Zombie Tea Party Coverage San Francisco

Excellent photo essay, as usual.

See, "Tea Party vs. US Uncut: A San Francisco Tax Day Showdown."

Palestinian Teens Arrested in West Bank Fogel Family Massacre

I saw this first at William Jacobson's, "Fogel Family Murderers Captured."

Also at Joshua Pundit, "Fogel Family's 'Palestinian' Murderers And Their Accomplices Arrested," and Uncoverage, "Two Palestinian Teenagers Arrested for Murders of Israeli Family of Five."

And see John Hayward, at Human Events, "West Bank Killers Captured":

The murder of the Fogel family was an invisible atrocity, reported in very muted tones by the global media despite (or, more accurately, because of) its lurid savagery. Udi and Ruth Fogel were a young couple with sons Yoav and Elad, aged 11 and 4, plus a three-month-old baby daughter named Hadas. They were “settlers,” which means “people who live in parts of Israel where terrorists say Jews are forbidden to live.” The family was slaughtered with guns and knives. Their 12-year-old daughter Tamar was away from the house on the night of the massacre ...

Today is the beginning of Passover, when Jews remember the night when the Angel of Death walked the streets of Egypt, passing over Jewish homes, which had been marked with the blood of lambs. The Angel of Death has been making up for lost time with the Jews ever since. These days, the blood of lambs flows from the open veins of children. The “civilized” world finds many excuses to ignore their murders, and grows colder in the process.

Mary Katharine Ham — 'A Taxpayer Can Dream: My Special Day with the IRS'

At Daily Caller:

See also the Wall Street Journal, "Where the Tax Money Is: Obama Targets the Middle Class While Pretending to Tax Only the Rich." (Via Memeorandum.)

BONUS: At Doug Ross, "Larwyn's Linx: I Repeat to the Trumka-Obama Class War Cult: Go To Hell," and TrogloPundit, "This Week in Automotivators, April 11-17."

Atlas is Shrugging in California

I probably should have avoided the movie reviews before seeing the new film version of Ayn Rand's magnum opus, Atlas Shrugged. Rand's relentless affirmation of the individual against the state would be censored if today's socialist saboteurs of the economy had their way. And thus the reactions among the progressives --- while not unexpected --- were simply visceral in their condemnation. Of course the eternally angry Roger Ebert panned the film, but a bevy of other reviewers were only slightly less disgusted. Roy Edroso's piece is actually quite hilarious, but I doubt the diarists at Daily Kos have even read the book: If it's about the supreme morality of individualism and markets, then scoffs and guffaws attacking "greed" is about as sophisticated a response as you'll get. And other reviewers are just piling on by now, for example at Creative Loafing Atlanta, "Atlas Shrugged. Critics Deplored. Ideologues Flocked":

... it's a monumental piece of crap.

Left-wing propaganda? Perhaps. But when The Atlantic's Megan McArdle threw in the towel, herself a connoisseur of the free market, that sure seemed like a little much.

But just in the nick of time comes Ed Morrissey at Hot Air, with a fabulous review, where he notes:

The best word to describe Atlas Shrugged Part 1 is … surprising. It’s surprisingly well-paced, surprisingly intelligent, surprisingly well-acted, and surprisingly entertaining. Perhaps most surprising of all, it has me thinking about re-reading the novel again. I would highly recommend it to friends and their families.

And he adds in an update:

I deliberately avoided reading reviews of the film until after I saw it first...

I'm not that disciplined, alas, but RTWT. And see also the outstanding piece by Vin Suprynowicz at the Las Vegas Review Journal. I'd quote it, but considering the Review Journal's a Righthaven partner, folks can just read it at the link.

I have to admit being a little disappointed in the film, a disappointment only partially influenced the left's anti-Randian diatribes. I just felt that it needed to be bigger somehow, bigger in reaching to the majesty of the novel. I know I'm idealistic. Atlas Shrugged is larger than life, especially life in these United States where to celebrate achievement and self-interest is to be attacked as a class warrior. (I know, it should be the other way around, but I just last week had debates with people who attacked conservatives as fomenting class warfare, strangely enough.) That said, I did like the movie. I liked it a lot. I think Taylor Schilling plays a perfect Dagny Taggart. Not too different from how I envisioned her. And the sleek cinematography was perfectly riveting. I know this is Part I of a trilogy, but the movie was short and I wanted more. I wish I could just go back out to see Part II this afternoon.

One thing I worried about was how well the filmmakers would be able to place the setting in present times, 2016, amid a crisis of severe economic dislocation (like we're having under the Obamacrats in D.C. and across the nation). After seeing the opening scenes, and thinking about it a bit more, the scenario of disappearing industrialists seems entirely accurate. Indeed, as I've been reporting here of late, in California we've got the same kind of wrecked economy that Ayn Rand inveighed against. The Los Angeles Times was touting the expansion of the tech sector in February --- 100,000 new jobs were created --- while burying the lede on lingering massive unemployment in the state. But then the March job numbers --- unemployment edged back up to 12.1 percent --- forced the paper to be more honest. And then this weekend the Orange County Register published a devastating piece on the exodus of 69 businesses from the state for the first quarter of 2011. Reading the top ten list of reasons for businesses bailing is a jaw-dropping experience, but one that I'm getting used to. Between Sacramento and Washington, California can't get a break. Indeed, state officials have taken a fact-finding trip to Texas in hopes of stemming the flow of jobs to the Longhorn State and elsewhere.

Let's hope it gets better. For the past two years, the old Sunset Ford dealership in Westminster has been vacant, a symbol of the depression-like marketplace that hammered key sections of the local economy. For more than 40 years Sunset Ford did business at the intersection of the 22 and 405 Freeways, and so it was a shock to see that enterprise close its doors in 2009. And despite the Obama administration's economic stimulus, the location remains idle, like a ghost town:

Here's the old Sunset Ford sign, in disuse with no indication of replacement, down the way along Garden Grove Boulevard next to the 22 Freeway. It's a constant reminder of a collapsed marketplace:

As I was returning home, I saw this fellow with his homeless sign at the Jamboree offramp at Interstate 5. Notice the sign asks not for handouts, but for help finding ANY work.

This was a couple of weeks ago, and later that afternoon I went shopping at the District in Tustin. Borders is closing its location there, one of the 200 stores nationwide going belly up:

They were unloading everything:

But copies of David Remnick's recent book on the Radical-in-Chief weren't moving so well, and that's at 60 percent off:

And elsewhere around the mall stores have had trouble staying open , so it's not just Borders over here:

And checking over at Jamboree and Main Street in Irvine, this copying business, MyPrint, consolidated with an equity firm and closed this location. The local printing market is pretty messed up:

A lot of commercial real estate available throughout the Irvine business district.

I'm not sure what this was, probably a restaurant. This is down by Lake Forest, off the 5 Freeway:

I haven't had a chance to update with more pictures over the last couple of weeks, and not for lack of material. That said, there's indeed some robust sectors of the economy, especially entertainment and high tech. But overall California's economy is stagnating, and it's not going to improve as long as Democrat-socialists continue to sabotage the business climate with high taxes to fund out-of-control spending.

Sounds like something out of a movie, or something.

Protesters Booed the National Anthem at Sarah Palin Rally in Madison?

Freedom Eden has a roundup featuring this video:

But Althouse disagrees, specifying exactly what was happening, "Did the anti-Tea Party protesters boo the national anthem at the Madison rally yesterday?:

I'm seeing some assertions about this on blogs and in YouTube videos, and it's wrong if not unfair and deceptive ...

Meade and I have observed some of the most raucous rallies at the Capitol over the last 2 months, and the national anthem was sung many times, by the protesters themselves, and we witnessed respect for the anthem. In fact, you could go into the rotunda and start singing the anthem and people would go silent and even sing along with real feeling. They might have resented having to switch to solemnity when they were into raucousness, but they knew very well that they had to at least look like they respected the anthem.

Ann says that protesters yesterday were just successful in drowning out everything, and no doubt, especially with hate-addled progressives equipped with vuvuzelas:

Ann wants to be fair, and it helps of course to have been there. That said, Gateway Pundit has this: "TrumkaObama Thugs Scream, Curse, Beat Drums, Blow Whistles & Make Obscene Gestures During Palin’s Wisconsin Speech" (via Memeorandum).

This what democracy looks, or so they say.

Patterson School of Diplomacy, University of Kentucky, Screens Steven Soderbergh's Che to Commemorate Fiftieth Anniversary of Bay of Pigs

According to Robert Farley, who is Assistant Professor of International Relations at the Patterson School, University of Kentucky.

See his entry at Lawyers, Guns and Murder: "Happy Bay of Pigs Day!"

Seriously. This is not a joke.

Farley indicates that watching the Che movie is "In support of my COIN seminar this semester..." Farley's seminar spends a week reading books on "the other side," including two on Che Guevara. I'm looking over the assigned readings, and it's "assumed" that students will read David Petraeus', U.S. Army/Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual, which is arguably the most important work on counter-insurgency published in the post-Vietnam period. Hopefully they'll have read it in time for its "deconstruction" in Week 4: Time for the Deconstruction of Field Manual 3-24. But better to "assume," since Farley wouldn't want to overload the students. In Week 12 they have to wade through "The Runaway General," at Rolling Stone, the article that helped bring the early retirement of General Stanley McChrystal, former Commander of the International Security and Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan. Some former uniformed personnel had only the warmest thanks for McChrystal's service, and no doubt McChrystal wasn't thrilled that President Obama was handing out medals to troops who did not kill the enemy. Now that's important! So I'm sure Professor Farley has students spend extra time studying the administration's debilitating Rules of Engagement (ROE) that have placed American lives at risk. And that's not all! Farley features Firedoglake's Spencer Ackerman as a guest speaker during that same week. Ackerman, who's also a military affairs writer at Wired, infamously quipped on Christmas 2009 that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's attempted airline bombing was "a joke" about how some guy was trying to "set off firecrackers" on a plane in a "failed bid for relevance." Boy, that's one crack seminar!

But hey, rejoice! Our future diplomats are in the best of hands! As I note at Farley's post:

The Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce is a propaganda outlet for the Cuban Revolution? Hey, way to train America’s next generation of diplomats! No doubt students get target practice as well, so they’ll be prepared to put the bullet in the next generation of counter-revolutionaries — just like Che!!

Whooo heee!!!!

RELATED: Some alternative readings for Farley's next "counter-insurgency" seminar. See Adam Hassner, "Why The 50th Anniversary of The Bay of Pigs Should Matter To All Who Cherish Freedom." And Babalú Blog, "April 17, 1961."

BONUS: From Ron Radosh, "Marx in the American Academy: When Will its High Priests Ever Learn?"

EXTRA: At ABC News, "Cubans Mark 50th Anniversary of Failed Bay of Pigs Invasion: Country Celebrates 50 Years of Staying Power and Standing up to America."

Tea Party Reshapes New Hampshire Calculus

At WSJ, "Movement Emerges as Wild Card for Republican Hopefuls In Presidential Primary Often Dominated by Independents"

CONCORD, N.H. — In the brewing battle for New Hampshire, the tea party is emerging as a wild card for Republican presidential hopefuls who want the movement's energy but must also appeal to the state's crucial independent voters.

The nominal GOP front-runner, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, appears to be hedging his bets on the tea party. He was a no-show at a tax-day, tea-party rally at the state Capitol here Friday, choosing instead to talk taxes in Florida.

By contrast, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, whose low-key demeanor and blue-state roots were once considered his strong suit, fired up the faithful at the rally. In a rousing speech, he hit at what he called "the triangle of greed" that feeds off ordinary Americans: Big Government, Big Unions and Big Bailout Businesses.

"Let's send them this message: Don't tread on me," he told about 500 tea partiers, many carrying a yellow flag bearing that same phrase.

Independent voters, however, have been fickle in the Granite State, and it is not clear how they will respond to that kind of rallying cry.

Interesting piece. There's more at the link.

And see Frontloading HQ for the list of 2012 candidates. Six Republicans have either announced a presidential exploratory committee or simply thrown a hat in the ring: Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, Tim Pawlenty, Buddy Roemer, Mitt Romney, and Rick Santorum. I'm not feeling a vibe for anyone here as the tea party candidate. Sarah Palin put a fire under media speculation yesterday following her barnburner in Madison. But she's still quiet on a formal announcement. I think Herman Cain's going to have a nice base of support, but we'll see how strong a contender he turns out to be. He's working on it, that's for sure. He's been truckin' it up to New Hampshire, as we can see with this clip from Brad Marston's shop:

And see The Last Tradition, "GOP prez hopeful Herman Cain Gives Rousing Speech at Tax-Day Rally: We Need Some ‘Altering & Abolishing’."

Psycho Killer, Qu'est-ce que c'est ...

Well, since I'm trippin' on old music, this Talking Heads clip is surprisingly fresh:

And a shout out for The Other McCain, since I've missed linking over lately.

Animalistic Progressives

At Althouse, "How animalistic, frenzied, loud, rude, and desperate was the Wisconsin Capitol today?"

Andrew Breitbart confronts an angry union mob in Wisconsin," Says Instapundit, quoting Breitbart, who goes on about how ugly the "mob" was today at the Capitol:

[T]he defeats that the union’s leadership have suffered in that time have plunged these losers into an even more animalistic state of frenzy. Still stinging from last week’s election reaffirmation of Gov. Scott Walker’s policy of requiring public sector unions to face some of the economic realities that the rest of us have to deal with, the counter protesters both homegrown and bussed in them were louder, ruder and more desperate than ever....

Whoa!

Speaking of animalistic, here's VOM. Looks like it's filmed in Huntington Beach, but as it's 1976, who the heck knows?

Rule 5 Roundup — Summer Weather Edition

Wonderful weather we're having.

Click image to enlarge (via Theo Spark):

And don't miss Bob Belvedere's fabulous Rule 5 entry from earlier this week: "Rule 5 News: 15 April 2011 A.D."

Here's the link-around:

Anyway, here's some link around action: 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, PACNW Righty, Pirate's Cove, Proof Positive, Saberpoint, Snooper, WyBlog, The Western Experience, and Zion's Trumpet.

Plus, top it off with with American Perspective, Maggie's Notebook and Zilla of the Resistance.

Let me know if I need to add your blog to the roundup.

Even More Progressive Civility!

Leftists truly are the biggest racists, just ask REPSAC = CASPER = RACIST.

Even more radical left civility:

Via Breitbart TV, where you'll want to read the comments as well.

Andrew Breitbart Slams Progressives at Madison Tea Party!

What a combination!

Andrew Breitbart introducing Sarah Palin. Come to think of it, he introduced her when I saw Palin in the O.C., and he gets better each time:

Via Gateway Pundit, "ANDREW BREITBART Confronts the Angry TrumkaObama Leftist Mob, “You Can Go to Hell! Go to Hell!”"

And don't miss James Pethokoukis, "Palin in Madison: Veni, Vidi, Vici":

Will she run? Even many of those close to Team Palin have no idea. Palin herself may not have made a decision and may not feel she needs to until the autumn. But as it stands, she arguably represents the purest expression out there of Tea Party passion and free-market populist rejection of Washington’s bipartisan crony capitalism. If she ran, her high-wattage appearance in Madison shows just how dangerous her candidacy would be to a field of solid but stolid opponents.

RTWT at the link.

Also at New York Times, "Palin Speaks at Tea Party Rally in Madison." And lots more at Memeorandum.

More Progressive Civility

My previous entry is mild compared to this:

Friends of REPSAC = CASPER, no doubt. To say nothing of the flag/ass-wipers at Lawyers, Gays and Money, especially epic asshat Scott Eric Kaufman.

Progressive Civility

It'a an oxymoron, I know, like "jumbo shrimp."

But you gotta get a load of Paul Krugman, who's just voicing the truth of what progressives practice all the time. See, "Civility is the Last Refuge of Scoundrels":

At the beginning of last week, the commentariat was in raptures over the Serious, Courageous, Game-Changing Ryan plan. But now that the plan has been exposed as the cruel nonsense it is, what we’re hearing a lot about is the need for more civility in the discourse. President Obama did a bad thing by calling cruel nonsense cruel nonsense; he hurt Republican feelings, and how can we have a deal when the GOP is feeling insulted? What we need is personal outreach; let’s do lunch!

Hey, now let's see Krugman go after the enemies of Sarah Palin, who were showing their true colors today in Madison. William Jacobson's got that: "Public Employee Union Dance-a-Thon Practice In Madison":

On display in Madison, Wisconsin today, as related to me by reader Jim, who sent this photo:

"This guy was next to me screaming for two hours. Here he is showing civility and tolerance to Sarah Palin."

Why Did Islamists Kill Vittorio Arrigoni?

Seriously. The guy was on their side.

Fox News reports, "Kidnapping of Italian Activist in Gaza Challenges Hamas' Authority." The killers are allegedly rogue operatives. But still. Arrigoni was an ISM activist. How stupid. You'd think they'd murder Zionists. And even Hamas terrorists aren't pleased? See Los Angeles Times, "Body of Kidnapped Activist Found in Gaza City":

The body of kidnapped Italian activist Vittorio Arrigoni was discovered in an abandoned house just hours after a radical Islamist group announced that it was holding the Palestinian advocate in exchange for the release of its leader, Gaza officials said Friday.

The slaying drew immediate expressions of shock and condemnation from Palestinian leaders, Gaza Strip residents and Arrigoni's colleagues, who said the 36-year-old had come to the Gaza Strip in 2008 with the advocacy group International Solidarity Movement to help Palestinians in the impoverished coastal territory.

It was the first abduction of a Westerner in Gaza since 2007 and, human rights officials said, the only instance of such a kidnapping victim being slain.

On Thursday, a small Islamist group with links to Al Qaeda posted a video of a bloodied, blindfolded Arrigoni. The Tawhid and Jihad group set a late Friday deadline for the release of its leader, who had been arrested by Hamas, the Islamic militant group that has controlled Gaza since 2007.

On Friday, the group retracted its claim of responsibility but defended the killing, saying it was the result of Hamas policies.

And folks can see what to make out of this. Ultimately, progressive anti-Semites will blame Israel.

UPDATE: At Director Blue, "... [Some] fear that radicals who want Gaza to be an Islamic theocracy are bold enough to challenge Hamas over what they consider its lack of religious fervour.

Sarah Palin Rallies Madison Tea Party! — VIDEO ADDED!!

No doubt today's big story is Sarah Palin in Wisconsin.

The Right Scoop has video, "Sarah Palin to Obama: You ignored us in 2010, but you cannot ignore us in 2012!" (via Memeorandum). Also, at Gateway Pundit, "SARAH PALIN – ANDREW BREITBART Join Thousands of Patriots at Madison Tea Party (Live on UStream) …Update: Thugs Heckle Sarah Palin …Update: Sarah to Obama, “Mr. President, Game On!”"

Ann Althouse has lots of coverage and is still working on uploads. Here's this from her coverage so far, "'Tea Party: How About a Nice Cup of... SHUT THE F@*K UP!'":

I'll update with a YouTube clip when that becomes available, as well as any other cases of progressive thuggery --- which shouldn't take long, actually.

Okay, here's the video, via Gateway Pundit (more from Althouse later):

Academic Bloggers

Actually, I'm not much of an academic anymore. I'm a teacher and an activist, although I keep up with the current academic literature in international relations fairly well. But who knows? Maybe that's enough to qualify for a write-up at the New York Times. Ann Althouse and Glenn Reynolds are featured at this piece, and they're bloggers as much as they are scholars: "Big Blog on Campus." That said, political scientist and communist Henry Farrell is mentioned as well, for the group blog Crooked Timber. (Henry's a lying asshat who's quoted there, "I guess if you use fake facts it’s easier to write editorials in favor of unlimited and unaccountable state power to detain U.S. citizens." Fake facts? Henry Farrell traffics in them, and when critics call him out on it, he bans them from Crooked Timber, as I wrote previously here.)

Anyway, pictured at the Times' piece is Eugene Volokh (of Volokh Conspiracy), who looks nothing like I imagined --- much younger in fact.

And here's yours truly at yesterday's tea party in Oceanside. A wonderful woman asked if she could take my picture with her Sarah Palin sign! I handed her my camera while she was at it.

By the way, William Jacobson deserves mention in any academic blog roundup, especially when blog rankings are a key indicator.

Lee Fang, RIP

I don't remember ever reading a more devastating takedown of a progressive smear-merchant, and that's saying something.

See John Hinderaker, "CONTANGO CONFUSION":

The basic problem with a site like Think Progress is that its "reporters," ill-informed, uneducated, inexperienced amateurs like Lee Fang, try to write about subjects of which they have no understanding. Worse yet, they slander the very people who do understand those topics -- the people who produce products and make our economy go.

Now go read the whole thing (via Memeorandum).

Mission Viejo and Oceanside Tax Day Tea Parties!

I'm beat. I'll finishing posting my coverage of the tea parties tomorrow. For now, below at top are two pictures from Oceanside, which was the evening tea party with well over a thousand people on hand. The two pictures at bottom are from Mission Viejo, where patriots gathered at the intersection of Marguerite Parkway and La Paz Road at 4:30pm.

Until morning, check Carolyn Tackett's report, "Welcome to the Tampa Tax Day Tea Party!"

House Votes on 2012 GOP Budget Plan

I'm watching the floor debate on C-SPAN, at the suggestion of Brittany Cohan.

There's lots of buzz online, for example, "Obama: GOP tried to 'sneak' agenda into budget," and "Drama erupts on House floor as conservative budget goes down."

I enjoyed Rep. Paul Ryan's presentation, which recaps his recent promotions and interviews:

I'm heading out right now to meet my wife for lunch. After that I'll be grading papers for a couple of hours. Then I'm heading to a tea party in Mission Viejo at 4:30pm and then meeting Left Coast Rebel at the Oceanside Tea Party at 6:00pm. Should be lots of great coverage, so check back tonight.

Until then ...