The Western media projects on the demonstrators in Iran our best hopes and wishes. It sees another “color” revolution, in the wake of which the people will overthrow the regime, and a new democracy will arise. I say, very unlikely. The color revolutions succeeded—to the extent that they did—because the police and the army either joined the uprising or refused to suppress it. In Iran, the media did find a few cops who were nice to the demonstrators, but most were brutal. And the sad fact is that in short run, brute force tends to win.

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Al Franken’s victory in the Minnesota Senate race means Democrats have 60 voting members…but still none that are funny.

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After the 9/11 attacks, Americans were promised that the World Trade Center would be re-built and the Deutsche Bank Building, damaged by same, would be torn down. Almost eight years later, neither task has been accomplished. So what’s this got to do with the cap-and-trade bill? Plenty.

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This item below was linked on Drudge recently, but did anyone catch the sentence I’ve bolded? Bill Clinton: United States growing more diverse (June 14) By CHRISTINE SIMMONS

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Though he says he “crossed the line” with other women, Mark Sanford says he never “crossed the ultimate line” with anyone other than his Argentine mistress.  By “the ultimate line,” I’m assuming he means the Equator.

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A recent letter to the editor in our local paper suggested that our prison system is the country’s last legal form of slavery, and attaches a racial motive to California’s three-strikes law.

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The new Miss Georgia relinquished her title a day after winning the crown.  When asked why, she said, “Oh, you’ll see.”

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John Edwards reportedly made a sex tape with his mistress.  He hoped to one day have a presidential library with an “Adult” section.

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     Within a week we’ve seen the untimely deaths of two cultural icons, the sentencing of our most heinous Ponzi schemer and the reversal of the Ricci case concerning discrimination against white firemen in New Haven.  The overwhelming hype over Michael Jackson is spearheaded by the two most famous race vultures in America - Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton - two unelected demagogues who never miss an opportunity to glom on to someone else’s celebrity and cheapen any cause they touch.  In this case, they’ve chosen a talented, even trail-blazing performer who was a drug-addicted anorexic at his demise but in life, clearly suffered from numerous other mental problems including pedophilia, body dysmorphic disorder and compulsive spending that surpassed the stratospheric bounds of hundreds of millions of dollars in income.  It is unimaginable that this confused person should be held up as a tribute to anything other than musical talent.  Michael Jackson didn’t see himself as Black;  he changed his skin color, his hair, his facial features and was the custodial father to white children who had no biological relation to him.  Yet the reverends Sharpton and Jackson have insinuated themselves as pallbearers to some implied black martyrdom with presumed racial overtones.

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     Within a week we’ve seen the untimely deaths of two cultural icons, the sentencing of our most heinous Ponzi schemer and the reversal of the Ricci case concerning discrimination against white firemen in New Haven.  The overwhelming media hype concerning Michael Jackson is spearheaded by the two most famous race vultures in America - Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton - two unelected demagogues who never miss an opportunity to glom on to someone else’s celebrity and never fail to cheapen any cause they touch.  In this case, they’ve chosen a talented, even trail-blazing performer who was a drug addicted anorexic at his demise but clearly suffered from numerous other mental problems including pedophilia, body dysmorphic disorder and compulsive spending that stratospherically surpassed the bounds of hundreds of millions of dollars in income.  It is unimaginable that this confused person should be held up as a tribute to anything other than musical talent.  Michael Jackson didn’t see himself as Black when he was alive;  he changed his skin color and his features and was the custodial father to white children who had no biological relation to him.  Yet the reverends Sharpton and Jackson have insinuated themselves as pallbearers to some implied black martyrdom with presumed racial overtones.

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For Barack Obama, it has become woefully apparent that some meddling is “more equal” than other meddling. Ordinary Iraqi citizens protesting totalitarianism and getting killed for it? Let’s wait and see what happens. Honduras ousting a president attempting to illegally re-write the Country’s constitution? Illegal and a “terrible precedent.”

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There’s a lot of “deep concern” emanating from the White House these days.

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Few world leaders congratulated the “winner” of the recent fraudulent Iranian elections, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - and rightfully so.

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Words mean something. As human beings we stand alone in our use of language as our primary method of communication. We debate and we argue. We make speeches and we deliver sermons. We teach lessons. We pontificate, we preach, and we proclaim. We espouse liberal and conservative agendas ad infinitum. Our “bigger ideas” are framed and defended with emotion, passion, anger and indignation. We have confidence in our words and we resist any attempt of to co-op, twist or manipulate their meaning. We defend our words with tenacity. If they deceive we call them lies. If they embolden we call them inspiring. If they make promises we call them contracts. Words indeed mean something and history shows that they have the power to build nations, define religions, inspire revolutions, defend what is true or even hide what is false.

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From Politico:

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Mary Bono Mack (CA); Michael Castle (DE); Mark Kirk (IL); Leonard Lance (NJ); Frank LoBiondo (NJ); John McHugh (NY); Dave Reichert (WA); Christopher Smith (NJ).

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This is a translation of an op-ed piece that appeared in the Israeli paper Maariv on June 22, 2009. It is entitled Where is Everyone? Why is the world silent? and was written by by Ben Caspit and Ben-Dror Yemini. And, yes, Iranians definitely want help!

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    In the last century, conventional thinking was that women were unsuited for political leadership because they were overly emotional and prone to hysteria, a word that derives from the Greek “hutera” meaning uterus.  You see the connection - hormones, pms, pre-partum, post-partum - women were a minefield of volatility and therefore not as rational and clear-thinking as men.  Our hands had to be kept away from that red button in the White  House and our national role models were strong Teddy Roosevelt/John Wayne types or feisty little fighters like Harry Truman and James Cagney.  Marlon Brando changed the image of masculinity in this country;  his body was sculpted, his face was chiseled but he was an emotional firecracker, capable of breaking down unpredictably and that was an androgynous conceit.

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According to Osama Bin Laden, one of the principle reasons for the perpetration of the 9/11 atrocities was to cripple the American economy. He and al Qaeda needn’t have bothered. A feckless Congress and a clueless president are more than up to the job.

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     A Wall Street Journal article about an unemployed woman living on less in New York City asks us to believe that previously, Rachel Rachelson was able to live in Manhattan, rent a summer house and car in the Hamptons, have a yearly vacation in Acapulco, shop “without qualms” at Bergdorf, own 140 pairs of shoes, eat out daily at trendy restaurants, have weekly manicures and expensive haircuts - drum roll please - on a salary of $57,000 a year.  We are talking about 33 years from 1975 - 2008, assuming that she lost her job in the past year and assuming that the salary quoted represented what she earned most recently.  Does this make any sense to anyone alive in New York in the 21rst century?  Did a sloppy editor eliminate another digit that belonged in front of 57 because even a single person would have to earn at least $157,000 to attempt that lifestyle.

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North Korea says there will be “a thousand-fold military retaliation” if they are provoked by the U.S….and if Kim Jong Il’s next pair of gigantic glasses isn’t ready in about an hour.

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South Carolina Governor Sanford has admitted to being in Argentina with his mistress while telling staffers he was hiking on the Appalachian Trail.  He is being criticized for lying to his family and constituents, but being praised for inventing a great new euphemism.

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I’ll pause for a moment and allow some reflection time for everyone who scolded me for smelling a rat in the Gov. Mark Sanford case.

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Eli Lehrer at National Review Online wrote a nice piece about the new federal proposal to eliminate prison rape, to which Andrew Sullivan, to his credit, linked approvingly.  One of Lehrer’s points is that the subject of prison rape - in a nation which professes horror at all sorts of hazing practices that are called “torture” - remains funny rather than horrible:  “But, somehow, prison rape remains a perfectly acceptable topic for sitcoms, widely trafficked websites, and late-night comedians.”

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President Barack Obama is about to hold a press conference in the Rose Garden and liberal blogger, Nico Pitney, is hopeful that finally, finally, Obama will condemn the bloody repression in Iran which  Pitney has so passionately and tirelessly documented. He is not alone. Last night I saw David Gergen on CNN lose it. Yesterday, E.J. Dionne expounded on the Liberals’ Iran Dilemma. Liberals wish to avoid criticizing their “chosen one” but they can no longer bear his amorality and stubborn refusal to face an unwanted reality:

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Janet Napolitano says she will end the Bush-era practice of using satellites for domestic spying.  Makes sense to her, I guess, since so many service members are stationed overseas.

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     What would you say if you saw a man wearing a ball and chain walking down Lexington Avenue?  Would it startle you?  It startled me to see a woman in a burqa pushing a baby carriage down Lexington Avenue last week.  Although it’s no longer unusual to see women wearing headscarves and even full body covering in New York, this is the first up-close burqa I’ve seen since a trip to Afghanistan in 1973.  In those pre-multi-culti days, Kabul was considered one of the most primitive places in the world and one made adjustments in comparative cultural expectations based on a 12th century lifestyle of open sewers, no residential electricity and the exclusion of women from public view.  Those who think that nuns’ habits or Chasidic women’s garb is a western counterpart to the burqa have never seen the de-humanization of a woman without a face.  In addition to the myriad cultural symbols attendant to the disappeared female, there are the visual problems that ensue for women who see the world from behind a grid.  And just as we would find it unacceptable to watch an enslaved man on public view, even if this were his disturbed, voluntary choice, we are shocked to see the symbol of an enslaved woman parading in our midst.

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In other words, like much of the world, Italy for decades allowed itself to be blackmailed by OPEC.

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Michael Ledeen has a letter from Mousavi. He is not amused:

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A hiker missing for three days in North Cascades National Park has been found safe.  Doctors say he is cold, hungry, and somehow “married” to a bear.

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Dr. Srdja Trifkovic sent in the following:

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The ABC television network has decided to drop the apparently over-burdensome pretense of being an unbiased news source. Next Wednesday, they’ll be broadcasting from inside the White House, presenting America with president Barack Obama’s vision for nationalizing health care. Dissenting voices? Off limits.

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