Boker tov, Boulder!

"How'd that happen?"

 

Chuck Schumer's Brother-In-Law Gets Nod For Life Term on the Federal Bench

 

Federal judgeships are much like ambassadorships which politicians can dole out like party favors to their cronies and fundraisers.

The most recent example of using the federal judicary as a political playground apparently involves New York Senator Charles Schumer securing a nomination for his brother-in-law Kevin McNulty to a New Jersey federal court as reported by Josh Margolin for the New York Post:  "'McNulty came out of left field,' said another source involved in the Jersey judicial politics. 'McNulty's not a dumb guy, but people were just, like, 'How'd that happen?'"

Ironically, earlier this month American Bar Association President William T. Robinson III penned an editorial bemoaning the lack of respect by Newt Gingrich for the judiciary:  "Abolish courts. Ignore rulings. Impeach judges. These are just a few of the ideas Newt Gingrich has suggested to win over the Republican voters in Iowa."

 

The Post article notes that this judgeship "carries life tenure." 

If you haven't already, you might want to peruse Newt's plan [pdf] to bring the courts "back under the Constitution" and Rick Perry's plan to Uproot and Overhaul Washington.

 

Excuses, excuses

Muslim Christmas terror predates September 11, the War on Terror, the War in Iraq, or any of the other excuses used to justify Muslim violence."

-- Daniel Greenfield at FrontPageMag.com

 

 

TheReligionOfPeace.com: 

Over 1,021 ordinary and innocent Christians have been targeted and murdered for their faith by religious Muslims so far this year.

 

Islamists Force Church Members to Celebrate Christmas in Home

Feds: Tennessee Car Dealer Funneled Money to Hezbollah...

Nigerian Catholics Burned to Death in Their Cars...

Apostate Clings to New Faith Despite Murder of Children...

Blinded Pastor in Agony After Acid Attack...

 

Plus: Two More Killed over Cartoons...

4000 Years in 5 Minutes

Wow.

 

  

 

"They" Give You Money...

 

 

 

Israpundit: Be patient, Bibi is "tilling the soil"

 

Ted Belman:

I just returned from a meeting of Likud-Anglo at which Boogie Yaalon spoke. Here are some key points.

- Hezbollah, Hamas and Egypt can’t afford to fight us so they are relatively quiet.

- Forget about democracy in the Arab world.

- Israel isn’t interested in signed pieces of paper. Instead it is focussing on shared interests to forge alliances. He said that Israel has such relationships but wouldn’t mention with whom because he didn’t want to embarrass them.

- Time is on our side and we are using it wisely.

- While many countries in the region have F-16s, Israel has the F-16i. The i standing for added Israeli technology. As a result our planes are vastly superior. He also said so are our pilots. We are superior because we have the brains to invent and improve and the heart to believe in our cause.

- The west is suffering from solutionism i.e., every problem has a solution and nowism i.e., Every solution must be now.

- If the west doesn’t move soon enough to prevent Iran from getting the bomb, Israel will do it alone and the sooner the better. Israel has the capabilities to do it.

- The peace process is like a super tanker in that it has a lot of momentum and must be turned very slowly. The current government is going about the slow turning by constantly taking position which show that the Arabs will never agree. In time the west will lose confidence in the two state solution. Similarly the Israel people are also being weaned off the two state solution. Much of the reason it has such a huge momentum is due to the policies of the former government.

Steady as she goes.

 

 

Longtime BtB readers know that I heart "Boogie" Ya'alon; he consistently "makes sense... in a world that doesn't."

And about those fighter jets... See UPI Dec. 12:

The Israeli air force is upgrading its Lockheed Martin F-16C/D jets amid growing concerns the delivery of 20 of the U.S. plane maker's problem-plagued F-35 stealth fighters ordered by the Jewish state will be delayed past 2017.

The Jerusalem Post reported Monday that worries about the F-35 are so pervasive that upgrading the F-16C/D Fighting Falcon variants, known as "Barak" in the air force, began in 2010 with the installation of new avionics and other systems.

 

And Forbes is reporting, just today, that

In the U.S. the F-35 program is five years behind schedule and 64 percent over cost estimates and the U.S. military spending cuts can imperil the program further....  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the sixth day of Chanukah...

Carl in Jerusalem reports:

 

Jewish woman arrested

for praying on the Temple Mount

 

 

 

Cue the crickets, while we wait for international outrage.

   

 

Jews? . . .  Anybody? . . . Hullo?

The Unanimity of the Left

* Instead of unanimity, I really should have used the word consentaneity. See Jacques Ellul on the necessary consent of propagandees:

".... There is not just a wicked propagandist at work who sets up means to ensnare the innocent citizen. Rather, there is a citizen who craves propaganda from the bottom of his being and a propagandist who responds to this craving." 

* * *

For anyone interested, Bob Woodward had a 3,000-word hit piece on Newt Gingrich in the Washington Post on Saturday. Headline is "... Gingrich threw a bomb." Of course Woodward's writing about events that occurred eleven years ago, from "a series of interviews... that have not been previously published" (one wonders why not), but "red meat" is meant to entice and I suppose it serves the obvious purposes of both that paper and the particular writer.

Funny how the Left seems always to have unanimity in their opinion, right down to the very words they use. If you haven't seen the clip of Chris Matthews saying - four times - on state-run television news that Gingrich looks like a "car-bomber," well you should, because it's simply hard to believe unless you see it. Nevertheless, it's the conservative retort that makes the headlines -- in this case Brent Bozell saying that Obama, on the other hand, looks like a 'skinny ghetto crackhead.' 

Unfortunately for all of us, Bozell's sarcasm is not that far removed from the truth.  As for Matthews, you've gotta wonder if the White House isn't paying him for his extreme loyalty, perhaps with some of that $1.2 billion that went missing from MF Global under the "leadership" of Obama's pick to replace Geithner as Secretary of the Treasury.

At any rate, everyone knows what Newt Gingrich looks like.

 

  

 

Plus, we need to remember that FOX News has ten times the viewership of MSNBC and the Wall Street Journal has quadruple the circulation of the Washington Post. So if everyone's simply preaching to their own choir, then we win. Conservatives have the biggest choir, hands down:)

And speaking of viewership, circulation and such, Dan Riehl's Top 10 Must-Read Blogs for Conservatives does not include BtB. But that's okay, I'm sure we're on a list somewhere, maybe the Top 10 Best-Kept Secrets of the Blogosphere... you never know.

 

New York Times: "U.S. Embraces a Low-Key Response to Turmoil in Iraq"

Update: "Gun and bomb attacks killed six members of Iraq's security forces -- four policemen and two soldiers -- in the Sunni provinces of Salaheddin and Anbar Sunday, security and medical officials said."

 

WASHINGTON — As Iraq erupted in recent days, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. was in constant phone contact with the leaders of the country’s dueling sects. He called the Shiite prime minister and the Sunni speaker of the Parliament on Tuesday, and the Kurdish leader on Thursday, urging them to try to resolve the political crisis.

And for the United States, that is where the American intervention in Iraq officially stops....

.... “There is a strong sense that we need to let events in Iraq play out,” said one senior administration official. “There is not a great deal of appetite for re-engagement. We are not going to reinvade Iraq.”

 

And Friday:

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The federal government's liabilities exceeded its assets in fiscal 2011 by about $14.79 trillion, according to a report issued Friday that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner described as a "sobering" snapshot of long-term challenges....  In fiscal 2010, liabilities exceeded assets by about $13.47 trillion. The $1.31 trillion widening was due to greater liabilities for federal debt and employee and veterans' benefits. While total assets declined from $2.88 trillion in fiscal 2010 to about $2.71 trillion, total liabilities widened, from $16.36 trillion to $17.49 trillion....

... the Government Accountability Office said that it could not "render an opinion" on the 2011 report, citing "widespread material internal-control weaknesses, significant uncertainties and other limitations." 

 

Ah, you've gotta love big gubmint. 

And speaking of which, I'm sorry to report that there are no pictures of the President playing golf [zip, zero, zilch].  You'll just have to be content with this photo of the posh beachfront home overlooking Kailua Bay, where the Obama family is spending their holidays. Dhimmedia is calling it "the new Winter White House,"  although it's going on the market as soon the First Family leaves in January. (If you can get a mortgage, it's selling for a mere $7.9 million.)

 

 

Somewhere nearby lurks the White House Press Corps, no doubt tallying up exactly how our four million taxpayer dollars are being redistributed to make it all possible.

 

 

2-CD Set ... on sale

To all of BtB's Christian friends, I wish you a blessed and very merry Christmas.

 

photo courtesy of a Grumpy Elder

 

I hope you won't be offended, but this is so timely that I can't resist. It just wouldn't be the same on  Monday or Tuesday....

 

 

In those days, at this time (cont'd)

"Morning Coffee" ~ by Malcolm Liepke

 

.... Let’s go back to the cave where the Maccabees are discussing what to do. Imagine a 21^st century person joining the discussion.

Judah Maccabee: We can’t go back to our village. The Greeks are looking for us. We’ll have to live here in the cave, without any of the comforts of home.

21^st century person: But that’s hard.

All heads turn, but they decide to ignore the interruption. Another brother continues:

Jonathan: We can’t even stay in this cave. We’ll have to keep moving around so the Greeks won’t find us.

21^st century person: But that’s hard.

Simon: It means not seeing our wives and children—for as long as this takes. It could be a very long time.

21^st century person: But that’s hard.

Eliezer: We can’t just hide. We have to go out and attack the Greek troops, engage them in battle.

21^st century person: Are you kidding? That would be really hard.

Maccabees, annoyed, in unison: What does “hard” have to do with it?