Tonight’s speeches at the Republican National Convention in Tampa were solid and periodically inspiring. Ann Romney spoke about her husband and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie gave the keynote.
Congratulations to Mitt Romney on his wise choice of running mate, Wis. Rep. Paul Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee. While he may not have the star quality of a Newt or Sarah, Mr. Ryan seems to have the intelligence and prudence the country needs. We need his discipline. During the past few presidents’ terms, it’s clear that heavy government spending did not equate with robust economic growth.
Shocking news out of Israel today as it is being reported that Israeli officials have begun arresting what is expected to be tens of thousands of Africans residing in the Jewish State, and deporting them to detention camps.
Interesting piece in today’s Jerusalem Post about self-hating Jews. Of particular value is the psychologist’s perspective in the piece that, just as an abused child will sometimes internalize the abuser’s hatred as an attempt at self-protection, so will individuals among groups who have been abused and marginalized.
Six-term incumbent Indiana Republican Senator Richard Lugar is facing off in a close race against upstart challenger Richard Mourdock, the state treasurer, who is, according to one news site “running to Lugar’s right with tea-party backing.”
Attendees’ reactions to President Barack Obama’s speech yesterday at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) policy conference ranged, among the delegates with whom this reporter spoke, from mixed to strongly positive.
Today the Washington DC-based think tank Center for Security Policy held its Mightier Pen Award in midtown Manhattan and yours truly was in attendance.
Also in attendance was NYPD Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, who has been taking heat from critics following an associated press report that the NYPD conducted extensive surveillance of Muslim communities in New York city and beyond.
On WOR-AM radio on Monday, Kelly said, “People have short memories to what happened here in 2001.”
At the lunch today, Kelly stood and received a standing ovation from about 100 security-minded folk in attendance as well as TV journalist Lou Dobbs and former New York Times reporter Judith Miller.
Regarding the controversial intel-gathering, Kelly has refused to back down - a stance that garnered him praise from speaker Andy McCarthy, former chief assistant US attorney, and CSP Director Frank Gaffney.
McCarthy offered a rousing defense of the intelligence gathering, which included New Jersey mosques, pointing out that the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center was plotted by Muslim extremists in Jersey City mosques.
Americans, McCarthy said, “are more concerned with preventing attacks than … indicting terrorists after” Americans have been killed and added that New Yorkers will have to decide “whether we want our security managed by the Associated Press and CAIR [The Council on American Islamic Relations] or whether we want it managed by Ray Kelly.”
Gaffney stressed that New York City has been extremist Muslim terrorists’ number one target and told Kelly, “I hope your example will be an inspiration to the policing done across America.”
Roger Ailes, chairman and CEO of Fox News, won the Mightier Pen Award.
The Washington Post just ran this thought-provoking piece on the Arab Spring by former Soviet dissident refusenik and Israeli Parliamentarian Natan Sharansky. As I wrote last spring, Recent upheavals across the mideast from Egypt to Tunisia to Syria can be viewed through the prism of Sharansky’s ideas on democracy and even as validation of them. But in the messy aftermath of these hopeful uprisings, some are questioning whether the Arab world can handle freedom. In this piece, Sharansky offers his thoughts.
Tonight Newt Gingrich spoke some truth about the middle east that very few people–even including Jews–have had the courage to say or write in recent decades.
Today, addressing the Republican Jewish Coalition in Washington DC, Mitt Romney drew a clear contrast between his vision for America and that of President Barack Obama, stressing that “[Obama] is seeking to make a merit-based society into an entitlement society.”
I once heard someone say, “George W. Bush got elected because he seemed like the kind of guy you could get a beer with. Romney seems more like the guy who’d fire you.” In terms of image, Romney should loosen up a bit, get someone to muss his hair. On substance, he should make the case for digging ourselves out of the mess created in part by ideologues–as opposed to effective, realistic managers. He should also give Americans some straight talk about our economy–and the fact that it is cyclical, which means that there are no simple, instantaneous, total fixes (No hopey changey dreams that materialize just because we speak beautifully about it).
Last month, during a forum for the unemployed in her home state, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) said, “the Tea Party can go straight to hell,” adding, “And I intend to help them get there.”
Fighting in Southern Sudan’s disputed Abyei region claimed the lives of more than 30 people over the weekend, but voting that will allow the country’s Southerners - mostly Christians and animists, or practitioners of native religions - to separate from the Arab Muslim North if they choose, proceeded apace. And human rights groups including Christian Solidarity International (CSI) and The American Anti-Slavery Group ransomed Christians and others out of slavery and documented their stories.
Shocking news out of Israel today as 
