North Korea to Olympians: No Medals Means Labor Camp

From Ericka Andersen, at the Heritage Foundation:

What if not winning a gold medal in the Olympics meant being cast out of society and forced into a labor camp when you returned home from London?

Such is the fate awaiting some North Korean athletes who fail to bring home medals. Adding insult to injury, the athletes are actually forced into training at a young age by the Communist Party’s Sports Committee.

While North Koreans are dedicating their wins to their “Dear Leader” Kim Jong-un, the fear of failure terrifyingly fuels the drive to win.

Medal winners will return home to prize money, cars, and other lavish gifts as the government demonstrates its appreciation for illuminating North Korea positively on the world stage. Gold medalist Kim Un-Guk, who set an Olympic record in 62-kilogram weightlifting this year, said he “won first place because the shining Supreme Commander Kim Jong Un gave me power and courage,” according to ABC News.

Continue reading.

Brianna Keilar Fact Checks the New "Priorities USA" Ad

Someone said yesterday that this was the most reprehensible ad of the season. See: "Ad linking Romney to death of the wife of a laid off steelworker not accurate."

And see The Other McCain, "BREAKING: Lying Democrats Lie About Lying Democrat Ad Full of Lying Lies."

Australia's Sally Pearson Wins Women's 100-Meter Hurdles

I posted on the race earlier, "American Lolo Jones Takes Fourth Place in London Olympics 100-Meter Hurdles."

But Sally Pearson deserves a post of her own. Her technique over the hurdles is perhaps the best, most naturally smooth I've ever seen. What an accomplishment.

At the New York Times, "Top Two Finishers in Beijing Trade Places":

LONDON — As Australia’s Sally Pearson sailed over hurdle after hurdle Tuesday, a crowd of 80,000 at Olympic Stadium erupted in a roar, but she said she could not hear a thing.

It was like she was racing the 100-meter hurdles by herself, churning her legs in silence as the finish line grew near. So when she turned to see Dawn Harper of the United States next to her as they crossed the finish, it startled her.

“Wow, she’s really close,” Pearson recalled thinking. “Did she come first?”

Deep down, though, Pearson said she knew the gold medal was hers. And she was right. She saw her name pop up on the scoreboard and collapsed to the track that was moist with rain, sobbed and let the moment sink in.

“I’ve got every title now that I’ve ever wanted to win,” she said.

Pearson set an Olympic record with her time of 12.35 seconds, and Harper was right behind her in 12.37 to win the silver medal. Kellie Wells of the United States, who finished in 12.48 seconds, won the bronze. Lolo Jones, also of the United States, was fourth.

RTWT.

PHOTO CREDIT: Wikimedia Commons.

Chick-fil-A's Rachel Elizabeth Accepts Apology from Drive-Up Hate Guy Adam Smith

She's forgiven him.

What a classy lady all around, at London's Daily Mail, "'I feel sorry for him and his family': Chick-fil-A worker bullied by executive says she wants to meet him.

'Romney Hood'

President Obama's class warfare attacks have become downright shameful. I'd be embarrassed If I were him.

See John Avlon, at the Daily Beast, "Obama’s ‘Romney Hood’ Tactic Reveals His Own Tax Problem":

The president’s ‘Romney Hood’ strategy is clever, but his argument for raising taxes on the rich is a social-justice ‘fairness’ one rather than an economic one—which Americans may see as socialism.

And at the Wall Street Journal, "The Romney Hood Fairy Tale":

As he escalates his class war re-election campaign, President Obama has taken to calling Mitt Romney's economic plan "Robin Hood in reverse" or "Romney Hood." The charge is that even though Mr. Romney is proposing to cut tax rates for everybody across the board, Mr. Romney will finance this by imposing a tax increase on the middle class. His evidence is a single study by the Tax Policy Center, a liberal think tank that has long opposed cutting income tax rates.

The political left always says Daddy Warbucks gets all the tax-cut money. So this is hardly news, except that the media are treating this joint Brookings Institution and Urban Institute analysis as if it's nonpartisan gospel. In fact, it's a highly ideological tract based on false assumptions, incomplete data and dishonest analysis. In other words, it is custom made for the Obama campaign.

By the way, even the Tax Policy Center admits that "we do not score Governor Romney's plan directly as certain components of his plan are not specified in sufficient detail." But no matter, the study plows ahead to analyze features of the Romney plan that aren't even in it.

Continue reading.

Egyptian Military Fires Missiles at Suspected Islamist Terrorists in Sinai

At the Times of Israel, "At least 20 killed as Egypt strikes back at suspected terrorists after checkpoint.

Also, at Yedioth Ahronoth, "Egypt army kills 20 terrorists in Sinai":

Troops, jets kill terrorists, destroy armored cars after Sinai attack that killed 16 Egyptian border guards. Earlier, armed men, security forces clashed at Sinai checkpoints.

Alexandra Raisman Wins Gold Medal in Floor Exercise

She's so sweet.

At Detroit Free Press, "Aly Raisman wins gold in floor exercise, overshadows Gabby Douglas, Jordyn Wieber":

LONDON -- It was a historic Olympics for the U.S. gymnastics team and a puzzling one. Just ask Aly Raisman. On the final day of competition, Raisman, the team captain and its most consistent performer, overshadowed Gabby Douglas, the star, and Jordyn Wieber, the star-crossed.

For Raisman, who will leave with three medals, the most of any U.S. gymnast, these Games were a jumble of emotions.

There was joy: Raisman became the first U.S. woman to win a gold in floor exercise after she performed what she called the best routine of her life Tuesday, to the music of "Hava Nagila."

"To have it be at the Olympic Games, in the finals, is just really amazing and just a dream come true," she said. "That's what you work for your whole life." This, after the U.S. won the team gold for the first time since 1996.

More at that top link.

And at the New York Times, "A Wait That Paid Off in Gold and Bronze."

Aliya Mustafina!

Robert Stacy McCain has been all over the U.S. water polo reporting, for example, "USA! USA! USA!", and "Go for the Gold, Melissa Seidemann!" Or, well, he's been all over Melissa Seidemann, I should say.

But I tweeted him the other day:

.@rsmccain, I know you're digging water polo, but I'll tell ya, Russia's Aliya Mustafina was sweet on uneven bars. #Olympics
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) August 7, 2012

I know she's Russian, but Aliya Mustafina is a fascinating athlete, especially her facial expressions. Matt Stopera at BuzzFeed picks up on that, big time, "The Ultimate Aliya Mustafina Tribute."

See also the New York Times, "Russia's Mustafina Wins Gold in Uneven Bars" (and check the photo here as well).

Marvin Hamlisch, 1944-2012

The man wrote some extraordinary music.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Marvin Hamlisch dies at 68: Sudden, brief illness halted busy life":

Marvin Hamlisch, the stage and film composer who created the memorable songs for "A Chorus Line," has died at 68. The composer died on Monday in Los Angeles after collapsing from a brief illness, his family said in a statement.

One of the most decorated composers in entertainment, Hamlisch had won a Tony Award, three Academy Awards, four Emmy Awards and the Pulitzer Prize for drama.

Hamlisch was still active just weeks ago. In his role as lead conductor of the Pasadena Pops, he conducted a July 21 concert at the Los Angeles Arboretum with Michael Feinstein....

In Hollywood, Hamlisch wrote music for the movies "The Way We Were," "The Spy Who Loved Me" and "Sophie's Choice." In recent years, he teamed with director Steven Soderbergh on "The Informant!" and the upcoming "Behind the Candelabra," a biopic of Liberace.

American Lolo Jones Takes Fourth Place in London Olympics 100-Meter Hurdles

She wasn't the best athlete, not even close.

That photo is from Doha in 2010, via Wikimedia Commons.

And here's Bill Plaschke, at the Los Angeles Times, "Heat was on Lolo Jones, and she got burned":

LONDON — In the end, the most hyped Olympian was also the most alone.

Lolo Jones finished the 100-meter hurdles in a desperate lunge, stood by the finish line staring up at an Olympic Stadium scoreboard that registered a fourth-place finish and then slowly walked away.

She didn't stick around to congratulate the two medal-winning Americans, both of whom had questioned her enormous pre-race publicity. She didn't hang out to schmooze with fans who have increasingly questioned her sincerity. The cloudy and cool London skies broke into a steady drizzle as she walked into a tunnel and fought back tears.

"I guess all the people who were talking about me, they can have their night and laugh about me," she said.

It's a nasty business, this Olympic star-making machine. These athletes have one chance every four years to rake in the real gold, the endorsement and appearance money that helps compensate them for years of training. Most agree they would be fools to turn down that chance to capitalize on their success and enhance the quality of their often budget-strained lives.

Yet when Olympic athletes seek and embrace this publicity, they are criticized unless they have the medals to back it up. We chuckle at a guy like Terrell Owens working the system even though he has never won a Super Bowl, but heaven forbid an Olympian does the same thing, and shame on that Olympian if she is a woman.

In the middle of this double standard is where Lolo Jones found herself awkwardly standing Tuesday after, once again, her performance did not back up her buzz.

"I'm really disappointed in myself, and I felt like I let a lot of people down," she said, fighting back tears. "I just feel like a big disappointment."

The way she was viewed by many, anything less than a gold medal followed by a marriage proposal from Tim Tebow followed by a pole dance would have been a disappointment.

Jones entered these Olympics as a Time magazine cover girl, a partially nude ESPN model and Jay Leno's guest. She was an empathetic figure after losing a gold medal in 2008 in Bejing when she hit the penultimate hurdle in the final. She was an embraceable figure after sharing a background that include living in a Des Moines Salvation Army church basement. And, of course, to many she was a sexy figure with her good looks and openness that included talking about her virginity at age 30.

Put it another way: This was the only Olympian who went on national television and wondered about asking Tebow for a date...

Continue reading.

Jones' race in Beijing 2008 is here. She would've had the gold, but repeats don't come easy, as events showed.

And all that publicity didn't come easy, either. The New York Times ripped Jones in a feature story the other day, "For Lolo Jones, Everything Is Image."

RELATED: At the Washington Post, "Sally Pearson wins Olympic gold to boost Australia's ailing Olympic campaign; Jones misses out."

Wade Michael Page Was Neo-Nazi White Supremacist, Not Conservative

Following up from my earlier entries, "London's Daily Mail Features Wade Michael Page Pictured Before Huge Nazi Banner in Write-Up on Oak Creek Massacre," and "The Oak Creek Massacre and Political Ideologies."

I want to reiterate the point that the slain suspect Michael Wade Page was not a conservative, he was a Nazi. I think the problem people have is whether or not fascist or Nazi ideologies can be placed at the far-right of the political continuum. I mentioned Bob Belvedere's post, for example, "Sikh Shooting: Don’t Buy The Leftist Lies." And linked there is William Jacobson, who writes:

Needless to say, the MSM and left-blogosphere have concluded the shooter was a white supremacist/neo-Nazi based on tattoos and being a former member of what they describe as a “skinhead” band — which they then obscenely generalize to be “right-wing,” a way of trying to link him to the political right. This is the age-old tactic. If Page was a white supremacist/neo-Nazi/skinhead, then he stood against everything the political right stands for.

That's not a problem, per se, to locate Page on the "far-right." Conservatives routinely use the term "far-left" in referring to hardcore progressive radicals and neo-communists. The left-right ideological spectrum has been used that way for over 200 years, since the French National Assembly --- after the toppling of the Ancien Régime --- arrayed political factions from the radicals (on the left) to the reactionaries (on the right). While folks can question that seating arrangement as arbitrary and historically isolated (time-bound), nevertheless since then talk of modern political ideology has employed that left-right axis.

It's way too simplistic, of course. [This chart below is at Wikipedia's "political spectrum" page.] This chart below is at The Liberty Papers. This is just one example of how ideology is complicated by situating ideological adherents according to their relationship to political freedom. There are different examples we could use, although for simplification this graphic may serve for basic discussion, even though the placement of Adolf Hitler is too far to the left (since government did not own the means of production in Nazi Germany). The best chart I've used is found in Patrick O'Neil's, Essentials of Comparative Politics, which uses this basic graphic but plugs in ideological labels, such as "socialist" and "fascist" into the template. [This section is updated with the strike through indicating the revision.]

Another complicating factor in analysis is an ideology's orientation toward race and racial identity. Both Marxian socialism and Nazi millenarianism emphasize cleansing aspects to the social order. Marx was Jewish but despised religion as the "opiate of the people," and he has often been cited as one of the founders of Europe's historical anti-Semitism. But Italy's fascists, while originating in leftist socialist-labor circles, later specifically identified Marxian socialists as the political enemy. As the Interwar Period wore on, Mussolini's brand of fascism became increasingly identified with Hitler's Germany. The key difference, however, was that the Nazis' fundamental orientation was toward preserving the purity of the Medieval German "volk," which was idealized as the perfect "Aryan" race, and thus the establishment of the Nazi Third Reich would restore a master race of pure-bred Germans to the center of Europe.

The Soviet Union, however, especially it its pre-Stalinist development, was in principle committed to ethnic assimilation under the banner of Marxist-Leninist ideology. Political scientist Gail Lapidus discussed this in a 1989 ariticle in Foreign Affairs, "Gorbachev's Nationalities Problem":

The "Leninist compromise" created a federal system that granted political-administrative recognition and the symbols of nationhood to a number of national groups (whose historical homelands now became nominally sovereign republics within the U.S.S.R.) and committed itself to the development of their national languages and cultures. At the same time, it was built around a highly centralized and increasingly authoritarian party organization imbued with a radically internationalist ideology.

A fundamental tension was thus built into the Soviet system from its very origins: the federal structure offered an organizational framework and political legitimacy for the protection and advancement of the interests of national groups, but at the same time Soviet ideology anticipated the ultimate dissolution of national attachments and loyalties and sought the creation of an integrated political and economic community based on universal Soviet citizenship. What balance to strike between these two orientations has remained an enduring dilemma in Soviet politics.

The Stalin era was marked by a dramatic shift toward greater centralization, cultural Russification and the repression of non-Russian national elites. The rights of republics and autonomous regions were whittled away, their boundaries arbitrarily redrawn, and the populations of some liquidated or forcibly resettled during World War II, as in the cases of Crimean Tatars, Kalmyks, Chechen-Ingush, Volga Germans and Meskhetian Georgians. National histories were rewritten to emphasize the progressive character of Russian imperialism, and criticism of Great Russian chauvinism came to an end. Central economic ministries treated the entire territory of the U.S.S.R. as a single complex, establishing new industries and relocating workers without concern for republic boundaries. The cultivation of national languages and cultures was replaced by a process of Sovietization that was sometimes indistinguishable from Russification. The imperial features of the Soviet system were further strengthened during World War II with the forcible annexation of the Baltic states, the western Ukraine and Byelorussia, and part of Moldavia.

Notice the stress at the last paragraph on the priority of Russian dominance as the key to Soviet nationalities policy. But that's more a political development more than an ideological one. The Soviets, for example, sought to assimilate Jews not as a religious group but as a national one. The Soviets even tried, unsuccessfully, to establish a Jewish national homeland within the Soviet Union, called the Jewish Autonomous Province (Oblast). In Russia today the entity is known as the Jewish Autonomous Region.

The point here is that the recognized far-left and far-right ideological formations of the early 20th century created radically opposed orientations toward race and ethnicity (but not toward the concentration of political power). The Nazis called for the extermination of the Jews, as well as gypsies (mainly Eastern Europeans) and the disabled. The Soviets, in the Leninist compromise, sought a multi-national compromise for lack of any realistic alternative, since more than 100 ethnic groups formed the multi-national state of the early Soviet Union. That's not to say there wasn't ethnic cleansing or genocidal eliminations (just ask the Ukraines, for example). But it does point to an extremely complicated set of world historical circumstances that create huge obstacles for the easy ideological pigeonholes partisan attempt to exploit today.

Here's one more example. Recall I mentioned Robert Paxton's book earlier, The Anatomy of Fascism. While lots of conservatives today like to place fascism on the left of the spectrum, and not without good reason, it's worth noting (see Liberal Fascism), fascist ideology often does merge toward racial exclusionism. Early fascists focused on romanticism and the elevation of a populist "chosen people" who would fulfill the destiny or mission of a self-identified group of people. Hitler's Mein Kampf, published in 1923, rested on explicit master race theories, and these were accepted in Italy as well, in Aldo Bertele's, Aspetti ideologici del fascismo in 1930. As Paxton writes of the emergence of fascism in the 1920s, at his introduction:

Fascism ... was a new invention created afresh for the era of mass politics. It sought to appeal mainly to the emotions by the use of ritual, carefully stage-managed ceremonies, and intensely charged rhetoric. The role programs and doctrine play in it is, on closer inspection, fundamentally unlike the role they play in conservatism, liberalism, and socialism. Fascism does not rest explicitly upon an elaborated philosophicalsystem, but rather upon popular feelings about master races, their unjust lot, and their rightful predominance over inferior peoples. It has not beengiven intellectual underpinnings by any system builder, like Marx, or by any major critical intelligence, like Mill, Burke, or Tocqueville.

In a way utterly unlike the classical “isms," the rightness of fascism does not depend on the truth of any of the propositions advanced in its name.Fascism is “true" insofar as it helps fulfill the destiny of a chosen race or people or blood, locked with other peoples in a Darwinian struggle, and notin the light of some abstract and universal reason. The first fascists were entirely frank about this.

We [Fascists] don’t think ideology is a problem that is resolved in such a way that truth is seated on a throne. But, in that case, does fighting for an ideology mean fighting for mere appearances? No doubt, unless one considers it according to its unique and efficacious psychological-historical value. The truth of an ideology lies in its capacity to set in motion our capacity for ideals and action. Its truth is absolute insofar as,living within us, it suffices to exhaust those capacities [A. Bertele].

The truth was whatever permitted the new fascist man (and woman) to dominate others, and whatever made the chosen people triumph.Fascism rested not upon the truth of its doctrine but upon the leader’s mystical union with the historic destiny of his people, a notion related toromanticist ideas of national historic flowering and of individual artistic or spiritual genius, though fascism otherwise denied romanticism’sexaltation of unfettered personal creativity.

The fascist leader wanted to bring his people into a higher realm of politics that they would experiencesensually: the warmth of belonging to a race now fully aware of its identity, historic destiny, and power; the excitement of participating in a vast collective enterprise; the gratification of submerging oneself in a wave of shared feelings, and of sacrificing one’s petty concerns for the group’s good; and the thrill of domination. Fascism’s deliberate replacement of reasoned debate with immediate sensual experience transformed politics as the exiled German cultural critic Walter Benjamin was the first to point out, into aesthetics. And the ultimate fascist aesthetic experience,Benjamin warned in 1936, was war.

The emphasis on collective salvation is key to fascism, as it's an ideology that fetishizes the state. And in that sense, in contemporary American politics, it's the hard-left that venerates the state over the individual. The left romanticizes state power, and the natural tendency of that ideology is to suppress deviations from the approved collective program. We see it time and again, in the neo-statist programs of the Obama administration and in the social policy fascism of the left's homosexual rights agenda. You can't step out of line. Further, that strain on the left departs radically from the constitutional liberalism (libertarianism) of the tea party.

So let's be clear: Wade Michael Page was a Nazi. He espoused racialist theories and white supremacy. He was thus not at all within the mainstream of conservative thinking today, no matter what the MSM hacks will try to tell you. Still, it remains inaccurate to attempt a simplistic left-right placement, and it's simplistic to argue that only the left is totalitarian. Here's the key: With the exception of some on the left, no one in American politics today openly espouses Alolph Hitler's racial exterminism (Hitlerism, in Jonah Goldberg's formulation, which left-wing anti-Semites approximate). Moreover, while conservatives naturally repudiate hard-right racialist theories, many on the left today openly venerate Stalinist ideology. The ANSWER Coalition --- which has been perhaps the leading hard-left protest organization for the last decade --- traces its background to the Stalinist World Workers Party. Folks like this are widely embraced by progressives, at my college, for example, and during the left's "One Nation" protest in D.C. in 2010. There's is nothing remotely equivalent among conservatives, or in William Jacobson's words, "on the political right" today. To the one, when extremists or racists showed their faces at the tea parties they were repudiated and ejected from the events. What we call the conservative movement today repudiates the "far-right" that hacks like Jonathan Capehart exploit for political gain. Not so on the America's contemporary "far-left."

So there you go. There might be a couple of conservatives who might favor a bit more clearly defined categories (putting fascists entirely on the left, for example), but it's not like that. Despite complications, though, there's still plenty of difference between the main antagonists in American politics today to make a left vs. right framework useful, as I mentioned above. That left-right ideological continuum is the established frame to discuss the programs of the major political actors. Historians and political scientists have deployed that framework for over a hundred years. There's nothing wrong with keeping it, as long as people are clear about the practical differences of today's major political formations. The left today, what we would call the progressives and the Obama-Democrats, are authoritarian in orientation, with combined attributes of hard-line socialist dogma and fascistic strains in the social realm. Wade Michael Page doesn't fit easily on that side of spectrum, but Jared Loughner does. And even Anders Behring Breivik fits better on the left of the spectrum than the right, despite the the left's "blame-righty' attacks after the Norway shooting. Indeed, one of Breivik's heroes is hard-left progressive Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs.

RELATED:

* At London's Daily Mail, "Revealed: Sikh temple gunman was being monitored by feds before massacre - as 911 call from shooting is released."

* At Fox News, "Sikh Temple Shooter Michael Wade Urged Fellow White Supremacist to get Involved."

* At the Guardian UK, "Wade Michael Page's acquaintances recall a troubled man guided by hate."

* At the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinal (via NBC 26 Wisconsin), "Shooter's Odd Behavior Did Not Go Unnoticed." And, "Through band, Page says he wanted get results 'in our sick society'."

* At New York Magazine, "Wade Michael Page’s White Supremacy Was No Secret Prior to Sikh Temple Shooting."

BONUS: The white power Label|56 dropped ties to Page. The press release is here. And there's a Stormfront thread here. The group's not please with a report out last night titled, "US racists worried over Sikh killings."

Mitt Romney Slams Obama for 'Gutting' Welfare Reform

At the Wall Street Journal, "Romney Attacks Obama on Welfare Mandates."

Also from Jim Geraghty, at National Review, "New Romney Ad Hits Obama on Welfare Work Requirements." (Via Memeorandum.)

'Sundries Shack' Goes Down After Getting Instalanched

Here's the 'lanche:

WIL WHEATON, The Geek Who Hates? Just ask Sheldon Cooper.

UPDATE: WTF? The Sundries Shack is now showing “account suspended.”

Jimmie has a few tweets explaining things.

And amazingly, Wizbang crossed-posted Jimmie's entry from a cached version, "Will Wheaton, The Geek Who Hates." Nice blogging, Jimmie!

I'm more lazy than cheap (or else I would have migrated by now), although Blogger doesn't crash often, so that's one thing good about staying with it. I was going to break loose when Althouse threatened to quit, but I think it was going to be too much for her to host all her comments and so forth, so she stayed on Blogger after all --- and that was after she had the Google techies excavate all of her comments and posts from the various servers hosting them. It was getting pretty involved.

In related news, Mike at Cold Fury was down for a week or so because he couldn't pay hosting fees, and then there was this epic post from John Hawkins at Right Wing News, "8 Reasons I Hate Rackspace With The Fiery Passion of a Thousand Suns."

Despite all of that, I'm going to "go pro" one of these days. I like William Jacobson's blog, Legal Insurrection, as a model of what a really cool switch-over would be like. But until then, I'm glad I'm not dealing with all those hosting headaches. There's tradeoffs, that's for sure, and since I went to the Disqus commenting system things have improved a lot. I was finally able to be rid of that vile Internet troll and criminal harasser Repsac3. And that reminds me, ICYMI: "Walter James Casper III, Hate-Blogger and Internet Stalker, Harasses Gay-Politics Activist Evan Hurst on Twitter."

The Oak Creek Massacre and Political Ideologies

Bob Belvedere has an interesting post, "Sikh Shooting: Don’t Buy The Leftist Lies."

Read it all at the link. I wouldn't go quite that far to say that fascism is entirely a left-wing phenomenon, and it's not true that totalitarianism is entirely found on the left of the spectrum. It would require a book-length exegesis to square the point, although Bob's right to push back against the mainstream progressive meme that  the "neo-Nazis" are associated with conservative politics. They aren't. (Speaking of books, Robert Paxton's got one of the best volumes on this, The Anatomy of Fascism.)

That said, Jonathan Capehart needs a smack over the head, the idiot. At WaPo, "Sikh temple shooting: A ‘lone wolf’ in Wisconsin":

The Department of Homeland Security warned us about the likes of Wade Michael Page, the alleged gunman who killed six people at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisc.

In an April 2009 report , entitled, “Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment,” DHS warned that “lone wolves . . . embracing violent right-wing extremist ideology are the most dangerous domestic terrorism threat in the United States.” It went on to say that “white supremacist lone wolves pose the most significant domestic terrorist threat because of their low profile and autonomy — separate from any formalized group — which hampers warning efforts.” And it noted that military expertise and knowledge made lone wolves especially dangerous.

WaPo even embeds the report at that piece. And that trash report was widely condemned at the time, as bad research and abject political trash. Notice how it's sure coming in handy now.

FLASHBACK: From Michelle, "Confirmed: The Obama DHS hit job on conservatives is real":

I have covered DHS for many years and am quite familiar with past assessments they and the FBI have done on animal rights terrorists and environmental terrorists. But those past reports have always been very specific in identifying the exact groups, causes, and targets of domestic terrorism, i.e., the ALF, ELF, and Stop Huntingdon wackos who have engaged in physical harassment, arson, vandalism, and worse against pharmaceutical companies, farms, labs, and university researchers.

By contrast, the piece of crap report issued on April 7 is a sweeping indictment of conservatives. And the intent is clear. As the two spokespeople I talked with on the phone today made clear: They both pinpointed the recent “economic downturn” and the “general state of the economy” for stoking “rightwing extremism.” One of the spokespeople said he was told that the report has been in the works for a year. My b.s. detector went off the chart, and yours will, too, if you read through the entire report — which asserts with no evidence that an unquantified “resurgence in rightwing extremist recruitment and radicalizations activity” is due to home foreclosures, job losses, and…the historical presidential election.

In Obama land, there are no coincidences. It is no coincidence that this report echoes Tea Party-bashing left-wing blogs (check this one out comparing the Tea Party movement to the Weather Underground!) and demonizes the very Americans who will be protesting in the thousands on Wednesday for the nationwide Tax Day Tea Party.

The issue isn't so much that there's are far-right reactionary ideologies. It's the double standard that progressives employ to destroy the American right by falsely equating libertarian-conservatives with the 20th century racist ideologies of pre-WWII Europe.

From Psychologists Yoel Inbar and Joris Lammers, New Researh Identifies Left-Wing Professors as Discriminatory Against Conservatives

I voted for Al Gore in 2000, the year I landed at LBCC, but ideological commitments were the farthest thing from my mind. Boy, that was eons ago. A babe in the woods.

Here's this, from Wintery Knight, "New study: university professors admit they would discriminate against conservatives."

London's Daily Mail Features Wade Michael Page Pictured Before Huge Nazi Banner in Write-Up on Oak Creek Massacre

I'm planning more on the ideological aspects of the Wisconsin massacre, but I'll caution folks about arguing how the shooter was a "leftist" when he's seen pictured before king-sized Nazi posters like this.

See: "The 'precious little boy' who grew up to be a neo-Nazi mass murderer: Devastated mother of Sikh temple killer apologizes to son's victims."

Whoa! Reince Priebus Takes It to the Democrats on Baseless, Reprehensible Romney Smears

I like this guy.

At Nice Deb, "Reince Priebus: The President is Behind Harry Reid’s Tax Smear (Video)."

New Kim Kardashian Bikini Pics!

At London's Daily Mail, "So, is this the result of Kim Kardashian's new 'sex diet'? Kanye's girl shows off her beach-ready curves in a strappy bikini":

She's always been one to jump on the latest diet bandwagon, whether its working up a sweat at bootcamp or promoting a slimming shake.

But Kim Kardashian's latest get in shape plan is an invention all of her own - the 'sex diet'.

As the reality star showed off her beach ready curves in Miami it emerged that she had honed them with the help of boyfriend Kanye West.

Great pictures at the link. My wife even likes 'em!

'The Riffed'

A film production out of Modesto Junior College, "The Crisis Begins":

The documentary "explores the circumstances around Gaither Lowenstein's resignation from the office of President of MJC, shortly after coming up with what some considered a personal agenda hit list in an effort to turn the public funded community college into something more resembling a private university."

Loewenstein's now at my college: "Dr. Gaither Loewenstein Appointed New Vice President of Academic Affairs at Long Beach City College."

Interview Tips

Via Call Me Stormy, "So You’re Looking for Work":