Dreams Into Lightning 2

Morning Report: 2012-11-26

USA: New Obamacare challenge. Breitbart:

The Supreme Court has now reinstated a major challenge to Obamacare. Liberty University is challenging both the Individual Mandate and the Employer Mandate of the Affordable Care Act. (Of those two, the latter is even more damaging to the economy and job creation.) A liberal panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit had thrown out the case last year, saying that the Anti-Injunction Act (AIA) does not permit any federal court to rule on the merits of challenges to the Individual Mandate until that requirement goes into effect in 2014.

In its Jun. 28 opinion in NFIB v. Sebelius, the justices unanimously rejected this AIA argument. So Mat Staver, who is both dean of Liberty's law school and chairman of the law firm representing the university, filed a petition for rehearing.

The Supreme Court granted that petition today. ...

Israel / international: Jewish self-defense, widespread anti-Semitism. Tablet: 'Despite the ability of Israel to cobble together a pretty impressive base of international support for its recent operation in Gaza, there were places where, almost by routine, the Israeli efforts were met by a surge of anti-Semitic reactions. ...' Atlas Shrugs has more.

Nigeria: Muslims blow up church, killing 11. Also from Atlas:

Two suicide attacks on a church in an army barracks in the northern Nigerian town of Jaji on Sunday left eleven people dead and 30 injured, the army said.

"Eleven people, mostly worshippers, were killed while 30 are in the hospitals with various degrees of injuries," national army spokesman Brigadier General Bola Koleosho told AFP.

A military officer who did not want to be named said the Protestant church was hit by two explosions.

"The first blast caused no casualties and curious worshippers gathered around the scene looking at the debris... and that was when the second blast happened," he said. ...

Egypt: Morsi becomes new Pharaoh. Michael Totten:

It makes no difference that he was elected. Democracy isn’t just about getting elected. A democratic election is not a one-time plebiscite on who the next tyrant is going to be. Democracy requires individual and minority rights and the separation of powers. Winners cannot oppress losers, nor do losers get to wage war on the winners.

Some of us are more surprised than others by this development, but the Muslim Brotherhood was never a democratic political movement. It's not even a close call. You don't have to be a cheerleader for Hosni Mubarak to recognize its inherent authoritarianism. ...

Read the rest for the experiences of some genuine liberals, who are isolated and outnumbered in this revolution.

Egypt's Morsi: Bridge for Sale

Or words to that effect:

Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi said on Sunday that the sweeping new powers he has assumed are only temporary and called for dialogue to find common political ground, as he faces a showdown with judges over the path to a new constitution.

"The presidency reiterates the temporary nature of the said measures, which are not meant to concentrate power, but... to devolve it to a democratically elected parliament... as well as preserving the impartiality of the judiciary and to avoid politicizing it," a statement from Morsi's office said, according to AFP. ...

Uh-huh.

Andres McCarthy: Huma Abedin and Muslim Brotherhood

Andrew McCarthy at Ordered Liberty:

Huma Abedin was affiliated with the IMMA’s journal for a dozen years, from 1996 through 2008. She overlapped with its founder, Naseef, for at least seven years — it could be more, but I am assuming for argument’s sake that Naseef had no further involvement in his institute once his name was removed from the masthead.

The case against Ms. Abedin’s suitability for a high-level position with access to the nation’s secrets gets much worse if you add in her family ties.

To summarize what I’ve already outlined here at Ordered Liberty: her parents were recruited by Naseef to head up the IMMA; her mother is an active member of Muslim Brotherhood organizations — including the Muslim Sisterhood and two entities that are part of Sheikh Qaradawi’s Union of Good, another designated terrorist organization; there is persuasive evidence that her father was a member of the Brotherhood — e.g., the intimate tie to Naseef and his widow’s membership in the Muslim Sisterhood (which is substantially comprised of wives and female relatives of prominent Muslim Brothers); her mother is a tireless advocate of sharia law as preached by Qaradawi and the Brotherhood; and her brother, who is also affiliated with the IMMA’s journal, was a fellow at an Islamist institute (the Oxford Center for Islamic Studies) on whose board sat both Naseef and Qaradawi.

Nevertheless, the family ties to the Brotherhood only further elucidate what is already patent: Huma Abedin’s connection to Abdullah Omar Naseef, by itself, would have been more than enough justification to deny her a security clearance. That would have made it inconceivable that she could serve as deputy chief of staff to the secretary of state.

Full article at the link.

Cinnamon Stillwell: Muslim Brotherhood Seduces Elites

Cinnamon Stillwell at Campus Watch:

Engagement with Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood is the consensus among elite opinion and certainly among the ranks of North American Middle East studies academics, the "experts" tasked with informing the public and, often, policy-makers on foreign policy in the region. Since the Egyptian revolution, these academics have whitewashed the Muslim Brotherhood, downplayed its Islamist agenda, and urged U.S. cooperation—a policy suggestion the Obama administration has clearly taken to heart.

Many have been shocked by the speed with which the Obama administration has pursued this policy of outreach. The current debate within Congress about the potential influence of the Muslim Brotherhood on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the State Department—a deliberation that crosses party lines—demonstrates just how deeply the influence has spread. ...

Caroline Glick: Muslim Brotherhood's American Defenders

Glick at JPost:

The obliviousness of Brennan and Clapper to the essential nature of Hezbollah and the Muslim Brotherhood are symptoms of the overarching ignorance informing the Obama administration’s approach to Middle Eastern realities. ...

Read it all at the link.

Morning Report: 2012-06-18

Israel's southern border fence near completion. YNet: 'The defense establishment is pushing for the expedited completion of the new Israel- Egypt border fence and expects that the "dune sector" – through which many illegal migrants infiltrate Israel – will be completed in three weeks time. The southern border project stretches across hundreds of kilometers. So far, 180km of the border's 229km have been completed and military sources said Wednesday that the fence will be completed by October. ...'

Arabist on Egypt elections, SCAF. The Arabist: 'Morsi’s apparent win means more short-term uncertainty. I don’t think he’s capable of ushering in the Caliphate any more than Shafiq is capable of bringing back the Mubarak era (more on that below). The Islamist’s narrow victory, following the five-way split of the first round, means that his only popular mandate will be that he’s not Shafiq. He’ll be a president with only limited, temporary constitutional powers, facing off against a military who’s quite capable of vetoing whatever he does by means administrative, judicial, and now legislative. He will have very little of either moral or institutional power to shape the drafting of the constitution, and he will live under the Sword of Damocles of another court ruling. ...'

Russia's anti-Georgian moves. Stratfor (subscription) covers Russia's threats to deport illegal Georgian migrants, in the context of increasing US-Georgian defense ties.

Morning Report: 2012-06-02

Al-Monitor on Egyptian elections. Al-Monitor:

Barbara Slavin moderated a panel of leading experts on Egypt, co-sponsored by Al-Monitor, at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on Thursday to debate these questions and what they mean for Egypt.

Despite their varying views, all three panelists seemed to agree that the choice Egyptians are left with is, for the most part, one between the lesser of two evils. On the one hand, there is the Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammad Morsi. On the other, former Mubarak player, Ahmad Shafiq. Samer Shehata, an Egypt scholar at Georgetown University, put his money on a win for Morsi, saying he could not imagine a Mubarak remnant taking power after the revolution. Michael Wahid Hanna, an analyst with the Century Foundation, appeared to lean toward Shafiq, after initially ducking the question. And Marina Ottaway, a senior associate at Carnegie, put the question to rest when she said, “It doesn’t matter who wins.”

Even if Morsi wins, she said, the bureaucracy that was in place under Mubarak is still intact. ...

Video at the link.

US drones kill 'good' Taliban commander. Long War Journal:

The US killed a commander loyal to 'good' Taliban leader Mullah Nazir in a drone strike in South Waziristan. Today's strike is the first in South Waziristan since mid-March.

The remotely piloted Predators or the more deadly Reapers fired missiles at a vehicle and a motorcycle in a village near Wana. Dawn reported that the strike took place in the village of Doog and killed two Taliban fighters, while Geo News said the strike occurred in Khawashi Khel and killed four fighters.

According to Dawn, Rahmanullah, "a key commander of the Mullah Nazir group and a brother of commander Malang of the same group," was killed in the strike. Nazir administers the Wana area and supports and shelters al Qaeda leaders and operatives. ...

What's so "good" about Mullah Nazir? Good question. 'Mullah Nazir has openly supported Taliban emir Mullah Omar and al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, and wages jihad in Afghanistan. In an interview with the Asia Times, Nazir rejected claims that he opposed al Qaeda, and affirmed that he considered himself to be a member of the global terror organization. ... Pakistan's military and intelligence services consider Nazir and his followers "good Taliban" as they do not openly seek the overthrow of the Pakistani state.' Go to the link for the full article.

Russian defense spending. Stratfor (requires login for non-subscribers) notes that Russia's finance ministry has proposed a federal budget cut of $125 billion, mainly in defense, while Vladimir Putin wanted to increase the defense budget by almost as much. The finance ministry is concerned about the price of oil (Russia depends on oil revenues), the financial crisis in Europe (including the possibility of a Greek withdrawal from the Eurozone), and keeping a balanced budget.

India's economy stumbles. The Economist: 'But India's GDP figures, the worst for at least nine years, will have a deep impact on the sub-continent. The country was meant to grow in its sleep—regardless of what happens in the rest of the world. A quick bounce back looks unlikely. The central bank has cut interest rates a little this year, but will struggle to loosen policy further given high inflation. The ruling coalition keeps on promising a bout of reforms to boost confidence, but it is so divided, its behaviour so erratic and its record of delivery so poor that few believe this will actually happen. Expectations for growth over the next couple of years will probably slip further, to 6%. ...' This may suggest that India's rapid growth spurt of 2004 - 2007 was a blip, not a trend.

Death threats for Robert Spencer. 'Robert Spencer, director of the website “Jihad Watch,” questioned the source of Islam in a new book, “Did Muhammad Exist? An Inquiry into the Obscure Origins of Islam,” published by ISI Books. Spencer is also the author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades), The Truth about Muhammad (both New York Times best-sellers) and is a columnist for FrontPage Magazine. But upon publication of his latest book, which theorized that the founder and prophet of Islam, Muhammad, did not really exist, Spencer was threatened with a violent death. ...'

BBC on 'New York's Republican enclave', Brighton Beach. A refreshingly sympathetic piece on Republicans from the BBC: 'These are people who remember the Soviet Union all too well and resist what they see as big government and anti-business programmes. They may be liberal on social issues, like abortion, but anything that feels like socialism - even if it is not - makes them queasy. In Brooklyn, Republicans have found a home by the sea. ...'

Morning Report: 2012-05-23

Mona Eltahawy takes on MSNBC. Jihad Watch cites Eltahawy's response to the "islamophobia" canard on the Melissa Harris-Perry show:

In response, Eltahawy was right on point: "It’s not me that makes Muslims look bad. It’s those atrocities that make Muslims look bad." I have made this point hundreds of times -- but the Islamic supremacists' "Islamophobia" fog machine is intent on obscuring it, with eager help from the Leftist mainstream media. ...

Follow the link for a transcript. And don't miss her article in Foreign Policy.

Kyrgyzstan signs transport agreement with NATO. Interfax reports: '"A signing ceremony of the agreement between the government of Kyrgyzstan and NATO on the ground transit (by trucks and railroad) of cargo for the International Security Assistance Force through the Kyrgyz territory took place within the framework of the NATO summit in Chicago on May 22," the Kyrgyz Foreign Ministry's press service told Interfax. ...'

Foreign Policy on Egyptian candidates. Kate Brooks at Foreign Policy:

Egypt has produced some good headlines over the few millennia of its existence: There's its rise as the center of Arab and Islamic culture, the building of the pyramids, and even, reportedly, a spat between a pharaoh and a hard-luck local tribe that produced some nasty plagues. But there's one story that has always eluded it: the drama of a competitive presidential election. On May 23, that all ends. ...

Go to the link for the rest, and a slide show.

Speak for Yourselves, Idiots

"We should never have believed them."

A Western liberal discovers that the Muslim Brotherhood maybe, just possibly, aren't as "moderate" as they claimed.

Ever since Islamists took office in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt, they have been trying to convince us that they are advocates of moderation, democracy, women's rights and individual freedoms. And most people in the West, after jubilantly watching the Arab Spring's amazing revolutions last year, wanted to believe them. But now we can see that these Islamic groups are taking us for fools. ...

Now where would they get that idea? Never mind, just go read the whole thing at the link.