Dr. Sikivu Hutchinson? Los Angeles Times Publishes Anti-Tea Party Smear From 'Concerned Citizen' and Unidentified Black Radical Feminist!

Man, that's some wool-covering.

At LAT:

People of color who've observed the ascent of the so-called tea party movement didn't need a poll to tell them that this spasm is merely a racist backlash to the election of the nation's first African American president.

By failing to critique the tea party's Obama-as-socialist/illegal alien/terrorist rhetoric, the mainstream media have been complicit in legitimizing these canards.

The "anti-government" propaganda that the tea party spews about the healthcare overhaul was never in evidence during George W. Bush's massive expansion of government spending. And the privileged all-white tea party mobs who storm the Capitol in "outrage" over the Wall Street bailout have never felt motivated to challenge the GOP's welfare-for-corporate-America, free-enterprise-for-the-poor platform.

Sikivu Hutchinson

Los Angeles

Actually ... Sikivu Hutchinson FAIL:

Of course it's no surprise that LAT fails to indicate Sikivu Hutchinson as a radical black atheist and editor at the communist feminist portal, Blackfemlens:

Blackfemlens seeks to counter the sexist whitewash of the American media regime by offering women of color a progressive space to comment on politics, urban affairs, literature, and the arts.

Nope, Sikivu Hutchinson's just some mainstream concerned Angelino writing a regular old mainstream letter to the mainstream editorial board.

And perhaps LAT might have noted that Sikivu Hutchinson, is actually Dr. Sikivu Hutchinson, who is on staff at the Los Angeles County Human Relations Commmittee (which, just by coincidence, boasts a "hate crimes" unit):

Dr. Sikivu Hutchinson brings a wealth of experience to the Commission. She was most recently Chief of Staff for Los Angeles Unified School Board member Genethia Hayes where she researched and provided analyses on issues before the school board, supervised the staff, served as community liaison and facilitated parent and community meetings.

Dr. Hutchinson has a doctorate in Performance Studies from New York University and a Bachelors of Art in anthropology from the University of California at Los Angeles. She has lectured on Critical Studies at California Institute of the Arts, where she developed and taught courses on Ethnic Studies and Women's Studies and has lectured on Liberal Studies at California State University Los Angeles. She also has developed and taught courses on racial identity and post modernism at Cal Arts, and has published several scholarly works on race and gender, including "Moving to the Center: Culturally Relevant Education and Student Agency in LAUSD," in California English, April 2002.

Hmmm ... performance studies?

Kinda like leftist performance chic assassination fascination? No hate crimes here. Nosiree.

Dr. Sikuvu Hutchinson concerned citizen FAIL.

And God, LAT totally unattributed bankrupt editorial practices FAIL.

James B. 'Boogie Nights' Webb Just Got Back From Novelty I.D. Shop

James B. Webb told me directly that he blogs under a pseudonym. But since now we're up to the second bet he's turned down, the guy's posting an obviously bogus I.D. in a pathetic attempt to score a couple of points. I guess more fun and games is all we'll get, considering the desperation at being pinned down on the intellectual merits, IYKWIMAITYD.

JBW NOVELTY I.D. FAIL. This guy's slappin' down some screen names faster than you can say "Dirk Diggler":

Next up from JBW, "Fake Name-Generator: US Social Security Number (SSN)."

But wait!

Is that picture the real thing? Now that's some added touch, yo! What a doozy!

Imagine that, forgetting both the Clearasil and Coppertone all in the same day. Ouch!

Reminds me of the '70s. Can you play some funky music white boy, yoww??!!

Actually, old J.B. "Dirk Diggler" Webb just needs to grow his hair out a bit and get those bell-bottoms blazing:

On second thought, nahhha ... Dirk Diggler's too good for this dude!

It's more like ... EEEHHEWWW!! ... this pimply dude's fresh out of some Zombie Boobie send up. From, "First Look At The Trailer For Takao Nakano's BIG TITS ZOMBIE 3D With Sola Aoi!":

Beats Obama Zombies I guess.

Grooming and Hygiene Tip for J.B. 'ZOMBIE BOOBIES' Webb: "Oil-Free Acne Stress Control ™ Night Cleansing Pads - Neutrogena."

Zombie Boogie Hat Tip: Not a Sheep.

'Everybody Draw Mohammed Day'

YidWithLid has the story, "Everybody Draw Mohammad Day."

But Althouse isn't too keen on the idea:

I don't like the in-your-face message that we don't care about what other people hold sacred. Back in the days of the "Piss Christ" controversy, I wouldn't have supported an "Everybody Dunk a Crucifix in a Jar of Urine Day" to protest censorship. Dunking a crucifix in a jar of urine is something I have a perfect right to do, but it would gratuitously hurt many Christian bystanders to the controversy. I think opposing violence (and censorship) can be done in much better ways.

Actually, I think folks around the 'sphere are so tired of the literally murderous creep of political correctness that they're responding with some abandon.

That said, Chris Muir isn't waiting until May 20th, and good for him. Click the image above to enlarge. Also at Theo's.

Added: From Saber Point, "The Prophet Mohammed Goes Bowling! A Great Way to Relax After Jihad."

Recovering the Case for Capitalism

It's a sentiment I've seen more and more periodically, that we need to defend capitalism. Sounds kind of strange. And it's not just a loss of confidence in markets amid the current recession. It's a broader critique from all over on the existentialism of the current order. On that, Yuval Levin's essay, at National Affairs, is a modern classic. See, "Recovering the Case for Capitalism." At the introduction, Levin prefaces things with a discussion of Adam Smith's moral economy, and it's a nice refresher. But later there's a couple passages really worth pondering, one on the crisis of capitalism in shifting the moral focus away from those most in need of our attention and resources, and second on the element of social capital needed to sustain markets as the essential mover of human freedom. The whole thing's worth printing and saving, but I like these sections:

There is not today, and perhaps there never has been, a serious economic critique of the fundamental tenets of capitalism. There are only moral critiques. Even those opponents of capitalism who proposed alternative systems — like the socialists and communists of centuries past — generally offered moral systems, and not genuine economic theories.

The moral critiques of capitalism have tended to fall into two categories. One, popular with those socialists and communists as well as with many less hostile liberal critics, is that capitalism is unjust to the poor. This meant at first that capitalism degraded the condition of the poor: Some early critics of capitalism contended that the circumstances of workers, especially in manufacturing occupations, were worse than anything the poor had ever experienced before the advent of free-market economics and the Industrial Revolution. But no such case could be sustained today. It is true that inequality persists, of course, but the standard of living of the poor has risen dramatically under capitalism, and the potential for escaping poverty is nowhere greater than in capitalist economies. So today, the focus of such critics is on inequality itself. The condition of the poor, they say, generally does not improve as swiftly as that of the rich, so that the gap between the wealthiest and poorest is expanding — to the detriment of social cohesion and basic justice. There is some truth to this, at least sometimes, but it only amounts to a moral indictment of capitalism if we believe that an equality of conditions is the essence of justice. Otherwise it would be foolish to reject the greatest source of material progress for the poor in human history on the grounds that it allows others to progress even faster. Moreover, it is far from clear that some systemic feature of the market economy holds back the poor. Today in America, the causes of persistent poverty have far more to do with culture than with economic injustice.

But that very point brings us to the second and more serious moral critique of capitalism: that it empties social life of any higher meaning, and so leaves society morally bankrupt even as it grows materially wealthy. Is capitalism in fact just a means of replacing material poverty with spiritual poverty? Is the market a money-making machine that burns social capital for its fuel, leaving in its wake a society of opulent nihilists? ....

Adam Smith expected ... that the market would discipline society and set bounds on our appetites. But as it turns out, our capitalist age is generally not an age of discipline. Far from it: Our society in most respects is a study in unbounded appetite. Our chief public-health problem is obesity. Our foremost social pathologies result from an absence of sexual restraint and personal responsibility. Our popular culture much of the time is a diabolical mix of Babylonian decadence and Philistine vulgarity. And our public life is a gluttonous feast upon the flesh of the future — we use more than we need, spend more than we have, and borrow more than we can pay. For all of our immense wealth, we somehow manage to live far beyond our means. In fact, it is almost fair to say that we lack for nothing except discipline. But as Adam Smith could tell us, discipline above all is what we require to be free. This is no small problem for the case for capitalism.

So what happened? In part, Adam Smith surely understated — and perhaps underestimated — the challenges of sustaining moral norms amid economic dynamism. His expectations rested on an assumption of what to us seems like exceptional social and moral consensus, but what to him was the reality of British life in the late 18th century. The loss of such consensus, brought about in no small part by our capitalist economy itself, is a defining fact of American life in the 21st century. And the challenge of sustaining our way of life in light of that loss is the defining problem of our political economy.

Also, from the conclusion:

Clearly, the case for capitalism requires us to roll back policies that have distorted the market's ability to produce this wealth and cultivate these virtues. The American welfare state needs to be dramatically trimmed and reformed — aimed at helping the needy become more independent rather than making the middle class less so. The cozy relations between government and big business must be rolled back as well, lest the system cease to serve the common consumer, and so lose his allegiance. Friends of capitalism have grown increasingly alert to this danger in the wake of the recent economic crisis, and are beginning to formulate the arguments and develop the means to resist it. The distinction between "pro-market" and "pro-business" will be an important part of the case for capitalism in the years to come, and American history offers useful examples of how it can be drawn responsibly.

Properly understood, the case for capitalism is not a case for license or for laissez faire. It is a case for national wealth as a moral good; for the interest of the mass of consumers as the guide of policy; for clear and uniform rules of competition imposed upon all; for letting markets set prices, letting buyers make choices, and letting producers experiment, innovate, and make what they think they can sell — all while protecting consumers and punishing abuses. It is a case for avoiding concentrations of power, for keeping business and government separate, and for letting those who can meet their own needs do so. It is a case for humility about our ability to know, and therefore about our capacity to do ....

Our purpose is to protect and strengthen our way of life, to stand up for a social and economic system that has lifted billions out of poverty and vastly improved our world in countless ways, and to avert a careless slide toward social-democratic melancholy and decline. This general purpose, of course, has to take form in specific instances and choices, and exactly how the broad conceptual argument for capitalism should be translated into policy is always a matter of case-by-case prudence. But that does not mean that we can do without the broader argument — the argument first framed by Adam Smith, and refined by two centuries of theory and practice, especially in our country. It is an argument for individual freedom amid moral order, and for prosperity sustained by sympathy and discipline. It is an odd modern hybrid: a conservative case for the liberal society. As such, it is also an integral piece of the case for America.

RELATED: At Rasmussen, "60% Say Capitalism Better Than Socialism" (via Memeorandum).

Change! Obambi Breaks Promise to Call Armenian Genocide 'Genocide'

Barack Obambi proves once again that he'd do anything to get elected in 2008.

At NYT, "Obama Marks Genocide Without Saying the Word":

President Obama, who as a candidate vowed to use the term genocide to describe the Ottoman mass slaughter of Armenians nearly a century ago, once again declined to do so on Saturday as he marked the anniversary of the start of the killings.

Trying to navigate one of the more emotionally fraught foreign policy challenges, Mr. Obama issued a statement from his weekend getaway here commemorating the victims of the killings but tried to avoid alienating Turkey, a NATO ally, which adamantly rejects the genocide label.

“On this solemn day of remembrance, we pause to recall that 95 years ago one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century began,” Mr. Obama said in the statement, which largely echoed the same language he used on this date a year ago. “In that dark moment of history, 1.5 million Armenians were massacred or marched to their death in the final days of the Ottoman Empire.”

When he was running for president and seeking votes from some of the 1.5 million Armenian-Americans, Mr. Obama had no qualms about using the term genocide and criticized the Bush administration for recalling an ambassador who dared to say the word. As a senator, he supported legislation calling the killings genocide, and in a statement on Jan. 19, 2008, he said that “the Armenian genocide is not an allegation, a personal opinion, or a point of view, but rather a widely documented fact.”

Two years later, as president, he used none of that sort of language, though as he did a year ago, he hinted to Armenians that he still felt the same way. “I have consistently stated my own view of what occurred in 1915, and my view of that history has not changed,” he said. “It is in all of our interest to see the achievement a full, frank and just acknowledgment of the facts.”

His statement came as the issue has grown as a source of tension between the United States and Turkey, and as a reconciliation effort between Turkey and Armenia that Mr. Obama has championed has seemingly stalled.

In March, the House Foreign Affairs Committee voted narrowly to condemn the killings as an act of genocide, defying a last-minute plea from the Obama administration to forgo a vote because it would threaten the Turkish-Armenian reconciliation efforts. Turkey briefly recalled its ambassador from Washington in protest.

And see the report at Armenian National Committee of America, "Barack Obama’s Track Record of Armenian Genocide Recognition." Citing candidate Obama's webstie, "Change We Can Believe In" (complete with screencap):

I ... share with Armenian Americans – so many of whom are descended from genocide survivors - a principled commitment to commemorating and ending genocide. That starts with acknowledging the tragic instances of genocide in world history. As a U.S. Senator, I have stood with the Armenian American community in calling for Turkey's acknowledgement of the Armenian Genocide. Two years ago, I criticized the Secretary of State for the firing of U.S. Ambassador to Armenia, John Evans, after he properly used the term "genocide" to describe Turkey's slaughter of thousands of Armenians starting in 1915. I shared with Secretary Rice my firmly held conviction that the Armenian Genocide is not an allegation, a personal opinion, or a point of view, but rather a widely documented fact supported by an overwhelming body of historical evidence. The facts are undeniable. An official policy that calls on diplomats to distort the historical facts is an untenable policy. As a senator, I strongly support passage of the Armenian Genocide Resolution (H.Res.106 and S.Res.106), and as President I will recognize the Armenian Genocide.

Larry King and Sarah Silverman: Palin Should Pose for Playboy

Obviously, it's time for Larry King to retire, but there's no excuse of self-hating Jew Sarah Silverman. From Lori Ziganto:

I know. I had forgotten that show was still on the air, too. Well, I suppose even Michael Moore needs a show to appear on where he is actually slightly more attractive than the host. Anyway, Larry “I literally am older than dirt” King is at it again. Not content with just exposing his serial cheating this week, he also had to expose his creepy and sexist tendencies ....

LARRY KING, HOST: We can’t leave without asking you, my producers say I must ask you. Sarah Palin, what do you think? Sarah Palin? I got to say her name because we have to say it every night.

Sarah Palin. What do you say?

SARAH SILVERMAN: Oh, about what? Her posing in “Playboy”? I think she should go for it.

KING: Agreed. Thank you, Sarah.

SILVERMAN: Thank you.

Obama Zombie Palin Protesters: Teabonics is as Teabonics Does

Radical leftists were having all kinds of fun with the "teabonics" meme some time back. You get an indication of the left's idiot righteousness (after finding a misspelling or a misplaced apostrophe) at Wonkette. For example:

Koch Industries, largest privately held energy company in the US, and primary funder of the tea baggers,, makes them paint their own signs, to create the illusion of authenticity. Misspellings help. They make you feel like this is just Ma and Pa Kettle out there ignorantly expressing their ignorance. Well, they may be ignorant, but their fascist bosses are smart.

Great way to smear an entire movement as incestuous bog-dwellers. Of course, once lefties start aping the success of the tea partiers -- showing up at Palin events, etc., with homemade signs -- they'd better have their dictionaries handy. In any case, had the Obama Zombies sought my "advise" they might have avoided some embarrassment. Teabonics is as teabonics does:

And one more piece of "advise": Perhaps some of these anti-Palin folks should spell-check their fellow protesters' signs before casting the first stone. Might look kinda (i.e., "kind of") hypocritical otherwise, you think?

More at Left Coast Rebel and Memeorandum.

PREVIOUSLY: "Oregon Obama Zombies Protest Sarah Palin With 'Hope She Chokes' Sign."

Oregon Obama Zombies Protest Sarah Palin With 'Hope She Chokes' Sign

From Ed Morrissey:

Maybe it’s just me, but does anyone else see the irony in the juxtaposition of these two protest signs outside of an appearance by Sarah Palin in Eugene, Oregon?

It’s a darned good thing that the person holding the sign that says, “Hope she chokes” (with the Obama logo a nice touch, by the way) is doing so in Eugene’s “hate-free zone.” Why, if someone had displayed a sign at a Tea Party rally that said something about our President choking, it would have been declared a symptom of the violence inherent in the conservative system, with apologies to Dennis the Peasant. Maybe the two protesters should coordinate their message a bit better.

Plus, at Gateway Pundit, "Leftists Wave Vile, Violent Signs At Sarah Palin in Oregon… Media Silent."

Well, actually, The Oregonian's got something, although it's not like the leftist cable channels will be doing round-the-clock coverage of "violent" tea partiers, including those with AR-15s (black ones, actually, with faces obscured by careful video editing).

Nope, the left's "Hope" of violence against Sarah Palin just doesn't flow with the narrative.

Added: From Left Coast Rebel, "Sarah Palin Eugene, Oregon Visit, Leftist Behind Protest Revealed."

James B. Webb All-Talk (Non) Political Analyst Pwned: Word Bro ... Atheist Megalomaniac EPIC FAIL on Intellectual Substance

OPEN LETTER TO JAMES B. WEBB: WORD TO THE WISE, EXTENDED VERSION (SO BE WISE)

James (OR WHATEVER YOUR REAL NON-COWARD NAME IS), FWIW (a reponse to your sterile big talk):

You told me not to comment on your blog some time ago, and I have observed your rules. But when Repsac3 stalks and taunts American Power with genuine racist insults, when he refuses to observe my rules and common decency, you're down with that ... of course you're into racist photoshopping and cyberstalking, so NST, yo!

Frankly, son, you're nothing but a child to me, with an overdriven playground gotcha mentality. Fact is, every single time I've argued substantive points you've ignored them and moved on predictably to insults and snarks: On the budget deficit you blamed Bush and FAILED. On my post on faith, morality and fighting Satan, you dissed it without a single mention of the issues ... FAIL. On Sean Trende's RCP analysis on the November congressional elections? Ignored it again ... FAIL.
And you recently wrote at my blog:

"I'm not suggesting that the left isn't responsible for many acts of hate and violence in the world. I'm just pointing out the stupidity of the myopic worldview that one side of the ideological aisle is so much better/worse than the other and regardless of which side says it (and I hear it from both on a constant basis) they always sound like uninformed children when they do."

Actually, the contemporary left's entrenched ideological culture of violence is unmatched on the conservative right. And I responded to you with a link to Jamie Glazov's, United in Hate: The Left's Romance with Tyranny and Terror. Glazov's book is deeply argued and written from personal experience of tyranny and terror. His parents were Soviet dissidents. Their lives were put on the line for speaking out against the Communist Party in 1968, when Jamie's father signed the famous "Letter of Twelve" human rights manifesto. The forward to the book was written by R. James Woolsey, who was President Clinton's Director of Central Intelligence from 1993 to 1995. United in Hate received critical reviews from both sides of the spectrum, and retired United States Air Force Lieutenant General Thomas McInery called the book "a must-read if America is to survive the global war against Radical Islam." In short, this is serious stuff, worth engagement.
And what was your response to the citation for United in Hate? Totally predictable:

That's exactly what I mean when I talk about uninformed children, Don. Thank you as always for illustrating my point.

Breathtaking juvenile anti-intellectualism topped with a staggering heaping of brain-addled stupidity.
But that's to be expected from someone who's not right in the mind, oddly consumed by some kind of big man syndrome (when in fact nothing seems to warrant such a psychology, which thus raises appropriate and characteristic questions of megalomania).
And let's not forget your online perversions and stalking. When called out on these you own them with insecure phony laughter and some backslapping with your braindead followers in the comments at Brainrage.

So, JBW, let's be real, okay. Honestly, you're but a lost child to me. I'm a Ph.D. professor with 15 years experience teaching. I'm a father of two who's been married for 16 years. I've traveled widely and have nearly lost my life. But credentials, wisdom, life failings, and experience mean nothing to you, BECAUSE YOU KNOW IT ALL ALREADY.
Anyway, I understand the sources of your disrespect (hey, four years of college and you've got knowledge), but it's obvious to anyone who's been around the block a couple of times that you're all talk and little action. And the fact that James B. Webb is not your real names adds a hilarious touch to any mention by you of the word coward. So, here's a bet. You will not come out and identify yourself, and you will not meet me for a beer where you express a little humility and respect for someone who ought to be, frankly, your intellectual mentor. I'm in the O.C. Name the bar, on a weekend evening, and we'll meet.
So, what do you say big boy? You have my e-mail. Send me your name, phone number, and a location, and we'll meet like men ... instead of playing meaningless tit-for-tat on blogs that few people actually read.
Donald
BONUS DEDICATION: "No Values", from Black Flag's 1980 EP, Jealous Again:

I don't care what you think
I don't care what you say
I've got nothing to give you
Why don't you just go away

I've got no values
Nothing to say
I've got no values
Might as well blow you away

You're just a hole in the corner
Always loaded to the hilt
I could try some satisfaction
I could destroy everything you build

I've got no values
Nothing to say
I've got no values
Might as well blow you away

Don't you try classification
When you know it won't work
What if I try some annihilation
Throw your face in the dirt

I've got no values
Nothing to say
I've got no values
Might as well blow you away

Don't you try pretendin'
Telling me it's all right
I might start destroyin'
Everything in my sight!
No values
No values
No values

Deportation? Sí, Se Puede!

At CNN, "Sources: Votes lacking for immigration push in Congress" (via Memeorandum).

No surprise there:

Also, at Gateway Pundit, "Obama Strikes Out with GOP Senators on Immigration – Lindsey Graham Stands Alone."

John Basilone

When I drove down to the Oceanside Tea Party on April 15th, I thought about Camp Pendleton differently than ever before. It's interesting to see John Basilone, who is memorialized across the Marine base, featured as one of the key heroes of Spielberg's "The Pacific." From Wikipedia:

The Marine Corps has named infrastructure for him on Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, including an entry point onto the base from Interstate 5 called "Basilone Road"; a section of U.S. Interstate 5 running through the base called "Gunnery Sergeant John Basilone Memorial Highway"; and a parachute landing zone called "Basilone Drop Zone".

Some of the first episodes are playing on rerun right now on HBO. Not as good as "Band of Brothers," but needed nevertheless, over-theatricized or not.

Best Tea Party Signs

John Hawkins has a roundup, "The 10 Best Tea Party Signs So Far."

Not included are a some of my favorites from American Power... from Irvine April 15, 2010:

From O.C.'s Patriots Against Pelosi last November:

And from Wilshire's 9-12 West 2010:

REMEMBER NOVEMBER

From AOSHQ, "Remember November":

See the Republican Governors Association.

Added: From Allahpundit, " An RGA staffer tells the Daily Caller that the clip was made entirely in-house by younger staff members. Video software these days is an amazing thing, my friends."

Plus, more hypocritical fail at Memeorandum.

Support Britney! Dad Imposes Bra-Only Mandate!

Conflicting stories out this morning.

At The Sun, "You Can't Nip Out Like That":

BRITNEY SPEARS' worried father has banned her from leaving home without wearing a bra.

Dad JAMIE - who has legal control over all Britney's affairs - fears his troubled daughter is getting close to the brink again and has imposed a host of new rules on the Womanizer singer.

He is embarrassed by constant pictures of her nipples popping out of her clothes and has insisted she only leaves her Los Angeles home wearing the correct support.

Jamie, 57, is taking the order so seriously he has even threatened to sack one of the 28-year-old's security guards who has let her be photographed bra-less several times in recent weeks.

Jamie recently forced his daughter to dump her 38-year-old boyfriend JASON TRAWICK because he was worried she was falling back into her emotional turmoil after years of recovery.

He feared their volatile relationship was sending fragile Britney close to the edge.

A pal revealed: "Jamie's control over Britney's life is incredible. He hates the pictures of her with her nipples all over the place so he has banned her from leaving the house without a bra.

"He wants her to put across the right impression.

But check TMZ, "Britney Spears -- Free to Go Free Boobin'":

Despite multiple reports to the contrary ... Britney Spears' father has not given her a bra ultimatum -- in fact, we're told he laughed when he heard the story.

As the tale goes, Jamie Spears was embarrassed by pics of Brit Brit showing off her nip nips, so he imposed a "must wear a bra" rule on his famous conservatee. But sources close to the family tell us there is no such rule in place, nor has there even been any thought of one.

Lane Bryant!

R.S. McCain has a bunch of videos from Alabama GOP gubernatorial candidate Tim James. On immigration, James says "This Is Alabama. We Speak English." And noted at the post:

Just got off the phone with a Tim James campaign operative, who explained that this ad is part of a series with the “common sense” theme.

Check the link for the videos. Not included is this one from Lane Bryant, "The Lingerie Commercial FOX and ABC Didn't Want Its Viewers to See":

This should qualify for some weekend FMJRA action from Sir Smitty!

Joe Arpaio and Isabel Garcia

Well, since I'm on the topic tonight, Newsbusters has more: "CNN's Malveaux Omits Pro-Illegal Immigration Stance of 'Legal Defender'."

And at the video, Joe Arpaio debates Isabel Garcia (where she attacks tough immigration enforcement as the "new black codes").

Also, "Arizona governor signs immigration law; foes promise fight." (Via Memeorandum.)

RELATED: From the O.C. Register, "Sheriff Joe takes immigration victory slow."

Arizona Immigration Bill Signed Into Law

Interesting piece at CSM, "What will Washington do about the Arizona immigration law?"

Also at Hot Air, "Video: Arizona governor signs controversial immigration bill." Plus, at NYT, "U.S.’s Toughest Immigration Law Is Signed in Arizona." (Via Memeorandum.)

Andrew Breitbart Blocks Racist Repsac3 on Twitter!

I guess it's all in the timing, but, interestingly, Andrew Breitbart also banned Repsac3 today:

No surprise the issues are the same: Repsac3's racist bigotry. He was stalking Andrew with racially derogatory Twitpics, trying to smear conservatives.

These are the exact Alinsky tactics of folks like Captain Fogg, David Hillman et al., Ex-DLB, and James B. Webb. I can't believe how sick these people are sometimes.

PREVIOUSLY: "Repsac3 Banned from American Power."

Sheriff Joe Arpaio in the O.C.! ... UPDATED!!

I'm heading out to a campaign event in a little while, "Bill Hunt & Sheriff Joe Arpaio on the John & Ken Show - Live From Orange, CA."

The timing's pretty good, since Arizona's been in the news all week, and here's the latest: "Obama Slams Arizona’s Immigration Bill" (via Memeorandum):

President Obama on Friday strongly criticized restrictive immigration legislation pending in Arizona, calling for a federal overhaul of the nation’s laws instead.

Speaking at a naturalization ceremony for 24 active duty service members in the Rose Garden, Mr. Obama said that failure to enact immigration reforms would open the door to “irresponsibility by others.”

The “others” he cited in this case apparently referred to state lawmakers in Arizona, who have approved an immigration bill, which, if enacted, would require the police to ask people about their immigration status if officers have any reason to suspect that they’re in the country illegally. The state Legislature sent the bill to Gov. Jan Brewer, who hasn’t indicated publicly whether she will sign it.

Mr. Obama said the Arizona bill threatens “to undermine basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans, as well as the trust between police and our communities that is so crucial to keeping us safe.”

Actually, see Michelle on this, "Arizona acts to restore immigration sanity, open-borders lobby up in arms."

No surprise that Obama's in bed with communist open-borders extremists on this. Pictured is the Spartacist table at the March 20 ANSWER protest:

**********

UPDATE: Some pics from the live broadcast of today's John and Ken Show, KFI AM-640. I didn't get a chance to take a good set of photos. One of the head security honchos ushered me away before I could get some solid shots:

And despite arriving before the 2:00pm start time, there was very little seating:

I went back out to the van to listen on the radio. Sheriff Joe came on the air at 2:00pm and I went back over to the hotel to see if I might be able to snag an angle. Here's a sign near the front desk:

The room was overflowing by now, however:

I listened a little longer out in the van, then left to check on my kid at his after-school kids club (he's fine). There's another Sheriff Joe Arpaio event tomorrow, so I might have more then ...

Repsac3 Banned from American Power

As readers know, I enjoy debating the crazy lefties, but sometimes things get out of hand. So, this is official: James Casper, a.k.a. Repsac3, is formally banned at American Power. Because he's so stupid, and frankly too easy to poke fun at, I've tolerated his trollery for years. But since he's launched an unprovoked racist attack on me as "Halfrican," that's about all I can take. I don't care who originated the term or who uses it. It's repugnant and I don't condone it.

Most of all, I'm tired this idiot Repsac3's puerile gotcha imbecility. In response to my post on LBCC's communists, Repsac3's been trolling my comments, and left a link to the "One Minute for Peace" website; and clicking around there we find this:

One Minute for Peace is sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker "social justice" organization that has long been criticized for its communist affiliations and for abandoning its original religious principles. And it's simply breathtaking the gross deceit these groups are willing to perpetrate. They claim that their budget estimates are from "the proposed 2011 discretionary budget targeted for military spending."

But take a look at a pie chart, from U.S. Government Spending, showing the Fiscal Year 2011 budget. A full 56 percent of spending is designated for health, pensions, and welfare:

The facts of any budget analysis are that non-discretionary social welfare spending dwarfs all other items in the budget. See the Heritage Foundation, "Defense Spending Has Declined While Entitlement Spending Has Increased." As noted there:

The charts in this book are based primarily on data available as of March 2010 from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The charts using OMB data display the historical growth of the federal government to 2009 while the charts using CBO data display both historical and projected growth from as early as 1940 to 2083. Projections utilizing OMB data are taken from the White House FY 2011 budget.

Also, folks can go to the Fiscal 2011 budget itself, "Budget of the U. S. Government: Fiscal Year 2011." And check for additional charts here, "SUMMARY TABLES." And for good measure, here's a chart from Wikipedia, with the source noted at bottom as "OMB - 2011 Budget - Summary Table s-3":

I rarely ban radical leftist commentators from American Power. Mostly, I'll moderate or disable comments if I don't feel like dealing with their stupidity (James B. Webb is a case in point). Mostly, I have fun with them for the sheer hilarity of it, and for the epistemological heuristic utility of obliterating the mindless left-wing/socialist ideological claptrap. And as we see time and again, leftists never seriously engage on point, but rather demonize, ridicule, and attack as racist as part of their ongoing program of intolerance and radical totalitarianism. I will continue to debunk and deflect all of this, since that's what I do. And I'll also continue the periodic back-and-forth blog wars as long as there's some fun or learning in it. But Repsac3's nothing more than the devil's frontman, and I've had enough. He's welcomed here no longer.

The 'Racist' Smear: A Case Study

From James Taranto, "The 'Racist' Smear: A Case Study MediaMutters.org suggests that black voters are 'just puppets'":

Our lead item Monday, "Why the Left Needs Racism," seems to have struck a chord. One hostile response is especially interesting because it illustrates our point so effectively. It comes from MediaMutters.org, a formally independent group that produces propaganda for the Democratic Party:

First and foremost, it's remarkably insulting. The implication of Taranto's theory is that African-Americans aren't sophisticated or observant or intelligent enough to know real racism when they see it, and are thus continuously duped en masse into voting for Democrats. It couldn't be the case that black voters actually care about issues and have real reasons for voting Democratic, they're just puppets who are motivated by racial sentiments that Democrats prey upon. Taranto and his pals at Fox & Friends might think they're attacking the Democrats, but they're actually demeaning black voters.

It is a commonplace that politicians frequently make appeals based on fear. It hardly seems controversial to assert that fear of racism is not uncommon among black Americans. It would be surprising if it were otherwise at a time when the regime of systematic subjugation known as Jim Crow is still a living memory. We argued that politicians appeal to a fear that is widespread among their constituents--which is to say, they behave in a way typical of politicians.

MediaMutters' suggestion that black voters are "just puppets" is racist and repugnant. In this day and age, one hesitates to dignify such a foul idea by rebutting it, but since MediaMutters raised it, here goes: Black voters are just like other voters. They make their decisions based on a combination of reason and emotion--and on elevated emotions as well as base ones. (The item MediaMutters is attacking attributed black support for President Obama in part to "pride in the first black president," which we called "a normal and wholesome attitude.")

The smear artists of MediaMutters have put forward a racist idea and falsely imputed it to us in an effort to defame us as racist because we criticized Democratic politicians. This is one of the clearest examples we've seen of how the appeal to fear works.

Change! Obamacrats Self-Destruct in New Partisan Identification Survey!

Sweet.

From Gallup, "Party Affiliation Gap in U.S. Narrowest Since 2005: Democratic advantage shrinks as more independents lean to the Republican Party":

The advantage in public support the Democratic Party built up during the latter part of the Bush administration and the early part of the Obama administration has all but disappeared. During the first quarter of 2010, 46% of Americans identified as Democrats or leaned Democratic, while 45% identified as or leaned Republican.

More at the link (via Memeorandum). See also, Ed Morrissey, "Gallup: Party affiliation gap narrows to one point."

The survey interviews date from January, where at that point the new administration had been in power for less than a year. This has to be some sort of record. President Obama's destroyed the brand and, amazingly, die-hard Obama Zombies are going down with the ship in massive numbers.

Liberals and the Violence Card

From Rush Limbaugh, at WSJ, "Liberals and the Violence Card":

The latest liberal meme is to equate skepticism of the Obama administration with a tendency toward violence. That takes me back 15 years ago to the time President Bill Clinton accused "loud and angry voices" on the airwaves (i.e., radio talk-show hosts like me) of having incited Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. What self-serving nonsense. Liberals are perfectly comfortable with antigovernment protest when they're not in power.

From the halls of the Ivy League to the halls of Congress, from the antiwar protests during the Vietnam War and the war in Iraq to the anticapitalist protests during International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings, we're used to seeing leftist malcontents take to the streets. Sometimes they're violent, breaking shop windows with bricks and throwing rocks at police. Sometimes there are arrests. Not all leftists are violent, of course. But most are angry. It's in their DNA. They view the culture as corrupt and capitalism as unjust.

Now the liberals run the government and they're using their power to implement their radical agenda. Mr. Obama and his party believe that the election of November 2008 entitled them to make permanent, "transformational" changes to our society. In just 16 months they've added more than $2 trillion to the national debt, essentially nationalized the health-care system, the student-loan industry, and have their sights set on draconian cap-and-trade regulations on carbon emissions and amnesty for illegal aliens.

Had President Obama campaigned on this agenda, he wouldn't have garnered 30% of the popular vote.

RTWT.

Barrett 'Bodies' Brown Disses Him Some Social Conservatives!

In my in-box, from Barrett Brown:

I think that in person you are probably a decent fellow who cares for this country and who tries to do the right thing, but that in the realm of politics, your honor and integrity are non-existent. Clearly, your religious beliefs have not done anything to prompt you to act in accordance with basic ethical standards. And although I doubt it will play out this way, I sincerely invite you to ask yourself why you have chosen dishonesty and misinformation over a mere correction that would have taken you 30 seconds to write and which would have cost you nothing in terms of ideological point-scoring.

If I'm not mistaken, Barrett wants an update to this post on Wikileaks, where I note, "the video and illustrated photo are added just for idiot Barret Brown, who like all hardline leftists, denies truth for a manufactured reality." (Now updated.) Or it could be this post, where, after debunking Wikileaks' propaganda, I write, "Sorry, Barrett, don't pass go, don't collect $200. Better go back and visit Jawa a bit more." (Now updated.) The Jawa reference is to Rusty Shackleford, et al., who did the yeoman's work in debunking the lies of Julian Assange.

But what's particulary interesting is that, in fact, when first contacted by Barrett, I went to update my posts -- but I couldn't find Barrett's alleged correction. And readers can check for themselves. Below are the relevant headlines at Barrett's blog. Only the first post cited includes anything resembling normal blogospheric practice indicating revisions, such as "UPDATED", or "CORRECTION APPENDED", etc. Frankly, looking again, I'm just now finding what could be seen as a retraction, but the post is not marked in any highlighted fashion, or is the post appended to previous entries to reflect a major rethinking or recognition of others. Truth is, Barrett Brown lives in his own atheistic world of hate, but see the titles for yourself:

* "Wikileaks Press Conference; Mankind Decides His Future, One Eye Open; VIDEO, TRANSCRIPT NOW UP."

* "Fascist U.S. Bloggers Come Late to Game, Announce Score."

* "Wikileaks, the Reactive Media, and the Necessity of Project PM."

Here's where he corrects his mistakes, but there's no special mention at the post or anywhere else. And Barrett never sent me the link as a courtesy heads up:

* "WikiLeaks Editor Lies to Stephen Colbert, World; WikiLeaks Necessary Nonetheless."

And this is what I get instead:

* "Video: Why Project PM Will Not Include Social Conservatives."

Here's the vloggy edition:

Amazing resemblance to Johnny Rotten (social conservative). Anyone for some "Bodies"?

she was a girl from birmingham
she just had an abortion
she was a case of insanity
her name was pauline she lived in a tree
she was a no one who killed her baby
she sent her letters from the country
she was an animal she was a bloody disgrase
body i'm not an animal
body i'm not an animal
dragged on a table in a factory
illegitimate place to be
in a packet in a lavatory
die little baby screaming fucking bloody mess
it's not an animal it's an abortion
body i'm not animal
mummy i'm not an abortion
throbbing squirm, gurgling bloody mess
i'm not an discharge, i'm not a loss in
protein, i'm not a throbbing squirm
fuck this and fuck that fuck it all and
fuck the fucking brat
she don't wanna baby that looks like that
i don't wanna baby that looks like that
body i'm not an animal
body i'm not an abortion
body i'm not an animal
an animal
i'm not an animal...
i'm not an abortion...
mummy! ugh!

RELATED: "Barrett Brown -- Another Progressive Bigot and Racist."

Democrats on the Edge

From Daniel Henninger, "Democrats at the Edge of the Cliff: Democrats are spending trillions at the worst possible moment, with a new poll showing public trust in government at a historic low of 22%":

The Democratic Party is on the edge of an electoral cliff with a long fall to the bottom. No wonder they're seeing a demon under every bed.

Image Credit: Bosch Fawstin.

The End of Pax Americana (Not)

Christopher Layne has been so consistently wrong about the "inevitability" of America's relative international decline that further iterations of his thesis are essentially humiliating episodes of self-flagellation. And the bonus in this case is that Layne's publishing at American Conservative, which by now is the laughingstock publication of contemporary (anti-American paleocon) ideology. See, "Graceful Decline":

The United States emerged from World War II in a position of global dominance. From this unparalleled military and economic power came a Pax Americana that has endured for more than six decades. It seemed the sun would never set on the U.S. empire.

But America is increasingly unable to play the hegemon’s assigned role. Militarily, a hegemon is responsible for stabilizing key regions and guarding the global commons. Economically, it offers public goods by opening its domestic market to other states, supplying liquidity for the world economy, and providing the reserve currency. A hegemon is supposed to solve international crises, not cause them. It is supposed to be the lender of last resort, not the biggest borrower. Faced with wars it cannot win or quit and an economy begging rescue, the United States no longer fits the part ....

That the United States needs a post-Pax Americana foreign policy should be obvious. But there is no guarantee that the U.S. will adjust to a transforming world. Even as the globe is being turned upside down by material factors, the foreign policies of individual states are shaped by the ideas leaders hold about their own nations’ identity and place in world politics. More than most, America’s foreign policy is the product of such ideas, and U.S. foreign-policy elites have constructed their own myths of empire to justify the United States’ hegemonic role. To move successfully to a post-Pax Americana foreign policy, Americans will need to move beyond these myths.

The foundational American myth of empire is exceptionalism, the belief, dating back to the Puritans, that the U.S. is different, better, and morally superior to the rest of the world. Americans have always looked at the outside world suspiciously and viewed it as a source of contagion: war, imperialism, militarism, religious intolerance, non-democratic forms of governance, and latterly totalitarianism, genocide, and terrorism. All these bad things, we believe, come from “over there.”

RTWT at the link.

GSGF posted on this today, and says it much better (more pithy) than I can: "Yawn. Must. Stay Awake."

I'll just add that as long as we've got folks like Angie Harmon unabashedly speaking up for American exceptionalism, I expect American Power to endure quite a while.

RELATED: Robert Leiber, "Falling Upwards: Declinism, The Box Set."

'South Park' Caves to Jihadi Intimidation

Check Boston Globe for a report, "'South Park' vs. Revolution Muslim."

And Ann Althouse, "Comedy Central cowers in the face of a murder threat/warning against "South Park" creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker." (Via Memeorandum.) And at Gay Patriot:

Those in our media élites have been taught to see “the other” as the victim of Western cultural hegemony, hence they excuse the violent posturing (and actions) of those deemed spokesmen for (or representatives of) the Third World and/or the “oppressed.” By contrast, any attempt to stand up for the ideas which made this nation great are seen as retrograde, reversion to their perverted image of what our nation’s past was. (Perverted because they define our past by its worst aspects, oblivious to the fact that at least since Reagan, conservatives don’t want to turn back the clock.)

Plus, some video background:

D.C. Douglas, Voice Over Hate Guy, Fired by Geico

I just posted on Matt Kibbe yesterday (seems like a mellow dude, and JSF had kinds words for him). Well Kibbe's speaking out today against (yet) more leftist hatred, at Big Government, "Geico Cancels a Hater" (via Memeorandum):

We are a grassroots movement made up of people who believe in individual freedom and individual responsibility. Racism and hate are inherently collectivist ideas. As individualists we judge people as individuals, based on the content of their character, not the color of their skin.

I asked the activists that joined with 40,000 of their fellow Americans on the Mall in front of the Washington Monument on the evening of April 15th to police the crowd for any hate or racial slurs. If you see bad actors, ask them to leave. If they won’t leave, get a picture and we will out their bad behavior online in the light of day. I don’t care who you are: we will not tolerate haters or racists in our community.

So when the voice-over guy for Geico Insurance, D.C. Douglas, called and left us another hostile message, and left his phone number, we held him accountable too, posting his message where he calls all of us “mentally retarded,” and potential killers. Geico canceled his contract. He now says that we, “like Glenn Beck, are flirting heavily with sedition.” Strange accusation from an actor that talks for a living.” Americans covet our freedom of speech. We have a sacred right, enshrined in the Constitution, to show up, protest and challenge government policies that are bad for America. Freedom: it’s an insurance policy we should all buy.

This is the typical demonology you get from those sickended dead-souls on the left:

See also, "Geico voice actor fired after insulting tea parties."