Democrats Resurrect Burning Black Churches Strategy

Do you smell black churches burning? I do.

Back in 1996 the Democrat/media complex created a false narrative about a wave of black church arsons. Then President Bill Clinton eloquently recalled how a strikingly similar epidemic in his home state of Arkansas had touched his heart when he was a child. Everyone swooned.

It was a remarkably Clintonian feat of memory, because those church burnings that were seared into his memory didn’t happen either.

But the purpose of the fabricated narrative was to cement the re-election of Bill Clinton, who was portrayed as the only man capable of healing the racial rift that these burning churches represented.

And it was all a fraud. USA Today strayed off the reservation, committed an act of investigative journalism and proved that the wave of black church arsons was wholly apocryphal.

The mainstream news media was exposed for making it all up.

They used to have a word for fake, inflammatory journalism. It was called “yellow journalism.” Today, it’s called journalism.

Democrats seized upon the Trayvon Martin shooting in Florida as an opportunity to reprise their 1996 role as racial conciliators. And the media played along. But they’ve blown it mightily.

The undisputed facts of the case are that George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch officer, shot Trayvon Martin, a 17 year old African American, after reporting to police that he was observing someone who had piqued his suspicions.

After the shooting, the police detained and questioned Zimmerman. Zimmerman insisted that he shot Martin in self defense only after the teenager had attacked him, administered a considerable beating and tried to take his handgun. Numerous witnesses and physical evidence corroborated Zimmerman’s version of events. The Florida State Attorney’s office judged that there was not enough evidence to charge Zimmerman with a crime.

Since then the Democrats’ premier race baiters, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and the New Black Panthers, have moved in to create a divisive account of a racist white man shooting an angelic, unarmed child. At first, the mainstream news media eagerly promoted this storyline.

But little by little, what the police knew when they took the decision to release George Zimmerman has made its way into the public eye. The local press had it first and it was later picked up by the national news media. And it has grown increasingly clear that the Jesse Jackson/Al Sharpton/New Black Panthers narrative is far off the truth.

But that didn’t deter Congressional Democrats from bringing Trayvon Martin’s parents to the capital to stage phony hate crimes “hearing.”

And it has grown increasingly clear that Democrats aren’t seeking justice. They’re demanding a lynching.

This actually could have turned to President Obama’s advantage, but he didn’t have the instincts.

In 1992, Bill Clinton stood before Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Push Coalition and scolded the assemblage for hosting Sister Souljah the previous day. Sister Souljah was a rapper who advocated the murder of white people for the crime of being white.  Jesse Jackson made a great exhibition of indignation at being disrespected. But Bill Clinton reaped a rich harvest for demonstrating his independence from the race-baiting wing of the Democratic Party.

And it was risk free. Clinton knew that they had nowhere else to go in the general election.

But when Barack Obama was asked about Trayvon Martin’s death, he chose to inject race into the affair, thus encouraging the race baiters to ramp things up.

All that was missing was Obama accusing the Orlando cops of acting stupidly.

Since then, the New Black Panthers have distributed wanted posters offering $10,000 for George Zimmerman’s capture and claim to have recruited thousands of black men to track him down.

In his eagerness to exact racist revenge, movie director Spike Lee did the wrong thing and used to his Twitter account to broadcast to his 240,000 followers what he believed was George Zimmerman’s home address.

The address was that of an innocent elderly couple.

 Defusing this powder keg will require courage and moral leadership.  Barack Obama is uniquely situated to accomplish that. But he either believes that he can exploit this for political advantage as Clinton did 16 years ago, or he has once again reverted to political spinelessness and chosen to vote present.

Obama promised that his ironically misnamed Justice Department would be looking into civil rights violations. At the moment, the only person who has suffered clear civil rights violations is George Zimmerman.

The War On Blacks

By other blacks. White on black violence is extremely rare.

Most homicides are intraracial, but the chance of a black being killed by a white or Hispanic is much lower than the chance that a white or Hispanic will be killed by a black. Seventeen percent of what the FBI calls “white” homicide victims in 2009 were killed by blacks, compared to 8 percent of black homicide victims who were killed by “whites.” There were two and a half times as many white and Hispanic victims of black killers in 2009 as there were black victims of white and Hispanic killers, even though the black population is one-sixth that of whites and Hispanics combined. If Hispanics were removed from the category of “white” killers of blacks, the percentage of blacks killed by Anglo whites would plummet, since a significant percentage of what the FBI calls “white”-on-black killings represent gang warfare between Hispanic and black gangs...

...[I]n New York City. Blacks commit 80 percent of all shootings in the city — as reported by the victims of and witnesses to those shootings — though they are but 23 percent of the population; whites commit 1.4 percent of all shootings, though they are 35 percent of the population. Add Hispanic shootings to the black tally, and you account for 98 percent of all of the city’s gun violence. In New York, as in big cities across the country, the face of violence is overwhelmingly black and Hispanic.

NBC Lies

Truth dies. Anybody else remember when NBC accused Breitbart of misleading editing? I do.

In the NBC segment, Zimmerman says: “This guy looks like he’s up to no good. He looks black.”

The full version, though, unfolds like this:

Zimmerman: “This guy looks like he’s up to no good, or he’s on drugs or something. It’s raining and he’s just walking around, looking about.”

911 operator: “Okay. And this guy, is he white black or Hispanic?”

Zimmerman: “He looks black.”

Seven Black Kids Beat The Snot Out Of Hispanic Kid

With accompanying racial slurs. Will Obama speak out? Probably not. If Barack had a son, he wouldn't look like a Mexican.

Seven black teens have been arrested on suspicion that they committed a hate crime when they attacked a 15-year-old Hispanic boy while he was walking home from school in Southern California, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office.

The March 14 beating in Palmdale was captured on video and posted on YouTube, but has since been removed from the site. The seven boys, ages 13 to 16, were arrested Wednesday for investigation of assault and committing a hate crime, Lt. Don Ford said.

The attack happened near Cactus Middle School, but Ford didn't know if any of the teens involved were students there.

The video shows as many as 10 boys surrounding the victim and challenging him to a fight. The suspects then began hitting the teen while others watched.

During the beating, the teens made racially derogatory statements that were captured on the video, Ford said.

Olbermann's Drivers Dared Speak To Him

And some of them smelled. Who does Olbermann think he is? Harry Reid?

On the heels of Countdown host Keith Olbermann‘s firing from Current TV, the network and sources close to it have been quick to buttress their case for the dismissal with details of the temperamental star’s antics. One such source tells Mediaite, among other things, that Olbermann went through 8 different car services (he doesn’t drive), and complained to the network that some of the drivers “smelled,” and “talked to him.”

It's Always Some Bullshit!

I'll always remember what's-her-name.

Obama Family Friend Still Dreams Of Ending Socialism

Since William Ayers lives in the same cocoon that Obama does, it's hardly surprising that he didn't the memo either.

Over the past 30 years, notes the libertarian Cato Institute in the latest edition of its "Economic Freedom of the World," the average country's economic freedom score has risen from 5.53 (on a 10 scale) to 6.64 -- a significant improvement that has paid off in higher growth and earnings. The evidence indicates a reliable pattern: the freer the economy the faster the growth.

"Nations in the top quartile of economic freedom had an average per-capita GDP of $31,501 in 2009, compared to $4,545 for those nations in the bottom quartile," says Cato. The rate of extreme poverty is 2.7 percent in the top quartile and 41 percent in the bottom one.

Among many people a generation ago -- and among a few today -- free markets and private property were seen as the cause of poverty. But the number of adherents has dwindled in the face of repeated refutation.

The latest cover story in The Economist magazine is: "Cuba hurtles toward capitalism." Cuba! Even communists eventually have to make peace with reality.

Rush To Judgement In Trayvon Martin Case

Facts? The left don't need no stinking facts.

Jackson said that Martin's death shows how "blacks are under attack" and "targeting, arresting, convicting blacks and ultimately killing us is big business." Apart from the obvious incendiary nature of such comments, what in heaven's name could Jackson mean?

Spike Lee fueled the flames by tweeting Zimmerman's home address, which turned out to be the wrong address and resulted in an older couple fleeing from their home and fearing for their lives after threats and crowds outside their residence. Lee, realizing his folly, has since apologized to the couple.

These actions and words illustrate a problem in dealing with Martin's death: Many people are not on an impartial hunt for justice but are exploiting this crisis for personal or political gain and claiming that it is representative of larger societal problems.

Martin's own mother, Sybrina Fulton, filed applications for trademarks on two of the popular phrases used at rallies for Martin, "I Am Trayvon" and "Justice for Trayvon." Democrats politicized the event with a hearing on Capitol Hill in which Martin's parents testified. Later, U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Illinois, wore a hoodie on the House floor.

It's clear that some of the people raising the most noise are trying to make this less about the horrible death of a young man and more about claims of racial resentment that may or may not exist.

The loudest voices should be particularly careful not to rush to conclusions. Remember the Duke lacrosse case, in which members of the team were accused of a gang rape. The public rushed to judgment long before the young men were eventually acquitted.

No, Nikki Haley Is Not Going To Be Indicted

It was all just another fantasy of the left.

The Internal Revenue Service determined last fall that an investigation of the Sikh Religious Society where Gov. Nikki Haley’s parents are leaders was not warranted, according to a letter the IRS provided the Governor’s Office Friday.

“After further consideration of your organization, we have determined that an investigation is not warranted at this time for the above tax period,” the letter states...

...“It’s incredibly frustrating when unaccountable bloggers will take money to smear trash about somebody and the mainstream media will pick it up and run with it,” Haley said Friday, alluding to the coverage that followed an initial post by a South Carolina political blogger this week claiming the IRS had been investigating the temple since March 2011.

Obama Lawyer Undercuts His Own Argument

No, the individual mandate is not about eliminating cost shifting.

Both in the political arena and in court, the Obama administration has defended its mandate forcing individuals to purchase health insurance by arguing that when uninsured people show up at emergency rooms, they impose a cost on society. As described in the legislation, the mandate is merely an "individual responsibility requirement."

In reality, the mandate has always been about forcing healthy people into the insurance pool, to offset the distortion in the market created by the related provision requiring insurers to cover those with pre-existing conditions.

Tuesday's oral arguments on the constitutionality of the mandate illuminated this better than ever before.

Mike Carvin, who represented the National Federation of Independent Business before the court, explained that the uninsured and those who show up at hospitals without paying are different populations.

"It is clear that the failure to buy health insurance doesn't affect anyone," Carvin said. "Defaulting on your payments to your health care provider does. Congress chose, for whatever reason, not to regulate the harmful activity of defaulting on your health care provider."

This could be a key consideration for Justice Anthony Kennedy, who is widely seen as the swing vote in this case, in which NFIB and 26 states led by Florida have challenged the mandate. During oral arguments, Kennedy seemed to accept the argument brought by opponents of the national health care law that the mandate was unprecedented, saying that it "changes the relationship of the federal government to the individual in a very fundamental way." His comments also suggested he was concerned with whether there could be limits on federal power if the mandate were upheld.

Unions Losing Favor - In Michigan?

Even in Michigan, a state dominated for decades by unions, they've come undone.

Do voters support the state’s Emergency Financial Management law which authorizes the governor to appoint an emergency financial manager to take over bankrupt local governments with the power to void union contracts? Yes, they do, by a 52%-35% margin. EFMs have been appointed in four cities and two school districts, including Detroit, so far; Snyder has tried to get Detroit Mayor Dave Bing to take actions that will avoid an EFM for the city government, so far unsuccessfully.

Do voters support the law, recently passed by the legislature and signed by Snyder, to prohibit school districts from collecting union dues and forwarding them to teacher unions? Yes, by a 46%-40% margin. When checkoffs have been abolished, as was done by Mitch Daniels’s executive order in Indiana and by Scott Walker’s legislation in Wisconsin, the flow of money to teacher unions has been vastly reduced.

Do voters support a right-to-work law, banning union contracts that require all employees in a bargaining unit to pay union dues? Yes, by a surprisingly large 58%-37% margin. Some Republicans in the legislature want to pass such a bill but Snyder has said it is “not on my agenda.” Unions fear he would sign it if the legislature passes it. Union leaders have been threatening a referendum on a state constitutional amendment banning a right-to-work law, but these numbers suggest it would have a hard time passing.

Obama's EPA Bactracking On Fracking

They've given up on trying to blame hydraulic fracturing for Texas groundwater contamination.

The Environmental Protection Agency has dropped its claim that an energy company contaminated drinking water in Texas, the third time in recent months that the agency has backtracked on high-profile local allegations linking natural-gas drilling and water pollution.

On Friday, the agency told a federal judge it withdrew an administrative order that alleged Range Resources Corp. had polluted water wells in a rural Texas county west of Fort Worth. Under an agreement filed in U.S. court in Dallas, the EPA will also drop the lawsuit it filed in January 2011 against Range, and Range will end its appeal...

Apparently HBO isn't the best source for unbiased science after all.

Obama Snuffs Out Hope On College Campuses

“There’s not the sense that four more years of Obama will change the world for the better.”

 

Mitt Romney Is A Big Meanie

According to the assiduously civil Barney Frank. You can stop laughing now.

"But Mitt Romney has been so obvious in his absolute lack of principle that even the people who he temporarily says I agree with you, are not reassured because they understand that when the wind blows, there he will go again. There's also in Mitt Romney and people don't fully intend -- there is a meanness at his core," Frank observed.

Thanks Barack!

Al Sharpton's Playbook

The media has played along with Al Sharpton for decades, even when he tells them how he's playing them for fools.

Are Whites Really Murdering Black Children?

Nope.

[New York Times columnist Charles] Blow is right about one thing: Black boys do face a much higher chance than non-blacks that they will be shot when they are “out in the world.” Black males between the ages of 14 and 24 were seven times more likely to die of homicide in 2007 than white and Hispanic males of the same age group combined. But the danger they face comes overwhelmingly from other black males, whose homicide offending rate in the 14 to 24 age category was nearly ten times higher than that of young white and Hispanic males combined. (The federal government’s crime data puts Hispanics and whites in a single category of “white,” thus overstating the non-Hispanic white offending and victimization rates). Most homicides are intraracial, but the chance of a black being killed by a white or Hispanic is much lower than the chance that a white or Hispanic will be killed by a black. Seventeen percent of what the FBI calls “white” homicide victims in 2009 were killed by blacks, compared to 8 percent of black homicide victims who were killed by “whites.” There were two and a half times as many white and Hispanic victims of black killers in 2009 as there were black victims of white and Hispanic killers, even though the black population is one-sixth that of whites and Hispanics combined. If Hispanics were removed from the category of “white” killers of blacks, the percentage of blacks killed by Anglo whites would plummet, since a significant percentage of what the FBI calls “white”-on-black killings represent gang warfare between Hispanic and black gangs. (Needless to say, there is no reason to think that racism plays a more frequent role in white-on-black killings than in black-on-white killings.)

Blow’s fear that his children will be blown away by a white is particularly ludicrous in New York City. Blacks commit 80 percent of all shootings in the city — as reported by the victims of and witnesses to those shootings — though they are but 23 percent of the population; whites commit 1.4 percent of all shootings, though they are 35 percent of the population. Add Hispanic shootings to the black tally, and you account for 98 percent of all of the city’s gun violence. In New York, as in big cities across the country, the face of violence is overwhelmingly black and Hispanic.

The Left Goes After Katy Perry

Her crime, glorification of the United States Marines.

Prominent feminist Naomi Wolf, author of "The Beauty Myth" and one of many who were arrested amid the Occupy Wall Street protests last year, is urging Americans to boycott the singer, labeling her video "a total piece of propaganda for the Marines."

 

"I really want to find out if she was paid by them for making it," Wolf wrote on her Facebook page. "It is truly shameful... I would suggest a boycott of this singer whom I really liked - if you are as offended as this glorification of violence as I am." 

By the way, back in 2000, Al Gore hired Naomi Wolf to help him dress like a man.

Soledad O'Brien Is A Simpleton

So rather than explore more complicated issues surrounding the Trayvon Martin - George Zimmerman issue, she retreats to a decades old cliche'.

Trayvon Martin's Facebook Photo

This evening, CNN's Soledad O'Brien will host a televised town hall meeting on the Trayvon Martin case that will focus on the issue of race--a subject inflamed by the left, the media, and the Obama administration, but which may have had nothing to do with the killing itself.

It's not the first time O'Brien has attempted to make race the most important issue, and seems to reflect a pattern in her coverage of news events.

In 2007, O'Brien interviewed two black members of Congress for Paula Zahn Now to ask them why they were supporting then-Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) over Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) in the race for the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party.

It soon became clear that O'Brien was less concerned about producing answers and more interested in applying political pressure, using appeals to racial solidarity: "If the black leadership is not endorsing the black candidate, then, well, why should anybody else in America get behind Barack Obama?" she asked.

Eventually, an exasperated Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) pushed back: "I can't imagine a black moderator asking a white why he would not vote for a white, merely because he was white."

I Love Katy Perry

Because liberals hate her.

Obama Says Heel

And the Washington Post obeys.

On March 27, Josh Hicks of the Washington Post's Fact Checker gave White House regulation czar Cass Sunstein one "Pinocchio" for his defense of the Obama administration's regulatory record. However, the same article, a day earlier, was far more critical of the administration, giving Sunstein a total of three Pinocchios.

Below (as text, and in Word document at the end of the article) is a comparison of the first (3 Pinocchio) and the second (1 Pinocchio) versions of the Fact Checker article, with extensive changes indicated:

Yes, We Can Blame Obama For High Gasoline Prices

Obama has done everything in his power to obstruct oil exploration and extraction.

Administration Oil Strategy Contributes to Price Increases

ObamaCare: $17 Trillion In Unfunded Liabilities

Now that we've passed it, we know what's in it.

Senate Republican staffers continue to look though the 2010 health care reform law to see what’s in it, and their latest discovery is a massive $17 trillion funding gap.

“The more we learn about the bill, the more we learn it is even more unaffordable than was suspected,” said Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, the Republican’s budget chief in the Senate.

“The bill has to be removed from the books because we don’t have the money,” he said.

The hidden shortfall between new spending and new taxes was revealed just after Supreme Court justices grilled the law’s supporters about its compliance with the Constitution’s limits on government activity. If the court doesn’t strike down the law, it will force taxpayers find another $17 trillion to pay for the increased spending.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/03/30/another-17-trillion-surprise-found-in-obamacare/#ixzz1qdH2Rw00

Obama Escalates His War On Oil

By shutting down East Coast exploration. Besides, what to we need oil for? We've got switchgrass!

"The president's actions have closed an entire new area to drilling on his watch and cheats Virginians out of thousands of jobs," said Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., who chairs the House Natural Resources Committee. The announcement "continues the president's election-year political ploy of giving speeches and talking about drilling after having spent the first three years in office blocking, delaying and driving up the cost of producing energy in America," he said.

A Less Angelic Trayvon Martin Photo

I sort of doubted that he still looked like twelve year old.

Al Sharpton Reprising His Crown Heights And Freddie's Fashion Mart Heyday

Promises an escalation if George Zimmerman isn't arrested.

"I will speak about how the National Action Network will move to the next level if Zimmerman isn't arrested," Sharpton said, who founded the organization. He added that it was the Martin family and lawyers who first asked him to get involved and nationalize this story.

The case has ignited ire and debate across the nation, galvanizing thousands of Trayvon supporters to the streets and social media, donning hoodies and toting Skittles.

Sanford police this week released a video of a handcuffed George Zimmerman apparently showing no visible signs of physical injury after he claimed that he shot the 17-year-old Miami teenager in self-defense.

Zimmerman's family have come to his defense on national news networks, releasing details about his version of what happened the night of Feb. 26 when police found the teen face down in wet grass.
Sharpton said the recent revelations only underscores the need for an immediate arrest and trial.

"Whether he [Zimmerman] had a swollen or broken nose, neither one means he had to take a 9mm and kill someone," he said. "It's not about saying Zimmerman is innocent or guilty, this is about whether there was probable cause to arrest him."

Just as a reminder, Al Sharpton incited race riots in Crown Heights, New York and inspired a fire bombing at Freddie's Fashion Mart. Al Sharpton has  body count.

Opposition To ObamaCare Can Be Principled?

Washington Post grudgingly admits that opposition to ObamaCare is founded in principles and not just racism.

AMERICANS WHO CHOSE to listen to, or read the transcripts of, three days of oral argument at the Supreme Court this week were treated to a challenging civics lesson on federalism, liberty and the limits and potential of government authority. Three points in particular struck us.

Sadly, even before the sessions on health-care reform had ended, some liberals were preemptively trying to delegitimize a potential defeat at the court. If the justices strike down the individual mandate to purchase health insurance, they said, they will prove themselves partisan, activist and, essentially, intellectually corrupt.

We share in the disappointment that the justices on both sides of their ideological divide are, for the most part, so predictable. That’s not, in the ideal world, how judging is supposed to work. But we also think there’s a kind of cynicism, or at least intellectual laziness, in asserting that this is an easy or obvious call — that no justice could possibly strike down the mandate out of honest, reasoned conviction. Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr. had his hands full defending the mandate, not because he’s a bad lawyer, but because it’s not an easy question.

If the federal government can force young adults to buy health insurance that they do not want, then what can’t the government do? 

It's telling that the Washington Post editors needed more than two years before they even considered that last question.

Egypt Accelerates Downward Spiral

How's that Arab Spring working out for ya?

Egyptian liberals were ecstatic over their role in the fall of Hosni Mubarak, but that victory may have been the high-water mark of their movement. The AP reports that following liberals’ poor showing in Egypt’s first democratic elections in years, Islamists took 60 of the 100 seats on the council to draft a new constitution. Now two liberal politicians have quit the body in protest.

As liberals continue to cede ground to the Muslim Brotherhood, it’s increasingly clear that democracy and liberty in Egypt do not point in the same direction. Mounting evidence suggests that the new Egypt will be less liberal than the old one, especially regarding religious minorities and women’s rights.

Re-Education Camps For Global Warming Skeptics

I love Big Brother.

This just smacks of the same mentality that inspired climate change activists to say global warming deniers should be purged from meteorology. Kari Mari Norgaard, a professor of sociology and environmental studies at the University of Oregon, suggests that resistance to the threat of climate change at individual and societal levels must be “recognized and treated” before real action can be taken to effectively address the problem global warming poses. From a University of Oregon press release:

“Climate change poses a massive threat to our present social, economic and political order. From a sociological perspective, resistance to change is to be expected,” she said. “People are individually and collectively habituated to the ways we act and think. This habituation must be recognized and simultaneously addressed at the individual, cultural and societal level — how we think the world works and how we think it should work.” …

At the personal level, climate-change information raises fear about the future, a sense of helplessness and guilt. These emotions clash with individual — and often national — identity, sense of self-efficacy and the need for basic security and survival. In small groups, interactions often subvert political conversations and/or submerge the visibility of climate-change issues. At the macro level, or society at large, the co-authors point to an absence of serious discussion of climate change within U.S. Congressional hearings and in media coverage.

In many discussions in the last 30 years, climate change has been seen as either a hoax or fixable with minimal political or economic intervention, said Norgaard, author of the book “Living in Denial: Climate Change, Emotions and Everyday Life” (2011, MIT Press). “This kind of cultural resistance to very significant social threat is something that we would expect in any society facing a massive threat,” she said. The discussion, she said, is comparable to what happened with challenges to racism or slavery in the U.S. South.

AFL-CIO Blames Conservatives For Trayvon Martin's Death

Let's review, an Hispanic Democrat shoots and kills a 17 year who had been kicked out of school for marijuana possession on school grounds and was currently kicking the crap out of him.

And it's Republicans' fault?

AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker told The Daily Caller that it is “conservative, right-wing policies that are to blame” for Trayvon Martin‘s death.
 
Martin was a black teenager shot and killed by an Hispanic neighborhood watch volunteer. The shooting, and the police department’s decision to not arrest the suspect, George Zimmerman, has caused an uproar in Florida and across the country. 


“The same folks who want to kill workers’ rights in the work place are the same folks who want to kill voters’ votes … and now they are literally supporting legislation that is literally killing our children.”

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/03/30/afl-cio-exec-conservative-right-wing-policies-to-blame-for-trayvon-martins-death-video/#ixzz1qcE8kwAY

Olbermann Too Obnoxious Even For Current TV

I don't think you can sink any lower in his profession.

Keith Olbermann has been dismissed from Al Gore’s Current TV.

New York Times media reporter Brian Stelter broke the news Friday afternoon.  Current TV was co-founded by Gore in 2005.  Olbermann started at the network last year, after nearly 8 years at MSNBC.

“We created Current to give voice to those Americans who refuse to rely on corporate-controlled media and are seeking an authentic progressive outlet,” Current TV said in a statement. “We are more committed to those goals today than ever before.”

“Current was also founded on the values of respect, openness, collegiality, and loyalty to our viewers,” continued the statement. “Unfortunately these values are no longer reflected in our relationship with Keith Olbermann and we have ended it.”

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/03/30/report-olbermann-out-at-current-tv/#ixzz1qe0AiO6D

Justice Breyer's Intellectual Laziness

Stephen Breyer displays one more reason why he's the worst justice on the Supreme Court. 

Reading the transcript and listening to the audio of day 2 of the Obamacare argument, I was struck by the sheer intellectual laziness and comlacency of Justice Breyer. To liken him to a rodeo clown would be to credit him with too much energy. Referring to the key New Deal Commerce Clause case of Wickard v. Filburn, Breyer asked, for example: “Didn’t they make that man growing his own wheat go into the market and buy other wheat for his — for his cows?” 

Well, actually, no, Justice Breyer, they didn’t. “They” — Congress in an amendment to the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938 — limited the amount of wheat farmer Filburn could grow on his farm under a quota set for him by the geniuses in Washington (or penalized him for exceeding the quota). “They” didn’t make him go into the market and buy wheat for his cows. That’s the point — the point Randy Barnett has argued for the past few years. 

The distinction between the case vaguely recalled by Justice Breyer and the one decided by the Supreme Court in the Wickard case might be the difference between a pass or a fail on a fairly graded con law exam in law school. It goes to the heart of the Obamacare case. Justice Breyer has apparently been pursuing other intersts over the past few months. 

As Jeffrey Anderson and Conn Carroll have observed, this wasn’t necessarily Justice Breyer’s only laugh-out-loud moment during day 2 of the oral argument. And if Justice Breyer were not a party-line liberal, you would have heard about it.

He makes Sotomayor look like an intellectual giant.

The Sharpton - Jackson - Obama - Spike Lee Leads The Descent Into Tribalism

Liberals Too Touchy

Seth Meyer thinks that liberals can't take a joke because they're too sensitive. He's wrong. They can't take a joke because they are so accustomed to being insulated from any criticism.

Sun: Have you had any weird comments or negative reactions from political figures because of sketches?

Meyers: There haven’t really been any weird things, but the nice thing for me is that Lorne [Michaels] instills in us to try and never write a joke that you would be embarrassed to see the person. So it’s funny when you do the Correspondents' Dinner and I’ll run into Sarah Palin and say hello, because we met when she did the show and John McCain’s such a friend of the show. I feel like the weird thing is when you make a joke about a liberal, they’re probably more sensitive about it because they assume it’s a safer place for them.

Supreme Court Justices Or Debate Coaches

Leftist Supreme Court justices were actually helping Obama's Solicitor General make his arguments - literally putting words in his mouth.

Can You Keep A Secret?

The fate of the most consequential Supreme Court case since the Roosevelt Administration will be decided today. Will the justices and their clerks be able to keep it secret?

While the rest of us have to wait until June, the justices of the Supreme Court will know the likely outcome of the historic health care case by the time they go home this weekend.

After months of anticipation, thousands of pages of briefs and more than six hours of arguments, the justices will vote on the fate of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul in under an hour Friday morning. They will meet in a wood-paneled conference room on the court's main floor. No one else will be present.

In the weeks after this meeting, individual votes can change. Even who wins can change, as the justices read each other's draft opinions and dissents.

But Friday's vote, which each justice probably will record and many will keep for posterity, will be followed soon after by the assignment of a single justice to write a majority opinion, or in a case this complex, perhaps two or more justices to tackle different issues. That's where the hard work begins, with the clock ticking toward the end of the court's work in early summer.

Biden Explains Why He Went Into Politics

He's incapable of doing productive work. Better suited to parasitism.

Vice President Joe Biden offered a frank assessment of his career in remarks at a Democratic fundraiser in Chicago Thursday night.  According to a White House pool report, Biden, surrounded by the city's movers and shakers, praised former Mayor Richard M. Daley and then said: "I never had an interest in being a mayor 'cause that's a real job.  You have to produce.  That's why I was able to be a senator for 36 years."

Biden was elected to the Senate in November 1972, when he was 29 years old.  When he took office in January 1973, he had turned 30, the minimum age set in the Constitution for membership in the Senate.  Biden served in the Senate from that time until January 2009, when he became vice president.

Where Are George Zimmerman's Medical Records

A broken nose? Head lacerations? Where's the documentation? It's coming, says his brother.

George Zimmerman's brother said medical records will prove that his brother was attacked and his nose was broken by Trayvon Martin before he fatally shot the teen.

Robert Zimmerman Jr. spoke to CNN's Piers Morgan Thursday night saying he wanted to correct some of the "mythology" and untruths that have been spread about the controversial shooting.

"We're confident the medical records are going to explain all of George's medical history," Zimmerman Jr. said. "His nose looks swollen in that video. I'm his brother."

Eco Scam

Blowing in the wind.

A year ago, a Reno clean energy businessman warned the Public Utilities Commission that if it didn’t set a few standards for NV Energy’s wind rebate program, its customers could end up footing the bill for turbines that rarely produce electricity.

One reason behind his concern: To be eligible for rebates, customers didn’t need to prove that the wind actually blows enough to justify installing a turbine on their property.

“This could allow unscrupulous developers to sell turbines to unsuspecting customers who will not generate electricity from an installed turbine because there is no wind to power the turbine,” Clean Energy Center managing member Rich Hamilton told the PUC last May. “This problem is especially vexing because ratepayer money could be contributing to the cost of such turbines, which could give the Wind Generations program and the wind industry a black eye.”

The PUC agreed that such a standard would be a good idea but sided with NV Energy’s position that it was too early to move forward with it just yet.

A year later, however, Hamilton’s warning appears to have been spot on.

Sarkozy Cracks Down On Islamists

Overdue.

French police commandos arrested 19 people suspected of radical Islamist activity in Friday morning raids in several cities including Toulouse, scene of the killings of seven people by an al Qaeda-inspired gunman earlier this month.

President Nicolas Sarkozy, who is waging an uphill battle for re-election, said more raids would follow.

"There will be further operations, allowing us to expel a number of people who have no business in the country," he said in an interview on Europe 1 radio.

If France had Michael Bloomberg and Barack Hussein Obama, they'd want to build a mosque at the site where those Jewish children were killed.

France Bars Four Islamists From Entry

The French have decided that they have more than enough trouble makers already.

France barred four Islamic preachers from entering the country on Thursday after banning prominent preacher Sheikh Youssef al-Qaradawi and another Egyptian cleric who wanted to attend a Muslim conference in Paris.

Foreign Minister Alain Juppe and Interior Minister Claude Gueant said in a joint statement the four preachers "call for hate and violence ... and, in the current context, present a strong risk of upsetting public order".

President Nicolas Sarkozy, who ordered a crackdown on radical Islamists after the Toulouse killings by an al Qaeda-inspired gunman last week, said on Monday that Qaradawi and Mahmoud al-Masri were not welcome in France.

The Union of French Islamic Organisations (UOIF), which invited the clerics to an April 6-9 conference, said it was surprised and hurt by the government's "manifest determination to prolong a polemic ... based on total ignorance".

I've got an idea. If they want to have a convention of radical Islamists, why not hold it in Egypt or Syria or some other paradise. And then keep them there.

 

What Country Buys Most US Debt?

No, it's not China, Japan or Britain.

Last year the Fed purchased a stunning 61% of the total net Treasury issuance, up from negligible amounts prior to the 2008 financial crisis.

This not only creates the false impression of limitless demand for U.S. debt but also blunts any sense of urgency to reduce supersized budget deficits.

What about Japan and China? Aren’t they the major purchasers of U.S. debt? Not any more, notes Goodman. Foreign purchases of U.S. debt dropped to less than 2 percent of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) from almost 6 percent just three years ago. And private sector investors — banks, money market and bond mutual funds, individuals and corporations — have cut their buying way back as well, to less than 1 percent of GDP, down from 6 percent. This serves to hide the fact that the government can’t find outside buyers willing to accept rates of return that are below the inflation rate (“negative interest”) given the precarious financial condition of the government. It also hides the impact of $1.3 trillion deficits from the public who would likely get much more concerned if real, true market rates of interest were being demanded for purchasing U.S. debt, as such higher rates would increase the deficit even further. Finally it takes pressure off Congress to “do something” because there is no public clamor over the matter, at least for the moment.

Can you say inflation?

Necessarily Bankrupt

Obama deals a death blow to coal industry.

The coal industry and coal-fired power has been dealt a series of body blows by the Obama administration over the last four years. Yesterday, the EPA delivered the coup de grace to coal, in the form of a new rule that – unless overturned by Congress or a future administration – will ensure that no new, modern coal-fired power plants will be built in the United States.

The EPA released Subpart TTTT of New Source Performance Standards yesterday, a proposed rule that limits carbon dioxide emissions from new power plants. No coal-fired power plant can meet the emission limit (1,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt of power produced), but natural gas-fired power plants can. This will lead to some significant changes in the power energy once the rule goes final, sometime next year.

It is now estimated that around 50,000 to 80,000 megawatts of coal fired power will be retired from the grid over the next few years. Coal fired power is base load power (that is, power that has to be available all of the time) and neither solar nor wind can provide base load power anywhere but in the President’s green fantasies. Biomass (wood, energy crops, etc.) can provide base load power, but there’s not nearly enough of the fuel to replace so much coal. More nuclear power could easily shoulder the load, but there’s no way that we can permit and build enough nuclear plants in the time available. That leaves natural gas as the only fuel that can possibly be used to replace all of that coal.

Of course, Obama told us this was coming. And I've not heard the American people clamoring for this.

Will Florida Prosecute Eric Holder's Shock Troops?

The New Black Panthers have issued an illegal "Wanted Dead or Alive" posters for George Zimmerman. Eric Holder has already granted the Panther immunity from voter intimidation laws. And the New Black Panthers were given their own page on Barack Obama's campaign website back in 2008. Will Florida have the courage to stand up to the New Black Panthers?

So what crimes may have the New Black Panthers committed in Florida with their threats toward George Zimmerman?

Let's start with solicitation to kidnap.  In announcing a reward for the seizure of Zimmerman, the New Black Panthers may have violated Florida Code 787.01.  It makes it a felony to "by threat, confining or abducting, or imprisoning another person against his . . .  will without lawful authority with intent to . .  . terrorize."

Merely soliciting someone else to do this is also a felony in Florida under Florida Code 777.04.  "A person who solicits another to commit an offense prohibited by law and in the course of such solicitation commands, encourages, hires, or requests another person to engage in specific conduct which would constitute such offense or an attempt to commit such offense commits the offense of criminal solicitation."

And this:

The solicitation and threat to seize Zimmerman may also constitute a crime under Florida Code 876.35.  The felony of "combination against part of the people of the state" occurs when someone is unlawfully seized by a mob, or at the behest of a mob.   Think of a small town jail 100 years ago and an angry crowd, armed with rope, demanding a particular inmate.  Sound familiar?

Florida Code 876.35 defines the crime: "to remove them forcibly out of this state, or to remove them from their habitations to any other part of the state by force, or [when people] shall assemble for that purpose."  Remember, solicitation to commit a crime is in itself a crime.

Florida Code 876.34 even makes it a felony to "interfere forcibly in the administration of the government."

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/03/will_florida_prosecute_holders_people.html#ixzz1qbSEYhGW

Does Dan Rather Know How Babies Are Made?

He asks Rachel Maddow: "Do you know any woman, of any race, creed, color or religion, who doesn't use some form of birth control?"

I can think of one.

Democrats See The Quick Sand

Did Barack Obama act stupidly?

Top Democrats — including President Barack Obama’s re-election team — are now keeping their distance from the Trayvon Martin uproar, as each day reveals more facts about the teen’s slaying.

“As more facts come out, it’s more confusing for folks,” Sharon Gilpin, a Democratic political consultant, told The Daily Caller.

“There was a pretty intense rush to judgment … [but] it is important to get all your facts before you cement your feet in the sidewalk,” said Gilpin, who has worked on numerous Democratic campaigns and ballot initiatives.

“As tragic as this death is, there obviously is another side to the story,” former Democratic Rep. Artur Davis told TheDC. “We would all do well to wait for the facts to emerge.”

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/03/29/obama-democrats-lay-low-as-martin-story-shifts/#ixzz1qYoTOy00

Soledad O'Brien's Rating Tank

Americans who want to get lied to are already tuning in to MSNBC. Not enough market for two Ed Schultz's.

CNN morning ratings need more caffeine. CNN's new morning shows Early Start and Starting Point notched the lowest quarterly average demo (adults 25-54) viewership and total viewership (P2+) in the first quarter of 2012* for any CNN morning shows in the 5-7am and 7-9am periods in more than a decade.

Tom Hanks Exposed

As a liar.

New video released today by The Daily Caller pretty much proves that Academy Award-winner and Obama-supporter Hanks wasn't being completely truthful about being "blindsided" for a "few moments."

New video footage obtained by The Daily Caller indicates that movie star Tom Hanks was less than truthful when he claimed he was “blindsided” for “an appalling few moments” when a white man in blackface makeup joined him for part of a 2004 fundraising auction that benefited his children’s school. The man, investment banker Jamie Montgomery, also wore a costume including a giant Afro wig and a leopard-print toga. ...

But additional footage from the 2004 event, obtained exclusively by TheDC, shows Montgomery in full view of Hanks beginning approximately ten minutes before he joined Hanks at the microphone to introduce the auction’s final item: a giant stuffed gorilla holding a “dowry” of 5,000 shares in a pharmaceutical company.

One portion of the video shows Montgomery, in full costume, slow-dancing with an unknown party guest between the dinner and the auction.

Which brings me to another question. What kind of school is St. Matthew’s Parish School? It's located in the wealthy enclave of the Pacific Palisades, California, and if you look closely at the new video you won't see any people of color -- at least I didn't. But what you will see is a room full Caucasians not only not appalled by investment banker Jamie Montgomery running around in blackface, but perfectly comfortable within the presence of one of the most racist stereotypes you'll ever see.

Democrat Deep Thinker Tweets Address For George Zimmerman's Parents

And threatens to come to their house.

The Left is losing control of this narrative and as a response, doing what they always do: completely freaking out.
The Smoking Gun:

The comedian Roseanne Barr last night tweeted the home address of George Zimmerman’s parents to her 110,000-plus Twitter followers, only to delete the posting after “not fully understanding that it was private not public.”

Barr’s posting of the correct Florida address of Robert and Gladys Zimmerman came at the same time Spike Lee was issuing an apology for erroneously disseminating a tweet that purportedly contained the home address of George Zimmerman, who last month killed teenager Trayvon Martin.

The residence cited by Lee is actually the home of an elderly couple with no connection to Zimmerman.

Barr, who deleted her tweet in the face of criticism from some Twitter followers, noted that she first thought it “was good to let ppl know that no one can hide anymore.” That stance quickly changed, with Barr reporting, “But vigilante-ism is what killed Trayvon. I don’t support that.”

Full-blown inciting of mob violence ... and against a Hispanic Democrat, no less.

Democrats Gone Wild!

Wrote It? Nancy Pelosi Hasn't Even Read It Yet.

She's the one who said that, in order to find out what was in ObamaCare, we'd have to pass it. Now she's trying to convince us that she had some part in writing it?

How would she know? Her party’s all but given up on enumerated powers, at least in economic contexts. The first time she was asked to name which constitutional clause grants Congress the power to pass the mandate, her response was, “Are you serious? Are you serious?” Turns out we were serious. As a famous woman once said, they had to pass the bill to find out what was in it. What was in it was an unconstitutional power grab. Surprise.

I’m intrigued, actually, by how low key Pelosi’s been about the ObamaCare wars this week. Yesterday, while liberals were screeching about conservative judicial activism and Dick Blumenthal was warning reporters that “the court risks grave damage if it strikes down a statute of this magnitude and importance,” she went out of her way to say, “We respect the third branch of government and the role that they play under our Constitution.” Her thinking, I assume, is that she’s the public face of this boondoggle almost as much as Obama is, so if she comes out swinging at the Supremes it may annoy Anthony Kennedy just enough to fatally color his view of the statute. Judicial deliberations shouldn’t work that way, of course, but people are people. Tell them they’re hacks and morons and they’re naturally going to scrutinize your work product more closely.

Anyway, here's this simple minded psychopath trying to convince somebody, maybe herself, that ObamaCare actually is Constitutional.

"I'm a supporter of judicial review, I honor the Constitution in that regard," Pelosi said to reporters. "That's why we wrote our bill in a way that was Constitutional. I still feel pretty confident about it. And if and when -- this game is not over. In March Madness, what happens when your team doesn't win one -- well wait a minute, let's have the game."

Well, They Don't Look Like Obama

These poor guys don't deserve consideration. Wrong skin color.

"It would perhaps appear that Mr Obama sees no political value in facilitating such a request or that the lives of two British tourists are not worthy of ten minutes of his time."

The rebuke follows Mr Obama's personal intervention into the shooting in Florida of a young black teenager by a white-Hispanic neighbourhood watch captain.
The death of 17 year old Trayvon Martin has sparked nationwide protests with his supporters claiming he was victim of a racist attack.

Mr Obama entered the controversy last week by saying if he had a son he would have looked like Martin.

Obama Was For Oil Subsidies Before He Was Against Them

I forgot?

White House press secretary Jay Carney had no answer as to why Obama supported tax breaks for oil companies as a Senator in 2005, but now opposes them as President.

Henry: Why did the President vote for the energy bill in 2005 as a Senator that had over $2 billion in tax breaks for the oil industry? They were making a lot of money then too.

Carney: What I can tell you Ed is that the oil and gas companies in this country are making record profits, now, in 2012. The price at the pump is very high and that is plenty of incentive for these companies to continue drill, to continue to explore, to continue to develop energy sources here in the United States and abroad. There is no reason for the American taxpayer to subsidize that activity.

Henry: So why’d he vote for it?

Carney: I haven’t examined the vote, or what the prices were at the time, or the whole bill it was attached to. What I know and what the President knows is that this year, 2012, when we are seeing high prices at the pump, high prices in the international oil markets and high profits for the oil and gas companies, there is no reason to continue these kinds of subsidies. Take that argument to the people, I don’t think they’ll go along with it.

Video at the link.

An Inconvenient Truth

Contrary to the Jesse Jackson narrative, most blacks who die violently are killed by other blacks.

The Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Month For The Democrats

None of their old strategies work anymore.

First came the Sandra Fluke controversy.  What looked like a well-staged triumph for the Left because of a rare overreach by Rush Limbaugh resulted instead in a ferocious blowback against Bill Maher, Louis C.K. (cancelled from the White House correspondents’ dinner because of his vile comments about Sarah Palin), and HBO, while Rush’s ratings have spiked and advertisers came groveling back after the anti-Rush boycott was revealed to have been trumped up by Media Matters.  Meanwhile, while the media elites identify with Fluke as one of their own, it is less clear that ordinary Americans think the government owes free contraception to 30-year old college students.

Second, Obama is in full retreat and panic mode over gasoline prices, and energy generally.  To be sure, the EPA is still advancing its jihad against coal, and cheap natural gas is bailing out Obama to some extent (but also driving another nail into the coffin of wind and solar power), but I’ve always thought that liberal opposition to domestic oil production would not survive an extended period of $4 gasoline prices.  Byron York flatly predicts that Obama will be forced to approve the Keystone pipeline before the election.  Obama’s embrace of the GOP slogan of “all-of-the-above” energy means that environmentalists are being largely thrown under the bus.  (Meanwhile, keep your eyes on the Post-It note gas pump protests, and consider joining the swarm.)

Then came the Trayvon Martin incident.  But what looked like a by-the-numbers drill for the racial grievance industry has started to collapse beneath certain inconvenient facts that don’t fit the narrative such as Zimmerman’s ethnicity and political party registration (Democratic), eyewitness testimony that Martin was assaulting Zimmerman (perhaps with cause), and Spike Lee advocating vigilantism against Zimmerman, but tweeting an incorrect home address, endangered an innocent elderly couple.  Again, while the media lap up the antics of Al Sharpton, it is doubtful most ordinary Americans are impressed with this.  More blowback.

And then there was the Obamacare meltdown before the Supreme Court.

ABC Lies

Instead to reporting truth, which might help defuse the Trayvon Martin crisis before anyone gets killed, ABC chose to doctor video to support the lynch mob's narrative.

ABC News blatantly lied about what the video showed.

“A police surveillance video taken the night that Trayvon Martin was shot dead shows no blood or bruises on George Zimmerman,” ABC News reporter Matt Gutman wrote, noting that Zimmerman told police “he shot Martin after he was punched in the nose, knocked down and had his head slammed into the ground.”

ABC News reported that Zimmerman appears uninjured in the video. But a still image from the video indicates what appears to be a vertical laceration or scar several inches long.

In fact, not one both both camera views showed that Zimmerman has a laceration several inches long on the back of his head. Any blood had been cleaned up by the Fire Dept assets that had treated Zimmerman at the scene, and bruising would not have shown on the low-resolution video.

More disgusting is the obvious fact that ABC News used a strategically placed chyron (graphic) to cover up the back of Zimmerman’s head for their broadcast, covering up the video that would have disproven their story. View the video at the Daily Caller, and you’ll not that they did not even need a chyron, their was no need to transmit any additional visual data to explain the story.

The only logical reason the chyron exists is to cover-up Zimmerman’s wounds. ABC News doctored the video to sell a false narrative, in a dishonest attempt to brand a man a murderer. I’d be very interested to know if Zimmerman can pursue legal action against ABC for constructing this false narrative.

Where Does The Left Get Its Facts On The Trayvon Martin Case?

From thin air mostly.

1.  Skittles and Ice Tea.  One key part of the narrative of the Martin shooting is that Skittles and Arizona Ice Tea were being carried by Martin.  This ABC News report is typical: “He [Martin] has no weapons on him, only a pack of Skittles and a bottle of iced tea.”  The Sanford Police incident report makes no mention of finding such items.  What is the source of this fact that Skittles and a bottle of ice tea were found with Martin?

2. Hoody.  The Hoody has become the symbol of protests, based on the assertion that Zimmerman found Martin suspicious because he was wearing a hoody.  But the audio tape (language warning) in which Zimmerman mentions a hoody is clear that a hoody was mentioned only after Zimmerman had described why Martin was suspicious, and in response to a later question by the 911 operator as to what the suspicious person was wearing.  What is the source of this fact that Zimmerman found the wearing of a hoody suspicious?

Radical Democrat Hispanics Strip George Zimmerman Of His Latino License

And join the Obama/Jackson/Sharpton/New Black Panthers axis.

“The Latino community joins the African-American community and other communities in condemning George Zimmerman as what he is – a murderer and a racist,” Roberto Lovato, co-founder of the online Latino advocacy organization Presente.org, told The Daily Caller.

The group is acting on Trayvon’s behalf. Presente.org has joined with Color of Change to petition for the arrest of Martin’s murderer.

“Todos somos Trayvon! (We are all Trayvon!),” Presente.org wrote, urging supporters to sign the petition. The group also has a petition to condemn Geraldo Rivera for blaming Martin’s hoodie for his death. According to Lovato, the petition currently has 18,000 signatures.

La Raza has rallied for Martin with the civil rights community as well.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/03/29/latino-organizations-dismiss-george-zimmerman-question-his-ethnicity/#ixzz1qWRkp570

The Triumph Of Captitalism

Even communists have made peace with reality. Unfortunately, not Democrats.

"Poverty reduction of this magnitude is unparalleled in history: Never before have so many people been lifted out of poverty over such a brief period of time," write Brookings Institution researchers Laurence Chandy and Geoffrey Gertz.

Just as important as the extent of the improvement is the location: everywhere. In the past there has been improvement in a few countries or a continent. Not this time.

China has continued the rapid upward climb it began three decades ago. India, long a laggard, has shaken off its torpor. Latin America has made sharp inroads against poverty. "For the first time since 1981," says the World Bank, "we have seen less than half the population of sub-Saharan Africa living below $1.25 a day."

The start of most global trends is hard to pinpoint. This one, however, had its big bang in the early 1970s, in Chile. After a socialist government brought on economic chaos, the military seized power in a bloody coup and soon embarked on a program of drastic reform -- privatizing state enterprises, fighting inflation, opening up foreign trade and investment and unshackling markets.

Forbidden Words

Words that the New York City Department of Education seeks to ban.

Divorce. Dinosaurs, Birthdays. Religion. Halloween. Christmas. Television. These are a few of the 50-plus words and references the New York City Department of Education is hoping to ban from the city’s standardized tests.

The banned word list was made public – and attracted considerable criticism – when the city’s education department recently released this year’s "request for proposal" The request for proposal is sent to test publishers around the country trying to get the job of revamping math and English tests for the City of New York.

All Domestic Cattle Descended From A Single Small Herd

Sometimes, history turns on the tiniest pivot point.

A genetic study of cattle has claimed that all modern domesticated bovines are descended from a single herd of wild ox, which lived 10,500 years ago.

A team of geneticists from the National Museum of Natural History in France, the University of Mainz in Germany, and UCL in the UK excavated the bones of domestic cattle on archaeological sites in Iran, and then compared those to modern cows. They looked at how differences in DNA sequences could have arisen under different population history scenarios, modeled in computer simulations.

The team found that the differences that show up between the two populations could only have arisen if a relatively small number of animals - approximately 80 - had been domesticated from a now-extinct species of wild ox, known as aurochs, which roamed across Europe and Asia. Those cattle were then bred into the 1.4 billion cattle estimated by the UN to exist in mid-2011.