Ousted former Rep. Cynthia McKinney, who punched a Capitol Hill police office last year when he tried to stop her from strolling through a checkpoint because he didn’t recognize her, is suing liberal columnist Cynthia Tucker, Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s parent company, the managing editor, and the publisher.
McKinney says Tucker libeled her by trying to “spin this incident into a felony by falsely alleging that [she] assaulted the officer with a weapon.” (Source)
McKinney claims that contrary to what Tucker wrote, she didn’t “slug” the officer with her cell phone. With a “closed fist,” perhaps? What a waste of money, time, and energy. The lawyers are getting rich and the broad continues to make a fool of herself.
Just goes to show you that liberal types have issues with each other, too… 
Let’s see…I mentioned Tucker in Righteous Indignation and Liberal Op-Ed Pages and Christians, Journalism and Blogging and McKinney in Twice As Hard.
(Hat tip: Legal Times Blog)
Warning: This review contains MAJOR spoilers.
J.K. Rowling’s epic tale about an orphan boy who discovers he’s a wizard at age 11 comes to an end in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
The seventh and final book in the series sold a reported 11 million copies in the first 24 hours on sale, which broke the record for fastest-selling book. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince held the previous record at nine million.
The seven-book series has sold more than 325 million copies worldwide. The first five books have been made into top-grossing movies, and Rowling has been named one of the richest people in the world.
Not bad for a former divorced welfare mother who nursed cold cups of coffee in a café while writing the first book.
Read the rest at Townhall.com.
Update (7/31): When a religion reporter called Deathly Hallows “unambiguously Christian,” he was referring to the “Christian” concept of substitutionary sacrifice. I’m going to take a semi-educated guess and say that Christianity is unique in this regard: a sinless Savior who sacrifices himself to pay for the sins of others.
Is substitutionary sacrifice a major (or minor) feature of other religions? Discuss here.
Tuesday, July 31: A response from PRCalDude:
“I’ve debated illegals online about the fact that they claim to be Christian yet violate our laws to be here. They see no problem with this because they are Roman Catholic and they don’t know the Bible. When I refer to Romans 13, they have never read it. In the Roman Church, the authority of the Pope and the Magisterium comes before the authority of Scripture. Therefore, when Cardinal Mahony and Roman clergy in Mexico tell them it’s alright to come here, they take that as ‘The Word of God’ rather than Romans 13.
“I’d like to add that for this reason, some churches won’t even admit illegal immigrants into their congregation. The Orthodox Presbyterian Church came out with this ruling on the subject [PDF document] which basically stated that they were not admissible for their failure to obey the ruling authorities. Then there is this take from De Regno Christi:
“‘President Bush has secured his legacy. The promise of immigration reform has degenerated into amnesty. How should Christians think about the issue?’
“This is an excerpt from the Understanding the Times Committee Report to the Reformed Presbyterian Synod in 2006. The controversial report was received as information. I am the author:
Wars and Rumors of War: Border Security
While American soldiers are fighting in the Middle East, and army of illegal immigrants is invading the homeland. Of course, the invasion of our southern border is not a military conquest but it does have grave cultural and economic implications. The RPC recognizes the moral dilemma involved in the discussion.
First, as Christians, we must remember that we were strangers who dwelt in Egypt. When Israel inherited the land of promise, they were called upon to remember this history of subjection when dealing with aliens in their midst. As such, we should be tenderhearted to those in need and show liberality toward those who seek refuge.
Yet, our sympathy is moderated by the unwillingness of illegal immigrants to show respect toward the American system of ordered liberty. Radical leaders of the pro-immigration movement speak of reclaiming the southwest for Mexico. Thus, as millions of illegal aliens cross the border under the flag of Mexico, the question is not how can we deal mercifully with needy refugees, but rather how can the United States defend its historic, cultural, and linguistic heritage? The moral law of God maintains the individuals inherent right to self-defense. Do nations and cultures have no such right? Such a conclusion would appear absurd.
“A year later, I say amen.
“Unfortunately, even in Reformed circles, there is very little Biblical thinking on the matter.”
I just got word that last night, an amendment to the Departments of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill, which would bar preferences in federal contracting, passed the House of Representatives.
Color me stunned!
The language, introduced by Congressman Tim Walberg, reads: “An amendment to prohibit the use of funds be[ing] used by the Department of Transportation to promulgate regulations based on race, ethnicity, or sex.”
In other words, these agencies can’t consider race, ethnicity, or sex when hiring contractors with federal funds. No more set-asides.
Ward Connerly, chairman of the American Civil Rights Institute, said, “Congressman Walberg was one of the few politicians in Michigan who stood on principal during last year’s campaign for the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, and he deserves much praise for his leadership in carrying the will of the people of Michigan to the entire nation.”
The spending bill also passed last night, but the two Houses have to reconcile their versions of the bill before anything is set in stone. The language of the amendment might become law.
Despite the clear language of the law — “It shall be an unlawful employment practice for an employer…to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, because of such individual’s race, color, religion, sex, or national origin…” — it is standard practice for federal government agencies to hire a certain percentage of “preferred minorities” under an unofficial policy that allows discrimination against whites and non-preferred minorities.
To some blacks, this sounds fair. But when whites become a racial minority and the government regresses to openly discriminating in favor of them, they’ll understand (as their grandparents and beyond understood) why the practice is so foul.
(That’s not likely to happen, though. Once Hispanics become the nation’s majority race, ethnicity, or whatever you want to call them, the white-guilt altruistic ethic of giving minorities unearned benefits will be extinct. Hispanics aren’t burdened with white guilt.)
The idea of affirmative action, as it was conceived (and here), is not discriminatory. Perhaps government agencies concerned about “diversity” will implement actual affirmative action and do away with lowered standards for minorities, which were put in place by white people so white people could feel paternally good about themselves.
Let’s drink a non-alcoholic toast to equal standards for all!
Several months ago, the D.C. Circuit ruled D.C.’s hilariously ineffective handgun ban unconstitutional. Last week, D.C. mayor Adrian Fenty said the city government will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
I hope the court refuses to hear it.
If I’m still in D.C. when the gun ban is lifted, I plan to buy one. Or two. Why should cops and thugs have all the fun?
Related posts:
A 12-year-old girl was plied with vodka and gang-raped by four men, and the New York Times leads the story with how good a football player one of the rapists is and props up the idea that racism might be the reason the district attorney is going after him.
Why on earth would the “newspaper of record” do that? Because the accused gang rapists are black and the alleged victim is white.
In the Duke “rape†case, the NYT published story after story, month after month, parroting the district attorney’s lines and tried its best to lend credence to disgraced and disbarred Mike Nifong’s case against three white men. The liberal journalists seized every opportunity to demonize the men accused and slant stories to that end, while setting the poor-oppressed-black-rape-victim narrative in stone.
The headline “Charge against a Player Raises Question of Justice,†should read “Delayed Trial For Gang Rape Victim Raises Question of Justice.†That’s what should be important, not whether some black rapist gets to play ball.
But we know that black-on-white crime bores the heck out of liberals, so to spice things up, they turn the issue on its head and focus on poor oppressed black football players.
Clay Waters of Times Watch, gets to the point much better than I do: “Faced with a black athlete as a suspect and an alleged rape victim who is white, the Times displays a concern for ‘racial overtones’ totally absent in its shoddy coverage of the Duke lacrosse ‘rape’ hoax.â€
Indeed. Why wasn’t the NYT concerned about racial overtones in the Duke case, when it was clear to anyone with half a brain that Nifong indicted the white men accused of raping a black woman (with no DNA matches) in a heavily black city to win what otherwise would have been a tough battle to retain his job?
As I said, boring. The libs needed to spice things up, writing snide stories about “rich†white lacrosse players and oppressed black strippers.
The rape victim, now 15, won’t get any sympathy from left-leaning newspapers because she’s white and her rapists are black. Believe whatever you want, but it’s really that simple.
(Hat tip: KC Johnson)
Related post:
Back on the east coast! Catching up with east coast stuff. Regular (irregular?) political posting will resume.
In the meantime, read my quick first impressions of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (filled with SPOILERS), and share yours, too.
11:03 a.m. PDT: In my last Townhall column, I mentioned Georgia’s new immigration enforcement laws, which purportedly were enacted to curb illegal “immigration.”
That state’s illegal alien population reportedly doubled between 2000 and 2005. Overwhelmed by non-assimilating, non-English speaking foreigners, Georgians have chosen to deal with the glut themselves.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that drivers who can’t show proof of residency (with a valid Georgia driver’s license or state ID) cannot register cars. The new law went into effect on July 1. From the article:
If [car dealers and tag services] have built their business on people who are here illegally, I’m sorry, but at some point they had to realize that was not going to continue,” Rogers said.
The license plate law closes a window that gave motorists 30 days to get Georgia driver’s licenses after moving to the state. In the interim, a driver could register a car with an out-of-state or international license.
Also effective July 1 was a separate, 2006 law requiring increased verification of legal status in Georgia for a variety of other purposes, including to work in some jobs or qualify for welfare.
While no one knows how many illegal immigrants are in Georgia, a government estimate put the number at about 470,000. Nationally, most illegal immigrants are from Mexico, followed by El Salvador, Guatemala, India and China, according to a 2005 Department of Homeland Security report.
Genao, 34, has a green card and has lived in the United States eight years. If business doesn’t pick up, he might return to his native Dominican Republic to tend to a car dealership there.
Adiós!
4:00 p.m. PDT: The black firefighters group (society? guild?) in New York City decided to join the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) lawsuit against the New York City Fire Department. (Source)
Because black applicants fail the employment test at disproportionate rates, DOJ is challenging the test’s validity. The black firefighters group believes “the SAT-style test has little to do with fighting fires and has prevented many black and Latino applicants from getting the jobs they deserve.”
The goal is to dumb down the test so blacks can pass it or to eliminate it altogether. What a noble and proud pursuit! Regular readers know how I feel about this sort of thing, but in case it slipped your mind, see this post.
