Blogs For Victory

With the grim backdrop of the events in Iran, Netanyahu lays out his position:

…he came to the headline-making crux of his speech, his statement of what he, as prime minister and longtime right-wing leader, would be willing to accept if the Palestinians were to live up to his demands on them.

“In our vision,” he said, tensely and grimly, “we see two states side by side, each with its own flag and anthem. … We must make sure that the Palestinians cannot create an army. We cannot be expected to agree to a Palestinian state without receiving guarantees that it will be demilitarized. We ask the international community for an express commitment that the Palestinian state’s area will be demilitarized with effective measures — not like the ones in Gaza.”

Having then made that historic concession — first and foremost, to Obama — Netanyahu turned to the other bone of contention with the U.S. administration: the settlements.

Here — apart from the considerable ground Israel has already given in recent years — he gave no further ground, stating: “We do not intend to build new communities or expropriate land. But fathers and mothers in Judea and Samaria must have the possibility to let their children live beside them. The settlers are not enemies of the people; they are a pioneering, Zionist, values-oriented public. They are our brothers and sisters.” A direct rebuff, then, to the U.S. administration’s repeated calls for an end to “natural growth,” its implicit characterization of Jewish life — and procreation — in Judea and Samaria as near-criminal.

And that is a large concession, the allowance for a Palestinian State; as the linked article goes on to note, the mere utterance of those words is causing Netanyahu trouble in his political coalition. I think he’ll be able to ride the storm because any alternate government in Israel would be less firm than Netanyahu, but the fact remains that Netanyahu went a long way towards Obama’s position. And now it is the Palestinian’s turn.

The key to peace in Israel is for the Palestinians to have leaders who do not make their living by fanning hatred of Israel as a cover for their brutal and corrupt rule. This is the bare bones truth – its not about religion or 1947 or incursions in to Gaza or Israeli communities outside Israel’s 1967 borders…it is about the determination of a small clique in the Palestinian community to rule the roost unchallenged. The sooner we stop thinking that the goons in charge of Gaza are other than a heavily armed mafia, the quicker we’ll arrive at a solution. They must stop – there must be a cessation of any attempts to use hatred of Israel and/or Jews as a means of cementing the control of a few thugs.

To me, it comes down to the Palestinians turning out their leadership or us carving out a new territory for them in parts of Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt. Israel deserves peace. Israel has gone far to secure peace. There’s not much more Israel can do outside of the fact that Netanyahu has agreed, in principle, that one part of his nation will be only 9 miles wide with sworn enemies on the other side of the border. Imagine us being willing to make peace by having Washington, DC three quarters surrounded by enemies and those enemies only 9 miles away from the most vital part of the United States – that is the sort of concession Israel has given. Now its time for the Palestinians to do their part.

The liberal fascists are at it, again:

In an echo of tactics employed against true marriage supporters in California and elsewhere, a Washington state homosexualist website is threatening to publish the names and addresses of individuals signing a referendum to overturn a new homosexual civil unions law.

The tactic centers around efforts by Protect Marriage Washington to gather signatures for Referendum 71, which would bring into voter’s hands a newly-passed law that grants all the rights of marriage to same-sex couples, minus the name. The group has until July 25 to collect 120,000 signatures supporting the ballot initiative.

WhoSigned.org, which has teamed with KnowThyNeighbor.org, vows to create a searchable database of the names of all Referendum 71 signers, along with the amount they gave and their place of employment. It is unclear whether their home addresses will also be published. The latter website has supported similar projects in Oregon, Florida and Arkansas.

Murphy says the purpose of exposing the names is to foster “conversation” between the opposing groups.

“We believe the process for initiative and referendum petitions that maintain discrimination by opposing equal rights and protections for Washington State residents must meet a high standard of transparency to ensure a fair and open discussion in the public forum,” wrote Brian Murphy, the creator of WhoSigned.org.

Murphy explained to the Seattle Post Intelligencer: “We hope when they find names of people who are familiar to them, that when at the grocery store or the soccer field or just mowing their lawn, that’s a chance to have a conversation.

“If you want to sign (Referendum 71), you have the right to sign that, but be aware there are probably people who live near you, people you know, who would want to come and talk to you about what that means to them.”

Which is, of course, a lie – what Murphy wants is to intimidate people into not signing, so that there won’t be a democratic vote on the issue, because Murphy knows his side will probably lose. Who would go to such a website to see if their neighbors signed? Only fanatics who want to do something nasty – and as everyone can easily see that is who would avail themselves of the website, the easy way out is just to not sign…especially if you’ve got kids you don’t want exposed to hatred, or property you don’t want exposed to vandalism.

This is a very insidious act and it will be very difficult to combat – the people who do this sort of disgusting deed need not expose themselves. Murphy can be sued if anything bad happens, but he’d be the last person to suffer such a fate…all other future attempts will be done anonymously, if any action is taken against the people who set this up. We can, perhaps, change laws to forbid the release of signature names for a number of year after being gathered – but activists within government would probably leak them, anyway.

It is in our anonymity that our democratic system works – we don’t have secret ballots just for the heck of it, ya know? They’re secret precisely to prevent such intimidation. We need to work out a way to make signing a petition as secret as voting – perhaps we can have petitions placed in voting booths and registered voters can sign or not sign anonymously? It needs thought, because we can’t allow liberal fascists to get away with this sort of thing.

Its hard to do, but it must be done:

“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?”

He said to him, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.” – Matthew 22:36-40

In the olden days, it was good to be the king – you could pretty much do what you liked. In today’s world, we’ve done away with that sort of thing but there are still ways mini-kings in the United States Senate can have some fun:

As U.S. stock markets plummeted last September, the Senate’s No. 2 Democrat, Dick Durbin, sold more than $115,000 worth of stocks and mutual-fund shares and used much of the money to invest in Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

The Illinois senator’s 2008 financial disclosure statement shows he sold mutual-fund shares worth $42,696 on Sept. 19, the day after then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke urged congressional leaders in a closed meeting to craft legislation to help financially troubled banks. The same day, he bought $43,562 worth of Berkshire Hathaway’s Class B stock, the disclosure shows…

Naturally, Durbin’s spokesman says it was all just a coincidence – it just so happened that Durbin decided to sell out right after receiving a briefing, but its not like what he learned at the briefing helped Durbin make the decision. I mean, that would be absurd – that would be an example of a liberal Democrat being a crook, and we know – ’cause our liberal Democrats say so – that saintly liberals who fight for the little guy never do things like that. We must remain vigilant in these matters to ensure that no one takes a liberal Democrat the wrong way – of course, if anyone out there has heard of a Republican doing this, please inform the FBI as we’ll have to criminally prosecute him, and anyone he’s ever been connected with.

With the increasing temperature in what is, so far, a war of words, the point has now been reached for a vigorous, US-led diplomatic effort to defuse this crisis before it gets out of hand. The trouble is, in the Obama Administration there isn’t the foggiest notion of what constitutes diplomacy.

To Obama and his Democrats, “diplomacy” means “talk, sign agreement, obtain Nobel Peace Prize” – the trouble is that regimes like that of North Korea will talk for ever and sign whatever agreement you like…but diplomacy is not about talking and coming to an agreement, but in obtaining the desired international result without resort to war. Our desire – our only true policy vis a vis North Korea – is to de-fang the regime and terminate its nuclear program. The art of diplomacy is figuring out what means will be necessary to achieve our desire.

There are various means possible for us to obtain our desire short of war:

1. Economic sanctions.

2. Blockade.

3. Special Forces decapitation of the North Korean regime.

4. Bribery.

5. Determine who can force change within North Korea, convince them we are serious.

Economic sanctions – the route the UN is going – is the least effective means as North Korea doesn’t have an economy in a lot of respects. Additionally, the NK regime is entirely uninterested in how much the people of NK suffer. As long as there is sufficient food to supply the security forces, the NK regime is ok with whatever else happens.

Blockade would be ineffective for the same reason economic sanctions – there’s not much to blockade, other than the export of nuclear weapons materials.

Decapitating the NK regime would be an effective means of ending the crisis – it would either cause the implosion of the NK regime or, at the least, force the successors to understand that their lives are at stake if they go too far in offending the United States. Trouble is, the NK regime appears very well protected against direct attack. There might not be an effective means of using our special forces.

Bribery is a worthwhile thing to think about – and it works in conjunction with all other possibilities. As in all tyrannical ruling classes, the upper echelon is addicted to luxury and special privileges. For a couple billion dollars, we might very well be able to buy our way out of the trouble, at least in part.

In my view, the best thing to do is to find out who can effect change within NK – it appears to me that China has a great deal of pull in NK and appears to like having a NK regime around to scare up trouble for the United States and Japan at a moment’s notice. I also get the distinct impression that China would not want to have a unified, democratic Korea on its border – just too much danger of people on the Chinese side of the border wondering why they can’t be free, too. If we can convince the Chinese to pressure the NK regime we might accomplish our goal without war.

The key to this is to state our demands, insist they are unalterable, and then set up a conference of all concerned parties in order thrash the matter out. As China and North Korea don’t want war, they will give in if we convince them we are serious – end the NK nuclear program, or we fight. If it turns out that China doesn’t have sufficient influence in NK, then we’ll find that out – and that would be worthwhile in and of itself because then, if China can’t convince and the NK regime refuses to yield then the way would be open at least for US air strikes in NK’s known nuclear sites, if it comes to that.

Will we get anything like a clear and courageous policy from Obama? I doubt it – he lacks the understanding of history, the world and the reality of the situation to even understand what he’s dealing with, let alone develope a cogent policy. More than likely, we’ll drift along and eventually have some sort of worthless deal, much ballyhooed in the MSM, that will temporarily put the issue on the back burner…until NK decides to roll the nuclear dice, again.

Michael Totten has an excellent run-down of all the events in Iran over the past couple days, from all sides of the political spectrum. The bottom line seems to be that there is a great deal of outrage over the official results of the election, mass demonstrations, clashes with the police and “move along, nothing to see here” propaganda from the regime.

Will this turn in to a revolution? One can pray that it will – but for too long we’ve seen the Iranian regime manage to contain these proto-revolutionary outbreaks due to the ability to hire foreign goons and a residual level of support among enough Iranians to surmount the crisis. My bet is that the mullahs will remain in charge – with oil prices getting hire, the mullahs will have the cash to pay for the suppression of the Iranian people, as well as bribe some Iranian people off the streets.

Cynthia Yockey explains:

Sebastian Gray at HillBuzz has been giving lessons this week on how to get David Letterman fired for his rape jokes about Gov. Sarah Palin’s 14-year-old daughter, Willow.

Today he has a post explaining that Republicans do not have the same tenacity as Democrats in working the system to get what they want — in this case, persuading CBS to fire David Letterman. He is correct. However, there is a bonanza of empowerment in it for Republicans if we make this a fight we are determined to win.

Sebastian says it will take 30 days of daily letter-writing to CBS and Letterman’s advertisers. That’s because for the first two or three weeks, they’ll just wait for the tempest to blow over. Not only do we have to keep it up, we have to make it build. This is our line in the sand. Letterman MUST BE FIRED NOW!!!

I hope you read Sebastian’s entire post because if you do, it will totally change how you advocate for yourself and your causes…

Some might recall that some years back Dr. Laura was slated to start a television version of her highly successful radio program – given the popularity of her radio show, it seemed a given that she’d have a very profitable show on television. Thing is, though, she had made some mildly critical statements about homosexuality and the gay rights activists, on the whole, were determined that her point of view not be seen on television. By a relentless pressure campaign, the activists eventually got the television network to cancel Dr. Laura’s show. More recently, in the firing of Ms. California for daring to hold President Obama’s position on gay marriage we see, again, how absolutely implacable leftists can be – there is no let up until they get what they want. So, I can see the point – a relentless pressure campaign directed at CBS and Late Show advertisers, if really carried forward without a hint of let-up, might very well get Letterman fired.

The question is: do we want to be like that? Perhaps, but not in this case. I think we’ve already sufficiently discomfited Letterman and can let the matter drop – I’d much rather we started getting relentless on, say, forcing Jack Murtha to resign. Letterman would just be replaced by his like, Murtha would be an object lesson, and would also be replaced – almost certainly – by a Republican. Letterman did a stupid joke and he doesn’t fully understand what he did wrong – more than likely, among the people he hangs out with there’s not a single person who doesn’t despise Sarah Palin and so, for Letterman, heaping slurs upon her and her family is perfectly ok. Letterman is, hopefully, learning that there is an America outside of his social milieu and, just perhaps, a bit more sensitivity to it and he might have a shot at beating the Tonight Show in the ratings war. Carson and Leno managed to skewer all manner of conservatives and Republicans but were and remain people respected and, in the case of Carson, beloved in memory.

It could be that for Letterman the furies are turning against him – that, after years of listening to him insult President Bush this insult to Sarah Palin is just the straw which broke the camel’s back. Perhaps, also, if he hit out at Obama a bit more then this slur on Palin would be forgiven – we all like to see our politicians raked over the coals a bit, but there are no sacred cows in politics…just ’cause Obama is the first black President it doesn’t mean he’s not as worthy of satire as any other President. Alternately, Letterman could just lay off politics and find other places for the genesis of his jokes.

Memo to Obama:

In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men the great difficulty lies in this: You must first enable the government to control the governed, and in the next place, oblige it to control itself. – Alexander Hamilton

Ed. Note: This was among the papers of George Childs Noonan, Jr. upon his death and was written by his father, George Childs Noonan, Sr., at a date uncertain. Given the sort of paper it is typed upon and the sort of print, it was probably written some time prior to 1970. It is incomplete, comprising 17 type-written pages. Whether there ever was anything else to this biographical essay is unknown.

I’ll never forget my first shot at the jackpot – it was back in 1926. Red Grange, the “Galloping Ghost” was the big attraction in professional football breaking attendance records wherever he played. Time after time, in college at the University of Illinois and later in big time pro ball, he’d take the ball on the kickoff and snake through for a touchdown. The fans loved him.

Red Grange and his team were headed for the Los Angeles Coliseum to play against a west-coast all-star team. C.C. “Cash and Carry” Pyle was Grange’s advance man, promoter and manager. It was his job as advance man to get to Los Angeles early and recruit a team to play against Red Grange’s team. At the time there was no pro team in Los Angeles, but there were enough ex-college players around who were only too anxious to play and make an extra buck.

Back in 1921-1923 I had made a meagre livlihood playing semi-pro baseball and, in season, “amateur” ice hockey for the Illinois Athletic Club. I also played football in the newly formed National Professional Football League. I played a game or two for Leo Lyon’s Jeffersons at Rochester, New York, and quarterback on the Hammond Pros out of Hammond, Indiana.

The players in the pro league in those days, generally, were by no means as big and fast as today’s pros. The game itself, however, was about the same, except that it was not nearly so much dramatized by the “long bomb” to excite spectator appeal. The pro game of the 20s though was perhaps more rough and tough than today’s game – we had no platoon system and played straight through, both defense and offense, for the full sixty minutes except for the half-time rest.

We had no face guard. No insurance. No medic in attendance on the sideline. The going rate of pay was $150 a game, though an All-American drawing card like Jim Thorpe, the big Indian, might get a little more; and I read somewhere that Red Grange the Immortal Galloping Ghost ended up with earnings in excess of $300,000 from pro ball and topped that with an additional $3,000,000 from movie contracts.

So having played pro ball in the National Professional Football League I knew a little something about the game and how to communicate with another football player; and I had a strong hunch that Red Grange would pack ’em in at the Coliseum. I set out to beat “Cash and Carry” to the punch and sign up a team to oppose his and to do it before “Cash and Carry” arrived in L.A.

At the time I was an unemployed motion picture writer and gag man. At least I tagged myself as such. I had been unemployed without any income for some time past and was completely tapped out. To go ahead with my idea to sign up every available football player on the West Coast it would be imperative that I take on a financial partner and quick – someone who would be willing to pick up my delinquent hotel bill and front for me. It would have to be some well known personality highly respected in the community and a person of unquestionable financial capability. I was living at the old Christie Hotel (now called Hollywood Inn) located on Hollywood Boulevard a few steps form Grauman’s Egyptian theater.

It struck me like a lightening bolt – Sid Grauman was my man. It would be a natural for him – he would flip for the publicity value alone. The great showman couldn’t say NO to a Sid Grauman spectactular, a half-time extravaganza. I was right. Mr. Grauman agreed to front for me – he picked up my delinquent hotel tab and paid a month in advance. I worked day and night and signed up every available ex-college star on the West Coast – they signed up on the basis of pay AFTER the game.

Somewhere along the line I got a phone call from Jack James, sports writer for the old Los Angeles Herald and Express. He asked me to come to the paper and urged me to donate part of my end of the gate for the benefit of the police and fireman’s fund – he said it would be to my advantage financially. I made a fatal mistake in not taking his advice – you’ll see what I mean.

A few days before “Cash and Carry” arrived in Los Angeles, I was having a late snack in Henry’s cafe on Hollywood Boulevard. I was sitting with Syd Chaplin, Charlie Chaplin’s brother, or should I say half-brother. In came Sid Grauman with Charlie Chaplin. When they were seated Mr. Grauman waved me to their table, “Charlie”, he beamed, “this is the young man who signed up all the star football players to play against the great Red Grange team”. Chaplin look up, “Who”, he asked, “is Red Grange?”…that did it.

Next day I had my usual meeting with Mr. Grauman at his theater. It wasn’t long in coming; “Georgie, I’m not so sure about our Red Grange promotion – you heard what Charlie said last night – he never heard of Red Grange – maybe a lot of people here on the West Coast have never heard of him – the game may lay an egg and I can’t be connected with a floperoo, y’know – I’m sorry Georgie, but I’ll have to bow out.”

“Cash and Carry” had checked into the Biltmore Hotel. I took the Sunset Boulevard bus downtown to see him. I showed him my player contracts and he made a verbal deal with me for 40% of the net receipts. Later it developed he was unable to come to terms with the Coliseum – something about local politics and he being an outsider. Without Grauman in the picture, I was helpless and was forced to turn my players over to a third party who had the political muscle to make a deal with the Coliseum.

The game was played to capacity crowd of approximately 100,000. I estimate about a $300,000 gate. My end of the take would have been a fair sized jackpot. Instead I ended up with peanuts, and on top of that I didn’t even get to see the game. Had I only paid attention to Jack James and made it somewhat of a charity affair, I am reasonably certain the Coliseum would not have been a problem.

Next Week, Part 2

This fraud is not my president.

A White House spokesman says the Obama administration hasn’t decided whether or not to release Guantanamo Bay detainees in the United States.

Spokesman Robert Gibbs said President Barack Obama has made clear “we’re not going to make any decision about transfer or release that threatens the security of this country.”

Asked if that meant he was ruling out releasing any detainees in the United States, Gibbs said: “I’m not ruling it in or ruling it out.”

A tentative plan to release some Guantanamo detainees in the United States drew fierce opposition from Republicans and many Democrats in Congress, forcing the Obama administration to shelve the plan to bring some Chinese Muslims known as Uighurs to Virginia. The Uighur detainees at Guantanamo were found not to be enemy combatants by the Pentagon, but few nations have been willing to accept them, out of fear of angering China.

Between this, and the Miranda rights for captured terrorists, I can’t even look at the guy without feeling fear for the future of this country. Obama is a national security threat, not a president.