Month: September 2015

“Black Lives Matter Is Living in the Past” says, The Daily Beast?!?!?!

This is an awesome piece, and it is written, by a black man. Which, by the way, is an awesome thing. 😀

But this, even with the careful hedges, is a hasty, and even lazy, reading of the issue. I imagine there are some people out there who don’t like BLM because it’s black people making noise. But what disturbs a great many—and I highly suspect many more—people about the philosophical underpinnings of BLM is that black people in poor neighborhoods are in vastly more danger of being killed by young black men than by the occasional bad cop.

“Our demand is simple: Stop killing us,” the movement says—while people nationwide look on and see, especially during the summers, tragic epidemics of black-on-black homicides and maimings in one city after another. But America wonders: what about “Let’s stop killing each other”?

This year alone, in Chicago almost 80 percent of the people killed have been black. In Baltimore the figure is 216 black people versus 11 white, in Philadelphia 200 black people versus 44 white. Most by other black people.

Source: Black Lives Matter Is Living in the Past – The Daily Beast

I am sure that this man will get called a house negro, a sellout, a race traitor; but that is all rubbish. It is a clear-headed assessment of the movement in itself and is very well written. I suggest you go read the rest of it, because it is very well written. Hats off to John McWhorter for telling the truth! 😀

 

UPDATED WITH STATEMENT John Boehner to resign at end of October

I knew this was coming, I just did not know when.

Via The New York Times:

WASHINGTON — Speaker John A. Boehner, under intense pressure from conservatives in his party, announced on Friday that he would resign one of the most powerful positions in government and give up his House seat at the end of October, as Congress moved to avert a government shutdown.

Mr. Boehner, who was first elected to Congress in 1990, made the announcement in an emotional meeting with his fellow Republicans on Friday morning.

The Ohio representative struggled from almost the moment he took the speaker’s gavel in 2011 to manage the challenges of divided government and to hold together his fractious and increasingly conservative Republican members.

Most recently, Mr. Boehner, 65, was trying to craft a solution to keep the government open through the rest of the year, but was under pressure from a growing base of conservatives who told him that they would not vote for a bill that did not defund Planned Parenthood.

Mr. Boehner’s stunning announcement lessens the chance of a government shutdown next week as Republican leaders in Congress will push for a short-term funding measure to keep the government operating and the speaker will no longer be deterred by those who threatened his job.

There are some that are saying that this could cause a problem for the GOP and it could be a win for the Dems. However, I disagree with that, the Dems are so unpopular now with Americans, especially middle America that I believe that this will only strengthen the GOP’s base and appeal.

Either way, this will be a shift from the establishment running the house to a conservative. Look for more impasse with the President till he leaves office. This might lead to Government shutdowns and other such stuff.

Stay tuned.

Update: Here is the Official Statement:

WASHINGTON, DC – House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) today issued the following statement:

“My mission every day is to fight for a smaller, less costly, and more accountable government.  Over the last five years, our majority has advanced conservative reforms that will help our children and their children.  I am proud of what we have accomplished.

“The first job of any Speaker is to protect this institution that we all love.  It was my plan to only serve as Speaker until the end of last year, but I stayed on to provide continuity to the Republican Conference and the House.  It is my view, however, that prolonged leadership turmoil would do irreparable damage to the institution.  To that end, I will resign the Speakership and my seat in Congress on October 30.

“Today, my heart is full with gratitude for my family, my colleagues, and the people of Ohio’s Eighth District.  God bless this great country that has given me – the son of a bar owner from Cincinnati – the chance to serve.”

The comments over on that site are for the ages. The old school of politics and political operation is over. This is a new era and Boehner just could not exist in it. The days of the Republican ruling class are over; which is, in a way, a good thing for America. The establishment is going to have to either get in line or get out of the way.

Related:

Blogger roundup: ThinkProgress, Power Line, Political Wire, Business Insider, Hot Air, NBC News, The Week, Political Insider blog, Hit & Run, Aleteia.org, The Hinterland Gazette, The Gateway Pundit, Refinery29, Red Alert Politics, Towleroad, John Hawkins’ Right Wing News,The Iowa Statesman, Mediaite, The Daily Caller, Washington Post, BillMoyers.com,Althouse, Outside the Beltway, The Federalist and Allen B. West, Bloomberg.com news, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, The PJ Tatler, TPNN and Arkansas Blog, Arkansas Times,  Liberaland, Washington Monthly, Speaker.gov, protein wisdom,Poynter., UPROXX, Outside the Beltway, The Pulse 2016, Washington Free Beacon and Index, : JustOneMinute, American Spectator, addictinginfo.org and Booman Tribune, Talking Points Memo, Washington Monthly, Campaign for America’s Future, The Daily Banter, Forbes, AMERICAblog News and The Gateway Pundit, ABC News, RT, Lawyers, Guns & Money and Bloomberg Business, OnPolitics, Boing Boing and The Agonist 

Scott Walker drops out

I did not see this coming at all. 😯

The Video:

Via NYT:

Updated, 8:14 p.m. | Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, whose early glow as a Republican presidential contender was snuffed out with the rise of anti-establishment rivals, announced on Monday that he was quitting the race and urged some of his 15 rivals to do the same so the party could unite against the leading candidate, Donald J. Trump.

Mr. Walker’s pointed rebuke of Mr. Trump gave powerful voice to the private fears of many Republicans that the party risked alienating wide swaths of the American electorate – Hispanics, women, immigrants, veterans, and most recently Muslims – if Mr. Trump continued vilifying or mocking those groups as part of his overtures to angry and disaffected voters.

Still, Mr. Walker’s exit was not selfless: He was running low on campaign cash, sliding sharply in opinion polls, losing potential donors to rivals and unnerving supporters with a steady stream of gaffes, like saying he would consider building a barrier wall along the Canadian border.

Appearing ashen and drained at a brief news conference late Monday in Madison, Mr. Walker said the Republican presidential field was too focused on “how bad things are” rather than on “how we can make them better for everyone.” Without naming Mr. Trump, Mr. Walker issued a plea to fellow candidates to coalesce around a different Republican who could offer a more “optimistic” vision and guide the party to a victory next year that, he admitted with sadness in his voice, he could not achieve himself.

“Today I believe that I am being called to lead by helping to clear the field in this race so that a positive, conservative message can rise to the top of the field,” Mr. Walker said. “With this in mind, I will suspend my campaign immediately.

“I encourage other Republican presidential candidates to consider doing the same so that the voters can focus on a limited number of candidates who can offer a positive, conservative alternative to the current front-runner,” he said.

Scott Walker was seen by many as the social conservative that dared to take on public sector unions and won. Of course, the labor movement is over the moon that Walker dropped out.

My Take: While Walker might have generated a good deal of buzz in Wisconsin and with the labor movement; he really never caught on in the national stage. Not only this, but the field was just much too crowded and of course, the progressive media complex was after him from the start. When trump jumped in, all the attention went to him.

It was most likely for the best; because if the progressive did not savage him, the rest of the field would have.

Of course, this might have something to do with it too. Via Matt Lewis:

The thing that really soured me on him, however, was the very transparent way that his team decided Iowa was “must win,” telegraphed it, and then proceeded to pander to the populist right that presumably constitutes the base of the Iowa caucuses. It began when Walker ousted strategist Liz Mair for having said some uncharitable things about the state, but really manifested itself in the hurling of uncharacteristic red meat.

He flip-flopped on immigration, going so far as to say that it wasn’t a flip-flop since he didn’t vote on it. Then he went over the top on saying that he wanted a Constitutional amendment to let states ban gay marriage — but then (apparently) sent his wife out to let it be known that she disagreed. He started to look like a phony who would do or say whatever it took to be elected.

And then, having betrayed anyone not on the populist right (which includes center-right opinion leaders, establishment RINOS, and everyone in between), and having doubled down on being Iowa’s hard-right populist, Walker was completely out-flanked by Donald Trump (and Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina and Ted Cruz). But mostly Donald Trump. Walker looked like a wimp on the debate stage. He had no charisma. He didn’t look like a president. He didn’t even look like a bully, as Trump does. He looked like the guy whose lunch money the bully takes.

Hmmmm… Interesting.

Related:

Blogger Roundup:  Power Line, The Atlantic, Talking Points Memo, The PJ Tatler, Slantpoint,JSOnline, WHNT-TV, Daily Kos, Hit & Run, No More Mister Nice Blog,National Review, Right Wing Watch, tpnn.com, The Gateway Pundit, Outside the Beltway,Business Insider, WSLS-TV, Political Insider blog, Taylor Marsh, LifeNews.com, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Hot Air, Mashable, BizPac Review, Weekly Standard, Political Wire, Mock Paper Scissors, WQAD-TV, KFOR-TV, The Pulse 2016, Naked Politics and Washington Free Beacon

Jake Brewer, Husband of HotAir’com’s Mary Katherine Ham, dies in cycle accident

This one is just too awful for words. đŸ˜„

We lost our Jake yesterday, and I lost part of my heart and the father of my sweet babies. I don’t have to tell most of you how wonderful he was. It was self-evident. His life was his testimony, and it was powerful and tender and fierce, with an ever-present twinkle in the eye. I will miss him forever, even more than I can know right now. No arms can be her father’s, but my daughter is surrounded by her very favorite people and all the hugs she could imagine. This will change us, but with prayer and love and the strength that is their companion, we can hope our heartache is not in vain– that it will change us and the world in beautiful ways, just as he did. If that sounds too optimistic at this time, it’s because it is. But there was no thought too optimistic for Jake, so take it and run with it. I will strive and pray not to feel I was cheated of many years with him, but cherish the gift of the years I had. In a life where nothing is guaranteed, Jake made the absolute, ever-lovin’ most of his time with all of us. This is a family picture we took a couple weeks ago. It was taken because Jake, as always, was ready with a camera and his immense talent. All four members of our little, growing family are in it. I can never be without him because these babies are half him. They are made of some of the strongest, kindest stuff God had to offer this world. Please pray that he can see us and we’ll all make him proud. God, I love him. Psalm 34:18, Philippians 1:3

A photo posted by Mary Katharine Ham (@mkhammertime) on

 

From The Washington Post: (H/T Memeorandum)

A day after a White House staffer died in a cycling accident while raising money for cancer, his wife released a heart-felt tribute to her husband on Instagram that recalled his optimism and selflessness.

“I don’t have to tell most of you how wonderful he was,” Mary Katharine Ham wrote about her late husband, Jake Thomas Brewer, 34. “It was self-evident. His life was his testimony, and it was powerful and tender and fierce, with an ever-present twinkle in the eye. I will miss him forever, even more than I can know right now.”

Brewer is listed on the White House Web site as a senior policy adviser in the the Office of the Chief Technology Officer. He was killed Saturday when his bicycle went out of control at a sharp curve on Old Frederick Road in Maryland. It crossed the double yellow line and collided with an oncoming vehicle, police said. Brewer was pronounced dead at the scene, while the driver of the 2008 Honda Pilot was not injured, police said.

At the time, Brewer was participating in the Ride to Conquer Cancer, a two-day cycling event aimed at raising money for cancer-treatment programs.

Brewer’s mother told The Washington Post he was in the fundraising ride because of a close friend who was a cancer patient. He “lived life large and tended to live life for other people,” Lori Brewer Collins said.

Collins said the ride will continue. Her son was a man who could “make things happen,” she noted, and that was what “he would have wanted.”

On Sunday, news of Brewer’s death spread across Twitter and Facebook, where a wide circle of professional contacts and friends expressed their shock and shared memories of their friend and colleague.

He was referred to as the “epitome of a public servant.”

 

Ed Morrissey Writes:

Update: The family and friends of Jake Brewer, Mary Katharine’s husband, have launched a GoFundMe project to create an educational fund for their two children, Georgia and the one on the way.

Those of us who love Jake want to help ensure that Mary Katharine and the family have everything they need — now and (especially) in the future.  Please contribute to help provide for their childrens’ education as they grow up. These funds may also be used to advance ideas about which Jake was passionate.  Finally, Mary Katharine has asked that people consider donating to a cause very close to their hearts: The Travis Manion Foundation, which supports families of fallen US servicemen, at   www.TravisManion.org.

The goal of the education fund is $200,000, probably a bare minimum for college education for two students 16-18 years from now. Let’s push this higher than that. Mary Katharine faces some very difficult challenges for her children and herself without Jake, but we can help take worries over education off the table for her.

There are no words that I can even begin the write. God Bless Mary Katherine and her sweet babies. May the Lord Jesus Christ keep them in his mighty hand. 🙁

Others: Washington Post, The Other McCain, BuzzFeed,TVNewser, Fox News, neo-neocon, Patterico’s Pontifications, Mediaite,RedState, Raw Story, Mashable, Moe Lane

Others 2:

 

Glenn Beck is now channeling Al Sharpton

Here’s the video, right here. (Click on the link)

On Tuesday, talk radio host Glenn Beck accused the Tea Party supporters of GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump of being racists.

While he questioned whether Trump’s supporters are genuine Tea Partiers, Beck said of them, “If you were a Tea Party person, then you were lying. You were lying. It was about Barack Obama being black. It was about him being a Democrat.” Although he later identified fellow talk show host Sean Hannity as a Tea Party supporter who thinks Trump is “a great guy,” Beck said that he simply disagrees with Hannity about Trump.

Source: Glenn Beck: Tea Partiers Who Support Donald Trump Are Racist – Breitbart

Glenn Beck is sporting his butthurt, because of two reasons:

  1. Glenn Beck sold Andrew Breitbart up the river back in 2011 and Sarah Palin wants nothing to do with him anymore, because of it. This was during the Sharon Sherrod incident. Someone informed her of this and a skit that Beck had on his show that mocked her son with Down’s. Also too, there was an e-mail of hers that was read on air, that she did not want read. So, Glenn is angry about that.
  2. Donald Trump will not go on Glenn Beck’s show. My sources tell me, it is because Trump thinks that Glenn is a kook. Trump would not even give him press credentials into one his events. (although, they were allowed in eventually…)

Basically, I am thinking that this is nothing more than some attempt of Beck’s to capture some of the Trump limelight for himself. Beck’s also venting, because he lost a good number of his subscribers after he turned on Sarah Palin and Andrew Breitbart. Sources also tell me that Glenn Beck’s Blaze Network is about to collapse, because financially, the network is treading water and is losing money more and more everyday.

So, now you know the rest of the story.

Others: Hit & Run, Hot Air,

Dueling Terrorists?

This is very interesting…

Via CNN:

(CNN)In a blistering new message, the leader of al Qaeda denounces the leader of ISIS as the illegitimate leader of a phony caliphate.

Exposing a glaring hostility between the two jihadi groups, Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of al Qaeda, openly attacks ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi for usurping the jihadi movement.

“We do not acknowledge this Caliphate,” he says, according to a translation from SITE Intelligence posted Wednesday. “We do not see Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as one worthy of the Caliphate.”

He dismisses al-Baghdadi as a pretender who declared himself caliph with the support of only “a few unknown people,” and established ISIS, which calls itself the Islamic State, “by force and with explosions and car bombs,” instead of by “the choice of the people” through “approval and consultation.”

He also faults al-Baghdadi for failing to support Muslims who are not in the Islamic State’s territory.

“When Gaza was burning beneath Israeli bombs, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi did not support it with one word, but his main concern was that all the mujahideen pledge allegiance to him, after he assigned himself to be the Caliph without consulting them.”

At first blush this would be comical. However, if they start trying to outdo each other; it could be deadly for the United States. However, don’t expect any sort of action from this lame duck President.

 

14 years later: Never forget 9/11/01

May we never forget
May we never forget

Here’s how it all played out that fateful morning: (via HotAir.com)

AllahPundit’s remembrance of 9/11 on twitter from 2009 is chilling to read.

I wrote this in 2013:

I can tell you where I was on that fateful day. I was unemployed at the time. I had worked for Art MoranGMC in Southfield as a Painter’s helper. I had been laid off, due to the slight downturn or recession in the economy. I was out on my front porch, drinking coffee with my Father.

I went in, to get a refill of coffee for my mug, when I went through the door, my Mother told me, that someone had flown a plane into the World Trade Center building in New York. That is when I went downstairs and turned on the TV to CNN, which I always watched back then; and that is when my life and the rest of America’s life changed forever.

I can honestly tell you that the only time that I honestly felt scared for my life, is when the report went out over CNN that there was a plane headed for the White House. That plane turned out to be the one that crashed in Shanksville, Pa. What I will tell you is this; I do not ever want to feel that sort of fear, ever again.

While I am not a big fan of Wilsonian foreign policy, I am for catching and/or killing those that stoke that sort of fear. I hope and pray that the trials of those connected to this horrific event are quick and that justice is carried out. The bastards that did this, do not deserve any sort of special treatment at all. May they burn in the devil’s hell forever. 😡

I still feel that way. By the way, to me; this isn’t a political issue, this is an American issue.

Michigan House boots Gamrat and Courser resigns

Remember these two dunderheads? Well, he quit and she got the boot:

Lansing — The Michigan House of Representatives ousted state Rep. Cindy Gamrat from office just after 4 a.m. Friday for misconduct involving her extramarital affair with Rep. Todd Courser — one hour after Courser abruptly resigned.At 4:13 a.m., the House voted 91-12 to expel Gamrat from office after the Plainwell Republican made a final plea on the floor for a censure. Gamrat’s ouster makes her just the fourth lawmaker to be expelled from the Legislature”Resigning would have been a whole lot easier, I’ll tell you that,” Gamrat said. “But sometimes the easy roads aren’t the best roads to take.”

Source: House expels Gamrat; Courser resigns before vote

What gets me, like Ed over at HotAir.com, I am amazed it took so many votes. Either way, I’m glad they’re gone.

Others (via Memeorandum): Talking Points Memo, MLive.com, NPR, Raw Story, Political Wire, Detroit Free Press and Associated Press

A good analysis on the Kentucky clerk issue by Bob Barr

Bob Barr, who I voted for in 2008, gives a very good analysis of the situation with the Kentucky Clerk.

Basically, Bob says, “Be Careful what you wish for“:

Imagine waking up to the news that a Quaker county sheriff is denying concealed carry permits to citizens because of his religious objection to violence; or, a Muslim DMV supervisor in Dearborn, Michigan has ordered his staff to refuse to issue driver’s licenses to women out of a religious objection to women behind the wheel. These are among the realities that await should we make Kim Davis, the embattled County Clerk from Rowan County, Kentucky, an archetype for “religious freedom” in America.

In 1802, Thomas Jefferson replied to a letter from the Danbury Baptist Association of Connecticut in which he outlined a concept for the First Amendment’s application as it relates to religion. According to Jefferson, the Amendment creates a “wall of separation between Church & State,” to which “the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions.” While Jefferson’s concept of a wall separating the Church and State has been used in a modern context by the Left to justify its radical purge of any and all religious artifacts from the public sector — particularly those of Christianity – Jefferson rather was simply warning about the power of government, compelled by a dominant sect of religion, to corrupt and oppress religious liberty of allworshipers.

As an elected government official and public employee, Davis took an oath to uphold the law, and cannot properly use her power as an elected official to deny marriage licenses to couples found by the Supreme Court of the United States to be entitled to receive those licenses. This is not a question of whether or not we agree with that Supreme Court ruling; it most definitely is a question of whether we are – as Chief Justice John Marshall noted in his seminal, 1803 opinion in Marbury v. Madison – a “nation of laws, not of men.

[…]

The virulent reaction of the Left to this controversy, and laws such as Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act, leaves little doubt about the Left’s “respect” for religious freedom, and highlight the need protect it from further erosion. Yet, as the Davis controversy also illustrates, protecting religious freedom is not as black and white as the media and the political rhetoric make it out to be. It requires a far more thoughtful approach to articulating its fundamental importance in our society than rushing to make every perceived injustice the focal point of such a debate.

Using the wrong examples to make our case for religious freedom only further ingrains the disrespect for religious freedom and the rule of law so desperately needed in the public and the private sectors; and encourages use of the “Wall-of-Separation” phrase as a bludgeon against religion, rather than a protector of it.

It is regrettable that Kim Davis was jailed, and as former San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom’s lawless “gay marriage” protest shows, clearly the Left does not hold itself to the same standards as it does with Davis. However, what is happening to Davis is not about the sincerity of her religious beliefs, or even the morality of gay marriage. Placing her on a pedestal will likely come back to haunt her supporters.

And perhaps those who find a government for which they work so morally repugnant as does Kim Davis, would better serve the public they have sworn to serve, from outside rather than inside.

He is absolutely correct about that; we are a constitutional Republic, not a Christian Theocracy. Kim Davis took an oath to uphold the law and if she cannot do that, as a result of her religious convictions, then she should resign. This is why I have avoided writing about this case, because she and her supporters are making a religious argument over a secular issue. What she is actually doing is violating the First Amendment and she should be charged for doing so.

The sick part is that, naturally, the Republican Party will sing in unison in support for this so-called “Christian Zealot” and screw our chances for a victory in 2016. 🙁