Petraeus + Iowa = Excited Speculation

Update: This turned out to be a bad joke by Michael Goldfarb of The Weekly Standard. He deserves a blogsopheric flogging – here are the facts.

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uried at the very bottom of a Weekly Standard article about Gen. David Petraeus accepting an invitation to speak at Princton – more on that in a moment – was this enticing little add-on:

“THE WEEKLY STANDARD has learned that General Petraeus is planning on delivering the commencement address at the University of Iowa in 2010. Hmmm.”

Hmmm indeed.  That’s a little less than two years before the Iowa caucuses and it could be a meaningless coincidence, but Petraeus teaches his troops to consider the meaning of seemingly meaningless coincidences.

First, he affirmed Princeton’s request in just a few a few minutes, indicating that the general suddenly has an eagerness not just to be seen in public, but to be seen in a swirl of media attention.  You and the general both know that Princeton’s academics will fall all over themselves to see who can be the most obnoxious, unappreciative, seditious voice at that event, assuring Petraeus of plenty of coverage as he responds from far above the fray.

Second, why Iowa?  He has no known ties to the state, having been raised a few miles away from West Point, where he went upon graduation from high school.  Could it be that the slog to the White House starts in Iowa, typically in the spring a couple years before the election?

If the Obama camp is schooled in counterintelligence, the information before them would make them start planning for a presidential run by Petraeus.  What a race that would be! Son of an immigrant vs. son of an immigrant.  Patriot vs. promiser.  Protector vs. poser. Continue Reading »

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eaders of the WSJ and even the NYTimes have known for a while now that Maxine the Maxi-Lib Waters has been scamming the bailout, setting up a meeting between federal regulators and a bank seeking of her acquaintance that was $50 million in bailout funds. (Yeah, yeah – that seems like chicken-scratch, but it’s real money.)

So now, just a tad late, the LA Times has decided it ought to tell its readers about the latest round of nefarious actions by one of LA’s long-term Dem electeds.

Of course, they did it in a blog, not even in the online edition, and they didn’t really report the story; they just quoted the NYT:

Representative Maxine Waters, Democrat of California [that would be LA], requested the September meeting on behalf of executives at OneUnited, one of the nation’s largest black-owned banks. Ms. [Waters'] husband, Sidney Williams, had served on the bank’s board of directors until early last year and has owned at least $250,000 in stock in the institution. Treasury officials said the session with nearly a dozen senior banking regulators had been intended to allow minority-owned banks and their trade association to discuss the losses they had incurred from the federal takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. But Kevin Cohee, OneUnited’s chief executive, instead seized the opportunity to plead for special assistance for his bank, federal officials said.

Heaven forbid that Waters’ home town paper should let on to her constituents what she’s up to.

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hen John McCain said (astonishingly) that the economy was fundamentally sound, the mainly marginalized media couldn’t possibly have done more to trumpet his foolishness.  So, how much do you think they’ll make of this?

President Barack Obama on Tuesday likened the stock market to the daily tracking polls used during campaigns. He said tracking Wall Street’s “fits and starts” too closely could lead to bad long-term policy. (LA Times)

That’s all? Just a bunch of fits and starts, just a daily tracking poll, nothing to pay attention to when setting policy? The LA Times let it pass with no comment, but I can’t.  The stock market has lost half its value in two months – basically, a reaction to Obama’s policies – and that is not what any reasonable person would call “fits and starts.”

indices are not tracking polls; they’re the economy’s EKG; they’re how we track what our retirement will be like; they’re a numeric equivalent to our dreams, and our lifetimes of work.

The president should be pilloried for being so dismissive of the great damage he has done by adopting policies that have devalued our economy by trillions of dollars.  But as long as the media cling to their love affair, he will think he’s getting way with it.  But, most definitely, he is not.

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rom Flopping Aces, this little 8-minute film shows what we’re up against:  A well-documented record proving the Dems were at the wheel and in complete control of the economic collapse … while the GOP lies defeated and we live in Obamaland, where media complicitcy and Dem lies combine to keep the people duped.

The clip shows a Fannie and Freddy regulatory hearing where Dems are whistling “all is well” and blaming the regulators for politicizing the issue or for incompetence, while Republicans are calling for more regulation, becuase Freddie and Fannie are in danger of collapse, are mismanaged, and need needs to fixed.  This is not ancient history; it’s 2004, when Congress till had time to acknowledge the writing on the wall and take action that might have spared us the banking/mortgage meltdown.

You’ll particularly like Maxine Waters saying, “Under the leadership of Mr. Franklin Raines, everything … is working just fine,” and Barney Franks adding smugly, “I have seen nothing in this hearing that raises the safeness and soundness issue” at Fannie or Freddy.

That is the record.  We all know it is the record.  Yet the national media have so entirely given up on ethics that a substantial portion of the population firmly believes that it was Republican under-regulation that killed the economy, and the Dems, to continue the media-endorsed cover-up of their blame, continue adopting policies that further weaken America.

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iz Robbins, writing on the NY Times’ “The Lede/Notes on the News” blog, is by all indications a woman. As such, I’m sure she finds the cause of fighting domestic violence worthy of promoting tp the NYT’s readers. Heck, she can even focus on the particular problems the Muslim community has with men degrading their wives:

Even as Mr. [Mozzammil] Hassan, 44, [who beheaded his wife Aasiya] sits in jail under a suicide watch that has been considered only a precaution, said his attorney, James Harrington, the gruesome murder has provoked some soul-searching within the Muslim-American community about the role of women and domestic abuse within Islam.

Soul-search they must, as they’re believers in a religion created, expanded and propagated by men who treated women as not much different than livestock. (No wonder females are becoming popular as suicide bombers – they hurt the enemy with no discernable loss to the terrorists’ side!)

But Robbins must soul-search herself as well because she is giving Islam a pass on the larger issue of the despicable act of “honor” killing. Without even bothering to find a compliant Muslim to quote directly, she writes:

The Muslim-American community in Buffalo and around the United States has reacted with outrage over suggestions that this was a religiously motivated killing, an “honor killing” brought on by the shame of Mr. Hassan’s wife seeking a divorce. The Hassans were originally from Pakistan. Although some Muslim fanatical extremists have justified “honor killings” because of shame brought on a family, Islam is a peaceful religion, and does not condone such violence, Muslim-American leaders have repeated in the last week as the case drew more attention.

Not to put too fine an edge on it, but screw the Muslim-American community in Buffalo and around the United States. Who do they think they are, killing two daughters in Texas, one daughter in Georgia and now disgracing our shores by beheading a wife in New York just because they refused to become compliant cows? The Texas girls, shown here, dressed wrong so their dad shot them both.  The Georgia daughter wanted to divorce an abusive husband, so her dad killed her.  And Muzzammil Hassan, rather than face his own shortcomings (this would have been his third divorce), hacked off the head of the woman who, were he a Christian, he was bound by oath to God to protect.

We are America, not Pakistan or Yemen or some other sorry excuse for civilization. If our wives or daughters stray from the straight and narrow, we don’t kill them in the name of our righteous God . (Yes, all too often wives die at husbands’ hands in America – but in the name of anger and ego, not God, and we certainly don’t say their murder honors our God; we call it what it is – a vile and disgusting sin.)

We also don’t think much of newspapers that are so swift to attack the Catholic church for child-abusing priests, but are so completely unable to confront the evil in Islam.  Fortunately, the 50+ commentors on Robbins’ post aren’t buying her coddling of Islam; overwhelmingly they are tired of this religion and those who make excuses for it.  For example:

“Many Muslim-American organizations insist that honor killing is ‘Un-Islamic.’” Yet, many scholars of Islam equally assert that the Qu’ran as well as custom permits grave punishment for “disobedient” women.” The argument that Islam is a ‘religion of peace’ has grown so tiresome in the face of so much evidence to the contrary. – MPCT

True enough.  To true for the NYT.

Hat-tip: Soccer Dad

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ne week too late, the New York Times has finally published a story on the brutal beheading of Aasiya Hassan by her husband, owner of a TV network dedicated to proving that Islam is indeed moderate, a faith that’s ready for prime time in a civilized world.

The coverage starts off well, but rapidly deteriorates. Here’s the lead:

A man who founded a Muslim-American television station to help fight Muslim stereotypes is to appear on Wednesday in a suburban Buffalo court on charges that he decapitated his wife last week.

Kudos to the NYT; they put the newsworthy significance – beheadings and Muslim stereotypes – right in the lead, casting the story as it should be cast.  But then the story breaks down into a senseless defense of positive Muslim stereotypes:

The gruesome death of Ms. Hassan prompted outrage from Muslim leaders after suggestions that it had been some kind of “honor killing” based on religious or cultural beliefs.

Dr. Sawsan Tabbaa, a Muslim community leader who teaches orthodontia at the State University at Buffalo, said, “This is not an honor killing, no way.”

Dr. Tabbaa added, “It has nothing to do with his faith.”

They are not outraged that she was beheaded. They are not outraged that Islam tolerates such behavior – it is, after all, the only religion in the world whose followers routinely behead people in the name of its god. They are merely outraged that someone would consider Aasiya Hassan’s death an honor killing.

But let’s look at it, shall we?  Aasiya was divorcing Muzzammil, and that’s just not allowed in enlightened Islam.  Men can divorce women easy as pie, but women divorce men? No way.  So she – she, a mere woman – was bringing shame to Muzzammil.

Now, he could have shot her, or strangled her, or crushed her skull with a tire iron or done any of a number of other well established American ways to kill in a fit of passion.  But instead, he did something almost unique to Islam – he beheaded her.  This is no easy feat.  It’s time-consuming, difficult, and very, very personal.

You behead someone not to kill them, but to send a message.  And the message Mazzammil Hassan was sending was simple:  I will not be dishonored!

The NYT, after waiting a week to cover the story, has made itself complicit in covering up the true nature of the crime.

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s I reported this morning, the NY Times is not covering the beheading of an upstate NY Muslim woman by her husband – even though it’s a state story, even though he owns a TV network designed to overturn “stereotypes” of Islam … and even though IT’S A BEHEADING FOR GOODNESS SAKE!

My lib friend Dan Chmielewski chides me for chiding the NYT:

Being from Upstate NY, I hope you’ll give me some creds here. But unless is a major story, like the plane crash, the New York Times is not going to cover a local crime story which is what this is. Wonder why you didn’t blog on this story …

… and he links to a Fox News story on Jim Adkisson,a Tennessee truck driver who pled guilty last Monday to killing two people and wounding six others at a church because he considered the liberal church “a den of un-American vipers.”

Not wanting to disappoint Dan (who, I’m sorry, gets no cred for being from upstate), I am blogging on that story, but not as he would want me to.  I just re-checked the NYT, and it still has not posted a story on the upstate beheading murder, but lo and behold, it has run no fewer than three stories on Jim Adkisson’s case … way the heck out there in Tennessee:

• Hatred Said to Motivate Tenn. Shooter (July 28, 2008)

• Hate for Liberals and Gay People Drove Gunman, Police Say (July 29, 2008)

• National Briefing – South – Tennessee – Guilty Plea in Church (Feb. 10, 2009)

The July 28 article dedicated a full 28 paragraphs to the story, and the rehash on the 29th managed to come up with 16 more. Last week’s update on the guilty plea was just a paragraph.  Here’s the lead of the the first story:

A man who the police say entered a Unitarian church in Knoxville during Sunday services and shot 8 people, killing two, was motivated by a hatred for liberals and homosexuals, Chief Sterling P. Owen IV of the Knoxville Police Department said Monday.

“It appears that what brought him to this horrible event was his lack of being able to obtain a job, his frustration over that, and his stated hatred for the liberal movement,” Chief Owen said of the suspect, Jim D. Adkisson, 58. “We have recovered a four-page letter in which he describes his feelings and the reason that he claims he committed these offenses.”

The Chmielewski theory that the NYT doesn’t bother with local crime stories elsewhere falls apart here, since two killed with a shotgun, even in a church, isn’t as newsworthy as one person killed by beheading, Muslim or not.  No, what makes it newsworthy is that Adkisson had a “stated hatred for the liberal movement.”  Had a Unitarian shot up a Baptist church because of a “stated hatred of the conservative movement” – newsworthy as that would be on its face – rest assured the NYT wouldn’t have covered it.

The conclusion is irrefutable:  The NY Times will take any opportunity it can to discredit conservatives, particularly conservative Christians, and it will avoid any opportunity to paint Muslims in a negative light.

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Porkasaurus Summary

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here is still hope – students in Boulder, Colorado aggressively turned back a proposal to rename their high school Barack Obama High. But pore through the 1,000+ pages of the stimulus spending bill, and a sense of hopelessness becomes overwhelming.

As a small business owner, I see nothing in Obama’s largess to help me, even though we all know that small business s the primary job generator.   I don’t want a government handout, but …

The government’s economic stimulus plan doesn’t include many provisions that directly benefit small businesses, but economists say those companies are more likely to find a cure for their financial ills closer to home _ with their own customers.

The plan does extend two provisions of 2008′s economic stimulus bill that allow small businesses to take a bigger upfront deduction for the cost of new equipment. But companies whose sales are hurting may be reluctant to make big expenditures, putting those tax breaks out of reach. (source)

We’re trying to shed leased equipment; we’re hardly in the market to buy it.  So it’s a zero there.  Then let’s look into what a bill purportedly about economic stimulus does for that scandal-plagued friend of Obama, ACORN:

The total amount of money for which groups like ACORN would be eligible in the bill is $4.2 billion, under a provision for “neighborhood stabilization activities.”  According to the bill, the money can be utilized by state and local governments and also “nonprofit entities or consortia of nonprofit entities.”

ACORN can possibly collect more money under this legislation that it has over the past 15 years, and you can bet that ACORN is expert at accessing those funds. (source)

And as I’ve written previously, the spending bill is the official kick-off for universal health care, quoting Bloomberg:

Tragically, no one from either party is objecting to the health provisions slipped in without discussion. These provisions reflect the handiwork of Tom Daschle, until recently the nominee to head the Health and Human Services Department.

Gun owners are concerned that the health care provisions of the stimulus bill will be used against gun owners:

But of even greater concern to gun owners is the fact that a government-coordinated database (which government can freely access) will now contain all records of government-provided and private psychiatric treatment -– including, in particular, the drugs which were prescribed. (source)

The green industry – which employs relatively few and offers products that are not popular – loves the bill …

“I think what we’re seeing in the final bill is the best of the House bill combined with the best of the Senate bill (and) provides a strong boost for renewable energy, and solar in particular,” said SEIA President Rhone Resch. (source)

… but the housing and auto industries, which absolutely must get back on their feet if we are to get out of the recession, isn’t:

Instead of reducing the rampant non-stimulus spending in the bill, House-Senate negotiators …Cut $35.5 billion in tax incentives to boost the housing industry and encourage Americans to buy homes. The Senate bill included a provision to give Americans a $15,000 tax credit to purchase a new home, but negotiators reduced the credit to $8,000, only allowed it for first-time homeowners, and limited the relief to purchases made by this August.

[Negotiators also] cut $8.5 billion in tax incentives to boost auto sales and put Americans back to work. The Senate bill included a provision to allow Americans to deduct from their income taxes both the sales tax from a new car purchase and the interest on the auto loan. Negotiators eliminated the loan interest write-off – the bulk of the incentive – and instead allowed the sales tax deduction to remain. What was a $1,500 tax benefit was slashed to about a $300 benefit, not really enough to encourage someone to buy a new vehicle. (source)

And all this crazy, useless misspending is happening when the nation’s deficit in 2008 was a mind-numbing $455 billion.  No; check that – it was $5.1 trillion before Porkasaurus, because the budget should be figured on an accrual basis to compensate for known future payments, not on a cash basis, which ignores little things like future Social Security payments. Continue Reading »

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t’s 2:18 P.M. PST and do you know where Tom Daschle is? I know where he should be following the revelation that he, like Tim Geithner, is a tax dodger. Tom and Tim; how sweet. How crooked. He should be at the top of the page, the lead story – but gosh, it’s hard to find him there.

The NYT home page at this hour has him, but it’s buried at the bottom of the page, a link that doesn’t exactly explode with outrage: Daschle Pays 3 Years of Tax on Use of Car. No mention of overstating charitable contributions or failing to pay tax on consulting income. (In the print edition, the story was above the fold, but liberal NYT readers didn’t care enough to make it one of the most-read stories of the day.)

WaPo, being the house organ of American politics, does a little better.  The story is a sub-story under “Gregg on tap for Cabinet,” near the top of their home page.  The headline:  Nominee Daschle Owed Back Taxes. That’s better – and it’s also WaPo’s most viewed story.

The once mighty LA Times, the only east coast paper on the west coast, has the story on the first screen of its home page under the headline Daschle failed to pay $128,000 in taxes.  It’s the LAT’s sixth most downloaded story … but you know that Suleman woman just had octuplets here.

So what have we learned?  Nothing new.  The NYT is a sewer of liberalism intent on protecting Obama at all costs.  And its readers, so engaged in attacking Bush in the name of American ideals, is on board with Pinch and the bunch.

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hese are the people we need now: people who represent everyone in Iraq and have no sectarian bias.” – Zaid Abdul-Karim, 44, an Iraqi government employee voting in today’s provincial elections.

“I just voted and I’m very happy. We could not do the same thing the last time because of the insurgency.” – Mukhalad Waleed, 35, Ramadi, the capital of Anbar Province.

“We were not able to vote during the 2005 elections because of the deteriorating security situation. But now we feel safe enough to go out and vote.” – Ahmed Jassim, 19, from Baqouba, in violence-prone Diyala Province.

“[This vote is] “very important.  I want to ensure my future and the future of my children.” – Yaqdhan al-Hassani, 36, Baghdad, a married father-of-three.

“I feel great.  I feel like I am doing this for Iraq.” – Ali al-Fayath, 18, who has just turned old enough to vote.

“I am so happy. I chose the person that will represent me.” – Raad al-Shimari, 30, Baghdad

Of course all these news reports included some quotes from people frustrated by the voting process and there were scattered anti-American quotes to be found as well (NYT, anyone?), but all balanced the negative with positive.  Well, my bet is that “balanced” is a gross overstatement, that reporters had to work hard to find negative quotes and cull through reams of positive quotes to select one or two.

All of the stories reported on a lack of violence during the voting – just one incident of a couple injuries when police fired to stop people from carrying cell phones into the polling booth, since cell phones can be used to trigger bombs. As could be expected, all of the MSM stories skirted the obvious, never coming right out and stating the obvious:  In the last elections, al-Qaeda orchestrated an unsuccessful campaign of terror in an attempt to keep people from voting.  In this post-surge election, al-Qaeda was gone, vanished, irrelevant.

Here’s what they’re all avoiding saying: We won. We planted a functioning and popular Democracy in Iraq.

Sources: AP, NYT, Times of London, Int. Herald Trib, WaPo.

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