U.S. Ambassador Shapiro: Pollard’s Future is Unclear

(Arutz Sheva/Matzav) Shapiro, who met Wednesday with the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in Jerusalem, was asked by the MK about the possibility that President Barack Obama might commute Pollard’s sentence to time served.
But the U.S. ambassador told the Israeli lawmakers that he “can’t speculate” on Pollard, and frankly does not know what will become of him.
Vice President Joe Biden eventually met with American Jewish leaders over the issue last year, after he was pressured by a group during the annual Jewish holiday gathering held in Washington D.C. who made it clear that a consensus exists on this issue across the spectrum in the U.S. Jewish community .
Pollard, a Jewish American, was sentenced to life in prison 27 years ago on a single charge of passing classified information to an ally - Israel.
MK Meir Sheetrit also asked the ambassador why MK Michael Ben Ari was unable to obtain a visa to enter the U.S., while Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejaad and Hamas terrorists have been able to do so.
Shapiro replied that he is not responsible for these matters.
(Read more: Arutz Sheva/matzav.com)

All this is very clear with Newt. It obviously is unclear with Obama. It also is unclear with Romney and any other candidate. This is one of the primary reasons I trust Newt because of his courage to take a stand on this issue.

Philippines may allow greater U.S. presence in latest reaction to China’s rise - No Thanks

(Washington Post) Zachary S. Welch/AP - Two decades after evicting U.S. forces from their biggest base in the Pacific, the Philippines is in talks with the Obama administration about expanding the American military presence in the island nation, the latest in a series of strategic moves aimed at China.

Two decades after evicting U.S. forces from their biggest base in the Pacific, the Philippines is in talks with the Obama administration about expanding the American military presence in the island nation, the latest in a series of strategic moves aimed at China.
Although negotiations are in the early stages, officials from both governments said they are favorably inclined toward a deal. They are scheduled to intensify their discussions Thursday and Friday in Washington prior to higher-level meetings in March. If an arrangement is reached, it would follow other recent agreements to base thousands of U.S. Marines in northern Australia and station Navy warships in Singapore. ...(MORE)

"I thought it was Hitler who caused world war 2, not the American people who opposed going in." -Ron Paul when questioned about his opposition to WW2

(Dondero)It’s his foreign policy that’s the problem; not so much some stupid and whacky things on race and gays he may have said or written in the past.Ron Paul is most assuredly an isolationist. He denies this charge vociferously. But I can tell you straight out, I had countless arguments/discussions with him over his personal views. For example, he strenuously does not believe the United States had any b...usiness getting involved in fighting Hitler in WWII. He expressed to me countless times, that “saving the Jews,” was absolutely none of our business. When pressed, he often times brings up conspiracy theories like FDR knew about the attacks of Pearl Harbor weeks before hand, or that WWII was just “blowback,” for Woodrow Wilson’s foreign policy errors, and such.I would challenge him, like for example, what about the instances of German U-boats attacking U.S. ships, or even landing on the coast of North Carolina or Long Island, NY. He’d finally concede that that and only that was reason enough to counter-attack against the Nazis, not any humanitarian causes like preventing the Holocaust. “He told me numerous times it was not worth it to intervene to save the Jews in World War II,” Dondero said. “I don’t think that’s because he’s an antisemite. It’s because he’s an extreme isolationist and he’s trying to be 100% principled–he doesn’t think there’s any reason to intervene for human rights or any other reason anywhere on the planet.” In 2007, the Congressman actually faulted Abraham Lincoln for using military force to end slavery in the Civil War: “He shouldn’t have gone to war… Slavery was phased out in every other country in the world and the way I’m advising that it should have been done is do like the British Empire did; you buy the slaves and release them.”

note the reason for terrorism is because we have military bases in places where we do business.

David Galula’s Counterinsurgency Ideas Used in Iraq and Afghanistan

(TabletMag) Every Berber I have met has told me that Amazigh were the original inhabitants of North Africa and that all of that land was once theirs. As one Libyan Amazigh told me, “I’m tired of hearing about the Palestinians and how the Jews took their land. What about how the Arabs took our land?”
There is also the fact that the official language of all the North African countries is Arabic—yet in Morocco 60 percent of the population are Tamazight or Berber-speaking, in Algeria 30 percent, and in Libya perhaps 10 percent. In most of North Africa, the Arabophone majority has suppressed or (in the case of Qaddafi’s Libya) outright prohibited the use of Tamazight, a language that is estimated to be anywhere from 2,200 to 3,000 years old; its tiffinagh script has more than 30 letters, differing somewhat from region to region, and some of them look like ancient Greek.(MORE @ Tablet)

Ann Marlowe uses conjecture to assume that the supposed father of workable counterinsurgency warfare through propaganda was less successful because he did not talk about his own North African Jewish background. I'm not so sure Ann is right about this (She seems to believe in the fiction of "Moderate Islam"), but the history here is interesting.

Rep. Allen West: I'd Step Up to Vice-Presidential Plate if Asked to Run

(BY THE WAY, The Feminists of Think Progress and The Young Turks found this video offensive because he spells out what is going on with women right now.) I couldn't find anything wrong with what he is saying here.

(newsmax.com) U.S. Rep. Allen West, who generally has deflected suggestions that he could be a vice-presidential candidate, now is saying he would “step up to the plate” if asked.
The freshman Florida Republican and tea party favorite took that swing at pitches from three constituents at a town hall meeting, according to The Palm Beach Post.
In answer to the voters’ written questions at the meeting, West said: "If people come to me and ask me to continue to serve my country in a higher capacity, I'm not going to say no. It would be an incredible privilege and honor. I doubt that I'm on anybody's list.

my father seems to think that Santorum would be a VP for Romney. lolz... very amusing to hear how the left thinks the right would act. The GOP is not about accumulating power through partnerships... like Clinton and Obama. For example... the differences between the candidates in the GOP is very divisive. It's almost like Ron Paul is in an opposition party. No Republican will be picking Ron Paul as a VP and it's doubtful that Santorum would be a VP in a Romney presidency. Allen West is the logical choice.

Dopey Op-Doc at NYTimes

(myrightword.blogspot.com) At the NYTimes, you can see an op-doc by Ra’anan Alexandrowicz, writer and director of “The Law in These Parts,” which is screening at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. He lives in Jerusalem and teaches film at the Jerusalem Sam Spiegel Film and Television School and read this introduction:

Israel’s Supreme Court is the body that provides checks and balances to the country’s executive and legislative powers, upholding constitutional standards...
¶ In the four decades since the 1967 Six-Day War between Israel and its Arab neighbors, the court has become a stage for an escalating conflict between two very different world views.
¶ Israel is the only modern state that has held territories under military occupation for over four decades. It is also unusual for a nation to allow residents of territories under a military occupation to petition its Supreme Court and request intervention in acts of state.
¶ Since the early years of the occupation...[rather] than functioning as the bastion of human rights that it was established to be, it has instead become the entity responsible for balancing the needs of a state engaged in a prolonged occupation with basic principles of democracy.
¶ This Op-Doc expands on one of the themes explored in my new feature documentary, “The Law in These Parts,” and asks about the role of the Supreme Court in the legal underpinnings of the longest military occupation in modern times.

(My Right Word) left this comment there:

RA is being petulantly picayune writing: "Israel is the only modern state that has held territories under military occupation for over four decade". Really?
Consider:
Morocco’s occupation of Western Sahara has “only” lasted three plus decades. Turkey’s occupation of Northern Cyprus – a mere 37 years. But Russia’s occupation of the Kuril Islands began in August 1945…
And Tibet has been occupied by China since 1949.
And many consider Northern Ireland occupied, even after the 1998 arrangements of an Executive.
But I suggest the term is "belligerent occupation", resulting from an Arab war of aggression in 1967 and by acting in defense, not only does Israel have the right to retain all or most of the territories it now administers, but as Schweible, Rostow and other international law experts claim, Israel has a better right than anyone to remain there in Judea and Samaria based on, at the least, discussions, declarations and decisions of Balfour 1917, the Versailles Peace Conference of 1919, the San Remo Conference of 1920 and the League of Nations 1922.
And isn't it amazing that none of this legalese was ever voiced when those territories were invaded by, illegally occupied by and illegally annexed to Jordan all through 1948-1967?

(My Right Word) left out Kashmir.
^

 NYT publishes "facts" too good to check (CAMERA) | #CriticalAnalyst

comment: Kashmir was what first came to mind when I was reading the top and the idea that Israel was the only Occupier immediately rang false with me as well.

Bloomberg Assails Showing of Anti-Muslim Film to Police - NYTimes.com

They say it like it is a bad thing

(cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com) Mike Groll/Associated PressThe mayor on Tuesday. ALBANY – Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said Tuesday that whoever decided to show a film depicting American Muslims as extremists to nearly 1,500 city police officers “exercised some terrible judgment.”
Mr. Bloomberg said that neither he nor the police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, had known at the time that the film, “The Third Jihad,” was being shown to officers. Speaking to reporters after testifying here at a state budget hearing, Mr. Bloomberg said that the film had not been shown at the Police Academy.
“It was done someplace else and as soon as they found out about it they stopped it and took it down,” Mr. Bloomberg said. “Somebody exercised some terrible judgment. I don’t know who. We’ll find out.”
When the screening of the film for some officers was first revealed last year by Tom Robbins of The Village Voice, the Police Department’s main spokesman, Paul J. Browne, said it had been screened “a couple of times.”But an article in The New York Times Tuesday, based on documents received by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School through a Freedom of Information request, showed that it had been shown repeatedly for at least three months.
The film says that few Muslim leaders can be trusted. It also includes an interview with Mr. Kelly, which, Mr. Browne said, had been lifted from old footage.

Bagel Mood Swings

For the first time since marriage and parenthood, I had achieved total control—until I punted the bagel with so much spin that it flipped onto its side and scurried off like a tire on the lam. (Wigpen h/t Simply Jews)