Saturday, July 3, 2010

Friday Afternoon Roundup - Mexican Bullets and Irish Passports

Friday, July 02, 2010


 The top story this week was the arrests of a small number of Russian extremists who unfortunately misunderstood the moderate nature of the Russian government and its espionage services. While right wingers might insist that the arrest of a Russian espionage ring reveals the existence of a covert war, the vast majority of Russian citizens are not spies, and therefore any attempt to suggest that the Russian spies were Russian spies is completely unwarranted. The wholly peaceful nature of the Putin regime means that any deviations from this norm are unrepresentative and should not be paid attention to.


Oh wait, we're talking about Russian spies, not Islam... never mind then. Also never mind the use of British and Irish passports, which we had recently learned was one of the worst crimes anyone could commit. Barring carrying out a radioactive assassination in London, which also led nowhere.


In more good news, Obama is going to solve that immigration mess by reforming it. Somehow along the way "reform" began to be translated as either "Let's create a bunch of new laws where there were no laws before" or "Let's completely ignore all the existing laws". The Obama has vigorously applied both versions of reform, to ObamaCare and now to Immigration and Cap and Trade.


It's understandable that Obama wouldn't know what's actually written at the base of the Statue of Liberty, after all it's just a statue created by a dead white man and a poem by a dead white woman. If Obama can't be expected to know how many states there are, he certainly can't be expected to be familiar with something written on a statue that serves as a symbol of something he doesn't believe in anyway. Liberty.


Pam Meister at Pajamas Media points out the rest of the wagonload of mistakes, that the media doesn't even bother with. Which is worth remembering the next time the press goes hog wild over a remark by Palin or Hayworth. Not only Obama, but even his people can't be bothered to get basic facts of US history right, which suggests that they just don't care. Which is a good summary for his entire administration.


But it's not really about what's written on a statue raised up at the entrance to New York Harbor as a symbol of Republicanism (again not something Obama likes very much)...


* it's about the murder of a US Consular worker in Mexico, who had been sucked into the cartels, and was providing visas to gang members.


* it's about a shootout near the Arizona border that left 21 dead


* it's about the bullets fired from AK-47's wielded by Mexican Federal Agents hitting El Paso City Hall


* it's about fugitives from as high as up as Washington fleeing to Mexico until the heat dies down, and we're not talking Fahrenheit or Celsius here


Those are just a few of a whole lot of bullet points. They're there because Mexico is a failed state. US territory that was once part of Mexico is now part of America, because Mexico was a failed state all along. The Mexican War had the outcome that it did because Mexico is a failed state. And much as apologists for Mexico, and the Mexican government itself may blame America for its cartel problems-- Mexico was a mess long before the US was a market for Mexican drugs.


Mexico is not a mess because of America. America is a mess because of Mexico. And Obama's solution is to essentially dismantle legal immigration.


Obama's speech walks a careful line, but despite all the double talk, the endgame is all too clear


Like Bloomberg and Murdoch, Obama hides behind the usual "best and brightest" platitudes, which completely ignores the fact that we are not importing the best and the brightest, but the cheapest and the dirtiest. That is why they're here.


On Sunday I wrote,


importing migrant workers does not mean importing "bright and intelligent people", it means importing people to do bad and cheap labor, so companies can cut labor costs and pass them on to the taxpayer funding the social services for the migrants. That's already the situation that exists today.


I'm all for importing millions of bright and intelligent people, though perhaps not during a major recession. But that's not what either Democrats or Republican big business advocates want. What they want are cheap and easy people, who can be exploited on the job and at the voting booth. That's why immigration quotas look the way they do. That's why it's much easier for people from the Third World to move here, than for Europeans.


What Obama and the Democrats want is an exploitable voting base. And they intend to do it by dismantling legal immigration altogether. That's the real agenda here. So when Obama says;


the presence of so many illegal immigrants makes a mockery of all those who are going through the process of immigrating legally.


...he quickly transitions to problems with the immigration system, but not the fact that legalization of illegal immigration dismantles legal immigration and punishes legal immigrants. And when he actually gets around to explaining his proposal...


Finally, we have to demand responsibility from people living here illegally. They must be required to admit that they broke the law. They should be required to register, pay their taxes, pay a fine, and learn English. They must get right with the law before they can get in line and earn their citizenship —


... all his proposal does is put illegal immigrants on the same standing as legal immigrants, aside from the extra fine. Which means that legal immigration no longer makes sense. It makes more sense for them to immigrate illegally, sign a piece of paper, pay a fine and be on the same footing as the people who followed the rules.


Obama pretends that there are two extremes in play. Either deport everyone or legalize everyone. Not only is this a strawman, but as it turns out Obama himself comes down on the side of "legalize everyone... but make them pay a fine".


While Obama pretends that he's being a moderate, he's actually staking out a polar position, and anyone who stayed awake through his speech could hear that for himself. But no need to worry, according to Barry...


The southern border is more secure today than at any time in the past 20 years.


But as with the Statue of Liberty, and the number of US States, and other such pesky details, Obama seems to have made a minor mistake here. He didn't mean that the southern border is more secure than any time in the past 20 years. He meant the southern border is more secure than it was 200 years ago.


At least the entertainment industry is keeping its head about the whole thing. To wit this calmly reasoned and well thought out letter from one Conor Oberst


I agree with you in part, and the radio host you quoted, that the authors and supporters of SB1070 could give a s**t whether or not my band, or any other Artist, ever plays Arizona again. The only thing, clearly, that these people care about is Money and Power, that and the creation and preservation of an Anglo-Centric Police State where every Immigrant and Non-White citizen is considered subhuman. They want them stripped of their basic human rights and reduced to slaves for Corporate America and the White Race. They are engaged in blatant class warfare. It is evil, pure and simple.


But... but if all the authors and supporters of SB1070 want is to turn all immigrants and non-white citizens into slaves for "CORPORATE AMERICA AND THE WHITE RACE", why in the world are they trying to deport them? If they want to make them slaves in a ANGLO-CENTRIC POLICE STATE, all they have to do is keep the laws as they are, and keep them in jail. It doesn't seem like deporting them is a good strategy for enslaving them.


But this is the intelligence level of the opposition to Arizona, loud shrill morons who paint Hitler mustaches on anything they think they're against, and can't even try to parse the actual issues, reducing everything to confused rants about CORPORATE AMERICA AND THE WHITE ANGLO RACIST POLICE STATE, as if they were still stuck at 16 and listening to The Clash's Sandanista.


Over to Panthergate, the Obama Administration is responding with the usual smear campaigns to cover up the fact that they gave a blank check to voter intimidation on behalf of Obama.


Hopefully the Black Panthers will still be available for voter intimidation in Minnesota, where both Senators recently reached a new high, Al Franken by doodling and sleeping during the Kagan hearings, while his fellow MN senator, Amy Klobuchar asked her about Twilight. It might be time for Minnesota voters to reconsider this whole "Vote for the Biggest Idiot" strategy. It's just not working out.


To make this story that much odder, while Klobuchar was joking about Twilight with Kagan, the body of her mysteriously dead step-sister was being recovered from the waters of the Mississippi River. According to her mother, it was not a suicide.


But who needs law anyway. In the UK, Judge George Bathurst-Norman (saddled with a serial killer name) turned a case of vandalism, into a chance to denounce Israel.


Five activists who caused £180,000 damage to an arms factory were acquitted after they argued they were seeking to prevent Israeli war crimes.


The five were jubilant after a jury found them not guilty of conspiring to cause criminal damage to the factory on the outskirts of Brighton.


...


In his summing up, Judge George Bathurst-Norman suggested to the jury that "you may well think that hell on earth would not be an understatement of what the Gazans suffered in that time".


The judge highlighted the testimony by Caroline Lucas, the Green MP for Brighton Pavilion, that "all democratic paths had been exhausted" before the activists embarked on their action.


This is of course a major theme on the left. If you can't get what you want "democratically", then get it any way you like. Democracy is a means, not an end to them. The end is getting it their way.


Judge George Bathurst-Norman is of course exactly the judge you want to have if you're an Islamist terrorist or just helping them


In 2001, Judge George Bathurst-Norman handed down a "remarkably lenient" sentence to Abu Bakr Siddiqui, one of the procurement agents of the A.Q. Khan nuclear tech smuggling network(facilitating Pakistan's nuclear weapons program and the nuclear weapons programs of rogue states such as North Korea and Iran).


This isn't the first time Judge George Bathurst-Norman has helped Islamic terrorists... it's not the second time either, and despite his retirement probably won't be the last


In July 2003, ten defendants accused of laundering £15million walked free from Southwark Crown Court after Judge George Bathurst-Norman described police actions as 'massively illegal'. The judge said a police sting aimed at trapping them had 'overstepped the line between legitimate crime detection and unacceptable crime creation'.


Following the US spy sting an Iranian-born businessman - named by Whitehall officials last night as former Iranian ambassador to Jordan Nosratollah Tajik - now faces extradition to America.


Mr Tajik, who has lived with his family in Britain for several years, is accused of conspiring to sell military equipment to Islamic extremists. He was arrested on the Americans' behalf by British police officers before the alleged deal went ahead and detained in prison for a week.


And Judge George Bathurst-Norman seems to have had a thing with Jews in general, sabotaging a fraud trial in which the United Synagogue was defrauded. It's also fairly clear that even in the Thatcher case, which many are citing in relation to Judge George Bathurst-Norman, he gave the sentence only reluctantly, and while sympathizing with the criminal's ideology.
The judge gave Kelleher credit for the way he confessed to the crime and waited for police. "I don't doubt the sincerity of your beliefs. Many people share them, particularly in relation to what is happening in Third World countries. And I would be the last person to deny any person the right to freedom of speech and the right to protest against matters which support his beliefs," he said. "But when it comes to protest there is a right and proper way to protest. "The way people banded together last Saturday to demonstrate against the war in Iraq was the right and proper way to make their voices heard. "But the way you acted to knock the head off a valuable statue of a politician who left power over 10 years ago and whose party is no longer the party of government was very much the wrong way."


Judge George Bathurst-Norman makes a point of agreeing with the defendant's basic views, endorsing protests against the War, and treats Thatcher's status as an out of office politician as a factor that prevents him from being lenient. The implicit suggestion is that had Kelleher vandalized a statue of an existing politician, Judge George Bathurst-Norman might have been much more lenient. Which is what happened here.


The circus involving Gilad Shalit continues. Readers may note that I've written very little on the topic, that's because there isn't much to say. The emphasis on Gilad only weakens Israel and aids Hamas. Noam Shalit's increasingly irresponsible behavior, that demands Israel pay any price to bring his son back regardless of the consequences is as disturbing as it is demoralizing.


Netanyahu has made it clear that he won't pay any price. He's already offered to free a 1000 terrorists, which is already irresponsible.


"The German mediator's offer which we agreed to accept called for the release of 1,000 terrorists. This is the price I am prepared to pay to bring Gilad home. I said yes to the deal and it is ready for immediate implementation," Netanyahu said.


"There are prices that I am not prepared to pay and they are not included in this difficult deal," Netanyahu said. "I am steadfast on the principle that dangerous terrorists will not return to the areas of Judea and Samaria [the West Bank] from where they can continue to harm Israel's citizens."


Noam Shalit responded with his predictable brand of venom and denial.


Speaking yesterday at the Ruppin Institute of Agriculture, Emek Hefer, where the family was resting in the middle of its 12-day protest march to Jerusalem, Noam Shalit accused the premier of fear-mongering to rouse public opinion to his side.


"The prime minister chose to repeat the same old doomsday scenarios from 25 years ago, or even six years ago, about terrorists who are released from jail and resume murdering Israelis," Shalit said. "As if things have not changed since then, as if there aren't security services in the state of Israel whose job it is to prevent this - and they know how to deal with terrorists who pose any kind of threat."


Parsing the sheer madness of this, Noam Shalit insists that there's absolutely no risk to freeing as many terrorists as Hamas wants, and on any terms that Hamas wants.


Naturally Noam wants his son back, the problem is that he doesn't care which other fathers have to pay the price. His public campaigns are only serving to weaken Israel and strengthen Hamas, and are providing terrorists with the incentive to kidnap more soldiers.


And if the father is bad, the grandfather is even worse.


Meanwhile, Zvi Shalit, Gilad Shalit's grandfather, also said he was outraged by Netanyahu's address.


"I reject his remarks unequivocally," said the elder Shalit. "These comments constitute a death sentence for Gilad."


Netanyahu said that Israel is willing to free 1,000 prisoners in an exchange with Hamas, but that the country would not pay any price for Gilad Shalit.


"The prime minister is using speculation in an attempt to make excuses for delaying the deal," said Shalit, who added that he feels it is time to increase the pressure on Netanyahu and continue the march.


Pressure on Netanyahu... not Hamas. Latma has a devastating video satire with English subtitles on the kind of stupidity the Free Shalit campaign has unleashed in Israel.


The bottom line is that Shalit is a subset of a much larger problem, which can only be solved by removing Hamas from Gaza.

In other news, Jeremiah Wright is back and more Marxist than ever (via Maggie's Notebook)

While some conservative bloggers continue to "incomprehensibly" bash Hayworth, Mark Levin has a solid rebuttal 


Meanwhile, McCain and his operatives have spent millions digging up dirt on Hayworth -- not corruption, not unethical activity, but dirt that will show him to be a hypocrite. Now, this is funny. McCain is flipping and flopping all over the place, but we are to be moved by Hayworth's appearance in that infomercial where he is pushing free federal grants. Until yesterday, McCain's official website was informing visitors how to secure all kinds of government grants and contracts and loans. I posted it on this site. Now they've apparently hidden it somewhere on his website's back pages. There have also been other commercials pointing out Hayworth supported all kinds of pork.


I have never had to spend summer after summer trying to rally listeners to defeat any of Hayworth's bills or ideas. Three years ago McCain nearly succeeded in destroying our culture with this comprehensive immigration reform disaster. He nearly succeeded in destroying what's left of our free enterprise system with cap-and-trade (his quote about the debate on global warming being over is in my book). McCain has spent more time defending the phony rights of al-Qaeda terrorists than John Kerry. And anyone who actually earns a living will find his taxes going up thanks, in part, to a deal Bush was forced to strike thanks to McCain's opposition to a permanent tax rate reduction. And I'm supposed to get all worked up about Hayworth's infomercial?

At Elder of Ziyon, a 
senior Hamas member appears to have defected from Dubai to the Ukraine to Israel


Supposedly, a Hamas member named Yusuf Fayez Abu Hussein (Nassar) was sent by Hamas on a mission to Dubai, after which he was to go to Syria and then back to Gaza. Instead of Dubai, however, he went to the Ukraine, where he he had a dispute with a neighbor also from Gaza whose relative was killed by Hamas, and he was afraid he would be killed.


Then, after the police arrived he surrendered himself to the Israeli embassy in the Ukraine - where he had a girlfriend

And so paradise loses another customer.

Israpundit looks at 
what Netanyahu needs to do, and what he's likely to do instead.

For those in the LA area, CHILDREN OF JEWISH HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS, the organization whose panel I recently appeared at, will be featuring "
Boots on the Ground:
With Israeli Defense Force Elite Commandos
"


Major (res) Guy Meadan (unit commander) and Ariel Siegelman are elite commandos in the reserve Special Forces of the Israel Defense Forces Paratropped Brigade. They specialize in counter terror operations. Among their many heroic actions as Israeli soldiers, they were in the front lines of Israel's Operation Cast Lead in Gaza in December of 2008 and January of 2009.


They will be describing in detail their "boots on the ground" experiences fighting Hamas terrorists in Gaza and elsewhere. They will respond to the accusations of the Goldstone Report as soldiers who actually were present during Operation Cast Lead.


Guy and Ariel will discuss the potential effect the Goldstone Report will have on future military operations. They will also discuss the next wave of terrorism that Israel is anticipating and how the Israeli military expects to respond to it. And how this is relevant to world security and the Jewish community at large. This will be a gripping discussion of what it is like to be an Israeli commando who has the responsibility of defending the Jewish nation against terrorists.

Israel National News 
has run my piece on a A Terrorist's Guide to Improving Israel's Media Coverage, which first appeared on this blog here.

The final word 
from Natan Alterman.


Satan then said:
How do I overcome
This besieged one?
He has courage
And talent,
And implements of war
And resourcefulness.
…only this shall I do,
I’ll dull his mind
And cause him to forget
The justice of his cause.

From NY to Jerusalem,
Daniel Greenfield
Covers the Stories
Behind the News