by Publius from BigGovernment.com
This morning, we broke video of a USDA official, Shirley Sherrod, recounting for attendees at an NAACP awards dinner how she withheld help from a white farmer seeking the agency’s help in saving his farm.
Fox News is reporting that Ms. Sherrod has resigned. From Fox:
“There is zero tolerance for discrimination at USDA, and I strongly condemn any act of discrimination against any person,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a written statement. “We have been working hard through the past 18 months to reverse the checkered civil rights history at the department and take the issue of fairness and equality very seriously.
“I figured that if I take him to one of them, that his own kind would take care of him,” she said.
So, the USDA has issued a statement. We’re still waiting to hear from the NAACP.
Presumably, they will denounce the racism in the video as strongly as the Obama Administration has.
Its not good to throw accussations of racism when your organization lives in a glass house. We will be awaiting the removal of Shirley Sherrod from her position but we won't hold our breath.
"The United States did not invent slavery. The United States invented freedom. Someone name me another country on earth that fought a civil war to make men equal. "
by Fred Barnes The Washington Examiner
For Republicans, the road map authored by Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin is the most important proposal in domestic policy since Ronald Reagan embraced supply-side economics in the 1980 presidential campaign. It's not only the freshest, boldest, and most comprehensive Republican thinking, it's also the most relevant. If Republicans adopt the road map as their basic ideological blueprint, it offers them the prospect of a landslide in the midterm election this year, followed by victory in the presidential election in 2012.For sure, that's a lot of weight for a policy statement drafted by a 40-year-old House member to bear. But the road map is perfectly timed to deal with the crises of the moment: economic stagnation, uncontrolled spending, the deficit and long-term debt, soaring tax rates, health care, the housing problem, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid.
Yet Republican leaders are wary of endorsing it, and for understandable reasons. The road map is sweeping and politically risky. It would overhaul popular programs like Medicare, relying on individuals to make decisions now made by government. Democrats are already attacking it. When Ryan delivered the weekly Republican radio address in late June, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi put out a press release under the heading, "Republicans Make Key Advocate of Privatizing Social Security and Ending Medicare Their Spokesman on Budget."
There are three reasons Republicans should ignore their jitters about the road map. The first is that the nation's disenchantment with Obama and Democrats will take Republicans only so far. There's a residue of bad feelings toward Republicans from the years the party ruled Congress, spent too much, and produced scandals.
Voters have memories. To overcome their qualms, Republicans need to provide more than a litany of Democratic faults. Voters are looking for a serious solution to the mess we're in.
The second reason should be obvious after the ignominious Republican defeat in May in the race for John Murtha's old House seat in Pennsylvania. Democrat Mark Critz won by running to the right -- against Washington, Obama, spending, the deficit -- and Democratic candidates across the country are taking the same tack.
Republican candidates need to put some daylight between themselves and their Democratic opponents. The road map will stamp Republican candidates as the real conservatives, which is what voters happen to be looking for in 2010.
The third reason is the Republican message (or the absence of one). In Pennsylvania, it was "send a message to Nancy Pelosi." Voters declined. The road map is a message. The country is falling apart, we're going broke, government is on a takeover binge, the economy is wobbling. The road map is the solution. That's a pretty good message.
For now, the road map has a relatively small but growing cheering section. A dozen House members have endorsed it. Sen. Jim DeMint praised it in his book "Saving Freedom." Jeb Bush likes it. On CNN last week, economic historian Niall Ferguson called Ryan "a serious thinker on the Republican right who's prepared to grapple with these issues of fiscal sustainability and come up with a plan."
The plan would give everyone a refundable tax credit to buy health insurance, allow individual investment accounts to be carved out of Social Security, reduce the six income tax rates to two (10 and 25 percent), and replace the corporate tax (35 percent) with a business consumption tax (8.5 percent). And that's not the half of it.
As ranking Republican on the House Budget Committee, Ryan was able to get the Congressional Budget Office to run the numbers in his plan. CBO concluded the plan would "make the Social Security and Medicare programs permanently solvent [and] lift the growing debt burden on future generations, and hold federal taxes to no higher than 19 percent of GDP." Pretty impressive results, I'd say.
The road map does one more thing. It would give Republicans an agenda if they gain control of the House or Senate in the midterm election -- or a mandate if they win both. "What's the point of winning an election if you don't have a mandate?" Ryan asks.
He doesn't expect a mandate in 2010. "I need to make sure these ideas survive this election," he says, and set the stage for "the most ideological, sea-changing election in our lifetime" in 2012. Merely survive in 2010? The road map can do better than that. How about thrive?
by Carl Kozlowski from BigHollywood.Breitbart.com
I’ll never forget the magic of growing up watching Bugs Bunny, Road Runner and the rest of the “Looney Tunes” pantheon of characters each and every Saturday morning in the ’70s and ’80s. They all had an anarchic spirit in which wickedly funny and endlessly inventive situations paid off with body-shaking laughter that often made me roll off the couch and hit the floor in a fit of giggles.
While Pixar has pulled off even greater works of animation over the past 15 years or so with films including the “Toy Story” trilogy and “Finding Nemo,” it often seems that the surprisingly adult sense of humor and flippant use of comic violence (outside of “The Incredibles”) found in the best Road Runner cartoons has fallen out of use amid today’s sea of CGI-animation movies. PC weirdos even successfully managed to have scenes from many of these classics deleted for fear that they would inspire copycat violence among children even though decades of youngsters had already enjoyed them uscathed.
That sadly gaping hole in the entertainment world has now been solved with the release of the wonderfully dark and visually stunning new film,“Despicable Me.” Starring the voice of Steve Carell (who pulls off a surprisingly great Eastern European accent) as a career criminal named Gru who wants to pull off the greatest robbery and ransom situation in the history of the world by attempting to steal the Moon, the film reveals its fresh visual spin from the opening credits forward.
The full-bodied visuals help sell the film’s dual plotlines, in which Gru faces competition in evil from his arch-nemesis Vector and finds his nearly-forgotten heart slowly warmed by three young orphan girls he adopts initially for use in his wicked schemes. Combined with impressive voice work by an eclectic group that includes both British bad boy Russell Brand as Gru’s evil mentor Dr. Nefario and Mary Poppins herself – Julie Andrews – as Gru’s never-impressed mother and a sparkling pop score by Pharrell Williams that features songs that recall the best of Stevie Wonder’s 1970s classics, the film’s attention to detail on every level pays off.
This is Universal’s first foray into the modern world of feature-length computer animation, following in the footsteps of not only the aforementioned Pixar films but also Dreamworks’ efforts such as the “Madagascar” films. It’s clearly a lucrative field to play in, but in hiring the writing team of Ken Daurio and Cinco Paul – Mormons who co-wrote the hit adaptation of Dr. Seuss’ “Horton Hears a Who” as well as the upcoming Seuss film “The Lorax,” and who insist on creating family-friendly works – they also landed a film with its heart in the right place.
“Despicable Me”’s off-kilter sense of humor and comic battle royales between Gru and Vector will keep little boys happy, while little girls will be charmed by the film’s three young heroines. That smart sense of balance – in which adults will also be highly entertained, even without towing kids along – is the film’s hallmark on every level and marks it as one of the most fun films of the year so far.
Flacco, New Recievers Like Old Friends
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by Mike Duffy from BaltimoreRavens.com
While the Ravens have been praised by many for their offensive additions, the fact that quarterback Joe Flacco has never thrown to the likes of Anquan Boldin and Co. at game speed could be a cause for concern.
But Offensive Coordinator Cam Cameron believes that won’t be a problem.
If anything, a strong offseason of collaboration between Flacco, Boldin, Donte’ Stallworth and rookie tight ends Ed Dickson and Dennis Pitta give the Ravens’ passing attack a head start going into training camp.
“Probably the most impressive thing Joe was able to do was adapt to Anquan, Donte’ and the two rookie tight ends as quickly as he did,” Cameron said. “You would have felt those four guys had been around each other for at least a couple of years, and they came right off the street.
“That always tells you something about a guy.”
The “guy” is Flacco, who has impressed coaches in his third year under Cameron.
And to continue developing with his new weapons, Flacco has plans to meet with the entire group on several occasions before camp begins in late July for extra throwing sessions.
Boldin, who was prolific playing with quarterback Kurt Warner in Arizona before coming to Baltimore, thinks such action is critical for a functioning pass game.
“Me and Kurt were together for the past three years and built a relationship of trust,” Boldin said. “There were times where I would be on the field and we would see the same thing. We would be on the same page without even communicating. I want to get on that level with Joe.”
by Ed Morrissey from HotAir.com
When Attorney General Eric Holder suddenly reversed course and had the DoJ dismiss the voter-intimidation case against two New Black Panther Party activists stemming from an incident in 2008 in Philadelphia, many questioned why the DoJ would quit a case it had already won. Attorneys within the DoJ wondered why the federal government had suddenly become disinterested in voter intimidation. Some, like Christian Adams, Asheesh Agarwal, and Mark Corallo have gone public with their outrage, and also wonder where the hell Congress has gone in its duty to oversee the executive branch and its enforcement of laws Congress passed.
Well, look, maybe this was just a bad day for the defendants. Maybe they were just nice young men who took civic engagement to a momentary extreme of enthusiasm. They’re probably just nice guys caught in a single instance of bad judgment … right? Er, not exactly, as Naked Emperor News and Breitbart’s B-Cast discovers after watching National Geographic:
Lovely. Someone’s crackers, and I’d say it’s the people who decided to drop the case against this lunatic.
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