'If You Are One of the Many People Who Criticized Me and Meade for Selfishly Jumping Ahead of a Line, It's Time For an Apology'

First I'm posting the viral viddy of Wisconsin Democratic Representative Nick Milroy, who's seen being tackled by police. He claimed he was entering the Statehouse to retrieve clothing, but it looks like a helluva lot more than that. A little civil resistance solidarity? And the dude's an elected official, sheesh? Or as Jammie puts it, the surprise here is that a "Wisconsin Democrat was actually trying to do some work":

Anyway, Althouse has the must-read post on developments, "Who started the restriction of access to the Wisconsin Capitol, which the state court judge has ruled unconstitutional?":

If you were critical of Meade and me for refusing to wait in line and insisting on walking right into the Capitol building, then you need to read the judge's order, which says that the restriction of access "violates the State Constitution."

Instead of meekly following instructions — which, oddly enough, the anti-Walker protesters did — we felt immediate outrage and expressed it. If you are one of the many people who criticized me and Meade for selfishly jumping ahead of a line, it's time for an apology.

Let me remind you what happened. I started it. On Saturday, February 26th, the day with the largest crowd, there were "'about 70,000 people' at the Capitol, but they were mainly outside":

I walked right up to the nearest door, and a "volunteer" in an orange vest told me to go wait in a line to go in some other door. This door was for... I didn't quite catch who the special people were who got to go right in the door I'd walked up to, but I said, "This is a public building. You're saying there are 2 kinds of people — ones that get right in and ones that go wait in line? Who are you?" He was obviously not a uniformed city official. I was all "Who are you?" and "How dare you!" and, after a few seconds, I (and Meade) got right through that door ...

Hey, don't mess with Althouse!

Plus, at Gateway Pundit, "It Begins… WI School President Threatens Private Business For Printing Pro-Walker T-Shirts," and Hot Air, "Fleebagging the hot new fad?"

Britney Spears V Magazine Photoshoot

She looks fabulous, "Britney Forever":

Over a decade ago, she emerged as a teen music sensation—the very definition of sexy, exuberant pop in our age of excess, and the template for a legion of imitators. But Britney was no flash in the millennial pan. Through crisis and controversy, she has adhered herself to our consciousness simply by doing what she does best: crafting irresistibly danceable, instantly unforgettable hits, over and over (and over and over and over) again. In 2011, Britney is still Britney, and she’s back with an album designed to get us moving. Again.

Britney's interviewed at the link.

Perhaps this will generate some Rule 5 links from The Other McCain.

And see the other friends of American Power: Amusing Bunni's Musings, Astute Bloggers, Bob Belvedere, CSPT, Dan Collins, Eye of Polyphemus, Gator Doug, Irish Cicero, Left Coast Rebel, Mind-Numbed Robot, Legal Insurrection, Lonely Conservative, PA Pundits International, Pirate's Cove, Saberpoint, Snooper, WyBlog, The Western Experience, Yankee Phil, and Zion's Trumpet.

BONUS: American Perspective and Maggie's Notebook.

And top that off with Theo's Bedtime Totty.

And a special shoutout to Blazing Cat Fur, whose got some lovely Friday blogging: "Because it's Friday and it's....Patricia Velasquez..."

And also a big thanks to Proof Positive, who's very generous on the linkage.

As always, drop your link in the comments to be added to the roundups.

Protesters Leave Wisconsin Capitol

Today's a big showdown day in Wisconsin. I'll have updates later. Meanwhile, at Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, "Overnight protesters leave Capitol":

Madison — With a final group hug and a rousing rendition of "Solidarity Forever," the last large group of demonstrators left the state Capitol Thursday night, hours after a judge ordered their removal.

The more than two-week occupation ended peacefully, as Capitol Police Chief Charles Tubbs gently prodded and patiently waited for around 50 of the last holdout protesters to file out of the rotunda.

"We have to get back to normalcy," Tubbs said. "I'm asking you tonight to please leave."

At 9:58 p.m., about an hour after the main group left, the last five protesters exited the building. No arrests were reported.

"This proved the people are right and the governor is wrong," said Jeff Fox, 53, of Minong.

State officials claimed that damage to the Capitol from the days of demonstrating reached $7.5 million. But no one could back up that figure with any evidence, and some scoffed at it.

Earlier Thursday, in a historic ruling after three days of testimony, Dane County Circuit Judge John Albert issued an interim order calling for the immediate removal of overnight demonstrators and putting state officials on notice that improved access to the building has to be in place by Monday morning.

The decision came after testimony from citizens, legislators, law enforcement and state officials.

More at the link above.

Bring Bush! Libyan Rebels Beg U.S. to Bomb Muammar Gaddafi

At Pamela's, "Libyan Protesters Beg for Bush: 'Bring Bush!'":

Has Katie Couric bit off her tongue yet? Not to worry, the jihadists she so enthusiastically defends and abets will do it soon enough.

Just as the world is undergoing a seismic shift in the arab regimes and dictatorships, the American media landscape is desperately in need of a revolution. The old media must be overthrown.

You'll notice that Reuters buried the lede.

"Bring Bush! Make a no fly zone, bomb the planes," shouted soldiers

Imagine that. Ayatollah Obama has achieved what would have been thought to be impossible: worldwide calls for the return of George Bush. They pleaded for Bush in Iran, too, when they were being slaughtered in the street while Obama ....... ate ice cream.

Wisconsin Assemblywoman Michelle Litjens - All Class After Dirtbag Dem Threatens Her With 'You Are Effin Dead'

From John Hayward, "You Are Effin Dead: The media protects a Democrat with silence":

Last Friday, in the Wisconsin State Assembly, a sixty-hour Democrat filibuster ended with a vote they claim they were too tired to understand. This prompted Democrat representative Gordon Hintz to turn to Republican Michelle Litjens and shout, “You are f**king dead.”

Hintz is a fine, upstanding statesman, who occasionally wanders into massage parlors which have been caught up in prostitution stings, and is cited for sexual misconduct. He apologized to Litjens several days later, and she graciously accepted his apology. In an interview with conservative radio host Laura Ingraham, Litjens remarked that “the Democrats are screaming that we need to be civil towards each other,” but “they’ve been throwing fits on a regular basis looking like a group of toddlers throwing a temper tantrum.”

You would think something like this would be a pretty big story, especially since the union troops Hintz supports are becoming increasingly aggressive in their occupation of the state capitol. After millions of BTUs worth of hot air were unleashed about “tone” and “civility” in the wake of the Tucson shootings, an actual death threat from an elected representative is a significant event. No “heat of the moment” defense would be accepted from a Republican under similar circumstances, especially if a male Republican cited for sexual misconduct were threatening a female Democrat.

Amazingly, as Noel Sheppard at Newsbusters documents, there has been a near-total media blackout of this story. If local conservative talk radio hadn’t made a big deal about it, there would be no national awareness at all… and as of this morning, no major network except Fox has discussed it.

Maybe it’s not so amazing, since the exact same thing happened in January, when budding netroots superhero Eric Fuller started lobbing death threats at a town hall meeting in Tucson. The Soros operatives at Media Matters suddenly stopped touting him as an absolute moral authority, and flushed him down the memory hole in unison, while the mainstream press never really talked about him at all.

In both cases, you have inconvenient nut jobs making hash of a Narrative the media regard as Deep Truth, which must not be contradicted by any stories that would confuse the public. The narrative that would not have survived extensive coverage of Eric Fuller was the “Climate of Hate,” supposedly conjured by conservative witch doctors and beamed directly into Tucson killer Jared Loughner’s skull. The Narrative in Wisconsin is the “peaceful union protest,” in which the hapless victims of Governor Scott Walker’s heartless evil spend their days handing out cookies and lemonade, while they wait for the public they love and serve to rescue them ...

Governor Walker Will Begin Issuing Layoff Warnings to Unions

At the video, South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley says she supports Governor Scott Walker's budget reform agenda.

At at New York Times, "Wisconsin Governor Says He Will Begin Issuing Layoff Warnings to Unions":

Scott Walker, the Republican governor of Wisconsin, said Thursday that he would begin issuing layoff warnings to unions representing 1,500 state employees on Friday if his bill to sharply reduce collective bargaining rights and benefits for public sector employees remained at an impasse in the Legislature.

Republican leaders in the Senate, where the bill has been stalled since Senate Democrats left the capital two weeks ago to block a vote, passed a provision that they said allowed law enforcement officers to detain the missing Democratic senators if they were seen anywhere in Wisconsin and take them to Madison.

Both measures were aimed at increasing the pressure on Democrats, who hold a minority in the Senate and oppose the bill. But the efforts also significantly raised the stakes in a fight that has grown into a national referendum on unions and public workers and has spread to Ohio, Indiana and elsewhere.

In Wisconsin, no one in either party seemed eager to consider the images that now appeared possible: hundreds of ordinary workers getting word that they would soon be out of work, and senators arriving at the Capitol in handcuffs. Still, no one in either party seemed willing to budge.

“No one is going to come back today,” said Fred Risser, one of the Senate’s 14 Democrats who left the capital last month after realizing that the cuts to collective bargaining were likely to pass the Senate, but that no vote could be taken without at least 20 members — and thus at least one Democrat — in attendance.

Fleebaggers. Scumbags. Progressives. Screwing over Wisconsin. Typical.

Anti-Semitism's Many Expressions

At Jerusalem Post:

In Anti-Semite and Jew, anti-Semitism famously argued that anti-Semitism is best understood as a “criminal passion” as opposed to an idea. “It is not a point of view based rationally upon empirical information calmly collected and calibrated in as objective a manner as is possible.”

Rather, wrote Sartre – in 1946, in the shadow of the Holocaust – anti-Semitism is “an involvement of the mind, but one so deep-seated and complex that it extends to the physiological realm, as happens in cases of hysteria.”

Judging from a recent spate of high-profile anti-Semitic verbal attacks, all sharing the common theme of emotional outbursts, Sartre seems to have it at least partially right.

TV and movie star Charlie Sheen, currently in a fit of personal turmoil, lashed out in a radio interview at Chuck Lorre, the Jewish creator of the TV show Two and a Half Men. Sheen derisively noted during his hate-filled, nonsensical rant last week that Lorre’s Hebrew name was Chaim Levine, as though this somehow explained his aversion to the man.

Then there was John Galliano, chief designer for Christian Dior, whose behavior, according to sources quoted by The New York Times, “had become erratic” and who had of late “been drinking heavily,” apparently due to professional pressures. Last week, a video surfaced of Galliano taunting a patron at a Paris bar who he thought was Jewish.

“I love Hitler,” the designer declared in a slurred voice, adding that “people like you would be dead” and “your mothers, your forefathers” would all have been “gassed” if Hitler had had his way.

This week, it was WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s turn. British journalists, including the editor of The Guardian (who is not Jewish), were engaged in a Jewish-led conspiracy to smear his organization, Assange reportedly told Private Eye’s editor in a telephone call. Assange, currently under pressure as he anticipates multiple legal battles and a Swedish arrest warrant, was reacting to a Private Eye report that one Israel Shamir (aka, Adam Ermash or Jöran Jermas), an employed WikiLeaks associate in Russia, was a Holocaust denier.

In each of the cases, Sartre’s description of anti-Semitism as “an involvement of the mind, deep-seated and complex,” rings true. Gripped by emotional crises that undo usual political correctness, these men’s visceral, irrational hatred of Jews is exposed in all its vileness.

I'll say.

More at the link.

PREVIOUSLY (WITH VIDEO): "Natalie Portman Condemns Dior Designer for Anti-Semitic Slurs."

Michael Moore: Rich People's Money a National Resource

Video at The Blaze: "Really Rich Dude Michael Moore Says Wealthy Americans’ Money is Not Theirs its ’Ours‘ ’A National Resource’ We Need To Take It From Them."

And from Peter Wehner's essay at Commentary, "Michael Moore vs. Abraham Lincoln":

Both Michael Moore and former labor secretary Robert Reich have done us the favor of speaking candidly about their economic views. If you listen to both men, you’ll gain a fairly good insight into the modern liberal worldview.

It consists of several elements. The first, as articulated by Moore, is that money you earn is not really yours; it’s a “natural resource” that belongs to others. That is the basic starting point for those like Moore. Second, the collectivist impulse among the left is extremely powerful. Third, higher taxes have almost talisman-like powers. Regardless of our economic circumstances — whether we’re experiencing strong growth or a nasty recession — higher taxes are always called for. Fourth, liberals view higher taxes first and foremost as a matter of “fairness” rather than growth. One cannot help but conclude that many liberals would accept lower growth rates and fewer jobs in favor of more redistribution of income. And fifth, America is a nation seething with class resentments. “An angry population and an angry populace could just as easily turn their anger toward the very rich,” according to Reich. “Again, it is in the interest of the people at the top to actually call for a more equitable distribution of the gains of economic growth and a better tax system: a tax system that is fair.”

As against the views of Moore and Reich are the views of Lincoln ...

RTWT at the link.

Commie scumbags, but what's new?

Rising Political Star: Exclusive Interview with Congressman Allen West

From Erick Stakelbeck, at Big Peace:

The retired Army Lt. Col and I discussed homegrown jihad, Iran, the Muslim Brothehrood, Israel, healthcare, the national debt and much more.

And the take-no-prisoners approach that has made West a rising political star is on full display.

Chris Wragge, CBS 'Early Show' Anchor, Gets Hot On-Air Fantasies for Actress Vanessa Hudgens

Another case for academic douchebag Scott Eric Kaufman.

Hudgens is 21 years-old and fabulous, but see Greg Hengler, "CBS Anchor Entertains Pornographic Fantasies of H.S. Musical's Vanessa Hudgens":

40-year-old Chris Wragge, anchor for CBS's "Early Show," could not restrain his pornographic fantasies from the family-friendly, national network television show. As you will see and hear, he tries to move on quickly after drinking a nice cold glass of stupid.

Protesters Storm Wisconsin Capitol!

Here's Althouse's video, where she notes that:

Not long before the crowd of 100 protesters stormed the building (or was let in by the police), Meade got through the line and into the building. I've edited the video he shot, which shows the conditions of the hallways and even a men's room — and everything looks quite clean and undamaged. In the rotunda, the protesters have formed a circle and are discussing what they will do ...

Apparently protesters have been ordered off the grounds.

But here's the report from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, "Demonstrators Suddenly Enter Capitol" (via Gateway Pundit and Memeorandum):

A group of perhaps one hundred protesters has entered the previously restricted and quiet Capitol and is now chanting, “Our house, our house.”

David Noyce of Madison said that he entered the building with the demonstrators after someone let them in and that a policeman flashed him a thumbs up as he entered. The protesters entered just as Gov. Scott Walker was about to start a news conference in a separate room of the building.

“It’s about time,” Noyce said, when told that a Dane County judge would be issuing an order to open the Capitol.

The protesters have been stopped by phalanx of police on the ground floor of the west wing and prevented from reaching the rotunda and joining the separate group of protesters who have been spending the night in the Capitol.

Social Conservatives Are Mad

Says Richard Land, "Americans Don't Want a 'Truce' on Social Issues." And he's right. I'm mad that yet another progressive anti-truth shout-down successfully suppressed a conservative advertising campaign. As the ad's sponsor Life Always indicates:

... in today’s public square, it is sometimes forbidden to actually tell the truth, or even to tell one’s side of the story, without being shouted down. It’s like the old Ibsen play, The Enemy of the People. The man who discovers that the town’s water supply is unsafe is cast out of town for telling the truth. Telling the truth makes him the enemy of the people.

Right.

Truth is the new hate speech.

In any case, here's Richard Land:

There is a deep longing in large segments of the American populace for a restoration of a morality that emphasizes personal obligations and responsibilities over rights and privileges. Such a society will have a restored moral symmetry in which exemplary personal and professional behavior is rewarded and less exemplary behavior is not. As Jesus reminded us, "Man shall not live on bread alone."

RTWT.

Land is going after squishy cons like Mitch Daniels, who want a truce on social issues during a time of fiscal crisis. And while Land indicates that conservatives overlap on the issues --- economic, foreign, and social policy, the three legs of conservative program --- folks who abandon moral issues are CINO (Conservative-In-Name-Only), IMHO.

Twenty Years After Rodney King Beating: Video Ushered Police Into YouTube World

At Los Angeles Times, "LAPD's Change in Focus":

In the wake of the videotaped police attack on motorist Rodney King, the department has learned to embrace video scrutiny.

It was shortly after midnight, 20 years ago Thursday, when George Holliday awoke to the sounds of police sirens outside his Lake View Terrace apartment. Grabbing his clunky Sony Handycam, he stepped out on his balcony and changed the Los Angeles Police Department forever.

The nine minutes of grainy video footage he captured of Los Angeles police beating Rodney King helped to spur dramatic reforms in a department that many felt operated with impunity. The video played a central role in the criminal trial of four officers, whose not-guilty verdicts in 1992 triggered days of rioting in Los Angeles in which more than 50 people died.

The simple existence of the video was something unusual in itself. Relatively few people then had video cameras, Holliday did — and had the wherewithal to turn it on.

"It was just coincidence," Holliday reflected in an interview a decade ago. "Or luck."

Today, things are far different and the tape that so tainted the LAPD has a clear legacy in how officers think about their jobs. Police now work in a YouTube world in which cellphones double as cameras, news helicopters transmit close-up footage of unfolding police pursuits, and surveillance cameras capture arrests or shootings. Police officials are increasingly recording their officers. Compared to the cops who beat King, officers these days hit the streets with a new reality ingrained in their minds: Someone is always watching.

"Early on in their training, I always tell them, 'I don't care if you're in a bathroom taking care of your personal business…. Whatever you do, assume it will be caught on video,' " said Sgt. Heather Fungaroli, who supervises recruits at the LAPD's academy. "We tell them if they're doing the right thing then they have no reason to worry."

More at the link.

Folks will tell different stories about this, but Rodney King resisted arrest. Was the police reaction excessive? Perhaps, although a federal court trial found otherwise, and the rest is history. I was more shocked by the Los Angeles riots than by the alleged police brutality in the beating. Of course, maybe I'm not in a good position to truly understand it, not being an oppressed minority, and all that, or a conflicted middle-class white feminist struggling to overcome her racial privilege, like Melissa McEwan:

Twenty years later, it's still the same victim-blaming I was hearing about Rodney King, even as he sat in a wheelchair convalescing from his physical injuries. (He has nightmares to this day, and, while currently sober, has struggled with alcoholism.) Twenty years later, same old shit.

But, twenty years on, I am a different person than I was then. Working through my privilege is an ongoing process—it always will be—but what happened to Rodney King was so much more difficult for me to understand and culturally contextualize then, and it's not just because I was a teenager; it's because I was a privileged white teenager who hadn't yet begun in any meaningful way to examine her privilege.

Somehow that sounds inauthentic to me, but that's progressives for you --- they're all FUBAR all the time.

RELATED: At CNN, "Rodney King, 20 Years Later." (At Memeorandum.)

Protest Islamic Hate: Mobilization Against Annual Israeli Apartheid Week 2011

At Jay Currie, "Anti-Islamic Apartheid Week."

And no surprise, but the University of Ottawa is sponsoring Anti-Apartheid Week. Last year Ann Coulter cancelled an appearance at the university after left-wing (thug) protests. Blazing Cat Fur updates: "Dear Lying Sack of Shit Hypocrite..."

Also, "Islamic States Apartheid Week":

* ISLAMIC STATE APARTHEID WEEK * Join *JDL* to counter the campus lies against Jews and highlight the truth of Islam.

Focus on Ohio as GOP Advances Curbs on Public Unions

At WSJ, "Ohio Vote Puts Curbs on Unions in Reach":

Ohio state senators narrowly approved a bill that would prohibit public-employee unions representing 400,000 state and local workers from bargaining over health benefits and pensions, while also eliminating the right to strike.

While national attention has focused for weeks on a similar battle in Wisconsin, the vote, by 17-16 in Ohio's Republican-controlled Senate, virtually ensured that the Buckeye State will become the first to strip collective-bargaining rights from public employees as states grapple with recent gaping budget deficits.

The move is especially significant because Ohio is larger than Wisconsin, and like its fellow Midwestern state, is both a stronghold of public-sector labor unions and a swing state politically.

The bill now goes to the House, where the Republicans have a 59-40 majority. If approved, as expected, it will move for signature to Republican Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who supports the bill.

Mr. Kasich believes it would help local governments control labor costs, spokesman Rob Nichols said.

Ohio's labor leaders, while noting the narrow passage in the Senate, weren't optimistic about stopping the bill in the House.

Notice the union thuggery at the Ohio Statehouse clip above.

Plus, Robert Stacy McCain has an on-the-ground report from Ohio, "Lawyer for Ohio Police Union Tells Republican State Senator: ‘Funny Thing About Cops, They Hold Grudges’" (via Memeorandum.) And more from Melissa Clouthier at Red State, "Climate of Hate™: Lawyer For Ohio Police Union Threatens Republican Senator," and William Jacobson at Legal Insurrection, "‘Funny Thing About Cops, They Hold Grudges’":

This time it's in Ohio, and the "threat" comes from a police union lawyer directed at an Ohio Republican state senator who voted in favor of S.B. 5, the bill stripping public employee unions of collective bargaining rights.

The lawyer, after being told that the statement quoted in the post title was viewed as a threat, walked it back and denied that the grudges would be acted upon with violence.

But this is becoming a disturbing pattern ...

You think?

Wait! Yet More Progressives Calling for Revolution!

God, what is it with the people?

At The Blaze, "Jackson Call for College Students to Rise Up in Revolution, Blame Rush Limbaugh for ‘Huge Ignorance Movement’":

Also at WTSR, "Ralph Nader and Jesse Jackson Visit the College of New Jersey."

Communists Thrilled at Idaho's Precocious Progressive 17 Year-Old Who Took on the Luna Plan

Look, he's an extremely articulate 17 year-old. Interestingly, he says that student opposition to the Luna restructuring plan reflected spontaneous student revolt from below --- no teacher indoctrination, don't ya know! But the kid's a bit too in-the-know on the education lingo. He's hanging with a bunch of union goons at the rally, and perhaps he's got family members in the teaching profession. Or he's hoping to become a progressive teacher himself. Students of the world unite! But the fact that this has gone viral among the anti-establishment progressive fever swamps is telling. At communist Amy Goodman's Democracy Now!, "Idaho Students Stage Walkout to Oppose Teacher Layoffs, Collective Bargaining Curbs" (via Memeorandum):

The background is here: "Hundreds Rally Against Luna Plan."

Three-Fourths of New York Community College Students Have Remedial Issues

Hey, tell me about it.

At New York Times, "CUNY Adjusts Amid Tide of Remedial Students":

The City University of New York has long spent much of its energy and resources just teaching new students what they need to begin taking college-level courses.

But that tide of remedial students has now swelled so large that the university’s six community colleges — like other two-year schools across the country — are having to rethink what and how they teach, even as they reel from steep cuts in state and local aid.

About three-quarters of the 17,500 freshmen at the community colleges this year have needed remedial instruction in reading, writing or math, and nearly a quarter of the freshmen have required such instruction in all three subjects. In the past five years, a subset of students deemed “triple low remedial” — with the most severe deficits in all three subjects — has doubled, to 1,000.

The reasons are familiar but were reinforced last month by startling new statistics from state education officials: fewer than half of all New York State students who graduated from high school in 2009 were prepared for college or careers, as measured by state Regents tests in English and math. In New York City, that number was 23 percent.

Many of those graduates end up at CUNY, one of the nation’s largest urban higher-education systems, which requires its community colleges to take every applicant with a high school diploma or equivalency degree.

To bring thousands of students up to speed, those colleges spent about $33 million last year on remediation — twice as much as they did 10 years ago. They are expanding an immersion program that funnels hundreds of students exclusively into remedial classes.

But there is concern that the effort is diverting attention from the colleges’ primary mission.

“It takes a lot of our time and energy and money to figure out what to do with all of these students who need remediation,” said Alexandra W. Logue, the university’s executive vice chancellor and provost. “We are doing some really good things, but it’s time that we’re not thinking about our other wonderful students who are very highly prepared. We need to focus on them, too.”

More at the link. And be sure to RTWT. The article rightly notes that this is a national problem, and professors are complaining that community colleges have been transformed into institutions of extended education --- 13th grade, as my wife likes to remind me. And sure, while the problem isn't new, the shockingly high and rising levels of those needing remediation is generating heightened attention. I've discussed this at length on my campus, especially during the collective bargaining negotiations where most of the institutional discussion has been on wages and benefits. And that's not new either. Just about every year a new report comes out in California on the declining numbers of students who graduate in normative time. It's especially bad for minorities, who of course are those most disadvantaged historically and most in need of education and workplace skills. But community college accreditation authorities are obsessed with establishing institutional learning objectives (SLOs) as measures of college effectiveness. It's crazy. Ask any professor in a transfer-level GE offering and they'll tell you skills are lacking, discipline is compromised, social and technological changes have created debilitating distractions for many, and large numbers of students are overwhelmed with work and family issues (and too many young students are having babies themselves). But hey, don't touch my benefits!

After-Class Live Sex Demonstrations?

No doubt Scott Eric Kaufman can, er, dig the vibe, because, you know, it's an artsy, progressive pedagogy thing. At Chicago Sun-Times, "Northwestern University defends after-class live sex demonstration":

 

More than 100 Northwestern University students watched as a naked 25-year-old woman was penetrated by a sex toy wielded by her fiancee during an after-class session of the school’s popular “Human Sexuality” class.

The woman said she showed up at the Feb. 21 lecture in the Ryan Family Auditorium in Evanston expecting just to answer questions, but was game to demonstrate. The course’s professor on Wednesday acknowledged some initial hesitation, but said student feedback was “uniformly positive.”

And Northwestern defended the class and its professor.

“Northwestern University faculty members engage in teaching and research on a wide variety of topics, some of them controversial and at the leading edge of their respective disciplines,” said Alan K. Cubbage, vice president for University Relations. “The University supports the efforts of its faculty to further the advancement of knowledge.”

The optional, non-credit demo followed psychology Prof. John Michael Bailey’s sexuality class. Nearly 600 students are in Bailey’s class this quarter, and most didn’t stick around for the after-class show, which featured four members of Chicago’s fetish community describing “BDSM,” or bondage, discipline, sadism and masochism.

“I didn’t expect to see a live sex show,” said Justin Smith, 21, a senior economics and political science major who was in the after-class session. “We were told we were going to have some people talk to us about the fetish world and kink.”

Protests Force Cancellation of Cordoba Initiative Event

At New York's Metro News, "9/11 Play Canceled at the 11th Hour."

And at Pamela's, "WPIX TV Interview with Pamela Geller on Daisy Khan/Rauf Cancellation of Cordoba Event Exploiting 911 Tragedies for Shameless Promotion":

Tea Party Populism and America's International Relations

Walter Russell Mead's got an outstanding lead essay at Foreign Affairs, "The Tea Party and American Foreign Policy: What Populism Means for Globalism." The discussion includes a fascinating comparison between two tea party factions on foreign policy: the "Palinites" and the "Paulites." And he embeds the roots of today's tea party in the deep tendencies toward "Jacksonian" populism in American history. An excerpt:

Antiestablishment populism has been responsible for some of the brightest, as well as some of the darkest, moments in U.S. history. The populists who rallied to Jackson established universal white male suffrage in the United States -- and saddled the country with a crash-prone financial system for 80 years by destroying the Second Bank of the United States. Later generations of populists would rein in monopolistic corporations and legislate basic protections for workers while opposing federal protection of minorities threatened with lynching. The demand of Jacksonian America for cheap or, better, free land in the nineteenth century led to the Homestead Act, which allowed millions of immigrants and urban workers to start family farms. It also led to the systematic and sometimes genocidal removal of Native Americans from their traditional hunting grounds and a massively subsidized "farm bubble" that helped bring about the Great Depression. Populist hunger for land in the twentieth century paved the way for an era of federally subsidized home mortgages and the devastating burst of the housing bubble.

Jacksonian populism does not always have a clear-cut program. In the nineteenth century, the Jacksonians combined a strong aversion to government debt with demands that the government's most valuable asset (title to the vast public lands of the West) be transferred to homesteaders at no cost. Today's Jacksonians want the budget balanced -- but are much less enthusiastic about cutting middle-class entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare ...

The Tea Party movement is best understood as a contemporary revolt of Jacksonian common sense against elites perceived as both misguided and corrupt. And although the movement itself may splinter and even disappear, the populist energy that powers it will not go away soon. Jacksonianism is always an important force in American politics; at times of social and economic stress and change, like the present, its importance tends to grow. Even though it is by no means likely that the new Jacksonians will gain full control of the government anytime soon (or perhaps ever), the influence of the populist revolt against mainstream politics has become so significant that students of U.S. foreign policy must consider its consequences.

Mead returns to the Palinite/Paulite split in later sections of the piece. And it's a good discussion for the most part, but being an establishment essay it ends up too abstract, even bland. Mead implies, for example, that significant residual strains of racism animate the tea party overall, but in fact institutionally the key tea party leadership has consistently repudiated the slightest inclinations toward racism in the ranks. Not only that, Mead overstates the Paulite influence on the tea party, and he understates how Paulite hostility to Israel in facts engenders the real racist tendencies on the populist right. David Swindle's recent essay on the Paulites at CPAC offers a powerful case study in the problems that faction poses for the conservative movement in America today. And in the end I'd say that the Palinites are much more powerfully representative of the traditional currents of U.S. foreign and national security policy. That said, Mead's correct to posit the lasting impact of populism on America's international relations, regardless of how the immediate tea party splits play out in the short run.

New Left Media: 'Workers Defend Their Rights'

Folks can listen to how it plays on the other side, from New Left Media:

There's a lot of misrepresentation of fact, but that's to be expected. These are union hacks and progressives, and communist Medea Benjamin with a bullhorn gets a cameo at the opening. Actually, Walker's budget would continue to include union collective bargaining over wages, so the protesters are mostly mouthing class warfare rhetoric with a few lies and distortions about the GOP agenda. It's true, though, Republicans are aggressively attacking union power, as well they should. Big Labor's corrupt thugs are bankrupting the states and raping the democratic process. See, "With no end in sight, Wis. stalemate could drag on for months; money won't run out until May." On the other hand,"Capitol Chaos: Senate Dems to Fight Budget Plan," and "Senate Republicans, Democrats work to end stalemate."

Third Rail: Americans Oppose Cutting Entitlements

Well, we're gonna need booming economic growth, and frankly an increasingly globalized immigration policy, if we don't go bankrupt first. At WSJ, "Poll Finds Support Lacking for Entitlement Reductions":

Less than a quarter of Americans support trimming Social Security or Medicare to tackle the country's budget deficit, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll that illustrates the challenge facing lawmakers seeking voter support for altering entitlement programs.

The poll, conducted between Feb. 24 and 28, found strong opposition for cuts to these entitlement programs across all age groups and ideologies. Even tea party supporters, by a nearly 2-to-1 margin, declared cuts to Social Security "unacceptable."

The poll, however, revealed willingness by some respondents to make sacrifices to keep the programs from going broke.

Well over half of Americans favor bumping the retirement age to 69 by 2075, up from 66 now. An even larger share supports reducing retirement and Medicare payments to wealthier Americans.
The opposition against entitlement cuts comes four months after voters elected a crop of governors and conservative federal lawmakers who campaigned against government spending. Congressional Republicans have focused so far on cuts to discretionary spending. But a small group of U.S. senators in both parties has begun talks over changes to entitlement programs, as well as to the tax code.

House Republicans want to make entitlement reductions a key part of their next budget, while several likely 2012 GOP candidates vow to propose ways to shore up the finances of Social Security and Medicare as part of any campaign.

But Republican Bill McInturff and Democrat Peter Hart, the pollsters who conducted the survey, said it raised warning signs for anyone proposing cuts to those programs, which provide retirement benefits to seniors and help pay for their health-care, and to Medicaid, a health plan for the poor. The costs of those programs, which already make up 43% of federal spending, are expected to balloon in coming years.

More at the link.

Before you know it, folks won't be able to retire with full benefits until their 70s. Maybe that's good, but a lot of people are physically unable to work that long. And there's lots of economic pessimism at the poll. Check this out:

Americans remain clearly torn on the big questions of the national debt, government spending and the role of government in promoting jobs. Eight in 10 respondents said the growing federal deficit threatened to affect their family's future, but 62% also feared the effect of widespread cuts to government spending. Meanwhile, by a wide margin, more people saw job creation as a higher priority than deficit reduction.

It's a classic problem of the modern welfare state. As government grows to accommodate increasing demands for economic security, the political system gets locked into a collective action problem that disables the systems capacity to respond to economic crises. The going would be a tad bit easier if the voters dump the Democrats in 2012, which will be tough but not impossible, especially of economic growth remains tepid. See, "Federal deficit on track for a record this fiscal year: Government debt to exceed U.S. economy."

And If You Let Me Cool You One Time...

Well, Bartender Cabbie and Lonely Conservative enjoyed the music yesterday, and since 100.3 The Sound's been jamming it, what the heck? Here's some Van Halen, "Ice Cream Man":

Islamic Gunman Screamed 'Allah Akbar' Before Opening Fire on U.S. Troops in Frankfurt

Previously, "U.S. Troops Murdered by Kosovar Muslim at Frankfurt Airport."

And at ABC News, "Gunman Shouting 'Allah Akbar' Kills 2 US Airmen in Germany: Obama Says U.S. Will Spare No Efforts in Investigating Killings" (via Memeorandum):

Yeah, Obama's gonna spare no efforts. Okay, well that's better than not speaking out at risk of doing "a great disservice to my people," although he's bent over backwards to appease Islamists in every single attack before this. And speaking of doing a "great disservice," hey, no doubt the New Black Panthers are breathing easy that the administration's "spared no efforts" in investigating that despicable case of thuggery and voter intimidation.

More at Hot Air, "Breaking: Attack on soldiers in Frankfurt bus, 2 dead; Update: Air Force, not Army, gunman identified; Update: Two airmen confirmed killed, two more wounded; Update: “Allahu akbar!”"

And especially Atlas Shrugs, "Details Emerge on Jihadi Arif Uka Who Opened Fire on U.S. Airmen Just Arriving From America."

U.S. Troops Murdered by Kosovar Muslim at Frankfurt Airport

The story's developing.

At Der Spiegel, "Shooting at Frankfurt Airport: US Soldiers Believed Among Dead in Killings." (At Memeorandum.)

And see Atlas Shrugs, "Frankfurt airport shooting: Muslim Kills Two, Wounds Two, in Shooting Attack on US military bus UPDATE: Shooter Shouted Islamic slogans during the attack on the bus." And Jihad Watch, "Frankfurt Airport murderer shouted Islamic slogans during the attack on the bus."

Also, at Gates of Vienna, "Murder in Frankfurt":

A culturally enriched gunman has killed at least two people, one of them an American soldier, at Frankfurt Airport.

It’s important to remember that this:

(a) is the act of a deranged loner,
(b) reflects the extremist ideology of only a tiny minority of the world’s Muslims, and
(c) has no connection with terrorism.

If the U.S. government hasn’t already issued a statement to that effect, it will shortly.

And at BBC, "Frankfurt Airport shooting: Two US servicemen dead":

Kosovo Interior Minister Bajram Rexhepi said in an interview that German police had identified the suspect as a Kosovan citizen from the northern town of Mitrovica.

"This is a devastating and a tragic event," Mr Rexhepi said, reports the Associated Press news agency.

"We are trying to find out was this something that was organised or what was the nature of the attack."

The interior minister for the German state of Hesse, Boris Rhein, confirmed the gunman was from Kosovo.

"Whether the incident was linked to terrorism I cannot say at this stage," he told journalists.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned the "terrible incident".

"I would like to say how saddened I am by this incident and I would like to assure you that the German government will do our utmost to investigate what happened," she told journalists in Berlin.

Four Islamists were convicted in March last year in Germany for plotting to bomb targets including Ramstein Air Base.

Last month the German parliament extended by one year the military mission in Afghanistan.

Germany has 4,860 troops there, despite domestic polls suggesting the mission's unpopularity.

Mobs and Slobs Turn Madison Into Progressive Pigsty

I mentioned last night that I was taking break from the union blogging, but it just keeps getting better.

First is the utter laugh riot over at Whiskey Fire, where dolt-douchebag Thers claims "that this is a damned disciplined protest." Yo, Einstein, getting up close and personal with screams of "F*ck you" in the face of a Wisconsin state legislator is not "disciplined." It's by definition mob rule. But it gets even better still. It turns out that Senator Grothman went on MSNBC last night and rebuked the filthy dirtbag protesters as a bunch of slobs:

And notice how Democrat State Representative Cory Mason responds with "these are police officers and firefighters and nurses and people who keep us safe." Yeah, and he might have mentioned officers from the Wisconsin Department of Corrections who harass citizen journalists with whistleblowing while their allied union thugs knock video cameras to the ground (toward the end of the clip):

Bunch of socialist scumbags.

At Althouse, "'You are a person against all of us. The whole nation is looking at you." — says an old woman with a "Solidarity" sign who gets right up in Meade's face...' (via Memeorandum). See also Hot Air and Legal Insurrection, "More Police Insurrection In Madison."

Yet More Union Thuggery: Wisconsin State Senator Glenn Grothman Trapped by Mob at Capitol Grounds

At Say Anything, "Wisconsin Protesters Mob Republican Legislator, Block His Entrance to The Capitol" (via Instapundit):

This all over Memeorandum, for example, at Gateway Pundit and Michelle's, "Mob rule video: Uhinged crowd corners Wisconsin GOP senator shouting “F**k you,” “Shame!”":

I got bad chills up and down my spine watching this group of crazed, pro-union Madison thugs gang up on a lone conservative in a public space just trying to do his job.

Been there, done that. It’s no fun.

Mass. Democrat Rep. Michael Capuano’s words “Get a little bloody” echoed in my mind like a soundtrack while watching the video clip.

The scene: The Madison, WI state capitol grounds.

The target: Wisconsin state Republican Sen. Glenn Grothman.

The mobsters: Anti-Scott Walker agitators shouting “Shame! Shame! Shame F***k you! F***k you!” while beating their tribal drums, blowing their horns, and hounding Sen. Grothman into an alcove.

First, they back him up on the side of a building, chase him across the lawn, and then corner him.

Sick to my stomach.

Revolutionary Socialist Union Rally in Dallas

Because, you know, they're not representative, or anything. Freakin' asshat commies. At The Blaze, "Working Together: ‘Revolutionary Socialist’ Leads Moveon.org Union Rally in Dallas":

Boy, those union hacks really hate screaming, "NO WAR BUT CLASS WAR."

Right.

Behold the mainstream of the Democratic Party base, as I've been reporting all along.

More at Red, White and Blue News, "Socialist propaganda, Code Pink, Marxist chants: Just a typical union rally in Dallas."

Both Ends Burning ... 'Till the End...

I'm taking a break from union blogging for a bit. Here's conservative rocker Bryan Ferry and Roxy Music, "Both Ends Burning":

Please don't ever let me down
'Cause you know I'm not so sure
Do I have the speed to carry on
Burn you out of my mind, I know
You're a flame that never fades
Jungle red's a deadly shade
Both ends burning, will the fires keep
Somewhere deep in my soul tonight
Both ends burning
Burning
Burn ...

The fires raging in my soul tonight
Oh will it never end?
Put your foot around the bend
Drive me crazy to an early grave
Tell me what is there to save tonight
Both ends burning
Burning
Burn
Keep on burning till the end, until the end
Keep on burning till the end, the very end ...

Update on New York Times Poll on Public Sector Unions

I wrote previously about the latest survey from the New York Times: "There's something fishy about this poll ..." One thing that bothered me was how the Times indicated that 25 percent of those surveyed included "a public employee in their household." And that's not quite right, as Ed Morrissey indicates:

... 25% of respondents are either public employees or share a household with a public employee. Federal employees comprise less than 2% of the workforce at around 2 million. Overall, the US has 22.22 million government employees out of an employed workforce of 130.27 million, according to the Current Employment Statistics survey at the BLS. Government employment accounts for 17% of all workers, so a sample consisting of 25% public-sector households for a survey of adults (not registered voters) seems a little off.

Anyway, that's a fantastic analysis. And while I'm at it, folks might check out William Jacobson's work as well, focusing on Public Policy Polling, "Skewed Sample Data Used In PPP Wisconsin 'Do Over' Poll." Here again, the survey's oversampling Democratic households. What's amazing, though, is that if it wasn't for bloggers analyzing the findings, most folks wouldn't know otherwise (see U.S. News, for example, "New Polls Bring More Bad News for Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker").

Natalie Portman Condemns Dior Designer for Anti-Semitic Slurs

At Jerusalem Post, "Portman condemns Dior designer for anti-Semitic words." And New York Times, "Natalie Portman Condemns Galliano‎":

The actress Natalie Portman, who has an endorsement contract with Dior for its Miss Dior Cherie fragrance, has strongly condemned its chief designer, John Galliano, for anti-Semitic remarks after a video surfaced of Mr. Galliano appearing to deliver a tirade in a Paris bar. In a separate incident, he was accused of verbally abusing a French couple last week in the bar. He was suspended Friday from Dior.

In a statement released Monday evening in Los Angeles, Ms. Portman said: “I am deeply shocked and disgusted by the video of John Galliano’s comments that surfaced today. In light of this video, and as an individual who is proud to be Jewish, I will not be associated with Mr. Galliano in any way. I hope at the very least, these terrible comments remind us to reflect and act upon combating these still-existing prejudices that are the opposite of all that is beautiful.”

RELATED: The Other McCain on Natalie Portman and feminist ax-grinders, "‘The Most Important Role of My Life’."

Poll Shows Support for Public Sector Workers

At New York Times, "Majority in Poll Back Employees In Public Unions." (Via Mememorandum.)

I checked the raw data and the sampling methodology. There's something fishy about this poll, and I wasn't quite sure. Yet, Allahpundit does a thorough fisking, and seems to think the survey's not an outlier after all: "CBS poll: 60% oppose stripping any collective bargaining rights from public workers." Basically, when push comes to shove the public stands firm on support for education, and by implication the larger public sector work force. More particularly, folks recoil at the idea of making real cuts that have real impact on people's lives. Let's face it, it's scary as hell to contemplate a lifestyle downsize, to say nothing of jettisoning old-age retirement security for the ups and downs of stock market pension accounts. But we'll know more in time. The Democrats may well have erred big time in their methods of obstruction, despite sympathetic trends in public opinion. And if the mainstream press were to widely feature pictures like this on a day-to-day basis, then the public would at least get more of the real-world information needed to make accurate and holistic decisions about public policy. Seriously. Look what's happened on ObamaCare. Opponents were right all along, and now the administration's letting go of its legislation piece by piece. As we move forward through 2011 we'll be hearing from states with way deeper fiscal sinkholes than Wisconsin, and the public will get to see new rounds of progressive tantrums over public benefits systems that are inherently unsustainable. In any case, the unions are hoping to keep the protest spirit going, and they've had the corrupted police union giving them the green light for further disruptions in Madison. They're finally clearing the place out now, so check Althouse for more on that, and then back here later today:

Public Sector Unions Bankrupting America

At Pajamas TV:

Previously: "The Battle of Wisconsin Rages On," and "Wisconsin Police Union in Solidarity with Progressives, Socialists, and Big Labor Squatters."

BONUS: "Public Unions and the Socialist Agenda."

No Support for Terrorism Whatsoever? Uncovering Students for Islamist Jihad at UCLA

My investigative report is up at David Horowitz's NewsReal Blog: "UCLA’s Palestine Awareness Week: Students for the Extermination of Israel."

ICYMI: See my initial report, "Israeli Apartheid Week, Students for Justice in Palestine, UCLA, February 23, 2011."

Public Workers and Political Power

An awesome editorial, at Wall Street Journal, "A Union Education":

The raucous Wisconsin debate over collective bargaining may be ugly at times, but it has been worth it for the splendid public education. For the first time in decades, Americans have been asked to look under the government hood at the causes of runaway spending. What they are discovering is the monopoly power of government unions that have long been on a collision course with taxpayers. Though it arrived in Madison first, this crack-up was inevitable.

We first started running the nearby chart on the trends in public and private union membership many years ago. It documents the great transformation in the American labor movement over the latter decades of the 20th century. A movement once led by workers in private trades and manufacturing evolved into one dominated by public workers at all levels of government but especially in the states and cities.

The trend is even starker if you go back a decade earlier. In 1960, 31.9% of the private work force belonged to a union, compared to only 10.8% of government workers. By 2010, the numbers had more than reversed, with 36.2% of public workers in unions but only 6.9% in the private economy.

The sharp rise in public union membership in the 1960s and 1970s coincides with the movement to give public unions collective bargaining rights. Wisconsin was the first state to provide those rights in 1959, other states followed, and California became the biggest convert in 1978 under Jerry Brown in his first stint as Governor. President Kennedy let some federal workers organize (though not collectively bargain) for the first time in 1962, a gambit to win union support for his re-election after his cliffhanger victory in 1960.

It's important to understand how revolutionary this change was. For decades as the private union movement rose in power, even left-of-center politicians resisted collective bargaining for public unions. We've previously mentioned FDR and Fiorello La Guardia. But George Meany, the legendary AFL-CIO president during the Cold War, also opposed the right to bargain collectively with the government.

Why? Because unlike in the private economy, a public union has a natural monopoly over government services. An industrial union will fight for a greater share of corporate profits, but it also knows that a business must make profits or it will move or shut down. The union chief for teachers, transit workers or firemen knows that the city is not going to close the schools, buses or firehouses.

This monopoly power, in turn, gives public unions inordinate sway over elected officials. The money they collect from member dues helps to elect politicians who are then supposed to represent the taxpayers during the next round of collective bargaining. In effect union representatives sit on both sides of the bargaining table, with no one sitting in for taxpayers. In 2006 in New Jersey, this led to the preposterous episode in which Governor Jon Corzine addressed a Trenton rally of thousands of public workers and shouted, "We will fight for a fair contract." He was promising to fight himself.

Thus the collision course with taxpayers.

More at the link above, and be sure to check the graph on the rise of public sector unions.

Petra Němcová Joins 'Dancing With the Stars'

And Kendra Wilkinson as well. This season's gonna be steamin'.

At LAT, "New 'Dancing With the Stars' cast announced":

ABC just has to maintain its presence at the water cooler. First with the Academy Awards. Then with Charlie Sheen. Now with the "Dancing with the Stars" lineup announcement.

We've all heard rumors. But the wait is finally over. The network announced the new cast during the East Coast airing of Monday's episode of "The Bachelor."

So let’s now (officially) take a look at who will be twirling (and/or fumbling) across the stage this season. Here are the folks likely to take up your time on Tuesdays and Wednesdays...

Click through for the roster. Kirstie Alley's a beauty, and geez, Ralph Macchio? Dancing with the Karate Kid.