GOP Vixen

NRO: Protest crashing the Century Boulevard cop-a-squat

Check out my National Review Online column today that details what I was doing yesterday -- skulking around the union-slash-immigration demonstration near LAX at rush hour.

"It was billed as the biggest act of civil disobedience in Los Angeles history — rivaled only by Californians’ defiant use of appliances during peak hours back in the days of the energy crisis.

In reality, it was street theater in three acts with a confusing plotline. Thursday’s march encouraged unionization of hotel workers at the Hilton near Los Angeles International Airport, coupled with a call for amnesty for illegal immigrants. Or, to put it plainly, unions demanded higher wages for workers, while throwing their weight behind an immigration movement that drives wages down. And all the while thinking that shutting down Century Boulevard into LAX during evening rush hour would endear Angelenos to their cause.

Even better, the march organizers had planned in advance with the Los Angeles Police Department who would get arrested, passing along driver’s license numbers days beforehand to speed booking. Reportedly a handful of would-be arrestees were advised not to show up — presumably because the police had a bit more to charge them with than civil unrest.

I crashed the party, which is becoming a habit of mine. Before the boulevard filled with protesters, I watched from atop a parking garage next to the Hilton; a police officer was doing the same from the roof across the street. The first party arrivals were guests uninvited by the organizers — anti-illegal-immigration demonstrators waved American flags and had their signs and bullhorns at the ready across the street from the Hilton, passing cars honking in support. 'Great day to be an American, eh?' a man wearing a 'Stop illegal immigration now' T-shirt exclaimed as he strode past my perch and down the parking garage stairs.

It was a day for them to be ringed in by the LAPD. When the marchers chanting 'Si se puede' came down the westbound lanes of the palm-lined street, the Minutemen and others were kept on the other side of the eastbound lanes by at least a dozen cops facing them down. When one man with a sign against illegal immigration ventured out of the group and down the sidewalk to make himself better seen to the union demonstrators — but still staying on his side — two cops quickly zoomed up to him, like he’d escaped his cage or something. ..."

Read the whole thing!

WPW: How to win friends and influence people, Hugo style

Check out my World Politics Watch column today on Hugo Chavez, post-U.N. speech and post-chummy-time-with-Danny Glover.

"If there's a sucker born every minute, Hugo Chavez is ticking them off with a stopwatch.

Because a trip to the United Nations is never just that for the Venezuelan president; it's a chance to buy friends.

Friends who would be entranced by his lectern exorcism of "el diablo" George W. Bush, friends willing to go on talk shows to canonize Chavez as humanitarian of the year. His revolutionary lust knows no bounds, but he knows in which city blocks he's most likely to find allies. Like at a Harlem church with self-proclaimed Chavez "brother" Danny Glover, where last week he promised -- in between spouting preschoolish insults about the president -- to double the amount of discounted heating oil offered to poor communities in the United States.

He could take some of that generosity and sink it into his own country, where the poverty rate is about 50 percent and wages have dropped under Chavez's rule, but why waste money buying friends at home when the populace is already firmly under your thumb?

Does Chavez want to be de facto ruler of the United States? In his wildest swashbuckling fantasy, probably. But even more, he seems to want to remain ruler of Venezuela -- indefinitely, yet without the same international isolation endured by mentor Fidel Castro.

... The alliances -- and reasons behind them -- that Chavez wants to buy or bully in Latin America are clear. The logic for international alliances he is forging with every despot on the globe, ranging from Iran to Belarus, combines military strategy and a fondness for anyone spiting the West. These are the kinds of friends that find kinship in Chavez's deity complex and will remain in his court as long as he stays the anti-American course.

But the friends Chavez really wants -- both here and in Europe -- are the same people rallying in the streets against war, Israel, Bush and the leftist cause du jour. ..."

Read the whole thing! And buy a Slurpee today in honor of 7-Eleven's decision to drop its ties with Citgo!

George Allen pretty much a dead duck in 2008

Why? Because not only can he not keep his foot out of his mouth, but he lacks the charisma to get himself out of foot-in-mouth situations. In fact, he seems to have the wrong reaction to everything: When the opponent's camp shows up with a video camera, don't call the guy a name into that video camera. When asked about your Jewish heritage, don't act indignant. I've always thought the man was as boring as watching paint dry and nowhere near the Reagan Part II that many envision him to be, but it's only getting worse. It seems that he digs holes and doesn't do well trying to dig himself out. And if it's like that in a Senate race, it will only get worse in a White House race.

Muslim extremist in UK advertises for three more wives!

Love is in the air, especially for those who hate infidels and dig big holy beards! Into Sharia? Think suicide bombers are the cat's meow? Don't mind a crowded house? Read on!

"The Muslim extremist who heckled Home Secretary John Reid is advertising on a dating website — for three more wives.

Vile Abu Izzadeen, who has hailed the 7/7 bombers as 'completely praiseworthy', is married to one woman and has three children.

But on website Muslimintro.com he says he is looking for a 'second, third or fourth wife' aged 16 to 40 — even though polygamy is illegal in Britain. He hopes to father six more kids with them.

Izzadeen advertises himself as 'witty and sensitive' and 'the life and soul of the party' — and rates his beard as his best feature.

... He headed the radical Islamic Al Ghurabaa group until it was officially banned earlier this year — and has long been linked to jailed hook-handed cleric Abu Hamza."

The Wikipedia entry for Izzadeen says the ad has been removed, but it was probably not due to polygamy being illegal in the UK. The Sun also reports:

"... Muslimintro.com said it had many men among its 14,000 subscribers seeking more wives — and many women who 'want to be a second or third wife'."

Activists try to expose brutal regime

Check out my Los Angeles Daily News column today on the weekend's protests to aid Iranian women:

"Now that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is done presenting himself as a casually attired statesman at the United Nations, done waxing about his regime's noble aims from the lectern of the General Assembly and winning over hearts and minds of the blissfully ignorant, it's time to get back to his regime's daily business of killing people.

 

In a country where women are executed for having sex before marriage — like 16-year-old Ateqeh Rajabi, publicly hanged while the male co-defendant received lashes — or for defending oneself during a rape — such as Nazanin Fatehi, 18, whose execution has been temporarily stayed but whose life is very much still in danger — thousands face the ultimate punishment where a man in the same situation would not.

When Iranian activists around the globe learned that this week was the execution date for Kobra Rahmanpour, a 25-year-old who defended herself when her mother-in-law came at her with a knife, they pulled together in a last-ditch effort to draw attention to her plight and that of so many other women subject to the mullahs' misogynistic whims in Iran.

In Los Angeles, Mariella Hosseini and her daughter, actress Nazanin Boniadi, pulled the rally together within 24 hours, e-mailing thousands in the Persian community and sympathizers. By Sunday afternoon, they'd set up across the street from Fox News headquarters on Bundy Drive with signs bearing photos detailing various tortures, stonings and hangings under the regime. Rallies were also held Sunday in Vancouver and Iran, where Rahmanpour's father has tried hard to bring attention to his daughter's case.

Hosseini and Boniadi picked the location because the greatest challenge faced by activists trying to expose the mullahs' brutal crimes is getting mainstream media attention.

And once you have people's attention, you also face the challenge of educating those unfamiliar with what's really going on in Iran, or those who slap blinders on because all they see is potential conflict that might affect them.

Activist Roya Teimouri, holding a sign bearing faces of the condemned women, urged a passer-by to join their protest — a skeptical listener who had bought into EU-styled rhetoric that fruitful negotiation with Iran is possible.

'We don't want negotiation, we want regime change,' Teimouri said, which elicited a knee-jerk reaction from the passer-by: 'But not like we went into Iraq?'...”

Read the whole thing!

Quote of the day

The wife of Omar al-Farouq, al-Qaida guy gunned down by British forces in Iraq:

"I don't believe that my husband was a terrorist. He is only an ordinary man who cried when he watched movies about violence."

So terrorists cry during "Platoon," but cheer at al-Zarqawi's home beheading movies...

But also from the AP:

"'I was shocked when news broke that my husband was a terrorist wanting to kill many people,' she said, adding that she told her two daughters that their father had gone off to America 'to work.'"

Yeah, daddy went to work at bringing some bridges and airplanes down...

Shinzo Abe new Japanese prime minister

The key questions: does he have nearly enough hair? Should he get a permanent wave, as his predecessor regularly did? Can he really run Japan without Richard Gere-ish locks? Can he sing Elvis on karaoke?

At least he likes the U.S....

Merci faux coup!

So Pakistan's Daily Times, where the dawn of Musharraf's memoirs is the hottest story to be had, had this story today tying Amazon's reduced price to coup rumors in Pakistan:

"Internet book seller Amazon has slashed the price of President Gen Pervez Musharraf’s upcoming biography, ‘In the line of fire’, from $28 to $16 after rumours that the president had serious heart troubles. Gen Musharraf was due in New York late Friday, but changed his plans and flew to Texas, where a rural newspaper reported that the president was in the east Texas town of Paris, and was due to undergo heart surgery. This, combined with a countrywide power breakdown and information blackout in Pakistan, sparked rumours that there had been a coup in Pakistan."

For the record, Pervez says his ticker is fine, that he just went to Texas for a checkup (or to check out Cindy Sheehan?), that the power incidentally went out for long than usual the other day, and he wasn't worried about becoming like Thai guy during his trip to N.Y.

Pervez's book does have a reduced price, but not sure what that has to do with heart/coup rumors. If he was about to be ousted, seems like a memoir called "In the Line of Fire" would sell quite well because the timing would rock. This being the first day of sales, he's at No. 19 on Amazon -- imagine how he could close that gap if Chavez had pitched his book at the U.N.!

Rallies to save Iranian women

On Sunday, Iranian activists rallied in Vancouver, Tehran and right here in Los Angeles to save the lives of women facing execution under the Islamic regime. More on the details later (why spoil my column?) but I was at the L.A. demonstration, across the street from Fox News HQ on Bundy Drive, which was pulled together in 24 hours.

Later I got word of how the Tehran demonstration went -- and let me just say it makes you proud of the Iranian people. A large rally outside the U.N. offices, hundreds of passers-by trying to squeeze past violent riot police -- who had encircled the rally -- to join their brethren in demanding justice. Two of those arrested were student resistance leaders wanted by the regime -- they specifically came to Tehran from other parts of the country to speak up for the women sentenced to execution for killing in self-defense, killing while being sexually assaulted, etc.

A hearty congratulations to everyone, in the three corners of the globe, who stood up in their own way against the mullahs on Sunday, including my fellow Angelenos.

Hey, Clinton, take a valium!

Every time I turn on Fox, they're showing clips of Bill Clinton's whine-fest to Chris Wallace. Also today, I opened my People magazine to see a picture of Clinton celebrating his 60th birthday earlier this month in Canada with a tiered display of cupcakes. How fitting that he celebrated with cupcakes -- he sure enjoyed cupcakes in the White House! And yes, Clinton's irritating hissy fit warrants another reference to his Oval Office boom-boom.