Day of Rage on Wall Street Fizzles

UPDATE: Zombie reports: "Day of FAIL: Nationwide anti-capitalist revolution flops."

*****

According to one source, only about 300 people showed up.

But see MyFoxNY, "'Day Of Rage' Protest On Wall Street."

And there's a big write-up at New York Times, "Wall Street Protest Begins, With Demonstrators Blocked," and Daily Mail, "'We won't put up with their greed any more': Demonstrators try to take over Wall Street in protest against corruption and budget cuts."

BONUS: At Michelle's, "“Day of Rage:” Alinskyites call for pointless mass sleepover on Wall Street."

Anti-American Graffiti: Marxist Scribblings Sighted in Suburban Orange County

Here's the writing on the restroom wall at Barnes and Nobles at the Irvine Spectrum, found this weekend. Recall last year Gallup found that a 61 percent majority of progressives had a positive image of socialism. And here's another example in real life. Remember Marx's exhortation: "Workers of the world unite." The Marxian system is built on the increasing immiseration of labor. The graffiti implies that no one can get rich without exploiting workers, that is, it's impossible to be entrepreneurial without exploitation, and hence the rejection of the foundation of the capitalist free-enterprise system. It's fundamentally anti-American, as is all progressivism, for as an ideology it rejects the exceptionalism that built the nation to world preponderance, instead invoking the state-socialist model of the stagnant European welfare states, if not the murderous totalitarianism of Stalin. Either way, the Democrat Party's 20th-century socialist model is dragging us down, which is exactly what progressives want.

RELATED: At New York Times, "Obama Tax Plan Would Ask More of Millionaires" (via Digby and Memorandum), and Washington Post, "Vast majority of tax breaks go to households."

F*** You, Douglas! — W. James Casper = COBAG = Repsac3!!

I'm just now getting to this, but W. James "Costanza" Casper = RACIST = Repsac3 had an entry for "civility week" earlier, at my blog post on "Tolerance of Islam":

Fuck you, Douglas...

You post about me, I'll almost certainly comment, like it or don't...

Cope.

(If you really wanted to be left alone, you wouldn't engage, would you?)

This is someone who has completely abandoned the slightest adherence to social norms and decency. So, for the record: I've never said no interaction. Idiot RACIST Repsac3 is BANNED from commenting at American Power. That is, NO ENGAGEMENT AT MY COMMENT THREADS, DUH!! Bird-brained W. James Casper, whose immorality is boundless, again reminds us of George Costanza. Click the image to watch. Unable to control his impulses, George eats a chocolate eclair out of the garbage pail. Jerry says to him, "Well, you my friend have crossed the line that divides man and bum. You are now a bum." And in our most recent despicable attack by RACIST Repsac3, our sick obsessive stalking asshat (and non-friend) has crossed the line that divides a restrained and respectable citizen from a profane and clinically deranged progresssive cobag: "You are now a complete cobag."

Congratulations!

Negrophobia

I read but don't normally blog William Jacobson's Saturday Night Card Game. But last night's was something else: "Saturday Night Card Game (The “Negrophobia” card is played)." The "Negrophobia" card is played at Balloon Juice, "The Modern Negrophobists reaction to the President’s speech…" It's really disgusting, the cartoon and the ideas behind it in the contemporary context. But the commenters are running with it, for example:

The modern negrophobist would demand the would be rescuer bring him a large rock so he could sink more quickly.

That cartoon warms my heart. I especially like the way the artist depicted the bigot as some sort of weasel/human hybrid.

I don't even know what to say. These people are simply not my countrymen. The sentiment is analogous to the kind of anti-Semitism found in caricatured drawings of long-nosed money-grubbing Jews. In other words, it's eliminationist.

I haven't finished listening to it, but Dennis Prager, in a clip at Blazing Cat Fur, indicates that progressive ideology is so removed from the basic values of this country as to be functionally anti-American. See: "Dennis Prager's Top 10 Ways Liberalism Makes America Worse." Balloon Juice demonstrates the point 1000s of times over.

Democrats Openly Alarmed About Obama's Reelection Prospects

Well, they should be.

At NYT, "Democrats Fret Aloud Over Obama’s Re-election." (Via Memeorandum.)

Democrats are expressing growing alarm about President Obama’s re-election prospects and, in interviews, are openly acknowledging anxiety about the White House’s ability to strengthen the president’s standing over the next 14 months.

Elected officials and party leaders at all levels said their worries have intensified as the economy has displayed new signs of weakness. They said the likelihood of a highly competitive 2012 race is increasing as the Republican field, once dismissed by many Democrats as too inexperienced and conservative to pose a serious threat, has started narrowing to two leading candidates, Mitt Romney and Rick Perry, who have executive experience and messages built around job creation.

And in a campaign cycle in which Democrats had entertained hopes of reversing losses from last year’s midterm elections, some in the party fear that Mr. Obama’s troubles could reverberate down the ballot into Congressional, state and local races.

More at that top link, but clearly, the Dems are going to be crushed.

And like Bill Whittle said, it's not going to matter who the GOP nominee is. Obambi's toast.

America's Broken Unity After 9/11

ICYMI, be sure to read Daniel Henninger's, "Whatever Happened to 9/11?", from a couple of days ago. Henninger recalls where he was on the morning of the attacks, and what it was like for him. Then he begins discussing the American response to the terror, for example, with the USA Patriot Act. There's more like that, and then he writes:

Virtually every aspect of the Bush antiterror policies became a target for litigation from the ACLU, opposition in Congress and press exposures: the wiretaps, Guantanamo, the Swift program to track terrorist finances, military courts, the Bush Doctrine of pre-preemptive strikes, terrorist interrogations. Opposition to the Iraq war rose, too, but the effort to thwart the provisions of the Patriot Act was a separate front.

Policy disagreements are inevitable. But how does one account for the intense personal animosity directed toward George Bush and those who worked for him in the government? They were hated, reviled, mocked. Recall, for instance, the effort to disbar former Justice Department officials John Yoo and Jay Bybee for writing the legal opinions on aggressive interrogations. Opposition wasn't enough. The destruction of reputation became a policy goal.

This Sunday's 10th anniversary commemorations will evoke some semblance of the unity then in the face of an enemy attack on U.S. soil. But make no mistake: It's gone.

What happened?

Well, continue reading. But as noted above, political opposition wasn't enough for the left. The utter destruction of opponents is required, for according to progressive/socialist ideology, conservatives and Republicans are greater enemies to America than the terrorists. And the left's bloodlust demands for revenge and recrimination continue right into the 10th anniversary. I watched Rachel Maddow on MSNBC while working on this post. Her broadcast, "Day of Destruction, Decade of War," was one long repudiation of America's response to the terrorist attacks, from the decade-long war footing and military mobilization, to the interrogation techniques that helped generate actionable intelligence to track down and kill Osama Bin Laden. Plus, I'm reading David Cole, at New York Review, "After September 11: What We Still Don’t Know." Cole is a far-left activist professor of law at Georgetown University. He's repeatedly argued that the bigger threat to American security is the U.S. government and not the terrorists determined to decapitate it. At Cole's New York Review piece, he revives calls for war crimes prosecutions against Bush administration officials, taking President Obama to task for purportedly not standing up for constitutional values:

As President Obama entered office, he sought to make a clean break with his predecessor. But at the same time, he has insisted that we look forward, not back. His administration has refused to conduct the criminal investigation that the Convention Against Torture requires wherever there are credible allegations that a person within our jurisdiction has committed torture. His Justice Department vetoed the recommendation of its own Office of Professional Responsibility that lawyers John Yoo and Jay Bybee be referred to their bar associations for disciplinary action in view of their having failed to provide candid legal advice in drafting the “torture memos.” The administration has sought to derail efforts in Spain to investigate US responsibility for torture of Spanish citizens held at Guantánamo. And President Obama continues to oppose even a high-level commission to investigate and report on the nation’s departure from the rule of law and descent into torture, abduction, and disappearances.

Obama appears to believe that such an investigation would be divisive, and might undermine his efforts to portray himself as above partisan wrangling. But division is a fact of life in Washington these days. And being above the fray is not an unmitigated good; some things are worth fighting for. A legal and moral accounting of the wrongs we have done should be high on the list.

Cole goes on like that, and it's interesting that he picks out John Yoo for special condemnation, twice in fact, basically renewing the call that Yoo should have been disbarred for his work in the Bush administration, and by extension, tried as a war criminal.

Behold the mind of the progressive left on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the attacks. For radical progressives, it's America that's the problem, not the fanatical killers who continue to wage war against us.

The Global Left's Anti-Israel Forum

See Anne Bayefsky, at Weekly Standard, "Durban III: An Anti-Israel Forum Takes Shape" (via Memeorandum).

'It's Civility Week!'

Mandy Nagy is cracking me up!

See, "New Tone: Twitter Users Want Republicans Dead."

Yeah, that is a lot of "new tone" this week, and it's only Wednesday!

Stay classy, progs!

Bob Iritano and the Politics of Health Care

An excellent set of letters to the editor yesterday, at Los Angeles Times, "On health insurers rationing care...." And the last one:

Please. Everyone who hasn't lived under a rock all their lives knows the bad stories about national health coverage.

We have a friend who lived in Britain for many years. It took her two years to get a hysterectomy that would have taken her two weeks at an HMO here — two days if her condition were life-threatening. The numbers don't coincide with your version of reality.

This death is a sad thing. But his extra year and a half of life was won by a successful struggle that he and his family could not have waged against the bureaucracy of, say, Britain's healthcare system.

Your argument is driven by political hope, not reality.

Joan Moon

Burbank

And the initial article to which readers were responding: "Putting a price on prolonging a doomed life."

Tea Party Zombies Must Die

Verum Serum has the story: "New Tone Video Game: Kill Fox News “Zombies”…Who Paid for This?" Seriously. The "Koch Whore Lobbyist Zombie"? These people are beyond the pale. But check that link to watch the clip.

At Linkmaster Smith, at The Other McCain, "Raaaaacist Tea Parties: The Frankenstein Vampire Werewolf Zombie Argument."

BONUS: From Daniel Foster, at National Review, "Tea Party Zombies Must Die":

Hey kids, hear about the latest rage? It’s “Tea Party Zombies Must Die” an exciting new first-person shooter “Advergame.” Here’s how it’s described:

DON’T GET TEA-BAGGED! The Tea Party zombies are walking the streets of America. Grab your weapons and bash their rotten brains to bits! Destroy zombie Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, Glenn Beck, the Koch Brothers, and many more!

Don’t believe the hype? I took the game for a whirl and managed to snag some choice screenshots...

Via Memeorandum.

Polls Find 3 of 4 Americans Saying Country's On Wrong Track

People keep talking about how dissatisfaction hasn't been this high since 2008 and the Wall Street bailout. But I'm thinking back to 1991, when President George H.W. Bush went from almost 90 percent approval on the Persian Gulf War to being defeated by Bill Clinton in 1992. At the Los Angeles Times a whopping 60 percent disapprove of President Obama's handling of the economy. There is no doubt that economic issues will be the number one priority for voters next year, so in California, a reliably blue state, those are horrible numbers for the Democrats. See: "Poll illustrates California voters' anger." Especially noteworthy about the Times' poll is that partisans on both sides are digging in their heels against compromise, with 57 percent of Democrats and 50 percent of Republicans backing a stand-firm position for their party's priorities. That's the anger factor right there. There's speculation that the summer's budget battle in Washington --- which Democrats lost --- has helped create a hardening of positions. This seems to go against suggestions that we should all just get along and work for the common good.

And today's Wall Street Journal poll is a keeper. See, "Voter Discontent Deepens Ahead of Obama Jobs Plan." (At Google as well.) Seventy-three percent say the country's headed in the wrong direction. But picking up on my discussion from yesterday on the Electoral College, this bit on Ohio is devastating for the White House:

Voters appear to be looking for a new direction. By 44% to 40%, Americans now say they are more likely to vote Republican next year than for Mr. Obama's re-election. In June, the president held the edge, 45% to 40%. The president is losing support from key groups including political independents, women and Hispanics.

In the Mahoning Valley of Northeast Ohio, a Democratic stronghold that Mr. Obama must win handily next year, the president can find all the hurdles that will impede his path: 10% unemployment, collapsing incomes, private-sector payrolls that have begun creeping back from the depths of early 2010 but which remain roughly 19,000 jobs down from a decade ago for the metropolitan area here.

The lukewarm support Mr. Obama finds here not only endangers his hopes in Ohio, one of the country's key swing states, but shows the erosion in enthusiasm for the president even among voters he should be able to reach and who he will need badly next year.

Bill Hiznay—a registered Democrat who voted for John McCain in 2008 and says he's currently undecided—says the president inherited the terrible U.S. economy, "But we're still going to blame Obama for our misfortunes." Mr. Hiznay, a 58-year-old pipe-mill worker, added: "He's in trouble, no question about it."

Among blue-collar workers nationally, the president's disapproval rating reached 56% last month. Some 49% of union members and union households disapprove of the job Mr. Obama is doing, vs. 45% who approve.

Blue collar America is turning against this administration. Not even three years after Barack Obama was elected as a man who could virtually walk on water, he's being repudiated viciously among voters from left to right. This helps explain why Democrats and union leaders are so combative. It's all slipping away. The mask of "hope and change" is falling off. The electorate's rose colored glasses are off too. I'm getting really excited for next year, no matter who wins the GOP nomination.

DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz on Fox & Friends: Won't Comment on Teamsters Leader's Violent Rhetoric

Nice Deb has the big roundup: "Video: Debbie Wasserman Schultz Also Not Interested In Condemning Violent Anti-Teaparty Rhetoric":

Not only is she out of her league as DNC Chair, she's really nasty woman.

See also at Althouse, "'We got to keep an eye on the battle that we face: The war on workers'."

I realize "let's take these sons of bitches out" can be interpreted to mean let's vote these terrible people out of office. But "take them out" is not an idiomatic expression that corresponds to "vote them out." Take them out? Maybe that's not the phrase he intended to use, but if it was unintended, it was still a gaffe. A revealing gaffe. Unless you're speaking in a positive way — referring to taking someone out on a date, for example — "take them out" is a violent command. With "sons of bitches" right there, it's unmistakably violent. Now, you can say it's only metaphorical, and all Hoffa really wants is to oust these people from office.

But it was only last January that Obama and many other Democrats were saying that violent metaphors, including a simple target on a map, were dangerous incitements for the unstable irrational folk out there.

Also, "Jimmy Hoffa's "Let’s take these sons of bitches out" speech — take 2."

Michael Coren Loves Zionism!

Via Blazing Cat Fur:

President Zero SCOAMF

I was about to look up SCOAMF, but readers supplied encyclopedic linkage at the post.

See The Other McCain: "SCOAMF Nation."

And Dan Collins is looking good!

BONUS: At TOM, "SARAH PALIN IN NEW HAMPSHIRE."

PREVIOUSLY: "President Zero."

Image Credit.

'Better This World'

The New York Times has a review of the PBS broadcast out this week, "Better This World."

See: "Film Is Skeptical About Domestic Efforts on Terrorism." The most interesting thing is how the filmmakers and activists they interviewed are determined to delegitimize the word "terrorism."

The film had an Oscar-qualifying theatrical release here last week, but it will reach many more people when it has its television premiere on Tuesday night on “POV,” the PBS documentary series. Simon Kilmurry, the executive director of “POV,” said it was timed to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

“The legacy of 9/11 is something we’re all living with today, and these are some of the issues that I think tend not to get looked at very closely,” Mr. Kilmurry said.

In a pairing of sorts the next “POV,” on Sept. 13, will show “If a Tree Falls,” a documentary about the Earth Liberation Front, a radical environmental group that set fires and was labeled a domestic terrorist threat by the F.B.I. in 2001. One of its former members, Daniel McGowan, who pleaded guilty to arson charges, says in that film, “People need to question, like, this buzzword” — terrorist — “and how it’s being used and how it’s, like, just become the new ‘communist.’ ” He adds, “It’s a boogeyman word.”

The “Better This World” filmmakers, Katie Galloway and Kelly Duane de la Vega, said they came away from their reporting with a recognition that use of the term “domestic terrorist” had broadened dramatically since the Sept. 11 attacks. “In the media and in the legal realm it’s marshaled for all sorts of political agendas, and it’s complicated,” Ms. Galloway said.

Framing is obviously important, and it can work. Look how frightened people are of being called "racist" even when they're not. Progressive love to attack folks as "racist," but when authorities clamp down on left-wing domestic terrorists, that's a "boogeyman." Typical.

As for Brad Crowder and David McKay, the subjects of the film, they were both idealistic and stupid. They wanted to change the world, got involved in far left-wing causes, and planned a trip to Minneapolis where organizers had planned to "shut the place down." Now how might they do that? By placing flowers in barrels of police shotguns? No, they had planned for streetfighting, even assembling shields and first-aid kits, and when that stuff was confiscated by authorities charged with securing the convention, they screamed "police oppression" and went off to build Molotovs. The only part that's "complicated" is the link to a government informant, Brandon Darby, who had strong creds in radical left circles following Katrina. But he turned state. Crowder and McKay fell under his sway, and some of those in the circle of organizers planned for violence and Crowder and McKay got caught. From Texas, they became known as the "Austin Anarchists." This part's especially good, from Michael May, at the Texas Observer, "The Infamous Austin Anarchists—in Their Own Words." The two carpooled it to Minneapolis, and May picks it up as they got to town:

Things became more testy when the five Austinites pulled into St. Paul. The federal government gave St. Paul $50 million to secure the convention. Authorities raided the homes of activists associated with the RNC Welcoming Committee before the convention started. Darby’s presence in the van assured that the group was under scrutiny. The activists dropped the trailer off at a house so they wouldn’t draw attention, but on the way into the city, the van was stopped by police with their guns drawn. They pulled everyone out of the van and had them lie on the ground before letting them go. Later, when the group returned to the trailer, they found it had been cleared of the shields and the rest of their supplies. The police took them, but didn’t explain their actions or reprimand them.

After the shields were taken, Crowder and McKay decided to make Molotov cocktails in retaliation. “When we got up there, the situation was superheated,” says Crowder. “The police were breaking the law left and right. They broke the law when they searched the trailer. They broke the law when they searched us at gunpoint. The atmosphere is like a military siege. And Brandon Darby has been providing us with his influence, encouraging us to step up our game. So it was confluence of forces and our particular rage and frustration that led us to make a bad decision. We thought, the [police] want to go to the walls; we don’t have to stand for this. We’re going to stand up for ourselves right now. It was an emotional feeling we went through.”

The two got Molotov supplies from a Walmart and a gas station. Within a few hours they were in the bathroom pouring fuel into wine bottles. Crowder says making the Molotovs was thrilling because of their potent symbolism as a revolutionary tool. “It’s a categorical break with official society,” he says. “With the shields, it was illegal, but still in scope of nonviolent resistance. With Molotov cocktails, that’s a flaming middle finger to official society.

"There is no middle ground to Molotov cocktail,” he says. “It’s raw. No good. It’s like with David and Goliath. Molotov cocktails are the proverbial stone. It was all we knew to go to in those times, the first thing in our swirling heads that we stumbled upon.”

They soon calmed down, Crowder says. "The next morning, David and I had slept on it. And we were in a different place. And we knew as heated as it was, it wasn’t the right time. It’s not Egypt. Not Libya. And we decided not to use them.”

When the rest of the group found out about the Molotovs, they confronted Crowder and McKay and told them they had made a terrible decision. One of the group told Darby what was going on and asked him to help stop it. Crowder and McKay left the firebombs in the basement and went to the protest, where they dragged dumpsters into the street and otherwise made a ruckus to stop delegates from reaching the convention. Crowder was arrested and jailed on a misdemeanor.

During that time, Darby and the FBI closed in on McKay. Darby wore a wire and asked McKay about his plans. The conversation wasn’t recorded, but the FBI took notes that state McKay said he planned to throw the Molotovs at a parking lot full of cop cars. McKay now says he was just posturing for Darby. “I didn’t want him to think that I was scared, scared of what was going to happen or afraid of him,” says McKay.

Crowder, who hasn’t spoken to McKay since the day he was arrested, believes that’s the only explanation that makes sense. “David had plenty of opportunity to use those things and never did,” Crowder says. “You got to separate macho talk from actual actions. At end of day, he’s not that guy. He wanted to man up for Brandon.”

McKay and Darby agreed to meet at 2 a.m. to use the Molotovs, but when the time rolled around, McKay blew it off and stopped responding to Darby’s calls and texts. At 4:30 a.m., McKay was awakened by a police officer pointing a rifle at him. He was asleep next to a girl he’d met in St. Paul. In about an hour, he was planning to leave for the airport to fly back to Austin.

McKay took his case to trial, arguing that he’d been entrapped. The trial ended in a hung jury. He added a story that he was eventually forced to admit was a lie, that Darby had directed them to make the Molotovs. McKay eventually pled guilty to making the Molotovs and to perjury. He was sentenced to four years in prison. Crowder pled guilty to possessing the Molotovs and received two years.

Actually, they were rightly convicted. Police informants or not, the two acted on their own. Probably the smartest thing they did was decide against actually throwing Molotovs. But there'll be others. Indeed, thanks to police efforts we've been spared the waves of left-wing revolutionary terrorism for which progressives keep agitating.

David Hillman, Swash Zone Libel-Blogger, Wishes GOP Happy Labor Day: 'F*** You, Republicans!!!'

Isn't that a nice touch of national unity for the holiday?



From progressive libel-blogger David Hillman, at The Swash Zone, "Fuck You, Republicans!!!"



I thought progs were supposed to be all about civility? Seriously. A couple of co-nihilists even call out David Hillman, a.k.a. (O)CT(O)PUS, in the comments, and the libel-blogging loser offers this pathetically hypocritical response:

Frankly, I expected a negative response to this post, and undoubtedly there will be more criticism to come … even, I suspect, from fellow creatures of the Swash Zone. Why did I post this, you ask?



Yes, the GOP has been ruthless; and no, I never wanted to stoop this low.



However, the American public is paying a terrible price with no end in sight. Broken marriages, broken families, and blighted neighborhoods due to lost jobs, lost homes, and depravation unworthy of this country. Real human suffering, yet the Republicans think balancing the Federal budget is more important than human health, safety and welfare. Worst of all, Republicans are holding the nation hostage to gain every possible partisan advantage - rather than addressing the full scope of this human catastrophe. I call this a callous disregard bordering on evil!



Republicans seek the elimination of these programs: The Departments of Education and Health and Human Services, the EPA, FEMA, Medicare, Social Security, all public defined-benefit pension and retirement accounts, union rights, food safety inspections, and now ... Hurricane Hunter flights.



HOW CAN ANYONE REMAIN CIVIL ANY LONGER? I can’t and I won’t! Mutual respect has won us nothing. If pushback is what it takes, then pushback is what they’ll get.

Sheesh. That ought to make Thomas Hobbes proud, nasty and brutish, you think??!!



But despair not my good conservatives! The thread turns supportive, and (O)CT(O) gets some combative huzzahs from Captain 'Can't Go Long' Fogg:

For my part, I think the moral, decent, modest high road goes nowhere, as much as it pains me to say that. If someone is going to rob me, I can't afford to worry about getting my clothes wrinkled and muddy. If we are fighting for our lives and freedom; if it's us against the Devil, I'm not going to politely ask the honorable Mr. Satan to be reasonable and accommodating, I'm going to ridicule and expose, persecute and prosecute by any legal means at my disposal. I'm not going to let people get away with seditious lies and that of course would be just what the damn Republicans would wish for -- for us to be all cozy and decorous and polite while they invade our personal liberty and reduce our civilization to an oppressive and brutal state with workhouses, debtor's prisons, disease and starvation.

Goodness! Make way for Fogg -- that Extenze must have some horrific side effects!



But of course, this is nothing new. All these guys do is offer sick platitudes, like the president, simply to end up proving themselves a bunch of bleedin' liars. See: "Swash Zone's Cyber-Bully Harassment Escalates!," and "Libel Blogger David Hillman (Swash Zone) Workplace Harassment Fail." And recall this is exactly the kind of "civility" we've long been used to from W. James "Costanza" Casper = RACIST = Repac3, longtime ally and hate-blogging recruiter to (O)CT(O)PUS:

What a fuckin’ dick.



There’s just no other way to say it…



Donalde Douglass is an embarrassment to… …well… …pretty much every lump of mashed potatoes he sticks his dick in…



Pathetic.

Stay classy, progressive hatemongers.

BWHAHAHA!! — Charles Johnson Sycophant Killgore Trout Whines Over 'Shocking Heartlessness of Conservatives'

This is hilarious, especially for its utter predictability.

I found this post from Little Green Footballs at my Sitemeter: "Is Erick Erickson Ashamed of His Fellow Creationists?" That's a Google link, but click through at the top result and scroll down to comment #19, and voilà!, there's cud-munching Killgore Trout blabbering on about my horrible --- HORRIBLE!! ---- insensitivity:

The always shocking heartlessness of conservatives. Instapundit links to this update on the man who died from a dental problem because he couldn't afford treatement: 24-Year-Old Cincinnati Man Dies of Toothache After Brilliantly Filling His Pain Medication Prescription Instead of Antibiotics.

And with LGF being completely infested with progressive robots, Little Green Troll Gus 802 decided to look up my employer information on Google. Checking back at that top link, and scrolling down to comment #44, we see this:

Consider the source. American Power is a blog written by Donald Douglas who teaches history at Long Beach City College. He probably has a dental plan payed for by the California community college system. Another one living off the government system yet constantly railing against the machine.

Gus 802's not too smart, of course. I teach political science, not history. Duh. And not only that, I'm not "living off the government" but employed by a public college --- big difference. But playing along with the stupidity, I wasn't "living off the government" until I was 39-years-old. In fact, back when I was 28, living in Fresno and unemployed, I started having pain along the gums at the back of my mouth. Turns out my molars were inflamed and the dentist recommended I have all four of my wisdom teeth pulled. That was going to include full anesthesia (going under for the procedure) as well. Total cost was to be $750. And you know what, I put it on credit and paid down the balance out of pocket. And I'm insured now --- not because someone is sponsoring me on the dole, but because I spent 13 YEARS IN COLLEGE earning three political science degrees and landing a job in my field as a professor --- and that's after I beat out over 150 candidates for my position when I applied. So, yeah, LGF dickwads, I'm hardly gonna start bawling about a guy who refused to dig down deep for $27 for some antibiotics. Besides, the comments on this have been pure gold, for example, this one, from Adjoran:

I thought Yglesias and the leftists were all about evolution and Darwin.



They should be hailing his decision to cleanse the gene pool of those too dumb to deal with an abscess even after consulting a doctor.

That's gotta be the perfect response to an epic airhead LGF entry entitled: "Is Erick Erickson Ashamed of His Fellow Creationists?"



RELATED: "Charles Johnson Browbeat Forbes' Abigail Esman After She Correctly Noted That Anders Breivik Voluminously Cited Little Green Footballs."



P.S. When I get back to work on Tuesday, I'm won't to be surprised to find that these lowlifes contacted my college. Recall, back in January, Gus 802 tweeted Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Governor Jerry Brown hoping to get Patterico fired.



Classic. That's what progressives do. And this time I'll be ready for it.

More on Larry Derfner

See the reaction from readers at Jerusalem Post, "Firing a ‘Post’ columnist – the pros and cons." The responses are compelling and surprisingly compassionate. No doubt folks crave a full airing of opinions, although I think the one line of criticism worthy of even deeper consideration is the idea that Derfner had stopped making reasoned arguments and had become basically an attack dog against everything he hated. If so, perhaps Jerusalem Post might have waited until the controversy died down and then quietly given Derfner notice that his brand of invective commentary was no longer in tune with the expectations of quality writing at the publication. As I noted on Monday, what's bothersome is not so much Derfner's views, but that they were so well accepted on the anti-Israel left. That is, progressive widely endorse the idea that Israeli civilians deserve to die. That thought seems alone to be beyond rational discourse, and perhaps to the realm of simply terrorist agitation. Even the New York Times offers a super sympathetic report on Derfner, "Israeli Columnist Is Fired for Writing That Palestinian Terrorism Is ‘Justified’." Checking the essay one finds a link to Dimi Reider despicable essay (cited at my entry on Monday) offering massive historical lies to justify Derfner's commentary. I know it's the Times, but some reporters are still doing a good job, and I normally enjoy Robert Mackey's blogging at The Lede. He fell short on this one though, omitting some of the more heated criticism of Derfner's perfidy.



And see Barry Rubin's comments, "Larry Derfner Should Be Debated, Not Fired." Rubin says it's not left or right but truth versus lies (to which I disagree, with reference, for example, to the comments at New York Times, where again we see how entrenched is leftist progressive anti-Semitic bloodlust). That said, Rubin's right: Derfner shouldn't have been fired over this.



BONUS: Check Camera's post, and follow the links for additional commentary, "Larry Derfner Will Not Be Rattling The Cage Anymore at the Jerusalem Post."

Larry Derfner Fired by Jerusalem Post

Well, let's go straight to the source: "I got fired by the Jerusalem Post today."

I got fired by The Jerusalem Post today. The paper got hundreds of notices of cancellations of subscription after my blog post (“The awful, necessary truth about Palestinian terror”) of Sunday last week; the reason being given for my firing, though, is the substance of the essay, despite the apology I published later. A page-one notice to this effect will be published in the Post tomorrow.

The pro-terror Mondoweiss has the full essay, "Read the post for which Derfner was fired: "‘The awful, necessary truth about Palestinian terror’."



Jawa Report applauds: "Jerusalem Post Writer Larry Derfner Fired for Justifying Palestinian Terror."



And here's this, from Isi Leibler, "Justifying Murder – An Abomination" (at Memeorandum):

Derfner is an Israeli Jew professionally employed by the only English-language newspaper in Israel. For him to justify the barbaric murder of his own brothers and sisters on a public website represents the ultimate abomination. It is unforgiveable.



Presumably in response to massive protests directed against him, Derfner “apologized” a week after his article appeared and deleted it from his website. However, he had the chutzpah to reiterate the justification for terrorism, merely stating that he does not endorse the murder of fellow Israelis. This is neither a retraction nor an apology.



His obscene and callously insensitive remarks are likely to haunt him for the rest of his life.

Some may question Derfner's dismissal (I'm not bothered by it, but I wouldn't have called for his firing). What bothers me is that Derfner's ideas are frankly mainstream among the Israel-hating left. That is, Derfner was only stating publically the exact thoughts of the progressive Israel-delegitimation industry. See, for example, Dimi Reider's obscene endorsement of Derfner, and his claim that it's Caroline Glick who should be fired: "Jerusalem Post fires Larry Derfner over blog post." And there's more than 50 comments at Mondoweiss as this post goes live, almost all in support of Derfner. I mean seriously, it's like bloodlust:

For wannabe international lawyers, I can’t overemphasize that at times, attacks on civilians are perfectly legal and legitimate. The proper language is “protected non-combatants.” Jewish Zionist settler-colonists in the Occupied Territories cannot be considered protected non-combatants by any stretch of the imagination.

And Phillip Weiss enters the comments to add:

Larry, are you out there, do you want to post any response to the many comments at this site? Let me emphasize, you have my great sympathy on this occasion, and I like to think that your best work will flow from this very painful and upsetting incident...

So, again, while I wouldn't have called for Derfner's termination, it's clear that his words were not only incitement to terrorism, but that his views are perfectly representative of the progressive, neo-communist left's eliminationist ideological agenda. And once again, this is what I point out repeatedly at this blog. It's not leftist opposition to Israeli policies. It's leftist opposition to Israel and the Jews. It's the dawn of the new Shoah. And I will stand up against these satanic progressive fuckers as long as I live.

The Desperation-of-Deprivation Myth

From Mark Steyn, at National Review, "The West has incentivized non-productivity on an industrial scale" (via Glenn Reynolds).



Just go read it all.