Ken Berwitz

Earlier today I declared Sarah Palin's resignation a victory for haters.

If you have any doubt about how true this is, read the following "comedy piece" by some subhuman sack of manure named erik sean nelson.  He writes for the huffington post, which was disgusting enough to put this on its web site:

Erik Sean Nelson

Fiction Author and Comedy Writer

Posted: July 3, 2009 06:00 PM

Palin Will Run In '12 On More Retardation Platform

In Sarah Palin's resignation announcement she complained about the treatment of her son Trig who always teaches her life lessons. She said that the "world needs more Trigs, not fewer." That's a presidential campaign promise we can all get behind. She will be the first politician to actually try to increase the population of retarded people. To me, it's kinda like saying the world needs more cancer patients because they teach us such personal lessons.

Her first act as President: To introduce a Pre-K lunch buffet that includes lead paint chips. Sort of a Large HEAD-START Program.

She will then encourage women to hold off on pregnancies until their 40's just to mix up some chromosomes.

She now is in favor of abortion only in case of diploid birth.

Her policies will increase jobs because Wal-Mart is building new stores each day and someone has to be the greeter.

This will lead to smaller government because fewer Americans will have the cognitive ability to hold a government job.

Look, she says she's resigning as governor because people are making attacks on her and Trig. If she ever did become president, all Osama bin Laden would have to do to defeat the United States is Photoshop a picture of Trig and she'd surrender the country that night. As she said, "That's not politics as usual." It isn't. Politicians don't usually quit for so stupid of reasons.

Do you find this sick, vicious hatred funny?  I hope not, because anyone who does is as big a sack of manure as nelson is --- along with the people at www.huffingtonpost.com who thought it was worthy of being on their web site.

Can you begin to imagine the reaction by media if someone on a conservative site did anything remotely resembling this against a woman who had a Downs Syndrome child, let alone a sitting Governor?

Let's see just how much of a reaction there is to this filth.  I'm betting it will be fractional, if there is any at all.

Ken Berwitz

I've said this before and I'll say it again:  I have little doubt that Sonia Sotomayor will be confirmed to the Supreme Court.  We elected what amounts to one-party rule and lousy nominations like this one - as long as they are from the ruling party - go with the territory.

But here, excerpted from an Associated Press article by Julie Hirchfeld Davis , is still another reason Ms. Sotomayor should not be anywhere near the Supreme Court bench:

Republican: Sotomayor had ties to extreme group

Jul 3, 7:28 AM (ET)

By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS WASHINGTON (AP) - The top Republican on the Senate committee that will consider Sonia Sotomayor's Supreme Court nomination says a Puerto Rican civil rights group's papers could shed light on her judicial approach, particularly her view of racial preferences in hiring.

White House Counsel Greg Craig, however, told Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., in a letter that board meeting minutes and other papers detailing the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund's activities while Sotomayor was an outside adviser shouldn't impact her nomination because she had no role in writing or approving them.

"During her time there, the organization took extreme positions on legal issues ranging from the death penalty to abortion to racial quotas," Sessions said in a statement. He said it was "absurd" for the White House to call the documents irrelevant.

The battle over the papers isn't likely to damage Sotomayor's chances of confirmation, since Democrats have more than enough votes in favor of President Barack Obama's first high court nominee, and Republicans have shown little appetite for trying to block her.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which will begin confirmation hearings July 13, shrugged off the GOP concerns being raised about Sotomayor, saying some in the GOP were going to oppose any Obama pick - "even if the president had nominated Moses."

Don't you just love that expanation?  She was an "outside advisor" so that makes it all better. 

Look, I admit to not knowing a lot about the Puerto Rican Legal Defense And Education Fund.  I don't know if the charges being made against it are true.  But I do know that the response to Senator Sessions was not that he is wrong about the organization, it was that Ms. Sotomayor shouldn't be blamed for what the organization is.  That pretty strongly suggests there is a lot to his charges, doesn't it?

Suppose George Bush had nominated someone for the Supreme Court who was an "outside advisor" to a White citizen's council.  Would that be irrelevant?  Would the media have accepted the premise that "it shouldn't impact her nomination..."?

When do they start looking at the problems with Ms. Sotomayor, adding them together, and talking plainly about what a lousy choice she is?  Ever?

Ken Berwitz

From www.worldnetdaily.com:

Palin steps down as Alaska governor
Republican VP candidate won't complete 1st term

Posted: July 03, 2009
3:41 pm Eastern

© 2009 WorldNetDaily

 

Alaska Republican Gov. Sarah Palin, her party's vice presidential candidate last year, announced today she will not finish her first term as governor.

 

Republican Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell will take the oath of office before the end of the month.

 

Palin, regarded as a front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012, made the announcement from the backyard of her home on the shore of Lake Lucille in Wasilla.

 

The governor, her family at her side, emphasized she has been the target of 15 ethics complaints – all dismissed – at a cost of $2 million to the state and some $500,000 to her family.

 

"It has all been pretty insane," she said.

 

"And the people who offer up these silly accusations? It doesn't cost them a dime."

 

Palin anticipated her decision would be questioned.

 

"I'm determined to take the right path for Alaska, even though it is unconventional, and it's not so comfortable," she said.

 

Her brother, Chuck Heath Jr., told Fox News after the announcement she was spending up to 80 percent of her time defending herself from the complaints.

 

"There was no way she could effectively govern when so much of her time was being spent defending herself," Heath said.

 

"It's not fair to the state, and it's not fair to her family, and it finally got to the point where she needed to do something."

Congratulations to the haters and the fascist wannabes.  You've won a round.  How proud you must be.

UPDATE:  Here is a statement from a DNC spokesperson - someone named Brad Woodhouse:

"Either Sarah Palin is leaving the people of Alaska high and dry to pursue her long shot national political ambitions or she simply can't handle the job now that her popularity has dimmed and oil revenues are down. Either way – her decision to abandon her post and the people of Alaska who elected her continues a pattern of bizarre behavior that more than anything else may explain the decision she made today."

There you have it.  Not a word about the insanity Ms. Palin has been put through or the disservice it has caused to the state of Alaska, or the enormous financial burden on Ms. Palin or her family.  Just a cheap, crude, contrived personal attack worthy of a two bit political hack.

I rest my case.

FURTHER NOTE:  Yes, it is possible that Ms. Palin resigned to concentrate full-time on running for the Presidency, or maybe even the US Senate.  But we don't know that.  What we do know is that the nuisance ethics complaints kept being filed - and dismissed - until it became ridiculous.

Ken Berwitz

Do Palestinian Arabs want to peacefully coexist with Israelis?  Read the following excerpt from an article in today's Israel National News  (Arutz Sheva) and judge for yourself:

PA Arabs in Late Response to Obama Speech: No, We Can't

by Maayana Miskin

(IsraelNN.com) A poll released this week showed that PA Arabs are reluctant to grant rights to Jews or Christians within areas demanded for a PA state. A survey conducted by the Arab World for Research and Development among 1,200 Arab residents of Judea, Samaria and Gaza found that did not feel Jerusalem should be shared with Jews and Christians.

When asked to what extent they agreed with a statement made by United States President Barack Obama that Jerusalem should be “a secure and lasting home for Jews and Christians and Muslims,” less than 17 percent said they agree, while 20 percent said they “somewhat agree.” More than 42 percent said they disagree with the statement, while 17 percent “somewhat disagree.”

Reject violence? No thanks

More than 45 percent of those surveyed disagreed with a second statement of Obama's in which the president called on the Arab world to reject violence and killing as a means of struggle. Twenty-two percent did not give an answer, while the remainder said they “agree” or “somewhat agree” with the statement.

In Israel proper, there are about 1.4 million Palestinian Arabs, the vast majority of whom live peacefully with their Jewish co-citizens.  It is therefore an empirical fact that, under Israel's government, there can be peaceful co-existence with Palestinian Arabs.

But if the above data are accurate, 59% of Palestinian Arabs in Gaza and Judea/Samaria (the west bank) are against Jerusalem being a secure and lasting home for Jews and Christians and Muslims.  And just one-third (33%) reject violence and killing, while the other two-thirds (67%) either advocate violence and killing or are not sure one way or the other.

The Obama administration (and the UN) demands that Israel make peace with Palestinian Arabs in Gaza and the west bank. 

My question is:  How?

Ken Berwitz

This year, as in previous years, some members of congress will propose an amendment to the constitution which would ban burning the American flag.

Is this reasonable?  Well, here is the beginning of  an article by Eugene Volokh in today's Wall Street Journal which argues against the amendment.  See what you think:

Flag Burning and Free Speech

The Founding Fathers agreed that the First Amendment protected 'symbolic expression.'

By EUGENE VOLOKH

Congress is once again considering a constitutional amendment to ban the desecration of the American flag. The proposal, introduced this spring in the Senate by David Vitter (R., La.), and cosponsored by 20 other Republicans and Democrat Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, probably won't get enough votes. Yet even if it doesn't, one longstanding misunderstanding about the First Amendment is likely to live on.

 

Advocates for flag amendments argue that activist Supreme Court Justices have twisted the original meaning of the First Amendment to protect symbolic acts such as flag burning. As Sen. Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) said in supporting the Vitter proposal, "if you read the debate in 1790 -- the First Amendment was not written to protect nonverbal speech . . . . [W]e want to make sure we get the Constitution back to its original intent before the

Supreme Court screwed it up." Or, as Judge Robert Bork argued in his book "Slouching Towards Gomorrah," flag burning "is not speech," and the court shouldn't have held "that an amendment protecting only the freedom of 'speech' somehow protects conduct if it is 'expressive.'"

 

Yet the best historical evidence suggests Messrs. Bork and Grassley are mistaken. The Framers fully understood "freedom of speech, or of the press" to include symbolic expression as well as verbal expression.

The Framers were working within a late 18th century common-law legal system that generally treated symbolic expression and verbal expression the same. Speech restrictions -- such as libel, slander, sedition, obscenity and blasphemy -- covered symbolic expression on the same terms as verbal expression.

Personally, I do not like seeing the American flag burned.  I find it objectionable, offensive and usually juvenile. 

But, yes, it is free expression -- my reaction to this particular exercise of free expression notwithstanding. 

Let it go and move on to something else.

Ken Berwitz

How do I love thee, let me count the ways.....wellllllll, one of them is to report on how badly your legislation is failing without mentioning you.

Not very poetic, I admit.  But that is what CBS News, and NBC, managed to do last night.  Only ABC News reported any connection between the skyrocketing unemployment rate and the performance of President Obama's so-called "stimulus package".

Brent Baker of www.newsbusters.org, explains:

CBS Doesn't Mention Obama as Unemployment Hits 26-Year High

By Brent Baker (Bio | Archive)
July 2, 2009 - 20:39 ET

 

The unemployment rate in June jumped to 9.5 percent, the highest since 1983, as 467,000 jobs were lost, yet the CBS Evening News managed to air a story that didn't mention President Barack Obama or his “stimulus” bill while the NBC story only touched Obama's policies by running a soundbite of the President defending the lack of positive impact so far from his policies: “It took years for us to get into this mess and it will take us more than a few months to turn it around.” CBS reporter Anthony Mason remarked: “Hopefully it's a one-month blip.”

 

In contrast, ABC anchor Charles Gibson teased Thursday's World News: “Tonight, job jolt. Unemployment reaches a 26-year high. Where are all those jobs the economic stimulus was supposed to produce?” Setting up ABC's lead (CBS and NBC began with Michael Jackson), Gibson proposed: “The rising unemployment raises questions about the economic stimulus, which was supposed to create jobs.”

 

(Refusing to hold Obama accountable for his economic policies is nothing new. See the early June post, “Finding the 'glass half full,' nets and newspapers find good news about job loss, ignore failure of stimulus to halt rising unemployment,” from the MRC's Business & Media Institute.)

 

The Thursday, July 2 NBC and CBS stories focused not on Obama administration policy but the plight of the unemployed.

 

From the start of the story on Thursday's NBC Nightly News:

 

BRIAN WILLIAMS: We turn to tonight's news on the U.S. economy and new numbers that prove what a lot of Americans already know, employers are continuing to fire and not hire. The unemployment rate now at 9.5 percent. Hasn't been that high in 26 years. 467,000 more jobs disappeared in the month of June alone, a surprise to a lot of the experts because May hadn't been that bleak. On Wall Street, the Dow, NASDAQ, S & P were way down on today's trading. CNBCs Trish Regan has more on the numbers and some of the real people behind them.

 

TRISH REGAN: In New York City some instructions for the newly unemployed. It's become an increasingly popular class. And now news today that unemployment is at a 26-year high.

 

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: It took years for us to get into this mess and it will take us more than a few months to turn it around.

 

REGAN: With the recession in its twentieth month, nearly 15 million Americans are out of work....

 

The complete CBS Evening News coverage:

 

KATIE COURIC: Turning to the economy now, while there have been signs the recession is easing, unemployment is only getting worse. The Labor Department reported today it's up to 9.5 percent now. That is the highest in 26 years. And 467,000 more jobs disappeared last month. Anthony Mason has the story.

 

ANTHONY MASON: With another brutal month of job cuts, nearly 15 million Americans were out of work in June, disappointing analysts looking for green chutes.

 

STUART HOFFMAN, CHIEF ECONOMIST, PNC FINANCIAL SERVICES GROUP: Right now, we need more than chutes. We need branches, leaves, and flowers to get the economy to look better.

 

MASON: Already a dozen states and the District of Columbia have unemployment rates above ten percent with Michigan the highest at more than 14 percent. Only two states, Nebraska and North Dakota, have rates lower than when the recession began. Many businesses are trying desperately to hang on to workers. At Tri-Star Industries, a metal working factory in Connecticut, owner Andrew Nowakowski laid off six of his 36 employees and was going to cut more until the state came to the rescue.

 

ANDREW NOWAKOWSKI: The program allows us to maintain our full-time workforce intact.

 

MASON: Under Connecticut's work share program, Nowakowski he has cut back his workers to three and four-day weeks, but the state makes up half of their lost wages with unemployment funds. Seventeen other states have similar programs.

 

JAMES CASSIDY, TRI-STAR EMPLOYEE: If I didn't have this, I'd probably be trying to get on the welfare line.

 

MASON: But rising unemployment has retailers hurting. At Stride-Rite and Payless shoes, CEO Matthew Rubel says he doesn't expect to see a rebound for at least another year.

 

MATTHEW RUBEL, CEO, COLLECTIVE BRANDS: There's still one out of every 10 people looking for a job, so you can do whatever you want with Wall Street numbers. Main street, they're still looking for work. Until we get them back

working, they're not going to go out and spend.

 

MASON: And the picture gets worse when you add those people who settled for part-time work or given up looking. The so-called underemployed rate, is now a record 16.5 percent. Katie.

 

COURIC: Some very unwelcome news tonight, Anthony.

 

MASON: Hopefully it's a one-month blip.

And these in-the-tank, Obama loving acolytes call themselves journalists?

Yeah, right. 

But listen to them scream like stuck pigs if you call them biased.

Ken Berwitz

Here, from a blog I just saw at www.powerlineblog.com, is a chart that clearly encapsulates the so-called "stimulus package" - what it was supposed to do, what it was supposed to save us from and what actually has happened since it was passed.

.

The dark blue line is what Barack Obama and his Democratic congressional majority promised would happen if the "stimulus package" was passed.

The light blue line is what Barack Obama and his Democratic congressional majority warned would happen if the "stimulus package" did not pass.

The maroon dots show what actually has happened since the "stimulus package" passed.

And, still, most of our wonderful "neutral" media cannot bring themselves to report that the "stimulus package", which puts us under the yoke of a crushing multi-trillion dollar debt, not only is failing, but unemployment is dramatically worse than what Obama & Co. told us it would be if we did nothing (which would have saved those trilliions).

Will they ever wake up?  Will we ever wake up?

Ken Berwitz

Has a feud started between between Joe Scarborough and Chuck Todd?  I'm betting the answer is yes.  And here is why.

This morning, on Scarborough's "Morning Joe" show, a video was shown in which Chip Reid and Helen Thomas lambasted Presidential Press Secretary Robert Gibbs regarding the phony, scripted "town hall meeting" he was going to hold - the one in which both the audience and the questions were pre-screened. (Try and imagine what media would have said if Bush ever pulled that).

Here is what happened immediately afterwards:

Joe Scarborough:  Y’know, Chip Reid, I love Chip Reid….I miss that guy, I wish we still had him…sometimes I sit and I think about these historic times, how much better off this network would be if we had, y'know, if we had Chip Reid working at the White House

 

Willie Geist:  “Instead of…?”

 

Joe Scarborough:  “Omigod, I didn’t even think about…I hope, I hope Chuck Todd’s not watching…’cause Chip Reid’s great… omigod, this is, this is embarrassing.  Whoooohhh, gee.

Unfortunately for Scarborough, Chuck Todd was watching.  He had to be, because he was literally the next person they had on. 

The camera went to Todd, standing outside the White House, and he effected a thin-lipped "smile" that you knew was going to spell trouble for Scarborough.  Todd picked up a coffee cup and took a swig, as if steeling himself for what he was about to say.   Here is what happened next: 

Mika Brzezinksi: Ok, with us now, NBC News Chief White House Correspondent and Political Director Chuck Todd…..….Chuck, hi”

 

Joe Scarborough (hastily):  “Chuck, you’re the best.  You’re the best in the business”

 

Chuck Todd:  “Uh huh.  Well, I know you’re not the best in the business, Joe, so that’s good”

If you want to see and hear what you just read, click here.

So, what do you think?  Is there a feud? 

Stay tuned.  This could be fun.

Ken Berwitz

Fiorello Laguardia, three time mayor of New York City, used to explain away his more egregious miscues by saying "When I make a mistake, it's a beaut"

Well, here, from the Waterbury (CT) Republican-American, is a story about a beaut of a mistake made by a group of teenagers with - I think - the best of intentions:

Torrington teens misunderstand screams, allegedly assault man having sex

BY BRIGITTE RUTHMAN
REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN

 

TORRINGTON -- Four teens were arraigned in Bantam Superior Court on Wednesday, three of them behind closed doors because of their young ages, on charges related to the beating of a Torrington man they thought was harming a woman who was heard screaming in her bedroom June 6.

The alleged victim, 25-year-old Roger Swanson, was in the same room with 34-year-old Melanie Arnold when a 16-year-old girl who was elsewhere in the house overheard sounds at 26 Maud St. Police say the girl, who also lived in the house, believed Arnold was being attacked, and decided to take the law into her own hands instead of calling police.

In fact, police said, the two were having sex.

The 16-year-old returned with four friends, one of whom carried a baseball bat. Of the five, just one is over the age of 17, police said.

“They knocked on the door and were let in,” Police Lt. Bruce Whiteley said.

Dilyen Langdeau, 19, of 279 East Main St., was charged with third-degree assault and conspiracy to commit assault.

Police also charged the 16-year-old girl with assault and carrying a dangerous weapon. Two 17-year-old boys were also charged, one with assault and the other with conspiracy to commit assault.

“Swanson and Arnold had not been fighting,” Police Lt. Bruce Whiteley said. “Arnold was assaulted with a baseball bat and fists, and suffered multiple injuries.”

The injuries were not life threatening. The youths were initially held on $100,000 bond.

These days, a lot of people will only have sex if they are using protection.  Little did Roger Swanson and Melanie Arnold know that the protection they needed was a security guard.

Ken Berwitz

With a tip of my nonexistent hat to the late, great, Jimmy Cannon (who made this kind of column famous), here is my "wit and wisdom" on a bunch of unrelated issues, in no particular order:

-The new data are out and job losses are way over predictions (467,000 instead of 365,000).  Further, the overall unemployment level, which President Obama assured us would cap at 8%, rose to 9.5% -- with double digits clearly in sight.  Will at least some Democrats screw up enough integrity and courage to admit the "stimulus package" is failing?  So far the answer is no.

-Now that Michael Jackson is dead, we are relentlessly being exposed to reports featuring his father.  That's too bad, because joseph jackson was, by Michael's account, a terrifying, abusive man who made his childhood a living hell.  But there he is, featured in just about every report about his son's life and death. 

joseph jackson is an 80 year old man wearing a stupid-looking fedora, oversized sunglasses, a thick neck chain and a big earring.  He looks like a cross between a burlesque show routine and a washed-up pimp;

-How sad that a great actor and real gentleman like Karl Malden could die this week with virtually no press coverage at all.  Mr. Malden was an academy award winner, an emmy winner, and for over 20 years his "The American Express card.  Don't leave home without it" commercials were among the most memorable in advertising history.  He deserved better.

-The Celebrity Solstice - which my wife and I were on from June 15-26th, is a truly remarkable ship.  It was loaded to the gills, with (according to one of the ship's officers we spoke to) 3,060 passengers and 1400 crew.  That is the size of a small city.  And everything ran, you should pardon the expression, swimmingly. 

As you might guess, the Solstice is massively huge.  Probably because of its size, it rides as smooth as silk.  The ship weighs 122,000 tons.  Come to think of it, that's about how much I felt like I weighed after being on it for 12 days (anyone who has ever been on a cruise ship knows what I'm talking about).  My wife said it well:  "If you get sick on this ship, you better stay on land for the rest of your life". 

-TriBeCa is one of the easiest parts of Manhattan to find parking in.  And the TriBeCa Grill, On Greenwich Avenue at Moore (partly owned by Robert DeNiro for whatever it's worth),  has an excellent brunch.  Pricey, but well worth it.

-The Yankees are finally starting to look like a team with the highest payroll in baseball.  Seven game winning streak in progress.  It's about time;

-Still speaking of the Yankees, the team's catcher (Jorge Posada), shortstop (Derek Jeter) and closer (Mariano Rivera) all came up as rookies in 1995, and have remained teammates for 15 years.  In this day and age that's pretty amazing.  Another amazing thing is that, based on everything I've read about them, these are three of the best people you will ever find in the sport.  I'm not talking about their playing abilities, I'm talking about them as human beings.  What a great clubhouse nucleus they must make;

-Kettle chips really are better than regular potato chips.  But kettle popcorn tends to be sweet-flavored and turns me off.

-Will it ever stop raining in the New York metro area?  The weatherman says maybe the 4th of July weekend will be good, but we'll see.  This is one of the rainiest springs/early summers on record; 

-Is Pennsylvania really going to re-elect Arlen Specter to the senate?  I doubt that he could even survive a Democratic primary challenge from Joe Sestak, let alone the general election; 

-Will New Jersey (my state) really re-elect Jon Corzine as Governor?  Probably yes, since he has more money than Croesus and has bought elections in the past.  On the other hand his opponent, Chris Christie, is several steps above what New Jersey Republicans usually put up for state office, so it could get interesting; 

-I watched a Pontiac commercial on TV this morning which offered some kind of sale, and it used the line "for a limited time only".  I couldn't help wondering if that meant the sale or the brand;

-My left thumbnail grows more slowly than my right thumbnail.  I don't know what that means and probably don't want to;

-Rome's Fiumicino Airport may well be the least well-run major city airport I've ever been in - especially the Continental Airlines operation there.  Continental does a fine job at Newark Airport.  Does it ever need someone from Newark to oversee the Rome location;

-The beginning of this past weekend's Gay Pride Parade in Manhattan had a string of balloons that must have gone on for two full city blocks.  I know this because we were driving up Hudson Street toward the Lincoln Tunnel and were the third car stuck waiting for it to cross Hudson at Christopher Street (which is about where the parade ended).  The pretty balloon colors -- and the huge cheering crowd -- made it a very pleasurable few minutes;

-Vince Carter spent 4 1/2 years with the New Jersey Nets before being traded on draft day last week.  He came across as a real professional and a real gentleman for all that time.  I wish him well in Orlando - except when he's playing against the Nets, that is;

-Now that Michael Jackson is dead, Jocelyn Wildenstein is about the only person left who Nancy Pelosi can talk to about her face;

-I don't have the exact transcript in front of me, but on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" today, Joe Scarborough commented about how much better NBC would be if Chip Reid were its White House correspondent -- just before bringing on Chuck Todd, who is NBC's White House correspondent.  And Todd, with a forced smile, said something (sorry, I don't have the exact words) just as insulting back to Scarborough.  It is clear that this was not scripted at all, it was Joe Scarborough winging it and bluntly stating his opinion, then Todd reacting to that opinion.  Hooboy.

By the way, I agree with Scarborough.