Overblown expectations for a blow-out Obama inauguration continue to dwindle.  Previously we covered reduced projections for celestial-level turnout at the inauguration itself, and now there’s this:

Sluggish sales imperil ‘Yes We Can’ cruise

A cruise that would take President-elect Barack Obama supporters from South Florida to his inauguration next month may be canceled because of slow ticket sales.

Despite its upbeat name — and purpose — the ”Yes We Can 2009 Cruise” is in jeopardy.

The cruise, designed to provide an affordable way for Barack Obama supporters to attend his historic January inauguration, has not drawn enough ticket sales so far to meet the minimum required by the cruise company. …

The ship can carry 1,100 passengers. Two hundred Obama volunteers, including Namphy, were guaranteed a special rate of $1,100, while other passengers were offered a rate of $1,500.

The organizers must sell at least 300 of the full-price tickets to meet the cruise line’s minimum.

The deadline to do so passed on Friday, and the cruise could be canceled at any time. (source)

Organizers blamed the lack of turnout on Christmas holiday busy-ness.  Oh, sure - the mighty Obama, herald of the new age, Lightworker and Mr. Yes We Can can’t overcome a little Christmas rush?

A

s I type this, it’s four minutes before midnight in Israel and an ugly 2008 is ready to pass over to what looks like it will be an even uglier 2009.  As the new year dawns, we see everywhere more evidence of Islamic/Palestinian refusal to shun hatred and act like a civilized nation (and if they act like a civilized nation, maybe they’ll become one).

From the front:

[Shin Bet Chief Yuval] Diskin also noted that large numbers of Hamas operatives are hiding in hospitals and that some are posing as medical staff. “Some are also hiding in mosques and some of those have been turned into headquarters, since they assumed Israel won’t attack them there. Their weapons’ labs have been completely destroyed and their tunnel system has been severely damaged.

The IAF reported Tuesday of several sightings of cells operating in densely populated areas and attempting to use Palestinian civilians as human shields.

Cells have been detected in neighborhoods in Gaza City, Jabalya, Khan Younis and Rafah. (YNET)

Anyone for following the rules of the Geneva Convention?

From Beersheba:

The army official said the rocket that struck the school in Beersheba was manufactured in China, is heavier than the Qassam and can “potentially cause much greater damage.” He said the rocket contains metal pallets that can spread out across a radius of up to 100 meters (about 328 feet) from the point of impact. (YNET)

From Denmark:

A gunman wounded two Israelis working at a packed central Denmark shopping mall Wednesday, Danish police said.

The two wounded men are Israelis in their 20s, police spokesman Lars Thede said. He said it was too early to speculate on whether they were targeted because of their nationality.

One of the wounded was shot in the arm and the other in the leg, police said. Their condition is unclear. …

The men, who were selling hair-care products, had been harassed by a group of youths in recent days, Denmark’s Ritzau news agency said.

According to the B.T. newspaper’s Web site, a man shouted something in another language and opened fire. Another Israeli inside the hairdressing shop threw a chair at the gunman, the newspaper said.

The shooter escaped in a dark vehicle.

The Foreign Ministry believes that the attack was related to anger over Israel’s offensive on the Gaza Strip. (Haaretz)

Something in a foreign language … harassed by a “group of youths” earlier … related to anger over the situation in Gaza … Gwarsh, do you think they just might be Palestinians or other radical Islamists?

From Tehran:

Thousands of Iranians, joined by high-ranking Iranian officials and military commanders, shouted “Down With USA” and “Down With Israel” in Tehran on Monday. Many carried banners reading “Israel must be wiped off the face of the earth” and “We should all rise and destroy Israel.”

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Sunday urged Muslim states to punish Israel. (AFP)

And finally, from Ft. Lauderdale:

It was pandemonium. Muslims dress in full jihad garb juiced with …. hate.It looked like Halloween in Gaza. Throngs of young Muslims drunk with ….. hate. It was madness in America. You had to see it to believe it (watch video for the feel)

Across the street was an anemic counter protest. Where were the Jewish kids? NOWHERE. Jewish leadership and the diaspora have failed miserably in the education of our youth. The entire Muslim rally was young, wild — frenetic. Itchy fingers on hair triggers.

Jewish lay leadership should be thrown out on the dhimmi asses. They have failed an entire generation of slackers. (Atlas Shrugs)

And this video from Tom Trento, aslo of the Fort Lauderdale Palestinian demonstration.  Check out the woman with the “Nuke Israel” sign at 1:55 and ask yourself, “Fort Lauderdale?!”

Meanwhile, the (London) Times buys the Palestinian line:

Who or what is Hamas, the movement that Ehud Barak, the Israeli Defence Minister, would like to wipe out as though it were a virus? Why did it win the Palestinian elections and why does it allow rockets to be fired into Israel? The story of Hamas over the past three years reveals how the Israeli, US and UK governments’ misunderstanding of this Islamist movement has led us to the brutal and desperate situation that we are in now.

The story begins nearly three years ago when Change and Reform - Hamas’s political party - unexpectedly won the first free and fair elections in the Arab world, on a platform of ending endemic corruption and improving the almost non-existent public services in Gaza and the West Bank. Against a divided opposition this ostensibly religious party impressed the predominantly secular community to win with 42 per cent of the vote.

Palestinians did not vote for Hamas because it was dedicated to the destruction of the state of Israel or because it had been responsible for waves of suicide bombings that had killed Israeli citizens. They voted for Hamas because they thought that Fatah, the party of the rejected Government, had failed them. Despite renouncing violence and recognising the state of Israel Fatah had not achieved a Palestinian state. It is crucial to know this to understand the supposed rejectionist position of Hamas. It won’t recognise Israel or renounce the right to resist until it is sure of the world’s commitment to a just solution to the Palestinian issue.

This somehow makes ceaseless rocket attacks - with ever more sophisiticated, foreign-purchased rockets, somehow legitimate?  Elections are “fair and free” if Hamas orders the wholesale slaughter of Fatah members in the weeks leading up to the election?

And the fact that Palestinians voted for Hamas does not take away the fact that it is dedicated to the destruction of Israel and is responsible for countless terrorist attacks on innocent civilians.  How can we ignore all this and treat Hamas as if it doesn’t deserve to be retaliated against?

I have little optimism that 2009 - YOTO 1 (Year Of The One 1) - will make things better.  My wife shoveled aside her considerable knowledge of Obama today and said she hoped he just might be a Lightworker of some kind, able through the power of his personality to accomplish things others can’t.  To which I, regrettably, answered “hooey.”

The hatreds and history of the Middle East are too deep, the teachings of radical Islam too full of jihad, for mere mortals, even ones as charming as Obama, to overcome, so I’m afraid that 2009 will merely serve to teach us that we elected a man, not a demigod, and that we’re in for another hateful year.

T

he stories I’ve nominated for the dubious honor of receiving C-SM’s “Most Ridiculous Story of 2008″ fall into three camps:

Two are about women’s rights.  Gloria Steinem wails that America remains a backward, sexist hell-hole in Women Are Never Front-Runners.  Steinem’s piece, the only anti-Obama piece among the entries, seeths with anger that Hillary Clinton was not just handed the nomination.  Anne Glusker’s She’s A Kennedy, But She’s A Lot Like Us seeths with a similar anger - that a typical stay-at-home mom (that’s Caroline Kennedy) should be asked to have a resume that obviously qualifies her for a job.

Two are Obama worship pieces written during the primaries.  Michael Chabon’s Obama Vs. The Phobocracy posits that America runs on fear (hence, phobocracy), and that any opposition to Obama - any opposition at all - merely constitutes giving into fear and denying hope.  It’s hope-a-dope to the max.  Mark Morford’s Is Obama An Enlightened Being? is New Age wacky-a-dope to the max.  In it, Morford denegrates all religious feelings except those attuned to Obama and posits that The One is a Lightworker, a rare spiritual being who helps the human race to evolve.

And three are paranoid screeds against the Bush admin.  Libby Spencer’s When - Not If - Martial Law Is Declared seizes on an obscure FBI program and huffs and puffs until that program will bring about the imminent fall of freedom in America - and remarkably, she manages to utterly discount the threat of terrorism in the process.  Last year’s winner, Naomi Wolf, is back with another paranoid rant, The Battle Plan II: Sarah “Evita” Palin, The Muse Of The Coming Police State, in which she sees the Cheney/Rove cabal setting up Sarah Palin as the “Frankenbarbie” who will oversee the end of the American democracy.  Finally, Paul Abrams’ Why Rove Attacks Eric Holder: To Provide Cover for Bush’s Pardons supposes that the Bush Admin, fearful of mass arrests and convictions of everyone from Bush on down, is setting up Marc Rich pardoner Eric Holder as the fall guy in a scheme of mass pardons.

These are, by and large, not off-Broadway screeds; only Spencer’s martial law piece appeared in an outlet that could be called obscure (Newshoggers); the rest were published in mainstream outlets:  the NYT (Steinem), WaPo (Chabon and Glusker), the SF Wrongicle (Morford) and Huffpo (Wolf and Abrams).

You can get read more detailed summaries of the entries here.

Now, onto the winners.  Gloria Steinem was at least partially right: Pieces on women’s rights don’t come in first.  As ridiculous as her column and Glusker’s were, they simply weren’t important enough to win the award.  Steinem’s raison d’etre, like Jesse Jackson’s and Al Sharpton’s, is predicated on an America that doesn’t change and continues to victimize its minorities.  That’s ridiculous, but not ridiculous enough.  Glusker actually makes some great points, but in selecting Kennedy as her standard-bearer, she made a ridiculous choice … but not ridiculous enough.

I know a lot of folks were pushing for Morford’s piece to win, but I’m also discounting both of the Obama-worshipping pieces.  As ridiculous as they are, Morford and Chabon accurately portrayed the motivations of the large part of the electorate that accepted Obama based on feelings and symbolism.  If Obama had lost, I’d be picking between the two, and Morford with his Lightworker blather would certainly have risen to the top, but Obama won, making thier pieces not so much ridiculous but pathetic and troubling.

That leaves the inmates at the paranoia asylum.  Spencer did a masterful job of exploding a tiny FBI program into the crushing defeat of American freedom, thereby doing the best job of showing the left’s utter disdain for America’s resiliency.  Abrams was masterful in turning Holder/Obama negatives into a bug-eyed terror show starring Karl Rove - the sort of extremely deft blame-shifting that only the most paranoid leftist can muster.

But Wolf’s piece was far and away the most ridiculous, earning Naomi a two-fer and the  honor of being the only recipient thus far of C-SM’s Most Ridiculous Story of the Year award.

First, any reader will be awed by the sheer length of the piece and stand in wonder that Wolf was able to sustain her high-pitched wail for so long. Then there is the crazed creativity and ugly woman-hating feminism of the piece.  A lot of radical women embarrassed themselves by denigrating all the accomplishments of Palin - mom, businesswoman, successful politician, corruption fighter, alliance-builder - in a rush to not just reject her but hate her with a viciousness once reserved for male chauvinist pigs, but only Wolf was able to trump this vile intolerance by making Palin a priestess of darkness - or maybe just a Barbie doll - in the Cheney/Rove kabal.

In the course of telling her tale, Wolf embraces news reports of police actions, the goings-on at Palin’s church, Bush code words in Palin’s speeches, and even the quality of her mail delivery service to create a piece that puts the finest work of the 9/11 Truthers Liars to shame.  And to top it all off, the masterminds of this scheme ended up failing miserably - they couldn’t even get their Evita elected! - which makes Wolf’s piece deliciously ridiculous.

So with humility and awe, the 2008 Most Ridiculous Story of the Year award goes to two-time winner, and full-time crazy, Naomi Wolf.  Please keep your comments short, Wolf, or the band will start playing over you.

The full text of my original post on Wolf’s post follows.

O

ut with the old, in with the new … and read some really good stuff in the process.  The Watcher of Weasels has posted this week’s entries into the best o’ the blogs competition - a real marathon this time, starting in 2008 and not ending until 2009.

The entries cover some pretty monumental topics, but as  you read them consider the list of what happened on this date, Dec. 31, over the years, as posted by the Watcher, including these highlights:  The end of WWII (1946), Yasser Arafat’s first terrorist raid on Israel (1964) and, for those of you who are thinkin’ about drinkin’ tonight, the introduction of the “drunk-o-meter” breathalyzer in 1938.

Council Submissions

• The Provocateur - A Liberal’s View of Patriotism
• Joshuapundit - Gaza:A Tale Of Selective Morality and Tribal Warfare
• Cheat-Seeking Missiles - The Most Ridiculous Story of the Year - Part 7
• The Glittering Eye - Trust
• Bookworm Room - Hamas’ “Heroes” — and the need for total victory over evil
• Right Truth - WANTED: Politician to Represent Me
• The Colossus of Rhodey - The bar has been lowered SOOO far …
• Soccer Dad - Talkin’ turki
• The Razor - Walking In Israel’s Shoes
• Mere Rhetoric - Anti-Israel Partisans Set New Record For Decades-Old Trick Of Brazenly Rewriting History, Blaming Israel
• Rhymes With Right - What It’s All About

Non-Council Submissions

• Submitted By: The Provocateur - Forbes - A Nation of Wussies
• Submitted By: Joshuapundit - David Keyes/Commentary - Sderot under Seige
• Submitted By: Cheat-Seeking Missiles - Belmont Club - The People of the Shadows
• Submitted By: The Glittering Eye - Sippican Cottage - The Greater Fool Theory of Housing
• Submitted By: Bookworm Room - Melanie Phillips - Groundhog day for the fifth column of malice
• Submitted By: Right Truth - Front Page Magazine - A Caliphate ‘From the Red Sea to the Caspian’?
• Submitted By: The Colossus of Rhodey - Daled Amos - Notes on Today’s Conference Call on Gaza
• Submitted By: Soccer Dad - Yourish - Talkin’ Turki Part two
• Submitted By: The Razor - Weasel Zippers - Assorted Articles on Gaza Attacks
• Submitted By: Mere Rhetoric - Counterterrorism Blog - Jihad by the Shoe: Who Was Behind it and why?
• Submitted By: Rhymes With Right - The Anchoress - Workouts: Bush creepy; Obama a godling

Watcher’s Council members will submit their votes tomorrow evening, and you’ll find the results here Friday morning. Thanks, Watcher, for not spilling spiked eggnog all over the entries.

Like the headline? Me too, even though it’s not mine; it appeared in, of all places, the leftist rag The Nation. Most of Robert Dreyfuss’ article is claptrap of the usual Leftist sort, but in the middle of it all we find:

But the truly sad thing is see how Obama has opted out. He left the commenting to David Axelrod, his political strategist, who said, mouse-like: “I think he (Obama) wants to get a handle on the situation so that when he becomes president on January 20 he has the advantage of all the facts and information leading up to that point.” To that gobbledygook he added that now all-too-familiar nostrum that America has “one president at a time.”

Well, Dreyfuss, we do kinda have one president at a time, even if you accept a living constitution. But if you’re surprised Obama’s not saying anything, you didn’t follow the election of Mr. Mum very closely at all.

O

n New Year’s Eve morning, I’m planning to pick the most ridiculous story of 2008, selecting from among seven stories I earmarked during the year.  Your voice will be heard; review these synopses and let me know your pick.

The rules for the competition are simple: An entry must be presented by a serious writer in all seriousness, and it must go far, far beyond the sublime and settle heavily into the imbecilic.

January 8:  Women are never front-runners by Gloria Steinem

Every year is a great year for Steinem’s vintage whine, and this is one of her best vintages yet, written screeded after Obama won in Iowa:

Gender is probably the most restricting force in American life, whether the question is who must be in the kitchen or who could be in the White House. This country is way down the list of countries electing women and, according to one study, it polarizes gender roles more than the average democracy.

On and on she went, insulting every woman who’s done well for herself and refused to consider herself a victim.  Then she insulted herself:  Less than a day later, Hillary won the New Hampshire primary, proving Steinem’s entire piece … well, ridiculous.  Read my post here.

February 4: Obama vs. the Phobocracy by Michael Chabon

Chabon earned a Most Ridiculous nomination for writing in WaPo some nine months before the election that if you don’t agree the debate over who should be president is over — heck, even if you ask a single question about Barack Obama — you are against truth and mankind’s better nature, a gross purveyor of fear, and a dasher of hope.

Chabon dismisses every anti-Obama, pro-someone else position as a shutting out of hope, and therefore dismissable.  It turned out the American voters tended to agree with him, refusing to look for the real Obama, but his article is still ridiculous because of his position that America is a “phobocracy.”  He tells us that America’s sorry state isn’t “the fault of George W. Bush and his minions, the corporate-controlled media, the insurance industry, the oil industry, lobbyists, terrorists, illegal immigrants or Satan.”

No! It’s soylent green people! Specifically, us:

The point is that this mess is our fault. We let in the serpents and liars, we exchanged shining ideals for a handful of nails and some two-by-fours, and we did it by resorting to the simplest, deepest-seated and readiest method we possess as human beings for trying to make sense of the world: through our fear. America has become a phobocracy.

Yes indeedy. To paraphrase some other great champion of massive government, there is no reason to fear an Obama presidency except fear itself:  Read my post on Chabon’s ridiculous post here.

February 9:  When - not if - martial law is declared by Libby Spencer

Spencer must be chewing on her nails since she’s only got a couple weeks left for her prediction to become true.  (No she’s not; leftists never look back).  Here’s whay she wrote in Newshoggers in February:

I’ve taken a lot of criticism over the last year about my speculation that our government is preparing to declare martial law. Unfortunately, it looks like I’ll get the last laugh …

What’s she so freaked out over?  InfraGard.

“InfraGard?” you say? That’s a federal program that links business leaders in a town to an FBI agent in that town — a federal program that was created under the Clinton administration, a tid-bit that Libby seems to have missed.  After 9/11, the FBI expanded InfraGard’s charter from cyber- and business-related crime to broader assistance against homegrown terror.  And that flipped out Spencer.

Libby, of course, does not trust business, as evidenced by her conclusion to the constant left-wing question: Why isn’t everyone else as freaked out about this as I am?

Don’t count on seeing this reported in the mainstream media. I expect the major media conglomerates are also members.

Would that be the Jew-owned national media, Libby? The Bush-Rove-Israel axis of evil?

Drawing on ACLU sources - sure to be reliable, no? - Spencer reaches this conclusion:

This is how 9/11 changed everything. Our government created a “Surveillance-Industrial Complex.” Private contractors now have a license to kill Americans at will.

Oh.  That’s how 9/11 changed everything!  Ridiculous.  Read my post on Spencer’s post here.

June 10:  Is Obama an enlightened being? by Mark Morford

The cosmically blue eyes in Morford’s headshot for his Notes & Errata column in the S.F. Wrongicle are soft-focused to goofy spirituality perfection, just right for this ridiculously goofy contribution to this year’s Most Ridiculous competition.

It seems Morford has come across people - spiritual people,even! - who aren’t Ogaga over Obama.  How curious.  Fortunately, Morford has the answer:

I, of course, have an answer.  Sort of. Warning: If you are a rigid pragmatist/literalist, itchingly evangelical, a scowler, a doubter, a burned-out former ’60s radical with no hope left, or are otherwise unable or unwilling to parse alternative New Age speak, click away right now, because you ain’t gonna like this one little bit.

Ready? It goes likes this:Barack Obama isn’t really one of us.

Yeah, I know: Nothing ridiculous here. But wait, as they say on TV, there’s more:

Many spiritually advanced people I know (not coweringly religious, mind you, but deeply spiritual) identify Obama as a Lightworker, that rare kind of attuned being who has the ability to lead us not merely to new foreign policies or health care plans or whatnot, but who can actually help usher in a new way of being on the planet, of relating and connecting and engaging with this bizarre earthly experiment. These kinds of people actually help us evolve. They are philosophers and peacemakers of a very high order, and they speak not just to reason or emotion, but to the soul.

Conservative that I am, I’m not all that sure I want to evolve.  Call me ridiculous, but I’ll call Morford ridiculous … maybe even the most ridiculous. Read my post on Morford’s column here.

October 3:  The Battle Plan II: Sarah “Evita” Palin, The Muse Of The Coming Police State by Naomi Wolf.

Naomi Wolf has a leg up in this year’s competition since she won last year’s Most Ridiculous award with her column, Fascist America in 10 Easy Steps.  Like Libby Spencer above, Wolf is intent on America becoming a rightwing police state:

Please understand what you are looking at when you look at Sarah “Evita” Palin. You are looking at the designated muse of the coming American police state.

You have to understand how things work in a closing society in order to understand “Palin Power.” A gang or cabal seizes power, usually with an affable, weak figurehead at the fore. Then they will hold elections — but they will make sure that the election will be corrupted and that the next affable, weak figurehead is entirely in their control. Remember, Russia has Presidents; Russia holds elections. Dictators and gangs of thugs all over the world hold elections. It means nothing. When a cabal has seized power you can have elections and even presidents, but you don’t have freedom.

An affable, weak figurehead? You mean like Obama? No, she meant like Bush, and now Palin:

I realized early on with horror what I was seeing in Governor Palin: the continuation of the Rove-Cheney cabal, but this time without restraints. I heard her echo Bush 2000 soundbites (”the heart of America is on display”) and realized Bush’s speechwriters were writing her — not McCain’s — speeches.

Yeah, Naomi, sure - but we all know VPs have no real power, so why all the paranoia? Well, never underestimate the depth of paranoia suffered by leftists:

What’s the plan? It is this. McCain doesn’t matter. Reputable dermatologists are discussing the fact that in simply actuarial terms, John McCain has a virulent and life-threatening form of skin cancer. It is the elephant in the room, but we must discuss the health of the candidates: doctors put survival rates for someone his age at two to four years.

I believe the Rove-Cheney cabal is using Sarah Palin as a stalking horse, an Evita figure, to put a popular, populist face on the coming police state and be the talk show hostess for the end of elections as we know them. If McCain-Palin get in, this will be the last true American election. She will be working for Halliburton, KBR, Rove and Cheney into the foreseeable future — for a decade perhaps — a puppet “president” for the same people who have plundered our treasure, are now holding the US economy hostage and who murdered four thousand brave young men and women in a way of choice and lies.

Well all I can say is thank God Obama - who sicked DAs on anyone foolish enough to criticize him - won and we avoided all that. Ridiculous! Read my post on Wolf’s post here.

December 15:  Why Rove Attacks Eric Holder: To Provide Cover for Bush’s Pardons by Paul Abrams

Abrams, writing at HuffPo, tees off on a comment Cici Connolly, WaPo national politics writer, made in response to Chris Matthews’ “tell me something I don’t know” question on the largely unwatched Chris Matthews Show when she said,

“Word on the street is that Karl Rove is going to be helping lead the fight against Eric Holder when his nomination for Attorney General heads up to the Senate.”

Holder, of course, is responsible for giving the legal head-nod leading to Bill Clinton’s pardon of Marc Rich.  And Rove, of course, is responsible for all the evils in the world, according to current leftist ideology, so:

All Rove wants to do, and will succeed at doing, is to elevate public attention to his confirmation hearings where pliant Republicans will ask the same questions about Marc Rich over-and-over-and-over to shine the spotlight on Clinton’s egregious pardon.

Abrams doesn’t realize that Rove isn’t needed for this exercise.  The GOP can ask these questions all by themselves.  While Rove paranoia is ridiculous, it’s so commonplace that a raving exhibit of it hardly qualifies a column for Most Ridiculous stats - but this sure does:

In addition the Republicans will try to pin Holder down on whether he will prosecute the major rogue actors in the Bush/Cheney regime, but he cannot take that bait.

“Major rogue actors in the Bush/Cheney regime?” Where do I start? Regime?  Rogue?  Sorry, it was a twice-elected administration, not some tin pan regime, and as far as I know there are no outstanding criminal charges against any administration members, now that Libby has been nailed for the high crime of forgetfulness.

I don’t get it, but then I’m too sane to come up with Abrams’ ultimate scenario:

Of course, Bush will pardon them anyhow. Or, as I originally predicted, on January 19th, Bush will pardon Cheney and resign, and let Cheney pardon the rest of them, including Bush himself.

I’m not sure what the pardon will be for. Flying the planes into the WTC?  Sneaking into the Library of Congress and shredding the Constitution? Acting on UN and Congressional resolutions against Iraq?  Going seven years without another attack on US soil?  Ridiculous!

Read my post on Abrams’ post here.

December 29: She’s a Kennedy, But She’s a Lot Like Us by Anne Glusker

Because I think it’s great for mom and kid alike for mom to stay home with the kids, I admire Glusker for championing these moms and urging employers to see the beauty in their unconventional resumes.  But Caroline Kennedy as just another stay at home mom looking to get back into the workplace?

Yes, Kennedy, who is worth $100 million, is in Glusker’s eyes just another mom who decided to stay home with the kids, and now wants to go back to work!  Really:

Amid all the recent buzz about Caroline Kennedy’s bid for a U.S. Senate seat, there has been a great deal of talk about her connections, her power, her wealth. But the way I see it, if you strip away the glamour, the name and the money, then Caroline is . . . me. And many of my friends. Maybe even you. If, that is, you happen to be a midlife woman raising kids and returning — or thinking of returning, or hoping one day to return — to the full-time workforce.

Yes, I’ve heard the buzz about connections, but I call it dynasty-making.  Glusker sees it differently; to her it’s just the potential vs. performance split:

It works this way, according to Kathie Lingle of the Alliance for Work-Life Progress: “The guys in charge say, ‘Oh, John can do it, we know he can.’ They’re assessing his potential.” Whereas, when looking at a female job candidate, they’re likely to say: ” ‘Oh, Sue can’t do it; she’s never done it before.’ ” They’re basing their evaluation on her past performance.

Yep, that’s what’s holding Kennedy back from open-armed acceptance of Her Senatorship: the potential vs. performance split, entirely a guy/gal prejudice thing.  Of course the flaw in all of Glusker’s supposition is that Kennedy’s asking for a free ride to the U.S. Senate, where she’ll have committee assignments that matter to the nation and the world, and will be expected to represent her state during one of the most troubling times in U.S. history.  Glusker attempts to deal with this little matter:

Even though the job Kennedy is trying to nab is a far cry from the account executive or publicist positions that my friends might go after, the phenomenon at work is the same. The reaction seems to be: If she hasn’t followed a straight-and-narrow, logical path, we simply can’t imagine her in the role under discussion.

What’s ridiculous is that Glusker ridicules us for not accepting Kennedy as just another housewife wanting to return to work.  Read my post on Glusker’s column here.

Let me know your thoughts. I’ll be posting the winner tomorrow.

T

he Israeli Defense Forces are learning from the media-savvy Palestinians - they’ve created their own page on YouTube - IDF Spokesperson’s Unit - and filled it with videos showing the pin-point accuracy of their attacks and their targeting of terrorists.  Here’s video of the destruction of Hamas’ HQ:

And in a deft PR move, here’s a clip of an Israeli aid shipment to Gaza:

Unfortunately, the most popular clip - on that shows Hamas as the terrorists they are, and worthy of attack - was removed by YouTube.  Here’s Noah Pollak at Consensus:

[Showing] Israeli humanitarian aid deliveries to Gaza and airstrikes that prevented terrorists from firing rockets at Israeli civilians … was apparently too much for YouTube, which moments ago removed several videos from the IDF’s channel, including the most-watched video, which showed a group of Hamas goons being blown up in an air strike as they loaded Katyusha missiles onto a truck. The point of such footage, as if it needed to be said, is not to revel in violence — it is to show the legitimacy of Israeli self-defense.

The rank double-standard that YouTube has applied to Israel is disturbing. YouTube hosts all manner of similar footage — much of it far more gory than the grainy infrared images posted by the IDF — of U.S. air strikes. Why is YouTube capitulating to those who do not wish for Israel to be able to tell its side of the story?

Why indeed?

W

hen the NY Times offered Bill Kristol a slot as an op/ed writer, it was hardly a solid endorsement of Kristol’s conservative positions.  No, instead they gave him a one year contract.

The contract is now running out … in fact, today is Kristol’s one-year anniversary.  Over the last year, Kristol has written solid and provocative pieces in the grayer and grayer lady, offering a point of view that is not often presented to the NYT’s liberal readership.  Will he be able to continue?  There’s no word yet on that, but the NY media-tracking blog Fishbowl NY decided to run a survey asking, “Should he stay or should he go?”  Actually, they weren’t quite that unbiased in asking the question.  Here’s it in its entirety:

It’s hard to imagine them keeping Kristol, though they did hire him in the first place, so stranger things have happened. What say you readers? Should he stay or should he go?

Here’s what they said, as of 10:45 a.m. PST today:  26% “Yep, I’d keep him” vs. 74% “No way! Good riddance!”

Well, at least the tolerant and open-minded left wished  him good riddance … although I don’t think the stats would have changed very much with a “No way! May he rot in Hell!” option.

While Obama-mania runs rampant in Hawaii - without any calls for him to get back to reality and deal with Gaza - we come across this from Think Progress:

While Bush has been briefed on the situation by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley, he has opted not to interrupt his final vacation as president to make a public statement on the crisis.

And this from ABC News

:

Even an emerging crisis in the Middle East, one he pledged to resolve just 13 months ago, has not drawn President George W. Bush from his final vacation before leaving office.  Despite his personal pledge at Annapolis last year to broker a deal between Israel and the Palestinians before 2009, this weekend Bush sent his spokesmen to comment in his stead.

Despite his personal pledge?  What of Bill Clinton’s pledge? Or Carter’s? Or Reagan’s? Or Daddy Bush’s pledge?

Of course, if Bush were to make a statement from Crawford or head back to DC, these same folks would make little of it, ridiculing him as a lame duck or worse.  And even more certainly, anything Bush says, short of announcing troop deployment, neither Israel or Hamas would pay much attention.

L

et’s get right to the point:  California will soon be part of China or under Chinese influence. Texas and a cluster of nearby states will go to Mexico or fall under Mexican influence. Washington, D.C., and New York may soon join the European Union. Canada will grab a group of Northern states.  Hawaii will be a protectorate of Japan or China, and Alaska will be subsumed into Russia.

And when is all that going to happen?  Oh, around 2010 or so.  I just ordered Mandarin Chinese from Rosetta Stone.

The projected imminent fall of the U.S., a theory of Igor Panarin, a former KGB analyst and current dean of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s academy for future diplomats, is getting a ton of play in Putin’s captive national media - and increasingly, here.  There was a spurt of Drudge-driven posts back in November, and now the WSJ has picked up the story:

A polite and cheerful man with a buzz cut, Mr. Panarin insists he does not dislike Americans. But he warns that the outlook for them is dire.

“There’s a 55-45% chance right now that disintegration will occur,” he says. “One could rejoice in that process,” he adds, poker-faced. “But if we’re talking reasonably, it’s not the best scenario — for Russia.” Though Russia would become more powerful on the global stage, he says, its economy would suffer because it currently depends heavily on the dollar and on trade with the U.S.

Mr. Panarin posits, in brief, that mass immigration, economic decline, and moral degradation will trigger a civil war next fall and the collapse of the dollar. Around the end of June 2010, or early July, he says, the U.S. will break into six pieces — with Alaska reverting to Russian control.

Panarin’s theory dates back to 1998, and was pretty far-fetched in those robust times.  The current economy makes you tug your collar a bit - but it’s also taken the “mass” out of our immigration problem.  Moral degredation could well do us in - but that’s in God’s hands, and if moral degredation is a nation-ender, the Russians better look in the mirror.

In a recent article in Isvestia, Panarin laid out his theory yet again and summarily dismissed Obama’s ability to deal with it:

Americans hope President-elect Barack Obama “can work miracles,” he wrote. “But when spring comes, it will be clear that there are no miracles.”

Well, I can agree with Panarin’s assessment of Obama as no miracle-worker.  White House spokesperson Dana Perino was more subdued; she declined to comment when asked about Panarin’s theories.  But that’s just fodder for the anti-Bush conspiratists.