and I believe it won’t,” Halevy said. “I didn’t say [Israel] won’t act alone, but I think it won’t do something that is against American interests.”

A further problem, he explained, is that there is no telling how far back a military strike will set the program.

Within 10 years of Israel’s attack on Iraq’s Osirak reactor in 1981, Saddam Hussein rebooted the program in triplicate, he said. If there were a guarantee of stopping Tehran’s nuclear effort altogether, a military strike would be more attractive.

While emphasizing that he was “convinced we must do everything to prevent Iran from the ability or desire to develop such a weapon,” Halevy also said that the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran would not be existential. “It is a serious threat, perhaps the most serious that we’ve ever seen,” he said. “It’s not existential.”

24/7 NEWS AND BUZZ

Schumer backs Reid on Romney tax attack
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., on Fri…
Read more…
Romney: Joblessness is ‘hammer blow’ to middle class
Mitt Romney called the uptick in nat…
Read more…
Obama’s regulatory czar returning to Harvard
White House official Cass Sunstein, …
Read more…

Read more: http://times247.com/#ixzz22ZuiNIOm
White House, media can’t spin awful job numbers
Human Events
Friday, August 3, 2012
Commentary
You expect the White House to spin, but the media’s take on this month’s jobs report is misleading. “The figure released on Friday was better than most mainstream forecasts for July jobs growth, with most analysts’ predictions hovering around 100,000,” writes Politico — as if forecasts by economists have any bearing on the awfulness of the numbers themselves. Read more…

Read more: http://times247.com/#ixzz22ZvIoEKN

PATRICK POOLE; MY NEIGHBOR THE HAMAS LEADER

http://pjmedia.com/blog/my-neighbor-the-hamas-leader/?singlepage=true

Back in March, my friend and colleague Erick Stakelbeck of CBN News emailed me a link to an article in Tablet Magazine and asked: “Hey — isn’t that your neighbor with the head of Hamas?” Sure enough, it was. My former neighbor Salah Sultan was standing right beside Ismail Haniyeh — the Hamas “prime minister” of Gaza — as Haniyeh left a meeting with Muslim Brotherhood leaders in Cairo (purple shirt):

Stakelbeck knew about my neighbor Sultan because Erick and I had worked together on a video segment highlighting Sultan’s activity and residence in my hometown of Hilliard, Ohio, back in 2007. That was more than a year after I had first written about returning home to Ohio to discover that I had an internationally known Hamas cleric living about a mile from my own house. Not only that, but Sultan was the religious director at the local Islamic school, Sunrise Academy, which had taken over the former public library building in town. Sultan was also the resident scholar of the newly built Noor Islamic Cultural Center in Hilliard.

As I later recounted, the Columbus Dispatch attacked me as a racist and a bigot, characterizing me as a Christianist Neo-Nazi. This after I had identified Sultan’s rabidly anti-Jewish remarks, his calls for violent jihad, his open support for Hamas, his ties to Muslim Brotherhood front organizations, and his association with international Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader Yusuf al-Qaradawi.

ANDREW McCARTHY: THE FED’S STORY ON AWLAKI DOESN’T PASS THE LAUGH TEST ****

http://pjmedia.com/andrewmccarthy/2012/08/03/fed-awlaki-story-doesnt-pass-laugh-test/

In the early morning hours of October 10, 2002, Anwar al-Awlaki, the notorious al Qaeda operative, was detained by U.S. Customs agents when he arrived at JFK International Airport in New York City after a flight from Saudi Arabia. At the time, he was a prime suspect in the 9/11 attacks and had been placed on terrorist watch-lists. Nevertheless, the Bush Justice Department directed Customs to release him. That decision enabled Awlaki to continue his jihadist campaign against the United States until he was finally killed in Yemen last September, in an American drone attack.

For nearly a decade since Awlaki was permitted to go free at the airport, the government has maintained that he was released because an arrest warrant for him, based on a 1993 felony passport fraud charge, had been vacated before his arrival, due to insufficient evidence. The government has suggested, moreover, that sheer coincidence explained the dismissal of the fraud charge right before Awlaki showed up at JFK: just a random assessment that a case was too weak, made by prosecutors and investigators who were unaware of Awlaki’s imminent arrival.

Now, Fox’s Catherine Herridge breaks the news that the government’s story is untrue. In House testimony this week, a top FBI official admitted that the Bureau and federal prosecutors knew Awlaki was about to return to the United States before he arrived at JFK. Furthermore, it emerged at the House hearing that the passport fraud warrant had not been vacated when Awlaki was briefly detained. The warrant remained valid and pending; it could have been used to arrest him. Instead, the Justice Department intervened to “un-arrest” him. With apologies extended by federal agents to both Awlaki and the Saudi government representative conveniently on hand to assist him, the terrorist was sprung.

I would also throw this into the hopper: The Justice Department’s rationale for dismissing the warrant is fatally flawed. Awlaki should have been arrested and prosecuted on the passport violation in 2002. That would not just have been a worthy effort in its own right; it would have had the added benefit of giving terrorism investigators more time, and more leverage, to develop a convincing terrorism case against Awlaki and other suspects. Why the case was dropped is a question that deserves much more scrutiny. After all, the release at JFK marked the second time, in a matter of months, that Awlaki wriggled free despite the heavy cloud of 9/11 suspicion that hovered over him.

To be blunt, the government’s Awlaki story does not pass the laugh test.

ANDREW BOSTOM: ABEDIN FAMILY PROMOTED MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD VIEWS

http://pjmedia.com/blog/abedin-family-journal-promoted-muslim-brotherhood-views/ Abedin Family Journal Promoted Muslim Brotherhood Views Reflecting an apparent systemic failure, steadily burgeoning evidence (see here, here, here, and here) indicates that one of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s closest aides, Huma Abedin, despite Ms. Clinton’s protestation, was inadequately vetted for either family or personal ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. Diligent, open source […]

DAVID GOLDMAN; IN DEEP ECONOMIC TROUBLE TURKEY

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3246/turkey-trade-deficit-reveal-an-economy-in-deep I’ve been hammering away at Turkey’s credit bubble problem for the past eight months: consumer lending is still growing at a nearly 30% annual rate, after dipping into the teens earlier this year (I am annualizing the 3-month growth rate). But the trade data just released for June show a slowing domestic economy. With […]