CONSERVATISM’S FALSE DAWN

You don’t have to be able to read tea leaves, examine entrails, or count the warts on a horny toad to know that conservatism is headed for a smashing victory in November.
Or is it? Will the coming electoral tidal wave hide deficiencies that have yet to be addressed following a long decade of decline and [...]

Arizona vs. the U.N. human rights police

Arizona vs. the U.N. human rights police
by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2010

An indignant President Obama complained last week, “I can’t spend all of my time with my birth certificate plastered on my forehead.” Fine. How about plastering a copy of his presidential oath of office there instead? The kowtowing commander-in-chief is in dire need of a daily reminder that his job is to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States” — not international law or global diktats.

Case in point: Last week, Obama’s State Department handed in America’s first-ever report to the United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights in conjunction with something called the “Universal Periodic Review.” In short, the 29-page document (pdf) is a self-aggrandizing report card touting the administration’s far-left domestic and foreign policy initiatives for the world’s approval. The report boasts of racial- and gender-bean-counting in the executive branch; Justice Department outreach to Muslim grievance groups opposed to post-9/11 security measures; teachers’ union payoffs in the federal stimulus law; continuing commitment to closing the Gitmo detention facility for enemy combatants; and the illusory lifesaving effects of Obamacare on minorities through “expanding community health centers” (which have yet to be built, but not that it matters in our Nobel Peace Prize-winning president’s age of post-achievement).

The report also includes a section on “values and immigration,” which essentially singles out Arizona’s immigration enforcement law as a human rights deficiency “that is being addressed in a court action.”

In response, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer rightly blasted Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration for succumbing to “internationalism run amok.” Brewer pointed out in a letter to Clinton, “Human rights as guaranteed by the United States and Arizona Constitutions are expressly protected in S.B. 1070 and defended vigorously by my Administration. In fact, the Department of Justice has correctly not included these so-called ‘human rights’ issues in the current litigation against the State of Arizona.” Somehow, that inconvenient detail escaped the Foggy Bottom bureaucrats’ notice.

No one should be surprised, of course, that the Department of Blame America First is prostrating itself before the likes of repressive U.N. Human Rights Council members Libya, Cuba, Saudi Arabia and China. No one should be surprised that Obama’s globalist panderers couldn’t simply keep their mouths shut and refrain from trashing Americans with whom they disagree. In May, you’ll recall, Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Michael Posner preemptively trashed our country’s human rights record to Chinese government officials and humiliated Arizonans — and all Americans — who support states’ rights to protect their borders and enhance their security through strict immigration enforcement. An obsequious Posner called S.B. 1070 “a troubling trend in our society” in his bow-and-scrape conversations with the ChiComs.

The inclusion of Arizona in a politically correct catalogue of human rights and wrongs is more than “downright offensive,” as Brewer put it. It’s a national travesty. In the very same Obama administration document, the State Department praises the administration for its “robust protections for freedom of expression.” The report notes sanctimoniously: “As a general matter, the government does not punish or penalize those who peacefully express their views in the public sphere, even when those views are critical of the government. Indeed, dissent is a valuable and valued part of our politics.”

Yeah? Tell that to the Democratic members of Congress leading the punitive economic boycott and political demonization of Arizona. Or to Attorney General Eric Holder, who rushed to attack S.B. 1070 before he had even read it. Fresh off this U.N. mess, Holder’s Social Justice Department has launched yet another vendetta against Arizona. On Monday, DOJ filed suit against Phoenix-area community colleges because they imposed strict citizenship screening of potential employees.

As Obama throws America under the bus for the cause of open borders, the shady U.N. human rights police must be laughing their jackboots off.

***

Related via The Foundry:

Unfortunately, the Administration fell victim to the temptation to aggrandize its record and disparage its opponents in several parts of the report. For instance, President Obama is referred to over 20 times in the 25-page report (minus appendices), and his health care reform is credited with vast achievements that have yet to be realized, if they ever will. The Administration deserves to be criticized for using politically what is supposed to be an objective report on the U.S. human rights record.

But, as discussed in a recent Heritage paper, the larger problem isn’t what is in the report; it is why we are participating in this farce in the first place. The Bush Administration rightly distanced the U.S. from the HRC and withheld the U.S. share of funding from it. When President Obama decided to support and engage the council, he extended America’s credibility to a fatally flawed body. He also made it inevitable that the U.S. would participate in the dog-and-pony UPR show that it has proven to be—a process little more than a “mutual praise society” for repressive regimes.

The Obama Administration was mistaken to believe it could improve the HRC from within as a member of the council. This is the inevitable result of its naïve faith—in defiance of record and reality—in multilateral institutions.

Alaska surprise: Another GOP incumbent goes down

Entrenched GOP incumbent Bob Bennett of Utah — ousted in May by a grass-roots revolt against big government Republicanism — has company. Voters have retired liberal GOP incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. She is reportedly conceding tonight to upstart Joe Miller. It’s a big win for the Tea Party — and Sarah Palin.

Stacy McCain is liveblogging in Anchorage.

Allahpundit has a big Hot Air round-up here.

The latest from Fox News:

In a major upset, Sen. Lisa Murkowski has conceded her GOP Senate primary race to Tea Party Express favorite Joe Miller, who had the backing of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

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

Murkowski made the concession speech Tuesday night, a full week after the primary.

Murkowski trailed Miller, a Fairbanks attorney, by 1,668 votes after last week’s primary. 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.

And here’s the NYT:

Mr. Miller shocked the political establishment here and in Washington last week when he emerged with a narrow lead, 1,668 votes, after the primary vote, on Aug. 24.

Mr. Miller, who had trailed badly in local polls in the weeks before the election, benefited from a last-minute flood of advertisements, mailings and automated calls casting Ms. Murkowski as a Democrat in disguise. An abortion-related ballot measure also brought conservatives to the polls .

Ms. Murkowski’s concession followed the counting of about 16,000 additional ballots on Tuesday, which left Mr. Miller with a lead of about 1,469 votes out of about 103,000 cast. Several thousand more votes were to be counted on Friday but the trend suggested Ms. Murkowski would not gain enough ground to win.

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

First Rule of Obamacare Club Is: You Do Not Talk About Obamacare Club

**Written by Doug Powers

First they had to pass it so we could find out what’s in it, and now they know what’s in it but they can’t talk about it:

The progressive coalition Health Care for America Now fought hard to pass health care reform. Now it’s fighting hard to help reelect lawmakers who voted for the bill — even if it means not talking about it.

While polls show that health reform has become slightly more popular since passage, it’s still a polarizing issue, particularly in districts where Republicans and conservative groups have bombarded voters with negative ads.

Now, HCAN’s field crews are finding that the best way to support reform-friendly lawmakers is to talk about something else: jobs, the economy or other issues likely to resonate more with voters.

Yeah, that’s a good idea — re-direct voters’ focus from the Health Care Bill to something more upbeat, like jobs, the economy and “Recovery Summer.”

That’s a little like punching a guy in the face and then trying to calm his anger by changing the subject and making him aware that you also slashed his tires and slept with his wife.

(h/t HotAir)

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

N.C.-07 and N.C.-02 GOP: Ilario Pantano and Renee Elmers for Congress

Longtime readers of this blog and Hot Air know the extraordinary story of Ilario Pantano’s heroism. He’s the Marine sniper-turned-Wall Street trader who rejoined the military after 9/11, faced the death penalty for killing two Iraqi insurgents in the heat of battle in a terrorist-infested town near Baghdad, fought fiercely and successfully to clear his name, wrote the book Warlord chronicling his experiences, and defended other defenders who volunteer to put themselves in harm’s way for their countrymen.

Pantano is continuing his journey of public service in the political square. He’s running against Democrat incumbent Rep. Mike McIntyre in North Carolina’s 7th district. UNC Wilmington prof and Townhall columnist Mike Adams has a nice profile of Pantano here.

Pantano’s website is here: He’s on a mission to protect the homeland, preserve conservative values, and increase fiscal accountability. Please lend your support to a warrior who put his life on the line for America.

***

In N.C.-02, there’s another conservative candidate who deserves your attention and support. She’s Renee Ellmers — the GOP challenger to incumbent Democrat Rep. Bob Etheridge.

Etheridge, you will recall, is the seven-term entrenched incumbent caught on tape throttling a college student who had the audacity to ask him about his support for President Obama.

Elmers is a wife, mom, surgical intensive care nurse, and activist who was galvanized to run for office during the grass-roots town hall revolts against Obamacare. She’s holding an “End the Stranglehold on Congress” moneybomb event today:

Since he went to Washington, Bob Etheridge has been a symbol of what’s wrong with Congress – and that’s not only when he’s putting a stranglehold on college students, but also when he’s voting for big spending, big government policies that put a stranglehold on business and cost us much needed jobs.

Fortunately, this year District 2 voters have the best opportunity they have had in years to send a common sense conservative to Washington. But it will take all of us working together to bring Bob Etheridge home in November.

Bob Etheridge has a million dollar campaign war chest that he will soon be tapping to flood the airwaves with ads designed to convince District 2 voters that he has represented their interests in Congress. Renee needs your help to tell voters the truth: Bob Etheridge has voted for the liberal, big government policies of Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama 97 percent of the time and the result has been a stranglehold on our economy.

Today the campaign is launching an “End the Stranglehold on Congress” moneybomb. We are asking all of Renee’s supporters, along with other concerned conservatives across the country, to contribute to Renee Ellmers for Congress to send Bob Etheridge home.

A vote for Renee Ellmers is a vote to restore decency and accountability in Washington. Spread the word!

Darn those intolerant conservatives!

Excerpt of the day from Bill Kristol:

So evangelical Christian Sarah Palin spent Friday night with (mostly) observant Jews, along with various Christians, including some Amish. Then on Saturday she spoke at a rally hosted by a Mormon who went out of his way in his remarks to refer to the important role of “churches, synagogues and mosques” in American life.

Early Monday morning, as it happened, I received an e-mail from (Catholic convert) Newt Gingrich from Rome, asking for contact information for a (Jewish) scholar whose book on certain (not very religious) enlightenment thinkers he was reading.

Can’t you just feel the seething wingnut bigotry and neanderthal hatred? I’m sure Keith Olbermann is readying a trenchant special comment declaring… well, someone… the Worst Person in the World, even now.

(Crossposted to Public Secrets)

Terrific: Bankrupt Freddie Mac hires “diversity officer”

Taxpayer-supported mortgage behemoth Freddie Mac — yes, the same government-sponsored entity that is sucking $64 billion of your money to stay afloat — is proud to announce that it is squandering more of your bucks on a “diversity officer:”

Freddie Mac, the government-controlled mortgage buyer, on Monday named Subha V. Barry to head its newly formed office of diversity and inclusion.

As chief diversity officer, Barry will work with the company’s business units to ensure they’re maximizing opportunities in diverse markets. She will also ensure the company is utilizing diverse talent among its employee and suppliers, and developing strategies focused on the needs of a diverse work force.

Barry will also design the new executive diversity council.

You can thank diversity-mongering Maxine Waters for stuffing the race preference mandates into the financial “reform” law.

Expect more cronyism of color on the public dime.

So much for MLK’s dream, eh?

MAYOR BLOOMBERG AND THE ILLUSION OF TOLERANCE

I have a new piece up at FrontPage.com and in it, I take to task Mayor Bloomberg for some outrageous comments he made late last week about the Park 51 project at an Iftar.
A sample:
Bloomberg, as with politicians on both sides of the Park 51 issue, is seeking to make political hay out of the [...]

The real deal

To wash away any bad tastes left by yesterday’s post of the President’s address on Iraq, let me offer this palate cleanser: the Republican response, presented by US Senate nominee Marco Rubio of Florida:

Now that is how one addresses the nation. Unless something goes very wrong, he’ll be Florida’s next US Senator, and I predict we’ll all be grateful for that.

DO NOT VOTE FOR A TEA PARTY CANDIDATE

That’s right. I said it. DO NOT VOTE FOR A TEA PARTY CANDIDATE. If you go into a voting booth on 2NOV10 and find a Tea Party candidate on the ballot, chances are nearly 100 percent that Democrat operatives put that candidate on the ballot to siphon off Republican votes, because Democrats are rightfully fearful of the huge uprising against their fascist takeover of the US way of life.

The TEA Party is not a political party. I’ll say it again, the TEA Party is not a political party. The various different TEA Party organizations (there is no central head, imagine that) are working within the two-party system to rescue the US from certain disaster and are not striking out on their own to form a more disastrous third-party manouver. You can rest assured that any Tea Party candidate on the November ballots will be a Democrat plant to siphon votes away from their Republican foe, and thus an attempt to make your vote count as nothing.

Yes, this Democrat fraud is indeed a stealing of your franchise rights. Democrat operatives are aggressively doing everything they can to subvert the Constitution and your voting choice by cynically and fraudulently placing Tea Party candidates on the ballot.

And it is time to teach those arrogant operatives a very painful lesson: Try to steal our votes and die a very painful political death.

THE TEA PARTY AS INHERITORS OF MLK’S LEGACY?

To those predisposed because of ideological animus to dismiss the notion of the tea party movement being the true inheritors of Martin Luther King’s dream, you might as well click away now. But if you want to engage on this issue in a reasonable manner, discussing the pros and cons rationally, you are invited to [...]

Klavan on the Culture: Does Islam Suck?

Rueful satire and reflections on the Ground Zero Mosque from PJTV‘s Andrew Klavan:

(Crossposted at Public Secrets)

More Proof That Obamacare Leads to Rationing

**Written by Doug Powers

Most of us are fully aware that the Health Care Bill will inevitably lead to rationing (it already has), but because these unpopular power and money grabs have put districts into play for Republicans that were once thought safe, it’s also leading to a rationing of campaign funds for the Democrats:

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Chris Van Hollen sent a cold-blooded message Friday to underperforming party candidates: Get your act together, or you’re on your own.

Facing a perilous political environment that has left the House Democratic majority in jeopardy, Van Hollen told reporters in a briefing at the National Press Club that the party faced a series of looming difficult decisions about which candidates to invest in this fall — and who to leave behind.

“At the end of the day, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee will look at races we can win,” Van Hollen said.

If not enough Dems heed that warning, the follow-up message will be, “Hey, get your s*#t together or we’re sending Obama to campaign for you when and if he gets back from vacation!” Now that ought to do it.

Speaking of presidential vacations, here’s your photo of the day.

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

Elitism + Cluelessness = NRSC

I’ve often accused the Obama Administration of being filled with the politically tone-deaf, but the National Republican Senatorial Committee is giving them stiff competition:

Sean Cairncross, the general counsel of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, is headed to Alaska at the request of Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R) to help provide guidance to the GOP incumbent who finds herself trailing attorney Joe Miller (R) by roughly 1,600 votes.

Cairncross will spend several days on the ground in Alaska as Murkowski and her campaign prepare for the counting of as many as 16,000 absentee ballots — a process expected to start next Tuesday and continue through early September.

Committee sources insisted that too much should not be read into Cairncross’ presence in Alaska — only that the NRSC is an incumbent-retention committee and, as such, provides assistance when Senators ask for it.

As evidence that the committee is not putting all of its chips on Murkowski, a GOP source tells the Fix that Rob Jesmer, the bespectacled executive director of the NRSC, spoke by phone with a top Miller aide yesterday — making clear that if he wins the election the committee will support him wholeheartedly.

How nice: “Oh, if you still happen to win, Mr. Miller (you peasant), we’ll deign to help you. Until then, we’re going to do all we can to help our incumbent sister keep the seat Daddy gave her.”

You would think, after the flack the NRSC took for interfering in Florida’s primary, they’d remember the lesson. (Just how did that Crist endorsement work out for you guys, eh?) Senator Cornyn, head of the NRSC, even promised to not spend money in contested primaries. So…what? Cairncross isn’t being paid?

For a supposedly smart bunch, the NRSC is like the guy who goes to the doctor complaining that it hurts whenever he hits himself in the head with a hammer: too dumb to realize he should stop doing it. They’re completely misreading the mood of the electorate and spitting in the faces the voters – who want to vote for conservative Republican candidates, not kinda-sorta squishes who are all too happy to bolt the party.

There’s a huge anti-Beltway elitist, anti-incumbent wave sweeping the electorate, and it’s showing up in election after election and poll after poll. People are angry at Washington telling them what they must do; the rejection of ObamaCare is just one example. It’s largely aimed at the Democrats for the insane way they’ve governed since 2009, showing little but contempt for ordinary citizens, and they’re going to get punished for it harshly in November. But stupid stuff like sending a top lawyer to fight for the incumbent who’s been rejected by the locals tells the voters that the national Republicans are little different from the Democrats. That’ll help bring in the donations.

Is this really smart, Senator Cornyn? It may not be a big deal in reality, but just how do you think this will look to the average grassroots voter? Ooops. And how long will it take you to scrape the egg off your face again after Murkowski loses in the absentees and then says “thanks for all the help” by bolting to the Libertarian Party?

No wonder they call the Republicans the “party of stupid.”

LINKS: More at Hot Air, Conservatives for Palin, and Obi’s Sister.

(Crossposted at Public Secrets)

ON BEING AMERICAN ENOUGH

My latest is up at PJ Media and in it, I return to familiar territory; trying to debunk the notion that President Obama is less of an American, or doesn’t love America, or is anti-American.
First, a couple of excerpts:
But the question isn’t whether the president’s vision of what American can be is different from that [...]

When will it stop? The meaning of “racism” continues to get diluted as Tea Party is once again compared to KKK

ABC News reports on yet another black “leader” equating Tea Partiers nationwide to the KKK (via):

A civil rights activist and former congressman equated the Tea Party with the Ku Klux Klan today as he blasted a conservative rally planned in Washington, D.C., this weekend.

The Rev. Walter Fauntroy, the non-voting delegate who represented the District of Columbia from 1971 to 1991, called on African-Americans to organize a “new coalition of conscience” to rebut the rally scheduled for Saturday at the Lincoln Memorial featuring Fox News pundit Glenn Beck and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

“We are going to take on the barbarism of war, the decadence of racism, and the scourge of poverty, that the Ku Klux — I meant to say the Tea Party,” Fauntroy told a news conference today at the National Press Club. “You all forgive me, but I — you have to use them interchangeably.”

Fauntroy attempted to explain the comparison to white supremacists by saying that organizers behind the “Restoring Honor” rally are the same people who cut audio cables from a sound system the night before the historic March on Washington and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial.

“The same people who cut the cables on the night before the march, that we paid $66,000 for a sound system, they cut it,” Fauntroy said. “Now from Fox News and elsewhere, they are seeking to turn the world back.”

Read the rest if you can stomach even more of his race-baiting nonsense. Newsflash for Fauntroy: It was Democrats who formed and kept alive the KKK, not Republicans. Not that the facts matter, obviously.

Of course, all of us who oppose this administration’s agenda – whether we/you are affiliated in any way with the Tea Party movement or not – are used to being called a “racist” in varying forms. We saw it during the 2008 presidential campaign season when Obama himself, aided early on by his minions and other prominent Democrats, took it upon himself to not so subtly insinuate that the opposition to him would be based on his skin color.

Once elected, the false accusations of racism continued thanks in no small part to the widespread opposition to ObamaCare. Opponents, including seniors and war veterans at town halls, were routinely called racists, were compared to the KKK – all of which the mainstream media, led by MSDNC, lapped up like a dirty, thirsty dog in the desert who just found a plentiful water stream (the so-called “spitting” incident that never was comes to mind as well).

In the midst of all this have been black conservatives who strongly support the Tea Party message of smaller government and fiscal responsibility. As usual, not a day has gone by that they have not been called “Oreos” and “Uncle Toms” and/or all the other typical sludge and slime from the so-called “party of tolerance.” In all of this, perhaps no one has had it worse than these brave free thinkers who are often accused of “straying from the reservation” for daring not to toe the “they’re all racists!” and “Democrats are your only true friends!” lines that black liberals demand all black people believe under threat of being accused of being a “traitor” to the black community.

But beyond conservatives black and white who have been relentlessly smeared by this administration and its many mindless followers, there is the issue of the word “racism” having no meaning anymore. The word is used so often now by race-hustlers/baiters on the left that it has lost its meaning in mainstream America. “Racism” used to mean discrimination based solely on race. Now, liberals black and white alike would have everyone believing that it means “opposition to a black president/black liberal agenda.” This is one of the more sad aspects, if not the saddest, in the whole back and forth on allegations of racism over the last couple of years. The truth of the matter is that even though we’ve come a long way on the issue of race in this country, we’re at a “holding point” of sorts right now primarily due to the fact that those on the left who have a vested interested in keeping the race card front and center refuse to move forward and refuse to see that people CAN oppose a black liberal president based on something OTHER than race. Simply put, if the Jacksons and Sharptons of America did not have the race card to play anymore, they’d be out of jobs. So they have to fan the flames of racism in order to “stay in business.”

That is not to say that racism in this country has been completely eradicated. It hasn’t been, and frankly I doubt it ever will be. Historically, people of ALL races in ALL countries/civilizations have tended to believe their way of life is “better” than the way of life of those who look different. This is not just true of whites, but blacks, Hispanics, Asians, etc. The key is, though, to not let preconceived notions about people who look different cloud your vision when assessing them on basis of the content of their character. THIS was MLK’s dream, not the nightmare “whitey wants to keep you down” scenario the Wrights and Jacksons and Waters’ and other stuck-in-the-60s black “leaders” paint for their respective constituencies every day. Where’s the “hope” in that picture? There’s not – and that’s exactly the way these “leaders” want it to be.

As always, when I write posts about the race issue, it is without fail that I get an email or two from a liberal who blurts “but Sister, what about the confirmed instances of racism from white people that are reported, some of it coming from your party?” My response always is, yes, there ARE rare instances of racism coming from white conservative movers and shakers (mostly at various state levels) but that you’ll see far more instances of reverse racism coming from the left side of the aisle from the Charlie Rangels and James Clyburns of America, people who never waste an opportunity to blame opposition to black liberals on race. Not only that, but even though there have been a few confirmed instances of racism coming from Republican operatives over the last couple of years, something to keep in mind is this: In spite of those contemptible instances, which party’s POLICIES are most damaging to the black community? The GOP’s, or Democrats? I think the answer is pretty clear.

What it boils down to is that Americans must pay attention not to just what activists and politicos SAY but, more importantly, what their side DOES when it comes to the advancement or regression of equality for minorities. In the case of the right, a few yahoos does not make a majority and overall, the smaller government policies of the right benefit ALL – not just a particular race. These policies (some of them admittedly imperfect) don’t seek to divide; rather, they seek to embody the spirit of equal opportunity granted by our Constitution.

On the left, on the other hand, the racism chorus sings often and loudly purely for the advancement of enslavement all over again of ALL people to the government – and they do so by way of painting each individual group (blacks, females, gays, etc) as “victims” of a “selfish society,” a “society” that they say won’t allow them to grow and advance and be productive members of the community without government intervention. Why do so many “leaders” on the left take this view? For some, I’m sure they really do believe that “society” has made victims of us all and believe that the government is the best way to redress this “wrong,” but for the majority, it’s about one thing and one thing only: Cold, naked, raw power. Think about it. If these special designated “groups of victims” no longer felt like victims, a lot of the movers and shakers on the left at think tanks, liberal publications, serving in government, etc wouldn’t have people around to shamelessly exploit in the first place, and as a result they’d have to find something else to do.

I have a dream. A dream that an overwhelming majority of Americans will no longer feel like they are society’s “victims.” A dream that not only will pave the way for true equality and social harmony as individuals take control of their own respective destinies without relying on “assistance” from a government that thrives on people being “in need,” but one that will also put the power-people who perpetuate the “victim” myth purely for personal advancement and to feather their own nests out of business — for good.

Are you with me?

——-

If you can’t make it to the Restore Honor rally this weekend, C-SPAN will be broadcasting the rally tomorrow, starting at 10:00 AM ET. Looks like you may be able to also follow it via Facebook.