Blog Heap of Links for the day 29 May 2011

Today Canada demonstrated leadership at the G8 and clobbered Barack Obama and his Israel hating buddies: "Canadian delegation blocks mention of 1967 lines in Group of Eight leaders' joint statement calling Israel, Palestinians to return to peace talks.

Both strategically and ideologically, Netanyahu's speech constituted a massive concession to Obama. The premier had good reason to believe that his speech would preempt any US demand for further Israeli concessions during his visit to Washington. Alas, it was not to be. Instead of welcoming Netanyahu's unprecedented concessions, Obama dismissed them as insufficient as he blindsided Netanyahu last Thursday with his speech at the State Department. There, just hours before Netanyahu was scheduled to fly off to meet him in the Oval Office, Obama adopted the Palestinian negotiating position by calling for Israel to accept that future negotiations will be based on the indefensible — indeed suicidal — 1949 armistice lines. So, just as he was about to board his plane, Netanyahu realized that his mission in the US capital had changed. His job wasn't to go along to get along. His job was to stop Obama from driving Israel's relations with the US off a cliff.

The bullet which killed Yonatan Netanyahu was most likely provided to his killer through the largesse of Andrei Gromyko. The same man to whom Zakaria now compares Yonatan's younger brother, Binyamin. Perhaps Zakaria just hadn't thought of calling Binyamin Netanyahu, the elected leader of a sovereign nation and a stalwart US ally, a talk show slut. With Zakaria's column, it becomes clear that Barack Obama's mainstream media will stoop to any low, no matter how vile or disgraceful or personal, to protect their guy.

Every two to three years, Eddie Sales trims and prunes the crape myrtles at his church, Albemarle Road Presbyterian Church. But this year, the city of Charlotte cited the church for improperly pruning its trees. "We always keep our trees trimmed back because you don't want to worry about them hanging down in the way," said Sales, a church member. The church was fined $100 per branch cut for excessive pruning, bringing the violation to $4,000.

While the People's Republic of China holds over $1.1 trillion of our debt, EPA is busy giving grants to China (see here, here, here, here , here, and here). The Chinese grantees include their Ministry of Environmental Protection. [h/t to http://twitter.com/#!/brandondutcher/statuses/74911828555202560]

A 30-year-old model celebrating her birthday at an Atlanta hotel plunged to her death Saturday after she and a pal crashed through a 10th-floor window while "play wrestling...." Rescuers discovered her friend, who tumbled off that same roof, on an outdoor patio.... in critical condition with several broken bones....

Dressed in black jeans, leather jacket and crash helmet, the 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate joined tens of thousands of bikers in a rally honouring military veterans. [Great pictures] Mrs Palin joined the riders in the Pentagon parking lot before heading to the rally on the Mall in downtown Washington. "Nice to meet you," Mrs Palin told one fellow rider. "Thanks for doing what you're doing for the veterans."

Palin-flamethrower, Geoffrey Dunn of the Huffington Post released The Lies of Sarah Palin: The Untold Story Behind Her Relentless Quest for Power May 10th and Frank Bailey, former Aide to Palin, teamed up with Palin-critic Jeanne Devon to release Blind Allegiance to Sarah Palin: A Memoir of Our Tumultuous Years on May 24th. Ardent opponents of Sarah Palin have been highly-anticipating these books which promised to tear down Palin's public image for the long-term. Interestingly, Geoffrey Dunn's book has not even hit Amazon's top-100 list since its release; and after a week of media coverage including appearances on NBC, ABC's The View, Fox News, CNN, and many more, Frank Bailey's "memoir" disappointingly debuted at #40 and has already fallen to #75.

But, to me, the DNC reaction to Cain's quote reveals something more than the candidate's potential. It also hints at the total vigilance with which opponents will demonize the only serious budget plan presently on the table. As a strategy, that makes sense because, so far, it's proved effective. Whether GOP candidates speak highly of or, in Gingrich's case, foolishly of "the Ryan budget," they can't say those three words without igniting a firestorm. The DNC response to Cain is yet more evidence that Republican presidential hopefuls will have to learn to talk about the House plan in a compelling way.

Sarah Palin is joining a group of about 400,000 motorcyclists for the annual Rolling Thunder "Ride for Freedom," which coincides with a bus tour that is renewing speculation about her 2012 presidential ambitions. Palin, who has no official speaking role at the event, is kicking off her bus tour in Washington, where she will participate in the annual event, in which bikers ride from the Pentagon to the Vietnam War Memorial to draw attention to missing service members and prisoners of war.