Friday Afternoon Roundup - Congress of Children

Obama and the Democrats are still running the country, but they're swiftly passing the point of return with the public. They still wield power, but without public support, their power comes without any legitimacy attached. The media has been ignoring that sticking point for a while, but no matter what the Jornolist folks though, the media doesn't actually control elections.

The perfect storm of media bias in 2008 helped rig the election, but that only worked when the public was unhappy and didn't strongly favor either side. Rigging the election now and in 2012 will be a lot harder, no matter how much bias flows through the sewage pipes of the handful of struggling media conglomerates still left standing. And the media knows it too. They know which bandwagons to jump on, and which bandwagons to jump off. And the Obama bandwagon is headed into a deserted station.

The outrage over the 9/11 health care workers bill, in which Dems tried to ram through more hidden measures under the guise of paying for health care for Ground Zero workers, is the latest flashpoint in a conflict over an administration and a congress unwilling to work together with the opposition, and determined to get its way by hook or by crook.

The reports of Obama plotting to bypass congress for a limited amnesty, are on par with how ObamaCare was shoved under the door. And the public has gotten tired of these games. Scott Brown's victory was a warning from voters in one of America's more liberal states, that they were fed up with the one-note power crazed politics of the Democratic party. But the Democrats didn't listen, which means they'll be forced to listen. Because America is still a democracy. And that means accountability comes sooner or later, when the people get around to voting.

The Obama Administration and congressional Democrats thought that the Obama cult of personality they were building would make them bulletproof. They were deeply wrong. The cult collapsed with a roar of laughter around the time Prince Barry got his Nobel Peace Prize for absolutely nothing. Now it's just touring the world, and playing golf, while everything goes to hell.

The 9/11 Ground Zero bill was an obscenely cynical charade, that removes any right whatsoever for the Democrats to criticize the Patriot Act, rolling in their own legislation, depriving the opposition of any ability to modify the bill, and pushing it out there, assuming that the Republicans wouldn't have the guts to vote it down, no matter what is actually in the bill. Weiner's temper tantrum is embarrassing.It gives the Netroots exactly what they want. Angry hysterical Democrats acting like children, because they can't get their way.

Of course Weiner wasn't screaming at Obama, when Prince Barry's administration tried to cut off 9/11 funding for New York, because the city's politicians stood up to him on holding the trials for Al Queda in Lower Manhattan. But this isn't about 9/11. It's about politics. Cynical politics by spoiled brats in dark suits.

What began with MoveOn.org, ends with immaturity and juvenile tantrums from overgrown infants who feel they never got their way. Right up to the Infant in Chief himself. And as it began, so it begins to end. Shamefully and pathetically.

The Democrats are raising their spending limits to try and hold on... even as they keep spending the country's money even faster.

And their ad buy focuses on a 10 point list which warns potential voters that Republican victories would lead to a repeal of ObamaCare, DoddFinance and create tax breaks. The rest of it tries to convince voters that Republics will abolish the EPA, the Department of Education and the 17th amendment. Somehow the DCCC will not be claiming that the Republican party will be bringing back slavery-- but only just by a little.

The obvious problem is that the public supports a repeal of ObamaCare and hates Congress. So the Democrats are left with a strategy that warns people that Republicans will destroy all their "good work", which the public opposes anyway, or trafficking in alarmist conspiracy theories. And somehow they decided to do both.

The DCCC asks people to sign on to help fight the "Tea Party, which is probably the worst campaign slogan in some time, because it frames a showdown between populism and the establishment, which all the attempts to tie together Republicans and the Tea Party won't upset.

And the news gets even worse for them.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's multi-million dollar ad buy across 60 congressional districts makes a statement that the party will come to the front lines to hold the House of Representatives. But what are they fighting against?

A look at results from the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll among those who live in the targeted congressional districts suggests the Democratic party may be fighting its own leader.

Views of President Obama were broadly negative among those in the targeted districts. A majority (54 percent) said they disapprove of the way Obama is handling his job in the July poll, including 41 percent who "strongly" disapprove.

And confidence in the president to make the right decisions for the nation's future stood at an abysmal 36 percent.

But that's not the worst part...

A generic congressional ballot was about evenly split among registered voters in these districts (45 percent said they'd vote for the Democrat in their district, 48 percent the Republican), however, nearly six in 10 (57 percent) said that regardless of their own vote, they would prefer to have "the Republicans in charge of Congress to act as a check on Obama's policies."

What that means is the Democrats cannot win as a party, only as individual Democrats who disassociate themselves from Obama and the rest of the party. Because a lot of voters are somewhat okay with their own congressmen, but distrust Obama and hate the Democratic congress as a whole.

The DCCC should be doing damage control, instead of launching more attacks on the Tea Party, but it's pretty hard to do damage control, when you don't acknowledge that you did anything wrong.

A few halting attempts are being made to maybe, possibly repeal some of the worst sections of ObamaCare, but it's too little and too late

For the first time, House Democrats are proposing repealing a piece of the health care overhaul, one that small businesses have been warning is going to be overly burdensome.

The move comes just four months after the Democrats’ health plan passed in March. The provision would have required businesses to file 1099 tax forms for all transactions with vendors that total over $600.

Due for implementation in 2012, it would have raised $19 billion over 10 years to pay for the health care overhaul.

Rep. Scott Murphy (D-NY) offered the bill on Friday morning. Ways and Means Chairman Sander Levin (D-Mich.), spoke in favor of the bill on the House floor Friday.

Honesty alone should compel them to repeal the whole mess and start over with something workable, where everyone knows what they are voting for. Which is exactly what Brown proposed.

Meanwhile Prince Barry trotted off to Detroit to show off GM's new magic wondercar (TM)

And he made sure to send a shout out to Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick.

Detroit Mayor and Hall of Famer Dave Bing is in the house. (Applause.) Two senators who have been fighting for you each and every day, Carl Levine and Debbie Stabenow, are here. (Applause.) Wonderful Congresswoman Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick is here. (Applause.)

Who's that wonderful woman? The mother of convicted Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. Which is handy because Carolyn herself was subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury in March. And despite trailing in the election, and low on funds, and Obama is there to help.

And, Hoekstra says despite the efforts by the White House to proclaim Obama’s visit a trip about autos, there’s definitely a political tinge.

“The president is touting jobs the government created because Carolyn Cheeks-Kilpatrick is on the appropriations committee. Why else would he come to the same state in two weeks?” Obama was in Holland, Michigan July 15 making remarks at Compact Power, a battery plant.

Kilpatrick is running for re-election to the House seat in Michigan’s 13th district, in what Hoekstra describes as a tough fight and Hoekstra calls the Obama visit to Detroit “pure politics, plain and simple”.

And that's how it goes.

But the good news is that Nancy Pelosi finally has her own handbag. She can use it to pack and get out of here.

Continuing the roundup, at IsraPundit, Gingrich and Palin again appear to be the only two prospective GOP Presidential candidates who are taking on Islam. Compare that to Huckabee. Of course Gingrich had to modify that by emphasizing those Muslims who live in "the modern world" who are just fine.

I'm guessing that would include the Times Square Car bomber who was on Facebook, the Fort Hood Shooter who was an American born graduate and a medical professional? Just modern people who pose no threat at all.

But Islam and technology get along quite well. Just take a look at this wonderful use of technology.

Saudi technology guards against women escaping

When women’s rights activist Wajiha Al-Huwaidar flew out of Saudi Arabia last week for a holiday in Italy with her family, she was hoping for a brief respite from what she describes as the ‘gender apartheid kingdom.’

She wasn’t so lucky.

As she left, her husband received an automated SMS text message from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs informing him that his wife, legally considered his ‘dependant’ under Saudi Arabia’s strict gendered guardianship system, had left the country.

Al-Huwaidar’s husband received the same text, she learned last week, when she had left Saudi Arabia on another recent trip to Germany.

“It is sad how Saudis use technology in a way not intended to be used for,” she told The Media Line. “In Saudi Arabia, technology brings more restrictions and misery! They use it to have more control over people’s lives, especially women.”

Just more modern people who live in the modern world, who treat women like slaves. Of course the article claims that this sort of thing has nothing to do with the Koran. Nothing at all.

"Narrated 'Aisha: "The things which annul the prayers were mentioned before me. They said, "Prayer is annulled by a dog, a donkey and a woman (if they pass in front of the praying people)." I said, "You have made us (women) dogs."

No wonder even more than half of Canadians want to ban the Burqa.

Robert Avrech rounds up some of the responses to Cameron's shameless toadying to Turkey

And see more at Steven Plaut's article in the Jewish Press

Famagusta, Cyprus: The ghost town lies near the very center of the city, just outside the Venetian walls. It is home only to snakes, scorpions, and rats of a hundred varieties. Signs on the fences around the ghost town show armed Turkish soldiers threatening those taking photographs with arrest or worse. The crumbling buildings inside the perimeter are frozen in time in 1974, as if in an episode of "The Twilight Zone."

Nothing has changed since central Famagusta was converted into a ghost town - called Varosha - by the invaders. It is said that the car distributorships in the ghost town even today are stocked with vintage 1974 models. For years after the rape of Famagusta, people told of seeing light bulbs still burning in the windows of the abandoned buildings. Hollywood studios could clothe whole movie sets with the 1974 fashions still in the closets of the homes.

orn in ethnic cleansing, it is the enduring testimony to the illegal land grab on Cyprus by Turkey, the mass expulsion of the ethnic Greek Cypriots from the northern 40 percent of the island, the theft of their property, and an unknown number of murders of Greek Cypriots by Turkey.

The illegal "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus" is recognized by not a single country besides Turkey itself.

This is only an excerpt, but the entire thing is well worth reading.

The Cyprus Action Network meanwhile has a release showing a certain affinity between the current Turkish regime and the Nazis

A counter demonstration was staged and closely supervised by Gunay Evinch, of the law firm Evinch and Saltzman. Gunay Evinch is widely acknowledged as “the lawyer of the Turkish Embassy.” Gunay Evinch has defended Turkey from American lawsuits by Greek-Cypriot Americans, he is the President of the Turkish Lobby. Gunay Evinch is a promoter of Armenian genocide denial within the United States and the source of Turkish invasion of Cyprus denial propaganda for Turkey in America.

The main speaker for the Turkish Embassy counter demonstrators (who was witnessed as receiving help and consulted with Gunay Evinch) repeatedly made the Hitler salute and shouted “Heil Hitler” towards pro-Israel activists and the Greek-Cypriot community. The Turkish Embassy staff also participated and helped GUNAY EVINCH AND THE TURKISH EMBASSY HITLER YOUTH who also barked out to the Greek-Cypriot community "Turkish soldiers raped your mothers" and further committed hate crimes against women by making obscene gestures with his genitalia and his megaphone. The Cyprus Action Network of America (CANA) will be releasing the pictures and videos of GUNAY EVINCH and his Turkish Hitler Youth making the Hitler salute to Jewish Anti-Semitism watch groups and to the Israeli and German government which monitors such hate speech and hate gestures and enforces heavy criminal penalities for glorifying Hitler:

You can see the videos via the following link

And for more ethnic cleansing and bigotry, let's turn to Abbas (Oh My Valve)

"I will never allow a single Israeli to live among us on Palestinian land.”

And then there's the Sharia finance MasterCard (See SquareMile Wife)

The first halal payment card is now available across Canada. While the initial need to design the iFreedom Plus MasterCard came from the Muslim community (under Islamic law, paying interest is not halal, and so is a perceived sin), this prepaid, no interest card is ideal for everyone. Holders load their own money (up to $6,000) onto the card, then spend it when they need to. "A lot of people view this as more stress-free shopping because they're actually using money they have rather than ringing up their credit card and getting a huge bill," says Omar Kalair, the president and CEO of UM Financial, which launched the card with MasterCard.

This card was released in 2009 at Toronto's "Reviving the Islamic Spirit Conference" (a conference which has featured speakers like Zakir Naik, Yusuf Islam, Tariq Ramadan, etc.). In the press release, MasterCard stated that amongst the cards various benefits, "In addition, for every transaction of over $20 billed to the card, one needy child in a developing country will be fed for a day through RS Foundation."

And where does all that money go? One of RS Foundation's partners is Human Concern International.

HCI has an interesting "history"

"In a 1995 interview, Osama bin Laden identified Blessed Relief’s place in his network, “The bin-Laden Establishment’s aid covers 13 countries . . . this aid comes in particular from the Human Concern International Society.”

Another partner is the IDRF, which is partnered with Islamic Relief Worldwide, which is also clean as a whistle

Islamic Relief Worldwide (IRW) is an international Islamic aid organization that was founded in United Kingdom, in 1984, by Dr Hany El Banna. It was reported in 1999 that IRW's main UK office received $50,000 from a Canadian group that "the U.S. Treasury Department called 'a(n Osama) bin Laden front.' Moscow's Obshchaya Gazeta has reported that IRW has collected and funneled millions of dollars to the Chechen terrorist rebels in Russia, who have ties to al Qaeda.

...

In May 2006, Iyaz Ali, a UK IRW project coordinator, was arrested in Israel for assisting the terrorist group Hamas. Part of IRW coordinator Ali's activities involved transferring funds and assisting Hamas institutions and groups, including Al Wafa and Al Tzalah, both of which are officially illegal in Israel. When Ali was investigated, incriminating files were found on his computer which showed links to IRW's ties with illegal Hamas funds in UK and Saudi Arabia, as well as photographs of swastikas, of "Nazi German officials, of Osama Bin Laden and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, as well as many photographs of Hamas military activities."

...Religion of Peace.

At HIR, Francisco Gil White questions Who The Real Netanyahu is.

Enjoy your weekend