Wednesday, November 9, 2011

T-Rav's Sockpuppet Theater Presents: Motor City Mayhem

In honor of tonight's debate (CNBC 8:00 PM EST), I'm putting off my CommentaramaFilms article for today. Instead, here are some pre-debate thoughts.


Thought One: Who will be first to raise the harassment issue against Cain? Frankly, it’s a horrible move. Sure, the establishment types will love you and Karl Rove will give you a big sloppy wet one, but raise that issue at your peril. I’m betting they wait for the moderators to do their dirty work. Or it will be Santorum. . . he lacks judgment.

Thought Two: When the sexual harassment allegations come up, how will Cain handle it? How would you? My guess is he will dismiss it by saying we should be discussing “what matters to the country.” In other words, do we care more about how we will remake the government or whether or not Cain asked out a couple women 14 years ago?

Thought Three: Will Mitt Romney say anything memorable? I honestly don’t dislike the guy, but I just can’t remember anything he says. It’s like listening to an insurance salesman. When his lips stop moving, you either sign or you don’t. That’s Romney.

Thought Four: Will Newt move to push Cain out of the way? Newt has been rising in polls lately and has moved into solid third place. If Cain stumbles, he seems to be the next conservative on deck. But I’d say it’s a little early to make a move. Newt needs to see if this harassment thing destroys Cain. If it does, then he just needs to keep courting Cain people and wait for them to jump ship. If it doesn’t, then he needs to make a move before Cain gains an insurmountable lead.

Thought Five: How many candidates will be killed in drive-bys tonight? This debate is happening in Detroit after all. The over/under is three.

Thought Six: Call me crazy, but I think this is finally the debate where Bachmann tells us how many kids she has.

Thought Seven: Ron Paul. Hmm. Will we get crazy Ron Paul telling us we can solve the Iranian problem by just being their friends? Or will we get very bright and insightful Ron Paul explaining where Washington has gone off the rails? Probably a little of both. Still, despite the crazy, I’m honestly glad he’s there because when he’s brilliant, he is brilliant and he’s worth hearing.

Thought Eight: We should be thankful the crowd won’t be repeating everything that gets said. . . like the OWS zombies in Atlanta.

Thought Nine: Let me ask a serious question about Beaker. Let’s assume that (non-gay) marriage is good for people and good for the economy. Thus, as Beaker says, we should promote (non-gay) marriage. But how do we do that? Beaker hasn’t told us how he plans to work this (non-gay) miracle which no one anywhere in the (non-gay) world has managed to achieve. So what is his secret plan?

Thought Ten: Can you name five good things to come out of Detroit?

Feel free to add your own thoughts or questions. . .

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Occupy Animal Farm

Meanwhile, in fantasy land, the OWS (bowel) movement continues its inexorable march toward Animal Farm. We’ve got oppressive government, crime waves, deaths, and ironies galore! Come one come all, unless you’re homeless or a Jew. . . or you don't want to be raped.
Occupy Rape
Zuccotti Park, the Mecca of OWS, has turned into a gathering of predators. Apparently, the west end of the park has become so dangerous that people are warned not to go there anymore. This has included assault, drug dealing, drug use, and rape. Naturally, the idiot protesters are claiming this is all the doing of the police. Said one protester:
“We are convinced the rise in crime is being partly manufactured by the authorities. A lot of people who have ended up in the park have said that the police told them: ‘Take it to Zuccotti.’”
Snicker snicker. I wish that were true, but I’m not on drugs, so I know better.

Rape, by the way, is becoming an epidemic. In the past few weeks, there have been a series of rapes and attempted rapes at OWS camps all over the country. In Zuccotti park, it’s gotten so bad that OWS females have banded together and created female-only sleeping tents under the theory that there’s “safety in numbers.” Interestingly, the OWS gangs have discouraged the victims from calling the police and are actually threatening protesters who do contact the police. Check out this odd quote from an OWS woman: “We don’t tell anyone. We handle it internally. I said too much already.”

And how have they handled it? So far, they’ve formed a police force that shines flashlights in the faces of rapists and then yells at them to leave with the chant (and no, I’m not kidding): “Pervert! Pervert! Get the f–k out!”

Call me crazy, but I don’t think the drummers are getting value for their taxes.

So let’s think about this for a moment. First, they are allowing OWS females to become rape victims because they're doing nothing to stop the rapists or keep them from repeating. Secondly, they've done nothing to reform the rapists, which is something leftists always claim is society's responsibility. Apparently not. Third, since when has it been acceptable in liberal circles to accuse someone of being a “pervert?” And since when has it been acceptable to just chase criminals away to another jurisdiction? Try chasing ours to Mexico and see what liberals say. Finally, the rape industry, which tells us there are ten rapes for every reported rape, chastises society for discouraging the reporting of rape. Yet these same people are telling these women not to report their rapes because they fear the publicity will make OWS look bad.

But at least they’re sympathetic to these young women, right? Uh, no. Scoffed one male OWS protester: “Sexual harassment gets called rape, and it’s not.” Interesting. So women make false rape allegations and sexual harassment isn’t a big deal then?

Anyhoo, Zuccotti Park isn’t the only free-fire zone when it comes to sexual predators. Rapes have been reported at: OWS Cleveland, Baltimore, Boston, Glasgow, Lawrence Kansas, and Ottawa. In Dallas, an OWS protester sexually assaulted a child. In Seattle, an OWS protester exposed himself to children. In Portland, a sex offender has registered OWS as his home. In Denver, a protester groped a TV journalist. In Kansas, they sexually assaulted a reporter. In Manchester New Hampshire, a woman pimped out her teen.

Other incidents of note, excluding the thousands of arrests, property damage, and using children as human shields, include two overdose deaths in Vancouver, a murder at OWS Oklahoma City, a knife fight at OWS Austin, Neo-Nazis in OWS Phoenix, etc. And of course, there is massive anti-Semitism throughout the movement.
Some Are More Equal Than Others
Finally, there is yet another irony that just has to be pointed out. You may recall, this “leaderless” group of anti-fascists has formed a General Assembly, right? (Plus the police force, the taxes, the rules, etc.). Well, the brown-shirts have taken over.

First, a small group of them formed a new politburo, called the Spokes Council. This group, apparently numbering around six, is locate at Zuccotti Park and have seized control of all the money the OWS movement has gathered. . . and they don’t want to share with the others or the other OWS sites. When other OWS dissenters objected or tried to find out details about this Council or what they were doing with the $500k, they found themselves silenced. Not only has the council ordered that they be ignored, but they’ve been drown out by the zombie crowds.

This Council also imposed rules on the General Assembly which allow 1.27% of the protesters to overrule the other 98%. They have made it impossible for anyone who isn’t in Zuccotti Park to have a voice in their “government” and they apparently meet in secret.

I guess Kumbaya has been replaced with Zuccotti Űber Alles.

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Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Cain Update: Meet The Accuser

A picture is emerging of Cain’s newest harasser Sharon Bailek. It’s an ugly picture of a liar and “a gold digger” with serious financial problems who is seeking celebrity.
Would you hug your rapist?
Let’s start with the most obvious. At the presser, Bailek broke down in tears about the harassment she claims. What she describes is actually felony sexual assault. Yet, last month, Bailek went to see Cain speak at a Tea Party function in Chicago. Bailek first claims she didn’t know he would be there. Then she said she confronted him: “I went up to him and asked him if he remembered me. I wanted to see if he would be man enough to own up to what he had done 14 years ago.”

Yet, radio host Amy Jacobson said that everyone knew Cain would be there. And it’s inconceivable Bailek could go to a Tea Party conference where the front-running candidate for the Republican nomination for the Presidency was scheduled to speak and somehow not know he was coming.

Jacobson also said Bailek told her at the time she was anxious to meet Cain again and “had once gone to an afterparty with him and her boyfriend years ago.” Jacobson also confirmed that Bailek “never mentioned he had sexually harassed her.” As for the encounter itself, Jacobson said: “It looked sort of flirtatious. I mean they were hugging.” That’s confirmed by the photo where Bailek poses with her supposed attempted-rapist (see update below).
Her story makes no sense.
Now let’s look at her story. It’s nonsense. Bailek claims she called Cain to see if he would rehire her after she had been laid off. Her boyfriend got her a hotel room. Cain upgraded the room to a huge suite. She went to dinner with Cain. He asked her why she was there. She told him to get rehired. They left dinner and got into the car, where Cain put his hand on her skirt and tried to force her head toward his crotch. She refused. Cain said, “you want a job, don't you?” She refused. The end.

Now let me ask some questions.
1. How did Cain know where she was staying to upgrade her?

2. Assume you are a businesswoman who has just been laid off and you want to beg the boss for your job back. The boss says “ok, get a hotel room and we’ll meet over dinner.” Does this sound like something a businesswoman would agree to? No.

3. Why does Cain ask her at dinner why they are there? Presumably, he would know before he agreed to the dinner? (Reason: this is poorly written fiction.)

4. What happened in the gap between him asking why they are at dinner and them getting in the car? Presumably, there was a lengthy discussion about her job and Cain must have said something like “sure” or “no way”? Or did he just twirl his moustache and say, “I’ll tell you in the car, sexy.” Again, this is poorly written fiction with a poorly thought-through timeline.

5. If Cain is the sexual predator they claim, and he did reach up her skirt and push her head toward his crotch against her will, why would he suddenly stop when she told him no?
This is fiction. Moreover, what she is describing is a date, not a business meeting. It sounds like she was trying to sleep her way back into the job.

But I think there’s something else going on her. This sounds like a set up. The boyfriend getting her the room, the plan to meet Cain for a sexy dinner at an Italian restaurant.... it all sounds like Bailek and her boyfriend planned to blackmail Cain or the NRA. Don’t forget, its likely she knew about the rumors of the first settlement, so it’s hardly a stretch to see someone like Bailek trying to get her own settlement. What do I mean “someone like Bailek”? Read on.
But she’s a respectable woman, right?
According to her celebrity lawyer Gloria Allred, Sharon Bailek is a respectable single-mother from Chicago who has spent her life working in marketing. Here are some facts she forgot to mention. Specifically, Bailek is a deadbeat.

A friend described Bailek thusly to the New York Post: “the reality of her situation is she’s a complete gold digger. It’s all about money.” The friend continues:
“This is a lady who lives off the system. She is hellbent on finding a way of never having to work and living the lifestyle she wants to live, a very affluent lifestyle.”
The friend added that she is running from bill collectors, even as she lives in a posh suburb, and that she’s been fired from most of her jobs. Is there any support for this? Yes.
● She’s had 9 jobs in 17 years.
● She filed bankruptcy in 1991.
● She filed bankruptcy in 2001, claiming only $5,000 in assets.
● She has a long history of tax evasion and missed credit card payments.
● In 2009, the IRS filed a tax lien against her for $5,200.
● In August 2011, the Illinois Dept. of Revenue placed a lien against her for $4,300 going all the way back to 2004.
● Other creditors have taken legal action against her including one suit in Cook County, where a $3,000 judgment was gotten against her.
● She has also brought a paternity suit against the father of her child.
I’ve had many sleazeball and malingering clients, but even they rarely have this much financial carnage in wake. And I have no doubt her claims are about obtaining celebrity and getting a book deal or a film deal or a television show to get rich.
Serial Harasser or Serial Harassment Claimer?
One of problem with the allegations against Cain is that they paint the picture of Cain as a serial harasser. If you believe the unsupported and undetailed MSM version, then you will believe that Cain “harassed” four women, with each one increasing in intensity until you get to the point of the sexual assault Bailek describes. Yet, strangely, there are no allegations from other jobs or other people in Cain’s life. These allegations make Cain out as a sexual predator for a period of a couple months and then he suddenly never does it again. That’s nonsense -- especially given the Snidely Whiplash way they’ve described Cain.

But here’s something interesting about Bailek. She accused a former boyfriend of harassing her when he demanded back $4,500 she loaned him. Thus, she has a history of making harassment allegations when it suits her financial interests.
But she said this before she had a motive, right?
Allred claims she has affidavits from two friends who claim Bailek told them about this harassment at the time. Thus, we’re supposed to believe her allegations are real because she apparently mentioned them before she had a motive. But. . .

First, never trust evidence from friends or family that supports a witness. People lie for their friends. That’s why no sane jury believes those people.

Secondly, if this was true, then why didn’t she tell her father or her fiancé of several years until this week? Maybe she only shared this “hurtful” incident with her closest girlfriends? Well, no. The first “friend” is her boyfriend at the time, i.e. her co-conspirator. The second friend is a “businessman friend.”

Moreover, why didn’t she tell her father or fiancé when Cain first ran for president or any time over the last year? And why didn’t she tell them before, during or after the Chicago meeting. . . where she hugged and flirted with Cain? She claims now that she went to confront him to see if he was man enough to admit what he’d done. Yet, we’re supposed to believe she didn’t tell her fiancé what she did? That’s bullsh*t.

Finally, let’s dispel this idea that she had no motive at the time. If it was a set up against Cain or the NRA, then she had plenty of motive to tell people at the time -- particularly her co-conspirator boyfriend. And if it was a date rebuffed, then she still had a motive to tell the boyfriend, to keep him from getting upset at her trying to jump ship to Cain. And even if truly was a business meeting, then she has a motive to save face.

This woman is a fraud.

** Update: I've been told the women in the photo above might actually be Amy Jacobson. I can't say either way, but it actually changes nothing in the analysis. Jacobson (who supports Bailek) has confirmed that Bailek flirted with and hugged Cain. The lack of photographic evidence (if that's the case) doesn't change that.

** Update 2: For a fascinating take on the David Axelrod connection, check out this article by Ann Coulter: LINK.


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Time Brings Submission Home

A Paris humor magazine called Charlie Hebdo last week produced an edition which was a satirical look at the Arab Spring, purporting to celebrate the victory of Islamists in the Tunisian elections. The cover depicted the prophet Mohammed saying "100 lashes if you don't die of laughter." Reaction from the religion of peace was quick in coming.

On Charlie Hebdo's website one humorless Muslim posted: "You keep abusing Islam's almighty Prophet with disgusting and disgraceful cartoons using excuses of freedom of speech. Be God's curse upon you." Islamists know that actions speak louder than words. So rather than wait for God's curse, the next day the offices of the magazine were firebombed. The premises were completely destroyed. The editor of the magazine said: "We can’t put out the magazine under these conditions. The stocks are burned, smoke is everywhere, the paste-up board is unusable, everything is melted, there’s no more electricity."

Just another day in Islamic paradise. But the story that brings the issue of submission to Islamic threats comes not from the Paris newspapers, which roundly condemned the attack. It comes from the Paris editor of Time Magazine. Like our own South Park, Charlie Hebdo is an equal opportunity offender. It has done similar "special editions" on Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism and other lesser known sects. Nary a peep from Time. But when the magazine spoofed Islam (it called the special edition Charia Hebdo, a play on the word sharia), and got firebombed for its efforts, Time rushed to the defense of--the firebombers.

Just as many members of the Dutch press reacted to the murder of Theo van Gogh after his production of the anti-Islamist film Submission, Time has basically asked "what did they expect?" The conclusion of the press in the Netherlands then, like the conclusion of Time now, is that one should not make a film or publish a magazine that will outrage devout Muslims and put oneself in harm's way. Put simply, "you deserve it." Once again, vicious thugs are excused and the victims are blamed.

Time was not alone. In the British paper The Guardian, reporter Pierre Haski said: "Muslims in France feel discriminated against and unwelcome." And then came the excuse: "President Sarkozy's interior minister even called the growing Muslim population a 'problem' for France. Islam has become a cultural identity, a refuge in a troubled society where they don't feel accepted." And then he did the inevitable. He compared Muslims living in France today to Jews living in Germany during the Nazi regime. No hint of irony at all. Apparently the Jews were recently-arrived violent thugs who kept upsetting the peace and tranquility of the lovable Nazis.

Not to be outdone, Bruce Crumley of Time brings submission (the real meaning of the word "Islam") to America's shores from his perch in Paris. Says Crumley (as he wipes the spittle off his chin): "Okay, so we can finally stop with the idiotic, divisive, and destructive efforts by 'majority sections' of Western nations to bait Muslim members with petulant, futile demonstrations that 'they' aren't going to tell 'us' what can and can't be done in free societies?"

Now, for the excuse: "Because not only are such Islamophobic antics futile and childish, but they also openly beg for the very violent responses from extremists their authors claim to proudly defy in the name of common good. What common good is served by creating more division and anger, and by tempting belligerent reaction (emphasis added)?" Lacking the humor gene, much like the Islamists, Crumley then at least makes a half-hearted attempt at discussing the Charlie Hebdo satire issue itself. "The issue of Charlie Hebdo was coarse and heavy-handed--another stupid and totally unnecessary edition mocking Islam." Ergo, they got what they deserved.

Crumley opines that the firebombing was just the kind of angry response Charlie Hebdo was after in the first place. Yep, that's right. Obviously the magazine wanted its facilities burned to the ground. Its only disappointment was that there was no staff inside to be burned alive along with the building and its contents. At the same Time Magazine which gave a rave review to Broadway's production of The Book of Mormon, a play that satirizes the religion of the Latter Day Saints, there will never be heard a discouraging word about Islam. So far, we have not received any news reports about angered Mormons burning down the Time-Life Building or threatening the life of Time-Warner executives.

Lest you misunderstand Crumley's and Times' true feelings, he does go so far as to say "intimidation and violence must be condemned and combated for whatever reason they're committed." But he quickly follows that up with "the right to be obnoxious and offensive just because you can is infantile." You see, "baiting extremists isn't bravely defiant when your manner of doing so is more significant in offending millions of moderate people as well" (emphasis added). That's good logic. You deserve to be killed or your property burned to the ground by "extremists" because you have offended millions of "moderates."

So beware, American Spectator, National Review, Weekly Standard, Commentary, Reason, etc. You have been warned. If you slip from discussion of Islam into satire of any kind, you are in serious danger of violence from Muslim "extremists" standing up for their "moderate" brethren. And even worse, you are in serious danger of Time Magazine editorializing that you deserved it. FYI, the title of the Time article is "Firebombed French Paper Is No Free-Speech Martyr." The online version indicates it was originally entitled: "Firebombed French Paper a Victim of Islamists or Its Own Obnoxious Islamophobia?"
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Monday, November 7, 2011

Can Obama Turn The Tide?

Yesterday was exactly one year from the upcoming 2012 presidential election. With history and the polls running against him, Barack Obama will have to pull off a surprise of epic proportions to save his presidency. Republicans should not let their guard down, however, because even with the odds against him, the beleaguered president could still pull it off.

The majority of polls show Obama’s approval ratings in the low 40s. The Democrat-leaning Gallup poll puts him at 43%. Ironically, the only president since the Second World War to hold onto the presidency with favorable ratings that low was Richard Nixon. Nixon was at 49% until the Democrats nominated Jellyfish George McGovern and handed Nixon a landslide victory. At this point in their presidencies, Jimmy Carter had a favorable rating of 32% and Lyndon Johnson was at 42%. Carter went on to lose to Ronald Reagan, and Johnson withdrew from contention as his poll numbers continued to plummet.

On the other hand, at this point in his presidency, Republican George H. W. Bush (Bush the Elder) had a 59% approval rating, and still lost to Democrat Bill Clinton in a three-way race. However unlikely the entrance of a third party candidate may be at this point, anything is possible, and H. Ross Perot proved it could tilt an election. Clinton was a minority president, garnering only 43% of the total votes, but winning in the Electoral College. Woodrow Wilson and Abraham Lincoln were both minority presidents, but won their reelections thanks to third party candidacies.

Obama is in the low 40s, but the old rule of thumb of needing 50% or more was disproved with George W. Bush (Bush the Lesser) in his reelection bid. Bush was at 48% just prior to the election, but still squeaked out a victory.

Enthusiasm for the out-of-power party candidate also plays a role. As low as Obama’s approval ratings are, no Republican currently in the field has generated enough enthusiasm to clearly overcome the advantages of incumbency. Reagan generated considerable excitement among conservatives, moderate Republicans and the “Reagan Democrats.” No current Republican demonstrates that kind of energy. In the case of “generic” Republican candidates, the Republicans tend to match or slightly exceed Obama’s numbers.

But when it comes to actual Republican candidates already vying for the nomination, Obama generally comes out on top, albeit within the margin of error. In state matchups, battleground states are essentially even matches with no clear victor. Ohio and Florida may determine the final election results, and there is no strong leader in Ohio. In Florida polls, only Mitt Romney tied Obama with all the others behind (but some still within the margin of error).

The economy is likely to be the most important factor in the election. And it will come down largely to unemployment numbers and whom the public trusts to bring those numbers down. Economists can play their intellectual games of declaring the recession over by using figures showing a quarter of improvement, which would seemingly help the incumbent. But economists don’t win elections. Voters do, and right now the unemployment rate still hovers officially at 9% or above. On the subject of trust, Obama takes a big hit for having promised much lower figures at this point..

Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Great Depression aside, no Twentieth Century president has won reelection with an unemployment rate above 7.2%. Both Roosevelt and Reagan were charismatic leaders who were able to overcome high unemployment numbers. Reagan entered his second presidential campaign with a 7.2% unemployment figure, but convinced the American people that if they stayed the course, those numbers would improve (as they did, dramatically in his second term). There’s serious doubt that Obama’s fading charisma will be enough to pull off the same thing.

Obama’s Treasury Secretary faces the reality of a long-term unemployment rate of 9% plus, but says “[Obama] could still be reelected with that because he has got a better strategy for helping heal the wounds of this country.” Better than whose? This is another Obama-style dance around the real issue. Obama promised that by the end of his first term, the unemployment rate would be at 6% or lower. Even if there is a downtick in unemployment, it would take more than Obama can deliver to reach those levels.

To go with the empty suit, Obama has made empty promises, and then stood aloof from the fray. Only now has he begun to enter the battle personally. But his newfound executive efforts are not playing well with the general public. He demands that the Congress pass his latest big government jobs bill “right away.” And Congress yawns. Meanwhile, Republicans have offered no less than 27 different plans for creating jobs in the private sector, and have been rebuffed by the Democrats and their president at every turn.

It does not look good for Obama, but counting him out would be a fatal error. One thing that will be absolutely essential to beat him is that once the primaries are over and a candidate has been chosen, Republicans rally enthusiastically around the candidate. Obama still has the ability to raise huge chunks of money (as much as an estimate of a billion dollars). He already has a fifty state election network in place, which has been in campaign mode since the day after his inauguration. No Republican yet has such a sophisticated network. He has an e-mail list of more than nine million supporters. No Republican candidate thus far has shown the ability to maneuver social networks and the internet the way Obama has.

So before you put your feet up on the coffee table and relax, remember that Obama is counting on Republican lethargy and cocksureness about his “inevitable defeat.” It ain’t over ‘til it’s over. With overconfidence, continued in-fighting, and jabs at “RINOs” and moderates, we could all wake up the day after the election and find that grinning community organizer still sitting behind the desk in the Oval Office.

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Anatomy Of A Smear (redux)

It’s been interesting watching the MSM bloviate itself to near-orgasm in their attempts to destroy the uppity-black man named Herman Cain. But now the scandal appears dead, and the MSM is left with mud on its hands.

Item One: Called Bluffs and Smears. As pointed out last week (LINK), this was always a smear. The accusers remained anonymous to avoid questions, and they refuse to say what Cain supposedly did, so the public can’t see how ridiculous their allegations really are. And they’ve lied to get around the problems with their stories:
● First, how many accusers are there? We're told three, but there's only evidence of one.

● The only known accuser claimed she can’t come forward because the confidentiality agreement prevented her. But she violated that agreement when it suited her, so hiding behind it was disingenuous. When this was pointed out, she suddenly claimed she couldn't come forward because she “feared” for her current job. But she works for the federal government and it is literally impossible for her to be fired or punished for coming forward.

● On Friday, the Restaurant Association (NRA) released her from the confidentiality provision. In effect, the NRA called her bluff. And bluff it was. Rather than come forward, she sent her lawyer to claim the allegations were suddenly “too painful to relive.” Yeah, right. Apparently it wasn’t painful to offer the allegations to the media, it's just painful to defend them. The other supposed accuser has since vanished. The third accuser never existed -- she was a creation of Rick Perry’s pollster.

● We now know more of what is really alleged. The woman claims Cain approached her at a function and made a single suggestive comment or invite. She claims she immediately went to the NRA and complained. However, as the NRA timeline revealed, she didn't make the allegation until after Cain left the job.

● Meanwhile, her lawyer tried to smear Cain on the way out. At his press conference, he implied that something physical happened between Cain and the accuser -- something no one has said before -- and he tried to verbally turn a single incident into a series of incidents. He did this by using hypothetical verbiage: “whatever happened, physical or verbal or otherwise.” That's slander.
Item Two: The Evolution of Rape-Rape. Mid-week an allegation arose that Cain raped one of these women (assuming there is more than one). The story started with the claim that a witness saw Cain take a drunken employ to his apartment, from which she emerged and claimed he had molested her. Then the witness denied seeing anything. Then the story changed to “drunken woman wakes up at Cain’s apartment and felt uncomfortable” before it changed to “Cain invited woman to his apartment and she declined.” Each of these revisions was reported as true without confirmation or mention that the story kept evolving. No witness to this has ever come forward.

Item Three: Media Smears. The media has been in full-on smear mode. Politico ran an incredible 95 stories in the first five days. The networks ran 50 stories on this in the same time. By comparison, during the same time period of the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal, the networks ran a grand total of 3 stories. Moreover, they reported every rumor as true, inserted every rumor into each article, and omitted key facts. For example, Politico:
● Never mentioned that no one admitted liability in the settlements.

● Never mentioned that these claims were made after Cain left. To the contrary, they actually accused him of lying when he said he wasn’t there when the allegations were made.

● They attacked Cain for refusing to release the woman from the confidentiality provision even though they knew Cain wasn’t a party to the release and had no such powers.

● They never questioned other NRA employees, who have since come forward and said they don't believe the woman.
They also skewed their coverage to boost the allegations:
● They ran headlines saying “The Accuser Speaks” and included this line in all stories starting Friday, even though the accuser refused to speak, and they attributed quotes from her attorney to her as if she said them.

● They attacked Cain for refusing to answer questions, even as he answered questions. And Politico never reported his threat to sue them. They also kept saying Cain never denied the allegations, even after he emphatically denied them.
Now they're attacking his wife to try to keep the scandal alive.

Item Four: Dirty Polling. Reuters reporter Steve Holland has been running his own smear campaign. He’s written dozens of stories on this and repeatedly makes distortions. For example, he describes the number of accusers as “at least three” and describes the allegations as both “physical and verbal” and as a “series” or pattern of behavior -- none of which is true.

Saturday, he wrote an article about a poll which claims “Cain has lost 9% support due to the harassment.” But.... this wasn't a scientific poll, it was an internet poll. That makes it pure junk. Yet, Holland incredibly writes that had it been a scientific poll, it would have had a margin of error of +/- 4%. This is statistical bullsh*t.

Also, there’s a huge problem with his numbers. Cain loses 9% among Republicans in his poll (down from 66% to 57%). But his total support only goes down 4%. If we assume that’s true, then somehow Cain’s support among Democrats and Independents WENT UP during this period! Does that make sense to you? The poll and the accompanying story are lies. Multiple real polls show Cain's support actually went up last week. Somehow, neither Holland nor Politico mention those polls, but they DO mention the fake internet poll and treat it like it's real.

Item Five: Handling. Finally, a word on how Cain has handled this issue. A lot of people are upset that his handling hasn’t been slick and perfect. But let me point out a few things:
● There is no slick way to respond to ephemeral, evolving anonymous allegations that have never been detailed. It's a trap no matter how you respond or don't.

● Cain is a businessman, not a politician, and having a slick Bill Clinton-like response would be disconcerting to his image. In fact, articles are now being written that the MSM overplayed their hand and Cain's "amateurishness became almost endearing" by comparison.

● Barring something real, the scandal appears dead. For Cain to kill this off in five days is truly a phenomenal performance. Give the man credit.
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Sunday, November 6, 2011

The "Poor'" Take A Hit From The NY Times

Don't panic! That's not a future New York Times headline. In fact, it's the front page the day after the 2008 presidential election. And it already contained a major inaccuracy. Not only did the racial barriers not fall, but after three years, Barack Obama has been busily rebuilding those barriers which were damaged by improving race relations. One of his ploys to divide by race and class has been the issue of poverty.

So imagine my surprise when the "newspaper of record" actually ran a front page article indicating that the "poverty problem" has been grossly overstated for years. It wasn't even an article on the editorial pages written by a token conservative. It was right there in front of God and everyone of the front newspage, written by two Times welfare beat reporters. After regaling us for months with horror stories of the rich getting richer and the poor getting children, these reporters actually addressed the issue of defining poverty up.

Poverty in America is generally equal to comfortable middle class status in about 90% of the world. But in order to promote class warfare and government dependency, the liberals have continually based the description of poverty on the family income of the "poor." Those claiming that extreme poverty is on the rise because of the undertaxed rich have left out a major factor regarding the "poor." Government largess has jumped in to replace income, and government social welfare programs and safety nets have more than filled the gap in lost or never-earned income. The socialist paradise hasn't yet arrived, but these people ain't starving nor are they out in the streets with no place to live.

The reporters open with: "When the Census Bureau said in September that the number of poor Americans had soared by 10 million to rates rarely seen in four decades, commentators called the report 'shocking' and 'bleak.' Most poverty experts would add another description--'flawed.'" When poverty is described as "only" having one car, one roof over your head, air-conditioning for the summer and heating for the winter, and a balanced diet, the term becomes meaningless. And when those perks are paid for largely by the government and not included in family income, the whole "poverty problem" becomes largely a myth designed to destroy the conservative doctrine of self-reliance.

The Census study also tends to put San Francisco and Manhattan prices together with Mississippi and Arkansas incomes. Reporters Jason DeParle and Robert Gebeloff go on to say that after its big "revelations" of the increase in "poverty," the Census Bureau is quietly going to offer an alternative version this coming week. The reporters say that an added Census study will address a different way of counting the resources of the alleged poor and their legitimate needs. "Similar measures, quietly published in the past, suggest among other things that safety-net programs have played a large and mostly overlooked role in restraining hardship. As much as half of the reported rise in poverty since 2006 disappears."

"Virtually every effort to take a fuller view--counting more income and more expenses--shows poverty rising more slowly in the recession than the official data suggests," say DeParle and Gebeloff. While the official national measure shows a rise of nearly 10 million newly-impoverished people, the revised Census measures put it at more like 4.5 million to 4.8 million--fewer than would normally be expected during a major recession.

De Parle particularly has had a seeming epiphany somewhere along the line. When Congress pushed Bill Clinton into welfare reform, he wrote: "Poor mothers will turn to prostitution, abandoning their children, or being forced to 'camp out in the streets and beg.'" We all know that such a thing never happened, but isn't it refreshing to have a liberal admit it (sort of)?

Now let's not get to too excited and start thinking that liberal thinking has changed. In the case of this particular New York Times story, the only thing that changed was how these liberals want to calculate poverty. Fairly enough, they added government assistance to income, but that's as far as it goes. They still draw the opposite conclusion from conservatives.

Liberals still think that skewing the poverty rate by throwing government money at the poor will solve the "problem." Don't hold your breath for them to decide that generational dependency on government redistribution of wealth destroys the initiative, creativity, and work-ethic that made this nation great. In fact, if they admit it at all, they'll tell you it's a good thing.
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The Great (film) Debates vol. 14

Classic Hollywood produced some wonderful actresses. They had style, grace, and they could act.

Who is your favorite classic Hollywood actress and what was her best role?


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Friday, November 4, 2011

TV Review: Boardwalk Empire (2010-????)

HBO has another hit on its hands: Boardwalk Empire. It’s a really good drama with a lot to love. It does have flaws, but they’re easy to overlook -- except they do hold the series back from being truly addictive. Interestingly, most people compare this to Sopranos, but it’s actually very different in some key ways, and I think that’s where the flaws lie.

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So Much For Shovel-Ready Projects

One thing might be worse than the Obama administration's stimulus funds used for worthless projects and near-bankrupt schemes. That would be stimulus funds taken out of the economy then left sitting there unused. Among the worst offenders are the so-called "green initiatives." By October of this year, about 45% of the $35.2 billion set aside under Obama's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act had actually been used.

The prissy Barack Obama has probably never actually seen an instrument as crude as a shovel, so it's likely he had no idea what he was selling when he talked about all that money that was going to go to shovel-ready projects. He just loves the color green. Greenbacks taken from the taxpayers to produce green energy that won't happen for two or three decades. The only shoveling he has ever done is strictly metaphorical. It has something to do with male cattle manure.

You don't have to take my word for it. Department of Labor General Inspector Elliott Lewis and Department of Energy General Inspector Gregory Friedman provided the facts to a House panel investigating green job creation. Lewis testified that his agency received $500 million in stimulus funds for its Employment and Training Administration for competitive grants for research, labor exchange and job training projects to prepare workers for careers in the energy efficiency and renewable energy industries (Green Jobs).

The problem is that there are no jobs ready for the trainees. In addition, much of the training would have been for jobs that don't even yet exist. So training for jobs which don't exist in industries which have not yet been developed has been given to 52,762 enrollees (42% of the projected 124,893 jobs). 40% of the funds set aside for assessment, case management and job placement have been used. 10% of those trained have actually found jobs, and of those, only a small percentage remained employed after six months. And that doesn't even count the out-of-work Solyndra employees.

Over at the Department of Energy, the situation is very similar. In its case, about 45% of its stimulus funds have not been spent. Friedman suggests that in its situation, the state and local governments have been unable to create or even find jobs for potential recipients, and adds that the infrastructure and personnel were not in place to handle the federal pie-in-the-sky proposals. He put it very simply: "There are few shovel-ready jobs. The federal funds allocated are vast, but state and local resources are few, so he compared it to "putting a lawn hose on a fire hydrant."

Friedman says that the majority of grants and loan guarantees were set aside for green technology programs or research, including energy efficiency and renewable energy and "environmental management." He also called them "high risk areas." Like the train to nowhere, maybe? Of the funds spent, they weren't spent well. Friedman estimates that of the nearly $5 billion set aside for weatherization programs, much of it was wasted. "The weatherization work was often of poor quality. In a recent audit performed at the state level, 9 out of 17 weatherized homes we visited failed inspections because of substandard workmanship."

Whatever it is that Obama is shoveling, he's shoveling it against the tide.
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Thursday, November 3, 2011

Train To Nowhere Getting Pricier

Another pet project of President Obama's is getting more expensive by the day. Utilizing what is estimated to be 80% taxpayer money, the California high speed rail project has more than doubled in cost without a single rail being laid. Sold to the public as costing $43 billion, the revised estimate is now $98.5 billion (assuming 3% inflation during the 20 years of the project).

With delays, revisions, hearings, lawsuits and EIRs, it seems highly-unlikely that the project will find sane investors to come up with the 20% of the funding currently projected for the private sector. So far, the California legislature has shown no sign of simply canceling the project before it gets even more expensive. Cities from the green weenie belt of the San Francisco Peninsula to farmers and adjoining residents in the Central Valley have become ever more vocal in opposing the project. The segment in the Central Valley, scheduled to be constructed first, is a 130 mile stretch from Bakersfield to nowhere, and will cost $8.8 billion. Full disclosure: I now live in the vicinity of the first phase.

Your tax dollars at work: The project is a joint effort of the State of California and the federal government. High speed public transit is a hallmark of the Obama administration in Washington DC and the Brown administration in Sacramento. There was never a public outcry for such a project. Californians, who love their cars and the state's vastness, didn't rise up and demand that Uncle Sugar provide them with a high speed train from San Diego to San Francisco. But neither did they rise up in anger when the project was initially approved. Hmmmm. Bullet trains in California? Cool!

The NIMNYD (not in my neighborhood you don't) green weenies in Silicon Valley were the first to complain, not about cost, but the environmental damage which will be done to their toney neighborhoods by trains roaring past at 200 MPH. In the Central Valley where the first work will be done, the government attempted to bribe unemployed workers who were out of jobs because of other governmental meddling. "Look at all the jobs this will create!" If the project created 1000 jobs, it wouldn't even be a single-digit percentage of the jobs the government has destroyed in the former food basket of America. They also tried to sell the project as a green initiative public project, but still largely private enterprise. Remember that 80% figure.

Like all projects run by and funded by government, it isn't only the budget that has been revised. The project was originally scheduled to be complete and fully-operational by 2020. It is now expected to be finished by 2033. One successful lawsuit could raise the price and extend the date even farther. Even in the Central Valley, where they expected us hicks to take this without a murmur, the opposition has grown to epic proportions.

What would happen if the state did just cancel the project? Well, first of all the only jobs lost would be those who prepared and pushed the project. It would also mean that California would have to give up the $3.5 billion in federal stimulus funds set aside for the project so far. But since the first segment to nowhere will cost $8.8 billion, that's a net savings of $5.3 billion immediately. So why the rush? The $3.5 billion will be lost automatically if ground isn't broken for the project by October 1 of 2012. Kevin McCarthy, Republican House Whip from California's Kern County has introduced legislation to de-fund the project, but so far his bill is languishing in committee.

None of this stops the project proponents and management from pushing to start the Bakersfield phase, as Obama puts it, "right away." And what will we get for it? A nearly $9 billion (today) bill, and a 45 minute shortcut for Amtrak riders on the San Joaquin (Central Valley) line who will de-train, get on the bullet train, then get off again and get back on the slower Amtrak trains to complete the trip to San Francisco or Los Angeles.

And speaking of Amtrak, the high speed rail proponents insist that no matter what the cost, ridership alone will pay off the debt and keep the bullet trains running. In other words, exactly the same thing they said about Amtrak, which costs the American taxpayers billions of dollars annually in government subsidies to keep the trains rolling. From the get-go, analysts not employed by the project have said that the projected ridership on the high speed trains has been wildly overestimated.

"Boondoggle" doesn't begin to describe this latest big government change-your-lifestyle project. It's a financial mess. It's an environmental mess. And it's a mess that creates rather than vitiates human misery. Instead of forcing high speed trains on car-loving Californians, the government should be opening the valves on the California Water Project, revitalizing the greatest agricultural area in the world, and holding a massive farewell ceremony for the Delta smelt.
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Austerity?! You're Kidding, Right?

It drives me nuts that everyone keeps claiming we’ve entered an “austerity” period in government. You can’t read an article in The Economist without them whining about this supposed austerity “endangering the recovery.” Seriously, every. . . single. . . article. And they aren’t alone. Most journalists now whine that “austerity” has “sapped growth” and hurt the economy. Noted liar Paul Krugman recently claimed “the turn toward austerity is a major factor in our growth slowdown.” This is demonstrably false.

In April, the White House and Congress agreed to a “draconian” $38 billion cut in the 2011 budget -- a whopping 1% of the $3.82 trillion leviathan. Oh my! Then in August they agreed to cut $2.4 trillion over the next decade. . . which would be 6% assuming the budget doesn’t increase for ten years (RFLMAO).

So there is austerity, right? It’s slight, but it is there, right?

Well, no.

Data from the Treasury shows that federal spending in 2011 is actually $120 billion higher than it was in 2010. In other words, spending is 5% higher than it was in 2010 and the supposed $38 billion in cuts has somehow morphed into $120 billion in additional spending.

That doesn’t sound like austerity to me.

Ok, so maybe we’re looking in the wrong place? Maybe the problem is really at the state level? After all, we keep hearing about belt-tightening and layoffs at the state level. Could that be where this supposed austerity is happening?

Well, no.

State budgets in 2010 were 8% higher than they were in 2008. And in 2011, they are 5% higher than they were in 2010. And in 2012, they’re estimated to be 2.6% higher again.

So where is this austerity? It’s made up. Liberals have spent like drunken sailors for the past decade. Federal spending is up 93% in 10 years and state spending is up 72% in 10 years, and there are no signs this growth is slowing any time soon. But they don’t want you knowing that, so they whine about austerity. And supposedly reputable magazines like The Economist prove they are too incompetent to even look up the truth. It’s a sad world.

Finally, let me point something out vis-a-vis the Democratic belief in stimulus spending. Federal spending increased 93% in ten years, yet the economy produced ZERO new jobs this decade. What gives? Maybe federal spending doesn't create jobs after all. . .

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Wednesday, November 2, 2011

The Myth of Foreign Films

I am calling bull on the idea of “foreign” films. For decades, we’ve been told that foreign films offer “something different.” They are deeper and more thoughtful. They aren’t structured for quick commercial sale like everything coming out of Hollywood. They are supposed to offer us a glimpse into an entirely different way of seeing the world, a glimpse you just can’t get from Hollywood. Uh.... no.

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More Leftist Stupidity And Scandals

This has been an interesting week full to the brim with leftist/Democratic stupidity. Of course, the MSM hasn’t noticed because. . . well, they refuse to notice. Plus, they found something else to entertain themselves, lynching Herman Cain. Let’s discuss!

● Item One: Cain Non-Fallout. Despite the MSM’s best efforts, this whole Cain scandal doesn’t appear to be hurting him. To the contrary, it seems to be making his support more entrenched and it brought out the support of people like Ann Coulter and Rush. Also, the day after the scandal, Cain had his biggest fundraising day ever online. That means average people are voting with their dollars and they want to show their support. That’s what happens when you slander someone. . . you make them more popular.

● Item Two: StupidStudent Loans. Obama suddenly wants to rescue college kids. Now let me say up front, there is a huge problem in this country with the cost of education. It is ridiculous what college students are being charged and it is hurting our economy by making people less mobile. Something needs to be done.

What I am not in favor of doing, however, is increasing the amount of student loan money available. That is exactly the wrong thing to do. Colleges have been able to jack up their costs precisely because Uncle Sam handed out student loans to cover the costs. That was a subsidy to fat, rich schools paid on the backs of young professionals.

So what does Obama want to do to fix this problem? Increase the availability of student loans. Jerk.

To trick students into thinking they aren’t getting the shaft, Obama is promising to reduce the minimum monthly payment from 15% to 10%. . . so you pay longer. He also promises to let you consolidate your loans. . . so you pay longer. And as anyone who has ever taken out a loan knows, this will dramatically increase the amount the students repay. I guess being a community organizer didn’t include lessons on credit management.

But never fear, Obama wants to reduce the time before loan forgiveness kicks in from 25 years to 20. So if you graduate from college at the age of 25, your college loan slavery will now end at 45 instead of 50, and you can then start saving for your retirement. . . 20 years behind the curve. Bravo President AAAhole, bravo.

● Item Three: Where’s Waldo’s Money. With Solyndra waiting in the wings, a new scandal has emerged. This time the company is called MF Global. MF Global is a commodities trading company that just went belly up. The man who ran MF Global is none other than Jon Corzine, former New Jersey Senator/Governor (lost to Christie), former chief of Goldman Sachs and MAJOR Barack Obama fundraiser. Since April 2011, for example, Corzine has raised more than $500,000 for Obama’s re-election.

But it’s not the fact the company went bankrupt that is the problem. What’s interesting is that $700 million of client money is “missing.” Right now, it’s believe that as the firm began suffering losses, it used its customers’ money to cover its own trades, which of course violates trading regulations which require brokers to keep their own funds separate from their customers’ funds. If any of this proves true, look for jail time to come out of this one. I wonder how much of the $500,000 Corzine raised for Obama came from MF Global customers?

● Item: Celebrity Weirdoes. Hollywood is stumbling back into Obama’s arms as we knew they would. Scarlett Johansson, who is famous primarily for keeping naked pictures of herself on her cell phone, plans to support Obama: “My heart belongs to Barack.” Yeah, and your brain belongs to Low-Grade Brain Rental. Others are lining up as well to offer their best Lewinskies.

Meanwhile, unfunny adult-bed-wetter (yes, that’s true) Sarah Silverman is attacking Rick Perry. She’s upset the “N*ggerhead Scandal” had no effect, so she’s determined to try to keep it alive until someone cares. Personally, I think like many liberals she just likes using the N-word while pretending she’s actually outraged. . . ditto with her prior use of “chink.”

And from the land of the absurd, Michael Moore is trying to fit in with the OWS Movement. Sadly for Michael, who has net worth of $50 million (but value of only $1.25), he’s more of a 0.99%er than a 99%er. On the plus side, he’s got the right level of stupid and hypocrite to fit right in!

● Item: OWS Irony of the Week. Finally, there is a rumor making the rounds that OWS is now trying to copyright their name. Capitalist pigs.

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Tuesday, November 1, 2011

God Allowed Back At Military Funerals

After facing multiple lawsuits, the Obama Department of Veterans Affairs has entered into a consent decree whereby it must abandon its ban on prayers and references to God at funerals conducted at national cemeteries. God and His servants are now allowed back at military funerals.

The atheists and secularists in the Obama administration had drafted an entire funeral manual which specifically took all religious expression out of military funerals, even from a non-military pastor or the fallen warrior's family. Though there had been some confrontations at several national cemeteries nationwide, the real battle to bring back tradition as old as the United States itself took place not a a funeral but at a privately-hosted Memorial Day ceremony on military property. Houston National Cemetery Director Arleen Ocasio told Pastor Scott Rainey that all references to God or Jesus must be stricken from his invocation. Without those, exactly whom or what did Ocasio think Rainey was invoking?

For Rainey, this was the straw that broke the camel's back. Ocasio had redesignated the cemetery chapel as a "meeting facility" which she closed to anything but official [secular] business. Since the chapel had first been built, the chapel bells had rung out twice every day, and more often for special occasions. After silencing the bells, Ocasio also removed the Bibles and cross from the chapel. The seating space for congregants, celebrants and mourners was cut drastically as Ocasio filled the back pews with old storage boxes.

Military-related organizations such as the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion were told that if they provided honor guards at funerals, they must not include prayer or religious speech in the burial rites. The only possible exception was if the family itself submitted the proposed prayer to Ocasio, in advance, for her approval or disapproval. Sounds a lot like freedom of religion in China.

A solemn tradition among those having VFW ceremonies was the gathering of the brass casings from the military salute, placing them in a pouch, and handing the pouch to a family member with the words "I present you with these shell cases from the shots that were fired to honor our departed comrade. We ask that God grant you and your family grace, mercy and peace." Way too much for Ocasio. Banned! As were the place cards from the National Memorial Ladies which read "God bless you." How dare they?

Ocasio and her fellow-travelers claimed that their purpose was not to ban religion but rather to guarantee that the funeral services would be "inclusive." How lame is that? The only people who would be "excluded" would be those who didn't know the fallen warrior or those who had no respect for the deceased's beliefs and family. But even at that, there would be no formal exclusion. It would be self-exclusion. In reality, Jewish people often attend Christian funerals and vice-versa. Catholics attend Protestant funerals, Protestants attend Catholic funerals, and atheists of the non-militant kind attend them all. Somehow, nobody feels "excluded" by the mention of God or Jesus.

So several supporters of religion and ancient tradition filed suit against Ocasio and the Department of Veteran Affairs for interference with freedom of religion and freedom of expression. They also had the support of Texas Republican House Member John Culberson. Earlier, he had attended a veteran's funeral anonymously and quietly, and personally witnessed Ocasio hectoring VFW volunteers, demanding that they comply with her secularist orders or leave. The court granted Pastor Rainey a temporary restraining order, but prior to the court granting a permanent injunction against Ocasio's interference with religious ceremonies, the Department entered into the consent decree.

The Obama administration reluctantly gave up its attack on Christianity (and to a certain extent, Judaism). The chapel has been reopened, the cross has been returned to its rightful place, the bells ring again, and the trash in the back pews has been removed. Memos have gone out to other military districts to cool the censorship. Ocasio is still on the job, but is keeping a low profile. Aside from having her metaphorical teeth handed to her, the arrogant woman has something else to worry about. Rep. Culberson is working behind the scenes to see if he can find a way to reduce her salary to zero.
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Judge A Man By His Friends

I’ve been trying to put together a voting guide to give you the “pro” case for each major candidate. Unfortunately, every time I start gathering “pro” information, certain candidates come out with more “con” reasons, candidates like Mitt Romney. The latest example is that Romney keeps hiring former Bush people. Ugh.

Hiring Bushies is bad in and of itself. Whether you liked Bush the person or not, the fact is he was not a conservative. From needlessly raising CAFE standards, to the Ted Kennedy No Child Left Behind Act, to expanding bankrupt Medicare to cover prescription drugs, to failing entirely to prepare for post-war Iraq, to opening the doors of the Treasury to Goldman Sachs, to doing nothing to lower the nation’s regulatory burden, to his tinkering tax cuts which did nothing to increase the national incentive to work, to TARP. . . Bush was no conservative.

His staff was worse, as they’ve continued to prove over and over again now that they are out of the White House. They bleed RINO blue and spend their days attacking conservatives and pimping for lobbyists. The advice they give is “surrender” and “stop being so partisan.” They never have unkind words for liberals, but somehow can’t find anything good to say about conservatives. So who in their right mind would bring these people onto their team? Romney.

And it gets worse.

The latest former Bush staffer in question is Alex Mistri. Beside being a Bushie, Mistri was a registered lobbyist for Solyndra. Yes, that Solyndra. This is one of the bigger Obama scandals and should become one of the bigger clubs with which the Republican nominee will beat Obama during the election. Hiring Solyndra’s lobbyist all but prohibits Romney from making that attack -- in fact, it basically says there was nothing criminal involving Solyndra. This is beyond stupid. Hiring this man at this time tells us something is very wrong with Romney’s judgment.

The next Bushie is Jim Connaughton, a big firm attorney and energy company lobbyist. Connaughton was the architect of Bush’s climate plan when he was Chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality. This is the same White House that mandated the use of renewable fuels in 2005 and raised fuel economy standards at the urging of the Democrats when he was a lame duck. Near the end of Bush’s term, Connaughton even embraced a national goal for controlling “greenhouse gases,” i.e. regulation to stop global warming.

The other Bushie is Greg Mankiw, the former chairman of Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers. Mankiw was an “outspoken advocate” for a carbon tax. His current job is to help craft Romney’s jobs agenda.... presumably destroying jobs, not making jobs. In September 2007, Mankiw wrote this in the New York Times:
“There is a broad consensus. The scientists tell us that world temperatures are rising because humans are emitting carbon into the atmosphere. Basic economics tells us that when you tax something, you normally get less of it. So if we want to reduce global emissions of carbon, we need a global carbon tax.”
Maybe we should tax stupidity.

Since Romney is noted for his flip-flops on global warming, these last two choices are downright foolish. What should we trust? Should we believe Romney’s recent conversion to global warming skepticism? Or should it concern us that he’s filling his team with global warming enthusiasts?

Finally, as we mentioned yesterday, Cain is being smeared with unidentified sexual harassment allegations. It is worth mentioning again, that Bushie Karl Rove, who has been acting as an unofficial Romney cheerleader on Fox, has jumped on this along with the MSM and is trying to smear Cain. Way to go Karl.

Whether we believe these people will influence Romney the wrong way or not, their hiring demonstrates a lack of judgment by Romney. In hiring them, Romney defuses two strong issues which should be used against Obama and instantly raises skepticism in conservative ranks that he is who we fear he is -- an establishment, dead-center technocrat. Yet, he gets NO benefit from hiring them because whatever wisdom they may bring is readily available in less offensive personages all over the country. So doing this was stupid. Romney gave himself a self-inflicted wound and got no benefit for it in return. That’s not the kind of judgment we want in a Republican President.

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Monday, October 31, 2011

Herman Cain: The Sexual Harassment Smear

By now you’ve probably heard Politico is alleging that two women claim Herman Cain harassed them in the 1990s when he was head of the Restaurant Association. This is a classic smear. Journalists with left wing sympathies dig up anonymous sources who claim a rising Republican is guilty of some nebulous crime. They provide no details and won’t reveal the names of the accusers. They imply guilt by saying Cain bought them off. Now they heap scorn upon him, not for the supposed crime, of which they presume he is guilty, but his failure to defend himself to their satisfaction.

This is, pardon my French, bullshit.

Let’s look at the elements. First, we have the nature of the allegations. Politico accuses Cain of sexual harassment. But sexual harassment is an extremely broad category of conduct that can run all the way up to rape. Thus, it is vital to identify the exact conduct. Of course they don’t. Why don’t they? They claim they can’t because of settlement agreements, but that’s a lie as I’ll discuss. The real reason they don’t state the allegations is because there are no worthwhile allegations here and they are hoping the public will think the worst.

These events (assuming they even happened) happened in the 1990s, the heyday of the fake sexual harassment claim. Spurred on by Anita Hill’s own fantasy claims, the 1990s saw spurious well-after-the-fact claims made for things like: telling dirty jokes, asking out on dates, complimenting clothing, excluding from lunches and outside activities with male colleagues, having a racy calendar, looking at the “victim” in ways the victim felt were inappropriate, etc. Also, keep in mind, this was the same time feminists were claiming that “all sex is rape,” that most women had been date-raped, and that women should be allowed to say “no” after the fact. Thus, a reputable journalist not looking to smear a candidate would say more than “harassment” because they would not want to give a false impression.

And let’s look at the reason they claim they can’t say more: the settlement agreement.

First, a five figure settlement is a joke. In fact, it means the claims were baseless because it means the association settled just to avoid the attorneys fees. And again, let me note that we don’t know what the settlement actually is because Politico wants you to think the worst. Rather than hearing “it was $10,000” (the amount grocery stores pay fake slip and fall fraudsters to go away) you’re supposed to think it’s up to $100,000.

Secondly, in the law you hear a phrase all the time: “sword and shield.” What this means is that the law does not allow a person to use the law to attack another person and then to turn around and hide behind that same law when the person counterattacks. This smear is a classic example of such an abuse. What I mean is this: on the one hand, Politico refuses to release the names of the accusers, the details of their allegations or the settlement amount. Thus, they have in effect made it impossible to verify the truth of these allegations by hiding behind the settlement confidentiality provision. But then they turn around and lynch Cain for failing to explain away these allegations, i.e. for failing to violate the same confidentiality provision behind which they are hiding. That is a smear.

Moreover, Politico is lying. These agreements not only require confidentiality of the terms and the allegations made therein, but they also require confidentiality of the agreement itself. When Politico’s unidentified witnesses mentioned the agreement, mentioned the type of allegations, mentioned that there was a settlement, and mentioned that it was five-figure settlement, they violated that agreement. In other words, they have broken the agreement already and hiding behind the idea that they can’t say more without breaking the agreement is a lie. . . and Politico knows that.

Not to mention, I have yet to see Politico mention that the Restaurant Association will have denied any liability in the settlement. Which I can guarantee you they did. Not mentioning that, but instead saying that the Association has refused to comment (as they should) is another smear.

Let’s be clear here. The MSM and left hate and fear strong, smart, capable, conservative blacks. They will do and say whatever it takes to destroy them. And their favorite method is to scream “sexual harassment” because it plays into the racist stereotype of black males as sexual predators. This is usually followed by accusing them of lying about their education, before they start a whisper campaign that this particular black man “likes white women.” That is the bigoted pattern and that is what Politico has started here.

And as you would expect, the usual suspects are already at work. Women’s groups who plucked out their own eyes to avoid seeing Clinton’s constant harassment are demanding blood. Leftist journalists who spent last week telling us that Republican support for Cain proved we are racists because we want a black man “who knows his place” (MSNBC), are now in a feeding frenzy about the out of control sexual predator. And establishment types like Karl Rove are trying to tear Cain down by claiming Cain has refused to answer whether or not this is true. For the record, here is Cain's “evasion”:
“It is totally baseless and totally false. Never have I ever committed any kind of sexual harassment.”
I guess Rove lacks comprehension skills. . . or integrity.

This is a smear and should make you angry, even if you aren’t a Cain supporter. This is exactly the kind of smear the right needs to stand up to and reject. This is shameful.

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KKK Grand Wizard Gives OWS Thumbs Up

By their friends shall ye know them. The Occupy Wall Street hate mob has a new champion. Riding in on his white horse and white sheet is former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke. The Democratic Party is going back to its roots in the Old South. Duke joins Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Bernie Sanders in praising the OWS people. Duke is just a little more direct in his finger-pointing.

Duke has made a widely-viewed video in which he says: "I cheer the men and women on the streets condemning the international banks that hold American financially hostage. These Wall Street banks are not the product of free enterprise, they are the product of crime." And lest you miss exactly who he's talking about, he adds: "Zionist owners of the predatory banks made more shekels while Americans have lost up to fifty percent of their savings." Well, at least he didn't say the Jews stabbed us in the back.

The rampant antisemitism in the Occupy mobs has been largely downplayed or completely ignored by the mainstream media. Though antisemitic signs and speeches have become ubiquitous at each of the Occupy sites, Duke must have felt they needed a professional Jew-hater to give the mob focus. Duke adds an exclamation point to his view of the "spontaneous" demonstrations with: "Whenever there's a billion dollar fraud, there's a Jew involved." I've read similar things in Mein Kampf, or maybe it was the New York Times.

There hasn't been this much joy among the crypto-Nazis since the America First movement of the 1930s. But there's no corresponding German-American Bund to bolster the movement (the Germans have largely put their worst antisemitism behind them). So enter the Invisible Empire of the Ku Klux Klan. Duke points the finger at the Zionist bankers in general, and Ben "Shalom" Bernanke in particular. "Yes, occupy Wall Street. Finally, Americans are rising up and it feels great." The weather in New York City has turned chilly, so maybe Duke can warm them up with a few gigantic burning crosses.

I'm not quite sure what Duke makes of the fact that the black, communist former Obama czar Van Jones is making similar statements. Duke may just figure he'll take on the Jews first, and handle the African-Americans later. Besides, "those black bankers" just doesn't have the same ring to it.
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Sunday, October 30, 2011

Papist Oppressors Strike Again

I'm just curious. What part of Catholic University did they not understand? Basking in the glory of his earlier complaint against Catholic University of America for sexual discrimination after the school banned co-ed dormitories, vexatious litigator John Banzhaf filed a complaint with the Washington D.C. Office of Human Rights on behalf of Muslim students offended by crucifixes and statues of Jesus and Mary.

For those of you not conversant in Latin, the school's emblem (shown) reads: "Keep those Muslims down," or something like that. Banzhaf is a lawyer and a law instructor at neighboring George Washington University Law School. It's unclear what his beef is with Catholic University, but he seems to prefer it as a target of his wrath. It is also unclear whether or not he represents any actual Muslims attending Catholic University. In a real lawsuit, he could not file on his own behalf, but the bureaucratic meanderings of "human rights" commissions are not saddled with any such restrictions. As a human being, he automatically has standing to file a complaint.

Banzhaf claims that the Muslim students are offended because they have to meditate in the school's chapel, and at the cathedral that shines over the entire campus. That cathedral is the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. "It shouldn't be too difficult somewhere on the campus for the university to set aside a small room where Muslims can pray without having to stare up and be looked down upon by a cross of Jesus," says Banzhaf. Gee, it also shouldn't be difficult for Muslims to find other universities which don't have "Catholic" in their name.

I sent my younger daughter to California Lutheran University, largely because it had a good curriculum, was semi-affordable and local, and, well, Lutheran. Had she chosen Catholic University, I would have expected her not to be offended by Catholic iconography. Even less would I have expected her to nail 95 Theses on the door of the cathedral. We already did that, we made our point, and besides, it would be just plain rude. I would also think it rude of her to demand that a special place be set aside on campus for her and her fellow religionists to contemplate Luther's sermon on grace or recite Luther's small catechism sans crucifixes.

But somehow Banzhaf thinks that Catholic University should strip the walls of Catholic iconography, cover up the crosses which adorn the larger buildings, and set up special rooms with footbaths and alcoves to worship Allah. At least he didn't object to the crescent moon embedded in the university's coat of arms. Never mind that there are three Muslim centers within two miles of the university. Banzhaf wants Catholic University to be more like Harvard, where secularism reins supreme. Of course he knows that Harvard was founded originally to train Anglican pastors and missionaries. And he also knows that if you work hard enough at it, you can alter the very foundations of a university.

It is important to note that Catholic University is a private school. How a private school can be regulated by state school standards is anyone's guess. The only argument that holds any water at all is that the school, like almost every other major private university in the nation, seeks and accepts funding from multiple sources including the federal government. So what? It doesn't impose religious demands on people who could choose hundreds of other schools to attend. Planned Parenthood finessed that issue fairly successfully by claiming any federal funds received are used for purposes other than abortion. Catholic University has the same argument available to it: Federal funds are used only for secular instruction, and the religious portions are funded by private and Church resources.

The federal funds argument doesn't work very well for Banzhaf. He doesn't want religion removed from the school, he simply wants a Catholic university to impose special privileges and spaces for a different religion. He appears to want to use secular reasoning and secular institutions to advance religion. Or so it seems. In actuality, he simply wants to harm a school dedicated to the Christian faith by using Muslims as his stalking-horses. The ultimate goal is to get God out of the universities entirely, or alternatively to impose Islam as a co-equal religion in private religious institutions.

Catholic University has so far avoided the full-blown secularization of some other Catholic universities such as Notre Dame, or Protestant schools such as Wesleyan. The school accepts qualified students with little consideration of their religion (it does give preference for those planning to enter the Catholic priesthood). More importantly, it does not refuse admission to anyone based on religion. The school clearly has a religious flavor throughout the campus, but it's hard to see how Muslims should be any more offended by the atmosphere than I would be during a visit to the Vatican.

At least one Muslim student at the university doesn't think that Banzhaf speaks for him. Wiaam Al Salmi praises the school for its diversity and tolerance, saying: "The community here is very respectful of other religions and I feel free to openly practice mine. Even though it's a Catholic school, a lot of its teachings are very similar to Islam. It teaches respect, community service, love worship, etc. which are things that Islam also teaches." I'm guessing that Banzhaf (and more than a few ayatollahs and imams) would say that Al Salmi is living proof that Catholicism is already working its nefarious plot on him.

I'm guessing that most of you reading this article are asking yourselves "is this complaint ridiculous or what?" I'm also willing to bet you came to that conclusion in about thirty seconds without a lot of agonizing over subtleties. But you and I are not dealing with the D.C. Office of Human Rights. Rather than simply rejecting the complaint on its face as it should have, the office has taken the complaint seriously and says it needs at least sixty days to think the whole thing over. I am praying (yes, praying) that for once a school will stand its ground and take this issue all the way to the Supreme Court if the idiots at the Human Rights office make a finding in favor of Banzhaf and his Judas goats.
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The Great (film) Debates vol. 13

With Obama's approval ratings approaching 0.0% like a Delta House GPA, we need a replacement. And there's nowhere better to look for said replacement than Hollywood!

Who is your favorite Hollywood (film/TV) President?

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