The new poll finds 61 percent of voters nationally think Arizona was right to take action instead of waiting for the federal government to do something on immigration. That’s more than twice as many as the 27 percent who think securing the border is a federal responsibility and Arizona should have waited for Washington to act. . . . Significantly more voters think the Obama administration should wait and see how the new law works (64 percent) than think the administration should try to stop it (15 percent).
Here’s what they’re dealing with down there on a daily basis:
Opponents of Arizona’s law believe government officials — i.e., cops — lack the judgment to enforce Arizona’s law. But at the same time, they believe other officials can make a snap judgment about who deserves a job or a superior education based on skin color.
Given this inconsistency, one has to wonder: Is the objection to the law that it won’t work, or that it will?
The Henry J. Hyde Defender of Life Award was established to honor the legacy of Representative Henry J. Hyde (1924-2007). Hyde, former Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, was a renowned pro-life leader and author of the original Hyde Amendment. Representative Hyde also served as Honorary Chairman at Americans United for Life. Each year, this prestigious award is presented to an elected official who demonstrates outstanding leadership in the cause of Life.
This year’s award was presented on May 5th, 2010 to House Republican Leader John A. Boehner both for his extraordinary leadership in the fight to prevent taxpayer-funded abortion at the federal level and for his unheralded pro-life work in his home state of Ohio. Leader Boehner was joined at this ceremony by his colleagues in Congress including Representatives Trent Franks (R-AZ), Chris Smith (R-NJ), and Dan Lipinski (D-IL).
Boehner got a little emotional in receiving his award:
Am I a baby? Is John Boehner a big baby? Why are we crying?
A key leader in the socialist movement that created Obama. Joel Rogeis is credited by Van ones with giving the movement three “great gifts”:
Firstly, there is “a new economic model …high road development …the best thinking that he represents is now reflected in the White House.”
Secondly , “…the New Party, which is now the Working Families Party…the idea of a ‘new politics’ that you could actually have in this country bringing together labor, civil rights, feminists…and actually make a difference…is the basic framework for what just took over the White House.”
Thirdly, …”his idea of a new energy paradigm. His founding the Apollo Alliance. I believe the stimulus is going to put something like $80 billion in this direction…”
Jones credits Rogers with dreaming up the White House economic model – basically a 21st century “green” version of corporate socialism. Rogers also allegedly masterminded the electoral alliance that put Obama in the driver’s seat. He then founded the organization that helped write the “stimulus bill”, which is now funneling billions into a movement primarily designed to keep the Obama and the Democrats in power.
That’s a lot of influence for one man. Does Van Jones exaggerate? Let’s investigate.
The New Party which Rogers and Dan Cantor founded in the early 90s, was an attempt to to unite the poor, Blacks, Latinos , labor and “community groups” to work with and inside the Democratic Party to elect large numbers of leftist candidates to public office.
Conservative bloggers reported back in 2008 that Barack Obama joined the New Party in Chicago, during his 1995 Illinois State Senate run, but the MSM never had any interest in reporting that. Sadly we’re now stuck with this vast network of Marxist/Socialist radicals driving US policy.
Only one question received 100% agreement. I want to know who the conservative blogger is who doesn’t approve of the new immigration law.
New to me:
This video,Obama At The Batseen at iOWNTHEWORLD back in March has almost 1,800,000 views on Youtube, so chances are you’ve already seen it. But it’s awesome, and it’s actually baseball season, now, so how ’bout watching it again:
For a man who is enormously self-aware, Mr. Obama could also use a little bit more self-awareness. He should consider how powerful—and inappropriate—a model he sets by his own frequent coarse and uncivil language.
For example, last week Mr. Obama suggested that Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell was “cynical and deceptive” in arguing that the administration’s financial regulation bill would allow more bailouts “when he knows that it would do just the opposite.” Does implying the Senate GOP leader is a hypocrite and a liar make reaching compromise easier?
Mr. Obama even draws on the Bible for political attacks. In a teleconference with religious groups supporting health-care reform, he accused opponents of the legislation of “bearing false witness.” Or take last September when, in a health-care speech to Congress, the president—in a single paragraph—accused his critics of spreading “bogus claims” and “lies” and of being “cynical” and “irresponsible.”
Even if you believe, as the president does, that the concerns of his critics are wrong, why use such sulfuric rhetoric? This is not the kind of thing the president’s predecessor, his predecessor’s father or President Ronald Reagan did or would allow their staff to routinely do.
If Mr. Obama wants his Ann Arbor words to be taken seriously, then he needs to rein in his party, his staff and himself. Presidential leadership matters as much as presidential words, perhaps more. Mr. Obama should back up his inspiring call to civility with action.
While A majority of American citizens support the AZ immigration law…
Opponents of the law didn’t even have to speak English to be quoted sympathetically. In a May 3 CBS Evening News story, Katie Couric fretted “many” illegals “no longer feel welcome.” Reporter Kelly Cobiella focused on the story of non-English-speaking Manuela Quintana, who decided to move to Colorado. Cobiella cued up the mother of ten to deny she was a criminal: “‘No,’ she says, ‘a criminal is someone who kills. I just want to work.’” Over video of the kids piling into an SUV, Cobiella concluded: “The family packed up before dawn today and headed north to Colorado. Manuela says she’s lost hope in this state. She thinks she’ll find it again in another.”
By contrast, law enforcers were the bad guys. On Sunday morning, April 25, ABC Good Morning America host Bill Weir chided Sheriff Joe Arpaio, a well-known enforcer of immigration law, “With this new law, will you ramp it up?…Will you grab people on street corners?”
Byron York, as always, doing some of the best reporting in the blogoshpere:
“A clear pattern has emerged,” the GOP lawmakers wrote, “of the administration refusing to provide requested briefings or information or to engage with us despite repeated requests on issues such as Guantanamo, the Fort Hood attack, the Christmas Day attack, Yemen, critical issues involving the [foreign intelligence surveillance court], and now the Times Square attack.”
Obama has made a new approach to terrorism one of the key features of his presidency. He no longer calls the nation’s anti-terror effort the War on Terror. He has reached out to the Muslim world. He has banned what the Bush administration called “enhanced interrogation techniques.” He has vowed to close Guantanamo and supports granting full American constitutional rights to foreign terrorists.
Yet the attacks and attempted attacks continue. And everyone knows it was luck, and not anti-terror work, that prevented American deaths on Christmas Day and in Times Square. Republicans want to know what went wrong and are becoming increasingly angry at a White House that is keeping details of the case to itself.
Check back for updates, I’ll be adding more to the mishmash as the day wears on.
America just might have found itself its truest superhero. Who needs Superman when there’s Iron Man 2? Tony Stark isn’t just a patriot and a lifesaver. He’s bold, he’s clever, he’s rich, he’s a capitalist individualist defender of property rights. And he likes to give speeches surrounded by dancing girls.
Iron Man was fun but Iron Man 2 is even better, with a script (by Justin Theroux) so laced with wit that it if you took away the fireballs and just had actors reading it on a bare stage like a Noel Coward piece, it would still be an entertaining evening.
Allow me a moment to step away from the usual voice of this website.
What I am about to write has absolutely nothing to do with hockey.
If you live outside of Nashville, you may not be aware, but our city was hit by a 500-year flood over the last few days. The national news coverage gave us 15 minutes, but went back to focusing on a failed car bomb and an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. While both are clearly important stories, was that any reason to ignore our story? It may not be as terror-sexy as a failed car bomb or as eco-sexy as an oil spill, but that’s no reason to be ignored.
The Cumberland River crested at its highest level in over 80 years. Nashville had its highest rainfall totals since records began. People drowned. Billions of dollars in damage occurred. It is the single largest disaster to hit Middle Tennessee since the Civil War. And yet…no one knows about it.
Does it really matter? Eventually, it will…as I mentioned, there are billions of dollars in damage. It seems bizarre that no one seems to be aware that we just experienced what is quite possibly the costliest non-hurricane disaster in American history. The funds to rebuild will have to come from somewhere, which is why people need to know. It’s hard to believe that we will receive much relief if there isn’t a perception that we need it.
But let’s look at the other side of the coin for a moment. A large part of the reason that we are being ignored is because of who we are. Think about that for just a second. Did you hear about looting? Did you hear about crime sprees? No…you didn’t. You heard about people pulling their neighbors off of rooftops. You saw a group of people trying to move two horses to higher ground. No…we didn’t loot. Our biggest warning was, “Don’t play in the floodwater.” When you think about it…that speaks a lot for our city. A large portion of why we were being ignored was that we weren’t doing anything to draw attention to ourselves. We were handling it on our own.
Some will be quick to find fault in the way rescue operations were handled, but the fact of the matter is that the catastrophe could not have been prevented and it is simply ignorant beyond all reason to suggest otherwise. It is a flood. It was caused by rain. You can try to find a face to stick this tragedy to, but you’ll be wrong.
Parts of Nashville that could never even conceivably be underwater were underwater. Some of them still are. Opry Mills and the Opryland Hotel are, for all intents and purposes, destroyed. People died sitting in standstill traffic on the Interstate. We saw boats going down West End. And, of course, we all saw the surreal image of the portable building from Lighthouse Christian floating into traffic and being destroyed when cars were knocked into it. I’m still having trouble comprehending all of it.
And yet…life will go on. We’ll go back to work, to school, to our lives…and we’ll carry on. In a little over a month, I’ll be on this website talking about the draft. In October, we’ll be discussing the new Predators’ season with nary a thought of these past few days. But in a way, they changed everyone in this town. We now know that that it can happen to us…but also know that we can handle it.
Because we are Nashville.
Michelle Malkinhas some good links for you if you’d like to help.
PBS reports (with some familiar faces) on the Republican edge on “social media”.
Did you catch what Gingrich said? They’re advising candidates to have as big a budget for new media as they do for radio and tv. I hope GOP candidates are are paying attention.
Almost every week, often on a Tuesday, Obama heads into the White House Situation Room for a meeting that explores terrorism-related subjects in depth. Rarely discussed in public, the hour-long briefings have become one of the most significant gatherings in the West Wing, bringing together Cabinet-level intelligence and security officials “to make sure everybody hears the same information and is updated on the threats,” one participant said.
I think that’s just awesome.
One thing though…have his tutors gotten to the importance of monitoring suspected terrorists, yet? Because that would seem to be one of the keys to stopping terrorist attacks.
Shutting down terrorist investigations + opportunistic enemies = a bad outcome.
JTTF’s(Joint Terrorism Task Force) typically surveillance an individual – especially a US Citizen – under the FIS Court authorization. These authorizations have to be renewed every 90 days or so by the US Attorney General. As has been noted before (see here, here and here for details) the Obama administration began shutting down Bush-era terrorists investigations last year as they debated how to reduce our nation’s surveillance of terrorists threats. The person who killed 14 people at Ft Hood last fall was one such suspect whose JTTF investigation was suspiciously shut down around this time last year.
There is more evidence which seems to point at changes made by the Obama administration in terms of their monitoring Mr. Shahzad. For example, after being on the terrorist watch list for almost a decade, Shahzad was removed from that list sometime after 2008, according to CBS News:
Sources tell CBS News that would-be Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad appeared on a Department of Homeland Security travel lookout list – Traveler Enforcement Compliance System (TECS) – between 1999 and 2008 because he brought approximately $80,000 cash or cash instruments.
It looks like the Times Square car bomber was dropped from the terrorist watch list shortly before he got his citizenship in 2009–at just about the same time that surveillance of the Fort Hood shooter and the Christmas Day bomber also stopped.
If our only defense to terrorism is counting on alert civilians, how about not bothering them before they board airplanes, instead of harassing them with useless airport “security” procedures?
Both of the attempted bombers who sailed through airport security, I note, were young males of the Islamic faith. I wonder if we could develop a security plan based on that information?
Could they maybe increase the tutorials to twice a week…?
Longtime commenter, and fellow blogger, BlackisWhite Imperial Consigliere of Taxes, Stupidity and Death has been recruited by ND management to assist with blogging duties such as writing posts, and keeping trolls in line. He joins Geoff, ofUncommon Misconceptions, and Innocent Bystanders, an ND administrator who has been more active on the troll busting front, (although he’s welcome to write posts, too, especially if they involve charts).
This is just so, sooo wrong…Five students, one of them Hispanic, were forced to leave a California school and then face disciplinary action yesterday for the crime of wearing clothing printed with American flag designs.
According to local TV stations KTVU and NBC Bay Area, this bewildering and deeply unsettling incident happened at Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill, a suburban town south of San Jose. As KTVU reported,
Five students at a South Bay high school stirred up some controversy Wednesday for wearing t-shirts depicting red, white and blue American flags on Cinco de Mayo.
School officials at Live Oak High in Morgan Hill told the students they had to go home if they wouldn’t turn the shirts inside out.
One of the students said it appeared school administrators were worried the patriotic shirts could trigger fights.
Some students at Live Oak High in Morgan Hill said others were planning to come to school Thursday wearing red, white and blue.
Four of the five students who wore American flags or patriotic colors on campus walked into a meeting with the superintendent of the Morgan Hill unified school district Wednesday night.
They were facing unexcused absences because they chose to go home early rather than take off what they were wearing.
“We knew it was Cinco de Mayo. But we just came to show our flag,” said student Dominic Maciel. “We didn’t mean anything by it. We didn’t want to start anything. Nothing like that.”
Student Anthony Caravalho was also sent home for not turning his shirt inside out.
“They said we had to wear our t-shirts inside out and then we could go back to class and we said no,” said Caravalho. “It would be disrespectful to the flag by hiding it.”
Daniel Galli, another student who was reprimanded for wearing a US flag, described what he was told by school administration.
“He said ‘If you wear it on any other day, it’s fine; but just because it’s today you can’t wear it,’” Galli said.
Aren’t we all Americans? Why would anyone, especially immigrants to our country, object to fellow citizens wearing patriotic clothing? I don’t understand the mindset… and why would the school enable such wrong headed thinking? The American flag shouldn’t be objectionable on any day of the year.
Zombie analyzes the situation:
Let’s pause for a moment and peel back the layers. It seems that many of the Hispanic students at Live Oak High (and probably innumerable other high schools across the country) have been so inculcated with an “identity politics” curriculum that, under the rubric of instilling pride and self-esteem, they have been convinced that they are somehow distinct from and separate from the other American students; that “we” feel disrespected when forced to perceive an American flag.
The school administration then stirs in their own toxic contribution: An assumption (typical of the “soft racism” of leftist ideology) that Hispanic students will respond with violence when they feel disrespected (“the patriotic shirts could trigger fights” is the euphemism they used). Even worse, fearing violence from Hispanic students, the adminstrators solve the crisis by banishing the “offensive” items, rather than warning students that any violence will be severely punished. In other words, the racist administrators insultingly assumed that their Hispanic students would erupt in violence at the sight of an American flag, and the only way to prevent this is to cower at the presumptive violence and preemptively cave in to the mob’s demands that American flags be banned from campus.
Are the United States and Mexico at war? Is May 5 some kind of “Hate America Day”? What the hell is going on here? Aren’t the U.S. and Mexico allies? Aren’t we friendly neighbors? What is the source of the friction? Isn’t the United States a melting pot where people of every ethnic heritage all live together in harmony as Americans — rather than being a collection of self-segregated ethnic enclaves seething with mutual hostility?
But this is what the left has specialized in for the past fifty years: identity politics, pitting whole segments of society against each other on the basis of race, color, and creed under the guise of multiculturalism. Somehow, it always seems to benefit Democrats when a group can be made to feel victimized, and in need of government intervention.
When I was in school, we learned about our “melting pot”, where people from many different ethnicities and cultures could come and eventually blend into this wonderful stew known as America. And this was taught as something we should be proud of. It was a good thing.
But not anymore. People are no longer encouraged to become proud Americans and adopt our culture and traditions, (while hanging on to their own). That’s considered insensitive and bigoted.
And what has this lead to? It’s a crime to wear patriotic clothing, now, in some schools on a minor Mexican holiday.
So I saw in the AP this morning that Freddie Mac, is seeking another $10.6 BILLION from taxpayers. This would bring the total amount “borrowed” from the taxpayers to $61.3 BILLION ($126 BILLION if you add the money we gave to Fannie Mae, as well).
It’s nice to know that our money has been used to pay for the government buying homes for people who could not afford them. I only wish we had held out for at least dinner and some fooling around before getting violated like this. But in light of this continuing, I found this part of the article to be the spike in blood pressure I didn’t need this morning:
With the housing market still on shaky ground, Obama administration officials argue that it is still too early to draft any proposals to reform the two companies or the broader housing finance system.
At least not everyone in Washington has completely lost their minds:
But Republicans argue that the sweeping financial overhaul currently before Congress is incomplete without a plan for Fannie and Freddie. Senate Republicans propose transforming Fannie and Freddie into private companies with no government subsidies, or to shut them down completely.
I think the deadbeats got the hope, and we’re left with a little bit of change.
He’s now posting at a nutroot site, Election Ink. His post from May 2, before the identity of the Time Square bomber was known, is a sight to behold:
Palins Tea Party Express Movement possibly involved in Times Square SUV bomb ?
UPDATE MAY 03 Suspect currently being questioned by law enforcement.
Anonymous sources have reported that a suspect is currently being questioned in the Bridgeport / New Haven CT area. The suspect is a middle age white male, has a history of strong political views, and considers himself a Sarah Palin Tea Party express activist. An arrest is expected within days.
More pictures to follow.
The Nissan Pathfinder that prompted police to close off parts of New York’s Times Square contained bomb-making materials, the city’s mayor said.
The car was parked on 45th Street, and the block was closed between Seventh and Eighth avenues as a precaution, police said. Times Square lies about four traffic-choked miles north of where terrorists bombed the World Trade Center in 1993, then laid waste to it on Sept. 11, 2001.
“There were gas cans and bomb making materials in the car,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg told reporters early Sunday morning.
Bloomberg said authorities found propane cylinders, fireworks and timing devices in the car.
Anonymous sources at the scene have reported that the terrorist attack is likely related to the Sarah Palin Tea Party movement. “Much like the 911 attackers, Sarah Palin’s Tea Party movement also has shown a strong dislike of the United States government.” one source reported.
Bwahahaha.
Oh my lord….I shouldn’t laugh. Mayor Bloomberg probably reads his blog.
But if that wasn’t funny enough, he updated later with:
May 4th. A message from Jason Levin concerning this article:
The tea bagging terrorists have been filling my PM box with there usual rantings….NO, I will not retract my story.
I stick by my story as written. The Tea Party is responsible for the Times Square bombing. Perhaps not physically, but there hatred for the current administration gives fuel to the fire. Since they are on the same page as foreign terrorists concerning there hatred of America, they should be treated the same.
I am sure the Tea Party movement is secretly funded by Al Queda and that it is only a matter of time before there Timothy McVay clones attack OUR country.
Feel free to contact me by clicking my user name.
JL
Barbarossa at The Jawa Report notes his contact info is now gone….weeee!
Rep. Paul Ryan (WI), House Budget Committee Ranking Republican, wants Americans to know the truth behind recent claims made by General Motors (GM). GM and Obama Administration officials have said that the automaker’s bailout has been fully repaid to the American taxpayer but this is not accurate. As Ryan said in a recent statement, “the automaker simply transferred $6.7 billion dollars from one taxpayer-funded TARP account to another.” Watch Congress Ryan’s recent video on this subject:
Ahmadinejad: “I heard that Osama bin Laden is in Washington, D.C. Because he was a previous partner of Mr. Bush. They were colleagues in fact, in the old days. They worked together. Mr. Bin Laden never cooperated with Iran, but he cooperated with Mr. Bush.”
The Iranian President shared that little piece of intelligence with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos during their 30 minute talk, Tuesday morning.
It didn’t take long to get contentious, starting with my first question: “You called Secretary of State Clinton an ‘enemy’ of Iran. Do you consider President Obama an enemy of Iran as well?”
It took multiple follow-ups for me to get Ahmadinejad’s answer: that he draws a distinction between Clinton and her boss.
“Mrs. Clinton is interested in speedily moving relations with Iran to the point of a clash. Based on the information we possess, Mr. Obama does not have such an opinion,” he said.
Seth Myers asked that question on SNL’s Weekend Update, in the wake of the New Immigration law signed by AZ Governor Jan Brewer, which requires police officers to verify a person’s immigration status who, in the course of a law-enforcement action, has come under a “reasonable suspicion” that he is an illegal alien.
Seth’s remark is considered by some to be one of the dumbest things said about the new immigration law…as was this incredible statement made by the President:
“You can imagine, if you are a Hispanic American in Arizona…suddenly, if you don’t have your papers and you took your kid out to get ice cream, you’re going to be harassed.”
Guess what? When Obama visits a factory in NJ to talk about the economy – if you want a chance to talk to him….you’re going to “be harassed”:
The team will identify a few employees to talk with the president, check their backgrounds for immigration status and child support delinquencies, brief the company execs on protocol, arrange for top-notch sound equipment and lighting, risers for the TV cameras to see over any crowd and importantly arrange the proper backdrop for the president’s remarks. They even carry cans of women’s hair spray, which dull the glaring sheen on those large banners often hanging over the stage.
That’s the question people are asking, today. Captain Ednotes that:
He quit his job in June of last year and let his house get foreclosed. Then he traveled to Pakistan for five months before suddenly returning in February, without a job but apparently flush with cash. Apparently our intelligence services didn’t pick up on the fact that Shahzad had traveled to Peshawar, an area known for its terrorist networks, or had inexplicably gotten wealthier on his return to the US.
Granted, many people travel abroad, and DHS can’t track them all. But how many Americans travel to Pakistan each year? Return home after five months in Pakistan? Start doing nothing but cash business despite not having a job and losing their home? And all of this within just months of becoming naturalized, apparently through marriage?
After 7 straight years of no successful terrorist attacks in US soil after 9/11, we’ve had a string of attacks that should have gotten stopped before they had any chance of succeeding.
We all know AG Eric Holder’s ‘Justice’ Department (sort of a oxymoron these days) closed down Bush era terrorist investigations into Major Nidal Hasan (killer in the Ft Hood Massacre) and probably also into radical US-born cleric al Aulaqi (see here, here and here for details). It is pretty obvious that shutting down the surveillance of these American traitors working with our enemies also gave Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab an opening to nearly bring down a plane full of passengers on Christmas Day as it landed in Detroit, MI.
It is now known, per this NYTs articlethat Shahzad had been under surveillance by the Bush administration. And Strata doubts it was ever suspended under President Bush given this:
Mr. Shahzad apparently went back and forth to Pakistan often, returning most recently in February after what he said was five months visiting his family, prosecutors said. A Pakistani intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity said Mr. Shahzad had traveled with three passports, two from Pakistan and one from the United States; he last secured a Pakistani passport in 2000, describing his nationality as “Kashmiri.”
Yet it was only his own bomb making incompetence that prevented him from killing lots of people?
There is now a clear pattern of failure and incompetence in the Obama administration’s “law enforcement” approach to counterterrorism. We can’t expect every would be bomber to as incompetent as the last two – the next one could be very skillful at what he does….and there will be a next time, unless the Obama administration starts doing things differently.
Steny Hoyer is causing a conversation he does not want to really have. In trying to turn up the political rhetoric on terrorism, Hoyer, the House Majority Leader, said, ““We’re tough on terrorists, that’s our policy, that’s our performance and in fact we’ve been more successful.”
Jihadists have knowingly and deliberately exploited our lax immigration and entrance policies to secure the rights and benefits of American citizenship while they plot mass murder — and we haven’t done a damned thing to stop them.
I realize that there aren’t many people who watch MessNBC, but the fact that we still give stupidity like this a platform and the veneer of respectability threatens our future. I don’t know that I can pinpoint when the Lame Stream Media decided to report what they want to be the facts, rather than the facts themselves, but the breathtaking level of denial that many of the talking heads exhibit is truly frightening.
If we can no longer stomach the truth that bad people want to kill us, and these desires are born of a certain religion and its hostility to the West, then the cavity searches of the grandmothers and Cub Scouts at TSA checkpoints, while we avoid ‘profiling’ the one-way ticket carrying passengers praying to Allah, will surely ensure that the soon-to-slaughtered passengers will have their blissful ignorance interrupted by only a short, hot instant of confusion.
