July 26, 2008

The NEA: Our Mirror Image of the Taliban

Afghanistan's rigid cult of totalitarians is called the Taliban, which means "the students." America's mirror image of it calls itself "the teachers" — or rather, the Nation Education Association, which has much more to do with imposing hard left politics than it does with education:

The nation's largest teachers union, the National Education Association, attracted 9,000 delegates to its annual convention in Washington, D.C., over the July Fourth weekend. Delegates sported buttons with provocative slogans such as "Gay marriage causes global warming only because we are so hot," "Hate is not a family value," "The Christian right is neither" and "Gay rights are civil rights."

The delegates passed dozens of hard-hitting resolutions that now become the NEA's official policy. The resolutions authorize NEA members and employees to lobby for those goals in the halls of Congress and state capitols.

NEA resolutions cover the waterfront of all sorts of political issues that have nothing to do with improving education for schoolchildren, such as supporting statehood for the District of Columbia, a "single-payer health care plan" (i.e., government run), gun control, ratification of the International Criminal Court Treaty [which would severely undermine American soveignty] and taking steps "to change activities that contribute to global climate change."

When it comes to education, the NEA's main interest is in suppressing competition, the better to guarantee ideological homogeneity:

The NEA fiercely opposes any competition for public schools, such as vouchers, tuition tax credits, parental option plans or public support of any kind to nonpublic schools. […] The NEA opposes home schooling unless children are taught by state-licensed teachers using a state-approved curriculum. The NEA wants to bar home-schooled students from participating in any extracurricular activities in public schools even though their parents pay school taxes, too. […] NEA resolutions call for "programs in the public schools for children from birth through age 8" and for "mandatory kindergarten with compulsory attendance."

The unhinged feminazi agenda lives on at the NEA:

NEA resolutions include all the major feminist goals such as "the right to reproductive freedom" (i.e., abortion on demand), "comparable worth" (i.e., government control of wages according to feminist ideology), full funding for the feminist boondoggle called the Women's Educational Equity Act and censoring all masculine words such as husband and father.

The increasingly ambitious militant homosexual agenda also finds vociferous advocates at our largest teachers union:

The influence of the gay lobby is pervasive in dozens of NEA resolutions adopted by 2008 convention delegates. Diversity is the code word used for pro-gay indoctrination in the classroom.

The NEA's diversity resolution makes clear this means teaching about "sexual orientation" and "gender identification." The NEA demands that "diversity-based curricula" be imposed on preschoolers. […] The NEA wants all sex-education courses, textbooks, curricula, instructional materials and activities to include indoctrination about sexual orientation and gender identification plus warnings about homophobia.

An important objective of today's educrats is for schools to supplant parents, so that instead of family we will have the State:

The NEA wants every child, regardless of age, to have "direct and confidential access, without notification to parents, to comprehensive health education. That would include things such as learning how to use condoms for premarital sex, as well as social, and psychological programs and services."

The NEA wants public schools to take over the physical and mental care of students through school clinics that provide services, diagnosis, treatment, family-planning counseling and access to birth control methods. Family planning clinics are called on to "provide intensive counseling."

There is no topic on which the NEA is not aggressively wrong. Yet somehow the belligerent promoters of this deranged moonbat agenda have taken control of education. If their brainwashing is successful, the next generation will be unrecognizable as Americans.

On a tip from Oiao.

Posted by Van Helsing at 9:22 AM | Comments (14) | TrackBack (0)

July 25, 2008

British Grandmother Arrested for Asking Hooligans to Go Home

When will law-abiding citizens learn that in Once-Great Britain, they need to keep their heads down?

After being woken for the third time in one night by a group of drunken and noisy students, Jo Calvert-Mindell was at her wits' end.

The former policewoman got dressed, went outside and shouted at them: "Why can't you go back to where you come from and make some noise there? I bet your families and neighbours wouldn't put up with it.

"You don't care about us and do just as you like. What gives you the right to frighten my elderly neighbours, cause damage and keep us awake at night?"

[…]The 51-year-old grandmother was astonished when four months later she was arrested and accused of being a racist. It turned out that two Asians in the group had complained to the police.

"Asian" in the context of British media reports is Euphemese for Muslim colonist. Asking them to stop running wild and trashing what's left of Britain is an intolerable affront to their human rights.

Calvert-Mindell was officially charged with racism. Last week the charges were finally dropped, because authorities didn't think they would get a conviction due to lack of evidence. At least evidence is still required in racism trials.

Posted by Van Helsing at 10:57 AM | Comments (21) | TrackBack (0)

Kwame Kilpatrick's Bond Revoked

Things aren't going well for Kwame Kilpatrick, who as mayor of America's most liberal city could be said to personify the politics of moonbattery:

DETROIT — A 36th District Court judge restricted Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's travel and revoked his personal bond today during a bond hearing, one day after the mayor was accused of assaulting a detective.

The mayor, who was on a personal bond that did not require him to pay any money to the court, will now have to pay $7,500 in cash — 10 percent of his $75,000 bond — to stay free, Judge Ronald Giles, a 36th district court judge, ordered.

Mayor Kilpatrick has been out on bail after being arrested for perjury and other felonies related to a police whistle-blower trial last year. This time he's is in trouble for assaulting a Wayne County detective who was attempting to serve a summons to his friend Bobby Ferguson, a city contractor. The esteemed mayor threw him off a porch, possibly breaking his hip, and also indulged in shouting "obscenities and racial remarks."

But it's not all bad news for Kwame:

Kilpatrick will be allowed to keep already approved business travel, including attending the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

Kilpatrick — and moonbat-infested Detroit in general — represent a road we would be wise not to go down.

Hat tip: Michelle Malkin.

Posted by Van Helsing at 10:30 AM | Comments (9) | TrackBack (0)

La Times Bans Bloggers from Violating Rielle Hunter Blackout

The mainstream media's advocacy of left-wing politicians increasingly resembles the editorial policy of Soviet-era Pravda. If you haven't heard much about the highly amusing tale of John Edwards running in terror from reporters when he was caught visiting his mistress, it could be because this story embarrassing to a prominent Dem and potential Obama VP candidate has been blacked out. At the Los Angeles Times, this blackout is official policy:

In a move that has apparently stirred up some internal discontent, the Los Angeles Times has banned its bloggers, including political bloggers, from mentioning the Edwards/Rielle Hunter story. Even bloggers who want to mention the story in order to make a skeptical we-don't-trust-the-Enquirer point are forbidden from doing so.

A line has been crossed from bias into something more ominous. It doesn't take much imagination to envision La Times et al. banning any mention of facts deemed unsupportive of the policies of the Obama Administration.

On a tip from V the K.

Posted by Van Helsing at 9:54 AM | Comments (12) | TrackBack (0)

Obama's Own Media Spectacle Gives the Lie to His Defeatist Rhetoric

Could it be that something constructive resulted from the Obamessiah's pretentious overseas media extravaganza? Ray Robison suggests that it might have helped people who don't follow current events closely to understand for the first time that we are winning the war against Islamic terrorists in the crucial Iraqi theater.

Coinciding with the "Obama goes to Iraq" coverage comes a poll update by Rasmussen and released on July 23rd. And it shows that a very interesting thing happened last Monday. The number of respondents in this reoccurring poll who answered that we are winning against terrorists jumped to levels not seen in four years, to 51% — now a majority. Conversely, the number who considered al Qaeda and their ilk the victors dropped to a threadbare 16% of respondents, a new low by a wide margin. And it just so happened that this poll was conducted the same day that Obama and his media entourage hit Baghdad.

Although it is not definitive, it is a strong indication that all the media hype and attention on this trip refocused the media lens on Iraq and that Americans saw a new picture there. […] They thought that Obama was delivering the straight truth to them on Iraq. But now they know he was being less than candid. The Independents and conservative Democrats now might see that he was not telling them the truth.

A picture says a thousand words and those pictures of Obama in Iraq with no body armor are telling a different story than what he has been selling to the American people. And it was a fawning media brazenly trying to tip the scales in his favor that made it happen.

On a tip from Burning Hot.

Posted by Van Helsing at 9:13 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)

Bin Laden Associate Wasn't Mirandized

It took less than seven years from September 11 for moonbattery to corrode our response into a farce.

Osama bin Laden's driver Salim Hamdan, who has been incarcerated for war crimes for his involvement in the 9/11 atrocities, was not read the Miranda spiel. This appears to be a major stumbling block in the case against him, along with allegations that he didn't get enough sleep while vacationing at Club Gitmo.

Barack Hussein Obama should be congratulated on his foresight. In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, he was one of the few primarily concerned with how the event might negatively impact foreign terrorists. Now the mollycoddling of foreign terrorists seems to be our only concern.

One thing is clear: Osama bin Laden must never be captured. After an O.J.-style carnival trial at massive taxpayer expense, he would no doubt be freed on a technicality. From there he would have his choice of chairing the Department of Middle Eastern Studies at Columbia, hosting a talk show on MSNBC, or assuming a cabinet position in the Obama Administration. Since we soon won't even allow ourselves to interrogate them, terrorists need to be killed on sight.

On a tip from Wiggins.

Posted by Van Helsing at 8:49 AM | Comments (12) | TrackBack (0)

Intergroup Dialogue

Newspeak calls for removing words and terms from our vocabulary when they are associated with incorrect thoughts, but this is counterbalanced by an endless supply of new ones. One of the latest is intergroup dialogue. Minding the Campus defines it:

"Intergroup dialogue" is the new euphemism for the oppression confrontations that used to be conducted sub rosa at freshman orientations and have now been spreading across the country as formal programs for almost a decade. The goal of an oppression confrontation is to put enough pressure on white males to convince them they are racists, homophobes and sexists. Role reversal is a conventional part of the program. Whites are asked to pretend they are black, straights part the part of gays. Insults and catcalls are supposed to sensitize the whites and reveal that they are living lives of unearned privilege in a system based on oppression. White guilt, the erosion of traditional values and a strong emphasis on identity politics are the conventional results sought in these exercises.

Be sure to add "intergroup dialogue" to your Newspeak dictionaries.

Posted by Van Helsing at 8:21 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)

Kiwi Moonbats Announce Bounty on US Secretary of State

Condoleezza Rice had better keep her eyes open when she visits New Zealand this weekend, lest she find herself abducted on behalf of local liberals, who have offered a $3,700 reward for her arrest on charges of countermoonbattery.

We'll see if this provides as much entertainment as George Moonbat's farcical attempt to arrest John Bolton.

On a tip from Oiao.

Posted by Van Helsing at 7:53 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

Murderer's Last Words: Vote Obama!

The wise and wonderful Barack Hussein Obama picked up another key endorsement Wednesday night, just before Dale Leo Bishop paid his debt to society for beating someone to death by receiving a lethal injection in Mississippi. The Greenwood Commonwealth reports on his last words:

Bishop, who spoke for less than two minutes, then asked opponents of the death penalty to vote for presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama in the upcoming presidential election.

At least Bishop died knowing who his friends were. The murderer's endorsement can be placed on Obama's mantle alongside those of the New Black Panthers, Hamas, Michael Pfleger, Daniel Ortega, Keith Ellison, Richard Belzer, the Islamofascist Iranian regime, Hanoi Jane Fonda, the establishment media, and presumably Satan.

Hat tip: Rantburg. On a tip from Burning Hot.

Posted by Van Helsing at 7:11 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)

Uh-bama without a Teleprompter

From el Rushbo, via Stop the ACLU:

Enough! Double my taxes! I'll embrace Hope and Change! Just stop saying, "Uh!"

Posted by Van Helsing at 7:09 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

July 24, 2008

This Time as Farce

Karl Marx got this much right:

Images lifted from And Rightly So!

Posted by Van Helsing at 8:39 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)

Why Obama Blew Off Wounded US Troops

While in Germany posing as a world leader, addressing the sort of rally not staged there since the 1940s, and soaking up the adoration of people who don't like this country very much, Obama was scheduled to pay a visit to American troops. But this leg of the trip was abruptly canceled for mysterious reasons.

Now the reasons are mysterious no longer:

A U.S. military official tells NBC News they were making preparations for Sen. Barack Obama to visit wounded troops at the Landstuhl Medical Center at Ramstein, Germany on Friday, but "for some reason the visit was called off."

One military official who was working on the Obama visit said because political candidates are prohibited from using military installations as campaign backdrops, Obama's representatives were told, "he could only bring two or three of his Senate staff member, no campaign officials or workers." In addition, "Obama could not bring any media. Only military photographers would be permitted to record Obama's visit."

The official said "We didn't know why" the request to visit the wounded troops was withdrawn. "He (Obama) was more than welcome. We were all ready for him."

If it isn't a photo op, the Dalai Obama isn't interested. Why should he be? He's only real when the media's there to pretend that he is.

Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.

Posted by Van Helsing at 8:34 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)

Obama in Deutschland

Posted by Van Helsing at 8:29 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Barack Loves Me…

Via Glenn Beck, on a tip from Lyle.

Posted by Van Helsing at 8:27 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)

Dems Call for Open Homosexual Conduct in the Armed Forces

Never let it be said that the Democrats don't have a vision for the future of America's military. The first step they would take is to surrender to al Qaeda and Iranian-backed terrorists in Iraq. The second: impose open homosexual depravity on military culture.

Appallingly, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) attempts to equate the military's refusal to endorse homosexual conduct with long ago discrimination against blacks. His overblown rhetoric is shameless in the extreme:

People were asked to go and serve in harm's way. They served courageously and many lost their lives. They came home to a country which said, "You can't go to this restaurant, you have got to go to the end of the line, or you can't participate in many of our activities notwithstanding what you did." They were not treated with dignity or respect. That's wrong.

By the same logic, we could be asked to weep for child molesters who are "not treated with dignity or respect."

Homosexuals are of course perfectly welcome to serve in the military. They just aren't allowed to make a public pageant of their depravity, as this would rot away the morale that is any fighting force's prime asset. Nor are they allowed to proclaim themselves homosexual-Americans and use identity politics to secure promotions. Obama, as the country's most conspicuous beneficiary of Affirmative Action, naturally wants to change this.

Posted by Van Helsing at 10:12 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

Green Fad Finally Running Out of Gas

Here's some good news for anyone sick of being force-fed a relentless diet of pernicious environmentalist hogwash:

Last week, The New York Times noted that the advertising industry is pulling back from green-themed marketing, having "grasped the public's growing skepticism over ads with environmental messages.

And advertisers' concerns are buttressed by the recent sales figures for magazines that have published a "Green Issue" this year. Time's Earth Day issue was the newsweekly's third-lowest-selling issue of 2008 so far, according to ABC Rapid Report. A typical issue of Time sells 93,000 or so copies on the newsstand; the April 28 installment, which substituted green for red in the magazine's trademarked cover design, sold only 72,000. (As usual, The Onion nailed it.)

Elle's May issue sold a mere 275,000 copies, versus the title's year-to-date average of 328,500. The last issue of Elle to sell that badly was in May 2008 — another green issue, probably not coincidentally.

Discover also published a green issue this year, and also took a hit for it, selling 86,000 newsstand copies, compared to an average of 117,000 in the first half of 2007.

Look for politicians to figure out sometime around 2012 that everyone stopped listening to bogus global warming sermons in 2008.

Posted by Van Helsing at 9:13 AM | Comments (9) | TrackBack (0)

Obama Heckled at Western Wall

Don't expect this to make the nightly news:

The US presidential nominee was heckled as he visited the Western Wall in the early hours of Thursday morning, bowing his head in prayer and observing traditional custom by placing a folded piece of paper into the crevice of the wall.

Orthodox men interrupted their morning prayers to catch a glimpse of the Illinois senator, reaching out to shake his hand as he passed them by. But not all were taken by the Democrat. One yelled out: "Obama, Jerusalem is not for sale!" before Mr Obama was whisked away to his waiting plane.

Hamas, which openly calls for the destruction of Israel, endorses Obama, as he is widely understood to favor Muslim terrorists against their enemies, prominently including Israel. Yet most American Jews (though not all) are expected to vote for Obama, apparently out of sheer self-hatred.

Posted by Van Helsing at 8:56 AM | Comments (10) | TrackBack (0)

Another Obamathon Memento

Souvenirs have hit the market for the Berlin leg of the Obamessiah's heavily hyped traveling media extravaganza. This hot new poster comes via Michelle Malkin:

Obama's Berlin speech is to take place at the Siegessäule monument:

The Siegessäule — or Victory Column — was erected in memory of Prussia's victories over Denmark (1864), Austria (1866) and France (1870/71). The column originally stood in front of the Reichstag, Germany's parliament building, but was moved by Adolf Hitler to its current location in 1939 to make way for his planned transformation of Berlin into the Nazi capital "Germania."

You've got to hand it to Obama's puppeteers: they've got a real knack for symbolism.

Hat tip: Hot Air.

Posted by Van Helsing at 8:32 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

Rielle Hunter Blackout

When is a bombshell not a bombshell? When it makes a prominent Democrat look bad.

Anyone who doesn't rely on the MSM for news knows by now that John Edwards, who made a big deal about his loyalty to his cancer-stricken wife during his failed presidential campaign, was actually cheating on her and presiding over an elaborate cover-up. He even has a love child with the radiant Rielle Hunter:

There are at least 10 eyewitnesses to corroborate the story of his getting caught with his pants down, which would have resulted in immediate screams of "I'll sue!" from the Breck Girl if it weren't completely true.

Yet Silky Pony has been considered a leading candidate for the hollow Obamessiah's VP, so the MSM is obediently silent. Slate reports on the lack of reporting:

—The New York Times doesn't tell you what happened yesterday.

—The print edition of the Washington Post doesn't tell you what happened yesterday.

—Newsweek doesn't tell you what happened yesterday.

—Time doesn't tell you what happened yesterday.

—Katie Couric didn't tell you what happened yesterday.

—Brian Williams didn't tell you what happened yesterday.

—Charlie Gibson didn't tell you what happened yesterday. […]

Has the gap between what the MSM lets you know and what happened — and what you can easily find out happened — ever been greater? …

The silver lining to the absurd and potentially catastrophic Obama campaign: when it's finally over, no one will ever take the establishment media seriously again.

On a tip from Burning Hot.

Posted by Van Helsing at 7:51 AM | Comments (20) | TrackBack (0)

Our Current Level of Political Debate

Obama being taken seriously as a presidential candidate almost makes sense in light of the entertainment community driving much of this country's political debate. Here's "Nas," a rapper with the IQ of a gerbil who, as noted yesterday, has taken a leading roll in an intimidation operation to punish Fox News for being too "racist" to join the Obama campaign:

Any Caucasian saying much less displaying the forbidden "N" word, even in private, can expect to have their career terminated immediately.

Not only does this cretin's vote count as much as yours, hordes of teenagers and wannabe teenagers of all ages are no doubt hanging on his every misinformed grunt.

On a tip from Smoke TNT.

Posted by Van Helsing at 7:24 AM | Comments (7) | TrackBack (0)