NATIONAL ENQUIRER CLAIMS OBAMA CHEATING SCANDAL...Well, they did get the John Edwards story right.
Hey, remember that soccer game that wasn’t a soccer game on April 10?
Was it?
CASA GRANDE, AZ (KOLD) - A Pinal County Sheriff's deputy was shot Friday near Interstate 8 near Arizona 84 after a traffic stop.I sure hope the deputy didn't ask him for his papers. That would be a crime.
When the deputy approached the vehicle, he was shot in the stomach with an AK-47, officials said.
The deputy said in a radio transmission at about 4:30 p.m. that he had been shot by an undocumented immigrant in the desert, according to Phoenix media outlets.
A search is on right now in the area for the suspect.
The wounded deputy has been airlifted to a hospital.
Arizona's new law clamping down on illegals has given Barack Obama and the left an opening to unlimber their big guns. The incoming fire has been brutal. The rounds landing have been charges of racism. But conservatives, Republicans, and all pro-law Americans need to get out of their foxholes and return fire. Better yet, pro-law forces need to outflank Mr. Obama's army. A battle plan follows.There's more at the link. We cannot allow the Democrats to run with the racism charges unchallenged. Government is failing to protect our borders, and that responsibility falls to the president. The GOP needs to make this case aggressively... and often.
The key to end-running Mr. Obama is to factually assert that he's failing his oath of office. The president of the United States is firing off charges of racism because he doesn't want to do anything substantive to seal the nation's borders, staunch the flow of illegals, and send illegals on American soil packing. His partisan agenda to legalize illegals and harvest their votes trumps American national security interests. Mr. Obama aims to keep the illegals pipeline open between Mexico and the United States. A steady supply of new Democratic voters is a very good thing for Democrats.
Most Americans see the Democrats' harvest of illegals has a Harvest of Shame. To turn a blind eye to America's porous southern border makes a mockery of Mr. Obama's constitutional oath to protect and defend the United States. It flouts the nation's immigration laws, thereby undermining respect for law generally. It tells those immigrants and their American sponsors who are playing by the rules and jumping through every hoop to obtain and keep legal residence that they're awfully big suckers.
The charge of dereliction of duty against Mr. Obama needs to be made over and over again until it sticks like superglue. Is this a tough line of attack? You bet. But charging Americans as being racists because they simply want state and national laws against illegals upheld and enforced ain't exactly beanbag. When it comes to grabbing power and holding it, the left and Democrats never play beanbag.
The son of a Democratic Tennessee lawmaker was convicted Friday on two charges in the hacking of Sarah Palin's e-mail account while she campaigned on the Republican presidential ticket in 2008.This wasn't just a college prank, this kid was looking for something that he could release and hurt Palin and the GOP campaign. This kind of behavior needs to be discouraged, so hopefully he'll get to spend some quality time with Tennessee's finest inhabitants of the local gray bar hotel.
The federal court jury reached its verdict against David Kernell, 22, after four days of deliberation. He was found guilty of obstruction of justice and unauthorized access to a computer, but was acquitted on a charge of wire fraud.
The jury deadlocked on a charge of identify theft. Prosecutors reserve the right to have a new trial on that charge. The charge of obstructing an investigation carries a maximum 20-year prison sentence and unauthorized access to a computer is a misdemeanor that carries a maximum one-year sentence.
Kernell's defense attorney maintained the hack amounted to college prank, not a crime. Kernell was a student at the University of Tennessee at the time. Prosecutors argued it was a more serious effort to damage Palin's political campaign.
Slow federal response threatens to turn oil spill into Obama's 'Katrina'...Will this be Obama's "Katrina", or perhaps his total lack of enthusiasm for controlling our border which has led to the Arizona law?
House Republicans could win 100 or more seats in this fall's elections, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Friday.I think the UVA analysis is waaaayyy low, even at this point in the cycle. They must only be looking at sure things. Forty seats is now very doable, and even some lefties have the numbers upward of 51+. Unless this immigration mess in Arizona suddenly energizes Democrats, and I don't really think it will in the long run, the GOP should be setting itself up for a very strong year.
Boehner said he believes there is no seat that the GOP cannot win during this election cycle, judging by Sen. Scott Brown's (R) improbable win in January's special election in Massachusetts.
Reflecting Republican optimism that they can win back control of the House this fall, Boehner said 2010 has the widest playing field for Republicans in a while.
"Let me remind you that Scott Brown won the Ted Kennedy Senate seat in Massachusetts," Boehner said during an appearance on National Public Radio. "If Scott Brown can win in Massachusetts, there isn't a seat in America that Republicans can't win."
When pressed for a number, Boehner said he believed the GOP could win as many as 100 seats in this fall's elections.
Other prognosticators have more modest projections for Republicans. The University of Virginia's Center for Politics predicts the GOP would pick up 27 seats if the election were held today. Republicans need to win 41 seats to take back control of the House.
But Boehner says the playing field is the widest he's ever seen since joining Congress in 1991, which by implication includes the landslide 1994 congressional elections that swept Republicans to control of Congress.
"What we're seeing every day is the playing field widen -- widen beyond anything we've seen here in my 20 years," Boehner said.
Is George W. Bush about to start a political comeback?Wait a minute. I had to stop right there for a bias alert. Who decided that Bush was "one of the worst presidents in U.S. history"? A bunch of lefty academics and politicians. The people know better.
Written off as one of the worst presidents in U.S. history when he left office,...
...the 63-year-old Bush has been keeping a low profile, fading from view as the country turned its attention to his successor, President Barack Obama .When you think back to all the "abuses" that Bush was accused of, from wiretapping terrorists to war crimes etc., it all pales in comparison to what Obama and the Democrats are doing today as they take America full speed into socialism. Bush will look like a saint when compared to his successor.
Now, some events might be turning in Bush's favor just as he and his family emerge to tell their side of the story, first with the release this week of Laura Bush's memoir, "Spoken From the Heart," then in November with the release of his book, "Decision Points."
"The rehab's well under way," said Mark McKinnon , a Bush confidant who still bikes with the former president in Texas .
"His loyalists have always believed that history would be much kinder to the president than public opinion was during his term. We also believe that leaders who make tough decisions are rarely popular when they're president, but that history puts things into context."
Most notably, the war in Iraq may not turn out to be the political albatross it was while he was in office.
While problems persist there — and the weapons of mass destruction that Bush cited in ordering the invasion never were found — democracy does appear to be taking hold, the U.S. is on track to withdraw combat troops by August and even Democratic Vice President Joe Biden now calls the war in Iraq a success.
"I am very optimistic about Iraq ," Biden said recently. "You're going to see a stable government in Iraq that is actually moving toward a representative government."
Would France rip out its storied vineyards? Would Juan Valdez scorch Colombia's coffee crop? Sri Lanka its black pepper harvest? China its tea?You can read the rest of her analysis of the mess in Central California here. I noticed the lack of blossoms and leaves in many orchards when we drove up through there on April 16th. It's a tragedy for the state and the communities in those areas, and it's all because we've allowed environmentalists to put the welfare of a 3" long fish ahead of people.
With global markets won by nations specializing in doing what they do best, and with regional reputations important enough to drive some nations to protectionism, it's almost unthinkable.
But then there's California.
On a springtime drive through the Central Valley, it's hard not to notice how federal and state governments are hell-bent on destroying the state's top export — almonds — and everything else in the nation's most productive farmland.
Instead of pink blossoms and green shoots along Highway 5 in April, vast spans from Bakersfield to Fresno sit bone-dry. Brown grass, dead orchards and lifeless grapevine skeletons stretch for miles for lack of water. For every fallow field, there's a sign that farmers have placed alongside the highway: "No Water = No Food," "No Water = No Jobs," "Congress Created Dust Bowl."
Locals say it's been like this for two years now, as Congress and bureaucrats cite "drought," "global warming" and "endangered species" to deny water to this $37 billion breadbasket through arbitrary "environmental" quotas.
It started with a 2008 federal court order that stopped water flowing from northern tributaries on a supposed need to protect a small fish — the delta smelt — that was getting ground up in the turbines of pump stations that divert the water south. The court knew it was bad law, but Congress refused to exempt the fish from the Endangered Species Act and the diversion didn't help the fish.
After that, the water cutoff was blamed on "drought," though northern reservoirs are currently full. Now the cry is "save the salmon," a reference to water needs of the state's northern fisheries.
Whatever the excuse, 75% of the fresh water that has historically irrigated California is now being washed to the open sea. For farmers in the southwest part of the valley, last year's cutoff amounted to 90%.
As the Obama administration enters its second year, I -- and undoubtedly millions of others -- have struggled to develop a shorthand term that captures our emotional unease. Defining this discomfort is tricky. I reject nearly the entire Obama agenda, but the term "being opposed" lacks an emotional punch. Nor do terms like "worried" or "anxious" apply. I was more worried about America's future during the Johnson or Carter years, so it's not that dictionary, either. Nor, for that matter, is this about backroom odious deal-making and pork, which are endemic in American politics.Read the whole thing.
After auditioning countless political terms, I finally realized that the Obama administration and its congressional collaborators almost resemble a foreign occupying force, a coterie of politically and culturally non-indigenous leaders whose rule contravenes local values rooted in our national tradition. It is as if the United States has been occupied by a foreign power, and this transcends policy objections. It is not about Obama's birthplace. It is not about race, either; millions of white Americans have had black mayors and black governors, and this unease about out-of-synch values never surfaced.
The term I settled on is "alien rule" -- based on outsider values, regardless of policy benefits -- that generates agitation. This is what bloody anti-colonial strife was all about. No doubt, millions of Indians and Africans probably grasped that expelling the British guaranteed economic ruin and even worse governance, but at least the mess would be their mess. Just travel to Afghanistan and witness American military commanders' efforts to enlist tribal elders with promises of roads, clean water, dental clinics, and all else that America can freely provide. Many of these elders probably privately prefer abject poverty to foreign occupation since it would be their poverty, run by their people, according to their sensibilities.
After making national headlines for a new law on illegal immigrants, the Arizona Legislature passed a bill Thursday that would ban ethnic studies programs in the state that critics say currently advocate separatism and racial preferences.So, to recap:
The bill, which passed 32-26 in the state House, had been approved by the Senate a day earlier. It now goes to Gov. Jan Brewer for her signature.
The new bill would make it illegal for a school district to teach any courses that promote the overthrow of the U.S. government, promote resentment of a particular race or class of people, are designed primarily for students of a particular ethnic group or "advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals."
The bill stipulates that courses can continue to be taught for Native American pupils in compliance with federal law and does not prohibit English as a second language classes. It also does not prohibit the teaching of the Holocaust or other cases of genocide.
Schools that fail to abide by the law would have state funds withheld.
HMM: Obama Takes Immigration Reform Off Agenda. “Immigration reform has become the first of President Barack Obama’s major priorities dropped from the agenda of an election-year Congress facing voter disillusionment. Sounding the death knell was Obama himself.”When a big majority of Americans opposed Obamacare it didn't stop Obama's quest for national economic suicide. Now, suddenly, voters matter.
I wonder if it had anything to do with this: Poll: Most support Arizona immigration law. “Seven in 10 U.S. adults support arresting people who can’t prove they’re in the United States legally, a poll about Arizona’s new immigration law indicated.” Apparently, their own polls must have showed something similar. And with blue-collar dems facing layoffs and recession, and black dems not so hot on amnesty, there wasn’t any percentage in bucking the sentiment, I guess, even in terms of shoring up their own base.
Subtitle G of the Dodd discussion draft bill requires that records be maintained and reported “for each branch, automated teller machine at which deposits are accepted, and other deposit taking service facility with respect to any financial institution, the financial institution shall maintain a record of the number and dollar amounts of deposit accounts of customers.”Obama thinks that some of you make too much money. Now he'll be able to monitor your checking activity to see what you're taking in and what you're spending it on. If you're spending it on the "wrong things", they'll let you know.
What’s worse, banks will be required to submit these records to the new super regulatory agency called the Consumer Financial Protection Agency (page 1041). The CFPA will be allowed to use this information for any purpose “as permitted by law” under CFPA rules—rules set by CFPA themselves. …
So, if the CFPA Czar see’s fit, information about your deposit account activity could be shared with the IRS, immigration officials, state officials, or any other entity that the Administration and their various Czar’s think beneficial.
Was just talking with LA City Council member/Democratic Lt. Gov candidate Janice Hahn, the chief rival of SF Mayor Gavin Newsom in the Lite Guv race. She's in SF Thursday to rally support for her idea to get 250 U.s. cities to boycott Arizona. Her home LA City Council will vote on her resolution next week that already has seven endorsers.This is a "bold stand?" What nonsense. This is nothing more than a blatant pander for the Hispanic vote.
She lunched with SF Supe David Campos Thursday to see how the state's two powerhouse cities could work this boycott thing out. (And no, she says she's not here to talk endorsements with the supe.)
But isn't a boycott a bit impractical, Janice? More symbolism than anything else?
"Boycotts are more than symbolic," Hahn told us. She then ticked off a list of boycotts --- from apartheid-era South Africa to table grapes in California -- that ultimately proved successful.
So what would you do about a situation that Comrades Cote and Gordon tell us about in San Francisco, where Arizona-based Acumen Fiscal Agency pays 1,929 people employed through Jobs Now. It uses federal stimulus dollars to pay wages when a company hires someone who is unemployed. Human services director Trent Rhorer said his agency couldn't handle the payroll work in-house and he's unsure whether another company could do the work at a similar cost.
Balderdash, says Hahn. There's probably a company in San Francisco that could do that work. In fact, this boycott could actually bring jobs BACK to California, she said.
And what about the cost to break existing contracts with AZ companies?
"I think it is a cost worth taking," Hahn told The Chronicle. "This is such a wrong, racist law. Good people have to be prepared to stand up and take a stand on this.
"When you take bold stands, you sometimes have to accept the consequences," Hahn said.
Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa wants his city to boycott Arizona. Accordingly, the Dodgers will refuse to hit any pitches from Diamondbacks pitchers for the remainder of the year.The Diamondbacks are coming to Los Angeles for a series in the next couple of weeks. I'm sure the heavily Latino Dodger crowds will be respectful and mature...not.
Disneyland last drained its Rivers of America seven years ago, so workers found a lot of accumulated stuff when it drained the green-dyed waterway in January.At least there were no drowned bodies this time.
But the most unusual item by far was a computer tower, said Dan Chambers, a project manager at Disneyland. Workers are unsure how the plastic box for plugs and discs got in the water path around Tom Sawyer Island.
Here are some of the other items found:
Half of a canoe from Davy Crockett’s Explorer Canoe ride.
Plastic swords.
Mardi Gras beads. The items were part of Tiana’s Showboat Jubilee, a show on the Mark Twain Riverboat on the rivers in the fall.
Hundreds of cellular phones and walkie-talkies.
Hundreds of baby pacifiers.
Mickey Hats.
Sunglasses.
Chambers said there was a rumor that a bowling ball was found, but that was false.
Workers also discovered a bunch of fish, including koi, which were relocated to the Bear Creek area, another body of water. Some of those fish have now made their way to the moat around Sleeping Beauty Castle. Oysters and clam shells also accumulate in the rivers.
The eggs are carried on ducks’ feet, so fish and other creatures end up growing in the rivers, said Kim Irvine, art director for Walt Disney Imagineering in Anaheim.
One change to the bill strengthens restrictions against using race or ethnicity as the basis for questioning and inserts those same restrictions in other parts of the law.If these changes make the bill better, great. However, if these changes were made to try and quell the hysteria on the left, forget about it. Hysteria is now in full cry and won't go away until the left manages to destroy Arizona and anyone involved. We even have high school kids in Los Angeles that plan to walk out of school to protest.
Changes to the bill language will actually remove the word “solely” from the sentence, “The attorney general or county attorney shall not investigate complaints that are based solely on race, color or national origin.”
Another change replaces the phrase “lawful contact” with “lawful stop, detention or arrest” to apparently clarify that officers don’t need to question a victim or witness about their legal status.
A third change specifies that police contact over violations for local civil ordinances can trigger questioning on immigration status.
The law’s sponsor, Republican Sen. Russell Pearce, characterized the race and ethnicity changes as clarifications “just to take away the silly arguments and the games, the dishonesty that’s been played.”
JAPAN plans to seek an international arrest warrant against anti-whaling Sea Shepherd chief Paul Watson over tense high-seas clashes, broadcaster NHK says.I watched that series last year and couldn't help but root for the Japanese to put those smarmy, arrogant environmentalists in their place. I'm looking forward to the episode this year when they sink the boat.
The Japan Coast Guard has obtained an arrest warrant in Tokyo against the Canadian national for allegedly instructing members of his militant environmental group to obstruct Japan's whaling mission, the public broadcaster said today.
Japan will seek his arrest through the International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol), NHK said.
No immediate confirmation of the report was available from the coast guard.
The last ship of Japan's Antarctic whaling fleet sailed home this month with the smallest catch in years. Whalers blame the shortfall on high-seas clashes with the environmental group Sea Shepherd.
This season's confrontations in icy Antarctic waters saw the sinking of a Sea Shepherd vessel and the arrest of one of its activists, a New Zealander who faces trial in Japan.
A Mississippi lesbian who was denied the chance to go to her school's prom is now being targeted by a Kansas-based hate group - and it is going to protest at her graduation.Without getting into all the gay "rights" politics, let's just agree that Westboro Baptist is a bunch of in-bred idiots who do more harm to the cause of Christ than any group I can think of.
The Westboro Baptist Church, which has drawn jeers for picketing at soldiers' funerals and on Tuesday cheered the deaths of 12 tornado victims in Mississippi, said in a statement last weekend that they will be on hand for Constance McMillen's high school graduation ceremony, the Advocate reported.
"[We] will picket the graduation of Itawamba Agricultural High School to remind the parents, teachers and students of this nation that God said 'Thou shall not lie with mankind, as with womankind, it is abomination,'" the group declared.
McMillen fought a legal battle with her Fulton, Miss., high school after it refused to allow her to attend the prom with her girlfriend. In response to the fight, the school then decided to cancel the prom.
She won in court after the judge found that the school had violated her freedom of expression, but did not force the school to reinstate the classic high school event.
McMillen then attended a privately held prom, but said afterward that the one she went to was actually a "fake," while most of the rest of her classmates attended another prom she wasn't told about.
It is true that the Arizona law makes it a misdemeanor for an alien to fail to carry certain documents. “Now, suddenly, if you don’t have your papers ... you’re going to be harassed,” the president said. “That’s not the right way to go.” But since 1940, it has been a federal crime for aliens to fail to keep such registration documents with them. The Arizona law simply adds a state penalty to what was already a federal crime. Moreover, as anyone who has traveled abroad knows, other nations have similar documentation requirements.If you don't like aliens having to carry identity papers around, you'll have to blame that fascist Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Every asshole who chanted 'Drill baby drill' should have to report to Gulf for cleanup dutySheesh. Okay, just to show how stupid that is, let's try some other examples:
Everyone who likes to fly commercial will have to clean up the next airline crash.Is offshore drilling risky? Yes. Although the frequency and severity of accidents is way down, things can still go wrong as they did in Louisiana. Should we stop drilling because there was an accident? Of course not.
Everyone who buys things that were shipped by train will have to report to the next derailment.
Everyone whose lights turn on because of a coal-fired power plant will have to show up at the next mine disaster.
Arizona's passage of a controversial anti-immigration lawcould cost the state Major League Baseball's All-Star Game, potentially depriving an already battered economy of millions of dollars.No way, José. Arizona isn't discriminating against anyone who isn't breaking the law. Get some education on the issue.
Opponents across the U.S. call for a boycott of Arizona goods and tourism. A New York congressman who called for the league to move the 2011 game from Phoenix is the latest person to push for an economic boycott against the state in protest of the new law. Companies have been pulling conferences out of Arizona resorts while others have suggested consumers shun companies, such as US Airways, that are based in the state and have yet to condemn the the law.
"I think that when people, states, localities make decisions this monumental, they should know the full consequence of that decision," Rep. José E. Serrano, D-N.Y., said. "I think Major League Baseball, with 40 percent Latino ballplayers at all levels, should make a statement that it will not hold its All-Star Game in a state that discriminates against 40 percent of their people."
Luke 6:41-42 Why do you see the speck in your neighbor's eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your neighbor, 'Friend, let me take out the speck in your eye,' when you yourself do not see the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor's eye.And now from the San Francisco Chronicle:
San Francisco politicians went right to their favorite toolbox in reaction to Arizona's offensive and constitutionally suspect law to turn its police into immigration enforcers.San Francisco, get the log out of your eye first and then maybe you'll be in a position to lecture the rest of the world.
"Boycott Arizona!" was the thoroughly predictable City Hall reaction.
It's unlikely that lawmakers and businesses in the Grand Canyon State are going to be quaking in their boots at the prospect of lost business from indignant San Francisco liberals. And this boycott might end before it begins once the federal courts assess the constitutionality of singling out people for extra scrutiny on the basis of their appearance or language skills.
It's hard to get too upset about San Francisco politicians for seizing an opportunity to posture. It's what they do.
But the rapid-response treatment of an unjust Arizona law makes one think: It would be nice to see a similar sense of urgency about problems in San Francisco.
This city is losing revenue every day as a result of inaction from City Hall. They might not use the term "boycott," but the businesspeople and tourists who don't return because of their disgust with the condition of the streets or concerns about their safety represent lost dollars. So do the entrepreneurs or developers who go elsewhere because of the regulatory thicket here. So do the fleeing homeowners who become fed up with the drug dealing or street intimidation in their neighborhoods.
When it's a San Francisco crisis, the response at City Hall is all about process: endless hearings, exhaustive analysis of every potential unintended consequence, attempted shakedowns from various interest groups, but no real action. If it's an injustice in a foreign land, including the state of Arizona, San Francisco politicians are all business.
Arizona epitomizes what every Republican — indeed, every American — should embrace: attrition through enforcement. For years, the open-borders crowd has claimed that the only two responses to illegal immigration are amnesty or mass roundups. That is nonsense. Attrition through enforcement presents an effective third option that respects the rule of law. By stepping up the enforcement of immigration laws through state-level action, Arizona has induced thousands of illegal aliens to self-deport. Need proof? In early 2008, after Arizona’s E-Verify law went into effect, the neighboring Mexican state of Sonora sent a delegation to the Arizona legislature to protest that Arizona was causing too many Mexican nationals to return to Mexico too quickly, overwhelming the housing stock and public infrastructure of Sonora.I believe it was Oklahoma that saw a similar outflow of illegals when they decided to get tougher with their employment laws. It's worked wherever it's been tried.
Sanctuary city San Francisco is leading the charge in pressing municipalities and groups to consider a boycott of Arizona over its law that will allow police to ask people their immigration status.If Arizona really wants to fight back they can do what Rush Limbaugh suggested. Publicize all the programs that are free to illegal immigrants in San Francisco and offer one-way travel to get there. Dumping tens of thousands of illegal aliens into the San Francisco social welfare programs would shut them up pretty quickly.
Mayor Gavin Newsom this week suspended all non-essential travel for city employees going to Arizona, meaning no conference in Scottsdale next weekend for members of the city's housing authorities. The city's Board of Supervisors also has taken the first step toward an economic boycott, a move that could result in the suspension of existing contracts with Arizona-based companies and a ban on new ones.
But Newsom also has formed an "Arizona Boycott Workgroup” to analyze if and how an economic boycott could backfire on San Francisco businesses. For instance, the city does business with a company that accepts and processes payments in Arizona. There's concern if the boycott is made uniform, 2,500 San Franciscans could lose their jobs.
Groups like the San Francisco Convention Bureau and the city's restaurant lobby also worry about a reciprocal backlash.
"Would Arizona and other states that are more conservative than San Francisco retaliate and stop sending conventions to San Francisco?" asked Kevin Westly of the Golden Gate Restaurant Association. "Certainly in a recession, we don't want any retaliation."
Former Vice President Al Gore and his wife, Tipper, have added a Montecito-area property to their real estate holdings, reports the Montecito Journal.I hope it's far enough up the hill to avoid the rising oceans. And when you're as full of crap as Al Gore is, nine bathrooms are probably a necessity.
The couple spent $8,875,000 on an ocean-view villa on 1.5 acres with a swimming pool, spa and fountains, a real estate source familiar with the deal confirms. The Italian-style house has six fireplaces, five bedrooms and nine bathrooms.
"Now, suddenly, if you don't have your papers and you took your kid out to get ice cream, you're going to get harassed -- that's something that could potentially happen ... That's not the right way to go."There are three possible reasons Obama would make that statement that is as factually incorrect as that one is:
It’s time to wake up and smell the bias. The go-to commentator for such programs as Fox News’s Hannity and CNN’s Larry King Live and Reliable Sources, S. E. Cupp is just that—a reliable source for the latest news, trends, and forecasts in young, bright, conservative America. Savvy and outspoken when shattering left-leaning assumptions as she did in Why You’re Wrong About the Right, Cupp now takes on the most pressing threat to the values and beliefs held and practiced by the majority of Americans: the marginalizing of Christianity by the flagrantly biased liberal media.
From her galvanizing introduction, you know where S. E. Cupp stands: She’s an atheist. A non-believer. Which makes her the perfect impartial reporter from the trenches of a culture war dividing America and eroding the Judeo-Christian values on which this country was founded. Starting at the top, she exposes the unwitting courtship of President Obama and the liberal press, which consistently misreports or downplays Obama’s clear discomfort with, or blatant disregard for, religious America—from covering up religious imagery in the backdrop of his Georgetown University speech to his absence from events surrounding the National Day of Prayer, to identifying America in his inaugural address as, among other things, "a nation of non-believers." She likens the calculated attacks of the liberal media to a class war, a revolution with a singular purpose: to overthrow God and silence Christian America for good. And she sends out an urgent call for all Americans to push back the leftist propaganda blitz striking on the Internet, radio, television, in films, publishing, and print journalism—or invite the tyrannies of a "mainstream" media set on mocking our beliefs, controlling our decisions, and extinguishing our freedoms.
Now, discover the truth behind the war against Christmas—and how political correctness keeps the faithful under wraps . . . the one-sided analyses of Prop 8 and the gay marriage debate . . . the media pot-shots at Sarah Palin’s personal faith . . . the politicization of entertainment mainstays such as American Idol and the Miss USA Pageant . . . and much more. Also included are her penetrating interviews with Dinesh D’Souza, Martha Zoller, James T. Harris, Newt Gingrich, Kevin Madden, and Kevin Williamson of National Review, delivering must-read analyses of the latest stunning lowlights from the liberal media.
Marc Ambinder reports:Crist's political career will self-destruct today. He doesn't have the support he thinks he does and people won't be impressed at all with his poor sportsmanship. He's toast, and hopefully his GOP supporters will leave him and stay with the party and Rubio.
Charlie Crist, soon to be independent Senate candidate from Florida, tried to reach White House chief of staff Emanuel through intermediates. WH refuses to take the call. Dems plan big talent/money blitz for Kendrick Meek.What's Crist up to? Might he be interested in cutting a deal to caucus with the Democrats if they chase Meek from the field?Who knows? But the most plausible path to victory for Crist is if Meek backs him. That's a real possibility, I think, later in the game if Rubio and Crist are each getting about 40% in the polls and Meek is getting about 20%. But, as voters get to know the lesser-known Rubio and Meek, it's probably more likely they emerge as the frontrunners and Crist fades as election day approaches.And then does Crist throw his support to Meek in hopes of getting a nice ambassadorship? Again, who knows? In a three-way race things could get a little crazy (maybe starting with the speculation about how crazy things could get).
Organ donation has become a vital way to save lives around the world, but a vast shortage of donors continues to mean people are losing their lives while on waiting lists.Freedom means being free to decide what happens to your body and its parts after death too. While I would encourage people to sign up, there's no way the state should be allowed to mandate it or make it the default position.
But there is a unique proposal that could change all that.
New York State Assemblyman Richard Brodsky nearly lost his daughter, Willie, at 4 years old when she needed a kidney transplant, and again 10 years later when her second kidney failed.
"We have 10,000 New Yorkers on the list today waiting for organs. We import half the organs we transplant. It is an unacceptable failed system," Brodsky said.
To fix that, Brodsky introduced a new bill in Albany that would enroll all New Yorkers as an organ donor, unless they actually opt out of organ donation. It would be the first law of its kind in the United States.
"Overseas, 24 nations have it. Israel has it. Others have it. And it works without a lot of controversy," Brodsky said.
Protest organizers said on Wednesday outrage over the Arizona law -- which seeks to drive illegal immigrants out of the state bordering Mexico -- has galvanized Latinos and would translate into a higher turnout for May Day rallies in more than 70 U.S. cities.I hope they bring lots of those Mexican flags. Those are always so effective at getting non-Hispanic voters to side with them.
"The marches and demonstrations are going to be far more massive than they otherwise would have been," said Juan Jose Gutierrez, a Los Angeles rally organizer who runs an immigration assistance company.
President Barack Obama says Congress may "have no appetite" to deal with immigration after going through a tough year.
Obama told reporters traveling with him on Air Force One that Congress has been working very hard this year and may not be ready to immediately take on another controversial issue.
Rep. Joe Baca, D-San Bernardino, urged people to follow his lead and avoid traveling or spending their money in Arizona in protest of the state law that makes it a crime to be an illegal immigrant.I'm going to thoroughly enjoy the thought of this moron slogging through L.A. traffic to get to LAX. My guess is his boycott will last about as long as his commute.
Baca said he would no longer fly from Ontario to Washington, D.C., because the flight stops in Phoenix. Instead, he said he will take a nonstop flight from Los Angeles to the nation's capital.
"I will not fly through Arizona until the law is repealed," Baca said in a phone interview Monday. "I also encourage people not to travel to Arizona unless they have to. If you have to travel, fuel up in California before you get to Arizona."
In other news, I've seen several tentative efforts at Buy Arizona! or BUYcott Arizona initiatives, which I suspect will be the first of many. If anyone sees anything more organized or extensive, let me know. In the meantime, buy Arizona State products here and a variety of Arizona gift products here.I think it's time to start taking a look at that Grand Canyon Railway trip I've always wanted to take.
"Nobody wants to pick us up," Julio Loyola Diaz says in Spanish as he and dozens of other men wait under the shade of palo verde trees and lean against a low brick wall outside the east Phoenix home improvement store.Rush had a good idea on his show today. Since San Francisco is boycotting Arizona, the Governor of Arizona should hold a press conference and read a list of all the social services offered by the sanctuary city of San Francisco for the illegals up there. She can then offer a one-way travel voucher via Greyhound for any illegal who wants to go and take advantage of the generosity of the San Francisco residents.
Many day laborers like Diaz say they will leave Arizona because of the law, which also makes it a crime to be in the U.S. illegally and directs police to question people about their immigration status if there is reason to suspect they are illegal immigrants.
A man who heard banging outside his apartment confronted three suspected burglars and scared them off by firing a pistol, police said today. Officers arrested two of them a short while later.I doubt the DA will file charges because he's got to know that the only way he could get a conviction is to bully the homeowner into a plea bargain. No jury is going to convict this guy for firing a gun to protect his home - even in California. The fact the police feel it necessary to pursue charges just shows what's wrong with California gun laws. Gun owners are guilty until proven innocent.
Police said the incident happened just before 10 p.m. Sunday near West Washington Street and Key Avenue.
The resident told police he confronted three men outside his apartment building and as they advanced on him, he retreated and fired a semi-automatic pistol into the ground.
The men backed off but stayed in the area. Police responding to the possible burglary report captured two of the men about two blocks away: Lamberto Godina, 18, of Ripon and Jose Mendoza, 19, of Salida.
They were booked into the San Joaquin County Jail on charges of assault, trespassing, and creating a disturbance.
Officers are trying to locate the third suspect. All three are documented members of the Norteño street gang.
The police department will ask the San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office to review the case for possible charges against the victim for discharging a firearm within city limits, under the suspicion that the victim needlessly escalated the situation, police said.
Police are not releasing his identity because he fears for his safety.
One of the enduring storylines of Barack Obama’s presidency, dating back to the earliest days of his candidacy, is that the press loves him.The media never shied away from criticism of George W. Bush, even if it might draw a frosty response from the Press Secretary or Bush himself. Today, the White House Press Corps seems to live in fear of Obama, Rahm Emanuel and Gibbs, and their panic at the possibility of displeasing The One is reflected in their still glowing reporting. The press are a bunch of cowards when a Democrat is in office.
“Most of you covered me. All of you voted for me,” Obama joked last year at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.
But even then, only four months into his presidency, the joke fell flat. Now, a year later, with another correspondents’ dinner Saturday night likely to generate the familiar criticism of the press’s cozy relationship with power, the reality is even more at odds with the public perception.
President Obama and the media actually have a surprisingly hostile relationship – as contentious on a day-to-day basis as any between press and president in the last decade, reporters who cover the White House say.
Reporters say the White House is thin-skinned, controlling, eager to go over their heads and stingy with even basic information. All White Houses try to control the message. But this White House has pledged to be more open than its predecessors – and reporters feel it doesn’t live up to that pledge in several key areas:
— Day-to-day interaction with Obama is almost non-existent, and he talks to the press corps far less often than Bill Clinton or even George W. Bush did. Clinton took questions nearly every weekday, on average. Obama barely does it once a week.
— The ferocity of pushback is intense. A routine press query can draw a string of vitriolic emails. A negative story can draw a profane high-decibel phone call – or worse. Some reporters feel like they’ve been frozen out after crossing the White House.
— Except for a few reporters, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs can be distant and difficult to reach - even though his job is to be one of the main conduits from president to press. “It’s an odd White House where it’s easier to get the White House chief of staff on the phone than the White House press secretary,” one top reporter said.
— And at the very moment many reporters feel shut out, one paper - the New York Times - enjoys a favoritism from Obama and his staff that makes competitors fume, with gift-wrapped scoops and loads of presidential face-time.
“They seem to want close the book on the highly secretive years of the Bush administration. However, in their relationship with the press, I think they’re doing what they think succeeded in helping Obama get elected,” said the New Yorker’s George Packer.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon has accused Arizona of opening the door “to intolerance, hate, discrimination and abuse in law enforcement.” But Arizona has nothing on Mexico when it comes to cracking down on illegal aliens. While open-borders activists decry new enforcement measures signed into law in “Nazi-zona” last week, they remain deaf, dumb or willfully blind to the unapologetically restrictionist policies of our neighbors to the south.There's more a the link. There more info on Mexico's own immigration laws in this post from yesterday.
The Arizona law bans sanctuary cities that refuse to enforce immigration laws, stiffens penalties against illegal alien day laborers and their employers, makes it a misdemeanor for immigrants to fail to complete and carry an alien registration document, and allows the police to arrest immigrants unable to show documents proving they are in the U.S. legally. If those rules constitute the racist, fascist, xenophobic, inhumane regime that the National Council of La Raza, Al Sharpton, Catholic bishops and their grievance-mongering followers claim, then what about these regulations and restrictions imposed on foreigners?
– The Mexican government will bar foreigners if they upset “the equilibrium of the national demographics.” How’s that for racial and ethnic profiling?
– If outsiders do not enhance the country’s “economic or national interests” or are “not found to be physically or mentally healthy,” they are not welcome. Neither are those who show “contempt against national sovereignty or security.” They must not be economic burdens on society and must have clean criminal histories. Those seeking to obtain Mexican citizenship must show a birth certificate, provide a bank statement proving economic independence, pass an exam and prove they can provide their own health care.
– Illegal entry into the country is equivalent to a felony punishable by two years’ imprisonment. Document fraud is subject to fine and imprisonment; so is alien marriage fraud. Evading deportation is a serious crime; illegal re-entry after deportation is punishable by ten years’ imprisonment. Foreigners may be kicked out of the country without due process and the endless bites at the litigation apple that illegal aliens are afforded in our country (see, for example, President Obama’s illegal alien aunt — a fugitive from deportation for eight years who is awaiting a second decision on her previously rejected asylum claim).
– Law enforcement officials at all levels — by national mandate — must cooperate to enforce immigration laws, including illegal alien arrests and deportations. The Mexican military is also required to assist in immigration enforcement operations. Native-born Mexicans are empowered to make citizens’ arrests of illegal aliens and turn them in to authorities.
– Ready to show your papers? Mexico’s National Catalog of Foreigners tracks all outside tourists and foreign nationals. A National Population Registry tracks and verifies the identity of every member of the population, who must carry a citizens’ identity card. Visitors who do not possess proper documents and identification are subject to arrest as illegal aliens.
Last week, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed an immigration law that launched a national debate. It has also at least temporarily helped her own chances of remaining Arizona’s governor.Goddard is now watching his campaign go up in smoke as a huge majority of Arizonans approve of this new law. Good luck selling the repeal to those people.
A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely voters in the state shows that 56% now approve of the way Brewer is performing her role as governor. Two weeks ago, just 40% offered their approval.
The new figure includes 22% who Strongly Approve of the governor’s performance. That’s up from five percent (5%) before Brewer signed the law that authorizes local police to stop and verify the immigration status of anyone they suspect of being an illegal immigrant.
The bounce in the polls is also evident in new numbers on the November election. If Brewer is the Republican nominee, she would get 48% of the vote while her likely Democratic opponent, State Attorney General Terry Goddard, would attract 40%. Two weeks ago, it was Brewer 44% and Goddard 40%. Goddard is an outspoken opponent of the new law.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on Wednesday approved the construction of a controversial windAnd yet I've never heard RFK Jr. decry the gasoline taxes that are constantly being increased, thus raising energy costs for all those people in Massachusetts and elsewhere. The Kennedy's just don't want to look out the window of their family compound and see anything other than underage girls.
farm off the coast of Cape Cod that puts the Obama administration at odds with one of the president's biggest supporters: the Kennedy family.
Salazar's decision will affect thousands of residents, local businesses and tourists who flock to the seashore paradise each summer -- and sets the course for the building of other such offshore wind farms in states from New York to Michigan.
The Cape Wind project, which will be the first in the nation, had created a bipartisan jumble that pit environmentalists and lawmakers against each other on both sides of the dispute over the 130 planned turbines -- whose windmill arms would extend over 400 feet above the water.
Salazar said the decision marks a "new direction in our nation's energy future," claiming the wind farm will be "one of the largest greenhouse gas reduction initiatives in the nation," cutting carbon dioxide emissions from conventional power plants by 700,000 tons annually.
The offshore wind farm, to be built five miles off the Massachusetts coast, has been blasted by critics like the Kennedys as an "economic boondoggle" that will cost taxpayers billions, hurt commercial fishing and pose a danger to wildlife along a pristine stretch of the Nantucket Sound.
"It's a boondoggle of the worst kind," Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an environmental lawyer and the son of the late Bobby Kennedy, said in an interview Tuesday with FoxNews.com. "It's going to cost the people of Massachusetts $4 billion over the next 20 years in extra costs."
Opponents of Arizona's new anti-immigrant law are calling for a boycott of the state's products - including the popular Arizona Iced Tea.Liberal politicians are jumping off the stupidity cliff as fast as they can to call for boycotts of Arizona. It's quite a feat to be an officeholder, sworn to uphold the law, and then call for the boycott of a state which dared to say they would enforce the law. And they're doing it in the face of public opinion which right now is 60%+ in favor of the Arizona law.
The problem: Arizona Iced Tea is actually brewed in New York.
Online, misguided tea fans vowed to switch to Lipton or Snapple.
"Dear Arizona: If you don't change your immigration policy, I will have to stop drinking your enjoyable brand of iced tea," Twittered Jody Beth in Los Angeles.
"It is the drink of fascists," wrote Travis Nichols in Chicago.
The company did not return messages asking if they planned to set the public straight.
Founded in Brooklyn in 1992, the firm was based in Queens before moving into a new $35 million headquarters in Nassau County last year.
The Supreme Court has said a federal court went too far in ordering the removal of a congressionally endorsed war memorial cross from its longtime home in California.Just another loss in a long line of losses for the ACLU and the Ninth Circuit. I guess they can finally take the cover off the cross.
The justices said Wednesday that federal judges in California did not take sufficient notice of the government's decision to transfer the land in a remote area of California to private ownership to eliminate any constitutional concern about a religious symbol on public land.
Will someone please rein in our relentlessly hectoring President? Barrack Hussein Obama has taken his gift for inspirational oratory—one of the traits that got him elected—and turned it into something darker and more insidious.Read the whole thing.
Bam is a bully. Bad enough that he bashes Wall Street, but this President has gone farther than any in modern history in putting the wrong kind of “bully” back into what Teddy Roosevelt had called the bully pulpit.
E.W. Scripps Co. (SSP) said Tuesday that it will sell the unit that owns licensing rights to Snoopy, Charlie Brown and the rest of the "Peanuts" gang for $175 million to Joe Boxer owner Iconix Brand Group (ICON).Peanuts also has a strong connection to Sonoma State University where my daughter attends college. The Schulz family has contributed a lot of money for various buildings and projects at the school, including the Jean and Charles Schulz Library, the Charlie Brown Cafe, and the Schroeder Recital Hall. Hopefully this change in ownership won't in any way dilute the characters or use them in ways Charles Schulz would not have liked.
The sale of United Media Licensing also means Iconix has a new partnership with the family of the late "Peanuts" creator, Charles Schulz. The S hulz family will receive 20% ownership in the unit that owns "Peanuts" and pay that percentage of the sale price.
United Media Licensing represents other character brands such as Dilbert and Fancy Nancy, but the bulk of its licensing business comes from "Peanuts." The unit's licensed merchandise has annual sales of more than $2 billion.
Scripps first brought the strip to market in 1950. By the time Schulz retired in 1999, Peanuts was in more than 2,600 newspapers. Schulz died in February 2000.
Scripps said the cash deal will close by the end of the second quarter.
The newspaper publisher and TV station owner announced in February it was exploring a sale.
Iconix, formerly known as Candie's, owns and licenses brands such as Joe Boxer, London Fog, Starter and Mudd. The company, based in New York, licenses its brands to retailers, wholesalers and suppliers.
Scripps will still own United Media's syndication operations, so it will continue to syndicate comic strips and editorial features.
"The Peanuts characters have been our entertaining co-workers and the Schulz family has been our trusted partner for nearly 60 years. But this is the right move for all involved as we go our separate ways in recognition of changing times and new strategies," said Scripps CEO Rich Boehne.
Iconix CEO Neil Cole said the purchase moves the company away from being one focused solely on fashion into new realms that include theme parks, media and financial institutions.
The family is heartened by the sale, said Charles Schulz's son, Craig Schulz.
"Peanuts now has the best of both worlds," he said. "Family ownership and the vision and resources of Iconix to perpetuate what my father created throughout the next century with all the goodwill his lovable characters bring."
Laguna Beach adds 300 goats to workforceDoing the job illegal immigrants just won't do. And don't try to give them any citizenship papers - they'll just eat them.
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