Obama Activist Tied in With Organization Accused of Voter Fraud

http://patterico.com/2010/09/28/obama-activist-tied-in-with-organization-accused-of-voter-fraud/

You may have read that there is strong evidence of voter fraud in Houston. Here’s what you may not have heard: the organization accused of shady behavior is linked to a former head of an Obama campaign office. She is a fan of Che Guevara. She is also the person who invited to a town hall meeting a woman who then posed as a doctor at that meeting during the health care debate.

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Obama Stimulus Made Economic Crisis Worse, `Black Swan' Author Taleb Says

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-25/-black-swan-author-taleb-says-obama-s-stimulus-made-economic-crisis-worse.html

U.S. President Barack Obama and his administration weakened the country’s economy by seeking to foster growth instead of paying down the federal debt, said Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of “The Black Swan.”

“Obama did exactly the opposite of what should have been done,” Taleb said yesterday in Montreal in a speech as part of Canada’s Salon Speakers series. “He surrounded himself with people who exacerbated the problem. You have a person who has cancer and instead of removing the cancer, you give him tranquilizers. When you give tranquilizers to a cancer patient, they feel better but the cancer gets worse.”

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Colbert testifies; Lofgren clueless

Catching up on the comedic offerings of the current Congress from Friday...

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/blogs/index.php/jpodhoretz/362976

Colbert, playing his blowhard-conservative-pseudo-O’Reilly character, was screamingly funny (you can watch him here). Among other things, he attempted to introduce the results of his colonoscopy into the Congressional Record. The members of Congress were screamingly funny too, only unintentionally. There were expressions of surprise, motions to get Colbert off the stage, pained stabs at making jokes alongside a professional, and so on.

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Which Malik Shabazz Visited White House in July 2009, Mr. President?

Breitbart asks about Malik Shabazz on the Big Goverment blog (someone by the same name was involved in the New Black Panther voter intimidation case):

http://biggovernment.com/abreitbart/2010/09/24/which-malik-shabazz-visited-white-house-in-july-2009-mr-president/

Coates’ testimony calls into question the Justice Department’s earlier denials that the handling of the New Black Panther case was politically motivated.  And their refusal to allow attorneys at Justice to testify under oath about this case recalls the same attitude toward transparency exemplified by the White House visitor’s log policy:  “We didn’t drop the charges against the Black Panthers because of politics, TRUST US.”

Continuing to say you’re transparent does not mean you are transparent.

The idea that an individual named Malik Shabazz had a private meeting in the White House residence in July 2009 is highly relevant because throughout July, Congressmen Frank Wolf (R-VA) and Lamar Smith (R-TX) were beginning to ask questions about the dropped charges against the NBPP. So was the United States Commission on Civil Rights.

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Christopher Coates testimony on the Black Panther Case

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/time-for-change-govt-must-address-lawlessness-uncovered-by-christopher-coates/

Friday’s testimony before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights by Christopher Coates — a career Justice Department lawyer and supervisor — knocked down the Potemkin Village that the Obama administration has built to obscure why Justice officials dismissed a voter-intimidation case against two members of New Black Panther Party in Philadelphia.

Coates, former chief of the Voting Section in the Civil Rights Division, testified that Justice officials purposefully dropped the New Black Panthers case because they didn’t want to enforce the Voting Rights Act against minority defendants accused of violating the law.

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Malkin: The Eternal Flame of Muslim Outrage

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=38938

Shhhhhhh, we're told. Don't protest the Ground Zero mosque. Don't burn a Koran. It'll imperil the troops. It'll inflame tensions. The "Muslim world" will "explode" if it does not get its way, warns sharia-peddling imam Feisal Abdul Rauf. Pardon my national security-threatening impudence, but when is the "Muslim world" not ready to "explode"?

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George Will: Who's beating the GOP establishment?

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/who_beating_the_gop_establishment_7Dag109P3V5WRgC3iBhMhM

Scott's and Haley's candidacies are pebbles in an avalanche of evidence that the identity politics of race and ethnicity has become a crashing bore. That, in turn, is evidence of this:

If the question is which state has changed most in the last half-century, the answer might be California. But if the question is which state has changed most for the better, the answer might be South Carolina.

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Barone: Higher education bubble poised to burst

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Higher-education-bubble-poised-to-burst-720594-102180809.html

As often happens, success leads to excess. America leads the world in higher education, yet there is much in our colleges and universities that is amiss and, more to the point, suddenly not sustainable. The people running America's colleges and universities have long thought they were exempt from the laws of supply and demand and unaffected by the business cycle. Turns out that's wrong.

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Payne: The irony of Jesse Jackson's stripped SUV

http://www.detnews.com/article/20100903/MIVIEW/100903001/1467/opinion01/Payne--The-irony-of-Jesse-Jackson-s-stripped-SUV

Add Jesse Jackson’s ride to prominent vehicles being stripped in Detroit.  ... Detroit’s Channel 7 reports that the Reverend’s Caddy Escalade SUV was stolen and stripped of its wheels while he was in town last weekend with the UAW’s militant President Bob King leading the “Jobs, Justice, and Peace” march promoting government-funded green jobs.

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What's Wrong with Notre Dame?

http://ndcec.blogspot.com/2010/08/david-solomon-weighs-in-on-dismissal-of.html

The decision by Father Tom Doyle, Notre Dame’s new Vice-President for Student Affairs to fire Bill Kirk from his position as Associate Vice-President for Residence Life has left many of us with an empty feeling.  It has also put another dent in Notre Dame’s reputation as a family-friendly and compassionate employer.   The decision was both unfair and imprudent.  It was unfair, because, as a loyal employee of Notre Dame for almost 22 years—and one who had been placed repeatedly in positions where he took the brunt of public criticism for enforcing policies adopted by his superiors—he deserved better from those superiors than to be removed from office with no notice and with no public explanation for his removal.   It was imprudent, because administrators of Bill Kirk’s talent, compassion and principled commitment to the good are rare.  He loved Notre Dame and he loved and respected the students whose welfare he vigorously pursued.  

    In addition, his removal from office took place against the background of other events at Notre Dame that inevitably raised questions about its real motivation.  Bill Kirk’s office had been the target of the much publicized ire of a grumpy Charlie Weis who,  on his way out of town, told the South Bend Tribune that the Office of Residence Life was “the biggest problem on the campus” (SBT, 12-5-09). Perhaps, it seemed to some, Coach Weis, unable to take a scalp from USC, took pleasure in participating in taking one from the less well-armed Bill Kirk.

...

As official faculty advisor to the Right to Life Club, Elizabeth served as primary advisor to the student coalition formed in the spring of 2009 as “NDResponse” and served as a conduit for many, including junior, untenured faculty members, who were unwilling to get involved directly for fear of reprisal.  Without compromising his administrative duties, Bill stood with the students of NDResponse at their rally on the South Quad on Commencement day.  He  was the only senior administrator at Notre Dame willing to do so.

...

 At the time Bill took part in the NDResponse rally, many people commented on the courage it took for him to stand with his wife and other witnesses to  this protest of Notre Dame’s decision to award President Obama an honorary degree.

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The Weekend Interview with Senator Jim DeMint

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703579804575441331350216628.html

"I'm getting optimistic. I think, as I talk to people around the country—they seem to get it. They want a return to those things that made America different and great. They understand that what the government has done is so harmful, in terms of spending and takeovers, the debt, it has made people who are not normally political and not generally interested in it alarmed.

"What makes the difference for me is feeling like I'm really giving a voice to people who care about what happens to our country." That is why Jim DeMint, for better or worse, has suddenly become a major political force.

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Krauthammer: The last refuge of a liberal

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/26/AR2010082605233.html

Note what connects these issues. In every one, liberals have lost the argument in the court of public opinion. Majorities -- often lopsided majorities -- oppose President Obama's social-democratic agenda (e.g., the stimulus, Obamacare), support the Arizona law, oppose gay marriage and reject a mosque near Ground Zero.

What's a liberal to do? Pull out the bigotry charge, the trump that preempts debate and gives no credit to the seriousness and substance of the contrary argument.

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Obesity: Drink till you drop

(via instapundit.com)

http://www.economist.com/node/16881791

A report on the 12-week trial, published earlier this year, suggested that drinking water before meals does lead to weight loss. At a meeting of the American Chemical Society in Boston this week, Dr Davy unveiled the results of a year-long follow-up study that confirms and expands that finding.

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Germany Beats Obama

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/27/opinion/27brooks.html?_r=1

According to Gary Becker of the University of Chicago, the Americans borrowed an amount equal to 6 percent of G.D.P. in an attempt to stimulate growth. The Germans spent about 1.5 percent of G.D.P. on their stimulus.

This divergence created a natural experiment. Who was right?

The early returns suggest the Germans were. The American stimulus package was supposed to create a “summer of recovery,” according to Obama administration officials. Job growth was supposed to be surging at up to 500,000 a month. Instead, the U.S. economy is scuffling along.

The German economy, on the other hand, is growing at a sizzling (and obviously unsustainable) 9 percent annual rate. Unemployment in Germany has come down to pre-crisis levels.

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Inventing Moderate Islam

Andrew McCarthy defines "Moderate Islam":

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/244545/inventing-moderate-islam-andrew-c-mccarthy

It is also worth understanding why Qaradawi says Islam and secularism cannot co-exist. The excerpt from his book continues:

As Islam is a comprehensive system of worship (Ibadah) and legislation (Shari’ah), the acceptance of secularism means abandonment of Shari’ah, a denial of the divine guidance and a rejection of Allah’s injunctions. It is indeed a false claim that Shari’ah is not proper to the requirements of the present age. The acceptance of a legislation formulated by humans means a preference of the humans’ limited knowledge and experiences to the divine guidance: “Say! Do you know better than Allah?” (Qur’an, 2:140) For this reason, the call for secularism among Muslims is atheism and a rejection of Islam. Its acceptance as a basis for rule in place of Shari’ah is downright apostasy.

Apostasy is an explosive accusation. On another occasion, Sheikh Qaradawi explained that “Muslim jurists are unanimous that apostates must be punished.” He further acknowledged that the consensus view of these jurists, including the principal schools of both Sunni and Shiite jurisprudence, is “that apostates must be executed.

If we were in that objective frame of mind, we would easily see that a freedom culture requires separation of the spiritual from the secular. We would also see that sharia — with dictates that contradict liberty and equality while sanctioning cruel punishments and holy war — is not moderate. Consequently, no one who advocates sharia can be a moderate, no matter how well-meaning he may be, no matter how heartfelt may be his conviction that this is God’s will, and no matter how much higher on the food chain he may be than Osama bin Laden.

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Thomas Sowell on American Collapse

Uncommon Knowledge with Peter Robinson:

http://tv.nationalreview.com/uncommonknowledge/post/?q=MmQ2NTJmMTc3YmQ3YjE5ZjBlNjFmNzhkNDRiYjZiMTM=

Thomas Sowell on American Collapse: Chapter 4 of 5
Thomas Sowell states that if the Obama agenda is not stopped in the November 2010 elections, he doesn’t know how it will ever be stopped. 

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Stop the Mosque at Ground Zero

http://www.humanevents.com/offers/offer.php?id=MSQ100&time=20100805921

TO:	Community Board 1 Members
CC:	Mayor Michael Bloomberg
	Governor David Paterson

We, the editors of Human Events and RedState.com, and the many Americans who have attached our signatures to this petition, hereby request your immediate personal intervention to block the construction of the proposed 13-story, Ground Zero mosque.

The building, with its towering design, "triumphantly” peering down on the hallowed ground where more than 3,000 Americans fell to an Islamic jihadist attack and constructed with questionable funding on a deliberately insensitive location means that, rather than fostering tolerance and understanding, the mosque is intended to symbolize Islamic victory over America and her Western values.

Throughout Islamic history, the placement of mosques has been an expression of conquest and superiority over non-Muslims. Muslims built the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock on the site of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem to assert Islam's superiority over Judaism. Similarly, the Hagia Sophia Cathedral in Constantinople was converted into a mosque to assert the superiority of Islam over Christianity. An estimated 2,000 mosques in India were built on the sites of Hindu temples for the same reason. Even the proposed name of the Ground Zero mosque, "Cordoba House,” is a clear historical reference to the Spanish city where a church was converted into a mosque after the city was conquered by a Muslim army.

The Ground Zero mosque is not an issue of religious tolerance but of common decency. To build a mosque at Ground Zero is to stab at the hearts of those who lost loved ones in those attacks. We sincerely request that you do everything in your power to put a halt to this outrage immediately.

Respectfully submitted, The Editors of Human Events The Editors of RedState.com

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Reagan: Best Advertorial You'll See

The Ace of Spades links to a video featuring Reagan against today's Democrats...

http://minx.cc/?post=304681

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Charles Krauthammer - Sacrilege at Ground Zero

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/12/AR2010081204996.html

Location matters. Especially this location. Ground Zero is the site of the greatest mass murder in American history -- perpetrated by Muslims of a particular Islamist orthodoxy in whose cause they died and in whose name they killed.

Of course that strain represents only a minority of Muslims. Islam is no more intrinsically Islamist than present-day Germany is Nazi -- yet despite contemporary Germany's innocence, no German of goodwill would even think of proposing a German cultural center at, say, Treblinka.

Which makes you wonder about the goodwill behind Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf's proposal. This is a man who has called U.S. policy "an accessory to the crime" of 9/11 and, when recently asked whether Hamas is a terrorist organization, replied, "I'm not a politician. . . . The issue of terrorism is a very complex question."

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Panel hits Rangel with 13 alleged ethics charges

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100729/ap_on_go_co/us_rangel_ethics;_ylt=AmSHkpAqWcF_51Lkl3YtLGGs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTNnNGJpaTA4BGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTAwNzI5L3VzX3JhbmdlbF9ldGhpY3MEY2NvZGUDbW9zdHBvcHVsYXIEY3BvcwMyBHBvcwM4BHB0A2hvbWVfY29rZQRzZWMDeW5fdG9wX3N0b3J5BHNsawNwYW5lbGhpdHNyYW4-

The alleged violations of House standards of conduct also include using congressional letterhead to solicit donations for a center for public service to bear Rangel's name on the New York campus of the City College of New York.

Rangel was also accused of accepting a rent-stabilized property in Manhattan for his campaign office and initially not paying federal taxes on the Dominican Republic property.

The ethics panel said Rangel failed to report rental income on his original tax returns for 1998 through 2006 from the Dominican Republic villa. It also said he violated federal laws in addition to House ethics rules, including the 1989 Ethics Reform Act, Postal Service laws and government service codes.

The ethics charges, agreed upon after a two-year probe, were read in a public session of the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, as the ethics committee is formally known.

Rangel had repeatedly said he looked forward to a public discussion of the current allegations. A four-member investigating panel, with separate members from the judging subcommittee, brought the charges.

The 42-member Congressional Black Caucus has warned Democrats against a rush to judgment, and any lawmaker with a significant African-American constituency must consider whether it's worth asking Rangel to quit.

However, some Democratic House members in close races may think it's more important to distance themselves from Rangel. They don't want to have to answer negative Republican ads about Pelosi's promise to wipe Congress clean of ethical misdeeds.

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