David Warren Views Middle East

Reading US commentaries about world issues is often a choice between one brand of salsa or the other. It is a pleasure, then, to read through the cool observations and well measured arguments of David Warren. He never sounds as though he is in the midst of the firestorm, and his experience and background abroad is far greater than most of us here in the States. His latest piece is another fine example:

"The Cold War analogy will not work in the Middle East, however, where the West has enemies who are not quite sane. In particular, while they give many signs of bazaar cunning, Iran's ayatollahs are not committed to an ideology of dull materialism. They are instead committed to an apocalyptic religious vision, which with all its heresy (in strict Islamic terms), might actually prefer to trigger international catastrophe, rather than suffer ignominious domestic collapse."

And

"Selling such an aggressive forward policy to Western electorates, who must pay for it, was never going to be easy. And George Bush essentially failed as salesman, partly through his own incoherence. With Barack Obama, the chances are zero: he would not dream of defending U.S. interests in so decisive a way. At best, for the length of his tenure, we can hope for some puzzled dithering, in which regardless of his own rhetoric he allows U.S. troops to dawdle in theatre, and their actual presence in turn provides some modest deterrent value."

Read the rest here.

JetBlu Flight Attendant Bails Out On Tarmac

The flight attendant career of Steven Slater came to a spectacular close Sunday when he lost patience with certain members of his clientele.

After requsesting an anxious passenger to remain in his seat and refrain from pulling out his overhead luggage, the passenger told him what for and then struck Mr. Slater in the head with his bag, accidentally like, as it came down from above them before the plane was properly parked. Funny, but that is exactly why they say not to do that. Returning to his crew station, Mr. Slater took advantage of his access to the plane's PA system to bid his final flight farewell.

"Authorities said Slater dropped several f-bombs on a JetBlue flight’s loud speaker Monday night, grabbed two beers, deployed the plane’s emergency slide at Kennedy Airport, and then took off."

Despite his haste to disembark, he did have the presence of mind to grab a couple of bebos before he hit the chute. I suppose you never want to be losing your composure as Mr. Slater did, but still there are times ...

Democrats Look To Split Conservative Vote

Electoral high jinks are nothing new to the Democrat Party. We are all familiar with last minute revelations, October surprises, trumped up and timed release 'scandalous' revelations, voter fraud and recounts till the 'right' candidate wins. This latest effort is just one more in a consistent pattern of attempting to subvert the electoral process. It seems the Democrats are flooding the elections with phony candidates whom they register as "Tea Party" candidates to siphon off the unsuspecting among us and split the conservative vote.

Gillman, who also authors the blog "Michigan Taxes Too Much" and is running for county commissioner, caused a stir in Michigan politics in late July after he released documents he obtained from state elections officials about the so-called Michigan Tea Party. The documents, he said, showed that of the 23 candidates under the Tea Party name, at least nine of them had affidavits notarized by a local operative for the Oakland County Democratic Party.

What the...?!

"Nobody had any idea who these people were," Gillman told FoxNews.com. "We could at least say, without question, it is the Democratic Party putting it on."

A bunch of candidates signed up to run for office, listing themselves as members of the Tea Party, and nobody knows who they are. Well, I'm sure Mr. McGuinness knows who they are.

The plot thickened after the Oakland County Democratic Party chairman, Mike McGuinness, told The Detroit News that operative Jason Bauer may have crossed the line by notarizing the affidavits."

Yeah, ya think, maybe?

He was quoted saying the activity was not "sanctioned" by the local party, but "we have to assess internally what we do next."

All just a misunderstanding, I'm sure.

"Representatives with the Oakland County and Michigan Democratic parties did not return calls seeking comment."

I'll bet.

The Cordoba Conundrum

The plans to build a mosque two blocks from the site where the World Trade Center towers were destroyed, along with the lives of nearly 3,000 American citizens, received the go ahead from New York city's Landmarks Preservation Commission. Their 9 to 0 vote against granting historic protection to the building at 45-47 Park Place in Lower Manhattan confirmed that the $100 million center would be built. The vote set off another round of national debate, with the usual suspects on the left chiding the right for lacking the broadmindedness to look past wrongs and for failing to move forward to a bright new future. Against this bilge and caterwauling a number of conservatives have responded, including Andrew McCarthy's excellent summation at National review:

Dar al-Hijra was established in 1991. Not so coincidentally, that is the same year American leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood wrote an internal memorandum to their global headquarters in Egypt, explaining that they saw their work in the United States as a “grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within.”

And David Warren has an enlightening piece:

The chief promoter of the scheme, Faisel Abdul Rauf, is himself an imam who, shortly after the 9/11 attacks, suggested that the U.S. was itself largely responsible for being hit. He will not say where the money is coming from (despite some journalistic hounding). Till otherwise proven, the assumption must be that most comes from the usual source: Saudi Arabia, a country whose religious affairs department has generously endowed Sunni Muslim infrastructure all over the world, from an immense oil revenue.

It is also, if my reader needs reminding, a country in which the practice of any religion but Islam is absolutely banned, and grievously punished. All Saudi proposals for "interfaith dialogue" should be considered in that sharp light.

My favorite is, of course, George Jonas, whose excellent post put the notion of outreach into perspective:

"Although human naïvete is boundless, the likelihood of an organization hoping to promote understanding through what others view as desecration is remote. Cordoba Initiative's organizers may not themselves think of building an Islamic centre and mosque near Ground Zero as desecration, but it can't escape their notice that many Americans do."

True enough.

- 'Lawrence of Arabia' Open Thread

What did you think?

Milwaukie Teachers Fight For Their Rights...

With the Milwuakie School District in a financial crisis and layoffs handed out to hundreds of teachers, the Milwaukee teachers union is taking a stand and are insisting to get its taxpayer-funded Viagra back as a benefit.

The school district believes its limited resources might be better spent in more productive pursuits.

"But lawyers for the school board say the drugs were excluded in 2005 to save money, and there is no discrimination because they are used primarily for recreational sex and not out of medical necessity."

Don't they have, like...hobbies? What the heck are they doing over there in Milwaukie?

The filing last month comes as the union, the Milwaukee Teachers' Education Association, is also protesting hundreds of layoff notices issued to teachers for the coming school year. Citing a "financial crisis" caused by exploding benefit costs and revenue shortfalls, the district's outgoing superintendent proposed laying off 682 employees in April.

At least one lawmaker questioned why the union is fighting for Viagra while teachers are losing their jobs. A consultant for the school board has estimated that reinstating the drug benefit would cost $786,000 per year — the cost to keep perhaps a dozen first-year teachers employed.

Nearly a million a year - for viagra. Listen, don't start trying to reason with these people. You are not dealing with reasonable people.

State Rep. Jason Fields argues that the money could be better spent any number of ways — including saving jobs.
"You've got to be kidding me," said Fields, a Milwaukee Democrat. "The fact that is the point of contention is kind of frightening."

It's bad news when even the Democrats can see how outrageous the NEA can be.

(Note: photo of teachers protesting is generic for teachers protesting, and does not represent any particular teachers, in Milwaukie or elsewhere, protesting the loss of a Viagra benefit plan).

Justice Stevens Replacement Confirmed

Ahhfff!

Do you realize the nonsense that this woman has written? Her utter lack of judicial experience? She even has remarkably limited experience as a solicitor, which showed when she argued before the Supreme Court. And those problems are existant before we even start to talk about her "ideas" that were so buried in her confirmation hearings that Democratic Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, wondered aloud whether there was any way short of opposing her confirmation to get a straight answer.

"It would be my hope that we could find some place between voting no and having some sort of substantive answers," Specter said, "but I don't know that it would be useful to pursue these questions any further."

Nope.

Well, here we go.