Monthly Archives: August 2011
Daily Benefactor News – Libya Rebels Control 95 Percent Of Tripoli, But Qaddafi Loyalists Vow To Fight
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The Libyan rebels say they have gained control of 95 percent of Tripoli, one of the last holdouts of Col. Muammar Qaddafi’s regime, capping a stunning week of gains.
Two of Qaddafi’s sons are in rebel custody, including the politically powerful Saif al-Islam, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court on war-crimes charges, Al Jazeera reports.
But Qaddafi loyalists are refusing to surrender, potentially prolonging the victory that rebels and their supporters celebrated with a deafening street party in the capital last night.
“We will fight,” vowed government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim, who said that there were “thousands and thousands” of fighters on their way to help the loyalists. “We have whole cities on our sides. They are coming en masse to protect Tripoli to join the fight.”
Indeed, while rebels are exulting in their capture of most of the capital, they still face significant hurdles to taking full control of the country, the Wall Street Journal reports from Tripoli.
At one point early Monday, at an overpass near the city’s Gargaresh neighborhood, rebels beat a panicked retreat when word spread of a possible counterattack. That attack didn’t occur, but the city remained on edge as explosions echoed in the distance and rebels urged reporters not to linger at Green Square.
If Col. Gadhafi falls, it will pose fresh challenges for rebel forces, who have put aside longstanding ideological, regional and tribal differences to face a common enemy. Those differences are likely to be more pronounced once the strongman who has ruled the country for nearly 42 years is no longer in the picture and rebels struggle to rebuild their state. Further complicating their efforts to govern a post-Gadhafi Libya will be the presence of numerous independent armed groups with different loyalties and who may have different visions for Libya.
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Government tanks made a last stand this morning at the Bab al-Aziziya compound, where Qaddafi, his family, and inner circle had barricaded themselves during the uprising. The tanks opened fire on rebel troops as they attempted to enter the compound, the Associated Press reports. Eyewitnesses said NATO appeared to have demolished the compound, but the precise outcome of the battle remains unclear and Qaddafi’s own whereabouts are unknown.
Rebels set up checkpoints and barricades throughout the city to solidify their control, as loyalists fought fiercely to keep their hold on the small pockets that remain in their hands.
Among those pockets is the Rixos, the hotel where the Libyan government has been sequestering all foreign journalists. Al Jazeera reports that Qaddafi loyalists are using the journalists to deter a rebel attack on the hotel.
“Qaddafi sleeper cells” in Tripoli, armed with heavy weapons and including many snipers, are the rebels’ biggest remaining challenge, Al Jazeera reports.
The clashes between rebels and those pockets of Qaddafi loyalists sent Tripoli residents back into their homes Monday after spending Sunday night and the early hours of Monday in the streets, celebrating what they saw as Qaddafi’s imminent end, Reuters reports. In Green Square, where protesters were killed in the earliest days of the uprising, rebel supporters burned government flags and flew the tricolor flag last used by the monarchy that Qaddafi overthrew in 1969, when his rule began.
Rebel supporters in Tripoli, silent for months, emerged as the rebels took control of their neighborhoods. The Army battalion in charge of guarding entrances to the city surrendered immediately when rebels reached the city gates, AP reports. The commander of the battalion was a covert rebel supporter because Qaddafi’s regime killed his brother years ago.
Qaddafi’s hometown of Sirte, which is filled with fiercely loyal Libyans, is one of the few cities that remain in the hands of Qaddafi loyalists. But while this appears to be the endgame for Qaddafi, those who know him best expect him to fight to the end.
“I think it’s impossible that he’ll surrender,” said Abdel-Salem Jalloud, a former close aid to Qaddafi who defected to Italy last week.
Still, as rebels negotiate with the ICC to have Saif al-Islam handed over to The Hague and vow to bring his father to justice as well, Libyans are already celebrating their freedom from more than four decades of authoritarian rule.
“It’s amazing. It’s been six months of hell, but now we feel free,” Nez Badrush, a resident of western Tripoli, told the Wall Street Journal. “God bless you, the United States and NATO for helping us.”
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Daily Benefactor Columnists – The Imperial Presidency (Mark Steyn) – More Op-Eds
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The Imperial Presidency – Mark Steyn
Rick Perry, governor of Texas, has only been in the presidential race for 20 minutes, but he’s already delivered one of the best lines in the campaign:
“I’ll work every day to try to make Washington, D.C., as inconsequential in your life as I can.”
This will be grand news to Schylar Capo, eleven years old, of Virginia, who made the mistake of rescuing a woodpecker from the jaws of a cat and nursing him back to health for a couple of days, and for her pains, was visited by a federal Fish & Wildlife gauleiter (with accompanying state troopers) who charged her with illegal transportation of a protected species and issued her a $535 fine. If the federal child-abuser has that much time on his hands, he should have charged the cat, who was illegally transporting the protected species from his gullet to his intestine.
So eleven-year-old Schylar and other middle-schoolers targeted by the micro-regulatory superstate might well appreciate Governor Perry’s pledge. But you never know, it might just catch on with the broader population, too.
Bill Clinton thought otherwise. “I got tickled by watching Governor Perry,” said the former president. “And he’s saying, ‘Oh, I’m going to Washington to make sure that the federal government stays as far away from you as possible — while I ride on Air Force One and that Marine One helicopter and go to Camp David and travel around the world and have a good time.’ I mean, this is crazy.”
This is the best argument the supposedly smartest operator in the Democratic party can muster? If Bill Clinton wants to make the increasingly and revoltingly unrepublican lifestyle of the American president a campaign issue, Governor Perry should call his bluff. If I understand correctly the justification advanced by spokesgropers for the Transport Security Administration, the reason they poke around the genitalia of three-year-old girls and make wheelchair-bound nonagenarians in the final stages of multiple sclerosis remove their diapers in public is that by doing so they have made commercial air travel the most secure environment in the United States. In that case, why can’t the president fly commercial?
You’d be surprised how many heads of state do. Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands flies long haul on KLM. Don’t worry, she’s not in coach all night squeezed next to the mom with the crying baby and the party of English soccer hooligans baying moronic victory chants all night. She rides up front and has so many aides that sometimes she’ll book the entire first class cabin! By contrast, the president of the United States took his personal 747 (a transatlantic aircraft designed to hold 500 people that costs a fifth of a million dollars per hour to run) to go from Washington to a Democratic party retreat in Williamsburg, Va., 150 miles away.
Queen Margrethe of Denmark flies commercial, too. For local trips she has a small Challenger jet. When she’s not zipping around in it, they use it for fishery enforcement off Greenland. Does that detail alone suggest that a thousand-year dynasty dating back to King Gorm the Sleepy (regnant 936–958) travels in rather less luxury than the supposed citizen-executive of a so-called republic of limited government? Undoubtedly King Gorm the Sleepy would have slept a lot better on Air Force One, yet the Danish royal family seems to get by.
Symbols are important. In other circumstances, the Obamas’ vacation on Martha’s Vineyard might not be terribly relevant. But this is a president who blames his dead-parrot economy on “bad luck” — specifically, the Arab Spring and the Japanese tsunami: As Harry S. Truman would have said, the buck stops at that big hole in the ground that’s just opened up over in Japan. Let us take these whiny excuses at face value and accept for the sake of argument that Obama’s Recovery Summer would now be going gangbusters had not the Libyan rebels seized Benghazi and sent the economy into a tailspin. Did no one in the smartest administration in history think this might be the time for the president to share in some of the “bad luck” and forgo an ostentatious vacation in the exclusive playground of the rich? When you’re the presiding genius of the Brokest Nation in History, enjoying the lifestyle of the super-rich while allegedly in “public service” sends a strikingly Latin American message. Underlining the point, the president then decided to pass among his suffering people by touring small town Minnesota in an armored Canadian bus accompanied by a 40-car motorcade. In some of these one-stoplight burgs, the president’s escort had more vehicles than the municipality he was graciously blessing with his presence.
By sheer coincidence, I happen to be writing a conspiracy thriller in which a state-of-the-art Canadian bus transporting Pres. Michael Douglas on a tour of Minnesota goes rogue and takes over the government of the United States. Eventually, crack CIA operative Keira Knightley breaks in the rear window and points out to the Canadian bus that it’s now $15 trillion in debt. In a white-knuckle finale, the distraught and traumatized bus makes a break for Winnipeg pursued by Chinese creditors.
Where was I? Oh, yes. Instead of demonstrating the common touch — that Obama is feeling your pain Clinton-style — the motorcade tour seemed an ingenious parody of what (in Victor Davis Hanson’s words) “a wealthy person would do if he wanted to act ‘real’ for a bit” — in the way that swanky Park Avenue types 80 years ago liked to go slumming up in Harlem. Why exactly does the president need a 40-car escort to drive past his subjects in Dead Moose Junction? It doesn’t communicate strength, but only waste, and decadence. Are these vehicles filled with “aides” working round the clock on his super-secret magic plan to “create” “jobs” that King Barack the Growth-Slayer is planning to lay before Congress in the fall or winter, spring, whatever? If the argument is that the president cannot travel without that level of security, I note that Prince William and his lovely bride did not require a 40-car motorcade on their recent visit to Los Angeles, and there are at least as many people on the planet who want a piece of Wills and Kate as do of Obama. Like the president, the couple made do with Canuck transportation, but in their case they flew in and out on a Royal Canadian Air Force transport described as “no more luxurious than a good motor home”: The shower is the size of a pay phone. It did not seem to diminish Her Royal Highness’s glamour.
I wish Governor Perry well in his stated goal of banishing Washington to the periphery of Americans’ lives. One way he could set the tone is by forgoing much of the waste and excess that attends the imperial presidency. Believe it or not, many presidents and prime ministers manage to get by with only a 14-car or even a four-car motorcade. I know: Hard to imagine, but there it is. A post-prosperity America that has dug itself into a multi-trillion-dollar hole will eventually have to stop digging. When it does so, the government of the United States will have to learn to do more with less. A good place to start would be restoring the lifestyle of the president to something Calvin Coolidge might recognize.
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History, Hardliners, And Humility – Andrew C. McCarthy
Liberty must always be exercised, and may only be maintained, “in a way of subjection to authority.” This sounds like it could have been written by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the trailblazer of the modern Left, whose “social compact” decreed that any dissenter from “the general will” would be compelled to obey — meaning “nothing less than that he will be forced to be free.” Or it could be the handiwork of any of a thousand Muslim jurisprudents teaching that submission to Allah and His law is the essence of Islam.
But it is neither. Those are the words of John Winthrop, the legendary founder of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and the man Paul Johnson, the peerless British historian, calls “the first great American.”
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For Whom The Bell Tolls – Thomas Sowell
The orgies of violent attacks on strangers in the streets — in both England and the United States — are not necessarily just passing episodes. They should be wake-up calls, warning of the continuing degeneration of Western society.
As British doctor and author Theodore Dalrymple said, long before these riots broke out, “The good are afraid of the bad, and the bad are afraid of nothing.”
Not only the trends over the years leading up to these riots but also the squeamish responses to them by officials — on both sides of the Atlantic — reveal the moral dry rot that has spread deep into Western societies.
Click HERE For Rest Of Article
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Murdoch, Hackgate, Climategate, The Guardian And The Vile Hypocrisy Of The Left – James Delingpole
The liberal-Left has many vices. But surely the most noisome one of all (in a crowded field) is its rank hypocrisy. If you’re going to take the moral high ground – as Lefties will insist on doing at every opportunity – the very least you owe the world in return if you have a shred of compunction, decency or intellectual consistency is to demonstrate more integrity than those you are impugning. And if you can’t do that, then bloody well shut up.
In the last few months, you can’t have helped noticing, the liberal-Left media, led by the BBC and the Guardian, have been dwelling on the News International phone hacking scandal with a shrillness and hysteria and foaming moral outrage out of all proportion to the nature of the offence.
Click HERE For Rest Of Article
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Smacking Down Progressives Of Pallor – Michelle Malkin
Is there anything more condescending than a porcelain-skinned Hollywood liberal who attempts to show her presumed solidarity with minorities by referring to them as “people of color”?
Yes, there is: Two porcelain-skinned liberals attempting to show their allegiance to “diversity” by attacking “people of color” who happen to disagree with their radical politics.
Such an exchange took place on a little-watched television show on Al Gore’s obscure cable network Wednesday night. I am spotlighting the diatribe for you not because the speakers involved hold any sway with the American electorate, but because paternalistic racism is so prevalent among the media-entertainment elite.
Click HERE For Rest Of Article
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The Adventures Of Captain America – Jonah Goldberg
Before President Obama headed off to his rented 28-acre retreat in Martha’s Vineyard, he spent a few days campaigning around the Midwest in his new million-dollar, Canadian-made campaign bus, paid for at government expense. He even unveiled what many believe will be his new reelection theme: “Country first.”
According to his new stump speech, if you oppose his agenda, then you don’t care about America as much as he does.
“There is no shortage of ideas to put people to work right now. What is needed is action on the part of Congress, a willingness to put the partisan games aside and say we’re going to do what’s right for the country, not what we think is going to score some political points for the next election,” Obama explained in Cannon Falls, Minn., in an event that the White House insisted had nothing to do with campaigning.
Click HERE For Rest Of Article
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In his Inaugural Address, President Obama quoted from Thomas Paine’s The Crisis: “Let it be told to the future world that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive, that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet it.”
And so, ironically, it will be told to the future world that in 2009 and 2010, Americans from city and country, alarmed at the common danger of President Obama’s agenda, came forth to meet it. They repudiated his program, after he’d sought to take advantage of the crisis he inherited to move the country to the left, and after he’d enacted much of his agenda—and made the crisis worse.
Click HERE For Rest Of Article
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Oh goody! More EPA regulations
They tell us that this is for our own good, of course that is what they always say. By golly, the EPA will regulate us into misery, suffering, and a lower standard of living, even if it kills us! Maggie’s Notebook has more
Things are about to get much worse for those already suffering, and some that are not suffering now, will be before the EPA is finished with us. We are told that the EPA will save lives with their new rules – 36,000 lives to be exact. Never mind that most of us are living longer, and the average lifespan increases every year, in spite of fossil fuels.
Ask about anyone, anywhere and you will hear that electricity is terribly expensive, and it is about to be less readily available. EPA regulations (not laws) will close many coal-fired plants that generate our Nation’s electricity. Those not closing will spend billions to upgrade to meet the EPA restrictions. Obama told us in 2008 that under his guidance our electricity will skyrocket, and that pronouncement is about to come true.
In 2009, 44.9% of America’s electricity was generated by coal. The next closest is 23.4% from natural gas. The Washington Post reports that the new EPA regulations will force the “closure of many coal plants” between now and 2017. No one seems to know how many, but American Electric Power has announced the shutdown of 5 of their plants. Improvements to those plants would cost $8 Billion – better to shut them down. The remainder will undergo (or are undergoing) upgrades which you and I will pay for, thanks to the Obama administration bypassing Congress.
This Washington Post article explains what all this means: “higher electric bills, more blackouts and fewer jobs.”
Go read it all, and remember the scariest words known to man. “We are from the government, and we are here to help”
Raising Cain in 2012
Stacy McCain has a video of Cain illustrating why we like him so darn much.
Cain’s fifth-place finish at Ames has been seen as a disappointment by some, although the candidate himself has said he was “thrilled” to place in the top five in the straw poll. Cain has pointed out that his campaign remains debt-free, in contrast to former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty who reportedly borrowed money (and required some staffers to work without pay) to finance a major TV ad campaign in Iowa. Cain ran no TV ads in Iowa. Pawlenty dropped out after finishing a distant third behind Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachman and Texas Rep. Ron Paul in the Ames straw poll sponsored by the Iowa GOP. Cain got 1,456 votes in the straw poll, finishing behind former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, who placed fourth with 1,657 votes.
Cain today completes a two-day visit to New Hampshire, where yesterday he opened his new state campaign headquarters in Manchester. Cain and his team have indicated that they are taking a long-term approach to the GOP campaign, having visited or begun organizing in such states as Tennessee, Alabama, Oregon and North Dakota whose primaries fall later in the 2012 selection calendar.
Cain is an impressive speaker, and to those, like Michael Medved, who are downplaying Cain, I say shame on them! In my view Cain would be a very good president, he possesses the wisdom that is so obviously missing from the vast majority of our politicians. Personally, I like Cain the best of all the candidates, and yes, I have doubts as to whether or not Cain can succeed. But, I am not going to start yelling for Cain to quit or leave the race, it is way too early.
There are, of course, several names I would love to see leave the race. Are you listening John Huntsman? Newt? Rick Santorum? Ron Paul? These four have no chance, and should simply accept reality and step aside. Likewise, I kind of doubt that Sarah Palin jumps in this race. I also doubt that Paul Ryan will get in either, although I think he would crush Obama head to head, mostly because he keeps saying he will not run. Christie? Forget about it Ann Coulter, he is not running.
My personal choice? Let Romney, who the GOP base distrusts, Bachman, who the “establishment” hates, Perry, the guy I think will be the nominee, and Cain, yes he is a long shot, but so what? Stranger things can happen, and have happened in presidential elections! Let these four duke it out.
Then, when that dust settles, let’s start working to get the White House back from the Leftist Democrats. Because any of the names I mentioned would be far better than Obama!
*AUDIO* Mark Levin: Podcasts For Week Ending 08/19/11
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*AUDIO* Joe Pags: Podcasts For Week Ending 08/19/11
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*AUDIO* Dana Loesch: Podcasts For Week Ending 08/19/11
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http://thedanashow.wordpress.com
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*AUDIO* Quinn & Rose: Podcasts For Week Ending 08/19/11
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OK kids time for a game
Let’s call it Who is the Bigger Dummy. We will show you two candidates, and you pick the one that is less intelligent. Sounds like fun huh? Both of our candidates today come to us via The BlogProf, so a big H/T to that great blog
First we have the fool who tried to stop his truck with his feet
Well, that is going to be tough to beat, but Mayor Nanny AKA Michael Bloomberg is giving it his best effort
VIDEO: Mayor Bloomberg says immigration is ‘single biggest’ way to create jobs
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (I) said Friday that the “single biggest” thing President Obama can do right now to spur job creation in the United States is to allow more immigration.
“Most importantly, we want to get immigrants from around the world to come to America,” Bloomberg said in an interview with the “CBS Early Show.”
“That’s the single biggest thing that the president could do with Congress, is open up the borders to those that will create jobs here.”
Wow! Tough call my friends, so, who ya got in this clash of mental midgets?
Your Marxist Moron of the Day is Janeane Garofalo
Wow! Just wow! What more can I add to this? The Lonely Conservative
Yep, Rick Perry does scare the Left
Image via Wikipedia
Or as Silver Fiddle says it, Obama might be careful before biting into a hot pepper
The Left is Scared, Folks
As Papa Silverfiddle used to tell me, “They only try to tackle the guy with the ball.” Ken Blackwell’s dad had a similar saying, “A dog don’t chase a parked car.” The tea party scares the crap out of the statist left, and so does Rick Perry. He’s a hot jalapeño dropped into the plate of bland political pablum, and the left is already screaming at the offensive spiciness.
The Demagogic democrats have already framed the issue as a Texas Cowboy “threatening” the Fed Chief, and the lapdogs in the press have obediently adopted the trope. He did no such thing.
This is a threat…
…Delivered with one hand hovering over a holstered pistol, eyes narrowed down to slits:
“I’ll kick your ass and drag you behind my horse, Ben Cartwright style, if you print more of that neon toilet paper you call money.”
Perry didn’t say that, he said this:
“If this guy prints more money between now and the election, I don’t know what y’all will do to him in Iowa, but we would treat him pretty ugly down in Texas,” Perry said to laughter from supporters in Iowa.
“Printing more money to play politics at this particular time in American history is almost treacherous, treasonous in my opinion,” he said. (Reuters)
Go read the whole thing, Fiddle lays out a great case for Perry, and I could not agree more. And, as an added bonus, I must include fiddle’s description of Karl Rove, who has an axe to grind with Perry.
Karl Rover, handmaiden of the establishment and the left’s newest go-to Republican,
BINGO!! Rove is one of the “pragmatic” Republicans, pragmatic meaning they are afraid of any Republican who sounds too much like a real Conservative!
Now go to Western Hero and read the rest of this great piece!
Gatordoug
darcprynce
Dave C
