July 13th, 2014
Just a quick note to compliment Israel on a perfect sense of timing in picking this week to kick Hamas’ incompetent ass (yet again) in Operation Protective Edge:
No one cares about Hamas’ propaganda bullshit anymore:
Hamas has done more harm to the Palestinian movement in the past two decades, than any opponent of the Palestinians could have done. It has sabotaged relations with a sympathetic media through muddled press conferences and moronic bombastic statements about “opening the gates of hell.” It has driven out international supporters, managed to decrease the support it did have among various “free Gaza” committees and “shot its bolt” in its various ill-conceived wars with Israel.
Snip.
It gained a respite with the election of Mohammed Morsi in Egypt in 2012. But like Morsi, it over-reached and overestimated its military chances against Israel. It must have gained hope from Turkey’s Islamist government AK party and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s strong messages of support. But the Gaza flotilla incident of 2010 seems like a high point of Turkish resolve. Hamas’ other erstwhile friends in Iran and Hezbollah; although Shi’ite extremists, seemed like they might bolster the organization. The 2006 Lebanon War, which was roundly seen as a blunder for Israel, was a by-product of Hamas’ own kidnapping of Gilad Schalit that year. But Hezbollah and Iran were drawn into the Syrian quagmire and Hamas was left alone. The overthrow of Morsi by General Abdel Fatah al-Sisi in Egypt put another nail in the blockade around Gaza as Sisi sought to root out terror in Sinai. Pro-Gaza activists from the West were roughed up routinely in Egypt.
Whereas Hamas could once propagate stories about flour or electricity shortages in Gaza, the international media and activists began to shrug their shoulders. Another perennial sewage problem? In June of 2014 Reuters noted, “sewage at the beach, piles of garbage mar Gaza’s summer.” Various alarmist UN statements, such as a 2008 claim that the “blockage [by Israel and Egypt] is putting Gaza at risk of starvation” were met with a yawn. Hamas’ Gaza policy, with its need for international attention, has been marred particularly by the mass atrocities that have been taking place throughout the Middle East. Media outlets like the BBC caught on to the fact that images from Syria are routinely passed off as being from Gaza and there is less international outrage at Israel than in previous years as the European public is inured to suffering in the region.
This latest round of violence is indicative. Al-Jazeera cobbled together various world leaders’ reactions to the conflict. The usual suspects were there – but were markedly tepid in their criticism of Israel.
Indeed, with much of the region embroiled in the ongoing merged Syrian and Iraqi conflicts, both sides of the nascent Sunni/Shia civil war are too preoccupied with possible existential issues to bother with any but the most perfunctory denunciations of Israel. Sure, they’d still like to wipe Jews off the face of the earth, but they have more pressing concerns right now. And with all the other atrocities going on, the usual “Hey, look at these horrible pictures of dead children because we just happened to put our rocket launchers in their preschool” photos just don’t pack the same punch.
Likewise, with ISIS making mischief on their own border, Iran may be in no mood to buy Hamas another round of missiles for them to waste launching indiscriminate attacks on civilians in Israel in the mostly vain hope one might manage to kill a Jew or two. (Iron Dome seems to be working pretty well.)
As the War Nerd pointed out, the World Cup slaughters jihad porn in the viewer ratings derby. By launching Protective Edge during the final week of the World Cup, Israel insured that all the regions casual jihad sympathizers were too busy watching people kick a ball on TV to go through the motions of pretending they cared what happens to Palestinians.
All that said, I bet we go through the whole thing again another two years from now…
Tags: Gaza, Hamas, Iran, Iron Dome, Israel, Jihad, Middle East, Military, Operation Protective Edge
Posted in Foreign Policy, Jihad, Military, Uncategorized | No Comments »
July 11th, 2014
More news from inside the handbasket, including the dust-up in Gaza and the illegal alien surge at the border:
Israel hits Gaza for a third day in retaliation for yet another round of rocket attacks. Is there really anything left to say about this that hasn’t been said before? Hamas is the elected government of Gaza, they fire rockets indiscriminately against Israeli civilians and fire them from their own civilian areas to maximize civilian damage at both ends, making them legitimate military targets under international law.
And speaking of rockets, Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system racks up a 90% success rate. (Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ, who adds “Suck It 1980s Lefties”.)
And Hamas might be receiving taxpayer money.
Also speaking of rockets, in Iraq ISIS seizes control of one of Saddam’s chemical weapons sites, filled with rockets full of nerve gas agents. You know, the ones liberals swore didn’t exist in 2004…
Food inflation costs overwhlem wage growth.
Get ready for the next round of ObamaCare rate shock.
Scabies outbreak at the border. Well, that’s just lovely. Thanks, Obama!
Even Democrats think Obama should visit the border.
Are veterans being turned away from appointments because treating illegal aliens takes precedence? Caveat: Twitter is not a source.
But the Obama Administration seems to be going to great lengths to prevent lawmakers from inspecting illegal alien holding facilities.
“We can medically treat non-citizens in a few days, maybe even hours, but not our own veterans.”
Planes full of illegal aliens landing in El Paso.
They’re even trying to house illegal aliens in Virginia.
The scale of the problem:
Important reminder: Not all Hispanic immigrants are in favor of unlimited illegal aliens coming to the country.
Greg Abbott criticizes Obama. “Whether it’s on the broken VA system, or our porous border, he is all talk and no action. He’s all hat and no cattle.”
Airlines reduce flights to Venezuela due to cash trapped in the country by currency controls. How’s that socialism working out for ya?
Hillary Clinton and Adultery. Then again, maybe Hillary is one of Ashley Madison’s fake profiles.
Hillary’s book drops off the Amazon 100 list. Evidently there are tens of millions of Democrats who found that not buying Hard Choices was, in fact, an easy choice…
Public employees union AFSCME severs ties with the United negro College Fund because they took money from the Koch brothers. So it’s more important to display their hate than to help black people go to college…
50 colleges now charge more than $60,000 a year to attend, and Harvard, Yale and MIT are not among them. (Hat tip: Instapundit.)
Evidently former Merrill Lynch chairman Stan O’Neal wants this to disappear.
Tags: AFSCME, amnesty, Border Controls, chemical weapons, college, Democrats, education, El Paso, Gaza, Greg Abbott, Hamas, Hillary Clinton, inflation, Iron Dome, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, Israel, Jihad, Obama, ObamaCare, Scabies, Strategic Defense Initiative, unions, Virginia, Welfare State
Posted in Austin, Border Control, Communism, Democrats, Foreign Policy, Jihad, Obama Scandals, ObamaCare, Texas, unions, Waste and Fraud, Welfare State | 1 Comment »
July 10th, 2014
Yes, it’s another Obama is fundraising in Austin day, so traffic will probably be screwed all day.
Plan accordingly…
Tags: Austin, Democrats, fundraising, Obama, Texas
Posted in Austin, Democrats, Texas | No Comments »
July 10th, 2014
Evidently the Board of Regents accepted Bill Powers counteroffer, as he will stay on as UT President through June 2, 2015. (Previously.)
If you’re still unclear on why Powers should go, here are ten reasons he should step down.
Tags: Austin, Bill Powers, Texas, University of Texas, Wallace Hall
Posted in Austin, Texas | No Comments »
July 9th, 2014
Evidently the slow-burning University of Texas admissions scandal will finally cost President Bill Powers his job. “UT System Chancellor Francisco Cigarroa has told Powers, 68, to resign before Thursday’s meeting of the Board of Regents or be fired during it.”
I doubt Powers counteroffer to step down in 2015 will be accepted. (I do wonder what makes Houston Chronicle writer Benjamin Wermund proclaim that Powers is “widely supported by students”? Has he seen polls on Powers popularity on students? (Online petitions don’t count) I would think they would be more concerned with lowering tuition costs than support a President resisting calls to lower them.)
Which is not to say that Powers backers are giving up. Instead, they’re lashing out at the board of regents:
The more angry and indignant among the petition signers seem to think some organized debate about UT and its president is going forth, and that their champion is, unfairly, of course, getting the worst of it. It would be an odd thing to think. There isn’t anything like a public debate about Bill Powers going forward. There’s rancor and division — nearly all of it coming from the side that professes to despise rancor and division, the Powers side.
The admissions scandal has been building for some time on Powers’ watch. (Nor is it the only problem under Powers.) Instead of investigating it and fixing the problem, Powers decided the best move was to have his political friends attempt to impeach regent Wallace Hall in order to quash his investigation while Powers’ supporters launched an Astroturf campaign on his behalf that’s included no end of MSM editorials praising Powers while attacking Hall and Governor Perry for daring to hold him accountable.
The university academic complex evidently believe that they’re a special kind of hothouse flower that should be immune to all political pressure, with a right to public funding but not to public accountability. Powers has constantly resisted calls to make college more affordable, and to be more accountable to the Board of Regents who oversee his work and the state government that pays his bills.
It seems that Powers will be the latest official to learn that pride goeth before a fall.
Tags: Astroturf, Austin, Benjamin Wermund, Bill Powers, education, Francisco Cigarroa, Rick Perry, Texas, University of Texas, Wallace Hall
Posted in Austin, Texas | No Comments »
July 8th, 2014
USA Today reporter Susan Page wonders why, despite the surge of illegal aliens across our border, Obama would continue to attend lavish fundraisers rather than visit the border, calling the decision “Obama’s Katrina moment.” (Even Democratic Texas congressman Henry Cuellar expressed the same concern.)
This comparison is deeply unfair.
To George W. Bush.
After all, Bush didn’t:
Invite the hurricane in by promising to make it a citizen.
Turn a blind eye while criminal cartels smuggled Katrina into New Orleans.
Demand FEMA employees stop pumping out flood water.
Prevent a U.S. congressman from Louisiana from visiting a refugee camp in his own state.
Schedule fundraisers in Dallas, Little Rock and Memphis, then insist on attending them and refusing to tour devastated New Orleans because it cut into his important golf schedule.
Katrina was a natural disaster. The illegal alien surge is a crisis of Obama’s own making for refusing to enforce existing border control laws and dangling a Dream Act amnesty to lure illegal alien children to cross the border.
Tags: Border Controls, Illegal Alien Crisis, Illegal Aliens, Obama, Obama Scandals, Texas
Posted in Border Control, Obama Scandals, Texas | No Comments »
July 7th, 2014
Despite musical advice from that big hit from The Princess Factory, liberals just can’t Let It Go. They’re still in a rage over the Hobby Lobby decision, or at least pretending to be in order to gin up their shrinking base in order to keep Democrats from being slaughtered in November.
Jeffrey Tobin: “What we are witnessing is a liberal meltdown in which they have come to believe the First Amendment is a technicality that should brushed aside when it comes into conflict with the ‘right’ to free contraception.”
For the political left, the concept of religious liberty has been re-interpreted as to only mean the right to be allowed to pray and not to live one’s faith in the public square. When faith conflicts with policy initiatives such as the free contraception mandate, they assume that religion must always lose. However, the court majority has rightly reminded us that the freedoms guaranteed in the First Amendment cannot be trashed simply because a lot of Americans want not only access to contraception but also think their employers ought to be compelled to pay for it.
But to liberals, a decision that reaffirms the primacy of religious freedom is just the latest iteration of a Republican “war on women.” As a political slogan, that meme has been political gold for Democrats who believe its use guarantees their stranglehold on the votes of unmarried women. But as infuriating and wrongheaded the war on women arguments may be, what is really troubling about them is that they reflect a utilitarian approach to the Constitution that regards any of its protections as expendable if they are obstacles to a liberal policy goal.
Clarice Feldman: “No, the sputtering, venomous and hateful hyperbole is attributable to one thing, and one thing only: the Court did not allow the state to bend Hobby Lobby to its will on their behalf. And that is what matters most to them.”
All this rage is especially hypocritical since:
Some 204 outfits favored by Democrats were granted waivers by the president from ObamaCare, which means their employees do not have the right to employer provided birth control. These include upscale restaurant, nightclubs, and hotels in then-Speaker Pelosi’s district; labor union chapters; large corporations, financial firms, and local governments.
Women did not march through the streets to complain on behalf of their downtrodden sisters at Boboquivari in San Francisco which sells porterhouse steaks at $59 a pop and such. Apparently they are up with laws written on Etch-a-Sketch boards which the president can rewrite at whim. And their moral outrage is dependent on whether or not the employer is a Democrat crony.
The whole “War on Women” is “shameless, baseless propaganda:
In other Hobby Lobby-related news, Jonathan Adler debunks the idea that the Hobby lobby ruling was “anti-science.”
(Hat tip: Instapundit.)
Tags: Democrats, Hobby Lobby, Supreme Court, video
Posted in Democrats, Supreme Court, video | No Comments »
July 4th, 2014
In celebration of America’s birthday, here are some compilations of fireworks gone wrong (some repetition):
There’s a special place in my heart for the 2012 San Diego display where they accidentally fired everything up at once:
And finally: Fireworks factory explosions:
Let’s be careful out there. At least wear some eye protection…
Tags: July 4
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
July 3rd, 2014
Enjoy Independence Day tomorrow. In the meantime, here’s another Texas vs. California roundup:
Burwell vs. Hobby Lobby wasn’t the only important Supreme Court case last year. The Harris vs. Quinn decision, invalidating mandatory union fees for home health care workers, could have a huge impact on SEIU in California. “where 400,000 state-paid in-home care workers are represented by the SEIU.”
Former CalPERS CEO to plead guilty to bribery and conspiracy charges.
At least 1,500 Bay Area employees have racked up $50,000 in yearly overtime. “A Monterey County jail guard who worked enough overtime to nearly triple his annual base pay to $264,000 last year.”
Wonder why San Bernardino is bankrupt?
“San Bernardino, California, said that to exit bankruptcy it must terminate a union contract that pays an average annual salary of $190,000 to each of its top 40 firefighters,” according to an article in Bloomberg. That’s just salary. Firefighters receive the generous “3 percent at 50″ retirement package that allows them to retire with 90 percent of their final years’ pay at age 50. And there are lots of pension-spiking gimmicks and other benefits on top of that.
“These cities are run for the benefit of those who work there. Public services are a side matter at best.”
Murrieta, California Protesters greet Obama Administration shipment of illegal aliens with protests, blocking them from being dumped in their community.
Judge strikes down Pacific Grove pension initiative.
Some bay-area California cities want to hike they local minimum wage. Hey, that won’t hurt businesses here in Texas, so knock yourselves out…
More on Toyota’s relocation to Texas, along with some tidbits on the Texas economy:
Toyota’s move to Texas is a high-profile relocation, but Texas has been used to adding — and filling — new jobs at a superlative pace. The state added more than 1.9 million new jobs over the period from December 1999 to April 2014, more than 35 percent of the entire nation’s total for that 15-year period, noted Michael Cox, an economics professor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. And Texas had an unemployment rate of just 5.1 percent in May, 16th-lowest in the United States.
Meanwhile, Cox noted, Texas’s median wages are 28th-highest in the nation; and they rank 8th-highest after adjusting for taxes and prices. Texas schools rank 3rd, he said, after adjusting for variations in student demographics, a raw statistic which places Texas 28th in the nation.
“We’re able to accomplish all this and more because the business environment in our state is largely competitive, and free markets solve problems,” Cox told me. “Texas is a meritocracy, where incentives still work to produce good results.”
“Six current and former members of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department were found guilty Tuesday of obstruction of justice.
Grand Jury:”Hey, you might want to consider a pension reform task force.” City of Napa: “Get stuffed.”
Santa Ana-based Corithhian Colleges could be headed for bankruptcy.
Texas is now home to more Fortune 1000 Companies than any other state.
Liberals are still upset that Texas’ red state model is kicking the ass of California’s blue state model. Enter the Texas Tribune, which admits that:
Drive almost anywhere in the vast Lone Star State and you will see evidence of the “Texas miracle” economy that policymakers like Gov. Rick Perry can’t quit talking about….
This hot economy, politicians say, is the direct result of their zealous opposition to over-regulation, greedy trial lawyers and profligate government spending. Perry now regularly recruits companies from other states, telling them the grass is greener here. And his likely successor, Attorney General Greg Abbott, has made keeping it that way his campaign mantra.
It’s hard to argue with the job creation numbers they tout. Since 2003, a third of the net new jobs created in the United States were in Texas. And there are real people in those jobs, people with families to feed.
But the piece also notes that Texas has led the nation in worker fatalities for seven of the last ten years. I’m not going to get into the details of worker compensation that make up the bulk of the piece, and it is quite possible there is some room for improvement in worker safety. But I do want to note that, as the second largest state in the union, and the one with the biggest oil and gas industry, it’s not terribly surprising that Texas would have the largest number of fatalities, since oil and gas has a fairly high fatality rate (though not injury rate) compared to other industries (see page 14 here).
Tags: Border Controls, Budget, California, CalPERs, corrupt scumbags, corruption, Crime, fraud, Harris vs. Quinn, Los Angeles, Murrieta, Napa, San Bernardino, SEIU, Texas, unions
Posted in Border Control, Budget, Crime, Democrats | No Comments »
July 2nd, 2014
So Democratic state representative Trey Martinez-Fischer used his speech at the Texas Democratic convention to say that GOP stands for “gringos y ostros pendejos” (or, roughly, “gringos and other assholes”). In other words, he just insulted every black, Hispanic and Asian Republican in Texas.
I knew that name sounded familiar, mainly because he was born Ferdinand Frank Fischer III and formerly known as Tracey Fisher, then started going by Trey Martinez-Fischer.
I’m sure the fact he was running for office as a Democrat in a Hispanic majority district had nothing to do with that decision.
More and more it seems that racist condescension is the default liberal attitude to those who wander off the Democratic plantation…
Tags: Democrats, liberal racism, Texas, Texas Democratic Party, Trey Martinez-Fischer
Posted in Democrats, Texas | No Comments »