February 28, 2009
Small grenade lobbed at Jewish centre in Venezuela
Yeah, it is one more example of the anti-Semitic violence encouraged by Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez. But hey, it was only a small grenade, so it really isn't that big a deal.
What next?
"Woman raped with small penis"?
Isn't the point here that there was yet another act of anti-Semitic violence in a country and a world where such violence is becoming more acceptable -- and is even encouraged by political and opinion elites over current economic woes and Israel's willingness to defend itself against terrorists seeking its extinction.
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February 27, 2009
A Cedar Rapids group will do a symbolic tea dumping into the Cedar River on Saturday because state officials wonÂ’t let them use the real thing.An anti-tax group wanted to pitch in real tea like the Bostonian revolutionaries opposed to EnglandÂ’s tea taxes.
Tea, although natural and quite tasty, is considered a pollutant that canÂ’t go into a body of water without a permit, said Mike Wade, a senior environmental specialist at the DNRÂ’s Manchester field office.
“Discoloration is considered a violation,” Wade said.
Where are Sam Adams and the Sons of Liberty when we really need them?
And where are the tar and feathers?
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Gov. Rick Perry's re-election campaign has been asking Dallas City Hall for information concerning rival Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and her husband, a signal that the campaign could turn personal.Ray Hutchison is a prominent bond attorney who has represented public agencies for decades.
Perry has promised a vigorous campaign if Hutchison challenges him in the March 2010 Republican primary, as she has said she will.
"We're interested, as most Texans would be, in how Senator Bailout's husband's bond business has benefited from her job in D.C.," said Perry campaign spokesman Mark Miner, using a nickname the campaign has applied to the senator for her support of the federal government's initial financial-industry assistance plan.
Ray Hutchison told the Dallas Morning News the Perry campaign has filed such open-records requests all across the state and that their fishing expedition was "stupid." He said he has not benefited from his wife's position as senator.
"I don't know what she does. I don't communicate with her staff," he said.
Hutchison's campaign said the request shows Perry intends to run a negative campaign."On the heels of some bad poll numbers, Rick Perry is taking the low road for an election that's 13 months away," said Rick Wiley, Hutchison's campaign manager. "Republicans don't want that kind of campaign, but he's already showing his hand and decided to go down that road. It's vintage Rick Perry."
IÂ’m struck by several things in the article.
First, the distinct lack of class shown by Perry spokesman Miner. I’ve yet to see the Hutchison campaign refer to the incumbent as “Governor Goodhair” or any other derogatory nickname.
Second, I’m struck by the sleazy innuendo. Miner states that they are checking to see “how” Hutchison’s husband benefited from her work as a Senator, not if it had benefited. This is an effort to imply that Ray Hutchison’s business has benefited, and that any benefits have been illicit. If Perry wants to make such a claim, let him produce some evidence to back it up.
Third, IÂ’m rather amused by the sort of stuff that has been requested.
The request, dated Feb. 24, asked Mayor Tom Leppert's office for copies of all documents in which Kay Bailey Hutchison's name appears with the words bond, bonds, funds, funding or project.It also asks for any letters or correspondence to Hutchison or her office seeking federal action or support and any "letters of acknowledgment and thanks."
Good grief, the Perry campaign is even after thank you notes! ThatÂ’s a sure sign that we are seeing the campaign of a desperate and pathetic incumbent who wants to cling to power by any means necessary.
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That is the question IÂ’d like to ask racist white liberals Janeane Garofalo and Keith Olbermann after their disgusting performance on OlbermannÂ’s hate television show yesterday. After these two hacks engage in psychological profiling of women who like (or, even worse, date) Rush Limbaugh, they decide to trash GOP Chairman Michael Steele for the high crime of being a black Republican.
JANEANE GAROFALO: She dated him, so either she suffers from Stockholm Syndrome – a lot like Michael Steele, who’s the black guy in the Republican party who suffers from Stockholm Syndrome, which means you try and curry favor with the oppressor.KEITH OLBERMANN: Yes, you talk about self-loathing.
GAROFALO: Yeah, and thereÂ’s, any female or person of color in the Republican party is struggling with Stockholm Syndrome.
Excuse me? Where did that homely little troll of a woman come up with Michael Steele in that context? It seems almost a little too convenient that she just happens to have a black man immediately in mind to insult for not hewing to her white liberal notion of what proper political beliefs and voting behavior is for a black man. And Olbermann is all too ready to pile on, because the fact that any black man would fail to hold political views congruent with his own is inconceivable unless they are suffering from some psychological disorder. Interestingly enough, neither of these individuals has anything approaching the sort of education or credentials necessary to make such a diagnosis – but hey, as white liberals they are better than the rest of us and are only making such statements about Chairman Steele for his own good and that of any confused black folks who might believe that they are permitted to think for themselves or hold deviant views.
Really, it seems to me that an independent thinking black man like Michael Steele is the polar opposite of the sort of person who has Stockholm Syndrome. After all, such individuals are prone to seeking approval from their more powerful captors. Steel does not do that – indeed, he rebels against ersatz superiors like Garofalo and Olbermann. On the other hand, I can think of a prominent African-American liberal politico who does appear to crave the approval of white liberal elitists like Janeane and Keith…
UPDATE: Over at Gay patriot, there is a great post on this same topic -- from the perspective of one who is often accused of hating himself because he dares to hew to the conservative values of the GOP.
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February 26, 2009
Binyam Mohamed, the British resident released from US detention base Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, has told friends that Britain is too cold.The 30-year-old was flown back to the UK on Monday after more than four years in the controversial US military detention centre.
But since arriving back in the country the former Al Qaeda suspect has told supporters he is finding it difficult to adjust to the British climate after four years in Cuba.
Temperatures at the detention centre at this time of year are about 26C, compared with 10C in London.
Moazzem Begg, a fellow former Guantanamo detainee, said Mr Mohamed was in "good spirits" but was struggling to cope with the weather, according to the Daily Express newspaper.
He added: "He's been wearing a jacket most of the time."
Seems to me that we could solve this problem by shipping him back to Guantanamo Bay – and then continuing with prosecuting him for his part in the dirty bomb plot. Following a conviction, we could then send him on his way to somewhere with an even warmer destination for all eternity.
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The Senate has barred federal regulators from reviving a policy, abandoned two decades ago, that required balanced coverage of issues on public airwaves.The Senate vote on the so-called Fairness Doctrine was in part a response to conservative radio talk show hosts who feared that Democrats would try to revive the policy to ensure liberal opinions got equal time.
The problem, of course, is not one of denying equal time to liberals – if people wanted to listen to liberal talkers such shows would flourish. The problem is that programming in the broadcast industry is based upon what viewers and listeners want to see and hear. Liberal talk radio has failed time and again, even when it has had big bucks placed behind it. Even in liberal Washington, DC, a liberal talk station folded due to lack of listenership. Just as it would be nuts to require that hip-hop stations play a certain number of country and classic rock songs each day no matter what the listeners want, it is equally crazy to tell talk stations that they must program shows that their audience does not want to hear. And rest assured that if the Fairness Doctrine were to return, the next step would be to insist that there be balance in how the unpopular liberal shows were placed – no running Ed Schultz and his ilk at oh-dark-thirty while placing the top-rated national shows (all conservative) during prime listening hours. The end result would be stations abandoning the talk format – and the AM band left barren.
Better to slay this beast now to stop the ideological censorship of the broadcast media.
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If you plead guilty to stealing from your employer, you are no longer an alleged thief.
Why is it that a guy who has entered a plea of guilty on charges of terrorism is called an “alleged terrorist” in this article?
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HereÂ’s the background.
As federal authorities press their case against a Tustin man accused of lying about ties to Al-Qaeda, they disclosed this week that some evidence came from an informant who infiltrated Orange County mosques and allegedly recorded the defendant discussing jihad, weapons and plans to blow up abandoned buildings.On Wednesday, a man who claims to be that informant stepped forward, filing court documents saying that he had served as a confidential informant for the FBI from July 2006 to October 2007 to identify and thwart terrorist operations in the Orange County Islamic community.
* * * Monteilh said in interviews that he had alerted the FBI to Niazi after meeting him at the Islamic Center of Irvine in November 2006 and spending eight months with him. Monteilh said he called himself Farouk Al-Aziz and posed as a Syrian-French American in search of his Islamic roots. Monteilh told the FBI that Niazi befriended him and began to lecture him about jihad, gave him lessons in bomb-making and discussed plots to blow up Orange County landmarks.
"He took me under his wing and began to radicalize me," Monteilh said.
The fine folks at CAIR, however, reacted to the arrest of Ahmadullah Sais Niazi with expressions of deep concern – that the FBI would dare look for jihadis at a mosque.
Ayloush said he was "100% sure" that Monteilh was the informant in question and expressed anger and disappointment that the FBI would infiltrate mosques. He accused officials of trying to entrap innocent Muslims, noting that Monteilh has been convicted of grand theft and forgery in the past. He said Muslims had worked hard to develop a partnership with the FBI -- and had been assured by J. Steven Tidwell, then assistant director in charge of the Los Angeles field office, at an Irvine forum in 2006 that their mosques were not being monitored. Now, Ayloush said, he has doubts about future relations with the FBI."This is religious profiling at its worst," Ayloush said about the FBI operation.
“Religious profiling at its worst”? Really? Given the nature of the enemy we fight, an enemy with an ideology explicitly grounded in Islam and which operates with the blessing of Muslim religious leaders around the world, why wouldn’t we look for wannabe jihadis in mosques? Indeed, how could it possibly be seen as responsible for law enforcement to not look for them there? And why is CAIR more concerned about the fact that the FBI looked for potential terrorists in mosques than it is that the Bureau actually FOUND one there?
Of course, given CAIRÂ’s well-documented ties to terrorist organizations over the yearsÂ….
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CIA Director Leon Panetta, in his first meeting with reporters. . . , also said that while CIA interrogations will have new limits, President Barack Obama can still use his wartime powers to authorize harsher techniques if necessary.
I don’t remember which distinguished blogger pointed out that promises by Barack Obama all appear to carry an expiration date. Well, this would certainly appear to be one more example of that. And while I generally agree with the policy shift, I can’t help but be struck by the inconstancy that the new chief executive is showing. Just call it one more sign of the fact that Barack Obama really needed a few more years of seasoning to gain the experience and wisdom to be an effective, competent president – especially when it comes to dealing with issues of national security.
I’m curious, though – will Barack Obama ever come out and apologize for his criticism of George W. Bush over a “torture” policy that he has now adopted himself.
And I wonder – since Obama has adopted the Bush policy that detainees outside the US in places such as Afghanistan have no rights under the US Constitution, will he do the right thing and ship the Gitmo jihadis to Afghanistan?
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February 25, 2009
First Matthews, whose comment may well be seen as the least egregious of the two. After years of seeing customer service jobs relocated to India by companies, is it really appropriate for a political commentator to state that having the nation's only Indian-American governor give the response to President Obama constitutes "outsourcing"?
They had to outsource the response tonight, the Republican party. They had to outsource to someone who had nothing to do with Congress because the Republicans in Congress had nothing to do with the programs he was talking about tonight or the record he referred to.
Aside from the racist slam, it is interesting to note that Matthews is ignoring the fact that Jindal was a member of Congress before winning election as governor.
And then there is Helen Thomas. The malignant old bat decided to yuck it up by making a "Slumdog Millionaire" joke.
“Bobby Jindal was ‘pitiful,’ Helen Thomas tells film crew, right before making a ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ crack.”
Yeah, I know -- the film is topical. But if the Left really wants to argue that the recent chimp cartoon in the NY Post is racist, let's use the same standard across the board. Where's the outrage?
UPDATE: Looks like liberal talk show host Mike Malloy decided to turn the American-born Rhodes Scholar Bobby Jindal into Apu the convenience store clerk.
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That isn’t good enough for some members of the race ho and poverty pimp community, who want to make sure that their hand-picked “minority representatives” get on the board without those years of service and that their preferred minority contractors get a piece of the pie without giving the lowest bids.
State Sen. Mario Gallegos said he will be filing a bill Friday that would require the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo to contract with more minority-owned businesses, include minorities on its board and comply with open records requests.
Gallegos said he and other minority leaders urged action on the same issues during a meeting last week with rodeo officials but were told that the rodeo could not address their demands — it has a show to put on starting next week.
“It’s time they break the good ole boy system and start doing what’s right, period,” said Johnny Mata, the former head of the local chapter of League of United Latin American Citizens, who attended the meeting. “I am a firm believer that we can meet halfway.”
Gallegos, a Houston Democrat, said he is filing the bill because rodeo officials refused to go forward with non-binding mediation overseen by a U.S. Department of Justice division that works to settle minority-related disputes.
“They just told the DOJ they thought it was pointless,” Gallegos said. “I want to know what they do with their money. They are the largest cash cow in Houston.”
The rodeo generates more than $80 million in revenues annually.
And that’s what it really comes down to – the money, the disposition of which is already easily tracked through publicly available reports filed pursuant to their non-profit status. Let’s call this what it really is – a race-based shakedown. It is one that is tried virtually every year.
Hey, Johnny Mata -- let's make the board of LULAC reflect the ethnic composition of Harris County, open all of its records in the same fashion as the rodeo, and guarantee that its contracts are properly distributed based upon the ethnic spoils system you want to impose upon the rodeo.
And as for Mario Gallegos – why don’t you sneak off, get drunk and beat one of your mistress again.
And regardless – leave the rodeo alone.
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February 24, 2009
Throughout the Prop 8 fight last year, the California NAACP was a strong ally for marriage equality. Yesterday, the national NAACP came out strongly against Prop 8, as well.
Remember -- a majority of African-American voters supported Prop 8 last fall. Indeed, the sane thing has been true in every state where the people have been permitted to take a stand on gay marriage -- African-Americans have supported traditional marriage of one man and one woman. So who does the NAACP really represent?
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I don't regret anything I did it to oppose the war. It was -- I did it to oppose the war. I don't regret it.
Remember -- this is the man who helped launch the career of the current President of the United States. Do you really feel comfortable with Barack Obama making policy for the War on Terrorism?
Too bad Alan Colmes wasn't so keen to get this sort of admission before the election.
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For the first time since Gallup began tracking Barack Obama's presidential job approval rating on Jan. 21, fewer than 60% of Americans approve of the job he is doing as president. In Feb. 21-23 polling, 59% of Americans give Obama a positive review, while 25% say they disapprove, and 16% have no opinion.
At this rate, we're going to be seeing Obama reach lows that it took 7 years for George W, Bush to reach.
H/T Don Surber
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February 23, 2009
In the second rerun incident, a three-judge panel in the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently upended a long-held rule of law that “truth is an absolute defense” when someone is sued for libel. The opinion has surprised some experts on libel — and, if ultimately upheld, would uproot basic legal tenets of free speech and the law.The judges reviewed Noonan v. Staples, a case involving an employee of a business-supply firm who sued the company after an executive sent an e-mail to about 1,500 employees detailing why the employee had been fired for what the company said was falsifying expense reports.
The court’s opinion said that even if the factual account sent to other workers were true, and apparently it was, the employee involved might be able to recover damages if the e-mail was sent maliciously — in this case, to humiliate the former employee. The judges sent the case back to a lower court in Massachusetts for reconsideration.
In other words, the mere fact that you have spoken truthfully will no longer be let your words be protected by the First Amendment -- a judge will be permitted to decide if you had sufficiently good cause to speak the truth, or whether your motives for doing so were base enough to strip you of your rights under the Constitution.
Just imagine what mischief could be made if this ruling is allowed to stand. Truthful statements would become actionable – presumably even those directed against public figures and public officials. Could you imagine, just as an example, what Bill Clinton could have done with such a precedent during the Lewinsky scandal? He’d have managed to close down most of the conservative media – after all, there was certainly a lot of malice involved in the way in which the story was handled, even though the details of the case were certainly true. Do we really want the free flow of truthful information to stifled by the threat of a libel suit?
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And one more reason the GOP needs to find someone to run against Senator Jim Bunning in the 2010 GOP primary.
Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ken.) warned a Kentucky GOP group Saturday that the fight over a new Supreme Court justice could come soon as Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is likely to die shortly.In a speech to the Hardin County Republican Party at the group's annual Lincoln Day Dinner, Bunning said Ginsburg has "bad cancer. The kind that you don't get better from," according to a report in the Louisville Courier-Journal.
Ginsburg was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer earlier this year and had surgery at a New York hospital Feb. 5. The surgery to remove Ginsburg's spleen and part of her pancreas was a success, according to a Supreme Court press release, and she is expected to be back in court to hear oral arguments on Monday.
"Even though she was operated on, usually, nine months is the longest that anybody would live" after being diagnosed with the dangerous form of cancer, Bunning said.
Interestingly enough, today was Justice Ginsburg’s first day back at work at the Supreme Court – the first of what I hope are many more.
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When a man doth compass or imagine the death of the King, . . . [he] ought to be judged treason which extendeth to the King and his royal Majesty. . . .
After all, how else can you explain the outraged call for investigations, governmental action, etc on the basis of a chimp cartoon that may or may not have been directed at Barack Obama (I’d argue not)? Especially when some overwrought partisans go so far as to claim that the cartoon was “inviting the assassination of President Obama"?
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February 21, 2009
Detainees being held at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan cannot use US courts to challenge their detention, the US says.The justice department ruled that some 600 so-called enemy combatants at Bagram have no constitutional rights.
Most have been arrested in Afghanistan on suspicion of waging a terrorist war against the US.
The ruling has disappointed human rights lawyers who had hoped the Obama administration would take a different line to that of George W Bush.
Prof Barbara Olshansky, the lead counsel in a legal challenge on behalf of four Bagram detainees, told the BBC the justice department’s decision not to reform the rules was both surprising and “enormously disappointing”.
Now where are the protests in the streets? Where are the outraged celebrities?
And where are the apologies to George W. Bush, whose policy is being maintained by the Obama regime after Obama condemned it during the campaign.
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Watch CBS Videos Online
I have a number of former student in the Marines (as well as other branches of the military) right now, and I hope that they are capable of living up to the standard of courage and selflessness set by Lance Cpl. Jordan Haerter and Cpl. Jonathan Yale.
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A Pentagon report requested by President Obama on the conditions at the Guantánamo Bay detention center concluded that the prison complies with the humane-treatment requirements of the Geneva Conventions. But it makes recommendations for improvements including increasing human contact for the prisoners, according to two government officials who have read parts of it.
I wonder when the apologies to George W. Bush will start.
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February 20, 2009
Ted Rall, president of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists, doesn't think Wednesday's New York Post editorial cartoon was penned by a racist. But he does think it was a "misfire," a "cheap form of editorial cartooning" that fails to carry any real commentary or message and is common in major publications today.
The cartoon wasn’t very good – but it wasn’t at all racist.
Indeed, IÂ’d argue that the uproar tells us more about those outraged than it does about those responsible for the cartoon and its publication.
And interestingly enough, a lot of cartoonists are feeling the heat over how to draw Obama.
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Americans named President Obama as their No. 1 hero, followed by Jesus Christ and Martin Luther King, in a new Harris poll.
Others in the top 10, in descending order, were Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, Abraham Lincoln, John McCain, John F. Kennedy, Chesley Sullenberger and Mother Teresa.
Once can, of course, argue that including Jesus is not entirely appropriate, given his divinity.
Now were I to list my personal top 10 – excluding Jesus – it would look like this.
1) Ronald Reagan
2) Martin Luther King
3) John Paul II
4) Robert E. Lee
5) Abraham Lincoln
6) Margaret Thatcher
7) Winston Churchill
Charles Martel
9) Thomas Jefferson
10) Douglas MacArthur
H/T Hot Air
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Israeli President Shimon Peres chose hard-line Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu to form a new Israeli government on Friday, ending days of speculation and giving Netanyahu six weeks to put together a ruling coalition.The question now is whether Netanyahu will form a narrow government with his hard-line allies or a broad government along with his centrist rival, Kadima Party leader Tzipi Livni. His choice will have serious ramifications for the Mideast peace process.
Peres made his announcement early Friday afternoon after holding meetings with Netanyahu and Livni. An official ceremony appointing Netanyahu was to be held shortly afterward.
My hope is that Netanyahu forms a government without Kadima, given that Israelis rejected the left-wing and voted strongly for conservative parties. A centrist regime would not really meet the needs of Israel, either -- especially since Livni demands that Netanyahu agree to a rotating premiership.
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Chicago has yet to recoup the $1.74 million cost of President Obama's victory celebration in Grant Park -- despite a burgeoning $50.5 million budget shortfall that threatens more layoffs and union concessions."The Democratic National Committee has not yet paid us,'' Peter Scales, a spokesman for the city's Office of Budget and Management, said Thursday after questions from the Chicago Sun-Times. "We're reaching out to them this week."
Funny, mayor Daley was shocked and offended by suggestions that Obama and the Dems might stiff the city for the bill back in November. Guess we know who looks the fool now.
And it appears that Chicago isn't the only city stiffed by the Obama campaign.
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At the end of a long and pointless conversation between two Fox News reporters covering a zoo escape, John Gibson compared Attorney General Eric Holder to a monkey.A monkey escaped from the Woodland park Zoo in Seattle and despite the fact that authorities are "taking this very seriously," Julie Banderas and Harris Faulkner were not, cracking jokes about the monkeys' bright blue scrotum.
At 2:48, they toss to John Gibson who complains that he can't get away with saying "bright blue scrotum" on the radio then follows that up by saying, "We were talking about Eric Holder today on the radio and his bright blue scrotum."
Given the journalistic standards Arianna “PuffHo” Huffington, it isn’t surprising that the writer, Alex Leo, didn’t bother to check out the recording closely enough to determine that it was a fake. After all, Gibson is the enemy to these folks, so just run with it and destroy the man’s reputation.
Only after it was irrefutably proved by conservative bloggers that the recording was a hoax did Leo and HuffPo issue a retraction/apology.
As John Gibson notes, this is part of a pattern intended to delegitimize him --conservative voices in the media.
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February 21, 2009
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. -- Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence
In what may be among the more shameful moments in American diplomatic history, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced the repudiation of a central premise of our nationÂ’s founding document on behalf of the Obama Administration during a visit to one of the most repressive states on Earth.
Human rights violations by China cannot block the possibility of significant cooperation between Washington and Beijing on the global economic crisis, climate change and security threats such as North Korea's nuclear program, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday."We pretty much know what they are going to say" on human rights issues such as greater freedoms for Tibet, Clinton told reporters traveling with her on a tour of Asia. "We have to continue to press them. But our pressing on those issues can't interfere" with dialogue on other crucial topics.
Because after all, we canÂ’t let little things like the Red Chinese regimeÂ’s wholesale violation of the fundamental rights due its citizens to interfere with other, more pressing matters.
No doubt the Secretary of State and the President she represents are hoping that this courageous reordering of American priorities will win them this yearsÂ’ Neville Chamberlain Prize for Achievement in Diplomacy and the Stalin Prize for the Advancement of Freedom.
UPDATE: As if on cue, the Chinese have begun a new crackdown on those who oppose the government and want to exercise those inalienable rights. That's what happens when you put human rights second.
More At Don Surber, Hot Air
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February 19, 2009
HereÂ’s what one local ICE agent did.
On a Sunday morning, in a church sanctuary near Conroe, an off-duty immigration agent tapped Jose Juan Hernandez on the shoulder and asked him to step outside.A 31-year-old illegal immigrant from Mexico with three prior deportations, Hernandez quietly followed the agent and promptly was detained on suspicion of illegal re-entry after deportation, said Gregory Palmore, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman in Houston.
The case would be unremarkable, except for the setting. The fact that Hernandez was detained in church has sparked controversy locally. Hernandez was arrested Oct. 26, pleaded guilty to the re-entry charge this month and is scheduled for sentencing in April. He remains in federal detention in Conroe. HernandezÂ’s attorney, Rick Soliz, said he plans to file a complaint against the ICE agent in connection with the arrest.
“I wonder what the agent was thinking, if he was thinking at all,” Soliz said. “How do you decide to do that in the middle of a religious service?”
I guess I donÂ’t see the problem. We donÂ’t recognize the concept of sanctuary under our laws. Indeed, it would be quite an offense against the First Amendment if our laws did so. And given that the entire incident came off in an unobtrusive manner that didnÂ’t create a disturbance, IÂ’d argue that the agent ought to be praised, not condemned.
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The police officers who stopped Oklahoma City motorist Chip Harrison and confiscated a sign from his car told him he has a right to his beliefs, but the U.S. Secret Service "could construe this as a threat against President Obama," according to the incident report released this morning.
The sign was quickly returned by the department, where higher-ups recognized the First Amendment violation that had occurred. But by that time the Secret Service was on his doorstep.
'The Secret Service called and said they were at my house," Harrison said.After talking to his attorney, Harrison went home where he met the Secret Service.
''When I was on my way there, the Secret Service called me and said they weren't going to ransack my house or anything ... they just wanted to (walk through the house) and make sure I wasn't a part of any hate groups."
Harrison said he invited the Secret Service agents into the house and they were "very cordial."
''We walked through the house and my wife and 2-year-old were in the house," Harrison said.
He said they interviewed him for about 30 minutes and then left, not finding any evidence Harrison was a threat to the president.
I’m curious – what would they have done if they had found that Harrison was a member of a “hate group”? Membership in “hate groups” is not illegal – and expression of extreme political sentiments (and Harrison’s position is hardly extreme) is fully protected by the Constitution.
HereÂ’s hoping that this law-abiding patriot, who dares to dissent from the pro-abortion orthodoxy of the Obama regime, files a lawsuit of sufficient size to quell the tendency of some law enforcement officers to violate the right of Americans to freely engage in political expression.
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I won’t defend it – I think it is in poor taste.
Because there is a seriously injured woman fighting to recover after the real chimp attack – not because of any slight, real or imagined, to Barack Obama.
Let me explain.
1) Barack Obama and his administration didn’t write the stimulus bill – it was a product of an all-Democrat team assembled by Pelosi and Reid to write the bill. Thus the comment from the cop cannot legitimately be taken as referring to President Obama.
2) Even if Barack Obama had personally written every word of the stimulus bill, I would not find the uses of the chimp imagery to be inappropriate. Such imagery was directed against George W. Bush for eight years without a word of complaint from any liberal that I ever encountered. If it was acceptable for President 43, then President 44 is an equally legitimate target of such barbs.
3) Barack Obama is President of the United States. He happens to be black. He is not the African-American President. We degrade the office, the man, and his accomplishments if we give Obama a special pass or special protection from certain criticism or certain imagery that would be otherwise acceptable if directed against a President of another race.
Now let me take matters a step further. The cartoon itself is not an act of racism – and more to the point is certainly not an act of intentional racism. The reality is that the chimp imagery is, lamentably, topical due to the Connecticut chimp attack of earlier this week. It is not as if someone up and decided to put a chimp in a cartoon for no apparent reason. Similarly, this isn’t a call for an assassination because the chimp in the cartoon was shot and killed – it was a direct play on the tragic events just a few days before in which the crazed primate was shot and killed.
Should the cartoon have run? IÂ’d argue that the best answer is a negative one. It isnÂ’t funny. It is subject to misinterpretation because it is not clear. It is insensitive to the seriously injured victim. But in the end it just isnÂ’t racist.
Or if it is, it is certainly less racist than these two noted cartoons about a prominent African-American in public life who was the subject of indisputably racist treatment in editorial cartoons which was met with silence by the same folks who are righteously outraged when they perceive a slight directed at Barack Obama.
Now am I ignoring that there has been a lamentable history of depicting blacks as apes and chimps? Not at all – but I’m also not ignoring the fact that when we place this cartoon in context there is little reason to argue that Obama’s race was the (or even a) motivating factor in the cartoon (especially since I don’t believe is even intended to reference Obama). And rest assured that when and if I see actual racism directed at Barack Obama, I’ll condemn it. But in the (probably apocryphal) words of one Sigmund Freud, “sometimes a cigar is just a cigar” – and I think this one is merely a cigar.
By the way, I would like to note two recent ways in which I have used a chimp reference in relation to Barack Obama – both times to draw parallels to the sort of disdainful treatment received by George W. Bush during his time in office. In a couple of instances, to parody the deranged ravings of too many Leftists who for eight years have referred to the former president as “Chimpy McHitlerBurtion” or some variation thereof, I have referred to Obama as “Chimpy al-Hussein bin-Osama” in a satirical fashion. Similarly, I asked a couple of pointed questions – one of which related to the classification of George W. Bush as a chimp by liberals – in this post about the desire of Obama’s handlers have the capacity to electronically feed the President answers during press conferences:
>Even George W. Bush could competently deal with the media. Apparently Barack Obama cannot do so. In light of that, IÂ’d like to know who the real dummy is, which one really operates at the level of a trained chimp? After all, Bush may not have been as pretty as Barack or have been a polished orator behind a teleprompter, but at least he could answer questions from reporters without being programmed by someone else.
Again, the chimp reference is not racial slur – it is set forth to offer a comparison to eight years of derogatory references to the intelligence and abilities of George W. Bush, who could answer press questions unaided despite lacking Obama’s oratorical gifts and alleged soaring intellect. In no way did race even enter my thought process.
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February 18, 2009
No one with any sense takes offense at the teaching of Greek and Roman mythology. After all, the stories are fundamental to so much of Western culture over the last three millennia. But out of concern for secular values and sensitivity to members of other faiths, the literature of the Bible is often overlooked in our educational system today, despite its centrality to so many of the literary, artistic, and musical works of Western civilization.
Fortunately, one Brit gets it – and is getting a lot of attention for saying so in public.
Children are being robbed of their heritage because schools are failing to cover classic Bible and history stories, the Poet Laureate warned yesterday.Andrew Motion called for all children to study the Bible at school for its 'great' educational stories such as the temptation of Adam and Eve, the siege of Jericho and battle between David and Goliath.
He warned that traditional stories were in danger of disappearing from public knowledge because they are no longer being properly imparted to children at school.
Too many students arriving at university to study literature or history have merely a 'sketchy' knowledge of Bible stories, history stories and Greek and Roman myths, and would struggle on their courses as a result, he said.
And please remember – Motion is not a believer. He considers the bible to be nothing more than a book of myths and legends, but he recognizes the fundamental power of what it contains. So, too, the mythology of the Greeks and Romans, which too many of our children know only from video games and animated films. And as for the history – I often despair when I find that stories I took for granted as a kid are unknown to too many of my students. In our push for modernity, we are losing so much of our cultural heritage.
But then again, we have too many young people who have been saturated with a modern media culture that does not really value knowledge or deep thought – or even basic skills. In recent years I’ve been told that “books today are called movies” and “since history is in the past it doesn’t matter because I’m going to live in the future.” And just yesterday, I had a 9th grader tell me that she wasn’t sure what time it was because “I don’t understand what the pointy things on that kind of clock mean.” Will they know where we are headed in the future if they do not understand the past?
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The conference, dubbed the Global Anti-Aggression Campaign, also gave impetus to Sunni clerics concerned about the growing power of Hezbollah, the Shia movement backed by Iran, which rose to international prominence in its own war with Israel in 2006."Gaza is a gift," the Saudi religious scholar Mohsen al-Awajy told me. He and other delegates repeatedly referred to the Gaza war as "a victory".
"Gaza," he continued, "gives us power, it solves our differences. We are all now in a unified front against Zionism."
In closed meetings after sessions delegates focussed on the creation of a "third Jihadist front" - the first two being Afghanistan and Iraq. The intensity of the Israeli attack had "awakened all Muslims," Mr Awajy claimed.
"Palestine is a legitimate theatre of operations for jihad (holy war)," he added.
Let us clarify – based upon the Quran, history, and the words of those in attendance at this conference, this is nothing less than a call for the extermination of the Israeli people.
The time has come for every person in every free society to pick a side.
The choice is clear,
Side with the one liberal democratic state in the Middle East. Or side with the forces of seventh-century barbarism combined with modern weaponry and terrorist methods.
Because once they are done with the Jews, the next target will be the liberal democratic nations of the West – or at least those which have not submitted to dhimmitude.
So do we in the West stand with Israel – or with the terrorists?
I know which side IÂ’m on.
And you?
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A $100,000 fundraiser for Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) held last year at a big-game ranch in Western Pennsylvania may have violated campaign-finance rules, according to campaign-finance experts.Campaign-finance records do not reflect any payments from Murtha to LBK Game Ranch or the companyÂ’s president, Bill Kuchera, for the use of the site for the Aug. 21 fundraiser. The records also contain no mention of in-kind donations from Kuchera to MurthaÂ’s campaign for the event.
Federal election law allows private citizens to host fundraisers at their residences, and campaigns are not required to reimburse the hosts for costs associated with these types of events or to list the donation of space as an in-kind contribution in campaign-finance records.
Under that rule, a married couple can host a fundraiser in their home and spend up to $2,000 without triggering any campaign-finance disclosure laws. Single people may spend up to $1,000 of their own money on these events.
But campaign-finance experts say the Murtha fundraiser poses serious questions and may have broken the law because the event was held at a for-profit corporation. LBK Game Ranch owns the 161-acre ranch where the fundraiser took place, county property records indicate, so Murtha would not be able to benefit from the residential exemption even if Bill Kuchera occupies a house on the property.
In other words, this is an illegal corporate contribution to the Murtha campaign. And given that Kuchera and his companies (which have been the recipients of tens of millions of taxpayer dollars through the connection to Murtha) are now under federal investigation related to the misdirection of federal funds for the purchase of the property where the illegal event occurred, it seems clear that Murtha needs to divest himself of all contributions raised at the LBK Game Ranch and all funds raised from officers and executives of Kuchera’s companies. Oh, yeah – and go to jail or pay a hefty fine for his end run around the law.
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Using patterns of how animal species spread, the world's most wanted terrorist can be tracked down to a town in the tribal region of North West Pakistan it is claimed.By factoring in his need for security, electricity, high ceilings to accommodate his 6ft 4in frame and spare rooms for his bodyguards, the search can be further narrowed to three walled compounds.
According to a team led by Thomas Gillespie, at the University of California in Los Angeles, bin Laden's location is "one of the most important political questions of our time".
Now there are two points IÂ’d like to make about this interesting bit of speculation:
1) Why wasnÂ’t this material handed off to the government rather than the press?
2) Does anyone disagree with the notion that all three should be bombed to rubble?
Given the inclinations of the current administration, though, I canÂ’t help but wonder if weÂ’d send Predator drones or a special envoy to deal with bin Laden. After all, the current administration is giving its support to the imposition of sharia law in parts of Pakistan to pacify Islamists. Why not negotiate with the worldÂ’s most wanted terrorist while they are at it? On the other hand, Obama has adopted a lot of Bush Administration strategy for dealing with the Crusade Against Islamofascist Jihad, so maybe this information will be used to cut the head off the venomous serpent that is al-Qaeda.
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But some states offer another solution. Consider Massachusetts, which includes the option for taxpayers who view the stateÂ’s tax cut earlier in the decade to be bad policy which immorally withholds needed resources from the state. All taxpayers need to do is check one little box on their return to use the older 5.85% tax rate instead of the current 5.3% rate.
Here are the latest DOR numbers. As of yesterday, 640,783 individual taxpayers had filed their 2008 returns. Of those 640,783, exactly 293 opted to pay at the higher 5.85 percent rate.Back me up on the math here. If 640,000 is the number, then 6,400 would be 1 percent, and 640 would be one-tenth of 1 percent. And 293 is less than one half of one tenth of 1 percent. So the percentage so far this year is one-twentieth of 1 percent.
Moonbats, I beseech you! Send in some more of the dough from PaterÂ’s trust fund. Otherwise, how can we offer alms to the neediest among us, like Deval PatrickÂ’s unemployed neighbor with the new made-up $120,000-a-year state job, and the Bulger hack whoÂ’s been collecting for 15 years and now was just handed a brand new $150,000 made-up state job?
Actually, the state claims the Beautiful People are twice as likely to check the higher-rate box this year, but two times zero is still zero. Even sadder is how much the commonwealth has collected from these 293 individuals - exactly $24,098.
Again, these are rough calculations, but I think that works out to just under $90 per filer. If $90 is .55 percent of your taxable income, you made about $18,000 in 2008.
What does this show? It demonstrates that liberals are not REALLY against tax cuts. They need that extra cash – after all, the Kennedy clan needs every penny it can find to keep up the family compound at Hyannis and a sailboat fleet that dwarfs the navies of some third world countries – while Joe & Jane Workingstiff can be counted upon to cough up a couple hundred extra bucks a year to pay for the needs of the non-working class and illegal aliens among us. It is YOU, average American, who these rich liberals want to see pay more so they don’t have to – as demonstrated by their unwillingness to cough up a miniscule 0.55% when they have both the means and the option to do so.
We’ve gotten quite a demonstration of how rich liberals really view taxes over the last several weeks. Geithner. Daschle. Rangel. I could go on, but you get the picture. They simply cheat and don’t pay. And when offered the chance to show the courage of their convictions by voluntarily paying taxes at a higher rate that they claim is appropriate and fair (and 40% of Massachusetts voters opposed the tax cuts in a 2000 referendum on the matter), they don’t put their money where their mouths and their votes have been. Let’s call it what it is – rank hypocrisy of the grossest sort. But then again, that’s what liberalism usually is.
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February 17, 2009
[T]he White House is looking to install a small video or computer screen into the podium used by the president for press conferences and events in the White House. "It would make it easier for the comms guys to pass along information without being obvious about it," says the adviser.The screen would indicate whom to call on, seat placement for journalists, pass along notes or points to hit, and so forth, says the adviser.
Even George W. Bush could competently deal with the media. Apparently Barack Obama cannot do so. In light of that, IÂ’d like to know who the real dummy is, which one really operates at the level of a trained chimp? After all, Bush may not have been as pretty as Barack or have been a polished orator behind a teleprompter, but at least he could answer questions from reporters without being programmed by someone else.
H/T BizzyBlog
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U.S. Sen. Roland Burris has acknowledged he sought to raise campaign funds for then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich at the request of the governorÂ’s brother at the same time he was making a pitch to be appointed to the Senate seat previously held by President Barack Obama.Burris' latest comments in Peoria Monday night were the first time he has publicly said he was actively trying to raise money for Blagojevich. Previously Burris has left the impression that he always balked at the issue of raising money for the governor because of his interest in the Senate appointment.
In comments to reporters after appearing at a Democratic dinner, the senator several times contradicted his latest under-oath affidavit that he quietly filed with the Illinois House impeachment panel earlier this month. That affidavit was itself an attempt to clean up his live, sworn testimony to the panel Jan. 8, when he omitted his contacts with several Blagojevich insiders.
It is now apparent that Burris was involved in a quid pro quo for the Illinois Senate seat that belonged to Barack Obama before his election as president. Rod Blagojevich seems to have managed to sell the seat right in front of us, to a guy with a reasonably clean reputation for an Illinois Democrat. Now it is pretty obvious that he was as dirty as the rest of them.
Of course, this could have been avoided if the Illinois legislature had taken action to require a special election for the seat – but the desire to avoid allowing the people of Illinois the option of electing a Republican prevented that from happening. Will the Democrat-controlled legislature do the right thing now?
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In the waning days of the Bush administration, Vice President Dick Cheney launched a last-ditch campaign to persuade his boss to pardon Lewis (Scooter) Libby - and was furious when President George W. Bush wouldn't budge.
Sources close to Cheney told the Daily News the former vice president repeatedly pressed Bush to pardon Libby, arguing his ex-chief of staff and longtime alter ego deserved a full exoneration - even though Bush had already kept Libby out of jail by commuting his 30-month prison sentence.
"He tried to make it happen right up until the very end," one Cheney associate said.
In multiple conversations, both in person and over the telephone, Cheney tried to get Bush to change his mind. Libby was convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice in the federal probe of who leaked covert CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity to the press.
Several sources confirmed Cheney refused to take no for an answer. "He went to the mat and came back and back and back at Bush," a Cheney defender said. "He was still trying the day before Obama was sworn in."
Now looking at this situation, I see three reasons for this decision by Bush. IÂ’d like to comment on each of them.
- Last minute pardons can be controversial and tarnish the reputation of the president who grants them. Consider not just Clinton’s Marc Rich pardon, but also the pardons issued by George H. W. Bush shortly before he left office. Why should he have opened himself up to even more controversy? Besides – why risk damaging the presidency with such a pardon?
- Pardons, especially of recently decided cases, can be seen as undermining respect for the law and jury verdicts. As the governor of Texas, Bush had a very limited power to pardon – n part because the Texas Constitution is designed to keep the executive from running roughshod over the decision of juries. Bush carried that philosophy with him to Washington – and so while he may have modified some punishments he felt were excessive, he held back on pardons in general.
- Accepting pardons keeps the recipients from clearing their names. Libby, like Border Patrol agents Ramos and Campeon, is appealing his conviction in an effort to clear his name. A pardon would have mooted the appeal – and acceptance of a pardon is generally seen as an admission of guilt. Libby remains free to work to clear his name in the courts – and to possibly receive a pardon by a future president if that effort fails.
Personally, I view the last of these as the most important one – and it is why I consider Bush’s decision not to issue pardons to either Libby or Ramos and Campeon to be the proper one, despite my belief that in both cases there was a grave miscarriage of justice in both the decision to prosecute and the decision to convict.
H/T Hot Air
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Everyone who has been in the military, especially to Iraq or Afghanistan, within the last few years needs to watch the first part of this video. Look at the "military equipment" CBS is pushing as recently stolen or "looted" from US Forces. You will notice that it's equipment we aren't even issued. Also, they blatantly lie when attempting to show night vision equipment, which isn't night vision equipment at all.
HereÂ’s the See-BS piece.
Voice of Warriors then goes to work taking the entire piece apart, pointing out that the equipment in question is not what is issued to US forces – and in a number of cases never has been. Click the link to see just how dishonest the See-BS news really is – and what happens when our nation’s warriors have a chance to respond to this sort of crap.
H/T LGF
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Then he denied wanting to censor anything, instead arguing that he was a defender of free speech and that the only way to get free speech was for the government to require that certain perspectives be aired.
Now, at last, he comes out and admits the truth – his position is all about his personal self-interest, in particular his financial self-interest.
I know why I'm interested in it because I get up every morning at 3:45, I do three hours of talk radio every day from six to nine, that's my life, it's my business, I want to make money at it, and I want to be heard.
So let’s not call it the Fairness Doctrine – call it the Bill Press Bailout and Stimulus Package instead. It is about liberal greed as well as ideological censorship.
Listen to the audio.
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February 16, 2009
Contrast Roosevelt's slyness with Sen. Diane Feinstein's recent comment regarding the secret location of the launch sites for Predator hunter/killer drones — “As I understand it, these are flown out of a Pakistani base.”Sen. Feinstein's defense for discussing this highly sensitive information, that she was only repeating what she read in the papers, is greatly unconvincing.
It is true that the Washington Post first reported Predators operating out of bases in Pakistan, and the senator's flak catcher Philip J. LaVelle says that this report was what she was referring to. But there is a difference between making an allegation in a local paper and having the chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence confirm it. After all, her remark was “as I understand it,” not “according to the papers.”
The response of my wife, a loyal part of the Democrat base, to FeinsteinÂ’s revelation?
“My God, why did she say that? What is she trying to do? Get American soldiers killed?”
No wonder the Washington Times note in the editorial about the senator’s irresponsible comments that “[t]his incident reinforces the growing impression that when it comes to national security policy the Democrats are not ready for prime time.” My only question is what they mean by “growing impression”. After all, throughout the Bush Administration we saw example after example of Democrats showing a distinct lack of seriousness in regards to national security – and I’d argue that this has been true for at least the last four decades. Here’s hoping that they grow up soon, given that they now control the two branches that control our national security policy.
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