Leave It to an Accomplished Montana Woman...

While the hand wringers busy themselves putting words in other people's mouths, an obviously accomplished Montana attorney distills the issue of Sonia Sotomayor in a way we all can understand.

The woman grew up in the capital of the world, went to two Ivy League schools, and was blessed by Providence with the precisely correct right race-gender two-fer for the moment.

This is a story of privilege, dammit, not adversity.

Show me a Montana girl of un-useful ethnicity who put herself through law school waiting tables, after being left with two young children when her Army husband was killed overseas, and I'll start oohing and aahing over her compelling story.

Of course, such a person would never ever end up on any President's short-list, no matter if she graduated first in her class at her non-Ivy institution, no matter how extreme the intelligence and dedication and hard work she displayed over the subsequent course of her career. That's simply how the world — and especially the legal world — is constructed today.

It's so much easier to take a properly-credentialed member of the East Coast elite and hold her up as a shining example of American meritocracy instead, because she is conveniently hued and delayed her entry to the world of the well-heeled until the age of 18 or so. Easy, and misleading. Feugh!

As usual, John Derbyshire clears up any loose ends....

Like my reader, and I'm sure a lot of other Americans, I get mighty annoyed by the unspoken implication in a lot of commentary that anyone not a member of a Protected Minority must have grown up in a twelve-bedroom lakeside mansion and been chauffered off to prep school with a silver spoon in his mouth. Judge Sotomayor was raised in public housing? So was I. Her mother was a nurse working late shifts? So was mine. When did white working poor people disappear off the face of the earth? Where are the eager listeners to their "compelling stories"?

Was it really not possible to correct past injustices without creating an entire — and apparently permanent — class convinced that accidents of geography or biology have gifted them with special insight, wisdom, and "empathy"?

Mike

Happy Mother's Day

Mike

Dubai Ports Deal--Redux

By now the news of Obama's infamous bow before Saudi royalty is old news. However, Obama's mettle will be tested over news that's likely to infuriate those on both sides of the political aisle who are concerned with national security. In the coming weeks and months we'll see if the Obama administration is willing to take yet another bow to Middle-Eastern petro-royalty, and ultimately refuse to block a deal between a U.S. company and the UAE and Kuwait.

A group of investors in the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait are eying the purchase of Rhode Island based Textron, parent company of Cessna Aircraft and Bell Helicopters.

"Textron has said it would be contractually very difficult to separate its financial assets from its industrial assets, and Textron's Bell segment does substantial military business," said Standard & Poor's Equity analyst Richard Tortoriello. "However, we see the potential that a suitor with significant cash could overcome these difficulties."

On the surface this doesn't sound like a big deal, except that as a defense contractor, Textron is responsible for various partnerships and research and development projects with foreign nations whose state secrets could be jeopardized should the company come under the control of various Middle East dictatorships.

"There are many projects that we develop together and if the company is bought, then a lot of classified information will be exposed."

While Israel has nonofficial diplomatic ties with the UAE, officials said it was concerned technological specifications on some of its hardware would be revealed, and possibly even transferred to hostile elements.

Generally speaking I'm of the mindset that what's good for business is good for the United States. There are, however, times when you have to draw a line in the sand and say "no way." This is one of those moments. We simply cannot allow the classified military, intelligence, and defense information that is part of the DNA of Textron to be bought by a foreign entity.

I know where I stand on the issue, and was flummoxed to discover, as it concerns the Dubai ports deal a few years ago under the Bush administration, that this is perhaps the one issue where I can even agree with a progresssive.

Yet a real counter-terrorism expert under this administration gives reasons why the deal is a bad, bad thing.

But for Bush, business cronyism tops national security concerns.

What remains to be seen is whether the progressives really cared about national security concerns, or whether it was just another well orchestrated "anything but Bush" moment used to gain some legitimacy on the issue. In the next few weeks or months we'll see if, for Obama, Middle East "cronyism tops national security concerns."

Mike

2 Letters for Schakowsky

The letters? F and U.

Seems the socialistProgressive representing IL-9 in the House is taking her talking points from like-minded socialists.

CHICAGO, IL (April 15, 2009) – Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-IL, released the following statement in response to “tea parties” being held on Tax Day.

“The ‘tea parties’ being held today by groups of right-wing activists, and fueled by FOX News Channel, are an effort to mislead the public about the Obama economic plan that cuts taxes for 95 percent of Americans and creates 3.5 million jobs. It’s despicable that right-wing Republicans would attempt to cheapen a significant, honorable moment of American history with a shameful political stunt. Not a single American household or business will be taxed at a higher rate this year. Made to look like a grassroots uprising, this is an Obama bashing party promoted by corporate interests, as well as Republican lobbyists and politicians.”

So, Ms. Schakowsky considers the passage of Obama's, or any other president's economic plan as a "significant, honorable moment of American history?" That might be the beginning of the pathology of the left.

From Steve Bartin at Newsalert:

Comrade Schakowsky forgot to mention the recent,massive federal cigarette tax hike she voted for which hurts a lot of poor people. We know Comrade Schakowsky doesn't feel comfortable with the anti-tax crowd. So what kind of crowd does she feel comfortable with? Here's a picture of Comrade Schakowsky at the Chicago Democratic Socialists of America 46th Annual Debs-Thomas-Harrington dinner. Comrade Schakowky was the featured speaker at the dinner in May of 2004. The Democratic Socialists of America clearly explain on their website their ultimate goal:

We are socialists because we reject an international economic order sustained by private profit, alienated labor, race and gender discrimination, environmental destruction, and brutality and violence in defense of the status quo.

We are socialists because we share a vision of a humane international social order based both on democratic planning and market mechanisms to achieve equitable distribution of resources, meaningful work, a healthy environment, sustainable growth, gender and racial equality, and non-oppressive relationships.

Comrade Schakowsky was an early supporter of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. But,who could forget Comrade Schakowsky is married to convicted felon Robert Creamer of check kiting fame.We can assume the subject of taxes and tax returns is a sensitive subject to some.

It's a real pity that a name like "Creamer" is mentioned only a day after the left's useful idiots referred to over a quarter million of their fellow citizens as "teabaggers." If nothing else I guess now we know why Anderson Cooper was a no-show on AC360 last night.

If that's not enough, Schakowsky also tried to intimidate a woman who is not even her constituent concerning the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act...

I hope you will remove all images of tombstones from your sites, tone down your rhetoric...

With the socialistsProgressives like Schakowsky calling their fellow citizens "despicable," and intimidating others ones from the safety of Capitol Hill (and the Capitol Police), and the DIC's (Democrats In Charge) invoking Godwin's Law today is it any wonder thousands of citizens were on the streets yesterday?

Mike

Yo Bama!'s Mexican Gun Lies

I returned from a relaxing afternoon playing golf and turned on the TV to find out what I had missed in the last few hours. Lo and behold I couldn't escape live coverage of a press conference featuring Mexican president Calderon and community organizer president Obama.

During a question from a Mexican reporter both president's were asked about about the supposed flow of weapons from the U.S. into Mexico. Obama continued to claim that "90% of the weapons seized from the drug cartels and Mexican criminals originate in the United States," and that "we must do something about that."

On the surface, 90% seems like a staggering number...almost irrefutable with solid evidence to support the claim. Just because it seems irrefutable, especially considering it's coming from an administration who has codified Alinsky's Rules for Radicals Progressives as a form of loyalty oath doesn't mean it makes sense.

Seriously, why would a organized drug cartel purchase weapons at retail in "border town gun shops" (according to Obama) when it would certainly be possible to obtain them elsewhere for less money and with less chance of the weapons ultimately being traced?

Looks like Lucy's Barack's got some splaining' to do! As it turns out, Obama's claim is....a lie.

The fact is, only 17 percent of guns found at Mexican crime scenes have been traced to the U.S.

What's true, an ATF spokeswoman told FOXNews.com, in a clarification of the statistic used by her own agency's assistant director, "is that over 90 percent of the traced firearms originate from the U.S."

But a large percentage of the guns recovered in Mexico do not get sent back to the U.S. for tracing, because it is obvious from their markings that they do not come from the U.S.

"Not every weapon seized in Mexico has a serial number on it that would make it traceable, and the U.S. effort to trace weapons really only extends to weapons that have been in the U.S. market," Matt Allen, special agent of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), told FOX News.

So, if not from the U.S., where do they come from? There are a variety of sources:

-- The Black Market. Mexico is a virtual arms bazaar, with fragmentation grenades from South Korea, AK-47s from China, and shoulder-fired rocket launchers from Spain, Israel and former Soviet bloc manufacturers.

-- Russian crime organizations. Interpol says Russian Mafia groups such as Poldolskaya and Moscow-based Solntsevskaya are actively trafficking drugs and arms in Mexico.

- South America. During the late 1990s, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) established a clandestine arms smuggling and drug trafficking partnership with the Tijuana cartel, according to the Federal Research Division report from the Library of Congress.

-- Asia. According to a 2006 Amnesty International Report, China has provided arms to countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Chinese assault weapons and Korean explosives have been recovered in Mexico.

-- The Mexican Army. More than 150,000 soldiers deserted in the last six years, according to Mexican Congressman Robert Badillo. Many took their weapons with them, including the standard issue M-16 assault rifle made in Belgium.

-- Guatemala. U.S. intelligence agencies say traffickers move immigrants, stolen cars, guns and drugs, including most of America's cocaine, along the porous Mexican-Guatemalan border. On March 27, La Hora, a Guatemalan newspaper, reported that police seized 500 grenades and a load of AK-47s on the border. Police say the cache was transported by a Mexican drug cartel operating out of Ixcan, a border town.

Chris Cox, spokesman for the National Rifle Association, blames the media and anti-gun politicians in the U.S. for misrepresenting where Mexican weapons come from.

"Reporter after politician after news anchor just disregards the truth on this," Cox said. "The numbers are intentionally used to weaken the Second Amendment."

"The predominant source of guns in Mexico is Central and South America. You also have Russian, Chinese and Israeli guns. It's estimated that over 100,000 soldiers deserted the army to work for the drug cartels, and that ignores all the police. How many of them took their weapons with them?"

Lies have a way of becoming “truth” when they are repeated often enough, and none of these folks are particularly attached to verity when it could negatively impact their agendas. Perhaps if Obama spent as much time worrying about strengthening our assistance to Mexico and their institutions, a majority of which are as corrput as the Chicago political machine that gave birth to zero like Obama, he would be better off. Then again, why take the path of most resistance when you have American institutions and small business owners to denigrate?

Mike

Meet the Radical Right--Tea Party...Orlando

The faces of Right-Wing Extremism
Orlando, FL 4/15/09

I took Caleb to the Tea Party gathering this evening in downtown Orlando. Generally I'm terrible at guessing crowd numbers but 'well over a thousand +' would seem to do it. Nationwide it seems the various events attracted close to 250,000 people...not shabby for a grassroots effort.

The Juice Box™ media, in concert with various Sippy Cup™ bloggers, have promoted the meme that the Tea Party movement has been orchestrated by the dastardly hands at Fox News, American Solutions, and Dick Cheney. Not Dick Cheney. I'm making that up, but is anyone seriously surprised his name hasn't come up somewhere...along with that of AIPAC, various and sundry zionists, or the LDS Church? Any boogeyman will do. Seriously, more than 500 events nationwide had been organized before the first mention on Fox, or any other news outlet for that matter. It's almost as if the Sippy Cuppers™ lied forgot about what a useful tool Meetup, and other forums for grassroots organizing are...that is before MoveOn, Code Pink, and their other "grassroots" organizations like ACORN "organize" national protests with other people's money.

Just remember to take a page, or in this case, a number from Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals Progressives:

“Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon. It’s hard to counterattack ridicule, and it infuriates the opposition, which then reacts to your advantage.”

That seems to fit the message coming from the teabaggers out there. Ouch! Small wonder the "teabagging" meme is being promoted by people like Anderson Cooper, Glenn Greenwald, and Andrew Sullivan (among others)...three men who have generally had more cock in them than a Tyson Chicken processing facility.

When all is said and done, what remains is how will the Tea Party movement will aid in building bigger coalitions that can help bring back a modicum of fiscal sanity to Washington. I have my doubts that on a national level the excitement over the effort can be channeled into long term electoral success, the GOP is still too out of touch to even realize what's happening at the peon level. So, what happens next, if anything? Some interesting proposals are floating around out there. Read and participate if the spirit moves you.

Mike

Blago at WDW

So, former Democrat governor Blagojevich, where are you going to go when you know a 16 count federal indictment is coming your way?

Why he's going to Disney World of course ;-)

Mike

UPDATE: Thanks to Doug Ross @ Journal for the Ross-o-lanche!

It's All Good

Excuse the absence for the past few months. I've been busy getting to know my 8 year-old son, who I never knew about until mid-December. Nothing, NOTHING has been more important than that.

Regular posting to resume sooner or later.

Mike