Month: April 2009

What if it Were Happening in America?

What if it Were Happening in America?

There’s a big blogspat going on and as usual Charles Johnson is on the right side of the truth. He’s calling out the neo-nazi backgrounds, associations, and political partnerships between the Euro-Supremacist groups organizing the Pro-Koln anti-mosque movement.

The Paleosphere has risen in defense of Robert Spencer and Pamela at Atlas Shrugs who were billed by the Pro-Koln group as coming to attend or speak at the event, and now the usual obfuscations and cries of “guilt by association!”, it’s the “Soros attack machine!” and “Psyops!” are screeching across their close-knit bigotted group.

First of all here’s a hint for all conservative bloggers – before you chime in you best do some real research on the groups in Europe so you know what the heck you are talking about.

Secondly let’s put all of that Euro-Supremacist stuff aside for a moment.

Step back and look at the bigger picture. If someone were building a mosque in the US anywhere, would you support a group of Yo-Yo’s showing up to stop it?

Is it libertarian to tell someone how they may or may not use their property?

Is it constitutional in the US to stop a mosque from being built? (Think before you answer – what if it were a church, a temple, or a synagogue?)

It’s basically un-American and not a conservative value to oppose freedom of religion. Is that a politically viable stance for conservatives to support?

There you go; the big picture, please think on it.

Addendum:

Some backgrond on people partnering with Pro-Koln:

Petra Edelmannova

Vlaams Belang

and the organizer, Manfred Rouhs.

Hamas Terror Tactics in the Gaza Strip

Hamas Terror Tactics in the Gaza Strip

This video released by the IDF demonstrates the terror tactics employed by Hamas, their infrastructure and their logistics. The tactics include civilian shields, booby traps designed to take out civilians as IDF forces enter, and “shoot and scoot” urban warfare similar to that seen in Iraq. Urban warfare tactics are growing increasingly more sophisticated, and the future does not bode well for those combatting urban terror where civilians are hostage. Soon many of the capabilities enjoyed by advanced armies will be available to terrorists as costs come down and miniaturization of electronics systems continues to increase.

Urban war in a few years could employ drones, UAVs, remote sensor, remote camera activated explosive devices, advanced armaments and other unmentionables all in the hands of the terrorist enemy.

Our window of technical superiority is fast closing, and that worries me. Not only must we be ready for this style combat, but if our defense department is doing their full job we must be ready for “the next big war” (TNBW.)

Republican Strategy Needs to Change

“Anyone can be angry. That is easy. But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, in the right way — that is not easy.”

— Aristotle, “Nicomachean Ethics”

Republican Strategy Needs to Change: Anger Management

The Republicans in Congress and our Republican Governors are playing a low-key, low-profile role in directing the party after several years of “top down” control. This comes at a point when the GOP is politically the weakest they have been in decades and when there are still two critical wars to win.  That temporary power vacuum has unleashed the loons at the party fringes, and we are seeing a steady concerted attack on President Obama, but too much of that is misdirected angst. It’s like the poem: “the worst among us are full of passionate intensity…”

An example of this is how the Tea parties are going. The time for tea parties was before the trillion in debt was pushed through Congress – instead they are afterward. There are probably a lot of good people attending Tea Parties, and I’m certainly not against them, but when some of the organizers are from the Ron Paul camp and people are stepping forward to entice people into third parties like the Constitution Party then that’s way off-message and highly counterproductive.

Meanwhile Obama’s doing pretty well in polls, so the hysteria we’ve seen from the birth certificate, secessionist, and other assorted loons is having no effect. Obama has survived the first 100 days with his glow intact, and the general public ranks him higher at this point than the past two presidents we had. That’s not  a good sign of success so I recommend changing strategies.

If you follow the secessionist link above to Tim Sandefur’s post, it’s pretty easy to suss out that Ron Paul isn’t a libertarian, but rather a Faux-libertarian. Neither is he a constitutionalist, but rather a faux-constitutionalist. The third party candidate are also all populists, and need rage to be noticed and to stump – but as populists they must have someone to demonize, and they’ve picked President Obama.

The initiative against the O has come from pundits who have rediscovered Ayn Rand and objectivism because her writings seem prophetic in this age of  Trillions in debt. The problem with that is not Objectivism but rather the “paleo libertarians” who are just wearing the cloak of objectivism to further the causes they prefer. There used to be a containment of the Paleos, but with the deaths of both William F. Buckley and Paul Weyrich the fence is down and the leash isn’t in anyone’s hand — the  dogs are loose and baying loudly.

Going after Obama alone is ridiculous when the problem is really the lack of power Republicans have. That must be remedied first. Sure we have to whittle down that popularity so he doesn’t have long coat tails in 2010, but we can do that persistently and over time. Our main focus the next two years should be the democratic clowns in Congress. Everyone’s likely to spend the next few days frothing about the release of the Abu Ghraib photos, it’s the second flourish of the red cape before the bull, the first flourish was the release of the torture memos. While that’s going on Witch-hunt Waxman is putting together Cap and Tax, and the bloated budget bill is in conference committee. But does the bull ever notice the matador’s sword before it strikes?

How can we whittle down the power base of the Dems in congress, how can we turn some blue dogs and conservative state dems if anyone who works with them or tries is going to have the Rhino label slapped on and the pack set upon them?

That’s got to stop on the right for many reasons. To stop this ineffective angst and sapping of their base the R’s need to get to work, and now’s the the perfect time since it’s a non election year.

Anger Management For the Right

“Anyone can be angry. That is easy. But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, in the right way — that is not easy.”

— Aristotle, “Nicomachean Ethics”

Many of our pundits and bloggers are tossing any red meat they find laying by the roadside into this vacuum to get people re-involved. They don’t seem to care that the roadkill they are scraping up is laid out by nutballs from third party and single cause groups. They don’t care that the sauce on the roadkill is faux outrage, planted rumors, and retreaded kookspiracies. It’s also Rovian Rahmian the way Obama floats things that rile everyone up but which then come to nothing or which are non-essential in the longer term. An example is the release of the Abu Ghraib photos. Just the right red cape to distract us with the non-essential at the right time.

Most of what pundits are passing as meat is old chewed over gristle originally planted by the left. It comes from whack job sites like Alex Jones (you aren’t going to see a link there from here…) and the PUMAS, and from the hard right re-branded John Bircher camp. While it might get some riled up, it’s bad for the future of the right in the US. It ranges from kookspiricies to rage over the non-essential – the nihilistic anger stirred is getting some response, but is it right, is it effective, is it purposeful?

The answer to all of the above is mostly no – the polls show that all the frothing to date has been purposeless and futile.

So the right needs some anger management, but nobody seems willing. As long as gristle disguised as red meat is our diet we will suffer from bileous nihilism, and any Republicans who do step forward to lead will be soundly thumped with indignant cudgels of wrath by one faction or another, leaving a trampled corpse in their wake. Hence those low Republican profiles I mentioned earlier, some are waiting for others to self destruct before stepping forward.

Somehow we have to dump the anger and the only way forward is to really stop the madness. With that in mind, I’m going to suggest a few things:

  • First does that thing… you know — that thing you are getting ready to raise red flags over really matter? Is it anything people who aren’t pundits will remember in a month, two months, five years? Will it affect lives long term, will it change the course of the nation? Is it essential, and if so are you really reporting the essential part? If not then it’s just another dirty rag in the daily spin cycle.
  • Second: Is it well sourced, or just a rumor? Is there an email campaign with someone quoting someone who is someone’s friend who knows a person? If it’s not well sourced and factual it could be something planted, don’t be a goof by running with kookspiracies.
  • Third: Have you researched what you are talking about, or are you just letting emotion carry you through your post or monologue? If not you could end up with egg on your face.
  • Fourth: Edit. Have you let hyperbole, exaggeration, and purple prose turn your factual piece into a fanciful piece? Is hysteria clouding your finer points?

Next installment I’ll talk more about how the focus needs to change, why congress and the governorships are so important going into 2010, and how Republican political strategy must change from leading through fear to positive direction before conservatives can regain any power.

One last thing: Obama releasing the memos and the photos is horrible indeed, but they are really history long past  — the longer we rant, the longer they drive the news-cycle. Think on it and the effect on our troops before you go off the deep end with a week’s worth of posts about this.

Butterfly

“The Butterfly”

The last, the very last,
So richly, brightly, dazzlingly yellow.
Perhaps if the sun’s tears would sing
against a white stone. . . .

Such, such a yellow
Is carried lightly ‘way up high.
It went away I’m sure because it wished to
kiss the world good-bye.

For seven weeks I’ve lived in here,
Penned up inside this ghetto.
But I have found what I love here.
The dandelions call to me
And the white chestnut branches in the court.
Only I never saw another butterfly.

That butterfly was the last one.
Butterflies don’t live in here,
in the ghetto.

Pavel Friedman 4.6.1942

This poem is preserved in typewritten copy on thin copy paper in the collection of poetry by the poet, which was donated to the State Jewish Museum during its documentation campaign. Pavel Freidmann was born on January 7, 1921, in Prague and deported to Terezin on April 26, 1942. He died in Aushchwitz on September 29, 1944.

Israeli Air Force at Auschwitz

Israeli Air Force at Auschwitz

Tomorrow is Yom HaShoah – Holocaust Remembrance day, here’s a video from 2003 of a ceremony to remember what it was, as well as what will ever be truer. Out of those dark furnaces came new resolve, new courage, and ultimately a resurrected nation.

“Triumph of the Return” – On September 4, 2003, in a large ceremony, the Israeli Air Force flew three f-15 jets over the Auschwitz concentration camp in a show of the Jewish people’s continued strength and triumph over past adversities.
During the Holocaust (1939-1945) 6 million Jews were murdered at the hands of the Nazis and their collaborators. Millions of Jews and other victims of the Nazis were imprisoned, enslaved and murdered at Auschwitz and her sister camps.
This visit was a testament to the world that the saying “never again” is not just a slogan.
Many of the participants were the children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors.

Kasey and The Chick

Kasey and The Chick

kasey-and-the-chick

Kasey used to have a bear that she would drag up and down stairs each day and night, but the bear wore out, so now she has a giant stuffed easter chick, you can see the feet in this photo. Sometimes she snuggles with it, sometimes she shakes it like her worst enemy, but she always fetches it down if it’s left upstairs in the mornings.

Redbuds in Spring

Redbuds in Spring

redbuds-in-springI took this yesterday morning, it’s one of the higher branches on our redbud tree against a blue sky. This morning skies are drizzling rain from grey firmament so Kasey is moping. The sun will be out later and she will convert to her evil alter-ego, Miss Muddypaws, who likes to create paw paintings across the carpet.

Your Black Muslim Bakery Suspect Agrees to Guilty Plea

Your Black Muslim Bakery Suspect Agrees to Guilty Plea

This is a follow up to a post I did about the murder of a Journalist in Oakland at the hands of an offshoot sect of Muslim extremists. YBMB is not part of Nation of Islam, and most Muslims disown them, but they practice similar tactics to extremist Muslim sects like the neo-takfirists in Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

In the latest news, one of the suspects has agreed to a guilty plea:

A man charged with killing an Oakland journalist has agreed to plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter and testify that another person ordered the slaying to prevent publication of a critical article, the lawyer for the man said Thursday.

The plea agreement is expected to lead to murder charges against Yusef Bey IV, who ran the Your Black Muslim Bakery. The Oakland bakery started nearly 40 years ago as an effort to promote African American empowerment and turned into a cult whose members were involved in crimes.

Update: Changed headline from “killer” to “suspect” as the agreed upon plea has not yet been entered.

Here’s a reprint of the orginal story:
your-black-muslim-bakery.jpgThe Taliban is known for destroying shops that sell goods “forbidden” under their version of Sharia in both Pakistan and Afghanistan, and they are known for targeted assassinations against opposition leaders. In Oakland California, both tactics appear to have been used against the community this week.

Police have raided Your Black Muslim Bakery and seized multiple weapons after a prominent bay-area black journalist was slain. This comes after a year-long investigation for crimes including murder, robbery, and kidnapping.

UPDATE: Black Muslim Bakery and Yusef Bey are NOT part of Nation of Islam as a commenter pointed out. Indeed, during the violence against merchants in the area Nation of Islam members passed out flyers condemning violence against the store owners.

I stand duly corrected, and have fixed the title of this story, thanks.

UPDATE: SUSPECT CONFESSES

Note to investigators: The Journalist killed by them did a few stories on them — it was only when he started investigating their financing that they killed him. Perhaps you should follow the money too?

From MSNBC:

The late Yusuf Bey founded Your Black Muslim Bakery in 1968 as a haven for struggling families. It sells natural baked goods alongside books by Malcolm X and other black leaders
Bey’s reputation took a hit when he was charged with rape. Most of those charges were dropped, and one was pending when he died in 2003.

More recently, police said Bey’s son and other men had smashed liquor bottles in corner stores and berated the Muslim owners for selling alcohol to the black community.
Bailey covered the rape allegations and the vandalism, which led to charges against Bey’s son and the other men.

The Taliban and most Islamist terror groups have much commonality with street-gangs, it’s not unusual for them to protection racketeer in their areas, and bullying of shopkeepers who don’t fit their standards for sharia is standard fare as they drive anyone non-conforming from the neighborhood often one shop at a time.

UPDATE: more information here, again H/T Ginn

More at Little Green Footballs