HuffPo: Silence the Birthers, By Releasing The Long-Form Original

As time goes on, I'm starting to adopt this position myself.

The only thing weirder than the Birthers are the anti-Birthers, who blame the Birthers for being conspiracy theorists yet actively feed the conspiracy by refusing to call for President Obama to release his birth certificate.

The state official in Hawaii who manages such things has reiterated that there is indeed an original birth certificate on file which would confirm President Obama's having been born in Hawaii and that she has seen it, but state law won't allow her to release it unless the president authorizes it.

So what's the problem here? Release the original and let's be done with this madness.

I truly believe that Barack Obama was born in Hawaii. All available evidence points to this, and there is no evidence that he was born anywhere else. But as time goes on, I'm increasingly amazed that not only is the call to release Obama's original birth certificate being sustained, the cry actually seems to be gaining momentum.

I believe it was wise for the President to ignore the movement when it started because it simply marginalized the Democrats that created the rumor (yes folks, the story originated and was first propagated by Clinton-supporting blogs), and then various Republicans that jumped on board and then took over the fruitless pursuit. But now the controversy—for reasons I simply cannot fathom—has expanded to alarming proportions.

I have to think that it reached—or will soon reach—a state where it becomes more of a problem to ignore those calling to see the document than it is to ignore them.

Officials in Hawaii have confirmed that the original, long-form paper birth certificate filled out at the time of President Obama's birth exists. The President can easily ask them to release a copy of the document to the media to be photographed at high resolution, where it can be posted on news web sites and blogs around the word and debated and parsed, ultimately shutting down all but the most fringe elements of the debate, those that still believe that 9/11 was an inside job and that Ron Paul would have made a good President.

It only takes a phone call. Do this, Mr. President.

I Kill You!

Rusty notes that they've found the Facebook page of one of the Tarheel terrorist-wannabes from Willow Springs. He has the pictures, but I have the video.

Follow along until the end... you'll get a bonus North Carolina tie in, the payoff for martyrdom that perhaps Danial Boyd was really hoping for.

So That's The Five Hole...Hockey Reporter Arrested, Suspended For Running Prostitution Ring

He also covered racing, so feel free to pile on with jokes about drafting, rubbing, and fifteen-second "pit stops."

Kevin Provencher advertised his prostitution ring's services on Craigslist and other Web sites and rented hotel rooms in Andover, Massachusetts, and in New Hampshire where the women would have sex for money, prosecutors said. The ring may have operated in Canada, they said.

Provencher, a sports writer at the New Hampshire Union Leader for more than two decades, was arrested at his Manchester home early Wednesday and was taken to Massachusetts, where he was ordered held on $10,000 cash bail during his arraignment in Lawrence District Court. He pleaded not guilty to two counts of deriving support from prostitution.

Provencher, 50, has been suspended from the Union Leader, where he has been its primary motor sports reporter since 1990. He also has been the newspaper's beat reporter covering the Manchester Monarchs since the American Hockey League franchise's 2001 inception.

Obama Booed In Raleigh

Who was the most popular man in Raleigh today? I don't know who it was, but I could tell you who it wasn't, as Barack Obama's motocade was met by a smattering of cheers and an overwhelming chorus of boos:

Randy's Right is the source of that video and another where a pro-Obama MoveOn stooge repeatedly attempted to insist on promoting the theory that Republicans were responsible for disease... presumably one that keeps people such as himself gullible and poor.

American Elephant has more photos, which seems to indicate that anti-Obamacare protestors outnumbered Obama supporters about 3-to-1.

This is just the latest event where Obama's supporters have been heavily outnumbered.

America has realized very quickly that the change they voted for is nothing but rhetoric, and that the change being sought by a radically left-wing President and Congress are the antithesis of American values of independence, hard work, and self-reliance.

NY Times Botches Complaint Against NC Jihadists

Lets see if you can catch the false and repeated refrain from the newspaper of record:

The three men, along with four others, are charged with stockpiling automatic weapons and traveling abroad numerous times to participate in jihadist movements. There is no indication in the indictment that they were planning attacks in the United States, though prosecutors said they had practiced military tactics this summer in a rural county close to Virginia.

...

Federal officials in Washington said that the men charged on Monday were not seen as serious terrorist threats to the United States or American interests abroad, and that there were no indications of ties to Al Qaeda or other militant groups. But the officials said there was concern that they were amassing a sizable number of automatic weapons, given Mr. Boyd’s record as a foreign fighter.

If you guessed that there weren't any automatic weapons involved in this case, you guessed right.

As noted in some detail yesterday, the indictment cites the exact firearms owned by Daniel Boyd, and not a single one of them was an automatic weapon. The weapons cited in the indictment were 8 intermediate-caliber semi-automatic rifles, 2 semi-automatic battle rifles, a bolt-action rifle, and a revolver.

So much for those multiple layers of fact checkers...

The Guns of the Terrorists Next Door

As you may know, seven men in Willow Springs, NC have been detained on terrorism charges, and an eighth man is still at large.

It's a bit shocking that Islamic terrorists could be hiding in plain sight in a small Southerner town, but that appears to be exactly the case.

And for such a small cell of just eight men, they seemed to be working on a sizable cache of weaponry according to the indictment, including 8 intermediate-caliber semi-automatic rifles, 2 battle rifles, a bolt-action rifle, and a revolver.

I've categorized them by name, type, and date purchased below:

The M70B1, which was not linked, is just another run-of-the-mill fixed-stock AK-style rifle.

You may note that the AR- and AK style rifles are what our politicians have labeled "assault weapons," even though they are not assault rifles by any military definition. Prohibitionists may be quick to point out that the AK- and AR- rifles were some of those banned under the Joe Biden-authored abortion known as the 1994 Assault Weapons ban. This is the same ineffective law that our President and Attorney General would like to have reinstated.

The Saiga 308 purchased by Boyd is built upon the exact same AK action, fires a cartridge with the same rate of fire and having both far more range and power.

The two Ruger Mini-14s and Ruger Mini-30 in this arsenal use the same cartridges and have the same range and rate of fire as the AK- and AR- pattern rifles, and they were never subject in any way to restrictions of the so-called "ban."

Nearly identical relatives of the Bushmaster M4 A3 rifle were available during the entire life of the so-called ban, and that if the Smith & Wesson M&P had been around at the time, a variant of it, too, would have likely been legal for civilian sale.

If Boyd had been interested in the other AK-pattern rifles that he amassed he could have purchased those during the ban as well, though he would have paid a premium for them. While illegal to import, the thousands already in circulation were entirely legal to buy and sell.

Tell me again how gun control "works"...

And the Obama Birth Wars Continue...

While the government of Hawaii has once again gone on record to state that Barack Obama's birth certificate is legitimate and that he is a natural born citizen, a new round of theories will claim that there were five ways for a person to get a birth certificate in Hawaii, and that some of those ways don't require the same standard of proof as others. According to this line of reasoning, Obama could have a birth certificate, but the document might not be worth the paper it is printed on in regards to proving whether or not he qualifies as "natural born."

Have fun!

Is Henry Gates A Crook?

Dan Riehl discovered a possible reason why Harvard professor Henry Gates famously acted like such a arrogant jerk when approached by a police officer investigating a breaking and entering call last week.

Gates has been running an charity that seems to bank most of its donations, and may have thought the cops were coming to arrest him for that.

It's too soon to know for sure if Gates has done anything illegal with the funds that his charity hasn't properly accounted for, but I was Gates, I wouldn't worry.

If Obama Justice Department will cover for the New Black Panthers, I'm sure they'll cover for a personal friend, even if he acted "stupidly."

At What Point, Revolt?

Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her Democratic allies in the House of Representatives rammed through a massive, $787 billion dollar stimulus bill, without one Representative reading it. Majority Leader Harry Reid forced it through the Senate, and President Obama signed the massive spending bill into law. To date it has had no positive effect on the economy, and many economists suggest it may be causing damage over the long run.

Speaker Pelosi and her Democratic allied in the House rammed through cap-and-trade legislation based upon heavily disputed "climate change" junk science that will send energy prices soaring and cost the nation billions of dollars. Again, not one Representative read the bill before it was voted upon. The Senate has not yet voted on the bill, though if they do, the President is eager to sign it into law.

And now we find that Pelosi and her allies, dutifully bowing and scraping to our neophyte President's every uninformed ideological whim, once again intend to ram thorough another bill, sight unseen.

This time Pelosi and her cabal of liberal Democrats are attempting to force through a massive bill to socialize American healthcare before their August vacation.

When has it ever been best to force through life-altering decisions at a breakneck pace?

Why are this Congress, this Speaker, this Majority Leader, and this President utterly unwilling to study, debate, and review legislation that will change the lives of hundreds of millions of Americans for decades into the future?

Do they care about what is best for Americans, at all?

The actions of the far left "progressive" leaders of our nation's federal government an the antithesis of how the Founding Fathers wanted our country to run. Speaker Pelosi presents us with irrational and rushed mob rule.

Harry Reid is only slightly less radical in the Senate.

And in the White House, we have a neophyte, a sepia-toned Dorian Gray high on his adoring press, who uses his eloquence to paper over the fetid core of ideological beliefs that rotted nations and generations in the past century.

Barack Obama, adored by the press and dismissed by the world's leaders, presides over the largest debt in our nation's history and plans to spend even more as our nation enters a full-fledged economic depression, a depression made only worse by his poor decision-making and not assuaged by his empty platitudes.

How much more will we take—how much more should we take—before we declare they've done enough harm?

Will coming elections rectify such gross incompetence? Can we wait for 2012 or 2016 to remove those that will tear this nation apart?

These are the questions lurking in the hearts of many Americans as we speak.

If reason cannot find a way to reimpose itself in the House, the Senate, and the White House, I fear we may soon find out after some have reached their breaking point.

Racist-in-Chief

A woman sees a man she thinks is attempting to break into a neighbor's home, and calls the police.

An officer arrives, and finds a man in the foyer of the home, and begins to question him. The man acts belligerently, and initially refuses to provide identification, while screaming the cop was prejudiced. The man inside the home was subsequently arrested for disorderly conduct, even though he later provided identification showing he he was and proving that it was his home.

People get arrested all the time for acting like an ass and refusing to work with police responding to a call, and the officer could have just as easily charged the suspect with obstruction of justice and he would have been well justified.

But because the man who was arrested is a prominent African-American professor crying racism, and the officer is white, the cries immediately began that the arrest was racist, when it very plainly was not.

Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr was non-compliant with a police officer merely doing his job of trying to protect Gates' home. In fact, he was abusive towards the officer. And the officer's the bad guy?

Give me an effin' break.

Gates could have easily diffused this situation at the very beginning by showing Sgt. James Crowley his identification as requested. Crowley would have seen that the home was indeed Gates', would have wished him a good day, and been on his way. A normal person may have even thanked the officer for responding to the call (which was, after all, to protect his property), and the neighbor who was trying to looking out for him.

But Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr is more than a scholar. He's also an asshole... and more than likely a racist himself.

By his own admission he immediately escalated a simple matter of identification into a confrontation, and then had the temerity to play the victim.

Further—and amazingly—a hopelessly lockstep and well-conditioned liberal media immediately joined in echoing the hue and cry, though all the evidence points towards a good cop simply attempting to do his job and a self-important jerk acting belligerently, thinking that he is above the law.

Sgt. Crowley is no racist. He's done his best to serve his community, and did everything in his power to attempt to save the life of another famous African-American.

But Gates and his supporters can't see that, blinded by knee-jerk rage and hobbled by minds firmly rooted in the past.

Likewise, our President, Barack Obama, showed his character and intellect to be paper thin, accusing Sgt. Crowley of acting "stupidly," even as he admitted that he didn't know the facts of the case.

Here are the facts, provided by another officer in the arrest report:

Henry Louis Gates Jr, of his own accord, needlessly escalated what should have been a very simple and cordial interaction with a law enforcement officer into a situation that the officer felt necessitated his arrest.

Upon his release from jail, Gates needlessly escalated the situation further, making public and repeated unsupported charges of racism against an officer who seems to have an exemplary record in an attempt to justify his own shameful behavior.

And now, as if if Gates foolish behavior wasn't bad enough, we have our neophyte President ignorantly weighing in, giving this incident more credence than it deserves, and assigning blame without knowing any of the facts, automatically assuming the white officer was wrong.

So much for a post-racial America.

All hail the Racist-in-Chief.

Update: Added the arrest report screen capture and link.

ATF Refutes Obama's "90-Percent Lie" About the U.S. Being the Source of Mexican Cartel Guns

What... you expected honesty?

Addled Critics Unable to Form Logical Opposition to Thune's Concealed Carry Reciprocity Amendment

The so-called "Thune Amendment" to provide co-equal reciprocity to concealed carry permit holders traveling across state lines will come to a vote today.

The Amendment would allow concealed carry permit holders to carry their guns in the 48 states that allow some form of concealed carry (Illinois and Wisconsin do not allow for concealed carry in any form). Permit holders would still be responsible for knowing and following all applicable laws of the individual states they visit regarding concealed carry.

Opponents of the amendment have gone for the usual hysteria, insisting that such a bill would mean blood flowing in the streets.

That sort of hyperbole and fear-mongering is of course unfounded.

There are legitimate reasons one could cite to oppose the bill, such as concerns over how Alaska and Vermont residents—which are allowed to carry concealed weapons without any sort of a permit—would be accommodated. There are legitimate reasons to question the public safety of allowing people who come from states that provide permits without any training to travel anywhere. There are also questions about whether such a bill tramples on states' rights.

Those questions need to be answered, and I suspect they reasonably can be.

By the protests sounded by many of those opposing this bill aren't based upon any sort of logical thought process. They trumpet only unreasoning fear:

"If you walk down the street in New York ... you can have the solace of knowing that if someone has a gun on them they've gone through a rigorous police background check. After this bill, you can have no such comfort," Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said Sunday.

Shumer is dishonest. If someone is carrying a gun in New York City, they are either a criminal or politically connected, with very, very few exceptions, and it is only slightly less difficult to carry upstate. Being a well-trained, responsible, law-abiding citizen isn't enough to get a carry permit in New York City, you need political connections, or if you are a normal citizen, you have to demonstrate need—as if a citizen can foretell in advance when someone might attempt to carjack, rob, or rape them. Even then, permitting is an altogether arbitrary process subject to whim as much as process.

New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg was no more logical:

It could be drunks stumbling out of saloons packing heat that leads to another OK Corral. Or a bump on the subway that turns into a quick-draw shootout.

And the cops can't do anything about it until it's too late.

Those are some of the nightmare scenarios an agitated Mayor Bloomberg said could unfold on city streets if the Senate doesn't kill a "terrible piece of legislation."

The controversial measure says that as long as you're legal to pack heat in one state, you're A-OK to carry a concealed gun anywhere you travel in the U.S.

The proposal, an amendment coming up for a vote today, "is just an out-and-out trampling of historic states' rights," Bloomberg said in a reference to New York's tough laws against concealed guns.

"This bill is an anti-police, pro-gun-trafficker bill. This is going to put a lot more guns on the street," Bloomberg said on a conference call with several other mayors who warned their streets could also become war zones.

As Bloomberg should know, carrying a firearm in New York City would still be prohibited even when the Thune Amendment passes; it only apply to state laws, and local prohibitive ordinances such as NYC's would presumably still apply.

As for the Wild West hyperbole of shootouts on every street corner over the slightest offenses, well, that bit of dark fantasy has been debunked no less than 36 times. The same fear-mongering has been made in response to every state that implemented a concealed carry law, and the claims have always fallen flat.

Concealed carry permit holders are far less likely to commit a crime than the general population, and though there are millions of concealed carry permit holders in the United States—there are more than 1.4 million in Florida alone—the best that the anti-gun Violence Policy Center could do to suggest that concealed carry was dangerous was to point out 31 instances where concealed carry permit holders have been accused of violent crimes.

The VPC was so desperate to get even this scant amount of evidence that they were forced to include allegations of wrong-doing in cases that had not been adjudicated, cases that concealed weapons played little or no part in, and at least on case were no weapons at all were used.

Far from showcasing gun violence caused by concealed carry permit holders, the VPC report instead serves to show that carry permit holders as a group are far less violent that those citizens that are not licensed to carry firearms.

38 states allow concealed carry. 28 of them already have reciprocity laws that allow permit holders to carry in various states.

Thune's amendment is an attempt to add some consistency to an often confusing hodgepodge of state-mandated and constantly changing reciprocity agreements, while keeping every individual state restriction and concern in place about how and where guns can be carried within those states. It seeks nothing more or less than extending to law-abiding citizens the opportunity to follow the laws of another jurisdiction.

That hardly sounds like a situation that should earn the shrill hyperbole we're hearing from some politicians and media elitists.

But then, we aren't dealing with rational people.

Update: Why am I surprised that irrational fear wins in a Democrat-controlled Senate? The vote fell two votes shy (58-39) of the 60 needed.

And the victorious dolt speaks:

"Lives have been saved with the defeat of this amendment," Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, a leading opponent of the amendment, said in a statement. "The passage of this amendment would have done more to threaten the safety of New Yorkers than anything since the repeal of the assault weapons ban."

The ten year (1994-2004) "assault weapons" ban did not save one single life.

While 19 guns were banned by name, every single domestic manufacturer had variants of pre-ban guns on the street the day after the "ban" took effect, with no decrease in accurate, power, or rate of fire. Many manufacturers of assault weapons expanded their domestic sales during the ban due to high demand, and there were always plenty of these firearms legally available for sale on gun shop shelves.

The "ban" can fairly be credited with the creation of a new class of handguns, subcompact semi-automatics that packed duty-grade calibers (9mm, ..40S&W, .357 SIG, .45 ACP) into ever-smaller frames, so that far more powerful bullets can be launched from guns not appreciably larger that the low-powered and often ineffective &qout;mousegun" calibers of previous generations. If anything, a good case can be made that by making guns ever smaller and more powerful, the assault weapons ban encouraged people—both law-abiding citizens and violent criminals—to carry firearms more frequently.

How many homicides associated with this new class of weapon do you want credit for, Chuck?

But Father, I Want Attention!

I'm not the kind of person to force my faith on others, and I'm fine with other people practicing their faiths as long as that doesn't entail suicide bombings and beheadings.

That said, I saw this item today about atheists getting "de-baptisms" and it struck me as an "eye-roll" event.

If atheists don't want to believe in God that is their right, but the mocking practice of de-baptism is very much the act of a spoiled, petulant child flopping angrily on the floor at Walmart, demanding attention because he wasn't allowed a candy bar at check-out.

It seems a desperate act hoping to provoke a response for God.

Sorry, kids. It doesn't work that way.

Is Truthout on the Way Out?

Once upon a time, truthout.org was a leading site for left wing activist politics. A little kooky, and prone to publishing authors of dubious credibility, it seemed to hold some influence until Jason Leopold repeatedly cried wolf that Karl Rove was going to be indicted and sent to prison for Plamegate, which of course never happened.

Since then, the site seems to have lost much of it's luster, and if a recent fundraising plea is any guide, quite a bit of it's reader support.

Carry Reciprocity Agreement Brings Out The Bedwetters

If Chuck Shumer and the New York-based media are against it, it must be good for America:

A measure taken up by the Senate Monday would give people the right to carry concealed weapons across state lines as long as they obey the concealed gun laws of the state they are visiting. Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., said his proposal would reduce crime by providing reciprocity to carry concealed firearms. "My legislation enables citizens to protect themselves while respecting individual state firearms laws," he said.

...

Thune's bill, supported by the National Rifle Association and other gun rights groups, would allow people with concealed weapons privileges in one state to transfer that right to other states, contingent on their following the laws of those other states. Many state gun laws specify locations where concealed weapons can, or cannot, be carried.

It does not, Thune said, provide for a national carry permit and would not permit the concealing of weapons in the two states — Wisconsin and Illinois — that do not allow the practice.

Gun control advocate Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said the amendment "could endanger the safety of millions of Americans."

He said in a statement that "to gut the ability of individual states to determine who should be able to carry a concealed weapon makes no sense," he said.

This may come as a shock to the uninformed, but most states with concealed carry permits already have some sort of reciprocity agreement with other states. For example, my North Carolina concealed carry permit is honored in 31 other states. New York concealed carry permits have considerably less clout, being honored in only 13 other states.

Critics that insist this amendment would lead to violence are all predicted on the absurd illogic that a person who is licensed to carry a firearm in his home state would be overcome with a murderous desire urge to commit a violent felony the moment they cross the border into another state where they did not previously have reciprocity.

It's a laughably foolish premise that an educated, rational person would ignore, and yet the apparent de facto position in a number of editorials in northeastern news organizations.

The echo is so harmonious that almost makes me wonder if news organizations have been orchestrated in some manner—perhaps by a panicky senior Senator from New York?

On second thought, I'm sure I don't want to know.

Almost Under the Radar: FBI Agent Arrested After Guns He Sold Were Tied to Mexican Cartels

When the Attorney General and President told us that Americans were responsible for Mexican drug cartel violence, I guess we should have pressed them on just how close to the issue they were.

An FBI agent was arrested in early July for illegally selling Barret M82 .50 caliber rifles that made their way into the hands of the cartels, including one confiscated in a raid in March of last year. The agent John T. Shipley, purchased at least 54 firearms from a variety of sources, and sold at 51 of them illegally for a profit, according to his indictment.

The agent sold three .50-caliber semi-automatic sniper rifles, several Remington 700 rifles in .308, and two DPMS LR-308 .308 rifles, all which would be very suitable for the assassination of Mexican police officers and military personnel from hundreds of yards away. Shipley was apparently comfortable with turning a profit even if it meant fellow officers could end up in the sights of the rifles he sold.

You would think such a story of a cop supplying criminals with the weapons to kill other cops would be prime-time news fodder, but the first I heard of this story was an accidental link I stumbled across while researching another story.

Funny, that.

NAACP Head/Felon Arrested for Child Sex & Firearms Charges

I'm not sure what I find most offensive about this: the fact that the local media chose to try to sweep this under the rug as much as possible without completely being derelict in their duties, or that the NAACP would allow a convicted felon—one convicted of multiple homicides and an apparent attempt to cause a third— to hold office.

So much for standards and accountability:

Stokes County sheriff's deputies arrested the president of the local NAACP chapter on child sex and firearms charges Monday.

CBS affiliate WFMY reports that Larry Lash, 54, of Walnut Cove, was charged with six counts of statutory rape and two counts of sex offense and first-degree sex offense, among other sex charges.

Sheriff Mike Joyce told WFMY that there were three victims, including two under 16-years-old and that the alleged sex acts took place at Lash's home over a period of time.

Investigators found five guns and ammunition at Lash's house when they arrested him, leading to a charge of possession of a firearm by a felon. According to state Department of Correction records, Lash was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in 1974 and assault by pointing a gun and discharging a firearm into property in 1978.

If the there is any evidence at all that Lash used the influence and prestige of his position to carry out his assaults, I hope that the families of the victims sue the state and local organizations into bankruptcy as a warning that no organization is above the law, and especially one chartered to fight for equality.

In this day and age where you have to submit to a criminal background check for everything from applying for loans, to applying for jobs, to volunteering in many organizations, there is no excuse at all for the NAACP not vetting their officers on every level, including Lash.

The other possibily—that the NAACP knew Lash was an convicted killer, and allowed him to serve anyway—is even more dangerously negligent, and I hope is far from the truth.

Two Generals Joined Cook Case On Obama Citizenship... Just Before It Was Dismissed.

Oh, how they make things interesting:

A controversial suit brought by a U.S. Army reservist has been joined by a retired Army two-star general and an active reserve Air Force lieutenant colonel.

Maj. Stefan Frederick Cook filed the suit July 8 in federal court here asking for conscientious objector status and a preliminary injunction based upon his belief that President Barack Obama is not a natural-born citizen of the United States and is therefore ineligible to serve as president of the United States and commander-in-chief of the U.S. Armed Forces.

However, before the issue got to court, Cook's orders to deploy to Afghanistan were revoked. Lt. Col. Maria Quon, a public affairs officer with the U.S. Army Human Resources Command-St. Louis, said Tuesday that Cook was no longer expected to report Wednesday to MacDill Air Force Base in Florida for mobilization to active duty. Cook, who claims he is now the victim of retaliation due to his suit, received his mobilization orders to report for active duty at MacDill on Wednesday. From there, he was to go to Fort Benning on Saturday for deployment to Afghanistan.

Cook has now been fired from his employer over the suit, which was dismissed this morning by a federal judge, on the grounds that his canceled deployment orders rendered the case moot.

It is not known if Cook, his lawyer, and the generals will file another case, but I rather suspect they will.

Yahoo Sports: Taped Bush Address got More Applause At MLB All-Star Game Than Obama Appearance

I didn't watch the game myself—I've been disgusted with Major league game for years, though I have Durham Bulls tickets—but according to Yahoo! Sports, a taped address by Dubya apparently outshown the man who is determined to undo America:

Though Obama was roundly cheered by the All-Star fans, his live presence still didn't attract the applause that George W. Bush did during a taped announcement by the four previous Presidents before the game and some boos could even be heard among the cheers.

It is also worth noting that Obama's pitch, like his Administration, came up short.

Deployment Orders for Soldier Who Challenged Obama's Citizenship Revoked?

I happen to think that Birthers are nuts, which makes this all the more befuddling, if true:

A U.S. Army Reserve major from Florida scheduled to report for deployment to Afghanistan within days has had his military orders revoked after arguing he should not be required to serve under a president who has not proven his eligibility for office.

His attorney, Orly Taitz, confirmed to WND the military has rescinded his impending deployment orders.

"We won! We won before we even arrived," she said with excitement. "It means that the military has nothing to show for Obama. It means that the military has directly responded by saying Obama is illegitimate – and they cannot fight it. Therefore, they are revoking the order!"

I have no ready explanation for why the military would rescind his deployment orders, unless they plan to keep him stateside to begin a disciplinary investigation against him. Frankly, for the sake of our nation, I hope this is the case.

Because if the Pentagon allows soldiers to simply declare Obama an an illegitimate Command in Chief—as the article would have you believe—it would seem to set a precedent that would lead to chaos in the military, allowing service members to question all orders for the executive branch. It would be anarchy.

WorldNet Daily simply must have this wrong. The larger ramifications of the case being dismissed for the reasons alleged by the attorney are too terrible to consider.

Update: Was the entire case a scam?

Greyhawk makes a compelling case that the birther's "victory" here may be fraud, and more importantly, one that forces another soldier who was not scheduled for deployment to leave his loved ones on very short notice.

If that is the case, Major Cook is a blue falcon of the first order.

Sotomayor Either Perjured Herself, or Is Intellectually Unqualified to be on the Supreme Court

No, I didn't say it. A liberal law professor disgusted with her testimony did.

Ace distilled the essence of Sotomayor thus:

She's denying that there exists something called "theory of jurisprudence," which includes such doctrines as originalism, strict constructionism, and, of course, the ever-flexible and ever-expanding doctrine of the "Living Constitution." As she doesn't want to admit she's an adherent of the latter, she claims there's no such thing as judicial philosophy whatsoever.

For example, faced with a legal question about which the Constitution is absolutely silent, a conservative justice would say there is no Constitutional dictate either way: A law is permitted to exist; it is also permissible to have no law. Lacking a constitutional source of authority, a judge herself has no authority to set policy.

On the other hand, someone like Sotomayor does not stop her inquiry simply because she finds that she has no authority whatsoever to make a ruling that binds anyone. She then looks to international law; the always-popular "changing social mores and norms;" "public policy considerations;" anagrams of Ricky Martin song titles; etc.

So, yeah, she's lying.

I fully expect Sotomayor to be confirmed by the Democratic supermajority in the Senate. While the nation as a whole doesn't support her nomination, there simply doesn't seem to be enough of an immediate cost to her confirmation to make voting for her a short term political risk, which is all politicians care about any way.

The fact of the matter, however, is that activist judges like Sonia Sotomayor and her peers that believe in what Ace so correctly mocked as the "Living Constitution" undermine the laws that holds society together with every decision they make. The constantly shifting standards and "law of the now" approach to jurisprudence means that no law is ever actually law; it is an ever-changing rough guideline. With no fixed compass, the law—as law—ceases to exist.

She is a dangerous choice... and no one knows that better than the radical neophyte America elected as President who appointed her.

Angel in Iraq

I don't have the words.

Obama's Science Czar Wrote Book Advocating Forced Abortions, Sterilizing Americans By Poisoning Our Drinking Water

Zombie has once again gone deep into print to discover a book called Ecoscience: Population, Resources, Environment where John Holdren, Obama's Science Czar, suggested dictating how others should live their lives to assuage pseudo-scientific hysteria.

Forced abortions. Mass sterilization. A "Planetary Regime" with the power of life and death over American citizens.

The tyrannical fantasies of a madman? Or merely the opinions of the person now in control of science policy in the United States? Or both?

These ideas (among many other equally horrifying recommendations) were put forth by John Holdren, whom Barack Obama has recently appointed Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, and Co-Chair of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology -- informally known as the United States' Science Czar. In a book Holdren co-authored in 1977, the man now firmly in control of science policy in this country wrote that:

• Women could be forced to abort their pregnancies, whether they wanted to or not;
• The population at large could be sterilized by infertility drugs intentionally put into the nation's drinking water or in food;
• Single mothers and teen mothers should have their babies seized from them against their will and given away to other couples to raise;
• People who "contribute to social deterioration" (i.e. undesirables) "can be required by law to exercise reproductive responsibility" -- in other words, be compelled to have abortions or be sterilized.
• A transnational "Planetary Regime" should assume control of the global economy and also dictate the most intimate details of Americans' lives -- using an armed international police force.

Impossible, you say? That must be an exaggeration or a hoax. No one in their right mind would say such things.

Well, I hate to break the news to you, but it is no hoax, no exaggeration. John Holdren really did say those things, and this report contains the proof. Below you will find photographs, scans, and transcriptions of pages in the book Ecoscience, co-authored in 1977 by John Holdren and his close colleagues Paul Ehrlich and Anne Ehrlich. The scans and photos are provided to supply conclusive evidence that the words attributed to Holdren are unaltered and accurately transcribed.

The dark mind of Holdren that pushed for totalitarian in the 1970s based upon the projections of junk science is participating now in activist legislation that is based upon projections made up by the junk science of man-made global cooling global warming climate change.

While you're there, stomach aflutter as your soak in the detached derangement of a man who could so coolly and "logically" advocate such horrors, your mind may start to connect him to other totalitarian associates of Barack Obama who were just as willing to expose 25 million Americans to "re-education centers."

I asked, "Well what is going to happen to those people we can't reeducate, that are diehard capitalists?" And the reply was that they'd have to be eliminated.

And when I pursued this further, they estimated they would have to eliminate 25 million people in these reeducation centers.

And when I say "eliminate," I mean "kill."

Twenty-five million people.

I want you to imagine sitting in a room with 25 people, most of which have graduate degrees, from Columbia and other well-known educational centers, and hear them figuring out the logistics for the elimination of 25 million people.

And they were dead serious.

One can rest assured that Barack Obama cannot turn to his old associate Bill Ayers to be his "education czar" thanks to how Ayers and his wife were exposed as domestic terrorists during the campaign, but now Holdren has been exposed as having a similar sort of pathology, the chilling thought of someone with a similar mindset being given such a position doesn't seem as easy to laugh off.

There is something deeply, dangerously wrong with the kind of people who harbor such delusions, and there is something deeply, dangerously wrong with the kind of president who promotes people with such viewpoints to positions of power.

John Holdren needs to leave his postion, and leave it now.

For Barack Obama, we'll have to wait until January 20, 2013.

Update: More on Obama's eugenicist at Noisy Room and Bookworm Review.

Tarheel Media Spin Hard to Cover Governor's 22% Sales Tax Increase

Influential North Carolina media like WRAL TV and the News and Observer seem intent on covering up a massive tax increase proposed by Governor Beverly Perdue.

First the spin from WRAL.

Trying to break a legislative stalemate on state budget negotiations, Gov. Beverly Perdue on Tuesday called top lawmakers to the Executive Mansion to lay out her own plan for raising extra revenue in the coming year to erase a projected $4.6 billion deficit.

Perdue called for raising the state sales tax by a penny for 13 months, beginning Sept. 1. The increase would raise more than half of the $1.6 billion in revenue she would like to include in the 2009-10 fiscal budget.

And now from the News and Observer:

Gov. Beverly Perdue told legislative leaders Tuesday she wants a 1-cent sales tax increase and a total tax hike package of $1.6 billion to balance the budget.

Perdue, a Democrat, met with lawmakers at the Executive Mansion and gave them a list of tax and other revenue options that she would like to see passed. It was an effort to help break the impasse between Democratic Senate and House leaders over what taxes to increase and how much.

Highlights of Perdue's wishlist, provided to Dome, include: an "emergency" 1-cent increase in the sales tax that would expire in October 2010, an emergency income tax surcharge on single taxpayers who earn more than $500,000 and married couples filing jointly making more than $1 million.

"Raising the state sales tax by a penny" or calling it a "1-cent increase" seems like small potatoes until you realize that North Carolina's current sales tax rate is already 4.5% and by raising the rate another cent—to 5.5%—Perdue is seeking a 22% sales tax increase.

Neither news outlet did the due diligence to point out the substantial rate increase the governor is pressing for instead of reigning in out-of-control government.

One can only speculate why that may be.

Barack Obama, Economic Battlefield Surgeon

The madness of an illogical mind:

A second economic stimulus package could still be on the table, President Obama suggested Tuesday as the unemployment rate hovered close to 10 percent.

In an interview with FOX News in Moscow, Obama defended the roll-out so far of the stimulus package passed in February, saying he knew the scope of the economic crisis would make recovery difficult no matter what.

"I think it's important to understand that we've got a short-term challenge which, no matter how big our stimulus was, was going to be a challenge -- partly because we've got fiscal constraints," Obama said.

The president said the government has spent money as fast as it could as the "economic tsunami" unfolded, admitting that getting cash to the states has been difficult.

"You just can't push that out that quickly, partly, not just because the federal government has to process applications, but also because states and local governments have to gear up to get these projects going," Obama said.

President Obama's current stimulus package increased unemployment beyond what doing nothing would have done. We know, because this is his graph.

Well, it isn't entirely his graph.

The light blue line represents what the Administration said we'd see if we did absolutely nothing. The dark blue line is what Obama said the stimulus would do.

The red dots, however, are reality, the real numbers that Barack Obama and all the Democrats in Congress would rather ignore. Those bright, red dots represent the hundreds of thousands of Americans that have lost their jobs because Barack Obama and the Democratic Party rammed through a massive stimulus bill that none of them read.

I'll repeat that again.

The massive stimulus bill Democrats unanimously voted for has cost America hundreds of thousands of jobs, and Obama wants to leave the option open to do it again.

Obama has become something like a mad battlefield surgeon from the Civil War, hacking off limbs with his crude and barbaric medicine, killing and maiming more than he saves. Our economy is bleeding out due to his hackery and that of the incompetents and cheats his employs.

We don't need any more of his help, and we'll be damn lucky if we survive the medicine he's already prescribed.

Gullible's Travels

"The future does not belong to those who gather armies on a field of battle or bury missiles in the ground."

Obviously, part of what Mr. President is concealing in his hidden university records are his failing grades in history.

An Ode to Michael Jackson

Ashes to ashes

And get on the bus

Yeah, I borrowed that from something I read somewhere years ago, but it fits.

OBAMANOMICS: NC Unemployment to Hit Highest Rate since Great Depression

Hope and Change:

North Carolina's unemployment rate, already one of the highest in the country at 11.1 percent, will "peak" at 13 percent in the first quarter of 2010 before it begins to improve, North Carolina State University economist Michael Walden predicted Monday.

In his "North Carolina Economic Outlook" report, Walden said that "an emerging consensus" points to an economic rebound beginning "in late 2009 or 2010."

"The Obama Administration is the Most Fiscally Irresponsible in the History of the U.S."

That comes from a paragraph of Kevin Hassett's at Bloomburg:

The federal picture is so bleak because the Obama administration is the most fiscally irresponsible in the history of the U.S. I would imagine that he would be the intergalactic champion as well, if we could gather the data on deficits on other worlds. Obama has taken George W. Bush's inattention to deficits and elevated it to an art form.

The Obama administration has no shame, and is willing to abandon reason altogether to achieve its short-term political goals. Ronald Reagan ran up big deficits in part because he believed that his tax cuts would produce economic growth, and ultimately pay for themselves. He may well have been excessively optimistic about the merits of tax cuts, but at least he had a story.

Obama has no story. Nobody believes that his unprecedented expansion of the welfare state will lead to enough economic growth. Nobody believes that it will pay for itself. Everyone understands that higher spending today begets higher spending tomorrow. That means that his economic strategy simply doesn't add up.

Nothing President Obama has done adds up. Not his economic strategy, nor his domestic policy, nor his foreign policy.

Just an eighth of the way through his presidency Barack Obama appears to be the most dangerously incompetent man to have ever held the office, doing more long-term damage to this nation than any foreign invader could have ever dreamed. That he has another 3 1/2 years in office ahead of him, and an equally radical coalition of far left activists in Congress until at least 2010, is disheartening, to say the least.

After Three Centuries, Brits Lose Ability to Arm Themselves

Rather pathetic considering their history of small arms development, but perhaps to be expected from a now-neutered nanny-state that thinks normal kitchen knives are too dangerous.

Big Democrat Donors Bluffed to Close Tea Party Protest

I wrote recently about how Democratic Party donors used their influence to shut down the Atlanta Tea Party after reading conservative blogs, including an entry on Confederate Yankee where I warned that if the ever-encroaching government did not reign in ever-expansing intrusions into personal liberties, they may one day face their own Lexington Green.

We now know that the group responsible for shutting down the protest did so by apparently lying about their authority in order to get the protest cancelled. The Simon Property Group had no legal claim, and seems to have bluffed the actual property owner into canceling the event.

Democrats spent much of the Bush Presidency warning of an impending fascist state, and now seem to be doing everything in their power to create one of their own, where even peaceable dissent is to be quashed if at all possible.

Happy Independence Day.

Palin Resigns

I was driving back from Savannah, GA yesterday with my family and didn't get in until last night, and so the news that Sarah Palin resigned the governorship of Alaska is still very new to me.

I haven't yet caught up on the commentary that I'm sure is reverberating around the blogosphere, and I can't fathom why Palin would chosen to resign now, and in the manner she did.

Perhaps she's gunning for Lisa Murkowski's Senate seat. Murkowski sure seem to be reacting that way in a defensive press release.

Others, I imagine, will conclude this is an unorthodox move from an unorthodox Presidential contender already laying the groundwork for at the Republican nomination for 2012. I doubt it, as the timing simply seems off. The only way resigning now for a Presidential run would make any sense in my mind is if Palin was considering a run on a conservative third party ticket, and thought she needed the time to make the third party candidacy a viable option.

My greater fear is that Palin resigned because of some sort of medical issue that she would prefer to keep out of the public eye. No, I'm not thinking that there is another child on the way (though considering her seemingly excellent physical condition, I wouldn't rule it out), but it isn't out of the realm of possibility that a personal or family ailment may require immediate medical attention.

I sincerely hope that this is not the case.

Time, I suspect, will answer all our questions.

Thomas: Obama Worse Than Nixon

Wizened White House Press Corps gnome Helen Thomas says that the current administration's attempts to control the press is the worst she's seen:

"I'm not saying there has never been managed news before, but this is carried to fare-thee-well--for the town halls, for the press conferences," she said. "It's blatant. They don't give a damn if you know it or not. They ought to be hanging their heads in shame."

Anyone who has been closely following Obama's Presidential run has long known that our neophyte leader has forged an illusion of competence by being more heavily stage-managed than a teen pop group (while being roughly as qualified). It really says quite a bit when a reporter as experienced and blatantly liberal as Thomas rips into the administration as she has.