Considerations for an Israeli Ground Assault on Gaza

November 15th, 2012

Stratfor considers the implications of an Israeli ground assault on Gaza, concluding that it would look an awful lot like Operation Cast Lead, Israel’s 2008-2009 incursion into Gaza.

The biggest difference is that that back then, Egypt wasn’t run by Islamist assclowns.

This also gives me a chance to link to this totally off the hook article on Israel’s urban warfare tactics in Nablus in 2002. As far as I know, it’s the only useful application of French postmodern literary theory in the history of mankind…

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Posted in Foreign Policy, Jihad, Military | No Comments »

Israel Pounds Hamas

November 14th, 2012

Today Israel launched strikes at multiple Hamas targets in Gaza, including one that took out Hamas military commander Ahmed Al-Jabari. This follows a weekend in which Hamas launched more than a hundred terror rockets into Israel.

Russia Today provides video of that particular strike:

Yeah, that’s going to ruin your whole day.

In retaliation, Hamas fired off 13 more rockets at Israel…all of which were intercepted.

There’s at least some indications that Israel is about to launch a major ground offensive into Gaza.

Stay tuned…

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Posted in Foreign Policy, Jihad, Military | No Comments »

Missing Link Between the Benghazi Scandal and the Petraeus Sex Scandal

November 13th, 2012

If, as resigned CIA Director David Petraeus’ mistress Paula Broadwell mentions in the clip below, the attack on the Benghazi consulate was an attempt to free prisoners being held for interrogation, then it adds a new dimension to the scandal, as explained by Charles Krauthammer.

If the interrogation story is true, there are at least four interlocking scandals here:

  1. The Obama Administration standing by watching while an American consulate was under attack for seven hours without lifting a finger to help as four Americans died.
  2. That same Administration lying about the cause of the attack to both congress and the American public.
  3. The same Administration has known about the CIA director being compromised by an extramarital affair since at least summer and did nothing about it for fear of jeopardizing Obama’s reelection campaign. The only other explanation is that everyone in the intelligence community is manifestly incompetent. (“Hey, should I tell Obama his CIA director is having an affair? Nah. He’s got that golf swing to worry about.”)
  4. Either the intelligence community, or else the Obama Administration itself, has been ignoring Executive Order 13491, issued January 22, 2009, which states (in part) “The CIA shall close as expeditiously as possible any detention facilities that it currently operates and shall not operate any such detention facility in the future.”

    5. I think the Administration standing by for seven hours while four Americans died without lifting a finger to help them is still the biggest scandal. Guess I’m just old-fashioned that way. Sadly, I get the impression that the last point is the one the Obama Administration was trying hardest to cover up.

    But all deserve investigation.

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Posted in Crime, Foreign Policy, Obama Scandals, video | 1 Comment »

Sexy Girls (With Bad Judgment), Sexy Guns

November 12th, 2012

So it turns out that Paula Broadwell, purported mistress of (now) former CIA director David Petraeus, used to moonlight as a machine gun model:

While not my favorite of the genre, who doesn’t like a woman who can handle a firearm? (Though she’s more in the “wouldn’t kick her out of bed for eating crackers” than “jaw-dropping gorgeous” category; then again, this seems sadly common in today’s Democratic sex scandals.)

As for the video itself? Whenever a gun manufacturer starts talking about “revolutionary” designs, I start rolling my eyes. It’s an obvious PR/grant bait reel, and should be viewed as such.

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Posted in Guns, Military, Obama Scandals, video | No Comments »

Warning: Graphic Content

November 10th, 2012

I know I’m lazy and all, but I’m beginning to think that I should change the look of this blog off the WordPress default. I’m been putting this off mainly because my skills lie in the realm of words rather than graphics, but I think I’m going to bite the bullet.

I’m going to experiment with a few themes to get started, so don’t be shocked if things look weird every now and then.

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Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

The Best of Ronald Reagan

November 8th, 2012

It’s been a rough week for conservatives, so by way of some cheering up, here’s the best of Ronald Reagan, so you can remember what a real president sounds like.

Warning: Sound gets a little sappy and out-of-hand.

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Posted in Communism, Republicans, video | No Comments »

Bright Spots

November 7th, 2012

Well, that could have gone better.

As an effort at alleviating depression among the vast right wing conspiracy, here are a few glimmers of hope amidst the dismal news:

  • Republicans kept the House.
  • Ted Cruz won. And here’s his victory speech:

  • Democrats picked up senate seats, but they still don’t have a filibuster-proof majority.
  • Randy Weber won.
  • Republicans hold as many statewide offices in Texas as they did before, i.e. all of them.
  • Republicans won all four seats on the Third Court of Appeals.
  • Donna Campbell won.
  • Tony Dale won.

    • In the real-life 2012 version of Atlas Shrugged, Texas has taken the place of Colorado, i.e. the redoubt of a dynamic economy, freedom and limited government in a country grown ever-more statist. Thankfully, it’s not the only one, and red states are still outperforming blue states by a good measure. A narrow Obama victory can’t change that. We’ve got to keep on fighting the good fight.

    We lost the battle. The war goes on.

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    Posted in Elections, Republicans, Texas, video | 1 Comment »

    LiveBlogging/LiveTweeting the Election

    November 6th, 2012

    Congratulations to Ted Cruz and Tony Dale on well-deserved victories!

    And on that bit of good news, off to sleep…

    Weber beats Lampson in CD14.

    Obama 303, Romney 203, Florida and Alaska undecided. And Obama is edging Romney in the popular vote as well, but not by much.

    Fox calls election for Obama. Still not sure I trust the Wisconsin call. It looks like Romney may very well win the popular vote. Even so, I still don’t believe in abolishing the electoral college.

    Fox calls Ohio for Obama. That may be all she wrote.

    All annoying local news now.

    PBS calls Iowa for Obama.

    Obama still up .5% in Florida with 94% of the vote in.

    Florida, Florida, Florida.

    Any way this turns out, this is 1% difference election.

    No, Romney playing the bio film at the GOP convention wouldn’t have made any difference.

    AP RACE CALL: Romney wins North Carolina.

    Maybe we should have nominated #Hypnotoad.

    David Brooks (click) Elizabeth Warren (click) Crowd interview (click) Grrrrr

    Whether Obama wins or not, GOP house should refuse to pass a debt limit increase, and force government to live within it’s means.

    Hit my tweet limit!

    [Swing state name here] Too close to call. Repeat as necessary.

    Looks like it’s going to be a long night before this thing is decided.

    7:23 Romney up in VA, FL too close to call, but Panhandle polls close late, and that’s Romney territory.

    Everything in the battleground states is too close to call.

    6:50 PM
    ROMNEY: Kentucky, Indiana, West Virginia, South Carolina
    OBAMA:Vermont

    #ElectionNightSurprises: Fox News calls race for Obama, ABC for Romney, CBS for Gary Johnson, CNN for Jill Stein, and MSNBC for the reanimated corpse of Howard Taft

    Please note that I will be live-blogging and live-tweeting the election tonight as the returns roll in starting around 7 PM CST. Judging from my live-tweeting of the debates, there’s a good chance I’ll “exceed the tweet limit”, so you’ll want to check both places for pithy insight and wily snark.

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    Posted in Elections, Texas | No Comments »

    LinkSwarm for November 6, 2012 (Election Day!)

    November 6th, 2012

    Today’s the day! Get out there and vote!

  • Politician says FEMA’s response to Sandy is as incompetent as it was to Katrina. But what does Rudy Giuliani know about managing New York City in a crisis?
  • Texas Speaker of the House Joe Straus doesn’t seem wild about conservatives. Go figure.
  • Sheldon Anderson on how the Democratic Party left him. “When you look at states where Democrats have enjoyed years of one-party dominance-California, Illinois, New York-you find that their liberal policies simply don’t deliver on their promises of social justice.”
  • When Obama took office unemployment was 12.7% for blacks. Now it’s 14.3%.
  • NAACP decides that Texas election laws are for other people.

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    Posted in Democrats, Elections, Republicans, Texas | 1 Comment »

    How Big Will Ted Cruz Win Tomorrow?

    November 5th, 2012

    I’m pretty confident that Ted Cruz will win the election (and deservedly so). The only question now is: By how much?

    To determine that, let’s look at the recent history of non-Presidential top-of-the-ballot races in Texas:

  • 2000 Senate: Kay Bailey Hutchison 4,078,954 (65%) over Gene Kelly 2,025,024 (32%)
  • 2002 Senate: John Cornyn 2,480,991 (55%) over Ron Kirk 1,946,681 (43%)
  • 2002 Governor: Rick Perry 2,617,106 (58%) over Tony Sanchez 1,809,915 (40%)
  • 2006 Senate: Kay Bailey Hutchison 2,661,789 (62%) over Barbara Ann Radnofsky 1,555,202 (36%)
  • 2008 Senate: John Cornyn 4,326,639 (55%) over Rick Noriega 3,383,890 (43%)
  • 2010 Governor: Rick Perry 2,733,784 (55%) over Bill White 2,102,606 (42%)

    • (I’m throwing out the 4-way 2006 gubernatorial race as not germane. All numbers via Wikipdia, % rounded.)

    In terms of financial resources, Sadler’s fundraising has been very poor, having raised just over $800,000; poorer even than Rick Noriega, who managed to raise over $4 million, or Barbara Ann Radnofsky, who raised about $1.5 million. Then again, money isn’t everything: Tony Sanchez spent $60 million of his own money to garner a meager 40% against Rick Perry in 2002.

    I don’t think Sadler will do as poorly as vanity candidate Gene Kelly did in 2000. I expect Obama to run 4-5 points worse than he did in 2008, and I expect Sadler to probably lose a point or two off Obama’s total. So, I predict: Ted Cruz gets 61% of the vote, and Paul Sadler gets around 39%.

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    Posted in Democrats, Elections, Republicans, Texas | No Comments »

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