Friday Afternoon Roundup - A New Year, a New America

As 2008 passes into 2009, the celebrations are televised, but there increasingly seems little to celebrate.

The economic crisis brought on by the Democrat's crooked allies on Wall Street and in the banking industry combined with media scaremongering is now beginning to sink in. The huge bailout package passed by Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi's congress, to be followed by a giant stimulus package from Obama should be enough to create the much talked about recession, while kicking back money to Obama's supporters.

But first up is a Senate seat, New York's Senate seat. Obama's Chicago thugs seem to have muscled New York State assembly leader Sheldon Silver into going along and supporting Princess Carolyn's selection to the throne, oops the Senate, over the opposition of most New Yorkers and even the press. Governor Patterson meanwhile is feeling the heat, even as Mayor Bloomberg is backing off to let the Chicago crowd do its dirty work.

Who wins? Obama may get a free Senate seat in 2009, but the Republicans got a solid shot at it soon thereafter, if the State Republican party can finally get its act together. Appointing your horse to the Senate worked better with Roman emperors than with democratic politics.

Between the disputed Chicago Senate appointment which Blagojevich is making clear will be a battle royale, between Blago's appointee and Obama's attempt to reserve the seat for his own advisor, and forcing through the appointment of his completely unqualified fundraiser whose last name happens to be Kennedy in New York State, Obama will kick off with two tainted Senate seats and a Democratic congress tarnished by scandal even before its first session.

America is now getting a taste of Chicago politics applied on a nationwide scale and it has a shortage of fans, even within the party.

Meanwhile in Israel the fighting goes on, so do the calls for a meaningless ceasefire, calls that are senseless enough because they don't come backed by even the delusion that a ceasefire will bring any kind of solution to the problem, rather than giving Hamas some breathing room.

Hamas is working to demonstrate why it's such a threat to Israel that it should be destroyed, even as the Kadima-Labor trinity in command are making it clear that they really don't have the stomach to do so. But a ceasefire that leaves Hamas in place and firing rockets will be another Lebanon war, and the last one destroyed the career of the Defense Minister and helped turn Olmert into a lame duck.

In Australia meanwhile, Rudd's government is busy demonstrating just how pro-Hamas it's willing to get, and Greece of all places, which has no shortage of its own problems, somehow can't seem to let go of its knee jerk hatred for Israel and Jews, even when its own streets are in chaos.

In the blogsphere roundup, Arpeh provides commentary on the war in Israel with Gaza Bombing Proves Israel is Right and The New Centrist provides his own roundup.

Infidel573 has his own end of the year roundup

The Religion of Peace is as always a great resource for covering the latest bouts of Islamic terrorism

Right Truth reports on the latest efforts to obtain pardons for agents Campeon and Ramos

Via IsraPundit, Caroline Glick's latest article describes Israel's actions as capitulation. As always Glick is worth reading in order to understand the situation.

George Orwell once quipped, “The quickest way of ending a war is to lose
it.”

Since Tuesday it has become clear that the Olmert-Livni-Barak government has decided to end the war with Iran’s Hamas proxy army in Gaza as quickly as possible. That is, the government has decided to lose the war.

Most Israelis are unaware of this state of affairs. In an obvious attempt to bolster the popularity of Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Ehud Barak ahead of the February 10 general elections, the local media have spent the six days since the government launched Operation Cast Lead praising the government’s competence and wisdom, and declaring victory over Hamas after every IAF sortie in Gaza.

What the media have declined to notice is that the outcome of the war will not be determined by the number of Hamas buildings the IAF destroys. The outcome of this war - like the outcome of all wars - will be determined by one factor only: Which side will achieve the goals it set out for itself at the outset of the conflict and which side will concede its goals?

Logistics Monster has more on the research into Obama's background and place of birth.

Lemon Lime Moon writes on Obama and the New America