Weekly Recap (2009-08-08)

Matt Margolis

Why Were the Black Panther Fascists Let Off?

Mark Noonan

Inquiring minds want to know:

As I have reported here at Pajamas Media and most recently at the Weekly Standard, the inexplicable dismissal by the Obama Justice Department of the default judgment in a case of egregious voter intimidation at a Philadelphia polling place on Election Day 2008 has unleashed a torrent of questions about why the case was dropped against all but one defendant (the individual actually wielding a nightstick got off with a proverbial slap on the hand) and who made the decision to drop it. The Justice Department has stonewalled, claiming career attorneys made the call.

But with news reports that career lawyers who did the legwork on the case were overridden and that the associate attorney general was involved in the decision to dismiss, Republicans on Capitol Hill and the bipartisan U.S. Commission on Civil Rights are swinging into action.

First, Rep. Lamar Smith, the ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee, and Senate Republicans have joined together to block, at least temporarily, the confirmation of the president’s pick to head the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, which handled the New Black Panther case. Roll Call reports:

Frustrated by what they say the Department of Justice is stalling in an investigation into alleged voter intimidation by the New Black Panther Party during the 2008 election, House and Senate Republicans have coordinated a temporary blockade of President Barack Obama’s nomination of Tom Perez to be assistant attorney general of the Civil Rights Division. …

In a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans, House Judiciary ranking member Lamar Smith (R-Texas) formally requested that a Member place a hold on Perez’s nomination.

“I write to request that you place a hold on the nomination of Mr. Tom Perez. … I ask that the hold remain in effect until the Department provides Congress with sufficient information about the sudden dismissal of a case alleging voter intimidation by the New Black Panther Party on Election Day 2008,” Smith said in the letter.

It is clear that it was a political decision to let the Panthers off the hook – Obama’s supporters look to fascist groups like the Panthers to provide the muscle necessary to intimidate the streets at election time. And all with plausible deniability – “what, us? No, no, no – that was them; they did it. We’re just sweet, innocent liberals who wouldn’t harm a fly”. If we don’t put a stop to this, we’ll soon find gangs of thugs around all our polling places – all of them menacing anyone they think might vote “wrong”.

The US Commission on Civil Rights is demanding that Justice – specifically, AG Holder – provide documents to show just why this clear violation of the Voting Rights Act was dropped. Holder can comply, or can stonewall. I believe he’ll stonewall as long as he can and then let out info in driblets, hoping it won’t go anywhere – but with the rise in voter anger as expressed in the TEA Party movement, the raucus town halls and the use of union thugs to beat anti-Obama demonstrators, this is all coming to a head. Either we’ve got a government which secures our liberty, or we’ve got liberal fascists intimidating us with government consent (actual or implied).

You liberals out there should really think hard about this.

France's Health Care System Punishes Patients to Cut Costs

Mark Noonan

Ah, the last bastion of “see, socialized medicine works“:

When Laure Cuccarolo went into early labor on a recent Sunday night in a village in southern France, her only choice was to ask the local fire brigade to whisk her to a hospital 30 miles away. A closer one had been shuttered by cost cuts in France’s universal health system.

Ms. Cuccarolo’s little girl was born in a firetruck.

France claims it long ago achieved much of what today’s U.S. health-care overhaul is seeking: It covers everyone, and provides what supporters say is high-quality care. But soaring costs are pushing the system into crisis. The result: As Congress fights over whether America should be more like France, the French government is trying to borrow U.S. tactics.

In recent months, France imposed American-style “co-pays” on patients to try to throttle back prescription-drug costs and forced state hospitals to crack down on expenses. “A hospital doesn’t need to be money-losing to provide good-quality treatment,” President Nicolas Sarkozy thundered in a recent speech to doctors.

It doesn’t work. It can’t work. Its stupid to think it could possibly work. We’re dealing with people here, for crying out loud. If you make it less than real cost to use a thing, then it will be used more than it should be – and then you’re stuck either charging more, cutting services or trying to do both. “Do both” is what France seems to have opted for (while the UK and Canada seem to have come down hard on the side of cutting services).

What should health insurance be? Coverage for chronic and/or catastrophic injury or illness, with various provisions for pregnancy. A trip to the doctor should cost $50. If it costs that much, people will only go when they need to – and they’ll go without any worry because if it starts to become more costly than a regular office visit plus, perhaps, a few regular tests and minor procedures, then the insurance is going to kick in and take care of it. We’ve been mind-bogglingly stupid over this thing for 40 years.

Fortunately, it looks like ObamaCare will drive the final nail in the socialized medicine coffin. After that, we might be able to start a rational debate about what we want insurance to be for.

His Majesty, Barry I

Mark Noonan

Or, so he seems to wish:

Yesterday, at a rally for R. Creigh Deeds in Virginia, President Obama said: “I don’t want the folks who created the mess do a lot of talking. I want them to get out of the way so we can clean up the mess. I don’t mind cleaning up after them, but don’t do a lot of talking.”

For Barack Obama, democracy appears to be a distraction. He really does seem to view himself as a Caesar.

Shortly after taking office, Obama held a meeting with governors. At the time, one person in the room relayed Obama’s request that critics and skeptics of the stimulus plan keep their concerns to themselves. Just let me do it, was his attitude. He got pushback and he wasn’t happy. He wanted democratically elected state governors to shut up so he could do as he pleased. He knows better and we should respect that, seems to be the attitude.

Nothing worse in power and an ignorant man who thinks he knows what he’s doing. This will get a lot worse before it gets any better.

Phrase of the Day

Mark Noonan

Never forget these words:

Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. The millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. – Patrick Henry

Poll: 14% of Americans Can be Fooled All of the Time

Mark Noonan

Geesh:

Just 14% of likely voters give Congress good or excellent ratings this month, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

That’s down four points from June, nine points from May, and is the lowest rating measured for the legislators since February.

Fifty-six percent (56%) of voters say Congress is doing a poor job, up nine points since June and the highest level found since October 7, 2008.

Democratic voters are fairly evenly divided on the question, with 27% who give the legislature good or excellent ratings and 31% who say members of Congress are doing a poor job. Most Republicans (74%) and unaffiliated voters (70%) give Congress poor ratings.

14% of all Americans are suckers – but 27% of Democrats. Thus we know for certain that Obama will win at least 27% of the vote in 2012.

Why Did the Unemployment Rate Go Down?

Mark Noonan

Lots of reasons – and Mish’s has them. Read the whole article – meanwhile, I’ll nutshell it:

1. The government hired 12,000 people in July

2. The auto sector added 28,500 people in July

3. The employment to population ratio dropped to 59.4% from 59.5% (it was 61% in January)

The auto sector was the actual bit of good news – but “cash for clunkers” was clearing out some inventory and the number of new cars available may have dropped so low that it was ok to bring some of the workers back. We’ll see if they keep their jobs for even 6 months.

The federal government has been hiring like mad and adding 12k to the census bureau was probably a swift way of doing something to help the jobs picture look brighter, as well as pay off some ACORN troopers.

The employment to population ratio is the most important – when we speak of a drop of a tenth of a percent, we’re likely speaking in terms of at least a couple hundred thousand people. Fundamentally, with that many people just calling it quits, its small wonder that the official unemployment rate dropped.

Obama might be able to keep this going for a bit – pumping up the employment numbers by adding government employees while the Bureau of Labor Statistics keeps dropping people from the rolls of both the work force and the unemployed workforce as people give up and/or lose their benefits entirely. But this can only be done for two or three months, tops, before the unemployment number starts to rocket back upwards. July was month one – August is month two. By October, at the latest, the unemployment number will start to rise again.

What Media Bias? Part 156

Mark Noonan

Posted without further comment:

Never accuse the Associated Press of being hidebound by journalistic tradition. In a sharp break with past practice, the once-venerable news service is providing its 1,500 member papers with ready-to-run stories produced by “independent” reporters and editors.

Earlier this month, the 163-year-old news cooperative announced it would distribute “watchdog and investigative journalism” penned not by its own staff or that of member papers, but by four outside groups: the Center for Investigative Reporting in Barkeley, Calif.; New York-based ProPublica; and two D.C. outfits, the Center for Public Integrity (CPI) and the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University.

AP, itself a not-for-profit enterprise, identified the four organizations as “civic-minded” nonprofits. They also all have decidedly liberal sponsors. A cursory glance at the “independent” news shops reveals their reliance on left-tilting patrons such as the Knight Foundation and leftist donors such as financier Herbert Sandler and currency speculator George Soros.

Liberal Fascists Get Violent

Mark Noonan

Just disgusting:

In Mehlville, Mo., St. Louis police arrested six people, some on assault charges, outside another forum that was billed as a meeting on aging but was attended by activists on both sides of the health care debate.

According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the police showed up toward the end of the forum held by Democratic Rep. Russ Carnahan. One conservative activist, interviewed at a local emergency room where he was being treated for injuries, said he was attacked by some of the individuals who were arrested as he passed out “Don’t tread on me” flags.

I’ve seen a video and it seems to me that it was SEIU union thugs who did the dirty deed.

They don’t want us to speak – they want us silenced. Look, liberals, you’d better wise up damned fast our you’ll find you’ve bitten off far more than you can chew. Conservatives outnumber union thugs by a wide margin.

UPDATE: Video of Carnahan trying to weasel out of responsibility.

UPDATE II: Matt has had experience in the tactic of using union thugs to suppress debate. This is nothing new – its just that now, with it all falling apart, the liberal fascists are getting desperate.

UPDATE III: Liberal fascists in Denver with the Speaker:

A supporter of health care reform, left, who did not want to give her name, pushes forward to rip a sign out of Kris McLay’s hands outside the Stout Street Clintic visited by Nancy Pelosi.

UPDATE IV: In the St Louis area on Saturday? Then head on over to SEIU headquarters and let those people know we’re not going to take fascism in our country.