Arizona über alles!

Posted on Comments

The “Fourth Reich” meme has caught on, as predicted, with a Colorado Democrat invoking the Nazi specter:

“It is absolutely reminiscent of second class status of Jews in Germany prior to World War II when they had to have their papers with them at all times and were subject to routine inspections at the suspicion of being Jewish,” Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo), who is Jewish, told POLITICO. . . .
“I think it’s a very fair comparison and I hope that we’re not headed on the same trajectory that Nazi Germany was,” Polis said. “But this was a very recent experience for Jewish Americans and Jews worldwide and it’s something that when we see similarities we start ringing alarm bells.”

You’ve got to love that “reminiscent,” as if Arizona had enacted some kind of latter-day Nuremberg Laws rather than merely authorizing cops to ascertain legal residency in cases of “reasonable suspicion” that someone was in the country illegally. (Hat-tip: Ace of Spades.)

Despite predictably misleading portrayals of the Arizona law as an Hispanic Kristallnacht — before the law has even taken effect, and before any example of actual harassment could be cited — it is discovered that 60% of voters agree with the Arizona law. And note this:

At the same time, however, 58% of all voters are at least somewhat concerned that “efforts to identify and deport illegal immigrants will also end up violating the civil rights of some U.S. citizens.”

Have a majority of Americans suddenly become Brownshirts, or does the Arizona law reflect the kind of common-sense policy that most Americans have always supported? This poll seems to indicate to me that, as with the regretable hassle of undergoing security screenings at airports, Americans are willing to tolerate some infringement of “civil rights” in the interest of public safety. Abstract libertarian theory yields to practical considerations in the face of a dangerous reality.

Speaking of dangerous reality, how about those peaceful, law-abiding liberals? Dissent is suddenly patriotic again . . .

Via Memeorandum. More at Hot Air, Cassy Fiano, Gateway Pundit, Jammie Wearing Fool and Da Tech Guy. And of course, nobody plays the Nazi card like Rachel Maddow:

Where did Rachel get her guilt-by-association smear? Three guesses and the first two don’t count.

UPDATE: Even before Maddow’s Nazi smear, Ed Driscoll notes that the “obligatory MSNBC Godwin’s Law violation of the day” came from Contessa Brewer, invoking the specter of “neighbors are turning in neighbors or families turning against families” — sort of an Anne Frank scenario, you see — complete with the same “Papers, Please” chyron featured in the Maddow segment.

Allen West Must Win

Posted on Comments

Citing a new poll about Allen West’s campaign in FL22, Dave Weigel says:

[T]his should be one of the 40 seats Republicans win if they take control of the House in November.

Exactly. A lot of pundits are sitting around predicting a 40+ pickup for the GOP, but those kind of big numbers overlook the details of specific races all across the country where individual candidates are taking on incumbent Democrats. In order to flip 40 or more House seats on Nov. 2, Republicans are likely going to focus their efforts on a “hot” list of 70-80 possible flips by Labor Day, so that they’ll have about a 30-40% margin for error in the final nine weeks of the general election campaign.

If you haven’t started paying attention to these key House races yet, this must-win in FL22 is certainly a good place to start.

ALLEN WEST for CONGRESS

Mitch McConnell Mildly Miffed, But In A Good Way

Posted on Comments

by Smitty

The Senate Minority Leader was nearly moved to passion:

“Whether it’s the Stimulus, the debt, health care, bailouts — you name it — the concerns Republicans raised are being validated. And Democrats have the nerve, in this debate, to say that we’re the ones who are being dishonest.”


What would it take to move this man into Rated PG territory, one wonders?

Update: Some interesting tidbits in the WaPo, via Drudge:

Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) joined Republicans in voting to prevent debate from proceeding. When the outcome was clear, Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) also voted no, a move that allows him to reintroduce the measure later.

While the procedural vote delays formal consideration of the overhaul bill, lawmakers in both parties have said they expect it will ultimately be debated — and passed — in the coming weeks, though the exact contours of the final legislation remain uncertain.

There are signs that at least a handful of Republicans will ultimately vote for some form of the bill. Democrats in recent days have increasingly coalesced around the far-reaching legislation. They are eager to pressure Republicans into a difficult vote, in which liberals could characterize those who oppose the bill as trying to protect Wall Street.

Pink Elephant Pundit Requests The Attention Of Keith Olbermann

Posted on Comments

by Smitty

Here is the evidence:

In light of GeicoGate and the recent accusations from the media regarding the violent rhetoric of the conservative movement, I’ve taken the liberty of editing together the voicemails and emails we’ve received as a result of DC Douglas’ call to contact FreedomWorks. Here’s the result.

I listened to about a minute of the stuff at the link. After 4.5 years at sea and 3 deployments in the Navy, I can pronounce these callers unimaginative. For all their voices are clearly those of adults, albeit sounding rather stoned, their taunts really don’t advance beyond the schoolyard.

Fight the good fight, Tabitha. Clearly Keith should give these twerps some vocabulary lessons. If they’re going to tie up an organization’s phone line with repetitive, whiny invective, the ranting should at least include a modicum of entertaining bombast. And Ms. Hale at least merits one of Olbermann’s trademark declensions into the nether fathomage of self-parody for her opprobrious behavior.

Yeah, and I’ve been bad, too.

Related, here is some sweet Olbermann hypocrisy on dissent.

Troubling News From Fitchburg, Mass.: If Scott Brown’s Lost Josh Romano . . .

Posted on Comments

In his new gig writing for the Examiner, Pete Da Tech Guy finds trouble at the corner market for the “41st vote”:

We now know Brown’s price; $354,000.

That’s a local voter’s reaction to this Boston Herald article:

U.S. Sen. Scott Brown – the upstart GOP maverick who has threatened to filibuster the Democrats’ move to rein in Wall Street – raked in hundreds of thousands from investment banks blamed for the economic meltdown – including Goldman Sachs, according to a Washington, D.C. watchdog. . . .
Wall Street firms were Brown’s second-biggest donors, dishing out $354,000 to his campaign, including $5,500 from Goldman, according to the D.C. group.

“Party of the rich,” blah blah blah. The financial regulation bill is a phony load of crap, and no sensible person has to be bribed to oppose it, so there is no basis for the insinuation that Scott Brown is merely doing the bidding of Corporate Amerikkka. And I’m betting Chris Dodd and Barney Frank have gotten a lot more Wall Street money than Brown has.

Congratulations to Da Tech Guy on his new gig — it doesn’t pay all that much, but he’s already got an Instalanche on one of his articles. Meanwhile, his famous “Have Fedora, Will Travel” offer is still available, if you get the urge to hit his tip jar, as you certainly should.

The Most Important Sentence in Gabriel Sherman’s Sarah Palin Hit Piece

Posted on Comments

“While careful not to say anything that might make her rear her head, some in the GOP Establishment whisper that they hope Palin stays in Wasilla. She may be useful in raising funds and drawing crowds, but Palin’s unseriousness and carnival antics damage the brand. ‘There’s a big piece of the Republican Party that doesn’t want her to run,’ said one national Republican strategist.”

Really, let’s cut to the chase here. Some of the details in the New York magazine article just confirm what I’ve previously noted, i.e., Palin’s inaccessibility to the press, her tendency to rely on a small number of close advisers, etc. But this kind of dishy “behind-the-scenes” feature story wouldn’t be possible if it weren’t for the willingness of GOP insiders to badmouth Palin behind her back. And being badmouthed constantly by anonymous Republicans only increases Palin’s defensiveness. Why should she trust anyone, when it seems there is an incessant stream of tattletales running to whisper damaging gossip to reporters?

UPDATE: A friend wonders why I said nothing about this part of Sherman’s story:

The only real blip concerned her ghostwriter, Lynn Vincent, a writer for the Evangelical World magazine, whom Palin chose from a short list of candidates presented to her by HarperCollins. After news of Vincent’s selection leaked, critics seized on a January 2009 pro-life piece she had written for World titled “Black Genocide” — as well as her association with the co-writer of her 2006 book Donkey Cons, former Washington Times writer Robert Stacy McCain (no relation), who had a history of racially charged statements and associations — to claim that Vincent was racist. Vincent, who had collaborated on a New York Times best seller about racial reconciliation, told me that she was deeply hurt by the racism allegation and considered suing the Daily Beast for a piece by writer Max Blumenthal headlined “Palin’s Noxious Ghostwriter.” But when the media shifted its focus to Palin’s next adventure, Vincent dropped the lawsuit idea.

The problem with suing for libel (and as a journalist, I thank God for this) is that under the Sullivan precedent, it’s almost impossible for a “public figure” to win a libel suit. Like politicians and entertainers, an author is more or less automatically a public figure, thus requiring proof of actual malice. And as opposed to, say, a false accusation of criminal behavior, the charge of “racism” is damnably hard to disprove, which is why it is slung around so frequently in political discourse.

So there was no percentage in Lynn suing the Daily Beast, besides which going to court over what was clearly a third-hand guilt-by-association smear wouldn’t help Palin — and helping Palin was what Lynn was hired to do, after all.

And shame on those people who keep spreading malicious rumors that Max Blumenthal was arrested in a raid on a so-called “ladyboy” brothel in Phuket!

UPDATE I: Ian Lazaran at Conservatives for Palin debunks a lot of Sherman’s article, which repeats several previously debunked memes.

UPDATE III: Allahpundit ho-hums:

Poor Dave Weigel was so bereft of juicy tidbits from the piece for his “Those Darned Wingnuts” beat at WaPo that he was forced to highlight the fact that she writes her own Facebook posts and how she fits into TLC’s programming strategy.

Yeah, Dave: Tell your bosses to rename it “Those Darn Wingnuts.”

For Dessert? ‘Epistemic Closure’!

Posted on Comments

The entrée is crow:

Here’s a free hint, kid: don’t talk crap about someone being a shill for ideologically-driven publications and think tanks when that sums up your entire resume. Your bosses might find you ungrateful . . . or they may giggle over the fact you’re a malleable idiot utterly lacking in self-awareness.

What causes this self-awareness deficiency? Yglesias appears on the verge of becoming Sullivanesque in this respect.