Media Research recently held the “2006 DisHonors Awards: Roasting the Most Outrageously Biased Liberal Reporters of 2005” - check out the ‘winners’ here 
Also, make sure to check out their “Best Notable Quotables of 2005″ - you won’t be disappointed (or maybe you will be, but with the media folks quoted, not MRC).
DNC Chair Howard Dean is accusing the Republican party of ’scapegoating’ Hispanics in the debate over immigration form. The House proposal on combatting the problem is one drawn up by “right wing extremists” according to Dean … same ol’ song and dance with the DNC doing the dividing and demagoguing yet accusing the other side of being guilty of it:
OAKLAND, Calif. - Democratic Party chief Howard Dean accused President Bush and the Republican Party on Friday of exploiting the immigration issue for political gain by scapegoating Hispanics.
Dean and Bush agree on the legislation at the heart of the debate. Both support a Senate bill that would expand guest-worker programs for an estimated 400,000 immigrants each year.
However, at a speech in an Oakland union hall, the 2004 Democratic presidential candidate sought to tie Bush to a much tougher House bill that would tighten borders and make it a crime to be in the United States illegally or to offer aid to illegal immigrants. Bush does not back the House bill.
“This is a nonsensical proposal put out by far right-wingers in the Republican Party who have been endorsed for re-election by the president of the United States,” Dean said. “The president has a moral obligation to rein in the right-wing extremists in his party and stop this divisive rhetoric about immigrants.”
Dean devoted much of his short speech here to the immigration debate, which has taken center stage in Washington this election year and touched off mass demonstrations elsewhere. More than 500,000 immigration-rights activists marched in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday, largely to protest the House measure.
Bush has spent his political career courting Hispanic voters, the nation’s fastest-growing voting bloc, and he has helped double the GOP’s share of the Hispanic vote since 2000.
Nevertheless, Dean accused Bush and fellow Republicans of demagoguery in the immigration debate, saying it fit with a long-standing pattern. He cited the president’s opposition to the University of Michigan’s affirmative-action program and Bush’s decision to “pick on” homosexuals - an apparent reference to the gay marriage issue in the 2004 election.
“In 2006 it’s immigrants. That’s what their strategy is on the Republican side: divide people, scapegoat them, set them aside, point the finger at them,” Dean said. “Well, that may be good for the Republican Party, but it’s bad for America, and we’re not going to do that.”
Isn’t this just typical? Finally, a real debate is ongoing about what to do regarding the immigration problem and what does Howard Dean do? Demagogues the issue by accusing the Republicans of right wing extremism and ‘divisiveness’.
I wrote this about Dean and the rest of the Democratic party shortly after Hurricane Katrina hit and the discussions about race that came along with it:
The Democrats want to ensure that black Democrats stay Democrats, so they peddle this line about Republican racism ad nauseam to score political points, thereby cementing it in the brains of black Democrats. Republicans fall all over themselves to make something they said that wasn’t wrong to begin with right in order to appease the media, Democrats, and the black community due to their sensitivity on the issue.
This isn’t to say that there aren’t racist Republicans. There are. But by far, as the quotes above show you, the true race baiters in this country are not Republicans, but Democrats, and they do it because they can’t afford to lose black votes. It’s shameless, and as the editors at The Unalienable Right blog also note, it’s despicable as well.
The same rule applies here regarding Hispanics - only Hispanics don’t vote 92% Democrat like the black community does. Democrats still get more Hispanic votes than Republicans, but in 2004 the President Bush did “significantly better” with the Hispanic vote than he did in 2000, according to this Washington Post article and so did the rest of the Republican party.
Rest assured that the Democrats know this, and they are working hard to turn the tide against Bush-endorsed House Republicans running for election or re-election this fall.
This is business as usual for the DNC when it comes to their key voting blocs. They’d rather demagogue racial and cultural issues by falsely accusing their opponents of being ‘divisive and insensitive right wing extremists’ and ‘racists’ instead of offering real solutions. Dems like to call themselves “progressives” but if this type of tactic on their part doesn’t demonstrate regressiveness I don’t know what does.
Related Toldjah So posts:
Via the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
WASHINGTON — Capitol Hill police are expected to seek an arrest warrant next week for Rep. Cynthia McKinney of Georgia, who was involved in a physical confrontation with a Capitol police officer Wednesday, police and legal authorities said Thursday.
Officially, the investigation of the incident, in which the DeKalb County Democrat allegedly struck a police officer who tried to stop her from going around a security checkpoint, is ongoing, said Sgt. Kimberly Schneider, spokeswoman for Capitol Hill police.
However, police have notified the federal prosecutor’s office in Washington that they will be seeking an arrest warrant after the investigation is complete next week, said police and legal authorities, who spoke on the condition that they not be named because the investigation was not yet complete.
McKinney ignored a reporter’s questions Thursday as she walked into the Capitol, before word of the planned arrest warrant. She could not be reached for comment later Thursday.
In a statement released Wednesday, McKinney said, “I deeply regret that the incident occurred.”
McKinney’s office had said she might hold a news conference Friday morning in Washington, but that event was canceled.
She’s yet to apologize. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s comments on the incident?:
Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi on Thursday labeled it “a mistake, an unfortunate lack of recognition of a member of Congress.” She added that the police officer was not at fault.
“I would not make a big deal of this,” said Pelosi, D-Calif.
Maybe the next quote from Pelosi will be to praise Democrats for their ‘diversity in opinion’ on the issue - or something.
William Teach at Pirate’s Cove checks out some of the DU reaction to all this.
Related Toldjah So post:
Via Real Clear Politics:
As for as the immigration debate itself, we all know the truth that we suppress and the lies that we voice. Language has been the first casualty of our disingenuousness. “Illegal alien” is a descriptive, not a racist, term. In contrast, “undocumented worker” is deliberately misleading, since in most cases documents were never at issue, and not all aliens are workers. “Racism” has nothing to do with a failed system that appalls Asian- and African-Americans alike, as well as bewilders frustrated and patient Koreans, Punjabis, Africans, and Filipinos who did not cut ahead in the long legal immigration line. “Nativist” means nothing when Americans presently welcome in more legal immigrants that any other nation on earth.
Yes, illegal immigration provides a valuable source of cheap labor. But such jobs are not just those Americans will never take, but comprise work that they won’t seek out at such cheap wages. Where compensation rises, citizen workers will follow.
Yes, most aliens work hard, but a small minority of them do not, and find themselves involved in criminal activity. And given the large pool of illegal immigrants from Mexico, that small minority can still reach several thousands–such as the nearly 15,000 aliens currently locked up in the California penal system alone, at a cost of a half-billion public dollars a year.
Yes, immigrants contribute more than receive–but mostly when they are young, single, and hale. As they age, become ill, marry, and have children, those without education, English, and legality naturally draw on entitlements for a semblance of parity with American citizens otherwise impossible for such minimum wage earners.
So what fails and what works? Bilingual education in our schools, multicultural romance about a mythical Aztlan in our universities, guest worker programs that institutionalize helot status, salad-bowl separatism, and millions who cross the border illegally, all have contributed to the present disaster. But as we see with second- and third-generation model Mexican-American citizens, English immersion, acceptance of an American identity, integration, intermarriage and assimilation, legal and monitored immigration in the thousands from Mexico–all that guarantees immigrants success and energizes us the host.
Americans recoil at the volatile ethnic enclaves in France and the Netherlands–and can understand how such tribalism could quickly escalate to sectarian violence in Iraq, the Balkans, and Rwanda. Unless we curb the present influx, return to the melting pot, and salvage a legal remedy from the present illegal disaster, what we saw this week may only be the beginning of something far more dangerous from both sides of this avoidable crisis.
Read the whole thing.
PM Update: Things got nasty today at one Arizona high school. (Hat tip: Leaning Straight Up)
Related Toldjah So posts:
I’m very sad to see him go, but Jason at Generation Why? Texas Rainmaker has decided to move on to other things. I wish him the best of luck, and hope that one day he’ll blog again.
If you’d like to send him a good luck email, you can do so via this email address: jasonATtexasrainmakerDOTcom
On a more upbeat blogging note, ST reader camojack celebrates his one year blogiversary today. Here’s to many more
…. because a fellow Frenchman was addressing EU leaders in English, rather than in French:
PRESIDENT CHIRAC stormed out of the first session of a European Union summit dominated by a row over French nationalism because a fellow Frenchman insisted on speaking English.
President Chirac and three of his ministers walked out of the room when Ernest-Antoine Seillière, the leader of the European business lobby UNICE, punctured Gallic pride by insisting on speaking the language of Shakespeare rather than that of Molière.
When M Seillière, who is an English-educated steel baron, started a presentation to all 25 EU leaders, President Chirac interrupted to ask why he was speaking in English. M Seillière explained: “I’m going to speak in English because that is the language of business.”
Without saying another word, President Chirac, who lived in the US as a student and speaks fluent English, walked out, followed by his Foreign, Finance and Europe ministers, leaving the 24 other European leaders stunned. They returned only after M Seilière had finished speaking.
Perhaps it was more what Monsieur Seillière had to say than how he was saying it that upset Mr. Chirac:
In the absence of his President, M Seillière gave warning about the dangers of the “economic nationalism” being pursued by the French Government. The summit, aimed at restoring confidence in the future of the EU, has been overshadowed by a row over the tide of protectionism sweeping the continent, with Tony Blair and Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, cautioning about the danger of raising barriers to foreign competition.
Charles Bremner, Paris Correspondent for the UK Times, writes:
On Thursday, the President stormed out of a European summit in Brussels, taking two ministers with him — because a Frenchman had begun addressing the session in English. The scene was piquant because the speaker was Ernest-Antoine Seillière, former chief of MEDEF, the French business association, who now heads the Europe-wide version (UNICE). Baron Seillière, a satanic figure in the folklore of France’s anti-capitalist masses, was lecturing the 25 leaders on the evils of le patriotisme économique, the doctrine devised by Dominique de Villepin to justify France’s current bout of industrial protectionism. That was enough cause alone to infuriate Chirac, but doing it in English was a provocation beyond his endurance. Seillière explained that he would use English because it is the language of business. It is also of course the common language among all but two or three of the 25 EU leaders.
The incident, only briefly reported in France, could be read as a fine example of France’s Quixotic battle against reality. In truth, though, it said more about the way that Chirac and the governing classes are out of touch with much of their own the country. The resistance to English has long ago faded among the younger generation and the world of business and technology.
Just having a laugh this morning, at Chirac’s expense
Read more via Mark in Mexico and In the Bullpen
Related Toldjah So posts:
Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO), gives it a try:
It has been said that if you tell a lie 1,000 times in politics, it becomes truth. Before we reach that threshold, there are two myths that must be dispelled about the House’s bipartisan immigration reform bill:
• The first myth is that the House bill would make criminals out of priests who run homeless shelters and soup kitchens.
The bill would not substantially change decades of law with respect to religious organizations. From 1986 until this year, no organization was allowed to conceal, harbor or shield an alien from law enforcement “in reckless disregard of the fact” that the alien is in this country illegally. During those two decades, no church was shut down for providing basic social services to illegal aliens. Regardless, I think congressional leaders would be open to language that reaffirms current practice and clarifies the bill’s intent.
But beyond soup and shelter, why should religious organizations be exempt from a law against actively concealing illegal aliens from law enforcement? It’s no secret that there are terrorist front organizations in the USA, and that these front organizations most often claim to be relief charities or religious groups. Just one example is the Holy Land Foundation, whose headquarters was only miles from our nation’s capital and which was shut down for supporting Hamas and other terrorist-related organizations.
• A second myth is that House Republicans want to make illegal presence in the USA a felony.
The truth is Democrats voted for the felony provision, and a majority of Republicans (including me) voted against it.
Right now, illegal presence in the USA is not a crime; it is a civil infraction. The House Judiciary Committee voted to make it a felony but then was counseled that millions of new felons could clog our courts.
Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., wrote an amendment to his own bill asking that the penalty be reduced from a felony to a misdemeanor; 191 Democrats and a few Republicans voted to keep the felony penalty in the hope that it would be a poison pill to defeat the measure. After his amendment lost, Sensenbrenner promised, “When this bill gets to (House-Senate) conference, those penalties will be made workable. You can count on that.”
The truth? The House bill would construct a security fence along our southern border, require federal and local law enforcement to cooperate on immigration matters, and mandate that employers use an instant check system to verify their employees’ legal status. Unlike the Senate bill, our version would offer no amnesty and would not add foreign workers to our already overwhelmed background-check system.
Polls released last week show that nearly two-thirds of Americans oppose amnesty, and that 90% say illegal immigration is a serious problem. The House’s approach is supported by most Americans. Now, we wait for the Senate to follow.
In the meantime, the controversy over the flying of the Mexican flags in place of US flags rages on.
(Cross-posted at Blogs For Bush)
Related Toldjah So posts:
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Wearing a green Islamic head scarf, American reporter Jill Carroll walked into an Iraqi political party office Thursday, set free nearly three months after being kidnapped in an ambush that killed her translator.
“I was treated well, but I don’t know why I was kidnapped,” Carroll said on Baghdad television, only weeks after she appeared weeping in a video put out by kidnappers who had threatened to kill her.
Her family thanked “the generous people around the world who worked officially or unofficially” to gain her freedom. Her father, Jim, said he was asleep in his North Carolina home when the phone rang at about 6 a.m.
“Hi, Dad. This is Jill. I’m released,” the voice on the other end said, he told CNN.
No details were given about the circumstances surrounding her release. The U.S. ambassador said there was no ransom paid by the American embassy, but his remarks left open the question of whether “arrangements” were made by others.
In Washington, a Pentagon spokesman said the U.S. military was not involved in Carroll’s release.
President Bush said, “I’m just really grateful she’s released, and I want to thank those who worked hard to release her and we’re glad she’s alive.”
Carroll, 28, was kidnapped Jan. 7 in Baghdad’s western Adil neighborhood while going to interview Sunni Arab politician Adnan al-Dulaimi for The Christian Science Monitor. Her translator was killed in the attack about 300 yards from al-Dulaimi’s office.
The previously unknown Revenge Brigades claimed responsibility. The group threatened twice in videotapes to kill Carroll.
“They never hit me. They never even threatened to hit me,” she said Thursday, wearing a gray Arabic robe.
It’s great to hear she’s alive and apparently well. But as John at Powerline cautions us, don’t read too much into the “well treated” quote from Carroll that has been frequently repeated in the media:
But the fact is that Ms. Carroll was not “well treated” by her captors. She says that they “never hit me. They never even threatened to hit me.” Terrific. But they did threaten to cut off her head, and kept her in fear of her life for nearly three months. To anyone who saw the videos in which she pleaded for her life, her mental distress was obvious. And the kidnappers murdered Carroll’s translator in the course of capturing her.
No doubt, in saying that she had been “well treated,” Ms. Carroll was mostly trying to assure her friends and family that her physical condition was OK. That’s obviously appropriate. But let’s not encourage a lot of warm feelings toward the murderous thugs who kidnapped Carroll, shot her translator, and may well have received a ransom to let her go.
Complete coverage and links can be found via Rusty at The Jawa Report.
Hat tip for Jawa Report link to Allah Pundit (who is back and guest blogging at Michelle Malkin’s - hooray! For those who started blogging after 2004 and don’t know who Allah Pundit is, find out more here).
Yesterday, the Democrats released their official “Real Security” agenda, which promises to “protect America” and “restore our leadership in the world.”
Give it a look see - I’m printing it out to read a little bit later.
In the meantime, Gateway Pundit has a few questions to Democrats on their “Real Security” agenda. Dafydd at Big Lizards examines the agenda in depth and finds it lacking (see here and here).
PM Update 9:15 PM ET: LOL - perfect!
The rumors are circulating that Cuban dictator Fidel Castro has passed away. Keep in mind that it is just a rumor at this point - no official confirmation.
If this is true, I can think of a few people who will be heartbroken.
Hat tip: ST reader benning
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