Where Have All the Serious Republicans Gone?

From Jacob Heilbrunn, at Foreign Policy, "End of the Establishment."

Folks can check the link for a quick perusal. I'm just tripping on this cover photo, of the GEICO Neanderthal-like caveman representing the "unserious" Republican. Heilbrunn's a talented writer, and I enjoy his inside scoops on the neocons, but as we saw with yesterday's Pew survey, Americans see the tea parties as mainstream, and as more of the top GOP candidates adopt quasi-tea party platforms, it's increasingly hard for leftists to portray Repubs as troglodytes without marginalizing themselves even further.

Muslims Riot in France

The background story is here, "France fears widespread rioting as youths rampage after police shoot robber."

Other than that it's mainly bloggers reporting on this, surprise. See Jihad Watch, "Muslims rioting in France, burning cars over killing of Muslim casino robber who shot at cops," and Gateway Pundit, "Disgruntled Muslim Youths Now Using Automatic Weapons on Police in France (Video)" (via Memeorandum).

Obama is (Close to Being) Finished

We've seen a lot of frustration with President Obama on the radical left. And Alexander Cockburn's CounterPunch is almost as far left as you can get. But it's worth a read, even if he discounts Obama's own neo-socialist tendencies. Leftists want more, of course. But the left critique overlaps with right criticism on a number of issues. Leftists want more from the Democrats, and they're mad. Conservatives are mad that Democrats put him in office. Both sides think he's been a disaster, although the left hates the consequences of that fact, and the right is (basically) greedily anticipating its restoration to power in November and beyond.

In any case, "The Fall of Obama":

It is not Obama’s fault that across 30 years more and more money has floated up to the apex of the social pyramid till America is heading back to where it was in the 1880s, a nation of tramps and millionaires. It’s not his fault that every tax break, every regulation, every judicial decision tilts toward business and the rich. That was the neoliberal America conjured into malign vitality back in the mid 1970s.

But it is Obama’s fault that he did not understand this, that always, from the getgo, he flattered Americans with paeans to their greatness, without adequate warning of the political and corporate corruption destroying America and the resistance he would face if he really fought against the prevailing arrangements that were destroying America. He offered them a free and easy pass to a better future, and now they see that the promise was empty.

It’s Obama’s fault, too, that, as a communicator, he cannot rally and inspire the nation from its fears. From his earliest years he has schooled himself not to be excitable, not to be an angry black man who would be alarming to his white friends at Harvard and his later corporate patrons. Self-control was his passport to the guardians of the system, who were desperate to find a symbolic leader to restore America’s credibility in the world after the disasters of the Bush era. He is too cool.

So, now Americans in increasing numbers have lost confidence in him. For the first time in the polls negative assessments outnumber the positive. He no longer commands trust. His support is drifting down to 40 per cent. The straddle that allowed him to flatter corporate chieftains at the same time as blue-collar workers now seems like the most vapid opportunism. The casual campaign pledge to wipe out al-Quaida in Afghanistan is now being cashed out in a disastrous campaign viewed with dismay by a majority of Americans.

RELATED: "Democrats engage in 'circular firing squad'." (Via Memeorandum.)

'Is There Anything You Can Do to Stop Them?'

I've had an e-mail exchange with one of my readers regarding the libelous slams on American Power from Lawyers, Gays and Money and RepMasterHater3.

She responds with this query:

Donald ... the things they've written are horrible, and it seems that their intent is to wear you down, if nothing else...but implying that you are a pervert into juvenile porn is beyond that ... I'm sure that you have been pushed to the limit of your patience with them, though, which is understandable ...

Your last email arrived as I was writing this ..., Donald. Is there anything you can do, legally, to stop them? If not, then perhaps the best thing would be to totally ignore them ... even so, I don't think that would stop them, either. I hate to see your family suffer because of them. They have no shame ... and no conscience. It is sickening to realize that people like that are all around us, and make such a mockery of everything, holding themselves up to be moral men.

This is a real e-mail from a longtime reader. I don't make stuff like this up, as do those who carry out their entire existence on a life of lies and destruction.

But to answer the question, in the case of Scott Eric Kaufman, I could contact the UCI Department of English and report his libelous allegations of juvenile sex offense. I'm not planning to at the moment however. I did put that possibility out there in public, in the comments at LGM, so these idiots will think about how deeply they wish to submerge themselves in the encrusted depths of evil. As for HateRingleaderReppy3, I've requested numerous times that he and all of his demon sheep post their real identifications with work contact information at American Nihilist. Naturally, they've not done so. It's just too easy to smear and defame people of good moral standing and threaten their families when you're hiding behind a pseudonym. It's all part of the life online, fighting the hate, and to quit or give in somehow would be a victory of evil over goodness. And I won't let that happen.

**********

ADDED: From ace commenter Dennis below, "Remember each time your opposition has to resort to these kinds of attacks they lose and also demonstrate that their ideology cannot survive in the marketplace of ideas."

Racism Straight Up

Via William Jacobson:

Selective Comment Moderation at Lawyers, Gays and Money — NTTAWWT!!

Hey, those dudes at Lawyers, Gays and Money really do mix it up!

And hey, who knows, perhaps RepMaster3's been holding out on us! Our gay-backing nihilist has a whole "harem" of blogs. Topping it off with a little side gig smacking down some Gay Money trackbacks to LGM? That's what I'm talking about, yo! If it feels good do it, dude!

And just think I've been working on a comment moderation post since the "good" fellas over at Lawers, Gays and Money banned me, but I can dig it ... turns out these homies like to schwing!

Here's the screencap for comment moderation at LGM Saturday morning. Posted there is the information for SEK's and Robert Farley's academic departments. I have NOT contacted their places of employment, but seeing how leftists love workplace intimidation, maybe what's good for the goose...? (Considering, of course, their libelous allegations of juvenile sex offenses, nothing of which was remotely in evidence when Repsac3's Swash Zone allies contacted LBCC.)

Seriously, I had left this post late Saturday morning, but it was blocked in moderation:

Scotty Lame-ieux: I'd be banned for posting Robert and Scott's contact information, after all these years of the lovely snark fests I've had in the comments? This morning was the first time I've gotten a "waiting for moderation" notice. My interest is in your removal of the libelous material, which is not okay. Respective academic departments might agree, even the nice folks at Hunter College.

So, basically, comments from a neocon truth-teller like me get the memory hole, while "The Best Penis Excercises" get the LGM pattycake boost! That is so butch! And naturally, it's all perfectly legal (unlike LGM's lies about juvenile sex offenses), although no doubt the respective LGM department chairs would be interested in the kind of lascivious hot gay money (sex?) sites available for those liberated LGM readers. NTTAWWT!!

* "The Importance of Gay Money in Today’s Society?"
* "Penis Enlarging Excercises – Best Penis Exercises – Enlarge Penis Having Sex Male Penis Enlargement."

And geez, now I know why Un-exDLB's a fanatical LGM reader! (Recall that he's a connoisseur of "choice" lesbian soft porn himself.)

(The full post is here: "The Geithner/Warren Question."And here's a screencap just in case this goes down the tubes as kinda compromising.)

South O.C. Patriots Rally for Arizona!

Just got back from the "Support Arizona!! Street Protest!" on El Toro Road in Lake Forest.

I stayed for an hour. Temperatures were pushing 100 degrees. Most folks driving by were supportive, although a few yelled "racist" slurs. But the South O.C. patriots are a good natured bunch. Close to 50 people turned out. They waved signed and used bullhorns to get the message out: Secure our borders. Except for the first few pictures, photos are posted mostly in semi-chronological order (and the third shot down, with the Arizona State flag at left, is a fellow named Jim who I met in Phoenix for "Stand With Arizona"):

This gentleman attended the July 3 tea party in San Juan Capistrano:

RELATED: At LAT, "Arizona's immigration law isn't the only one."

Mark Thompson, Hamas Rationality Guy, Laments the Lost Promise of 'Liberaltarianism'

Hey, I haven't kept up with Mark Thompson lately.

Readers might recall Thompson, the guy who argued in favor of Hamas rocket attacks on Israel, that "the continued rocket attacks don't have too much of an effect on international opinion because they are rather ineffective at actually killing people."

Right.

Ineffective.

Well, we'd have to check with what folks in Sderot have to say about that, and elsewhere.

Iris Twito, the mother of two sons injured by Qassam rockets in the city of Sderot, decided to grant an exclusive interview with Sderot Media Center, following the Gaza aid flotilla fiasco.

“The entire world hates us,” said Iris, “but they don’t know what we’ve been through.”

The Twito family is a living testament for why there is a naval blockade on Gaza. “It’s not just Sderot that is under threat today, but the whole country,” said Iris.

“It is vital that we stop these flotilla boats because we cannot allow Hamas to terrorize our Israeli children.”

Sitting on her patio in Ashdod, with a cigarette in hand, Iris recalls the most horrifying experience a mother can go through. Three years ago, Iris’s sons Osher and Rami, then eight and 19 respectively, were walking to an ATM in Sderot, when the rocket alarm went off. As the two brothers frantically attempted to locate a shelter in the middle of one of Sderot’s main streets, the Qassam rocket struck meters away from the two.

The exploded shrapnel sliced through the boys’ legs. Residents poured out to the street to help, but another rocket alert went off, forcing everyone to flee to shelter again. Moments later, the ambulances arrived to transport the boys to the closest hospital, Ashkelon’s Barzilai Hospital, located 20 minutes away from Sderot.

Amidst the flashing cameras at what was one of Sderot’s goriest scenes resulting from a rocket attack, Iris collapsed from the shock of seeing of her two sons lying next to each other, surrounded by a pool of their own blood. The entire city of 19,000 were subsequently shocked by the developments to follow.

The rocket attack left Osher in a coma for two weeks. The young boy had to go through intensive surgeries; his left leg had to be amputated, and doctors had to operate on a hole in his chest and his injured lungs. The older brother Rami’s legs were also badly damaged and operated on.

Ineffective, see?

But Mark Thompson doesn't stop at Israel demonization. He like him teh "liberaltarianism" as well:

Since libertarians will, of necessity, always be the junior member in any ideological coalition, an increased affiliation with the Left requires that a critical mass of libertarian intellectuals be prepared to emphasize social and foreign policy issues over economic issues. This, however, cannot and will not happen unless libertarians begin to question the ways in which the affiliation with the Right, rather than any real philosophical principle, is the reason we tend to emphasize economic issues so heavily over social and foreign policy issues.

Oohhh! "The Right"!!

Sounds kind of ominous, like "The Israel Lobby!"

Clue to Mark Thompson: There's no such thing as "liberaltarianism." You're a leftist who wants to hide totalitarian tendencies. Suck up it and just come out.

Radical Leftist Arrested for Assault With a Deadly Weapon and Assault on Military Personnel

Remember my comments about Repsac3's merry band of extremist henchmen? "I expect physical threats to my safety as forthcoming ... so always remember --- leftists are pure evil..."

This is what I mean, or worse, "Pacific Grove Police: Military Personnel Assaulted at Beach":

Pacific Grove police officers arrested a 20-year-old man who they say assaulted a group of military students late Tuesday night at Asilomar Beach.

Police said Tyler Tirado, of Monterey, had confronted the group of Defense Language Institute students, called them “baby killers” and struck a 20-year-old woman in the head with a beer bottle.

Officers responded around 11:50 p.m. on the 1800 block of Sunset Drive to reports of a woman with a one-inch cut to her scalp.

The victim and about a dozen of her friends, police said, were gathering on Asilomar Beach when they were confronted by another group who began making derogatory comments towards them.

To avoid any further altercation, officials said, the DLI student started to leave the beach.

As the victim’s group left, police said, Tirado threw a beer bottle and struck the woman. She was taken to the Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula where she required staples to close the wound.

Hat Tip: BCF.

Voters Rate Tea Parties as More Centrist Than Democrats

And we should be surprised?

Today's Democrats are largely a group of neo-communists and their fellow travelers. I'm kinda surprised they're not even further over to the far-left fringe at the chart, at "all voters."

Weekend Cartoon Roundup — 'The New Cap is Good News'

President Obama on the BP oil spill cap on Friday:

The new cap is good news,” he said. “Either we will be able to use it to stop the flow or we will be able to use it to capture almost all the oil until the relief well is done.” But he added: “It’s important that we don’t get ahead of ourselves here. One of the problems with having the camera down there is that when the oil stops gushing, everybody feels like we’re done, and we’re not.”

More at Theo Spark's.

Candice Swanepoel, Chanel Iman and Erin Heatherton — Mini-Rule 5 Saturday

I'm sure readers would prefer some weekend hotness blogging over my battles with the extremist left, so perhaps some Victoria's Secret beauties might be a little more cheerful:

And as always, I look forward to Linkmaster Smith's Sunday roundup.

And see Bob Belvedere, "Some Lion Cubs Have All The Luck…", The Daley Gator, "Your Saturday Linkapalooza," Opus #6, "Brooke Shields - Beauty Through the Years," and Washington Rebel, "Sweet Mystery of Life."

RELATED: At Fausta's, "Hugo Chavez, Tomb Raider."

Harrah's Rincon

I took my family to Harrah's Rincon Hotel and Casino Thursday night, and then to visit friends in Temecula yesterday. Some pics from the hotel:

The hotel has a big concert program at the Open Sky Theatre. Yes and Peter Frampton played last weekend, and Gladys Knight and Smokey Robinson are playing tonight:

Good food at the cafe as well:

I took a couple of shots as we headed out to Temecula:

Out back of the casino is the Sky Theater. I'd love to see Heart in concert:

Stalinism and the Obama-Democratic-Left

At American Thinker, "Alinsky, Stalinsky, It's Still the Same Old Agitprop":

"Stalinism" is a useful term for the totalitarian left -- even to the left itself. It's one word they haven't been able to chew up, gulp down, and transform into its opposite. They still know what "Stalinist" means, even after generations of new names for the same community agitators: "The New Left," "hippies," "Black Panthers," "youthful radicals," "idealistic students," "feminists," "the workers," "black nationalists," "Third World socialists," "the wretched of the earth," "Green Party," "Gay activists," "LGBT," "Global Warming," "peace and freedom party," "eco activists," "civil rights campaigners," "post-modernists," "gender studies," "J Street," "Bolivarismo," "ACORN," "undocumented workers," "Moveon.org," "Liberation Theology" -- there must be hundreds and hundreds of front labels for the Same-Old, Same-Old. They make up new ones all the time. This year's fashionable lefty cult is called ... "progressivism!" ....

Stalinism is no stranger to the American left. It is part of its very being. Every time another old Stalinist dies, the New York Times has a crying fit, telling us what a sweetheart the bloody-minded old fanatic really was. That's all you really need to know about the New York Times.

At some point you have to conclude that the left knows exactly how bloody and destructive it really is. Sure, a lot of the brainwashed followers live in deep denial, but the big names know. Chomsky knows where the bodies are buried, and he knows where he wants to have the next Gulag. So does Jimmy Carter, another peace-loving fan of Hamas and Hezb'allah. So does Obama. They know, they know. They are not innocent.

MORE WHO KNOW WHERE BODIES ARE BURIED: "Castro Lives" and "PIGS “R” US."

RELATED: "Libel Blogger David Hillman (Swash Zone) Workplace Harassment Fail."

IMAGE CREDIT: iOWNTHEWORLD, "Just an iOTW PSA – A Reminder of Who the Parties Are and What They Stand For."

'How Does a Dishonest C*NT Like You Exist?'

From Michelle's hate mail:

from George Dunn
to writemalkin@gmail.com
date Wed, Jul 7, 2010 at 7:06 PM
subject How Does a Dishonest CUNT Like You Exist?
hide details 7:06 PM (3 hours ago)

You are a true pathetic human being. Sad actually.

George Dunn, P.E.

This "C" word is pretty common with the leftist 24-7 hate-masters:

from M K westerndiyar@yahoo.com
to malkinblog@gmail.com
date Sun, Jun 27, 2010 at 7:51 PM
mailed-by yahoo.com
signed-by yahoo.com
hide details Jun 27 (10 days ago)

You are a shitty Filipino prostitute, your only hope is to marry a white man. you are cheep and ugly. When I look to your ugly Filipino eyes , I feel ,I want to throw up. You want to be white but you are not. You are a shitty Asian horn and you will be for the rest of your life. Clean your rotten cunt before you write Filipino monkey.

More at the link.

These are the kind of slurs I get routinely from Repsac3's merry band of haters.

It's what you have to deal when standing up for what's right.

Is the Tea Party Racist?

Via Midnight Blue, here's Lee Doren at Right Wing News:

Erin Andrews in the News

In case you missed the latest on Erin Andrews, see: "Erin Andrews to join Robin Roberts on Good Morning America," "Erin Andrews files lawsuit against peeping Tom and hotels," and, "Erin Andrews’ replacement: ESPN’s Jenn Brown carving her own path."

I can't stand "The Examiner," but this piece is quite informed, "ESPN's Erin Andrews vs. Jenn Brown: Who says sexy doesn't mean successful in sports?"

For myself, I'm infinitely impressed with Erin Andrews. She went through a nightmare that perhaps no one else has endured in our sex-obsessed culture. She's capitalized on some of the exposure, and she's made some risky but productive choices in appearances and style. It all seems to be working out well, and she's getting promoted for much more than any sympathy votes in response to the generalized inhumane media treatment of her last year.

An interesting and talented women. Hats off to Erin Andrews.

The Obama Bumper Sticker Removal Kit

Via NewsBusters:

On This Day: Bolsheviks Murder Romanovs, July 17, 1918

"The shooting of the Romanov family, of the Russian Imperial House of Romanov, and those who chose to accompany them into exile, Dr. Eugene Botkin, Anna Demidova, Alexei Trupp, and Ivan Kharitonov took place in Yekaterinburg on July 17, 1918 on the orders of Vladimir Lenin."

And at Bob Belvedere's, "The House of Special Purpose."

RELATED: Claire Berlinski, "A Hidden History of Evil":

It is widely understood that the Nazis’ ideology—nationalism, anti-Semitism, the autarkic ethnic state, the Führer principle—led directly to the furnaces of Auschwitz. It is not nearly as well understood that Communism led just as inexorably, everywhere on the globe where it was applied, to starvation, torture, and slave-labor camps. Nor is it widely acknowledged that Communism was responsible for the deaths of some 150 million human beings during the twentieth century. The world remains inexplicably indifferent and uncurious about the deadliest ideology in history.

Center for Immigration Studies: 'Hidden Cameras on the Arizona Border 2'

I've published some of the raw video previously, but CIS has put together a documentary summation of recent clips and news reports, "Hidden Cameras on the Arizona Border 2: Drugs, Guns and 850 Illegal Aliens":

This new 10-minute mini-documentary raises the bar, featuring footage of both illegal-alien entry as well as gun- and drug-smuggling. At minimum, the inescapable conclusion is that hidden cameras reveal a reality that illegal-alien activity is escalating.

The hidden camera footage, acquired from a variety of sources, indicates that there is an unfortunate lack of federal law enforcement presence on Arizona’s federal land on the border in Nogales, in the Coronado National Forest (15 miles inside the border), and the Casa Grande Sector (80 miles inside the border).

U.S. Born Majority Backs SB 1070 in New California Field Poll, 54 to 41 Percent

At San Diego Union-Tribune, "State's voters tilt toward Arizona law: Field Poll results show 49% in favor, 45% oppose illegal-immigration move." Support has dipped slightly across all respondents, but the findings among American-born voters are revealing:

U.S.-born voters favored the Arizona law 54 percent to 41 percent; just 28 percent of those born outside the U.S. said they backed it.

One of the strongest single blocs of support came from registered Republican voters, 77 percent of whom said they favored the law. Meanwhile, 62 percent of Democrats said they disagreed with the law, and nonpartisans were about evenly divided.

Only about one in four voters who said they preferred the gubernatorial bid by Attorney General Jerry Brown , a Democrat, or a re-election bid by U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., approved of the Arizona law. But four of five supporters of former eBay executive Meg Whitman, the Republican running for governor, or former Hewlett-Packard executive Carly Fiorina , the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, said they backed the law.

Whitman has come out against the Arizona law; Fiorina favors it. Voters who are undecided in the governor’s race support the new law and undecided voters in the Senate race are divided with 49 percent in support.

Opinions were strong on both sides. Of the 49 percent of voters who said they approve of the Arizona law, 37 percent said they approved strongly. Likewise, of the 45 percent who disapproved of the law, 34 percent said they disapproved strongly.

The poll shows that most California voters continue to believe illegal immigrants have a negative effect overall on the state, but that view has steadily diminished for three decades. Fifty-six percent of those surveyed said illegal immigrants have an unfavorable effect on the state, compared with 75 percent in 1982 and 67 percent in 1994.

See the full results, "CALIFORNIA VOTERS SPLIT ALMOST EVENLY ABOUT ARIZONA’S NEW ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION LAW. OPINIONS DIVIDE SHARPLY ALONG PARTISAN AND RACIAL/ETHNIC LINES. ISSUE HAS BIG EFFECT ON SUPPORTERS OF CANDIDATES IN GOVERNOR AND SENATE RACES."

In related news, it turns out USA Today 's weekend edition reports that immigration is "just now" emerging as a top national priority for November. See, "Immigration re-enters national debate." The issue framing is obviously lame, although the report's not too bad actually. For example, this passage reinforces the Field Poll's findings on the deep political divisions, and especially noteworthy is that Hispanic constituencies are nearly unanimous pro-open borders:

This week, nine state attorneys general — including three Republicans running for governor — filed a friend-of-the-court brief backing Arizona in its fight with the federal government. Latino groups, meanwhile, unveiled polling data showing the Arizona law has infuriated the nation's fastest-growing voting bloc.

All of this is happening at a time when, according to federal government statistics, illegal immigration is down and "the border is safer than it has ever been," says Doris Meissner, a former U.S. immigration commissioner now with the Migration Policy Institute, a think tank.

That's not how it feels to people living there, Giffords argues. She points to reports of drug-related beheadings and lynchings in Mexico, just a few miles from some of her constituents' homes. "The crime in Mexico has created a different kind of fear than we have seen before," Democratic pollster Lisa Grove says.

Elsewhere in the nation, immigration appears to be serving as a stand-in for even deeper anxieties.

"The problem of illegal immigration only compounds the frustration people are feeling with the federal government," Barletta says.

Pollsters are tracking two trends that appear to be on a collision course for the Nov. 2 general election:

•A wide majority of Americans consistently say they favor the Arizona law. Separate Quinnipiac surveys in the battlegrounds of Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania showed overwhelming support for the measure. "This is a very powerful issue," says Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac poll.

•Hispanics are equally unanimous — on the other side. A survey released this week by a coalition of Hispanic groups found that eight in 10 Hispanic voters oppose the Arizona law. Arturo Vargas of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials said those numbers track "a dramatic shift in Latino attitudes" that his organization found in a separate survey, to be released next week.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio Launches Human Smuggling and Crime Suppression Sweep in Arizona Desert: .50-Caliber Machine Gun 'Sends Message to Mexico'

At Arizona Republic, "Joe Arpaio Launches 16th Immigration Sweep in Desert":

In a stretch of barren desert alongside Interstate 8 near Gila Bend that has become a corridor for human and drug smuggling, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and about 100 men staged a crime-suppression operation Thursday.

Arpaio brought with him a belt-fed .50-caliber machine gun that can shoot accurately up to a mile as a display of the kind of force he would use if anyone hurts a deputy.

"I am trying to send a message to Mexico," he said. "We will not take anyone hurting our deputies. We will fight back."

The 7-year-old gun has not yet been used, Arpaio said. "It is more for defense." Nor have any of his deputies yet been harmed in a border scuffle.

"We have been very lucky," he said.

The sheriff said criminals smuggling drugs and immigrants across the border are now carrying AK-47s along the swath of desert that is seldom patrolled. The Barry M. Goldwater Range is used for shooting and cannot be patrolled without permission from the United States Air Force. That gives smugglers an easy path for entry, Arpaio said.

Often smugglers cut through Vekol Valley east of Gila Bend, then come north to vehicles waiting on Interstate 8, he said. Those usually head to Phoenix on back roads.

The volunteers and paid deputies arrived in about 20 vehicles to stage the first-ever suppression operation in the desert.

By 8 p.m. Thursday, the deputies had made two arrests at traffic stops, but those were outside their staging area. One was nabbed for a criminal traffic violation, and the other had a warrant for a criminal traffic violation.

RTWT.

U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton Hears First Arguments in Court Challenges to SB 1070; GOP Steps Up Effort to Fight Federal Lawsuit

A couple of local stories: "Judge hears first lawsuit against SB1070," and "1070 demonstrations outside court house as lawsuit arguments begin."

But see also Politico, "GOP Fights Immigration Lawsuit":

As Arizona’s controversial immigration law enters the courtroom, Capitol Hill Republicans are trying to intervene in the legal brawl.

This week, Sens. Jim DeMint of South Carolina and David Vitter of Louisiana introduced legislation that would block the Obama administration from suing Arizona over its new law to crack down on illegal immigration. Sen. John McCain of Arizona donated $5,000 to a legal defense fund to fight challenges to the law.

And the GOP-dominated House Immigration Reform Caucus will file a friend of the court brief early next week, backing Republican Gov. Jan Brewer as she seeks to defend the law from a Justice Department lawsuit.

“Instead of spending time and taxpayer resources on a lawsuit, the Obama administration should be securing the border,” said Wesley Denton, a spokesman for DeMint. “The president and his administration are trying to invalidate a law that simply enforces federal law.”

Both parties are accusing the other of playing politics with the immigration issue and the Arizona law.

“It’s political opportunism,” Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) said of Republicans. His district runs along the U.S.-Mexico border and he has called for economic boycotts of the state until the law is overturned. “It’s a very divisive issue not only in Arizona but obviously in other parts of the country. Showing support for [Arizon’s law] is supposed to show hardness on immigration, but it’s appropriate that they wait and see whether this law passes constitutional muster.”

More at the link.

Arizona's Fight – America's Fight

At FrontPage Magazine. (PDF document here):

In mid May, 2010, Mexican President Felipe Calderon took advantage of a state visit to the U.S. to excoriate Arizona before a joint session of Congress. He called the law recently passed by the state that allows police to question the citizenship status of individuals detained on other matters “a terrible idea” and, echoing the pronouncements of many of the liberal legislators he was addressing, stigmatized it as “racial profiling.”

The Arizona law is explicitly not about that, as anyone who bothered to read it would know. (Not that Sr. Calderon should be particularly faulted in this regard, since Eric Holder, Janet Napolitano, and others in the current administration who have also criticized Arizona haven’t read it either.) But the deliberate mischaracterization of what Arizona has done — creating state law that mirrors a federal law that the federal government has ignored — was only one small part of the cynicism that characterized Calderon’s unseemly harangue. Far more glaring was the spectacle of the head of a country so precariously close to failed statehood, a country devolving more deeply every day into violence and mayhem, lecturing a neighbor—in this case, Arizona—for trying to protect its people from the spillover of that chaos.

Arizona was forced to act because it is being squeezed by two hostile forces. On one side is a foreign government, the Republic of Mexico, whose leading export to America are the millions of illegal immigrants now living in the U.S. and creating social and financial costs that threaten the stability of communities, regions, and state governments through the Southwest. A growing problem for America because of the legal, economic, and cultural chaos they create, these illegal immigrants are for the Mexican government merely a form of human capital to be manipulated — people who send home hundreds of millions of dollars every year in the form of “remittances,” thus helping to keep in power an oligarchy whose policies have helped create the poverty that leads to massive flight across the border in the first place.

Squeezing Arizona from the other side is WashingtonD.C, which has stood by fecklessly as ...

RTWT.

Stimulus Signage Stirs Up GOP Angst Over Wasteful Spending

At Fox News:

Some local officials are spending freely to post street signs that let people know the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act -- better known as the stimulus bill -- has funded a highway project in local neighborhoods, an expense that has Republicans blistering over why taxpayer money is being used to promote how taxpayer money is being used.

State governments are estimated to be using millions of dollars to put up the signs that say what a great job they are doing spending money. Some examples:

-- In Washington, D.C., the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority spent $10,000 for a single 10-by-11-foot sign displayed at a highway project, advertising that the $15 million in stimulus funds the District received were provided by the stimulus.

-- Illinois spent about $650,000 during the last 14 months for 950 signs to be placed on 850 highway projects, Department of Transportation spokesman Josh Kauffman told FoxNews.com.

-- Pennsylvania spent $157,477 of the $1 billion in stimulus funds it received on 70 signs for 37 projects, Department of Transportation press officer Alison Wenger told FoxNews.com. The average cost of each sign was $2,250.

-- Tennessee bought 324 signs for $12,931, ABC News reported.

But some states, including Florida, Vermont, Arizona and Virginia, aren't following neighboring states' signs.

"We decided that we were going to take all the money that we got from our stimulus projects and put it into the road," said Jeff Caldwell, chief of communications for the Virginia Department of Transportation.

RTWT.

Few Americans Think Stimulus Helped

At Fox News, "Obama Job Approval Down, Few Think Stimulus Helped":

Most Americans see little benefit from the federal government's economic stimulus plan, as President Obama's job performance rating drops overall, and hits a new low among Democrats.

A Fox News poll released Thursday finds that 43 percent of voters approve of the job Obama's doing, matching a previous low in early April. Two weeks ago 47 percent approved, and a year ago 54 percent of voters approved. His highest approval thus far was 65 percent in January 2009 ...

More than 6 in 10 American voters think the economy would be in the same or better shape if Congress hadn't passed the economic stimulus bill
, while a small minority thinks things would be worse without it.

If Congress had done nothing, the largest number of voters — 43 percent — say the economy would be in about the same shape as it is today. Another 22 percent think the economy would be in better shape without the stimulus plan. About a third — 31 percent — thinks the stimulus bill helped and the nation's economy would be in worse shape without it.

Wednesday the White House said the $862 billion stimulus bill was responsible for saving or creating between 2.5 and 3.6 million jobs.

The poll finds about a third of voters think the economic stimulus plan created "a lot" (5 percent) or "some" new jobs (29 percent). Twenty-three percent think the plan created "a few" jobs, while the biggest portion of voters — 40 percent — thinks the stimulus created "hardly any new jobs at all."

Fail.

NewsBusted — Obama Approval at 38% With Independents...

NewsBusted 7/16/10 (via Theo Spark):

And from Gallup previously, "Obama Job Approval Rating Down to 38% Among Independents."

Audacity of the Dope: Obama Pushes Agenda That Public Disapproves

At New York Times (via Memeorandum):

If passage of the financial regulatory overhaul on Thursday proves anything about President Obama, it is this: He knows how to push big bills through a balky Congress.

But Mr. Obama’s legislative success poses a paradox: while he may be winning on Capitol Hill, he is losing with voters at a time of economic distress, and soon may be forced to scale back his ambitions.

The financial regulatory bill is the final piece of a legislative hat trick that also included the stimulus bill and the landmark new health care law. Over the last 18 months, Mr. Obama and the Democratic Congress have made considerable inroads in passing what could be the most ambitious agenda in decades.

Mr. Obama has done what he promised when he ran for office in 2008: he has used government as an instrument to try to narrow the gaps between the haves and the have-nots. He has injected $787 billion in tax dollars into the economy, provided health coverage to 32 million uninsured and now, reordered the relationship among Washington, Wall Street, investors and consumers.

But as he has done so, the political context has changed around him. Today, with unemployment remaining persistently near double digits despite the scale of the stimulus program and the BP oil spill having raised questions about his administration’s competence, Mr. Obama’s signature legislation is providing ammunition to conservatives who argue that government is the problem, not the solution.

What Mr. Obama and his allies portray as progressive, activist government has been framed by his opponents as overreaching and profligate when it comes to the economy.

Even before the November elections, the White House is being forced to recalibrate. This week, Mr. Obama and Senate Democrats decided to press ahead with a scaled-back energy bill, having concluded after months of gridlock that the sweeping measure they once envisioned simply would not pass. It is a tactic that the president will likely have to employ more and more after the November elections, when Democrats will almost certainly lose seats — and may even lose control of the House or Senate.

“They clearly made a decision that political capital was something that should be used, not saved,” said Steven Elmendorf, a Democratic lobbyist who worked for years as a senior leadership aide on Capitol Hill. “The reality is, he talked before the election about what he wanted to do, and he’s done it. He didn’t trim his sails, he didn’t change his philosophy. He didn’t compromise. The test will come in the fall: can he and Democrats in Congress make the case to the American people that what he did was the right thing to do?”

See also, Jennifer Rubin, "Gray Lady to Obama: You Sound Like George Bush on a Bad Day":

We get a brutal assessment of Obama’s performance from none other than the New York Times, which tells its doubtlessly shell-shocked liberal readers that all those “wins” in Congress are really losses. (”While he may be winning on Capitol Hill, he is losing with voters at a time of economic distress, and soon may be forced to scale back his ambitions.”) Here’s a low blow:

You know, sometimes these pundits, they can’t figure me out,” the president said last week, campaigning in Kansas City, Mo., for the Democratic Senate candidate there. “They say, ‘Well, why is he doing that?’ That doesn’t poll well. Well, I’ve got my own pollsters, I know it doesn’t poll well. But it’s the right thing to do for America.”

It is an argument that sounds eerily similar to the one Mr. Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush, made to justify an unpopular war in Iraq as he watched his own poll numbers sink lower. Mr. Bush and his aides often felt they could not catch a break; when the economy was humming along — or at least seemed to be humming along — the Bush White House never got credit for it, because the public was so upset about the war.

The difference, however, is that Bush turned around the war. Obama has failed to do so on the economy and is now paying the price for his liberal joyride ...