Re-Education Camps

Progressives are calling for the camps. I kid you not. See Matt Welch, "If Only Americans Weren't So Goddamned Stupid We Wouldn't Have to Send Them to Re-Education Camps."



The camps. Progressives love the camps. The world knows what happens in the camps. And the left wants you to forget why they need the camps. Kevin Robbins ASFL wants you to turn away from the camps. Socialism kills. Now time for your reeducation:

Hat Tip: LCR.

London Riots Day 4: Manchester and Midlands on Fire

Criminal unrest continues in Britain as the government struggles to regain control. See Independent UK, "Riots spread north as London cools." And at Daily Mail, "Now it's Manchester and the Midlands' turn as London braces for FOURTH night of rioting." And also Telegraph UK, "London riots spread to Midlands and north-west on fourth night of trouble."

See also Amusing Bunni, "Save Our Streets," Daley Gator, "Would I be wrong to ask just one question concerning the UK riots?," JammieWearingFool, "Heroes of London: 'It Was Like Being in a War'," Right Wing News, "There’s Nothing Wrong With The Government Shooting Looters & Rioters Down Like Dogs In The Street," and Saberpoint, "Massive Rioting in the U.K., Black on White Violence: What's the Solution?"

Also, at New York Times, "Cameron Deploys 10,000 More Officers to Riots," and "London Riots Put Spotlight on Troubled, Unemployed Youths in Britain." (At Memeorandum.)

The Progressive-Left's Communist Holocaust Denial

Judson Phillips, leader of Tea Party Nation, is trending at Memeorandum for his statement that...

I detest and despise everything the left stands for. How anybody can endorse and embrace an ideology that has killed a billion people in the last century is beyond me...

Actually, the numbers of those killed under communist totalitarianism probably don't reach one billion for the 20th century, but certainly hundreds of millions were killed during the rule of the Soviets to Communist China, with a turn at genocide in the "paradise" of Cambodia. One commenter at Alan Colmes' "Liberaland" compares the history of left-wing genocide to U.S. support for "death squads in El Salvador." That's the kind of moral equivalence that allows the left's search for ideological utopia to continue and thrive. Jamie Glazov wrote on this specifically, "Cold War Revelations and 'Progressive' Holocaust Denial":

The Western "progressive" milieu's refusal to acknowledge Communist crimes is, of course, rooted in that disease with which we have become all too familiar in the second half of the twentieth century: anti-Americanism. It explains well why not one Revisionist historian, including Gabriel Kolko, has come forward to apologize for his errors. However, the refusal to acknowledge grievous faults on the Cold War, and to seek refuge in other politically correct orthodoxies, is all part of a larger phenomenon: Holocaust denial. A clear analogy can be made between the neo-Nazi Holocaust denial and the Left's refusal to acknowledge Communist Holocaust. In denying that the genocide of Jews occurred, Holocaust denial perpetuates anti-Semitism and keeps it alive. By erasing historical memory, Holocaust denial gives birth to moral relativism, which, in turn, instills a mindset that facilitates the possibility of yet another Holocaust. Holocaust denial, in other words, is the craving for another Holocaust.

This is precisely the case in the Western Left's refusal to acknowledge the genocidal consequences of the socialist idea in the twentieth century. The causes of this Holocaust denial are directly rooted in the Holocaust itself. The Nazi Holocaust, for instance, was the logical outcome of anti-Semitism, but anti-Semites need to keep anti-Semitism alive. Thus, anti-Semitism's existence is kept alive easier if its darkest consequences are supported but simultaneously denied. So too, if Stalinism was the inevitable result of the pursuit of equality, then the belief in the possibility of equality must be kept alive by the socialist milieu. The historical memory and significance of the Gulag, however, must be wiped out.

It's the progressive-left's Communist Holocaust denial. It's alive. And it's deadly.

PHOTO CREDITS: Wikipedia Commons.

A Capitalist Economy Can't Support a Socialist Welfare State

The obvious realities are the ones people most desperately resist, especially progressives, who live in a utopian world where higher taxes and endless spending are held to promise a classless, want-free society, which is impossible.

See Janet Daley, "If we are to survive the looming catastrophe, we need to face the truth" (via Memeorandum):

Contrary to what the Obama Democrats claimed, the face-off in Congress did not mean that the nation’s politics were “dysfunctional”. The politics of the US were functioning precisely as the Founding Fathers intended: the legislature was acting as a check on the power of the executive.

The Tea Party faction within the Republican party was demanding that, before any further steps were taken, there must be a debate about where all this was going. They had seen the future toward which they were being pushed, and it didn’t work. They were convinced that the entitlement culture and benefits programmes which the Democrats were determined to preserve and extend with tax rises could only lead to the diminution of that robust economic freedom that had created the American historical miracle.

And, again contrary to prevailing wisdom, their view is not naive and parochial: it is corroborated by the European experience. By rights, it should be Europe that is immersed in this debate, but its leaders are so steeped in the sacred texts of social democracy that they cannot admit the force of the contradictions which they are now hopelessly trying to evade.

I discussed the political angle previously, "Time for Institutional Reform? Well, Only When Democrats Are Losing." But read Daley all the way through. Progressives argue that "politics is broken" when the people revolt against the socialist political class. If folks want to fix what's broken they need to look at what we're spending. Are we going to cut spending and reduce the size of government? It'll take a helluva lot more than downsizing defense. But America's Obama-Democrat-Socialists are impervious to reality. The reckoning is coming in 2012. Folks always say this election is "the most important election in my lifetime." I usually don't, but with the credit downgrade and America's military abusively stretched thin around the globe, my normal optimism is found wanting.

More on this in upcoming posts.

IMAGE CREDIT: The People's Cube.

Booman Tribune Endorses Norway Massacre in Demands for Economic Redistribution

This is a really convoluted take on the diabolical massacre mounted by the fundamentally crazed criminal madman Anders Behring Breivik.

See Booman Tribune, "Remembering History." There's a discussion of the rise of fascism in the twenties and thirties, then Booman shifts over to a psychotic rationalization for the violence, and suggests the left may adopt the same murderous tactics if the rich don't relinquish their wealth:

The horrible tragedy in Norway appears to have been carried out by one man. But his political beliefs are widespread and can lead quite naturally, and almost logically, to murder or even genocide. Similarly unrestrained reactions from the left can lead to violence against elites or even, in their view, confiscatory tax policies.

Rich people would be well served to remember that people will not stand by while they're living the high life if they have no jobs and are losing their homes. Our people are pretty well hypnotized by our televisions, so complacency has worked in our elites' favor even during this economic recession. But there is a snapping point. Like popcorn, at first it's just one or two kernels exploding. But the first kernels to pop are a precursor of what's to come.

Rather than grabbing their wallets, they ought to, you know, spread the wealth around. We'd all be better off in the long run.

This is frankly deranged.

I'm currently reading Anders Behring Breivik 1,500-page manifesto. I'm about a third of the way though, but Breivik's comments on capitalism are so far culturally anti-globalist and anti-transnational. Yet, Breivik's also fairly libertarian on markets (but still reading, so we'll see). But most of all is the fanatical hatred of progressivism and multiculturalism. There's literally nothing so far I've read that would lend itself to conclusions Booman's making. Folks can interpret this as they wish. The Norway murders were simply those of a criminal mastermind who'd had it with Europe's long march to multiculturalism. I'm seeing little similarities to the kind of economic disillusionment that gave rise to the specific ideological extremism in post-WWI Germany, or to European fascism in general. Breivik's responding to developments in post-WWII cultural Marxism. So while the Norway killer attacks leftism and identifies as culturally conservative, it's not the case of a coherent ideological program of Nazi-derived Aryanism or a more general tendency to brown-shirt politics. No doubt there are fine lines, but if someone leaned one way or the other reading this, it'd unlikely be toward the kind of command totalitarianism Booman champions. The dude (Booman) is sick.

PREVIOUSLY: "Anders Behring Breivik — No Clear Ideological Program." AND: "Just Awful: Progressives Ecstatic Over Anders Behring Breivik Alleged Ties to Right-Wing Extremism."

#FuckYouWashington

From Hadear Kandil's Twitter stream, pure anti-American hatred:

She needs to GTF back to Cairo, loser Tahrir camel-smelling wench. Geez. By now I shouldn't be, but I'm still blown away sometimes by the freak-show progressive internationalists who hate the U.S. but stay here nevertheless, blathering about how horrible it is, all the while bringing down the quality of this great nation. These people are freakin' stupid. They suck. Stupid and diabolical. Go home freak-nut commies. You're not welcomed.

Retweeted by Leah McElrath, the fifth-column hater-commie who got called out for spreading progressive propaganda.

A bunch of losers, total ASFL.

Obama Losing Support From Progressives and Socialists

I have CNN on today. And I caught this Wolf Blitzer interview with Socialist Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. And at the introduction is Communist Reconquista 'MEChA Boy' Representative Raul Grijalva, cited as one of the "liberals" who disagree with Obama over entitlement reform. "Liberals." Right. Love that. Not.

And cited at the clip is CNN's new survey, "CNN Poll: Drop in liberal support pushes Obama approval rating down."

RELATED: At The Hill, "Obama blasts GOP, Boehner on debt: ‘We have run out of time’." (At Memorandum.)

Update: Linked at Right Klik. Thanks!

Gay Barbarians

Turns out they've embraced the barbarian identity. Hey, if the shoe fits.

At Columbus Go Home, "Horde of Gay Barbarians Demand to be Disciplined at the Bachmanns’ “Pray Away the Gay” Clinic." (At Memeorandum.) Glitter today, high-grade ammonium nitrate fertilizer tomorrow.

Protest Tours for the Anti-Semitic Left

This essay's making the roudns, from Daniel Greenfield: "Outraged Protest Tours - The Tourism Package for Leftists Who Hate Israel."

Via Blazing Cat Fur.

Moral Revolution and the Collapse of the Soviet Union

The cover story, by Leon Aron, at the June/July Foreign Policy, "Everything You Think You Know About the Collapse of the Soviet Union Is Wrong."

I think that title is over-promising, actually. The key explanatory innovation is the role of moral ideas in overthrowing the old order. Aron writes, for example:

LIKE VIRTUALLY ALL modern revolutions, the latest Russian one was started by a hesitant liberalization "from above" -- and its rationale extended well beyond the necessity to correct the economy or make the international environment more benign. The core of Gorbachev's enterprise was undeniably idealistic: He wanted to build a more moral Soviet Union.

For though economic betterment was their banner, there is little doubt that Gorbachev and his supporters first set out to right moral, rather than economic, wrongs. Most of what they said publicly in the early days of perestroika now seems no more than an expression of their anguish over the spiritual decline and corrosive effects of the Stalinist past. It was the beginning of a desperate search for answers to the big questions with which every great revolution starts: What is a good, dignified life? What constitutes a just social and economic order? What is a decent and legitimate state? What should such a state's relationship with civil society be?

"A new moral atmosphere is taking shape in the country," Gorbachev told the Central Committee at the January 1987 meeting where he declared glasnost -- openness -- and democratization to be the foundation of his perestroika, or restructuring, of Soviet society. "A reappraisal of values and their creative rethinking is under way." Later, recalling his feeling that "we couldn't go on like that any longer, and we had to change life radically, break away from the past malpractices," he called it his "moral position."

At least from an ideational perspective, the argument is familiar. I'm reminded of the edited volume from Richard Ned Lebow and Thomas Risse-Kappen, International Relations Theory and the End of the Cold War, published in 1995. Ideas are contrasted with material interests as a mobilizing factor in historical change. So Leon's argument builds on themes that have been common in international relations literature for some time. Aron's book on this is forthcoming, and looks interesting: Roads to the Temple: Truth, Memory, Ideas, and Ideals in the Making of the Russian Revolution, 1987-1991.

Ten Ways Progressive Policies Harm Society's Moral Character

From Dennis Prager, at FrontPage Magazine:

The leftist weltanschauung sees society’s and the world’s great battle as between rich and poor rather than between good and evil. Equality therefore trumps morality. This is what produces the morally confused liberal elites that can venerate a Cuban tyranny with its egalitarian society over a free and decent America that has greater inequality.

None of this matters to progressives. Against all this destructiveness, they will respond not with arguments to refute these consequences of the liberal welfare state, but by citing the terms “social justice” and “compassion,” and by labeling their opponents “selfish” and worse.

Yes, worse. Much worse.

I'll have more on this later. But progressivism is ideological destructiveness personified. And while there may be individual progressives who "are fine people," as Prager suggests, in my experience they're one in a million. Progressives are selfish immoralists who'll take your money while calling you racist, sexist, an exploiter, etc. They're losers. The trick is to never back down, even when they open up with all they've got. They'll still lose, because deception and thuggery can't be sustained over goodness of moral clarity. That's why I'm not progressive. These people are ASFL and they suck, a bunch of idiots slapping high fives and visualizing raping conservative women. The reckoning's coming. I'm loving it!

Progressivism Incompatible with American Values

A big essay at Camp of the Saints, "When Mark Steyn Starts To Talk About The Break-Up Of The United States…." (Via King Shamus.)

This part is relevant to my recent experience:

Leftism is incompatible with American Values. It despises custom, morality, and Right Reason. It rejects the importance of tradition and, in fact, scorns and spits on it. Leftists seek not to learn from the wisdom of those who have come before them. They disdain the hard-won knowledge that politics is the art of the possible. They seek to remake the world in their image, to be as gods.

How can you deal with such people?

Well, actually you can't. Progressives (leftists) evince the mob mentality of violence and anti-rationalism. Anyone reading this blog over the last few days has seen the pure thug psychology at work among those who see themselves as enlightened. Michelle Malkin posted the violent death-wish hate mail yesterday, and I added a little reminder of the atheistic campaign of intolerance launched at my college last December. It's like a totalitarian regime with brownshirts beating those who think independently. According to TCOTs:

... there is no possible way normal reasonable people can deal with such people — nor should they because they will be outgunned every time because, unlike themselves, the Left will not feel any pressure to conform to the rules of Right Reason and civilization. The Right plays by a set of rules first forged by the hand of God on Mount Sinai; the Left makes up it rules as it goes along, believing the ends [Illumination, Heaven On Earth] justify the means [anything goes].

Anything goes. Absolutely. I'm living it. But I'm still standing to fight another day. And you have to fight:

The Left will not compromise in the ends they desire to force upon us — they are the most feverish and fervid and fanatical of believers, who are unbound to any sense of morality.

Gator Doug has more, "How can we live with the far Left? How indeed?":

There are those who will scoff at Bob’s belief that the Left are the true fanatics seeking to force their religion, Marxism, down all of our throats. But, nothing could be more obvious. The Left practices no tolerance, nor does it embrace, in the least, any diversity. The Left welcomes only those who march and speak in lock step with the Left. Those who do not are targeted for utter destruction.

Utter destruction. Sounds familiar.

Steve Wynn: 'It's Obama That's Responsible for This Fear in America...'

I was just over on the North end of the Las Vegas Strip last week, and the Wynn properties looked fabulous. We haven't stayed there yet, but we will. They send us invitations for multi-night stays, but the schedule hasn't worked out so far. But listening to Wynn's conference call makes me want to speed it up. Business people know what it's like to create jobs, and in Las Vegas you see it first hand. People are working. They are bustling and making good money. Democrats want to kill it, and Wynn says business owners are waiting it out.

Joe Weisenthal has the commentary, "Wynn CEO Goes On Epic Anti-Obama Rant On Company Conference Call." And the full transcript's at Seeking Alpha, "Wynn Resorts' CEO Discusses Q2 2011 Results - Earnings Call Transcript":

Everybody complains about how much money is on the side in America. You bet. And until we change the tempo and the conversation from Washington, it's not going to change. And those of us who have business opportunities and the capital to do it are going to sit in fear of the President. And a lot of people don't want to say that. They'll say, "Oh God, don't be attacking Obama." Well, this is Obama's deal, and it's Obama that's responsible for this fear in America. The guy keeps making speeches about redistribution, and maybe we ought to do something to businesses that don't invest or holding too much money. We haven't heard that kind of talk except from pure socialists. Everybody's afraid of the government, and there's no need to soft peddling it, it's the truth. It is the truth. And that's true of Democratic businessman and Republican businessman, and I am a Democratic businessman and I support Harry Reid. I support Democrats and Republicans. And I'm telling you that the business community in this company is frightened to death of the weird political philosophy of the President of the United States. And until he's gone, everybody's going to be sitting on their thumbs.

Progressive Trolls? Update on W. James Casper, Commissar of State Security, People's Commissariat for Internet Affairs

The Lonely Conservative responds to John Hawkins and American Power: "The Death of Independent Conservative Blogs?"

Last night I mentioned how my comment threads have been destroyed by progressives, and she writes:

I know what he means about the progressive trolls. Sigh.

Yeah. Sigh.

That reminds me of W. James Casper.

I continue to have private communications with readers who indicate they've never seen someone as evil as this. He's a communist storm trooper, and ultimately I see no difference between W. James Casper's hardline program and the totalitarian terrorism of the insurgents at this video.

He's a bad man:

Hugo Chavez Will Go to Cuba For Chemotherapy

At Fausta's, "Chavez going to Cuba, not Brazil, for chemo VIDEO":

Save California, Campaign for Children and Families, News Release, July 14, 2011

The press release from Save California, "Pro-Family Response to Jerry Brown's Signing of SB 48":

Sacramento, California -- One of California 's top opponents of placing "LGBT" personages in school textbooks is speaking out on the unfortunate signing of SB 48 by Gov. Jerry Brown today.

"Jerry Brown has trampled the parental rights of the broad majority of California mothers and fathers who don't want their children to be sexually brainwashed," said Randy Thomasson, president of SaveCalifornia.com, which helped lead the opposition to SB 48. "SB 48 has no parental opt-out. The only way parents can opt-out their kids from this immoral indoctrination is to opt them out the entire public school system, which is no longer for morally-sensitive parents and their children." (Source: RescueYourChild.com and SaveCalifornia.com SB 48 veto request letter)

In 2009, a KPIX/SurveyUSA poll found that four out of five Californians did not support giving homosexual activist Harvey Milk a statewide day of significance. "With the signing of SB 48, even more California parent will be shocked to see the glorification of Harvey Milk and other homosexual-bisexual-transsexual role models in school textbooks," Thomasson said. "SB 48 is the eighth school sexual indoctrination law forcing immorality on kids in California K-12 schools. It's time for parents who love their children to match their words with deeds and do what's necessary to get them out of the immoral government schools and into the safe havens of homeschooling and church schools."

*****
"It's ridiculous that Jerry Brown says he's making history 'honest,'" Thomasson added. "The bill he signed prohibits teachers and textbooks from telling children the facts that homosexuality has the highest rate of HIV/AIDS and other STDs, higher cancer rates, and earlier deaths. These important facts about lifestyles children will being forced to admire will be omitted. And Brown calls this 'honest'? This revisionist history will actually make more children believe a lie -- that homosexuality is biological, which it's not, and healthy, which is isn't." (Source: "Not Born This Way")

Brown signed SB 48 despite it being completely unnecessary to deal with school bullies. There are existing laws that already strongly address this issue, such as: AB 1785 (2000) requires public schools to coordinate with local law enforcement to suppress and report both "hate crimes" and "hate-motivated incidents"; AB 394 (2007) requires K-12 schools to "post antidiscrimination and antiharassment policies in all schools and offices, including staff lounges and pupil government offices" and requires the State Department of Education to "display information on curricula" relating to "antidiscrimination and antiharassment" in regards to "sexual orientation" (homosexuality and bisexuality) and "gender" (cross-dressing and sex changes); ACR 82 (2010) permits participating schools - pre-kindergarten through higher education - to become official "Discrimination-Free Zones" that "enact appropriate procedures that meaningfully address acts of discrimination that occur on campus."

"These existing laws, in addition to other campus anti-bias and anti-violence laws, are certainly strong enough to quell physical and verbal bullying, rendering SB 48's broad curriculum indoctrination unnecessary even to satisfy the stated anti-bullying goals of the bill's sponsors," Thomasson said. "SB 48 is a revisionist history, sexual brainwashing bill, not an anti-bullying bill."

Continue reading.

See also, Rescue Your Child, "The Problem Facing California Public School Parents":

What your child is guaranteed in California public schools -- Because of bad laws, lack of pro-family laws, and politically-correct trends, here's what kids are guaranteed to receive in California public schools:

1. Homosexual-bisexual-transsexual indoctrination
2. Pro-abortion indoctrination, "confidential” abortion referrals and off-campus "counseling", without parental consent
3. Condom/birth control pills indoctrination and distribution without parental consent; no teaching children how to truly avoid STDs; "abstinence-only" education prohibited
4. Anti-God, pro-evolution indoctrination
5. Political correctness
6. Dumbed-down academics, less academic success, on average, than private or home school
7. Negative socialization and peer pressure
8. Less safety, on average, than private school
9. Anti-Christian indoctrination and widespread rejection of religious and moral values
10. Anti-parent sentiments

More at that link.

'They hate. Their whole personas are defined by unreasoning, unceasing, unhinged hatred. Hatred defines them. Hatred gives them purpose'

Well, yeah.

That's AoSHQ commenting, perfectly, on the progressive left: "Drunken Angry Cow Who Yells At Strangers In Public Won't Comment Further On Her Antisocial Behavior":

So: This woman was drunk, vile, and incompetent. If only she had been able to restrain her unreasoning, unquenchable hatred, perhaps if she were capable of being rational and cool, she could have avoided her little psychosexual cartharsis of confronting the guy she secretly wishes to have sex with, and maybe he wouldn't have put it on his credit card, and then maybe she'd have an actual story -- Paul Ryan drinks $700 in wine and illegally permits "friends" to pick up the check.

Could have happened! We have no way of knowing now, as Professor Drinky McCapillaryBurst tipped off her surveillance subject to the fact she was keeping a (googly, alcohol-bouyed) eye on him.

But she was too drunk, stupid, and emotionally florid to play that kind of cool let's-see-where-this-goes game. She needed to make a scene (drunks always do) and so she did.

Well, she's a progressive (cow). They don't think so much as emote. But enough redundancy. And ICYMI, this ANONYMOUS SFL (not ASFL because I'm not sure if this cow is adult), really goes off in the comments at SEK's.

These people are sick. I'm tempted to cuss, but my refined sense is in contol.

Family of Rachel Corrie Accuses Israel of Withholding Video Evidence During Civil Lawsuit

At Biased BBC, "Myths and Facts Part 1":

The initial lurid sensationalism is the part of a story that will always stick, never mind what emerges thereafter. Cindy Corrie’s piece in the Guardian’s ‘Comment is Free’ (H/T Too True) reminded me how unfortunate that can be, especially if the story appears to confirm any of the commonly-held negative preconceptions about Israel.
Just as people still repeat the Al Dura lies unchallenged on the BBC, the myth of Rachel Corrie’s noble martyrdom remains untarnished despite the facts that have come to light following the regrettable incident in 2003.

The notorious legend of Rachel Corrie’s adventures in Gaza concerns her passage from youthful but misguided idealist, through useful idiocy, to her final, inevitable destination - being bulldozed to death.

Posthumously exalted, deified and immortalised by Israel-hating dramatists and propagandists, and further elevated by having the good ship Rachel Corrie named in her honour, (and seized by the Israelis during last year’s propaganda-stunt-flotilla) her media-fuelled journey from zero to hero bears out the adage that a little knowledge is truly a dangerous thing.

It is understandable that Corrie’s family should take up her cause and exploit the unassailable position their bereavement affords them. To face the stark truth about her death would be to accept the futility of it and to rub salt into a painful wound.

More at the link.

The Cindie Corrie article is here: "US collusion in the Gaza blockade is an affront to human rights: My daughter's death shows the cruelty of an America that won't protect its own and is complicit in harming Palestinian civilians." And at the Guardian, "Rachel Corrie's family claim Israeli military withheld vital video evidence" (via Memeorandum).

John Cook, Dude Trying to Out CIA Agent Who [Helped Kill] Bin Laden, Married to Anti-Zionist Allison Benedikt*

Gateway Pundit has the story on John Cook, "Disgusting. Far Left Gawker Posts Photo of Suspected CIA Agent Who Helped Kill Bin Laden." And following the links takes us to The New Ledger, "Gawker’s John Cook Attempts to Out CIA Agent Who Helped Kill Bin Laden." Be sure to read the whole thing. It's juicy. But what's especially interesting is this snarky aside:

If Cook is correct or not, this individual is now a high value target for a group of terrorists who enjoy killing people and their families who have done them wrong. It’s pretty much all they do, in case Cook hadn’t noticed amidst ranting at his family members about how much he hates Israel.

That "ranting at his family members" line links to Jeffrey Goldberg, "Giving Up on the Zionist Dream," which is of course Goldberg's response to Allison Benedikt's now infamous essay, "Life After Zionist Summer Camp." Folks might remember when I blogged this, but one of the most interesting things at Benedikt's piece is the account of her husband berating her family about the "evils" of Israel. I never bothered to search for the guy, and she didn't reveal the name, but The New Ledger has the goods, and a quick search shows that the same family that Cook slammed took the time to post marriage announcements with the major New York newspapers and magazines, like the New York Times and New York Observer:

That's quite a revealing puzzle in the end. John Cook, and his wife too, apparently, might was well move to Yemen to start their training with Al Qaeda. Never mind that Osama Bin Laden wasn't motivated to attack the U.S. because of Israel (think Saudi Arabia instead), for members of the anti-American, anti-Israel contingents, what matters is to be on the side of America's enemies. And with this latest news on Cook's efforts to out the CIA operative, I'd say these folks are getting into John Walker Lindh territory.

It's pretty bad. And given Benedikt's laudable upbringing in the Zionist youth movement, it's fundamentally sad that she met such a guy, who by her own account pulled her over the edge into pro-terror ideological affiliations.

*Fixed the title.

Los Angeles Times Shills for Communists on Business Section Front Page

That's longtime local communist and union activist Paul Krehbiel at the photo, where he's featured at the front page of the Los Angeles Times' business section: "Learning how to be a union activist." He's wearing a militant clenched-fist solidarity shirt, red, with the slogan, "Stand With Wisconsin."

Krehbiel is the author of a memoir, Shades of Justice, and his biography states:

Since 2003, he has been active in the campaign to end the war in Iraq, working with the Coalition for World Peace, US Labor Against the War, and the Iraq Moratorium.

Coalition for World Peace is one of the many groups closely aligned with the World Workers Party (WWP), a Marxist-Leninist apparatus that backed Moscow's invasion of Hungary in 1956 and the Soviet army's brutal suppression of the Prague Spring in 1968. The Coalition for World Peace is listed as an active affiliated group at the homepage of United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ). Here's this at the UFPJ at Discover the Networks:

UFPJ was officially created on October 25, 2002 in the Washington, DC offices of People For the American Way. Its initial membership consisted of approximately 70 organizations. Prior to UFPJ's founding, the anti-war movement had earned a reputation as a hodgepodge of radical elements. All the large-scale peace demonstrations to that point had been held under the auspices of International ANSWER, an organization aligned with the Marxist-Leninist Workers World Party; Global Exchange, headed by the longtime pro-Castro communist Medea Benjamin; and Not In Our Name, a project organized by Ramsey Clark and fellow leaders of the Revolutionary Communist Party. United For Peace and Justice was created explicitly to put a milder face on the anti-war movement, although from its inception UFPJ shared with the aforementioned groups a passionate hatred for the United States and for capitalism.

The Co-Chair and principal leader of UFPJ is Leslie Cagan, an original founder of the Committees of Correspondence (a remnant organization created by the American Communist Party upon going out of business) and a strong supporter of Fidel Castro since the 1960s; Cagan proudly aligns her politics with those of Communist Cuba.

The breadth of UFPJ's agendas extends well beyond anti-war activism. Passionately anti-American, this group condemns virtually every aspect of U.S. foreign policy and domestic life. It impugns America's "daily assaults and attacks on poor and working people, on women, people of color, lesbians/gays and other sexual minorities, the disabled, and so many others." It asserts that "the government treats all immigrants as potential terrorist threats until proven innocent, in violation of the Constitution," thereby "expanding the scope and depth of racial injustice within the U.S." ...

UFPJ has campaigned against American support for Israel's construction of an anti-terrorist security fence in the West Bank, which it describes as an illegal "apartheid wall" that violates the civil and human rights of Palestinians.

UFPJ is a signatory to the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, a hardline anti-Zionist (anti-Semitic) organization that attacks Israel as an "apartheid state."

And back over at the CFWP homepage, we see that Krehbiel's group was a leading organizer for the March 21, "Mass March and Rally in L.A.," and the link there takes us to the announcement at the ANSWER Coalition's page, "List of March 21 Organizing & Transportation Centers." (More on ANSWER here.)

The Times article gushes about the workshop Kreibiel was offering at Pasadena City College, where young students attending "munched on the free chocolate chip cookies and potato chips they were provided..." (Right. Free, of course.) The article notes a couple of times how organized labor is trying to match the energy and effectiveness of the tea parties, and quotes a Teamsters union hack agitating to take back the streets: "Those are our streets, that's where we need to be."

And buried on page B4 we find this bland acknowledgement and evasion:

The Troublemakers School in Pasadena and five others like it held this year across the country were organized by Labor Notes, a Detroit nonprofit funded by membership dues and course fees, as well as donations from pro-labor individuals. There's no question this group leans heavily left: One student carried pamphlets about a meeting for anarchists.

Leans left? You think?

Here's the Labor Notes' manifesto from its 1993 conference, hosted at the Encyclopedia of Trotskyism Online (Marxist.org).

The bottom line is that we see yet again another mainstream media outfit reporting rapturously on the organizing activities of hardline communist cadres. It'd be nice if the tea parties got a fraction of such fawning reporting by the nation's media establishment.

Typical.

Linked at The Rhetorican, "Oxymoronic Juxtaposition of the Week." Thanks!