Friday Free-For All

–Chip Bok cartoon via Townhall.

Newsbusters: Mika: ‘Morning Joe’ Being Pressured To Invite More Pro-Obama Flacks:

Jay Carney admits calling MSNBC yesterday to complain about Mark Halperin’s crack [that we were first to report] that the President, at his Wednesday press conference, acted like a “d–k.”  Did the White House press secretary take the opportunity of his call to pressure the show to bring on more pro-Obama flacks?

The question arises because on today’s show, Mika Brzezinski revealed that “we’re getting hit a lot lately for not bringing on people who speak on behalf of the White House and really stick up for the President.”

 There was something surreal about Mika’s statement.  When she broached the subject of balance, I was sure she was going to say that complaints were coming from Republicans about the paucity of GOP/conservative guests on the show.  After all, as Joe Scarborough pointed out moments later, when the show researched its guest list, it found a stunning 10:1 ratio of Democrats to Republicans!

This is a travesty. A vet sits in jail for checking the wrong box on a passport application.

“Suddenly, he’s picked up and thrown in jail? Then it’s time for this senator to start asking questions,” U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson., D-Fla., said.Nelson has questions echoed by Dawkins’ friends, including Dianne Rinehardt.

“It’s a travesty, and we’re trying to stop it,” Rinehardt said.Rinehardt went through nursing school with Dawkins and is a veteran herself. She’s upset about the trouble her friend is in. In sharing his story with other vets, Rinehardt said that lots of people who don’t know Dawkins can’t believe it.”We’re all appalled that, how can you serve this country and be more dedicated to the ideals of this country, and serve this country and then be told, ‘Guess what, you made a little clerical error. You’re out of here.’ And that’s a travesty,” Rinehardt said.

A federal indictment states that Dawkins started to fill out a passport application in 2004, didn’t complete it, then filled out a new application two years later. On that new application, he checked a box “no” for the question, “Have you ever applied before?” according to the indictment.Dawkins got the passport, but three months ago, the government issued a warrant for his arrest. He was taking photos for the Navy at the time. When Dawkins got back to the U.S. in April, he was arrested about a week later and has been in jail for two months since.

“The state department is implying there’s something more. I want to know, and that’s why I’ve written them,” Nelson said.”We’ve sent emails through our standard home, family email chains throughout the country,” Rinehardt said. “The more attention we bring to this, the more people will see this as a disservice.”Dawkins’ attorney calls the case an “absurd prosecution,” saying that filling out a “no” box “did not merit criminal charges.”

Good grief, it sounds like something I would do. Unless there’s something more to this — what an absolute abomination.

Ace of Spades HQ: Awesome: Federal Court Rules Michigan’s Law of Nondiscrimination In College Admissions To Be… Unconstitutional:

I believe it was Antonin Scalia who pithily summed this up in, I think, a concurrence when a nondiscrimination policy in admissions was challenged.

The questions were: 1, is discrimination based on race even constitutional in the first place?

And, 2, even if it is Constitutional, is it also mandatory?

He wrote of question 2: The Constitution cannot mandate what it barely tolerates in the first place.

But many disagree, and we call such people “Democrat appointed federal judges.”

Bear in mind, the Michigan Constitution expressly forbids racial preferences. So the claims is being made that the federal Constitution, which barely permits these preferences in the first place, also knocks down state constitutions that forbid them.

Ed Morrissey at Hot Air asks: How has that minimum-wage hike worked for teens? Not great, it turns out:

Four years ago, Congress pushed the minimum wage up more than 40% in a three-step process that finished in 2009.  How has that worked out for those most likely to find employment at that wage level — inexperienced teenagers?  As the Wall Street Journal notes, the percentage of teens employed in this economy has fallen from 42% in 2001 to 24% today, and it’s worse among black and Hispanic teens.

Doug Powers at Michelle Malkin: Meanwhile, as the TSA Was Busy Keeping the Skies Safe from Little Girls and the Elderly…

I wish he were joking, but he’s not:

Six year old girls? Check. 95-year-old wheelchair-bound women in adult diapers? Check.

Nigerian men with no ID carrying multiple expired boarding passes not in their own names? Ch… wait, where’d he go?

Left-Wing Institute For Civil Discourse: New Civility On Display As Left-Wing Mob Protests At MN State Capitol:

Last night, a government stand-off in Minnesota ended with the state government being shut down. The governor, Mark Dayton, refused to accept the balanced budget that Republicans had crafted without tax hikes on those earning $1 million or more.  Republicans refused to increase the budget from their modest 6% boost to an irresponsible double-digit expansion.  This morning, Minnesota’s state government stopped most of its operations.

Minnesota College Republicans gathered on the steps of the MN capitol in St. Paul,  at 6.00 pm, last night, to urge Governor Mark Dayton to “sign the bill.” They stayed there until after Dayton shut down the government. The account of their “disheartening” experiences can be found, here.

The American Thinker: The Purposeful Flooding of America’s Heartland:

This year, despite more than double the usual amount of mountain and high plains snowpack (and the ever-present risk of strong spring storms), the true believers in the Corps have persisted in following the revised MWCM, recklessly endangering millions of residents downstream.

Missouri Senator Roy Blunt agrees, calling the management plan “flawed” and “poorly thought out.”  Sen. Blunt characterized the current flooding as “entirely preventable” and told reporters that he intends to force changes to the plan.

Perhaps tellingly, not everyone feels the same apprehension toward the imminent disaster.

Greg Pavelka, a wildlife biologist with the Corps of Engineers in Yankton, SD, told the Seattle Times that this event will leave the river in a “much more natural state than it has seen in decades,” describing the epic flooding as a “prolonged headache for small towns and farmers along its path, but a boon for endangered species.”  He went on to say, “The former function of the river is being restored in this one-year event. In the short term, it could be detrimental, but in the long term it could be very beneficial.”

Howling at The Moon: IT’S THAT TIME OF YEAR!!! Soldier’s Angels Valour I.T. Fundraiser!

From 1 JULY through 14 JULY, this little Blog will have a higher Purpose. All hoping to motivate everyone to give to the Cause.

Join The Marine Team!!

Please consider contributing to this good cause.

Gateway Pundit: Obama Campaign to Go After Those Who Honestly Report On His Anti-Israel Policies… Like the Fact That He’s Talking With the Muslim Brotherhood

Of course, the Obama Administration doesn’t want to change its anti-Israel policies. But, they do want to attack conservatives who speak out against Obama’s record on Israel.
The Washington Post reported:

Obama’s top presidential campaign advisers are putting together a plan to go on the offensive against critics of his stance on Israel, I’m told, and are assembling a team of high profile surrogates who are well respected in the Jewish community to battle criticism in the media and ensure that it doesn’t go unanswered.

Obama’s supporters say the plan is in effect an acknowledgment that conservative attacks on Obama’s Israel stance have made defections among Jewish voters and donors a possibility they must take seriously. Obama’s advisers see a need to push back even harder on the attacks than they did in 2008, in part because Obama now has a record on the issue to defend — a record that even Obama’s supporters concede has not been adequately explained.

Verum Serum: Election Law Experts Including the American Bar Association Say Obama Campaign Ad Violated the Law

Matt Cover at CNS News has continued to work this story:

The video was filmed in the White House and, because it is intended to raise funds, constitutes a violation of federal law, according to two election law experts contacted by CNSNews.com.

“I think this is a violation [of the law],” Cleta Mitchell, a member of the American Bar Association’s election law committee, told CNSNews.com.

“It is a specific prohibition on solicitation [of money] by the president, the vice president, or any member of Congress on any federal property,” she said…

Hans von Spakovsky – former member of the Federal Election Commission and a Heritage Foundation legal analyst – told CNSNews.com that that exemption may not apply in this case because it appears that the video was not filmed in an area where the president actually lives.

This last point is exactly the one I tried to raise in this post. However, Jake Tapper took the position that because the Map Room is in the “Executive Residence,” i.e. the central White House bldg, the ad was legal.

Doug Ross: Good News: Gunrunner weapons Discovered On Phoenix Crime Scenes:

Weapons linked to a questionable government strategy are turning up in crimes in Valley neighborhoods… For months the ABC15 Investigators have been searching through police reports and official government documents. We’ve discovered assault weapons linked to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ controversial “Fast and Furious” case strategy have turned up at crime scenes in Glendale and Phoenix communities.