PrairiePundit

Image via Wikipedia Red States: ... With good reason, the union-controlled agency has raised a lot of ire from politicians and pundits alike. On Wednesday, though, the Attorneys General for Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Nebraska, Texas and Virginia joined South Carolina’s Attorney General in ratcheting up the rhetoric even more, by co-signing a letter to the NLRB’s prosecutor-in-chief, Lafe Solomon. While you can see the entire letter below, you get the sense of the tone in the first paragraph [with emphasis]: As Attorneys General of our respective states, we call upon you, as Acting General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”), to withdraw immediately the complaint numbered 19-CA-32431 against Boeing. This complaint represents an assault upon the constitutional right of free speech, and the ability of our states to create jobs and recruit industry.  Your ill-conceived retaliatory action seeks to destroy our citizens’ right ...

Image by watchsmart via Flickr Robert Fisk, Independent: In Damascus, the posters – in their tens of thousands around the streets – read: "Anxious or calm, you must obey the law." But pictures of President Bashar al-Assad and his father Hafez have been taken down, by the security police no less, in case they inflame Syrians. There are thieves with steel-tipped rubber coshes on the Damascus airport road at night, and in the terminal the cops ask arriving passengers to declare iPods and laptops. In the village of Hala outside Deraa, Muslim inhabitants told their Christian neighbours to join the demonstrations against the regime – or leave. Out of the darkness of Syria come such tales. And they are true. Syrians arriving in Lebanon are bringing the most specific details of what is going on inside their country, of Fifth Brigade soldiers fighting the armed units of Maher Assad's Fourth Brigade outside Deraa, of random killings around Damascus by the ever-growing arme...

Image via Wikipedia BBC: Tales of tension and gang-fights are common in Tripoli's long queues for fuel. One resident in the Libyan capital - who does not want his name to be used for security reasons - explains. It has been an explosive week in Tripoli, both literally and figuratively. Nato air strikes intensified after a quiet period. Meanwhile, the fuel shortage, that state television channels deny exists, has hit an all-time high in the past eight days. The shortage has not only lasted longer than people expected, but it has also sparked everything from mini-riots to gang fights and, incredibly, shootings as well. State television announced that as of today - Thursday - we may only have fuel for the amount of 5 dinars ($4), no more, no less. It has instructed stations to stamp car registration papers with the date of purchase because we can now only refuel every three days or more. ... Some have reportedly spent three days in line to buy gas. Not even Obama has ...

Image via Wikipedia Charles Krauthammer: To be precise, leading from behind is a style, not a doctrine. Doctrines involve ideas, but since there are no discernible ones that make sense of Obama foreign policy — Lizza's painstaking two-year chronicle shows it to be as ad hoc, erratic and confused as it appears — this will have to do. And it surely is an accurate description, from President Obama's shocking passivity during Iran's 2009 Green Revolution to his dithering on Libya, acting at the very last moment, then handing off to a bickering coalition, yielding the current bloody stalemate. It's been a foreign policy of hesitation, delay and indecision, marked by plaintive appeals to the (fictional) "international community" to do what only America can. But underlying that style, assures this Obama adviser, there really are ideas. Indeed, "two unspoken beliefs," explains Lizza. "That the relative power of the U.S. is declining, as rivals l...

Image via Wikipedia Washington Post: The push-back has come in recent days from Sens. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), a freshman who is running for reelection next year. Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) told constituents during the Easter recess that he would not vote to lift the debt limit without a “real and meaningful commitment to debt reduction.” Even Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), generally a stalwart White House ally, is undecided on the issue and is “hopeful” that a debt-ceiling bill can be attached to a measure to cut the federal deficit, said her spokesman, Linden Zakula. Klobuchar is also up for reelection next year. Months ago it seemed unthinkable that Congress might refuse to raise the borrowing limit. Leaders in both parties agreed that failing to do so would risk a default by the U.S. government, which could send interest rates soaring and cut off Social Security checks, as well as salaries for combat troops. And ...

Image via Wikipedia Reuters: A Syrian mother of six who opened the door to a secret policeman in the border town of Deraa just had time to scream "Israelis are more merciful than you" before he shot her dead, relatives said on Thursday. Neighbours were then chilled by the hysterical cries of her 10-year-old daughter Sameeha after the killing on Wednesday. Tanks rolled into Deraa, the cradle of protests against President Bashar al-Assad, on Monday. Residents say at least 50 bodies have been picked up, mainly from the town's old quarter, since then. Dozens more corpses still rot in the streets. Sameeha's mother, 42, known as Um Omar, was buried in her own backyard -- Muslim tradition barred putting her body among 22 male corpses kept in a refrigerator truck awaiting burial. "They have no fear of God. As Um Omar said before she died, if we had Israelis besieging Deraa, they would be more merciful," said her cousin Ibrahim, 52, from the Masalmah tribe...

The folks at Heritage do it for the children.

Gov. Brewer is not pleased with warning signs in her state.

Image via Wikipedia Amir Taheri: Last weekend, pro-democracy forces declared the southern city of Deraa to be the first "liberated zone" in Syria with plans to set up a "People's Council" to run it. Yesterday, however, the few Deraans still able to talk to the outside world had a different story to tell. "We are an occupied city now," one Deraan said via his satellite phone, which he could still use by moving close to the sealed border with Jordan. The picture began to change Sunday as a military column, spearheaded by the 136th Brigade, surrounded the city to prepare for a full-scale invasion. Electricity, water and phone lines were cut off, plunging the city of 250,000 people into darkness and fear. Deraans, who'd started the national uprising, feared what everyone in Syria knows as "the Lessons of Hama ." This refers to a week in 1982 when the Syrian army, led by Basil al-Assad , the late brother of President Bashar al-Assad ,...

Image via CrunchBase Nicholas Kristof: Since China is in the middle of its harshest crackdown on independent thought in two decades, I thought that on this visit I might write about a woman named Cheng Jianping who is imprisoned for tweeting. Ms. Cheng was arrested on what was supposed to have been her wedding day last fall for sending a single sarcastic Twitter message that included the words “charge, angry youth.” The government, lacking a sense of humor, sentenced her to a year in labor camp. So I tried to interview her fiancé, Hua Chunhui, but it turns out that Mr. Hua was recently arrested and imprisoned as well. That’s the way it goes in China these days. The government’s crackdown is rippling through the country, undercutting China’s prodigious growth and representing the harshest clampdown since the crushing of the Tiananmen democracy movement in 1989. The reason? Surprising as it may seem, the government is worried that China could become the next Egypt or Tunisia, unl...

Image by SS&SS via Flickr Boston Herald Editorial: Where the hell did Barack Obama learn economics? So he’s in a panic at rising gasoline prices — because there’s nothing worse than angry voters furious at what it costs to fill up the tank, especially at the start of the summer driving season. In a letter sent to congressional leaders Tuesday Obama put part of the blame for the sharp spike in gas prices on “increased global demand” compounded by “unrest and supply disruptions in the Middle East.” Well, China’s demand didn’t spike overnight and any disruptions from the serial crises in the Middle East have far more impact in Europe than here. So the president notes — again — that “there is no silver bullet.” However, when in doubt blame Big Oil and propose to “eliminate unwarranted tax breaks to the oil and gas industry,” which he insisted were “wasteful subsidies.” Now if you take away $4 billion in tax breaks from the oil industry, what do you suppose that will do to the pr...

Image via Wikipedia Washington Times Editorial: President Obama’s penchant to frame his actions in lofty terms places him in a position of having to explain why his moral compass is so selective. The contrasting U.S. policies toward Libya and Syria expose Mr. Obama’s moral conundrum. Syrian dictator Bashar Assad’s regime is every bit as reprehensible as Moammar Gadhafi’s. The Syrian people are doing their best to make a bid for freedom, just as the Libyan people did. Mr. Assad has fought back with guns and tanks, killing hundreds, just like Col. Gadhafi. The Syrian people took hope from NATO’s intervention in Libya that maybe their cause would also merit foreign support. However, the United States refuses to offer the Syrian people anything more than a few nattering statements. Mr. Obama has said there is no “Obama doctrine” at play in Libya. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said that conditions in each country must be judged on a case-by-case basis. It’s important ...

Image via Wikipedia R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. : While inspecting the body politic, one encounters one clear sign that liberalism is dead. It is the condition of our political discourse. Polite commentators note that the dialogue is “rancorous.” Some say toxic. Actually, it is worse than that. It is nonexistent. From the right, from the sophisticated right, there is an attempt to engage the liberals. Budget Chairman Paul Ryan , Wisconsin Republican, just did it by presenting a budget that cried out for intelligent response. President Obama’s response was to invite Mr. Ryan to sit in the front row for Mr. Obama’s “fiscal policy” speech at George Washington University. There, Mr. Obama heaped scorn on an astonished Mr. Ryan and his work. He did not even mention Mr. Ryan’s name. This is what Mr. Obama calls an “adult” debate? From the rest of the liberals there generally is silence. They prattle on about Glenn Beck or Sarah Palin , but they pay almost no heed to the think tanks on the ri...

Image via Wikipedia NY Times: Solar Panels Rise, Followed by Gasps of ‘Eyesore’ They are hanging from just about every power poll in the state or will be by the time the project is finished.  "Clean energy" is not so pretty when it blocks your view.  As they go up in attractive subdivisions people worry about lost property values.  Obama should be a=worrying about lost votes because of his energy policy although this was a product of the Corzine administration in New Jersey, it comes from a requirement that the local utilities have a high percentage of their output from "renewable energy."  What the residents get with the solar effort is higher utility bills  and lost vistas. Related articles NIMBY This: Solar Panels Increase Home Value (nytimes.com) N.J. solar energy boom's frantic pace could slow (nj.com) Ridgewood to install more solar panels on homes and offices (nj.com)

The NY Times Magazine story is entitled: A Beast in the Heart of Every Fighting Man The story is about some rogue troops in a striker brigade who deliberately killed some Afghans who were not a threat.  It was more random than the deliberate killings of Lt. Calley in Vietnam, but the headline tars all our troops with a crime they did not and would not commit.  It is a reminder of the worst slanders against the troops in Vietnam. The story comes on a day and Afghan pilot deliberately murdered eight Americans.  You can bet the Times would not make such a broad allegation against all Afghans in the military. Related articles Hypocrisy Repeats Itself, Lt. Calley: U.S. Condemns Murder of Civilians by Soldiers While Condoning Murder of Children by Drones (ironboltbruce.com) Eight NATO troops killed in Kabul airport shooting (nationalpost.com) Afghan Pilot Kills NATO Troops After 'Argument' (newser.com)

Scotsman: Green energy target ruining the landscape, warn experts Apparently going for 100 percent clean energy destroys the environment in ways that CO2 never could.

Image by Robert Reed Daly via Flickr NY Times: ... “The Palestinian Authority has to choose between peace with Israel and peace with Hamas,” Mr. Netanyahu said in a televised address on Wednesday. “Peace with both of them is impossible because Hamas aspires to destroy the state of Israel and says so openly.” The agreement appeared to catch the Obama administration, like many others, by surprise. In a sharply worded statement, Tommy Vietor, the spokesman for the National Security Council, said that the administration was seeking more information but that it considered Hamas a terrorist organization that would not be a reliable partner in peace talks with Israel. The news comes as the so-called Arab Spring has shaken the Middle East, leading to the demise of two longtime autocrats and raising new fears in Israel about its alliances and security. Especially alarming to Israel was the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, which has a peace agreement with Israel. ... It is ...

Image via Wikipedia Guardian: BP has predicted it will be back drilling in the Gulf of Mexico within a matter of months despite continuing legal threats and rows over pollution from last year's Deepwater Horizon disaster. "We expect to be back and actively drilling during the second half of the year," Byron Grote , the company's chief financial officer, told financial analysts from the City of London on Wednesday. The comments are likely to infuriate environmentalists who believe BP should be kept away from the Gulf, and could upset a US offshore regulator still considering whether to grant permits to BP. Verbal gaffes by former chief executive Tony Hayward in the wake of the Macondo well accident 12 months ago damaged the company's reputation in America as it attracted widespread criticism from the White House downwards. ... Verbal gaffes should not be considered a death sentence. If they were a lot of politicians would be no longer with us. I do think...

Image by eschipul via Flickr IBD: Asked last week why he's so unpopular in Texas, the only thing our president could say was "Republicans." Now that Texas has been lashed by tornadoes, his curious refusal to aid the state suggests the depth of his dislike. Two weeks ago, Texas Gov. Rick Perry pleaded with the president in a 16-page letter to declare a large number of Texas counties disaster areas after historic wildfires ravaged over a million acres across the state, burning 350 homes and killing three. A bad combination of hurricane rains, freezing weather and subsequent drought have made ideal conditions for the inferno during this tornado season. Perry's request was a routine effort to free up federal disaster funds so the state wouldn't have to fight the fires alone. Texas should have been granted it easily. But to date, nobody's gotten back to him — though other states with natural disasters, such as Oklahoma next door, got the declarations the...

Image via Wikipedia Fox News: The brutal crackdown by Syrian President Bashar Assad may finally be getting the attention of world leaders -- but apparently not enough to stop Syria from becoming the newest member of the U.N. Human Rights Council. And despite calling for an independent investigation into the crackdown, which has left hundreds dead, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon apparently won’t do much about blocking Syria’s path to the human rights group. ... Ammar Abdulhamid, a Syrian human rights activist based in Washington, called on the secretary-general "to have a greater sense of decency and courage, and to realize that his position gives him a certain moral authority and puts him exactly in the position to tell the Assads that their candidacy at this stage is unwelcome." Abdulhamid was forced to flee Syria in 2005 following criticism of the Assad regime, and still finds himself under attack by the regime. His website was recently hacked and now pos...