Barack Obama will be speaking at Arcadia University (Philadelphia) on Monday, March 8. And, it looks like he and his supporters are doing to the tea parties what George W Bush and Dick Cheney did to some of those supporters. From a press release from the "Independence Hall Tea Party Association" (independencehalltpa.com, in full here):
A least a few hundred Tea Partiers are expected to descend on the sidewalks surrounding Arcadia University, tomorrow, to voice their opposition to Obamacare after having been denied a request to hold a Press Conference/Rally on Campus.
An Arcadia University official, Laurie Bauer, denied the group access to the Campus after conferring with other University officials and, allegedly, the White House.
"We had hoped to be given space on campus so that we could better facilitate a Press Conference," said Organizer Don Adams. "We spoke with University Administrator, Laurie Bauer, around 3 PM on Friday. Ms. Bauer said she would check with unnamed University Officials and the White House. I was told to call her back in an hour.
"When I did so, she replied that the answer was "no." When I pressed her for permission to hold the conference on various campus parking lots, she again said, "no."
1. One wonders where the tea partier types were when Bush and Cheney were doing the exact same thing. I know where I was: complaining about such actions over five years ago. Can even a single tea partier provide evidence of them speaking out against "free speech zones" and the like during the eight glorious Bush years?
2. Obama's made dozens of appearances both before and after the election where he could be "cross-examined" over his policies. I tried to ask him a question at one such event over three years ago, I've spent countless hours promoting the question authority plan (such as trying to get people to attend his events and ask good questions instead of bad questions), and I've gotten almost zero help with it. The tea partiers are so incredibly stupid that they think waving loopy signs and acting like little kids is more effective than trying to engage Obama intellectually and show how he's wrong. It's still not a good thing that they'd be blocked from campus: let America see just how ineffective and foolish they are.
Sun, 03/07/2010 - 18:19 ·
I used to think that Andrew Breitbart was a bright guy who was laughing behind the backs of the absolute idiots that he publishes at BigGovernment, BigHollywood, and his other sites. Now, I'm not so sure.
A recent post from Andrew Marcus (link at [1], bio at [2], linked by Glenn Reynolds [3]) has BigGovernment acting like the far-left and racial power groups when it comes to concerns about illegal aliens being able to attend colleges at the in-state rate. And, unlike the far-left, they don't know what they're doing: they're helping the far-left because they're absolute idiots.
At the post, Marcus quotes a student who's been protesting fee increases as saying:
Well um in the fall the UC regents voted in a %32 fee increase to over 10000 a year for in-state tuition. This at a time that they are cutting classes, letting in fewer student from in-state and more students from out of state. Um, so effectively we are closing off the campus, making it less accessible to people, and those who are here are getting less out of their education.
He then goes on to accuse the student of hypocrisy and says:
That complaint doesn’t sound too immigrant friendly. Is she saying that Berkeley students only want immigrants from other states and countries just as long as they go to private schools?
Now, I'd like you the reader to please go take a look at the DREAM Act page, which is about an anti-American bill that would let current or former illegal aliens attend college at the in-state rate. Please go take a look; it'll just take you a minute to get the gist.
As you can see, this site has been opposed to that bill for several years, and on the PIIPP page we've collected a large number of examples of the mainstream media printing cookie-cutter propaganda articles promoting that anti-American bill.
Did Andrew Brietbart and Andrew Marcus come out against that bill and support those - like to a certain extent the student - who realize that we only have limited resources?
No, Breitbart and Marcus did the exact opposite, playing little games like little children and acting just like the far-left, but without knowing what they're doing.
Memo to Andrew Breitbart: grow up and try to raise yourself above Glenn Reynolds' level.
[1] biggovernment.com/amarcus/2010/03/05/
video-liberal-hypocrisy-on-display-in-berkeley-as-
student-defends-riots-against-education-immigration
[2] From biggovernment.com/author/amarcus
Andrew Marcus is an independent video and multimedia producer based in the Midwest. For the past several years his work www.andrewmarcus.com has focused heavily on web distributed political stories in video and blog format.
Early examples of his work include first-person coverage of the Camp Cindy protests in Crawford, Texas, as presented on his blog, Lights, Camera, Protest! In 2005, Andrew produced the video blog, The Mental Ward, to cover the Ward Churchill visit to DePaul University. In 2006, Andrew led a team of bloggers to produce ground-breaking video coverage of the congressional mid-term elections from Lieberman HQ. In 2007, Andrew produced the video blog, Incorrect University, to document politically incorrect actions on campus, beginning with the Terrorism Awareness Project’s Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week. Recently, Andrew has been working closely with the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) to produce web videos documenting stories of injustice on college campuses. Most recently, Andrew has devoted his energies to producing Founding Bloggers, his current political blogging project.
[3] pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/95116 says "AT BIG GOVERNMENT, a look at Berkeley Riot Hypocrisy. Who knew those rioters were immigrant-haters?"
Fri, 03/05/2010 - 21:37 ·
Peter Nicholas of the Los Angeles Times offers "Obama looking to give new life to immigration reform" (link):
[At a meeting on Monday], Obama and members of his Domestic Policy Council outlined ways to resuscitate the (comprehensive immigration reform aka amnesty) effort in a White House meeting with two senators -- Democrat (Charles Schumer) of New York and Republican Lindsey Graham of South Carolina -- who have spent months trying to craft a bill.
According to a person familiar with the meeting, the White House may ask Schumer and Graham to at least produce a blueprint that could be turned into legislative language.
The basis of a bill would include a path toward citizenship for the 10.8 million people living in the U.S. illegally. Citizenship would not be granted lightly, the White House said. Undocumented workers would need to register, pay taxes and pay a penalty for violating the law. Failure to comply might result in deportation.
Nick Shapiro, a White House spokesman, said the president's support for an immigration bill, which would also include improved border security, was "unwavering."
Participants in the White House gathering also pointed to an immigration rally set for March 21 in Washington as a way to spotlight the issue and build needed momentum.
1. The "lightly" part is bogus; "register, pay taxes and pay a penalty for violating the law" is stock boilerplate and doesn't represent anything tougher than all the other bogus plans put forth in the past. Note also that those who didn't step easily through their big hoop "might" be deported. They might as well just come right out and say this is a sham that would encourage more illegal immigration and with little intent of enforcement.
2. This could be (and probably is) just an attempt by the Obama admin to placate Hispanic leaders.
3. Schumer says he has trouble finding Republicans to support him other than Graham; he met with Janet Napolitano yesterday to seek her help and afterwards in a statement said, "We just need a second Republican."
4. There are probably a good number more illegal aliens in the U.S. than the figure given as a fact by Nicholas.
5. The March 21 event will feature foreign citizens who are here illegally marching through our streets in a show of force, demanding that we change our laws to suit them. And, all those referenced above are supporting that.
Fri, 03/05/2010 - 10:46 ·
Via "Obama Solution to Stop Outsourcing: Stop Counting Jobs Outsourced (No, Seriously!)" (link) comes this:
Like a scorekeeper for the world, a tiny unit within the Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks globalization's winners and losers, and the results are not always pretty for the United States. Manufacturing jobs here, for example, have fallen faster since 1979 than in Canada, Germany or Japan. Compensation for those jobs dropped here in 2008 but jumped in South Korea and Australia.
Soon, however, Americans may be spared the demoralization in these numbers: The White House wants to shutter the unit that produces them.
President Obama's budget would eliminate the International Labor Comparisons office and transfer its 16 economists to expand the bureau's work tracking inflation and occupational trends. The White House says the cut, estimated to save $2 million, is one of many difficult decisions the president was forced to make to control spending.
Somehow their explanation doesn't wash, especially since at least their economists are just being transferred instead of their jobs being eliminated completely. The first-linked article's take is probably correct: this is designed to hide just how dramatically our manufacturing base has been devastated by globalism.
Thu, 03/04/2010 - 16:36 ·
In May, 2008, Barack Obama smeared Lou Dobbs and Rush Limbaugh, falsely claiming that hate crimes against Hispanics had "doubled" the year before. In fact, they only went up 7.8%. Not only that, but they've decreased as a percentage of the Hispanic population between 1995 and 2006.
Given that, you might not expect Andrea Nill of ThinkProgress to write the following, unless you were familiar with that site and her work. In that case, you - like me - would realize just how truth-challenged both she and the others associated with that site are. Referring to a new report from the Southern Poverty Law Center (perhaps more on that later), she writes (thinkprogress.org/2010/03/03/dobbs-splc-hate-groups):
While campaigning in 2008, Obama himself accused Dobbs of "ginning things up" to such an extent that hate crimes against Latinos soared.
The last sentence links links to the contemporaneous Huffington Post report at huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/23/
obama-rush-limbaugh-lou-d_n_103315.html which, of course, doesn't even hint at how much Obama was lying.
If Nill had even a smidgen of intellectual honesty she would note that Obama lied. As it is, I strongly suspect that her use of "soared" instead of what Obama said ("doubled") is an outright attempt to deceive her readers but at the same time not raise red flags by repeating something so obviously false.
Wed, 03/03/2010 - 21:38 ·
The Sam Adams Alliance conducted a survey of some in the tea parties, and the results are at samadamsalliance.org/learn/activist-insights.aspx
The study suffers from a very small sample size, and whatever their methodology that means that the study is just for entertainment purposes only. However, it does show that fully 3/4 of respondents think immigration is "very important".
The problem, of course, is that the real leaders of the tea parties are on the other side.
Wed, 03/03/2010 - 12:56 ·
This site is about compiling information, and I'm willing to reference a wide range of sources as long as they've got something useful. I might not link to them directly, but I'm never going to hide things from my readers just because I don't like the source for one reason or other.
Dan Riehl isn't like that. He recently deleted a comment I left at his site that provided background information that his readers would probably find useful. That comment, and a previous one that was silently edited, is below. And, the first comment - while anti-Riehl - was also generally supportive of his position. In my case, if someone left a comment here along the same lines, I'd swallow my pride and put getting you information (far) ahead of trying to save face.
In Dan Riehl's case, his ego is apparently more important to him than getting information to his readers. And, because he's willing to delete comments that provide additional information, you can't trust anything he writes. He could post something false or incomplete, and then simply delete comments pointing out how he's wrong or not providing the full picture. He has, in effect, disabled fact-checking on his posts. That means that you'll need to fact-check every single thing he writes yourself, and you'll also need to research the topics about which he writes to make sure that he's giving you the full picture.
Wed, 03/03/2010 - 12:36 ·
Millions of Americans are unemployed, including large numbers of construction workers. So, what does Arnold Schwarzenegger - one of the most corrupt governors in the country - do? He goes on the Greta van Susteren show on Fox News on February 23 (link) and says this:
...I've said this many times, that we need (comprehensive immigration reform)... ...because to solve this problem -- well, we've got to go and make a decision so that people can come to this country legitimately, rather than having quotas there, so that -- because we need the farm workers. We need the construction workers. We need to have people do certain jobs that maybe that we cannot fill otherwise.
The last is a variant of the jobs Americans wont do canard. He also supported skilled immigration, advocating to give visas to foreigners attending U.S. colleges after they've finished their studies.
If you'd like to do something about this, make sure that as many construction workers as possible know how little concern Schwarzenegger has for them, and suggest they contact his office with their brief, polite thoughts: gov.ca.gov/interact
UPDATE: I sent twitter.com/24AheadDotCom/status/9911608546 to him (or whichever intern handles his Twitter account):
@Schwarzenegger: Millions of Americans are unemployed & you want more foreign workers? Please take advantage of your Austrian citizenship.
That references something that probably few know: he has dual U.S.-Austrian citizenship. The issue of his corruption is due to divided loyalties between American citizens and the "global elite", so to speak. Very little or none is due to divided loyalties between the U.S. and Austria. However, because he's an Austrian citizen and that gives him an out: if things get really bad in the U.S. he has another country he can move to. It'd be nice if he decided to do that now.
Tue, 03/02/2010 - 22:33 ·
Gerald Seib of the Wall Street Journal offers the misleading "Tea Party Holds Risks for GOP" (link) in which he refers to the "close-the-borders rhetoric common within the Tea Party movement" [1].
In fact, the opposite of what Gerald Seib says is true: the tea parties have almost completely ignored immigration, and some of their leaders strongly support massive or illegal immigration. For instance, their leaders such as Dick Armey from FreedomWorks, Grover Norquist, and groups linked to the Koch family are about as far from "close-the-borders" types as you can get. The "Tea Party Declaration of Independence" completely ignored immigration, as did the "Tea Party Contract From America". And, by ignoring that issue, they're depriving themselves of a perfect way to oppose the corrupt DC establishment and in effect helping the Democrats costs them money and reduce their power. One of the dirty little secrets of the tea parties is how they're a Trojan Horse for libertarianism, an ideology that the vast majority of adherents think must involve a "free movement of people", i.e., open or loose borders. Certainly, some in the tea parties might support border enforcement, but they're very, very quiet about it; no actual leaders of the movement have highlighted that issue despite how fundamental it is. ALIPAC held some anti-illegal immigration "tea parties", but they were never supported by the leaders of the movement.
The only example of tea partiers supporting border enforcement that Gerry Sieb can provide comes from Tom Tancredo, someone who's not only not a leader of their movement, but who's been smeared by those in the tea parties orbit such as Reason Magazine. Tancredo spoke at the National Tea Party Convention, which was covered by PajamasMedia and others in the vanguard of the actual movement, but that doesn't make him a leader of the movement. About the speech, Gerald Sieb says:
Mr. Tancredo declared that if Republican nominee McCain had won last year's presidential election, he and Rep. Luis Gutierrez, an Illinois Democrat, "would have been posing in the Rose Garden with big smiles as they received accolades from (the National Council of La Raza) for having finally passed an amnesty" for illegal immigrants. Moreover, he added, Mr. McCain and Mexican President Felipe Calderon "would be toasting the elimination of those pesky things called borders and major steps taken toward creation of a North American Union." ...That is cringe-producing rhetoric for Republicans who are straining to show they are, simultaneously, tough on illegal immigration yet empathetic with the nation's growing bloc of Hispanic voters.
That rhetoric is certainly hyperbolic, but one wonders why Gerrald Seibe would think that Hispanics would be in favor of a NAU or are fans of a foreign leader? They're Americans, right? If Hispanics respond negatively to criticisms of a far-left fringe character like Gutierrez, where does the problem lie? Clearly, Seibe isn't honest enough to consider whether him cringing is correct or not.
[1] Very few people want to "close the borders", which would involve blocking all traffic both legal and illegal; Seib is just trying to smear his opponents.
Tue, 03/02/2010 - 14:53 ·
JD Hayworth recently accepted the endorsement of the anti-illegal immigration group ALIPAC. The John McCain campaign responded as they often do, by supporting the far-left against those who want to enforce our immigration laws. McCain campaign Communications Director Brian Rogers had this to say:
"J.D. Hayworth's lavish praise for the social theories of noted anti-Semite and xenophobe Henry Ford sparked a major controversy during his losing 2006 campaign, causing many Arizonans to question Mr. Hayworth's judgment. It is astounding that Mr. Hayworth would today accept the endorsement of a group that the Anti-Defamation League reports is backed by white supremacists, neo-Nazis and anti-Semites. Mr. Hayworth should immediately disavow this group's support."
1. The Anti Defamation League just can't be trusted; see the link for the details. In this case, the page that Brian Rogers is referencing is adl.org/main_Extremism/White+Supremacists+Promote+ALIPAC.htm, which is simply one big logical fallacy: Guilt by Association. Another of their pages about ALIPAC includes adl.org/civil_rights/anti_immigrant/alipac.asp, which is full of logical errors.
2. Unfortunately, ALIPAC - like many others - doesn't fully understand how to do things; if they did I'd be able to find detailed articles at their site that would discredit both of those articles. Doing that myself would take me about an easy half hour, but I'll leave defending themselves in a logical and effective way up to them. There's a starting point here.
3. Instead, the response that ALIPAC does provide is something that isn't even a tu quoque (link). They point out that McCain was endorsed by a series of racist groups, but the difference is that McCain didn't accept those endorsements. That's comparable to ALIPAC not accepting the endorsements of those like David Duke, but some people won't get that and might think that ALIPAC is comparing themselves to the groups that endorsed McCain.
4. And, of course, McCain is doing again what he's done in the past: side with the Democrats and the far-left against the GOP base. Instead of pointing out that the ADL is fact-challenged and engages in logical fallacies, he treats them like a credible source.
5. If you'd like to do something effective, find an experienced questioner to go to McCain's appearances and call him on this and then upload video of the confrontation to video sharing sites. However, it has to be done in the correct way. If you're in the area and you can arrange that, leave comments on the entries here until I notice you and I'll provide you with some tough questions he'll have trouble with. I know - based on three years' experience - that that's never going to happen, but just in case.
Mon, 03/01/2010 - 12:21 ·
From this:
A multibillion-dollar "virtual fence" along the southwestern border promised for completion in 2009 to protect the U.S. from terrorists, violent drug smugglers and a flood of illegal immigrants is a long way from becoming a reality, with government officials unable to say when, how or whether it will ever be completed.
More than three years after launching a major border security initiative and forking over more than $1 billion to the Boeing Co., the project's major contractor, Homeland Security Department officials are re-evaluating the high-tech component of the plan in the wake of a series of critical Government Accountability Office (GAO) reports warning lawmakers that the expensive undertaking is deeply flawed...
Mon, 03/01/2010 - 11:59 ·
If "immigration equality" - the ability for same-sex (gay or lesbian) couples to have the same immigration privileges as straight couples - is important to you, then the article at this link about the Reform Immigration for America group not supporting "immigration equality" should be your first and last stop for the day. They aren't on your side. Please go read it now, and for the rest of you please send it to anyone who's LGBT and who wants to know who supports them and who doesn't.
Sun, 02/28/2010 - 20:43 ·
Per the president of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce Glenn Hamer:
"Throughout his congressional career, Sen. McCain has been a consistent champion for our state and country’s entrepreneurial spirit and for policies that encourage job creation and free enterprise... In this past year alone, Sen. McCain has stood strong against job killing legislation like card check and has injected the debate over health care with much-needed real world perspective. The Arizona Chamber is proud to make this much-deserved endorsement."
McCain's strong support for massive and illegal immigration and guest workers was almost assuredly a large factor in their decision. JD Hayworth's immigration plans would be more likely to cut into the profits of companies that want to use or profit from illegal labor.
Of course, there are probably other reasons too (link):
State chamber members include Phoenix-based beer distributor Hensley & Co. McCain’s wife, Cindy Hensley McCain, is the company’s chairwoman, and Hensley Vice President Doug Yonko is a vice chairman of the chamber.
Sun, 02/28/2010 - 08:06 ·
Per this, Mitt Romney has endorsed John McCain:
Romney, a 2012 presidential aspirant, famously tangled with McCain on the campaign trail in 2008, and has some indirect ties to Hayworth -- Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, one of Hayworth's biggest boosters, served as honorary chair of Romney's Arizona campaign team in 2008, while Jason Rose, an advisor to Hayworth's Senate run, was Romney's state director.
On Tuesday, however, Romney had nothing but effusive praise for McCain, saying "I'm proud to call him my friend."
Sun, 02/28/2010 - 02:57 ·
Indiana governor Mitch Daniels is being mentioned as a fiscal conservative, policy wonk Republican candidate for president in 2012. Like most "fiscal conservatives", he appears to support massive/illegal immigration despite the costs involved and despite how it gives even more power to those on the other side from him. There doesn't appear to be much of a paper trail on him, but most of it isn't good:
Fri, 02/26/2010 - 22:30 ·
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2 days ago ♫ But first, here's Morrissey with Suedehead live on TV: peekurl.com/v5ldwg3 #MusicMonday |
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2 days ago ♫ Today's great #MusicMonday choices haven't exactly set the world on fire, so I'm switching into "All Justin Bieber, All the Time" mode. |
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2 days ago ♫ The Mary Ramsey version of 10,000 Maniacs, live in 1/2010 w "Can't Ignore the Train" in Jamestown: peekURL.com/v3cdyo6 #MusicMonday |
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2 days ago "Disney Employee Attacks Handicapped Child". Video (go to 2:35): peekURL.com/v2z4txe Haven't looked into it, just passing it along. |
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2 days ago ♫ Jefferson Airplane w/ We Can Be Together: hotsop.com/n/1237 #MusicMonday ( |
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2 days ago ♫ Here's the full Ophelia video from Natalie Merchant: peekURL.com/vi2zxta #MusicMonday #shoes |
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2 days ago Can anyone in #Teaparty account for your whereabouts on the evenings, days, nights, and mornings between 2000 and 2008? #sgp #tpp #glennbeck |
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2 days ago ♫ Innocence Mission w/ Brotherhood of Man: |
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2 days ago Claim: on Sunday, NYT will have Hispanic caucus whining about Rahm Emanuel blocking amnesty: peekURL.com/z4uhl4v |
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2 days ago ♫ Did you know? Kate Bush robbed a bank in the early 80s: hotsop.com/n/1258 |
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2 days ago Science: #teaparty suffers from rare afflication "Teaparticulum quietum"; causes silence the first eight years of each century. #sgp #tpp |
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3 days ago @BigGovt, Dr. Gina Loudon: thanks for peekURL.com/zuyi1l1 I'll look at it later. No, really, that's OK. Look, I've got frozen food... |
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