Huffington Post, Bianca Boske – Facebook Group ‘Praying’ For President Obama’s Death Passes One Million Members

The group, which lists its location as “Marysville, OH, 43040,” currently has over 1 million members–Facebook users who say they “like” the group. It includes an album of anti-Obama imagery uploaded by the group’s members–what Facebook labels “fan photos–that show the president against a communist flag, juxtaposed with insulting and derisive captions, or even a cartoon “associating Obama to Hitler.”

The group is called, “DEAR LORD, THIS YEAR YOU TOOK MY FAVORITE ACTOR, PATRICK SWAYZIE. YOU TOOK MY FAVORITE ACTRESS, FARAH FAWCETT. YOU TOOK MY FAVORITE SINGER, MICHAEL JACKSON. I JUST WANTED TO LET YOU KNOW, MY FAVORITE PRESIDENT IS BARACK OBAMA. AMEN.”

Jeff Weintraub, Commentaries and Controversies – How seriously should we take Wall Street whining about the dangers of regulation? (Dan Gross & Adam Smith)

My general rule of thumb is that we should generally ignore what Wall Street has to say about financial regulation. Investment banks lack the common sense to know what’s good for them. The financial sector opposed all the regulations that were good for it in the 1930s—i.e. the advent of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the creation of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. And the regulatory changes it requested and received in the past decade—eroding Glass-Steagall, getting the SEC to permit investment banks to increase their use of leverage—set the stage for the debacle of 2008.

For the past several decades, Wall Street has continually told Washington that if the Street can’t do things the way it always has, and if the government changes the rules to mandate greater transparency and customer protection, that the geniuses in Lower Manhattan won’t be able to make money, and it would stunt the industry. They’ve been wrong every time.

Oliver Kamm – Stuff happens

Kamm offers one of the immediate, partial takes on Gordon Brown’s pre-election PR self-immolation. There are many more points to be made, including, if you watch the video, that from moment one, Brown clearly had no interest in listening to the engaged citizen with opinion. He constantly interrupts her with media-molded campaign speak. Most overlooked and misreported: Gillian Duffy did not say anything bigoted at all, unless any question at all about “immigrants” is bigoted. Read the transcript. Brown is clearly a man with an open mind, the man who schemed for years behind the scenes to bring Tony Blair down so that he might take his place. And lead the Labour Party from power. From a master to a minor.

Harry’s Place, habbibi – The Cageprisoners “Community”

Continued indictment of Cageprisoners, the radical Muslim organization with which Amnesty International partners in the name of human rights. With extensive video evidence.

The New York Times, Mike Soraghan (of Greenwire) – Oil Spill Silences Once-Raucous ‘Drill, Baby, Drill’ Camp

“Drill, baby, drill” is now, “Hush, baby, hush.”

The Republican battle cry that crystallized the growing popularity of offshore drilling has dropped from view since the Deepwater Horizon rig sank last week and the well it drilled started shooting crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

As Democratic opponents of the oil industry stepped up their attacks and demands for a sharp turn away from drilling, Republican leaders in Congress have slipped out of rapid-response mode and are generally holding their tongues.

In fact, BP itself, in its plan for the Deepwater Horizon well, discounted the likelihood of disaster and minimized its potential effects.

BP’s 52-page exploration plan for the Deepwater Horizon well, filed with the federal Minerals Management Service, says repeatedly that it was “unlikely that an accidental surface or subsurface oil spill would occur from the proposed activities.”

And while the company conceded that a spill would impact beaches, wildlife refuges and wilderness areas, it argued that “due to the distance to shore (48 miles) and the response capabilities that would be implemented, no significant adverse impacts are expected.”

So the sophomoric mantra chanters who criticize government and the current leadership demonstrate their own mature, deeply-considered and wise counsel. The same people who advocated privatizing Social Security. (How’s that wall-streety, investy thing workin’ for ya?)  The same people who oppose the Wall Street regulatory bill. (See Weintraub, Jeff, above.)

ShrinkWrapped – Victims of Communism Day

Shrink advocates transforming May Day into a Victims of Communism day, citing the many tens of millions of people who died victims of that ideology.

Communism is an evil ideology that inevitably leads to tyranny and the death of innocents.  Its victims deserve a Day of Remembrance.

I agree. In fact, I’ll cavil a bit. Communism, Marxist-Leninism, (very different from socialism) is not an ideology that “inevitably leads to tyranny and the death innocents.” It is tyranny, committed to the sacrifice of innocents to achieve its ends. The historical associations of May Day cannot any longer in good conscience be ignored.

I’ll make a similar suggestion, as I did in “Aboriginal Sin,” (pdf) that a day of commemoration be instituted, most meaningfully coincident with Columbus Day, to recognize the destruction of indigenous populations and cultures as a direct consequence of the European colonial enterprise. Where the Victims of Communism Day would make a statement, which is not a bad thing (see blogs, all) an Indigenous Peoples Commemoration Day could have a practical effect of working to repair current relationships.

And continuing to draw from the Annals of Jew Were Always on My Mind

John Mearsheimer – The Future of Palestine: Righteous Jews vs. New Afrikaners

Mearsheimer comes completely out of the closet and closes the door behind him, dividing the Jewish world into two three kinds of Jews: good Jews, bad Jews, and the kind who haven’t yet decided whether to be naughty or nice. (Maybe they’re waiting to find out what Santa’s go on order.) The list of good Jews is instructive, largely assimilated and non-identifying if not outright anti-Semitic themselves.

Judeosphere has his take here.

Elder of Ziyon, with an unfortunate slam at liberals, gives his otherwise excellent take too.

From the same inspiration Yaacov Lozowick offer his Long-term Reflections on Jew Hatred

And Judeosphere, again, ponders, the ever renewable nature of “new” anti-Semitisms.

AJA