Who else but Congressional Democrats and the Congressional Black Caucus?

Well, not so much. La Shawn Barber talks about the rewards the black community is reaping for its fealty to Democrats:

Swain cites statistics that show the national unemployment rate was 4.5 percent inApril 2007. For Hispanics, it was 5.4 percent. For blacks, 8.2 percent.For black men, the rate of unemployment was 9.7 percent.

Swain accused the race-centric, taxpayer-supported caucus of turning a blind eye on a mounting pile of data that reveals illegal immigration is harming low-income, low-skilled black Americans. In anew book of essays, Debating Immigration, Swain contends that lax enforcement of immigration law helps businesses hirewage-suppressing illegal aliens at the expense of citizens.

But the CBC couldn’t care less. The group hasn’t listed immigration reform as a legislative priority, according to Swain, andit mentioned illegal immigration in only one press release out of closeto 100 on the web site. Instead of focusing on the well-being of constituents, the CBC is forming a black-brown coalition with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus to “create a task force to study immigration issues and provide information about the impact of immigration reform on the black and Hispanic communities,” according to The Hill.

Then, read the National Review's "you wanna take this outside?" moment, here.

If there's a fight, I'm so there.

Sorry, Rudy?

In the April NBC/WSJ poll, Giuliani led McCain among GOP voters, 39%-24%, with Romney at 12%. But with Thompson on the ballot, Giuliani was at 33%, McCain at 22%, Thompson at 17%, and Romney at 12%.

Moreover, among GOP voters who said they were"dissatisfied" with the GOP field were initially voting for Giuliani by29%-25%-11% over McCain and Romney. But on the second ballot, those who said they were "dissatisfied" with the field had Thompson out in front29%-22%-20%-10% over Giuliani, McCain, and Romney.

Meanwhile, PowerLine has a report that Mr. Thompson may not disappoint, despite the high expectations:

First, Thompson exudes the same great presence and ease of manner in person that he does on television. He's likeable and quick with the good one-liner.

Second, Thompson's instincts are, with the notable exception of campaign finance reform, soundly conservative. This was certainly true on the issues he wanted most to talk about -- the war on terror,economic growth, entitlement reform, and immigration. At the risk of oversimplifying (or perhaps positing a false dichotomy), it seemed tome that Thompson's conservatism is more rooted in common sense than in ideology. However, he seems intellectually curious enough to consider more cutting edge conservative ideas. In this way he may resemble Reagan, who in many ways was a common sense conservative, but also a man of ideas who ended up betting much on brave new supply side economic theory. However, I don't mean to suggest that Thompson would be as bold as Reagan.

And, a word of caution:

Third, on the evidence of last night, Thompson needs to sharpen his message and his presentation skills. Some of his answers were crisp,but others were rambling and a bit unfocused. Moreover, he was betteron generalities than on specifics. If I'm not mistaken, Thompson has only run twice for public office, and his last race was in 1996. In addition, he's not held public office for a while. He may be rusty.

Forget the majority opinion and the 5-4 decision against her; her dissents are so stinging! Like the vengeful stab of a thousand yellow-jackets on the rear end of the patriarchy, her words are. Masterful.

You go, girl!

I know it's the NYT and all, but Nicholas Kristof's video-blog is entertaining every single time I stumble on it.

This time, he's on the North Korea/China border, talking to escapees from the brutal NorK regime, who come to China looking for freedom. Of course, the Chinese government often sends them back, and the Chinese good Samaritans helping out can be thrown in jail.

Particularly poignant is one Chinese man who takes it upon himself to raise N. Korean refugee children at the risk of being imprisoned himself.

Last time we checked in with Kristof, he was filing a great report on the effects of micro-lending on an Afghani baker.

I may make him a regular watch.

Update: In other NorK news, the little jump-suited dictator has not been seen in public since April 25, and is reportedly suffering from worsening diabetes and heart problems.

Having suffered not nearly so many slings and arrows as the Big Three Republican contenders, Fred! Thompson will enter the race with fresh legs on July 4th:

Fred Dalton Thompson is planning to enter the presidential race overt he Fourth of July holiday, announcing that week that he has already raised several million dollars and is being backed by insiders from thepast three Republican administrations, Thompson advisers told The Politico.
 
Thompson, the "Law and Order" star and former U.S. senator from Tennessee, has been publicly coy, even as people close to him have been furiously preparing for a late entry into the wide-open contest.  But the advisers said Thompson dropped all pretenses on Tuesday afternoon during a conference call with more than 100 potential donors, each of whom was urged to raise about $50,000.

In a conference call Monday, Thompson addressed a group of more than100 supporters and fundraisers whom the campaign has dubbed First Day Founders. He told them that he would be setting up an organization thatwill allow him to begin raising money and recruiting staff.

In official campaign finance parlance, the move represents a shift from "giving serious consideration" to a presidential bid, as Thompson said he would do back in March, as a non-candidate, to a "testing the waters" period where one is, in effect, a candidate-in-waiting with a campaign-in-preparation. Thompson advisers point out that the new testing-the-waters entity is not quite a campaign committee, though it will officially begin accepting contributions on June 4. On that day--the First Day, as it were--the campaign will take in donations that it can then tout as an impressive one-day haul. A corollary benefit will be that news reports about Thompson's non-entry entry will run on June 5, when the declared candidates will meet in New Hampshire for their third debate. (Thompson won't be required to disclose hisdonors and the amounts they give to the Federal Election Commission until September.)

I, for one, was tired of waiting. I like the prospect of a Fred! in the race, but I was wondering if he'd hit a point where waiting so long was producing diminishing returns. Donations on June 4, huh? Right around the corner.

He's got the charisma of Rudy with better social-con creds than most of the pack. It's a powerful combo, but will he meet expectations? We've been mooning over him for so long, couldn't he end up being a let-down. I hope not, but the Fred! fanfare is quite something to live up to. I look forward to seeing him out on the trail and assuaging my doubts.

Update: Folksy, populist, pick-up appeal!

This committee would not have to comply with the second-quarter filings the other candidates must report to the Federal Election Commission, but would fall under reporting requirements later this year— (clarification here: those filing requirements would kick in only if Mr. Thompson decides to officially run.)

Update: Another person familiar with the idea of “testing the waters” committees said the fundraising during this period would follow“hard-money rules” — meaning a limit of $2,300 per individual for the primary cycle and no corporate donations — just like official candidates. This person also said that such a fundraising operation would normally be used to gauge support, to hire staff and to assess within a short period of time whether a candidacy was really viable.

He can build up Iowa and New Hampshire offices, but they can’t do much.He’s already way behind in the ground game. With the primaries and caucuses so compressed any candidate winning early could quickly turn that momentum into a nomination win.

Dedication:

I was stopped by someone the other week who said it was not surprising there was so much terrorism in the world when we invaded their countries (meaning Afghanistan and Iraq). No wonder Muslims felt angry.

I said to him: tell me exactly what they feel angry about. We remove two utterly brutal and dictatorial regimes; we replace them with a UN-supervised democratic process.

And the only reason it is difficult still is because other Muslims are using terrorism to try to destroy the fledgling democracy and, in doing so, are killing fellow Muslims.

Why aren't they angry about the people doing the killing? The odd thing about the conversation is I could tell it was the first time he'd heard this argument.

H/t, Dad.

Brian Morgenstern:

He said he went home that night and told his family what he had seen: Ten men at a firing range with handguns, rifles and what he thought were fully automatic rifles. Authorities later said theywere chanting in Arabic, "Allah Akbar," or "God is Great."

He did not know if he should breach the privacy of the customers, who seemed like ordinary guys. He wasn't even payingfull attention to the video until he saw things that were troubling.

"It was more of a moral dilemma at that point," Morgenstern told CNN on Tuesday.

The next day, he talked to his managers at the Mount Laurel store in the electronics chain, then called police, sparking a15-month investigation that led to the arrests on May 7 of six men accused of plotting an attack on soldiers on Fort Dix, an Army installation being used largely to train reservists who are bound for Iraq.

First, Mount Laurel police visited the Circuit City to see the video. They asked Morgenstern to make a copy, which was passed onto state Homeland Security investigators, then the FBI.

"I don't feel like a hero," he said. "I feel like I did theright thing. I feel like I did the right thing, but I think the real heroes are the men and women overseas and the people in ourlaw enforcement who handled the situation."

And, it was not on the stage.

Miss USA, Rachel Smith, kept it together admirably, despite the abuse:

Ms. Smith, who fell during the evening gown competition but recovered gracefully, was subjected to hatred again last night during the Top Five interviews,when hecklers in the audience launched into chants of "Mexico, Mexico"and disrupted her entire interview. The two hosts of the pageant,Vanessa Minillo and Mario Lopez, did nothing to chastise the crowd forthe rudeness shown to their fellow American.

Trash.

Must be that obnoxious habit we have of providing half the country's GDP that they're mad about.

Update: It seems The Donald is somewhat less protective of this Miss U.S.A. than last year's. Here he is making excuses for the Mexico City audience booing Rachel Smith.

They were undoubtedly booing American policies, but if they want to voice their disapproval of American policies, they're welcome to come right across the border and march on May Day with a Mexican flag, just like the rest of our future citizens, instead of taking it out on Smith. After all, we support active involvement in politics, even for illegal aliens, so healthy is our democracy, right Kennedy? Bush? McCain?

A Memorial Day message from Iraq:

The city of Hit, for instance. Only about a hundred days ago, Hit was a city at war. Today, the buildings are still riddled with bullet holes, but the Iraqi people are opening shops and painting over the scars. They are waving and smiling while hundreds of men are volunteering to join the police.

Oops! Google misses Memorial Day. Again.

Moonbat Memorial Day.

How not to honor a fallen soldier.

Ways to give back.

Honoring a family member.

Photo of the day.

Oh, man. I have my problems with John McCain's policy preferences, but when that acid tongue is turned on an easy target, it's can be a thing of beauty:

“This vote may win favor with MoveOn and liberal primary voters, but it’s the equivalent of waving a white flag to al Qaeda,” McCain said,regarding the vote of his Democratic opponents.

Obama returned fire, saying that it is clear a new direction in Iraq is needed.

“And if there ever was a reflection of that it's the fact that Senator McCain required a flack jacket, 10 armored Humvees, two Apache attack helicopters, and 100 soldiers with rifles by his side to stroll througha market in Baghdad just a few weeks ago,” Obama said in a statement.

McCain responded immediately, mocking Obama’s lack of experience.

“While Senator Obama’s two years in the U.S. Senate certainly entitle him tovote against funding our troops, my service and experience combined with conversations with military leaders on the ground in Iraq lead meto believe that we must give this new strategy a chance to succeedbecause the consequences of failure would be catastrophic to our nation's security,” McCain said.

The former Navy pilot and prisoner of war then took a shot at Obama for making a mistake in his statement.

“By the way, Senator Obama, it’s a ‘flak’ jacket, not a ‘flack’ jacket,” McCain said.

Update: McCain aide goes nuclear:

"Obama wouldn't know the difference between an RPG and a bong." 

The Coalition for Comprehensive Immigration Reform, with the help of George Soros' money, has made it very easy to get in touch with your senators.

Of course, the line was meant only for those who support the amnesty bill, but use it as you see fit.

1-800-882-2005. (Spanish number)
1-800-417-7666. (English number)

Over a holiday weekend, it's always good to have several options when trying to reach the elected official of your choice. Sadly, they don't list their lakehouse numbers.

I've got something for you. Postage just went up on care packages, and Operation Gratitude is raising funds, so it can keep fulfilling soldiers' wishes while they're overseas. The organization has sent more than 200,000 packages already!

Click here to help financially or send items for soldiers' wish lists.

The Duke men's lacrosse team-- whose shot at a national championship was spoiled last year by the Duke non-rape case and an overzealous, PC university president who ended their season and unceremoniously pushed out their legendary coach-- is playing in the national Final Four this weekend against Cornell. After, of course, trouncing UNC 19-11 last week (Go to Hell, Carolina! Go to Hell!, as we say in Durham.)

Still - as his team prepares for this weekend's Final Four - coach John Danowski figures the proposal is "a long shot."

"It's unprecedented, so to think that it could happen is probably unrealistic," Danowski said after practice Wednesday. "It's a long shot. I don't gamble, but I wouldn't put money on it. That's for sure."

Danowski said his Blue Devils (16-2) - the top seed in the NCAA tournament - are more focused on facing fourth-seeded Cornell (15-0) in Saturday's semifinals. Still, he said the proposal was about doing everything possible for "the kids who have been through so much."

"And if there's something else that can be done for them, I think that's a good thing," he said.

"Obviously most of the guys would be pretty interested in it," senior defenseman Nick O'Harasaid. "But for right now, that's something that's not even really thought about - maybe in the back of your heads a little bit."

Featuring the hottest scoring pair in the nation, the top-seeded Blue Devils (16-2) face Cornell (15-0) on Saturday in the NCAA Men's Lacrosse Tournament semifinals before an expected record crowd of more than 45,000 at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore. Duke hopes to reach Monday's final and claim the title it came within a whisker of in 2005and could not pursue in '06 after its season was cut short.

Bring one home, boys!

Update: Here's a player that breaks the stereotype the MSM gave us of Duke lacrosse players last year. Meet Tony McDevitt, son of a Teamster who worked multiple jobs to support his wife and four kids.

Rosie's troops escalate.

Update: Coward.