Corner Protest with Janet - O'Fallon, Missouri

From Reboot Congress, "Saturday's Corner Protest with Janet":

Check the post for lots of links.

Hat Tip: Glenn Reynolds.

Tea Party Express Stops in Ely, Nevada

From Southern Belle Politics, "Tea Party Express Sleeps in Ely, Nevada":

Also, from CNN, "Tea Party Express Cruises Through Nevada":

Hundreds of people turned out for a series of weekend events as the Tea Party Express cruised across northern Nevada.

The caravan of tour buses, RVs, cargo trucks and SUVs kicked off a cross-country tour Friday in Sacramento, California, and plans on holding events in 33 cities en route to Washington, D.C. for what organizers hope will be a big rally on September 12.

The tour is being funded by Our Country Deserves Better, a conservative political action committee.

The tea party movement gained momentum this year; several parties were held across the country this summer to protest President Barack Obama and the Democrats' economic stimulus plans, among other things.

On July 4, nearly 2,000 advocates, toting signs and chanting slogans, rallied outside Congress. Activists said the TEA Party Day — an acronym for "Taxed Enough Already" — was in response to runaway government spending. But now, the focus is on health care reform, an issue that has brought about demand for bigger, more encompassing debate throughout the country and in Congress.

At an event Saturday in Winnemucca, Nevada, Carolyn Rowe came to the tea party in a T-shirt depicting Obama as the joker from "Batman." In place of the familiar "Hope" logo of Obama's campaign was the word "Joke."

She says she is concerned about the number of so-called "czars" in the Obama administration and she fears losing her choice of doctor if health care reform passes.

"I believe he's trouncing the Constitution and taking control of our country in a direction we don't want," says Rowe, from beneath a wide brimmed straw hat. "I think he has a hidden agenda, and I think he doesn't tell the truth and that in itself bothers me."

Also, NPR, " 'Tea Party Express' Takes Protests Cross-Country" (via Memeorandum).

Glenn Reynolds has rolling coverage to events as well.

But keep checking back at Southern Belle's for more from the tour.

Carol Shea-Porter Boots Retired Cop From New Hampshire Town Hall

From The Blog Prof, "Video: Rep. Shea-Porter (D-kookville), former anti-war protester, gets townhall protester asking a simple question arrested, then taunts him!":

Also, from Moe Lane, "Meet New Boss Rep Shea-Porter (D, NH).

And Ed Morrissey says:

I’ve watched this video a couple of times, and I still can’t figure out why the police took this man out of the room. He was actually less disruptive than the woman behind him. He challenged Shea-Porter on the appearance of SEIU protesters in the room, one of whom got up and disrupted his question. When the first man then challenged the residency of the SEIU rep, police swooped in and removed him.

That's SEIU for you. And SEIU punk at the viddy is definitely a goon!

Kennedy Juxtaposition: Arlington National Cemetery Commemorative Edition

From Grandpa John's, "Juxtaposition: Extra! Extra! Assembly targets drunken drivers! Read all about it!":

Also, yesterday Mike at Cold Fury wasn't in the mood to commemorate Teddy's burial at Arlington:

The thought of this noisome ruin befouling Arlington National Cemetery, slowly rotting next to real American heroes — blighting everything he touches, in death as in life — is absolutely nauseating. But no more nauseating than the spectacle of debased liberals tripping over themselves to make excuses for this dastardly murderer, for no better reason than that he was on their side politically. It’s beyond appalling; mere words are inadequate to express my revulsion and contempt for such deluded, simple fools.

Related (unfortunately): CNN, "Kennedy 'expected more of us' on health care, Dodd says" (via Memeorandum).

'Teabagger Watcher' Puts Out Conservative 'Enemies List'

The Rhetorican has a post up that piqued my interest, "Leftie Site Celebrates Democratic Party History."

It turns out that "Teabagger Watcher," an anarcho-communist blog, has put out an "enemies list" on leading conservative bloggers and tea-party organizations. The list puts Michelle Malkin and Red State in the crosshairs:

Enemies List:

teabaggers' march on washington
dick armey's 'freedomworks'
tea party patriots
nationwide tea party coalition
join patients first
smart girl politics
americans for limited government
americans for prosperity
american liberty alliance
american liberty tour
net right nation
redstate.com
michelle malkin, that insane chick
sam adams alliance (not beer-related)

The website is probably the creation of artist Mike Flugennock. The artwork at the blog's masthead, and the titles are the same: "The Teabaggers Are Coming!" Flugennock's work includes this disgusting rendering of hooded KKK nightriders lynching President Obama:

Flugennock is listed here and here as a D.C.-based anarcho-communist poster artist and agitator. See also, "Anarchism in the Arts."

The website also boasts communist Alexander Cockburn's Counterpunch among its favorite sources. Counterpunch is a well-know anti-Semitic portal. FrontPage Magazine wrote earlier that:

Almost every self-hating Jew on the planet capable of banging on a keyboard is today either a columnist for the anti-American web magazine Counterpunch, run by Alexander Cockburn, or is an object of Counterpunch’s celebration.

Plus, currently running at Counterpunch, "Why Aren't Progressives Disrupting ObamaCare Town Halls?"

The Washington Post ran a feature on Flugennock in September 2002, "The Poster Boy of Protest."

Here are samples of Flugennock's anarcho-communist artwork, "A new series of posters to support dissident mobilizations at President Monkey Boy's Second Coronation!":

****************************************

Dick Cheney Fox News Sunday Interview (VIDEO)

Yid With Lid has the full interview, "Full Transcript of Dick Cheney Fox News Sunday Interview." See also, "RAW DATA: Transcript of Cheney on 'FOX News Sunday'." And the Swamp, "Cheney: Torture probe 'Offends Hell Out of Me'" (Via Memeorandum).

Andrew Sullivan, hysterical as always, isn't happy with Chris Wallace's mode of interviewing:

Now look: there are softball interviews; and then there are interviews like this. It cannot be described as journalism in any fashion. Even as propaganda, which is its point, it doesn't work - because it's far too cloying and supportive of Cheney to be convincing to anyone outside the true-believers. When it comes to Cheney, one of the most incompetent vice-presidents in the country's history, with a record of two grotesquely botched wars, war crimes and a crippling debt, Chris Wallace sounds like a teenage girl interviewing the Jonas Brothers.

Lots more commentary at Memeorandum and RealClearPoltics (video).

Van Jones: Revolutionary Communist in the Obama White House

Matthew Vadum has a new piece up at the American Spectator, "Van Jones and His STORMtroopers Denounced America the Night After 9/11":

Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement (STORM), the revolutionary group formed by self-described "communist" and "rowdy black nationalist" Van Jones, held a vigil in Oakland, California, "mourning the victims of U.S. imperialism around the world" on the night after Sept. 11, 2001.

The reason this is important is because Van Jones is now President Obama's green jobs czar. He does not appear to have distanced himself from his past communist activities and is now part of the Obama administration's push to turn Sept. 11 into a National Day of Service focused on the promotion of the radical environmentalist agenda.

Vadum cites passages from Jones' revolutionary pamphlet, Reclaiming Revolution. For example, Jones' group "blamed the U.S. for 9/11":

That night, STORM and the other movement leaders expressed sadness and anger at the deaths of innocent working class people. We were angry, first and foremost, with the U.S. government, whose worldwide aggression had engendered such hate across the globe that working class people were not safe at home. We honored those who had lost their lives in the attack -- and those who would surely lose their lives in subsequent U.S. attacks overseas.

Check out the Glenn Beck video above. Michelle Malkin indicates the significance of Van Jones' background as a Leninist revolutionary, and Beck reads key passages from the pamphlet.

But to be clear: Van Jones is President Barack Obama's "Green Jobs Czar." Kathy Shaidle wrote about him earlier, "Van Jones, 'Green Jobs Czar', a Self-Described 'Communist' Arrested During Rodney King Riots."

Note as well that Jones is the founder of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights.

Here's this from Cliff Kincaid's investigation on Jones' organization:

I visited one of his organizations in Oakland, California, the Ella Baker Center, and discovered a photograph of Communist Angela Davis on the first floor. Ella Baker worked with Communists such as Anne Braden. This fact is noted on the official Baker bio distributed by the organization named in her honor. They are proud of this fact, although they claim that "she had mixed feelings about communism" and only embraced socialism "as a more humane alternative to capitalism."

Jones shows up on a list of "veteran activists" attending a conference in the summer of 1998 at the University of Illinois at Chicago, the same place where Bill Ayers is now a professor. The purpose was to plot the "Black Liberation Agenda for the 21st Century" under the auspices of the Black Radical Congress. Angela Davis participated and the Communist Party USA helped organize the event.

One of Jones' sons is named Cabral, in honor of Amilcar Cabral, the African Marxist who spoke to Castro's Tricontinental Congress in 1966 and concluded with these words: "Our wish is that every national liberation movement represented here may be able to repeat in its own country, arms in hand, in unison with its people, the already legendary cry of Cuba: Patria O Muerte, Venceremos! Death to the Forces of Imperialism! Free, Prosperous and Happy Country for Each of our Peoples! Venceremos!"

Kincaid notes that Jones has undertaken "an extreme makeover" to mask his credentials as a hardline revolutionary agitator.

To that effect, check out this article from 2005, "The New Face of Environmentalism: Van Jones Renounced His Rowdy Black Nationalism On the Way Toward Becoming An Influential Leader of the New Progressive Politics":

He still considers himself a revolutionary, just a more effective one, who has realized that the progressive left's insistence on remaining a counterculture destroys its potential as a political movement ...

So, what to do? Join the far-left Obama administration as an environmental minister.

As Ron Radosh points out:

Barack Obama has seen fit to actually appoint a Communist to a position of importance in the White House ....

The man in question is named Van Jones, and President Obama appointed him as a czar in charge of developing “green energy policy.” His exact title is Special Advisor for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation at the White House Council on Environmental Quality. His responsibility is to coordinate the stimulus spending to assure that a hefty portion of it goes to projects that promote green energy. What in Jones’ recent background should raise questions about his worthiness for the appointment? What was the expertise that made him qualified for the position? He was founder of in September 2007 of “Green For All,” a non-governmental organization “dedicated to building an inclusive green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty … advocating for local, state and federal commitment to job creation, job training, and entrepreneurial opportunities in the emerging green economy – especially for people from disadvantaged communities.” He also attended Yale Law School, thus following a career path similar to that of President Obama. And like the President, he recently said he considers himself a “community organizer.”

As David Horowitz has pointed out, from 1992 until 2002, Jones was a member of a radical communist group that was dedicated to “organizing a revolutionary movement in America.” Arrested during the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles, and briefly sent to jail, Jones met, he said “communists and anarchists,” and decided “ ‘This is what I need to be part of.’” He said that he spent “the next ten years of my life working with a lot of those people I met in jail, trying to be a revolutionary.”

The group he joined was Storm, a Bay Area Marxist-Maoist collective staffed by members of radical nonprofit groups, who worked with another body Jones had founded, The Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, that sought to provide alternative to prison for African-Americans convicted of crimes. Storm made its position clear in its published manifesto, Reclaiming Revolution:Standing Together to Form a Revolutionary Movement. The group defined itself as a “revolutionary cadre organization,” that understood that “revolutionary Marxist politics would be central to the development of a successful liberation movement in this country.” Its commitment was to “Marxist-Leninist politics,” which posed a problem- since its shrewd leaders knew that “most young activists…were hostile to revolutionary Marxism.”

That meant subterfuge: acknowledging that they could not appear as “an explicitly Marxist organization.” The answer was two tiers of members-a leadership of Marxists and a membership that had to support its unity program that was not “explicitly Marxist.” The group had ties to the South African Communist Party, the breakoff group from the American CP, the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism, and it honored leaders like Amilcar Cabral, the late Marxist revolutionary of Guinea-Bissau and the Cape Verde Islands, who lauded Lenin “as the greatest champion of the national liberation of the peoples.” In 2006, Van Jones named his newborn son “Cabral” in the Marxist leader’s honor.

This isn't surprising to conservatives who have long argued against Barack Obama's hardline radical background and associations.

See also, Astute Bloggers, "WHAT IF OBAMA HIRED A MAN LIKE BILL AYERS OR JEREMIAH WRIGHT AND BROUGHT HIM INSIDE THE WHITE HOUSE? HE HAS!"

More at Memeorandum.

Obama Thuggery! Astroturfed Perlmutter Town Hall - Denver, Colorado

El Marco's got a great new report on the Ed Perlmutter town hall event yesterday at Denver's North High School:

I arrived early at North High School for Friday’s, Organizing for America rally in Denver. OFA community organizers were hard at work:

Here, hand-manufactured signs on sticks are mixed with a ream or two of signs without sticks. Approximately 50 signs. In boxes are printed signs with UPS One Day Air receipts on them. From D.C.? Maybe:

I went to the adjacent street, West 32nd Street, and here is what I saw.

Some media showed up after a while and zeroed in on the guy with the Ted Kennedy sign. The reporterette at center showed no interest in interviewing the man on the right or others.

I checked back at this same area about 20 minutes later to find that the Astroturf Brigades had arrived in force and were beginning to be a nuisance.

This proud DenverCrat was eager to pose for my camera ... Much to my chagrin, he began to berate anyone who made eye contact with him. He spoke, er, bellowed eloquently enough. He sounded like Ted Kennedy on the campaign trail. He marshaled many of the main democrat talking points quite admirably:

These green shirts [below] blocked the north entrance to the high school parking lot. All who wanted to enter to hear Representative Perlmutter had to go approximately 1/4 of a mile to the west entrance. They said everyone had to sign in for security reasons. Following is an email from a severely disabled Denver Prager Listener Group member:

“I was at that rally and was parked inside the fence because I had arrived very early. I walked outside the west side of the fence to meet friends and then re-entered when they called and said they were on the other side of the parking lot. The “green shirts” came toward me with their clip boards and wanted to know where I was going. I told them I was going to my car and they reluctantly let me pass. When I got to the other end of the lot, several “green shirts” approached me and asked where I was going. I told them and they also reluctantly let me go past. When I met my friends I told them what had happened and that I was really afraid of those people because they came across so aggressively. One of my friends found a couple of police officers and he told them I was afraid these people wouldn’t let me back in to get my car. The officers talked to the “green shirts” and they were quite irate that I felt the least bit intimidated by them!! Well, a couple of hours later the Obama Bus arrived and a little while after that I needed to leave. One of my friends offered to walk me to my car. When we got to the gate the “green shirts” had tied yellow “CAUTION” tape (it looks like police tape!!) across the entire gate opening and it took a couple of minutes for my friend to convince them that I was just going to my car and he was walking with me.

It is so deplorably dishonest for these “astroturf” bullies with their professionally printed signs and buttons to forcibly extract signatures from people and then for Perlmutter (my Congressman also!!) to knowingly use those signatures ~ I believe that in any other arena this would be fraud!!!”

The woman who wrote this lives in constant extreme pain and is not a threat to anyone.

I headed over to the west entrance to see what was going on. I passed a group of grassroots supporters of Obama on the way. Others in the group had signs which were foul and offensive. Disgusting, really. So I have spared you the necessary after-viewing shower by not showing their photos.

A young mind is a terrible thing to waste.

A commotion in the parking lot caught my eye. A green shirt aggressively berates two dissenters in the parking lot:

They are ejected by two male organizers in red shirts. While still on school property, the two ladies decided to hold their ground, resisting excessive trampling of their rights as law abiding Americans. This is a standoff. Who would have thought a scene like this could occur in America?

The red shirts stay to monitor the situation(above background left). At no time did I see these ladies argue or fuss. They appeared only calm and insistent on their rights:

Meanwhile, the Astroturfers who were sent to confront the legitimate dissenters on W 32nd St, are now among the crowd waiting to cheer Perlmutter:

And here’s the bus ...

Perlmutter ranted about fighting and fighting and human rights and the Constitution:

Organizers positioned this banner to block the view from the two camera stands. Should have sent a taller green shirt. Alas, the best laid plans of mice and men ...

See also, Live Free Colorado, "Ed Perlmutter Says Our Health Care System is Unconstitutional":

Representative Ed Perlmutter (D – CO District 7) actually had the gall to stand on stage at pro-Obama care and public option rally and make the charge that our current health care system is unconstitutional. Huh? That perked up my ears, did I hear him say what I thought I heard?

He continued on, asking the audience, with their ocean of pre-printed Health Care Now signs, if they’d heard of the 14th Amendment. Hmmm, I wasn’t sure where he was going with this but surely he wasn’t going to go THERE.

Yep, according to Ed Perlmutter, the 14th Amendment gives equal protection and people denied care and coverage don’t have equal access to health care so the existing system must be unconstitutional. I’m not sure if he was also going to expand that to include housing, food, and clothing.

On that note, this guy down the street got a bigger loan for a BMW so I should also get one since the Constitution guarantees equal protection.

I'd be shocked if it wasn't so typical.

'TeddyCare For All' - Dems Exploit Kennedy Death at New York Health Rally

The report is from WGN-TV Chicago, "After Kennedy Funeral, As Many As 1,000 Rally in NYC for Health Care Reform Bill":

About a thousand people rallied in Manhattan on Saturday in support of federal health care reform legislation.

The event near Times Square began shortly after the funeral for U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, and took-on the feel of a tribute to the liberal leader.

One person carried a sign that said, "TeddyCare for all."

U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney told the crowd the bill will lower health care costs for almost everyone. The New York Democrat also invoked Kennedy, saying the senator understood the need for change.

Opponents say the legislation will cost too much and diminish the quality of care.

And check out the video above from WABC-TV New York. It's unbelievable sometimes how totally Astroturfed these events are. Almost no one attending the rally has made their own signs. That's the Dems for you: Shameless exploitation and staged rallies to generate media support. No wonder they're calling it "TeddyCare."

One Year Ago Today: America Meets Sarah Palin!

From Red State, "One Year Ago Today, Sarah Palin Burst Onto the Scene":

Not a single politically aware person does not remember John McCain’s surprise announcement of Sarah Palin as his running mate on August 29, 2008. The Democrat National Convention was wrapping up, Obama had made his grand speech, but all the political world was abuzz over the impending selection of Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty as McCain’s running mate. The surprise and expertly choreographed announcement of Sarah Palin was one of a few grand McCain campaign moments.

The conservative world, conditioned by a generation of horribly biased media now enchanted by the charismatic Obama, was braced for the media onslaught that would immediately descend on McCain’s choice, no matter who it was.

And still, we were utterly unprepared.

John Ziegler takes us through the experience, and what a year has taught us about Sarah Palin, the media, and the political landscape we now find ourselves in.

Click the link for the rest of the post, and John Ziegler's commentary ...

Sacramento: First Stop on Tea Party Express

Nice Deb has a report, "Sacramento Tea Party August 28."

Also, from the Fresno Bee, "'Tea Party Patriots' stage rally: Sacramento protest targets government":

There was no doubting who the enemy was at Friday's "Tea Party Patriots" rally at the Capitol.

"Government is the problem!" the crowd chanted. "No more government!"

The event, the second "tea party" held at the Capitol this year, was billed as a "first-time coalition of thousands to protest government over-regulation."

Valley farmers -- some brought their tractors -- repeated their long-running call against delta pumping restrictions that they say are robbing them of water.

Diesel truck drivers, revving their engines, circled the Capitol, protesting new clean-air regulations that owners say will cost them millions of dollars to replace older trucks. And a Valley congressman went on the attack against the environmentalists he said were to blame for it all.

Plus, Southern Belle is excited:

I am on the Tea Party Express now headed to Reno ... Today is the first day of a historic journey of taking our message to Washington.

I have lots to share and will update in more detail after our next stop in Reno. I have taken lots of pictures and videos to share with you all. We have just crossed the Nevada state line and don't have very good internet service, so I will upload pics later this evening. Be sure to check back!

Right now, all I can say is I am blessed to be part of such a historic event. Thank you for all of your support and well wishes! Wow! Wow! Wow!

Also, Kimberly Dvorak, "Tea Party Patriots sound off in Sacramento."

Plus, always lots of good stuff at Nice Deb.

Radical Left to Astroturf Orange County Health March: Dedicated to Ted Kennedy!

There's more confirmation from my home county that the Democratic Party is in formal alliance with socialist political action groups and hardline revolutionary agitation cells. The Orange County Register has the report, "Health-Care Reform Advocates to Rally Monday."

But check out the OC Weekly:

​Anyone else notice that ever since President Obama began pushing health care reform and waffling back and forth between advocating for a public option and saying that a public option was really just optional, ya know, just an idea, his popularity numbers have been plummeting? Conservatives already hate the guy and millions of morons think he's some kind of Manchurian candidate trying to turn the good old USA into a socialist bloc nation. But what about his supporters, all those tweeting, Facebook-friendly progressive souls who back in November believed he was a savior who would solve all our woes?

Where the fuck are these people? Why aren't they marching in the streets demanding that our insurance-industry-corrupted politicians (including Obama) get their shit together and improve our nation's suck-ass health care system?

Morons? Think again there, buddy.

It turns out that Organzing for America goons, SEIU thugs, Teamster heavies will hold a big ObamaCare rally at my Congressman's office in Newport Beach on Monday. The webpage notes, "Dedicating the March to the memory of Senator Ted Kennedy." And the press release is a riot: "Orange County Grassroots 'Townhall March' Favoring Public Option is Scheduled For August 31." Yeah, "grassroots." Right. The organizers have requested that marchers "bring along American flags and placards bearing photos of loved ones who have been denied coverage by the insurance industry." And of course, there'll be plenty of pre-print manufactured signs, just like at every other "grassroots" demonstration the ObamaThugs have held this year.

Here's the list of "supporting organizations":

Free Enterprise Advocates
Organizing for America
Yes We Can!
Insure the Uninsured
SEIU, Local 721
Laguna Beach Democratic Club
Canyon Democratic Club
Newport Beach Women's Democratic Club
Laguna Woods Democratic Club
Progressive Democrats of America
Health Care Access Network (HCAN)
Latino Coalition for a Healthy California
Orange County Federation of Labor
The Liberal OC
Women For: Orange County
Orange County Equality Coalition (OCEC)
Teamsters, Local 952
IUCC Advocates for Peace and Justice

The socialist Progressive Democrats have the event listed at their calendar. The Teamsters Teamsters Local 952 as well. The IUCC Advocates for Peace and Justice is an allied group to the neo-Stalinist International ANSWER; the organization is a signatory to the AfterDowningStreet manifesto, "COALITION LETTER TO PROGRESSIVE CAUCUS: REGARDING THE 2009 SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS."

ObamaCare is socialist medicine. It's no surprise we're seeing all of the hardline America-hating interests out in force to push for it.

See also, "Astroturf at Adam Schiff Town Hall: ACORN, AARP, Organizing for America, SEIU, and Stalinist Apparatchiks for ObamaCare!"

Rush Limbaugh on Glenn Beck's: 'Most Dangerous Time for Freedom and Liberty'

Check Newsbusters for the full transcript, "Rush Tells Beck: 'It Is the Most Dangerous Time in My Life for Freedom and Liberty' ":

This whole administration is as radical and far left as any that the country has ever had. What they're trying to do here to communications is simply stifle dissenting voices. They're trying to wipe out any opposition...And the things that he is talking about doing -- and I watched your show for the first half hour today -- and the things he is talking about doing to shut down radio are simply un-American ... It is a dangerous time. It is the most dangerous time in my life for freedom and liberty in this country.

Charlie Rangel's Corruption

From the New York Post, "Charlie's Mortgage Bares Home Untruth":

"Rangel again refused to answer any questions yesterday."

Photo Credit: New York Post.

Hat Tip: Memeorandum. And from Jammie Wearing Fool:

Obviously we need the Obama Justice Department to investigate this fraud, but they're too busy investigating the people who keep us safe.

Coloradans For Peace: Troop Welcome Parade 'Fosters Harmful Jingoist Message'

Michelle Malkin attended the welcome parade for returning veterans in Colorado Springs this morning. See, "Colorado Springs Welcomes Homes the Troops."

The Colorado Springs Gazette has the story as well. Forty-five thousand people took part, but notice this passage:

Along with the military supporters, the route was dotted with a handful of protesters packing signs that said "War No More." Coloradoans For Peace issued a press release saying the event is inappropriate because it glorifies war.

The military boosters who vastly outnumbered parade opponents didn't seem to mind the protest.

"It's America, they have the right," said retired Army Sgt. 1st Class Kent Crow, a Vietnam veteran who came to cheer the troops. "It's so minor here, it doesn't make an impact."

Amazing that our military personnel fight for freedoms such as this, from Coloradans For Peace, "CFP Condemns Colorado Springs Pro-War Parade":

Coloradans For Peace strongly condemns private and government plans to hold a military parade along the main public thoroughfare of Colorado Springs on August 29. Billed as an event to show appreciation for local soldiers, in reality the parade fosters a harmful jingoist message.

In a month which has seen the highest US-Afghanistan casualties since the war began, now is not the time to celebrate the redeployment of US troops. Although President Obama has increased the number of soldiers committed to the conflict, he was elected under the auspices of ending America’s ongoing wars. If the U.S. use of force has been judged misguided, is this the time to glamorize militarism?

The parade is organized as a RED, WHITE AND BRAVE WELCOME HOME, but its chief function is to shore up local support for war and enhance the recruitment of new teens. Isn’t that too high a price to pay for attempting to show active-duty soldiers our appreciation?

Military families want to show support for their troops, without showing support for the warmongering which has put them in harms way. It is CFP’s view that this Saturday’s parade does not permit its audience to project that distinction.

CFP recognizes there is a place for Veterans Day parades, as well as homecoming celebrations held on military grounds. There is no place however for a stridently pro-war march up the length of our downtown, to promote and glorify war.

Note that Coloradans for Peace is a member of the neo-Stalinist ANSWER coaltion. See, "End the Siege of Gaza! March on Washington, D.C. Saturday, June 6 Gaza Solidarity Day on the 42nd Anniversary of Israel's seizure of Gaza."

Check Michelle's page for more pictures from the event.

Obama’s Eulogy for Senator Kennedy: Bending History for Socialist Agenda

Gateway Pundit reports that the Dems are shamelessly politicizing Senator Kennedy's memorial service, "Of Course ... Dems Push For Obamacare at Teddy Kennedy's Funeral Mass (Video).

I'm actually intrigued with President Obama's eulogy. It's a solemn occasion, and the president struck the appropriate tone. But he too pushed the buttons of sympathy, and wasn't against redefining America's founding values in support of the Democrats' socialist agenda:

Through his own suffering, Ted Kennedy became more alive to the plight and suffering of others — the sick child who could not see a doctor; the young soldier sent to battle without armor; the citizen denied her rights because of what she looks like or who she loves or where she comes from. The landmark laws that he championed -- the Civil Rights Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, immigration reform, children’s health care, the Family and Medical Leave Act –all have a running thread. Ted Kennedy’s life’s work was not to champion those with wealth or power or special connections. It was to give a voice to those who were not heard; to add a rung to the ladder of opportunity; to make real the dream of our founding. He was given the gift of time that his brothers were not, and he used that gift to touch as many lives and right as many wrongs as the years would allow.

The "dream of our founding" has always been about guaranteeing individuals the freedom to live out the true meaning of our heritage: That every person was "created equal" in the eyes of God and endowed by Him with certain unalienable rights, among these, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Nowhere in our founding documents does the word "equality" appear, and never was the notion of equality of result the goal of our founding. (It's not until after the civil war, after the defeat of slavery, that the 14th Amendment was added to the Constitution to guarantee the equal protection of the laws - and that was to remove racial classifications, not to guarantee equal outcomes across society.)

As Dennis Prager wrote in June, "Understanding the Politics of the Left":

The left has its first president -- with the possible exception of Franklin Delano Roosevelt -- and for the first time controls the Democratic Party and both houses of Congress. In the name of compassion for the sick and the poor and in the name of preventing worldwide environmental catastrophe, it is attempting to remake America.

Yep, we see that, at the Kennedy memorial, in President Obama's nuanced but unmistakable push to foster the notion that giving "voice to those not heard" and "adding a rung to the ladder of opportunity" were the "dreams of our founding."

More at Memeorandum.

Steven Crowder on CalPIRG Astroturfing

I remember my very first job after recieving my Bachelor's degree. My (future) wife and I had just moved to Santa Barbara, and I had a couple of months before my graduate program was going to start. Looking for a job, I answered the CalPIRG ad announcing "careers in political consulting" in the local paper. Invited for an interview, I put on my blue blazer and a button-down shirt and cruised over to the office - which ended up being a ramshackle apartment in Isla Vista. (I was greeted by a bunch of college kids in Birkenstocks.) Being new to town, I didn't know that IV's reputation gained a boost after the local Bank of America branch was burned down during the 1970 riots. The actual job for CalPIRG was to go door to door, in the middle of a deep recession, and beg homeowners for money for some unexplainable environmental impact fund. I walked off the job that night. I don't think I even collected a check.

Anyway, all of that's a preface for Steven Crowder masterful exspose of CalPIRG "grassroots" recruiting at Pajamas Media. The guy's a genius! "Undercover with Liberals! (RIP Crowder)":

We’ve heard the term “Astroturf” thrown around so flippantly lately, I felt somebody needed to put it to the test. Why should Liberals be exempt from having the “special interests” card thrown at them? My hunch tells me that they appease those folks more than anybody. Well, strap on the hidden camera ...It’s time to find out!

Hat Tip: Darleen Click. See also, Verum Serum, "HCAN Affiliate Partners with Group Hiring Health Reform Canvassers Nationwide."

Mary Jo Kopechne: For Democrats, A Footnote Better Left to Obscurity

I've seen at least three articles now arguing that Mary Jo Kopechne's death pales in comparison to the historical legacy of Edward Kennedy.

It's an awful, even demonic, kind of historical revisionism that relegates to a historical footnote the life and promise of that beautiful woman.

Melissa Lafsky wrote a piece at the Huffington Post, "The Footnote Speaks: What Would Mary Jo Kopechne Have Thought of Ted's Career?" She concludes there with:

We don't know how much Kennedy was affected by her death, or what she'd have thought about arguably being a catalyst for the most successful Senate career in history. What we don't know, as always, could fill a Metrodome.

Still, ignorance doesn't preclude a right to wonder. So it doesn't automatically make someone (aka, me) a Limbaugh-loving, aerial-wolf-hunting NRA troll for asking what Mary Jo Kopechne would have had to say about Ted's death, and what she'd have thought of the life and career that are being (rightfully) heralded.

Who knows -- maybe she'd feel it was worth it.

Then yesterday Joyce Carol Oates published, "Kennedy's Redemption From the Depths":

At Chappaquiddick, having been drinking and partying with young women aides of his brother Robert Kennedy, Senator Kennedy, at this time a married man and a father, slipped away with 28-year-old Mary Jo Kopechne, who was trapped in his car after he took a wrong turn off the Chappaquiddick bridge, lost control of his car which was submerged in just eight feet of water ....

If Kennedy had summoned aid, he would very likely have given police officers self-incriminating evidence, which might have involved charges of vehicular manslaughter or homicide. The local prosecutor was not nearly so outraged by Kennedy's behaviour as other prosecutors might have been: the charges were "failing to report an accident" and "leaving the scene of an accident." The punishment: two months' probation.

That the Kennedys had always been a family operating outside the perimeters of the sort of legal restrictions that bind other citizens to "moral" behaviour publicly, is well known; no occasion so exemplifies this than Chappaquiddick and the subsequent cooperative silence of the Kopechne family who agreed never to speak of the tragedy.
One is led to think of Tom and Daisy Buchanan of Fitzgerald's the Great Gatsby, rich individuals accustomed to behaving carelessly and allowing others to clean up after them. It is often in instances of the "fortunate fall", think of Joseph Conrad's anti-hero/hero Lord Jim as a classic literary analogy, that innocent individuals figure almost as ritual sacrifices is another aspect of the phenomenon.

Yet if one weighs the life of a single young woman against the accomplishments of the man President Obama has called the greatest Democratic senator in history, what is one to think?

The poet John Berryman once wondered: "Is wickedness soluble in art?". One might rephrase, in a vocabulary more suitable for our politicized era: "Is wickedness soluble in good deeds?"

Then today, Eric Zorn's got a piece up, "How wall-to-wall Chappaquiddick would have changed history - for the worse":

Chappaquiddick was a big story ... and badly damaged the reputation of the man then seen as the surviving prince and heir apparent of American politics ....

The following year Massachusetts voters resoundingly re-elected him to the Senate. Though the Chappaquiddick scandal probably kept him out of the White House, it never cost him the seat he held until his death this week at age 77.

This thought experiment invites a question to which there is no nonpartisan answer: Was it just as well that we didn't -- couldn't -- have a media feeding frenzy over Chappaquiddick in 1969? Would the nation have been better off if Kennedy had been shamed into private life?

Or, as I believe, is the nation -- particularly our disabled and disadvantaged residents -- better off for the 40 years of service he was able to render after that terrible night?

The momentary satisfaction of destroying Ted Kennedy for his failings would have had a significant price. Something to keep in mind when the next fallen figure, Democrat or Republican, stumbles into the heat lamp.

Check Memeorandum for more commentary. When we combine these articles with the fact that Ted Kennedy himself was constantly on the lookout for the latest in Chappaquiddick humor, we're left with nothing other than the dreadful weight of Democratic monstrosity.

And the horrible truth of Mary Jo Kopechne's death is that Ted Kennedy's legacy wasn't worth it. Another member of Congress could have easily sponsored wheelchair ramps for the disabled or authorized home heating subsidies for the poor. Another Democratic would have sponsored expanded healthcare for indigent children. President Bush didn't need Ted Kennedy to pass No Child Left Behind. There's nothing that Kennedy attached his name to that wouldn't have come about by another Democrat pushing more of the same statist left-wing agenda. The hagiography of Senator Kennedy's life only shows us once again the Democratic liberalism as an ideology is not about caring or compassion, it's not about help the disadvantaged or the downtrodden. Leftist are all about power and monuments to the state. Elevating the false successes of Ted Kennedy is no different from elevating statues to dictators in authoritarian regimes: It's the deification of idolatry at the expense of the universal dignity of the individual. As Rick Moran has argued, "To left wing fanatics ... human life does not belong to the individual, but to the higher cause of the collective good.

When Mary Jo Kopechne died at Chappaquiddick, the left put one more brick in the wall of totalitarianism. The "footnoting" of Kopechne this week is a witness to how high and mighty that wall has been erected today.

See also, ABC News, "Chappaquiddick: No Profile in Kennedy Courage."

Debating Paul Wolfowitz: Realism, Neoconservatism, and Foreign Policy

Paul Wolfowitz, who was Deputy Secretary of Defense in the G.W. Bush administration, has published a great essay in the new Foreign Policy, "Think Again: Realism."

I'm not critical of Wolfowitz, naturally. He avoids, at the article, a discussion of the Iraq war, which is totally understandable. Critics of the war, both realists and political leftists, will always say the war was a mistake and that the Bush administration lied to get into it. All subsequent milestones, and the ultimate successes, will be explained away by some twisted logic that utlimately aids and encourages our enemies. As things are now, the current counterinsurgency doctrines of the Obama administration may well make things worse than they were in Iraq than in late 2008, in the final months of the Bush presidency. So, yeah, I can understand why Wolfowitz would rather focus on a more abstract discussion with people who essentially hate him and would like to see him hang at that Hague.

The article has generated a response at Foreign Policy, from Stephen Walt, David Rothkopf, Daniel Drezner, and Steve Clemons. The first three are bloggers at ForeignPolicy.com, and Clemons is the gay hard-left publisher of the Washington Note. Check their contributions at "Is Paul Wolfowitz for Real?"

Walt's is the most partisan, and I'll leave that for readers to examine. Rothkopf seems to go off in every direction. He doesn't like political science, it appears, and I wonder why the editors asked him to contribute to this debate. Clemons writes a decent - even fair - piece. It's worth a look. But Drezner offers what I think is the clearest dissection of Wolfowitz's essay:

As I was reading Paul Wolfowitz's essay on Obama and realism, I kept thinking, "there's realism and then there's Realism."

Small "r" realism consists of a recognition that there are some unpleasant truths in world politics that must be acknowledged if one is going to pursue a prudent foreign policy. If a government amasses significant capabilities or acts aggressively, it will tend to trigger balancing coalitions. International institutions are often feckless and hypocritical. Forcible regime change is really, really hard. Implacable hostility to powerful actors with different ideologies won't work terribly well. Power is a relative measure and a resource that should be husbanded for important matters of state. You get the idea.

Big "R" Realism is a theoretical paradigm that makes certain assumptions about what drives powerful actors in world politics, and derives interesting predictions (and occasional prescriptions) from those assumptions. Many of these predictions match up with small "r" realism (balancing behavior, useless international institutions, etc.). Many go beyond them, however. According to Realism, regime type is unimportant in explaining world politics. The democratic peace is a mirage. Strong states are better at foreign policy. Not all Realists agree on everything, but they agree on some big and not obvious things, and they all seem to publish in International Security an awful lot (don't aske me to parse out the difference between defensive realists, neoclassical realists, structural realists, and offensive realists; if you do, well, I'm going to have this kind of reaction).

The difference between the two "realisms" is one of purpose. Small "r" realism is a set of guidelines for real, live policymakers, and is intended to foster prudence. Big "R" Realism is intended to be more provocative to the point of caricature -- i.e., to the point where Realists might have little difficulty incorporating zombies into their paradigm. It is certainly possible to be both. Behind closed doors, I have heard big "R" Realists proffer small "r" realist prescriptions that might contradict the academic paradigm. In public, it's funny how Realists who believe that anarchy and the distribution of power are the only things that matter nevertheless rail against the pernicious influence of ethnic lobbies.

That last line is a jab at Walt and his co-author John Mearsheimer, and their book, The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy (see the original aticle from the London Review of Books, "The Israel Lobby").

I'll have more on this later.

New Iraqi Violence by the Numbers: Security Deteriorates Under Obama

From the New York Times, "New Iraqi Violence by the Numbers":

Is violence worsening in Iraq?

The answer is a matter of perspective, and thus is open to dispute, as it has almost always been since the war began.

The catastrophic suicide bombings outside two government ministries here nine days ago — the death toll of which was raised on Friday to 132, from 95 initially — were the worst of a series of major attacks across Iraq this month that have devastated a mosque, a cafe and, in one case, much of an entire village.

As a result, August is already the bloodiest month for Iraqis since April 2008, according to the invaluable Iraq Coalition Casualty Count, the independent organization that bases its tally on news reports. (The official monthly figures released by the Ministry of the Interior are often higher; the next are due on Monday. ....

Most of the attacks appear intended to provoke an ethnic or sectarian backlash or weaken the government and its security forces. That they have not sparked a deadly cycle of retaliation or brought the government to its knees is considered a measure of decreasing violence, or at least a decreasing impact of the violence.

It also provides little comfort. Almost everyone here senses an uptick in violence that even in the best weeks remains an unnerving undercurrent of Iraqi life. Perceptions matter, even if the exact number of attacks suggests something different.

The Aug. 19 bombings, for example, struck the very heart of the government in the center of Baghdad, possibly with the collusion of Iraqi security officials. It might be one attack in the statistics, but it caused disproportionate damage, real and perceived.

“This was a serious security breach,” Iraq’s foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, said in an interview in the shattered remains of his ministry compound, where the stench of death lingered a week after the bombing.

The attacks appeared to rattle Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki’s government, which descended into finger-pointing and is now reconsidering its decision to remove blast walls from Baghdad and, according to Mr. Zebari, its reluctance to openly rely on American forces for security.

Major attacks have come in waves this year; American commanders say that the insurgents need time to regroup after each attack before planning new ones. Even so, they are still able to attack, seemingly at will, which is why few here speak of violence declining — now or anytime soon.

“Those people who conducted this well organized and coordinated attack believe that the situation in Iraq after six years is reversible or could be reversible,” Mr. Zebari said. “We anticipate that there could be more attacks.”

See also, Alexander Nekrassov, "Situation In Iraq Getting Worse. So What’s The Plan, Mr Obama?"; and the Astute Bloggers, "IRAQ'S BLOODIEST DAY SINCE OBAMA INAUGURATION," and "IRAQI: 'OBAMA IS THROWING AWAY OUR COMMON VICTORY."

Democrat Diane Watson: Loves CastroCare, Hasn't Read ObamaCare

It's really not surprising anymore. The Democratic Party has made common cause with hardline Marxists and neo-Stalinist revolutionary organizations. I have reported on this first hand, and now we have another member of Congress lavishing praise on Fidel Castro and Cuban healthcare.

The conservative blogosphere's struck gold with this: Representative Diane Watson, at her town hall meeting in Los Angeles last night, heaped praise on the Cuban Revolution and the communist health system in Castro's bloody regime. Unsurprisingly, according to this report, Watson boasted of having not read the ObamaCare legislation in Washington, to the cheers of her consituents:

I went to Rep. Diane Watson's townhall meeting. This was a very unusual townhall meeting. It was quite apparent that Diane Watson was able to fill the townhall with an overwhelming number of left-wing lunatics who hold unreasonable and irrational political opinions. For instance, when Diane Watson talked about how she had not read the bill, the audience laughed and even applauded. That is not a very typical reaction from members of the public. In most parts of the country, such an admission would result in a great deal of scorn from the audience members.

A partial transcript is here:

WATSON: You might have heard their philosophical leader. I think his name is Rush Limbaugh. And he said early on, “I hope that he fails.”

Do you know what that means? If the president, your commander-in-chief, fails, America fails.

Now, when a senator says that this will be his Waterloo, and we all know what happened at Waterloo, then we have him and he fails. Do we want a failed state called the United States?

And remember: They are spreading fear and they are trying to see that the first president that looks likes me fails.

Now just understand what’s at the bottom line.

And you know we just got, 48 hours ago, we just go back, we were in Beijing, China, Hong Kong, China, we were in Taiwan, we were in Guam, we were all over the Far East.

I just want you to know: People look at the United States as a country that has changed its way and has elected someone from Kenya and Kansas, I’ll put it like that.

And they’re saying, “We thought you would never do that.”

So we don’t want to have this young man, and he just turned 48 — we want him to succeed, because when he succeeds, we regain our status. We regain our status.

It was just mentioned to me by our esteemed speaker, “Did anyone say anything about the Cuban health system?”

And lemme tell ya, before you say “Oh, it’s a commu–”, you need to go down there and see what Fidel Castro put in place. And I want you to know, now, you can think whatever you want to about Fidel Castro, but he was one of the brightest leaders I have ever met. [APPLAUSE]

And you know, the Cuban revolution that kicked out the wealthy, Che Guevara did that, and then, after they took over, they went out among the population to find someone who could lead this new nation, and they found … well, just leave it there (laughs), an attorney by the name of Fidel Castro ...

More at Memeorandum.

Bachmann Hammers Heckler at Raucous Anti-ObamaCare Town Hall (VIDEO)

Via PoliJam Times, "Bachmann Wins Over Raucous Town Hall Crowd With Snappy Comeback at Heckler":

REP. MICHELE BACHMANN (R-MINN.): “I would far prefer to have American health care than I would health care in the UK any day of the week.”

BACHMANN: “These are just some headlines from the UK – the United Kingdom. Headlines about the disaster that is the government takeover of health care in the UK. You probably heard about this story the day before yesterday. It says, ‘Babies are being born in hospitals corridors, there’s a bed shortage thats forced 4,000 mothers in the UK to give birth in hallways, offices,’ – but not here.”

AUDIENCE MEMBER: “That happens here.”

BACHMANN: “I’ve given birth here probably more times than you, sir.”

See Ed Morrissey for more, "Bachmann Zaps Heckler Over Maternity Care." Also Snooper Report, "The Ways and Means of the MSM."

Related: Roll Call, "Bachmann Faces Raucous Crowd in Minnesota" (via Memeorandum).

Democrat Jim Moran's Town Hall in Virginia: Concerned Citizens Smeared as 'Teabagging' KKK Nightriders

From Marooned in Marin, "Flyers Depicing 'Teabaggers' as KKK Hanging Obama Found On Cars After Moran/Dean Town Hall in Reston":

In an unprecedented show of arrogance and disregard for the electorate, Democrats have called American citizens who dare to dissent from Obamacare unAmerican, a paid mob, political terrorists, brownshirts and Nazis, among others.

Now, opponents of socialized medicine and the Obama agenda are being depicted as Ku Klux Klan members who want to lynch Barack Obama. That's the message of this flyer which was found on cars outside the parking lot at South Lakes High School in Reston on Tuesday night, after the town hall meeting with Jim "I Like To Hit People" Moran and "Screamin'" Howard Dean.

Image and text from Restonian blog.

Hat Tip: Gateway Pundit.

Related: "Shouting Activists Pack Rep. Moran's Town Hall in Virginia."