Politics Blog

Here is an interesting exercise.

First Google “condemns Israel”

Second Google “condemns hezbollah”

Notice the difference??

It was only a matter of time.

Last week, we had the shooting at the Jewish Federation in Seattle:

SEATTLE – One person is dead and five others have been injured in a shooting at the Jewish Federation at 2031 Third Ave. in downtown Seattle. One suspect has been taken into custody.

In Berlin, a Holocaust Memorial has been vandalized:

Vandals scratched a swastika into one of the slabs of Berlin’s Holocaust memorial, police said Sunday.

Not to be outdone, a synagogue has been attacked in Australia:

An attack on a Sydney synagogue may have been fueled by anger over the Middle East conflict and the spiraling civilian death toll in Lebanon, a rabbi said Monday.

And to top it off, more Jew-bashing in Hollywood:

The report says Gibson then launched into a barrage of anti-Semitic statements: “F*****g Jews… The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world.” Gibson then asked the deputy, “Are you a Jew?”

America and Jew hater Robert Fisk from the Independent wants to know ‘How can we stand by and allow this to go on?’ :

You must have a heart of stone not to feel the outrage that those of us watching this experienced yesterday. This slaughter was an obscenity, an atrocity

War Crime ?

if the Israeli air force truly bombs with the ” pinpoint accuracy'’ it claims, this was also a war crime. Israel claimed that missiles had been fired by Hizbollah gunmen from the south Lebanese town of Qana ­ as if that justified this massacre.

And of course, this wouldn’t be a Robert Fisk article without the Blame America comment:

And there was no doubt of the missile which killed all those children yesterday. It came from the United States, and upon a fragment of it was written: “For use on MK-84 Guided Bomb BSU-37-B".

I dare anyone to search and find an article where Fisk reports on Israeli children killed by terrorists on school buses, Israeli teens killed in disco’s and while eating pizza or at wedding’s or bar/bat-mitzvah’s. Just one. You know how many you will find? None.

Mel Gibson’s calculated career move.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) – TheU.N. Security Council passed a weakened resolution Monday giving Iran until Aug. 31 to suspend uranium enrichment or face the threat of economic and diplomatic sanctions.

Chances of meaningful sanctions being applied when Iran fails to comply are about 9.3 percent. I’m sure Iran is just as worried as the North Koreans were when they received their piece of paper earlier in the month.

In other news Hugo was in Iran over the weekend to receive the highest state medal and remarked that the world should unite to finish off the United States.

The leftist Venezuelan leader also condemned Israel for what he called the “terrorism” and “madness” of its attacks in Lebanon, Venezuelan state television reported.

“Let’s save the human race, let’s finish off the U.S. empire,” Chavez said. “This (task) must be assumed with strength by the majority of the peoples of the world.”
–(AP)

MEXICO CITY (AP) – Supporters of Mexico’s leftist presidential candidate paralyzed the capital’s financial district with makeshift protest camps Monday, saying they won’t leave until the nation’s top electoral court rules on their demand for a recount of the disputed election.
…
Insurance company employee Camilo Perez was among thousands who parked blocks away and hiked to work in business suits or high heels. He said his regular 40-minute commute took two hours.

“They should do this some other way,” he said. “This is going to decrease the popularity of their fight.”

Mr. Perez, Obrador and his supporters are not intelligent enough to realize that threatening to shutdown the city and otherwise acting like children is not helping their cause.

BOSTON - Sen.
John Kerry on Monday will propose requiring all Americans to have health insurance by 2012, “with the federal government guaranteeing they have the means to afford it.
…
In a speech scheduled for midday Monday at Faneuil Hall in Boston, he will advocate creating a program to cover catastrophic cases so an employer providing insurance doesn’t have to pass the cost to his other workers, and offering Americans the ability to buy into the same insurance program used by federal workers, such as members of Congress.
…

Kerry will propose to pay for the program by repealing tax cuts enacted during the Bush administration that benefit those earning over $200,000 annually. He is not expected to immediately elaborate on how he would get his insurance mandate enacted into law.

Yes, even the AP felt the need to note that this is a plan without substance or a chance. I’m willing to hear people out on theories of universal care programs that don’t involve expanding the broken Medicare system, but this isn’t one of those plans. Seems to me this more directed at the 2008 primaries then anything else, could he be silly enough to run again?

The Media in Florida, I just heard on local radio, is now reporting that the Republican Party of Florida advised Katherine Harris that the Party would not support her in the election.

UPDATE: The Gainesville Sun is reporting that the letter, which has been just released, was originally drafted on May 7, 2006.

Why would we see this letter coming out now? The only source could be the Republican Party of Florida or one of many former Harris Campaign workers. While not suggestive of the source, it is now looking like the primary may turn into a horse race:

Strategic Vision has one set of primary numbers showing Harris slippage:

“The poll was released Tuesday by Atlanta-based Strategic Vision, a Republican polling and consulting firm. It showed 45 percent of Republicans chose Harris as the Republican nominee, down from 48 percent a month ago.

But more revealing, said David Johnson, the firm’s chief executive, is that support for Orlando-area attorney Will McBride jumped from 6 percent to 22 percent in the past month, and the number of undecided voters went up significantly”

Mason Dixon is reporting:

“In the primary contest, Harris led the field of four with 36 percent, followed by Will McBride, 11 percent; LeRoy Collins Jr., 8 percent; and Peter Monroe, 2 percent, with 43 percent undecided.

The poll consisted of telephone interviews July 19-21 with 625 likely voters. The error margin was 4 percentage points.”

As this letter gains more attention in Florida, it is becoming very clear that if Will McBride wants to win the Prmary, he has it in his grasp. Florida voters are realizing that financial supporting harris is throwing good money at bad and her name on the ballot in November will not help the rest of the Republican ticket. I am not saying that McBride can defeat Nelson however, I am saying that he would create a unified base for the November election.

From today’s New York Times:

The criminal charges against Mr. Garcia and his company were broughtby the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, part of the Department of Homeland Security. The campaign has included at least five other federal indictments of business executives in Ohio and Kentucky and has sent payroll managers rushing to re-examine their workers’ papers and rethink plans for their work force.

It also created a new environment of fear in Ohio’s immigrant communities.

“It’s a very uneasy feeling,” said Sister Teresa Ann Wolf, a Roman Catholic nun who works with immigrant workers in Canton, Ohio. “People are afraid to leave the house to go to the store. They are afraid to come to church.”

It is an interesting piece. But to me, unconvincing. I still believe the political class as a whole is very unserious about this issue.

Drudge is reporting some of the actions by the “innocent angels” at Guantanamo Bay:

“The prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay during the war on terror have attacked their military guards hundreds of times, turning broken toilet parts, utensils, radios and even a bloody lizard tail into makeshift weapons, Pentagon reports say.

Incident reports reviewed by The Associated Press indicate Military Police guards are routinely head-butted, spat upon and doused by “cocktails” of feces, urine, vomit and sperm collected in meal cups by the prisoners.

They’ve been repeatedly grabbed, punched or assaulted by prisoners who reach through the small “bean holes” used to deliver food and blankets through cell doors, the reports say. Serious assaults requiring medical attention, however, are rare, the reports indicate.

The detainee “reached under the face mask of an IRF (Initial Reaction Force) team member’s helmet and scratched his face, attempting to gouge his eyes,” states a May 27, 2005, report on an effort to remove a recalcitrant prisoner from his cell. “

Unfortunately, I am able to add from many friends that have served at the facility that action is seldom taken against the detainees because of a fear of media reporting in the United States.

Also I am constantly amazed that the media has never used the fact that “approximately 25 of those released (from GITMO) have been recaptured or killed when they took up arms again.” I can only guess that the media/democrats hate of Bush is less than their support of al Queda detainees.

UPDATE: “Stop the ACLU” ponders:

“These are the people the ACLU are trying their best to free. Much of the attacks on guards were from the advantage given to them from having items of comfort and privelage that we would have been accused of abuse if we didn’t provide. They are provided with fans to keep cool for example. Can you imagine what kind of dangerous things the wrong person could do with a fan blade and an innovative imagination?”

I will also add that these are the same individuals that Senators McCain, Grahem, Warner and Levin want to provide the same legal protection that is afforded to American Soldiers.