Boker tov, Boulder!

Good Shabbos

Photos of Israel that never make the news . . .

Todah and Good Shabbos to Zahava and family in Yerushalayim.

Jihadists threaten "unbearable hell"

Daily Telegraph (UK) via Jihad Watch

A GROUP linked to Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network threatened the United States with reprisals after the re-election of President George W. Bush, warning of "unbearable hell," in a website statement today.

"The coming days will show you that the one you preferred will lead you to an unbearable hell," said the group calling itself the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades after the Al-Qaeda military chief killed in Afghanistan in October 2001.

It was not possible to immediately verify the statement. The same group claimed responsibility for the train bombings in Madrid in March this year that killed 191 people in Spain's worst attack and injured another 1,900.

"Although the criminal Bush has spilt blood of Muslims during the last four years and despite the butcheries that he committed and continues to perpetrate in Afghanistan, in Palestine and in Iraq, we see that... the applause of his people is increasing," it said.

"This shows the nature of the American people who approved the war against Islam led by criminal America," it added.

The statement comes after a message from Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden -- broadcast just days ahead of the US election -- warned the United States of new attacks similar to those of September 11, 2001.

The murderer of Theo Van Gogh in the Netherlands also apparently had links to al Qaeda.

It's not over till the fat lady sings

Imshin:  Word on the street in Israel is that Suha is keeping him alive till she can get her fleshy paws on every last cent.

Various Election Punditry

Dick Morris on the Hispanic Vote

While Gore won 65 percent of the Latino community, holding Bush to a mere 35 percent, Kerry only carried the Hispanic vote by 55-45, paving the way for the Bush victory.

Since Hispanics cast 12 percent of the vote in 2004, their 10-point movement to the GOP gave the president an additional 1.2 percent of the national vote. Take a similar amount away from Kerry, and the Latinos gave Bush a 2.4 percent edge in the general election balloting.

Since Bush beat Kerry by only 3.1 percent, how important was the Hispanic vote? Vital and crucial.

Charles Krauthammer on the referendum

This election was a referendum on Bush's handling of his first, accidental mandate. The endorsement was resounding. First, his electoral college victory was solid. He went over the top without a single state being closely contested. He won all but three with a majority of 7 percentage points or more, and the others -- Ohio by 2.5 points, Nevada by 3 and Florida by 5 -- he won comfortably.

Second, there was the popular vote. Bush supporters should not gloat too much about the popular vote, given the fact that they lost it last time. Nonetheless, if you have already won the electoral vote, it is okay to talk about the popular vote as a kind of adjunct legitimizer. And a 3.5-million-vote margin is a serious majority.

Third, he increased his party's representation in both the House and the Senate. The sweetest victory of all was the dispatching of Tom Daschle. Winning control of the executive branch while at the same time overthrowing, indeed retiring, your chief congressional antagonist enlarges the mandate.

Michael J. Totten on the Zombie Hordes

The crazies are taking over is a lot easier to swallow than we f*cked up and lost. . . .

45 percent of the people who voted for Bush are self-described liberals or moderates. (Earth to Democrats: That’s why he beat you.) Only 55 percent of the people who voted for Bush are conservatives.

. . . blowing it all out [of] proportion will get the Democrats nowhere. It makes as much sense as Ann Coulter accusing every leftie in the land of being pro-terrorist. It’s not only dumb but exceptionally counterproductive.

Andrew Coyne on the breakdown

- Bush took 46% of first-time voters. He took 52% of college graduates. 48% of working women. 44% of those earning less than $50,000. 45% of those aged 18-29. Given these are conventionally supposed to be strongly Democratic demographic groups, it suggests the stereotype of Bush voters as middle-aged white guys is equally suspect.

- Bush, the AWOL Texas National Guard pilot, claimed 57% of the veterans vote, versus 41% for the "decorated war hero."

- Bush was the choice of 46% of those who said they made up their minds in the last week. The undecided split about evenly -- not 9 to 1 for the challenger, as was assumed in one pre-election poll.

- 80% of Bush voters said they voted for their candidate, rather than against the other one. Barely a third of Kerry voters said the same.

- 93% of voters said they were "very" or "somewhat" concerned about the cost and availability of health care. Yet despite making the issue one of the centrepieces of his campaign, Kerry could do no better than to split these voters with Bush.

- Though 52% of voters said the economy was "not good" or "poor," fewer voters trusted Kerry to handle the economy than Bush. Neither candidate was trusted by a majority.

- Only 56% said the Bin Laden videotape was important to their vote. Of these, the vote was split 50-50 between the candidates. The tape was not a factor.

The rest is more or less as you'd expect.

:) from Illana

A woman in a hot air balloon realized she was lost.  She lowered her altitude and spotted a man in a boat below.  She shouted to him, "Excuse me, can you help me?  I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don't know where I am."

The man consulted his portable GPS and replied, "You're in a hot air balloon approximately 30 feet above a ground elevation of 2346 feet above sea level. You are 31 degrees, 14.97 minutes north latitude and 100 degrees, 49.09 minutes west longitude."

She rolled her eyes and said, "You must be a Republican."

"I am," replied the man.  "How did you know?"

"Well," answered the balloonist, "everything you told me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to make of your information, and I'm still lost.  Frankly, you've not been much help to me."

The man smiled and responded, "You must be a Democrat."

"I am," replied the balloonist.  "How did you know?"

"Well," said the man, "you don't know where you are or where you're going. You've risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air.  You made a promise that you have no idea how to keep, and you expect me to solve your problem.  You're in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but somehow, now it's my fault."

I hope this bit of humor doesn't offend anyone.  I believe that liberalism (within reason) has an important place in our society... just not right now, not in the White House, not at the head of our military, not in the person of John Kerry.

Further, I think it is without merit to burn the American flag and effigies of George Bush because in a free election of massive turnout, your candidate lost.  I would urge all Democrats to condemn such radical and ultimately divisive modes of expression.

I would like to respond

Dear "rebbe1" or "good soul" (gutneshamah@hotmail.com ):

I would like to respond to the following comment you left at this post on my blog:

Your son should certainly get away from those lefty creeps found in so many "liberal arts" schools.  He will find like minded students at places like Brigham Young, Bob Jones U, Liberty U, Oral Roberts U, Baylor: there he will commune with folks who hold the same political agenda of the re-elected president. The students there all agree that Bush is their man.  They also all agree that abortion is murder, capital punishment is mandatory, gays and lesbians are sinners (yes, thank G-d your son isn't in sinful SF near those abominations) and that waging war in Iraq is a justifable holy act.  Opps, there's only one problem.  The same folks who hold these beliefs and got W into term 2 also believe that Jews are eventually going to hell for their sins. But I am sure that is much easier to deal with for him.

Sounds pretty unreasonable to me.  My son doesn't need or want to be where everyone is the same and agrees with him, just somewhere the population isn't hostile, intolerant and intimidating (e.g. threatening to take “Molotov cocktails to Washington”).  I take it that you think he somehow deserves to be censored because there is only one correct political position, yours, and all other opinions are unworthy of consideration and shouldn't even be voiced.  I find that very disturbing.

You seem to have chosen Christian conservatives as the group onto which you project everything that ails you, but Bush was re-elected by all sorts of people. Comparing this election to the last, Bush's support increased among African Americans, Whites, Hispanics, married people, not-married people, union members, Jews, Catholics, Democrats, men, women, 30-44 year olds, 45-59 year olds and 60+ year olds.  It decreased only among gays (-2%), Protestants (-4%) and 18-29 year olds (-1%).

I know a lot of liberals think that the "Christian Right" is "taking over," somehow illegitimately so, but I would respectfully suggest to you that the Democrats simply moved further to the Left than most people were comfortable with.  If the Left end of the political spectrum doesn't eventually address the question of where they themselves went wrong, they will no doubt continue to lose power and influence.

If the Democrats had chosen a more steady and moderate candidate like a Gephardt or Lieberman, the election might have gone their way.  If they had been more respectful of a sitting war-time president, instead of demonizing him at every turn, the election might have gone their way. If the Democrats had offered a positive vision for the country and a substantial plan for getting there, they might have won the White House... and more.

3.5 million more people voted for Bush than Kerry. In my humble opinion, as a lifelong Democrat, it was because Bush was the more courageous, more clear, more positive, and more steady candidate. The liberals, in comparison, were too muddled in their message, too left of center, too risky and way too angry.

If you don't believe that my son deserves the same protection and consideration as everyone else, then it's very difficult for me to ascribe any integrity to your opinion.  I assume you would defend an African American or a gay person who was being attacked or called names.  It's a real problem for me that your tolerance does not, of necessity, extend to Republicans. 

You don’t castigate the 83% of 18-29 year olds who didn't even bother to vote, but instead spend your time and energy writing to me, trying to justify the angry nihilism of pampered young people who feel "doomed" to live in America.  I don't find that very productive or even respectable.

I wish you better luck next time... but not if you and your compatriots refuse to examine your own bigotry.  However long it takes, I hope you come to realize that your anger and intolerance are simply not appealing to a majority of the people.

I certainly haven't enjoyed them being directed toward me and my family. 

Anne Lieberman

Boker tov, Boulder!

Help! Where do conservatives go to college?

This is a serious question, and I'm hoping to receive some serious suggestions.  Post-election, my son is having a miserable time at a small liberal arts college back east.  The lefties have him surrounded, isolated and alienated by rampant and nonsensical hatred.

What's funny is, we thought this place would be relatively peaceful because of an apparent lack of antisemitism (due to the corresponding lack of a Muslim community), but the joke's on us, because our son is not only a Jew, but {gasp} a Republican.  According to his roommate, such creatures are "f-ing traitors!"

There is no comfort to be found; the dining room, hallways between classes and even his own room are filled with raging hyperbolic assertions that we they are all "doomed" because of Bushitler and the evil conservatives who re-elected him.

My husband and I both grew up in the liberalism of another era, so we are completely confounded by this dilemma.

Is there a college community in America where civilized debate might still exist, where diversity of opinion is at least tolerated?  Where a nice young man can feel safe being both Jewish and politically conservative?

Please leave your ideas in the Comments or email me. Most likely, he's outta there by semester break.

p.s. If you do go to his blog, please refrain from giving him suggestions of how or what to do; he's already (way) overwhelmed by advice from the well-intentioned who don't have to live there.

Thank Gd he's not in San Francisco.

the prize goes to Claudia Rosett

On Arafat

"Symbolically, it's sort of hideously beautiful. It would have delighted Balzac. A killer billionaire dies in a Paris bed ...having abandoned in his final hours the nest he fouled so thoroughly that he himself, in his final hours, instead of choosing to die in the place he said he'd give his life for, went off to France to croak in comfort.” 

-- Claudia Rosett

Michael Barone on the exit polls

U.S. News & World Report

Why were the initial exit poll results more Democratic than the actual tabulated vote? No one is sure, though the national sample at midafternoon, which showed Kerry ahead 50 to 49 percent, was 58 percent women. My own suspicion is that some Democrats—at the command level, or somewhere below—had an election-day project of slamming the results.

New Hampshire, Minnesota and Pennsylvania initial exit poll results had huge margins for Kerry—much larger percentages than he won in any pre-election poll. If somebody had slipped some Democratic operative the list of exit poll sites—40 to 50 sites in each critical state—he or she could have slipped several hundred operatives into the polling places to take the exit poll ballots and vote for Kerry. The results would have shown Kerry much farther ahead than he actually was and, broadcast through drugdereport.com and other sources, could have heartened Kerry supporters during the afternoon and disheartened Bush supporters.

When I was active in Democratic politics, in 1964-80, it would have occurred to us to do no such thing. But Democrats these days are so filled with a sense of grievance and with a feeling of justification for employing any dirty tactics to win, that this is not unthinkable.

Israeli TV: ARAFAT IS BRAIN-DEAD

ABC/Reuters: Israel's Channel Two television cited unnamed sources in Paris saying that Yasser Arafat [y'mach shmo] underwent a brain scan and was found to be "no longer alive."

"My first reaction is God bless his soul," Bush told a news conference when asked about reports that Arafat was declared clinically dead in a French hospital. "And my second reaction is we will continue to work for a free Palestinian state that's at peace with Israel."

This may be premature, but may the father of terrorism rot in the worst hell and may his name be erased from life forever.