Victor Davis Hanson assesses the Obama effect on America

Barack the Healer  "Crying wolf about white evil-doing is predicated on the ossified notion that, given the history of slavery and racism in this country, there always must be two standards of public comportment, in which African-American public figures are given a pass for what would end the careers of others. Yet I think that pass is ending amid a growing cynicism and weariness among the multiracial public at large. When a pampered multimillionaire like Morgan Freeman or Chris Rock goes off the deep end, we yawn; when the insular Black Caucus resorts to yet more racially inflammatory accusations, we sleep; when the Washington careerist Eric Holder labels yet another of his critics a racist, we snore. Even Al Sharpton’s liberal supporters are embarrassed by his charade. In short, no one believes any more; the currency of racist accusation has become so inflated that it has lost its purchasing power."

The Democracy Delusion and Failed Mideast Policy  "Obama’s Middle East policy has been an abject failure. His “outreach” to the Muslim world, replete with groveling flattery of Islam, has created nothing but contempt for his weakness. His assault on our key ally Israel, the only true liberal democracy in the region, has earned no credit with the states that still refuse to accept Israel’s existence. His chummy relationship with Turkey’s Tayyip Erdogan ignores that country’s increasing Islamization and hostility to Israel. Meanwhile, Iran continues down the road to nuclear weapons, and Bashar al Assad keeps slaughtering his citizens. And through it all, the United States has little or no influence on events."


Yet, with all its failures and fecklessness, the Democrat foreign policy is a reflection of the left-wing world-view. We saw this all before as leftist pacifists, with their cries of "warmongers!" kept Britain from preparing for the coming terror of Nazi conquest, which was obvious to all. They were rightly called "useful idiots" by the Communists. TD

Alan Caruba; "Lethal Narcissism"

Warning Signs  "The problem is that it is often difficult to spot narcissism when it becomes a pathological disorder. In the case of the cult that Jim Jones fostered, it ended with the suicide of some nine hundred of his followers who gave a poisoned drink to their children and then took it themselves. History is filled with examples of men whose disorder led to the deaths of countless people to satisfy their delusions about themselves."

Mr. Caruba lists nine distinctives of narcissism which include these:

...3. Is firmly convinced he or she is unique and can only be understood by other high-status people.
4. Requires excessive admiration, adulation, attention and affirmation.
5. Feels entitled and demands automatic and full compliance with their expectations.

Now, lest you think this is one more assessment of the current president (because these qualities do describe him, wouldn't you say?), here Mr. Caruba surprises us all: 
"At this point, you are probably thinking that I am describing Barack Hussein Obama, but in fact I am quoting from Ali Sina’s book, “Understanding Muhammad and Muslims.” Sina is one of the world’s leading authorities on both and...has made it his mission to encourage Muslims to understand how Islam warps their normal human values of love, tolerance, and life itself."

Joe Paterno statue taken down

ESPN  "The Joe Paterno statue was removed Sunday morning from its pedestal outside Beaver Stadium, and it will be stored in an unnamed "secure location," Penn State president Rodney Erickson announced. Erickson also said the Paterno name will remain on the university's library.

Shortly before dawn in State College, Pa., a work crew installed chain-link fences to barricade access to Porter Road outside Beaver Stadium and covered the fence with a blue tarp.

"The work crew then removed the 7-foot, 900-pound bronze statue by forklift and placed it into the lower level of the stadium. Erickson released his highly sensitive decision to the public at 7 a.m. ET Sunday."

 

MoveOn and Obama Exhibit Detachment Syndrome on Aurora Murders

M Catharine Evans  "On the contrary, the high number of casualties may not have happened, if good law-abiding citizens were allowed to carry guns with them. It should be about expanding our right for both open and concealed carry. 

"And in a campaign stop in Ft. Myers, Florida, an emotionally detached Obama delivered a message to the grieving Aurora families that this was not a time for politics; yet the crowd can be heard whooping it up at inappropriate moments during the speech. [see video of his remarks where audience members behind the president were actually laughing on screen]."

Boy! this guy is really torked!!!! Could we wonder what Pelosi did to him to make him so mad?

From 2009; Snopes  "I think this is a GREAT letter and sure took some moxie to write it.
Good thing we have some really brave people still around.

FYI, This has been checked via Snopes, who contacted Mr. Guthrie, who confirmed he did indeed write & send this letter to Ms. Pelosi, this is one brave American !!! AND------his credentials are awesome!!!!"   Hat tip to Robert Hope, former fellow Marine now living in Sacramento.

Corroborated by Truthorfiction  

Summary of the eRumor:  A letter either in the form of a JPG computer image or an Adobe PDF file of a letter written by attorney Dennis L. Gurthie and addressed to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. In it, Guthrie notes his distain for what he calls "Madame Pelosi's socialist and Marxist views," his concerns for our free market economy and his anger at what he called her labeling of concerned citizens protesting wasteful government spending as "un-American."

The Truth:  A spokesperson from the law offices of Guthrie, Davis, Henderson & Staton in Charlotte, North Carolinam told TruthorFiction.com that Dennis L. Guthrie is the author of this letter which he sent to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Excerpt of the letter:  ....Don't ever use the term un-American again for protesters who love this country and are exercising their rights upon which this country was founded.By the way, while I served in the Army, I was spit on by the same type of lunatics who support you and who you probably supported in the 60s and 70s. You are an embarrassment to all of us who served so that you would have the protected right of free speech to call us un-American. More...  The 2009 letter lists an impressive array of credentials for Mr. Guthrie, but TW has not been able to independently verify them. If only a few are true, he is indeed an exceptional man.

Predictable reactions to the Colorado shootings

When in doubt, blame the Tea Party!  "Tea partiers across the nation have always responded to these types of attempts to vilify in a very dignified, gracious manner.  But now it is getting to the point where these sorts of accusations no longer merit the dignity of a response from Tea Party groups.
"How many more times must the whole nation endure the embarrassment of witnessing the on-air and in-print premature speculation of folks like Ross, Stephanopoulis, and Krugman?  Who is going to clean up the mess that reckless, irresponsible words leave hanging in the air and on the internet?" Doug Mainwaring

Lib Senator Promises to to Reintroduce Gun Control Legislation In Wake Of Colorado Shooting   "Despite all of the calls not to politicize the Colorado shootings last night, gun control advocates have been demanding that politicians use it as an opportunity to take action on national gun laws."


Buzzfeed; Yesterday's Tragedy In Colorado As Told Through 50 Front Pages From Around The Country

Legal Insurrection; Analysis: Colorado shooter likely not wingnut because didn’t target gays, Muslims or foreigners

We’ll have to wait and see what motivated James Holmes to open fire on a theater full of innocent moviegoers. But if he turns out to be a psychopath with an unholy attachment to some right-wing ideology, it will not really be surprising. Indeed, it will be all too familiar, all too predictable.   Quoting Crooks and Liars. Find it yourself.

 Mark Levin Calls for ABC to Fire Brian Ross and George Stephanopoulos

"When you have rogue, politically-motivated reporters like Brian Ross and George Stephanopoulos - and somehow Stephanopoulos is getting a pass – both of ABC News trying to turn this into yet another disgusting attack on the Tea Party, trying to draw connections between the killer and the Tea Party, it doesn’t get any lower than that. Boy these people hate us, don’t they? I mean, they really hate us."

Colorado Massacre Caused by Heated Rhetoric and Kinky Sex Freak With 6,000 Rounds of Ammunition … "If it subsequently turns out that Holmes was involved in “Occupy,” OK. But let’s not start speculating or jumping to conclusions, because then we’ll have no credibility at all, like Brian Ross and ABC News."  Source: The Other McCain


Falsely Accused Tea Partier to ABC's Brian Ross: 'What Kind of Idiot Makes That Kind of Statement?'  "“Really, seriously, how do we take a journalist seriously when it’s pretty clear they really haven’t done any sort of check on their facts?” told the Caller's Alex Pappas: 

"Holmes informed Pappas that ABC News didn’t contact him before Ross went on air. 

....

“I do understand what making a mistake means," Holmes added. "But is it really worth the person’s reputation, the potential ruining of the person’s reputation?”

Tea party leader tells media to stop ‘reckless and false reporting’ after Batman shooting  "Regina Thomson, the president of the Colorado Tea Party Patriots, said in a statement, “The member of the Colorado Tea Party Patriots, Jim Holmes, age 52 is not the same person who has been identified as the shooter.”

"“The attempts of some media organizations to characterize the shooter as a Tea Party member without having made any effort to contact our organization are shameless and reprehensible,” she said."

INTERVIEW WITH JAMES MICHAEL HOLMES, HISPANIC TEA PARTY MEMBER FALSELY ACCUSED BY ABC   
"He is a 52-year-old Hispanic conservative who joined the Tea Party after becoming disillusioned with the Republican party."
....
From the comments in this post:

I'm boycotting the Companies who Advertise on ABC News and Good Morning America, until Brian Ross, and George Stephanopoulos are fired.....

Those sponsors are...
Sponsors of ABC World News
Is putting pressure on the sponsors a way of getting ABC to listen to us? Is this the right boycott list?

BULLETIN: Journalism's Dark Night

"And what was the source of their explosive accusation? They went to a Tea Party website (a funny place to start a journalistic investigation) and found someone with the same name. That's all. One of 27 people living in the area with the same name.

....In a just world, Ross would lose his job and ABC News would be slapped with the biggest fine ever levied.

"And when I say "in a just world," I mean that will happen when Hell freezes over or when the MSM starts reporting news honestly. Guess which one I think will happen first?"


And yet, media bias is so flagrant but does not merit news coverage in and of itself.

Aurora Victims Names And Stories Begin To Emerge

Buzzfeed  "Although officials have not released details of the victims identities, several of them have been identified by their families and friends. Victim Jessica Ghawi's brother Jordan went to twitter yesterday to say “Let us remember the names of the victims and not the name of the coward who committed this act.” Here's what we know so far about those who tragically lost their lives." (emphasis in the original)

Gun Control Only Makes Law-Abiding People Defenseless

Godfather Politics "The most recent riots in London indicate that lawless people will use any means at their disposal to force their wills on others. Three men were killed by an automobile, people were openly beaten in the streets, and business establishments were looted while others were burned. Store owners had no way of protecting their property. The people doing the looting, and they weren’t just the poor and disenfranchised (a millionaire’s daughter, a ballet student, a musician, an organic chef, a university graduate student, and a law student are just some of the types of people arrested), knew that they would meet little resistance."

Bing

Did the state make you great?

Charles Krauthammer

“If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.”

— Barack Obama, Roanoke, Va., July 13

"Limited government so conceived has two indispensable advantages. It avoids inexorable European-style national insolvency. And it avoids breeding debilitating individual dependency. It encourages and celebrates character, independence, energy, hard work as the foundations of a free society and a thriving economy — precisely the virtues Obama discounts and devalues in his accounting of the wealth of nations."

McClatchy: Commentary: 'Life of Julia' is a life without ambition  "One of the major underlying issues in this year’s election is to what extent we will, as Arthur Brooks of the American Enterprise Institute put it, continue to value “earned success,” or slide into “learned helplessness.” "  E. Thomas McClanahan

Iowahawk: Julia's Circle of Life  "The continuing adventures of Barack Obama's favorite eyeless, mouthless government dependent"

More Iowahawk; Readings from the Book of Barack:
⁴⁰ Then the Lord Govt turned the retailer and the manufacturer and the wholesaler and all the servicers, and said,

“I will make your taxes and regulations very severe;
with painful labor you will give birth to profit.
You shall be afflicted with plagues of audits,
    the coming of Osha, and the trials of Irs.
By the sweat of thy brow you will earn thy living
    until you return it to Me.
You will suffer the droughts of subsidy and stimulus,
    and will thirst forever. You're welcome."  More...

Ethel C. Fenig; Why you didn't build that  "Tom Smith of RightCoast extends President Barack Hussein Obama's (D) you didn't build that business alone revealing statement and then flips it, discussing those businesses that haven't been built."

http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/2012/07/20/101278

ABC's Brian Ross apologizes for blaming Colorado shooting on the right

Rick Moran  "But Brian Ross, the ABC reporter who suggested that the name "Jim Holmes" he found on a tea party website was the same man who allegedly murdered 12 people at a Colorado theater today -- and turned out to be laughably wrong -- will probably get promoted to the White House beat if Romney is elected president. After all, he showed a lot of initiative in trying to smear the right which is exactly what ABC will be looking for if Mitt wins in November.

"Now that the report has turned out to be a figament of Ross' imagination, ABC is apologizing."

....

"What made Ross go to the Tea Party page in the first place? Was he looking for an excuse to blame the Tea Party for the massacre?"

Big Journalism

The liberals are always predictable; cases in point:
Bozell: ABC's Disgraceful Rush to Judgment on the Tea Party"In a moment that demanded clarity of thought and purpose, Ross rushed to slander those with whom he does not agree politically, exposing the depths and darkness of his political prejudices."


Daily Kos Blames America First for Aurora Shooting

Twitchy Documents Liberals Blaming Rush Limbaugh for Aurora Movie Theater Shooting 


Obama Mega-Donor Bill Maher Uses Colorado Movie Shooting To Bash “American Exceptionalism” …

COLORADO THEATER CALLED 'GUN-FREE' ZONE

WND  "Gun advocates say the movie theater where a Colorado gunman opened fire Friday, killing 12 and wounded 58, has a strict policy against firearms on its premises – even for patrons [who] have concealed handgun permits."
....

"That’s exactly how it happened in the same town just three months ago – when a man gunned down a pastor’s mother at the New Destiny Center church in Aurora, Colo.

"The shooter, Kiarron Parker, had been released early from prison after serving time for assaulting two officers.

"An off-duty Denver police officer – who had been carrying a concealed firearm during the church service – shot and killed the gunman.

"What would you do if armed attackers broke into your church or movie theater and starting attacking your friends with automatic weapons? Would you be prepared to defend yourself and other innocents?  A man who did just that explains why good people NEED guns."

Thoughts about the Colorado theater shooting

Sadness, but No Anger  "The responses of both presidential candidates to the horror in Colorado feel weak to me. They are characteristic of our culture, which treats each of these grostesque acts of mass killing as “tragedies.” The proper response to such an atrocity is rage. It wouldn’t be out of place for the president and the man who hopes to replace him to refer to the shooter as a “monster.” We don’t do that. Instead, we focus on “healing.” We’ve become excellently behaved victims."  Mona Charen

ABC Irresponsibly Connects Colorado Shooting to Tea Party
NRO; Colorado: Our Odd Focus  "Whole groups will be vilified, blame will be apportioned to those many times removed, and the shooter will be partially absolved of blame by those who prefer to see fault in video games or talk radio or political rhetoric or anything else that can be conscripted to explain why terrible things happen to good people. Few will point out that unless someone commits an atrocity in the name of an ideology — Timothy McVeigh, for example — their political beliefs are wholly irrelevant. Even in cases where a killer is motivated by something specific, to draw general conclusions is most often folly. America is not the land of collective guilt, and mass shootings should carve out no exception. Those few people who have already jumped on the crime to hit out at their boogeyman of choice are fools." Obama Prays For CO Victims: "What If Malia And Sasha Had Been At The Theater?" "I think is a day for prayer and reflection," Obama said in conclusion. "I'd like us to pause in a moment of silence of the victims of this terrible tragedy." In a particularly odd moment, several of Obama's supporters in Fort Myers chanted "Four More Years" as he concluded the decidedly apolitical event. Mitt Romney Reacts To Aurora, Colorado Shooting  ""We pray that the wounded will recover, and that those who are grieving will know the nearness of God," Romney said." Colorado Batman Movie Shooting Suspect James Holmes Was PhD Student

Neal Boortz draws some conclusions on the Colorado shooting  "Even at this early stage in the investigation, there are some things which we will undoubtedly see:

Progs will use this tragedy to focus on their desire for gun control.At some point the killer will be identified as a right-winger. This will be used to promote Hillary’s signature on that U.N. small arms control treaty.Our hearts go out to the friends and families of those killed and injured in this attack.