Newt Hits The Bitter Bullseye

clipped from hotair.com Now that Barack Obama has issued the requisite non-apology apology in the usual form — he “deeply regrets” that he offended people not with his sentiments but with his sentence structure — the media will likely let Obama off the hook. Not Newt Gingrich, who makes a rare foray into the presidential campaign from the bleacher seats with a searing analysis that hits a bullseye, and one obvious to anyone who hasn’t just focused on the word “bitter”: If you go to the most expensive private school in Hawaii and then move on to Columbia University and Harvard Law School, you may not understand normal Americans. Their beliefs are so alien to your leftwing viewpoint that you have to seek some psychological explanation for what seem to be weird ideas. They can’t really believe in the right to bear arms. They can’t really believe in traditional marriage. They can’t really believe in their faith in God. They can’t really want to enforce the law on immigration. Therefore, they must be “bitter”

And Don't Forget The Rube That Gave The Gettysburg Address...

clipped from corner.nationalreview.com WHO SAID THIS? "The cheek of every American must tingle with shame as he reads the silly, flat and dishwatery utterances of the man who has to be pointed out to intelligent foreigners as the President of the United States." Barack Obama on George Bush? Or was it Jack Murtha? Nancy Pelosi, perhaps? Could it be Michael Moore? No, it's a Chicago Times' editorial. From 1863. Reacting to the Gettysburg address. Another interesting tidbit: The Times was founded in 1854, by James W. Sheahan, with the backing of Stephen Douglas. In 1861, after the paper was purchased by Wilbur F. Storey, the Times began espousing the Copperhead point of view in supporting Southern Democrats and denounced the policies of Abraham Lincoln. General Ambrose Burnside suppressed the paper in 1863 because of its hostility to the Union cause, but Lincoln lifted the ban when he received word of it. There you go, another similarity between Abe and Bush: both crushing dissent and stifling free speech!

The Core Of Bittergate

clipped from corner.nationalreview.com In order to charm, impress, and get money from rich San Fransisco Democrats he is willing to denigrate, and display pity and contempt for the beliefs of benighted working class middle Americans. Nice. Make sure you listen in full. You will hear that these remarks were delivered as part of an earnest analysis of what he — and they, the donors — will have to change. He did not mean them negatively. They reflect his most honest assessment of non-wealthy Pennsylvanians. It is striking that Obama makes clear that he believes that clinging to religion is no different than clinging to guns, (— we know his class of elitist Democrats has no respect for either the Second Amendment or deer-hunting —) racism, xenophobia, and anti-trade sentiment — as if they are all equivalent signs of lack of education and gullibility. I now feel fully vindicated in my suspicion that Obama's attendance at Wright's church was entirely political and expedient.

You are what you eat. And who you're comfortable with...

Rubes (Part 92365)

clipped from justoneminute.typepad.com As the "Hey Rubes, Back Barack" tour swung through Indiana Obama was in another town meeting defending himself again from his small town disaster [More at the Times and WaPo]. The candidate was insightful - "I didn’t say it as well as I should have" - and displayed his keen sense of Presidential campaigns, calling the current firestorm "a typical sort of political flare-up”. Hmm, how typical is it for a candidate to characterize a huge swath of his target voters as bigoted, gun waving religious fanatics?  I'll bet that in Dem strategy sessions run by law school alums, it's pretty typical! I'm getting a mental image of Obama during other "typical" flare-ups; sort of a "But sweetie, those jeans do make you look fat" thing, or maybe "Honsestly, officer, you need to understand that some people have a very high tolerance for alcohol". I can't believe that in all those Harvard classes they never emphasize that you can't tell the rubes what you really think of them.

He Knows Us So Well

clipped from www.anklebitingpundits.com … here in middle America (small town, New Hampshire), we don’t “cling” to religion; we worship God. UPDATE: Sen. Obama’s explanation and pushback are actually worse than his original offense. By refusing to acknowledge that the lumping of Americans of faith together with racists and xenophobes is empirically insulting, he essentially restates his position and digs in: Religion, racism, xenophobia are just “refuges” (his new word) for people who are not as privileged as he. Really repugnant stuff. His remarks are now his official position, not a blunder that can be explained away and forgiven. That window has closed. And they bring back to the surface Michelle Obama’s old line: “Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual, uninvolved, uninformed.” Yep, that’s us: Just a bunch of uniformed racists who hate everyone who isn’t just like us and cling to our God and our guns because we didn’t get to go to Princeton or Harvard Law School. They know us so well.

Let The Re-Education Camps Begin

clipped from www.scrappleface.com (2008-04-12) — Senator Barack Obama today announced a plan to employ millions of bitter, small town Americans who, in their anger over jobs lost in the 1980s, have turned to guns, God, and xenophobia. The presumptive Democrat presidential front runner, said his plan would employ “these Archie Bunker-type people” in government programs “to register and/or confiscate inappropriate personal firearms, to monitor churches for hate-speech about homosexuality or abortion, and to build tax-funded housing for low income illegal aliens.” “Twenty-five years is a long time to wallow in bitterness like our friends in Pennsylvania, the Midwest and elsewhere have been doing,” said Sen. Obama, “So, until the steel mills can all be converted to casinos and re-opened, we’ll provide good government jobs at high wages that will soothe the rage, and help to re-educate these small-town folk.”

Heh.

Dripping With False Consciousness

clipped from hotair.com If his original statement boiled down to “religion is the opiate of the masses,” think of this as adding, “and what wonderful things opiates are.” He’s stuck with the insinuation about false consciousness: There’s no other way to read what he told the glitterati in San Francisco except as asserting that the working class’s interest in God, guns, and border enforcement is, to some greater or lesser extent, insincere. They might sincerely believe in gun rights but surely they wouldn’t vote those beliefs at the expense of their class interests unless they were being duped somehow by the bourgeoisie. Ed did a bang-up job in this post, but the more I re-read what Obama said, the more I’m drawn to the very end of it as the “tell” — i.e. “a way to explain their frustrations.” That’s where the false-consciousness logic really flowers. The choice of verb speaks volumes.

More Than Time

clipped from www.washingtonpost.com In a news conference Thursday, Crocker dismissed Arab concerns about a recent visit to Baghdad by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. "It's not the fact of the Ahmadinejad visit, but the absence of visits by other neighbors that it's important to focus on. There hasn't been a single visit, even by an Arab cabinet minister, to Baghdad. As Iraq grapples with the challenges Iran is posing, it could certainly do with some Arab support." After consultations with Crocker and Petraeus this week, Bush cut short their Washington visit and dispatched them to Riyadh. The message to the Saudis, he said, "is going to be . . . it is time, more than time, for the Arab states to step forward and engage constructively with Iraq. Get their embassies open, get ambassadors on the ground, consider visits, implement debt relief, treat Iraq like the country it is, which is a central part of the Arab world."

Sorry, No Foolin'

clipped from www.powerlineblog.com Note the difference between what Obama said in an unguarded moment in San Francisco, and the cleaned-up version he tried to sell tonight. San Francisco: So it's not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations. Indiana: So people end up voting on issues like guns and are they going to have the right to bear arms. They vote on issues like gay marriage. They take refuge in their faith and their community, and their family, and the things they can count on. In Obama's cleaned-up version, religion ("faith") becomes something small town people "can count on," along with community and family, rather than something they "cling to" on account of being "bitter," along with guns and hatred of immigrants and others "who aren't like them." That's a nice try, I guess, but it's hard to believe it will fool anyone.

Shed My Cynicism About Him?

clipped from www.powerlineblog.com In the wake of Barack Obama's remarks to the San Francisco Democrats last Sunday, Michelle Obama's preaching of the gospel according to Barack is revelatory: Barack Obama will require you to work. He is going to demand that you shed your cynicism. That you put down your division. That you come out of your isolation. That you move out of your comfort zones. That you push yourselves to be better. And that you engage. Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual; uninvolved, uninformed. We can only pray that our fellow Americans find the gospel according to Barack Obama to be too good for us.

That's why he wants to take my guns away. Because him having a gun and me not having one is the only possible relationship between us where I would even consider it. But it would only be a show on my part to avoid punishment of course...

If We Can Be Persuaded

clipped from fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com How easy it is to forget that Saddam's solution to the problem of stability and unity was to wage a more or less continuous campaign of internal warfare against the Kurds, the Shi'ites and dissenting Sunnis; gassing the Kurds, draining the Marshes. the "good old days" that so many commentators, unaccountably afflicted with amnesia, hanker for already. Grim notes its replacement, the step-by-step emplacement of a laws, local councils, community governnance. The challenges facing the Government of Iraq -- solving the Three Problems -- are daunting enough. But what is currently beyond their power to shape is the international context within which they must face these issues. From Lebanon through Saudi Arabia, down onto southern Iraq, Iran is dispatching its agents, deploying its proxies. The task of facing them falls to the United States, if Washington can persuaded to acknowledge the problem.

Quickly Faltered?

clipped from hotair.com The “quickly faltered” meme sounds suspiciously like the “American invasion bogged down in the desert” analysis that occurred in week two of the 2003 invasion.  It’s the result of an attention-span deficit in the media.  Rather than wait for an outcome, journalists draw conclusions from the first hours of a battle.  Major military actions take longer than a single news cycle. Maliki’s aggressive action in Sadr City shows that he has confidence that he can maintain pressure on Sadr and the Mahdis.  If Iraq is to have provincial elections, the central government has to control security in the provinces, and Maliki has six months to make that happen.  He also needs to cut off Iran’s influence in the south, which has primarily come through Sadr.  With Sunnis, Kurds, and other Shi’ites supporting him, Maliki has an opportunity now to rid Iraq of the Mahdis, the last significant militia in independent operation. And so far, it appears he is succeeding.

With A Side Of Venality, Please

clipped from instapundit.com EVERYTHING THAT'S WRONG WITH THE G.O.P. IN TWO WORDS: Trent Lott. “I haven’t paid for lunch in 30 years.”

The "Perfect Storm Of Phoniness"

clipped from instapundit.com even assuming for the sake of argument that some voters do vote values over economics, Obama may want to explain to such voters why they should do otherwise, given that he has spent the last 20 years in a church known for disavowing 'the pursuit of middleclassness.' . . . In addition, if Obama thinks these voters are clinging to anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment because of US economic policy, he ought to explain why he is exploiting anti-trade sentiment on the campaign trail, but advocating lax policies on illegal immigration, including (but not limited to) providing government benefits like drivers’ licenses to illegal aliens and allowing criminals to become citizens. Once he does that, Obama can explain how he squares his stated position on trade with the advice of his top economic adviser. And when he does that, Obama can explain how his stated position on immigration squares with his labor-induced vote that killed the McCain-Kennedy immigration bill last summer."

On Typical Bitter Gun-Nut Religious Xenophobes

clipped from corner.nationalreview.com 7. Let me get this straight: Obama goes to the Bay Area to an affluent liberal enclave to give a condescending take on the supposed poor fools that he is currently trying to court. This is not just hypocritical, but abjectly stupid. All of Pennsylvania surely is asking today what is so hip and sophisticated about the Trinity Church and Rev. Wright? So here we have the essential Obama, a walking paradox between the postmodern hip-Ivy-Leaguer who sneers at middle-class America’s supposed prejudices and parochialism, while at the same time courting an anti-Enlightenment, prejudicial demagogue like Jeremiah Wright. For free trade or anti-free trade? For 2nd-amendment rights or not? Post-religious or pious and fundamentalist? For public campaign financing or not? A uniter of various groups or someone who sees America in terms of “they”? Straight-talking or someone who evokes "context" to explain away the inexplicable?

Luckily, There Are Fewer And Fewer To Support

clipped from www.powerlineblog.com This morning, when General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker gave a press conference following up on their marathon Congressional sessions, someone thought to ask a person who might know, i.e, Petraeus. This was the exchange: QUESTION: General, do you agree with recent statements that Iran is supporting Sunni extremists in Iraq? And if so, have you seen any evidence to this fact? And can you point to any specific Sunni extremist groups in this regard? PETRAEUS: I am not aware of -- it doesn't mean it hasn't happened, and as you would imagine, it is something that we're looking for. There are certainly cases of Sunni extremists ending up with weapons that we believe -- or items that originated in Iran, but it is a good bit more difficult to connect all the dots directly, is the way, I guess, that I would answer that. Hardly a ringing endorsement of the theory that such aid is out of the question.

I Expect You To Die

clipped from article.nationalreview.com All failed. As Ken Pollack recounts in his book, The Persian Puzzle, every carrot was offered and every stick was brandished. We tried everything. The Iranians were not interested. It reminds me of that great scene from Goldfinger, with James Bond spread-eagled on a sheet of gold, and a laser beam slicing through it, headed for his private parts. “Do you expect me talk, Goldfinger?” he asks. “No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die.” That’s Iran. The mullahs want us to die. These talks were approved by every president from Jimmy Carter to George W. Bush, Democrats and Republicans, lefties and righties, in varying circumstances. Why would Senator Obama, or any of the other advocates of talking to the mullahs, think that they could get a different result? Slowly but surely, even those who desperately want to avoid the knotty problem of Iran (nobody asked General Petraeus or Ambassador Crocker what they thought we should do about it) are coming to see that the issue is inescapable.

Return Of The O'Mahdi

clipped from hotair.com Re-read the statement, though. Until now I always thought his objection to Hamas was purely technical: He’ll meet with any head of state, and since they’re not the head of the Palestinian state, they get no meeting. Now he’s added some substantive conditions — all of which, incidentally, apply equally to Iran, whom he is willing to meet with. Why the disparate treatment? And why, as John Bolton asks below, does he think he’s going to talk Iran into giving up on nukes when five years of meeting with the Europeans haven’t achieved that? Is it just his own wicked awesome Messiah mojo that’s going to light up Ahmadinejad’s eyes? “Hey, Mahmoud? I’m the Mahdi.”

Panic Couldn't Happen To A Nicer Fellow

clipped from www.longwarjournal.org With the Iraqi government applying pressure to the Sadrist movement and Muqtada al Sadr to disband the Mahdi Army, Iraq’s senior Shia cleric has weighed in on the issue. Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the most revered Shia cleric in Iraq, backed the government’s position that the Mahdi Army should surrender its weapons and said he never consulted with Sadr on disbanding the Mahdi Army. Instead, the decision to disband the Mahdi Army is Sadr’s to make. The move caused panic inside the Sadrist movement as their political isolation became apparent. "We, the Sadrists, are in a predicament," Hassan al Rubaie, a Sadrist member of parliament said the day the Political Council for National Security announced the plan. "Our political isolation was very clear and real during the meeting." he said, referring to the meeting of the Political Council for National Security, where the legislation was announced. "Even the blocs that had in the past supported us are now against us

Volcker Speaks

clipped from online.wsj.com The present climate, Mr. Volcker told his audience, reminded him of nothing so much as the early 1970s. Then as now, certain commodity prices were rising fast – he cited oil and soybeans as two examples. Then as now too, these were explained away as speculative price run-ups and not as a harbinger of a broader inflationary trend. We all know how that ended, and Mr. Volcker knows better than anyone. He was the one who, at the end of that decade, had to step in and raise interest rates to punitive levels to break the back of that bout of inflation. With commodity prices spiking again – soybeans are $12 a bushel today compared to $7 a year ago – Mr. Volcker is warning the Fed not to let inflationary expectations become embedded once again.

Fake Failure

clipped from www.taylormarsh.com ABC News, however, has another quote on the issue: But asked today about the DC handgun ban currently being reviewed by the US Supreme Court, Obama declined to take a position for or against its Constitutionality but did express broad support for the rights of local jurisdictions to make such decisions for themselves. "The city of Chicago has gun laws, so does Washington, DC," Obama said. "The notion that somehow local jurisdictions can't initiate gun safety laws to deal with gangbangers and random shootings on the street isn't born out by our Constitution." Gun owners with any brains want sensible gun laws enforced. However, that does not include punishing law abiding citizens, because you think gangbangers shouldn't have guns. As for Obama talking to gun owners, it comes off as pandering because it's clear that the senator doesn't get gun owners. You can't fake it on this one.

ACLU Stopped Clock Watch

clipped from www.startribune.com In addition, schools cannot favor one religion by offering services for only its adherents, or promote after-school religious instruction for only one group. The ACLU of Minnesota has launched an investigation of TIZA, and the Minnesota Department of Education has also begun a review. TIZA's operation as a public, taxpayer-funded school is troubling on several fronts. TIZA is skirting the law by operating what is essentially an Islamic school at taxpayer expense. The Department of Education has failed to provide the oversight necessary to catch these illegalities, and appears to lack the tools to do so. In addition, there's a double standard at work here -- if TIZA were a Christian school, it would likely be gone in a heartbeat. TIZA is now being held up as a national model for a new kind of charter school. If it passes legal muster, Minnesota taxpayers may soon find themselves footing the bill for a separate system of education for Muslims.

But I'm not counting my stoppage just yet...

He Felt Secure

clipped from mt.pajamasmedia.com Similar remarks about the nefarious Iranian role in Iraq came from Petraeus’ former deputy, General Raymond Odierno, just two weeks ago in Washington. He wryly observed that Iranian President Ahmadinejad felt secure in Baghdad because the attacks there were under Iranian guidance and control. The Shi’ite militias and al Qaeda in are also closely tied to Iran. Many of the news reports wrongly suggest that the Shi’ite insurgents are under the leadership of Moqtadah al Sadr, the son of a murdered leading cleric and for several years the chieftain of the private Mahdi Army, named after the Shi’ite Messiah. He and his troops were famously armed, paid and trained by Iran, and were as feared as al Qaeda, whose late leader, Abu Musab Zarqawi, long operated out of Tehran and worked closely with Hezbollah’s late chief terrorist, Imad Mughniyah.

The Worst Since Hoover?

clipped from corner.nationalreview.com It’s the Politics, Stupid: Comparing Labor Market Data in 1996 and 2008 Democrats on the Economy in 1996: “Our economy is the healthiest it has been in three decades.” (President Bill Clinton, State of the Union Address, January 23, 1996) Democrats on the Economy in 2008: “The bottom line is that this administration is the owner of the worst jobs record since Herbert Hoover." (Senator Charles Schumer, Press Release, March 7, 2008) Key Labor Market Statistics in 1996 and 2008   March 1996 March 2008 1. U.S. Unemployment Rate 5.5% 5.1% 2. Number of Long-Term Unemployed 1.33 million 1.28 million 3. Average Weeks Unemployed 17.3 weeks 16.2 weeks 4. Median Weeks Unemployed 8.3 weeks 8.1 weeks 5. Not in Labor Force because discouraged over job prospects 451,000 401,000 6. Democrats calling for Extended Unemployment Benefits? No Yes 7. President’s Party Affiliation Democrat Republican

Al Qaeda And The Snarking Classes

clipped from www.julescrittenden.com And the snarking classes. Hamas Iraq accuses al-Qaeda in Iraq of ties to Iran, and gets specific. “The U.S. is our main enemy but a more dangerous enemy is Iran.” MEMRI:  Salah Al-Din accused Al-Qaeda of being subservient to Iran, [claiming] that they had [extensive] evidence to that effect. He said: ‘We found Iranian [currency], toman, at an Al-Qaeda headquarters that we uncovered. We have also captured Iranian weapons, not to mention audio and video recordings containing announcements by Al-Qaeda fighters that they had received training in Iranian military camps and that Al-Qaeda wounded were being transported to Iran for medical treatment.’ Salah Al-Din claimed that Al-Qaeda’s real commander [in Iraq] was Abu Ayub Al-Masri, and that [Abu ‘Omar] Al-Baghdadi [2] was an Iraqi figure to whom many [words and deeds] are attributed solely to create the impression that [Al-Qaeda is a genuinely] Iraqi organization.

Can't Change The Base

clipped from fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com But imagine for a moment you were the national security adviser of Barack Obama asking yourself what the Anaconda chart implied about the global strategy against terrorism. We find that "engagement" or diplomacy has a place in Petraeus' strategy. (It is in the 12 o'clock position of the chart). So far so good. But what to do about "information operations", "kinetics", "intelligence" and "religious engagement"? In other words, where does one fit in activities like spying on the enemy, misleading them, debating them, killing them, building indigenous forces against them and criticizing -- where necessary -- their religion? How feasible is it to do this from Kuwait -- where all forces are to be withdrawn at the rate of one or two brigades per month? And how popular will such activities be with the Democratic base? Part of the implicit promise of Change is that that We Can Find a Better Way. Well maybe we can. And they're going to bet the farm on it.

Graham Redeemed ... At Least For Today...

clipped from corner.nationalreview.com "You want to know who wants you to come home more than anybody?" Graham continued. "al Qaeda because you're kicking their ass."

Iran Smoking

clipped from fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com We have also focused on the Special Groups. These elements are funded, trained, armed, and directed by Irans Qods Force, with help from Lebanese Hezbollah. It was these groups that launched Iranian rockets and mortar rounds at Iraqs seat of government two weeks ago, causing loss of innocent life and fear in the capital, and requiring Iraqi and Coalition actions in response. Iraqi and Coalition leaders have repeatedly noted their desire that Iran live up to promises made by President Ahmedinajad and other senior Iranian leaders to stop their support for the Special Groups. However, nefarious activities by the Qods Force have continued, and Iraqi leaders now clearly recognize the threat they pose to Iraq. We should all watch Iranian actions closely in the weeks and months ahead, as they will show the kind of relationship Iran wishes to have with its neighbor and the character of future Iranian involvement in Iraq. This statement must have hung in the air in Congress

What Will We Choose?

clipped from www.frontpagemagazine.com The most important fact about the recent operations has escaped most observers, however. The government of Iraq, that group of "Persian ex-pats" as many Iraqis and some Americans call them, went to war against the illegal Shia militias which are thoroughly infiltrated, supported, advised, trained, and led by Iran and its agents. When it ran into trouble, the government called for American support and then began to engage with its own local tribesmen, who eagerly volunteered to support the fight against the foreigners. Iraq has already demonstrated that it is by far the most serious and determined ally the United States has in the war against al Qaeda by deploying more forces and taking more casualties in that struggle than any other state. After several years in which Americans feared that the Shia government would attempt to triangulate between Iran and the United States without taking sides, the Iraqi leadership has made its choice clear. It chose America. What will we choose?

And Narratives Implode

clipped from talismangate.blogspot.com Not only has Maliki not backed down, but newly emboldened with wide political backing he’s begun to smash through Sadr City itself and is threatening to banish the Sadrists to a political Siberia. And tales get unspooled. And narratives implode. Well, it now seems that the rumor is official according to this press report (Arabic): Muqtada al-Sadr has cancelled his 'March of the Millions' anti-American demonstration set for tomorrow to coincide with the fifth anniversary of the liberation of Baghdad. In retaliation for whimping out, Code Pink has formally revoked al-Sadr's membership and expelled him from its ranks. Furthermore, Barack Obama has withdrawn his offer of a cabinet post that he had offered to Muqtada. Going yet further, Nancy Pelosi has cast off her Mahdi Army bandanna. Dozens of western journalists were seen protesting the cancellation outside Sadr's HQ in Sadr City, angry over the time and effort they had lavished while pre-writing tomorrow's story

Heh

clipped from corner.nationalreview.com The internal contradictions of multiculturalism   [Mark Steyn] Expect more new stories like this: Two primary schools have withdrawn storybooks about same-sex relationships after objections from Muslim parents. Up to 90 gathered at the schools to complain about the books which are aimed at pupils as young as five. One story, titled King & King, is a fairytale about a prince who turns down three princesses before marrying one of their brothers. Another named And Tango Makes Three features two male penguins who fall in love at a New York zoo. Bristol City Council said the two schools had been using the books to ensure they complied with gay rights laws which came into force last April.

Jesus Fish

clipped from article.nationalreview.com Released on the Internet last week, Fitna juxtaposes verses from the Koran with images from the world of jihad. Heads cut off, bodies blown apart, gays executed, toddlers taught to denounce Jews as “apes and pigs,” protesters holding up signs reading “God Bless Hitler” and “Freedom go to Hell” — these are among the powerful images from Fitna, Arabic for “strife” or “ordeal.” Predictably, various Muslim governments have condemned the film. Me? I keep thinking about Jesus fish. During a 1991 visit to Istanbul, a buddy and I found ourselves in a small restaurant, drinking, dancing, and singing with a bunch of middle-class Turkish businessmen, mostly shop owners. At the end of the night, after imbibing unquantifiable quantities of raki, an ouzo-like Turkish liqueur, one of the men gave me a worn-out business card. On the back, he’d scribbled an image. It was little more than a curlicue, but he seemed intent on showing it to me (and nobody else). It was, I realized, a Jesus fish.

Krikey: Kraken

clipped from www.darkreading.com RSA 2008 Conference –- A new botnet twice the size of Storm has ballooned to an army of over 400,000 bots, including machines in the Fortune 500, according to botnet researchers at Damballa. (See The World's Biggest Botnets and MayDay! Sneakier, More Powerful Botnet on the Loose.) The so-called Kraken botnet has been spotted in at least 50 Fortune 500 companies and is undetectable in over 80 percent of machines running antivirus software. Kraken appears to be evading detection by a combination of clever obfuscation techniques, including regularly updating its binary code and structuring the code in such a way that hinders any static analysis, says Paul Royal, principal researcher at Damballa. "It's easy to trace but slow to get antivirus coverage. It seems to imply [the creators] have a good understanding of how AV tools operate and how to evade them," Royal says. Kraken's successful infiltration of major enterprises is a wakeup call that bots aren't just a consumer problem.

The Chosen Associations

clipped from www.slate.com This is a lot sadder, and a lot more serious, than has been admitted. Four decades after the murder in Memphis of a friend of the working man—a hero who was always being denounced by the FBI for his choice of secular and socialist friends and colleagues—the national civil rights pulpit is largely occupied by second-rate shakedown artists who hope to franchise "race talk" into a fat living for themselves. Far from preaching truth and brotherhood, they trade in cheap slander and paranoia and in venomous dislike of other minorities. Elijah Muhammad and the Black Muslims used to relish their meetings with Klansmen and Nazis to discuss the beauties of separatism. So amnesiac have we become, indeed, that we fall into paroxysms of adulation for a ward-heeling Chicago politician who does not complete, let alone "transcend," the work of Dr. King; who hasn't even caught up to where we were four decades ago; and who, by his chosen associations, negates and profanes the legacy

The More Obvious Solution

clipped from liberalfascism.nationalreview.com Seeing as how important you note Georges Sorel is in the development of leftwing fascism, I was amused to read on wikipedia that; Whether Sorel is better seen as a left-wing or right-wing thinker is disputed: the Italian Fascists praised him as a forefather, but the dictatorial government they established ran contrary to his beliefs, while he was also an important touchstone for Italy's first Communists, who saw Sorel as a theorist of the proletariat. So, Sorel was viewed as a critically important theorist by both the Italian Fascists and Communists. I would imagine this does make examining his work rather difficult if you subscribe to the notion that fascism and communism are polar opposites. Of course there is a rather more obvious solution to this nominal mystery as you point out in your book...

Missed Points

clipped from hotair.com Basically, Obama makes the same argument as the John Murtha “redeploy over an event horizon” strategy did in 2005. It envisions a months-long withdrawal from Iraq and the stationing of the entire force somewhere where it can be redeployed back into Iraq if needed. That strategy misses a couple of key points, the first being where exactly the forces will go. Who will take 150,000 American troops retreating in the face of terrorist action? What country will volunteer to have the terrorists enter their nation, as they certainly would to keep America on the retreat from the region?

Spitzered (Part 23585)

clipped from www.tcsdaily.com I feel awkward and defensive when the subject of economic inequality comes up. The fact is that I cannot say that I feel comfortable with the levels of inequality and excess that exist in our society. However, I am loathe to call inequality a problem that requires a government solution. I do not see how it solves the problem to take power away from wealthy people who have a lot of it in order to increase the power of politicians who have far more of it. What the American people really should feel awkward and defensive about is the level of inequality and excess of political power. Instead of asking ourselves what we can do about Warren Buffett or Bill Gates, we should be asking ourselves about what we can do about the Clintons and the Spitzers. Those who want more and more power should be our biggest concern.