On the other hand Glenn Kessler (hardly an unbiased type) gave Obama's claim "4 Pinocchio's" in his WaPost factchecker column.
Westerners who have treated places like Dubai as tourist playgrounds and who have engaged in willful blindness regarding its blatant antisemitism share a large part of the blame. Why are international sports events held in such places?
One minor correction: "Orthodox Judaism" does not have "halakhic guidelines preventing certain actions that would be sanctioned by a plain reading of the Torah so as to guard against transgressing biblical laws." Judaism has these guidelines, applying to all Jews. Just because the vast majority of Jews have chosen to disregard halachah does not mean it only applies to Orthodox Jews.
Christie should have fought the decision even if he thought he would lose. He has very little credibility left with conservatives and this won't help. In fact, it's hard to shake the notion that the man doesn't have any real principles beyond getting himself elected and reelected. This is not someone we want potentially leading the party.
Some more sensible comments by Bill Kristol: "But are Republicans still going mostly in the right direction? Conventional wisdom and current snap polling may suggest no, but I think the answer is yes. It's true that there have been unforced Republican tactical errors and that there will now be unnecessary intra-Republican recriminations. Still, Republican efforts over the last weeks have reminded the electorate that it is the Democrats who are the party of 1) the nightmare of Obamacare, 2) the burden of the ever-increasing public debt, and 3) the arrogance of Washington, D.C. Those reminders are worth a lot. So while the GOP has paid some price in the recent skirmishes, the greater price, I suspect, will end up being borne by Democrats."
Paul received somewhat favorable coverage because the press agreed with his viewpoint on surveillance. The point remains the same - if you take a liberal point of view on an issue you will receive favorable, even fawning coverage.
They had ample time to cover this and indeed the NYTimes was covering him pretty extensively in the last month or so. This was buried for obvious reasons and even now it is spun in as positive a way as possible. Imagine the media firestorm if a GOP front-runner had ties to fascist tyrants.
This also says much about the MSM. Why are we just hearing about this now? NYC is heading for a steep fall.
Rand Paul is a very dangerous figure and needs to be marginalized within the GOP. It's amazing to me how he has gained such a large following even among some in the mainstream. The Paul's and Amash's etc. have more in common with the "wingnut" left than they do with Nat'l Security, pro-Israel minded conservatives.
Let's face it: This president has taken his office and weakened it to a point not seen since the days of the Carter administration. All of us will reap the consequences. Watching some of the 9/11 coverage today I was reminded of the resolve and decisiveness of W., so cheaply reviled at that time by his political opponents. I miss him.
As for the "pinprick" statement in Obama's speech it's clear that someone at the WH has been reading Krauthammer, who used that very term to mock Obama's approach in a WP column.
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Contraption