Video, Quote and Word of the Day

quondam (adjective)

former

Unselfish and noble actions are the most radiant pages in the biography of souls.

David Thomas

Obama to Meet With Brewer

To be a fly on the wall...

President Obama intends to meet with Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer on Thursday, a White House official told FoxNews.com, after criticism mounted over reports the president wouldn't be able to meet her while she is in Washington this week.

Brewer had requested a face-to-face meeting with Obama and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, the former Arizona governor, as tensions rise between his administration and the Grand Canyon State over its controversial law clamping down on illegal immigrants.

Every time the president misspeaks and demonizes on this bill I wonder if someone will ever be in a position to challenge him. Now, Governor Brewer will be that person. No more can President Obama hide behind rhetoric and half truths on this bill.

The president has called it misguided, unconstitutional, and will lead to racial profiling. Now, he'll have to back up each and every piece of rhetoric.

Governor Brewer will be on Greta tonight. That seems to be the wrong day to have her on but I'm sure a full debrief will happen soon enough. This will be some meeting and all should watch.

Council Submissions

The council submissions are up.

Council Submissions

• Mere Rhetoric - Israel Publishes Gaza Travel Guidebook For Pro-Hamas Freedom Flotilla
• Bookworm Room - Memorial Day Post : The Warriors Among Us
• The Colossus of Rhodey – The White House and Joe Sestak — so what?
• The Razor – If You Want to a Degree in Religious and Women’s Studies…
• Rhymes With Right – Michael Berry Speaks Stupidly
• Wolf Howling – Obama, Turkey and Israel
• The Provocateur – Word Games in the GWOT
• Joshuapundit – Israel And The West’s Dilemma – The Storm Before The Dawn
• Right Truth – A Time to Betray – A review

Non Council Submissions

• Elder of Ziyon - Syrian newspaper: Hezbollah has a 300 km missile Submitted by Mere Rhetoric
• Contentions/Max Boot - Israel can win every battle but still lose the war Submitted by Bookworm Room
• The Weekly Standard Blog - The Terror Finance Flotilla Submitted by the Colossus of Rhodey
• Katie, The Pirate King - What do you do When Your Church Leaves You? Submitted by The Razor
• The Anchoress - Pray for Nancy Pelosi Submitted by Rhymes with Right
• EU Referendum - Deliberately Provocative Submitted by Wolf Howling
• Dick Morris – Issue Trifecta Driving Obama Down Submitted by The Provocateur
• American Digest – Small Flags Submitted by JoshuaPundit
• Zenpundit – Israel Does Not Understand 4GW Submitted on behalf of Right Truth
• Rubin Reports - Sympathy for the Devil and the Gaza Sea Confrontation: How Can Helping a Repressive Fascist, Genocide-Intending Hamas Regime be Innocent? Submitted by The Watcher

The Israel Saga Continues

Everyone seems to have reverted to form with regards to Israel's raid on the flotilla. It took the anti Israeli forces less than a day to protest.
He called for a "thorough investigation."

Tuesday afternoon outside the Israeli consulate, the second such protest in as many days.
The demonstration is in response to an Israeli raid on an international civilian aid mission to Gaza in which at nine people were killed and dozens more injured.
Several Bay Area activists were part of the Freedom Flotilla, a six-ship fleet that set sail last week from Greece to bring medical equipment and other supplies to the Gaza Strip.

The condemnation has been near and wide. The Turks, the French, and the Spanish have been leading the charge along with the usual suspects in the Middle East. It took Ban Ki Moon just a couple hours more than the protesters.
The list of usual suspects of pundits has also come to condemn Israel's actions.

Most important, the event is likely to force the international community, including the United States, to open a dialogue with Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist group that rules Gaza. The blockade of Gaza can no longer be sustained politically. Today, Egypt opened the border with Gaza for passage of aid and people, and world pressure on Israel to undo the blockade is likely to be overwhelming. In that, the Free Gaza Movement and its allies have succeeded, though at the cost of many dead and wounded.
Protests are building worldwide, and even Israeli apologists are admitting that the attack on the flotilla was a catastrophic blunder.
Martin Indyk, the head of foreign policy at the Brookings Institution and a longtime ally of Israel, told the New York Times that it’s now the responsibility of the United States to extricate Israel from the mess it’s created in Gaza, and he proposed what is likely to be a workable solution: the lifting of the Israeli blockade, a ceasefire by Hamas, and the exchange of political prisoners held on either side. (Hamas hold Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier.)

Meanwhile, Israel has had its normal set of defenders.

Turkish flotilla off the coast of the Gaza Strip.

What you have not heard is the truth from the mainstream media.

Here is the truth:Israel cannot allow ships to go directly to Gaza for security reasons. Innocent Israeli families are threatened daily with missile attacks launched from Gaza, and Israel must make sure weapons are not being smuggled into Gaza in "humanitarian" cargoes.

and...

The effort to destroy the Jewish state has many fronts. One front is in Iran, where the maniacal regime that has repeatedly promised to “wipe Israel off the map” marches inexorably toward a nuclear bomb. Another is in Gaza, from which Hamas has lobbed 10,000 missiles into Israeli cities. Yet another front, the most insidious, is comprised of the propaganda arm of the Palestinian movement. And this front thrives for only one reason — the complicity of the world press and the so-called “international community.”

I doubt either side waited to finish hearing the news to decide that their side was right. The truth to most folks is nothing more than a by product in all this. Here's what's clear to me. Most of those that today condemn Israel take a lot longer time, if they ever do, to condemn Hamas' rockets into Israel. They rarely, if ever, make Israel's enemies to account for their international crimes.

Israel is the only functioning democracy in the Middle East, and, ironically enough, it is the country that gives Muslims the most rights in the Middle East. The blockade and embargo were put into effect in order to protect its citizens from a series of rocket attacks that all originated from Gaza. Those inconvenient facts seem to be missed by those quick to rush to condemn Israel now. The Israelis weren't itching for a fight on that flotilla. Instead, their soldiers were attacked and they defended themselves.

That said, all those rushing to defend Israel as though it is faultless in this situation also miss a very important point. These were commandos on that ship. They are the best of the best. Ten civilians died. That's a royal military screw up. Period!!! To say anything else is to ignore facts. These soldiers are trained to make sure that exactly these sorts of situations are diffused without death on either side. That's why only a few can become commandos. That didn't happen and that's a screw up.

Were the folks on the ship savages? Probably. Were they tied to terrorists? Almost certainly. Is the world outrage totally hypocritical. Almost certainly. Boo hoo. None of that matters. Now, Israel's enemies revel in righteous indignation and they do it because this military operation was royally screwed up.

Whatever you think of Israel's right to defend herself, you also must expect that the best of the best can and will finish this operation without any bloodshed. They must do it because 1) they're the best of the best and 2) because when there's bloodshed this happens.

Secular Progressivism in Chicago

IDF Video of the Confrontation on the Seas

This video shows the confrontation between Israeli commandos and the so called activists was very complicated, despite near universal condemnation. There are some lingering questions. What were the planners thinking sending these commandos into what appears to be something akin to a suicide mission. Some of these guys didn't even reach the ground before being attacked.

The opinions keep coming. Here's a scathing critique from Haaretz.

Netanyahu, Barak and Ya'alon have neither vision nor charisma, but they once seemed to have good judgment. The sole promise made by their cabinet was not to make hasty decisions like the one that led its predecessor into the Second Lebanon War. It was supposed to handle Israel's strategic interests with utmost seriousness and responsibility. On the night of May 30th the cabinet broke its promise, demonstrating extreme, unforgivable lack of judgment in the face of the Palestinian flotilla.

There's word that another set of ships is ready to confront the IDF today.

Pro-Palestinian activists sent another boat to challenge Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip on Tuesday and Egypt declared it was temporarily opening a crossing into the Palestinian territory after a raid on an aid flotilla that ended with Israeli soldiers killing nine activists.

The raid provoked ferocious international condemnation of Israel, raised questions at home, and appeared likely to increase pressure to end the blockade that has deepened the poverty of the 1.5 million Palestinians in the strip.

Here's one more video of the incident.

Reich: Nationalize BP

Former Labor Secretary has the solution to the Gulf oil spill, nationalize British Petroleum.

It's time for the federal government to put BP under temporary receivership, which gives the government authority to take over BP's operations in the Gulf of Mexico until the gusher is stopped. This is the only way the public will know what's going on, be confident enough resources are being put to stopping the gusher, ensure BP's strategy is correct, know the government has enough clout to force BP to use a different one if necessary, and be sure the president is ultimately in charge.

If the government can take over giant global insurer AIG and the auto giant General Motors and replace their CEOs, in order to keep them financially solvent, it should be able to put BP's north American operations into temporary receivership in order to stop one of the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history.

It's hard to know how Reich thinks this is constitutional. Then again, it's hard to know how TARP, TALF, the stimulus, health care reform, and the take over of GM and AIG were rooted in the constitution.

I guess this is the time we live when the answer to all problems seems to be to nationalize a company. It's important to note that BP is a multi national headquartered not in the US but Britain. How this plays into Reich's calculations is anyone's guess. BP is not dire financial trouble. So, taking them over wouldn't solve that.

Instead, Reich wants them taken over because he's unhappy with their response to the spill. Can anyone say slippery slope? If this is given serious consideration, then every company that charges too much can be a target for a take over.

Maybe, it's time to consider a government takeover of Toyota. After all, every car they design is a menace to the road. Maybe, Andrew Weiner will suggest a takeover of Goldline. After all, according to him, they are overcharging their clients.

Where will the nationalizations stop? If BP can be nationalized because they aren't handling this crisis well, then any company can be nationalized for any reason.