RUTHFULLY YOURS

A flock of (relatively) new conservative media sites have gained attention in the mainstream-ish media over the past few weeks, a function of their increased role in driving political attention and, in some cases, their savvy in redirecting Facebook’s traffic hose toward themselves. Bloomberg’s Dave Weigel notes a series of scoops from the Washington Free Beacon (largely focused on Hillary Clinton); at Slate, Betsy Woodruff explains Twitchy. At the Awl, John Herrman noted the rise of the Independent Journal Review, which “landed big” on Facebook.

For all of this success, for all of the novelty of new sites with sharp designs and well-considered social strategies, publishers will note that there’s something to be said for another genre of political news site: the old-school, poorly designed link blog.

The obvious example here is Drudge. Matt Drudge’s Drudge Report isn’t the elephant in the room, it’s the Sun in the old-school linkblog solar system. The Drudge Report has been a massive traffic driver for years, and continues to be. And it looks like it was written by hand in 1996, which, perhaps, it was. Let’s apply a new-web technique to make the point. The Drudge Report, as seen in 2001 and 2014.

More pictures, otherwise the same.

How big is Drudge for political sites? Over the course of the year, links from Google to the Post’s politics coverage have accounted for 5.5 percent of all incoming links. Drudge accounted for 4.1 percent.

But it isn’t only Drudge. Lucianne Goldberg has run Lucianne.com since 1998, she told the Post in an email this week. Over the course of the year, 0.1 percent of incoming links to Post political coverage has been from Lucianne. That doesn’t sound like much, until you consider that it is one out of every thousand clicks. For every 55 links from Google, Lucianne Goldberg sends the Post one. (You may be familiar with Goldberg’s son Jonah, who writes for the National Review Online, or remember her role in the Lewinsky scandal.) Lucianne has sent five times as much traffic to the Post’s politics coverage as the conservative Daily Caller site and more than 50 times more than the Free Beacon. Different types of sites — Lucianne drives people to reported stories at sites like Caller and Beacon — but still suggesting a remarkable influence.

How Language Shapes Freedom and Tyranny — on The Glazov Gang
Freedom fighters Kai Chen and Nonie Darwish unveil the links between linguistics and liberty.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/frontpagemag-com/how-language-shapes-freedom-and-tyranny-on-the-glazov-gang/

An Al Qaeda terrorist on the FBI’s most wanted list for years crossed back and forth into the United States from Mexico to meet fellow militant Islamists in Texas and piloted an aircraft into the Cielo Dorado airfield in Anthony, New Mexico, law enforcement sources tell Judicial Watch.

The same Al Qaeda operative helped plan the 2009 bombing of talk-show superstar Oprah Winfrey’s Chicago studios and the iconic Sears Tower (renamed Willis Tower), a story that Judicial Watch broke just last week. His name is Adnan G. El Shukrijumah (also known as “Javier Robles”) and over the weekend he was killed in Pakistan, according to military officials in the Islamic republic.

In 2010 Shukrijumah was indicted in the Eastern District of New York for his role in a terrorist plot to attack targets in the United States—including New York City’s subway system—and the United Kingdom, according the FBI. The plot against New York City’s subway system was directed by senior Al Qaeda leadership in Pakistan, the FBI says, and was also directly related to a scheme by Al Qaeda plotters in Pakistan to use Western operatives to attack a target in the United States

Aren’t Jews loyal to whatever state they live in? How about if they live in Israel?

Say it ain’t so, but apparently it’s true that Israel’s three leading novelists are demanding that Israel surrender itself to the tender mercies of Europe – and we all know what happened the last time we trusted those nations with our lives.

But if I’m reading it right, Amos Oz, David Grossman and A.B. Yehoshua are taking part in a campaign to give up their own country. They are welcoming a Trojan Horse named “Palestine.”

Israel’s three literary elites are proud signatories to a public letter petitioning European parliaments to formally recognize a Palestinian state.

A word of advice to any Israeli leader who is ready to give up “land for peace.” Start by giving up your own home and neighborhood. Illustrate your sincerity.
This does not happen very often, where citizens seek out a foreign enemy for aid, comfort and a separate peace. There is a name for this.

During the 1930s and 1940s, American poet Ezra Pound fell in love with fascism and Nazism. From Italy, he delivered hundreds of radio addresses favoring Mussolini and Hitler while denouncing FDR and the United States. In 1945, he was arrested for treason.

The campaign against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will focus on his alleged “isolation” of Israel from the rest of the “international community” through his diplomatic policies. To be sure, Netanyahu has negotiated extensively about a Palestinian state with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, and reportedly made significant concessions to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.

More importantly, it is simply not the case that Israel finds itself isolated, or that any diplomatic consequences can be attributable to the composition of the government. Rather, the specter of “isolation” is a demagogic tool wielded for political purposes. As such, it is extremely dangerous, because such things can become self-fulfilling prophecies: If you say nobody likes you often enough, you may notice you have fewer friends.

Perhaps the aspect of isolation most feared by Israelis is economic. Yet here there is simply no evidence for any isolation. Israel’s trade has risen steadily with all its major partners, even those most critical of it, like Europe. Moreover, Netanyahu has opened new doors to opportunities in India and elsewhere in Asia. Just like his ideological tension with European leaders has not impeded trade, one should not credit his compatibility with the nationalist leadership of India for these new frontiers. Rather, business has a life of its own that — except in the most extreme cases — is separate from diplomacy.

Then there is the issue of European parliaments passing nonbinding suggestions to recognize a Palestinian state. The Left can hardly blame the government for these, when some of the leading figures on the left have been lobbying European capitals to pass such measures. Indeed, major Labor Party figures — including former attorney-generals, speakers of parliament, and so forth — have been at the forefront of the Palestinian recognition campaign. They have not been drummed out of the party, or otherwise significantly rebuked. So if anything, it is not Netanyahu but his critics who should shoulder the blame for this (rather insignificant) diplomatic disturbance.

Yesterday I explained how Israel’s Jewish nation-state bill is unremarkable compared to many European constitutions with similar, and stronger, national homeland provisions. The proposed measure must also be understood in the context of Israel’s diplomatic situation. Israel’s biggest diplomatic issue is the status of Jerusalem and the West Bank, and international pressure to create a new Arab state there and in Gaza. The major argument by proponents of territorial withdrawal (including President Obama and Sec. Kerry) is that despite the serious security risks, Israel must retreat in order to maintain a “Jewish state.” Indeed, even foreign leaders, like President Obama and Secretary Kerry have both justified their pressure on Israel by invoking the preservation of the Israel’s Jewish identity.

Thus supporters of Israel leaving the West Bank believe having a Jewish state is worth security risks, surrendering historical homeland and religious sites, and expelling over 100,000 Jews. That suggests a Jewish state is not merely a legitimate thing, but one that is worth a great deal. Yet the same voices calling for Israel to undertake dangerous diplomatic concessions in the name of preserving the state’s Jewish identity balk at legislation declaring that the state in fact is what they claim they want it to remain.

Yet if being a “Jewish state” cannot even justify democratic legislation about holiday and other public symbols, it is not clear what the big deal is. Going by the current reactions, the only value in a “Jewish” state is that it can expel Jews from their homes with little criticism. (Given the general indifference when other nations expel Jews, this also seems like a thin benefit.)

The “torture” report released Tuesday by California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s Senate Select Committee on Intelligence is the latest attempt to prove that the George W. Bush administration’s “enhanced interrogation techniques” used on a small number of terrorist prisoners amounted to torture and that the CIA lied to congress about them. It is a political condemnation of CIA conduct meant to erect another barrier to effective interrogation of terrorists, and it is wrong in its statement of the law.

The Democrats — at least those who were among the congressional leadership, including the leaders of the House and Senate Intelligence committees in the years immediately after Sept. 11, 2001 — were all knowledgeable of the “enhanced interrogation techniques” used by the CIA to interrogate terrorist prisoners. Some involved rough handling — slaps to the face, bodies thrown against a wall, sleep deprivation — and some very few interrogations — notably of Khalid Sheik Mohammed and Abu Zubaydah — involved waterboarding. Since then, the Democrats have alternately denied that they knew what was done and sought to condemn the use of the “EITs” as torture.

On Tuesday, two actions sought to propel that false narrative. First was a New York Times op-ed by ACLU executive director Anthony Romero suggesting that President Obama pardon President George W. Bush, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and others ” because it may be the only way to establish, once and for all, that torture is illegal.” The second was the release of the 500-page report authored by Mrs. Feinstein’s Democratic members and staff after an investigation that began in 2009. Both are wrong because according to a CIA inspector general report and Justice Department legal opinions at the time the EITs they employed — even waterboarding — weren’t torture under U.S. law.

Any condemnation of the CIA’s interrogation of terrorist detainees cannot be justified if it was lawful and if it resulted in gathering of intelligence that proved useful in capturing or killing active terrorists. Of the Feinstein report’s 20 conclusions only the first three are relevant to those questions. They state that the enhanced interrogation techniques were ineffective in acquiring intelligence, that the CIA’s justification for using them rested on inaccurate claims of effectiveness and that the CIA’s interrogations of detainees were “brutal and far worse than the CIA represented to policymakers and others.”

Sixty-six years ago was the high water mark of global disapproval of xenophobia, and racial and religious discrimination. On December 10, 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and then gave Eleanor Roosevelt a standing ovation for her leading role. Today, this statement of principle would never pass.

Racial and religious discrimination is the trademark of the U.N. itself.

Let’s look back at the year 2014.

At least another 75,000 people were butchered in Syria. There were violent crackdowns in Hong Kong, bloody takeovers in Ukraine, subjugation of women in Saudi Arabia, brutal lawlessness in Yemen, Libya, Nigeria, Mexico – and so on.

But at the United Nations, 2014 wraps up with the adoption of twenty times more resolutions by the General Assembly condemning the state of Israel for violating human rights than any other nation on earth.

There is not one General Assembly resolution worried about human rights in China or Russia or Saudi Arabia or Yemen or Libya or Nigeria or Mexico – and so forth.

The General Assembly will even adopt one resolution critical of Syria but two resolutions demanding Israel immediately return the Golan Heights to Syria – the place where lucky Syrians and UN peacekeepers dash to Israel for protection.

The demonization of Israel, and the inequality of the self-determination of the Jewish people, by way of the United Nations have one painfully obvious purpose: the end of the Jewish state. Eleanor Roosevelt would have called it a gross violation of the very spirit of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Dear Senators Feinstein, Reid and all House and Senate Democrats:

In the spirit of open and transparent government, you have done all of us a service releasing the CIA report. The things that are open and transparent are what our governing body wishes us to know. Sometimes we have to look at the implications of what is being said and not the words themselves. I think that this is such an occasion.

One thing that is clear is that self-defense is a no-no even when your enemy is aggressive, brutal and completely dedicated to its cause, particularly in killing us. Not only does this administration apply it to the US, it applies it to friendly countries. Take this summer’s war between Israel and Gaza. The Administration, including the President, said that Israel has a right to defend itself. However, if it practices that right on the enemy, it is a crime. Using Iron Dome to shoot down Hamas missiles was fine. To hit their launching pads near apartment, schools and UN facilities was a crime against humanity. On the other hand, Hamas aggression where they launched said missiles was ignored as was Hamas’s use of human shields.

Since we have gone back eight years to condemn American (CIA) actions against people who killed 3,000 Americans and aimed to kill more, I think we should go further back to condemn American action of self-defense.

Vietnam is a rallying cry for the Liberal-Progressive wing of America. In Vietnam, we left in total disgrace. We left the people of Vietnam and Cambodia at the non-mercy of North Vietnam Communists and Pol Pot. It was OK that millions were slaughtered because it wasn’t done by Americans. It was done by Communists. Do notice the non-mention of Pol Pot, Gen. Giap, Stalin, Mao, Castro and Che Guevara amongst others by Progressives except when they want to praise them.

It is an absolute fact. The number of Islamic terrorists are growing rapidly as are their violent actions killing more and more non Muslims.

We must stop thinking there is nothing one person can do. There are many options on how an individual can get involved in counteracting terrorists..

Below are a few ideas how you can help defend our freedom. A small amount of assistance from a lot of people can make a big difference.

The very important first step is a firm commitment to learn, with an open mind, about Islam and the terrorists. Clearly, worldwide, the vast majority of terrorists are Muslims who want Islam to take over the world and force everyone to become Muslim. Be prepared to learn that frequently there is a vast difference between what they say and what they actually do.

I heartily recommend that you do not rely on the major media nor politicians for correct information. At best, for the most part, they are ill informed. There are many knowledgeable sources, such as Creepingsharia.wordpress.com, Investigativeproject.org, Thereligonofpeace.com, Jihadwatch.org, Campuswatch.org, UnitedWest.com and Islamicwatch.org that you can easily locate on the internet and subscribe to at no cost.

The Quran, the Muslim’s holy book may be the most controversial book in the world. Some see it as a way to peace. Others see it as a violent mandate for worldwide Islamic supremacy. By reading the Quran, you’ll better understand the Islamic people and the Islamic terrorists and what motivates them. The Quran is available in books and on the internet. The Complete Infidel’s Guide to the Quran by Robert Spencer may be a good start as is “Jihad For Dummies.” These books will help you speak with more knowledge.

A valuable action you can take as an individual is to write or call your representatives and the media with your opinion or a question. Have patience. Continuously expressing your opinions have an impact particularly when many individuals do the same.