Fitting: School built on toxic soil in LA named for … The Goracle

Another one from the Dept. of You Can’t Make This Up, via the LAT:

Al Gore has had some tough breaks — like losing the presidency after getting more votes than the other guy — but the noted environmentalist achieved a singular honor last week, becoming the first vice president to have a Los Angeles school named after him.

And, fittingly, the school will be devoted to environmental themes.

But as in the 2000 election, there’s a catch. Critics say the campus’ location poses a long-term health risk to students and staff.

School district officials insist that the Arlington Heights property is clean and safe. And they’ve pledged to check vapor monitors and groundwater wells to make sure.

The $75.5-million Carson-Gore Academy of Environmental Sciences will open Sept. 13 for about 675 students. As he was with Bill Clinton (who has an L.A. middle school named after him), Gore is second on the ticket to Rachel Carson, the late author credited with helping launch the modern environmental movement.

“Renaming this terribly contaminated school after famous environmental advocates is an affront to the great work that these individuals have done to protect the public’s health from harm,” an environmental coalition wrote in a letter to the Los Angeles Unified School District. Making sure the school is safe “would be an even better way to honor their contribution to society.”

Construction crews were working at the campus up to the Labor Day weekend, replacing toxic soil with clean fill. All told, workers removed dirt from two 3,800-square-foot plots to a depth of 45 feet, space enough to hold a four-story building. The soil had contained more than a dozen underground storage tanks serving light industrial businesses.

Additional contamination may have come from the underground tanks of an adjacent gas station. A barrier will stretch 45 feet down from ground level to limit future possible fuel leakage.

An oil well operates across the street, but officials said they’ve found no associated risks. Like many local campuses, this school also sits above an oil field, but no oil field-related methane has been detected.

Via Doug Powers, who writes in response:

All in all, I’d say that putting Al Gore’s name on a contaminated school is just about the most intellectually honest thing to come from any educational institution in the history of the United States. Potayto, potahto.

Speaking of vegetables, who wants to be the first to take a bite of something from the Carson-Gore Academy’s garden?

The principal also envisions an organic garden that could produce a student-led farmer’s market.

Suwol said Lowry sounds “incredibly wonderful,” but added that she’d feel better if the vegetables were grown in planters above the ground.

Why not grow them in the ground? A “consensus of scientists” say the soil is clean. Grow ‘em in the ground and let Al have the first bite so we can see how seriously he values scientific consensus when it comes to eating something that may or may not make his second chakra glow in the dark.

Seconded.

One final note, from the LAT piece:

In the spring, a school-naming committee received six options, including Pete Seeger Community School. A representative from school board member Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte suggested that the folk singer’s “affiliation with the Communist Party,” among other factors, made that choice inappropriate, two in attendance recalled.

Yet they named it in honor of Al Gore, who – like the current occupant of the WH – envisions this country as some sort of future Socilaist Utopia? These days, I’m not seeing much of a difference between Communism and Socialism. You?

Labor Day Weekend Open Thread

Getting ready to go “assist” dad in the pressure washing of the house and patio – as soon as he gets here :D . Weather’s supposed to be nice here today and tomorrow – about 10 degrees cooler than it was earlier this week.

Y’all have a safe and enjoyable holiday weekend!

Update – 4:37 PM: Posted a few pix of today’s pressure washing adventure at TwitPic :)

Dahlia

A Dahlia is shown in a field Thursday, Sept. 2, 2010, in Canby, Ore. Swan Island Dahlias hosts the Dahlia Festival the last weekend in August and Labor Day weekend.
(AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

Reid: My “Iraq war is lost” comments are what helped turn Iraq around

Stop the spinsanity – please!

At the time Sen. Reid made this comment, President Bush had been pursuing a failed, stay-the-course strategy that had cost thousands of American lives and billions of taxpayer dollars. Iraq appeared to be on the verge of a sectarian civil war. He was simply pointing out what our military leaders, including Gen. Petraeus, had been saying for months: that we could not win by staying the course; the war needed to be won diplomatically, politically, and economically. Sen. Reid and his colleagues were successful in forcing President Bush to finally abandon his failed approach and refocus on political reconciliation. This is what ultimately paved the way for the Iraqi government to take greater responsibility for Iraq’s future. Sen. Reid’s comments were directed at President Bush and his following of misguided policymakers, not at the heroic troops who continue to serve our country with incredible courage.

Doug Powers provides a video reminder of Reid’s 2007 “Iraq war is lost” comments, and writes:

Sun Tzu himself couldn’t have thought up a more brilliant strategy. Congratulations, General Reid.

And all along we thought Reid was being pathetic and weak — I for one feel bad for ever criticizing him.

Here’s a flashback to when Harry “Patton” Reid rallied our brave men and women to victory with his trademark Churchillian leadership style:

There’s a big difference between “we can’t win unless…” and “we lost.” Harry Reid hopes nobody can tell the difference.

And he’s not the only one trying to absurdly take credit for a mission that he not only did not support, but also declared a failure.

As my co-blogger so astutely noted earlier, it is absolutely shameful that the cut and runners both in this administration and Congress will not give President Bush even a sliver of credit for not abandoning Iraq when the calls were growing for a hasty exit, and when the “failure” declarations were piling up – primarily on the left side of the aisle. But you can best believe that I know, conservatives know, and our military and their families know where Iraq would be if we had listened to the Murthas, Pelosis, Reids, Bidens, and Obamas of this country.

And Al Qaeda knows, too.

For the left to try to spin the fragile success taking place in Iraq as a “win” for their side truly will go down in history as one of the biggest attempted political con jobs of all time. Then again, we shouldn’t be too surprised that Democrats would be so desperate to look “tough on terror” that they would try to hijack a victory that really belongs to others who stood tall and firm while these same leftists were busy waving the surrender flag and calling the Commander in Chief a “liar,’ and our courageous troops “murderers” and “torturers.” It’s been a long time since liberals have been on the winning side of any war – Iraq included.

Bad news day for Democrats

NewsA quick scan of the headlines this morning:

—– NYT: U.S. Lost 54,000 Jobs in August; Rate Rose to 9.6%

—– Byron York: New evidence undermines feds’ case against Arizona

—– Larry Sabato: Shock Prediction: GOP to Take House, Maybe Senate in 2010 Election

—– Fox News: Former Car Czar Rattner Rats on Obama

—– NYT : Fewer Young Voters See Themselves as Democrats

—– And in a sign of ultimate frustration, the Obama administration is pulling the old Clinton triangulation move by turning to the right on the issue of tax cuts for businesses … just two months before the Nov. election. You know this has to be particularly painful for both the President and his handlers who believe that the Socialistic policies they’ve forced on the American people over the last near-two years would bring over some converts to their way of thinking.

It hasn’t.

Cross-posted to Right Wing News.

Chicago gang members hold press conference to … criticize police, city

We’ll stop our thuggery – only if you give us some jobs! Via CBS 2 – Chicago:

At a news conference organized by self-identified gang members Thursday morning, several speakers complained that police and city officials do not respect them, and that the only way to curb violence is to provide jobs and improve their community.

The self-described current and former gang members held a news conference at the Columbus Park Refectory, at 5701 W. Jackson Blvd. on the city’s West Side.

“You say it’s gangs, drugs and guns. We say we need jobs, opportunities and contracts,” said Reginald Akeem Berry Sr., who identified himself as a former gang member. “That’s the resolution.”

They are taking issue with police Supt. Jody Weis’ strategy of meeting with gang leaders and warning them of serious consequences if violence continues.

Weis held a meeting with the reputed leaders of several West Side gangs at the Garfield Park Conservatory over the weekend. At the meeting, prosecutors warned that the gang members could be charged under the federal racketeering laws if killings were traced back to gangs with members attending the meeting.

[...]

But at the news conference, the speakers said the city should be working to place young African-American men in jobs, particularly those with criminal records who have paid their debt to society.

“The problem with them is that they’re giving us an ultimatum – quit – instead of an alternative. But we’re offering these young men an alternative, saying, ‘Get off the corner selling these bags, and come to this construction site and pick up this brick,” Akeem Berry said.

Another speaker, Barrion Dupree El, 34, identified himself as a member of the Conservative Vice Lords, and said he has pride in his affiliation.

“It wasn’t to tear down our community. It was to uplift the fallen stages of humanity,” he said.

All the speakers said repeatedly that they do not condone the violence in the community and “gang banging” and want to stop it. But they argued that gangs are not the cause of the violence.

“You keep saying gang violence. It’s drug-related. It’s not gang related. It’s drug related,” Akeem Berry said.

*FacePalm*

Deval Patrick: “It’s a free country. I wish it weren’t, but … it’s a free country”

Revealing. Via the Boston Herald:

Independent gubernatorial candidate Tim Cahill blasted Gov. Deval Patrick yesterday for appearing to suggest he wished America wasn’t as free so that last week’s Glenn Beck rally at the Lincoln Memorial where Martin Luther King Jr. once spoke would never have happened.

“It’s a free country. I wish it weren’t, but . . . it’s a free country,” Patrick said on the “Jim & Margery Show” on WTKK-FM. “You know, you got to, you got to respect that freedom.”

The comment had Cahill lashing out at his liberal rival.

“It’s pretty unbelievable and typical of the far left,” Cahill told the Herald. “When they don’t like what the other side says, they want to close down free speech.”

Patrick later in the day defended his radio remarks, stressing he has long defended freedom of speech. The governor said he meant that Fox TV host Glenn Beck should not have chosen the site of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech on its 47th anniversary to hold his “Restoring Honor” rally. The rally was held Saturday.

“I wish they hadn’t chose that place and that day to have that event,” Patrick said. “But it’s a free country. That was my point, and it has to be respected.”

Cahill, who has courted Tea Party followers and appeared on Beck’s show, slammed Patrick for saying the Lincoln Memorial was somehow sacred ground.

“If the governor thought it was OK to build a mosque near Ground Zero, he should think it’s OK for Glenn Beck and other people to speak at the Lincoln Memorial,” Cahill said. “He wants to have it both ways.”

The governor, a former Clinton administration civil rights official, recoiled at the notion he would abridge Beck’s or anyone’s rights.

“I’ve been involved in civil rights for most of my career,” Patrick said.

Hmmm. Well, it sounds like he’s talking about civil rights for liberals, because – if these comments and past remarks are any indication (he once accused Obama critics of being “almost at the level of sedition“) – then he is not very tolerant of viewpoints that aren’t in line with his own, to the point of bemoaning the fact that his opponents have the right to express those opinions in the first place.

These days, Patrick is what is unfortunately coming to be known as the “typical liberal.” As far as “dissent being patriotic”? Well, that popular liberal rallying cry got tossed out the window the moment Barack Obama was sworn in as President.

Ed Morrissey has the audio of Patrick’s comments.

NC’s “Racial Justice Act”: Not really about “justice” nor “race”

This is going to be longish, but I do hope you’ll read it – or print it to read later, and forward this to people you think need to read it. This issue is one of paramount importance for all, especially anyone concerned with the (wrong) direction the criminal justice system appears to be headed in this state. Our elected officials and other public figures in positions of power depend on people to not pay attention to what’s going on in order to get away with the stuff like what I’m about to write about, but an informed person armed with the facts is a powerful weapon against the “we know better than you” crowd.

Read on …

It’s amazing what you find when you do a little digging, especially when it comes to the criminal justice system. And, sadly, that’s what one often has to do in this state, since we simply can’t depend on the Big NC Media outlets (the Charlotte Observer and the Raleigh News and Observer – both liberal McClatchy outfits) to do anything outside of “dig” just enough to write something that they feel backs up their preconceived negative and very biased opinions about conservatives and/or law enforcement (and sometimes both go hand in hand). As I demonstrated a couple of weeks ago after doing some in depth research on the Big NC Media’s “reporting” of the recent SBI “scandals,” there is usually always more to what these news outlets write than meets the eye when it comes to their “investigative” reporting, and usually it’s something that will, in the end, cause the reader to question whether or not the foundation for the entire story or “investigative series” is based even remotely on anything related to the facts.

Such is the case with a little law we have on our books now here in NC called the “Racial Justice Act.” To read the act in full, go here. As for the short version (August 2009):

RALEIGH – The General Assembly has approved a landmark bill that will allow death-row inmates to challenge the death penalty by arguing that there is systemic racial bias in the way that capital punishment has been applied.

Under the bill, which is expected to be signed into law by Gov. Bev Perdue, an inmate will be able to present statistical evidence showing racial disparities in how the death penalty has been used. If a judge finds the evidence convincing, the judge can overturn that inmate’s death sentence and convert it to a sentence of life in prison.

Similarly, in future murder trials in North Carolina, judges will be able to block prosecutors from pursuing the death penalty if they find a historical pattern of racial bias in the use of the death penalty.

[...]

The act allows defendants and death-row inmates to use statistics or other evidence to argue that race was a factor in decisions to request or impose the death penalty. The statistics can come from other death-penalty cases in the state as a whole, or in the local jurisdiction of the person making the challenge.

Got that? So instead of the cold, hard, brutal facts, statistics can and will be, in effect, “witnesses” for the defense.

When our Democrat Governor, Bev Perdue, signed this bill – proposed by Democrats and passed by our Democrat state legislature – into law last August, here’s what she had to say:

“I have always been a supporter of death penalty, but I have always believed it must be carried out fairly,” said Perdue. “The Racial Justice Act ensures that when North Carolina hands down our state’s harshest punishment to our most heinous criminals – the decision is based on the facts and the law, not racial prejudice.”

The Racial Justice Act will allow inmates on death row and persons charged with a capital crime to present a judge with evidence that shows race was a significant factor that led to the imposition of the death sentence. If the judge agrees with the evidence, the death sentence can be overturned to life in prison without possibility of parole.

“This is extremely significant legislation that will help to assure us that when the death penalty is used as an ultimate punishment that the decision is free of racial biases and prejudices,” said Sen. McKissick.

These people are so deeply, deeply misguided.

The reason I’m bringing the RJA back up over a year after its passage is because it’s recently been in the news again, as the deadline for death row inmates to file claims based on the RJA was last month. North Carolina currently has 159 inmates sitting on death row. At this point all but 7 are seeking to have their sentences changed to life without parole based on the RJA. It’s also being utilized in another 50 death penalty cases awaiting trial. Interestingly enough, though the act on its face appears to be geared towards helping black death row inmates escape the death penalty, it’s also being used in the cases of white death row inmates as well, including Carl Stephen Moseley, a brutal rapist and double-murderer. Here’s what his defense attorneys are asserting:

In seeking to have his death sentence reversed under the state’s Racial Justice Act, Moseley is claiming that the court system is biased against whites.

A motion filed by attorneys for the Mount Airy inmate states that the reverse bias he allegedly suffered was a result of efforts to eliminate discrimination against black defendants.

In attempting to prove that contention, Moseley’s motion cites figures showing that prosecutors around the state sought the death penalty against a larger percentage of white defendants than those of other races during the decade of the 1990s.

The dozen people executed in North Carolina between 1984 and 1991 were all white, Moseley’s motion further claims. And in another time frame during the 1990s, the numbers show that whites were much more likely to go to trial, face a death sentence and actually receive that penalty than non-whites.

Think the claim won’t go anywhere? Think again:

Rep. Sarah Stevens of Mount Airy, who has been an attorney for 24 years and is completing her first term in the General Assembly, said Saturday that Moseley’s reverse-discrimination claim “has teeth.”

“That’s not what they expected to happen when they did this bill,” Stevens, a Republican, said of the Racial Justice Act’s backers in the Legislature.

Like other of the new law’s critics, she views it as a back-door approach to curtail the use of capital punishment in North Carolina by showing that it is racially discriminatory against blacks.

However, Moseley’s motion is a twist on that. “He can use the exact-same statistics and he’ll use them from a different perspective,” the local lawmaker and attorney said in discussing the law.

“It seeks to do away with the death penalty.”

The main problem Stevens sees with the Racial Justice Act is that it relies on statistics in arguing whether a death sentence was appropriate for a particular inmate rather than the facts surrounding the specific crime.

“It’s the wrong way to approach this,” she said. “It simply has to do with the trial of a capital case by statistics, and it doesn’t go to the individual case — which is supposed to be what our justice system is all about.”

Just for the record: 87 death row inmates in North Carolina are black. 60 are white. 8 are Indian. 4 are “other.” (Source)

Stevens is almost entirely right: This law is another way the bleeding hearts in this state can continue to keep the unofficial death penalty moratorium (ongoing since 2007) in place, while defense attorneys can argue in favor of a more lenient sentence for death row inmates. However, I believe she was wrong when she stated that a white defendant challenging this law is not what the bill’s creators had in mind. I believe they had every intention of having as many guilty thugs on death row challenge their sentences as possible because liberals and Democrats in general tend to oppose the death penalty, and they will use whatever means they have at their disposal to do away with it.

By hook or by crook.

Just to show you as an example: Some of this bill’s supporters have suggested that, instead of overburdening court rooms with the mountains of forthcoming RJA claims, why not try them all at once?

Yes, you heard that right.

TRY THEM ALL AT ONCE.:

Tye Hunter, executive director of the Center for Death Penalty Litigation, a Durham nonprofit that represents inmates on death row, has suggested consolidating all of the Racial Justice Act cases so one judge could hear them, saving the state time and money.

“It’s made me smile a little bit because the state says this is going to clog the court system,” Hunter said. “Then, we’ve filed motions saying let’s consolidate them so we don’t clog the courts up, and their response to that is no.”

Dern right it should be no – more like a “hell no.” Doesn’t it strike you as deeply hypocritical that the same anti-death penalty folks who claim that each individual charged with a crime must have his or her day in court with an attorney entirely devoted and focused exclusively on creating reasonable doubt over his or her client’s individual case, all of a sudden want them to be all lumped in together before one judge? And does Hunter even think about the victim and the victim’s family when advocating this “lump trial”? What about their rights? What about their concerns? What about the pain they’re going to have to go through all over again as a result of this law? What about the impact on society and potential future victims? Doesn’t matter, not to folks like Tye Hunter. Because to folks like Tye Hunter, the actual victim means nothing. The “real” victim, to people like Hunter, is the “misunderstood” death row inmate who “had a bad home life” and who is being “targeted solely on the basis of race,” etc.

And Hunter and his ilk know full well that prosecutors in this state would and will never go for a “consolidation” of all these cases, because prosecutors have to much time and energy invested in the cases already to put the fates of all of them in the hands of one judge. That’s why Hunter “smiles a bit.” Because he knows this law is going to jam up our court system even more so than it already is, and will make prosecutors more reluctant to try death penalty cases.

Proponents of the law have also shamelessly argued that none of the death row inmates filing RJA claims will “go free” if their sentences are changed to life without parole. But they’re not being completely honest:

The law would also allow some convicted killers to go from death row to parole almost immediately. Nearly half of the 163 murderers sitting on death row now were sent there for crimes before October 1994, when the sentencing system changed to eliminate parole. If those death sentences were commuted to life in prison, the inmates would be considered for parole after serving 20 years. There are 10 murderers on death row now who have already served 20 years in prison, all according to information from the DOC.

Which means those convicted murderers could very possibly go free.

Chilling, isn’t it?

You may ask: What was the basis for the RJA in the first place? More from the Winston-Salem Journal:

Supporters of the bill point to numerous studies, both nationally and in North Carolina, that have shown racial disparities in capital punishment. Statistically, cases involving black defendants, or white victims, or both, are more likely to end with a death sentence.

In 2001, two UNC professors found that defendants whose victims were white were 3.5 times more likely to be sentenced to death than defendants whose victims were black.

These “studies,” as you might expect, were deeply flawed. I’ve read a strong critique of one myself. Elliot Cramer, a professor emeritus at the UNC Psychometric Laboratory and consultant to NC on the death penalty and discrimination cases, writes in response to the use of these flawed studies as evidence:

The so-called Racial Justice Act is just beginning to have its unfortunate effects as all 159 inmates on Death Row are expected to file appeals within the next week. Sixty of the inmates are white, and they could be the chief beneficiaries, claiming statistical evidence of racial bias. The bill was sponsored by well-intentioned but misguided legislators, misled by a well-publicized but deeply flawed 2001 study by UNC political science professor Isaac Unah and UNC Law School Dean Jack Boger.

Neither has any significant statistical expertise.

Based on their paper, it was widely reported that “a defendant is 3.5 times more likely to face the death penalty when the victim is white than when the victim is black.” This was NEVER a conclusion of the study; the study actually referred to odds, a completely different concept. The study was so flawed that, to this day, the authors have been unable to publish it in any scientific journal. Nevertheless, it was the driving force behind the passage of the “Racial Justice Act.” Despite publicly offering to release the data to critics in 2001, the authors refused to make the data available. What do they have to hide?

Most readers would assume that the “racial injustice” involves African-American murderers being more likely to receive the death penalty and the first five appeals involve African-Americans killing whites. In fact interracial murders are exceedingly rare and are the most horrendous of any murders. Between 1999 and 2009, only 3 percent of the 5,772 murders involved African-Americans killing whites, while 13 percent involved whites killing African-Americans. Since 1961, twice as many whites have been executed in North Carolina as African-Americans.

The claimed injustice is that murderers of African-Americans are LESS LIKELY to get the death penalty because black life is supposedly undervalued. Who are these murderers of African-Americans? Between 1999 and 2009, 94 percent of them were African-American themselves. Why are so few of these murderers of African-Americans given the death penalty? It is because, under state law, juries must balance 11 possible aggravating circumstances, such as kidnapping and robbery, against mitigating circumstances, such as family history and remorse. It is the case that murders involving white victims are much more likely to have serious aggravating circumstance and are much less likely to have mitigating circumstances.

[...]

A new study claiming this same kind of discrimination by Michael Radelet and Glenn Pierce is scheduled to be published in a nonpeer reviewed UNC student law journal. Their conclusion is, “Overall, for homicides in North Carolina 1980-2007, the odds of a death sentence for those who are suspected of killing whites are approximately three times higher than the odds of a death sentence for those suspected of killing blacks.” The obvious flaw that completely invalidates their conclusion is that they consider only two aggravating circumstance — multiple homicides and associated felonies — and fail to consider mitigating circumstances. Furthermore, they do not distinguish between types of felony, equating carjacking and kidnapping.

Need I say more? No, but of course you know I will. :)

Professor Cramer is exactly right when he talks about both the aggravating and mitigating circumstances. What are the aggravating and mitigating circumstances for capital punishment cases in North Carolina? Find out here. Once you read them, you’ll understand how it is that more black people are sentenced to death row than white, and why it’s more likely that a black person will be given the death penalty for the murder of a white person than a white person will be given the death penalty for the murder of a black person – as evidenced by this 1991 in-depth study of death row inmates in Georgia. I’d urge you to read it in full – as it includes charts I can’t copy over into this post, but I’ll snip the relevant parts as best I can:

5. ANALYSIS OF THE GEORGIA CHARGING AND SENTENCING STUDY IS THE GEORGIA SENTENCING SYSTEM ARBITRARY?

If a defendant is convicted of murder and the prosecution asks for the death penalty, then the trial moves to the penalty phase. The jury is obligated to consider the combination of all relevant aggravating, mitigating and evidentiary facts of the case before imposing a sentence. Thus, it is impossible to judge the appropriateness of a defendant’s sentence based upon the knowledge of whether or not one or several particular factors occurred. However, if the revised statutes are working as designed, then death-sentenced defendants should have a relatively high frequency of incidents that tend to exacerbate homicides such as the mutilation or rape of the victim. Furthermore, death-sentenced defendants should also have a relatively low frequency of incidents that tend to excuse homicides such as the killing resulting from a family quarrel or other dispute. This is precisely the pattern that is depicted by the Georgia Charging and Sentencing Study database. Table I below compares the incidence of important aggravating and mitigating factors of the crimes according to the offender’s conviction and sentence.

[...]

The 1,082 defendants were divided into three distinct groups by crime of conviction (voluntary manslaughter or murder) and sentence: (1) defendants convicted of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced to prison for 1 to 20 years, (2) defendants convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment and (3) defendants convicted of murder and sentenced to death. For several important aggravating and mitigating features of homicides, Table I displays the percentage of cases for which each of these factors occurred, broken down by crime of conviction and sentence. Table I is an abbreviated version of a more detailed exhibit with over 100 aggravating and mitigating factors that I presented to the court.

According to Table I, the victim was killed during an armed robbery in 55.8% of the death sentence cases, 28.0% of the life sentence cases, and 2.8% of the voluntary manslaughter cases. On the other hand, the homicide arose as the result of a dispute in 81.4% percent of the voluntary manslaughter cases, 46.8% of the life sentence cases and only 14.1% of the death sentence cases.

RACE OF VICTIM ANALYSIS

The Georgia Charging and Sentencing Study estimated that 7% of white defendants were sentenced to death as compared to only 4% of black defendants. Therefore, death sentences were imposed on a higher percentage of whites than blacks. However, when the cases were divided up by the race of the victim, 11% of the white victim killers were sentenced to death as compared to only 1% of the black victim killers. There are two plausible explanations for this 10 percent disparity.

Baldus testified that racial factors play a role in determining who receives the death penalty in Georgia. He contends that at least part of the difference in death sentencing rates is due to institutionalized racism in the Georgia sentencing system, in that a black life is not held to be as valuable as a white life. An alternative explanation for the 10 percent disparity in death sentencing rates is that white victim homicides generally occur in more aggravated circumstances than black victim homicides. The Georgia Charging and Sentencing Study database supports this position. Table II displays the percentage of cases in which several of the more important aggravating and mitigating features are broken down by the victim’s race.

[...]

White victim homicides have a much higher incidence of armed robberies, kidnapings, and rapes. For example, in 33.3% of the white victim cases, the victim was killed during the course of an armed robbery as compared to only 7.4% of the black victim cases. The 25.9% difference in armed robbery rates between white victim and black victim cases is approximately 10.2 standard deviations above 0%. Furthermore, white victim homicides show a greater percentage of mutilations, execution style murders, tortures, and beaten victims, features which generally aggravate homicides and increase the likelihood of a death sentence if one or more statutory aggravating factors is also present.

On the other hand, cases involving black victims are more likely to involve an enraged and remorseful defendant, who kills as the result of a fight or dispute. For instance, in 44.2% of the white victim cases, the homicide was precipitated by a dispute or fight as compared to 72.7% of the black victim homicides.

DEFENDANT-VICTIM RACIAL COMBINATION ANALYSIS

The Georgia Charging and Sentencing Study projected that 22% of black killers of white victims, 8% of white killers of white victims, 1% of black killers of black victims, and 3% of white killers of black victims are sentenced to death. Table III shows the incidence of important aggravating and mitigating factors broken down by the four defendant-victim racial combinations.

[...]

The four defendant-victim racial combinations provide the key that unlocks the race-of-victim sentencing puzzle. Each defendant-victim racial combination portrays a fundamentally different homicide pattern. The black defendant white victim cases are the most aggravated of all four defendant-victim racial combinations. In 67.1% of the cases, the homicide results from an armed robbery whereas only 18.2% of the time is the homicide precipitated by a dispute. The interracial nature of this kind of homicide minimizes the possibility that the killing arose due to a family dispute, a quarrel between lovers, or arguments between friends and relatives. The victim was a stranger 70.6% of the time, and a family member or friend in only 4.9% of the cases. Multiple offenders were involved in 58.6% of the cases. Black defendant white victim killings are invariably linked to felony circumstances which legally qualifies the defendant for a death sentence.

Of all four defendant-victim racial combinations, the black defendant black victim homicides occur most frequently with 477 cases. Only 6.6% of the time did the homicide result from an armed robbery, whereas 73.0% of the time the killing was precipitated by a dispute. In this category of homicide, the victim is a stranger only 9.6% of the time as compared to a family member or friend 51.4% of the time. Multiple offenders are involved in only 12.4% of the cases. This kind of homicide is characterized by poor defendants (83.9%), acting alone, who kill family members, friends, or other acquaintances during a fight or argument. This type of killing tends to have mitigating circumstances which explains why few of these defendants are ever sentenced to death.

The white defendant white victim cases reflect a mixture of two basic types of killings. Although the majority of these homicides are precipitated by disputes and fights, a significant percentage occur during the course of a felony or involve horrible brutal killings.

It’s complicated, but the facts are clear: death penalty sentencing has little to nothing to do with the race of the defendant and/or victim and everything to do with the aggravating and mitigating circumstances surrounding the case. A much more easier to read explanation of the differences in black and white death penalty rates can be found here in this excellent piece by Heritage’s David Muhlhausen, Ph.D.

Finally, I’d like to address one big glaring insinuation/accusation being thrown not just at alleged “racist juries” in this state but also at NC prosecutors: the belief that they try to eliminate black people from serving on a jury in capital punishment cases because they (prosecutors) are “racists.” Maybe if we rolled back the time machine to 60-150 years ago, you’d see some of that, but these days, the accusation is a nasty and false smear, designed to put the prosecutor on trial rather than the accused. The fact of the matter is that both the prosecution and the defense will seek to eliminate any potential juror who they feel will not give their client a fair shake. This is especially true in cases where the death penalty is on the table. Why would a prosecutor be reluctant to have a black person on the jury when hoping to have the accused sentenced to death? Because, by a large margin, black people are much more reluctant to support the death penalty than white people:

In the past 13 months, from May 2002 to May 2003, Gallup has asked Americans about their views on the death penalty four times. The large combined total of 2,979 cases included in these polls provides the basis for a detailed look at support for the death penalty by subgroup.

In the four polls overall**, 71% of Americans were in favor of the death penalty, and 26% were opposed. The data show some major differences by subgroup, with the most pronounced differences by race, political partisanship, and ideology. But differences are also apparent by gender and education. Specifically,

[...]

Seventy-five percent of whites favor the death penalty, compared with just 46% of blacks (48% of blacks oppose the death penalty).

In fact, studies show that black people are more prone to be more in favor of rehabilitation than long prison sentences, perhaps due to the fact that, as a percentage of their population, they’re more likely to have had either perceived negative or actual negative experiences with law enforcement – whether it be as a victim, a relative or friend of a victim, as a criminal or a relative or friend of a criminal, etc. Not only that, but black people are also keenly aware of the racial injustices of the distant past in which black people were often hung without trial.

So it’s no small wonder that a prosecutor would want a majority or all-white jury in a 1st degree murder case where the death penalty is being sought. Here’s the dirty little secret no one wants to talk about, though. Did you know that it’s not just prosecutors who have statistics like this in mind when questioning potential jurors? Nope. The defense attorney does as well. In case studies done in Dallas in 2006, here’s what the Dallas Morning News found about how defense attorneys took into consideration the race of a potential juror in Dallas County:

Nothing matters more than race to Dallas County defense lawyers when they play the high-stakes game of seating a sympathetic jury for their clients.

In fact, defense lawyers were more than three times as likely to reject whites as they were to reject blacks, according to an analysis of jury data by The Dallas Morning News.

But in following long-held, yet unproven, stereotypes that black jurors are softer on crime, defense lawyers are trampling a U.S. Supreme Court ban on race bias in jury selection.

“Most defense attorneys, if they’re honest, will admit that they want to get rid of the whites because the prosecution is getting rid of the blacks,” said David Baldus, one of the nationally recognized experts on race in jury selection who reviewed the newspaper’s findings. “It’s a kind of discrimination that no one is really objecting to very much because everybody is doing it.”

While defense lawyers say their jury selection tactics are motivated by a desire for a more diverse panel, they only occasionally challenge prosecutors who eliminate black prospective jurors, the newspaper also found.

[...]

The analysis showed that defense attorneys were more likely to strike potential jurors who had been crime victims or who worked in law enforcement or had friends or family in law enforcement. But even when blacks and whites had similar backgrounds or relationships, defense attorneys rejected white prospective jurors more often.

Where prosecutors were more likely to strike those who are single, the defense was more likely to strike those who are married. Prosecutors strike people in blue-collar jobs at higher rates; the defense strikes people in white-collar jobs at higher rates.

Next to preferring almost any black person over a white person, the analysis showed, the defense works to seat those who readily admit that they consider rehabilitation the most important aspect of punishment.

RACISTS! But seriously, isn’t it interesting how defense attorneys get away with this double standard on wanting to eliminate as many whites as possible, yet are not accused of “racism”? All the while the prosecuting attorney is almost always accused of “racism” by so-called “innocence” groups, groups who turn a blind eye when confronted with evidence that defense attorneys try to exclude certain races as well. This in spite of the fact that the the goals of BOTH attorneys are the same during the jury selection process: To try and get the best jury for their respective clients. One side of the other will seek to eliminate any potential juror who could be biased against their client. For example, in a case involving a marijuana grower and supplier, a prosecutor is not going to want anyone on the jury who is in favor of pot legalization, while the defense attorney wouldn’t mind having someone like that who very likely would be sympathetic to their client’s situation.

Both the prosecutor and defense attorney are going to go on their gut instinct about a potential juror, and they’re not going to just rely on what those jurors say but they’ll also rely on the knowledge they learn about their backgrounds, and attorneys will also rely on what they know from experience about how different types of jurors typically view the criminal justice process. This is what any good attorney will do, as one lawyer from the Dallas Morning News article above points out:

Larry Mitchell, an appeals lawyer from Dallas, said he never thought the law against race bias would succeed among lawyers.

“I didn’t think it was a good idea to try to do your social work in a jury room,” he said. “Lawyers are going to try to win their cases the best they can. They’re going to pick the best jury they can.”

Yes, and not just prosecuting attorneys but defense attorneys as well. They wouldn’t be doing their jobs if they didn’t.

Keep all of this in mind next time you hear about so-called “racial disparities” in the justice system. I’m not saying they don’t exist, but I submit that they are far less widespread than liberals, defense attorneys (I know, same thing), and “innocence” groups would have you think that they are. Remember: The ultimate goal of these groups is to eradicate the death penalty for ALL – not just black people, and they will rely on whatever they can get their hands on – including bogus, distorted, misleading “facts” and “studies” – to show that the system is “so bad” to the point that all executions must be put on hold “pending further review” – in hopes that eventually they can frustrate the state to the point that they give up on the death penalty altogether. In the meantime, who suffers? Both white AND black victims of crimes and their families, who have to relive the nightmares of the crime all over again. Who else suffers? Not just us, but also our children, who have the potential – if the bleeding hearts get their way – of growing up in a society where violent offenders of all races know they will be able to get away with more because of the “advocates” they have on their side both in the courtroom and out of it, advocates whose sole goal is to get people to view all defendants and convicted criminals as the real “victims.”

We owe it to victims, their familes, and our children to remain vigilant against any attempts at overturning the death penalty in this state. We can play an active role in this debate by staying in contact with our reps in the state legislature and letting them know how we feel, and by electing tough on crime representatives in place of the soft on crime crowd – many of who occupy places at the legislative table in Raleigh. Our legislature has effectively been controlled by Democrats for decades, and the Senate controlled by Democrats since the late 1800s. We have a real opportunity to come close to changing that this fall. I hope you’ll do your part when you go the voting booth. I know I will.

Related reading:

Hostage situation at Discovery Channel ends (UPDATE: SUSPECT DEAD)

Multiple news outlets are reporting on a hostage standoff at the Discovery Channel in Maryland that apparently just ended w/ the gunman being shot:

A man known for protesting the Discovery Channel stormed the network’s Maryland headquarters carrying a handgun on Wednesday, taking a “small number” of hostages while appearing to have a bomb strapped to his chest, police said.

The Montgomery County Police Department said Wednesday that they are negotiating with the man who is holding hostages on the ground floor of the building in Silver Spring, Md., a suburb directly north of Washington, D.C.

Discovery Communications told Fox News that the gunman is James Jay Lee of San Diego, Calif., a man well-known to Discovery employees with a history of protesting the network. Maryland police, however, have not yet confirmed the suspect’s identity.

Montgomery County Police Chief J. Thomas Manger told reporters Wednesday that a male suspect entered the building and waved a handgun at approximately 1 p.m. Manger would not confirm how many shots, if any, were fired inside the building.

“We have no reports of injuries at this point,” Manger said. “At this point, we’re still negotiating with him.”

One witness reported to Fox News that the suspect was wearing a vest that appeared to have two pipe bombs strapped to it.

Manger said the gunman was wearing “what appeared to be metallic canister devices” when he entered the building.

“The man told everyone to just stay still,” Manger said.

[...]

The suspect is believed to have distributed a manifesto outside the building several weeks ago that called on the Discovery Channel to “broadcast to the world their commitment to save the planet.”

“All programs on Discovery Health-TLC must stop encouraging the birth of any more parasitic human infants and the false heroics behind those actions,” the list of demands read.

“In those programs’ places, programs encouraging human sterilization and infertility must be pushed. All former pro-birth programs must now push in the direction of stopping human birth, not encouraging it.”

Thomas Leonard, Lee’s brother-in-law, told Fox News that Lee became a “darker type of character” after some deaths in the family and said he believed Lee was capable of killing.

Leonard described Lee as “talented but misguided” and said his “spirit took a nose-dive” in recent months.

I’m reading conflicting reports on Twitter as to whether the apparent eco-terrorist survived after being shot. Mary Katharine Hammer is watching the presser and the authorities are saying that they think all the hostages are safe and that no one outside of the gunman was injured. They’re checking the building for several more “suspicious packages.”

If you want to read Lee’s “manifesto” you can click here and here. The website it was posted on is still up at this point but I suspect it will be taken down soon.

Glad to know that the hostages are now safe and that the thug has either been taken down or is in police custody at this hour. I’ll also be interested to see how the leftosphere spins this into being the “Rethuglicans” fault since it looks like this guy was/is a pretty fanatical radical left winger.

Stay tuned …

Update – 5:22 PM: NBC is reporting that Lee is dead.

Hurricane Earl update

All is calm in most parts of NC so far but it’s a different story along the coastal/Outer Banks areas:

A hurricane warning was issued late Wednesday morning for parts of the North Carolina coast, and Hurricane Earl’s approach touched off evacuations on some Outer Banks islands.

The warning affects an area stretching from Bogue Inlet, near Camp Lejeune, northward to the North Carolina-Virginia border. That includes all of the Outer Banks area, including Albemarle and Pamlico sounds.

A tropical storm warning is in effect for the area from Bogue Inlet southward to Cape Fear, near Wilmington.

That means all of the North Carolina coast is covered by some type of warning, except Brunswick County between Wilmington and the South Carolina line.

Ferries began carrying vacationers and residents off Ocracoke Island before daybreak Wednesday, as authorities along the Outer Banks prepared for Thursday’s expected close encounter with Hurricane Earl.

Earl’s top sustained winds decreased a bit overnight, from 135 mph to 125 mph. But as a Category 3 storm, it remains a major hurricane, and forecasters say it will pass close enough to the coast to cause major problems.

[…]

At 8 a.m., the center of Hurricane Earl was 780 miles south-southeast of Cape Hatteras, and the storm was moving toward the northwest at 16 mph. Little change is expected today in Earl’s strength or course.

But forecasters said the science of meteorology isn’t precise enough to guarantee Earl’s strongest winds won’t come ashore.

“Even a small error in the track – of 100 miles – could make a huge difference in the storm’s impact,” said Bill Read, National Hurricane Center director.

And even if the hurricane’s eye remains offshore, forecasters still expect tropical storm-force winds, battering waves and dangerous rip currents to affect the Outer Banks. Those waves and rip currents are predicted to affect all of the Carolinas coast through Friday.

When Earl first started gaining major strength, there was some speculation that it could be the 2010 version of Hurricane Hugo, which affected a lot more than the coastal area  of SC back in September 1989. I remember it well. Some were without power in the Charlotte area for as much as a month. Our neighborhood was without power for two weeks. My mom was actually so desperate for the power to be restored that she half-jokingly urged me to put on my best casual outfit and go talk to the power guys in the area, in hopes that our power would be restored sooner. LOL.

Other hurricanes have made it far inland into NC since then (Floyd comes to mind – impacted Raleigh area and eastward), but the Charlotte area hasn’t seen a ‘cane of this magnitude since Hugo.

Trivia: The former Charlotte Hornets had a mascot named Hugo, but – contra to popular assumption – it was not named for Hurricane Hugo as the Hornets first year in Charlotte was 1988. After the hurricane in 1989, there had been some discussion about changing its name, but team owners decided to keep it. Hugo is still Hugo in New Orleans.

Anyway, thoughts prayers to all those who are in Earl’s projected path. My family lived near the coast for a few years prior to moving to Charlotte in the early 80s, so I remember a little bit about the frenzy that ensues after coastal tropical storm and hurricane warnings are issued. Take care, and make sure if you are in the path of the storm to evacuate.

For all the latest developments on Hurricane Earl, follow @wxbrad.

How sweet it is: Murkowski concedes

Alaska conservatives have a lot to be happy about this morning (via Memeorandum):

In a major upset, Sen. Lisa Murkowski conceded her GOP Senate primary race Tuesday night to Tea Party Express favorite Joe Miller.

Miller, a Fairbanks attorney, led by 1,630 votes after more than 15,000 absentee ballots were counted late Tuesday, a week after the election. 

“I don’t see a scenario in which the primary will turn out in my favor,” Murkowski said in her concession speech.

Miller, who had the backing of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, is now the immediate front-runner in the heavily Republican state.

“Now is the time for all Alaskans to come together and reach out with our core message of taking power from the federal government and bringing it back home to the people. If we continue to allow the federal government to live beyond its means, we will all soon have to live below ours,” he said in a statement.

Murkowski trailed Miller by 1,668 votes after last week’s primary. As election officials began counting absentee and outstanding ballots Tuesday, Murkowski made slight gains, but was never able to get Miller’s lead below 1,200 votes.

Score another victory for Palin, as this is the second Murkowski she’s helped take out of power in Alaska politics in the last decade. Next up? Miller’s opponent, who is already desperately in spin mode:

Miller will face Democrat Scott McAdams, mayor of Sitka, Alaska, in the November general election. McAdams brought out his attack on Miller right away.

“Lisa Murkowski is a class act who always put Alaska first,” McAdams said in a statement late Tuesday. “By contrast, lawyer Joe Miller ran an unfair, nasty campaign that didn’t extend to Lisa Murkowski the respect she deserves.”

Trying to win over a few disgruntled Murkowski supporters? Nah …

Michelle Malkin quips:

Here’s to the growth of the liberal Republican retiree club!

Cheers to that! :)

Obama’s Iraq address: Will you watch it?

I’m still deciding as to whether or not to watch the President’s scheduled address to the nation tonight on the issue of the end to combat operations in Iraq. My hesitation revolves around the fact that I just can’t get over/move beyond how this President – both as a Senator and as a candidate for President, and our Vice President – both as a Senator and as a candidate for President, repeatedly denigrated the mission in Iraq, declared the war “lost,” adamantly opposed the surge even after knowing about its successes, essentially said our troops lives had been “wasted” for a lie, and insinuated time and time again that the Commander in Chief was “opposed to the rule of law” when it came to aggressive interrogation techniques.

Not only that, but I anticipate that the President will do what he did in his Saturday radio address, which is give himself and his administration the lion’s share of credit when it comes to talking about how things turned around in Iraq. It wasn’t exactly shocking to see him do that, considering both he and Biden before have credited the success of the surge in Iraq to … Democrats, but still, it rankles.

The WH spin machine has been out in full force in advance of the President’s big speech. Front and center, of course, has been WH spox Robert Fibbs, who did what he did best today when asked what everyone’s been asking about whether Obama would give President Bush – who he called earlier today – any credit for the implementation of the surge in Iraq (below photo added by me):

Baghdad BobHouse Press Secretary Robert Gibbs refused Monday to say whether Obama’s speech would give credit to the former president for his decision to send a surge of U.S. troops to Iraq. The surge is widely acknowledged to have contributed to a decrease in violence in the country.

Gibbs said there was a “whole host of factors” that contributed to the increased security situation, and said Obama “always believed” security would improve by increasing the number of troops. Obama opposed the surge strategy as a senator.

Um, no. Flashback to July 2008:

Some quotes from around that same time:

Obama Said That We Cannot “Through Putting In More Troops Or Maintaining The Presence That We Have, Expect That Somehow The Situation Is Going To Improve.” Obama: “Given the deteriorating situation, it is clear at this point that we cannot, through putting in more troops or maintaining the presence that we have, expect that somehow the situation is going to improve, and we have to do something significant to break the pattern that we’ve been in right now.” (NBC’s “Meet The Press,” 10/22/06)

· Obama Said He Saw No Evidence That Surge In Troops “Is Going To Make A Significant Dent In The Sectarian Violence That’s Taking Place There.” “But I did not see anything in the speech or anything in the run-up to the speech that provides evidence that an additional 15,000 to 20,000 more U.S. troops is going to make a significant dent in the sectarian violence that’s taking place there.” (CNN’s “Larry King Live,” 1/10/07)

· Obama Said The Surge Would Actually Worsen Sectarian Violence In Iraq. Obama: “I am not persuaded that 20,000 additional troops in Iraq is going to solve the sectarian violence there. In fact, I think it will do the reverse. I think it takes pressure off the Iraqis to arrive at the sort of political accommodation that every observer believes is the ultimate solution to the problems we face there. So I am going to actively oppose the president’s proposal. … I think he is wrong, and I think the American people believe he’s wrong.” (MSNBC’s “Response To The President’s Speech On Iraq,” 1/10/07)

Even As The Surge Was Underway, Barack Obama Said It Had Not Worked In Iraq. Obama: “Well, actually, I think there was a very serious debate, and it’s based on some fundamental differences. I think reasonable people can differ on this issue because there are no good options in Iraq. We should not have gone. At this point we have bad options and worse options. But we are facing a choice. My assessment is that the surge has not worked and we will not see a different report eight weeks from now.” (NBC’s “The Today Show,” 7/18/07)

Let me be clear: Robert Fibbs’ assertion that President Obama ‘“always believed” security in Iraq would improve by increasing the number of troops’ is a flat.out.lie.

The bottom line is that it’s our troops who deserve more credit than anyone else. The President will likely go to great lengths tonight to prove to the nation that he as a Democrat has nothing but respect and admiration for the troops under his command, but also deserving of praise – even though it would be reluctant – would be for his predecessor, who remained steadfast during the darkest days of the Iraq war when even members of his own party were having second thoughts about us being there. But don’t hold your breath for much, if any, credit to be given to President Bush. This administration enjoys too much the tactic of blaming him for everything that goes wrong. Anything that actually goes right? Well, Bush had nothing to do with that. 8-|

Update – 6:09 PM: From CNN:

Washington (CNN) –In his Oval Office address on Iraq Tuesday night, President Obama is planning to ignore Republican suggestions that he acknowledge a personal mistake and give credit to former President George W. Bush for executing the 2007 surge of troops over the objections of Obama and other Democratic senators at the time, according to two senior administration officials familiar with the speech.

[...]

Senior administration officials say the President wants his Iraq address to be more forward-looking and thus is not planning to spend any time in the 15-20 minute speech looking backward on the divisive 2007 Congressional debate over whether Bush should surge more troops into Iraq.

Ignoring a replay of that 2007 debate could be political advantageous for Obama given the fact that top Republicans like House Minority Leader John Boehner early blasted the President for opposing the surge.

“One lawmaker rejected the idea that the surge would reduce violence in Iraq, saying – and again I’m quoting – ‘in fact, I think it will do the reverse,’” the Ohio Republican said in reference to Obama during a speech to the American Legion convention in Milwaukee.

Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell delivered a speech suggesting Bush deserves more credit for reaching this milestone.

“You might recall that the surge wasn’t very popular when it was announced,” said the Republican from Kentucky. “You might also recall that one of its biggest critics was the current president. So it makes it easier to talk about fulfilling a campaign promise to wind down our operations in Iraq when the previous administration signs the security agreement with Iraq to end our overall presence there.”

Asked about the Republican attacks on Obama, one senior administration official said flatly: “Who cares?”

This official explained the President is more interested in focusing on acknowledging the combat mission is coming to an end and thanking U.S. troops for their hard work to “show the world America has the determination to finish the job” after a long conflict.

Toldjah so.

The President’s speech will be broadcast at 8 PM ET. If you can’t get to a TV to watch the speech, you can view it online here. You can also read excerpts of the speech at the WH website.

Tues. Open Thread

Wassup, amigos and amigas?

Ed. Sec. to employees: Maybe you should attend Sharpton rally

The Washington Examiner reports (via Memeorandum):

President Obama’s top education official urged government employees to attend a rally that the Rev. Al Sharpton organized to counter a larger conservative event on the Mall.

“ED staff are invited to join Secretary Arne Duncan, the Reverend Al Sharpton, and other leaders on Saturday, Aug. 28, for the ‘Reclaim the Dream’ rally and march,” began an internal e-mail sent to more than 4,000 employees of the Department of Education on Wednesday.

Sharpton created the event after Glenn Beck announced a massive Tea Party “Restoring Honor” rally at the Lincoln Memorial, where King spoke in 1963.

The Washington Examiner learned of the e-mail from a Department of Education employee who felt uncomfortable with Duncan’s request.

Although the e-mail does not violate the Hatch Act, which forbids federal employees from participating in political campaigns, Education Department workers should feel uneasy, said David Boaz, executive vice president of the libertarian Cato Institute.

“It sends a signal that activity on behalf of one side of a political debate is expected within a department. It’s highly inappropriate … even in the absence of a direct threat,” Boaz said. “If we think of a Bush cabinet official sending an e-mail to civil servants asking them to attend a Glenn Beck rally, there would be a lot of outrage over that.”

Russ Whitehurst, director of the liberal-leaning Brookings Institution’s Brown Center of Education Policy, said nothing like this happened when he was a Department of Education program director from 2001 to 2008: “Only political appointees would have been made aware of such an event and encouraged to attend.”

Doug Powers comments:

Had Duncan encouraged 4,000 Department of Education employees to attend Glenn Beck’s rally, he would have been discarded like yesterday’s jobless claims report… unexpectedly, of course.

Yeah, and they would have also been characterized as “raaaacists.”

More from Doug:

If any DoE employees actually took Duncan’s advice and went to Sharpton’s rally, how many do you think spotted the flaw on this SEIU banner:

Amercan Dream

Can’t make this stuff up, folks.

So whadda ya know? HuffPo has minimal “standards” of decency after all

Was just about to link to a disgusting little piece published earlier today at the Huffington Post titled “$100,000 For Glenn Beck’s Sex Tape” but I see the piece has since been pulled – with the following explanation in its place:

Editor’s Note: This piece was published directly to the Huffington Post by its author. It didn’t meet our editorial standards and has been removed from the site.

I don’t recall this same “editorial standard” being used during the Bush administration years when it wasn’t uncommon to see HuffPo writers wish death on Dick Cheney and similar fates to other Bush administration officials. Maybe they’re trying to “clean it up a bit” now that President Obama himself has recommended HuffPo to the masses as a site they should read? Whatever. Even a broken clock is right twice a day.

The New York Observer was kind enough to copy what was originally published at the HuffPo at its own website, which you can read here. If you’re not interested in clicking on the link, here’s the meat of what was advocated by writer Beau Friedlander:

Beck touts religion, because he says the battle for America’s soul is at stake. It is all about morality, propriety, and doing what’s right. But Beck’s conception of religion is all about control. He replaces God with an ersatz myth about self-reliance and a position of moral superiority spun in ways that magically seem to privilege the few at the expense of many (this includes the anti-Middle East / Islam thinking that led to the war in oil-rich Iraq), etc.

Glenn Beck talks about what’s right a lot. Propriety comes from the same root as property, and that does seem to be the issue. As the culture changed in the 60s, so did neighborhoods. This was the heyday of blockbusting and race-baiting. We are in similar territory with a black president right now. His successful campaign is proof positive that the counterculture prevailed over the conservative movement. And the neocons are mad as hell about that.

Glenn Beck is also a Mormon. It matters. His religion typifies the noble lie that the neocons originally set out to defend against the counterculture—Archie Bunker’s America—where a woman’s place was in the home and with baby, and an African American’s place was in a ghetto. (Mormons revere women much like Hindis do the cow, and they didn’t accept African Americans in their ranks at all till 1978—draw whatever inferences you like).

The new conservatives are true believers in the “One Right Way”, and Democrats only rarely agree on the one best way to go. But we can all agree that Fox News is a bad influence on America.

It is time to pop the tea baggers’ favorite balloon (so what if it will be replaced by another?), and with that in mind I hereby offer to negotiate a $100,000 payday to the person who will come forward with a sex tape or phone records or anything else that succeeds in removing Glenn Beck from the public eye forever. I am not offering the cash myself, but I will broker the deal and/or raise the money for what you bring to the table. (And it better be good.)

If you have the goods, or if you want to contribute to a slush fund to buy more takedowns (probably not tax deductible), please contact me at: glennbecksextape@gmail.com.

Friedlander has since issued an “apology” of sorts. Snippets:

The post was called “$100,000 For Glenn Beck’s Sex Tape.” It was supposed to simply make the point that the right does not hesitate to play rough with the left, and the right is far better financed. It was glib, but finally off-kilter and misdirected.

I was actually trying to mimic what I saw as the way right wingers go about these matters, and by misapprehending the way they do things, I went too far. (I offered to broker a deal for anyone who had damaging media pertaining to Glenn Beck.)

First, I owe Glenn Beck an apology. I crossed the line. On the off chance something comes in over the transom…scratch that; I’ll delete the email account. Problem solved.

I meant to tilt at a windmill in the post, and I planted my lance in the dirt.

Gotta love how he plays the “blame Republicans” game when in reality the only person he can blame is himself for his guttersnipe tactics. There’s a history of that on the left, which I’ll get to in a minute. But first, correct me if I’m wrong, but conservatives like Breitbart don’t offer up $$$ for “sex tapes” – they offer up $$ for anyone who can prove outrageous liberal assertions, like the one about the “n” word allegedly being yelled “15 times” to CBC members after the health care bill was passed in the House. We leave the obsessions with sex tapes/sexual preference allegations to liberal heroes/icons like Hustler big wig Larry Flynt and Mike Rogers, who gets his rocks off by attempting to out Republicans who he alleges are “in the closet.” Remember this the next time a liberal tells you that it’s the right who “hangs out in the swamps” to dig up whatever dirt they can on the left.

Did I mention that Friedlander was the editior-in-chief of the failed Air America liberal radio network until it folded earlier this year? I’m sure that comes as a big shock.

Beck, by the way, has responded by imploring the HuffPo and Friedlander to leave his wife alone.

Just curious: Where’s widespread liberal outrage over this? Why hasn’t Media Matters posted a play by play of when the article was first published, where all it was mentioned, and what time it was finally pulled? Oh, that’s right. None of the above give a rip when something happens that’s actually WORTH getting outraged about. They don’t give a darn when the “politics of personal destruction” that they whine incessantly about, that they claim is an exclusive trait of Republicans, hits someone on the right who they love to hate – and want to destroy.

The stench of hypocrisy is pretty overwhelming right now. Excuse me while I throw up a little bit in my mouth.

Alaska Libertarians vote down possibility of having Murkowski on ballot as Libertarian

Well, if embattled Senator Lisa Murkowski was hoping to be reassured by the Alaska Libertarian Party that she’d have a place in their party on the ballot should things fall through after the start of tomorrow’s absentee ballot count in AK, her hopes have been severely dashed. Via Hotline on Call:

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R) will not be on the AK Libertarian Party ballot line this fall, according to the secretary of the party.

Murkowski, who is trailing GOP primary to challenger Joe Miller by 1,688 votes with about 23K ballots still to be counted, has reportedly been seeking another way onto the ballot this fall. The Libertarian Party was considered her best option.

Rob Clift, the state Libertarian Party’s secretary, told Hotline On Call that the executive committee of the party met over the weekend. When asked if the decision to keep Murkowski off the ballot line was final, Clift said: “That’s correct.”

Interestingly, Clift also said Murkowski had not reached out to the party.

At this point, if things don’t go her way tomorrow, her only option left would be a write-in candidacy.

Per CNN, there are 25,000 ballots left to count in the AK-Senate Republican primary.

The man currently in the lead, Tea Party favorite Joe Miller, did an interview on CBS’ Face the Nation this past weekend. I haven’t had a chance to watch it, but I hear he did a great job. You can read about it here.

As they say, stay tuned for further developments …

Move over, Hillary – Palin is the new face of “groundbreaking feminist women in politics”

Palin wavesImagine my surprise and delight to scan Memeorandum and find this snarky little piece written by two liberal women, bemoaning the fact that Sarah Palin has become the new face of “groundbreaking women” in politics. Of course, it’s filled with potshots at Palin, including baseless insinuations and outright accusations that Palin has been a “setback” for “women’s rights” like “reproductive freedom,” etc. Outrageously enough, they attribute her successes to, in part, the “progressive liberal feminist movement” (barf).

Nevertheless, they see the trail she’s blazed since being selected to be John McCain’s vice presidential nominee, and in their piece they implore Democrats to stop ‘ignoring’ the women in the Democrat party, which they believe has been ongoing since the 2008 election of Barack Obama. They see the left as putting powerful women politicos like Hillary Clinton on the ‘back of the bus’ – implying that Hillary is doing little more than a shill for President Obama in her role as Sec. of State … as if to suggest that any Secretary of State who does the job they are paid to do as part of an administration is a “sell out.”

Anyway ….

I’d excerpt the piece, but it’s too juicy to pick out any one paragraph here or there, so please read the whole thing.

The fact is that these liberal feminists are recognizing the reality that their worst nightmare has come true: No longer can liberal “feminists” be credibly viewed as being the sole “proxy” authoritative voices for millions of American women. Unfortunately, for decades, even though the conservative woman’s voice has been strong and vocal, it’s been the liberal woman’s voice – via the likes of Gerry Ferraro, Babs Boxer, Hillary Clinton, and others – that has been center stage when it comes to policy debates on women’s issues. The conservative woman’s voice has been treated as meaningless, “regressive” background noise by not only the mainstream media, but also by militant female Democrats both inside and outside government who have claimed for years that all “diverse” female viewpoints should be welcomed at the table, but who in reality have only accepted those “diverse” voices whose messages most often lined up with the liberal left’s. In other words, liberal feminists have tried to do exactly what they’ve accused men of doing for years: Effectively and figuratively smothering female voices they didn’t want heard. Irony alert.

While it’s true that strong conservative female pundits like Michelle Malkin, Mona Charen and others were on the scene fighting the good fight well before Sarah Palin >was launched onto the national landscape in 2008, Palin being the Republican vice presidential nominee put the face of a very powerful staunchly conservative female politico on every TV in America for the first time. And, to the shock of some, I’m sure, she wasn’t the scary caricature that the hard left had painted of the typical conservative woman for decades. She was young, successful, married, a mother of four, a governor, and she came across as “one of us.”

My baby is pro-choice And she denounced liberal feminist pet issues like abortion on demand and mandatory sex ed in schools, and, unlike many liberal women in government, she was a strong supporter of the US military which meant – gasp – she didn’t hate men, nor did she blame them for all that was wrong with the world. Needless to say, this made her a Priority 1 Target for the radical feminists on the left who saw – and still see – Palin as a threat to the established hierarchy of the modern day “feminist movement.” Hence, the impassioned plea from the pages of the NYTimes today from two liberal feminists who apparently aren’t afraid to voice the concerns that so many of their cohorts have when it comes to the battle over who the face of the feminist movement should actually be: The traditional conservative woman who embraces her femininity, or the angry liberal feminist woman who loathes it?

Jen Rubin puts a fine point on it all:

You see, Palin has proved by example that a woman politician need not spout the pro-big government, pro-abortion, pro-welfare-state line. “Ms. Palin has spent much of 2010 burnishing her political bona fides and extending her influence by way of the Mama Grizzlies, a gang of Sarah- approved, maverick-y female politicians looking to ‘take back’ America with ‘common-sense’ solutions.” She sure did, and she proved herself to be the most effective female politician in the country. Sorry, Hillary — while you have been playing errand girl for the Obama foreign-policy train wreck, Palin has ascended to the throne. (Nancy Pelosi’s days are numbered.) The left is waving the white flag of surrender:

[...]

Palin not only trumped the left on style but she also managed to connect on nearly every issue — ObamaCare, bailouts, Israel, taxes, American exceptionalism, and the stimulus plan — in a way the president and his liberal supporters could not. For all of her supposed lack of “policy muscle,” it was she who defined the debate on ObamaCare and she who synced up with the Tea Party’s small-government, personal-responsibility, anti-tax-hike message. Who’s short on policy muscle — the White House or Palin? Does “engagement” of despots, Israel-bashing, and capitulation to Russia make for a meaty foreign-policy agenda? Go read a Palin foreign-policy address or two. Plenty of meat and common sense there.

Yep. In other words, not only are the liberal left afraid of Palin the conservative woman, they’re miffed when it comes to Palin the politico on policy, because on almost every major issue that has come before the American people since the crowning of Barack Obama, Palin’s been in agreement and more on the side of the average American Joe and Jane citizen than our socialistic “leader,” who believes its his “duty” to force the American people to accept his agenda, even if it means he might only be a one-term president. Palin, who Beltway elitists on the left AND right (are you listening, David Brooks, Kathleen Parker, and David Frum?) have routinely dismissed as nothing more than a country bumpkin type who has no real appeal other than a cute accent, nice figure, and folksy, down-home appeal, has been trumping our Harvard-grad, smartest-man-in-America President on nearly every kitchen table issue facing America today. This is why so many liberals are left with little more than to try and diminish her based on her looks.

To expand this beyond Palin, it’s no wonder liberal Democrats, including left wing feminists and the policy wonks, are visibly insecure going into the fall elections. Thanks in no small part to the Palins, the Haleys, the Rubios, the Ryans, the DeMints, etc. of America, the political landscape is changing – and for the better. They are seeing conservative voices of all ages, races, sexes, etc. And after over a year and a half of ultra left wing policies coming out of Washington, DC – policies that bring with them the glaring footnote that government knows best how to best dictate what your choices are and how your money is spent – America appears to be saying “enough.” Let’s just hope this time around that, assuming Republicans gain a lot of ground in Congress come November, that they don’t forget what they were sent there for. Otherwise they, too, might see the exit door the next time they’re up for re-election. People are fed up and are holding their representatives accountable now more than ever. As it should be.