A Little Advice . . . Not

How many of you saw this coming from a mile away?

Another Zimmerman?

Notice use of the forbidden word, "followed." I guess since the perp is apparently Latino it is ok . . .

The Left Wants a Race War

Talk about "dog whistles."

The left, via the media and the government, continues to stir up racial animosity in the wake of the Zimmerman verdict. The left's narrative on that event failed in a decisive way, so the leftoids do what they always do: ignore facts and appeal to emotion, especially to that of hate. The left needs racial hatred and strife to justify endless programs and laws, and to promote its distorted vision of America--a vision of white violence against black citizens.

Yesterday we had the President making his "calm reflection" speech replete with all the leftist code words. Now we have his abysmal Attorney General Eric "Fast and Furious" Holder telling us that Trayvon Martin's death was "unnecessary." What an odd even stupid word. When is a death "necessary"? This is just typical leftist nonsense, and another not so veiled coded message to the race hustlers to keep the storm troopers marching, protesting, blocking highways, burning flags, threatening motorists, and throwing rocks and bottles at the police. Our "top cop" is urging the faithful to violate the law and ignore the verdict of the courts.

So much outrage and emotion over the death of Trayvon Martin. Touching isn't it?

Maybe not. Visit an extraordinary website titled RedEyeChicago and go to its homicides page. You will find that in the first ten days of July, the Great Democratic City of Chicago experienced the following homicides:

July 10 – Marlon Young, 39, black, male
July 8 – Ed Cooper, 15, black, male
July 8 – Georgina Randell, 30, black, female
July 8 – Marquise Chandler, 20, black, male

July 7 – Ramone Godfrey, 19,black, male

July 7 – Patricia Martin, 40, black, female 

July 6 – Terry Patterson, 48, black, male 

July 6 – Jerimiah Milsap, 24, black, male 

July 5 – Shavonte Howard, 20, black, male 

July 5 – Aurelia Wilborn, 64, unknown, female 

July 5 – Elliott Frazier, 26, black, male 

July 4 – Marlon Obanner, 31, black, male 

July 4 – Steve Mabins, 21, black, male 

July 4 – Theodis Young, 36, black, male 

July 3 – Ernest McMullen, 26, black, male 

July 3 – Rayford Brown, 24, black, male 

July 3 – William Jones, 26, black, male 

July 3 – Damani Henard, 14, black, male 

July 2 – Ashley Hardmon, 19, black, male 

July 2 – Terrence Graves, 23, black, male

From July 10 to July 14, Chicago has seen another nine homicides, eight of them black victims. If you want to get even more depressed see the complete 2013 homicide spreadsheet. Note also that of 3070 homicides, 2236 are confirmed black victims. In a city where black people make up less than one-third of the population, they comprise over two-thirds of the homicide victims. About three-fourths of the persons arrested for homicide in Chicago are black.

This is Chicago, home of Reverend Wright, Jesse Jackson, Rahm Emanuel, Bill Ayers, and, oh yes, Barrack Obama. How many demonstrators are protesting this ongoing assault on black people? How many "Justice for Shavonte Howard" signs do you see? Perhaps since nearly every one of these killings is black-on-black, this does not fit the leftist narrative and, therefore, can be ignored?

Faulkner once wrote re the Battle of Gettysburg,

“For every Southern boy fourteen years old, not once but whenever he wants it, there is the instant when it's still not yet two o’clock on that July afternoon in 1863, the brigades are in position behind the rail fence, the guns are laid and ready in the woods and the furled flags are already loosened to break out and Pickett himself with his long oiled ringlets and his hat in one hand probably and his sword in the other looking up the hill waiting for Longstreet to give the word and it's all in the balance, it hasn't happened yet, it hasn't even begun yet, it not only hasn't begun yet but there is still time for it not to begin against that position and those circumstances which made more men than Garnett and Kemper and Armistead and Wilcox look grave yet it's going to begin, we all know that, we have come too far with too much at stake and that moment doesn't need even a fourteen-year-old boy to think this time. Maybe this time with all this much to lose and all this much to gain: Pennsylvania, Maryland, the world, the golden dome of Washington itself to crown with desperate and unbelievable victory the desperate gamble, the cast made two years ago...."

Perhaps we can say something similar for our outraged lefties. For them it is always "Bloody Sunday," March 7, 1965. They are marching from Selma to Montgomery, and confronting the racist cops on the Edmund Pettus Bridge . . . either that, or they just hate people and want a race war. Facts be damned.

WLA

The President Has to Make it Worse

"The death of Trayvon Martin was a tragedy. Not just for his family, or for any one community, but for America. I know this case has elicited strong passions. And in the wake of the verdict, I know those passions may be running even higher. But we are a nation of laws, and a jury has spoken. I now ask every American to respect the call for calm reflection from two parents who lost their young son. And as we do, we should ask ourselves if we’re doing all we can to widen the circle of compassion and understanding in our own communities. We should ask ourselves if we’re doing all we can to stem the tide of gun violence that claims too many lives across this country on a daily basis. We should ask ourselves, as individuals and as a society, how we can prevent future tragedies like this. As citizens, that’s a job for all of us. That’s the way to honor Trayvon Martin."
Statement by President Obama, July 14

"Calm reflection." 

That phrase stands out. 

"Calm reflection." 

Yes.

He wants us to honor the Martins' request for "calm reflection." 

I see. 

So where was our Great Leader when the story first broke? Was he engaging in "calm reflection"? Not all. He was telling us that Trayvon Martin reminded him of the son he never had. His Department of Justice's Community Services Unit, in the best tradition of the President's own Chicago community organizer background, was whipping up the crowds, getting them to demand Zimmerman's head. There was political pressure brought to bear on Florida authorities who caved. His NBC and MSNBC echo chambers edited Zimmerman's 911 call to make him into another Sheriff "Bull" Connor. Other well-trained media robots, including CNN and the broadcast networks, along with the Congressional Black Caucus, busied themselves describing the Sanford, Florida shooting as a white on black targeted killing. They ran pictures of Martin when he was a sweet-looking 12-year-old, not the six-foot, 17-year-old street thug and wanna-be gangster he had become. His purchase of "Skittles" and "ice tea" became some sort of exoneration for a kid who had a history of violence, theft, expulsion from school, and who bragged about drug use and his ability to knock out somebody with one punch to the nose. The pudgy Zimmerman, at least one-quarter black himself, with a Latina mother, and no history of racial conflict in his ethnically quite diverse neighborhood, was made out to be a seething white racist who followed and gunned down Martin "like a dog." The same media morons who argued that Elizabeth Warren was a Native American, now insisted that George Zimmerman was "white."

Whenever I think my disgust limit has been reached with this misadministration, a new limit is established. The DOJ minions who could not bother to prosecute voter intimidation by Black Panther thugs, apparently now seek to put together a Federal case against Zimmerman alleging civil rights violations. If I were Zimmerman, I would grab my passport ASAP, and head to my Peruvian relatives for a good, long stay. Never mind Snowden, Zimmerman is the one in need of asylum.

Now this abomination of a President wants us to devote ourselves to gun control in honor of Martin. Yes, Martin would have been very happy if Zimmerman had not had a gun; Zimmerman, of course, would be dead or severely injured, but that doesn't seem to matter. 

Obama asks us to respect the verdict. Fair enough. He, however, needs to set the example. What the jurors effectively told us was that the "gun violence" was justified; it was an act of self-defense. Zimmerman defended himself. No law made on earth or in heaven required him to allow himself to get beaten to a pulp or to death by a thug.

Perhaps our President should devote himself to calling for a rejection of the "gangsta" culture that enthralls so much of our youth, especially our black youth. He should call on rappers, music moguls, video game makers, and his buddies in Hollywood to stop glorifying social pathologies, such as that admittedly lucrative "gangsta" culture. He should ask black community leaders to take a long hard look at the state of the black community and its rampant murder rates. 

Black men have almost no reason to fear being killed by whites; they, however, should keep looking over their shoulders when in a predominantly black part of town such as in Chicago or Detroit. Blacks, about 13% of the US population, are roughly 47% of the nation's homicide victims, and commit over 52% of those homicides. The way to "honor" Martin is for the black community to reject the race hustlers such as Al "Tawana Brawley" Sharpton, and go back to the deeply conservative roots of their culture. Until that happens, more Trayvon Martins will die on the streets of America, and not at the hands of whites.

WLA

Bravo for "Legal Insurrection"!

I nominate Legal Insurrection as the blog of the year.  In fact, I nominate LI as the media outlet of the year.

The LI coverage of the Zimmerman trial was nothing short of superb. Those of us who followed the trial closely via LI knew the case was a travesty. The careful, objective, and thorough coverage by LI proved a marked contrast to the highly selective and distorted coverage provided by MSM outlets, in particular CNN, MSNBC, and the broadcast networks. The MSM print media was hopeless beyond words. I can see how those who followed the case via the MSM are stunned by the "not guilty" verdict. If they had followed it via LI they would know that the jury reached the right (and brave) decision to find Zimmerman "not guilty."

This is a major victory for justice and for the internet pajama brigade over the "well-educated" morons of the MSM--the same morons who think Zimmerman is white and Elizabeth Warren is Native American.

Now we will have to see whether our disgraceful Department of Justice compounds the travesty with some sort of civil rights violation case.

In the meanwhile, we should not wait around. We need a public outcry to fire and bring up on professional malfeasance charges the prosecutor and her politicized team. Those of us who are Florida residents, in particular, need to contact our representatives, including the governor, to demand a thorough investigation of the prosecutor and the role politics played in bringing this case. This is a chance to strike back at the growing threat posed by prosecutorial arrogance and overreach. Any of us could become the next George Zimmerman.

Again thanks to Professor Jacobson, Andrew Branca and the rest of the team at Legal Insurrection. I, for one, stand in awe.

WLA

The Wolf at the Door . . . Sort of . . .

Was running around yesterday in a benign and crushingly boring Southern California suburb. Dropped off some stuff and headed out the door when . . . I saw this guy stalking my Vette . . .

I thought he was a dog, then realized he was a coyote.

When I first saw him, he rested comfortably on the grassy knoll . . . not the one in Dallas, the one in the foreground of the picture. As I approached, he languidly turned his head to look at me and yawned. Yes, yawned! He yawned in the presence of The Diplomad . . . nothing like a wild animal to keep you humble.

After a minute or so, he got up, in no particular hurry, stretched, then hung around my car. I don't know if he was waiting for a ride or what . . . on his own time he casually sauntered off.

He probably had had his fill of the neighbors' cats and poodles.

Come to think of it, I haven't seen the neighbor today . . . hmmm?

PS: I will write something a little less fluffy very soon; I promise.

WLA

A Friday Repost: Obama and the Damage Done

Going to be out and about most of Friday, and given that our readership might have risen to eight or nine I wanted to repost a little something I wrote last August 5, 2012, when I still harbored the naive hope that the current calamity in the White House would be ended in the November elections.

Obama and the Damage Done

As noted before, I began my career in the Foreign Service during the Carter presidency, and ended it during the Obama presidency: two horrific bookends.

Jimmy Carter should not have been president. He was incompetent beyond belief; angry about America's success in the world; wanted us to get our comeuppance; and was and is a mean, reptilian and graceless little man. Being out of office has made him even angrier, meaner, smaller, more anti-American, and more anti-semitic. He was and remains a repellent creature; if anyone ever could make me ashamed of my country, he could. I can't forgive him for that.

He caused the United States a considerable amount of damage. His economic policies were almost non-existent. He, in fact, never seemed to have an interest in the economy except to the extent that our dire economic performance during his term seemed to fit his view that we were being rightfully punished. He wanted Americans to live small, and see the future as a bleak struggle for atonement for past sins. His foreign policy was disastrous. The USSR and its vassals were on the march throughout the world, including in Latin America and the Caribbean, with virtually no resistance from the United States. His administration gutted our intelligence and covert capabilities; our military was a hollow shell; our international alliances were badly frayed; terrorist organizations and states, with Soviet-bloc support, operated openly in Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America; and the insane Imams of Iran turned a major ally into a major enemy.

Along came Reagan. He laughingly rejected the Carter premise that America deserved its "punishment" and that we could do nothing about the economy, the decline of American power, and the rising might of the Soviet empire. Reagan waved off the honking flocks of "intellectuals" who called him out-of-touch and dangerous. He connected with the American people and the great traditions of our country. He slashed taxes and our economy turned around; he took seriously the Constitution's main role for the president: national defense. Our military might came roaring back; he outmaneuvered the Soviets and brought them and their vast evil empire to their knees. It was a masterful performance. Reagan managed to fix most of the damage done by Carter--the Iranian disaster, however, continues to haunt us over three decades later--and he restored faith in America as the indispensable nation in the world.

We now are saddled with another abomination as president: one worse than Carter. The damage Obama has done to our economy and global standing, while immense, can be relatively easily fixed. The real damage he has done is more pernicious and perhaps permanent. He has participated fully and deliberately in undermining the essence of what it means to be an American. Let me explain.

Anybody remotely interested could know Carter, what he had done with his life, and what he advocated. He had an easily accessible public record. Obama, of course, is the most secretive and closed off president we have ever had. Only after years of badgering did he even release his birth certificate. We are not allowed to know about his education except that, like the absurd Elena Ceausescu, he is "brilliant." How did this self-admittedly mediocre high school student, from a relatively modest background, growing up in remote Hawaii and Indonesia as part of an apparently very dysfunctional family, manage to get into three expensive and "elite" universities? How did he come to their attention? Who vouched for him? Who paid? Did he claim to be a foreign student? What were his courses and grades? Who were his friends and teachers? In a celebrity obsessed world where we know everything about Tom Cruise and Britney Spears, we know next to nothing about the man who encumbers our presidency.

His political rise is shrouded in mystery. After Harvard, he suddenly moves to Chicago. Why? He becomes a "community organizer" there, and rapidly rises in the corrupt and crony-filled Democratic machine. He becomes the darling of gangsters such as Rezko, close friends with known terrorists and hate-mongers, and presto he is taking down opponents right and left and soon is in the White House. We can't ask anything about it all. To do so risks charges of racism. His ascendency is a liberal Hollywood fable and it must remain unquestioned and unexamined. He is our anointed leader. He is our Athena.

This is the first bit of damage he has done. It is now considered by the majority of the media and the other honking "intellectual" geese as off-limits to question Obama's life, his claimed achievements, or note the contradictions in what he has said and what he says now. Free speech is no longer so free. If you question the President, you are a racist, insane, a danger to democracy, hate the poor or all of the aforementioned. If you still hold the same views that he purported to hold up to a few weeks ago, e.g., the traditional definition of marriage, and failed to "evolve" when he did, then you are a hopeless homophobe; your business should be banned and ruined, and your employees bullied. This is not unlike Orwell's 1984, "We have never been at war with Eastasia . . . " You must keep up with the changes in Dear Leader's views. He will tell you when you can favor gay marriage; when you can raise closing Guantanamo; when the war will end; when the deficit must be cut with more spending. New Think is here.

Obama has become the incarnation of a troubling trend in our country that has accelerated over the past 40 or so years. He has become the head of what passes for modern progressivism: the alliance between tax-supported university faculties, lawyers, government bureaucrats, journalists, NGO "activists," and Hollywood. This alliance has promoted the politics of envy and resentment, and launched a sustained attack on traditional American values. Our country is now filled with the half-educated idiots who emerge from our universities with no real knowledge but with feelings of entitlement and resentment. We should stand in awe of people with PhDs regardless of whether what they say corresponds to the reality we see, because they know what's good for us. They are the "experts."

One should not underestimate the power of Hollywood in forming what passes for thinking by these impressionable morons. What many of our youth, and foreigners, think they know about America and American history, comes from movies and TV shows. Hollywood bombards us with the viewpoint that rich evil conservative white men (RECWM) are behind all of our troubles, and those of the world. Our heroes should be the brave lawyers who sue corporations; the brave journalists who expose the nefarious plots of the RECWM conspiracy; the brave activists who stand up to the "violent" gun nuts of the Tea Party; the gutsy abortion clinic workers who live in fear of their lives; the brave public servants, e.g., cops and perky assistant district attorneys, who protect us from the RECWM who, of course, are what all of us fear to encounter when we are in a dark parking lot.

Obama has captured this movement and its view, and represents and promotes it better than anybody else in living memory. Unlike Carter, Obama is not incompetent in promoting his hatred for America's traditional values and in embedding it into our institutions, e.g., the ruinous Obamacare, the rapid expansion of the federal dole, the insistence on apologizing for our successes, the disastrous "stimulus" spending, the glorification of the "victim" culture, promotion of envy and cynicism, and denigration of individual effort and success ("You didn't build that!") That is the real threat posed by what Obama represents. Overcoming that threat will take years of sustained effort. It begins, of course, with voting Obama out of the White House next November, but does not end there.

WLA