Sowell: Social Degeneration

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Someone at long last has had the courage to tell the plain, honest truth about race.

After mobs of young blacks rampaged through Philadelphia committing violence — as similar mobs have rampaged through Chicago, Denver, Milwaukee and other places — Philadelphia’s black mayor, Michael A. Nutter, ordered a police crackdown and lashed out at the whole lifestyle of those who did such things.

“Pull up your pants and buy a belt ’cause no one wants to see your underwear or the crack of your butt,” he said. “If you walk into somebody’s office with your hair uncombed and a pick in the back, and your shoes untied, and your pants half down, tattoos up and down your arms and on your neck, and you wonder why somebody won’t hire you? They don’t hire you ’cause you look like you’re crazy,” the mayor said. He added: “You have damaged your own race.”

While this might seem like it is just plain common sense, what Mayor Nutter said undermines a whole vision of the world that has brought fame, fortune and power to race hustlers in politics, the media and academia. Any racial disparities in hiring can only be due to racism and discrimination, according to the prevailing vision, which reaches from street corner demagogues to the august chambers of the Supreme Court of the United States.

Just to identify the rioters and looters as black is a radical departure, when mayors, police chiefs and the media in other cities report on these outbreaks of violence without mentioning the race of those who are doing these things. The Chicago Tribune even made excuses for failing to mention race when reporting on violent attacks by blacks on whites in Chicago.

Read More at GOPUSA  By Thomas Sowell, GOPUSA

Five Questions About Rick Perry

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When the implosion of the Gingrich campaign freed up key former aides to Rick Perry, chatter in the pundit class immediately focused on the possibility of the Texas governor’s running. It initially seemed like inside-baseball talk run amok, but soon enough came word that Perry was seriously thinking about it, reports of his meeting with outside policy experts, and then this weekend — the announcement.

There are two schools of thought on Perry. One says his strength on the cusp of his announcement mostly had to do with his being a relative unknown and not yet in the race. Others see a truly formidable candidacy in the making — one that can steal establishment support from Mitt Romney and compete with Michele Bachmann for tea-party and evangelical voters, all while touting a record of accomplishment more impressive than any of the other candidates’.

It surely is some of both. Perry hasn’t yet had a campaign flub, nor had to endure the constant scrutiny of the campaign trail. It’s easy for people to project whatever they want onto him. But he starts off from a position of strength. He gets an automatic entrée into the top tier and an excellent chance to become Romney’s chief competitor, if not himself the frontrunner. Besides Bachmann, he’s the only current officeholder among the top candidates. There’s no arguing with his experience as governor the last ten years of one of the country’s most populous and economically dynamic states. He has a natural narrative as the outsider who has succeeded in addressing the nation’s foremost problem — jobs — by rejecting the nostrums popular in Washington today. He’s a down-the-line conservative with a no-holds-barred combativeness when both substantive purity and a hard-line affect are highly prized by the party’s grassroots.
He must be taken seriously. Whether he gets the nomination will depend in part on these five questions:

1. Can he win Iowa?

Perry obviously would have enormous strengths in the South and especially in the crucial South Carolina primary. But he has to get there first, which probably means winning in Iowa. New Hampshire isn’t typically happy hunting grounds for southern evangelicals — witness the humbling of George W. Bush in the 2000 primary and Mike Huckabee’s distant third-place finish in 2008. In theory, perhaps Perry could finish second in Iowa and second in New Hampshire and still retain significant support going into South Carolina, but Mitt Romney proved in 2008 that boasting of “silver medals” doesn’t count for much. Especially given the large expectations for Perry, anything but first in Iowa would be a blow.

Read More at National Review  Ramesh Ponnuru and Rich Lowry, National Review

The Tea Party is about to collapse, part 297

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The opening paragraph pretty much says it all.

The reign of the Tea Party may be coming to an end in Washington, according to academic political experts who say polls show a backlash against the conservative movement.

So what data are we drawing our conclusions from this time?

The CNN poll showed the Tea Party’s favorable/unfavorable rating grew from 37 percent in October of 2010 to 51 percent in August 2011.

The New York Times poll, conducted Aug. 2 – Aug. 4, showed the movement’s popularity at 20 percent and unpopularity at 40 percent. The unpopularity rating was 14 points higher than in October of 2010.

“If you were paying attention to the coverage, the characterization of people resistant to raising the debt ceiling was they were Tea Party supporters or members of the Tea Party caucus,” said Charles Franklin, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin and a polling specialist. “That characterization is an element in the current apparent decline in Tea party popularity.”

It seems like I’ve been hearing about the pending implosion and disappearance of the Tea Party ever since… well, roughly ten minutes after I’d heard of the Tea Party. And yet for progressive activists, the movement continues to stubbornly hang around like that zit you don’t want to pop two days before the prom because you’re just sure it’s going to go away on its own. (And inevitably you wind up with the worst yearbook photo ever.)

Fortunately for Democrats, our balanced, dual nature society has produced an equally effective and opposite counter-movement in the form of the Coffee Party. Right guys?

Guys?

Helloooooooo?

Read More at Hot Air By Jazz Shaw, Hot Air

CNN Pushes Palinization Of Tea Party Nation

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To put it bluntly, the Tea Party kicked ass and took names in the 2010 elections.

As reward for their crimes against Socialism, Marxism and Obamaism the leftwing of American politics painted a bulls-eye on the back of these patriotic citizens.

Between now and the elections of 2012, the network division of the Obama administration’s public relations department, otherwise known as ABC, NBC, CBS, MSNBC, and CNN, will take aim at that bulls-eye, resorting to every dirty trick in the propaganda playbook to try and land an arrow into the heart of the Tea Party. And their latest meme, since Nazi and racist didn’t stick, is to frame them for the economic plague caused by the Obama, Pelosi and Reid hydra.

During the past week, CNN hosts and guests poured a torrential rain of blame on the Tea Party for the nation’s credit downgrade, labeling them anti-American and hostage takers. So is it any wonder the latest CNN/ORC poll shows the Tea Party’s unfavorable number is up a few points?

On the CNN Newsroom Saturday, August 9, the unbiased network’s bias was on display for all to see. They took delight in pointing out the poll’s unfavorable number for House Majority leader John Boehner at 40%. They made sure to highlight Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell at 39%.

Read More at American Thinker By Sonny Palermo, American Thinker

Obama the Job Terminator

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Through taxation and regulation, the Democrat candidate for President is killing American jobs. The effort is so pronounced, so pervasive and so relentless, that it is time to call it deliberate.

Obama has consistently demanded higher individual income taxes on “millionaires and billionaires,” which he consistently defines as anyone making more than $200,000 a year. Calling for “fairness,” he has repeated this mantra thousands of times. Apparently he believes it would be fairer if the top 1% of American income tax payers already paying 38% of all federal income tax revenues pay even more, while half of all American adults continue to pay no income tax at all.

Obama has blocked all attempts to lower the American corporate tax rate—now the highest of all industrialized countries. Worse still, Obama has blocked all efforts to stop the double taxation of U.S. companies’ foreign sales. American companies pay taxes to countries where sales are made, then face American corporate income taxes if the net profits are brought back home. Trillions of dollars are kept by American companies overseas instead of being invested here because of this stubborn job-killing double taxation.

Consequently, while the TOTUS (Teleprompter of the United States) speaks eloquently about the need for jobs, Obama tax policy punishes job creators. While the TOTUS speaks up forcefully for increased American exports to create jobs, the reality of Obama tax policy is having the opposite effect—jobs are fleeing the U.S. While the TOTUS castigates American companies for hoarding cash and not hiring, it is Obama’s double taxation policies that are causing the problem.

As with other bad trends (deficit spending, declining student test scores, endless wars) that predated Obama but have accelerated under his regime, things have gotten so much worse for job creators in the U.S. in the last 2.5 years.

Read More at Human Events  By Roger Hedgecock, Human Events

LAMBRO: Obama numbers that add up to one term

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The Obama economy is looking bleaker than ever. All recessions end, but this one’s going to last a lot longer than most because America remains overtaxed, overregulated and drowning in unfathomable debt.

We had the capacity to grow our way out of the 2008 recession within two years with the right growth policies, but President Obama and the Democrat-run Congress pursued impotent, anti-growth fiscal policies that drove spending to unprecedented levels at a time when the recession had sandbagged tax revenues. That forced the feds to sharply increase borrowing, which is devouring the lion’s share of our economy’s income.

When cooler heads, some within his own administration, were urging him to concentrate on the economy, he focused on a massive new government health care entitlement program. That’s in the process of running up a mountain of future bills – plus crushing anti-job-creating regulations – on an economy struggling to climb out of one of the severest recessions since the Great Depression.

When a recession hits and incomes fall, Americans instinctively tighten their belts, reduce spending, pay off credit cards and sock money away in savings in case things get worse. But Mr. Obama and his party did just the opposite. They expanded government, raised spending and burdened the economy with $3 trillion in higher debt.

The Obama crew lived in a separate reality of its own making, believing its exaggerated rhetoric that the economy was moving “in the right direction.” But as the economy grew weaker, revenues fell, budget deficits rose, and the unemployment rate climbed into the 9 percent range.

Read More at the Washington Times By Donald Lambro, The Washington Times

Perry to Pose Major Threat to Romney

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The biggest development of the Republican presidential campaign on Thursday happened in Austin, Texas – 1,000 miles from the leadoff caucus state where GOP front-runner Mitt Romney and seven of his opponents squared off ahead of an important test vote this weekend.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry sent word that he was running for the GOP nomination, casting a shadow over the debate and threatening to upend the race.

Back in Iowa, Romney emerged unscathed with his leader-of-the-pack status intact after two feisty hours; his two Minnesota rivals – Rep. Michele Bachmann and former Gov. Tim Pawlenty – sparred repeatedly as each sought advantage ahead of Saturday’s Iowa straw poll.

Overall, the dynamics of the campaign did not change with a single debate. And they may not change when Saturday’s straw poll results are announced.

But the race could well change in the coming days as Perry dives into it.

Read More at Real Clear Politics By Thomas  Beaumont, Real Clear Politics

Democrats in Denial About the Downgrade

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It has been said bad news does not get better over time.

I once knew a lady who discovered a lump in her breast, but ignored it until it had metastasized. She finally sought medical help when she reached the point that she could no longer ignore the pain. Initially, denial gave her a brief sense of security, but all the while, the cancer was spreading.

I could not help but notice an odd similarity this week while listening to Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, D-FL, tell MSNBC that Obama and the Democrats have “really begun to turn the economy around.” With the exception of inside the Beltway, Americans are hurting. Cities and towns across this great country bear the scars of recession in one form or another, from abandoned homes to emptied offices and pot-holed roads.

Last week’s stock market nose dive, coupled with anemic unemployment numbers, were symptomatic of a sick economy screaming for a huge dose of old-fashioned American capitalism. Obviously in denial (or worse), the Obama administration did everything in its power to convince Americans that “there is nothing to see here, just move along.” It’s like watching my friend exhibit all the symptoms of cancer and all she wants to talk about is how good she feels.

And now with Standard and Poor’s downgrade of the country’s AAA credit rating, for the first time in United States history, it will be intriguing to see how the administration tries to spin this latest revelation.

Read More at Floyd Reports  By Susan Stamper Brown, Floyd Reports

For Wisconsin’s Democrats, recall defeats were their Gettysburg

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When Robert E. Lee was forced to turn back and retreat from Pennsylvania ending his dream of winning the Civil War by invading the North it quickly became clear that he had thrown his best punch and failed. Lee almost won but didn’t. While the Confederates won some major battles after Gettysburg their will to fight and the appetite for loaning them money was gone.

Yesterday the Wisconsin Democrats brought their invasion to Republican held State Senate districts. To turn back the tide of conservatism in Wisconsin the Democrats instigated recall elections of six Republican Senators. They almost won enough seats to make a difference but didn’t.

They needed to take three seats to wrest control of the State’s upper chamber from the Republicans,but they failed. Gettysburg has come for Wisconsin’s Democrats which is fitting since most Confederates were Democrats as well.

Why the Democrats lost

The Democrats’ lost because they represent a failed system of never ending tax increases to support special interest groups such as public employee unions and illegal aliens. They lost because they support endless extensions to food stamp and unemployment benefits,and do so with an extremely smug sense of entitlement to our money.

They lost because the unions who were behind the recalls willing unmasked themselves as criminals who would use physical violence to maintain their racketeering enterprises.

Read More at Coach is Right  By Kevin “Coach” Collins, Coach Is Right

Ann Coulter joins board for homosexual group

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Columnist Ann Coulter, whose work appears weekly on WND, is joining the advisory board of GOProud, the Republican homosexual activist organization whose leaders say they are “conservative.”

The move comes after her controversial decision last fall to speak to the group prompted another conservative conference to withdraw its speaking invitation.

Coulter said in a statement, according to Chris Moody of the Yahoo.com blog The Ticket, “I am honored to serve in this capacity on GOProud’s Advisory Council, and look forward to being the queen of fabulous.”

The report said GOProud “has caused a stir within the conservative movement, which is grappling with whether to accept organizations that identify as gay.”

Officials with the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC, announced just a few weeks ago that they would no longer allow GOProud to participate as a sponsor of their conference.

Read More at WND WorldNetDaily