Newt Played Footsie with Al Sharpton; he Just got Kicked

It appears Newt has himself a new problem on par with his decision to sit on a love seat with Nancy Pelosi and advocate for help against man-made climate change. In 2009, Gingrich toured the country with Al Sharpton and championed Sharpton's 'leadership.' Recently, Gingrich made some comments about the environment poor children in America are raised in. Sharpton didn't like it and basically called Newt a race-baiter. Sharpton also brought up their work together in 2009.

Based on Newt's decision to work with Sharpton in the first place, he deserves every bit of this.

Via Radio Equalizer:



Regardless of whether you agree with Al Sharpton's ideology, he has a point on Newt because the latter is definitely playing politics. This is exactly what happens when those on the right attempt to reach across the aisle and find 'common ground' with socialists.

Compare Gingrich's rhetoric of today with this from 2009:



Oh, and for good measure, Newt called MSNBC during Sharpton's show and wished the host a Happy Birthday on live television earlier this year. If he did so to win favor with Sharpton, it appears that was, as they say, an 'Epic Fail.'



h/t Hot Air

Disgrace: Panetta Swears at Israel

In Iran, Ahmadinejad has been threatening to wipe Israel 'off the map' for years; we have done next to nothing to prevent it. In Egypt, the Obama administration's policy was to remove Hosni Mubarak. The Muslim Brotherhood has filled the vacuum and the populace is threatening to march on Israel; we have done next to nothing to prevent it. In Libya, the Obama administration facilitated the fall of Gadhafi. The Muslim Brotherhood is filling the vacuum while flying al-Qaeda flags from the courthouses; we have done next to nothing to prevent it. Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas is now claiming to have forged a new partnership with Hamas, which wants to destroy Israel.

In response to all of this, Obama's new Defense Secretary has allegedly told Israel to 'get to the damn table.'

Via VOA:

The top U.S. defense official is warning Israel it cannot afford to further isolate itself from Arab neighbors in the Middle East. 

During a forum in Washington late Friday, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Israel needs to start by getting back “to the damn table” and negotiating peace with the Palestinians. He also called on Israel to mend its fraying relationships with traditional partners like Turkey, Egypt and Jordan. 

Some Israeli leaders have viewed the Arab Spring, and uprisings like the one that toppled long-time Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, as a threat to regional stability as well as to Israel's security. But Panetta urged Israeli officials to reject that way of thinking. 

Panetta said Israel has no choice but to take some risks to ensure a safer future, starting with resuming peace talks with the Palestinians, a process that Panetta said has “effectively been put on hold.” 

The U.S. defense secretary said the U.S. continues to be committed to safeguarding Israel's security but that “Israel too, has a responsibility” to build regional support through “strong diplomacy.”

Not sure about you but this kinda reminds me of Genesis 12:3

3 I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

For those who haven't noticed, the country Panetta represents is going through a bit of a rough patch these days.

h/t GWP

Video: Biden calls for Syria's Bashar al-Assad to Step Down

I'm sorry, as tempting as it may be to argue that Joe Biden is this stupid, I just can't do it. While in Turkey, which is rapidly acquiring more and more power with each Middle Eastern dictator that falls, Biden called on Syria's Bashar al-Assad to step down. Once again, the United States is playing right into the hands of the extremely Islamist government of Turkey.

As clear-thinking American citizens warned before Mubarak fell, the Muslim Brotherhood will take over. They have. As clear-thinking American citizens warned before Gadhafi fell, the Muslim Brotherhood will take over. They have. In fact, al-Qaeda flags are flying all over those countries right  now.

Once again, clear-thinking American citizens are warning that when Assad goes, the Muslim Brotherhood will take over.

Well, Biden may personally be this stupid but those directing him certainly are not.

h/t Hapblog

Senate Vote: Bestiality in the Military is A-Ok

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NRO's Andrew McCarthy Goes after Rand Paul

First, if I was voting in a primary and my two choices were John McCain and Rand Paul, I would vote for the son of Ron every time (hopefully that will quiet the Ron Paul echo chamber for a minute). That said, National Review's Andrew McCarthy completely deconstructs the alleged constitutionalist / isolationist positions that come out of the mouths of the Paul family. In essence, says McCarthy, Rand is so paranoid about government overreach that, by default, he diminishes the true Islamist threats to our nation.

He also rips McCain pretty good too.

Via NRO:

The quest to quell Islamists by democratic processes has only empowered them. It has done nothing to enhance our security against terrorism. It has wasted hundreds of billions of dollars during a time of economic strife. It has actually provoked our enemies, whose ideology — which partisans such as McCain urge us to ignore — calls for waging violent jihad against Western forces that try to implant Western principles in Islamic lands. It has enabled rabidly anti-American Islamists throughout the Middle East to market themselves as “moderate political parties” and bask in the legitimacy the “international community” confers on electoral success — no matter how fraudulently achieved. It has cheapened true Western democracy by accommodating it to authoritarian sharia. 

Worst of all, the Islamic-democracy project has sapped the political will of the American people to take actions that are actually necessary to our defense. Democracy fetishists have worn threadbare the public’s patience. Why confront Iranian aggression or Pakistani duplicity, they wonder, if the price-tag is endless years of nation-building masquerading as warfare? Why bother if our troops are hamstrung in combat, put at risk by rules of engagement that prioritize the safety of ungrateful populations? Why mortgage our children’s future if the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow is a sharia state that despises America?

He's right. The Pauliens would refer to this bunch as 'Neocons.' Exporting western Democracy to the Middle East, in hopes that it would serve as a sedative has only given the enemies of the West an opportunity it has masterfully exploited. The quintessential example is the election of Hamas in the Gaza Strip. McCain even called the Libyan rebels his 'heroes' before Gadhafi's fall. Those 'heroes' subsequently flew al-Qaeda flags from Libyan courthouses.

McCarthy's column is about the recently, highly controversial (among Pauliens) defense-authorization bill, which Paul vehemently objected to because it allegedly puts American citizens in far greater danger of losing their first and fourth amendment rights. More from McCarthy:

Claiming the “constitutionalist” mantle, Senator Paul is currently crusading against the concept of indefinite detention for enemy combatants under the laws of war. It is a deprivation, he claims, of the Constitution’s guarantee of due process. And once the government succeeds in rolling back such guarantees, he insists, they are never restored. 

As a matter of constitutional law and of history, this is nonsense on stilts. The framers would have been appalled by Paul’s premise that the Constitution endows alien enemy combatants with the due-process rights of American citizens, particularly combatants who are detained outside the United States, where the writ of neither federal nor state judges runs. The only thing the framers might have found more appalling is the notion that the Constitution licenses lawfare — i.e., that it permits the American people’s courts (which, other than the Supreme Court, are creatures of statute not required by the Constitution) to be used by foreign enemies to put on trial the armed forces of the American people over the manner in which they conduct wartime combat operations that have been authorized by the American people’s representatives (indeed, overwhelmingly authorized, because after almost 3,000 of us were slaughtered on 9/11, the public broadly demanded that the enemy be subdued). 

Paul is attacking the McCain-Levin amendment as if it broke new ground. But the amendment only reaffirms what the Constitution has always provided: Congress has the power to authorize combat operations against foreign enemies, and when it does so, the law of war governs those operations — except to the extent Congress modifies that venerable corpus. Under the law of war, enemy combatants may be detained indefinitely, which is to say, until either (a) hostilities have concluded, or (b) Congress withdraws the authorization of military force, effectively returning us to peacetime conditions.

McCarthy goes to the heart of the problem between George W. Bush Republicans (McCain) and the Alex Jones (Paulien) crowd. Specifically, the US did not identify the real enemy after 9/11 and has us arguing amongst ourselves over how best to defeat it.

Read it all if you can.

Excellent.