Displaying posts published in

2011

BEN SHAPIRO: WHAT ABOUT NEWT?

http://frontpagemag.com/2011/11/16/what-about-newt/ With all the chaos surrounding the Republican nomination race, one thing is very clear: somewhere along the way, Mitt Romney​ made a Damn Yankees-like pact with Satan to score this group of individuals to run against.  It is certain that a vast majority of Republican primary voters do not like Mitt Romney.  In fact, […]

P. DAVID HORNIK: WILL ISRAEL FACE IRAN ALONE?

http://frontpagemag.com/2011/11/16/will-israel-face-iran-alone/

Adrian Blomfield, Jerusalem correspondent for Britain’s Telegraph, reports that “Israel has refused to reassure President Barack Obama that it would warn him in advance of any pre-emptive strike on Iran’s nuclear capabilities,” and that Obama “was rebuffed last month when he demanded” such a guarantee.

Blomfield says he has this dope from “insiders briefed on a top-secret meeting between America’s most senior defence chief and Benjamin Netanyahu​ , Israel’s hawkish prime minister….” He’s referring to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s visit to Israel last month, during which, in a “private meeting with Mr Netanyahu and the defence minister, Ehud Barak,” Panetta conveyed Obama’s “urgent” demand. Yet

the two Israelis were notably evasive in their response, according to sources both in Israel and the United States….

Alarmed by Mr Netanyahu’s noncommittal response, Mr Obama reportedly ordered the US intelligence services to step up monitoring of Israel to glean clues of its intentions.

The report meshes with Panetta’s not-so-veiled warning to Israel just before that visit to lay off Iran, and with his statement this week—albeit not explicitly directed at Israel—that an attack on Iran could have “unintended consequences…. It could have a serious impact in the region and it could have a serious impact on US forces in the region.”

The same message came through from Europe this week. French foreign minister Alain Juppe​ said an attack on Iranian’s nuclear facilities would “drag the world into an ‘uncontrollable spiral.’” In the wake of last week’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report on Iran’s nuclear progress—confirming all of Israel’s warnings over the years—EU foreign ministers “ruled out any military action for now.”

EGYPT FALLS INTO DARKNESS: DANIEL GREENFIELD

Egypt Falls into Darkness Posted By Daniel Greenfield URL to article: http://frontpagemag.com/2011/11/16/egypt-falls-into-darkness/Rebuilding the Library of Alexandria some 1300 hundred years after its final destruction at the hands of its Islamic conquerors in a country where blasphemy against Islam is still a crime was always a fool’s errand. But it was a fool’s errand lavishly embraced […]

JIM LACEY: AMERICA’S OPTIONS ON IRAN…IT’S TIME TO STOP WISHFUL THINKING

Iran: America’s Options
We have been indulging in wishful thinking for a decade. It’s time to stop.

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/print/283254
In 2007, America’s intelligence agencies delivered a National Intelligence Estimate to President Bush declaring: “We judge with high confidence that in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program.” As the latest report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) makes clear, Iran did indeed end its “structured” nuclear-weapons program. Kudos to the intel agencies for spotting this change. Where they did much less well was in spotting that the “structured” nuclear-weapons program was transitioned into an “unstructured” nuclear-weapons program.

One might wonder what the difference between a “structured” and an “unstructured” program might be. Well, the “structured” program was consolidated under the “AMAD Plan” and coordinated by the “Orchid Office.” In 2003, Iran halted the AMAD Plan and closed the Orchid Office. A few weeks later, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh — the head of the Orchid Office — opened the Section for Advanced Development Applications and Technologies (SADAT) and began coordinating nuclear-weapons research in an “unstructured” way. There you have it. All it took to fool the best and the brightest in U.S. intelligence was changing the nameplates on the door. This February, apparently worried that U.S. intelligence had finally found him out, Fakhrizadeh doubled down and renamed his nuclear-weapons research team the Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research. That should keep America’s spies running in circles for another few years.

JAMES LEWIS: LIBERALS, ISRAEL AND DISASTER

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/11/liberals_israel_and_disaster.html

Liberals start from false premises. False premises always lead to false conclusions. Being stuck with delusional belief systems, they keep running into brick walls, getting bloody noses, and being surprised every time it happens. Then they fix up their false beliefs — mostly by blaming any adults in the vicinity — and go back to their delusions, having learned nothing.

Only to run into another brick wall. (Repeat from the top.)

This is the stuff of the Keystone Kops comedy, but it’s funny only until one of them gets into the White House. Jimmy Carter. Bill Clinton (who had four chances to get bin Laden handed over without a shot being fired). And now we have the most mentally stuck hero of them all, Barack Hussein Obama.

BRET STEPHENS: AH’JAD IS THE MOUTH….NOW MEET THE THE CONSIGLIERE OF IRAN

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204190504577040190007689600.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEFTTopOpinion
On President Obama: “Either he was incompetent or he didn’t possess a vision.” On the revolts in the Arab world: “The success of these movements [reflects] a failure of the policy pursued by the U.S. year after year to support dictators.” On economics: “The private sector needs more support within the Constitution.”

Am I nodding off to the sound of my own thoughts?

There were moments yesterday morning, as I sat around a conference table at Iran’s Mission to the United Nations, when I almost thought so. But not quite. The speaker is Mohammad Javad Larijani, secretary-general of Iran’s High Council for Human Rights and older brother to both Sadegh Larijani, Iran’s chief justice, and Ali Larijani, the speaker of Iran’s parliament and a perennial contender for the presidency. The Larijanis, favorites of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and sons of a famous ayatollah, are often compared to the Kennedys, which is especially apt if you think there was a dark side to Camelot. Then again, none of the Kennedys could hold an intellectual candle to this guy.

SOUTHERN COMFORT FOR THE GOP: MORE REPUBLICAN THAN EVER: VALERIE RICHARDSON.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/nov/15/elections-give-gop-a-solid-hold-on-south/?page=1

The South, once solidly Democratic, is more solidly Republican than ever after the 2011 elections.
Elections give GOP a solid hold on South
Switch of key states could trouble Obama

As the last state legislative races were called this week from the Nov. 8 votes in Virginia and Mississippi, the party of Abraham Lincoln now controls both chambers of every state legislature in the 11 former states of the Confederacy, with the sole exception of Arkansas. And Arkansas Republicans need to flip only a handful of seats in 2012 to make the trend unanimous.

None of this comes as welcome news for President Obama’s re-election campaign. In 2008, Mr. Obama was propelled to the White House in large part with breakthrough victories in such states as Florida, North Carolina and Virginia, but all three states now have Republican-led legislatures, with the GOP’s biggest gains in the 2010 elections.

The shift means that in swing states such as Florida, the GOP 2012 nominee will have a home-field advantage given the local balance of power.

The 2010 midterm vote was “a record-breaking year for Republicans in the state legislatures. There were a couple of benchmarks set that made it a banner year, and what the last election showed is that it hasn’t died down,” said Adam Temple, a spokesman for the Republican State Leadership Committee. “It doesn’t paint a pretty picture for Democrats in 2012.”

SUPREME JUSTICE KAGAN HELPED ON OBAMACARE WHEN SHE WAS SOLICITOR GENERAL….SHOULD SHE RECUSE HERSELF? STEVE DINAN

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/nov/14/court-announcement-raises-recusal-questions-kagan-/

The Supreme Court’s announcement Monday that it will hear challenges to President Obama’s health care law put a spotlight on Justice Elena Kagan, who worked in the administration while the law was being written and, conservatives argue, helped craft its legal defense.

“Before the Supreme Court case is heard, we need to know if Justice Elena Kagan helped the Obama administration prepare its defense for Obamacare when she was solicitor general. The Justice Department must answer serious questions about whether Justice Kagan has an inherent conflict of interest, which would demand that she recuse herself from the Obamacare case,” said Rep. John Fleming, Louisiana Republican.

At the same time, liberal groups and Democrats in Congress have been pushing for months for Justice Clarence Thomas to recuse himself, citing his wife’s stated opposition to the law as an indication that he cannot rule impartially.

CHINA’S POISONOUS EXPORTS: DECKER AND TRIPLETT

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/nov/15/chinas-poisonous-exports/ The following is an excerpt from “Bowing to Beijing” (Regnery Publishing, Nov. 14, 2011): The following is an excerpt from “Bowing to Beijing” (Regnery Publishing, Nov. 14, 2011): The Chinese have peddled numerous toxic products to American consumers, including everything from children’s toys to adult vitamins to pet food. The U.S. government regularly stops […]

SOLYNDRA AND KEYSTONE: DUAL DEBACLES

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/nov/15/solyndra-and-keystone-dual-debacles/print/

President Obama is sticking by his policy of declaring the producers of trendy, impractical energy sources “winners,” leaving taxpayers to be the losers. Take the case of the Keystone XL pipeline, which the administration is effectively shutting down in the wake of the scandal surrounding solar-panel maker Solyndra. Stubbornly clinging to environmental fashion over a practical boost to America’s energy supply will further cloud America’s economic horizon.

The timing of two announcements out of Washington is hardly coincidental. On Thursday, the White House said it would end its heated standoff with House Republicans. Members sought documents related to the administration’s decision to shower Solyndra with $535 million in taxpayer funds. Before the sun set at Foggy Bottom, the State Department spread word it had ordered a new environmental review of TransCanada Corp.’s proposed Alberta-to-Texas pipeline, effectively delaying any possibility of approval until after the 2012 election. The takeaway from the dual decisions: There’s a price for messing with the not-so-jolly green giant.