With Obama's Luck...

The way Obama's luck has been running on this oil leak, BP will actually manage to (mostly) cap it just as he commences his 'emote and denounce' campaign against BP.  I suppose the White House will be able to spin that - obviously it was fear of ongoing (and visible!) Presidential rage that sent the leaking oil scurrying up the siphon pipe.

Two little straws in the wind from the Times coverage - first, Energy Secretary and Nobel Laureate Steven Chu seems to have had a non-admirer in the control room during the capping operation:

The technician said that shortly after the cap was successfully placed, Dr. Chu wondered aloud why oil was still spewing from around the bottom. Engineers had to tell him that the leaks were expected, at least initially.

After so many meetings, I guess the plan had become a blur...

Secondly, other firms are involved in the capping effort, but from a PR perspective this will be a BP headliner until there is a success to point to:

The technician said the assembled crowd, which included workers from BP and other companies involved, was in “pretty good cheer” after the cap was successfully placed.

“But you have to temper all that right now because you don’t know the final result,” he said.

Finally, let's not overlook the fine work of our First Emoter:

Mr. Obama also met with local residents and business people on Friday. He did not do so last week after his meeting with local officials went for more than two hours, and was criticized for it. Separately, the president’s spokesman, Robert Gibbs, said Mr. Obama had written to the families of the 11 men killed when the Deepwater Horizon exploded, inviting them to the White House on Thursday.

In Grand Isle, La., Mr. Obama met with the owners of a marina, convenience store and bait shop, and with a shrimper and oysterman. People lining the roads were generally welcoming, waving and snapping photos. One family held a sign saying “Help Us!”

Somebody should hand Obama a soapy rag and an oily sea gull for a real photo-op.

Comments

[Melinda Romanoff]

No, others must do the work.

And note it's an invite to the WH, note an offer to bring them to the WH. An expense any grieving family will gladly pick up. I'm sure it's considered an estate expense by the IRS.

These PR stunts are starting to make me ill.

[Old Lurker]

Now I have to read the over-nights to be sure YL, on west coast time, does not get into trouble after I go to bed. That was easier when all I had to do was keep the car keys under my pillow and the alarm on.

[Thomas Collins]

Mel, Obama has no substance (I am convinced that even his leftism is not necessarily a core belief, but a liquid poured by others into the empty vessel of his being), so PR stunts and image crafting, which are a significant part of all Presidencies, are 100% of this one. Obama's whole Presidency, not just his speeches, is One Big Teleprompter Drone in the Sky.

[bgates]

note it's an invite to the WH, not an offer to bring them to the WH.

Neither of those should have been offered. No such offer was made to the families of Thomas E Wortham IV, a Chicago cop gunned down outside his parents' house two weeks ago, or John Glaser, a Kansas City firefighter killed in the line of duty two weeks ago, or the surviving relatives of any of the other half-million people who died in this country since the well blew up.

This didn't become a nauseating PR stunt because Obama is reticent to spend the public's money.

[Thomas Collins]

OL, I have three kids in their twenties, and when I worry about them, I console myself with the notion that they have a lot better judgment than I did when I was in my twenties (admittedly a low bar).

[Melinda Romanoff]

bgates-

Thanks for the edit.

[Pagar]

I don't remember any invitations for the families of the victims of the Arizona invasion force either.

[Thomas Collins]

I'm listening to Obama on NPR. He sounds as if he is not President but is campaigning for President. He sounds as if he is on a campaign tour of the Gulf coast area.

[Old Lurker]

"I'm listening to Obama on NPR."

Two strikes in one pitch.

[peter]

I'm listening to Obama on NPR in my Prius.

[Old Lurker]

You are out Peter

[Melinda Romanoff]

peter-

You drive a Pious?

[Thomas Collins]

The morning radio politics at my house comes down to sports talk (when I turn on the radio first) and NPR (when my wife turns on the radio first). This morning I was busy checking JOM and Insty and ESPN on the web, when I suddenly heard that airy irony of the NPR announcers.

In fairness to NPR, they are more fair and balanced than most of American media (once again, a low bar), and they have BBC stuff, which actually approaches real journalism at times.

[Thomas Collins]

Which borough, peter (I recall you reside in the nyc area).

Now that I think of it, are you really posting while driving?

[Old Lurker]

"In fairness to NPR, they are more fair and balanced than most of American media (once again, a low bar), and they have BBC stuff, which actually approaches real journalism at times."

Only a person drinking MA water for many years could be so tolerant. And you seemed like such a sensible guy.

[Thomas Collins]

A coaching legend goes to meet his Maker (see LUN).

[Old Lurker]

Mel if you are still here. What do you see for the Euro?

[Thomas Collins]

Couric and Olbermann made me appreciate NPR more, OL (talk about setting the bar low). Besides, I need a Cliff's Notes summary of respectable elite opinion now and then.

[Old Lurker]

Spend time in DC, TC. We are surrounded by it all. Why do you think Janet smokes and the rest of us drink?

[Thomas Collins]

OK, I'm through with NPR. They just referred to the World Cup as the greatest sporting event in the world. Here I am giving them some slack, and they betray my indulgence.

I may be getting to the DC area on occasion now, OL. My oldest child starts law school at George Mason in August.

[Melinda Romanoff]

OL-

What Euro?

[Old Lurker]

We do JOM dinners for visiting firemen, TC. Be sure to touch base.

GM is a safe place to send a kid, so good job on that.

[Old Lurker]

That's what I thought too, Mel.

[Melinda Romanoff]

OL-

I still have a couple of 25 Lire pieces around here somewhere, if I haven't donated them to the Tollway system yet. Exact same size and weight as quarters. I get them mixed up all the time.

Silly me.

[Sasha]

With Obama's luck... he'll probably get the Nobel Prize for physics...

[Clarice]

Speaking of which, OL, we still want to take you two to dinner, pls email when you're free..

[Clarice]

Good point, Sasha.

[Thomas Collins]

OK, OL, thanks; I'll let you know when I'm in the area.

[centralcal]

Good morning.

Another giggle from this brilliant administration via Patterico:

“The State Department has conceded committing a diplomatic faux pas by sending birthday greetings to Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II a week early.

Spokesman P.J. Crowley allowed that a congratulatory message from Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton sent Friday on what the department thought was the eve of the queen’s official birthday had been premature.

[So, she's a Gemini.]

Heh, the reports of my birthday have been greatly exaggerated.
===============

[Thomas Bays]

He is mad now because it is close to Florida...I wonder why?

[peter]

It was a joke. I neither listen to NPR nor do I drive a Prius. I do drive a car usually driven by liberals.

[Thomas Collins]

"The Wizard of Westwood rests."

Kim, I thought I would retrieve the above posting moniker of yours from the prior thread. Hope you don't mind. I think it expresses the thoughts of college basketball fans this morning.

[Thomas Collins]

I thought it was a joke, peter. Just wanted to make sure you weren't guilty of the traffic offense of DUJOMI (Driving Under JOM Influence). :-))

[Melinda Romanoff]

Snark retracted Peter.

And I can't get the hook out now...

[hit and run]

TM:
The way Obama's luck has been running on this oil leak, BP will actually manage to (mostly) cap it just as he commences his 'emote and denounce' campaign against BP.

It's not Obama's luck,Gaia is just messing with him.

[peter]

A couple of summers ago, we went on a vacation to Yosemite. We didn't ask for it, but the only car that the rental agency had for us was a Prius. We rented kayaks and put them on the roof and drove to some lake in the area. Some granola kid came up to us to praise how cool the car looked. I just bit my tongue, and thought to myself, I probably don't even want to tell him I subscribe to National Review and the Weekly Standard. Funny how cars pigeon hole people.

[Obama-Girl]

Somebody should hand Obama a soapy rag and an oily sea gull for a real photo-op.
What ? ... and remove the mythology that all is magically clean around "The Won"

[Wooden was no imitation.]

Of course I don't mind, TC. I got to see the Bruins in a doubleheader in their prime. Well, I was present, anyway, hawking 'ice cold pop' to all those whose throats were parched by smoking and yelling.
============

[anduril]

On Ethnic Cleansing and the Solution of the Arab Question

By Leaders of Israeli Zionism

David Ben Gurion, Prime Minister of Israel 1949-1954, 1955-1963:

“We must expel Arabs and take their places.”—David Ben Gurion, 1937, Ben Gurion and the Palestine Arabs, Oxford University Press, 1985.

“We must use terror, assassination, intimidation, land confiscation, and the cutting of all social services to rid the Galilee of its Arab population.”—David Ben-Gurion, May 1948, to the General Staff. From Ben-Gurion, A Biography, by Michael Ben-Zohar, Delacorte, New York 1978.

“There has been Anti-Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They see but one thing: we have come and we have stolen their country. Why would they accept that?”—Quoted by Nahum Goldmann in Le Paraddoxe Juif (The Jewish Paradox), pp. 121-122.

“Jewish villages were built in the place of Arab villages. You do not even know the names of these Arab villages, and I do not blame you because geography books no longer exist. Not only do the books not exist, the Arab villages are not there either. Nahlal arose in the place of Mahlul; Kibbutz Gvat in the place of Jibta; Kibbutz Sarid in the place of Huneifis; and Kefar Yehushua in the place of Tal al-Shuman. There is not a single place built in this country that did not have a former Arab population.”—David Ben Gurion, quoted in The Jewish Paradox, by Nahum Goldmann, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1978, p. 99.

“Let us not ignore the truth among ourselves ... politically we are the aggressors and they defend themselves ... The country is theirs, because they inhabit it, whereas we want to come here and settle down, and in their view we want to take away from them their country.”—David Ben Gurion, quoted on pp 91-2 of Chomsky’s Fateful Triangle, which appears in Simha Flapan’s Zionism and the Palestinians pp 141-2 citing a 1938 speech.

“If I knew that it was possible to save all the children of Germany by transporting them to England, and only half by transferring them to the Land of Israel, I would choose the latter, for before us lies not only the numbers of these children but the historical reckoning of the people of Israel.”—David Ben-Gurion (Quoted on pp 855-56 in Shabtai Teveth’s Ben-Gurion in a slightly different translation).

Golda Meir, Prime Minister of Israel 1969-1974

“There is no such thing as a Palestinian people ... It is not as if we came and threw them out and took their country. They didn’t exist.”—Golda Meir, statement to The Sunday Times, 15 June, 1969.

“How can we return the occupied territories? There is nobody to return them to.”—Golda Meir, March 8, 1969.

“Any one who speaks in favor of bringing the Arab refugees back must also say how he expects to take the responsibility for it, if he is interested in the state of Israel. It is better that things are stated clearly and plainly: We shall not let this happen.”—Golda Meir, 1961, in a speech to the Knesset, reported in Ner, October 1961

“This country exists as the fulfillment of a promise made by God Himself. It would be ridiculous to ask it to account for its legitimacy.”—Golda Meir, Le Monde, 15 October 1971

Yitzhak Rabin, Prime Minister of Israel 1974-1977, 1992—1995 “We walked outside, Ben-Gurion accompanying us. Allon repeated his question, What is to be done with the Palestinian population?’ Ben-Gurion waved his hand in a gesture which said ‘Drive them out!”—Yitzhak Rabin, leaked censored version of Rabin memoirs, published in the New York Times, 23 October 1979.

“[Israel will] create in the course of the next 10 or 20 years conditions which would attract natural and voluntary migration of the refugees from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank to Jordan. To achieve this we have to come to agreement with King Hussein and not with Yasser Arafat.”—Yitzhak Rabin (a “Prince of Peace” by Clinton’s standards), explaining his method of ethnically cleansing the occupied land without stirring a world outcry. (Quoted in David Shipler in the New York Times, 04/04/1983 citing Meir Cohen’s remarks to the Knesset’s foreign affairs and defense committee on March 16.)

Menachem Begin, Prime Minister of Israel 1977-1983

“[The Palestinians] are beasts walking on two legs.”—Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, speech to the Knesset, quoted in Amnon Kapeliouk, Begin and the “Beasts,” New Statesman, June 25, 1982.

“The Partition of Palestine is illegal. It will never be recognized.... Jerusalem was and will forever be our capital. Eretz Israel will be restored to the people of Israel. All of it. And forever.”—Menachem Begin, the day after the U.N. vote to partition Palestine.

Yizhak Shamir, Prime Minister of Israel 1983—1984, 1986—1992

“The past leaders of our movement left us a clear message to keep Eretz Israel from the Sea to the River Jordan for future generations, for the mass aliya (Jewish immigration), and for the Jewish people, all of whom will be gathered into this country.”—Former Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir. Declaration at a Tel Aviv memorial service for former Likud leaders, November 1990. Jerusalem Domestic Radio Service.

“The settlement of the Land of Israel is the essence of Zionism. Without settlement, we will not fulfill Zionism. It’s that simple.”—Yitzhak Shamir, Maariv, 02/21/1997.

“(The Palestinians) would be crushed like grasshoppers ... heads smashed against the boulders and walls.”—Israeli Prime Minister (at the time), Yitzhak Shamir, in a speech to Jewish settlers, New York Times April 1, 1988

Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel 1996—1999

“Israel should have exploited the repression of the demonstrations in China, when world attention focused on that country, to carry out mass expulsions among the Arabs of the territories.”—Benyamin Netanyahu, then Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister, former Prime Minister of Israel, speaking to students at Bar Ilan University, from the Israeli journal Hotam, November 24, 1989.

Ehud Barak, Prime Minister of Israel 1999—2001

“The Palestinians are like crocodiles, the more you give them meat, they want more….”—Ehud Barak, Prime Minister of Israel at the time—August 28, 2000. Reported in the Jerusalem Post, August 30, 2000

“If we thought that instead of 200 Palestinian fatalities, 2,000 dead would put an end to the fighting at a stroke, we would use much more force....”—Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, quoted in Associated Press, November 16, 2000.

“I would have joined a terrorist organization.”—Ehud Barak’s response to Gideon Levy, a columnist for the Ha’aretz newspaper, when Barak was asked what he would have done if he had been born a Palestinian.

Ariel Sharon, Prime Minister of Israel 2001 to

“It is the duty of Israeli leaders to explain to public opinion, clearly and courageously, a certain number of facts that are forgotten with time. The first of these is that there is no Zionism, colonialization, or Jewish State without the eviction of the Arabs and the expropriation of their lands.”—Ariel Sharon, Israeli Foreign Minister, addressing a meeting of militants from the extreme right-wing Tsomet Party, Agence France Presse, November 15, 1998.

“Everybody has to move, run and grab as many (Palestinian) hilltops as they can to enlarge the (Jewish) settlements because everything we take now will stay ours.… Everything we don’t grab will go to them.”—Ariel Sharon, Israeli Foreign Minister, addressing a meeting of the Tsomet Party, Agence France Presse, Nov. 15, 1998.

[Porchlight]

>i>I do drive a car usually driven by liberals.

Me, too, which is why I'm considering putting a vintage Reagan bumpersticker on it (and maybe an NRA one for good measure) to freak people out.

[Ball Four, you're out.]

Kenya hear it?
========

[BobDenver]

OT, an acquaintance of mine observed yesterday that, with the political manipulation shown in the Sestak and Romanoff job scandals, it's time for Obama to claim the title of First Black Nixon.

[narciso]

Chu was one of those, who didn't know oil and gas was in his purview, and his billet at Lawrence was clean energy, the kind we abandoned nearly 300 years ago, something called the Industrial Revolution, there was only so much we could do with wind, and air,\that's why we moved on

[Captain Hate]

I do drive a car usually driven by liberals.

Volvo?

[Clarice]

Ras has O man at -17 today.

[Extraneus]

Earth to Obama: "We don’t want somebody sitting back saying, 'You're not holding the mop the right way.' Why don’t you grab a mop, why don’t you help clean up."

[Janet]

LUN Powerline article _ the DOJ will vigorously prosecute hate crimes.

"The era of 'us versus them' that some of you have experienced must end. At long last, it is ending," Holder told the 30th anniversary conference of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee."

It is as though the libs live in some phantom country where all blacks, hispanics, homosexuals, and muslims are constantly being beaten up. Where every business is trying to kill their customers. Where the ignorant citizens purposefully & with great joy destroy the lovely & fragile planet earth. Where those that are employed hate the poor and purposefully hold the poor down.

I don't know what country these libs are even talking about.

[They'll soon be shimmering in the past.]

It's a chimera, Janet.
===========

[narciso]

That's the world of Law & Order, Janet, and it is notable where he gave those remarks, the kind of place that would consider "concern" over the behavior of Hassan or Shahzad hate speech

[Janet]

I do drive a car usually driven by liberals.

I wear shoes usually worn by libs...birkenstocks. Either cowboy boots, or birkenstocks!
During the Bush-Gore-Nader election I had acquaintances plead with me not to waste my vote on Nader. I got a little hippi look going, so they never imagined I would vote for Bush.
They were wrong.

[Janet]

Yeah, perfect narciso....the world of Law & Order. Where Christians stone to death those that don't obey.

[Clarice]

Mark Steyn (NRO) on the Rachel Corrie:

"This ship is merely the latest memorial to Miss Corrie, a foolish young American killed while enjoying the frisson of vacationing in someone else's despair. There's never been a better time to read Tom Gross' piece on "The Forgotten Rachels":

Rachel Thaler, aged 16, was blown up at a pizzeria in an Israeli shopping mall. She died after an 11-day struggle for life following a suicide bomb attack on a crowd of teenagers on 16 February 2002.

Rachel Corrie's diaries have been published in book form, turned into a hit London play at the Royal Court, and her name has been cited in The Guardian alone hundreds of times ("Remembering Rachel", "Rachel's War", "Rachel Corrie: A True Martyr", "The Lonesome Death Of Rachel Corrie", "Rachel's Words Are A Spur To Action", etc).

By contrast, Rachel Thaler was a British subject. Yet not a single British journalist has ever mentioned her, profiled her, interviewed her parents or other British relatives, or published her diary in a Fleet Street newspaper - except for a single solitary mention by the great (Jewish) comedienne Maureen Lipman noting that nobody ever mentioned her, or the other victims of Palestinian terrorism.

Ah, but Israel is an "apartheid state", and the Palestinians are the Europeans' unending adopt-a-Third-World-pet project. I write in the new National Review (on sale now-ish) that, if old-school judenhass was a by-product of more or less traditional racism and conventional nationalism, the new judenhass advances under the cover of "anti-racism" and "multiculturalism". The oldest hatred didn't get that way without the ability to adapt."

[narciso]

Btw, Max Blumenthal is quite a piece of work isn't he, the sort who would have trumped 'the
Polish incursion into Germany' 70 odd years ago. One should have figured when he trumpeted
those 'exorcism videos' almost two years ago,
which were just a injunction against ill will

[laura]

Clarice,
When we lived in London the undercurrent of Antisemitism became clear to me. I had no idea how deeply it ran through the whole of Europe until I experienced it first hand.

[Clarice]

Yes, it is,Laura. The media there is particularly shameless.
I think they are guilty for their role in the murder of millions and are always seeking something to justify what they did.
Personally, I think europe destroyed the best part of itself 60 years ago only to have it replaced by Moslem immigrants many of whom only want to destroy what's left of Western civilization.

[narciso]

Carol Gould at PJM, Melanie Phillips at the Spectator, and Mrs. Conrad Black seem to have described the same thing, Steyn years agowhen he described how the British media reacted to
a Saudi ambassador, Algosaibi who had praised
suicide bombers in a poem, said it all

[Danube of Thought]

Twenty years ago I was driving a candy-apple-red 12-cylinder Jaguar convertible. Now my wife is shopping for a Volvo. I bite my tongue and watch the hoops.

Obama held hostage, Day 47.

[Old Lurker]

"I think europe destroyed the best part of itself 60 years ago."

I trace it to the period of appeasment between the wars, Clarice. Say 75 years.

[Clarice]

Old age is a bitch, isn't it, DoT? To me, you'll always be in that red Jaguar convertible.

**

Hearst will not say whether they will keep Helon on their payroll.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/plum-line/2010/06/saturday_roundup_4.html>who put the hag in Hag-iography

[I once had almost a hundred cylinders.]

Ha, Janet, bits of Birks adorn my calluses.
====================

[narciso]

Sargent's that another piece of work there, Clarice, Thiessen's really the only good Post hire in a logn time. Gerson's about 50/50, their version of Douthat

[Clarice]

You may be right, OL..to date it that far back. Europe lost its best and brightest in WWI, a pointless, perfectly idiotic war. After that it's been downhill.

[Paul from Boston]

anduril, 10:05 am

"This will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacres and the Crusades"
May 14, 1948, start of the Arab Israeli War, Azzam Pasha, Secretary General of the Arab League

The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Amin al-Husayni, the Chairman of the Arab Higher Committee, collaborated with Nazi Germany during World War II. In 1940, he asked the Axis Powers to acknowledge the Arab right "to settle the question of Jewish elements in Palestine and other Arab countries in accordance with the national and racial interests of the Arabs and along the lines similar to those used to solve the Jewish question in Germany and Italy."[55] He spent the second half of World War II in Germany making radio broadcasts exhorting Muslims to ally with the Nazis in war against their common enemies. In one of these broadcasts, he said, "Arabs, arise as one man and fight for your sacred rights. Kill Jews wherever you find them. This pleases God, history, and religion. This saves your honor. God is with you." March 1, 1944

Off off topic, but remember the siege of Sarajevo, 1992-1996? Guess who sowed the seeds.

Throughout World War II, al-Husayni worked for the Axis Powers as a broadcaster in propaganda targeting Arab public opinion. He recruited Muslim volunteers for the German armed forces operating in the Balkans. Beginning in 1941, Al-Husayni visited Bosnia, and convinced Muslim leaders that a Muslim S.S. division would be in the interest of Islam. In spite of these and other propaganda efforts, only half of the expected 20,000 to 25,000 Muslims volunteered."[138] Al-Husayni was involved in the organization and recruitment of Bosnian Muslims into several divisions of the Waffen SS and other units. The largest was the 13th "Handschar" division of 21,065 men, which conducted operations against Communist partisans in the Balkans from February 1944,[139] committing numerous atrocities against their traditional ethnic rivals the local Christian Serbs.

[Old Lurker]

DFTT

[Danube of Thought]

"Real leadership means never having to say you're the boss." Outstanding article on Obama's view of the spill, government and the private sector.

[Thomas Collins]

OL, I think DFTT is great policy, but I think Paul from Boston's post is not in breach of that principle. In much of the blogosphere and in elite opinion circles, only one side of recent Middle Eastern history is presented. Paul from Boston's post presents a needed perspective.

I would say that "feeding" involves allowing oneself to be dragged into a name calling exercise. Simply posting on an issue of relevance I would say is not feeding. After all, a Weed (a term I happen to prefer to a Troll) should not be allowed to cut off discourse on a topic simply by posting on it.

I realize it's a fine line.

[MAM]

TC - Three of our children went to college in DC and we absolutely loved our trips south. I used to always run into tv pundits on the street like Juan Williams, Cal Thomas and Tucker Carlson. Once I met Bill Press and Paul Begala when they were filming Crossfire at GW and it was quite difficult to shake their hands and smile at them - but I did. In reference to our current president, I am simply stunned into silence by his incompetence - and the sychophants in the media who are letting him off the hook. And here in Mass, I'm afraid that Deval Patrick my get re-elected...

[No blood. Or blood curses.]

Actually, I interpreted DFTT to apply to Anduril. In a way, it is too bad, because Anduril does have a perspective worth understanding. I'd like to see a Paul/Anduril slugfest, if they can accept sissy rules.
===============

[Me no referee, me go till.]

See how bad I am? I meant 'blood insults'.
==============

[anduril]

Paul from Boston,

Perhaps you're not familiar with my views. I don't for a moment question the evil that has been perpetrated throughout the world and throughout history by Islamists and the further evil that Islamists hope to perpetrate--this is why I advocate exclusion of Muslims from the US. However, two wrongs don't make a right. Zionism is as misguided an ideology as is Islam--as my quotes above demonstrate amply. It is quite possible to commit grave injustice against a people that is itself subject to an evil ideology, as are the majority of Palestinians. Because Islam is evil it doesn't follow that we should support the evil perpetrated in the name of Zionism. Nor because Jews in general have suffered grave injustice does it follow that we should assist Zionists to perpetrate grave injustices against Palestinians.

[anduril]

Actually, I interpreted DFTT to apply to Anduril. ...

Posted by: No blood. Or blood curses. | June 05, 2010 at 11:41 AM

Actually, DFTT does apply to anduril. "Troll" is understand as "someone who wins arguments." I've made a clean sweep of the field.

[Thomas Collins]

MAM, I've never had a child in school in the DC area, so I'm looking forward to the visits. The soon to be George Masoner did her undergrad work at William and Mary, so I have had the occasion to enjoy Central Virginia.

[Danube of Thought]

"Troll" is understand as "someone who wins arguments."

"Anduril" is understand as "tedious gasbag."

[Ranger]

Strangely on topic for me... Instapundit has a link to the Hot Air story from last night with some added comentary:

http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/100603/>Report: Obama knew from the beginning that oil leak would likely last months.

"Reader Martha Hearron writes:

I hate to be a cynic, but have you looked at how the affected states have voted? How many of them did Obama carry?

...

I bet if it was California it would be all hands on deck from day 1.

Nonsense. If that cynical analysis were correct, we’d have seen Obama ignoring the Nashville flood, Kentucky ice storms, etc."

[Jane says obamasucks]

And here in Mass, I'm afraid that Deval Patrick my get re-elected...

Bite your tongue.

[MaryAnne]

TC - you'll love wandering around the place. What's your feeling on the governor's race in Mass? Do you think that Cahill will be the spoiler? And now I see that the dems are throwing their support to Crist in Florida against Rubio. Unreal.

[Clarice]

Looks like Axelrod, Brennan and others in the WH were coordinating the Gaza flotilla--was this a community organizing stunt gone bad?

http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=162377

(I'm told there's more coming.)

[Captain Hate]

the Palestinians are the Europeans' unending adopt-a-Third-World-pet project.

I noticed this back in the late 60s when that witless now-crone Vanessa Redgrave made a point of being filmed cavorting with the vermin called "palestinians". I figured it was just a case of her acting to care about them, since she makes a very good living pretending to be something she isn't. But obviously she regarded them as feral pets, since she holds them to lower standards than I do my dogs.

[Thomas Collins]

Clarice, I just hope Fox or WSJ or both have the guts to vet that story about the Obama Administration/Flotilla connection thoroughly. There will be a stonewall by the Administration that will make the Black Panther case dropping and jobs for dropping out of primaries stonewalling look like SpongeBob walls.

Although of course it is too early to really be able to measure the extent of the Obama Administration/Flotilla connection, the story is consistent with Obama's tilt in the Middle East.

[PD]

I don't know what country these libs are even talking about.

Janet, that's because you're The Man.

Therefore, you just can't (or better yet to suit the narrative, won't) see the obvious problem of how awful this country really is.

[Captain Hate]

Once I met Bill Press and Paul Begala when they were filming Crossfire at GW and it was quite difficult to shake their hands and smile at them

I assume the sun, or other source of light, was behind you and the glare from Begala's extended forehead was absolutely blinding....

[Thomas Collins]

MaryAnne, at the risk of incurring Jane's wrath, I am going to say that Patrick would have to be labelled as a slight favorite. Although Cahill is a Dem, he will be siphoning off some of the anti-Patrick vote from Baker. Baker has done a good job so far in driving down Cahill's poll numbers, but I think Cahill is still at greater than 10 percent. I think Cahill needs to be under 10 percent for Baker to win (say in a Baker/47, Patrick/44 and Cahill/9 victory. Even in an anti-Dem year, in Massachusetts (as OL said, it may be the water), the Dem incumbent candidate for gov, I think, is assured of starting with more than 40% of the vote.

[Clarice]

I generally read wnd with a grain of salt but the Code Pink, Ayers and Dohrn part of the atory has already been confirmed.

[Janet]

I'm "The Man"? Who knew "The Man" was so dull!?

LUN a WaPo blog via Instapundit - Hearst won't say whether Helen Thomas will keep job.

"...with Hearst appearing to be holding off on a final decision to see where the story goes next, her fate hangs in the balance."

Now I didn't see the story in the PRINT WaPo...just it's online blog.
The MSM isn't gonna select this outrage.

[anduril]

This morning I read Mark Steyn's article with interest. I often read him because I admire his writing style and often agree with his analyses. Unfortunately, this morning was another example of his major blind spot--Zionism. He goes on nicely enough talking about the Turks, but then finishes with these dubious thoughts:

Demography is destiny, for the most part. For example, European Muslim populations are young, fast-growing, and profoundly hostile to Jews. European Jewish populations are old, fading, and irrelevant to domestic electoral calculations. Think of your stereotypically squishy pol, and then figure the reserves of courage it would require for the European establishment not to be anti-Israeli, and, indeed, ever more anti-Israeli as the years go by.

But demography alone isn’t always destiny. A confident culture can dominate far larger numbers of people, as England did for much of modern history. Bismarck’s famous remark that, if the British army invaded Germany, he’d send the local police force to arrest them is generally taken as a sneer at the minimal size of Her Britannic Majesty’s armed forces. But, in another sense, it’s a testament to how much the British accomplished with so little.

On a purely historic level, Steyn is leaving out significant facts. At the height of the British Empire fully 42% of "British" soldiers were Irish--far outnumbering English soldiers, since other non-English mercenaries made up additional significant percentages of troop strength. Moreover, while the British army may not have been terribly large during times of peace, in comparison to the great European land power, Germany, the British navy was large enough to be a game changer in a pan-European conflict, and that war machine was supported by a world commercial empire. That situation has continued to a declining extent to the present day. Certainly in WWII Czech and Polish pilots supplied a critical need for trained personnel during the Battle of Britain--constituting and Irish and Commonwealth manpower was also a significant factor.

For history buffs I'll quote the section from Wikipedia on the Poles, because it shows that it wasn't simply numbers but experience that were important:

Polish pilots were among the most experienced in the Battle; most had pre-war flying experience and had fought in the Polish September Campaign and/or the Battle of France. No. 303 "Kosciuszko" Squadron, which was named after the Polish and American hero General Tadeusz Kościuszko, claimed the highest number of kills (126) of all the squadrons engaged in the Battle of Britain[3], even though it only joined the combat on 30 August 1940...

The Polish pilots, most of whom had hundreds of hours of flying time, had been well trained before the war in flying in loose formations and had learned to fire from close range during combat. One Polish pilot was to refer to the close formation flying and set-piece attack patterns practised in the RAF as "simply suicidal". ...

Combat experience taught the Poles that the quickest and most efficient way to destroy an enemy aircraft was to open fire from close range:

After firing a brief opening burst at 150 to 200 yards, just to get on the enemy's nerves, the Poles would close almost to point-blank range. That was where they did their real work. "When they go tearing into enemy bombers and fighters they get so close you would think they were going to collide," observed Athol Forbes.[8]

The Poles, with their don't-fire-till-you-see-the-whites-of-their-eyes tactics were often accused of recklessness, but the Kościuszki Squadron's death rate was actually almost 70 percent lower than the rate for other RAF squadrons during the battle.

Is Steyn suggesting that Israel will hire on mercenaries as Britain did? Some might ask whether that would be necessary--see below. At this juncture, my point is that Britain dominated large numbers of people around the world largely with the help of non-English mercenaries, including native troops. When that situation changed, England had to withdraw.

The bigger point, however, is that Steyn, in stating that

A confident culture can dominate far larger numbers of people, as England did for much of modern history.

is acknowledging that Israeli rule in Palestine rests on brute force, domination of the majority by a "confident" minority--also a minority that is well financed and supported with technology that is sometimes better than money could buy, courtesy of the US. Steyn would have us believe that Israel will somehow prove an exception to the otherwise iron law that demography is destiny.

But, if "European Jewish populations are old, fading, and irrelevant," what of the American Jewish population? Can the American Jewish population supply the influence that Israel relies upon indefinitely? Certainly the American Jewish population is not "fading and irrelevant," but it is 1) older than average, 2) has a lower birthrate than average, and 3) is subject to high rates of assimilation. As a result, the Jewish American population is declining both in absolute numbers and as a percentage of the overall population. As we are seeing now, American Jewish ties to Israel are weakening as a result of all these ongoing factors, and also because the Israeli political culture, based on Zionist ideology, is increasingly repulsive to liberal Jews--the overwhelming majority of American Jews. If these trends continue--as they show every indication of doing--then US support for Israel will also decline.

Can the Israeli Jewish birthrate make up for these problems? In the long run, no. Consider:

- the birthrate of "secular and traditional" Jews in Israel is low and this segment of the population, while still a majority, is both aging and declining as a percentage of the overall population. Yet this is the segment that the IDF must rely upon.

- the large Russian Jewish population is notoriously not as committed to Israel as other groups. Indeed, the desire of Israelis in general to emigrate is rising as immigration declines.

- the one segment of the Israeli population that can be said to be exploding is that of the ultra Orthodox--which in future will be the majority segment of the overall population. But the ultra Orthodox are notorious for being welfare leeches who evade military service. Instead they prefer to study and breed--much like Islamists (fully half of all university degrees in Saudi Arabia are in Islamic Studies).

These are serious problems that Steyn doesn't even dare to address--he prefers to descend to cheerleading happy-talk for the Neocon ignorant "Christian right" rabble. The conclusion, however, is inescapable: demographics are working against Israel and other factors, cultural "confidence," will not be able to overcome this inexorable process. Israel is well on its way to establishing an apartheid state, but this will not prove to be a Final Solution either.

[Janet "The Man" & proudly blinded by Zionism]

LUN another Powerline article about Rachel Corrie...a lovely picture of her burning some kind of homemade American flag. She doesn't really look that into peace if you ask me.

[Threadkiller]

If Obama thought James Cameron was an expert on deep-sea oil disasters, he might look to Tom">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLkNPjbaPTk">Tom Hanks
to solve the shrimp industry’s plight.

[Ignatz]

--DFTT--

OL,
Isn't there a letter missing between the two Ts?
In fact I can think of any number of letters to go there.

[Captain Hate]

Off off topic, but remember the siege of Sarajevo, 1992-1996? Guess who sowed the seeds.

Paul, you've touched on a topic that rarely gets discussed but is one that interests me a great deal; that is what to make of Bosnia during the 90s.

On the one hand, it's always a good thing to be against genocide, but how accurate were any of the reports regarding one side versus the other. The media in the US has always had an anti-Serb leaning for whatever reason. It seems like all of the "massacres" which were covered were significantly overstated and incidents of muslim violence against Orthodox Catholics unreported. Diana Johnstone's book "Fool's Crusade" argues that there were no guiltless parties in the Yugoslav civil war and the western powers made a rotten situation worse by by prematurely recognizing Slovenia and Croatia as independent states, and that Germany was motivated not by humanitarian motives but by geostrategic considerations. That's a contrarian view and she mostly gets discussed by socialist nutjobs in whose circles she travels, some of whom completely disagree with her but never in terms with which I can find a completely compelling argument.

Michael Ledeen has been a tireless advocate of the Bosnian Muslims and their pro-Western viewpoints. Since he's actually interacted with them it's hard to dismiss anything he's said.

[anduril]

Michael Ledeen has been a tireless advocate of the Bosnian Muslims and their pro-Western viewpoints. Since he's actually interacted with them it's hard to dismiss anything he's said.

Please--get over it. Read the history.

[anduril]

Here's an entry from Emily Henochowicz's blog. It's said that the high velocity tear gas canister that the Israeli police used to crush her face (and cost her an eye) was of American design. Little did she realize at the time that that weapon would be used on her. I wonder how that will affect her potential as an artist? She appears to be a better artist than a speller:

My Favorite Road!

I made this image last year based off of my enumerable trips on the Chinatown bus from New York to DC and back. I tried to make it into a woodblock, but I like the digital version better.

O America, my America... stop making weapons to test on demonstrators in Palestine.

[Danube of Thought]

"Enumerable" is understand to be used in duncelike manner at 12:57.

[Jim Miller]

Somehow I don't think Holder will be investigating this (apparent) hate crime. Our local news organizations have given it minimal coverage.

[anduril]

"Enumerable" is understand to be used in duncelike manner at 12:57.

Posted by: Danube of Thought | June 05, 2010 at 01:27 PM

Despite protestations to the contrary, it's apparent that the most unlikely (not to say, unlikeable) of persons are avid and careful readers of my posts. It gives me hope. Who can plumb the depths of the human heart? God moves in mysterious ways...

[JM Hanes]

It must be Elders of Zion Day. Again.

In other Gulf Oil news, Politico reports: "As of last week, [Obama] hadn’t even spoken to BP CEO Tony Hayward." Cap that!

[Obama-Girl]

Fidel Castro claims Obama lives in fantasy world

There must be more than one oxymoron in there

[narciso]

Ocaassionally the 'Wandering Coma" gets it right, although not for the right reasons

[anduril]

Jon Stewart addresses the all important "do they have pander" question in his classic: Indecision 5768. "Obama, Clinton and McCain all address AIPAC (aka The Elders of Zion) -- the leading pro-Israel lobbying group -- and Jon scores them on the kosh-o-meter."

[Obama-Girl]

Never let a good disater go to waste ...

Climate Bill Rebranded as BP Spill Bill?

Looking to use the Gulf oil spill as an impetus to act on climate and energy legislation, the Senate expects next week to start work on a revamped "BP spill bill" —one that includes both tougher regulation of the industry and the climate and energy provisions outlined last month by Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.).