Columnist.
Last week the Washington Post ran a story attempting to portray presumptive Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney as a homophobic bully. Despite every effort to contain it, the story imploded, as factual inaccuracies came to light.
On Monday it was revealed that the CIA had thwarted a new al-Qaeda-sponsored terror plot hatched in Yemen. The scheme was brought down by a man said to have been a mole for the CIA and Saudi intelligence. After infiltrating the Yemeni cell, the agent enlisted in a suicide mission designed to bring down a U.S.-bound airliner, but turned over his equipment and intelligence once the plan was set in motion. The success of the counterterrorism mission -- a story full of intrigue, double agents and high-stakes deception -- is a testament to the prowess of U.S. defense capabilities, to be sure. Yet, the event also serves as a grim reminder that recent declarations by Obama surrogates suggesting that the war on terror is "over" have been overstated, to say the least.
When the jobs data were released last week, it was revealed that only 115,000 new jobs were created, well below the 165,000 predicted by the media-anointed economic "experts," and significantly below the 125,000 jobs-per-month pace required just to keep pace with the number of people entering the work force. Yet in an apparent paradox, the unemployment rate dropped from 8.2 percent to 8.1 percent. Presumptive Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney explains half of it. "There is something about that 8.1 percent figure you ought to know," he told a crowd at a town hall-style meeting in Cleveland yesterday. "You might assume that that number came down from 10 percent to 8.1 percent because of all the jobs that were created, and that assumption would be wrong. The reason that percent came down was because of all the people that dropped out of the workforce."
The University of California San Diego (UCSD) is the latest campus where false charges have been leveled at Israel defenders in order to advance the genocidal campaign against the Jewish State. A UCSD pro-Muslim student association, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), orchestrated what could be a potentially libelous campaign of false charges against a campus-wide elected member of the student government, Ashton Shahyad Cohen, and pro-Israeli professor, Shlomo Dubnov. What animated the campaign? Despite SJP attempts to obfuscate the issue, both men were targeted because they voted against an SJP-sponsored resolution demanding that UCSD divest itself of holdings in companies that do business with Israel. The resolution was brought before the UCSD Student Council on February 29, 2012. After seven hours of debate, it was defeated 20-13. Shortly after, both men came under attack.
It's not often that a man can have two important women in his life -- besides his wife. But then again, president Barack Obama is not an ordinary man. He is a man whose narcissism is so overwhelming that he can't imagine how genuinely creepy -- and utterly dishonest -- these two women make him appear. Who are these women? Only one has a name: Julia. The other woman? Let's call her exactly who she is: Ms. Composite Girlfriend (CG).
On Wednesday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously dismissed the case against former Bush administration lawyer John Yoo, filed by convicted terrorist Jose Padilla. "We agree with the plaintiffs that the unconstitutionality of torturing a U.S. citizen was 'beyond debate' by 2001," wrote Judge Raymond Fisher for the unanimous three-judge panel. "Yoo is entitled to qualified immunity, however, because it was not clearly established in 2001-03 that the treatment to which Padilla says he was subjected amounted to torture." Thus, Yoo cannot be held personally liable for what Padilla characterized as "gross physical and psychological abuse" he allegedly suffered during three-plus years of military detention prior to his conviction on other terror charges in 2007. "I am glad that the Ninth Circuit agrees that Padilla and other convicted terrorists shouldn't be allowed to use our own legal system to continue fighting against the United States," Yoo said.
Yesterday in the midst of the OWS May Day protests taking place around the nation, the U.S. Justice Department revealed exactly how far some of those associated with such protests are willing to go. In Cleveland, Ohio, five men who describe themselves as anarchists were arrested for their attempt to blow up the Brecksville-Northfield High Level Bridge that crosses the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, Steven M. Dettelbach, characterized the defendants as men who "took numerous and repeated acts that demonstrated a commitment to violent, terrorist acts." And despite efforts to distance themselves from these wannabe terrorists, Occupy Cleveland media coordinator Jacob Wagner admitted that "at least some of the five men" attended that group's events.
There is an economic paradox that few people understand, much less wish to acknowledge, because to do so would reveal the level of societal deterioration that has caused it. In simple terms, there are two schools of economic thought: one posits that massive amounts of government spending, aka stimulus in all its odious forms, is the only way to save an economy. The other posits that until massive over-spending by government is brought under control, aka austerity, economies over-burdened by debts and deficits will continue to founder. Who's right? There is merit to both arguments -- but only because we've reached the aforementioned level of societal deterioration. Let me explain.
On Friday, in yet another report tagged with the word "unexpected," economic growth in the United States slowed to a 2.2 percent annual rate, well below economists' predictions of 2.5 percent. This anemic trend represents part of the weakest economic recovery since the Great Depression. Most Americans understand that such a reality requires a certain amount of belt-tightening on their part. President Obama and the First Family? Not so much. A series of upscale vacations, substantial portions of which are underwritten by taxpayers, continue to be an integral part of the Obamas' lifestyle.
Last August, president Obama created an Atrocities Prevention Board. "Preventing mass atrocities and genocide is a core national security interest and a core moral responsibility of the United States of America," stated a presidential directive. He appointed Samantha Power, Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights, as chair. Ms. Power won a Pulitzer Prize for her book, "A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide." That's the good news. The bad news? Ms. Power is a leftist dedicated to moral equivalence with respect to the Middle East peace process: in 2002, she called for U.S. invasion of Israel and an American-imposed two state solution to the ongoing impasse between Israel and the Palestinians.
Muhammad Abu Shahala is a former Palestinian intelligence officer who, after reportedly being tortured, admitted committing a capital offense. As a result he has been sentenced to death. His "crime"? He sold his home in Hebron on the West Bank to Jews. Under Palestinian law, all that awaits Shahala's rendezvous with destiny is the approval of the sentence by Palestinian Authority (PA) president Mahmoud Abbas. Who is trying to save him? Jewish officials, who are attempting to get the international community involved.
Students who vocally call for the destruction of Israel have created a stir in Florida with their promotion of modern-day blood libels and lies demonizing the Jewish State. On March 30th, 200 mock eviction notices were placed on dorm-room doors by the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at Florida Atlantic University (FAU) in Boca Raton. "We regret to inform you that your home is scheduled for demolition shortly," begins the notice, which can be seen here. "You have three (3) days to vacate the premise persuant (sic) to code no. 208.2A or you will be subject to arrest. If you do not leave, we reserve the right to destroy your home. Anyone left inside is not our responsibility."
As I have said many times before, there are three types of Americans: the workers, the slackers and the fence-sitters. Inevitably the workers will always work, and the slackers will always be slackers. It is the fence-sitters who determine the overall tone of the nation. If more of them decide it is in their best interests to work, the nation is healthy. If they decide it's in their best interests to become slackers? Welcome to the essence of the 2012 election. Who's kidding whom? Absent shame, which has receded in direct proportion to the increase in moral relativism, promoting such concepts as dignity, integrity and self-reliance has become a gargantuan task. Some Americans are old enough to remember when going on the dole was something one did only when every other option became untenable. And even then, a certain degree of lingering shame accompanied that choice, along with an equal amount of determination to change course and return to being productive as quickly as possible.
Alice Kaplan's latest book, "Dreaming in French," illuminates a pivotal year in the lives of Jackie Kennedy, Susan Sontag and Angela Davis, each of whom spent time in Paris between World War II and the start of the Vietnam War. In his review of the book, the San Francisco Chronicle's Thomas Chatterton Williams contends that Angela Davis was the beneficiary of French intellectuals, whose works Davis had mastered, when they returned the favor by supporting her "against the racism of trumped-up charges she later would face." Williams is referring to charges Davis faced in a 1972 murder case for which she was acquitted. Trumped up charges? Historical revisionism at best, outright lying at worst. Yet "racist-motivated" or "trumped-up charges" has been a recurring motif used to defend a coterie of radical black criminals who, despite mountains of evidence against them, have also benefitted from the support of leftists. It is those same leftists who are determined to turn the Trayvon Martin case into another racially-motivated circus -- one where genuine justice takes a back seat to a leftist mob agenda.
On Monday in New York City, would-be jihadist Zarein Ahmedzay testified in Brooklyn federal court that co-conspirator Adis Medunjanin "was committed" to carrying out a wave of terrorist attacks in New York City. A third man, Najibullah Zazi, has already pleaded guilty to the plot that was unraveled by the New York Police Department (NYPD) and the FBI. On the same day, the Associated Press (AP) won a Pulitzer Prize for a series of stories "revealing the New York Police Department's widespread spying on Muslims." It was precisely such "spying" that thwarted several terrorist plots all designed to once again to kill untold numbers of innocent New Yorkers.
One can be forgiven for wondering what level of New Black Panther Party (NBPP) thuggery is sufficient to warrant the attention of Florida law enforcement officials or, seemingly, the most myopic U.S. attorney general to ever head the Department of Justice. On March 24th, New Black Panther Party leader Mikhail Muhammad offered a $10,000 bounty for the "capture" of Zimmerman and publicly stated that Zimmerman "should be fearful for his life."
Last time I checked, conservatives in general, and Republicans in particular, were racist Neanderthals engaging in a "war on women" as a hobby, which is not to be confused with their full-time jobs of screwing over the 99 percent by not paying their "fair share" of taxes. Thus, you can imagine my surprise when a couple of outbursts from the oh-so-tolerant precincts of the left upset the proverbial apple cart.
On Wednesday, when CNN's Anderson Cooper noted that "women are seeing jobs come back much more slowly than men are" and wondered whether there was anything wrong with the Romney campaign reaching out to women on economic issues, political strategist and mouthpiece for the Democratic Party establishment Hilary Rosen couldn't resist taking a shot at both Romneys. First up was Ann. "Guess what?" said Rosen. "His wife has never worked a day in her life" and therefore she was unqualified to champion women's economic concerns. Rosen hysterically linked this to Mitt being "so old-fashioned when it comes to women" that "he doesn't really see us as equals."
The so-called Republican "war on women" currently being trumpeted by Democrats (with ample help from an ever-accommodating media) has exposed the absurd depths of the leftist entitlement mentality and its disdain for the concept of religious freedom. It was highlighted by the testimony of Sandra Fluke, who contended that her birth control should be underwritten by others regardless of their religious convictions. Yet if war is defined as something that does genuine damage to the interests of women, it is Democrats, via the sexual revolution and its all-out attack on traditional values, who have waged a war against women for decades. What has the Democratic war on women brought us?
Another mockery of the free and open exchange of ideas has unfolded in Indiana. Last week, Purdue University Calumet had the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), along with anti-Israel activist Sefi Samuel speak on campus. Yet the university's history department, in conjunction with the local Jewish Federation, played a role in the cancellation of another speaker, Peggy Shapiro, two weeks ago. Ms. Shapiro is the Midwest director of StandWithUs, an organization "dedicated to informing the public about Israel and to combating the extremism and anti-Semitism that often distorts the issues." She was a special appointee to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council and is also the child of Holocaust survivors.
