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Jewish World Review March 21, 2011/ 15 Adar II, 5771 Barry, Joe, Helen and Wisconsin Teachers By Arnold Ahlert
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Sometimes the hardest thing to do is pick a subject for a column. Last week there were so many outrageous examples of progressive dementia, it is hard to focus on only one. So I won't. But I will limit the commentary to four entities: Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Helen Thomas and the Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC). Think of it as competition for the most Ideologically Bankrupt Award. Trust me, the competition is stiff.
First, Mr. Obama. The man who expressed the idea that American exceptionalism is no more exceptional than that of any other nation is being true to that "ideal" in so many ways it is almost impossible to count them. A genuine leader of the free world, might have organized a massive airlift, like the historical Berlin Airlift organized by Harry Truman, to help Japan. He might have attempted to solve the "Qadaffi problem" as quickly as it materialized, just as Ronald Reagan did when he attempted to take out the madman himself with a well-aimed cruise missile. He might have taken the lead in addressing our massive budget deficit, food prices which have jumped the most since 1974, or housing starts which have seen their biggest drop in 27 years.
Alas, it was not to be. A trip to Japan to demonstrate our commitment to their recovery? Rio-by-the-Sea-o instead. Muammar Qadaffi? Thirty-one days after the carnage began, he's onboard with--as opposed to leading--a coalition imposing a no-fly zone in Libya, even as he remains in Brazil despite the beginning of hostilities. One can argue over the merits of whether or not America should engaged in a third military action in the Middle East. In fact Mr. Obama himself has "split the difference." While America will be engaged in preventing humanitarian disaster in Libya, "we will not--I repeat--we will not deploy any U.S. troops on the ground," said the president.
And even preventing a humanitarian disaster is selective. Mr. Obama's rationale for removing Muammar Qadaffi from power apparently doesn't apply to either Bahrain or Yemen, where pro-authoritarian regime forces are also slaughtering innocent civilians. Thus, there is no arguing that the president's leadership qualities are virtually non-existent--unless one considers picking basketball teams for the NCCA's March Madness tournament leadership.
There's at least one person who doesn't. When someone as addicted to power as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announces she's all through after one term, that is a not-so-subtle admission that she and a lot of other Americans now know who will take the proverbial "three a.m. call" at the White House: the presidential answering machine.
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At a Friday fund-raiser in Philly, Joltin' Joe compared Republicans, who he claimed want to cut the federal budget, even as they give tax cuts to the "wealthy," to people who excuse rapists by blaming their victims. "When a woman got raped, blame her because she was wearing a skirt too short, she looked the wrong way or she wasn't home in time to make the dinner," Biden said, explaining that's what happened before the Violence Against Women Act that he championed was passed into law. "We've gotten by that," he added. "But it's amazing how these Republicans, the right wing of this party--whose philosophy threw us into this G0d-awful hole we're in, gave us the tremendous deficit we've inherited--that they're now using, now attempting to use, the very economic condition they have created to blame the victim--whether it's organized labor or ordinary middle-class working men and women. It's bizarre. It's bizarre."
Apparently Joe's forgotten that Democrats had control of both Houses of Congress from 2006-2010, and that they still control the Senate and the White House. Perhaps he doesn't know that spending by the federal government has doubled in the last ten years. Perhaps he even thinks "the rich" got another tax break, when all that happened was that taxes weren't raised. Perhaps he's obtuse enough not to understand that organized labor, specifically unionized public sector workers, opposed by none other than progressive icon FDR himself, is perfectly content, not to align themselves with middle-class working men and women, but to batter them into submission with their demands.
As for Mr. Biden's ultimate conclusion, there is no one in Washington D.C. with a greater knack for saying something truly "bizarre" than the man who is Barack Obama's greatest insurance policy.
On to the former "Dean of the White House Press Corps." Helen Thomas, in apparent effort to burnish her anti-Semitic credentials, was in full rant mode in a Playboy interview for their April edition. One quote will suffice: "[The Jews are] using their power, and they have power in every direction," she told Playboy. "Power over the White House, power over Congress … Everybody is in the pocket of the Israeli lobbies, which are funded by wealthy supporters, including those from Hollywood. Same thing with the financial markets. There's total control … It isn't the 2 percent. It's real power when you own the White House, when you own these other places in terms of your political persuasion. Of course they have power."
Perhaps Ms. Thomas did a little brushing up on the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the historically debunked document purporting pretty much the same agenda: the Jews control everything, and they're using that control to take over the world. Yet apparently even that control has its limitations: no one was able to stop the slaughter of five members of a Jewish family, including a four-month old child, whose throats were slit by Helen's beloved Palestinians. The al-Aqsa Martyr's Brigade, who Ms. Thomas undoubtedly considers "freedom-fighters"--as opposed to the bloodthirsty, baby-killing terrorists they truly are--took "credit" for the slaying, even as Palestinians passed out candy to "celebrate" the event.
This harridan sat in the front row of White House press briefings for over forty years, and there's a question that needs to be asked: how many other journalists knew how she felt, and when did they know it? Such a revelation would require honesty and integrity. Thus, I don't expect an answer, and neither should you.
Finally, there's the Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC). They sent an email to 1,400 members of the Fox Cities Chamber of Commerce & Industry "asking" members of that association to support the union in its battle to save their collective bargaining rights which were just overturned by the state legislature. (A Wisconsin judge, hewing to the progressive game plan of thwarting democracy when the process yields a solution with which they disagree, has issued a temporary restraining order).
How should businesses show their support? The union "suggested" that they put a poster in their place of business so that union members who will have "substantially less discretionary money to spend" can support those businesses which support them. Shannon Meyer, president and CEO of the Fox Cities Chamber said she received over 100 phone calls and hundreds of emails from businessmen who apparently recognize a shakedown when they see one. "There is veiled threat within the email that's stating, put this poster in your window and we'll make sure your business isn't boycotted, but if you don't it's very clear… those businesses are going to be boycotted in the future," Meyer said.
Perhaps union thugs should take it one step further. Perhaps should demand that anyone opposed to their "reasonable" demands be forced to wear, say, a yellow armband, so that they can be more easily identified.
I'm betting Helen Thomas would love the idea.
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