#MooreandMe Feminists Claim Scalp of Moe Tkacik

I saw this developing last night at the #MooreandMe thread. But I forgot about it until a little while ago, since the original essay had been yanked by the time I checked out the story. It turns out the Tkacik published an essay late last night at Washington City Paper. Entitled "Julian Assange, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo And The Swedish Approach To Sex Crimes," the piece identified by name the two women who filed rape charges against Assange. The entry didn't stay up very long, but there's a screencap here: "Should Names of Julian Assange Accusers Be Published?" Plus more background here, and at New York Observer, "Jezebel Alum Moe Tkacik Leaving Washington City Paper." And Fishbowl DC confirms Tkacik's departure as well as publishes the full essay here.

And be sure to read Tkacik's essay in full. It's not just that she published the accusers' names (which are indeed universally available via Google), but that she challenged the entire rape-allegations narrative. It's a snarky, in-the-know kind of piece that obviously rolls off the keyboard of a skilled gossip writer. She royally disses the significance of Julian Assange, for one thing, but it's the dirt on the allegations that's killer. For example:

It turns out that once you get beyond the first nineteen layers of spin, suspicious timing and overall pointlessness, the Julian Assange rape case is an improbably interesting story, and one that’s also as potentially uplifting as a “rape story” could possibly be — but first I should establish that, at least the way the chain of events is laid out here, it doesn’t seem like either of his two accusers termed his misdeeds “rape” at first. Assange’s first accuser, who has been identified as Christian feminist _________, initially described it to multiple friends merely as the “worst sex ever”, and from all the available information it seems like that would have been the last word on it from her had Assange not waited around protesting and then procrastinating after the next girl he fucked a few days later, __________, asked him to get tested for STDs.

But instead, __________ — whose ex-boyfriend told police she had never had unprotected sex — panicked, first confiding in Wikileaks’ Stockholm bureau chief, who told police he responded by asking Assange to get tested, a request Assange allegedly refused. Eventually ______ tracked down ______, who was still letting Assange stay at her apartment (and who had in the meantime hosted a party for him there). It was only when the two women finally met and compared notes, a week after sex with ______ and four days after sex with ______, that they decided to go to the police.

Taken at face value, what happens next seems like a classic case of “Oh no that asshole didn’t pull (so to speak) the same bullshit on you too!!!! OMG that bastard is going to be sorry.” The “mysterious” ripping of a condom some guy very grudgingly agreed to use doubtless seems a lot more deliberate, and creepy, once you meet the girl on whom he pulled the same sort of shit three nights later. And it should; I used to date a guy who once volunteered to me that he had deliberately ripped condoms with a previous girlfriend. We weren’t using them at the time, because he had a smallish penis, which I imagine to be Julian Assange’s problem — that, and an inversely-proportioned ego — but the point is this is definitely something certain dudes do, and I can imagine it would be hugely alarming if you weren’t someone who’d ever had unprotected sex, especially if you suddenly found yourself having unprotected sex with someone who (like Assange) obviously did, especially especially if you were only half-conscious when it all went down, and especially even more upon meeting someone else whose experiences confirmed all your worst fears of the incident ...

I've replaced the accusers' names with underlined spaces, although I won't be surprised if some radical feminists --- like the atheist asshats --- contact my department anyway (these are bad people, remember?). That said, you can see that the issue's not just the naming of names, but the aggressive pushback against the rape allegations storyline. Frankly, this is the best thing I've read on this, and Tkacik makes Naomi Wolf look that much more credible. And I'll confess that some of my previous posts on this have been mostly ribbing the feminists for their rank hypocrisy and their über epistemological closure. But these new developments powerfully confirm my basic thesis that progressive feminists are using the Assange rape case to erect an impenetrable wall of hardline ideological conformity (as if there wasn't one already). Defection from behind that wall is dangerous. And by now it's almost to the point that feminist apostates have more to worry about that potential rape victims themselves.

Seriously chilling.

Check Moe Tkacik's Twitter page for some idea, here, here, here, and here.

PREVIOUSLY:

* "Naomi Wolf vs. Jaclyn Friedman on Democracy Now!"

* "Michael Moore Rehabilitated."

* "Michael Moore Repudiates 'Hooey' Rape Comments During Rachel Maddow Show Trial — BUMPED AND UPDATED!"

RELATED: Huge update on developments at The Other McCain, "Nobody’s Fault But Mine."

Booman Tribune, Progressive Anti-Israel Blog, Declares Obama Best President Since Lincoln, FDR

It's true:

At this point in his presidency I think it is fair to say that Obama is already in the conversation as best president since Abraham Lincoln. His only real competition is FDR and LBJ, and I think it's a safe bet that Obama will neither beat the Nazis nor start an unwinnable war in Vietnam. In other words, he's in a battle with FDR to be the best president since the Civil War.

Maybe some of you think that I am joking. I am not. Maybe some of you think I am damning with faint praise. Maybe I am. But that doesn't mean that I am wrong. I am not wrong.

There you have it.

Folks will remember that these Booman folks are truly diabolical: "Booman Tribune Blood Libels Pamela Geller." And anti-Israel, here, here, here, here, and here, for example.

And the BooMan is wrong about Obama. This lame duck session will not save his disastrous record so far, although the Democratic-Media-Industrial-Complex is now playing up this last week's legislative successes as if it's the coming of a second New Deal. Even the commenters at Booman are running quite badly against the administration. Progressives, readers will recall, are upset by Obama's cooperation with the corporate oligarchs and some are peeved he hasn't cracked down on the "fascist" right. And public opinion isn't helping the president's case. Retrospective approval of George W. Bush now runs ahead of Obama, and recent surveys have seen the president's number decline into "the lowest ever" territory for this administration.

Polls aren't the most reliable indicator of presidential success or legacy, in any case. Objectively, the economic crisis has improved little on Obama's watch, and this administration's foreign policy is weakening America on all fronts. And for all the establishment pooh-poohing, the vaunted New Start treaty will mostly tie American hands and give Moscow an undeserved boost in stature. And all the optimistic claims about the rigorous verification regime will prove unfounded as Russia soon begins to cheat out on its commitments. (More on that here.)

That said, folks like BooMan can be found quite regularly among those of the radical progressive Democratic base. They're the foundation for a obscene cult of personality surrounding this president, and they're dangerous enemies of both American and Israeli interests.

RELATED: "Obama's War on Israel."

Anarchist Bomb Blasts at Swiss and Chilean Embassies in Rome

At Telegraph UK, "'Anarchists' launch bomb attacks on two Rome embassies." (At Memeorandum.)

The Rome prosecutor's office has opened a terrorism inquiry. It's thought that the blasts have roots in the "eco-terrorism movement." Also at NYT, "Parcel Bomb Attacks Strike at Embassies in Rome." And Rome has been rocked by weeks-long student protests. The anarcho-terrorists have their roots in those organizations. I hope I'm wrong, as I always say, but the attacks are likely to escalate and deadly anarcho-violence is coming to America in due time (recall my reporting on the Occupy California movement, for example). Added: From Verum Serum, "Bombs at Embassies in Rome Similar to Attacks in Greece Last Month."

Naomi Wolf vs. Jaclyn Friedman on Democracy Now!

This is the exchange that has sent the #MooreandMe feminist progressives into fits of apocalyptic apoplexy:

House Arrest Doesn't Quiet Julian Assange

At NYT, "Under ‘High-Tech House Arrest,’ WikiLeaks Founder Takes the Offensive":

BUNGAY, England — When Julian Assange wakes these days, he looks out from a three-story Georgian mansion house overlooking a man-made lake. Under a blanket of snow, the 650-acre Ellingham Hall estate, a mile back from the closest public road, is as tranquil a spot as can be found in eastern England.

But Mr. Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, who is fighting accusations of sexual misconduct in Sweden, strolls through this bucolic idyll with an electronic tag on his ankle and a required daily 20-minute drive to the part-time police station in the neighboring town of Beccles. There he signs a register and chats “pleasantly” with the officers, according to their account, and returns to his curfew at the hall.

It is what Mr. Assange, a 39-year-old Australian, has laconically referred to as “my high-tech house arrest” in interviews since arriving last week from the High Court in London, where he was granted bail of $370,000, much of it provided by wealthy celebrities and friends, including Vaughan Smith, Ellingham Hall’s owner.

From his rural redoubt, Mr. Assange has gone on a media offensive, continuing to charge that he is the victim of a smear campaign led by the United States, which is weighing criminal prosecution for the leaks of nearly 750,000 classified documents.

Yeah, yeah.

The dude's a big baby.

Michael Moore Rehabilitated

But Naomi Wolf --- once one of the left's most vocal critics of the Bush administration, author of, among other things, a widely-cited 2007 article, "Fascist America, in 10 Easy Steps" (later released in book form) --- has been thrown under the bus by the feminist commissars of the progressive left.

Amanda Marcotte has it, "Moore and Me: The Aftermath":

The Twitter hashtag #mooreandme decidedly and quickly changed tone last night after Michael Moore’s appearance on “Rachel Maddow”. Now it’s becoming an education and reconciliation kind of place, though troll smacking is still going on and Keith Olbermann can’t help but poking his head in. (I can relate.) I think we have all let go of any hope that Naomi Wolf will continue to be anything but a grade A asshole over this; I think she is still unaware how many people who, probably because they don’t know how far she drifted off the farm years ago, she has run off from liking her forever. Now it’s time to regroup and reassess. With links and comments.

RTWT.

Amanda links to an article she's published at Slate: "The Perils of Charging Rape." Michael Moore, of course, is a much bigger progressive rock star than Naomi Wolf, but feminists were throwing Moore underneath as well. The chunky filmmaker came clean last night during the Rachel Maddow show trial, so the feminist grievance industry is rolling out the red carpet of rehabilitation. And it's important to understand that this is really personal, as Amanda notes:

Moore's change of position is particularly gratifying for the feminist protesters. And because of my personal history dealing with sexual violence, for me the fight against taking on faith badly sourced efforts to discredit Assange's accusers was more than an intellectual exercise. Many of the details in the fleshed-out accounts the women gave, as published in the New York Times and the Guardian, paralleled the rape I experienced in the spring of 1998, when I was a 20-year-old college junior.

It needs to be said again that rape allegations should be taken seriously, and it is never okay for a guy to disregard a woman's wishes or force himself upon her in any way --- no means no. It's the larger festishization of the cult of victimology that's fascinating here, and the drive to exterminate anyone who deviates from the accepted rape victims' narrative. John Hawkins nailed the hypocrisy the other day: "Liberals Progressives and Rape."

But there's more. When Michael Moore pleaded with Rachel Maddow for forgiveness, and suggested that society's gotten "a little better" at taking rape allegations seriously, Sady Doyle would have none of it:

... no, Michael Moore: It is not that much better now. It is, indisputably, not that much better. Naomi Wolf went on TV and told every viewer there that it isn’t rape if the victim is unconscious, that penetrating an unconscious woman is “consensual”: It’s not that much better. Those two women’s names were outed, to over 900,000 people, by you and by Keith Olbermann, and attached to a derogatory smear by a Holocaust denier and WikiLeaks representative on little to no evidence, because you support WikiLeaks and treated those two women as expendable in so doing: It’s not that much better. I got a message from a woman that the pro-Assange group, pro-WikiLeaks group she’s allied with, is posting messages that these women are liars and Assange is innocent, on its Facebook group, and that she’s being attacked for standing up to them: It’s not that much better. I got forwarded a link to an actual product that is being sold, an e-card featuring a drawing of a traumatized-looking woman huddled in a shower, reading “Congratulations! You just got bad touched”: It’s not that much better. A woman who was part of the protest told me that a message reading, in part, that she was “a cum-guzzling super slut wannabe hasbian dyke that is angry with the world because no matter how many times she flashed her uneven nigger breasts no man would ever touch her” was posted to streamofwikileaks.tumblr.com: It is not that much better. A man told me he had to stop protesting, had to stop posting #MooreandMe, because the harassment had gotten too intense, and “they have my home address and have explicitly threatened me and my wife,” and then he was such a goddamned good person that he actually apologized: It’s not that much better. Many of my friends, people I know and have worked with and respect, have come forward to tell me that they, too, are survivors, the absolute epidemic of rape and sexual assault that we face in this society has become that much clearer to me, the list of women I know who are also rape survivors has become much, much longer since I posted it on Saturday: It is not, it is indisputably not, that much better.

But hey, RTWT.

At least he recanted!

And seriously. Michael Moore confessed that rape allegations should be taken seriously --- AND THAT WAS A DEATH DEFYING VICTORY FOR FEMINISM!

Thank God almighty we are free at last!

And there's more, from this lady who admits to using the f-word a lot: "Dear Second and Third Wave Feminists With Publicly Recognizable Names":

“No means no” gave a voice to the abused, the raped, the victimized. It created a phrase to describe a phenomenon that men and women knew existed, but were unable to describe in a way that society as a whole took seriously. But it did not end the war on our bodies. It did not end the terrorism that makes us second-guess our clothing, map out our return home, walk with chaperones. It did not end the lifelong aftershocks of guilt and shame, wondering why we let them in, why we trusted them, why we kissed them. It did not lower the statistics that mock our hope that we have justice, or equality. The enemy adapted. The enemy always has. If no means no, why, then, ways will be found to keep us from speaking. Ways will be found to make it seem as if we have said “yes,” or not said “no” enough, or in the right tone of voice, or with the proper inflection, or at the right time. No means no, but only if you are not afraid to say it. No means no, but only if you keep saying it, for a lifetime, hoping it will work before the situation escalates. No means no, but only if you never give up saying it because you are tired, you are hungry, you are frightened, you are alone, you are intimidated, you are convinced that this will happen anyway, and will only get worse for you the longer you go on saying “no.”

We need more than “no means no.”

Hey, Andrea Dworkin lives! And to think I'd nearly been disabused!

Okay, game-face here. RTWT. We have lots more work to do!

And that's no joke. This is going to be Twit-o-lutionary. See, "How #MooreandMe Worked."

I don't recall seeing a blog post like that, well, ever --- it's like a dissertation! These chicks are freakin' serious!

No wonder conservatives are coming out with posts like this: "Rape: I'm Against It." It's hard out there for a dude!

PREVIOUSLY: "Michael Moore Repudiates 'Hooey' Rape Comments During Rachel Maddow Show Trial — BUMPED AND UPDATED!"

Julian Assange Interviewed on Dylan Ratigan Show

An interview with Cenk Uygur:

It's mostly a bunch of whining about how he isn't being treated like a "journalist." See AFP, "US press should fear being targeted: Assange." And he takes issue with the "shock jocks trying to make a name for themselves," like Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin. Business Insider has more: "Julian Assange Thinks Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee Should Be Charged With Incitement to Commit Murder." And CNN, "Assange lashes back at U.S. critics." Assange wraps up by bawling about U.S. treatment of Pfc. Bradley Manning, moaning about how "human rights organizations" need to look into this. Manning is Assange's fall guy and whatever he says about him is completely unserious and self-serving. Besides, now we've got international organizations on the case. At Fox News, "U.S. Military Pushes Back After U.N. Agrees to Review WikiLeaks Suspect's Treatment."

And more from Michael Lind, "Yes, Julian Assange actually is a criminal."

Now that's what I'm talking about!

Michael Moore Repudiates 'Hooey' Rape Comments During Rachel Maddow Show Trial — BUMPED AND UPDATED!

It's really hard to watch these people. Michael Moore especially.

He keeps saying stuff about "what it means to be an American," and then --- like Nina Totenberg --- has to apologize for an outright affirmation of Christianity. (Asking if it's okay to say you're Christian? Only on MSNBC, I guess, or NPR.) But frankly, I tuned in because basically this Rachel Maddow episode was a Michael Moore show trial for the benefit of rape victims and their advocates in the radical feminist community. It's not my bailiwick, but it's been an unusual week for progressive feminist advocacy groups. And I guess it needs to be said, but there's nothing okay about rape --- and there obviously shouldn't be anyone who's actually "for it." But for the feminist left's sexual assualt grievance industry --- folks will recall --- marriage is legalized rape. And as we saw with this big debate over the sexual assault allegations against Julian Assange in Sweden, if one didn't come down on the side of the accusers they were quickly excommunicated from the progressive community (Naomi Wolf, for example, but see, "Making Sense of Wikileaks, Julian Assange, Rape, Michael Moore, Naomi Wolf, and Keith Olbermann"). This is also interesting since for some reason Robert Stacy McCain wrote a bizarre essay in response to a set of literally unhinged questions regarding his positions on rape, purportedly posed by Elizabeth Blackney. Folks need to just read the whole thing for themselves. I'm not out to defend Robert. What's interesting is that some on the left went more aggressive against McCain than they did against Michael Moore. I mean, seriously. Tommy Christopher? Who gives a fuck what that guy thinks? And Mediaite who? People like this are the dregs of the new media establishment --- bottom suckers looking to scrape off something halfway newsworthy, punching the clock for another day's sleazy dollar. It's pathetic. In any case, as for Michael Moore, I think he's back in good with the neo-Stalinist feminist bloc. The recantation begins just after 7:00 minutes. He's very sincere. No longer are the allegations against Assange a bunch of "hooey," but are instead of the gravest nature, and "have to be treated very seriously." And speaking of serious: Look at the intensity of the audience when the camera pans around the auditorium. It's like a general assembly of Soviet commissars. One false utterance and it's the gulag for the defendant. And then once cleared, Moore shifts the focus to the WikiLeaks criminal enterprise, and spins more collectivist lies on how noble this operation is. At 9:10 minutes, for example, Moore claims that American soldiers "murdered" Iraqi civilians from a helicopter in Iraq. The whole "Collateral Murder" propaganda campaign was proven completely false, of course. U.S. forces were engaged with insurgents on the ground throughout the morning, and an examination of the WikiLeaks video indicates U.S. troops following rules of engagement to the letter. Michael Moore is a disgusting hack, a liar recycling untruths on national television. The whole thing is sickening to me, creepy even. Julian Assange is a national security threat. He should be brought to justice in the United States. But the latest WikiLeaks circus has once again clarified the loyalties of those of America's Fifth Column plugging away at the evisceration of the United States. Michael Moore, Rachael Maddow --- they're both top operatives in the progressive left's longstanding neo-communist program of delegitimation and destruction. And it won't be long now, but the controversy over the Assange rape charges will blow over. Michael Moore has paid penance tonight to the mass proletarian overlords. He should be safe now, or at least until he gets cocky again and bloviates with another untimely "Countdown" hooey gaffe.

**********

UPDATE: I pretty much scooped the entire blogosphere on this!

Anyway, Dan Collins responds directly: "My 2 Cents Regarding the Tommy Christopher/Stacy McCain Kerfuffle."

Tommy Christopher blows off my essay, with falacious spite, I might add. His essay's here, published almost twelve hours after I posted: "Michael Moore Changes Tune On Assange Charges, Does Not Directly Address Protest."

On a related note, I had a brief exchange with a feminist named Amadi on Twitter. She dismissed me as a "mansplaining troglodyte."

Huffington Post has a write up, "Michael Moore To Rachel Maddow: I Take Rape Charges Against Julian Assange 'Very Seriously' (VIDEO)." And at Business Insider, "Michael Moore Will Not Defend Julian Assange Over Rape Charges, But WikiLeaker Manning Should Be Rewarded." Also, at Vanity Fair, "Michael Moore on Julian Assange: As an American, You Have to Believe He’s Innocent Until Proven Guilty."

Noel Sheppard, at NewsBusters, picks up on Michael Moore's Christian apologetics: "Michael Moore at a YMCA Asks Rachel Maddow if it's Okay to Say He Was Raised Christian." I noticed that too, but it's so standard among progressives that it warranted little mention at the time.

I think that's it, although Sady Doyle has related ruminations, pre-Maddow: "A Week of #MooreandMe: Keith Olbermann and the Eternal “If”."

I don't see the promised column yet from Elizabeth Blackney.

And perhaps Robert Stacy McCain is holding off on reentering this debate. Meanwhile, he goes with the tried and true: "Christmas Cheesecake."

And speaking of Christmas, I'm going shopping. Back online later this afternoon.

Bill Whittle's Firewall: 'A Nation of Desire' — Christmas 2010

A special Christmas edition (via Glenn Reynolds):

Previously:

* "Bill Whittle's Firewall: 'What We Believe, Part 1: Small Government and Free Enterprise'."

* "Bill Whittle's Firewall: 'What We Believe, Part 2: The Problem with Elitism'."

* "Bill Whittle's Firewall: 'What We Believe, Part 3: Wealth Creation'."

* "Bill Whittle's Firewall: 'What We Believe, Part 4: Natural Law'."

* "Bill Whittle's Firewall: 'What We Believe, Part 5: Gun Rights'."

* "Bill Whittle's Firewall: 'What We Believe, Part 6: Immigration'."

* "Bill Whittle's Firewall: 'What We Believe, Part 7: American Exceptionalism'."

Why Does Vice President Joe Biden Hate Christmas?

Via Jim Treacher:

Illegal Immigrants Factor Into 2010 Census

No surprise there, at Fox News, "Illegal Immigrants Factor Into 2010 Census Results, Congressional Makeup":

Census data released Tuesday reflects how illegal immigration could shape the makeup of Congress, with border states and other immigration magnets registering big gains over the past decade.

Though the latest Census Bureau information does not include breakouts on race or ethnicity, Western and Southern states with large, or at least growing, immigrant populations were generally the ones that gained enough new residents to warrant additional congressional seats.

Illegal immigrants would constitute just one of several factors in the population shifts recorded in that time. But since illegal immigrants are counted in the U.S. Census by law, they have an inevitable impact on the way House seats are divvied up.

"You can see how they can have a big impact on the distribution of seats," said Steven Camarota, research director with the Center for Immigration Studies. "Michigan and Pennsylvania are going to lose a seat and it's going to go to some other place ... because of the inclusion of illegal immigrants."

Camarota estimated the total number of illegal immigrants counted in the 2010 Census at about 10 million. Total population growth for immigrants in the United States exceeded 13 million over the last 10 years. With the U.S. population at 309 million, that might sound like a drop in the melting pot. But their numbers start to make a difference on a state-by-state level.

Several states with large immigration populations, both legal and illegal, will gain at least one seat out of the latest census numbers. They include Florida, Texas, Arizona and Nevada. South Carolina, Georgia and Washington state, which all saw unusually high rates of growth in their immigrant populations over the past decade, will also gain a congressional seat each. South Carolina, for instance, registered a 150 percent increase in its immigrant population, according to a CIS analysis.

Camarota said that regardless of whether the changes are coming from influxes of illegal or legal immigrants, more districts are going to be created with swaths of people in them who can't vote.

Slaves couldn't vote either, but they bulked up the South's representation after 1787. The Democrats were for slavery back then too.

Afshan Azad Honor Killing Threat Not Over

Update on my report yesterday: "Afshan Azad, 'Harry Potter' Star, Beaten and Branded as Prostitute After Meeting Non-Muslim Man."

Megyn Kelly indicates that Ms. Azad will not testify against her father for fear of death:

RELATED: At NewsReal Blog: "“Harry Potter” Actress Assaulted, Under Threat of Honor Killing."

Dan Connolly's Record-Setting Kickoff Return

Amazing play.

And I was watching live on Sunday night. I thought he was gonna score, and Connolly was all class when he didn't. Via Theo Spark:

Neo-Neocon Breast Blogging

Seriously.

Yes ladies have traffic suckage problems, and while the guys get a lot of flak for blogging hotties, Neo-Neocon knows there's utility in blogging the bazongas:

In an effort to boost my traffic, I am writing about breasts today. Small breasts. But breasts nonetheless

As did the NY Times recently, in a piece about a new trend: lingerie stores that cater to and celebrate the less-endowed woman.

RELATED: Blazing Catfur goes multicultural: "The Making of Bauernkalendar 2010."

2010 Congressional Reapportionment: Winners and Losers

Check the interactive graphic at New York Times.

Plus, "Power in Congress to Tilt South and West" (via Memeorandum).

And at the Rose Institute, Claremont McKenna College, "2010 Apportionment Continues 40-year shift to South/Southwest."

PREVIOUSLY: "After Census, Texas Leads Way on Immigration Politics."

Lady Gaga Groped in Paris

At Splash News, "Lady Gaga Got Groped!"

My wife's first comment was: "She looks old."

And then I clicked over to London's Daily Mail, "Bum Note: Lady Gaga Shows Buttocks in See-Through Flesh-Coloured Pants for a Chilly Shopping Trip in Ice-Bound Paris" (NSFW), and my wife says: "She deserves to be groped if she's dressing like that!"

Rasmussen Reports: 58 Percent Oppose Automatic Citizenship to Illegal Immigrant Children

The report is here, plus Scott Rasmussen's interviewed at KSAZ FOX10 Phoenix:

RELATED: At The Week, "The GOP War on 'Anchor Babies'."

National Security and the New Media

From the Center for Security Policy: "Dick Morris, Andrew Breitbart, Roger L. Simon, and more from the Center’s Mightier Pen & National Security and New Media Conference."

VIDEO: Actor Injured During 'Spider-Man' Performance

I saw this at New York Times early this morning, but no video clips were available. And now at Hollywood Reporter, "Spider-Man Performance Canceled After Actor Seriously Injured":

The New York State Department of Labor opens another investigation after Christopher Tierney fell an estimated 20 feet Monday.

Spider-Man on Broadway will postpone a Wednesday matinee after an actor was seriously injured during Monday night's show, producers confirm to The Hollywood Reporter in a statement. Watch the video, below.

"The [Occupational Safety and Health Administration], Actors Equity and the New York State Department of Labor have met with the Spider-Man company today to discuss additional safety protocols. It was agreed that these measures would be enacted immediately. Tomorrow's matinee has been postponed and will be rescheduled. Tomorrow evening's, and all subsequent performances, will proceed as scheduled," says Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark spokesperson Rick Miramontez.

Miramontez says Monday's audience will be contacted individually and offered an exchange or refund.

Actor Christopher Tierney, 31, is currently in serious condition at New York City's Bellevue Hospital, says a hospital spokesman. (While the spokesperson would not confirm reports of a broken rib or internal bleeding, "serious" means the patient is "acutely ill, vital signs can be unstable and not within their normal limits.") Director Julie Taymor visited him Tuesday, according to the New York Times.

Two officials from the New York State Department of Labor spent Tuesday investigating equipment at the theater.

After Census, Texas Leads Way on Immigration Politics

Census numbers are out today and Texas will pick up four seats in the House of Representatives.

The Texas Tribune has the numbers, "Apportionment Nets Texas Four New Congressional Seats." And Bloomberg reports on how the state's Latino population is responding, "Texas Hispanics to Challenge Status Quo in Reapportionment."

And see New York Times, "After Dream Act Setback, Eyeing a Sleeping Giant":

HOUSTON — About 37 percent of Texas residents are of Hispanic origin, and the state has a long history of welcoming newcomers who work hard and obey the law. So the state would seem likely to support a bill to grant citizenship to thousands of foreign-born college students.

Yet the two Republican Senators from Texas, Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn, both voted to block the bill, known as the Dream Act, from coming up for a vote on Saturday.

Neither senator was moved by protests and hunger strikes in San Antonio, nor by calls from religious leaders to pass the bill, nor by newspaper articles about the children of undocumented immigrants who had made it to college, only to be picked up for traffic violations and threatened with deportation.

Their votes are another sign of how strong the reaction to illegal immigration has grown among Republicans in Texas, a state where Mexicans, with visas or without, have always been an integral part of the society.

Beyond anger about Washington’s spending, immigration policy was also on the agenda of many of the conservatives who came out in droves to vote in the November midterm elections.

The question now is whether the failure of the Dream Act will create a backlash among Hispanic voters against the Republicans in power.

It has already become a cause for some young Hispanics in Texas. One group of hunger strikers in San Antonio has vowed to use the defeat as a rallying cry to build a broad movement for an immigration overhaul.

“There is a lot of anger, disillusionment,” said Arturo Chavez, the president of a Catholic organization in San Antonio who lobbied for the bill. “But all the young people I talk to are even more determined than ever.”

The political winds seem against them, however. Since the election, Texas lawmakers have introduced dozens of bills intended to discourage illegal immigration, chief among them an Arizona-style law making it a crime to be in the state without a visa.

The Republican tide in November gave the party a two-thirds majority in the State House, prompting one Hispanic Democrat to switch parties recently.

What is more, the Dream Act was supposed to be the easy part of the immigration overhaul to pass, a law that taps into notions of meritocracy. Proponents say they are dismayed that such a moderate measure could not win passage even with a Democratic president and Democratic majorities in both chambers.

The Texas GOP risks a backlash, although the Bloomberg report cites Republican Blake Farenthold from Brownsville, on the Mexican border, who is optimistic:

"South Texans are mainly Catholics with traditional values and people who value a hard day’s work ... We’ve done a poor job until this election of getting that message across."

The GOP majority in the legislature, which will control the redistricting process, will likely pack Latino voters into key districts, hence diluting that bloc's impact on state politics.

This story is developing. Republicans will gain power at the national level. Expect updates, but see National Journal, "An Embarrassment of GOP Riches," and Politico, "The Reapportionment Rundown." Plus, at NYT, "Census Data Show 308 Million People and a Regional Shift."

The Obligatory Haley Barbour Racial Revisionism Racism Post

I doubt this is the kind of attention the folks at Weekly Standard had in mind. But readers should at least visit the scene of the alleged crime: "The Boy from Yazoo City." Folks might get a kick out this passage, for example:

What role Yazoo City’s segregationist past might play in Barbour’s presidential campaign is hard to say. It could become an issue, particularly for Washington political reporters who enjoy moralizing about race and public education while sending their own children to progressive schools like Sidwell Friends and St. Albans, where applicants of color are discreetly screened and their numbers carefully regulated.

Exactly.

(The Obamas send their girls to Sidwell, but progressives are hypocrites like that.)

Reading the whole thing provides the context. Governor Barbour grew up in a time of changing racial norms and in his experience of segregation in the South wasn't "all that bad." But such thoughts are verboten nowadays, remember? And faster than you can say "post-racial America," the progressive left — the kind of folks who don't think twice about getting their kids out of crime-ridden, dilapidated inner city schools — have launched a campaign of racist allegations against Barbour. Of course, cries of racism are all that progressives have left — something conservatives have pointed out repeatedly during the Obama interregnum. But with the 2012 pre-primary season picking up, we should be preparing for a bumper crop of left-wing racist allegations.

Now, I'm not sure, but it looks like the Barbour smear got going at Talking Points Memo, for example, "Barbour Praises Civil Rights-Era White Supremacist Citizens Councils." The lead accuser investigator there, Eric Kleefeld, contacted the governor's office and got a statement (which of course lends credibility to the allegations): "Barbour Spokesman: Mississippi Gov. Is Not Racist." And Kleefield follows up with some additional research: "Flashback: Citizens Councils Touted 'Racial Integrity,' 'Christian Love and Segregation'."

At Daily Kos the meme was that Barbour's statements were revisionist:

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour has a strategy for beating Sarah Palin to the teabaggers' support in the 2012 primaries. Digby calls it his "Southern Strategy," consisting of a the dogwhistle message that "racism in America was always overblown with the implication being that those who complain about it have always been whiners."

And at Hufffington Post, former George Soros protégé Amanda Terkel chimed in with how Haley's account was at odds with the professional left's academic establishment and racial grievance organizations: "Haley Barbour's Account of Civil Rights Era in Mississippi Assailed By NAACP, Historians."

Then of course we've had current Soros tool Matthew Yglesias holding forth non stop, and he's got a piece headlining right now at Memeorandum: "Haley Barbour's Affection for the White Supremacist Citizens' Council." And notice this follow-up piece from Yglesias: "Barbour Has a History of Citizens’ Council Trouble."

So, as you can see, the left's meme has gone from situating Barbour's personal recollections as an attempt at GOP racial revisionism to a full frontal attack on the governor as a Klan-style white supremacist. Michelle Goldberg provides the flourishing touch, at The Daily Beast, "Is Haley Barbour a Racist?":

Haley Barbour, the governor of Mississippi, chairman of the Republican Governors Association, and likely presidential candidate, has fond memories of his native Yazoo County during the days of Jim Crow. “I just don’t remember it as being that bad,” he says in a Weekly Standard piece this week. He praises the Citizens Councils—“an organization of town leaders”—for keeping the peace and keeping out the KKK. Writer Andrew Ferguson takes Barbour at his word, arguing that if Barbour’s segregationist roots become an issue in his presidential campaign, it will be because of “Washington political reporters who enjoy moralizing about race and public education while sending their own children to progressive schools like Sidwell Friends and St. Albans.”

The piece is an exquisite example of the conservative racial two-step: a blatant expression of racism, followed by aggrieved wailing at the mere thought of being called a racist. It proves that Barbour is either dishonest or so blindly ignorant that one can scarcely imagine how he’s managed a successful political career.

Hold on.

All Barbour said was "I just don’t remember it as being that bad."

That's racist? Hardly, but anything involving old-school private social organizations in the South is a potential mother load for the progressives. We'll see how this plays out thoughout the day. Meanwhile, at the Seattle Times, "Civil-rights days not so bad, recalls Mississippi governor," and New York Times, "Discussing Civil Rights Era, a Governor Is Criticized."

RELATED: "Doing a ‘Macaca’ on Haley Barbour."

Democrat Sugar Plums

Via Jawa Report and Memeorandum:

'They Won't Hold Up Well in Combat' — North Carolina Marines Voice Concerns on DADT Repeal

Actually, just a couple of dozen of 'em, but interesting nevertheless. At NYT, "Backing ‘Don’t Ask’ Repeal, With Reservations":

JACKSONVILLE, N.C. — Pfc. Daniel Carias, a Bronx native who is just weeks from graduating from Marine Corps infantry training at Camp Geiger near here, says he has known plenty of gay men since high school and feels completely comfortable around them.

He thinks Congress did the right thing in repealing the ban on gay men and lesbians serving openly in the military, a policy known as “don’t ask, don’t tell.” But Private Carias, 18, has one major concern: gay men, he says, should not be allowed to serve in front-line combat units.

“They won’t hold up well in combat,” he said.

That view, or variations on it, was expressed repeatedly in interviews with Marines around this town, home to Camp Lejeune, and outside Camp Pendleton in Southern California on Sunday.

Most of the approximately two dozen Marines interviewed said they personally did not object to gay men or lesbians serving openly in the military. But many said that introducing the possibility of sexual tension into combat forces would be disruptive, an argument made by the commandant of the Marine Corps a week before the historic repeal was passed by the Senate on Saturday and sent to President Obama for his signature.

Many concerns — and possible solutions — are outlined in a Defense Department plan for carrying out the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell.” Officials said they did not yet have a timetable for adopting the change. Under the terms of the legislation, the Defense Department will not carry out the repeal until Mr. Obama, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, certify that the military is ready to make the change.

RTWT at the link.

Yeah, pfft, what do these guys know, right? It's an unrepresentative sample, of kids, really, mostly just out of high school.

By contrast, surely the editors at NYT know best, for example, at today's editorial, "At Long Last, Military Honor":

The Senate vote on Saturday afternoon to allow open service by gay and lesbian soldiers was one of the most important civil rights votes of our time. The ringing message of the decision to end the “don’t ask, don’t tell” law will carry far beyond its immediate practical implications. Saturday may be remembered as the day when sexual tolerance finally become bipartisan.

Sadly, the vast majority of Republicans remained on the benighted side of the party line. Senator John McCain disgraced his distinguished military career by flailing against the vote, claiming it would be celebrated only in liberal bastions like Georgetown salons. But to the surprise even of supporters of repeal, eight Republican senators broke with party orthodoxy and voted with virtually every Democrat to end the policy. Fifteen House Republicans did the same on Wednesday. By focusing on history and decency, they took a stand of which their states can be proud. Perhaps a new moral momentum may even help them erase the remaining traces of prejudice in public life, including Washington’s refusal to recognize same-sex marriage.

Hmm... Actually the Pentagon's report was a bit more complicated that the editors let on. And interesting how we can see that DADT repeal will help "erase the last traces of prejudice" in American life. Well, no. We'd have to totally erase human nature to eliminate prejudice — but reason isn't the basis for the policy change. Politically correct emotionalism is.

PREVIOUSLY:

* "Gay Rights Militants to Push for Same-Sex Marriage Following DADT Victory."

* "'Deal With It' — Straight Troops to Shower With Gays Under DADT Repeal."

* "Senate Repeals 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' — BUMPED AND UPDATED!"

And more from Stephanie Gutmann, at National Review, "Rhetoric on DADT Was Overblown."

My award for schmaltziest lede of the year goes to the New York Times for kvelling in an editorial yesterday that “More than 14,000 soldiers lost their jobs and their dignity over the last 17 years because they were gay, but there will be no more victims of this injustice.” Can we have a little reality here, please?

Via Memeorandum.

The Obama Who Stole Christmas

Via Miss Moneypenny, "Obama the Grinch Destroyed Xmas and America":

And it's not only the millions of unemployed who're getting grinched by this administration, but the progressive left as well. See "Can Obama Repair Relations With Liberals?", and "Austerity Grand Bargain Feared Between Republicans, White House."

iJustine Encounters Steve Jobs

My policy is to avoid meeting celebrities, especially movie stars. They break your heart.

Here's Justine Ezarik with the age-old dilemma:

Afshan Azad, 'Harry Potter' Star, Beaten and Branded as Prostitute After Meeting Non-Muslim Man

Religion of peace, tolerance, and justice for women.

At Telegraph UK:

Harry Potter star was beaten, called a ''slag'' and threatened with death after she met a young man who was not a Muslim, a court heard today.

Victim Afshan Azad, 22, played Padma Patil, a classmate of the teenage wizard, in the blockbuster Hollywood films based on the children's books by JK Rowling.

She was assaulted and branded a ''prostitute'' after meeting a young Hindu man, a relationship which brought anger from her father, Abul Azad, 53, and brother, Ashraf, 28, Manchester Crown Court heard.

The frightened actress later fled through her bedroom window after threats were made to kill her.

But despite attempts to get her to come to court for the trial of her father and brother, Miss Azad would not attend voluntarily, the court was told.

Both men were charged with making threats to kill her and her brother was also charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm on his sister.

And at Manchester Evening News, "Brother found guilty of attack on Harry Potter star Afshan Azad over relationship with Hindu man."

RELATED: It's not the first time that Ms. Azad has been assaulted by her own family.

Hamas Terrorist Attempts to Fire His AK-47

According to Weasel Zippers. I need more context, actually. Fascinating though:

And no ambiguity here. Best to shoot this guy in the head too, ASAP. Via Jawa Report:

Rising Computer Prices Buck the Trend

And I've been in the market for one too.

After buying a new laptop for each of the past three years, they seem even more expensive. I blame Obama.

At WSJ, "Average Prices Rose 6% in November, Industry Reversal Has Some Executives Saying Prices Have Bottomed; No $99 Laptop":

For the first time in several years, people shopping for personal computers are doing something new: paying more.

Computer prices are rising even as the prices of other consumer electronics such as high-definition televisions and digital cameras plunge this holiday season.

In November, the average retail price of a PC sold in the U.S. was $615, up 6% from last year's $580, which marked a record low, according to research firm NPD Group. Average PC prices have now increased in six of the past eight months compared with 2009 levels, according to NPD data.

The rising prices for PCs—including desktops, laptops and low-cost netbooks but not tablets—is a stark turnabout for the $250 billion global PC industry, which for years has coped with sharp price declines even as machines became more powerful.

The cut-throat pricing of recent years has rippled through the industry, squeezing profit margins for big PC makers such as Hewlett-Packard Co. and Dell Inc. Now those firms are focusing on premium machines and seeing profit margins expand.

The higher-end models are "flying off the shelves," said PaulHenri Ferrand, chief marketing officer for Dell's consumer unit.

The price reversal is also driven by stabilization in the prices of laptops, which dominate the mix of computers sold today and have been pressured by both new tablets and low-priced netbooks.

More at the link.

Confidential Police Report Leaked in Julian Assange Sex Assault Case

At The Australian, "Lawyers cry foul over leak of Julian Assange sex-case papers" (via Memeorandum).

Plus, at NYT, "Confidential Swedish Police Report Details Allegations Against WikiLeaks Founder."

And at WSJ, "New Details Reveal More About Problems Assange Faces":

New details of the Swedish sexual-misconduct accusations against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange shed more light on the deepening and complex legal problems he faces over his conduct with two women during a short stretch in August.

Mr. Assange was released on bail in the U.K. last week following his Dec. 7 arrest on a European arrest warrant issued by Sweden. Now, the WikiLeaks founder finds himself in the middle of a multifront legal battle stemming from two seemingly disparate events: WikiLeaks' release of thousands of classified U.S. documents, which has angered U.S. officials and sparked a broad U.S. federal investigation; and the sexual-misconduct case in Sweden, where prosecutors want to extradite him to answer questions regarding accusations of rape and molestation by two women there.

Mr. Assange has denied the sex allegations, and his attorney, Mark Stephens, has suggested that the Swedish criminal case is a ruse to keep Mr. Assange in custody while U.S. prosecutors consider whether to bring a criminal case against him or WikiLeaks.

But as more details about Sweden's criminal case against Mr. Assange emerge, through interviews and the leaking of a Swedish police report to the U.K. newspaper the Guardian, the sexual-misconduct allegations have come into fuller view.

And at The Other McCain, "Julian Assange, Victim?"

RELATED: From Kash Hill, "Julian Assange Knocks Mark Zuckerberg on Saturday Night Live."

Gay Rights Militants to Push for Same-Sex Marriage Following DADT Victory

I knew this was going to happen. Indeed, one of the reasons I haven't extensively engaged the debate on gays in the military is because while supportive, the overall agenda dovetails with the militant same-sex marriage movement to which I'm opposed. Aggressive lobbying for it would be basically helping the other side, and I draw the line at gay marriage, which is against both nature and moral right. This is something that's been discussed here many times. And just today I added an important update on the debate, "Real Marriage is the Union of Husband and Wife." And now with the DADT repeal, we'll be seeing not just a flurry of activity in the militant gay community, but a campaign of gay marriage cheerleading in the left's Democratic-Media-Industrial-Complex. We have this at the New York Times tonight, for example, "One Battle Won, Activists Shift Sights" (via Memeorandum).

And also at this morning's Los Angles Times, "Gains Outweigh Setbacks in a Landmark Year for Gay Rights":

Today the military, tomorrow the marriage altar?

In an era when gay Americans have seen stunning progress and many setbacks in the quest for equality under the law, many believe 2010 will go down in history as a watershed that will lead inexorably to more legal rights.

Saturday's vote in the Senate to allow the repeal of the federal law banning gays from openly serving in the military is "one of the greatest, if not the greatest, victory in the history of the movement for gay and lesbian equality," said Aaron Belkin, director of the Palm Center, a UC Santa Barbara think tank that studies the issue of gays in the military. "Going back thousands of years, the marker of a first-class citizen has always been someone who's been allowed to serve in the military."

Most countries that allow gay marriage, he added, lifted their military bans on gays first.

Still, the wrangling in the halls of Congress, in courts and at ballot boxes about how gays are treated shows no sign of abating anytime soon.

"All social justice movements are two steps forward, three steps back," said Fred Sainz, spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay rights group. "It's always been a lot of highs and sometimes more lows, but the highs tend to be more momentous than the lows."

Social conservatives, though disappointed with the Senate vote, disagree that there is a link between the military and marriage.

"It's a tragic day for America," said Peter Sprigg, senior fellow for policy studies at the Family Research Council. "But I don't think this will really affect the marriage issue very much. It's been rejected by voters in 31 states."

Indeed, the most important victories for gays have been won this year in the courts and Congress, rather than through the electorate.

RTWT.

RELATED: At Sense of Events, "What Makes Marriage, Marriage?"

And from the gay militant commentary: Pam's House Blend, Towleroad and, AMERICAblog Gay.