Where are the Reagans?

Obama was supposed to be a Great Communicator, but he didn't deliver. We need real leaders who can reverse this view that we're in decline, which is basically the message of "smart diplomacy," whether the left understands it or not, and challenges us to take the painful steps that will put us back on sound financial and economic footing. That's got to be a big sell with a lot of sunny optimism to get across the rough ground back to the trail of growth.

It's not what it looks like.

The WaPo gave greater coverage to a fund raising scandal involving Republicans than it did to the case of a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton, but it did so because the former involved two (2) men from Texas, while the latter involved one (1) man who lived in New York.

What Ezra Klein knew and when he knew it. You don't normally set out to become corrupt. First you do something stupid and start collecting associates who have different aims and standards from yours and before you know it, you're part of a conspiracy. Even then, you may not think there's anything wrong with what you're doing because you know that you're on the side of truth and light. What bothers me about lefty after lefty is that they don't seem to understand that they're on the left of center. It seems to me that basic understanding should be a prerequisite for objective journalism. If you can't define the center and make the arguments on both sides, you can't be objective, period. The Journolist got caught up in sharing views with each other to the point that they forgot that were in an echo chamber and began to believe they were serving the public by helping elect Barack Obama. I think that it only began to sink in how poor that judgment was when they began to have doubts about Obama's performance in office. How can you feel good about yourself criticizing the President when you consciously worked to help elect him?

The Massachusetts State Pension Fund is showing a "1-year return of 13.39%,", after a drop of over 23% last year. "Now ranks among top 5% of all public pension funds." Are they on the top of a sinking ship or really returning to fiscal sanity? It's hard to tell if you're not an accountant. State Treasurer Tim Cahill says they're raising employee contributions and reducing benefits, but he still defends the defined benefit plan against a defined contribution plan, saying that the state still needs a "safety net."

Motor City Blues

Obama is upbeat on future of Michigan's economy, but the current state of things is bleak.

Ultimately, if she wins, it means the race isn't about her; it's about the party in power."

Reid and Angle are in a dead heat. Reid can't get over about 43%, but he's been able to scare people away from Angle.

Reid was viewed unfavorably by 51 percent -- about where he has been for most of this year -- and Angle is now seen unfavorably by 47 percent. That's 4 percentage points higher than two weeks ago and nearly double what it was in June, just before she won the primary and ran into the Reid buzz saw.

She needs to reassure voters that she's not a crazed far right kook. It's like Reagan against Carter in 1980. Once people saw Reagan in the debates and could tell he wasn't the right-wing wacko the press were portraying, the undecideds went to him in a landslide. Angle may be getting over-managed by her own consultants. She needs to get a message and stick to it.

Rangel will get off with a reprimand if Ethics Committee investigators' recommendation is followed, but Fox is reporting that won't necessarily be the final ruling. Some Democrats on the committee want him to resign. Among the charges are that he failed to pay his taxes. I would think that by now, this "Taxes are for little people" attitude would be rubbing voters raw.

John Podhoretz: Rangel's REAL crime is neglect of his constituents, even as he's enriched himself.

Not from The Onion

Steny Hoyer calls the expiration of the Bush tax cuts "the Republican tax increase" with a straight face. Heh.

It's still the Democrat IQ cut, though.

The strange case of the disappearing environmental disaster

Pelosi blocks investigation of Gulf Oil Spill

The latest version of the CLEAR Act is slated for a floor vote in the House this week as Democrats look for ways to use the Gulf oil spill as a means to pass elements of their unpopular energy agenda.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) stripped out authorization for an independent investigation into the Gulf disaster.

You'd think that environmentalists would be clamoring for a full-scale Congressional investigation of the BP blowout, but apparently the administration thinks doing so would be embarrassing to its agencies and appointees.

The Daily Caller's series on the activities and involvement of JournOList in moving the media from biased to partisan is telling the whole story. They were worse than we thought, but not surprisingly so. It's just how hypocritical these guys were.

DNC tries to portray tea party participants as elites. The Party of John Kerry calling Tea Partiers 'elites?' That whole "Party of the Working Man/ Party of Business" nonsense that began in the 20s hasn't been true for 50 years. T he Feds don't look out for the working man. They trade with big unions who care about ordinary wage earners about as much as management does. Journalists are elites in many cases because they make big bucks and rub shoulders with politicians. Of course, George Soros is super rich and spends lavishly to influence public opinion on political issues.

The tea partiers are middle class, educated and generally independent. That's not elite.

John McWhorter:

Back in the day, African-American kids didn’t think it was a crime to be young, gifted and black.

One of the biggest disappointments with the integration of the 60 and 70s has been the re-segregation being driven by African Americans wanting to stick to their own subculture and excluding anybody who "acts white." I think the answer is to reach out to black kids at earlier ages and help them meet the same standards as everybody else by the time they complete High School. Done right, it would be possible for them to outshine the products of our current schools. Blacks suffer from the image projected by the New Black Panthers, black street gangs and high prison population. I don't know how to solve that, but there needs to be a safe zone between the races where we can discuss legitimate problems and offer constructive suggestions without resorting to the race card. One thing President Obama pointed out during his appearance on "The View" was that we all have an instinctual way of closing off when meeting strangers, particularly those who don't look like us. That's true.

Oh, the humanity!

Planned Parenthood is unhappy with New Jersey Gov. Christie for vetoing a spending bill that included funding for the abortion provider.Predictably

The president . . ., Cecile Richards, is absolutely apoplectic . . ..

Meanwhile, in France

police detained a couple after the bodies of eight new-born babies were found in a house and in the garden of another home in a northern village, officials said Wednesday.

Wikipedia:

Racial profiling refers to the use of an individual’s race or ethnicity by law enforcement personnel as a key factor in deciding whether to engage in enforcement (e.g. make a traffic stop or arrest). The practice is controversial and widely considered inappropriate and illegal.

Having been a public defender, I have no doubt that it occurs, but I think it's more complicated than just pulling over every black or Hispanic you see. As you look for statistics, you find a lot of biased reporting, with little credit given to the cops' side of the issue. The real question is not simply whether a detained person is a minority, but whether that was primarily or substantially a motive for the detention (that term includes any traffic stop.) That kind of determination requires a detailed examination that isn't easy to conduct merely from the statistics of stops and the races of the persons pulled over.

Racial profiling often relies on pretextual stops for minor offenses that the cops would usually ignore unless they're looking for an excuse to stop someone. That might be apparent in statistical databases, but it could also also be a valid suspicion of illegal activity based on behavior that isn't in and of itself illegal but can be articulated by the police. In one case a woman circled the block six times while police were conducting a drug bust. It involves what most people would agree is suspicious, "he's up to something." That in itself isn't illegal, but cops do have a right to stop and frisk in some cases of such behavior.

All in all it's a difficult question that courts struggle with every day and isn't easy to determine without considering the facts of the case, and it's always the first excuse given by people of color. I don't know the answer to the problem, but the first step ought to be for an impartial group or someone capable of making an objective study to examine a statistically valid number of cases and report on how many of them are credible as racial profiling. The easiest ones to identify would be stops where no crime was found. Such stops aren't always recorded, but I know they occur. People have had their vehicles searched and been detained for hours, and then dismissed with "have a nice day," having to put everything back by themselves. I'd like to know how often that happens. The police have to check in with their dispatchers every time they stop for any reason, and the codes they use indicate traffic stops. On the other hand, law abiding citizens have an interest in stopping crimes such as drug trafficking, gang activity, illegal immigration and smuggling of people or contraband into the country. I can almost guarantee that most white people in the U.S. have acquaintances or friends who are Latino or Hispanic who they respect and see as valuable neighbors. What offends is trying to deal with clerks at fast food restaurants who can't understand enough English to take an order, or listening to people talk in Spanish when they don't know whether they're the subject of the discussion or not. They don't like being laid off and replaced by undocumented workers.

It isn't that hard a problem to address, but it's being rubbed raw by agitators and activists. I have a strong suspicion that there are a lot of illegal votes being cast by non-citizens, and that such tactics are part of party politics in some areas, maybe even nationwide. No citizen should be blocked from registering and voting, but at the same time, I think that many rules like allowing people to register to vote at the Motor Vehicle office or by non-government agencies like ACORN, are practically an invitation to commit fraud.

Today, it was reported that government investigators had applied for U.S. Passports using false information and obtained them in 3 of 7 cases. We need better IDs if even Passports are so easy to falsify. Social Security Cards shouldn't be acceptable anywhere, because they're just printed on plain paper (At least mine is. I don't know what form they're in now.) We don't have a privacy crisis. We have a ID crisis, and the forces in this country, including the federal government in many cases, are making it worse by turning a blind eye to the porous borders.

Cavuto is reporting that labor unions are busing protesters into Phoenix to demonstrate against AZ's law on immigration. 50 have been arrested. J. D. Hayworth says it kind of conflicts with the boycotts. Heh.

I don't get the theory of having your demonstrators create chaos and get arrested. Is that supposed to make us more sympathetic to illegal aliens? I think we should encourage more legal immigration, but it isn't fair to allow priority to those who came in violation of our laws. Shouldn't Hispanic/Latino citizens agree with that? I would.

Poll: Should [Charlie] Rangel be cut a deal?

My answer (not a choice): Yes, but only if he switches parties.

After all, criminal activities are an age-old tradition in his district.

It was taken out of context!

Obama calls African Americans "a mongrel race."

Actually, it WAS taken out of context. He said all Americans are mongrels too. I do think that "mongrel" is a loaded term, like "mud people," but he was thinking of the great Melting Pot of American culture that most of us belong to and the lack of pure-breds among us..

Big win for Obama!

All that oil leaked from the BP well? Nobody can find it now. "Mother Nature is doing what she's supposed to do."

So should we believe all the dire predictions, now? The NYTimes says, yes.

Really?"Almost a holy calling?" Do we really want news reporters who think of themselves as our priesthood or prophets? If they really treated objectivity and reporting just the facts with religious zeal, it wouldn't be bad, but that goal has transmogrified into telling us what they think we ought to know and excluding what doesn't agree with their personal views.

So the judge in the Arizona Immigration Law ruled for the federal government, by issuing a temporary injunction against enforcing it. I don't see how this helps the Democrats. I think that all that law meant for legal aliens and Mexican Americans was that they should carry ID. I think that everybody should carry ID, and the harder to counterfeit, the better.

The Irony of it all!

Filibuster reform is short of needed votes

It's what I'd do.

GOP leadership will hold fire on Rangel.

Will anybody remember this in 2014?

Taxes are for little people.

Do you think he keeps getting elected because he personally didn't build his wealth through that great evil, profits. It's OK to inherit wealth, even to marry into it, but actually creating in makes you nouveau riche, and you know, that is so gauche.

Al Franken warns that a GOP controlled Congress would bring a truly dangerous agenda.

"Everything is on the table from repealing healthcare reform to privatizing Social Security."

I thought he said it would be dangerous. I think of bankrupting the nation as truly dangerous, not cutting government programs.

You'll never guess what the left has just discovered! Maureen Dowd of all people writes:

The Obama White House is too white.. . .

But unlike Bill Clinton, who never needed help fathoming Southern black culture, Obama lacks advisers who are descended from the central African-American experience, ones who understand “the slave thing,” as a top black Democrat dryly puts it.

I remember thinking this precise thing during the Democratic primaries, and wondering whether he really could meet the expectations of African Americans when his background is so different from that of the descendants of African slaves in America.

I don't know what to make of this, other than that our "elites" aren't as smart as they think they are, and with respect to her analysis of how the mishandling of the Shirley Sherrod firing/apology was bungled by the "overly white" folks in the administration, I've already moved on from Sherrod.

Los Zetas drug cartel seizes 2 U.S. ranches in Texas
They'd better be careful. They could get sued for interfering with the Administration's efforts to enforce our immigration laws. And the people defending their property could be labeled vigilantes.

Update: Confederate Yankee casts some doubts on the story.

Watch this space.