Bloodthirsty Liberal

I can only imagine what contemptible lessons they teach at a UN school, but that doesn’t mean I wish everyone inside them dead (not everyone, I emphasize). But then they shouldn’t seek shelter in a firing zone:

At least thirty people were reportedly killed and 53 wounded in an explosion in a UN-run school in the town of Jabalya in the northern Gaza Strip, according to Palestinians. The IDF issued a statement saying the school grounds were used by terrorists to fire mortar shells at the troops.

The infantrymen returned mortar shell fire into the school grounds, the army said. Defense officials told The Associated Press that booby-trapped bombs in the school triggered the secondary explosions which killed scores of Palestinians on the site.

Gateway Pundit has more context:

In case you were wondering… UN schools are used by terrorists to shoot off rockets at Israel.

The IDF YouTube Channel even has video of mortor bombs being shot at Israel from Beit Hanoun UN Elementary School in Gaza back in 2007:

Hamas and other terror organizations in Gaza make deliberate use of civilians living in populated areas as human shields.

The international Red Cross also was looking into reports that a Red Crescent ambulance station in the northern town of Jebaliya was hit during the night.
Of course, terrorists even use ambulances in attacks on Israel, too.

It sounds like Israel was justified in hitting this building, and that Hamass had cynically stocked it with noncombatants. That’s old news, happens all the time.

But Israel is fighting a war. They will hurt people who don’t deserve to be hurt, as happens in all wars, everywhere. Don’t like it? Don’t start a war. But don’t sound like a fool when the inevitable happens.

UPDATE
Detail cited by Michelle:

“Hamas operatives are in the hospital and have disguised themselves as nurses and doctors,” one official said.

“Nurse hand me one scalpel and use another to shave that mustache. And on another matter, I’ll thank you to use the ladies room next time, and to sit down when you do.”

What does a black man have to do to get a seat in the US Senate?

Senate Democrats have said they would not seat Burris because he was appointed by Democratic Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who is accused of scheming to sell the Senate seat.

Burris has maintained that Blagojevich’s problems have nothing to do with him and the appointment is legal.

Nancy Erickson, the secretary of the Senate, rejected his appointment on Monday because Burris’ certificate of appointment was missing the signature of Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White, an aide to the secretary said.

Rule 2 of the Standing Rules of the Senate states that the secretary of state must sign the certificate of election along with the governor.

…

Pressed by reporters on what he would do if he is refused admission to the Senate floor, Burris said Monday, “If I am turned away, my lawyers will take it from there, and we’ll see what happens.”

“This is all politics and theater, but I am the junior senator according to every law book in the nation,” Burris said.

…

“We know that under Illinois law and constitutional law that the secretary of state can in no way veto legal action of the governor,” Burris said. “So that signature is only perfunctory and ceremonial to put the seal on it for, you know, recording and filing purposes.”

One possible compromise being considered by some in the Senate Democratic leadership would be allowing Burris to be seated in the Senate so long as he agrees not to run in 2010.

How insulting! I confess I’m enjoying the hell out of this political theater (”Tragedy tomorrow, comedy tonight!”), but that suggestion is offensive to Burris, to the people of Illinois, to the Senate itself.

Perhaps if Burris had used the back door, this circus could have been avoided. How can the Democrats declare that the seat remain in black hands (as some have), yet not these black hands? If they were capable of feeling the sensation, I’d ask if they have no shame.

UPDATE
This just keeps getting prettier and prettier:

The Congressional Black Caucus must coalesce around Burris. Their response so far has been tepid.

While they have no official sway in the Senate, the CBC imprimatur carries clout. U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush was working the phones this weekend to line up their support. He hopes to make the case Wednesday at the caucus’ first meeting of 2009. He will argue that the Burris appointment was constitutional and legal and that Burris brings “impeccable” credentials.

“There have been three black senators in 150 or so years,” Rush told me Friday. When it comes to playing the race card, no one does it better than the United States, he argues. “The racial deck in America has been stacked against us.”

What self-respecting liberal (an oxymoron, I admit) would deny that truth? And what do they intend to do about it?

What a surprise: President Bush leaves office, and Hugo Chavez withdraws his free oil to shivering Bay Staters:

Joe Kennedy announced yesterday he’s laying off 20 employees and temporarily halting most of his winter fuel-assistance programs due to Citgo yanking $100 million in support for the nonprofit Citizens Energy.

Citgo, owned by the Venezuelan government led by leftist loudmouth president Hugo Chavez, recently informed Kennedy that it was “temporarily” suspending its oil donations for the low-income program.

Kennedy, who was clearly distraught by the unexpected decision, said Citgo’s move is apparently tied to the recent dramatic fall in crude-oil prices.

…

The Citgo donations have been controversial because of the perception that Chavez, a notorious anti-American, was using the program for propaganda purposes. Kennedy has countered that the U.S. gets much of its oil from far more controversial nations, such as Saudi Arabia.

…

But Kennedy said Citgo’s support amounted to about 90 percent of the funding for Citizens’ fuel-assistance programs nationwide.

So the imbecilic “Joe-for-Oil” commercials are a complete sham. Joe Kennedy does nothing for shivering shut-ins; he’s merely a front for that international criminal, fat Hugo Chavez. Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, does it?

Except, unlike his namesake, Joe II collects $400,000 for his shameless shilling. The patriarch did it for nothing. Which is somehow nobler.

PS: Ed Morrissey notes:

Instead of fronting for a socialist nutcase trying his best to become a dictator for life, perhaps Joe Kennedy could use part of his family fortune to replace the oil. The Kennedys didn’t get to where they were at through socialism, after all. Acting as an apologist for a confiscatory wanna-be dictator from Kennedy’s position is hypocritical on a couple of levels.

Quite.

But Bush Derangement Syndrome is an equal opportunity affliction, respecting no borders, races, creeds, colors, or sex.

I have no problem with the Panetta appointment to lead the CIA. It’s a political job, and you need someone there whose loyalty is to you, not the culture of the organization, and who knows how Washington, and not necessarily how the Cambodian parliament (if there is such a thing), works. Leave the spying to the spies.

But I have to confess I love—love—who Obama wanted as his first choice:

The Obama team had struggled for weeks to find a suitable candidate for the CIA post, after passing over former high-ranking agency official John Brennan in December, largely because he was seen as too closely tied to the policies of the Bush administration. Brennan withdrew after his potential nomination drew outrage among civil rights and human rights groups.

They were considering him? A man with detainee blood on his hands (metaphorically speaking)? Where was I when this was discussed?

Bully for you, Obama! Bully! That shows you take the defense of your country more seriously than I thought you ever could. A pity you don’t have the courage of your convictions (never have, it becomes more apparent every day).

Anyhow, Panetta takes the role of Eeyore in the Hundred Acre Wood that is the Obama administration—with Obama as Christopher Robin, Rahm Emanuel as Pooh, and Hillary Clinton as Rabbit. I see James Carville as Piglet, but I may have taken this too far. (May have?)

Add to an entire continent (Africa) a whole global ecosystem (the oceans) which have President Bush to thank for their survival:

President Bush will create three more marine national monuments in the Pacific Ocean today, designating areas that will span 195,280 square miles and protect some of the most ecologically rich areas of the world’s oceans, said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino.

The decision to make the designations under the Antiquities Act, two weeks before Bush leaves office, means that he will have protected more square miles of ocean than any person in history. In 2006 Bush created the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument in the northwestern Hawaiian Islands, an area of 138,000 square miles.

…

“George Bush has ushered in a new era of ocean conservation in the United States and the world at large,” said Josh Reichert, managing director of the Pew Environment Group.

Yes, he has.

Long after Iraq has settled into functional statehood (or whatever passes for functionality in that part of the world—they’re probably already there); long after Afghanistan has returned to its lawless, tribal state (they’re definitely already there), long after Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Zaccarias Moussaoui have turned to dust, survivors of the African AIDS plague and sea turtles will join voices to sing the praises of President Bush.

You don’t have to like him (does anyone?), but you have to give credit where it’s due. He may not be a great president, but he did great things. Many great things. I’d argue for Iraq and Afghanistan among them, but that’s for another time.

I’m not saying Harry Reid should be tarred and feathered and ridden out of town on a rail—why should the birds and trees have to suffer?—but I think some sort of public humiliation is justified.

What am I saying? Harry Reid is a public humiliation.

It wasn’t that long ago that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he didn’t believe General Petraeus and that he was not to be believed. But, what do you know?

Now, Harry Reid says that General Petraeus is a genius who will go down in history.

…

Disgusting.

It would be nice if someone in the mainstream media would point this out.

Gateway Pundit should be forgiven for its “Yes, Virginia” naivete: honest media would do exactly that. But how can anyone look at the media and their practice of their “profession” over the last decade or so and see anything approaching honesty? The cheapest hooker on a Bangkok street corner has more honesty in her (or his) … finger… than the entirety of the fourth estate.

Aunt Agatha has already posed the question, but it would seem we will have need of it on many occasions:

On Monday, the Defense Ministry facilitated the transfer of 49 trucks carrying basic foods into the Gaza Strip through the Kerem Shalom crossing. Since the beginning of Operation Cast Lead, the IDF has allowed some 450 trucks into the Gaza Strip.

And that’s not even the most important point of the story. Which is:

Hamas has set up an independent hospital in the Gaza Strip to treat its operatives wounded in fighting with the IDF - and, according to Israeli estimates, it is pilfering a significant portion of the medicine allowed into the Strip, senior defense officials told The Jerusalem Post on Monday.

Despite this estimate, the Defense Ministry said Monday that it would continue facilitating the transfer of food and medical supplies into Gaza. The humanitarian convoys, defense officials said, played a key role in garnering international legitimacy for the IDF’s operations in Gaza since it showed the world that Israel distinguished between Hamas terrorists and Palestinian civilians.

On Sunday, Military Intelligence chief Maj.-Gen. Amos Yadlin told the cabinet that Hamas was using mosques, public institutions and private houses as ammunition stores.

Let me helpfully summarize: to improve its moral standing among nations, Israel is allowing tons and tons and tons of food and medicine to the very people who have been working assiduously for its destruction—never more so than right now—that these people are using such “humanitarian” goods to patch up their militants and terrorists (civilians be damned); and that the world, about whose good opinion Israel seems to care so much, responds with near-universal opprobrium.

How do these guys win even one Nobel Prize, let alone dozens, when they’re so [bleeping] stupid?

Or, to lay the blame where it ought to lie: when I see a headline that reads “Israel ignores calls for a ceasefire”, am I not right to demand an equivalent headline that reads “Calls for ceasefire ignore Israel’s right to self-defense”? Where are those headlines?

As so often, I find that the true source of my warping anger and overflowing bile is not what I initially think it is. Not Obama, but his dishonest media promoters and his white-guilt-ridden champions. Not even the Palestinians, but their enablers and apologists around the globe. Why do you think I spend so much time with a power sander working over the sensitive anatomical parts of the media and the United Nations? There’s the problem with the world today.

The usual human refuse turned out in London to excoriate Israel. But their stance confuses me:

One protester, a 45-year-old interior designer who asked to be identified as Haifa Philistine, described Israel’s military offensive as “inhuman, savage and abhorrent.”

She said: “First the Israelis starved the people of Gaza, then they made them live in sewage, then they went in for the slaughter. It’s a massacre.”

“Israel needs to realise it cannot have the whole of Palestine.”

I realize an interior designer may not grasp the finer points of international relations, but what would Israel want with a bunch of sewage-dipped, skeletal, dead Gazans? Would they make a nice centerpiece? An end table? I don’t get it.

I’m happy—and somewhat shocked, I confess—to read a different perspective expressed in Paris:

Several thousands demonstrators waved Israeli flags and sang songs in Hebrew in Paris Sunday afternoon to show support “for Israel’s right to defense itself” and show solidarity with the Israeli victims of Hamas.

…

“Imagine that at the northern France border a Flemish government is formed and that this state starts launching rockets on the cities of Lille or Arras. Would France stay without reaction ? No, it would react to stop these attacks without any concern about proportionate damages.”

“Hamas is a terrorist movement which came to power in Gaza by a violent putsch, which has vowed the destruction of the state of Israel and is taking the Palestinians as hostages. “It launches its rockets from overpopulated apartments without evacuating them before a bombardement,” he added.

“No country has so much tried to limit the number of civilian victims as Israel did. The Israelis made 80,000 phone calls to ask the civilians to leave the zone of a bombardment,” he stressed.

“There is no war against the Palestinians, there is a war against Hamas which represents an insurmountable obstacle on the road to peace.”

Hamass needs to erect a sign that says, “If you lived in sewage, you’d be home now.”

Is this the end of Thumper?

In last Friday episode of Pioneers of Tomorrow, the bunny Assoud was seen dying in a Gaza hospital after being injured in an Israeli attack.

Touch not a hare on this old gray head…

First Farfour the mouse, then Nahoul the bee—now Assoud the bunny. How long before the cruel Zionists take out Ahmed the goldfish?

Israel goes into Gaza to clean out the scorpion’s nest of terrorists. Hamass swears to go global in its effort to wipe out Jews. All Jews, everywhere.

Who’s being disproportionate?

Hamas spokesman Mahmoud Az-Zahar claimed victory for Hamas on Monday, saying Hamas had succeeded in “destroying Israel’s sense of security” with its rocket attacks. Zahar made his proclamation in video footage sent from a secret hideout, where he is taking shelter in order to avoid being targeted in an IAF strike. Other Hamas leaders have gone into hiding as well.

Zahar directed his message to Hamas’ troops, and promised them victory over the IDF. “We must be patient until we are victorious, Allah will help us,” he said. Hundreds of Hamas terrorists have been killed since the “Cast Lead” operation began last week, including 100 since the start of Israel’s ground operation, and several of the group’s senior leaders have been assassinated. Dozens have been taken prisoner as well.

The Hamas leader called to murder Israelis and Jews worldwide, including children. “The Israelis have sentenced their children to death… They have legitimized the killing of their people all over the world,” he said. Hamas’ platform calls for all Jews to convert to Islam or be killed, based on an Islamic saying (Hadith), and the group has not refrained from targeting children in the past.

Hamas will destroy synagogues and Jewish schools as well, Zahar said, just as Israel destroyed mosques in Gaza. Israel bombed several mosques used to store rockets and ammunition.

Terrorists are never shy about their intentions; rather, they boast about them. When we are shocked at their savagery, we merely confess our own ignorance. Anyone paying attention could have predicted this or that atrocity.

Zahar is calling for the cold-blooded killing of Jewish children anywhere, at any time—while cowering under the table like the Palestinian pansy that he is. You are surprised?

Real terrorist men stay in their own homes where Israel can blow them to smithereens.