Crimes in America

Are blacks stopped by police more than whites? Are cops and policing tactics unconsciously racist?

Heather MacDonald, a scholar who has studied and written about these issues, weighs in.

The first balloon she punctures is the myth that blacks are stopped more than whites:

The Bureau of Justice Statistics regularly polls tens of thousands of civilians about their contacts with the police. Virtually identical proportions of white, black, and Hispanic drivers — 9 percent — report being stopped by the police, though in 2005, the self-reported black stop rate — 8.1 percent — was nearly a percentage point lower than the self-reported white stop rate (8.9 percent). The stop rate for blacks is lower during the day, when officers can more readily see a driver’s race.

Next, she compares urban stops (where police are looking for suspects) against population percentages and finds blacks are indeed overrepresented. But when you compare stops against the crime rate of African Americans, they are under-stopped

As for urban policing — where the police have victim identifications and contextual and behavioral cues to work with — blacks are stopped more, but only in comparison with their proportion of the entire population. Measured against their crime rate, they are understopped.

New York City is perfectly typical of the black police-stop and crime rates. In the first three months of 2009, 52 percent of all people stopped for questioning by the police in New York City were black, though blacks are just 24 percent of the population. But according to the victims of and witnesses to crime, blacks commit about 68 percent of all violent crime in the city. Blacks commit 82 percent of all shootings and 72 percent of all robberies, whereas whites, who make up 35 percent of the city's population, commit about 5 percent of all violent crimes, 1 percent of shootings, and about 4 percent of robberies.

She then turns our attention to national crime rates. Young black males commit more crimes, so they're going to get more attention.

National crime patterns are the same. Black males between the ages of 18 and 24 commit homicide at ten times the rate of whites and Hispanics combined. Such vastly disproportionate crime rates must lead, if the police are going after crime in a color-blind fashion, to disproportionate stop and arrest rates. To criticize the police for crime-determined enforcement activity is to blame the messenger.

There are two sides to every story--Does white crime get overlooked?--And the motives for urban crime are numerous and well-cataloged. Liberal rhetoric in defense of minorities can get so overblown it disconnects us from all reality.

Racial profiling happens, and we still have discrimination. This unfairness should not blind us to the facts. For only from the firm basis of reality can we proceed to finding solutions.

NRO - Heather MacDonald

Coal-Powered Prius and Other Liberal Ideas

The law of unintended consequences, like the laws of physics, will catch up with you every time

I am not against health care reform or whatever they're calling it nowadays. We could use some tort reform and insurance deregulation.

I am against clueless crusaders trying to save the world by building monstrosities with my money. Having hope in our politicians is like having hope that those one-thousand monkeys pounding away on a thousand typewriters will eventually produce the great American novel.

Consider what our government has accomplished, or should I say destroyed, so far.

Starve People, Feed Cars!
What a great idea ethanol is! Food riots, skyrocketing prices in poverty-stricken nations that can least afford it. Grain shortages have also resulted in higher prices for grain-fed livestock. All brought to you by the US Government.

Killing people in the War on Terror, bad. Starving them to death so smug liberals can feel good about themselves when they tank up at that special pump, priceless!

Coal-Powered Environmentalism
So you think your electric car is environmentally friendly? Wrong! It runs on coal. More so if you live back east, less so out west. This will continue to be the case until you can plug that little self-righteous crap-box into a windmill or solar panel.

Do you really believe Obama when he says his health care plan will save money? Do you really think he and his confreres in congress believe it? Ask the food rioters in Oaxaca if they believe it.

CS Monitor - Price Shock
RCM - Bill Frezza
Monthly Review - Food Crisis
Truth About Trade
Liberal Government Perversity

Gangs of DC: White House -vs- Congress

Rival Warlord Gangs Fight Over the Spoils: Harry and the Pelosicrats at war with strongman Hussein al Hope bin Change

Dispatches from the fighting:

Under legislation that has rapidly gained support, GM and Chrysler would have to reinstate more than 2,000 dealerships that the companies had slated for closure.

House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) and several other congressmen spoke in support of the dealers. More than 240 House members have signed onto the bill, supporters said.

The administration, however, did force GM and Chrysler to streamline their operations before it invested more money in them, and it was the president's auto task force that spoke out for dealer closures. (Source: Washington Post)

The Strongman Speaks:

July 15 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama “strongly opposes” an effort in Congress to require General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC to restore relationships shed during bankruptcy proceedings, while stopping short of a veto threat.

This is a government not only at war with the private sector, but more importantly, at war with itself. Congress and the Obama Administration are two rebel factions that, after joining forces to loot, pillage and plunder, turn on one another over who gets the spoils.

Harry and the Pelosicrats in a power struggle with the strongman Hussein al Hope bin Change. Meanwhile, American refugees hunker down hoping the warring factions eventually attrit each other.

WaPo
Bloomberg

Goldman Sachs: Really Good or Really Corrupt?

Goldman Sachs announced record quarterly profits while their competitors struggle. Are They Really That Good?

Long the Wall Street firm everyone loves to hate, Goldman saw the brickbats rain down last week after it posted blowout second-quarter results and set aside a record amount for compensation. Even the arch-conservative Wall Street Journal editorial page joined the attacks.

I smell crony crapitolism*
Sure, they paid the money back, but how much did they benefit from government picking winners (Goldman, AIG) and Losers (Bear, Lehman Brothers), propping up the entire system, keeping it from collapsing upon their gold-plated ears? We will probably never know just how much they benefited from cosying up to Uncle Sam and having double agents inside our government.

I hear echos of Bernie Madoff

For starters, most folks aren’t quite sure how Goldman manages to make prodigious amounts of money. That leads to a feeling the firm must either be taking huge risks, or unduly benefiting from its extensive government connections.

Goldman hasn’t done a good job dispelling such notions and it sometimes makes matters worse. The firm has failed to adequately explain its trading relationship with American International Group Inc. and give a clear sense of whether and how it benefited from the massive bailout of the insurance giant.

Remember what everyone was saying after the Madoff house of cards collapsed? It was too good to be true, they should have known something was wrong... Goldman is way outperforming the market. Something is fishy.

Good thing they've bought Obama and the Democrats with lavish campaign contributions. Results like this would ordinarily bring government regulators knocking at their door.

* Yes, I know how to spell. Phony capitalism + The DC Capitol = Crapitolism

Bloomberg

Democrats: OK For Thee But Not Me, # 538

Wanna hear a subversive idea? Why not make politicians suffer under the same bureaucratic nightmare of a health plan they foist on the citizenry?

Representative John Fleming (R-Louisiana), who is also a medical doctor, has drafted a simple two page resolution, HR 615. It simply states:

Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that Members who
vote in favor of the establishment of a public, Federal Government
run health insurance option are urged to forgo their right to participate
in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) and agree
to enroll under that public option.

God bless this brilliant man. Please go to his website and register your approval for this resolution. There's a link at the bottom of his page where you can dare to suggest Congress live under the same laws they saddle the rest of us with.

http://fleming.house.gov/

Obama Throws Like A Girl, Plays Hardball Like Bush

The president may throw like a girl, but his cabinet knows how to play hardball, according to Politico:

Earlier this week, the administration launched a coordinated effort to jam Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl, an Arizona Republican who’s argued that the government should “cancel the rest of the stimulus spending.”

No fewer than four Cabinet secretaries wrote to Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer — also a Republican — to ask her if she agreed with Kyl that it was time to turn off the state’s stimulus spigot. “If you prefer to forfeit the money we are making available to your state, as Sen. Kyl suggests, please let me know,” wrote Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.

For good measure, he attached a three-page addendum listing each of the Arizona projects paid for by the $521 million the state is getting. Brewer knew she’d been thrown a high, hard one.

Bottom line: Shut up or we'll take your money away. How's that for Democracy in America today?

Echoes of George "My way or the highway" Bush
A senior administration official put it plainly: 

“You can either be for the recovery act or against it.”  

Bush was much more manly when he said it: "Yer either fur us or agin' us!" And it must be said he was referring to outsiders, although I would have loved to see him drag Leahy and Pelosi behind his horse, like Ben Cartwright in a Bonanza episode. Senator Kyle strikes back with facts:

“It’s unfortunate that President Obama and his administration seem unwilling to debate the merits of the stimulus bill and acknowledge its shortcomings,” the senator said in a statement.

“Instead, they have resorted to coordinated political attacks with the [DNC] and the politicization of departments of government by using Cabinet secretaries to issue thinly veiled threats to the governor and the people of Arizona.”

I admire Senator Kyle, but unfortunately, he's bringing an ink pen to a community organizer gang fight...

Democrats: PC for Thee But Not for Me

It's OK when Democrats do it...

The proposed health-insurance bill from the House of Representatives refers to mentally disabled people as "retarded" -- a term advocates, relatives and physicians find outdated and offensive.

Courtesy of the NY Post

Can't We All Just Get Along? The Joy of High Dudgeon

This Professor Gates vs. Officer Crowley hullabaloo is not going away

That woman of mine she ain't happy, 'till she finds something wrong and there's someone to blame... (Waylon Jennings, Rainy Day Woman)

It's almost as if some people enjoy getting all stirred up...

Bob Sommer writes:

Gates failed to cooperate as a black man should, as Sidney Poitier’s character did when he was arrested in The Heat of the Night, showing respect and deference. If this hadn’t been the most pre-eminent scholar of African-American Studies in the country, we never would have known about this incident—but that was partly Gates’s point.

To which a reader named Clement Knorr riposted:

To describe Henry Gates as "the most pre-eminent scholar of African American Studies in the country" should carry less prestige than being "the third most successful used car salesman in Reno". There is no recorded instance of any minority "studies" program, be it lesbian, Irish, left-handed or one-eyed, contributing in any way to our economy or national well-being.

John Edwards is right. There really are two Americas.

Ta-Nehisi Coats, in a semi-coherent snit, writes

The rest of us are left with a country where, by all appearances, officers are well within their rights to arrest you for sassing them. Which is where we started. I can't explain why, but this is the sort of thing that makes you reflect on your own precarious citizenship. I mean, the end of all of this scares the hell out of me.

When we think about the cops, it's scary, on one level, to conclude that a cop can basically arrest you on a whim. It's scarier still to think that this is what Americans want, that this country is as we've made it. And then finally it's even scarier to understand that no president can change that.

At least she warned us at the beginning of her post that she's not using logic, just feelings.

A policeman is the frontline of justice. You can't sass a judge in her courtroom, and no, Ms. Coats, you can't sass a police officer either. In fact, even sassing a fellow citizen could land you in jail if your actions fit the category of disorderly conduct. And you can even get arrested for doing this in your own home.

What's wrong with showing a cop respect and deference?
I understand the black-white history here, and it's not pretty. But what it the conclusion? Since blacks at one time were forced to be respectful and deferential to ugly white people who despised them, they should now legally be allowed to treat everyone, including law enforcement, with contempt?

Precarious Citizenship?
Police don't "disappear" people in this country, dissidents don't molder away in hidden dungeons. Such verbal histrionics make a mockery the truth that there are countries where this really does happen. Homosexuals have no rights in any Middle Eastern country and therefor don't exist, Castro has reporters locked away for telling the truth about him, and in some African countries, people really are killed for the shade of their skin.

Law enforcement is called the Thin Blue Line because it "prevents society from descending into chaos." Where would we end up if we enfeebled this line?

That scares the hell out of me.

Atlantic - Coates
KC Star - Voices

A Kennedy Lectures The Pope on Catholicism

Has any single family done more to damage the cause of Catholicism in America than the Kennedy clan?

Let's see... Bobby and JFK, married men, taking turns with Marilyn Monroe. Fat Teddy killing a woman. He couldn't help it, he was drunk at the time, and he was too busy saving his political career to save her life. Then there was that inbred retard nephew (Kennedy Scion, I think the press called him) who killed a girl by bashing her brains in with a golf club...

Now comes Kathleen Kennedy Townsend to carry on the family tradition. This time, it's just words, no sleazy sex or lurid murders. She must be one of the classier ones.

Townsend stupidly declares in Newsweak magazine:

"Barack Obama represents American Catholics better than The Pope does."

This statement itself is nonsense, since Catholics do not believe The Pope represents them. They believe he represents Christ here on earth. As such, he is the guardian of what Jesus passed on to the disciples, charged with the duty of faithfully teaching those under his care.

She goes on to excoriate the church for stubbornly refusing to cave in to popular opinion on women priests and gay marriage. Obama is soooo much more enlightened!

Here's my favorite excerpt from her article. Talk about a tangled up ball of illogic:

Yet polls bear out that American Catholics do not want to be told by the Vatican how to think. Despite the rhetoric of love and truth, the Vatican shows disdain (if not disgust) toward gays. But 54 percent of American Catholics find gay relationships to be morally acceptable, according to a 2009 Gallup poll.

Why be Catholic (or any religion) when you disagree with the basic tenets? Are they crazy? You "don't want to be told what to think" by The Vatican? Then stop listening! This is America! You won't have your toenails pulled out by Torquemada for denying the faith.

Even more ridiculous is her proposition that religious leaders should rewrite church doctrine and basic moral beliefs based on public opinion. This is just new-age self-worship.

The Catholic Church believes it is carrying out the true teachings of Christ as passed down through the ages from The Lord Himself, through Peter and his successors to the present-day leaders. They believe themselves to be the faithful guardians of this deposit of faith.

This is a grave duty, and anyone so charged who attempted to modify God's law would surely burn in hell. Bishops on such an existentially important mission will not be swayed by random new-age blather from left-wing kooks in the US.

Can we stop referring to the Kennedy's as "American Royalty?" They're looking more like court jesters.

MRC - Matthew Balan
NewsWeak -Another Kennedy Blatherskate

Fried Green Baloney

I really like Ken Salazar. Although he's a Democrat, I thought he was a great senator. He always looked out for Colorado's best interests and I always got a personal response from him when I wrote his office. I hated to see him resign to join the Obama Administration as our new Interior Secretary.

I just shook my head when I read his article in the Denver Post. This is not about bashing this good man; it's about bashing this economy-destroying pipe dream known as Green Energy.

He premises his argument on old anecdotal data. We've had some hellish fire seasons this decade, but the past few summers have been shorter and cooler:

We are also seeing the dangerous consequences of climate change: longer and hotter fire seasons, reduced snow packs, rising sea levels and declines of wildlife. Farmers, ranchers, municipalities, and other water users in Colorado and across the West are facing the possibility of a grim future in which there is less water to go around.

Next, he gives us liberal economics 101:

We will not fully unleash the potential of the clean energy economy unless Congress puts an upper limit on the emissions of heat-trapping gases that are damaging our environment. Doing so will level the playing field for new technologies by allowing the market to put a price on carbon, and will trigger massive investment in renewable energy projects across the country.

Translation: Artificially jack up the price of carbon-based energy.
The cap and trade scheme will make coal, oil and natural gas prices go sky high, and businesses will pass the cost on to the consumer. This will make wind, solar and other inefficient forms of energy generation comparatively cheap, and therefore competitive in this rigged market.

The problem is that our global competitors are not as stupid as we are.
China and India will (smartly) continue using the cheapest energy possible to keep their manufacturing costs down. Meanwhile, liberal do-gooders in this country will double your light bill, put gas prices a scary European levels and kill US jobs in the process.

Our nation is blessed with an abundance of natural resources, and in a fit of earth-worshiping stupidity, the Democratic party would deny us their unfettered use. Even a good man like Ken Salazar can't square that one.

The Obama Administration must have insisted he check his Colorado common sense at the door.

Denver Post - Salazar

Health Scare: Why The Rush? Ontological Angst has the answer, and the remedy...

Race to the Bottom

Whatever you're looking for, you'll find it. A black studies professor, steeped in historical and societal slights of blacks by whites, found racism in his encounter with a white policeman.

Gates said he sensed a series of unspoken slights in the way Crowley treated him -- demanding he step outside, assuming he was an intruder, not the homeowner...

In a strange twist on Spider Man, his whitey sense was tingling...

The President Acted Stupidly (and legally insulated Officer Crowley)
OK, I'm the 10 bajillionth person to say it. President Obama acted stupidly for shooting off his mouth without having all the facts. More importantly, he just shielded Sgt Crowley and the Cambridge PD from any lawsuit. The first thing any lawyer defending Crowley will bring up is this prejudicial statement from the most powerful man in the world, arguing that it is now impossible to have a fair hearing.

A Black Man's Perspective
A well-written piece in HuffPo by John Ridley, takes up the cause of Professor Gates from a black man's perspective. BTW, is it racist of me to call a black man's article "well-written" as if I were surprised about it? Maybe we could ask Joe (clean and articulate) Biden. Just wondering. Anyway, here are some excerpts:

I think it's 'cause the professor was putting into action what a whole lot of us were thinking: nun-uh.

We're sick and tired of having to prove things to the self-righteous reactionary fringe which looks at life as one, big racial profiling traffic stop: Step out of the car Mr. President and show me your birth certificate. Ma'am, could you show me how being a "wise Latina" isn't going to infringe on my male whiteliness?

At some point, he and others will just have to let it go. What's the alternative? You can't go back and change history, and human beings will always be hardwired with a natural affinity for their own kith and kin. We are all biased, we all prejudge, but 99% of us try our best to give our fellow man a fair shake in our daily dealings.

US Military Separates the Winners from the Whiners
Instead, I suggest they look at the anecdotal data we have before us. Successful people of all races, creeds and colors. My 25 years in the military taught me that no class of people is any better than any other.

Why is the military our most successful government enterprise? Because soldiers refuse to traffic in victimology and unfairness. Life is unfair. Get over it. Somebody puts a brick wall in front of you, you climb over it and get the damned job done! Complaining and self-pity is not tolerated. That is what separates the winners from the whiners. That wall is unfair. Whiners wallow in self-pity. Winners knock it down.

Racial Intifada
Some people would love to turn this into a Palestinians vs. Israelis thing, which would be a shame for the 99% of Americans who live productive lives without engaging in racism and victimology. But the race hustlers and limousine liberals of all colors, a rainbow of loudmouths, will stoke the righteous anger. And the press will gleefully fan the flames. Gotta have something to keep the yokels tuned in now that DC is on vacation.

It's going to be a long, hot August.

Politico - Ben Smith
ABC News
The Hill - Obama Phone Call
ABC News - Liberal Bastions
HuffPo - John Ridley

Liberalism is a Bankrupt Monster

Conservatism is a shining city on the hill. Liberalism is the clanking monster that threatens to destroy it.

Christopher Chantrill has written a brilliant piece contrasting two opposing views on what American conservatives should do to improve their lot. Our conservative friend from Canada, David Warren says to start the revolution. British liberal Daniel Finkelstein recommends throwing Sarah Palin and the other lowbrows over the side and buddying up to the liberal media.

Read Chantrill's article here: Who's Out of Touch. Here is an excerpt that neatly summarizes his thesis:

The awful truth about liberalism is its central delusion, the notion that life can be neatly organized into rational bureaucratic programs. It turns everything it touches into a soulless clanking monster.

The glorious truth about conservatism is its love of life. Before princes, principalities and powers comes life and love, mothers and babies, children and families, struggle and sacrifice, a city on a hill.

Enjoy!

American Thinker - Chantrill

News Flash: Swearing Makes You Feel Better!

Anyone who's ever hit their thumb with a hammer or caught the meaty part of their hand in a returning M-9 slide bolt already knew this instinctively. Here's some scientific back up:

Researchers from the school of psychology at Britain's Keele University have found swearing can make you feel better as it can have a "pain-lessening effect," according to a study published in the journal NeuroReport.

It's psyche protection. Like a powerless child who yells when wronged, an adult who swears is trying to regain control of an overwhelming situation. That also explains leftist protesters.

Reuters - Swearing

Does this Make the News Media's Head Look Fat?

While the huckster in chief was peddling his snake oil to the yokels, the press slid in some rude observations about his nominee for Surgeon General

Dr. Regina M. Benjamin, Obama's pick for the next surgeon general, was hailed as a MacArthur Grant genius who had championed the poor at a medical clinic she set up in Katrina-ravaged Alabama.

But the full-figured African-American nominee is also under fire for being overweight in a nation where 34 percent of all Americans aged 20 and over are obese.

This is rude. Why must our press traffic in such trivialities, especially now when the American people need the facts on so many important issues?

Even the lefties over at Salon are busting on her. How judgmental! She is a hard-working doctor who probably doesn't have time to hit the gym everyday like the affluent liberals who are attacking her.

And here's another thing. Most Americans don't look like Hollywood. Actually, judging by the candid photos in the supermarket tabloids, even Hollywood doesn't look like Hollywood when not up on the silver screen. It's not normal and it's not natural, so they need to get off her case.

Further, they owe her an apology. I still can't believe this is the dominant issue of discussion about this accomplished woman. According to exercise and nutrition nazis in this country, over half of us are overweight.

The liberal press is always blabbering about having a a cabinet that looks like America. Well, Dr. Benjamin fits the bill. She's not fat. She's normal. And unlike the press and the other liberal nutrition nazis, she had actually contributed to the betterment of those around her.

ABC News - Overweight

A Liberal Feminist Discusses (and defends) Sarah Palin

Whether Sarah Palin can stage a comeback, or even if she wants one, is yet to be seen. This we do know: She incites an irrational case of the fleck spittle heebie jeebies in liberals like no one since Newt Gingrich.

One person of the left, Camille Paglia, completely disagrees with Palin's politics, but nonetheless has a great appreciation for her as an accomplished woman in the public arena.

Camille Paglia, mother, lesbian, college professor, is my favorite liberal. She is a thinking woman, completely liberated from the doctrines of her confreres, and she says what she thinks in beautiful, direct prose. Here's her take on Rush Limbaugh:

I totally agree with Rush about "feminazis," whose amoral tactics and myopic worldview I as a dissident feminist had to battle for decades. As a student of radio and a longtime listener of Rush's show, I have gotten a wealth of pleasure and insight from him over the years.

She's written a thoughtful and entertaining piece on the latest chapter of the Palin Saga. Her criticism of Sarah is constructive, and she couches it in a disdain for how the media and pop culture have treated her. It's a short read. I highly recommend it. Here are a few excerpts:

On Palin's 3rd of July press conference:

What certainly was blameworthy was the chaotic and rushed statement itself. Something so politically consequential needed more careful composition and rehearsal. Why provide more fodder for the vultures and harpies of the Northeastern media?

She has some pointed criticism for the press:

She also needs a shrewder, cooler take on the mainstream media, with its preening bullies, cackling witches, twisted cynics and pompous windbags.

For a longer Paglia analysis of Palin that is very positive, go here. If you want to arm up to defend Sarah, this column will provide you plenty of ammo. We conservatives must honestly assess Sarah Palin, or we are no better than the ObamaBots. Paglia shows us how. I wish we had more Camille Paglia's on both the right and left. Perhaps we could actually have an honest, meaningful dialog...

Salon - Paglia

Sotomayor: Take Up The White Man's Guilt

Sonia Sotomayor will be the newest associate justice on the United States Supreme Court

There was nothing in her long judicial record that was particularly damning or controversial, the Ricci Case notwithstanding. As in any case, there were two legitimate sides, she just reflexively came down on the government-sanctioned racial preference side. Trampling a few working class white guys to achieve racial justice is a small price to pay.

We have surrendered to the multicultural race hustlers
Who wants to be called a bigot? It's easier to just shut up and go about your business, leaving this nonsense to the progressive fasci who nurture and enforce it.

Multiculturalism runs rampant
Liberals make the nonsensical, self-contradictory argument that nobody is better than anybody else, but then fight for quotas and special favors for certain classes of Democratic voters, smearing all who stand in the way.

Bigotry of Condescension: "Ignorant Jigaboos" and the Guilty White Liberals who Mother Them
Liberals are maternalistic bigots, seeing minorities as their helpless, defenseless children who need mommy's constant care to stay out of trouble and get through life with no hurties. This guilty liberal-oppressed minority dynamic is sick and dysfunctional: A 40-year-old man still tied to his mama's apron strings comes to mind.

National Black Chamber of Commerce President Harry Alford explains it best on John Ziegler's radio show

Here is the crux of Mr. Alford's remarks for those who have their video blocked. He is right to be upset. It is clear that Barbara Boxer expected Mr. Alford to jump on her bandwagon because he is black, and everybody knows that blacks are a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Democratic Party:

He said Senator Boxer is "Reeking with racial animus."
"I said to myself, this is Bigotry 101, and it stinks!"
"She totally assumed, because of the color of my skin, I'm going to be some ignorant jigaboo up there."

Finally, a man with the testicular fortitude to stand up to this most corrosive form of racism. Now, will others be brave enough to follow him into the breach?

The problem is not so much judges like Sonia Sotmayor: The record shows she follows the law. The problem is lawmakers like Barbara Boxer who write these laws that separate out people based on categories like race and gender, awarding favors to some while casting opprobrium on others.

RCP-John Ziegler

And we wonder why they are broke

La Jolla California has a children's beach pool created by the building of a seawall in 1931, it was donated to the city on the condition it become a public swimming area and park.

Sometime in the 1990's the pool was taken over by harbor seals... and of course, since nothing in California is simple or easy... having plodded through the state legal system for years, a judge ordered the city Monday to chase the seals away.

The plan created with the assistance of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), is to hire someone to walk up and down the beach playing a tape recording of barking dogs. Of course, the individual so tasked will need to have a police escort of two officers to protect him from "the pro-seal activists".

"THE PLAN" will cost taxpayers 688,000 DOLLARS! One presumes that does not include the cost of years of litigation.

$688,000 dollars for a plan that undoubtedly involved scores of high paid scientists, state officials, and various sundry unknowns to come up with the idea of playing recordings of a land-based predatory carnivore to scare off beached marine mammals. Hmmm!

According to Sandiego6, the city has already spent over $1 million in legal fees, the state legislature is involved, and as I read and researched this... the Governator has signed the bill granting a reprieve to the seals.

Well perhaps we can drag this out for a few more years and a few more hundred thousand or so.

Not that I have a position one way or another, seals, no seals... but do you really think it worth over $1,000,000 in legal gameplay and another $700K to scare the seals away?

For God's sake people, get a freakin grip.

And we wonder why the state is going down fast...

What's more curious is why we seem so intent to follow them.

http://www.msnbc.com/id/32014041/ns/us_news-environment/
http://www.fox5sandiego.com/news/kswb-seals,0,2234486.story
http://www.lajollafriendsoftheseals.org/

Government LooniCycle

Feral Government Crisis Cycle:
1. Find a crisis, or better yet, create one by spending obscene quantities of money on a perverse incentive program, like encouraging lenders to give mortgages to people who can't pay them back

2. Shake down the taxpayer and borrow from China to spend even more money on a "solution" that involves handing money over to well-heeled political donors

3. "Solution" creates a bigger crisis

4. Return to step 1 and repeat ad infinitum, ad nausium, ad absurdum...

That dizzy feeling is caused by the swirl of your country being flushed down the toilet.

Casa D' Ice

Supersize My Government

For only $99,000,000,000,000.99 we'll supersize that for you!

Robert Samuelson, economic journalist extraordinaire, writes:

WASHINGTON -- The question that President Obama ought to be asking -- that we all should be asking -- is this: How big a government do we want?

Without anyone much noticing, our national government is on the verge of a permanent expansion that would endure long after the present economic crisis has (presumably) passed and that would exceed anything ever experienced in peacetime. This expansion may not be good for us, but we are not contemplating the adverse consequences or how we might minimize them.

How to Fight Back Against Obscene Spending
The case conservatives should be making is a non-partisan one: We are on a fiscally unsustainable path. We don't want either party spending more money. In order to fight this fight, first we've got to acknowledge a few skeletons in the GOP closet:

* Yes, Reagan grew the deficit, but it was in the cause of breaking the back of global communism. He got it done, and then military spending went back down.

* Yes, Rush Limbaugh and other conservative standard-bearers used to not care about deficits, even going so far as to poo poo the notion that they were a threat. That was then (when deficits grew no faster than GDP), this is now (projected deficits will overtake GDP projections and keep skyrocketing from there.)

* Yes, George Bush spend too much money. But if he was irresponsible in pursuit of security, then President Obama is four times as irresponsible in pursuit of windmills and government bureaucracy.

* Republicans used to scorn the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). They now tout the CBO's damning projections as an effective rebuttal to the Social Democrats' agenda. It is true, when the GOP wanted to pass their agenda, the CBO played the same role: Using actual facts and figures to puncture the fantasy bubbles that politicians of both parties are so fond of. It's all sunshine and lollipops until an adult steps in with a dose of reality.

Cutting earmarks and pork won't get the job done
Our government is systemically overleveraged: There is no way it can pay for everything it has promised everybody. Even higher taxes won't do it. Dismantling this structurally untenable debt will involve breaking promises and slaughtering sacred cows. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and government pensions (including military pensions) account for over half of the annual federal budget.

Restoring Fiscal Sanity Won't Be Easy
If the GOP were to gain enough power to restore fiscal sanity, it still would not be easy, since there are no easy answers, just unsatisfying trade-offs. They would face a hellstorm of invective from the left, with the press megaphone propagandizing all the way: The children, the elderly, the indigent, cold-hearted, cruel, Hitler...

The news would be an endless parade of heart-tugging misery, with The Ballad of Tom Joad playing full-blast in the background. Hard-working, abused Okies will be played by our brothers and sisters from south of the border. Inner city ghettos will simmer and seethe with rage, threatening to boil over at any time. An avalanche of stories about hardworking people fallen victim to GOP cruelty will assault our senses daily.

You get my drift. These are the emotional arguments we must deal with if we really want to get our fiscal house in order. Given that Republicans and Democrats alike profit nicely from the current system, I don't think any of this will ever happen until China moves in to repossess the collateral.

RCP - Robert Samuelson

USA Apology Tour Continues: Sorry for all that progress

After flying to India in a pollution-spewing jetliner, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton apologized for all the pollution we and the other industrialized nations have caused:

"We acknowledge now with President Obama that we have made mistakes in the United States, and we along with other developed countries have contributed most significantly to the problem that we face with climate change," she said. "We are hoping a great country like India will not make the same mistakes." (Source: Google-AP)

We could cut gaseous emissions by two-thirds if she, Obama, and all the preaching, screeching Democrats would just shut up.

What will we apologize for next? Advances in medical and pharmaceutical technology that have eradicated scurvy, beriberi, rickets and other forgotten diseases that used to kill third-world children at alarming rates? How about we apologize for all the pollution our humanitarian operations have caused?

I could go on, but you get the drift. The industrialized world has brought a cornucopia of goodness to the world, the entire world. Indeed, the US, Europe and Japan have lavished literally trillions less fortunate countries over the past 60 years.

These people are an embarrassment, and hopefully they are on their way out:

Obama continues to be comparatively popular. But now recent national surveys have shown a measurable drop in his job approval rating, even among Democrats. A CBS news survey out this week had his national approval rating at 57 percent, and his standing among Democrats down 10 percentage points since last month, from 92 percent to 82 percent. (Source: AP Google)

The more they talk and spend, the worse it gets for them. Hopefully, three and a half years from now, the only apology we will be making is for unleashing a plague of historically-ignorant guilty elitists upon the benighted peoples of the world.

AP Google - Obama Losing Support
AP - Another Damned Apology

Spend Money to Save Money, and other DC Fantasies

Who do you believe? The non-partisan CBO director, or VP Biden?

Taking a page from the Bush Administration, VP Biden says we gotta spend money to keep from going broke. Kinda' like President Bush destroying capitalism to save it, I guess...

Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf:

Under current law, the federal budget is on an unsustainable path, because federal debt will continue to grow much faster than the economy over the long run.

Although great uncertainty surrounds long-term fiscal projections, rising costs for health care and the aging of the population will cause federal spending to increase rapidly under any plausible scenario for current law. Unless revenues increase just as rapidly, the rise in spending will produce growing budget deficits.

Large budget deficits would reduce national saving, leading to more borrowing from abroad and less domestic investment, which in turn would depress economic growth in the United States. Over time, accumulating debt would cause substantial harm to the economy.

Vice President Joe Biden:

“We’re going to go bankrupt as a nation,” Biden said.

“Now, people when I say that look at me and say, ‘What are you talking about, Joe? You’re telling me we have to go spend money to keep from going bankrupt?’” Biden said. “The answer is yes, that's what I’m telling you.” (Listen to Audio)

When did Conan O'Brien become the White House script writer?

CBO Director's Blog
CNS News - VP Biden
WaPo -CBO Devastating

There Goes The Neighborhood

Sounds like something out of an apocalyptic Hollywood thriller: Giant squids appearing off the coast of California, attacking scuba divers.

SAN DIEGO (AP) - Thousands of jumbo flying squid—aggressive 5-foot-long sea monsters with razor-sharp beaks and toothy tentacles—have invaded the shallow waters off San Diego, spooking scuba divers and washing up dead on tourist-packed beaches.

The carnivorous calamari, which can grow up to 100 pounds, came up from the depths last week and swarms of them roughed up unsuspecting divers. Some divers report tentacles enveloping their masks and yanking at their cameras and gear.

The clear message here is, don't fool with mother nature. Also, I find it amusing when naive adults anthropomorphize wildlife. The squid were "roughing up" divers? Those bullies!

Smart divers are staying out of the water:

"I wouldn't go into the water with them for the same reason I wouldn't walk into a pride of lions on the Serengeti," said Mike Bear, a local diver.

But some people think life is a Disney movie:

Yet other divers, including Shandra Magill, couldn't resist the chance to see the squid up close.

On a recent night, Magill watched in awe as a dozen squid with doleful, expressive eyes circled her group, tapping and patting the divers and gently bumping them before dashing away.

One especially large squid suspended itself motionless in the water about three feet away and peered at her closely, its eyes rolling, before it vanished into the black. A shimmering incandescence rippled along its body, almost as if it were communicating through its skin.

But the next night, things were different: A large squid surprised Magill by hitting her from behind and grabbing at her with its arms, pulling her sideways in the water. The powerful creature ripped her buoyancy hose away from her chest and knocked away her light.

When Magill recovered, she didn't know which direction was up and at first couldn't find the hose to help her rise to the surface. The squid was gone.

"I just kicked like crazy. The first thing you think of is, 'Oh my gosh, I don't know if I'm going to survive this. If that squid wanted to hurt me, it would have," she said.

Doleful eyes, grabbing and pulling, if it really wanted to hurt her... That's one emotional squid! It is dangerous to ascribe human motivations to the actions of instinct-driven animals. Just ask the unfortunate friend of the monkey lady or that guy who got eaten by the bears he "befriended" up in Alaska.

Here's the YouTube video, Trouble in Paradise. Maybe they should ask Ariel to go get her dad King Neptune...



Breitbart

Colorado Californicated

I have lived in Colorado on and off for 25 years. This used to be a good libertarian-type state. We had repubs and we had dems, but they were all pretty much middle of the road, live and let live while looking out for the state. Now the ObamaDems have taken over and they are trying to tax and regulate the energy industry out of existence.

Blogger Dave from the equally beautiful state of Utah wrote:

I recently returned to my home from Denver, Colorado. As I crossed the land I noticed the majestic peaks of the Colorado Rockies from Interstate 70.

As I started to descend what is known as the Western Slope I noticed the mighty Colorado River. I also noticed the various oil platforms that were scattered along the canyon from Glenwood Springs down to Grand Junction, Colorado.

As I crossed into eastern Utah I noticed the varied desert geology of the Colorado Plateau. I saw from a distance Arches National Park at the base of the La Sal Mountains. On the desert flats I could see oil and natural gas drilling rigs and pipelines.

What I saw across the varied terrain amazed me. The beauty of the land was not marred by the energy production that I saw, but rather it complimented it.

We are becoming californicated by all the refugees fleeing the liberal mess they made in California. Incapable of learning anything, they do the same things here hoping for a different result, and there are plenty of Coloradans jumping right in to help them.

These ignorant people fetishize the environment because they have never raised livestock or hunted or fished in it. We are a beautiful state, and we make a lot of money off of that from tourism. Of course no one want to rape the land. We've had energy and tourism side by side for over 50 years and it's worked pretty well.

Governor Bill Owens and the GOP left us a surplus. Gov Tax Ritter and the Dem0crats have run us into debt while nibbling away at our anti-tax laws.

Colorado is a state to watch. We were gripped by the galloping Hope and Change insanity known as Obama Mania, but reality may be setting in. I think how Colorado votes in 2010 could be a harbinger of things to come.

I pray to God we wake up before we've completely Californicated ourselves.

Wisdom of Dave

All Black People Don't Think The Same???

This is beautiful. Harry C. Alford, the president & CEO of the National Black Chamber of Commerce really laid the wood to Senate Dunce Barbara Boxer. Oh, if only more congressional witnesses had the stones to fire back like this guy did.

Boxer tried to get simpatico with Mr. Alford over her disastrous cap and trade bill, citing all kinds of black people who are for it... All Blacks are on the Democratic reservation, right?

Eventually Alford declares, "We are referring to the experts regardless of their color. And for someone to tell me, an African-American, college-educated veteran of the United States Army that I must contend with some other black group and put aside everything else in here -- this has nothing to do with the NAACP and really has nothing to do with the National Black Chamber of Commerce. We're talking energy and that road the chair went down, I think, is god-awful."

Here's the video from YouTube. It's long, and must have been captured by a Boxer fan, because she gets the first and last word in. Mr. Alford's ringing statement comes in around the five minute mark. His point is an excellent one. His race has nothing whatsoever to do with her suicidal energy policy and what he thinks about it. Barbara seems confused when confronted with a minority that doesn't fit her condescending, liberal white bread view.

Harry C. Alford President 2012!

Breitbart TV

Politico

BUCK UP!

Flanked by nurses and politicos, Obama vows to throw his full weight behind health care reform legislation.

" We need to buck up people a little here - that's what nurses do all the time", Obama said, " The nurses are on board, the American people are on board, now it is up to us".

There can only be one reply:


BUCK OFF

~Finntann~

Democratic Lies and the Lying Democratic Liars who Lie Them

* Title courtesy of the Senate's newest circus clown, failed comedian Al Franken *

Props to AP for calling a spade a spade in the Sotomayor hearings. Leahy lied, in quotes:

WASHINGTON (AP) - In endorsing Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy did some creative rewriting of history. And he put quote marks around it.

Trying to head off criticism of a controversial comment, Leahy misquoted Sotomayor's own words in kicking off the second day of her confirmation hearings.

Sotomayor's public comments are as much a part of the hearings as her lengthy judicial record. Here's a look at some of the claims made Tuesday about those comments, and the facts.

___

LEAHY SAID: "You said that, quote, you 'would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would reach wise decisions.'"

THE FACTS: If that's all Sotomayor said, the quote would barely have mattered to opponents of her nomination. The actual quote, delivered in a 2001 speech to law students at the University of California at Berkeley, was: "I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life."

Leahy's revision dropped the controversial part of the phrase, the part that has attracted charges of reverse racism.

This was no accidental misquote. This is the Orwellian historical revision the Democrats must resort to in order to implement their radical agenda.

AP - Leahy

Spreadin' It Around

Obama and the Democrats in Congress are buying votes with your money

Counties that supported Obama last year have reaped twice as much money per person from the administration's $787 billion economic stimulus package as those that voted for his Republican rival, Sen. John McCain, a USA TODAY analysis of government disclosure and accounting records shows.

The reports show the 872 counties that supported Obama received about $69 per person, on average. The 2,234 that supported McCain received about $34. (Source: USA Today)

In their defense, maybe it was just a coincidence that those Democratic areas needed the most help. After all, the failed, blighted areas are spilling over with liberals waiting for a government handout, and they all voted for Obama. Meanwhile, the self-sufficient areas tend to vote conservative and take care of themselves...

...Government-Sponsored Reverse Darwinism?

Picture courtesy of Chicago Ray
News: USA Today

Lost In Translation: Obama Called a "Little Black Man"

Here's a little-noticed news item from AP:

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — The foreign relations minister in Honduras' interim government says he has sent a letter to Barack Obama apologizing for a racial comment he made about the U.S. president.

In a TV interview, Ortez said Obama "is a little black man who doesn't know where Tegucigalpa is located."

This is a good example of terrible reporting. "Little black man" sounds horrible in English, as it should. In Spanish, however, speakers liberally sprinkle such diminutives throughout their conversations. Little black man, "negrito" in Spanish is a common term of endearment among people of all skin shades.

In this case, the Honduran Foreign Minister was not using it as a term of endearment, but neither was this a "racial comment." If our president were Oriental, Ortez would have called him a "Chinito." They have a myriad of words for white people, from "fulo" to "rabi-blanco" (white-tail, or more vulgarly, white-ass), and they use all of these politically-incorrect words in routine conversation, with no racial bias intended and no offense taken.

Yes, the foreign minister was speaking contemptuously of our president, but it was not racial. Little things like this, where I have personal insight, are what lead me to conclude that much of our press is ignorant. They may be educated, but they lack the real-world experience to put what they report in proper context; and without context, their reportage is just a bunch of words.

I thought this would be a huge story, what with Honduras being in the news and now adding in a racial controversy. Anyway, I'm pleasantly surprised it has gone largely unnoticed.

Google-AP - Honduras
El Tiempo - Cisma
El Tiempo - Se Excusa

Arizona, Cut Off Your Indian Braids

Ward "Little Eichmanns" Churchill has met his own Little Big Horn

Academic Fraud and pretend Indian Ward Churchill got the ultimate smackdown from Judge Larry Naves. No money, no reinstatement, nada. He even took back the $1 settlement the last jury gave him. You get a big award of doodly-squat, tonto!

Thus ends the Churchill-CU Circus. Naves is a well-respected judge appointed by Democrat Roy Romer, so this will not be overturned. Even the Daily Camera, newspaper of the People's Republic of Boulder, says it's past time to kick this charlatan to the curb.

Native American-Hippie Chic
Here in the West, we still have Native Americans, and since the 60's there's been a certain cachet attached to all things Indian. It started with the hippies and the liberal desire to identify with oppressed minorities without actually having to walk a mile in their moccasins.

Mark Lindsay explains it best in his 1970's song, Arizona:

She must belong to San Francisco
She must've lost her way
Posting a poster of Poncho and Cisco one California day
She says she believes in Robin Hood and brotherhood
And colours of green and grey
And all you can do is laugh at her
Doesn't anybody know how to pray?

Ward Churchill, white man from back east, took the hippie-Indian shtick to the extreme and rode it all the way to a full professorship at the University of Colorado, Boulder. I've had many Native American friends over the years, Mescalero Apaches, Blackfoot, Pueblo, and it always amuses me how the pretend ones try to be more Catholic than the pope. Or should I say more native than the natives?

Reminds me of that Muslim convert in Florida who claimed discrimination when they wouldn't let her take her drivers license photo with a face mask on. She'd been walking around showing her face for over 30 years before she converted, so it's not like she was hiding some kind of forbidden fruit...

And you can believe in Robin Hood and brotherhood
And rolling the ball in the hay
And I will be reading you an Aesop´s fable
Anything to make you stay

Is there a little Eichmann in all of us? Ontological Angst explores the other side of peace and love and brotherhood.

Go Here to see a cool, high-quality video of Mark Lindsay singing his 1970's hit song "Arizona."

Myspace - Hippie Movement

So Congressional Democrats are mad about a CIA plan to assassinate Al Qaida leaders. Never mind the plan was never actually implemented. Darth Cheney was behind it, and that's all the sniveling pissants on the left need to know.

This is a cover for Pelosi's lies about not being briefed about waterboarding. She can't climb down from that one, so they find a new controversy to distract the proletariate...

Meanwhile, one of the president's teleprompters collapsed from exhaustion.

Good thing there's no real news going on...

Illinois: Failed Government Threatens Its Citizens

Up To 10,000 Illinois Prisoners May Be Released

Gov. Pat Quinn: Release Of Inmates Could Save Taxpayers $125 Million

Up to 10,000 convicted criminals could soon be released early from prisons across Illinois. It's all because of the state's budget mess. Gov. Pat Quinn says cutting those prisoners loose could save more than $100 million. But at what cost to you? (Source: CBS2Chicago)

State of Illinois Message to Voters: Pay up or we'll release a plague of criminals upon you!
This is really about scaring more tax money out of the voters. These are the solutions you get from a corrupt Chicago Democratic Machine. I know, Illinois' capitol is Springfield, but the Windy City is the real seat of power.

I drove back to southern Illinois over 4th of July Weekend, and the state government workers union was protesting on the Capitol steps for higher taxes. Their message? "To hell with everybody else, I gotta get mine, dammit!"

Here's an idea: Why not release 10,000 gold-plated bureaucrats and keep the prisoners where they belong?

Like California, Illinois' corrupt and bloated union-dominated bureaucracy is bankrupting the state. They can't cut the government workforce: It's union-dominated, and unions vote Democrat. Can't cut social programs; people on welfare and food stamps also vote Democrat. With the late-breaking news that someone has been stealing Democrat voters from Chicago cemeteries, The Democratic Machine has really got to watch it!

So they are forced to do stupid things like release prisoners. Worst of all for the Prairie State, there's not a competent Republican to be found who can take advantage of this Democratic disaster. Illinois is a nice state full of wonderful people, but I'm glad I don't live there anymore.

CBS2Chicago - Illinois Budget Failure

Che and Churchill: There's a little Eichmann in all of us

Castrated on the Altar of Gaia

Incoherent Stupidity is The #1 Congressional Output
The house wants to slap tariffs on all goods coming into the country originating from nations that do not conform to our proposed cap and trade law. This will surely start a trade war that will further tank the global economy.

The Senate doesn't like that provision and vows to strip it out of the bill.

So it's either start a trade war by insisting others follow our suicidal rules, or allow other countries to sell us cheap stuff because they refuse to saw the legs off of their economy like we have ours...

Behold the sheer stupidity of cap and trade! Don't we have enough problems already without congress blowing billions to create more?

FT - Carbon Import Tariffs

Blast from the Past

Mark Lindsay had hits with "Silver Bird" and "Arizona" in the Early 70's. Before that, he was lead singer for Paul Revere and the Raiders. No, he wasn't Paul Revere, he was Mark Lindsay, silly! Anyone old enough to remember the old Yamaha Motorcycle commercial will recognize Silverbird. Mark turned it into that jingle, "Yamaha, won't you ride me away."

I love these songs...

Here are the YouTube videos: