Goodbye, Cornhusker Kickback

How stupid must Ben Nelson feel tonight? He sold his soul in return for a kickback, he's reviled in his own state and will likely never again be elected, and now his bribe has been removed from the hot mess that is the healthcare bill.

Slick move, Ben.

On the other hand, some fresh bribes are in the bill.

Bye bye, Cornhusker Kickback. Hello, special treatment for Tennessee and North Dakota.

Democrats unveiling revisions Thursday to their health care overhaul bill decided to kill the extra $100 million in Medicaid funds for Nebraska that has become a symbol of backdoor deal making.

But the 153 pages of changes to the massive health care package include extra money for hospitals in Tennessee that serve large numbers of low-income patients. And though the bill would revamp the nation's student loan system to make the government the only lender, one bank - the state-owned Bank of North Dakota - would be allowed to continue making student loans.

That provision ended up rubbing Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., the wrong way. Fearing it would become a target by Republicans in what he said is "an overly heated partisan environment," he asked the House late Thursday to remove it from the legislation.

Still alive is special spending for Louisiana, Connecticut, Montana and other states that was included in the health care bill that the Senate approved in December. The House may give it final approval this weekend.

Instapundit links. Thanks!

Wonderful: Senate Announces 'Bi-Partisan' Shamnesty Plan

Spearheaded by Lindsay Grahamnesty and the odious Chuckie Schumer, meaning, of course, that nothing good can possibly come from this. So I guess now we'll not only see our healthcare system destroyed but we'll also have millions of criminal aliens legalized. Nice to see Grahamnesty willing to throw away sure blowout victories for Republicans this fall down the drain.

We are so doomed.

Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) have laid out the framework for a comprehensive, bipartisan immigration reform bill that would include tougher border enforcement, creation of biometric Social Security cards and a path to legalization for the nation's estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants.

The announcement of the plan, which brought immediate praise from President Obama, comes days before a pro-immigration march scheduled for the nation’s capital on Sunday.

”It thoughtfully addresses the need to shore up our borders, and demands accountability from both workers who are here illegally and employers who game the system,” Obama said in a prepared statement.

“A critical next step will be to translate their framework into a legislative proposal, and for Congress to act at the earliest possible opportunity.”

I guess Obama can now bank on millions of fresh voters come 2012.

Lovely.

Another Runaway Prius Incident Now Appears Bogus

This incident occurred a day after the now discredited "runaway" Prius story in San Diego. It may not be a staged stunt like that, but rather driver error.

The investigation of a Toyota Prius accident in Harrison, N.Y., suggests driver error may have been to blame, after federal safety regulators said the brakes had not been applied and the throttle was "wide open," the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

The driver, a 56-year-old housekeeper, told the police that the car accelerated as she drove down her employer's driveway March 9 and hit a stone wall across the street. The driver said she believed she had applied full force to the brakes, according to the police.

Based on information retrieved from the vehicle's onboard computer systems, a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration spokeswoman said: "There was no application of the brakes and the throttle was fully open."

Toyota downloaded data from the vehicle Wednesday, but said a fail-safe system would have prevented such an accident.

Funny how these runaway Prius incidents suddenly stopped, isn't it?

Obama and Clinton Bagman Gets 20 Years

Maybe they can put him in a cell with fatcat Democrat donor Bernie Madoff or Hillary's other pal Norman Hsu.

Disgraced Democratic donor Hassan Nemazee has just six more weeks of freedom after pleading guilty this afternoon to a $292 million bank-fraud scheme that prosecutors say could send him to prison for nearly 20 years.

The Harvard-educated con man begged to remain free on bond until his June 30 sentencing so he can spend time with his wife and family before being tossed in slammer.

"I have never intended to flee. I've had ample opportunity," Nemazee, 60, said in Manhattan federal court.

Defense lawyer Paul Schectman also argued that "there really is nothing to run with," adding that Nemazee hadn't paid him a nickel beyond his original retainer and was living "very modestly" -- albeit in a plush Park Avenue apartment -- on handouts from friends and relatives.

But Judge Sidney Stein ordered the fallen fund-raiser -- who was national finance chairman for Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign -- to surrender on April 30, citing his history of international travel and the possibility he may have stashed "tens of millions" in missing loot overseas.

"He certainly has had an extremely successful fraud up to now," the judge said.

Nemazee also donated money in 2009 to Charles Schumer, Harry Reid, Al Franken, Joe Biden and Kirsten Gillibrand, among others. According to records none of them have returned the money. Schumer, you may recall, also received massive amounts from Madoff.

Nemazee also raised money for Barack Obama.

Nemazee was listed as one of the top "bundlers" of contributions to Obama's 2008 presidential campaign, according to OpenSecrets.org, a website run by the Center for Responsive Politics.

He typically donated more than $100,000 annually to Democratic Party political candidates, including Obama and now-U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Back in 2008 he hosted a lavish fundraiser for Obama and was also nominated by Bill Clinton as ambassador to Argentina.

Surely this will be as big as the Jack Abramoff scandal, right? Nah, probably not.

Dumb Luck of the Irish

Crime never takes a holiday.

They apparently were banking on the luck of the Irish to grab their pot of gold on St. Patrick's Day, but the fairy tale came to an an abrupt and bloody end in a Tennessee field.

Two suspected bank robbers — one dressed as a leprechaun — died after an all-too-real shootout with police, BBC News reported

Police said a suspect dressed a wee green man and toting a large-caliber gun held up First State Bank in Gallatin, a suburb of Nashville, and scored an undisclosed amount of cash.

The costumed suspect had first checked out nearby Fifth-Third Bank nearby about midday but left, possibly because it was crowded, witness Bradley Webb told Tennessee's News Channel 5.

The man in the tall felt hat, fake black beard and long green garment then took his colorful act to nearby First State Bank.

"About two minutes later, the manager at Fifth-Third said, 'He's running, he's got a blue bag,' " Webb said, according to News Channel 5.

The costumed man joined another suspect in a car outside, and the two fled, BBC News reported. Cops spotted the vehicle and gave chase, and a wild gunfight broke out.

One police cruiser was hit by several bullets and disabled, News Channel 5 said. The two suspects crashed, ditched their car off the highway and fled into a field near the Cambridge Farms subdivision.

One suspect was killed by police fire — and the other took his own life as cops closed in, News Channel 5 confirmed.

ABC's Checkbook Journalism

It's not as if this woman is some hot property that you have to pay her for access. I could see maybe flying someone in for an interview or putting them in a hotel, but $200,000 for access to an alleged baby-killer?

New evidence was released Thursday in the Casey Anthony murder case, including the amount of money she received from a television network, as well as conversations she had with other inmates.

Anthony's defense team told Judge Stan Strickland that she no longer has funds to pay for the trial. Her attorney testified ABC News paid Casey Anthony $200,000, but that those funds are now gone.

Strickland is deciding whether to approve the declaration of Anthony being indigent, which would make the state pay for her defense.

A transcript of conversations Anthony had with a fellow inmate was also released, stating that "an Orange County Corrections officer may have facilitated the communication once the friendship had begun."

Casey Anthony remains jailed on a charge of first-degree murder in the death of her daughter, Caylee, who was last seen in June of 2008.

Fox apparently is claiming this is breaking news although it originally was divulged back in 2008.

Ironically enough ABC recently announced staff cuts.

ABC News announced earlier this month it was laying off nearly a third of its newsroom to save costs. A spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Joys of Diversity: 'Every Day, They're Fighting'

The daily terror at the Intifada High School. Sounds like a lovely learning environment.

The Muslim principal who cried "bomb!" in a crowded school has left chaos and violence in the classrooms she created. And now, she's moved a step closer to returning.

It is against this tumultuous backdrop that we learn Brooklyn's Khalil Gibran International Academy -- founded in 2007 by firebrand ex-Principal Debbie Almontaser as the city's first public Arabic-themed school -- this year has suspended more than one-third of its student body for infractions ranging from hitting to weapons.

"Every day, they're fighting," said Voneeda Black, who nervously sends her 6-year-old to the elementary school with which Gibran shares a building.

"You don't see parents," she said. "Three or four times a week, there are cops here, if not more."

It may be the worst record in the city. So how did this happen?

Two and a half years ago, the hijab-wearing Almontaser invented the academy as a way to foster peace and understanding. But she was promptly removed, stuck elsewhere in the school system. She cried "unfair!"

Then, last week, Almontaser won a crucial ruling that could help bring her back. The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said the school system discriminated against Almontaser's race and religion. Fired, for being an Arab.

Rubbish.

Almontaser was tossed after she proclaimed, in a detailed interview with this newspaper, that the term "intifada" -- which has led to mass murder, both downtown and in the Middle East -- does not equal bloody uprising. She defined the hot-button word as a benign "shaking off" of oppression. Particularly against girls. As if American girls are worse off than those in, say, her native Yemen.

Even accepting Almontaser's word that she's no radical, her comments suggest a tolerant, morally relativistic view of violence, for which there is no place in our schools. The commission didn't see it that way.

Almontaser has expressed utter joy to have -- finally! -- scored a victory in her claim to have been oppressed. The ruling, at the very least, will cost the city hundreds of thousands of dollars in settlement and legal fees, as it breathes life into Almontaser's lawsuit. At worst, she'll be back.

So I think it appropriate to take a hard look at Gibran -- a school founded on the flawed notion that segregating Arabists will lead to harmony.

Since it opened, the tiny school on the edge of DUMBO has had one of the city's highest rates of violence. A teacher was taunted by kids as a "terrorist" in 2008. It's gotten steadily worse.

More than a third -- one in three! -- of Gibran's 114 students, grades six through eight, have been suspended this year, according to the Department of Education.

Twenty-two were yanked from school for five days. Eight kids were considered so rowdy or dangerous, they were banned from class six to 10 days.

Nineteen fights led to student injuries or intimidation. In two other cases, weapons were used. This number has climbed from last year's 17 violent incidents and 26 suspensions.

And the school year isn't over yet.

The best part? We're paying for it.

Won't be long until they start receiving awards for their commitment to diversity.

'Win One for Barry'

Reminds me of when he whined that "you'll destroy my presidency."

It's all about The O.

President Barack Obama had exhausted most of his health care reform arguments with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus during a White House meeting last Thursday when he made a more personal pitch that resonated with many skeptics in the room.

One caucus member told POLITICO that Obama won him over by “essentially [saying] that the fate of his presidency” hinged on this week’s health reform vote in the House. The member, who requested anonymity, likened Obama’s remarks to an earlier meeting with progressives when the president said a victory was necessary to keep him “strong” for the next three years of his term.

Another caucus member, Rep. Jose Serrano (D-N.Y.), said, “We went in there already knowing his presidency would be weakened if this thing went down, but the president clearly reinforced the impression the presidency would be damaged by a loss.”

Added Serrano: “He was subtle, but that was the underlying theme of the meeting — the importance of passing this for the health of the presidency.”

White House officials said Obama’s recent remarks aren’t intended to personalize the debate or rally undecided Democratic members with an egocentric, “win one for Barry” message. They said Obama’s point is to hammer home the idea that all Democrats would benefit from a health care win and that the party’s larger policy agenda would be damaged if the president were to lose.

Forget what's best for the nation. It's all about Obama.

'God Rest Her Soul'

Our gaffe-tastic VP strikes again.

Vice President Joe Biden asked for God's blessing for the late mother of Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen during a White House celebration of St. Patrick's Day — except the elderly lady is very much alive.

"God rest her soul," Biden said Wednesday night as he introduced Cowen and President Barack Obama. He quickly caught himself and noted that it's Cowen's father who is no longer living. Of the prime minister's mother, Biden said, "God bless her soul."

Don't forget to stand up for Chuck while you're at it.

Al Qaeda Claims Responsibility for Rocket Attack on Israel

Someone remind me why Hillary Clinton says the Palestinians are our partners in peace? They have a strange way of showing their commitment to the "peace process" with Al Qaeda firing rockets into Israel from Gaza.

AN al-Qaeda-inspired militant group, the Ansar al Sunna Brigade, claimed responsibility today for firing a rocket from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel, killing one man.

"This jihadi attack is an answer to Zionist aggression against the Al Aqsa Mosque and holy sites and our people in Jerusalem," the group said in a statement.

An Israeli army spokeswoman confirmed that a rocket slammed into the Netiv Ha'assera kibbutz, a few kilometres from the Gaza border, and killed a foreign worker, adding that it was the third rocket fired at Israel from Gaza since yesterday evening. Local media reports said the man was Thai.

Good Noose: Plagiarist Professor Suit Tossed

Here's some career advice for this two-bit fraud. Maybe she can sign up with Michelle Obama and lecture us all on obesity. She can be a test case on how to shed a hundred pounds and stay relevant.

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean everybody's out to get you.

A controversial professor who contended Columbia's Teachers College canned her in a "frame-up" that was part of a "complex conspiracy" has lost her bid to get her job back.

The school's decision to fire Madonna Constantine -- who made headlines in 2007 when she said she found a noose hanging from her office door -- was neither "arbitrary or capricious," Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Jane Solomon found.

Constantine was fired last June, after the school's faculty advisory committee found that she had "committed plagiarism, and also that she had fabricated documents that she presented in her defense," Solomon wrote.

Constantine contended there was a "frame-up," that the committee didn't give her a fair shake, and that Teachers College president Susan Fuhrman's decision to fire her on the committee's recommendation was "arbitrary and capricious."

Solomon disagreed.

In a decision made public yesterday, she said the committee had thoroughly reviewed the case, and their report "fully supports Fuhrman's decision."

"Professor Constantine's theory of the case would require a complex conspiracy among many persons including the highest levels of the college's administration, its outside counsel, and several former students and a former faculty member," the committee had commented.

Oddly enough the "investigation" into the noose hanging is still unresolved. A shame nobody wants to come out and actually say she did it herself.

Bret Baier Manhandles Whiny Obama

The guy is on television 24/7 and cries like a little bitch that he can't get a word in. Seemingly an innocuous middle of the road replacement heretofore for Brit Hume, Bret Baier tonight no doubt earned himself a place in the leftwing Hall of Hate for leaving Obama in shambles, quivering, dodging and whining that he's being interrupted.

How dare Baier question The One!

Waaah! I'm trying to answer your questions but you keep interrupting!

What a sniveling punk. Guess this just isn't as easy as some ESPN bumkisser sucking up over your stupid basketball picks, huh?

Baier ate so much of Obama's lunch Michelle Obama immediately declared him a candidate for her obesity program.

I can't imagine even the most diehard Obama sycophant thought he came off looking good here. Petulant, whiny, unpresidential, not worthy of even being a community organizer.

Thanks to Instapundit for the link. I just saw on Greta that Obama went out on a limb and picked the UConn ladies, winners of 71 straight, to win it all. Makes me want to root for the girls at Professor Reynolds' University of Tennessee. For the record I have Syracuse in the men's bracket (I slipped in at AoS). I believe Obama has Kansas or Kentucky on the men's side but I was so sick of seeing him on television while I was at the gym that I changed the channel back to Fox to see Krauthammer and company abusing him.

Early Frontrunner for Father of the Year

I was tempted to crack a cheap joke about this guy's resemblance to a certain husky, ponytailed blogger, but that's beneath me. Then I noticed the part about him checking himself in for psychiatric evaluation and figured it was worth noting the eerie likeness. Maybe it's the unkempt hair, chubby cheeks and glazed eyes.

A Kentucky man was so high and drunk that he used his kitchen oven as a crib for his 5-week-old infant.

Luckily, dope-smoking, whiskey-chugging Larry Long left the door of the oven ajar and didn’t turn it on, so the tot was okay, even after a long dark night, said McCracken County Sheriff Jon Hayden.

Authorities told CNN that after smoking marijuana at the restaurant where he works as a cook, Long, 33, returned home to share a fifth of whiskey with the baby’s mother, Brandy Hatton.

Hatton had four or five shots and went to bed while Long finished the bottle, Hayden said.

At 5:30 the next morning, Hatton awoke to the sound of the baby’s cries coming from the oven. He had been in it for several hours, police said, according to CNN.

Emergency crews responding to the scene took the infant to a local hospital, where he was found to be unharmed.

The incident was reported to authorities by a psychiatric facility that Long turned to when he learned what he had done, officials said.

“He actually called a mental health crisis line immediately thereafter and told them that he had done this. And they contacted us,” Hayden said.

Police arrested Long and charged him with first degree wanton endangerment. He is being held on bail of $10,000.

Pity the poor child if it's ever again left in the "care" of these feral beasts.

'He Learned That People In All Groups Should Be Listened To'

Funny how a guy who learned that people in all groups should be listened to refuses to listen to the American people.

'He was exposed to American black culture, American white culture and Indonesian culture,' said Kay Ikranagara, who worked with Mr Obama's mother in Jakarta and knew the family well. 'He learned that people in all groups should be listened to.'

No schedule has been released of his trip, which was delayed a few days so as not to clash with a crucial moment in the US health care debate. As a result, his wife and children, who were originally going to join him during their spring break, will not be accompanying him.

If only he still knew how to listen he could be enjoying his homecoming already.

Misleading Headline of the Day: 'Catholic nuns urge passage of Obama's health bill'

This piece of duplicitous propaganda courtesy of the Associated Press. The intent of this, obviously, is to make you believe all Catholic nuns support ObamaCare.

Some 60 leaders of religious orders representing 59,000 Catholic nuns Wednesday sent lawmakers a letter urging them to pass the Senate health care bill. It contains restrictions on abortion funding that the bishops say don't go far enough.

The letter says that "despite false claims to the contrary, the Senate bill will not provide taxpayer funding for elective abortions." The letter says the legislation also will help support pregnant women and "this is the real pro-life stance."

This is a lie, of course, not to mention three month old "news".

In an apparent split with Roman Catholic bishops over the abortion-financing provisions of the proposed health care overhaul, the nation’s Catholic hospitals have signaled that they back the Senate’s compromise on the issue, raising hopes of breaking an impasse in Congress and stirring controversy within the church.

I guess a rehash from late December is all part of the AP's advocacy journalism effort on behalf of their bosses in the Democratic Party. Then, as now, Catholic bishops hit back hard.

Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, the president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), hit back hard Monday against the Catholic Health Association’s (CHA) endorsement of the abortion-expanding health care bill.

George’s statement came only days after CHA president Sr. Carol Keehan issued a letter to lawmakers urging them to “move quickly to enact health care reform,” and the same day that Keehan characterized the legislation as “a major first step” — despite not being “perfect” on life issues.

The Chicago cardinal emphasized that, while bishops support health care reform as such, they “were left disappointed and puzzled” when the Senate bill, which lacked the hard-won abortion funding ban of the House bill, emerged as the only bill considered for final passage.

George pointed out the slew of flaws that the U.S. bishops find “deeply disturbing” in the Senate health bill, including its lack of conscience protections, [lack of] Hyde-amendment protections against federal abortion funding, and the millions in new funds for Community Health Centers which will be available to fund abortions.

“It expands federal funding and the role of the federal government in the provision of abortion procedures,” he explained. “In so doing, it forces all of us to become involved in an act that profoundly violates the conscience of many, the deliberate destruction of unwanted members of the human family still waiting to be born.”

The cardinal directly disagreed with the Catholic Health Association’s favorable assessment of the bill.

“This analysis of the flaws in the legislation is not completely shared by the leaders of the Catholic Health Association,” stated George. “They believe, moreover, that the defects that they do recognize can be corrected after the passage of the final bill. The bishops, however, judge that the flaws are so fundamental that they vitiate the good that the bill intends to promote.

“Assurances that the moral objections to the legislation can be met only after the bill is passed seem a little like asking us, in Midwestern parlance, to buy a pig in a poke.”

Naturally the AP ignores objections of millions of Catholics and the bishops. But the damage is done and all you see and hear on the news is that "Catholic nuns" support ObamaCare.

Sr. Keehan was exposed at Big Journalism the other day. Naturally the media ignore the inconvenient facts.

You see, the Catholic Health Association is a for-profit company that works for some Catholic hospitals as a sort of trade association. It isn’t part of the Church nor does it represent any official group of religious Catholics, nor does it serve as a source of Catholic teachings.

The truth is that CHA chief Carol Keehan, a Daughter of Charity nun, is paid around $800,000 a year to advocate for this trade association, not the Catholic Church. She is not an altruist like nearly every other member of the actual Church that serves in an official capacity.
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So, readers are left thinking that “Catholic hospitals” are in support of Obamacare yet are never informed of the capacity in which this Catholic hospital group serves Catholics… or rather doesn’t serve Catholics. And why is this so important right now? We all know that this coming week will find Obamacare facing a crucial and perhaps final push. This report is meant to help Obamacare pass. Plain and simple.

And, shock of shocks, Keehan has links to--wait for it--SEIU.

Yesterday at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick led a conference call to release a document called "Respecting the Just Rights of Workers: Guidance and Options for Catholic Health Care and Unions." For several years, McCarrick led a working group on the text that included such labor heavyweights as John Sweeney, President of the AFL-CIO, and Dennis Rivera, Chair of SEIU Healthcare. Sister Carol Keehan, President and CEO of the Catholic Health Association, was also a central player in the negotiations.

As far back as a year ago Keehan was attending health care reform meetings at the White House. But we're supposed to believe her endorsement of ObamaCare today is earthshaking news.

Update: To no surprise, a bunch of lib stooges trumpets this as big news.

Obama Not Too Busy To Fill Out NCAA Brackets

I haven't had the time to do my NCAA picks yet, but apparently Barack Obama has his priorities in order. I guess wrecking our economy takes a backseat to basketball.

President Obama may be taking a political risk in his quest to fix health care, but he's playing it safe when it comes to his March Madness picks.

The Hoopster-in-Chief chose Kansas, Kentucky, Kansas State and Villanova to make the men's Final Four.

It's the second year the President has filled out a bracket for ESPN.

But this was the first time Obama also picked the Final Four in women's college basketball, choosing Connecticut, Stanford, Tennessee and Notre Dame.

His full brackets, including who he thinks will win the championships, will be released on ESPN's SportsCenter on Wednesday.

SportsCenter will also air an interview with Obama at noon.

So now we'll be treated to three weeks of slobbering over Obama on ESPN. Great.

I thought "health care" was his top priority?

It would be really nice if we could have a diversion from politics sometimes and not have to see his face. But no, he's got to be omnipresent 24/7.

Netanyahu Brother-in-Law Calls Obama an Anti-Semite

The relationship between the U.S. and Israel is deteriorating rather quickly, to say the least. It doesn't help when we're consistently siding with the Paleostinians.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's brother-in-law Dr. Hagai Ben-Artzi on Wednesday called U.S. President Barack Obama an anti-Semite in an interview with Army Radio.

"It's not that Obama doesn't like Bibi," he referring to Netanyahu using his nickname. "He doesn't like the nation of Israel."

Netanyahu was quick to distance himself from Ben-Artzi's remarks, saying he completely disagrees with his brother-in-law.

Netanyahu said he has a deep appreciation for President Obama's commitment to Israel's security, which he has expressed many times, and also for the deep ties between the two countries.

Ben-Artzi was interviewed on Army Radio to provide background on the prime minister. He told the interview, "Look how symbolic it is that your son took part in and won a Bible quiz, whose theme this year is Jerusalem and its connection to Israel, and you, his father, are being tested and asked to prove the strength of the nation of Israel's ties to Jerusalem."

He went on to say that Obama's anti-Semitism stems from years of indoctrination by controversial preacher Rev. Jeremiah Wright, whom Obama distanced himself from during the election campaign.

"When there is an anti-Semitic president in the United States, it is a test for us and we have to say: We will not concede. We are a nation dating back 4,000 years, and you in a year or two will be long forgotten. Who will remember you? But Jerusalem will dwell on forever."

Ben-Artzi added that Netanyahu is aware of his views, but declined to say what the two discuss in private conversations.

On Tuesday a group of far-right activists announced their plan to hang hundreds of posters across the country depicting Obama under the headline "agent of the PLO." The banner is already on display in the office of National Union MK Michael Ben Ari.

Obama hanging around with anti-Semitic creeps certainly doesn't do anything to dissuade such an image.

Meanwhile, our "partners" in peace rioted yesterday. Or in other words, doing what they normally do.

Mideast turmoil escalated sharply yesterday as hundreds of Palestinians rioted, while relations between the United States and Israel further deteriorated.

The battles between rock-throwing Palestinians and helmeted Israeli police in East Jerusalem were the worst in months and triggered fears of a "third intifada," like the uprisings that terrorized the region in the late 1980s and after 2000.

Palestinian medics said at least 90 people were injured, including several seriously wounded by rubber bullets, in several Arab neighborhoods of the city, which Israelis and Palestinians alike claim as their capital.

"We shall die and Palestine shall live," shouted one youth, hoisting a giant Palestinian flag.

Israeli officials said at least 15 cops were wounded, including one who was shot in the hand, and at least 60 rioters were arrested.

Hamas ignited the rioting by calling for a "day of rage."

But according to Obama and his lackey, Mrs. Clinton, the Israelis are the bad guys here.

Obama Not Divisive Enough Yet? Now Al Sharpton Is His 'New Partner'

Wonderful. Let's take perhaps the most racially divisive figure of the last 25 years and elevate him to a prominent level at the White House. That should go over well. Of course you're all raaaaacist if you dare criticize this.

That whole post-racial era is really working out, huh?

Mr. Sharpton has been to the White House five times since Mr. Obama took office, most recently this month as part of a small group meeting with economics advisor Lawrence Summers. Mr. Sharpton's radio program, which airs in 27 markets, has become a friendly platform for administration officials to address black listeners, allowing Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, for example, to take credit for a recent $1.25 billion settlement with black farmers who had sued the government for discrimination.

Now there are signs that Mr. Sharpton will play a role in this fall's midterm elections. Democratic National Committee Chairman Timothy Kaine conferred with Mr. Sharpton this month on sending him to black churches and neighborhoods in politically important states to register and mobilize black voters.

For the president, the alliance with Mr. Sharpton carries risk. Where Mr. Obama has worked hard to mute race as part of his persona, Mr. Sharpton is famous for inflaming racial sensitivities, as when he represented Tawana Brawley, the black teenager whose 1987 claims of rape by several white men were discredited.

Former Virginia Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, America's first elected black governor, said that Mr. Obama "went to great lengths to show that he is the president for all people, not just some people." Outreach to Mr. Sharpton, while shoring up black support, could hurt that image, he said.

"Sharpton brings a profile, whatever you think of it," said Mr. Wilder. "When he first got known was with the Tawana Brawley incident. A lot of people still remember it, and many of those old enough to remember it still haven't gotten over it."

Especially the people he ruined with his hoax. To this day Sharpton has never apologized to Steven Pagones, the man he accused of raping Brawley.

And that barely scratches the surface.

Pagones won a court judgment against Sharpton for $345,000, which Sharpton never paid. Moreover, during the decade prior to Pagones' long-awaited vindication in court, the former prosecutor had suffered constant stress and anxiety (exacerbated by numerous death threats from Sharpton's credulous followers) that contributed heavily to the devastating dissolution of Pagones' marriage and the virtual ruin of his life. Sharpton has never acknowledged or apologized for what he did to Pagones.
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That same year, anti-Semitic riots in Brooklyn's Crown Heights section erupted after 7-year old Gavin Cato, a black child, was accidentally killed by an out-of-control car driven by a Hasidic Jew. Within three hours, a black mob had hunted down and killed an innocent rabbinical student, Yankel Rosenbaum. Sharpton fanned the flames of racial hatred by publicly announcing that it was not merely a car accident that had killed Gavin Cato, but rather "the social accident of apartheid." He organized angry demonstrations and challenged local Jews -- who he derisively called "diamond merchants" -- to "pin their yarmulkes back and come over to my house" to settle the score. Finally he claimed, without proof, that the Jewish driver had run over the Cato children while in a drunken stupor. Stirred in part by such rhetoric, hundreds of Crown Heights blacks took violently to the streets for three days and nights of rioting. Sharpton reacted to chaos by stating, "We must not reprimand our children for outrage, when it is the outrage that was put in them by an oppressive system."
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Also in 1995, Sharpton led his National Action Network in an ugly boycott against Freddy's Fashion Mart, a Jewish-owned business in Harlem, New York. The boycott started when Freddy's owners announced that because they wanted to expand their own business, they would no longer sublet part of their store to a black-owned record shop. The street leader of the boycott, Morris Powell, was the head of Sharpton's "Buy Black" Committee. Repeatedly referring to the Jewish proprietors of Freddy's as "crackers," Powell and his fellow protesters menacingly told passersby, "Keep [going] right on past Freddy's, he's one of the greedy Jew bastards killing our [black] people. Don't give the Jew a dime." Some picketers openly threatened violence against whites and Jews -- all under the watchful, approving eye of Sharpton. The subsequent picketing became increasingly menacing in its tone until one of the protesters eventually shot four whites in the store and then set the building on fire -- killing seven employees, most of whom were Hispanics.

Now he's essentially a White House advisor. How special.

'Attention Wal-Mart Customers: All Black People Leave the Store Now'

Really clever.

Wal-Mart officials are looking at security tapes after an announcement was made for "all black people'' to leave a store in South Jersey.

A man used the public-address system at the Route 42 store in Washington Township Sunday night and calmly announced: "Attention Wal-Mart customers: All black people leave the store now.''

Patricia Covington and Shelia Ellington were inside the store when it happened and told the Courier Post that customers and store employees looked stuneed when they heard it.

"In 2010, I want to know why such statements are being made because it flies in the face of what we teach them [our kids] at home, and that's tolerance for people," said Ellington.

Ellington and other customers let store management and police know they were upset.

They asked the store to use the same announcement system to apologize to customers that night, which it did.

Hate to be suspicious, but this could also be a stunt similar to all those phony noose-hangings.

Aw, How Cute: It's Baby Hitler

A couple of years ago we noted the story of some knuckle-dragging clown in New Jersey who named his kid Hitler. Now some woman in Denmark decided it would be "artistic" to dress her kid up as the psychotic mass murderer. How special.

While most mothers dress their baby daughters in frilly dresses, a Danish-Norwegian artist dressed hers up as Baby Hitler.

Nina Maria Kleivan created a photo essay on evil doers, dolling her daughter up as despicable despots ranging from Adolf Hitler to Benito Mussolini.

"We all have evil within us. Even small children are evil towards each other," Kleivan told the Haaretz newspaper in Israel.

"Even my daughter could end up ruling Denmark with an iron fist," said Kleivan, whose daughter, Faustina, is now 11 years old.

The controversial photo-series, titled "Potency," has been exhibited in Denmark, Sweden, Italy and Germany.

Hitler isn't the only one in the series.

In the photo series, baby Faustina also portrays Joseph Stalin, Saddam Hussein, Ayatollah Khomeini, Chairman Mao Zedong, Idi Amin, Augusto Pinochet and Slobodan Milosevic.

It can't be long until some libs suggest she dress the kid up as Bush or Cheney.

More at Haaretz, including other photos. Kleivan's father was a captive of the Germans during World War II and she has a resentment toward the Germans, for obvious reasons, but I think this is a bit over the top.

Kleivan's art brims with references to World War II, often incorporating power and powerlessness, victims and culprits, innocence and guilt. Even so, none of her works have caused as much stir as this, and it's all because of one particular image.

"Nobody reacts to any picture other than the one of 'mini-Hitler'. Even though my generation doesn't speak out about the war, silently our cultural circle sees Hitler as evil incarnate."

But the reactions have been far from silent in Denmark, Sweden, Italy and Germany, where the exhibition has been shown. Especially when Kleivan's Jewish aunt stumbled across the exhibit in an art gallery in Sweden.

"Most of her family disappeared in the German camps, I felt so bad telling her it was my work, because she didn't know, and was sickened by it. But this is not a deliberate provocation, it calls for reflection. Even though comical, you're not supposed to only laugh at these pictures. You need to contemplate them, ponder where this evil comes from."

The left will probably be really upset to see her goofing on their hero Uncle Joe Stalin. The rest of the photos are in a slideshow at the Haaretz link.

Instapundit links. Thanks!

Dr. Milton Wolf on Sean Hannity Show

You may have noticed us linking Barack Obama's cousin Dr. Milton Wolf recently. Here he is with Sean Hannity Tuesday night.

Also, entirety of his Washington Times item that ran Tuesday from Wolf Files.

Be sure to check out Dr. Wolf regularly here for informative healthcare discussion, among other topics.

Socialized Medicine Success Story of the Day

Just a preview of the fiasco to come once the joyous Obama/Pelosi "health care" plan becomes law. Aspiring doctors will skip medical school for other fields and practicing physicians will flee the field leaving our hospitals manned by dubious doctors like this.

An elderly woman died after a German locum doctor carried out one of the “worst botched operations” seen in a British hospital, an inquest heard yesterday.

Ena Dickinson, a former NHS volunteer, was left unable to walk after the locum made a series of errors during a routine hip operation at Grantham & District Hospital.

Werner Kolb removed bone that should have remained intact and severed a major artery during the operation.

Mrs Dickinson, a 94-year-old former nurse and Red Cross volunteer from Barrowby, Lincolnshire, was left bleeding to death on the operating table. It was only when a consultant at the hospital stepped in that her life was saved.

However, two months after the August 2008 operation Mrs Dickinson died.

Kathy Ingram, her daughter, said that after dedicating her life to the NHS it had “let her down” when she needed it most.

Orthopaedic specialist Professor Angus Wallace told the inquest it was “the worst botched operation” he had seen.

The professor, who is based at Nottingham’s Queen’s Medical Centre, was so concerned about the case that he reported the doctor to the General Medical Council.

Last week MPs heard how a “gaping hole” in the rules on foreign doctors working in Britain is putting patients at risk.

The Health Select Committee is currently investigating out-of-hours-care following the death of David Gray in Cambridgeshire in 2008. He was killed by another German doctor, Daniel Ubani, who administered 10 times the normal dose of diamorphine.

Dr Ubani had flown to Britain to provide out of hours care under a contract from the local health authority.

We'll probably be seeing "specialists" flown in from Cuba before long since we all know how wonderful their "free" health care system.

ABC Set to Hire America-Hating CNN Anchor

I guess the American Broadcasting Company is so hard up for talent they have to go and hire a hard-left, America-bashing British citizen from the low-rated cable outfit?

CNN's Christiane Amanpour could be jumping to ABC News.

Amanpour, arguably CNN's biggest star, has reportedly been offered the hosting gig on "This Week" -- and is considering taking the job, according to a report on mediabistro.com.

The job's been open since former host George Stephanopoulos replaced Diane Sawyer on "Good Morning America."

Amanpour, known for her reporting as a foreign correspondent, has told CNN colleagues it's a "50/50" chance she'll take the ABC job, according to the report.

She's expected to make a decision within a few days.

Insiders say that if she does take the job, Amanpour will leave CNN for good -- unlike colleague Anderson Cooper, who appears on CBS' "60 Minutes" and often co-hosts the syndicated "Live with Regis & Kelly."

Amanpour's departure would leave a gaping hole in CNN's lineup, with the network already struggling for prime-time viewers behind Fox News Channel and MSNBC.

If someone with no ratings leaves a gaping hole, will anyone notice?

Just Call It 'Pat'

This week's sign of the apocalypse: The first officially recognized genderless person.

Norrie May-Welby, 48, was born a man but had a sex change operation in 1990, at the age of 28.

After becoming unhappy as a woman, May-Welby decided to become a “neuter”. The 48-year-old is now officially recognised as a person of no specific gender.

May-Welby emigrated to Australia at the age of seven after being born in Paisley, Renfrewshire.

Officials there altered the Briton’s birth certificate to include the new no-gender classification after doctors were apparently unable to determine the sex of the expat’s body.

May-Welby said: “The concepts of man or woman don’t fit me. The simplest solution is not to have any sex identification.”

Hot Air links. Thanks!

Stunner: Census Bureau Already Way Over Budget

This is what happens when you farm out the census to community organizers. The money goes down a rathole and nobody has any explanation.

The U.S. Census is well into conducting its constitutionally mandated 2010 count but the exercise is already running over budget.

Taxpayers are footing the bill of $14.7 billion for 10 years of Census counting. That price tag supports 500 local offices and a peak staff of 1.4 million workers.

But some cost overruns have already plagued this Census, like when tens of thousands of workers fanned out between March and July of last year to verify addresses -- a process known as "address canvassing." The Census Bureau, federal auditors later found, ran 25 percent over budget for a total cost of $444 million.

"When I arrived in July, the findings of that overrun were just emerging," Census Director Robert Groves said. "There was an underestimation of just the workload -- how many houses we had to go to."

Auditors also found the Census Bureau provided training to some 15,000 workers who either worked not at all or less than a single day -- at a total cost of $5.5 million.

Since you'll be getting your form in the mail this week, here's a tip how to fill it out, although I doubt all the illegals will be calling themselves Americans.

Surprise: Obama More Secretive Than Bush

Above the law

How's that whole transparency thing working out?

The government's use of legal exemptions to keep records secret rose during President Barack Obama's first year in office, despite promises of increased openness, an Associated Press review found.

The review of annual Freedom of Information Act reports filed by 17 major agencies found that overall, the use of nearly every one of the open-records law's nine exemptions to withhold information rose in fiscal year 2009, which ended last October.

Among the most frequently used exemptions: one that lets the government hold back records that detail its internal decision-making. Obama had directed agencies to stop using that exemption so frequently, but that directive appears to have been widely ignored.

Major agencies cited that exemption to refuse records at least 70,779 times during the 2009 budget year, compared with 47,395 times during President George W. Bush's final full budget year, according to annual FOIA reports filed by federal agencies. Obama was president for nine months in the 2009 period.

Well, that's just a mere 23,384 more refusals than under Bush. Nothing to get all worked up about. I just wish the media would stop harping on this.

Oh, they haven't?

Is it any wonder these people want to vote on massive pieces of legislation without letting anyone see it?

Laughably, Eric Holder claims the Justice Department is more open than ever. So why did he initially refuse to divulge the names of his hires who has worked for guests at Club Gitmo?

Describing the Justice Department's actions on FOIA on Monday at the start of Sunshine Week, when news organizations promote open government and freedom of information, Attorney General Eric Holder said his agency is making progress. He noted that Justice provided everything sought in a FOIA request in more than 1,000 more cases than it had the previous year.

Rainstorm in the Northeast? Why It Was Climate Change, Of Course

The rest of this week calls for sunny skies and temperatures in the 60's. As a "so-called skeptic" I question the timing.

Is there anything this clown won't blame on his fantasies?

If there’s a drought – it’s global warming. When there’s a hurricane – it’s global warming. If there are heavy snows or even blizzards – it’s somehow global warming. And amazingly, the latest round of rainy and windy weather in the Northeast, well that’s consistent with this phenomenon as well, so says former Vice President Al Gore.

Gore, the self-anointed climate change alarmist-in-chief, told supporters on a March 15 conference call that severe weather in certain regions of the country could be attributed to carbon in the atmosphere – including the recent rash of rainy weather.

“[T]he odds have shifted toward much larger downpours,” Gore said. “And we have seen that happen in the Northeast, we’ve seen it happen in the Northwest – in both of those regions are among those that scientists have predicted for a long time would begin to experience much larger downpours.”

But Gore had a specific example in mind. He explained this recent soaking in the Northeastern United States was “consistent” with what global warming alarmists were projecting.

“Just look at what has been happening for the last three days,” Gore said. “The so-called skeptics haven’t noted it because it’s not snow. But the downpours and heavy winds are consistent with what the scientists have long warned about.”

So what did Gore suggest? He proposed to solve these weather events he tied to climate change by revamping the American economy to being powered by “clean renewable energy” and phasing out the reliance of foreign oil.

“And we now face the opportunity to start doing something about this,” Gore said. “Rather than continuing to spend billions of dollars on foreign oil, we can make a transition to clean energy and pass that money here at home on clean renewable energy sources, creating millions of new jobs, building new industries – making us more secure."

Safe to say most Americans would like to wean ourselves off foreign oil. Except Gore and Obama oppose drilling on our own property.

They love having it both ways.

Update: Thanks to Hot Air for the link. Also at Hot Air, Ed Morrissey has this bit of hilarity of Senator James Inhofe unloading on ManBearPig. The cover of The Weekly Standard is pure gold.



Here's the Weekly Standard article related to the cover. A close-up of the cover illustration:

'The ACORN Brand is Probably Ruined for Life'

The New McCarthyites

Heartbreaking, isn't it?

A former leader of Maryland's ACORN chapter said Monday the group will no longer operate in the state, doomed by an embarrassing national scandal six months ago from which the organization never recovered.

Sonja Merchant-Jones, former co-chairwoman of the state chapter of ACORN and a board member since 1999, said there are no plans in Maryland to rebrand under a different name, a move undertaken Monday by several ACORN affiliates across the country.

Maryland ACORN ceased operations late last year, Merchant-Jones said, and all the offices in the state have closed. The group has not held a board meeting in Maryland since November, she added.

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now came under scrutiny in September, when videos recorded in Baltimore showed workers counseling two conservative activists pretending to be a pimp and prostitute. Two staff members of the Baltimore office were fired because of the video, which was broadcast on major networks throughout the country and showed the employees giving tax-evading tips to the man and a scantily dressed female partner.

The incident effectively shut down local and state offices, Merchant-Jones said, and the branches were forced to cease operations after dues-paying members fled.

Congress reacted to the video by stripping ACORN's federal funding. Last week a federal judge upheld a ruling that a law blacklisting ACORN and groups allied with it was unconstitutional, but observers doubt ACORN will recoup any money.

With its federal dollars gone, ACORN's national budget went from $24 million last year to $6 million this year.

"The ACORN brand is probably ruined for life, and the only way they can operate is under a different name," Merchant-Jones said.

It's like rearranging the decks chairs on the Titanic.

Of course, despite this criminal enterprise "rebranding" itself, it's all part of the New McCarthism, according to some far-left kook. Do these people have any clue how silly they sound?

I think it's time we coined the term Breitbart Derangement Syndrome.

'I'm a Member of Congress!'

Since he's a member of the Nancy Pelosi Congress, the most pathetically corrupt Congress ever, the shady behavior of New York Democrat Gregory Meeks should come as no surprise. Considering how scandal-ridden these Democrats are, declaring yourself one of them may not be the road you want to go down.

Embattled Rep. Gregory Meeks ended weeks of dodging yesterday, taking to TV to insist he's in the dark about the gone-missing money from a Hurricane Katrina charity fund he championed.

In his most extensive remarks since a series of Post stories investigating New Yorkers Organized to Assist Hurricane Families (NOAH-F) -- the Katrina fund-raising arm of a local development corporation he helped create -- Meeks was adamant that poring over the books was not his job.

"There is no connection," Meeks said on NY1's "Inside City Hall."

"I was not in charge of administering the funds. It was a community organization."

Later he said, "When community people come and say they want to do good things and they want me to lend my name to it, that's exactly what I would do . . .

"It was never set up for me to oversee. I'm a member of Congress!" he bellowed.

ACORN was also a community organization until they found themselves neck-deep in scandal they decided they had to change their name.The weak excuses Meeks offered up are comical.

Rep. Gregory Meeks went on NY1 last night to imply that he is not a crook -- no, indeed -- but merely a congressman who lent his name to a fund for Hurricane Katrina victims.

It's just that, somehow -- as The Post first reported -- $30,000 raised for those folks simply went missing.

Hey, we understand. It's easy to misplace 30 grand. Happens all the time.

Sheesh.

"I am not a founder of New Direction," Meeks huffed, referring to the group that oversaw the fund. "I am a congressman."

Gee, thanks for the news flash.

But, in fact, New Direction's Web site featured Meeks, along with state Sen. Malcolm Smith, prominently.

And at the time, Meeks vowed that "every dime, every dime" the group raised for Katrina victims would go to some 30 families.

Never happened. Or so it seems.

Meeks insisted last night that "the first time" he heard that victims got no money was when it was first reported.

Well, The Post is glad to be of service.

But Meeks should have learned about it on his own: He took extravagant credit for the effort -- but now claims he "never had any fiduciary responsibility" regarding the Katrina cash.

What about moral responsibility?

Meeks also seems to be stepping on his tongue. Earlier, he said the cash was for families in New Orleans; now he claims it was for Katrina refugees living at a Radisson Hotel in Queens.

But The Post could find scant evidence anyone there was helped, either.

And when asked about that contradiction, a Meeks flack said that his comments did not refer to money from the fund but only to "his own record."

Confused? You're not alone.

I won't hold out any hope the Most Ethical Congress Ever will be investigating. They're busy ramming a crap sandwich called ObamaCare down our throats.