Also, ASA's new individual membership numbers may not be what they seem....
1. Auschwitz trip: ‘I have no regrets,’ says Palestinian professor Professor Mohammed Dajani took 27 Palestinian college students to visit the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland a few weeks ago as part of a project designed to teach empathy and tolerance to both Palestinians and...
Pat Roberts voted to confirm Sebelius....
China's property bubble has already started to burst as the country struggles to avoid a hard-landing after the housing market became overheated with soaring prices. China's commercial and residential property sectors are not doing well, especially in the city of Hangzho, which has "become the symbol of a market in distress", according to Forbes. The world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart, is closing its Zhaohui store in Hangzhou on April 23 as a part of its overall plan to dump unprofitable locations. The sale of the large store comes as the city has too much supply of commercial properties, according to Forbes. Hangzhou's Grade A office buildings at the end of 2013 had an average occupancy rate of 30%, according to real estate broker Jones Lang LaSalle. In Hangzhou's residential sector, occupancy is weak and prices are declining due to massive overbuilding.All of this was predicted here, back in 2012 when Elizabeth Warren insisted that we needed to be more like China. And I said, Elizabeth Warren apparently never heard of the Chinese bubble and Stimulus:
From Phil: My wife got this picture yesterday just outside the Independence Mall in Kingston, Ma. ...
In the first Ukrainian military action against a pro-Russian uprising in the east, government forces said they repelled an attack Tuesday by about 30 gunmen at a small airport. The clash came hours after Ukraine's acting president, Oleksandr Turchynov, had announced an "anti-terrorist operation" against the armed, pro-Russian insurgents who had seized control of numerous buildings in at least nine cities in Ukraine's restive east. The central government has so far been unable to rein in the insurgents, who it says are being stirred up by paid operatives from Russia. The insurgents are demanding broader autonomy and closer ties with Russia, and, complicating the political landscape, many local security forces have switched to their side. The clashes Tuesday came at Kramatorsk airport, just south of the city of Slovyansk, which is 160 kilometers (100 miles) from the Russian border. The city has come under the increasing control of the gunmen who seized it last weekend. The precise sequence of events in Kramatorsk was mired in confusion amid contradictory official claims.The BBC, which had a reporter in Kramatorsk, indicated that an angry crowd had gathered outside the airbase, while a group still remained later and chanted slogans in favor of referendum. Reports of casualties were still unclear at the time of this writing, as the AP noted.
Journalist market bubble already showing signs of bursting?...
PPP's newest Texas poll finds Republicans leading by double digits in all of the state's major races for 2014. In the Governor's race Greg Abbott's at 51% to 37% for Wendy Davis. Those numbers are largely unchanged from our last poll of the state in early November when Abbott had a 50/35 advantage. Davis had a 39/29 favorability rating right after her famous filibuster last June, but since then voters in the state have mostly moved toward having negative opinions about her and now she's at a 33/47 spread. Davis' name recognition is actually 12 points higher than Abbott's, but his reviews break down favorably with 40% having a positive view of him to 27% with a negative one.As Logan Churchwell points out at Breitbart.com, Davis even is losing among female voters, 49-41 percent.
Here are some PPP internals that Davis has a net negative favorability with women, in comparison to Abbott who has net positive favorability:
Dramatic changes in questions by Census Bureau makes measuring Obamacare (in)effectiveness more difficult...
Assuming Cross [aka Glenn Miller] linked to Blumenthal’s conspiracy theories about the 2012 election, would that mean Blumenthal is responsible for the Overland Park shooting? Absolutely not. Is the intersection between neo-Nazi and anti-Zionist conspiracy theories worthy of examination? Absolutely. We have seen in Europe in particular how anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism go hand-in-hand, often based on conspiracy theories about Jewish and Israeli influence. [image omitted] Those types of consipiracy theories regarding the alleged manipulations of Jewish money and interests are as old as hate itself. That is a fair subject of discussion. I wonder if the mainstream media will go there, as it did in the Norway shooting.Others are more direct in drawing the connection between the shooter's adoration of Blumenthal's anti-Zionist conspiracy theories and the shooting, in part perhaps because Blumenthal tried to lay blame on some of them for the Norway shooting (Pipes, Geller):
The left likes to argue that since there's no significant amount of voter fraud there's no need for voter ID laws, and that those who support them are inherently racist. But wouldn't even one case of voter fraud be an abomination that should offend all liberty-loving...
For not just one alone has risen against us to destroy us, but in every generation they rise against us to destroy us; and the Holy One, blessed be He, saves us from their hand!These quotes are getting to be a tradition:
Short all-purpose "Jewish History in One Sentence":This seems unfortunately timely: Does it get any better than this?“Quick synopsis of every Jewish holiday: They tried to kill us; we won; let’s eat.”Particularly timely now, Passover Is No Time To Wish For The End Of Christian America:Nothing has changed in thousands of years. They still rise up in every generation to destroy us, but this time the names are not Haman or Adolf, but Mahmoud and Osama. And on this earth, it will be Christian Americans almost alone who will stand with us. I’m reminded of the bumper sticker from the 1960′s: “If you hate cops, next time you are in trouble call a hippie. ” Jews, of all people, should not wish too hard for The End of Christian America. There is no one else to call. So particularly at this Passover time, we should not wish too hard for the End of Christian America. We might just get it.
A Russian fighter jet made several passes at low altitude near a US destroyer cruising in international waters in the Black Sea at the weekend, the Pentagon said Monday, branding it "provocative and unprofessional." The incident close to the Romanian coast further heightens tensions already inflamed by Russia's actions in Ukraine, where Moscow annexed the Crimean peninsula and stands accused of stoking unrest. The US vessel was sent to the Black Sea on April 10 in a show of Washington's solidarity with its Eastern European NATO allies concerned about Russia's actions. Colonel Steven Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, said: "On April 12, a Russian Su-24 made numerous close-range, low-altitude passes in the vicinity of the USS Donald Cook, while the Cook was conducting operations in international waters in the western Black Sea. "The aircraft did not respond to multiple queries and warnings from Donald Cook. The event ended without incident after approximately 90 minutes." He added: "This provocative and unprofessional Russian action is inconsistent with international protocols and previous agreements on a professional interaction between our militaries."Another military official who spoke anonymously to AFP described that during some of its passes, the plane had come close to less than 1,000 meters from the ship. Tensions of course have been high throughout the continuing crisis in Ukraine, especially after recent conflicts in eastern Ukraine where pro-Russia militants had seized several government and security buildings over the weekend. The incidents prompted the Ukraine government to issue a deadline for protesters to disarm and vacate buildings and the announcement of an anti-terrorist operation. But by Monday, pro-Russia forces did not appear to be backing down, with reports of yet another building being taken over - this time in Horlivka - and the continued occupation of other buildings in eastern Ukraine, according to CNN.
.... I am an advocate for many people the government would like to silence or put in jail: Palestinian freedom fighters, Muslim preachers, North American natives living on Indian reservations, marijuana dealers, anti-war protestors, radical squatters, the homeless, "hacktivists", anti-Zionists and everyone in between. I live my ideology in the job I do, and I try to be aggressive in vindicating the rights of clients. I have challenged the state at every opportunity. I'll keep doing this in the Lower East Side, in Washington, DC, in the International Criminal Court in the Hague, in Israel and in the West Bank and Gaza. It is my passion....Yesterday Cohen released a statement via Twitter to supporters that he would be pleading guilty today. Once again, Cohen maintained the prosecution was political. The statement reads in part:
Note: You may reprint this cartoon provided you link back to this source. To see more Legal Insurrection Branco cartoons, click here. Branco’s page is Cartoonist A.F.Branco...
