And all this time I thought it was a simple request to see an original birth certificate signed by the attending physician.

(POLITICO) — Rev. Jesse Jackson told POLITICO today that the birther movement is part of a larger pattern of rollbacks against civil rights and an attack on the legitimacy of the nation’s first African-American president — reserving special ire for developer Donald Trump and his renewed interest in the conspiracy theory.

“Any discussion of his birthplace is a code word,” said Jackson. “It calls upon ancient racial fears.”

“Trump has trumpeted this cause. For him to go down this low is a bit surprising,” Jackson said, making explicit what many black leaders have suggested. “He is now tapping into code-word fears that go far beyond a rational discourse.”

Jackson also pointed to a broader pattern of hostility towards civil rights — pointing to a number of events, including the battle over public sector unions, a transportation policy that he says disadvantages poor minority city dwellers, and a renewed interest in policies like voter ID.

“I’m saying there’s a pattern here. It’s not just name calling of Barack. We’ll win that battle,” said Jackson ‘There is a retreat — a pronounced, documented retreat on civil rights enforcement.”

“This is the most personal attacks on any president ever,” said Jackson, who pursued the Democratic nomination in 1984 and 1988 — but says the political climate has changed. “Whose personal religion has ever been challenged before? That has strong racial overtones.”

Of course this is all taxpayer funded.

Imagine how much better off this country would be if we didn’t have to deprogram college graduates from the 4+ years of leftist indoctrination they just endured?

(Big Government) — While claiming the American flag represents racism and discussing today’s Progressive Movement’s efforts to defeat America both at home and abroad, including on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan to help their international “comrades,” Communist Tony Pecinovsky pulls the mask off today’s Progressive Movement in two new exclusive Big Government videos of a University of Missouri course offering, already much in the news.

While discussing “the idea that the American flag is racist,” in the video below, Pecinovsky mentions a 2005 international youth festival in Venezuela sponsored by the World Federation of Democratic Youth(WFDY).

Pecinovsky brags that the WFDY is officially recognized by the United Nations. He also defines Cuba, Venezuela, and others as genuinely “progressive,” the very same code word today’s entire American Left uses for itself.

Keep reading…

I’m appalled he’s hiding something.

So he wants people to focus on the 99 million other appalling things this regime has done or is trying to do?

(RCP) — “It’s an unfortunate distraction from the issues that I think most Americans care about,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said about the controversy surrounding President Obama’s long-form birth certificate. “Anybody who is watching this exchange, the West Wing of the White House would be appalled, or most Americans would be appalled.”

Fearmonger fail of the day.

(CNSNews.com) — Most of the human race does not see global warming as a serious threat, according to a Gallup poll released last week that surveyed individuals in 111 countries.

Respondents were asked: “How serious of a threat is global warming to you and your family?” They were given the options of anwering: not at all serious, not very serious, somewhat serious or very serious.

Worldwide, only 42 percent told Gallup they believed global warming was either a “somewhat serious” or “very serious” threat. Gallup did not publish the separate percentages for each answer.

In the United States, 53 percent said they believed global warming was a “somewhat serious” or “very serious” threat to themselves and their families. That was down from 63 percent in polling that Gallup did on the question in the United States in 2007 and 2008.

Of the 111 countries that Gallup polled, Greece ranked as No.1 for popular fear of global warming. In that southern European country 87 percent said global warming was a “somewhat serious” or “very serious” threat.

Any American who wears this should be hippy-punched, no questions asked.

Via NY Post:

It’s holed glory.

In a fashion statement only the French would make, a Parisian designer is selling a $1,395 tank top made to look like a tattered American flag marred by cigarette-burn holes and held together by safety pins. And it’s turning into one of spring’s hottest sellers.

The top, part of Balmain’s spring collection, sold out in minutes on luxury-fashion Web site Net-a-Porter.

At the Coachella Music Festival in Indio, Calif., Ke$ha went to a pool party sporting a crasser interpretation that, like Balmain’s, show the stars on the wrong side.

“I exercise freedom of speech in every facet of my career,” the singer said in an interview. “For me, that’s one of the main things the American flag stands for.”

The federal Flag Code, a congressional statute that offers guidelines for flag use, says the banner should “never be used as wearing apparel” or “fastened, displayed, used or stored in such a manner to permit it to be easily torn, soiled or damaged in any way.”

“This top is wrong on so many levels,” said author and style expert Jene Luciani. “A lot of people are disillusioned with the state of our country today, and wearing this definitely makes a statement.”

One leading veteran was disgusted.

“I think it is a disgrace for a Frenchman or anyone else to desecrate the American flag,” said retired Army soldier George Alatzas, who runs a Web site called It’s All About the Flag. “Our flag has witnessed many sacrifices. It is the glue that holds our patriotism together. Shame on those who defile it in any way.”

Or something.

(MEMRI) — Following are excerpts from an interview with Louis Farrakhan, Leader of “Nation of Islam,” which aired on Al-Jazeera TV on April 24, 2011.

Louis Farrakhan: Naturally, there is anger in the Muslim world over the condition of Muslims. Even some Christians. . . Namely, Franklin Graham, the son of a very wonderful Evangelist, Billy Graham, has said that Islam is a religion of violence and is of the Devil.

Daniel Pipes, a Jewish Zionist, has said that Muslims in America are its fifth column — like they said of German Americans or Italian Americans during World War II, and of course, they were taken from their homes, arrested and put in concentration camps. So were the Japanese.

So this is building in America now toward a similar action, now that America is involved in killing people in Pakistan, in Yemen, in Djibouti, and in Somalia. So this is a wide war that is not being talked about, but everyone that is being ill-affected is in the Muslim world.

9/11 was very very strange. 19 Muslims were put before the American public and the world two days after this heinous attack. Korans were found…

But before this, the neo-cons that were surrounding President Bush, who were the architects of something called a “Project for a New American Century,” said that America needed something like Pearl Harbor.

9/11 was America’s new Pearl Harbor — to summon the American people in their anger and horror over what happened.

So now, I think, as a Muslim, that we need to open our eyes. There is nothing wrong with questioning government decrees. That is the bliss of living in America. I am not being irresponsible for what I am saying — I am asking for answers, and we, the American people, deserve answers.

It wasn’t only those few white families that died in that attack. It was Muslims, it was Christians, it was Jews, it was Hindus, it was Buddhists, it was people from all the world. How, then, could you single out Muslims, and say: “You [i.e., the Cordoba Center] are too close to this hallowed ground”? What makes it hallowed?

I’d take him over Romney or Huckabee, but that’s not saying much.

(Washington Times) — Former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani told The Washington Times on Tuesday that he is keeping “the door open” to a 2012 presidential bid, saying he might jump into the race if he believes the other candidates are unelectable.

Mr. Giuliani is slated to speak next month in New Hampshire, where he finished fourth among 2008 Republican presidential candidates in the first-in-the-nation primaries.

“I’m going to go to New Hampshire to speak to a law enforcement group, so that’s really the main purpose of the speech, but I keep in contact with people in New Hampshire and try to figure out what kind of a chance I have,” Mr. Giuliani said in an interview. “At this point, I’m not actively considering it, but I have the door open.”

In New Hampshire, Mr. Giuliani will appear at a May 12 house party sponsored by the Granite Oath PAC of Ovide Lamontagne, whose failed 2010 U.S. Senate bid was supported by the tea party.

The Granite Oath PAC has held similar gatherings for two potential GOP presidential candidates, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, and is planning an event for former House Speaker Newt Gingrich later next month.

Apparently CBS has more class than Obama (who has used the term despite its sexual connotation).

Via Brent Baker

Outrageous.

Washington (CNS News) — In what the White House calls a push for transparency, a pending executive order would require companies doing business with the federal government to disclose political contributions to independent groups, but would not place the same requirement on public employee unions or federal grant recipients that typically donate to Democrats.

Entitled the “Disclosure of Political Spending By Government Contractors,” the order would implement parts of the DISCLOSE Act, which failed to get through Congress last year. The legislation sought to restrict campaign speech after the landmark Citizens United vs. Federal Elections Commission U.S. Supreme Court ruling that upheld the right of corporations and unions to donate to campaigns.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney confirmed Monday that work is underway on the draft order, and linked the move to President Obama’s stated commitment to transparency.

Keep reading…

Let me guess, they just want “democracy.”

(Yemen Observer) — The peaceful revolution should be refined and the “terrorist culture of the Taliban” should be expelled from its ranks, a Yemeni opposition leader has said on Saturday.

Dr. Mohammed Abdul Malik al-Mutawakil, former chairman of the Islamist-led opposition coalition, called on opposition leaders — especially the Islamists — to stop beating up women who march with men.

He also told them to apologize to the women who were beaten up by extremists for marching alongside men last week. Al-Mutawakil is the secretary-general of an opposition party, Federation of Popular Forces, which is a small Islamic party from the Zaidi-Shiite sect and part of the opposition coalition Joint Meeting Parties (JMP).

Al-Mutawakil said that he would boycott all opposition meetings until its leaders publicly apologized to women and stopped such barbaric behavior. In total, seven women and 11 men were beaten up and arrested for hours by extremist Islamists for marching together at an anti-government protest in the capital Sana’a on April 16.

The 18 women and men who were attacked included well-known female activists like Arwa Othman, Huda al-Attas, Jamila Ali Raja, Elham al-Kebsi and Sara Jamal. They published a joint statement to the media and Yemen’s general prosecutor in which they demanded prosecution of perpetrators.

By accident, of course.

(Politico) — The EPA is getting blamed for a lot of things these days, but Lisa Jackson says rising gasoline prices are not her agency’s fault.

The EPA administrator insisted Tuesday that upward pressure on gas prices “is not coming from any environmental or health regulation.”

“The standards that we set to protect our health are so often and so inaccurately blamed for increasing prices and economic challenges that I want to make clear that that’s not what is happening right now,” she told a conference hosted by the Energy Information Administration.

Nor is increasing demand for fuel in nations such as China and India to blame for cost spikes, Jackson added — at least not yet.

“What appears to be the most important factor at work is our dependence on imported energy,” she said. “This is what leaves us vulnerable to jumps in prices. When something changes thousands of miles away, the American people pay for it at the pump.”

And why are we dependent on imported energy? Because agencies like the EPA are forcing oil companies to cancel domestic drilling plans.

(Fox News) — Shell Oil Company has announced it must scrap efforts to drill for oil this summer in the Arctic Ocean off the northern coast of Alaska. The decision comes following a ruling by the EPA’s Environmental Appeals Board to withhold critical air permits. The move has angered some in Congress and triggered a flurry of legislation aimed at stripping the EPA of its oil drilling oversight.

Shell has spent five years and nearly $4 billion dollars on plans to explore for oil in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas. The leases alone cost $2.2 billion. Shell Vice President Pete Slaiby says obtaining similar air permits for a drilling operation in the Gulf of Mexico would take about 45 days. He’s especially frustrated over the appeal board’s suggestion that the Arctic drill would somehow be hazardous for the people who live in the area. “We think the issues were really not major,” Slaiby said, “and clearly not impactful for the communities we work in.”

The closest village to where Shell proposed to drill is Kaktovik, Alaska. It is one of the most remote places in the United States. According to the latest census, the population is 245 and nearly all of the residents are Alaska natives. The village, which is 1 square mile, sits right along the shores of the Beaufort Sea, 70 miles away from the proposed off-shore drill site.

Keep TOTUS in your prayers.

(WaPo) — Hubert J. “Hub” Schlafly Jr., a television engineer who aided countless politicians and performers when he helped invent the scrolling public-speaking crutch known as a teleprompter, died April 20 of undisclosed causes at a hospital in Stamford, Conn. He was 91.

Inspiration for the teleprompter came in the late 1940s from a Broadway actor, Fred Barton, who dreamed up a device that would help him remember his lines. He pitched his idea to Irving Kahn, then vice president for radio and television at 20th Century Fox.

Kahn turned to Mr. Schlafly, director of television research at Fox.

“I said it was a piece of cake,” Mr. Schlafly told the Stamford Advocate newspaper in 2008.

He installed a motorized scroll of paper inside half a suitcase. Actors’ lines were printed on the paper in half-inch letters, and the suitcase was set up next to studio cameras. The scrolling speed was controlled by a stagehand.

And when this fails to dislodge Gaddafi?

(NY Times) — NATO planners say the allies are stepping up attacks on palaces, headquarters, communications centers and other prominent institutions supporting the Libyan regime, a shift of targets that is intended to weaken Col. Muammar Qaddafi’s grip on power and frustrate his forces in the field.

Officials in Europe and in Washington said that the strikes are meant to reduce the regime’s ability to harm civilians by eliminating, link by link, the command, communications and supply chains required for sustaining military operations.

The broadening of the alliance’s targets comes at a time when the rebels and the regime in Libya have been consolidating their positions along more static front lines, raising concerns of a prolonged stalemate. Although it is too soon to assess the results of the shift, a NATO official said on Tuesday that the alliance is watching closely for early signs, like the recent reports of desertions from the Libyan army.

Strikes on significant bulwarks of Colonel Qaddafi’s power over recent days included bombing his residential compound in the heart of Tripoli — an array of bunkers that are also home to administrative offices and a military command post — as well as knocking state television briefly off the air.

Can Sullivan nudge himself towards a death panel for being such a flaming hypocrite?

(Daily Dish/Andrew Sullivan) . . . If everyone aged 40 or over simply made sure we appointed someone to be our power-of-attorney and instructed that person not to prolong our lives by extraordinary measures if we lost consciousness in a long, fatal illness or simply old age, then we’d immediately make a dent in some way on future healthcare costs. A remarkable proportion of healthcare costs go to the very last days or hours of our lives.

This seems to me particularly apposite for the boomers who, even if Paul Ryan got his way, would still be grandfathered into the most generous combination of personal prosperity and government support of any generation in history. Wouldn’t a few fewer unconscious hours or days be a sacrifice worth making?

Of course, this would be entirely voluntary — and not even nudged (although, frankly, I see no reason why the government shouldn’t nudge you to make arrangements ahead of time given that others will be forced to pay the costs). “Death panels!” Christianists would scream, revealing exactly how un-Christian they are. Christians, of all people, it seems to me, have nothing to fear from death, and a great deal to gain from giving a few of their own unconscious final days to make it feasible for others to have a few more conscious and healthy ones.

Shockingly, the Soros-funded Matt Yglesias at ThinkProgress thinks Sully’s ideas on “voluntary death panels” are a wonderful idea.

Bonus: The AP is now referring to Mumia as a “death-row activist.”

(AP) — A U.S. appeals court is awarding death-row activist Mumia Abu-Jamal a new sentencing hearing in the 1981 murder of a Philadelphia police officer.

Tuesday’s ruling is the latest in the former Black Panther’s long-running legal saga.

The 58-year-old Mumia’s first-degree murder conviction stands in the fatal shooting of Officer Daniel Faulkner.

But the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is upholding its earlier ruling that the death-penalty instructions to the jury were unclear at Mumia’s 1982 trial.

HT: Malkin

All kinds of gay jokes come to mind.

(NY Post) — Even the Republican candidates lining up to topple President Obama next year should be supporting him now for the good of the country, according to Mayor Bloomberg.

“We should be behind this president even if you’re a candiate who’s going to run against him — which I am not,” Bloomberg said in a taped interview with PBS’ Tavis Smiley in taking bi-partisanship to its highest level.

Asked for an assessment of Obama’s presidency, the mayor took a positive stance.

“I think he has done as good a job as virtually any new president — first two years. Lots of things he could have, would have and should have,” Bloomberg said. “That’s always going to be the case.”

Because not being intimidated into unionizing is a bad thing.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The National Labor Relations Board says it will move ahead with lawsuits seeking to invalidate state constitutional amendments in Arizona and South Dakota that require workers to hold secret ballot elections before a company can be unionized.

The move comes after months of negotiations that failed to reach a settlement with attorneys general for the two states, according to an April 22 letter from the agency’s acting general counsel, Lafe Solomon.

It’s the latest in a series of high-profile steps the agency has taken to defend union rights since gaining a Democratic majority last year for the first time in nearly a decade. And it comes as Republican state legislators are enacting anti-union laws in many states as budget-cutting efforts.

Last week, the NRLB filed a controversial lawsuit that accuses Boeing Co. of putting one of its assembly lines for the new 787 in South Carolina — a right to work state — to retaliate against union workers in Washington state who went on strike in 2008.

Solomon told state officials he has directed staff to file the lawsuits against Arizona and South Dakota “shortly.” He claims the amendments conflict with current federal law that gives employers the option to recognize a union if a majority of workers simply sign cards, a process known as “card check.”

Solomon also claims the state amendments are pre-empted by the supremacy clause of the Constitution. That clause says federal law prevails if there is a conflict between state and federal law.

But Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne said the NLRB had no legal basis to file a lawsuit.

“There’s no statute that says people can’t have secret ballot elections, so there’s no preemption,” Horne said.

I know what you’re thinking, “he can’t be serious,” but amazingly, he is.

While Jesus may not have specified specific tax brackets, he was the first recorded advocate of a progressive income tax. Jesus actually said, “I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth, but she, out of her poverty, put in everything, all she had to live on.”

What would Jesus take? Obviously, he would take from each according to their ability to pay. That is the clear Christian philosophical basis of a progressive income tax; 10 percent on low incomes, 35 percent on high incomes is the current structure.

Via Newsbusters