'Better This World'

The New York Times has a review of the PBS broadcast out this week, "Better This World."

See: "Film Is Skeptical About Domestic Efforts on Terrorism." The most interesting thing is how the filmmakers and activists they interviewed are determined to delegitimize the word "terrorism."

The film had an Oscar-qualifying theatrical release here last week, but it will reach many more people when it has its television premiere on Tuesday night on “POV,” the PBS documentary series. Simon Kilmurry, the executive director of “POV,” said it was timed to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

“The legacy of 9/11 is something we’re all living with today, and these are some of the issues that I think tend not to get looked at very closely,” Mr. Kilmurry said.

In a pairing of sorts the next “POV,” on Sept. 13, will show “If a Tree Falls,” a documentary about the Earth Liberation Front, a radical environmental group that set fires and was labeled a domestic terrorist threat by the F.B.I. in 2001. One of its former members, Daniel McGowan, who pleaded guilty to arson charges, says in that film, “People need to question, like, this buzzword” — terrorist — “and how it’s being used and how it’s, like, just become the new ‘communist.’ ” He adds, “It’s a boogeyman word.”

The “Better This World” filmmakers, Katie Galloway and Kelly Duane de la Vega, said they came away from their reporting with a recognition that use of the term “domestic terrorist” had broadened dramatically since the Sept. 11 attacks. “In the media and in the legal realm it’s marshaled for all sorts of political agendas, and it’s complicated,” Ms. Galloway said.

Framing is obviously important, and it can work. Look how frightened people are of being called "racist" even when they're not. Progressive love to attack folks as "racist," but when authorities clamp down on left-wing domestic terrorists, that's a "boogeyman." Typical.

As for Brad Crowder and David McKay, the subjects of the film, they were both idealistic and stupid. They wanted to change the world, got involved in far left-wing causes, and planned a trip to Minneapolis where organizers had planned to "shut the place down." Now how might they do that? By placing flowers in barrels of police shotguns? No, they had planned for streetfighting, even assembling shields and first-aid kits, and when that stuff was confiscated by authorities charged with securing the convention, they screamed "police oppression" and went off to build Molotovs. The only part that's "complicated" is the link to a government informant, Brandon Darby, who had strong creds in radical left circles following Katrina. But he turned state. Crowder and McKay fell under his sway, and some of those in the circle of organizers planned for violence and Crowder and McKay got caught. From Texas, they became known as the "Austin Anarchists." This part's especially good, from Michael May, at the Texas Observer, "The Infamous Austin Anarchists—in Their Own Words." The two carpooled it to Minneapolis, and May picks it up as they got to town:

Things became more testy when the five Austinites pulled into St. Paul. The federal government gave St. Paul $50 million to secure the convention. Authorities raided the homes of activists associated with the RNC Welcoming Committee before the convention started. Darby’s presence in the van assured that the group was under scrutiny. The activists dropped the trailer off at a house so they wouldn’t draw attention, but on the way into the city, the van was stopped by police with their guns drawn. They pulled everyone out of the van and had them lie on the ground before letting them go. Later, when the group returned to the trailer, they found it had been cleared of the shields and the rest of their supplies. The police took them, but didn’t explain their actions or reprimand them.

After the shields were taken, Crowder and McKay decided to make Molotov cocktails in retaliation. “When we got up there, the situation was superheated,” says Crowder. “The police were breaking the law left and right. They broke the law when they searched the trailer. They broke the law when they searched us at gunpoint. The atmosphere is like a military siege. And Brandon Darby has been providing us with his influence, encouraging us to step up our game. So it was confluence of forces and our particular rage and frustration that led us to make a bad decision. We thought, the [police] want to go to the walls; we don’t have to stand for this. We’re going to stand up for ourselves right now. It was an emotional feeling we went through.”

The two got Molotov supplies from a Walmart and a gas station. Within a few hours they were in the bathroom pouring fuel into wine bottles. Crowder says making the Molotovs was thrilling because of their potent symbolism as a revolutionary tool. “It’s a categorical break with official society,” he says. “With the shields, it was illegal, but still in scope of nonviolent resistance. With Molotov cocktails, that’s a flaming middle finger to official society.

"There is no middle ground to Molotov cocktail,” he says. “It’s raw. No good. It’s like with David and Goliath. Molotov cocktails are the proverbial stone. It was all we knew to go to in those times, the first thing in our swirling heads that we stumbled upon.”

They soon calmed down, Crowder says. "The next morning, David and I had slept on it. And we were in a different place. And we knew as heated as it was, it wasn’t the right time. It’s not Egypt. Not Libya. And we decided not to use them.”

When the rest of the group found out about the Molotovs, they confronted Crowder and McKay and told them they had made a terrible decision. One of the group told Darby what was going on and asked him to help stop it. Crowder and McKay left the firebombs in the basement and went to the protest, where they dragged dumpsters into the street and otherwise made a ruckus to stop delegates from reaching the convention. Crowder was arrested and jailed on a misdemeanor.

During that time, Darby and the FBI closed in on McKay. Darby wore a wire and asked McKay about his plans. The conversation wasn’t recorded, but the FBI took notes that state McKay said he planned to throw the Molotovs at a parking lot full of cop cars. McKay now says he was just posturing for Darby. “I didn’t want him to think that I was scared, scared of what was going to happen or afraid of him,” says McKay.

Crowder, who hasn’t spoken to McKay since the day he was arrested, believes that’s the only explanation that makes sense. “David had plenty of opportunity to use those things and never did,” Crowder says. “You got to separate macho talk from actual actions. At end of day, he’s not that guy. He wanted to man up for Brandon.”

McKay and Darby agreed to meet at 2 a.m. to use the Molotovs, but when the time rolled around, McKay blew it off and stopped responding to Darby’s calls and texts. At 4:30 a.m., McKay was awakened by a police officer pointing a rifle at him. He was asleep next to a girl he’d met in St. Paul. In about an hour, he was planning to leave for the airport to fly back to Austin.

McKay took his case to trial, arguing that he’d been entrapped. The trial ended in a hung jury. He added a story that he was eventually forced to admit was a lie, that Darby had directed them to make the Molotovs. McKay eventually pled guilty to making the Molotovs and to perjury. He was sentenced to four years in prison. Crowder pled guilty to possessing the Molotovs and received two years.

Actually, they were rightly convicted. Police informants or not, the two acted on their own. Probably the smartest thing they did was decide against actually throwing Molotovs. But there'll be others. Indeed, thanks to police efforts we've been spared the waves of left-wing revolutionary terrorism for which progressives keep agitating.

Mitt Romney at Tea Party Express Rally in Concord, New Hampshire

The Other McCain's got the coverage: "VIDEOS: Pro-Romney, Anti-Romney and Mrs. Romney at Concord, N.H., Tea Party."

At at The Australian, "Mitt Romney plays the callow card."

PREVIOUSLY: "Their Optimism Rising, Republican Voters Look For a Winner."

Their Optimism Rising, Republican Voters Look For a Winner

At New York Times, "G.O.P. Voters Seek a Winner":

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Roy Barbuto is on the hunt. For the past few months, he has been searching for the perfect Republican candidate, and he shows no signs of flagging.

Mr. Barbuto, 61, a service technician here, had already seen Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota (“She was excellent”), the former pizza executive Herman Cain (“He intrigues me, because here is a man who clearly knows what to do businesswise”) and former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts (“If he was elected, he could certainly do the job”). Now, he was finishing up dinner at a house party in Chichester, N.H., waiting to take a measure of Gov. Rick Perry of Texas.

“I’m not just looking for a candidate to beat the president,” he explained. “For me, the purpose of the next president is to restore the pride that this country has always had.”

In interviews with more than two dozen people in New Hampshire and Iowa over the Labor Day weekend, voters said they sensed a new vulnerability to President Obama.

But while they expressed a strong sense of optimism in the prospect of winning the White House, they were looking for a candidate who could not only prevail in a general election, but be a forceful conservative leader for a tumultuous time.

RTWT.

Folks are looking for "someone who can create jobs."

Video Hat Tip: Da Tech Guy, "Voices of the Tea Party: A Sarah Palin supporter."

The Complexities of Life

I am extremely pro-life. I can barely think of an instance in which I'd support an abortion, although perhaps rape or incest. I'm mostly opposed to what abortion has become in this country, just another form of birth control. Life is so devalued by so many. While I'm always thrilled by how many conservative students I have in class, I'm horrified sometimes by the aggressive and/or nonchalant student attitudes toward killing the unborn.

That said, I remember especially when my first son was born. I hoped for a healthy child because I didn't know if my wife and I would have the strength and resources to raise a child with mental or physical challenges. I was less concerned when we were expecting my second son, but it's something that always kind of bothered me, to think that way about having a child, say, with Down syndrome.

In any case, my oldest is fifteen now. Science has progressed. By this time questions of "choice" among prospective families are more widely available (options for "fetal-DNA testing"), and frankly, more of a shop of horrors for the designer-child movement. It's all more horrifying, and I keep using that word because all this about whether we should kill. Whether parents should take the life of an unborn child, a baby not yet born into God's physical space. I cry sometimes when I read those "happy abortion" stories I blog about occasionally. It's so deathly.

Anyway, I'm just reminded of this by reading this incredibly intense and personal story at Toronto's Globe and Mail, "I’m glad I never had to decide whether my strange, lonely boy ought to exist." It's a longish piece but worth a few more minutes than normal. Ian Brown's son Walker was born with cardiofaciocutaneous syndrome (CFC). Ian asks his wife Johanna if she'd have aborted Walker if at the time they'd had the availability of current genetic testing:

“Would you have taken the test and had an abortion,” I once asked my wife, “if there had been one?” It was his loneliness I couldn't bear, the boy's own sad sense of how different he was. Somehow he knew that.

“If there had been a test when I was pregnant that revealed what Walker's life would have been like, I would have had the abortion.”

“But then you wouldn't have had Walker,” I said.

Suddenly Johanna began to move around the kitchen a little faster. “You can't say that after I've known Walker – would I have done something to get rid of him? It's one thing to abort an anonymous fetus. It's another to murder Walker. A fetus wouldn't be Walker.”

“What do you think the world would be like without people like Walker?” I asked. It was an obnoxious thing to ask. “Without kids like him, I mean, kids who have real setbacks.” Fetal-DNA testing makes this more and more of a possibility.

I'll always remember her answer. “A world where there are only masters of the universe would be like Sparta,” she said. “It would not be a kind country. It would be a cruel place.”

By then she was crying.

Ian Brown is the author of The Boy in the Moon: A Father’s Journey to Understand His Extraordinary Son. There's a review at New York Times, "What Disabled Children Teach Us." It's a wise essay, and it ends peacefully. And all of this makes me count my blessings and also gird myself for the next challenges for me and my family, for surely they will come.

Happy Labor Day to Opus #6!

That's my friend Opus #6 of MAinfo. We met at the Michele Bachmann rally at Knotts Berry Farm in early 2009. Opus left a wonderful comment at the blog yesterday, at my essay, "Housing Downsizing!":

This housing downsizing post has to be my favorite American Power post of all time. Probably because I downsized in June. And the kids and I, though a little cramped in our 3-br rented condo, are enjoying the community pool with lots of friends to play with, way less stress worrying about bills and repairs, and extra money in the checking account. I also loved seeing your mom. You and I are in the same generation and our parents are on the same track. She looks lovely. And a sweet nurturing woman is a blessing to any family.

I pray that you and your family enjoy the new digs. That you have many happy days in your new place, lots less stress and building character as your kids observe you handing the changing nature of our society and economy not with bitterness but with courage.

I responded at the post.

It means a lot. I've met many wonderful people through blogging. We share our lives online and we meet in person as well. Have a great Labor Day, Opus!

9/11, Ten Years After: American Muslims Join the U.S. Mainstream?

Last year, when protests erupted in Temecula over a planned mosque there, I wrote:

Are folks in Temecula a bit intolerant? Or are we now going to prohibit the construction of mosques whenever there's local opposition?

I didn't follow up so much, but the mosque was approved by the city council in January and construction could begin in February 2012. And while I could be missing some details of the local protests, I think it's good. Conservatives must affirm freedom of religion. What gets lost in the debate over New York's Ground Zero Mosque is that opponents never denied the developer's right to build. It's way beyond that, in fact. Clearly it's been a sham development all along, with the purpose of bilking government and erecting a center for Islamist supremacy. There's never been concern among Imam Rauf and Daisy Khan for the families of the fallen. The lies have been too blatant and unending. That mosque shouldn't be built. It's a question of what is right, not who has the right.

That said, I guess I'm still ambivalent, despite my commitment to constitutional principles. Americans aren't getting the whole story. And those who speak out are branded as vicious racists. For my part I want to be firm but fair. On the one hand, I want to place my trust in people like M. Zuhdi Jasser, who I met at the Horowitz retreat earlier this year. (Recall his essential article from September 2010, "Questions for Imam Rauf From an American Muslim," and here.) On the other hand is someone like UCLA’s Hamzah Baig, the lead organizer for Students for Justice in Palestine. I interviewed him earlier this year. He might as well have been working for Hamas. So, I've personally been engaging and interacting with people from the both sides of the religion (the extreme side in the case of UCLA's quasi-terrorists). At home, in the Irvine community, the Muslims I bump into at my kids' schools or the playgrounds are mostly to themselves, even self-segregating rather than integrating. And honestly, on occasion I'll see Islamic women with the full burqa. I literally would not be able to talk to a woman in a burqa, because I read lips and I obviously need to see someone's face. So of course the burqa is physically intimidating, and it's a symbol of religious repression.

For all that, I appreciate the efforts of some Muslims to work in their communities to build ties and friendships. Yesterday's Los Angeles Times had another feature in its 9/11 series, and it's worth a look, "Thinking outside the 'Muslim bubble'":

Maria Khani was at her computer that September morning, working on an Arabic textbook. The small TV on the desk was turned to Al Jazeera. Suddenly, news came: A plane had struck the World Trade Center. Minutes later, she watched the screen as the second plane hit.

Khani sat frozen, questions racing through her mind: "Oh, my God, what do I do right now? Is everything that I built … gone?"

For five years, she had been planting the seeds of goodwill with Americans of other faiths. What if it was all for naught?

Unlike many Muslims who hunkered down after Sept. 11 and let national religious organizations defend their rights and make their case in the public square, Khani resolved not to retreat into the safety of silence, but to press on with her efforts over the years to become a part of her community, one neighbor at a time.

When Khani walked out of her house that day in a well-to-do Huntington Beach neighborhood, on a block of large houses and palm-shaded driveways, neighbors approached with no hint of rancor or suspicion. Their message: "We know who you are, we know about your faith, and we support you and we will take care of your kids."

This was not the experience of every Muslim American. Many recall the first months and years after Sept. 11 with dread: the detentions, the airport searches, the suspicious stares, racist epithets and worse. In response, some sought safety in a low profile.

The decade since the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon has seen a shift in the way many American Muslims negotiate their delicate position as a minority group associated, fairly or unfairly, with the perpetrators of the deadliest acts of terrorism in the nation's history.

As the years wore on and the hostility continued, even intensified, a number of American Muslims became disenchanted with the official campaigns for acceptance. They began to see that a voice — their voice — was missing from the conversation about Muslims' place in America.

They took matters into their own hands. Their efforts have been as idiosyncratic as the individuals involved. They have been as simple as inviting a non-Muslim neighbor to an iftar, the sunset meal that breaks the fast during the monthlong observance of Ramadan. They have been as life-changing as making a commitment to educate one's children in a religiously diverse public school instead of a Muslim private school.

Khani and others involved in such outreach attempts believe — and this is supported by opinion surveys — that Americans are less likely to harbor anti-Muslim feelings if they get to know even one Muslim.

When they do, they find that American Muslims, many of them immigrants or the children of immigrants, share with them many of the same values, including a rejection of extremist violence, appreciation of hard work and support for women taking an active role in society, according to polls.

RTWT.

I could quibble with a couple of the characterizations (President Bush went out of his way to remind Americans that we're not at war with Islam). But overall that sound about right to me, and I hope especially that we see more and more examples that Americans Muslims are indeed rejecting extremist violence. For example, at ABC News, "Cousin of Fort Hood Shooter Speaks Out Against Violent Extremism." And at the San Bernardino Sun, "Poll: American Muslims reject extremism." That's good news.

I'll have more on this in upcoming posts.

David Hillman, Swash Zone Libel-Blogger, Wishes GOP Happy Labor Day: 'F*** You, Republicans!!!'

Isn't that a nice touch of national unity for the holiday?

From progressive libel-blogger David Hillman, at The Swash Zone, "Fuck You, Republicans!!!"

I thought progs were supposed to be all about civility? Seriously. A couple of co-nihilists even call out David Hillman, a.k.a. (O)CT(O)PUS, in the comments, and the libel-blogging loser offers this pathetically hypocritical response:

Frankly, I expected a negative response to this post, and undoubtedly there will be more criticism to come … even, I suspect, from fellow creatures of the Swash Zone. Why did I post this, you ask?

Yes, the GOP has been ruthless; and no, I never wanted to stoop this low.

However, the American public is paying a terrible price with no end in sight. Broken marriages, broken families, and blighted neighborhoods due to lost jobs, lost homes, and depravation unworthy of this country. Real human suffering, yet the Republicans think balancing the Federal budget is more important than human health, safety and welfare. Worst of all, Republicans are holding the nation hostage to gain every possible partisan advantage - rather than addressing the full scope of this human catastrophe. I call this a callous disregard bordering on evil!

Republicans seek the elimination of these programs: The Departments of Education and Health and Human Services, the EPA, FEMA, Medicare, Social Security, all public defined-benefit pension and retirement accounts, union rights, food safety inspections, and now ... Hurricane Hunter flights.

HOW CAN ANYONE REMAIN CIVIL ANY LONGER? I can’t and I won’t! Mutual respect has won us nothing. If pushback is what it takes, then pushback is what they’ll get.

Sheesh. That ought to make Thomas Hobbes proud, nasty and brutish, you think??!!

But despair not my good conservatives! The thread turns supportive, and (O)CT(O) gets some combative huzzahs from Captain 'Can't Go Long' Fogg:

For my part, I think the moral, decent, modest high road goes nowhere, as much as it pains me to say that. If someone is going to rob me, I can't afford to worry about getting my clothes wrinkled and muddy. If we are fighting for our lives and freedom; if it's us against the Devil, I'm not going to politely ask the honorable Mr. Satan to be reasonable and accommodating, I'm going to ridicule and expose, persecute and prosecute by any legal means at my disposal. I'm not going to let people get away with seditious lies and that of course would be just what the damn Republicans would wish for -- for us to be all cozy and decorous and polite while they invade our personal liberty and reduce our civilization to an oppressive and brutal state with workhouses, debtor's prisons, disease and starvation.

Goodness! Make way for Fogg -- that Extenze must have some horrific side effects!

But of course, this is nothing new. All these guys do is offer sick platitudes, like the president, simply to end up proving themselves a bunch of bleedin' liars. See: "Swash Zone's Cyber-Bully Harassment Escalates!," and "Libel Blogger David Hillman (Swash Zone) Workplace Harassment Fail." And recall this is exactly the kind of "civility" we've long been used to from W. James "Costanza" Casper = RACIST = Repac3, longtime ally and hate-blogging recruiter to (O)CT(O)PUS:

What a fuckin’ dick.

There’s just no other way to say it…

Donalde Douglass is an embarrassment to… …well… …pretty much every lump of mashed potatoes he sticks his dick in…

Pathetic.

Stay classy, progressive hatemongers.

Uncle Onyango Update!

This story is worth an update, for a number of reasons. One is that Michelle's written a must-read entry on Uncle Onyango at her syndicated column: "America’s Uncle Omar Problem."

Two is this clip at The Blaze: "CARNEY: OBAMA WAS ‘COMPLETELY UNAWARE’ OF ILLEGAL UNCLE’S ARREST." Yeah. Right.

And three is this ace comment from Colton Smith at my original entry:

How did he receive a social security card? How did he receive a license? Something is not right here! It's one thing to have a DUI...people make mistakes...it's another thing to be illegally living in the United States! Makes me wonder if he's also getting government welfare on the taxpayer's dime? Why didn't CNN or NSNBC not have any coverage on this?? This is serious...why in the world is his uncle and aunt here illegally?? No wonder obama hasn't done anything about immigration reform! This obama guy is the laughing stock of the United States...it's a disgrace that we even elected this idiot! We look like fools right now...we look weak! I will do everything in my power to make sure he does not win re-election. I am forever grateful for the fact that I can proudly say that I did not vote for this crook! God bless The United States of America...God bless Israel.

Dude, keep those comments coming. That is gold!

Dick Morris: Will Obama's Job Speech Backfire?

Via John Hawkins:

RELATED: At Pat Dollard, "Breaking His Promise, Obama Now Says He Won’t Reveal Full Jobs Plan On Thursday."

The Myth of the Digital Native

An interesting piece from Josh Sternberg, at The Atlantic, "Social Media's Slow Slog Into the Ivory Towers of Academia." The "myth" of the digital native holds that students don't actually know as much about digital technology as some professors claim, and the myth holds because professors are afraid of being shown up by savvy students. At community college there's something of a digital divide ---- so there really is a myth of the digital native --- but there's still a core of students on the cutting edge of technology. So, we can learn from our students, but it takes professors to give up some control over learning so that it's a conversation in the classroom rather than a disquisition. That doesn't work all the time, since I believe students need frequent chalk and talk lectures to impart the important stuff that they simply don't know. But soliciting feedback on an area of learning where students have a homefield advantage creates win-win situations. Besides, it's a lot more fun to talk about the cool stuff.

Chevy Runs Deep

Via Althouse, "How did Chevrolet manage to make such an effective commercial?"

You pull on the heartstrings. We've all felt like this, with or without a Chevy pickup:

Sarah Palin Runs Unannounced Half-Marathon in Storm Lake, Iowa

Greta Van Susteren has a photo, "Governor Sarah Palin is running!"

And another one from Josh Hafner at Des Moines Register, "Sarah Palin runs unannounced in Iowa half-marathon." Palin stays in excellent shape. That's awesome.

And from Robin Abcarian at Los Angeles Times, "Sarah Palin runs half-marathon incognito in Iowa." RTWT. Palin registered under her maiden name, Sarah Heath.

BWHAHAHA!! — Charles Johnson Sycophant Killgore Trout Whines Over 'Shocking Heartlessness of Conservatives'

This is hilarious, especially for its utter predictability.

I found this post from Little Green Footballs at my Sitemeter: "Is Erick Erickson Ashamed of His Fellow Creationists?" That's a Google link, but click through at the top result and scroll down to comment #19, and voilà!, there's cud-munching Killgore Trout blabbering on about my horrible --- HORRIBLE!! ---- insensitivity:

The always shocking heartlessness of conservatives. Instapundit links to this update on the man who died from a dental problem because he couldn't afford treatement: 24-Year-Old Cincinnati Man Dies of Toothache After Brilliantly Filling His Pain Medication Prescription Instead of Antibiotics.

And with LGF being completely infested with progressive robots, Little Green Troll Gus 802 decided to look up my employer information on Google. Checking back at that top link, and scrolling down to comment #44, we see this:

Consider the source. American Power is a blog written by Donald Douglas who teaches history at Long Beach City College. He probably has a dental plan payed for by the California community college system. Another one living off the government system yet constantly railing against the machine.

Gus 802's not too smart, of course. I teach political science, not history. Duh. And not only that, I'm not "living off the government" but employed by a public college --- big difference. But playing along with the stupidity, I wasn't "living off the government" until I was 39-years-old. In fact, back when I was 28, living in Fresno and unemployed, I started having pain along the gums at the back of my mouth. Turns out my molars were inflamed and the dentist recommended I have all four of my wisdom teeth pulled. That was going to include full anesthesia (going under for the procedure) as well. Total cost was to be $750. And you know what, I put it on credit and paid down the balance out of pocket. And I'm insured now --- not because someone is sponsoring me on the dole, but because I spent 13 YEARS IN COLLEGE earning three political science degrees and landing a job in my field as a professor --- and that's after I beat out over 150 candidates for my position when I applied. So, yeah, LGF dickwads, I'm hardly gonna start bawling about a guy who refused to dig down deep for $27 for some antibiotics. Besides, the comments on this have been pure gold, for example, this one, from Adjoran:

I thought Yglesias and the leftists were all about evolution and Darwin.

They should be hailing his decision to cleanse the gene pool of those too dumb to deal with an abscess even after consulting a doctor.

That's gotta be the perfect response to an epic airhead LGF entry entitled: "Is Erick Erickson Ashamed of His Fellow Creationists?"

RELATED: "Charles Johnson Browbeat Forbes' Abigail Esman After She Correctly Noted That Anders Breivik Voluminously Cited Little Green Footballs."

P.S. When I get back to work on Tuesday, I'm won't to be surprised to find that these lowlifes contacted my college. Recall, back in January, Gus 802 tweeted Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Governor Jerry Brown hoping to get Patterico fired.

Classic. That's what progressives do. And this time I'll be ready for it.

Erin Heatherton Victoria's Secret

We're coming into the fall fashion season, and I'll have loads of Victoria's Secret blogging. No word yet on a date, but I'm seeing giveaway announcements for "a Chance to Win a trip to the 2011 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show." I'll keep updating. As someone said last year, these are the most beautiful women in the world:

All the better for Rule 5 blogging, which I love, especially since it pisses off the progressive ayatollahs and feminist totalitarians.

Obama 2012: The Candidate of Fear and the Status Quo

From Toby Harnden, at Telegraph UK, "American Way: Barack Obama, 2008 man of hope and change, becomes 2012 candidate of fear and status quo."

So how much trouble is Barack Obama in? Well, it doesn’t get much worse.

His approval rating is hovering just above 40 per cent. Unemployment is stuck at 9.1 per cent; the White House forecast that it would be about 6.5 per cent by now if its economic stimulus plan was passed. Essentially, the American economy is grinding to a halt.

More importantly, what is Obama going to do about it? In terms of policy, the White House has run out of whatever ideas it ever had.

Obama, who declined even to comment on the latest jobless figures on Friday, is like a rabbit caught in the headlights.

Having squandered the first two years of his presidency ramming through a healthcare reform that could not win the support of a single Republican on Capitol Hill and is now mired in the courts, he finds himself confronting a divided Congress.

So the only thing that matters to the people around Obama, who are eager for another four years of employment, is his re-election. I’ve long thought that Obama himself is lukewarm about continuing in a job where the adulation he is used to is in short supply. For Democratic powerbrokers, however, maintaining their grasp of the White House is everything.

Read it all at the link. After bungling everything else, Obama's still got fearmongering. Also, at Legal Insurrection, "He always was the “candidate of fear”."

Sarah Palin at Indianola: 'Polls Are for Strippers and Cross Country Skiers...'

At Sarah PAC: "Governor Palin's Speech at the “Restoring America” Tea Party of America Rally in Indianola, Iowa (Video and Transcript)" (via Memeorandum).

Her comment about "polls and strippers" is just after 11:00 minutes.

Robert Stacy McCain has some commentary and links: "People Who Like Sarah Palin Liked Her Iowa Speech; Ace of Spades, Not So Much." Also, "Palin’s Pressure on Perry."

And additional reporting from yesterday: "VIDEO: Sarah Palin's Iowa Speech — No Announcement on Presidential Run."

Obama Administration Works to Stall Palestinian Statehood at the U.N.

Good luck with that.

At NYT, "U.S. Appeals to Palestinians to Stall U.N. Vote on Statehood":

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has initiated a last-ditch diplomatic campaign to avert a confrontation this month over a plan by Palestinians to seek recognition as a state at the United Nations, but it may already be too late, according to senior American officials and foreign diplomats.

The administration has circulated a proposal for renewed peace talks with the Israelis in the hopes of persuading the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, to abandon the bid for recognition at the annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly beginning Sept. 20.

The administration has made it clear to Mr. Abbas that it will veto any request presented to the United Nations Security Council to make a Palestinian state a new member outright.

But the United States does not have enough support to block a vote by the General Assembly to elevate the status of the Palestinians’ nonvoting observer “entity” to that of a nonvoting observer state. The change would pave the way for the Palestinians to join dozens of United Nations bodies and conventions, and it could strengthen their ability to pursue cases against Israel at the International Criminal Court.

Right.

Meanwhile, enemies of Israel leave comments like this at YouTube:

Jews stole and are stealing land from the Palestinians. Jews are subhumans. And jewish girls are harier than apes. And their nose is bigger than their penises. Jews are ugly as fuck. Fuck Israel. Give Palestinians their land back you landstealing parazides.

America's Taken a Hammering Since 9/11, But ...

From Richard Littlejohn, at London's Daily Mail, "America's taken a hammering in the decade since 9/11. But never doubt that it can rediscover its awesome self-belief":

My family connections with the U.S. stretch back almost half a century. I’ve been a regular visitor since 1969, the year of the moon landing and Woodstock.

Although it is a vast continent, there are ties which bind all Americans from New York’s wealthy Upper East Side to the kind of tumbleweed, one-horse towns familiar from movies like The Last Picture Show.

The proud patriotism which European liberals despise and mock is both genuine and sincere. It cuts across class, religious and racial divides.

Most people in the U.S. still subscribe to the notion of American ‘exceptionalism’: the idea that theirs is a unique nation, forged from revolution; underpinned by a properly functioning democracy and the rule of law; blessed with abundant natural resources, human ingenuity and endeavour; and insulated by geography and military might ...

The American Century may have come crashing to a tragic halt on 9/11, but we must all hope the U.S. soon recovers its sense of purpose and self-belief.

I still have faith in the American capacity for ingenuity, enterprise and reinvention. The idea of American exceptionalism may be battered, but it hasn’t been extinguished.

We need a strong, confident, optimistic, outward-looking America. It’s still the planet’s last best hope. If you doubt that, imagine living in a world dominated by those bastions of liberty, China and Russia. The EU is a basket case, riddled with corruption and duplicity.

The U.S. has always emerged stronger from wars and economic depression. Despite the traumas of the past decade, it still can.

As we prepare to remember those who died on 9/11, let’s pray nothing else bad happens.

Do RTWT.

I agree with Littlejohn entirely, and the something else bad happening would be Obama's reelection, so it's not as if things are outside of our control. The GOP has work to do, and I won't be sitting on the sidelines. When the going gets rough, Americans roll up their sleeves. But sometimes it feels as though only half the nation represents heartland America, which is the repository of our historical goodness. That other half just hates our exceptionalism and wants to destroy all that has held us together for so long.

More on this later, as always ...

Unseen Photographs Throw Light on First World War

At Independent UK, "Exclusive: The unseen photographs that throw new light on the First World War."

A treasure trove of First World War photographs was discovered recently in France. Published here for the first time, they show British soldiers on their way to the Somme. But who took them? And who were these Tommies marching off to die?

The slideshow display works pretty well. Scroll forward to picture #46 to see a black artillery soldier flanked by two white comrades. That's gotta be trippy for 1915.

Sixty Arrested as English Defence League Clashes With Police in East London

At BBC, "EDL protest in east London sees 60 arrested":

And Bare Naked Islam has a huge write-up, "Pro-Muslim (UAF) and Muslim Fascists clash with English Defence League (EDL) patriots at Tower Hamlets protest."

And a live blog at this leftist website, FWIW.