Jennifer Rubin Slams Erick Erickson's 'Anti-Semitic Screed'

My post on the Jennifer Rubin profile at Politico was the top entry here through most of the day. Then this morning I saw Erick Erickson's attack on Rubin at RealClearPolitics. I noticed the Jewish slur, where Erickson deploys the disgusting dual loyalty smear, alleging that Rubin's "best understood as 'Likud' rather than Republican or conservative." Well Rubin pushed back, apparently. See Ben Smith, "Rubin dismisses Erickson's 'anti-Semitic screed'."

And Erickson's apologized, "An Anti-Semite?"

Erickson's a clueless hack, as I've held all along. In fact, I don't doubt his claim of ignorance at the apology, where he suggests that, "A friend of mine explains to me that a Jewish-American might find it insulting because it suggests they put Israel ahead of the United States." Hey, you think?

Just one more example of how overrated this dude is. What a loser.

Via Memeorandum and Weekly Standard.

Added: From PolitiJim, "I'm Sorry But Screw You Erick Erickson."

Police Deploy Flash Bombs at Occupy Oakland?

See Reason, "An Iraq War Veteran is in Critical Condition After Occupy Oakland Scuffles, Police Won't Confirm What Weapons They Used."

But watch the video:

Clearing the protest? Good. Police-state tactics? Not so good.

The New York Times has more, "Updates on Occupy Protests Nationwide":

Two veterans groups say that a protester who was badly wounded in Oakland on Tuesday night is a former marine who is now hospitalized with a fractured skull.

According to Iraq Veterans Against the War, the protester, Scott Olsen, is a member of their group who left the Marines in 2010, after serving two tours in Iraq. In a statement, the group's executive director Jose Vasquez, claimed that Mr. Olsen "sustained a skull fracture after being shot in the head with a police projectile while peacefully participating in an Occupy Oakland march," on Tuesday night. Mr. Vasquez added that Mr. Olsen, a systems network administrator in Daly, Calif. "is currently sedated at a local hospital awaiting examination by a neurosurgeon."

A series of bloody photographs that appear to show Mr. Olsen after he was wounded were posted on the San Francisco Bay Area Independent Media Center's site, Indybay.org. Those images show that Mr. Olsen was wearing a brown military shirt with his last name on the front. Jay Finneburgh, the photographer who shot the images of Mr. Olsen, wrote on Indybay: "This poor guy was right behind me when he was hit in the head with a police projectile. He went down hard and did not get up. The bright light in the second shot is from a flash-bang grenade that went off a few feet from us. He looks like he might be a veteran. he was eventually taken to highland hospital."

Go back to New York Times to follow the links to IVAW and others.

The freedom to assemble is not unlimited. Time, place, manner restrictions are routine, and the police had already ordered the crowd to disperse. According to the San Francisco Chronicle:

Police said they had to protect themselves from protesters who hurled rocks, bottles and paint, and ignored orders to disperse.

Still, that Olsen dude got beat up pretty bad. Looks like the police have some PR problems now.

More at London's Daily Mail, "Marine veteran fighting for life after being shot in the face with gas canister during Occupy Oakland clashes."

New Poll Finds Deep Distrust of Government

Hey, maybe the contradictions of capitalism are ripe for revolution.

At New York Times (via Instapundit):

With Election Day just over a year away, a deep sense of economic anxiety and doubt about the future hangs over the nation, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll, with Americans’ distrust of government at its highest level ever.

The combustible climate helps explain the volatility of the presidential race and has provided an opening for protest movements like Occupy Wall Street, to highlight grievances about banks, income inequality and a sense that the poor and middle class have been disenfranchised.

Almost half of the public thinks the sentiment at the root of the Occupy movement generally reflects the views of most Americans.

With nearly all Americans remaining fearful that the economy is stagnating or deteriorating further, two-thirds of the public said that wealth should be distributed more evenly in the country. Seven in 10 Americans think the policies of Congressional Republicans favor the rich. Two-thirds object to tax cuts for corporations and a similar number prefer increasing income taxes on millionaires.

On Tuesday, the Congressional Budget Office released a new study concluding that income distribution had become much more uneven in the last three decades, a report that could figure prominently in the battle over how to revive the economy and rein in the federal debt.

The poll findings underscore a dissatisfaction and restlessness heading into the election season that has been highlighted through competing voices from the Occupy Wall Street and Tea Party movements, a broad anti-Washington sentiment and the crosscurrents inside both parties about the best way forward.

Not only do 89 percent of Americans say they distrust government to do the right thing, but 74 percent say the country is on the wrong track and 84 percent disapprove of Congress — warnings for Democrats and Republicans alike.

Also:

Nearly 9 in 10 Democrats, two-thirds of independents and just over one-third of all Republicans say that the distribution of wealth in the country should be more equitable...

Hey, that Obama-Pelosis class warfare really works!

RELATED: At The Blaze, "RADICAL BILL AYERS SPEAKS TO OCCUPY CHICAGO PROTESTERS ABOUT REVOLUTION & THE TEA PARTY."