Obama's New Court Pick - The Politics Of Cronyism

As expected, President Obama named Solicitor General Elena Kagan as his Supreme Court nominee to replace Justice John Paul Stevens.

This ranks with the Harriet Miers nomination as one of the most blatant examples of crony nominations on record. As a matter of fact,since Miers had actually been a practicing attorney for some time, it's worse.

Elana Kagan is basically a creature of academia. She has no practical legal experience whatsoever. She's never served as a judge or even argued a case in front of an appellate court. In fact, before she became Solicitor General just a year ago, she had never argued a case anywhere. And she's scarcely even done any legal writing.

What she does have going for her is that she's an old pal of Obama's and Bill Ayers' from Chicago and Harvard, a well connected ex-Clintonista and Democrat fund raiser and a nominee with the right political views whose avoided leaving much of a problematic paper trail.

What's known about her views? Not much. She seems to have a fairly instinctive dislike of the military like many on the Left,as shown by her championing barring military recruiters from Harvard in violation of the Solomon Amendment, claiming that it somehow violates the First Amendment for the US to withhold funds from colleges that ban the military from recruiting on campus. That piece of legal reasoning was unanimously rejected by the entire Supreme Court.

My friend William over at Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion reasons that her answers on the questionnaires she filled out for the Senate as part of the confirmation process for Solicitor General show that she does not see a right to same-sex marriage in the Constitution. To which I would reply that (a) people lie, especially when it's to get a lifetime job from which they can't be fired and (b) people 'change' once they have that job in their pocket.

Oddly enough, one thing that seems to be on a lot of people's mind ( and especially on the cerebral wave patterns of the semi-human Andrew Sullivan) is the important question 'is she gay?'

Who cares which restaurant she eats at? I certainly don't. As a matter of fact, if that's somehow a criteria, I vote for a slot on the court for Tammy Bruce, who's equally as qualified, has done a heckuva lot more decent writing and undoubtedly has a great deal more common sense.

Kagan also seems to favor a broadening of the Executive power, which undoubtedly suits Obama just fine.

As a matter of fact, one could ultimately say that about all or most of her views. Does anyone think she'd have gotten the nomination from Obama if she really was 'moderate' or 'centrist' as she's being painted? I smell a stealth candidate.

Look for this to heat up around August.At 50 years old and with lifetime tenure, Kagan could extend Obama's court legacy by decades.

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VIDEO: Man attacked by 8-foot gator as horrified crowd watches

Memo to self...never poke wild animals with sticks.

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Gordon Brown Goes Down

British PM Gordon Brown finally faced the inevitable and announced his intention to resign:

Gordon Brown has said he is stepping down as Labour Party leader - as his party opens formal talks with the Lib Dems about forming a government.

Mr Brown, prime minister since 2007, said he hoped a successor as Labour leader would be in place by September.

The Lib Dems have been negotiating for days with the Tories - who won the most seats and votes in the UK election.

But the Lib Dems have asked for formal talks with Labour. Mr Brown said it was in the "national interest" to respond.

It's not too hard to see what's going on. The UK is going to be governed by the 'coalition of losers.'

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg is going to back off from his campaign pledge to allow the party with the largest popular mandate - in this case, the Tories - to form a government, and instead will form a coalition with Labour, their ideological soul mates. They'll also bring in fringe parties on the left like the Scottish National Party, Cymru, the Greens and the SDLP to get to a majority.

Because Clegg and Brown weren't able to bond personally, ( to put it mildly) part of the price for that was tossing Brown downstairs, and I'm sure El Gordo received a number of agitated phone calls from Labour kingpins calling for him to resign - or else.

As for the UK, it will simply continue on its socialist death spiral.

Ah, well.

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Obama Golfs...While Nashville Drowns

Our president hit the links today, while the people of Nashville are still trying to deal with a horrendous flood that has entire parts of the city still being underwater.

Damage estimates at this point have already surpassed a billion dollars, and are likely to go higher. And there were a number of fatalities, some of them people who drowned in their cars while caught in traffic on the interstate.

The news media - the same people that excoriated President Bush over Katrina - has almost totally ignored this story.

Not only has President Obama not visited the area, he hasn't even mentioned anything about it...just like in Kentucky, when the President was far more interested in hosting a Superbowl party in his toasty warm Oval office than he was in women, kids and old people freezing to death.

Apparently whatever interest and compassion the president has in the well-being of our country's citizens has some rather interesting blind spots.

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A Little Something For Mother's Day

Submitted by one of Joshua's Army....

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY, MOM A young man shopping in a supermarket noticed a little old lady following him around. If he stopped, she stopped. Furthermore she kept staring at him. She finally overtook him at the checkout, and she turned to him and said,

'I hope I haven't made you feel ill at ease; it's just that you look so much like my late son.'

He answered, 'That's okay.'

'I know it's silly, but if you'd call out 'Good bye, Mom' as I leave the store, it would make me feel so happy.'

She then went through the checkout, and as she was on her way out of
the store, The man called out, 'Goodbye, Mom.'

The little old lady waved, and smiled back at him.

Pleased that he had brought a little sunshine into someone's day, he
went to pay for his Groceries.

'That comes to $121.85,' said the clerk.

'How come so much? I only bought 5 items..'

The clerk replied,
'Yeah, but your Mother said You'd be paying for her things, too.'

Never underestimate a mom!

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UK Elections Update - The Deal Making Continues...

Clegg, Cameron and Brown(L-R).."I'm NOT going to look at him..mmph!"

In spite of leading the Labour Party to an historic defeat Gordon Brown continues to sit in Number 10 like a large frog on a particularly cushy lily pad, but it's not certain he'll be able to squat there too much longer.

So far, the Liberal Democrat leader Nicholas Clegg seems to be sticking with his oft repeated campaign stance that the one to form a government should be David Cameron and the Conservatives, based on their popular mandate. Or perhaps Clegg has been looking at the polls, where Britons are saying Brown should resign by a two to one margin.Or it might simply be personal chemistry. But so far, a Liberal/ Labour coalition doesn't seem in the cards so far.

That was underlined after a reported conversation between Brown and Clegg that degenerated into a shouting match as soon as Clegg mentioned Brown resigning. While it's subsequently being officially denied by various spokesholes, it's obvious that the two don't get along all that well, even if Labour and the Liberals share a great many ideological positions on the Left

At the same time,Cameron and Clegg seem to be holding reasonable discussions on forming a coalition government, but it remains to be seen if the Liberals can make the step to govern with the Conservatives. A match between the Libs and theTories is comparable to the far Left members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus getting together with the likes of a group of centrist and mildly Left leaning RINO Republicans to form a government.

There's also the issue of electoral reform, a cause dear to the Liberal's hearts but something of a third rail to the Tories. Cameron has attempted to bridge that gap by suggesting a government commission to look at the issue and make suggestions, but it might not be enough for the Liberals, wary as they are anyway at getting into bed with the Conservatives.

If it doesn't happen, I see only three ways for this to end up - either the Libs will propose a deal to Labour predicated on them kicking Brown downstairs and try to rope in the smaller parties ( an unstable coalition at best!), the Conservatives, who have 315 seats counting the 10 Ulster Unionist seats can try and bribe a couple of the smaller fringe parties to get to 326...or Brown will get tossed out eventually by a vote of no confidence and the Brits will get to do the whole thing over.

That will probably happen in a year or so anyway no matter what.

Aren't you glad James Madison had more brains then to saddle America with this sort of insanity?

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Obama To Announce New Supreme Court Pick Monday

And the buzz in DC-land is that it will be Solicitor General Elena Kagan. She female, relatively young at 50, an old pal of Zero's and Bill Ayers' from Chicago and Harvard and lacks any practical legal experience whatsoever, so she'll fit right in. From my previous description:


"lessee...the ex-Dean of Harvard Law school is a career academic and the current Solicitor General. She's never served as a judge or even argued a case in front of an appellate court, so she has zero practical experience.

However, she's female, which checks one of Obama's boxes. And she does have the right political views. She called President Clinton's “don’t ask; don’t tell” policy “a profound wrong — a moral injustice of the first order,” which should give you a clue on how she'd vote on gay marriage. And she seems to have never heard of the Solomon Amendment, claiming that it somehow violates the First Amendment for the US to withhold funds from colleges that ban the military from recruiting on campus. That piece of legal reasoning was unanimously rejected by the entire Supreme Court.

Even better from Obama's point of view, she favors greatly enhanced presidential control over the Federal government, which is right up BOH's alley considering his unprecedented consolidation of power in the White House."

Kagan was the first female law school dean at Harvard. While she was a dean, she eliminated grades and required students to do pro bono work (translation: staff various lefty interest group projects at the law school). And she's also an ex-Clintonista. From 1995 to 1999, Kagan served as President Bill Clinton's Associate White House Counsel and Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy, an administrative position, not a legal one.

Old pal of Obama's from Chi-town and Harvard, academic with no practical experience, reliably 'progressive' lefty views...yes, that about covers it.

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The UK Has A Hung Parliament

Well, the UK election results are in, and as I predicted, the electorate pretty much hates everybody.

The Conservatives are projected to win 305 seats, short of the 326 needed for a majority even with the 10 Unionist seats from Ulster. Labour ended up with 257 and the Liberal democrats ended up with a mere 57 seats, which surprised a lot of people after Nick Clegg's strong showing in the debate. The fringe parties ( The Scottish National Party, Cymru, the Greens,Social Democratic and Labour Party, etc.)are projected to end up with 28.

In other words, Britain now has a hung Parliament and it's let's make a deal time.

Here's where it gets weird.

Numbers wise, the conservatives could ally with the Liberals, and Nicholas Clegg has already reiterated his position that the Conservatives should get first shot at forming a government:

During the election campaign, leader Nick Clegg repeatedly said the party with the "biggest mandate" should get the right to govern.

Speaking on Friday morning, he said that he "stuck" by that position and that the Conservatives, having won the most seats and votes, should have first right to try and form a government in the "national interest".

Many commentators have interpreted his comments as suggesting he would not "prop-up" a government led by Mr Brown even though his predecessor Lord Ashdown has suggested his party is "too far apart" from the Conservatives.

And Lord Ashdown has that right. An alliance between the Conservatives and the Libs would be roughly the equivalent of some center right and even slightly RINO Republicans putting together a government with the members of the far Left Congressional Progressive Caucus and splitting up cabinet posts and committee chairs between them!

According to British custom ( the country has no Constitution, so a lot of things get done out of tradition) Gordon Brown, the current Labour Prime Minister gets the first official shot at forming a government, in spite of leading his party to a major defeat.

Technically speaking, he's still in office and stays there until he or someone else produces a majority to govern. If he can't produce a majority, Brown will resign and the Conservatives, under David Cameron will get the chance to form a government.

A 'coalition of losers' (Labour and the Liberals) would be much closer ideologically than the Libs and the Conservatives, but they don't have the seats to make a majority to govern. And Clegg, after publicly coming out repeatedly for giving the party with the biggest popular mandate first shot at forming a government would look particularly hypocritical.

That said, Labour and the Libs could form a majority if they bribed the Social Democratic and Labour Party, the Scottish National Party, the Greens and Cymru to come aboard.All of these parties are close enough ideologically to make it work. The price would be horrendous, it would be a notoriously shaky coalition and it would amount to disenfranchising the British electorate...but it could work, and I have no doubt that Labour's apparatchiks and commissars will have a go at it without a second thought.

It will be interesting to see how this shakes out.

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It's Official: The Last Of The Navy SEALS Is Acquitted

The Good Guys win one:

A Virginia military jury found a Navy SEAL not guilty Thursday on all charges he punched an Iraqi suspected in the 2004 killings of four U.S. contractors in Fallujah.

"I'm really happy right now," Matthew McCabe, the Navy SEAL, told Fox News shortly after hearing the outcome of the court martial. "It's an amazing feeling. I'm on cloud nine right now."

McCabe, a special operations petty officer second class, called the proceedings "troubling at times," adding "having your career on the line is not an easy thing to handle.

McCabe was the third and final Navy SEAL to be prosecuted in the case. He had faced charges of assault, making a false official statement and dereliction of performance of duty for willfully failing to safeguard a detainee. McCabe was accused of punching last year is Ahmed Hashim Abed, the suspected mastermind of the grisly killings six years ago.

'Grisly killings'? They were lynched, their bodies were mutilated and burned and then the remains were hung on bridges over the Euphrates like crispy party favors on the orders of Abed, one of Moqtada al-Sadr's lieutenants:



Take a good look. Those used to be your fellow Americans, folks. If it were up to me, I would have carpet bombed the area, never mind any alleged 'brutality' to the ring leader.

Our warriors risk their lives to save ours, and they do it handcuffed by quaint Rules of Engagement designed to please politicians and diplomats who have no clue as to the realities on the ground.

It bothers me enormously that these three heroes had to go through this. If this keeps up, one day we might find that there aren't any left willing to shoulder the burden.

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Palestinian Authority: "We're negotiating With The US, Not Israel"

The Arab league appears to have tepidly endorsed proximity talks between the Palestinian Authority and the Israelis. There have been some interesting reports coming out about what was said and what the PA's expectations are:

Neither Israel nor the US released any information about the content of the Netanyahu-Mitchell meeting, except for a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office saying that part of the discussion was one-on-one, and the other part included Netanyahu’s envoy Yitzhak Molcho and National Security Adviser Uzi Arad from the Israeli side, and Dan Shapiro from the White House and Mitchell’s deputy David Hale on the US team.

The Prime Minister’s Office also said that Mitchell would be meeting with Netanyahu again on Thursday. The US envoy is then expected to travel to Ramallah and meet with Abbas on either Friday or Saturday, and to leave the region on Sunday.

One diplomatic official said that those expecting the proximity talks to somehow look different than the shuttle diplomacy that Mitchell has conducted between Jerusalem and Ramallah over the last number of months would be disappointed.

Nevertheless, the content of the discussions is expected to shift from how to get into negotiations, to the issues themselves. Even on this, though, there is disagreement about what “core” issue to discuss first, with Israel interested in talking first about security issues and its demand for the PA to recognize Israeli as a Jewish state, and the Palestinians desirous of starting off with a discussion about borders.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said during a photo-op in Jerusalem with his Czech counterpart, Jan Kohut, that “the very fact we are holding talks with the Palestinians is important, but I am still wondering about their intentions. It is not a reasonable situation to negotiate with us on the one hand, yet on the other to commemorate terrorism by naming streets after terrorists such as Yihyeh Ayash [aka ‘The Engineer’].”

A security cabinet meeting on Wednesday, where a government report on incitement was to be presented, as well as a new mechanism to monitor incitement at regular intervals, was postponed for a week because the ministers were called to the Knesset for a vote.

The very fact that the PA had not yet announced that it was entering into indirect negotiations, “while giving various excuses,” raised doubts about the “seriousness of the other side,” Lieberman said.

He said he hoped that despite this, “we will manage to hold talks in a proper manner.”

Meanwhile, a PA official in Ramallah told The Jerusalem Post that when and if the indirect talks were launched, the PA would be negotiating with the US and not with Israel, because it had no confidence in the Netanyahu government.

“Indirect talks mean that we will negotiate with the Americans, who, for their part, will be negotiating with Israel,” the official said. “It’s easier for us to negotiate with the Americans because they share most of our positions, especially on the issues of security and the future borders of the Palestinian state.”

The official said the Arab League’s decision to support the proximity talks came after the Palestinians and the Arab countries were “assured” that the US administration would exert “unprecedented pressure” on Israel to stop construction not only in the West Bank, but also in Jewish neighborhoods in east Jerusalem.

“For the next four months, we will be negotiating with the Americans, and they will be negotiating with the Netanyahu government,” the PA official said of the indirect talks. “If after that period we and the Americans reach the conclusion that the Israeli government is just wasting our time, we will have to decide whether to proceed or not. The Americans have promised to be tough with Israel, and we expect them to fulfill their pledge.”

In other words, according to this narrative, the Palestinians plan to simply present their demands to the sympathetic Obama and his envoys and rely on the US to twist Israel's arm into accepting them. And since it's the Jerusalem Post's ace reporter Khalid Abu Toameh, I have no problem accepting an unnamed source. As a matter of fact, I even have my suspicions on whom it was.

Now, Abbas had a somewhat different story:

“The Americans stressed that neither party would be allowed to take measures or provocations that would harm the negotiations,” Abbas told the London-based pan-Arab daily Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper. “We relayed the US statement as it is to the Arab League meeting, which approved the launching of the indirect talks.”

The PA understood that acts of “provocation” include settlement construction by Israel and incitement by the Palestinians, he said.

Abbas’s comments were published on a day when US envoy George Mitchell met for the second time in 24-hours with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. The talks are taking place amid an almost total news blackout, with neither side releasing any information about the discussions.{...}

Abbas admitted that the PA did not receive any specific assurances regarding construction in Jewish neighborhoods in east Jerusalem. He also denied that Israel had promised to release Palestinian prisoners ahead of the talks.

So...what are we to make of these two contradictory narratives?

My guess is that they're both right, as far as they go.

I've mentioned before that in my opinion Netanyahu and Obama came to a sort of 'gentlemen's agreement' on a few items like building in Jerusalem for a short temporary period to give Abbas some legitimacy and something to crow about at the Arab League Summit, allow Netanyahu to focus on Iran and provide a thaw in US-Israeli relations for Obama's domestic political purposes. That among a few other items I mentioned accounts for Mahmoud Abbas suddenly agreeing to talks after stonewalling for 15 months.

What the US is undoubtedly doing is telling the Palestinians what they want to hear, and it was that version that Khalid Abu Toameh has reported. And there is likely some truth to it as far as it goes, although Obama's leverage at this point on Israel is fairly limited.

Abbas obviously heard the same thing, but is dissembling for Asharq Al-Awsat, most likely at the request of George Mitchell. The Arabs understand face, honor and shame and Mitchell's telling Abbas to downplay publicly the idea of excessive US pressure on Israel to cave in to all of Abbas' demands is one the capo del tutti del Ramallah understood.

Meanwhile the beginning phase of the talks are scheduled to last four months..which brings us to September, an optimum month in terms of conditions and scheduling for Israel to take out Iran's nukes and defang the mullahs.

That's what Netanyahu is focusing on and that's where the real ballgame is.

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Suspicious Package: TSA Worker Jailed After Equipment Joke

Size matters, it appears:

A TSA worker in Miami was arrested for aggravated battery after police say he attacked a colleague who'd made fun of his small genitalia after he walked through one of the new high-tech security scanners during a recent training session.

Rolando Negrin, 44, was busted for assault after things got ugly at Miami International Airport between Negrin and some of his fellow Transportation Security Administration workers on Tuesday.

Sources say Negrin stepped into the machine during the training session and became embarrassed and angry when a supervisor started cracking jokes about his manhood, made visible by the new machine.

According to the police report, Negron confronted one of his co-workers in an employee parking lot, where he hit him with a police baton on the arm and back.

"[Negron] then told victim to kneel down and say 'your sorry,'" the report reads. "Victim stated he was in fear and complied with [Negron]."

Negron was arrested the next day when he arrived for work. He told police he had been made fun of by coworkers on a daily basis.

"[Negron] stated he could not take the jokes anymore and lost his mind," the report reads.

It's nice to know that the federal workers charged with keeping our air transport safe are keeping their eyes on the prize - so to speak.

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The Nashville Flood -The Disaster No One's Heard About

While news coverage of the Gulf oil spill and the Times Square bombing attempt has been extensive, few American are aware of what's been going on in Nashville.I found out yesterday.

As a result of more than 20 inches of rain last weekend, the Cumberland River exceeded ten feet over typical flood levels. As water poured into downtown Nashville when the river was unable to contain the water, the entire city was flooded.


Power outages still exist in many areas, many people are without homes, and there is currently no water service in the city.

Damage estimates at this point have already surpassed a billion dollars, and are likely to go higher. And there were a number of fatalities, some of them people who drowned in their cars while caught in traffic on the interstate.

The devastation is unimaginable:



For some reason the news media has totally ignored this story, and Obama and his signature baritone is nowhere to be found thus far...just like in Kentucky. Maybe it's because Nashville is perceived as the home of all that Redneck, Tea Party country Music. Maybe it's because there aren't any juicy stories of crime sprees or looting. Or maybe it's because there's no convenient and politically advantageous target to blame, like the Bush Administration or an oil company.

But for whatever reason, what's happened to Nashville has been ignored.

Today is National Prayer Day, and it would be quite appropriate to address prayers to the Almighty on behalf of the people of Nashville.

And for those of us that believe in mitzvahs and good works along with faith, here's a list of some charitable organizations who are trying to help on the ground:

First, there's the Middle Tennessee Red Cross.

There's also the Tennessee Emergency Relief Fund at www.CFMT.org online or 888-540-5200.

Also, for Country music fans in the area, WSMV-TV is doing a telethon this evening, May 6, featuring Vince Gill, Keith Urban, Alison Krauss, Naomi Judd, Darius Rucker, Phil Vassar, Steve Wariner, Buddy Jewell, Lonestar, Bo Bice and Lee Roy Parnell.

And here's a good list of other organizations helping out.

Let's not ignore what's happening to our fellow Americans in Nashville.

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Comedy Central Now Developing 'Jesus Christ' Cartoon

Satirize Mohammed? No, do you want to get us killed? Jesus Christ? Hey, fair game baby!

Comedy Central might censor every image of the Prophet Muhammad on "South Park," yet the network is developing a whole animated series around Jesus Christ.

As part of the network's upfront presentation to advertisers (full slate here), the network is set to announce "JC," a half-hour show about Christ wanting to escape the shadow of his "powerful but apathetic father" and live a regular life in New York City.

In the show, God is preoccupied with playing video games while Christ, "the ultimate fish out of water," tries to adjust to life in the big city.

"In general, comedy in purist form always makes some people uncomfortable," said Comedy Central's head of original programming Kent Alterman.

When asked if the show might draw some fire, especially coming on the heels of the network's decision to censor the Muslim faith's religious figure on "South Park," Alterman said its too early in the show's development to be concerned about such matters.

Like all Comedy Central executives, Alterman declined to address the recent controversy over "South Park," where the network aired a heavily redacted episode after the show's creators were threatened by an extremist Islamic Web site.

This is more important than just some silly Hollywood suit showing the usual hypocrisy. What Comedy Central has endorsed,along with a lot of our media and culture is a 'special status' for Islam that makes it immune to criticism by adherents and especially by infidels...or in other words, an acceptance of sharia law.

While insulting any religion may be problematic, giving Islam a pass out of fear is a part of the Death of a Thousand Cuts of our culture.

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Dreams....

I absolutely loved this photo of Marc Savard of the Boston Bruins at Boston's TD Garden handing his stick to a young fan after Game One of the Eastern Conference Semifinals during the 2010 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs against the Philadelphia Flyers.

And yeah, the Bruins won, with Savard scoring the game winner to help the Bruins beat the Flyers 5-4 in overtime.

Believe it or not, professional athletes used to routinely act this way, especially when kids were involved.

Cheerfully swiped from my pal Jimmy Bise Jr. over at the Sundries Shack.

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Anarchy InThe UK - Tomorrow's Elections

Tomorrow, our cousins across the pond go to elections. They're in an unbelievably foul mood.

The bill has finally come due from thirteen years of "New Labour" rule...an economy in serious difficulty, major debt, a school system with increasing troubles and a realization by many Brits that the sort of immigration policies favored by New Labour have brought about their own set of problems.Even worse, there is a disaffection among many Britons about the ability of their current leaders to fix what's wrong.

The Conservatives, headed by David Cameron are leading by about 8 points in the polls, but in real terms that could mean only forty percent of the vote, and by no means a certain ascendancy to the Prime Minister's office for their leader David Cameron.

Because for the first time in a long while in the UK, this is a three man race.

As a matter of fact, Labour, headed by current British Prime Minister Gordan Brown is likely to become the number three party in the UK as the Liberal Democrats, headed by Nicholas Clegg are likely to top Labour in the polls and be the king makers in this election if no one gets a clear majority.

Part of the problem is what it actually means to be a Conservative in Britain, where there's no conservative talk radio, where 'hate speech' laws are strictly enforced where the government owned media is even further left than it is here and where an ever larger percentage of voters are dependent on government largess that Britain can't really afford any more, although neither of the three candidates is admitting it for the most part.

For example, Gordon Brown, who bears a fair amount of responsibility for Britain's debt load has defiantly vowed to go on spending, although where the money's going to come from is anybody's guess.

In response, Cameron has had to dilute the Conservative agenda significantly.

Another issue no one really wants to address much but that is obviously looming large in many British voter's minds is immigration, particularly Muslim immigration.

Under Labour, Muslim immigration to Britain increased ten fold and Britain is now faced with a restive Muslim population who shows every indication of wanting to become a state within a state. Jihad mosques abound, Sharia courts are already mandatory for Muslims in domestic litigation and have equal standing with British common law,there are no-go areas in British cities where non-Muslims are increasingly not welcome and even Britain's Muslim police have given notice that they will not enforce Britain's anti-terrorim laws because as far as they're concerned, Islam is not to blame for recent terrorist attacks, and that 'Islamophobia' is a much more dangerous threat to national security.

This being an election year, the Conservatives have made a few tepid statements on the matter, but no one else has even mentioned it. with the exception of Gordon Brown, who was embarrassed and took a dive in the polls after he was caught live in his vehicle castigating a 66-year-old lifetime Labour voter as a 'bigot' after she merely raised the question in his presence!

This is likely to go down one of two ways. Assuming that the Conservatives don't win enough seats to govern, the Conservatives will significantly water down their agenda even further to go into a coalition with the Liberal Democrats.

Or depending on how many seats each party wins, the Liberals will form a coalition with Labour, whom they're much more ideologically close to. And Labour will toss away Gordon Brown as part of the deal.

Whomever wins, they are going to have to pull a few rabbits out of hats in order to convince the British electorate to go along with the sort of cuts and spending limits that are going to be necessary.

It won't be an easy job.

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The New Black Republicans

While President Obama and the Democrats still have a lockhold on the majority of black Americans, there are some signs of hope and change:

Among the many reverberations of President Obama’s election, here is one he probably never anticipated: at least 32 African-Americans are running for Congress this year as Republicans, the biggest surge since Reconstruction, according to party officials.

The House has not had a black Republican since 2003, when J. C. Watts of Oklahoma left after eight years.

But now black Republicans are running across the country — from a largely white swath of beach communities in Florida to the suburbs of Phoenix, where an African-American candidate has raised more money than all but two of his nine (white) Republican competitors in the primary. {...}

“I ran in 2008 and raised half a million dollars, and the state party didn’t support me and the national party didn’t support me,” said Allen West, who is running for Congress in Florida and is one of roughly five black candidates the party believes could win. “But we came back and we’re running and things are looking great.”

Lt. Colonel Allen West has been mentioned on these pages before. He's a highly decorated war hero whose awards and decorations include the Bronze Star, Meritorious Service Medal (two Oak Leaf Clusters), Army Commendation Medal (two Oak Leaf Clusters, one Valor Device), Army Achievement Medal (one Oak Leaf Cluster), Valorous Unit Award, Air Assault Badge and the Parachutist Badge.

He also has some unique views on national defense and Israel that make me wish I lived in Florida just so I could help him get into Congress.

Ironically, Obama's election seems to have emboldened black Republicans to step into the arena:

“There is no denying that one of the things that came out of the election of Obama was that you have a lot of African-Americans running in both parties now,” said Vernon Parker, who is running for an open seat in Arizona’s Third District. His competition in the Aug. 24 primary includes the son of former Vice President Dan Quayle, Ben Quayle.

Princella Smith, who is running for an open seat in Arkansas, said she viewed the president’s victory through both the lens of history and partisan politics. “Aside from the fact that I disagree fundamentally with all his views, I am proud of my nation for proving that we have the ability to do something like that,” Ms. Smith said.

State and national party officials say that this year’s cast of black Republicans is far more experienced than the more fringy players of yore, and include elected officials, former military personnel and candidates who have run before.

Mr. Parker is the mayor of Paradise Valley, Ariz. Ryan Frazier is a councilman in Aurora, Colo., one of four at-large members who represent the whole city. And Tim Scott is the only black Republican elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives since Reconstruction.

“These are not just people pulled out of the hole,” said Timothy F. Johnson, chairman of the Frederick Douglass Foundation, a black conservative group. That is “the nice thing about being on this side of history,” he said.

Despite Michael Steele's nonsense, there are actually plenty of reasons for blacks to return to the part of Lincoln. It's about time someone started articulating them, and an articulate, charismatic GOP Congress members like Allen west are a great place to start.

It's all about liberation.

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Why TheTimes Square Bombing May Have Been A Successful Strike

The first headlines from the terrorist attack on Times Square characterized New York City as 'lucky'. Maybe not.

I find these details of interest:

• The bomb appears to have been put together in a deliberately amateurish fashion, which lends credence to the comforting 'one crazed nut working alone' idea. Not only that, but the vehicle was parked in a 'no standing' zone and thus easily noticed.
  

• The perpetrator made a number of amateurish mistakes, such as buying a used car via Craigslist and using an easily trackable disposable cell phone. As a contrast, the first World Trade Center bombers simply rented a truck.

• The perpetrator was also a naturalized American citizen which automatically required him to be given Miranda rights, as opposed to an enemy combatant captured in Afghanistan. Again, this means that he can claim he acted alone and need not give out any information he doesn't want to.

This whole affair strikes me as a 'feeler' or diversion strike to see how easy it would be to pull off and how our security responds. Based on that, I can see where the jihadis would count this as a success of sorts.

The bomber managed to get his bomb unnoticed into his target location, and a properly made fuel-air bomb would have been spectacularly successful. Not only that, but even with the amateur mistakes that were made, the bomber's passport had not been flagged by the FBI. So he was able to buy an airline ticket and board a plane to make his escape that was minutes from taxiing down the runway.

Also of interest was the way the NYPD corralled pedestrians in several areas and had them standing there for extended periods of time. Any Israeli security expert ( or for that matter, any member of our military with combat experience in Iraq) could have told you that this is an extremely dangerous practice. It is standard operating procedure for the jihadis to set up several bombs in a given area timed and located to catch people in the vicinity - either first responders or civilians moving away from the initial explosion. That's exactly how it was done in the London tube bombings, with multiple explosions timed to hit people who escaped from the first ones.

New York's finest followed the book, and may have unwittingly provided a blueprint to the jihadis for the next attack. According to every expert in the field the best policy is to get pedestrians moving briskly through the area to avoid secondary strikes.

There will undoubtedly be a next time, and our enemies will have gained valuable intel.

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Times Square Bombing Suspect Caught

Faisal Shahzad, a naturalized US citizen from Pakistan and the 'person of interest' wanted in connection with the Times Square bombing was arrested late Monday at New York's JFK airport.

He was on a flight to Dubai, with a connection afterwards to Pakistan.Believe it or not, the FBI had not flagged his passport.

Apparently, he's already admitted his involvement and claims he acted alone.

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The Sacrifice

Yaakov at Dry Bones, of course!( For those of you not Biblicly literate, the 'toon is a takeoff on Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac...)

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New Details OnTheTimes Square Bombing

Investigators continue to work leads looking for the Times Square bomber

Since the vehicle didn't explode, they were able to trace the owner,who now says he sold the vehicle' to ' a "Middle Eastern" or "Hispanic" looking man for $1,300 cash in $100 bills on Craigslist:

The vehicle identification number on the Pathfinder had been removed from the dashboard, but it was stamped on the engine and axle. Its license plates came from a car found in a Connecticut repair shop.

In addition to this lead, police are also trying to track down a man seen on a surveillance tape released by NYPD earlier this morning, which shows a man in his 40s in Shubert Alley near Times Square removing a dark colored shirt to reveal a red shirt underneath and looking around "furtively."

That man has since been identified by Federal authorities as 'a person of interest' and he has apparently fled

This "person of interest" bought the 1993 Nissan Pathfinder that was abandoned with the engine running - and with primitive, but potentially deadly payload in the rear - just two weeks ago, law enforcement and police sources told The Daily News.

Investigators aren't certain whether he is the same man who drove the rolling bomb to the Crossroads of the World, but he has not been seen by his girlfriend - and has not shown up at his home or job - since the frightening incident on Saturday night.

The Feds have since identified him as a naturalized citizen from Pakistan who was in Pakistan for several months and just returned to the United States recently.As you'll note, they are not revealing his name.

At this point, I'll quote mayor Michael Bloomberg's earlier statement:

"If I had to guess 25 cents, this would be exactly that. Homegrown, or maybe a mentally deranged person, or somebody with a political agenda that doesn't like the health care bill or something. It could be anything."

What a tool.Although in fairness, he certainly wasn't the only one.

So, what happens next? The obvious thing for someone in the position of this 'person of interest' to do would be to flee the country. Th etwo main routes would be to get on a plane or to try and slog across the Canadian border. If the Feds know his name ( and it appears they do), they could tell if he got away, at least using his own ID. Since they're still looking for him my guess is he didn't get out.

If he's caught, here's a prediction..there's a jihad mosque and a radical Saudi funded imam in the picture.

That said, we'll see what develops.

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The Angry Mob You Won't Hear About

May 1st was the day chosen by open borders and illegal alien advocates for nationwide demonstrations. While many of them didn't draw the expected crowds ( the one in Los Angeles only drew less than half of the expected 100,000 attendees) the crowds that did show up committed a surprising amount of violence. Needless to say, if this has been a Tea Party crowd, there would have been massive headlines...but with illegal alien advocates, crickets.

Michelle Malkin has a pretty good round up.

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John Bolton: Get Ready for a Nuclear Iran

As usual, John Bolton spells out the consequences of our non-policy on Iran and what it will cost us. Here's a sample:

The further pursuit of sanctions is tantamount to doing nothing. Advocating such policies only benefits Iran by providing it cover for continued progress toward its nuclear objective. It creates the comforting illusion of "doing something." Just as "diplomacy" previously afforded Iran the time and legitimacy it needed, sanctions talk now does the same.

Speculating about regime change stopping Iran's nuclear program in time is also a distraction. The Islamic Revolution's iron fist, and willingness to use it against dissenters (who are currently in disarray), means we cannot know whether or when the regime may fall. Long-term efforts at regime change, desirable as they are, will not soon enough prevent Iran from creating nuclear weapons with the ensuing risk of further regional proliferation.

We therefore face a stark, unattractive reality. There are only two options: Iran gets nuclear weapons, or someone uses pre-emptive military force to break Iran's nuclear fuel cycle and paralyze its program, at least temporarily.

There is no possibility the Obama administration will use force, despite its confused and ever-changing formulation about the military option always being "on the table." That leaves Israel, which the administration is implicitly threatening not to resupply with airplanes and weapons lost in attacking Iran—thereby rendering Israel vulnerable to potential retaliation from Hezbollah and Hamas.

It is hard to conclude anything except that the Obama administration is resigned to Iran possessing nuclear weapons. While U.S. policy makers will not welcome that outcome, they certainly hope as a corollary that Iran can be contained and deterred. Since they have ruled out the only immediate alternative, military force, they are doubtless now busy preparing to make lemonade out of this pile of lemons.

President Obama's likely containment/deterrence strategy will feature security assurances to neighboring countries and promises of American retaliation if Iran uses its nuclear weapons. Unfortunately for this seemingly muscular rhetoric, the simple fact of Iran possessing nuclear weapons would alone dramatically and irreparably alter the Middle East balance of power. Iran does not actually have to use its capabilities to enhance either its regional or global leverage.

Facile analogies to Cold War deterrence rest on the dubious, unproven belief that Iran's nuclear calculus will approximate the Soviet Union's. Iran's theocratic regime and the high value placed on life in the hereafter makes this an exceedingly dangerous assumption.

Even if containment and deterrence might be more successful against Iran than just suggested, nuclear proliferation doesn't stop with Tehran. Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey and perhaps others will surely seek, and very swiftly, their own nuclear weapons in response. Thus, we would imminently face a multipolar nuclear Middle East waiting only for someone to launch first or transfer weapons to terrorists. Ironically, such an attack might well involve Israel only as an innocent bystander, at least initially.

As bad as the consequences for taking out Iran's nukes militarily might be,they are nothing compared to what they're going to be once Iran gets the bomb.If you think Iran has been belligerent and aggressive before, just wait until they have nukes and ICBMs as a shield.

And the price of oil? While it would probably go up after a strike on Iran that would be a limited scenario until markets adjusted and and other suppliers stepped in. A nuclear armed Iran that could close off the Persian Gulf or even threaten to do so will be a never ending crisis that can sky rocket the price of oil whenever the Iranians feel like it and need a few more billions for new weaponry.

And unfortunately, it may very well be down to Israel doing the job because the adults are simply not in charge in Washington.

As an example, guess what Obama's latest strategy move is? He's going to declassify information about the size and nature of our nuclear weapons stockpiles that has been a closely held secret for decades:

The Obama administration is likely to reveal a closely guarded secret -- the size of the U.S. nuclear stockpile -- during a critical meeting starting Monday at which Washington will try to strengthen the global treaty that curbs the spread of nuclear weapons, several officials said.

Various factions in the administration have debated for months whether to declassify the numbers, and they were left out of President Obama's recent Nuclear Posture Review because of objections from intelligence officials. Now, the administration is seeking a dramatic announcement that will further enhance its nuclear credentials as it tries to shore up the fraying nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

The numbers could be released as soon as Monday, when Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is to address the NPT Review Conference in New York, officials said. She will speak after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is likely to repeat his demands for more global controls over the stockpiles of the nuclear nations.

Like I said, the adults are simply not in charge in Washington at this point.

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Taliban Creeps Sent To Allah By Brit Sniper In World Record Kill

That would be Household Cavalry Man Horse Corporal Craig Harrison, of of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire:

Craig Harrison, a member of the Household Cavalry, killed the insurgents with consecutive shots — even though they were 3,000 feet beyond the most effective range of his rifle.

“The first round hit a machinegunner in the stomach and killed him outright,” said Harrison, a Corporal of Horse. “He went straight down and didn’t move.

“The second insurgent grabbed the weapon and turned as my second shot hit him in the side. He went down, too. They were both dead.”

The shooting — which took place while Harrison’s colleagues came under attack — was at such extreme range that the bullets took almost three seconds to reach their target after leaving the barrel of the rifle at almost three times the speed of sound.

Harrison also got off a third shot that hit the machine gun."A third shot clipped the weapon - as I was hoping to render it unserviceable."

"They were firing on the troop commander - I gave them the good news. They didn't f****** like it."

I'll just bet they didn't.

The distance? An amazing 8,120feet, or 1.54 miles.

Since this was way beyond the effective range for Corporal Harrison's weapon of choice, an L115A3 sniper rifle, he had to compensate for the spin and drift of the .338 bullets using good old fashioned Kentucky windage, aiming 6 feet high and 20 inches to the left.

Three shots, three hits.

The last record holder was a Canadian in Afghanistan eight years ago, who took out an al-Qaeda fighter at a mere 7,972 feet.

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Abbas Has His Demands...

The capo del tutti d'Ramallah is ready with his demands and is looking forward to coordinating them with his friends in the Obama Administration:

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said Sunday that he has already demanded sole control over large sections of the West Bank, including those under total Israeli sovereignty. Abbas said that he demand the Jordan Valley, even though Israelis have made clear that they will not agree to preconditions from the Palestinians.

In an interview with the West Bank newspaper Al Ayam, Abbas said that the talks with Israel will begin as soon as the Arab League and the PLO board approve them. He estimated that the sides would hold proximity talks for up to four months, but was pessimistic about their results.{..}

Abbas also announced that he wants to renew the PA's activity in Jerusalem in the now-closed Orient House and the Palestinian Trade Bureau in the eastern part of the city.

“The purpose is to return, within a few months, to the situation that we had before the Intifada, with gradual and significant additions of territory that will be transferred to full Palestinian control,” he explained.

Abbas said that he will visit the United States this month, in order to continue the peace process. “The Americans understood that establishing a Palestinian state is a strategic American interest. Therefore, they are investing serious efforts” in the proximity talks.

What the old mafioso is doing is actually quite interesting. He's demanding virtually the entire area of Judea and Samaria,(AKA the West Bank) including the removal of the Jewish communities there..roughly half a million people.

Plus, he wants to create a political presence for the Palestinian Authority in Jerusalem, something expressly forbidden by both the Oslo Accords and the Road Map.

He's undoubtedly saving other demands for his meeting with President Obama.

Bottom line? This is not a serious position. Abbas likes the status quo, as he's said before many times. He's basically come up with demands no Israeli government would accept just to show that he's not being an obstructionist.

Of course, even if Abbas were to come up with a serious and reasonable offer, there's a question of whom he actually speaks for. This is someone who was elected to a four year term over five years ago, so he certainly doesn't speak for many people in the Palestinian occupied areas of Judea and Samaria...let alone Gaza.

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Lag B'Omer

Today is the day observant Jews celebrate the holiday of Lag B'Omer.

If you've noticed some of your Jewish friends walking around unshaven and unkempt, rest assured that all that ends today!

Lag B'Omer is Hebrew for ' the 33rd day of the Omer'. So what's an Omer? It's a measure of barley. In Biblical times, on the second day of Passover, it was a mitzvah (Holy commandment or good deed) to bring an omer-measure of barley to the Temple in Jerusalem as an offering. Then, fifty days later, on Shavuot, it was a commandment to bring the first offering from the wheat harvest.Then as now, Israel was an agricultural country in many respects.

Since the Temple no longer exists (may it be rebuilt soon, and in my time if it's OK with you, G-d), observant Jews 'count' the omer by reciting special prayers .

The 33rd day of the Counting of the Omer is Lag BaOmer. The origins of the Omer count are found in the Torah itself,Leviticus 23:15-16 , which states that it is a mitzvah to count the seven complete weeks from the day after Passover until the holiday of Shavuot, which celebrates Israel receiving the Torah at the base of Mount Sinai on the fiftieth day. This also commemorates the period between the liberation of the Jews from Egyptian bondage and the spiritual redemption of receiving the Torah.

So...why is the 33rd day anything special?

According to the Talmud, during the time of Rabbi Akiva 24,000 of his students died from a divine-sent plague during the counting of the Omer. The Talmud says this was because they did not show proper respect to one another, and indulged in baseless hatred. On the 33rd day, the plague ended.

Lag B'Omer is also celebrated as the yahrzeit (death anniversary) of one of Rabbi Akiva's most gifted students Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. Among his other accomplishments, Rabbi bar Yochai is said to have authored the Zohar, the foundation of the Jewish mystical tradition of Kabbalah.

As part of their observance of Lag B'Omer, observant Jews do not shave of cut their hair, listen to music or hold weddings or parties during the first 33 days of the counting of the omer. So Lag B'Omer is a day to cut loose and party down.Chabad sponsors parades as well as rallies, bonfires and barbecues for thousands of participants around the world.

It's a favorite day to hold weddings, parties, barbecues and generally have a good time. In Israel, Lag BaOmer's a school holiday, and the local juvenile-delinquents-in-training bring out the old wood they've been squirreling away for a week or so prior for the infamous Lag B'Omer bonfires.

Chag Sameach!

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Times Square Bomb Attempt

Of course, this wasn't jihad and had nothing to do with Islam even if the Taliban did claim responsibility. Let's all be like Obama's DHS chief Janet Napolitano and just call it a man made disaster - almost:

"It appeared that [the bomb] was in the process of detonating and malfunctioned," said police spokesman Paul Browne.

A street vendor alerted a policeman on mounted patrol—Wayne Rhatigan, 47 years old, a 19-year-veteran of the force. In an interview, Mr. Rhatigan said he smelled gunpowder coming from the vehicle and went toward it, thinking it could explode at any second. He grabbed two other officers to help move people away from the smoking Pathfinder as he called for backup at 6:34 p.m.

Police blocked the area from West 43rd to 47th streets along Broadway and Seventh Avenue with metal railings. Parts of West 48th Street were also closed. Most of the streets were reopened Sunday morning after police removed the Pathfinder.

Police later said the Pathfinder was spotted on security video at 6:28 p.m. The video wasn't clear enough to identify the driver and no videos have been found showing the suspect in the attack, police said.

An interesting detail, revealed in the NY Times story was the use of propane:

Police officials said a witness reported a running Nissan Pathfinder with Connecticut plates, with smoke coming out of the back. A bomb squad robot popped the back latch of the Pathfinder, and officers found what they initially believed was a bomb. The vehicle was found to contain explosives, gasoline, propane and burned wires, a Fire Department officer told Reuters.

If that rings a bell, it should. This was a crude attempt to create a fuel air bomb. It's similar to the method used for car bombs in Iraq and was also the method used in the failed attempt to set off a series of car bombs in London three years ago. Had it exploded in the crowded Times Square area, it would likely have touched off a series of other vehicle explosions and killed hundreds of people.

As an interesting side note, the Pathfinder was parked near the junction of 45th Street and Broadway. That's adjacent to the Viacom building, which just censored South Park's depiction of Mohammed in an attempt to avoid this kind of attack.

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GM: 'Repaying' The Taxpayers With Their Own Money

Scott over at Powerline has a fine post unmasking the scam Government Motors is pulling with its public relations blitz about its supposed 'repayment' of the money it owes the US taxpayers:

I wrote about GM's public relations blitz here here, and here. The third of these three posts includes the video of GM's ad featuring Whitacre.

Whitacre and GM omitted two facts that render their public relations blitz highly misleading. They are the kind of omissions that constitute securities fraud when made by a company in connection with the purchase or sale of a security or when a company reports its financial results.

First, Whitacre and GM omitted any mention of the remaining $50 billion or so that the government has sunk in the company's equity. Second, Whitacre and GM omitted any mention of the source of the funds with which GM "repaid" the loan. According to TARP Special Inspector General Neil Barofsky, the source of the funds in whole or in substantial part was the United States government TARP program, not GM earnings.

GM's fraudulent public relations blitz took place with the support of the Obama administration, up to and including Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner. Geithner's participation makes his tax cheating and related testimony pale in comparison.

In retrospect, it is obvious that GM undertook the blitz at the behest of the Obama administration. It is symptomatic of the era of national socialism in which we find ourselves, and for which GM is a leading indicator.

I would differ with Scott on only one point - Whitacre,like Geithner are guv'mint employees who do what they're told from on high. If the Obama regime wants some happy news to hide what's really going on, yoink the peasants and provide talking points for the True Believers, Whitacre and Geithner are going to follow orders and provide it. We all know by now that the only people who benefited from Obama's takeover of GM were his union supporters.

Apparently even the New York Times wasn't fooled by this nonsense.

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Mark Steyn - Bigotry Label for Thee, not Me

Mark Steyn takes aim at the recent turmoil over illegal aliens:

As I write, I have my papers on me - and not just because I'm in Arizona. I'm an immigrant, and it is a condition of my admission to this great land that I carry documentary proof of my residency status with me at all times and be prepared to produce it to law enforcement officials, whether on a business trip to Tucson or taking a 20-minute stroll in the woods back at my pad in New Hampshire.

Who would impose such an outrageous Nazi fascist discriminatory law?

Er, well, that would be Franklin D. Roosevelt.

But don't let the fine print of the New Deal prevent you from going into full-scale meltdown. "Boycott Arizona-stan!" urges MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, surely a trifle Islamophobically: What has some blameless Central Asian basket case done to deserve being compared with a hellhole like Phoenix?

Boycott Arizona Iced Tea, jests Travis Nichols of Chicago. It is "the drink of fascists." Just as regular tea is the drink of racists, according to Newsweek's in-depth and apparently nonsatirical poll analysis of anti-Obama protests. At San Francisco's City Hall, where bottled water is banned as the drink of climate denialists, Mayor Gavin Newsom is boycotting for real: All official visits to Arizona have been canceled indefinitely. You couldn't get sanctions like these imposed at the U.N. Security Council, but then, unlike Arizona, Iran is not a universally reviled pariah.

Will a full-scale economic embargo devastate the Copper State? Who knows? It's not clear to me what San Francisco imports from Arizona. Chaps? But, at any rate, like the bottled-water ban, it sends a strong signal that this kind of hate will not be tolerated.

The same day that Mr. Newsom took his bold stand, I saw a phalanx of police officers doing the full Robocop - black body armor, helmets and visors - as they marched down the street. Goosestepping? No, it's actually quite hard to goosestep in those steel-reinforced kneepads. So just regular marching. Naturally, I assumed they were Arizona state troopers performing a routine traffic stop. In fact, they were the police department of Quincy, Ill., facing down a group of genial Tea Party grandmas in sun hats and American-flag T-shirts. They were acting at the behest of President Obama's Secret Service, which rightly recognized a polite knot of citizens singing "God Bless America" as a clear and present danger to the republic.

If I were a member of the Quincy PD, I'd wear a full-face visor, too, because I wouldn't be able to look myself in the mirror. It's a tough job making yourself a paramilitary laughingstock. Yet the coastal frothers denouncing Arizona as the Third Reich or, at best, apartheid South Africa, seem entirely relaxed about the ludicrous and embarrassing sight of peaceful protesters being menaced by camp storm troopers from either a dinner-theater space opera or uniforms night at Mr. Newsom's re-election campaign.

Read the whole thing...

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