Free Republic

Throughout the first six months of his administration, President Obama -- perhaps one of the most politically cautious leaders in contemporary history -- has been routinely portrayed as a radical by his opponents on the far-right. In particular, persons who have apparently never actually studied Marxism (or if they did, managed to somehow find therein support for such things as bailing out banks and elite corporations) contend that Obama is indeed a socialist. Reducing all government action other than warmaking to part of a larger socialist conspiracy, the right contends that health care reform is socialist, capping greenhouse gas emissions...

For over a thousand years Roman conquerors returning from the wars enjoyed the honor of triumph, a tumultuous parade. In the procession came trumpeteers, musicians and strange animals from conquered territories, together with carts laden with treasure and captured armaments. The conquerors rode in a triumphal chariot, the dazed prisoners walking in chains before him. Sometimes his children robed in white stood with him in the chariot or rode the trace horses. A slave stood behind the conqueror holding a golden crown and whispering in his ear a warning: that all glory is fleeting." —Gen. George C. Patton For Barack...

Harvard Professor Henry Gates' arrest has given new life to the issue of racial profiling. We can think of profiling in general as a practice where people use an observable or known physical attribute as a proxy or estimator of some other unobservable or unknown attribute. Race or sex profiling is simply the use of race or sex as that estimator. Profiling represents mankind's attempt to cope with information cost. God would not have to profile since God is all knowing. People differ by race and sex. Let's look at a few profiling examples to see which ones you'd like...

Why the town hall meetings have everything to do with race and very little to do with health care. Media outlets have gingerly approached the question of whether the virulent and over-the-top town hall meetings over health care are thinly disguised venting sessions in which right-wing whites express their frustration and sense of dislocation over the election of the first black president. Following quickly on the heels of the out-in-left-field, birther conspiracy theorists, the rage-filled, inconsolable opponents of the current health care reform bill certainly seem to be more concerned with the legitimacy of the messenger rather than the message...

LONG BEACH, Calif. (Aug. 17) -- Cambridge police Sgt. James Crowley received a standing ovation from thousands of police officers Monday as he opened a five-day Fraternal Order of Police convention with brief remarks. Crowley, who is white, sparked a national debate on race relations and policing when he arrested Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. for disorderly conduct at Gates' home in Cambridge, Mass. Gates is black.

Sgt. James Crowley, the white Massachusetts officer who arrested black Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., setting off a national debate about race, spoke briefly Monday at a convention of police officers in Long Beach where he was greeted with whistles and applause.

Dan Rather is wrong. Barack Obama should stay out of it. We don't need no stinkin' presidential commission. It's not that the former CBS anchor has delivered a flawed diagnosis. The news business, as Rather wrote in a Washington Post op-ed, is in deep trouble, particularly the print side. But his prescription -- that only high-level White House involvement can draw sufficient attention to the media's plight -- badly misses the mark. This president may be able to bring Henry Louis Gates and James Crowley together for a beer...But rescuing the news business is beyond his power... But the challenge...

Dan Rather is wrong. Barack Obama should stay out of it. We don't need no stinkin' presidential commission. It's not that the former CBS anchor has delivered a flawed diagnosis. The news business, as Rather wrote in a Washington Post op-ed, is in deep trouble, particularly the print side. But his prescription -- that only high-level White House involvement can draw sufficient attention to the media's plight -- badly misses the mark. This president may be able to bring Henry Louis Gates and James Crowley together for a beer. Obama might even figure out how to get Congress to cough...

Dr. Gates has made some bizarre statements along with his recent bomb and death threat claims, including "dreaming of being arrested at the White House." Is he dreaming about death and bomb threats, too? After his dreamed-up racism, I want to see reality.

Obama's punctured gravitas http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/08/obamas_punctured_gravitas.html August 15, 2009 | Thomas Lifson FR Posted by fiodora Democrats and their media lapdogs labor mightily to sustain and reinforce the image of Obama the cool, clam, authoritative, brilliant, serious, likable, man of destiny. But ridicule is the most powerful solvent on earth. And a false gravity, once punctured, dissipates with the breeze. Barack Obama's political glass jaw is the illusion of gravitas that was successfully sold to enough Americans to get him elected. His stentorian deep voice persuades many, never mind the pablum of vague clichés he dishes out. Rush Limbaugh brilliant punctures...

Slavery Reparations by Fred Reed On the Web I find that Henry Louis Gates Jr., the chairman of Afro-American Studies at Harvard, is demanding that whites pay reparations to blacks. It's because of slavery, see. He is joined in this endeavor by a gaggle of other professional blacks. I guess he'll send me a bill, huh? I feel like saying, Let me get this straight, Hank. I'm slow. Be patient. You want free money because of slavery, right? I don't blame you. I'd like free money too. Tell you what. I believe in justice. I'll give you a million dollars...

Exactly one week after the highly-publicized arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates stirred a national discussion on race relations, legendary singer-songwriter Bob Dylan was detained by police officers in a "low-income, predominantly minority neighborhood" in Long Branch, New Jersey. Makes one wonder why it took so long for this to get reported, and if news outlets that were convinced Gates's arrest was racially motivated will see the delicious irony in a white rock star being questioned by police just because he was "wandering around the neighborhood." The Associated Press sure didn't (h/t Clarence Page): Rock legend Bob Dylan was...

Rock legend Bob Dylan was treated like a complete unknown by police in a New Jersey shore community when a resident called to report someone wandering around the neighborhood. Dylan was in Long Branch, about a two-hour drive south of New York City, on July 23 as part of a tour with Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp that was to play at a baseball stadium in nearby Lakewood. A 24-year-old police officer apparently was unaware of who Dylan is and asked him for identification, Long Branch business administrator Howard Woolley said Friday. "I don't think she was familiar with his...

When Barack Obama said that the Henry Louis Gates affair was a teachable moment, he spoke truly. But the key is ensuring that the right things are taught and the right people learn. Unfortunately, this is unlikely to happen. There is no need to rehash the events of July 16 chapter and verse. We all know about how the Harvard professor flew into a rage of racial accusations and haughty posturing after Sergeant James Crowley appeared at his Cambridge home to investigate a report of a possible break-in. We've heard that Gates called Crowley a "racist" and said he was...

A racially charged activist group called “Color of Change” founded by Van Jones, a special advisor to the Obama Administration, is trying to silence popular radio and Fox News personality Glenn Beck by calling for a boycott of Beck’s TV advertisers. On July 28th, Beck made a comment on the Fox & Friends morning show about Obama’s reaction to the arrest of Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. During the discussion of “Professor-Gate,” Beck connected the President’s past association with Rev. Jeremiah Wright to Obama’s comment that Cambridge police officer, Sgt. James Crowley, acted stupidly. Though Beck acknowledged most

Maybe they would have recognized him if he had introduced himself as Robert Allen Zimmerman. Folk and rock god Bob Dylan was treated like an mere mortal by Jersey shore cops when a someone called to report a shady looking man wandering around the neighborhood. Dylan was in Long Branch, N.J, on July 23 as part of a tour with Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp that was to play at a baseball stadium in nearby Lakewood. A 24-year-old police officer apparently was unaware of who Dylan is and asked him for identification, said Long Branch business administrator Howard Woolley. But...

Glenn Beck has lost advertisers on his TV show after calling President Obama "a racist" in the context of the Henry Louis Gates arrest controversy. The pressure on advertisers has become a politically charged debate about the right to free speech, censorship and what constitutes hate speech. Conservatives are questioning if the campaign against Beck is connected to the White House staff. The corporate sponsors are responding to the African-American online political coalition ColorOfChange.org, which launched a campaign two weeks ago, urging companies to stop advertising on "The Glenn Beck Program." Color of Change, in a press release Thursday, said...

Romeo is black. And no one cares. While this might be big news in America, no one in London is making any fuss about Adetomiwa Edun in Romeo & Juliet, playing through August 23 at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. Here, it’s just damn good theater. No nuance, no emotional triggers playing on Edun’s ethnicity. I admit that I was excited and skeptical about it, feeling very American in my belief that this was astonishing news and curious about how the Globe Theatre’s audiences would respond. I watched with a grin, caught the Bard’s lines flying and peeped that black man kissing...

(WHERE WAS THE MEDIA WITH ALL THE BUSH DEATH THREATS!!!!???? This is ridiculous---if ANYTHING ever happened to Obama --the media will blame the right, it is a foregone conclusion--and all this because we dare stand up to this incompetent, dishonest man that is trying to reshape our country against will!) article: Fear for Obama's Safety Grows as Hate Groups Thrive on Racial Backlash Violent Signs, Gun, Standoff Latest in Emerging Anger Towards the President By BRIAN ROSS, ANNA SCHECTER and MEGAN CHUCHMACH August 14, 2009 Experts who track hate groups across the U.S. are growing increasingly concerned over violent rhetoric...

(Considering the history of his religious affiliation, Glenn Beck needs to check himself before he accuses the president of being racist.) ...Let's pretend President Obama's mother wasn't white. Let's pretend he wasn't raised by his white grandparents, and let's pretend he didn't only months ago sit diligently by his white grandmother's deathbed. Let's pretend he didn't outfit his cabinet with a whole host of white people. And let's pretend that "white culture" actually means something (as opposed to "Irish culture" or "Polish culture"). Beck's condemnation of the president as a bigot who "hates" white people rings hollow considering the company...