Saying what you see

datechguy

Am I the only guy that things that Joe the Plumber will make a better reporter than most of the MSN when it comes to the Gaza war?

Morning Joe thought it was a joke as does Israellycool. I don’t think so.

A good reporter, reports on what he actually sees, a regular person also tends to recognize bull when he sees or hears it.

He will also have one big advantage of major news networks. Any retaliation by terrorists for reporting they don’t like would be directed at him, a single target. Major networks and news bureaus have people all over the world. It isn’t hard to target them.

Mini Morning Joe

datechguy

With a job interview out of town later today and a car that will need serious deicing I won’t have much blogging time later so here are my quick Morning Joe thoughts today.

Morning Joe thinks as highly of Harry Reid’s staying power as Jane Hamsher does.

During the conversations concerning the war in Gaza and the rockets from Lebanon the word was always Iran this and Iran that, not Lebanon this, not Gaza this, not Hamas this, not Hizbullah, but Iran. It is a given that this is totally an Iranian play.

The cover of Time Magazine saying Israel can’t win is very funny. They didn’t call Time on it at all, but Israel in in a bad spot.

The consensus is that the Bush / Obama transition is a class act. Other than Mika Brzezinski the club seems to think that none of the ex presidents want to stand next to Jimmy Carter.

They will have to have a daily segment called “What must Martha Stewart think?” since they bring that up every time someone who deserves jail more than she did comes up.

It will be an interesting 2-4 years

datechguy

The Firedog lake link brings up a point that will make things interesting.

With a large majority in the house, the presidency in hand and nearly 60 votes in the senate it will be very hard for the democratic party to not have responsibility for all that happens.

Even more importantly the angry left blogs will have a hard time blaming the GOP for failures, mistakes and agendas either enacted or ignored.

It will be fun to have them try to twist this without the usual venom.

Hotair’s quote of the day for Jan 6th illustrates this:

“There’s a left-wing tradition of being systematically opposed to the U.S. government, knee-jerk reactionary – most of our presidents have made it fairly easy to do,” said Jo Freeman, author of “At Berkeley in the Sixties,” a memoir of her student activism. “Those who view everything the U.S. does as automatically suspect already have a problem doing that with Obama.”…

I think they won’t be able to help themselves.

I wish I wrote this

datechguy

Jane Hamsher writes a line that I wish I did:

I want to play poker with Harry Reid. Really I do.

There is a touch concerning evil republicans but she knows the difference between a political pro and amateur night:

Blago laughs out loud. This is amateur night in Dixieland. He leaks to the press that he spoke with Reid before the election, and that Reid didn’t think any of the African American candidates vying for the seat were “electable,” while Tammy Duckworth was. He stirs up the potential jury pool and makes Reid look like an idiot — the day before Reid is set to appear on Meet the Press.

Reid looks like a cat in a room full of rocking chairs on Meet the Press. Nobody knows how much Fitz has (not even Fitz, who is still trying to transcribe his tapes) or how much he’ll need to reveal to prove his case, so Reid says he “doesn’t remember” his conversation with Blago, but calls Blago a liar anyway. When asked if he supported Jesse Jackson Jr. for the Senate seat, he says he would support JJJ. And admits that there’s “room to negotiate” on Burris

Blago is of the Bill Clinton audacity school of politics, he also understands that political power is a muscle, when you use power you gain more.

She is also right that Reid’s history should not inspire confidence in the Democratic Caucus he is no LBJ.

Don’t forget that despite the lack of reporting on the subject the democratic congress has a lower approval rating than President Bush and has for quite a while.

Via glenn and company.

The Logical Counter move by Iran

datechguy

Reports this morning of Rockets coming from Lebanon into Israel were only surprising in the sense that it took so long for Iran to open the 2nd front.

However Hamas is denying that they have anything to do with it, the “Government” of Lebanon has condemned it and Hizbullah denies that it has anything to do with it.

I’m not sure I buy it, very little happens in Lebanon without the consent of Hizbullah/Syria/Iran. It could be a sip of coffee to see what Israel will do. They may be allowing it on the condition that they have plausible deniability.

I still maintain it is the logical counter move, particularly with Hamas getting handed its rear in the south. There is no way that Hamas can give in without losing face, a 2nd front would allow them to try to get additional concessions from Israel to save face.

I have no idea what is going to happen next.

Nope this one is real

datechguy

Muqata and snapped shot saw a photo that didn’t look right to them so they went to the blog that can spot a phony a mile away. LGF. Charles Johnson is an unabashed supporter of Israel and an enemy of all things Jihad. He is also an honest man:

It’s always good to question and criticize photos such as this, because as we’ve learned, occasionally an outright fake will come through the wires.

But in this case the picture is indisputably genuine—because here’s the same explosion photographed from the opposite point of view at about the same time, with the same flying debris and at least one of the same buildings, by a different photographer: Nikola Solic for Reuters.

It speaks very well for Johnson that he won’t sell his honor, not even for a propaganda edge in war.

This is clever

datechguy

According to Sarkozy. It looks like the Israeli’s have accepted the French sponsored peace plan that has been signed off on by Egypt, the US and most significantly the Palestinian Authority.

However one very important party doesn’t accept it; Hamas, per Israellycool and Ynet:

Osama Hamdan, a Hamas representative in Lebanon, said that the Egyptian-French Gaza Strip ceasefire initiative is unacceptable and that new ideas should be discussed

This looks like another crazy like a fox move:

Next, the French and Egyptians appear to have gotten the message about Hamas. The communique appears to go out of its way to exclude Hamas, and the truce principles agreement comes from Hamas’ political opponents/enemies in Fatah. They may want to smooth the path to restore the authority of the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority in Gaza after three years of Hamas rule, at a time when Gazans may finally welcome the change.

Unless the Israelis want to reoccupy Gaza, they need some sort of political resolution to the conflict. Their biggest worry is the Iranian proxy Hamas. If they can get Hamas out of Gaza and the West Bank, that will be a huge victory for Israel and for the Palestinians in the long run. It will be an even bigger defeat for Iran, which is why the French and Egyptians want to make these arrangements.

Knocking Iran out of Gaza however wouldn’t solve everything as yourish.com and soccerdad reminds us:

Fatah is moderate relative to Hamas. It wasn’t Hamas that rejected the peace deal at Camp David in 2000. Abbas didn’t object to Arafat’s rejection either. A few months of dong what they should have been doing for 15 years, doesn’t mean that they’ve changed.

One might say that Fatah’s primary goal is theft and secondary goal is the destruction of Israel, Hamas has it the other way around. People forget that one of the reasons why Hamas managed to win that election was the massive corruption of the PA under Fatah. There is no reason to believe that would change if they took over in Gaza but it would be at least a relative improvement and depending on if Fatah has learned anything a significant improvement.

For the US the focus off of Gaza and back on Iran would be very good. The president elect wouldn’t mind having this stop before the 20th either.

Accepting this gives Israel a huge propaganda advantage. As long as Hamas doesn’t accept the plan they can smash them up Phil Sheridan style (well maybe not Sheridan style) citing Hamas’ failure to go along. If Hamas does eventually agree it can’t be seen as anything but a defeat that will discredit them with other Arabs.

Why this isn’t touted on the IDF Spokesperson’s blog is beyond me.

Ceasefire?

datechguy

Morning Joe has reported as breaking news an agreement in principle to a cease fire that stops rockets and prevents smuggled weapons.

I’m not seeing it anywhere else yet.

People not getting killed is always a big plus, but if true I can’t see how it will work. The international force in Lebanon is a farce. Any such force that is in Gaza that did not enforce bans on arms smuggling or stop rocket launches would just become human shields. Any such force that was willing to actively stop either would be a target for Hamas and their Iranian allies. They would have to go in ready to fight.

Anyways we will see.

About as redundant as you can get

datechguy

Christopher Hitchens is worth reading today.

This is a sentience that can be written any day of any week of any year. I can’t help but like him, when he is right he is right on and when he is wrong he is wrong honest. He is one of the best writers out there.

Although he would resent it I can’t help but pray for him.