I've been concerned over Obama's dealings globally in re: our relationship with Israel and his recent snub of Prime Minister Netanyahu was, to my mind, a huge mis-step. Until I read an interesting post by Glenn Reynolds. The Blogfather posits: Obama expects Israel to strike Iran, and wants to put distance between the United States and Israel in advance of that happening. (Perhaps he even thinks that treating Israel rudely will provoke such a response, saving him the trouble of doing anything about Iran himself, and avoiding the risk that things might go wrong if he does). On the most optimistic level, maybe this whole thing is a sham, and the U.S. is really helping Israel strike Iran, with this as distraction.

The question for readers is which of these — not necessarily mutually exclusive — explanations is most plausible.

If it doesn't fit the narrative it doesn't get reported. But thanks to the miracle of Al Gore's little invention those of us who care, who pay attention, who can still think can remember.

Jim Treacher has the audio of the Jean Schmidt threat.

Leftist death threats against Bush at protests.

Then, of course, there was Craig Kilborn’s “Snipers Wanted” moment.

Death threats to Palin on Twitter.

Rep. Michele Bachmann Says Her Property Was Vandalized & She Received Threats (Video).

Then there's the extremist rhetoric of Courtland Milloy.

And of course there are the very words of the President himself. During his presidential campaign, Barack Obama didn’t shy away from confrontation. In fact, he encouraged it by telling supporters to “argue with” opponents and to “get in their face[s].” The Obama Administration’s confrontational tone included some violent imagery last August, when one White House official encouraged Obama supporters to “punch back twice as hard” against opponents.

Later that day, at an anti-ObamaCare rally in St. Louis, a black man named Kenneth Gladney was handing out “Don’t Tread on Me” flags when he was approached by pro-ObamaCare SEIU union members. One of the men asked Gladney, “What kind of n*%%er are you to be giving out this kind of stuff?”

The union thugs then beat him so badly he required overnight hospitalization.

HATE-FILLED ELIMINATIONIST RHETORIC FROM NEW HAMPSHIRE DEMOCRAT NICK LEVASSEUR: “Hunting neo-conservative Reaganites” as a firearms hobby?

James Cameron: Shoot Climate ‘Deniers.’

In closing Paul Krugman Almost Gets One Right. "... if you care about America's future, you can't be happy as extremists take full control of one of our two great political parties.”

Let's take a look at real poliical violence. We don't even need to mention the millions of babies killed every year by progressives or even the tens of millions of people murdered by their communist heroes.  

• It was not the fear of conservative violence that caused Ann Coulter's speech to be cancelled this week.

• It was a liberal who bit the finger off a man who disagreed with him on healthcare.

• It was Obama-supporting Amy Bishop who took a gun to work and murdered co-workers.

• Joseph Stack flew his plane into the IRS building after writing an anti-conservative manifesto.

• It was liberals who destroyed AM radio towers outside of Seattle.

• It's liberals who burn down Hummer dealerships.  

• It was progressive SEIU union thugs who beat a black conservative man who spoke his mind.

• It's doubtful that a conservative fired shots into a GOP campaign headquarters.

• In fact, Democrats have no monopoly on having their offices vandalized.

• Don't forget it was Obama's friend Bill Ayers who used terrorism as a tool for political change. SDS is still radical, with arrests in 2007 and the storming of the CATO Institute in July 2008.

• It was a liberal who was sentenced to two years for bringing bombs and riot shields to the Republican National Convention in 2008.

• It was a liberal who threatened to kill a government informant who infiltrated her Austin-based group that planned to bomb the RNC.

• It was liberals who assaulted police in Berkeley.

• It was liberals who intimidated and threw rocks through the windows of researchers.

• The two Black Panthers who stood outside polls intimidating people with nightsticks were probably not right-wingers.

• Every time the G20 gets together, it's not conservatives who destroy property and cause chaos. 

Slightly off topic Publius notes, over at Big Government: Hey Democrats, if you are worried about an angry public, how about not passing a sweeping government expansion opposed by 70% of the public. Just a thought.

A few more? REMEMBERING WHEN G.O.P. Offices Were Vandalized: “An apparent mob of vandals attacked the North Carolina Republican Party headquarters, causing minor smoke damage, breaking windows and leaving vulgar messages, police said.” I don’t remember a national panic over this, or over the bullet-riddled Bush/Cheney headquarters.

Then there was this episode. And, of course, this: “A group of protestors stormed and then ransacked a Bush-Cheney headquarters building in Orlando, Fla., Tuesday, according to Local 6 News.”

CHANGE: “Without a location outside the United States for sending prisoners, the administration must resort to turning the suspects over to foreign governments, bringing them to the U.S. or even killing them. In one case last year, U.S. special operations forces killed an Al Qaeda-linked suspect named Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan in a helicopter attack in southern Somalia rather than trying to capture him, a U.S. official said. Officials had debated trying to take him alive but decided against doing so in part because of uncertainty over where to hold him, the official added.”

This sickens and saddens me.

I've been quiet since the Monday morning vote. Here are a few observations:

“WE MAKE ‘EM UP AS WE GO ALONG:” I’m guessing that this Alcee Hastings video will appear in a few political ads this fall . . . .Background here. And doesn’t it say a lot about this Congress that a guy who was kicked off the bench for corruption — by a Democratic-controlled Congress, no less — is now on the Rules Committee?

JOHN CONYERS: ObamaCare Gets Its Constitutional Authority From The “Good and Welfare Clause.” I’m sure that it’s somehow racist or something to point out that there’s no such thing . . . .

Via Ed Morrissey at Hot Air, we find John Dingell of Michigan admitting that the purpose of Obamacare is to control the American people:

DR. MILTON WOLF: REP DENNIS MOORE (D-KS) FINALLY CORNERED. ADMITS NOT READING BILL. So I guess he didn’t know about the “tampon tax,” either . . . .Susan Bentley writes: “They can call it the Ko-tax.” Heh.

If one looks hard enough one can always find interesting coincidences. Yesterday's noting of the anniversary of Henry V taking the throne of England being an example. But for the Troika of Obama-Pelosi-Reid the hits just keep coming. TODAY is the anniversary of the passage of the Stamp Act in 1765. It was eventually repealed.

On my HS and college track teams I anchored the 4x400 relay team. That's the last event. Which meant the 3-4 times per year the outcome of the meet came down to me with a stick in my hand. I learned a lesson very early in HS. A meet came down to me. Several upperclassmen were giving me crap about not letting the team down. The coach (who'd been a lineman at OSU) called a team meeting in the middle of the meet. He pointed out that our shot putter had fouled on his best throw and finished 2^nd. Our #2 pole vaulter made a hinky little technical error and ended up 4^th instead of 3^rd. These fouls took place 2 ½ hours before the 4x400. Had either of those seniors not screwed up this sophomore would not have the outcome of the meet in his hands.

We won. And not by much. But we learned that EVERY point is the “winning” point in a close meet.

And so tonight EVERY vote was the 216^th vote.

found this strip a few weeks ago....it's not bad but I can't recommend it yet, although occasionally it ROX!  Like this offering:

The little Catholic school girl obviously botched her lessons but figures we ignorant proles won't know any better.