Set A Thief To Catch A Thief

 

The NY Times tells us about Rep. Peter King, who is about to open House hearings on Muslim radicalization in America:

WASHINGTON — For Representative Peter T. King, as he seizes the national spotlight this week with a hearing on the radicalization of American Muslims, it is the most awkward of résumé entries. Long before he became an outspoken voice in Congress about the threat from terrorism, he was a fervent supporter of a terrorist group, the Irish Republican Army.

WASHINGTON — For Representative Peter T. King, as he seizes the national spotlight this week with a hearing on the radicalization of American Muslims, it is the most awkward of résumé entries. Long before he became an outspoken voice in Congress about the threat from terrorism, he was a fervent supporter of a terrorist group, the Irish Republican Army.

“We must pledge ourselves to support those brave men and women who this very moment are carrying forth the struggle against British imperialism in the streets of Belfast and Derry,” Mr. King told a pro-I.R.A. rally on Long Island, where he was serving as Nassau County comptroller, in 1982. Three years later he declared, “If civilians are killed in an attack on a military installation, it is certainly regrettable, but I will not morally blame the I.R.A. for it.”

As Mr. King, a Republican, rose as a Long Island politician in the 1980s, benefiting from strong Irish-American support, the I.R.A. was carrying out a bloody campaign of bombing and sniping, targeting the British Army, Protestant paramilitaries and sometimes pubs and other civilian gathering spots. His statements, along with his close ties to key figures in the military and political wings of the I.R.A., drew the attention of British and American authorities.

A judge in Belfast threw him out of an I.R.A. murder trial, calling him an “obvious collaborator,” said Ed Moloney, an Irish journalist and author of “A Secret History of the I.R.A.” In 1984, Mr. King complained that the Secret Service had investigated him as a “security risk,” Mr. Moloney said.

In later years, by all accounts, Mr. King became an important go-between in talks that led to peace in Northern Ireland, drawing on his personal contacts with leaders of I.R.A.’s political wing, Sinn Fein, and winning plaudits from both Bill Clinton and Tony Blair, the former president and the British prime minister.

So he grew over the years. Nixon went to China, Obama quit smoking, and Mr. King can speak from personal experience about the possibility that seemingly mainstream people can become radicalized.  His IRA past is not a bug, it's a feature.

Eventually the Times addresses that:

“King’s exactly right to say there’s a difference of approach between the I.R.A. and Al Qaeda,” said Tom Parker, a counterterrorism specialist at Amnesty International and a former British military intelligence officer. “But I personally consider both of them terrorist groups.”

Mr. Parker was at a birthday party for a friend in London in 1990 when the I.R.A. tossed a bomb onto the roof of the rented hall, a historic barracks. Many people, including Mr. Parker, were injured, but none died, by lucky chance of location and quick medical response, he said.

What troubles him, Mr. Parker said, is that Mr. King “understands the pull of ancestral ties. He took a great interest in a terrorist struggle overseas. He’s a guy who could bring real insight to this situation.” Instead, he said, “he is damaging cooperation from the greatest allies the U.S. has in counterterrorism.”

Some who have been close to Mr. King agree. Niall O’Dowd, an Irish-born New York publisher and writer who worked with him on the peace process in the 1990s, broke publicly with him Monday on his Web site, IrishCentral.com, describing Mr. King’s “strange journey from Irish radical to Muslim inquisitor.”

In Northern Ireland, Mr. O’Dowd said, they saw a Catholic community “demonized” by its Protestant and British critics and worked to bring it to the peace table. Seeing his old friend similarly “demonize” Muslims has shocked him, he said.

“I honestly feel Peter is wrong, and his own experience in Northern Ireland teaches him that,” Mr. O’Dowd said. “He’s a very honest, working-class Irish guy from Queens who’s had an amazing career. Now I see a man turning back on himself, and I don’t know why.”

Comments

[PD]

Local news showed shots of thousands of protesters at that Capitol. Their presence now is in violation of a court order. Local law enforcement is not making arrests but trying to persuade people to leave on their own. The reporters on scene didn't mention any injuries or damage, so, although the crowd is large and noisy, things apparently haven't gotten out of hand.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

I'd forgotten about that court order.

[Jim Ryan]

Following the vote on the bill, GOP senators were hustled out of the Capitol via an underground tunnel that takes them to a government building across the street. For the past few days, senators have made this walk and been loaded onto a bus that takes them to their cars parked in a remote area. Yet after the vote, protesters had apparently caught wind of this process and surrounded the bus full of senators. One witness told me he had seen protesters surrounding the bus and trying to rock it back and forth.

At NRO.

[PD]

The Madison teacher's union is asking teachers to report for work tomorrow. Probably will go the lawsuit route.

I suppose they figured out that attempting to defraud the taxpayers by calling in sick so that they could engage in political action and pursue the union agenda, wasn't really a winning strategy with those taxpayers.

[Porchlight]

So assuming the teachers go back to work, will the public school kids have to stay in school an extra three weeks to make up the lost time? Plus whatever snow days they have to make up.

Man, it's going to be ugly in those classrooms with the teachers explaining to the kids that it's all Walker's fault.

[Danube of Thought]

Look at what, e.g., the SEIU has become in this country. This kind of arrogant, bullying intimdation in defense of their huge claim on the public trough has to be stopped before it becomes unstoppable.

[Rob Crawford]

DoT -- was it the SEIU that borrowed massive amounts of money for political campaigns recently?

I'd still love to know what is securing those loans.

[clarice]

Wisconsin was the first state to engage in collective bargaining with state employees..about 53 years ago when Gaylord Nelson was governor. It's fitting that it's the first state to end this nonsense.

[Soylent Rearden]

"Who is the public? What does it hold as its good? There was a time when men believed that 'the good' was a concept to be defined by a code of moral values and that no man had the right to seek his good through the violation of the rights of another. If it is now believed that my fellow men may sacrifice me in any manner they please for the sake of whatever they deem to e their own good, if they believe that they may seize my property simply because they need it - well, so does any burglar. There is only this difference: the burglar does not ask me to sanction his act."

Suck it, you socialist union gangsters.

[Ann]

Michael Moore calls for nat'l student walkouts & teach-ins on Fri.

The WI Capitol has been taken over by the unions thugs.

A duly elected governor makes modest changes to public employee compensation and we get

cc's picture

Meanwhile

Tomorrow: White House Hosts Anti-Bullying Conference

As part of Education Month, the President and the First Lady are hosting an anti-bullying conference at the White House tomorrow. The events will be live-streamed starting at 10:30 a.m. ET.

Throughout the day there will be opportunities to engage with experts and advisers online, including a special Facebook live chat at 12 noon ET. You can RSVP for the chat here.

Bullying is an issue that affects every young person—President Obama and Michelle are committed to working with parents, teachers, students, and community leaders to tackle it. You can find out more about the issue at StopBullying.gov.

Hell with the popcorn pass the martinis, DoT! :)

[Porchlight]

Bravo Soylent!

[PD]

I'd forgotten about that court order.

I think the protesters learned this defy-a-court-order tactic from its widespread use by the Tea Party.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

Via Powerline:

On Wednesday night, the bill passed with a number of provisions that could be considered “fiscal,” such as the requirement that many government employees contribute 5.8 percent of their salaries to their pensions and pay 12.6 percent towards their health-insurance premiums.

GOP senators consulted with the Legislative Fiscal Bureau on this point, and were sent a memo indicating that while there were some “fiscal” provisions of the bill, these provisions didn’t technically make an “appropriation,” and therefore were not subject to the three-fifth quorum requirement. This allowed senators to keep the bill virtually intact, which the GOP felt helped bolster their argument that all the collective bargaining changes were, in fact, fiscal in nature.

What is perhaps most stunning is that Fitzgerald’s maneuver tonight seems to have caught the Democrat Minority Leader completely off guard. Senators Miller and Fitzgerald have access to the same legislative attorneys and were likely given the same options for resolution. “I think [Miller] actually thought he was going to win,” said one GOP source.

[clarice]

How much longer will the MO and BO soft focus song and dance show continue before people start screaming, "give 'em the hook?"

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

It is amazing to me that Soylent in Afghanistan and Sandy Daze in Iraq are better versed on what is happening in Wisconsin than either those on the scene or the trolls here.

[Jim Rhoads a/k/a vjnjagvet]

There is a certain Libyan leader who might, just might personify the definition of bully. But I doubt if he will be discussed tomorrow by Bammy and frau.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

Tell us how you really think, Bryan Preston (PJ Tatler):

Update: Michael Moore, noted rich union buster who makes his money decrying capitalism to a stupidly receptive leftist audience, declares war. I’m not usually one for playground insults and taunts, but I’ll make an exception in his case.

You want war? Bring it, Lardbutt. You are the biggest talking, good for nothing little piece of Communist filth this country has produced in decades. You suck up to backward brutes and thugs like Castro while you castigate the American engines of the world’s economy. You trash this country and our people and belittle our values every chance you get, you cynical black hole of a human being. The worst words I can think of are too good to use to describe you. You are a buffoon, a hypocrite, and really of no use to civilization whatsoever.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

Well, news just had a teaser. Guess what comes up next ... Charlie Sheen in rehearsal, for his rant. LOL. I love it.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

From Big Government correspondent on the scene:

We have almost completely lost control of the Capitol building. We now only control the 3rd and 4th floors.

Teachers Unions are sending out robo calls and emails to all their members, asking them to get to the capitol NOW. We know this as a fact.

Democrat Senators are opening windows and letting protesters in. Door’s have been ripped off their hinges.

Next 6-8 hours will determine who controls the capitol. If we lose control, the assembly can’t meet tomorrow.

Quasi-military forces are the only option to win back control of building. They are very close to being called in.

Law enforcement are leaking legislators whereabouts to protesters. No one is safe.

Today they escorted State Senators across the street via an underground tunnel. It’s top secret, but protesters were waiting for them.

National Guard may be called in….plans have been set. We are running out of options.

[daddy]

Looks like Lou Dobb's is going to be hosting a new show on FOX starting next week. I'm optimistic about that.

He was the only CNN on air personality I could regularly tolerate. Here's to hoping he educates Bill O'Reilly on the economics.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

He'll be on Fox Business opposite Shep on Fox News, so you'll never have to watch Shep again.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

Gov. Scott Walker - WSJ Editorial: Why I'm Fighting in Wisconsin

[Janet]

On that live stream, it seems like most of the people are young college kids.

[rse]

On the bullying conference, it's not a surprise to anyone here that avoiding a claim of tolerating bullying involves schools and districts making extraordinarily solicitous special treatment for certain student groups especially Muslim.

Not equal treatment under the law but extraspecial treatment coerced by threat of lawsuits.

Whoever told MO that showing her shoulders like that softens her image needs to be fired.

[Henry]

Morning radio (Weber), the bill included all of the budget repair bill except the parts that changed appropriations, e.g. Selling power plants and debt restructuring are not in it. The quorum requirement is tied to appropriations in particular, not fiscal issues in general.

Protesters still at Capitol, mostly college students & pros from SEIU.

Callers to the show are delighted.

[Henry]

Weber confirms no debate in Assembly. Just an up or down vote.

[Henry]

Vote was legal, 2 hour notice requirement was satisfied per non partisan rules people.

[rse]

One more important aspect to the bullying conference is the planned release of Social and Emotional Learning Standards to be implemented in all 50 states this year.

SEL is planned to be an "essential part of Pre K-12 education". Gosh it's so convenient we are going to national standards. The National School Climate Center that's pushing this grew out of Columbia Teachers College and got a Gates grant in 2007 to prepare assessments for social and emotional learning.

NCEE used to be known as the Center for Social and Emotional Education. It has developed School Climate Standards which it calls the "Climate Change Framework". Nice double entendre, huh?

In order to be judged as having an acceptable climate, this is a major criteria:

"the school community develops meaningful and engaging practices, activities, and norms that promote SOCIAL and CIVIC RESPONSIBILITIES and a commitment to SOCIAL JUSTICE". (my emphasis).

One can see why this is an important WH priority.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

Sounds like it is right out of the Small Schools Workshop play book. I smell Bill Ayers.

[Jack is Back!]

These people in Wisconsin are highlighting the incompetency and political ideology of the current, past and future public school system in America. I see a big upsurge in voucher legislation, private, parochial, virtual and home schooling. Also ties into the war against for-profit schools. This may turn out to be a watershed moment for education reform AWAY from the Ayers/Duncan system of progressive brainwashing.

[Henry]

JiB, I hope you are right.

Note: the Assembly sits at 11:00 am central time.

[Sandy Daze]

10 March 2011

Watching some of the live stream video and reading many comments, it seems to me that Gov Walker has made a deliberate decision--very wise, imo--to not confront the protesters.

I know, I know. The police (public security forces) giving over the Wisconsin capitol to a bunch of protesters, concedes to their raucous and law-braking behavior. As a parent, watching the tantrum, I would like to put them all into "time-out."

But, at the end of the day, Gov Walker, letting the protesters actually protest does no real harm. He has been extremely deliberate in this process, campaigning to do this, constructing the legislative agenda once elected and then methodically moving forward. At every point along the way, he has held firm.

Letting the protesters scream and shout helps relieve the tension, lets the pressure off, says yes, you have the right to freedom of speech, you are guaranteed that right, even if you are not guaranteed a make-believe (non-existent) right to collective bargaining.

At any time, a fence could be constructed around the capitol, lights, water and food could be eliminated, and the protesters could be allowed to leave under non-confrontational but deliberate manner.

Force is easy to use. But, Walker is trying to win on the power of ideas not the power of billy-sticks and CS. Gov Walker's restrain is admirable. He is demonstrating the Rule of Law vice conceding to the law of rule.

As to whether the Assembly must meet in the Capitol building, IANAL, but presumably the Assembly can meet wherever the Governor or appropriate elected official so designates. For instance, if the Capitol had been destroyed in a tornado or some other act of nature, surely another edifice could be designated as an interim by legal assembly.

(I've attended services more often in a Church, but when I attended on the flight-deck of an aircraft carrier, it still counted.)

So, surely there is an assembly hall in a local university or civic center which could temporarily substitute and allow the business of the Great State of Wisconsin to continue.

Take good care,
Sandy

One other thought: Gov Walker can be contacted by phone, snail-mail or email. If you support what the this courageous Governor is doing, I most strongly recommend you write or call and tell him so. I've written three times already. It is one thing to decry the left's transgressions in this space, thankfully provided by TM. It is another to tell those in the arena that we've got their six. Thank him, thank them. He is fighting a localized fight that has national implications. He must succeed.

To that end, I also most strongly recommend you write your state governors and tell them, what is happening in Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana can and will happen in your state. Let them know that as Ben Franklin said at the signing of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776:

We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.

[hit and run]

The big events in Wisconsin going down and it's your birthday?

I don't know if this is a homonym or homophone,but I'd say that's . . . Erie.

But in any event...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JIM RHOADS!!!

[Henry]

Happy Birthday Jim Rhoads.

Correction from earlier post, according to Wispolitics guy on radio there may be some debate in the assembly -- but no amendments. Special session rules may allow the Rs to limit debate.

Sandy, thanks for the Franklin quote -- it sure is apt today.

[Porchlight]

Happy birthday, Jim Rhoads! May it be a great one.

[centralcal]

CC: Why are you so down on Althouse and Meade? Seems to me they've been doing a pretty good job of documenting the entire protest at the Capitol since it all started.

Sara, both Ann and Mel understood perfectly. I was trying to post a picture of the handcuffed door that came from Althouse and Meade. The statement you misread was a caption for that picture, not in any way directed at them.

[Old Lurker]

Go Engineers!

HB Jim

[centralcal]

Hope you have a wonderful birthday Jim Rhoads!

[Janet]

Happy Birthday Jim!!

[DebinNC]

Best wishes, Jim

The AFL-CIO is staging rallies throughout WI today. I wish someone would report on the fiscal health of Racine, Milwaukee, Ripon, etc., especially what their public employee contracts are costing them.

[Rob Crawford]

Go Engineers!

Anyone remember a time in the US when engineers were allowed to build things?

Ya, neither do I. It's been a long, long time.

[Courier Service Los Angeles]

Courier Service Santa Monica. The Express Connection staff can offer after hours messenger services around Westwood.

[Captain Hate]

The AFL-CIO is staging rallies throughout WI today.

Do they ever work?

HB JR.

[rse]

Sara-

The Social and Emotional Learning project is in fact centered in Chicago with U-Chicago, University of Illinois-Chicago, and Loyola at least all specifically involved. The Spenser Foundation is a big funder.

LUN is a link to the CASEL Center there-the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning. It's a good PR point that the acronym needed a vowel sound as academics usually is last in order as it is merely a vehicle to get at affective attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors.

Happy Birthday Jim.

Clarice-Betsy Newmark is pessimistic about what will happen when the Wisconsin Supreme Court convenes and also how the public unions will turn out for all recall elections. Any thoughts?

[Henry]

Deb, I heard that 60% of Milwaukee's budget is consumed by fire & police salaries. When Mayor Barret asked them to match Walker's concessions (Monday, he was pushed into by talk radio calling him on his own big mouth), the unions told him to stuff it. The Milwaukee Public Schools and city of Racine are basket cases -- I don't live in either place so I don't pay much attention to the details there.

[Jim Ryan]

From video at Althouse, guy on bullhorn:

You can't recall Walker. You have to force him to resign... Strike... We're going to shut down state government... A series of mass strikes, otherwise it's over... Blockade government buildings... We have to make Madison a shining example to the world... General strike...

[PD]

Clarice-Betsy Newmark is pessimistic about what will happen when the Wisconsin Supreme Court convenes and also how the public unions will turn out for all recall elections. Any thoughts?

I have no problems with elections and people participating in them by voting.

It's sure better than mobs and intimidation.

[centralcal]

Mike Tobin, reporting from Wisconsin for FNC, tweets that Dems are still in Illinois "plotting their next move."

These people idiots are delusional.

[DebinNC]

I wish someone would take this Scott Walker campaign ad and expand it to include Richard Trumka's salary/benefits stats.

[Janet]

I heard that 60% of Milwaukee's budget is consumed by fire & police salaries.

There was a big story in Montgomery County, Maryland about the huge number of police retiring on disability benefits.

"The county's disability pension plan for police officers came under fire last year when Inspector General Thomas Dagley issued a report showing that 62 percent of officers retired with a disability pension in a recent three-year span."
and
"The county pays disabled police officers two-thirds of their former salaries tax free, regardless of the severity of their injury. That means an officer who loses the use of his legs could be paid the same percentage as one with back pain."

[Jane (sit on the couch or save your country)]

HB Jim!!

[sbw]

And another HB, Jim!

[Janet]

Soylent's quote is from Atlas Shrugged. Here is a bit more from a Freeper post - Society of Cannibals

Ayn Rand - from Hank Rearden's trial, Atlas Shrugged

[caro]

Happy day, JR.

[Thomas Collins]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JIM!

[cathyf]

The question turns on "rights".

Some of that is just the huge divide between the prog slavers and those they would enslave. I'm totally in favor of union members' actual rights. The right to free speech. Freedom of association. Freedom to peaceably assemble. The right to quit and take a better job elsewhere. The right to keep their own earnings, rather than have money deducted from their paychecks for union dues.

I have no problem with their rights at all.

[Melinda Romanoff]

Happy Birthday, Jim!

[MayBee]

Happy birthday, Jim!!!!!!

[Old Lurker]

Janet "paid the same percentage as one with back pain."

As a taxpayer in said county, will you accept the addition of "alleged" before back pain?

[Janet]

Yes, OL. I couldn't find a good article on it...but it was a big deal awhile ago.