It’s hard to respect a “journalist” who repeatedly insulted and mocked leading conservatives he was assigned cover, and even wished death on some of them, to a secretive email list compromised of liberal media figures around the country.  Whatever this says about Weigel’s political orientation, it speaks loudly and clearly to the fact that he was an unprofessional jerk, and that’s putting it kindly.

Weigel has mostly owned up to this fact, which I think says something positive about his character.

But as long as Weigel is airing more of his Journolist laundry, perhaps it should be pointed out that at one point in time Weigel aired this same kind of vitriol against leading liberal figures.

For example, do you think Dave still thinks Paul Krugman is “obviously insane”, “simple-minded” and a “cancer on the Times”? Does he still think that Krugman’s column is a “litany of propaganda, lies, and insults”?

Does he still think that Maureen Dowd “sucks” and that her work is “absolute tripe”? Does he still wonder: “why is this woman employed”?

Because I sure do (all of the above), but then I do not have a professional need to ingratiate myself with the liberal media establishment.

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Late last week, at the 11th hour, the Senate removed an amendment that would have required the inspector general of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to investigate the corrupt ShoreBank bailout, as well as every other bailout since January 2009. It is the clearest sign yet that the White House and Democrats in Congress are covering up the truth. If there is nothing to hide, why block the ShoreBank investigation?

Even Rep. Barney Frank had publicly given his support to a ShoreBank probe. The bank claimed an investigation would delay the arrival of funds needed to keep it afloat. Yet Frank made sure that none of the banks being investigated would have had their federal assistance suspended (as the amendment originally provided). So there was no chance that ShoreBank’s bailout–if it were to be approved–would have been stalled.

Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun-Times–who is close to Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), the main political sponsor of the ShoreBank bailout–asks: “What exactly does Chicago’s ShoreBank have to do to survive?” But the real question she and other journalists must ask–and would ask, if this were any other bank–is: “What exactly are Democrats trying to hide?” If this Congress won’t investigate corruption, we ought to elect one that will.

With the passing of West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd, the defining narrative among politicos will — after a few hours’ decorum — emerge as does Byrd = Kennedy? That is to say that, while so many West Virginians would never vote against Byrd, now that he’s gone there are plenty of the same Blue State voters who would vote against a non-Byrd Democrat in this Age of Obama.

I don’t follow West Virginia politics closely but assume their version of Scott Brown would be Rep. Shelley Moore Capito. His or her identity, as well as whether the same phenomenon would play out, likely depend on if the election is held this fall, vs. 2012: there are some murky legal issues to sort through involving how long a placeholder would hold the seat. Still I’m pretty sure it will be someone staunchly anti-cap-and-trade (in both parties, in fact; the last West Virginia politician to show insufficient zeal against the scheme, Rep. Alan Mollohan (D), recently lost in a primary).

Cap-and-trade of course is the vehicle by which the president vowed to cause your electricity prices to “necessarily skyrocket” as part of his effort to “bankrupt” the coal industry and anyone who sought to continue burning coal for that one-half of our electricity that it provides. Incidentally, today’s Wall Street Journal also notes how Obama’s anti-coal jihad just cost about 1,000 jobs in Wisconsin; West Virginia needs no such reminders yet as they pile up they also cannot help but be relevant.

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The debate agitating many in New Jersey right  is whether or not the state’s Governor, Chris Christie, is actually doing much to reform the state as it needs to be. I have to say that I wasn’t impressed with him during his campaign for the Republican nomination against Steve Lonagan. Having no interest in the politics of politic, he sounded like a big government Republican to me.

With that in mind, I was nicely surprised by the turn that Christie’s campaign against Corzine took and by some of his policies. He talked about small government, the need for reforming New Jersey, rejected the millionaire tax, capped property taxes and proposed budget cuts. But now that I am catching up on New Jersey reforms, I am skeptical again.

Let’s start with by comparing Christie’s FY 2011 $29.3 billion budget to Corzine’s FY 2010 budget of 29.8 billion. Given today’s economic climate, a 1.5% cut is not one that deserves immense praise. However, for a second I thought, “spending cuts are spending cuts and better that than nothing.”

That’s until I came across the alternative budget prepared by Americans for Prosperity called New Jersey Taxpayers’ Budget FY 2011. The AFP budget adds up to $25.9 billion. That’s $2.4 billion less than what is proposed by Governor Christie. Plus, they did this, without raising taxes. Unlike Christie’s budget.

That’s right, as part of a compromise on the budget, Christie made a deal with Democrats: he will put back millions into his budget (to buy things such as keeping open Hagedorn Psychiatric Hospital in Hunterdon County, funding for cultural sites including the Battleship New Jersey and the Newark Museum, more funding for projects in Urban Enterprise Zones) in exchange for  a series of new tax and fee hikes are being put forward as supplemental bills.

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The great Pat Caddell and Kendra Stewart survey the recent South Carolina elections over at Real Clear Politics:

Soon-to-be Congressman Tim Scott

Perhaps nothing better illustrates the historic change brought on in these June elections than the nomination – and all but certain election – of Tim Scott. In the first Congressional District – the very cradle of the Confederacy (a.k.a. the “Fort Sumter” district) – the over 90% white GOP primary runoff voters, elected the black conservative Scott in a 68-32% landslide over the son of South Carolina legend Strom Thurmond who was endorsed by all of the unsuccessful white candidates from the primary including the son of former governor Carroll Campbell. For South Carolina it was truly a “when hell freezes over” moment.

Clearly change and reform are in the saddle – and boy does this state need it. For a state seemingly inured to its multitude of problems of terrible schools, an under supported higher education system, the nation’s 7th highest unemployment rate, and undisputedly dysfunctional state politics this moment has not come too soon. Despite its many attributes and resources, South Carolina has stagnated for three decades while its coastal neighbors, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia have achieved startling progress.

For decades, first as a one-party Democratic state and now as a one-party Republican state, South Carolina has been ruled by a self-serving good-ole boys power structure which has blindly catered to the demands of special interests and insider deals. Nothing better illustrates its contempt for reform than the continued resistance of the legislative barons to the radical notion of recorded votes. From the era of segregation to the latest day, the good-ole boy system has protected its power by winning elections with the twin weapons of fear and smear. Enter Nikki Haley.

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From the Associated Press:

The Supreme Court held Monday that the Constitution’s Second Amendment restrains government’s ability to significantly limit “the right to keep and bear arms,” advancing a recent trend by the John Roberts-led bench to embrace gun rights.

By a narrow, 5-4 vote, the justices also signaled, however, that some limitations on the right could survive legal challenges.

Writing for the court in a case involving restrictive laws in Chicago and one of its suburbs, Justice Samuel Alito said that the Second Amendment right “applies equally to the federal government and the states.”

The court was split along familiar ideological lines, with five conservative-moderate justices in favor of gun rights and four liberals opposed. Chief Justice Roberts voted with the majority.

Two years ago, the court declared that the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to possess guns, at least for purposes of self-defense in the home.

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Dear Imam Rauf and Daisy Khan,

The remains of another seventy-two people were discovered on Friday not far from where you plan to build a thirteen-story Islamic center and mosque. Here we are, close to ten years after the largest jihadist attack ever to take place on American soil, and bodies, corpses, are still being recovered. Who knows how many body parts were found in the Burlington Coat Factory building when the landing gear crashed through all five floors? Thousands were never recovered. Their cemetery, their burial ground, is the area in and around Ground Zero. not far from where you plan to build a thirteen-story Islamic center and mosque. Here we are, close to ten years after the largest jihadist attack ever to take place on American soil, and bodies, corpses, are still being recovered. Who knows how many body parts were found in the Burlington Coat Factory building when the landing gear crashed through all five floors? Thousands were never recovered. Their cemetery, their burial ground, is the area in and around Ground Zero.

Of course, as one of the leaders of the opposition to the painful and strangely thoughtless “Cordoba Initiative,” my group SIOA will be pursuing legal avenues to stop or at least dramatically slow down the building of this mosque on the site that many consider to be a war memorial, while also staging mega-protests and sit-ins if and when construction begins, etc. But must it come to that?

You and I are New Yorkers. We  are Americans, first. You, too, felt the devastating pain and anguish when the military arm of Islam (al qaeda) unleashed its attack on America on September 11th. The gaping hole at Ground Zero is a constant reminder of that terrible war.

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From Reuters:

Republicans have questioned whether Kagan, a former Harvard law school dean who has served in the past two Democratic administrations, is driven more by politics than law.

Democratic backers call the 50-year-old nominee, who last week received the American Bar Association’s top rating, a perfect fit for the highest U.S. court.

Obama has faced a Republican wall of opposition this election year on issues like healthcare, climate change and immigration.

But barring unforeseen bombshells at the hearing, at least a few members of the opposition party are expected to join Democrats and confirm Kagan to replace retiring Justice John Paul Stevens, the court’s leading liberal.

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While Free Press pitches a (staged?) hissy fit about one with AT&T, Verizon – and Google and Skype

Chairman Julius Genachowski and his Federal Communications Commission (FCC) have been for quite some time seeking to drastically increase their regulatory control over the internet.

The Chairman and the Commission lack the legal authority to do this.  They have been told this by (at least) a Clinton-appointee led federal appeals court – in the Comcast-BitTorrent case – and a bipartisan Congressional contingent, who wrote Chairman Genachowski letters telling him to cut it out.

Undaunted, Chairman Genachowski headed once more into the breach.  On June 17^th, he convened the five FCC Commissioners to vote on a proposed reclassification of broadband – from the lightly regulated Title I to the much more burdensome Title II.  And the Commission voted to begin the investigative process, on a Democrat Party-line 3-2 vote.

All of this was done to the delight – and the crack of the whip – of the Media Marxists.  Led by the egregiously mis-named organization Free Press, the Media Marxists make up the “media reform” wing of the “social justice” movement.  Members of this movement are currently in power in Washington, and they are seeking to fundamentally transform our nation.

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From the Associated Press:

Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia, a fiery orator versed in the classics and a hard-charging power broker who steered billions of federal dollars to the state of his Depression-era upbringing, died Monday. He was 92.

A spokesman for the family, Jesse Jacobs, said Byrd died peacefully at about 3 a.m. at Inova Hospital in Fairfax, Va. He had been in the hospital since late last week.

At first Byrd was believed to be suffering from heat exhaustion and severe dehydration, but other medical conditions developed. He had been in frail health for several years.

Byrd, a Democrat, was the longest-serving senator in history, holding his seat for more than 50 years. He was the Senate’s majority leader for six of those years and was third in the line of succession to the presidency, behind House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

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In the first (and still best) “Austin Powers” film, a United Nations representative makes a faux pas and calls the film’s villain “Mr. Evil.”

“It’s Dr. Evil,” he huffs. “I didn’t spend six years in Evil Medical School to be called ‘mister,’ thank you very much.”

This is how I feel when I’m referred to as a “blogger,” sometimes with a political qualifier like “liberal” or “conservative” attached. I’m a reporter. I’ve been a reporter since high school. Like a lot of other people, I lucked into some reporting jobs that took advantage of the speed of the web — thus, I blogged. And I left the Washington Post because I was intoxicated by this medium by and the privileges of reporting. The leak of my private e-mails wouldn’t have been possible 10 years ago; but then, neither would have my career been possible.

Let’s go back to the start. I started in journalism in a fairly typical manner, by discovering how much I liked writing articles and doing interviews at my high school paper. I chose to go to Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. It was there that I became editor of the campus’s weekly conservative paper, and became plugged into the campus conservative journalism network.

Was I really that conservative? Yes. (more…)

Today, in 1778 , the Continental Army fought to a draw at the Battle of Monmouth. It was its own kind of victory.

From The Hill:

Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) has been admitted to a Washington-area hospital and is in “seriously ill” condition, his office said in a news release Sunday.

The statement said that Byrd, 92, “was admitted to the hospital late last week suffering from what was believed to be heat exhaustion and severe dehydration as a result of the extreme temperatures.” The region has experienced a stretch of temperatures in the 90s with high humidity.

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In his recent cover story for The Weekly Standard, Matthew Continetti praises CNBC’s Rick Santelli effusively for erupting against Barack Obama’s redistributionist policies on 19 February 2009 in such a fashion as to inspire the Tea Party Movement. Then, he blasts Fox News commentator Glenn Beck for seizing upon the current crisis as an opportunity for urging on the part of his fellow Americans a serious reconsideration of the country’s first principles.

“What distinguishes Beck from Santelli is,” Continetti writes, “the breadth and depth of his critique.”

In his broadcasts, books, and stage performances, Beck provides his audiences with a dark vision of American life. In this bleak tableaux, rich, highly educated, radical elites are using the instruments of power to control the common man and indoctrinate his children. The elites, Beck says, seized on the 2008 financial crisis to shape America according to their socialist, fascist, globalist vision. The only remaining obstacle to the elitist agenda is the pro-freedom movement that wants to return to America’s founding principles. The elitists fight the patriots by calling them racists and extremists.

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Republicans should welcome a comparison of the history of the GOP with that of the Democratic Party – the party of slavery and socialism, Big Government and the Ku Klux Klan.  To quote from chapter one of Back to Basics for the Republican Party: “The more we Republicans know about the history of our party, the more the Democrats will worry about the future of theirs.”

Here, you can test your knowledge.  The answers are below.

Q. How many Democrats in Congress voted to abolish slavery?
127
95
34
0

Q. Which park was established by a future Chairman of the Republican National Committee?
Central Park
Griffith Park
Franklin Park
Lincoln Park

Q. Which former Republican presidential nominee declined a nomination for Chief Justice?
James Blaine
Wendell Willkie
Thomas Dewey
Bob Dole

Q. Who was the first Vice President to attend Cabinet meetings?
Levi Morton (R-NY)
Theodore Roosevelt (R-NY)
Calvin Coolidge (R-MA)
Charles Dawes (R-IL)

Q. Which archaeological site was discovered by a future Republican U.S. Senator?
Angkor Wat
Great Zimbabwe
Machu Picchu
Stonehenge

Click “More” for the answers.

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Actor Jimmy Smits, Obama’s Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, and co-founder of the United Farm Workers of America union and Democratic Socialists of America member Dolores Huerta have recorded Public Service Announcements (PSAs) for the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) directed at workers “documented or not.”

In the video, the three DOL spokespersons announce the Department’s selective enforcement of U.S. laws as they explain that DOL intends to use its resources for both “documented” and “not” documented workers.  But, the real plan is to force all workers to pay union fees as a condition of employment.

U.S. Labor Sec. Hilda Solis’ 30-second script:

I’m U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, and it is a serious problem when workers in this country are not being paid every cent they earned.

Remember every worker in America has the right to be paid fairly whether documented or not.

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Today is Sunday, so it is likely that President Obama is golfing somewhere. We are in the best of hands.

Joe Biden traveled to Wisconsin yesterday to campaign with far left Progressive Russ Feingold (D-WI). Smokin Joe ordered a custard at a popular custard stand in Glendale during one of their stops. When Biden asked Kopp’s Frozen Custard stand owner how much he owed him, the owner responded,

“Nothing, just lower our taxes.”

Fat chance.

An embarrassed Joe Biden ignored him and walked away.

WISN 12 News reported:

A spokesman for the GOP responded to the VP’s visit:

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Union violence is often talked about anecdotally but seldom addressed.  Even though one 25-year study found nearly 9,000 reported incidents of union violence, union-controlled Democrats often try to sweep it under the rug and, when they can’t, they’ll feign shock while seeming to relish it when it happens.

On Wednesday, in Upper Merion, PA (outside of Philadelphia) another act of union brutality took place when several (presumably) union thugs used baseball bats to beat some construction workers who, in the union’s eyes, were guilty of being non-union.

Police say the incident began Wednesday morning when non-union construction workers attempted to gain access to the new Toys R Us site, but were blocked by protesting union workers.

When the victims were unable to gain access to the construction site, they drove to the area of the Transportation Center in the King of Prussia Plaza lot to wait for police assistance.

Authorities say while waiting for police to arrive, a black sedan pulled up and several white males exited with baseball bats and shattered both rear windows of the two work trucks. As the victims exited the trucks in fear, police say at least two were physically assaulted with the baseball bats. One of the victims was taken to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania for treatment.

According to Upper Merion Twp. Police Lt. James Early, even though there had been other incidents at the site, this is the first time it has gotten violent.

So, here we have workers who were were doing nothing more than going to work to earn a paycheck to feed their families.  Their “crime?”  They didn’t belong to the gang union.   As they were confronted by the union thugs, they left and called police.  While they were awaiting the police, they were followed and beaten.

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