NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Cory Booker and Democratic Norms The Senator’s political stunt to release documents backfires. see note please

Posted By on September 7th, 2018

https://www.wsj.com/articles/cory-booker-and-democratic-norms-1536276103

When he was mayor of Newark, Booker was considered to be the light at the end of the Lincoln Tunnel….now he’s just another political hack….rsk

Democrats have been acting out at Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing, but Cory Booker is distinguishing himself in a crowded field. The New Jersey Senator released confidential documents in what he admitted was a violation of Senate rules, and his distortions need correcting.

Questioning Judge Kavanaugh on Wednesday evening, Mr. Booker referred to an email the judge sent while in George W. Bush’s White House counsel’s office. Republican Mike Lee interjected that Judge Kavanaugh didn’t have a copy of the email, which was marked confidential. The papers are shielded from the public under the Presidential Records Act, but Mr. Bush has allowed Senators and staff to read them.

Mr. Booker complained that an email with the subject line “racial profiling” shouldn’t have been withheld. “This wasn’t personal information. There’s no national security issue whatsoever,” he intoned. “The fact that we’re not allowing these emails out, as we have asked, as I have asked,” is evidence that “the system is rigged.” On Thursday Mr. Booker released the documents to TV fanfare and dared Republicans to punish him for it.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The Anonymous Resistance The writer who dares not speak his own name is no hero.

Posted By on September 7th, 2018

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-anonymous-resistance-1536276239

One consequence of having such a polarizing and personally flawed man as President is the degree to which his opponents justify their own destructive excess in response. An example is Cory Booker consciously violating Senate rules Thursday in an attempt to deny Brett Kavanaugh a Supreme Court seat. (See nearby.) Another is the decision by a “senior official” to publish an op-ed in the New York Times describing the internal government “resistance” to Donald Trump.

Let’s stipulate that publishing an article with an anonymous byline is sometimes worth doing, and we have done it ourselves. In 1991 we shielded the name of a woman who was raped amid the debate over publishing the names of victims. We have published op-eds protecting the identities of writers who could face arrest or worse at the hands of dictators or terrorists, while informing readers that the author was using a pseudonym.

We don’t recall offering anonymity to someone in government or American politics, though perhaps we have and we can’t say we would never do so. It would depend on the circumstances. The op-ed in this case doesn’t meet those standards, not least because it isn’t news. The fact that senior Administration officials have been trying to block Mr. Trump’s uninformed policy impulses, and mute his self-destructive anger and narcissism, has been reported hundreds of times.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

High School English Students Forced to Learn Gender-Bending Pronouns and Anti-White Propaganda By Megan Fox

Posted By on September 7th, 2018

https://pjmedia.com/parenting/high-school-english-students-forced-to-learn-gender-bending-pronouns-and-anti-white-propaganda/

If you send your kids off to high school thinking they will learn how to diagram sentences and write competently, you may want to check their English requirements. John F. Kennedy High School in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, has other ideas about learning English that include gender-neutral pronouns, discussions of sexuality, and anti-white propaganda.

A student posted an assignment to social media, handed out by teacher Emily Thomson of Kennedy High’s English department, that detailed “power and privilege” in America which, according to the assignment, names “U.S. born,” “white people,” “Christians,” “middle, owning class,” “heterosexuals,” “men,” and “veterans” as the oppressors of non-white humankind. How this is not a violation of the school’s policy against discrimination based on race, creed, and sexuality is baffling.

In case you’re tempted the think the right column is not referring to the oppressors, think again. Here’s the very next image in the “Diversity Toolkit: A Guide to Discussing Identity, Power and Privilege” program. CONTINUE AT SITE

ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

YORAM ETTINGER: A ROSH HA SHANA GUIDE FOR THE PERPLEXED

Posted By on September 7th, 2018

More on Rosh Hashanah and other Jewish holidays: http://bit.ly/137Er6J

1. Rosh Hashanah (“the beginning of the year” in Hebrew), the Jewish New Year (5,779), is celebrated on the first day of the Jewish month of Tishrei (תשרי). Tishrei was a Babylonian term for launching the agricultural (creation) calendar, starting with the planting of seeds and the first rain.

2. Rosh Hashanah is celebrated on the sixth day of Creation, when the first human-being (Adam) was created, highlighting the centrality of the soil – a metaphor for humility – in human life. Thus, the Hebrew word for a human-being is Adam (אדמ), which becomes the Hebrew spelling of “soil” (אדמה) when the Hebrew letter ה (an abbreviation of God, the Creator) is added.

In addition, the Hebrew word Adam (אדמ) contains the Hebrew word for blood (דמ), the liquid of life, and is the acronym of Biblical Abraham (אברהם), David (דוד) and Moses (משה), the three role models of humility.

3. The Hebrew word “Rosh” means “beginning,” “first,” “head,” “chief.” The Hebrew letters of Rosh (ראש) constitute the root of the Hebrew word for Genesis, pronounced “Be’re’sheet” (בראשית), which is the first/lead word in the Bible (Book of Genesis). Rosh Hashanah is celebrated at the beginning of the Jewish month of Tishrei, which means beginning/Genesis in ancient Acadian. The Hebrew letters of Tishrei (תשרי) are also included in the spelling of Genesis (בראשית). The Hebrew spelling of Genesis (בראשית) consists of the first two letters in the Hebrew alphabet (אב), the middle letter (י) and the last three letters (רשת) – representing the complete/wholesome undertaking of the Creation. Just like the Creation, so should the New Year (and human actions) launch a thoughtful, long-term – not a hasty – wholesome process.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

LONDON BUSES CARRY SIGNS “ISRAEL IS A RACIST ENDEAVOR

Posted By on September 6th, 2018

“A tweet by Wales-based international relations academic and UK-Israel relations specialist James Vaughan (“Would talk less about antisemitism if there were less of it about”):
Inter alia:

‘,,,,The Met tweeted to say police in Lambeth were investigating reports of fly-posting and that “offensive material will be removed”.
The posters shocked Londoners making their way home from work, with many describing them as “vile” and “terrifying”. Others claimed the adverts were a “hate crime”.
A TfL[Transport for London’ spokesperson said: “These adverts are absolutely not authorised by TfL or our advertising partner JCDecaux.
“It is fly posting and therefore an act of vandalism which we take extremely seriously. We have instructed our contractors to remove any of these posters found on our network immediately.”….’

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

U.K. Charges Two Russians With Attempted Murder of Spy, Daughter U.K. authorities believe the suspects in the poisoning of Sergei Skripal are Russian military intelligence officers By Stephen Fidler and Jason Douglas

Posted By on September 6th, 2018

https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-k-charges-two-russians-with-attempted-murder-of-spy-daughter-1536143138?cx_testId=16&cx_testVariant=cx&cx_artPos=3&cx_tag=contextual&cx_navSource=newsReel#cxrecs_s

LONDON—British authorities charged two men that they believe are Russian military intelligence officers with the attempted murder of a former spy and his daughter in March, an incident that prompted the largest-ever collective expulsion of Russian diplomats from the West.

Prosecutors charged the men—named as Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov but those names are believed to be aliases—with four offenses related to the poisoning of Sergei Skripal, who has lived in Britain since a 2010 spy exchange with Moscow. The charges also included conspiracy to murder and the use and possession of nerve agent Novichok.

“This was not a rogue operation,” she said. “It was almost certainly also approved outside the GRU at a senior level of the Russian state.”

The charges reinforce how the attack—which Moscow denies—continues to provoke profound tensions between Russia and the U.K. and its allies. The U.K. said it wouldn’t seek extradition of the two men, since the Russian constitution forbids it, but that a European Arrest Warrant had been obtained, providing for their arrest if they set foot in the European Union.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that in addition to failing to provide proof that the Russian state was involved in the poisoning, the British government had refused Russia’s offer to send its own investigators to the U.K. to help investigate the case.

In a statement to lawmakers Wednesday, Prime Minister Theresa May said the attack was almost certainly authorized at “a senior level” of the Russian state. She added that the U.K. government concluded that the suspects are officers from the Russian military intelligence service, also known as the GRU.CONTINUE AT SITE

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

When Funerals Become Politics By Victor Davis Hanson

Posted By on September 6th, 2018

Using funerals for political purposes has a long, but not distinguished, tradition. In 44 B.C. eulogist Mark Antony claimed to Roman mourners that he came to bury Caesar. But his speech created a frenzy and ended up ensuring a death warrant for the once “honorable” Brutus.

In contrast, aside from the commemoration of the deceased, Americans mostly have seen funerals as solemn reminders of how frail and transitory life is for all of us, and how our shared fates should unite even the bitterest of enemies.

Sixteen years ago, on the eve of the 2002 midterm election, and at a time when the United States was beginning to divide over the Afghanistan intervention and a looming Iraq war, Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.) tragically died in a plane crash.

Wellstone’s Minnesota funeral was meant to be a commemoration of a life of public servant well lived. But the funeral service was soon hijacked by partisan speakers and ended up a loud and often grating political pep rally.

The message to mourners of all beliefs and persuasions was to translate their grief into votes for progressive candidates like Wellstone. Popular discontent over news of the politicalized funeral may well have explained why, two weeks later, the in-power Republicans actually picked up seats in George W. Bush’s first midterm election.

At the recent eight-hour, televised funeral of iconic singer Aretha Franklin, many of the speakers such as Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson turned the event into a political wake—calling for everything from increased voter registration to tighter standards on drinking water.

Activist and professor Michael Eric Dyson embarrassed himself with adolescent hits against President Donald Trump: “You lugubrious leach, you dopey doppelganger of deceit and deviance, you lethal liar, you dimwitted dictator, you foolish fascist.”

On the next day, the televised state funeral for Sen. John McCain likewise soon became just as political.

IMMIGRATION, POLITICS Comments turned off

23,000 California DMV voter-registration fails, and we’re not supposed to worry about illegals voting By Monica Showalter

Posted By on September 6th, 2018

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/09/23000_california_dmv_voterregistration_fails_and_were_not_supposed_to_worry_about_illegals_voting.html

In an issue the press suggests we shouldn’t be too concerned about, the California Department of Motor Vehicles says it’s screwed up 23,000 voter registrations based on its stewardship of the state’s automatic voting registration system, known as its motor-voter law.

According to the Los Angeles Times:

Tens of thousands of Californians have been registered to vote incorrectly by the state Department of Motor Vehicles, including some who were assigned the wrong political party preference, officials said Wednesday.

Officials insist the errors were limited to 23,000 of the 1.4 million voter registration files sent to elections offices between late April, when California’s new automated “motor voter” system went into effect, and early August. Californians who were affected will soon receive notifications in the mail instructing them to check their voter registration status.

Hey, we know what your first question was, and both the DMV and the press assure that none of them was an illegal. They aren’t too sure what happened, which is why they are telling everyone to check his own registration, but they are…sure there were no illegals. This, despite the origins of the problem they described: that DMV officials left old screens up, and the information from the previous clients was sent to the state on behalf of the clients who followed. Why that couldn’t possibly include illegals was not a topic of inquiry for either the Los Angeles Times or the Sacramento Bee, which covered this issue. Illegals, see, wouldn’t dream of registering to vote, nor would any of the Democrats running the DMV out in the one-party precincts ever dream of registering them, right?

If there is any truth in this just being a matter of classifications gone wrong, with no illegals involved, none of them is saying how he actually would know. Never mind that uncomfortable detail about the DMV being suddenly tasked with both issuing drivers licenses to illegals and registering voters – in a one-party state. We’re just supposed to trust them on this.

HOMELAND SECURITY Comments turned off

Are There Really Jihadist Training Camps in the U.S.? By Jeff Sanders

Posted By on September 6th, 2018

https://pjmedia.com/lifestyle/are-there-really-jihadist-training-camps-in-the-us/

For years I have seen posters on Facebook and videos telling us that there are dozens and dozens, maybe even hundreds, of terrorist training camps throughout the U.S. I have greeted these reports with a mixture of some belief and a lot of skepticism.

It’s pretty clear from the September 11, 2001 massacre that there were Islamist sleeper cells in the United States. It is also pretty clear that jihadists get their inspiration from such savage organizations as ISIS and al-Qaeda, swear allegiance to them, and carry out terror attacks (such as in San Bernardino, Boston, Chattanooga, New York City, and elsewhere around the world). Why wouldn’t there be actual training camps hidden in the woods or the desert?

However, for the same number of years the press has “pooh-poohed” the ideas that large groups of Muslims are training for holy war against us in camps scattered throughout America. For example, in 2015 Business Insider basically said that all the stories about terrorist training camps run by Islamic groups such as Jamaat ul-Fuqra are just fiction without any hard evidence to back them up.

You can read the same kind of disbelief in these stories by the Dallas Observer,

Buzzfeed News, Vox, and even Fox News. In short, these media outlets are saying that most of the ideas about jihadist training camps come from one source: the Clarion Project. Since the Clarion Project is just a bunch of ultra-right-wing Islamophobes, we cannot take what they say with any kind of certainty.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Kamala Harris Harasses Kavanaugh on Robert Mueller, Charlottesville, ‘White Supremacist’ Terms By Tyler O’Neil

Posted By on September 6th, 2018

https://pjmedia.com/trending/kamala-harris-harasses-kavanaugh-on-robert-mueller-charlottesville-white-supremacist-terms/

On Tuesday, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of speaking with President Trump’s lawyer’s law firm about the Robert Mueller investigation. She did so without evidence, and while refusing to provide a list of lawyers at the firm. After this, the senator jumped down Kavanaugh’s throat with a question about the white nationalist riots in Charlottesville last year.

“Judge, have you ever discussed Special Counsel Mueller or his investigation with anyone?” Harris asked. After the nominee responded that he had, the senator asked, “Have you discussed it with anyone at Kasowitz, Benson, and Torres, the law firm founded by Marc Kasowitz, President Trump’s personal lawyer? Be sure about your answer, sir.”

Kavanaugh, perplexed, could not remember if he knew anyone at that law firm. “Is there a person you’re talking about?” The senator responded, “I’m asking you a very direct question, yes or no.”

“I’m not sure, I need to know anyone who works at that law firm,” the nominee explained. As the senator continued to push him, he said, “I’m just trying to think, do I know anyone at that firm.” Kamala Harris cut him off, saying, “That’s not my question.”

“I would like to know the person you’re thinking of,” Kavanaugh said. “I think you’re thinking of someone and you don’t want to tell us,” Harris countered. Can she read his mind?!

“Who did you have a conversation with?” Kamala Harris asked, acting as though the nominee’s perplexed face revealed his complicity.

At this point, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) chimed in with a point of order, explaining that Washington, D.C. is full of law firms, that law firms are full of people, and it is not reasonable for Harris to assume Kavanaugh automatically knows everyone who works at this one specific law firm. He joked, “They’re like rabbits, they form new firms.” CONTINUE AT SITE