by La Shawn on September 29, 2006
in Lunacy
Update IV (10/3): Read the latest, Message from a “Values Voter.”
Update III (10/2): This post is close to commenting. To discuss the latest on this unfolding mess, go to Mr. Speaker, You Must Resign.
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I thought twice (actually, four times) about blogging this, but what the hey?
I try to avoid salacious stuff, but it’s Friday, so…whatever.
Last night I read that Republican Congressman Mark Foley [6:07 p.m.: He took down his web site.] sent a strange e-mail message to a 16-year-old male page (in response to a recommendation request) and asked what he wanted for his birthday. He also asked the kid for a photo. Foley e-mailed from his AOL account. Why, people were wondering, would a politician rumored to be bisexual homosexual send such an e-mail to a teenaged boy?
So the kid forwards the e-mail to someone in Foley’s office, saying it was “sick sick sick sick sick.” Some people suspected a set up; others said Foley was up to no good. I think he was initiating something with the boy and got caught. Stupid. A man in his position should know better.
Foley’s people said it was customary to request photos from pages who ask for recommendations. But from a private e-mail account? OK. Guess what? Foley’s instant messages to other young male pages have turned up. Rotten luck, mate.
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Update II (10/1): Michelle explains why she responds to certain idiot-detractors. Writing publicly for the past four years, I have had to deal with similar trash on a smaller scale.
Update (9/29): Yeah, sue, sue! Also see Three Reasons Michelle Shouldn’t Sue.
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In response to her recent column about indecent young women, liberal bloggers dug for “you’re a hypocrite!” dirt and thought they’d found some.
A long-time Michelle Malkin nemesis blogger named Eric L. Muller of Is That Legal? linked to and Wonkette published what they thought was a photo of Michelle posing in a bikini in 1992.
…only it’s not.
Someone posted photoshopped photos and faked captions in a Flickr gallery. Michelle is looking for the culprit and filing a complaint with Muller’s employer, the University of North Carolina School of Law. She writes:
The idiots are so blinded by hate they can’t see a two-bit Photoshop from some hater’s bogus Flickr site? And they couldn’t bother to ask me before attempting to embarrass me and calling me a slut?
Sounds like a good plan to me. I hope Muller loses his job.
(By the way, even if the photo were genuine, posing in a bikini is not the same thing as being a skank.)
An e-mailer writes: “I also noticed that the blond girl who allegedly posted these photos hasn’t aged between going to spring break in 1992 and hanging [a] Bush-Cheney poster in 2004.”
More from Allah, Captain Ed…
by La Shawn on September 29, 2006
in Comedy
Update II (10/2): Star Parker on dredging up sleaze.
Update (9/30): How unexpected!. Thanks. 
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So I heard that one of Virginia governor [brain cramp!] senator George Allen’s old college football teammates said that someone told him Allen used to call black people “niggers,” and some guy told someone else that James Webb, his Democratic opponent, used to call black people “niggers,” too.
Allen says he doesn’t remember calling any black people “niggers,” and Webb said, “I don’t think that there’s anyone who grew up around the South that hasn’t had the word pass through their lips at one time in their life.”
…which means they’ve both used the word in a negative context before but are too afraid to admit it.
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While pollsters crunch numbers and pundits predict who’ll win in November based on whether they’re for or against homosexual “marriage” and child killing, favor an open border or border fence, are hard or soft on Islamofascism, and promise to raise or lower taxes, politicians may want to consider a couple of issues that often aren’t discussed.
As a rule of thumb, married people with children tend to be more right-leaning than single and/or childless people. There are exceptions, of course, and I am one. I’m single and childless, and I’m more conservative than most conservatives, socially and fiscally. But generally, being married with children correlates more strongly with voting for Republicans.
USA Today published two related stories Marriage gap could sway elections and “Fertility gap” helps explain political divide: From the marriage piece:
Republicans control 49 of the 50 districts with the highest rates of married people…Democrats represent all 50 districts that have the highest rates of adults who have never married.
The political tug-of-war is between people who are married and those who have never been…The “never married” group covers a variety of groups who form the Democratic base: young people, those who marry late in life, single parents, gays, and heterosexuals who live together.
The marriage divide drew attention in the 2004 presidential race. President Bush beat John Kerry by 15 percentage points among married people and lost by 18 percentage points among unmarried people, according to an exit poll conducted by national news media organizations…Most serious Democratic challenges this fall are in Republican-controlled House districts that have lower marriage rates.
Generally, Republicans tout the “traditional values” line while Democrats are much more…what’s the right word? Non-traditional? Permissive? I’ve heard it said that as people marry, buy property, and age, they tend to become more conservative, not more liberal.
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…but I love the “New Job” commercial — the music, the old guy going to work for a “young” company…
Love it.
Update (11/11/06): I e-mailed Cadillac in September to find out who made the song so I could possibly purchase it, and they sent a form e-mail about “researching” my question and not being able to find an “appropriate answer.” This morning when I decided to list this post under “Posts of the Day,” I went to Cadillac’s site to watch the video again and was surpised to see artist, album, and song title information listed. I don’t know whether my e-mail or the small traffic surge from this post or my readers asking the same questions made a difference, but Cadillac obviously did more “research.”
by La Shawn on September 28, 2006
in Education
Update (9/30): Colleges Coveting Homeschooled Students
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I am extremely pleased to know that the number of homeschooling black families is increasing.
Before I elaborate on the race issue, let’s look at class. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, half of homeschooling families have incomes of $50,000 or less. Three quarters earn $75,000 or less.
Contrary to popular opinion, homeschooling is not a phenomenon of “the rich.” Well-off families often opt to send their kids to private and parochial schools. A high income is not a prerequisite to homeschooling. Having an intact family is more likely the key to successful homeschooling. Somebody has to be the breadwinner. I can’t imagine one parent working and homeschooling.
What I’m about to say next is controversial, though it shouldn’t be. Married people with children tend to have different priorities and values than unmarried people with children.
For example, a woman who goes to the “trouble” of getting married before procreating for whatever reason (Christian values, fear of stigma, etc.) creates a more stable environment for her offspring. The children’s biological father has more investment interest, so to speak, in his offspring if he’s living with them and married to their mother. Consequently, he’s more willing to do what’s necessary to support them. An intact family has the option to forgo two full-time incomes so the mother can remain at home with the children.
Unmarried mothers have much fewer options. Homeschoolers also tend to be jaded with government schools for religious and/or moral reasons. In that regard, homeschooling will likely remain a phenomenon of religious-minded, intact families of any color.
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The beleaguered town of Herndon, Virginia, has applied to receive 287(G) training, which will enable its law enforcement community to properly and effectively carry out U.S. immigration laws. The Herndon Town Council proposal passed by a vote of 6-1. See this Washington Post story (free reg. req.).
Our co-president, Mexico president Vicente Fox, won’t be too happy about this.
My contact at Help Save Virginia (formerly Help Save Herndon) sent me a copy of the 287(G) training proposal. You may download the 19-page document here (PDF).
The Herndon “day laborer” issue is an ongoing saga in my area. For years, illegal aliens congregated in a 7-Eleven parking lot, dirtying up the neighborhood and making a nuisance of themselves. The former mayor and town council voted to build a day labor center with taxpayers’ money so the criminals could wait there to be picked up for jobs by criminal employers.
I channeled my outrage into a two-part column: A Nation of Outlaws, Part I and Part II.
When election time rolled around this past May, the mayor and most of the council members who voted for the illegal plan were ousted, kicked out of office.
Herndon has to wait for acceptance into the 287(G) training program. Once approved, officers will be allowed to ask a suspect and/or arrestee the status of his citizenship and detain him if he’s here in violation of federal law.
Also see States, Counties Begin to Enforce Immigration Law.
Update: Speaking of 7-Eleven, the convenience store is dropping Citgo, a company owned by Venezuela. Last week, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said some nasty things about the president. Bloggers and others were calling for a boycott against Citgo. More on the story here, here, and here.
While we anxiously await the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in two cases in which white parents in Seattle, Washington, and Louisville, Kentucky, challenged their school districts’ use of racial classifications in determining where children attend school, a practice supposedly outlawed by Brown v. Board of Education, we can keep ourselves busy reading about similar lawsuits.
[Although based on political considerations and a flawed sociological study rather than on legal arguments, Brown nevertheless is the law of the land.]
On September 26, 2006, The Center for Individual Rights (CIR), a right-leaning public interest law firm, which defends civil rights for all, filed suit on behalf of a white high school student named Emily Smith. Download the 14-page complaint (PDF). She applied for and was accepted to a journalism workshop at Virginia Commonwealth University, sponsored by the public university, the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund, and the Richmond Times Dispatch.
According to CIR, the offer was rescinded after the program co-director found out Smith was white.
Now, anyone with just a tiny bit of synaptic activity knows this is discrimination based on race. If it’s not obvious to you, imagine that Smith was black and her offer to attend the workshop was rejected because she wasn’t white. We’re constantly told how evil that is, but racial discrimination typically applies only when whites discriminate against non-whites, and not the other way around.
I hope CIR’s challenge to a skin-based program that specifically exclude whites and other “non-minorities” encourages others to file suit and signals the beginning of the end of racially exclusive programs, no matter how noble their raison d’etre.
(Hat tip: Discriminations)
Addendum: It looks like the poorly-managed gravy train has come to a halt (free reg. req.). Competing for clients and earning their business based on your skills and not on your skin…what a novel idea!
This is appalling, but in the scheme of things, no one really cares about inconvenienced, over-burdened, and unfairly treated tax-paying American citizens.
Whatever you think “birthright citizenship” is, you’re probably wrong. In light of such “anchor baby” stories, I highly recommend this. Other sources:
It saddens me to say this, but my support for the war in Iraq has waned since I realized the Bush Administration has no intention of enforcing immigration law. I’m not a pacifist. I believe that war is a necessary evil, and freedom is worth dying for. But the so-called war on terror is undermined by our failure to secure our borders. I have problems with Americans dying abroad for the cause, while Islamofascists are using our lax enforcement and bone-headed PC tentativeness against us at home.
Mexicans and Central Americans flow into the United States with laughable ease. Is it too far of a stretch to imagine than Muslim terrorists are doing the same?
If you’re willfully deaf, dumb, blind, and suicidal, it probably is.
Update (9/25): Independent Conservative writes:
Back in 2004 there was news of Al Qaeda trying to bring a nuke over the US Southern border. Lately I’ve been reading numerous reports, that a dirty nuke was carried over the US Southern border and an attack is close.
I agree with Michael Savage, Bush has done little to close the southern US border and if the mentioned takes place on his watch, it would only be right to impeach him for failing to do what was necessary to protect the American people.
Also check out the Guard the Borders blog and podcast.
Tuesday, September 26: Read my latest column, Summit signals power of religion in public life.
Saturday, September 23:
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I’m coming to you live from the 2006 Values Voter Summit, sponsored by the Family Research Council. Invited by FRC’s new communications guy, blogger Joe Carter at Evangelical Outpost, I’m here to take advantage of the opportunity to meet other conservatives and discuss issues important to Christian conservatives.
Here’s the program.
FYI, ten years ago yesterday, President William J. Clinton signed into law the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). I’ve argued against the proposed Federal Marriage Amendment for several reasons. DOMA is one of those reasons. The relevant text:
No State, territory, or possession of the United States, or Indian tribe, shall be required to give effect to any public act, record, or
judicial proceeding of any other State, territory, possession, or tribe respecting a relationship between persons of the same sex that is treated as a marriage under the laws of such other State, territory, possession, or tribe, or a right or claim arising from such relationship.
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Dissension in the ranks!
MD Lt. Governor Michael Steele has asked the National Black Republican Association (NBRA) to remove a radio advertisement (heard in Baltimore) because it is “insulting to Marylanders,” according to WBAL. Listen to the brief spot here (MP3) or right-click and select “Save Target As” to download to hard drive.
The ad is factual: MLK was a Republican, Republicans spearheaded major civil rights legislation and the Democrats tried to block it, etc., but Steele says:
Although they may have had good intentions, there is no room for this kind of slash-and-burn partisan politics in the important conversation about how to best bring meaningful change to Washington, D-C, and get something done for Maryland.
I’m guessing, but he seems to think the appeal to race is unnecessary and divisive. Although I tend to agree, it doesn’t hurt to get the truth out there.
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by La Shawn on September 21, 2006
in Justice
Update (9/24): A commenter writes (emphases added):
Critics could quibble with LaShawn’s post in that the FBI stats represent only reported arrests and not actual convictions. Hence it could be argued that she is unfairly singling out blacks for criticism. Nevertheless the high proportion of blacks in prison (people actually convicted) indicates that the arrest figures are a fair (not perfect) indicator of criminal activity…Whatever the true picture, blacks are still way overrepresented, no matter how you slice it.
And:
Critics could of course also argue that the highest rates of crime are committed by low income people, and that since blacks re overepresented among those, naturally they would show up more in the stats. Low income persons do tend to commit more crime, and indeed there is more crime in lower-income neighborhoods. Does this then mean LaShawn is again engaged on an evil mission of dissing “the brothersâ€? Actually she laments the fact of that black overrepresentation, saying: “Let’s look at another sad stat..†and also “.. here’s where people get it twisted. There’s a lot of crime in the U.S. Too much. But let’s look at what’s really bad..†In other words, her concern is with something that is eating away at the soul and literally lifeblood of the black community and diminishing the credibility of that community vis a vis others. If this be an evil mission, one wonders what can be classified as “goodâ€. Remaining silent “with the mike off†for fear of spreading “negative stereotyesâ€? The facts are already on the ground furnishing more than enough ammunition for multiple lifetimes of “negative stereotypesâ€.
It feels so good to be understood.
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Yes, boys and girls, it’s that time again! Time to read the sad crime statistics, collected by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for our, uh, edification.
In the 2005 Crime in the United States report, we learn that violent crime increased by 2.3 percent from 2004 to 2005.
Dallas is the most dangerous large city.
In my “state” of Washington, D.C., the murder and nonnegligent manslaughter rate was 35.4 per 100,000 people last year. Just for fun, I looked up the murder and nonnegligent manslaughter rate for Vermont: 1.3 per 100,000.
No comment.
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*** Scroll down to read the jaw-dropping update and more!***
Before I get to the substance of this post, I have to say this: I’m so glad FOX News redesigned the web site. It’s less “heavy,” less busy, and much easier on the eyes. The previous design was hideous, which is why I rarely linked to the site.
Author Wendy McElroy asks whether the accused Duke lacrosse players’ due process rights are being violated.
Of course they are.
I smelled a rat the first time I heard about the so-called rape. Twenty-four posts later, I can’t believe people still think three white Duke lacrosse players gang-raped a black stripper in a small bathroom during a party, despite overwhelming evidence that she made up the whole thing. Now that her gang-rape fantasies are ruining innocent lives, it’s time she sought professional help.
McElroy states the obvious: the presumption of guilt has been reversed in this case. Durham Country DA Mike Nifong made it clear from the beginning that he thought the stripper-accuser was gang-raped in that house by lacrosse players. He race-pandered and campaigned when he should have been doing his job and keeping in mind certain legal ethics. Nifong’s only redeeming quality is that he isn’t as clueless as he looks. He knows he should have kept his mouth shut.
Read the entire article to find out what McElroy has to say about due process. I want to focus on evidence of Reade Seligmann’s innocence. When he (pictured) and Collin Finnerty were arrested, Nifong made clear that he thought they were guilty. McElroy points out problems with this whole mess, particularly where Seligmann is concerned:
He is scheduled to be tried on three felony charges despite overwhelming evidence of his innocence: exculpatory DNA tests, a corroborated alibi, a string of contradictory statements by his accuser and an irredeemably tainted I.D.
Exculpatory DNA tests
The only DNA match in this case is the one between the stripper-accuser and a black “boyfriend.” There is no match between the woman or any of the three white men indicted on rape charges. Zero.
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*** Scroll down to read Peter Daou’s response to my e-mail ***
[Note: Don't forget to read and comment on today's other post, Is Ben Cardin Lying, Or Just Misinformed?. It's sort of related to this one.]
There’s a rage in Harlem!
I rarely blog about what liberal bloggers are doing, but there’s some dissension among the ranks worth mentioning.
Black liberal bloggers are upset about the lack of color at last week’s Slick Willie-liberal bloggers lunch in Harlem. Clinton’s keeping an office there, don’t you know. “Colored” liberal blogger Liza Sabater, fellow Blogher Advisory Board member, had some questions for lunch organizer Peter Daou, blogger, creator of the Daou Report, and blog advisor to Sen. Hillary Clinton:
What does it mean though that there are 20 bloggers invited to this lunch and not one is black or latino? What does it mean for this group of bloggers to be patting themselves on the backs for being with Clinton when they are all in Harlem and not one of them is a person of color? What does it mean for these people to be there and have not one of themn (sic) raise this issue in their blogs?
Check out the menu: southern [fried?] chicken, baked sweet potato fries, cornbread — soul food with no soul bloggers! (Clinton likes B. Smith’s, too)
Sorry. Couldn’t resist.
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by La Shawn on September 19, 2006
in Liberals
*** Scroll down for updates ***
[On a related note, back in 2002, Thomas V. Mike Miller, president of the MD Senate, called Michael Steele an "Uncle Tom."]
I love the smell of scandal in the morning.
If you haven’t heard about Cardingate, let me fill you in. Last week, Wizbang Politics discovered that a staffer for U.S. Rep. Ben Cardin, the Democratic opponent to Republican Lt. Gov. Michael Steele in the Senate race in Maryland, was blogging under the name “Persuasionatrix” (cached copy).
Although the woman never named her employer, she said she was a member of the senior staff. Wizbang’s Kevin Aylward did some digging and found out her name is Ursula Gruber and she’s from Chicago. The mainstream media picked up the story pretty quickly:
So what’s the big deal about Persuasionatrix? She wrote some racially-charged things, and unfortunately, race is a big part of the Maryland Senate race.
First, in the post “Racism Card post,” she said that an incompetent black staffer faced with criticism from his supervisor pulled what I call “racial rank”:
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