Friday, January 24, 2014

Is the prosecution of Dinesh d'Souza politically motivated?

This is a follow-up to our piece from yesterday titled Dinesh D'Souza indicted for violating U.S. election law .
Ms. Althouse mentions in this article: "(We saw D'Souza's movie, and I blogged about it here and here.)"
Althouse  Speaking as a lawyer, Ms. Althouse writes:
"Laws need to be enforced neutrally, across the board, or we need to be free of them. When the executive authority spares its friends or, worse, targets its enemies, what is revealed is the insufficient or fake commitment to rules that bind everyone and that deter rule-followers (like me) from engaging in activities we might want to engage in. I want to smoke out this insufficient or fake commitment to campaign finance law by challenging government to prosecute all violators. If that challenge is unmet, we deserve different laws."

Sick joke: Anti-Obama filmmaker indicted for election fraud  "Going after D'Souza is petty politics. He's not an important conservative author or commentator. Recent scandals have tainted his reputation. But "2016" was the second highest grossing political documentary of all time and savaged the president mercilessly
"Reason enough in Obama's mind to destroy him."

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Lessons for Shove Guv Andrew Cuomo

"When you make people feel unwelcome, they just might take their business elsewhere."
Michelle Malkin   "When he railed against socially conservative Republican candidates in a radio interview last week, Cuomo hyperbolically singled out those he called “right-to-life, pro-assault-weapon, anti-gay” citizens. Sounding unapologetically purge-tastic, the governor said that these political opponents “have no place in the state of New York, because that’s not who New Yorkers are.” His bigoted comments provoked a fierce social-media-driven backlash led by devout Catholics and Second Amendment activists in the Empire State. And now, he’s got job-creating, tax-paying conservative businesspeople threatening to leave. Heckuva job, Andy!"

Before you buy that electric car...


bgsmelwstw
Electric Cars Won’t Save The Planet But Might Kill Their Drivers   "Environmentalists want us to believe that snowstorms and bitter cold are because of “global warming” and they tell us electric cars are the key to salvation. It’s all bunk. It turns out Smart Cars are as stupid as the people that buy them. A new study by the Environmental Science & Technology Journal proves what I’ve been saying all along: electric and hybrid vehicles will not reduce harmful emissions into the atmosphere."

Don’t Buy an Electric Car   ... "Still, I’m not a green Grinch. Our house is entirely powered by an enormous solar array. My wife has owned a Honda Civic Hybrid since it first came out in 2003. It just turned over 100,000 miles today. It’s a good car.
"When it comes to energy and the environment, I like to think I’m a pretty sensible, practical person. But I wouldn’t buy an electric car if you paid me. Here’s why:" ...

The Fisker; What Killed the New Electric Car  " Fisker’s failure (like that of the solar company Solyndra before it) is, as a result, being held up as evidence of the futility of all government investments in green technology. Lou Dobbs said, simply, “All they pick are losers.” And House Republican Jim Jordan, who will be chairing a hearing next week on the government’s loan to Fisker, called the company’s troubles “a very timely case study of what happens when the Department of Energy plays venture capitalist with taxpayer money.”

 

Low Information Voters: adding faces to the voices

Doug Ross  "You may have already seen these LIV thoughts here and here. But what a difference does putting a face to a voice make! The success of the Obamacare graphic (the first one below) made me want to do more with this concept."
 
  
 

Dinesh D'Souza indicted for violating U.S. election law

Reuters  " Dinesh D'Souza, a conservative commentator and best-selling author, has been indicted by a federal grand jury for arranging excessive campaign contributions to a candidate for the U.S. Senate.

"According to an indictment made public on Thursday in federal court in Manhattan, D'Souza around August 2012 reimbursed people who he had directed to contribute $20,000 to the candidate's campaign. The candidate was not named in the indictment.
....
" 'As we have long said, this Office and the FBI take a zero tolerance approach to corruption of the electoral process," the U.S. Attorney for Manhattan, Preet Bharara, said in a statement released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Bharara is an Obama appointee.
...
"He also directed a 2012 film critical of President Barack Obama, "2016: Obama's America," and has written books including "The End of Racism," "Life After Death: The Evidence" and "Obama's America: Unmaking the American Dream.' "  His website.

Video: Project Veritas Catches Wendy Davis Supporters [mildly] Mocking Greg Abbot For Being Paraplegic

The Lid  "Earlier this week we reported Texas Democratic Party gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis' gaffe about her opponent saying he "hasn’t walked a day in my shoes.”
"At the time we explained that her opponent Greg Abbott cannot walk in her shoes, he has been in a wheel chair since he was 26-years-old after a tree fell on him while running and paralyzed him from the waist down. Perhaps Davis didn't remember that because Abbott does not use his struggle as a campaign tool like Ms Davis does.

"That statement her not remembering may have been incorrect as Project Veritas has released a video (below) showing her supporters at a Davis rally mocking his disability and mocking the fact that they had forged signatures:" ...


The Persecution of Conservatives in Hollywood


Gulag Bound   "I have friends in Hollywood and in the entertainment industry on both coasts. These people are good, moral individuals. They have strong conservative principles and I am honored to know each and every one of them. Now, Progressive fascism is stalking them and the TEA Party. How long until they find a way to get to each of us? To shut is up one way or another? They are using what they term “McCarthyism” to hunt us down because we are not Marxists. It is long past time that we turn their collective tables on them.


Gary Sinise
"Hollywood is notoriously Leftist. Those few that are conservative, must meet in secret and keep their opinions to themselves for fear of being blacklisted and not being able to earn a living. Much like being a Jew in Hitler’s Germany, there are some things best not spoken of in public these days. I’m surprised they haven’t given them yellow stars." ...
....
Sinise in "Forrest Gump"
... "The Friends of Abe are Hollywood’s Conservative Underground and they are brave patriots who just want to return to our founding principles, see the government shrink and ensure that we adhere to fiscal responsibility.
...
"It is said that the Friends of Abe Friends of Abe numbers about 1500
currently. I have no way of knowing, nor should it be an issue. But I do know that they are growing and fast. I also know that the IRS is now gunning for them."

As you may guess, they are attacked by the left.

'Top Line' at the Movies: Gary Sinise and the 'Lt. Dan Band'   "The activist and actor talks about his foundation and new film to support troops."

Five Cool Ways To Remind Senators How Biased Media Are On Climate

Weasel Zippers
globalwarmingmoreham
 
"Via News Busters"
Two liberal senators that claim news networks don’t cover climate change enough are pressuring them to do more, even as a winter deep freeze kept much of the country shivering. But as the Media Research Center and others have already found, much of the news media have spent years working hard to convince the public that climate change is a global threat.

The Heroism of Wendy Davis

Ann Coulter
"The headlines capture the essence of Wendy-mania:  "CNN: Wendy Davis: From Teen Mom to Harvard Law to Famous Filibuster "Bloomberg: Texas Filibuster Star Rose From Teen Mom to Harvard Law  "The Independent (UK): Wendy Davis: Single Mother From Trailer Park Who Has Become Heroine of Pro-Choice Movement  "Cosmopolitan: Find a Sugar Daddy to Put You Through Law School! "Actually, that last one I made up, but as we now know, it's more accurate than Davis' rags-to-riches life story. "
....
"In response to Wayne Slater's faux-"expose," naturally Davis put out a statement denouncing ... her probable Republican opponent, Greg Abbott . Again, Slater wrote the story. But Davis blathered on, blaming Abbott for the Dallas Morning News story and complaining that he hasn't "walked a day in my shoes."

 "About that she's certainly right. Greg Abbott could never walk a day in her shoes or anyone else's. He's a paraplegic confined to a wheelchair. "I guess Wendy could teach him a lot about suffering." ...

Movie Stars of World War II; How Hollywood joined the war and fought for freedom

World of Images  "Hollywood stars of the 1940s that put careers on hold to fight for freedom. Movie stars of World War II earned more than 300 medals and awards that honor their valor. U.S. awards and medals include Silver Stars, Distinguish Service Crosses, Air Medals, Bronze Stars, Presidential Unit Citations, Purple Hearts, and a Congressional Medal of Honor. "

One example from many:  Walter Brennan (1894-1974)
[The Long, Long Trail (1929); Sergeant York (1941); Smoke in the Wind (1975)]. In many ways the most successful and familiar character actor of American sound films and the only actor to date to win three Oscars for Best Supporting Actor, Walter Brennan attended college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, studying engineering. While in school he became interested in acting and performed in school plays. Brennan enlisted in the U.S. Army at age 22 to serve in World War I. He served in an artillery unit and although he got through the war without being wounded, his exposure to poison gas ruined his vocal chords, leaving him with the high-pitched voice texture that made him a natural for old man roles while still in his thirties. He was too old to serve in World War II.

How about this one about Mel Brooks:
Mel Brooks (1926- ) [Comedian, actor, producer and director, i.e, Blazing Saddles (1974)] served in the U.S. Army in WW II as a combat engineer and took part in the Battle of the Bulge. His main job was to deactivate land mines.
 
Of course you realize that Books, being Jewish, would have likely been murdered outright if he was captured by the Nazis.

Many more are listed here.  Hat tip to Paul Van Alstine.

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Amazing video of Vietnam POW's 40th anniversary dinner

Honoring the special night they were welcomed back by President Richard Nixon. No, this dinner was not hosted by the administration but by the Richard Nixon Library.

 
Not attending either dinner was Obama friend and colleague, Bill Ayres, former Vietnam protestor
" Ayers went on to accuse Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who spent five years in a POW camp, of murdering civilians in the war, lament the deaths of two fellow Weather Underground members – skipping over the fact that they blew themselves up while trying to make bombs – and painted his actions as a heroic bid to end U.S. involvement in Vietnam."
 
Ayres called a "Vietnam-era radical".   ... "Ayers was not simply protesting "against" the Vietnam War. Firstly, he wasn't against war in principle, he was agitating for the victory of the communist forces in Vietnam." ...
(Emphasis in the original.)

Hat tip to Val Brose; Santa Maria, CA 

Forced unionization wrong for caregivers

OC Register  "Pamela Harris is a self-employed in-home caregiver. The Illinois resident’s one and only patient is her severely disabled son, Josh, who has Rubinstein-Taybi syndrome, a rare genetic condition, and spends most of his waking hours in a wheelchair.

"Ms. Harris is the lead plaintiff in a case heard Tuesday by the U.S. Supreme Court; she’s challenging a 2009 executive order by Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn mandating that the state’s in-home caregivers be union members. A decision from the high court is expected by June.

"Because the Land of Lincoln uses the federal Medicaid program to help pay for in-home care for patients, it provided Gov. Quinn a dubious pretext to categorize caregivers as state employees. That didn’t really register with Ms. Harris until a representative of the Service Employees International Union showed up at her front door." ...