Weekend Entertainment

I’ll be up at Lake Tahoe this weekend. Talk amongst yourselves.

So this is the hell-hole that is Gaza, huh?

Egyptian Journalist Describes ‘Absolute Prosperity’ in Gaza

With Hamas telling tales of deprivation and suffering in Gaza, Egyptian journalist Ashraf Abu al-Houl has added his report to others who were surprised to discover a “prosperous” Gaza in which prices are low and luxury businesses are booming. Al-Houl’s story of his trip to Gaza and his realization that “in actual terms, Gaza is not under siege” was written up in the Egyptian daily Al-Ahram and translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

“A sense of absolute prosperity prevails, as manifested by the grand resorts along and near Gaza’s coast. Further, the site of the merchandise and luxuries filling the Gaza shops amazed me,” he reported.

Concerned that his initial impression of prosperity may have been misleading, “I toured the new resorts, most of which are quite grand, as well as the commercial markets, to verify my hypothesis. The resorts and markets have come to symbolize prosperity, and to prove that the siege is formal or political, not economic,” Al-Houl said.

Gaza’s markets are filled with a “plethora of goods,” he wrote. Prices on many items, particularly food, are much lower than they are in Egypt, he said. With goods entering Gaza from both smuggling tunnels to Egypt and humanitarian aid shipments coming in via Israeli crossings, “supply is much greater than demand,” he stated.

The evident prosperity is not enjoyed by all, or even most, of Gaza’s residents, according to Al-Houl. The problem is the vast differences in the distribution of wealth. The luxury resorts and wide range of consumer goods are enjoyed by “only a few groups,” he said, primarily those who own smuggling tunnels to Egypt and those who work for international organizations such as the United Nations’ UNRWA and who do not include or aid the rest of the population.

Most of the new resorts “are owned by members, or associates, of Hamas,” he reported. “In addition, the Hamas municipalities charge high fees, in Gaza terms, for the use of public beaches,” he added.

Hmm, the people in power have luxury and those not at the top of the food chain are not so lucky. Who’da thunk it.

Hope you’re having a great summer, Mr. President

I’m really glad you’re getting all the golf you can handle, all the vacation time you deserve, and all the attention you obviously need.

Unfortunately, others are not as lucky to have the entire elitist upper crust of society kissing their ass on a daily basis.

They have a job they have to take seriously where they are risking a tiny bit more than a political career and a little Leftist street cred. I wished you would act like you were a war-time president instead of a f*cking celebrity.

3 more US troops die in southern Afghanistan

Three more U.S. troops have been killed in Afghanistan, bringing the U.S. death toll for July to at least 66 and making it the deadliest month for American forces in the nearly 9-year-war.

A NATO statement Friday said one service member died following an insurgent attack and two others were killed in a roadside bombing the same day in southern Afghanistan. A U.S military official confirmed all three were American troops.
Earlier in the day, a U.S. military official confirmed three other American service members died in two separate blasts in southern Afghanistan on Thursday.

The six deaths raised the U.S. death toll for the month to at least 66, according to an Associated Press count. June had been the deadliest month for the U.S. with 60 deaths.

You’ll never be half the man our servicemembers are and you’ll never be remembered as being a respectable Commander-in-Chief.

Quote of the Day

“Intellectual honesty consists in taking ideas seriously. To take ideas seriously means that you intend to live by, to practice, any idea you accept as true.” – Ayn Rand

UPDATED: Hey look! The Republicans are the party of the rich!!!

Chelsea’s day: What we know

One thing we do know for sure: this coming Saturday, July 31, is the big day, because the Clinton’s confirmed that fact on Tuesday. And, though the wedding site has not been announced by the family, pictures have appeared online of large, white tents being set-up on the grounds of the Astor Courts estate in Rhinebeck, N.Y.

The area paper, The Hudson Valley News, has also reported that gifts have been pouring into Rhinebeck, as have many trucks, one carrying large air-conditioning units and generators.

The rehearsal dinner is reportedly taking place at the nearby Grasmere, a 525-acre estate boasting a Federal-period manor house with formal gardens, stucco guest cottages and a large stone barn complex. Another area manse rumored to be serving the family over the weekend will be Glenburn, where the Clintons are said to be staying over the weekend. Glenburn is the Rhinebeck home of Eric and Andrea Colombel. Andrea Colombel is the daughter of billionaire financier and longtime Clinton supporter George Soros.

This makes complete sense. Democrats are not allowed to do anything without big daddy Soros’ permission or involvement.

Best of wishes to you Chelsea!

UPDATE: Hillary Clinton still begging supporters to retire campaign debt as Clintons spend $3-$5 million on daughter’s wedding

Draining the swamp by force not by choice

Ethics panel brings 13 counts against embattled Rep. Rangel

The House ethics committee announced 13 charges Thursday against Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), who is accused of breaking House rules as well as federal statutes.

Rep. Gene Green (D-Texas), the chairman of an investigating committee, read the charges against Rangel as the ethics committee began an organization meeting setting up a public trial for Rangel.

The charges deal with four main areas of improper activity.

Rangel, who did not attend the session, is accused of improperly using his letterhead, staff and franking privilege to solicit donations to the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Policy at the City College of New York; of using a rent-stabilized apartment in Harlem for his campaign office; of failing to report more than $600,000 on his financial disclosure report; and of failing to pay taxes on rental income from a villa he owns in the Dominican Republic.

Smartest White House, huh?

Local Woman Convicted of Drug Fraud Joins Obama at the Podium

Charlottesville resident Leslie Macko was once employed at ACAC in the Albemarle Square Shopping Center. In April 2009, she lost her job as an aesthetician in the spa at ACAC.

President Barack Obama called on Congress last week to extend unemployment insurance. Macko stood next to the President of the United States as his example of the need to extend jobless benefits.

CBS19′s Jessica Jaglois has learned that Macko was found guilty of prescription drug fraud in March 2009, one month before Macko lost her job at ACAC. She served a one year probationary sentence.

Macko joined two other unemployed people and President Obama at the podium for a speech designed to encourage lawmakers to extend jobless benefits.

Breaking: Sherrod Will Sue Breitbart

Because this is what angry racists do when their own words get them in trouble:

In a speech just now at the National Association of Black Journalists, Shirley Sherrod announced that she will sue Andrew Breitbart, who originally released an edited version of the comments that cost Sherrod her job at USDA.

via The Corner

Harry Reid relying upon smoke and mirror campaign ads

New Reid ad stars teacher whose job wasn’t on the chopping block

In Sen. Harry Reid’s new campaign ad, kindergarten teacher Bridget Zick praises the senator for passing the Recovery Act to save 3,500 Nevada education jobs.

“We’re still teaching because of Harry Reid. That’s the power he has,” says Zick, who is the sole star of the 30-second TV commercial.

But, it turns out, Zick’s specific job wasn’t on the chopping block. That’s not mentioned in the ad, which gives the impression the stimulus kept Zick in the classroom with her kids.

Ronzone Elementary School in Las Vegas where Zick teaches didn’t get any of the $445 million in education money that went to Nevada as part of the big stimulus package.

And the elementary school didn’t lay off any of its 65 teachers, according to the principal…

Before the ad was made, Zick openly backed Reid’s campaign. Her name is on an “educators for Reid” list as well as on an updated “Republicans for Reid” list of supporters.

An Unserious Presidency On View

I had to post the whole thing because it is beautiful:

Leadership: As Americans suffer economically, President Obama golfs, vacations, campaigns, appears on a frivolous talk show — and vacations some more. Gee, don’t we have a war and other problems to attend to?

Will history record that Barack Obama’s only great achievement as president was getting his golf handicap down to the teens? The president played more than two dozen rounds of golf in his first year in office — as many as George W. Bush did over his entire eight years.

This week, he traveled to New York City to be swooned at on ABC’s daytime gal fluff-fest “The View.” It led Pennsylvania Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell to remark, “I think there should be a little bit of dignity to the presidency… I think the president of the United States has to go on serious shows.”

The city’s Transit Authority warned that between 2 p.m. and 10 p.m. at least 32 bus lines in Manhattan and the Bronx “could be either severely delayed or detoured” as a result of the president’s trip.

And while tying up traffic in the Big Apple, the president also headlined fundraisers at the Four Seasons Hotel and at a big donor’s home. This week has him on for two other moneymaking events for the Democratic National Committee too. He will soon travel to Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas and Austin for more.

With the unemployment rate near double digits, in spite of over $800 billion in a misguided Keynesian stimulus, and two-thirds of Americans believing the country is headed in the wrong direction — that direction being global decline — the man elected on a platform of “Change” with a capital C seems to think his job is to neglect his job and have a blast.

His vacation in Bar Harbor, Maine is followed by another vacation in that elitest of lefty locales, Martha’s Vineyard, where he can tee off on Mink Meadows, a “classic 1936 Wayne Stiles design” that “is a challenge to both novices and low-handicappers.”

Next month, the first lady and nine-year-old Sasha will meet the king and queen of Spain on yet another vacation.

At taxpayer expense, this president flies to Broadway to take the first lady on a date.

Among the stars he’s summoned to the White House to play court jester are Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder, Emmylou Harris, Herbie Hancock, Elvis Costello, Jerry Seinfeld, “three of country music’s biggest acts” including Charley Pride, and earlier this month a Broadway cavalcade of stars that was “the sixth in a series of evenings celebrating the music that helped to shape America.”

Why so much luxury as so many suffer and there are so many monumental problems to solve? Because, according to the president, “part of what gets us through tough times is music, the arts, the ability to capture that essential kernel of ourselves, that part of us that sings even when times are hard.”

Millions of Americans have little to sing about as they seek to re-enter the work force and earn a few kernels.

Our present challenges demand more than a part-time president.

His hand-picked commander in the war in Afghanistan, which candidate Obama said must be won, recently self-destructed, and has been followed by a hemorrhage of secret documents damaging the war effort. Former CIA director Michael Hayden this week said military action against Iran may soon be the only option.

Domestically, the president has let the Gulf Coast oil cleanup effort be bungled by conflicts with the affected states, and he imposed a moratorium on oil drilling that has sparked popular discord among area residents whose livelihoods depend on oil.

At a time when the entitlements of Social Security and Medicare are headed for a fiscal train wreck, he imposes a new entitlement in the form of ObamaCare. And he signs a Wall Street “reform” that strengthens rather than scraps the too-big-to-fail policy at the root of the financial crisis.

Rather than working hard to solve problems — and perhaps knuckling down to re-assess his own failed policies — this president, in whom so many placed so much faith, is saddling us with new problems.

But hey, thanks to the taxpayers, at least he’s leading the good life.

via Investors.com

Quotes of the Day

Clearly, a civilization that feels guilty for everything it is and does will lack the energy and conviction to defend itself. – Jean Francois Revel

via DPGI

Mullah Omar orders Taliban to attack civilians, Afghan women. Wikileaks provides death list from which to work…

This is evidence of the attitude serious people have about this war. Mullah Omar, fleas be with him, issued orders for “collaborators” to be killed in June, now that hundreds if not thousands of names of Afghans and others who have helped coalition forces have been made public thanks to a couple of idiots, we have the potential for a blood-bath to begin.

Can we now consider Julian Assange and his source, Bradley Manning, at least enemy combatants, traitors or collaborators who will be responsible for every targeted death under Mullah Omar’s orders?

These two douche-bags have chosen the popular evil over the truly, nasty evil and now people will pay for their need for attention and notoriety with their lives:

The battle for hearts and minds in Afghanistan has taken a new turn in the past two months. The Taliban’s supreme leader, Mullah Omar, has ordered his forces to kill or capture any civilians, including Afghan women, who cooperate with Coalition forces. Omar’s latest directive contradicts his marching orders from just one year ago, when he told his Taliban commanders to refrain from harming civilians working with the Coalition.

Omar reportedly issued his latest order in June. NATO announced that it had recovered a copy of the directive in July. Since then, Afghan press outlets have published a translation of Omar’s five-point order….

via The Long War Journal

Where in the World is Shirley Sherrod?

Since Sherrod’s incoherent and racial media blitz, she hasn’t popped up anywhere. Where’s the media’s canonized darling? “Reporters” have been quieter than a church mouse on the whole incident. Granted, our propagandist press probably realized that they fabricated Fox’s and Breitbart’s involvement in Sherrod’s firing (even Jon Stewart acknowledged this!), but let’s be honest here. Shirley Sherrod went on a racially tinged rant, this time in the safe confines of the leftist media, and was never heard from since. They’ve given her a pass. Sherrod is now harder to find than Waldo. I don’t blame her. She’s demonstrated that her world view is deeply shaped by race and gender. Stay hiding, Shirley. We don’t need any more of your disjointed racial musings.

via HUMAN EVENTS

There will be blood on Julian Assange’s hands now.

Hot Air: Wikileaks exposed hundreds of Afghan informants

If the information on the progress of the war from the much-ballyhooed Wikileaks publication of 92,000 documents didn’t come as a big surprise to Americans who have paid attention to the Af-Pak theater, it apparently will come as a big surprise to those in Afghanistan who have worked with US forces. Julian Assange’s leak included the names of hundreds of informants and people working with US forces in Afghanistan. Those people will now have to be protected, and it’s not likely they’ll be replaced…

Bradley Manning, Assange’s source within the US military, will face trial for his crimes in passing along classified material. If any of these people get killed after their exposure, he should be charged with at least being an accessory to their murders. But the man who actually published their names is hiding behind the skirts of the Swedish government, which allows Assange to publish classified material with no consequences.

Assange himself travels constantly to avoid arrest. Let’s hope that strategy fails soon. He will have blood on his hands, thanks to this despicable act.

He claims to be a journalist, in that he sees no problem in putting people in danger or at risk of death for doing daring work, he is right.

But when you look at who he really is and what he’s really done, he’s a pathetic little activist who will do little good and cost others greatly.

Harry Reid misses another chance to shut the hell up

And makes an ass of himself once again.

Nevada eliminated from Race to the Top education grants; Harry Reid blames Gov. Gibbons [emphasis added]:

Nevada was eliminated Tuesday from consideration for “Race to the Top” education grants, losing out on competing for up to $160 million in federal funding under a program designed to spur innovation in public schools…

U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., blamed Gibbons for Nevada’s elimination.

“While governors from other states were aggressively working to pass new reform laws and position their states to take advantage of these important funds, our governor was satisfied with only meeting the minimum requirement to file our application,” Reid said in a statement.

State legislators, during a special session in February, amended a statute removing 15 words that had banned student test scores from being used in teacher evaluations. That provision had made Nevada the only state ineligible even to apply.

Lawmakers, at the urging of the teachers union, inserted 31 new words clarifying that test scores can’t be used as the “sole criteria” in teacher evaluations or disciplinary actions.

Critics feared the new language could jeopardize the state’s chances of receiving the grant money, and Gov. Jim Gibbons threatened to veto, but eventually signed, the legislation.

Yeah, don’t let the facts that the unions caused this get in the way. Had the governor not signed it, you’d blame him for that too. At least his job you can assign blame. In yours, you dodge it, you idiot.

I swear Sharron Angle’s campaign is going to lose this election if they don’t get off their asses and start attacking Reid and his cowardice and stupidity.