Naturally, it being Europe, the issue is over who gets the government handouts.
And here’s an article on the European debate over immigration in The Weekly Standard.
Think the U.S. Debate on Muslim Immigration is Heated? Check Out This Swedish Political Ad
September 25th, 2010Equality Under the Law: Whites Need Not Apply
September 25th, 2010I haven’t been posting on the story of the Obama Justice Department’s failure to pursue civil rights charges against the New Black Panther Party intimidating voters at the polls because: A.) it wasn’t a surprise, because Obama’s never given more than a conflicted slap on the wrist to anyone on the left (and still hasn’t had his Sister Souljah Moment, and presumably never will), B.) It was a relatively small story compared compared to all the other corruption and malfeasance surrounding the Obama administration likes flies buzzing around a dead hyena, and C.) There was no smoking gun that higher ups refused to pursue the case for political reasons.
Well, there’s now a smoking gun in the form of Christopher Coates testimony.
I suggest you read the entire thing. Unfortunately, the document is a “blogger hostile” secured PDF document, which makes cutting-and-pasting the text impossible (at least without cracking tools I don’t have), but the content is eye-opening.
To summarize: Both Civil Rights Division career lawyers in general and Obama Administration appointees in specific are actively hostile to race-neutral enforcement of the Voting Rights Act and refuse to bring any cases against blacks, in defiance of the specific language of the act.
Obama’s election was supposed to usher in a “post-racial America.” Instead, his election seems to have intensified the race-mongering pathologies of the American far-left: Identity Politics, unequal protection, and government not as a neutral arbiter, but as a distributor of spoils to favored groups.
Another Man Assaulted by Liberal Thugs for Daring to Film a Democratic Politician
September 25th, 2010This time from a public John Kitzhaber for Governor in Oregon event.
Add this to Rep. Bob “Who Are You” Etheridge grabbing a student filming him and SEIU thugs assaulting Kenneth Gladney, and a picture emerges of a party that is willing to use violence to suppress the first amendment rights of their political opponents.
Edited to add: Just to be clear, if you blow up the invitation shown at 14 seconds into the video, it says “Open to the public and free of charge.”
Edited to add 2: For an update on the legal issues raised, see here.
(Hat Tip: The Corner.)
GM is Using Your Money to Reward Politicians That Gave GM Your Money
September 23rd, 2010According to The Wall Street Journal
The Detroit company gave $90,500 to candidates running in the current election cycle, Federal Election Commission records show…The beneficiaries include Midwestern lawmakers, mostly Democrats, who have traditionally supported the industry’s legislative agenda on Capitol Hill, including Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D., Mich.), Sen. Sherrod Brown (D., Ohio) and Rep. John Dingell (D., Mich.).”
Don’t you feel honored that a company owned by the Federal government is using your bailout money to reward those that supported a bailout?
According to WSJ, that list includes Virginia Rep. Eric Cantor, the House Republican Whip. Mr. Cantor should know better, and should make it a point to give the money back. ObamaMotors shouldn’t be trying to bribe our elected officials with our own money.
(Hat tip Don Surber.)
Harry Reid’s Illegal Alien Amnesty Amendment Fails
September 22nd, 2010With the economy still struggling and unemployment still high, you might think that Senate Leader Harry Reid’s top priority would be working on bills to get Americans back to work.
Of course, you’d be wrong.
No, even though 68% of Americans support stricter enforcement of immigration laws over an illegal alien amnesty, Harry Reid decided to go full steam ahead on his bill to provide an amnesty and college subsidies to illegal aliens 35-years old or younger by attaching it to the Defense appropriations bill. Thankfully, a cloture vote failed by an entirely-too-close 54-46. (Blanche Lincoln was among those voting against cloture, which is a slight surprise, since she’s so far behind her Republican opponent that it’s not like the vote could make things any worse.)
There are many theories about why Reid tried to push such an unpopular and divisive issue through less than two months before the election. One theory is that Reid, locked into a very close race against Sharron Angle, will need all the help he can get come November, and thus the need to pander to Hispanic voters. I think there’s an element of truth to that.
Another theory is that the Democratic leadership simply doesn’t care what American voters think. After all, they were more than happy enough to ram ObamaCare down the country’s throat despite widespread opposition, and the judicial arm of the Democratic Party has made it clear than voters will only be allowed to give their opinion on gay marriage if they approve it. They seem to regard the Nascar retards of flyover country (or should I say “Jesusland) with contempt, and “the consent of the governed” simply isn’t an important factor to Democratic congressmen when living in their natural home of Washington, DC. They know that none of their friends inside the safe reality bubble spun by The New York Times, NPR, MSNBC, Salon and Media Matters would ever offer them anything but praise for their “brave” stance in favor of illegal alien amnesty.
And those panicked political consultants complaining about a coming tidal wave of Republican gains uneseen since 1994? Well, those are hard to hear over the clink of self-congratulatory champagne glasses, and the sounds of all your friends on Capitol Hill and in the MSM saying how awesome you are.
Obama Administration Gives OK to $60 Billion Arms Sale to Saudi Arabia
September 22nd, 2010Maybe I just wasn’t paying attention, but I didn’t notice that the Obama Administration had approved a $60 billion (with a B) arms sale to Saudi Arabia until Instapundit linked to that Jonathan Tepperman piece.
I have mixed feelings about the deal.
- The Saudis are not our friends. The ties between the House of Saud and fundamentalist Wahabbist Islam go back over two centuries, and Wahabbism is (along with the fundamentalist Shia of Khomeinist Iran, and the teachings of Hassan al-Banna and his followers in the Muslim Brotherhood) one of the chief sources retrograde radicalism in modern Islam, an influence that the Saudis have continued to support with their petrodollars to this very day.
- My impression (and if someone has any contradicting evidence, feel free to share it in the comments below) is that the Saudi’s continuing support for Wahabbism is one of manipulative cynicism rather than deep religious belief. The Saudi ruling class is happy to swill alcohol and enjoy other forbidden Western pleasures behind closed doors, but continues to support Wahabbism as both a means of controlling their own country’s populace, and of maintaining their influence in the Ummah, the worldwide community of Islamic believers. Whether this makes them more or less evil is a matter of interpretation.
- Despite their outward hostility to Jews and ostensible support of Palestinian nationhood, one of the biggest open secrets in the Middle East is that the Saudis are in regular secret communication with Israeli leadership about matters of mutual interest. (Also, the Saudis, much like the vast majority of Arabs everywhere, don’t really give a rat’s ass about the Palestinians.)
- Their biggest area of shared concern is a nuclear armed Iran, which both view as an existential threat to their existence (albeit it of different types). This is why, as the Atlantic piece notes, Israel hasn’t lifted a finger to stop the arms sale.
On that basis, the arms sale should probably be approved. But it’s no substitute for actually taking out Iran’s nuclear program, or the mullahs pushing it.
A Walking Case for the Death Penalty
September 21st, 2010Everyone Draw Mohammed Day Creator Molly Norris Goes Into Hiding
September 18th, 2010Molly Norris, the cartoonist who created Everybody Draw Mohammed Day as a joke, has now gone into hiding because American-born, Yemen-based imam Anwar al-Awlaki has put a fatwa on her head. As the WSJ asks: Where’s Obama standing up for her First Amendment rights?
In other news, award-winning science fiction writer Elizabeth Moon has enraged some of the usual suspects (including one deploying the classic “but-but-but Pope Alexander II” fallacy) by pointing out that modern Islam has some problems as part of a larger essay on citizenship, with which there is much to agree. (I do take exception to her passing comments about “Libertarians, survivalists, Tea-Partyers” being people whose “whose goals benefit only their own group;” as smaller government and lower budget deficits are indeed goals that would benefit United States citizens as a whole. And survivalists need only bring up Katrina, Ike, etc., to point out that people with sources of functional food, communication, transportation, etc., in an emergency greatly benefit the community as a whole as well.) I thought about posting this on my non-political blog, where I cover a lot of science fiction topics, but thought it fit in better over here.
As long as we’re on the topic of The Religion of Peace™, there are ten time as many antisemitic hate crimes in the U.S. as anti-Islamic hate crimes. (Figures are from 2008, the most recent for which the FBI has released figures.) As for Europe, some may find it appalling that every single “assault rape” committed in Oslo, Norway between 2007-2009, “the offender was a non-Western immigrant.”
At some point in the future, I hope to touch on the topic of why Islamists have become the most sacred group in the American Far-Left Pantheon of Victimization (perhaps one could ask Lynne F. Stewart, assuming you could contact her during visiting hours while serving her 10-year sentence for aiding and abetting terrorists), but this post is already long enough as is…
(BTW, I have some of Elizabeth’s books for sale over on at Lame Excuse Books for those of you who read science fiction.)
More on the Left’s Obsession with Sarah Palin
September 14th, 2010Today’s New York Times reveals that the Democratic Party isn’t just going to run against Bush this fall.
Mainly they’re going to run against Sarah Palin.
It’s interesting to see the irrational sputtering and fuming from the left on Palin, especially when asked what they think of her. They always start with the assumption that every right-thinking (which is to say Left-thinking) person believes that Palin is some sort of drooling moron. When asked to back up this judgment they become very defensive, or else cite widely debunked sound-bites such as her being a book-banner or a bad student (as opposed to being a member of the Honor Society), or saying God made dinosaurs 4,000 years ago.
It’s amazing that a political party who has controlled the House and Senate for four years, and the White House for two is, instead of running on their own record, attacking someone who currently holds no elective office. I’m sure that will earn some ink in any official history of the Democratic Party’s failure in this year’s elections…
Brit Banned from U.S. for Calling Obama a Prick
September 14th, 2010They told me that if I voted for McCain, America would ban people for criticizing the President. And they were right!
Can anyone recall an instance of a foreign national being banned from the U.S. for merely criticizing Bush?
(Hat tip: Slashdot. “They told me if I voted for John McCain” bit blatantly stolen from Instaundit.)
Updated: Gizmondo is saying the story isn’t true, though there’s nothing stating that in the original Sun article right now.)