Atlas Shrugs

AIPAC: What Cheney said......

Here's what I missed, PLENTY. This  was not boilerplate;

Anti-war lawmakers in Congress are "undermining" U.S. troops in Iraq by trying to limit President Bush's spending requests for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"When members of Congress pursue an anti-war strategy that's been called 'slow bleeding,' they are not supporting the troops, they are undermining them," Cheney said in a speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

"Anyone can say they support the troops and we should take them at their word, but the proof will come when it's time to provide the money," 

"We expect the House and Senate to meet the needs of our military and the generals leading the troops in battle on time and in full measure," Cheney said.

"When members speak not of victory but of time limits, deadlines and other arbitrary measures, they are telling the enemy simply to watch the clock and wait us out," he said.

Cheney said the House's nonbinding vote against troop increases in Iraq last month was an example of "twisted logic" and "not a proud episode in the history of the United States Congress."
Cheney added, "Very soon, both houses will have to vote on a piece of legislation that is binding, a bill to provide emergency funding to the troops, and I sincerely hope that this time, the discussion this time will be about winning in Iraq."

Speaking before a packed crowd at the Washington Convention Center, Cheney said it was one of several disturbing "myths" that one could support the troops and at the same time not give them what their commanders say they need to win.

Other myths are that Iraq is not central to the war on terrorism and that withdrawing from Iraq would somehow help the war on terrorism, the vice president said.

Cheney warned that terrorists would continue to attack the United States and its friends if they saw them retreating in the face of continued deadly insurgent attacks. More on his remarks here

I love that man.

UPDATE: The U.S. and Israel Are Waging the War on Terror - Vice President Richard Cheney

Vice President Cheney told the American Israel Public Affairs Committee 2007 Policy Conference on Monday: "The President has been clear and forthright about his vision of two democratic states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace. He remains committed to the achievement of that vision, nor has he compromised the basic principles he has stated from the very beginning: Peace requires a Palestinian government that recognizes Israel's right to exist, accepts the validity of past agreements and renounces violence and terrorism totally and completely."
    "We understand...the right and responsibility of every democracy, if it wishes to survive, to protect itself and its values. Doing so requires moral clarity, the courage of our convictions, a willingness to act when action is necessary, and a refusal to submit to any form of intimidation, ever. These qualities are a credit to the American and the Israeli people. And these qualities are tested every day as we wage the war on terror." (White House)
    See also AIPAC Convention Video Presentations

 

 

AIPAC: Benjamin Netanyahu's the Man

It was a relief to listen to Netanyahu after Livni. I hear over and over again from Israelis that Netanyahu wasn't strong enough when he was Prime Minister. He inherited Oslo, what did they expect and frankly next to what they elected - he is positively hardline. Think about it.

His message. Divest in Iran. There is an alternative to military action and that is divest, divest, divest.

Closing Remarks. Click on below "continue" link to see Parts I and II - total run time 15 minutes

AIPAC: Tzipi Livni Serves Up Denial Cold

I did not schedule a 6 am wake up call to hear Dick Cheney at AIPAC this morning. I heard him at the NRI symposium and it was strictly boilerplate, right out of  the textbook of formula speeches. And I understand from other attendees, this morning's speech was no different. I missed nothing [UPDATE: Wrong. I missed plenty. Go here.]. Notable was half the crowd did not stand up when Cheney said Bush was the best friend Israel ever had (the jewicidals no doubt.)

I did arrive in time to hear Tzipi Livni speak and my eyes are still rolling around in my head. Regular Atlas readers know I attend AIPAC every year - I think it's critical to fighting the cultural, societal, international, assault etc. on the Jews. And I usually love it. But the trend, the thinking here, is so counter to the facts on the ground - it is delusional. It reminds me of Jessisca Walter's role in "Play Misty for Me." No matter how many time Clint Eastwood told her he was not want into her, she kept right on believing theirs was a great love despite he repulsion. She kept right on pursuing him, violently, until he had to kill her.

Same thing.

Listening to Tzipi Lipni this morning was deeply depressing. It's is almost as if she is talking about a whole other situation. Her talk of peace and two states and moderates and kumbaya flies in the face of the vow of Islamic Jihad to destroy Israel and certainly is juxta to  the election of the Savages (Hamas ) to the Pali government. Someone wake me up from this fookin nightmare.

Lipni: Ladies and gentlemen, this is not a zero sum game. This vision  is Not pro- Israeli or pro-Palestinian, it is pro PEACE!

Peace - There is that dirty word again. The one they use to club the Jews about the head. The peace conspirators. You can't have peace if you are the only one that wants it. Helllloooooooooo. You can't have peace if your avowed enemy was to destroy you. What part of this fundamental truth is hard to understand?

And that word "vision." That word. Their vision completely lacks vision. That vision is blind. They have eyes but will not see.

Lipni: And Israel has made a choice [two states] Across Israeli society we have embraced this vision ..........

I don't believe that for one second. I believe the people of Israel rue the day they gave their land and  provided their enemies a gateway to attack at the very heart of Israel. Oslo was and is an abysmal failure. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. The Palis did not respect any of the terms of the Oslo accords. Why would they now? Their violence and barbarism have been so richly rewarded.

and accepted the sacrifices that comes with it. The disengagement plan proved this.With great pain we uprooted families from their home in order to create an opportunity for peace. Sadly, we received terror in return. And yet we have not stopped hoping that the Palestinians will make their choice for peace.

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. - Albert Einstein

Unfortunately, in the last elections they chose Hamas.........

Exactly.

I believe in the dialogue but there are some things that are not up for negotiation. Because e can not and we will not negotiate our right to exist.

Yes, you read that correctly.  Depressing I tell you. (oh yeah and crowd loved this line)

Here, the delusion goes full throttle.

We must understand that the chance for peace on a clear distinction between the moderates and the extremists.A moderate is a title that has to be earned. A moderate is someone who is ready to confront terror. Someone who believes in the two state solution and accepts its true meaning.

Einstein! I guess the devil is in the details.

All of us are eager to seek peace in the Middle East.

Ya think? Based on what?

Nobody wants it more than Israel. Because this is about our lives and the future of our children Lasting peace is possible if it is built on solid foundation and shared values.

Yeah right - a culture of life vs. culture of death. The future of our children? What future does the shadeen have?

UPDATE: Obama, Democratic (the party of the Jews) said here; hat tip 1TRK

"Nobody is suffering more than the Palestinian people," Obama said while on the final leg of his weekend trip to eastern Iowa.

Allah Akbar baby.

 

Dr. John Hagee Redeems AIPAC

Keynote dinner speaker Dr. John Hagee redeems the conference. I have been calling upon the Jews to embrace the Evangelicals. They will be instrumental in saving the Jews. If there was any doubt Hagee lays them to rest. What passion! Fire! Devotion! He set that room on fire.

"Israel you are not alone"

Listen to Hagee. - Here is the audio (thanks to reader David for putting it all together on an MP3)

Download JohnHageeAIPACSpeech-all-20min.mp3

He and those he speaks for love Israel and will FIGHT! You must watch it all. There were members of the press there so I am cool with this. No fear on taking it down. Run time roughly 15 minutes........

PART I

PART II

PART III

UPDATE: It was the highlight of the conference.

UPDATE: The Democrats over at the underground don't like it. Go here.

UPDATE: Dr. John Hagee will be my VERY SPECIAL GUEST on my radio show ATLAS ON THE AIR on April 17th. Mark your calenders now.

Muslim Soccer: Intifada vs. Mujahideen

It's  a long story but over dinner I sat with a bunch of non- blog reading yokels (in a good way!) but I did have the good fortune to sit next to two hysterical characters (non-yokels) from Orange County - interesting . Dressing boy (as in salad dressing) was affiliated  with the Hillel Foundation (actually he is the President of the Hillel Foundation in Orange County) affiliated with the notorious Jew hating Islamist loving UCI. 

They were not blog habitues but they were fascinated and  they genuinely delighted in checking out the Atlas Sphere and passing my lap top around the table even showing it to their friends when they stopped by the table.  The yokels did not partake. They were not amused.  Striking that no one I have come in contact with is bloghappy or blog readers. It is not on their radar screen at all. This is a problem.

Anyway, I think the yodels at out table got tired of our antics quickly as made painfully apparent by their sideway glances at our caterwauling various Presidents (CARTER!) on the video presentation during dinner-- and our wolf whistling others (REAGAN! BUSH W!) Good folks the were - wine boy and dressing boy. You can hear our cheers and jeers on the Hagee video once I get them uploaded.

Anyway they began to regal me with tales of Jew hate and dhimmitude in California. They told me a story concerning the soccer team affiliated with one pf the largest mosques in Orange County. We couldn't find the story online but wine boy (he poured the wine) accessed and found the story through WestLaw (here).  If you know the story indulge me, check this out;

Los Angeles Time December 7, 2003

Taking the Intifada to the Football Field
William Lobdell
Times Staff Writer

What could be more American? Dozens of young men in Orange County have planned a football tournament for the New Year's weekend in Irvine.

    But this gathering of Muslim American athletes on the gridiron -- they say a first for Southern California -- is being flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct by religious leaders dismayed by some of the team's names.

    Monikers for the flag-football teams include Mujahideen, Intifada and Soldiers of Allah and are accompanied on the league's Web site here by logos of masked men, some with daggers or swords.

    An organizer of the Jan. 4 event, geared for American Muslims in their teens and 20s, said the names are a sign of football bravado and a show of support for Muslims in the Middle East.

    "A lot of the kids on our team are from Palestinian origin," said Tarek Shawky, Intifada's 29-year-old captain and quarterback. "We are in solidarity with people in the uprising. It's about human rights and basic freedoms."

I love that - associating babarism and murder with "human rights and basic freedoms" WORDS HAVE MEANING!

    "I think they should be more sensitive and show respect to other people's sensitivities," said Muzammil Siddiqi, director of the Islamic Society of Orange County and a national Muslim leader. "The words themselves do not have bad meanings, but people associate them with what's going on in the world around them."

Words do have meaning!

        But others say Palestinian fighters in the Intifada are terrorists and shouldn't be glorified. Another provocative name, Mujahideen, means "holy warrior," and is associated with a variety of Islamic resistance movements, including two on the U.S. government's list of terrorist groups.

"What exactly are they honoring here?" asked Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. "The continued targeting of innocent women and children by homicide bombers deserves to be condemned across the board. It's deeply, deeply disturbing."

         In the post-Sept. 11 era, the idea that American-born Muslims in suburbia would give their football teams militant names hurts the image of Islam in the United States, interfaith leaders say. And it doesn't matter whether the reasons for the choices are youthful zeal, football machismo, family connections to the Middle East or religious convictions.

Then why use terrorist monikers?

    "I think they spoil [a good thing] by politicizing it," said retired Rabbi Bernie King, who lives in Irvine.

    "Something like this undermines [those working with Muslims] and tends to support those in the community who have suspicions about the real intent of Islam."

But one Islamic scholar said she wonders why the team names should be controversial.

UPDATE 3/12: Radical professors at UCLA, click here

Liveblogging AIPAC 2007

I got into DC, dashed to the Convention Center in time to crash the policy briefing, "Sunni, Shia, and Radical Islam's War Against the West " and I gotta tell you. I wanna hurl. I got there while the Q&A was in progress and was confronted by two  "responsible intellectuals" (oxymoron) on the dais.What I heard was the death knell for the West.

The briefing was described this way:

"Amid constant media chatter about Sunnis and Shia, top academics [be afraid, be very afraid - Atlas] will explore what separates these two sects of Islam as well as the deadly anti-American designs that bring  radical Islamists together."

The two dhimmis answering questions were Dr. David Cook, Assistant Professor of religious Studies, Rice University (an Islamic apologist for of first order) and Dr. Shai Feldman Director, Crown Center for Middle East Studies, Brandeis University ...

UPDATE:I HAVE BEEN ADVISED BY AIPAC THAT THESE SESSIONS WERE OFF THE RECORD. I MUST TAKE THE THE REMARKS DOWN.  In a word *#*@%

There were hundreds of people there. I mean give a break. These guys were apologists for Islam. Like I said previously,  I think AIPAC is trying to get in good with Norquist and Bonior.

UPDATE: BTW, Jerusalem Online has clips of stuff I missed earlier, click here. Efraim Sneh, Israel Deputy Defense Minister and James  Woolsey, former CIA Director.

UPDATE: March 12th: Insofar as these events were not open to the press I can not use quotes but I will share my impressions and opinions as they are my own. The thinking that there is no clash of civilizations,or that it's not about Islam  but  about a couple of extremists is dangerous thinking. Cognitive dissonance.

While both speakers pontificated despite the reality of events and histroy, Dr. David Cook was the most in denial. Scarily so and what was most interesting was the questioners were more informed, more knowledgeable in challenging these foolish men in quoting the Koran, Hirsi Ali, Wafa Sultan ............. and BTW these questioners were summarily dismissed out of hand.

Why this is so worrisome to me is because the 200 or so people in that room came seeking knowledge. Came seeking answers and they were deceived.

This is a group, unlike the American people (who, btw,want most to know who Anna Nicole last banged) know there is something terribly wrong. They are  not getting the facts on the global jihad in the MSM and so they came.

And so they left lulled into a fatal false sense of security. Of course, I was up at the mike to take them out fact by fact but they ran out of time and I did not have the opportunity to call them out on their self delusion.

What was AIPAC thinking? Shame on them.

The next off the record policy briefing I attended was, Nuclear Iran Would Mean  for the World

Listening to   NY Democrat Gary Ackerman take the opportunity to bash Bush was too much to bear. All of the leftwing canards were spewed - mired in Iraq, ill conceived, exhausted military,  spread too thin. All of it. I was  outta there. Walked  out on the assclown. This is no time for party before country.