Catholic Church betrays 3 more Cuban political prisoners

The Stone-Throwing AFL-CIO Boss Who Lives in a Glass House
Intellectual Dishonesty. Other than, perhaps, sheer hypocrisy , there just doesn’t seem to be any other term that describes the Left’s behavior in the aftermath of Saturday’s massacre in Tucson. On Monday, AFL-CIO boss Richard Trumka weighed in, stating in a post on the AFL-CIO blog: We must find ways to passionately debate and even disagree with each other without using words that can give unstable individuals an incitement to engage in violent acts. [snip] We do not know wh...

The Vitriol Will Likely Return
With any disturbing event, like the tragic and horrifying shooting in Tucson last Saturday, there is a natural tendency to extrapolate the impact of it for months or even years to come. The unspeakable event cost people from such varying walks of life as a 9-year-old girl and a Federal Judge their lives and has left Rep.Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., fighting for her life. Something like this creates a memory that is certain to be burned into the consciousness of current and former elected offici...

Majority Of Americans Not Buying Into Far Left Spin About Arizona Shootings
Immediately after the tragic massacre where a 22 year old Jared Lee Loughner (Mug Shot to the left) shot anywhere from 13 to 19 people (conflicting reports) people, killed six and left others, including the Congresswomen from AZ Gabrielle Giffords, in critical and serious condition, Far Left Democrats started pointing fingers and casting blame on Rhetoric and imagery from the political right to assign blame for Loughner's actions. A CBS News' poll shows the majority of Americans have not bough...

New site: Public Sector Inc.
A project of the Manhattan Institute, Public Sector Inc. looks at ways to fix the Budget problems in states and municipalities and counteract the "self-interested coalition between the public-sector and politicians." As I've said, public-sector Unions lobby for more government--and the Taxpayer loses. No where is that more evident than in Illinois, which appears to be on the verge of raising its Income Tax by 66 percent. But AFSCME, which represents more state workers than any other union, is pr...

The Tucson tragedy: over the line
I gasped when I saw the picture on my Facebook news feed. Joe Jervis, creator of the widely followed gay blog Joe.My.God, posted a separated at birth-like coupling of alleged Tucson murderer Jared Lee Loughner and Fox News's Glenn Beck. Folks, this is despicable. Beck may be a fire-breathing blowhard who doesn't deserve the mass following he has for the vitriol he spews daily, but to equate him with the twisted monster who stands accused of killing a 9-year-old girl and a Federal Judge and crit...

Mahers Offensive Rant About Loughner Sets New Low
Anderson Cooper took a very different tack last night in trying to make sense of the Arizona shooting tragedy from the weekend. While many on Cable News were turning down the partisan Rhetoric, AC360 producers booked comedian Bill Maher, who was unafraid to compare the imagined mindset of alleged assailant Jared Loughner with Fox News host Glenn Beck, while at the same time calling for responsibility in the media. You must login to comment. The Fox Nation is for those opposed to intolerance, exc...

First Read Scolds
Playing the Victim card when you’re not really the victim: What was particularly striking to us is how Activists, especially on the right, were playing the Victim when there are so many actual victims — the deceased, the wounded, the grieving — in Arizona. And here’s our point from yesterday: Although it appears that Jared Lee Loughner had nothing to do with mainstream Conservatism or Liberalism, can’t we all agree to condemn violent, de-humanizing, or de-legitimizi...

Turning It Down a Notch
Tue Jan. 11, 2011 8:28 AM PST For the next few days I guess we're going to be talking about political Rhetoric and how toxic it's become. And it has! But the problem is still with specifics. Here's First Read, for example: What was particularly striking to us is how Activists, especially on the right, were playing the Victim when there are so many actual victims — the deceased, the wounded, the grieving — in Arizona. And here’s our point from yesterday: Although it appears tha...

Right Wingers Defend Hate Speech While Tea Party Takes Advantage of Arizona Shooting To Raise Money
While Jared Loughner’s Extremist views differ from those of the Tea Party, many have raised concerns that the anti-government and hate-filled Rhetoric coming from the Tea Party movement, along with leaders such as Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck, contribute to an atmosphere of hate which promotes violence among disturbed individuals such as Loughner. There is a fine line between extremists on both ends of the political spectrum, and I was not at all surprised to see that Loughner’s view...

In They Are Who We Thought They Were News..
I had put this in the replies in yesterday’s Afternoon Open Thread, but I thought about it, and decided to FP it. In an apparent effort to distance themselves from the Mass Shootings in Arizona over the weekend, the Tea Party Express sent out an email to supporters proclaiming that they “won’t be silenced” — and asking for contributions. Earlier today, TPE leader Sal Russo went on Fox News and lamented how “revolting and disgusting the left is for trying to as...

On Jared Loughner: The politicized mind
Before he allegedly went off on his shooting rampage in Tucson, Jared Loughner listed some of his favorite books on his YouTube page. These included: “Animal Farm,” “Brave New World,” “Alice in Wonderland,” “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” “Through the Looking Glass” and “The Communist Manifesto.” Many of these books share a common theme: individuals trying to control their own thoughts and government or some other f...

America's worse sheriff
Image via Wikipedia IBD: It's bad enough that a fine congresswoman is shot down by a crazed assassin. But do those whose job it is to prevent such awful things have to insert their own base politics into the tragedy? As a key Law Enforcement figure in the Assassination attempt against Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik, a Democrat, might be expected to show some caution in commenting on the violent swirl of bitter, unsubstantiated and outright false accusation...

"Sarah Palin made him do it!" means Narrative failure
"Sarah Palin made him do it!" means Narrative failure While it's still too early to say this conclusively, I think that people who want to read their various political narratives into Jared Lee Loughner are ultimately in for a disappointment. The man's mind is so messed up that he's the political equivalent of schizophrenic word salad (schizophasia): Judging from Mr. Loughner's own website, his mind was a mess of Conspiracy theories, influenced by tracts like "Mein Kampf" and the "Communist Ma...

Heritage Foundation whines, "It all started when he hit me back!"
Conservatives never take responsibility for anything: Slavery, segregation, Racism, coddling Hitler, Central American death squads, Pollution, mass Incarceration, three decades of Budget-busting Deficits, 9/11, Katrina, the Iraq War, the Wall Street meltdown & the Great Recession--the list goes on and on. So why would their reaction to the attempted Assassination of Gabrielle Giffords be any different? And it's not, as the Heritage Foundation whines, "It all started when he hit me back!" Libe...

Feminist Left Blames Masculinity, Misogyny & Christine ODonnell for AZ Shooting
It didn’t take long for the fembots to come up with their own fantasy motivation behind the Arizona shooting. It was “woman-hating,” you see. It doesn’t matter that men were also targeted and killed (because that wouldn’t fit the theory.) “Feminists” see Misogyny in everything. It is possible that Jared Loughner hated women. More likely, he hated Gabrielle Giffords for unknown and invalid reasons. But The Progressive feminists have come up with a new w...

Pension Envy
Since the 80s many employers have stopped offering Health Care, Pensions and other benefits to their employees. Many are also cutting pay and hours, while increasing the workload. So more and more people are hurting. As more and more of us fall further and further behind, corporate/conservative propagandists use resentment to drive anti-union feelings. They tell people to oppose Unions, saying, "Why should they have it so good?" The real question you should ask is, "Why should we have it so ba...

Video: Global Warming Panic explained
The Coming Battle Over Public Sector Unions ... A Case of 'Tax Payers Vs. Tax Eaters' Gallup: Unemployment at 9.6% in December. Underemployment rose to 19.0% Re: The Debt Ceiling ... to raise or not to raise? War on Terror - the issues. C&R;: Aw, for glaven out loud. Muslim WakeUp! MWU! .PARALLEL UNIVERSES....

Jeff Jacoby: The widening fight against public-sector unions
If you enjoy this web site, please consider making a donation by clicking here. 1) A login is now required to comment. Several forms of login are accepted. If you experience any trouble, please let me know. (See contact page for email.) 2) HTML is on, so basic html should work. Raw links will be made auto-clickable, too, so even if you don't know html you can just paste in the link and it should work fine. Keep the "https://" in it. 3) Comments are generally unmoderated, which means I don't nece...

The pay-to-play score in Illinois since '95: SEIU $22 million--AFSCME $12 million
Yes, it's a Playoff football Sunday, but the score I referred to in the headline is in regards to the state of Illinois' Most Powerful public-sector Unions, SEIU and AFSCME. Records at the Illinois State Board of Elections site go back to 1995. Since then, SEIU contributed $22 million to a multitude of political campaigns. There are 4,148 contributions, which of course include cash, but also figuring in are in-kind donations such as volunteers, postage, and phone bank time. Yes, there were a fe...

A few Monday morning links
Moe Lane at RedState: A day may come... See Daily News: Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' blood is on Sarah Palin's hands after putting cross hair over district But Look who else put 'bull's-eye' on Giffords - Leftist blog points finger at Palin, while scrubbing 'dead to me' rant State-Run Media Interviews Friend of Shooter… Completely Ignores Her Claims That Shooter Was “Left-Wing” and “Quite Liberal” Let no tragedy go to waste. It's sickening. Progressives and the 'Bad Stuff' in t

DiNapoli, Champion Of Public Employees
All that work the Public Sector Unions did to help state Comptroller Tom Dinapoli eke out a win against his GOP opponent, Harry Wilson, is paying off. The comptroller is speaking out against the “vilification” of Public Employees, saying they should be part of the discussion when it comes to trimming state expenses. “It’s important for us to keep in mind that public employees provide important public services,” DiNapoli said. “And we are going through a tou...

How to Talk Civilly about Public Employees' Pensions: A Conservatives' Guide
It is now a staple news item that the political winds have shifted against Public Employees: Everyone -- from Democrats like N.Y.'s Andrew Cuomo to Republicans like N.J.'s Chris Christie -- is piling on, while conservative onlookers cheer. As readers of this blog may know, I tend to think that this scrutiny of public labor costs is a good thing. But even a good thing can spawn a lot of petty, misguided invective, and there has been no shortage of mean-spirited vitriol cast at Public Sector unio...

For A Little Perspective On Those Violent Images And The Language In Politics Az Sheriff Dupnik Spoke Of ...
As for Az Sheriff Clarence Dupnik's rant blaming the Rhetoric on conservative Talk Radio and television for the recent shooting in Arizona, and Conservatives in general, it is indeed time for politicians to stop using violent imagery in their political rhetoric, holding guns and proclaiming, "I'll take on Washington and this administration and get the Federal Government off of our backs!" The man firing the gun, of course, is West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat . This ad is credited with ...

Airborne Laser to Attempt Another Missile Shoot-Down
From the WSJ ... the U.S. Military achieved is out to repeat what some described as a game-changing first - shooting down a Ballistic Missile in flight with a laser. [...] Missile Defense Agency spokesman Richard Lehner said that the Airborne Laser Test Bed, a modified jumbo jet equipped with a powerful chemical laser, will attempt to knock down a target missile over 100 miles away in a test off the California coast. If the experiment is a success, it is likely to revive congressional interest i...

Rusmussen: Support for public-sector unions declines
Last May, a Rasmussen Poll reported that 53 percent of Americans supported public-sector Unions, while 37 percent opposed them. I've been saying for a couple of years that government unions push for more goverment--and the Taxpayers lose. The Taxpayers are waking up....