WHAT WOULD GEORGE GROSZ PAINT TODAY?

HERE'S WHAT I THINK GEORGE GROSZ WOULD PAINT LIKE TODAY:

CONTEMPORARY HIGH CULTURE

OBAMANISTA INTERROGATION

Obama's EPA to regulate CO2 from utilities starting 3/20/09

ENVIRONMENTAL NEWSTAND: VIA PLANET GORE:

The Obama EPA is explicitly saying for the first time that a pending greenhouse gas (GHG) vehicle emissions rule, when finalized, will define carbon dioxide (CO2) and other GHGs as regulated under the Clean Air Act and will therefore trigger mandates for new and modified power plants and other stationary sources to limit their GHGs.

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson makes the statement in an Aug. 12 reply to an environmentalist petition asking her to reject a power plant air permit issued by Kentucky regulators that did not require CO2 limits. EPA does not require the permit at issue to include CO2 but does suggest that CO2 limits in power plant permits could be required as soon as March of next year, when EPA is expected to finalize the vehicle GHG rule.

• THIS WILL INCREASE EVERYONE'S ENERGY BILLS AND SET OFF INFLATION.
• IT WILL INCREASE UNEMPLOYMENT.
• AND IT WILL DO NOTHING ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE.
• NOTHING.

IT'S THE MOST COLOSSALLY IDIOTIC AND USELESS POLICY IN ALL OF HUMAN HISTORY.

DISSENT ACCORDINGLY.

OBAMA FELLATES GAY LOBBY : CAMPAIGNED FOR DOMA, NOW COMES OUT AGAINST IT

GLENN HERE.

POLITICO HERE:

Obama underlines DOMA opposition

A sign of the level at which walking back a brief supporting the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act was handled: The White House puts out a statement by Obama himself on the matter:

Today, the Department of Justice has filed a response to a legal challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act, as it traditionally does when acts of Congress are challenged. This brief makes clear, however, that my Administration believes that the Act is discriminatory and should be repealed by Congress. I have long held that DOMA prevents LGBT couples from being granted equal rights and benefits. While we work with Congress to repeal DOMA, my Administration will continue to examine and implement measures that will help extend rights and benefits to LGBT couples under existing law.

ALL YOU FOLKS OUT THERE WHO VOTED FOR OBAMA CUZ YOU FELT HE WAS A SMART MODERATE WERE DUPED.

YUP: DURING THE CAMPAIGN OBAMA SAID HE FAVORED DOMA. HE LIED.

REPENT AND VOTE GOP 2010.

OBAMA HATES DOD PORK - BUT NOT ANY OTHER KIND

President Barack Obama took on both the defense establishment and freespending lawmakers on Monday, saying they were draining the nation's military budget with ''exotic projects.''''If Congress sends me a defense bill loaded with a bunch of pork, I will veto it,'' he declared in a speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

IF THE PORK IS IN THE STIMULUS PACKAGE, THEN IT'S OKAY WITH OBAMA - ONE TRILLION DOLLARS OF IT. ALL OF IT UNNECESSARY.

BUT ANY IN THE DOD BUDGET, AND HE PROMISES A VETO.

HE'S TELLING US WHAT HE THINKS IS VITAL AND WHAT HE HATES.

HE HATES AMERICAN MILITARY STRENGTH.

OBAMA WANTS TO MAKE US WEAKER.

OBAMA IS THE GRAVEST THREAT THE UISA AND FREE WORLD FACES TODAY.

IF KRUGMAN GETS CANCER, LET'S MAKE A COLLECTION AND SEND HIM TO SWITZERLAND ... TO DIE

KRUGMAN:

So where does Obamacare fit into all this? Basically, it’s a plan to Swissify America, using regulation and subsidies to ensure universal coverage.

If we were starting from scratch we probably wouldn’t have chosen this route. True “socialized medicine” would undoubtedly cost less, and a straightforward extension of Medicare-type coverage to all Americans would probably be cheaper than a Swiss-style system. That’s why I and others believe that a true public option competing with private insurers is extremely important: otherwise, rising costs could all too easily undermine the whole effort.

But a Swiss-style system of universal coverage would be a vast improvement on what we have now. And we already know that such systems work.

SO AFTER ADMITTING HE'S A SOCIALIST, KRUGMAN SAYS - REPEAT:

a Swiss-style system of universal coverage would be a vast improvement on what we have now

BUT IS SWITZERLAND REALLY BETTER HEALTHCARE!?

NOPE:

I WISH KRUGMAN GOES THERE FOR HEALTHCARE.

KRUGMAN MIGHT AS WELL BE A KNEE JERK PINKO MORON.


21 SECOND VIDEO PROVES IT.

AN ISLAMIC SMEAR CAMPAIGN AGAINST RIFQA BARY

Atlas Shrugs (via Jihad Watch) reports that the MSM and the parents of Rifqa Bary, as well as the Islamic Society of Central Florida, are conducting a libel campaign against Rifqa Bary, the teenage girl from a Muslim family who converted to Christianity, claiming that she was "brainwashed/kidnapped by a cult". In other words, this father who claims he respects her conversion is insulting the kindly pastor and wife who took her in by demonizing them, instead of thanking them.

Pamela has some screenshots of Bary's Facebook page that help back up her side of the story. And there's also this letter sent to Counter Jihad by a friend of hers:

I know that her dad is a threat to her, because I am friends with her and have heard her talk about it. In addition, when she took off and ran, I was one of the last people to talk to her via cell phone and as a result her dad started obsessively calling me and being very harsh and threatening towards me, while demanding that i tell him where she went to.

I hope her friend will also help testify in her defense. She will need it. Can a complaint be filed against the father as well for phone harrassment?

"Act on CO2" advertisements on the BBC

The BBC does not of course run advertisements so it is described as a "filler" and is presumably funded by the BBC itself. It is very scary cinematography and completely unbalanced and extreme Warmist propaganda. There is no scintilla of truth in the warnings it gives. It was broadcast in the 9:00 to 9:30 timeslot on August 15 and appears to be aimed at frightening children.

You can see it here. The script is here.

Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. To keep up with attacks on free speech see TONGUE-TIED. Also, don't forget your daily roundup of pro-environment but anti-Greenie news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH . Email me (John Ray) here

Swine Flu Scare Makes a Comeback 33 Years Later

In 1976, the U.S. government implored all Americans to be vaccinated as “protection” against Swine Flu — and 46 million Americans took the shot, according to a report by Mike Wallace of CBS’s “60 Minutes“. Afterward, some 4,000 of those who took the shot filed claims for damages — up to and including paralysis and death — caused by the vaccine. And only one died from Swine Flu in 1976.

Wallace’s report, which aired on CBS, appears in two parts. Watch them here.

OBAMA DIDN'T "MISREAD HIS MANDATE"; HE MISLEAD THE ELECTORATE

GLENN LINKS TO THE BRILLIANT JAY COST:

August 17, 2009

JAY COST: Obama misread his mandate.

Posted at by Glenn Reynolds at 7:46 am

JAY COST:

The public option was an overreach. The White House's erroneous belief that it could get it through the legislature - or at least that it could let four out of five congressional committees push it - was a misinterpretation of last year's election results.

WRONG!

• OBAMA DIDN'T MISREAD THE ELECTORATE; HE MISLEAD THEM!

• OBAMA IS A DYED IN THE WOOL SOCIALIST.
  
• OBAMA WAS RAISED BY ANTI-AMERICAN LEFTISTS AND ANTI-ZIONISTS.
• OBAMA WORSHIPPED IN AN ANTI-WHITE ANTI-ZIONIST "CHURCH".
• OBAMA IS AN ACOLYTE OF ALINSKY AND A LT. OF THE CHICAGO MACHINE.
  

• SOME OF US ON THE RIGHT KNEW IT FROM THE GET GO.

• JOE THE PLUMBER HELPED EXPOSE IT.

BUT MOST PEOPLE IN THE MIDDLE - THE MODERATES AND INDEPENDENTS - WERE DUPED.

• WHAT OBAMA HAS BEEN DOING THE LAST 7 MONTHS IS NO SURPRISE TO US ON ON THE RIGHT, AND IT IS NOT OVERREACH; IT WAS OBAMA'S AND RAHM'S AND AXELROD'S PLAN FROM THE GET GO.
• WE KNEW IT AND THAT'S WHY WE WERE IN POSITION TO STOP HIM - THANK GOD!
  

OBAMA IS ALSO INCOMPETENT AND A LOUSY LEADER WHOSE CHARISMA ON THE CAMPAIGN STUMP HAS ALREADY WORN THIN.

THE WORST IS YET TO COME.

BUT WE ON THE RIGHT WILL PREVAIL IN THE END.

The Newest and Bestest From Lloyd Marcus

I love this dude. I love his articles at American Thinker. I love his pictures which accompany his articles. I love his music. This is his best one yet: Twenty Ten. Enjoy!

H/T: CJ in TX

HEALTH INSURANCE NIGHTMARE

Short video of particular interest to me (hat tip to Hard To Swallow):



As of this past spring, after long months of searching options and filing applications, this household of two has two individual, high-deductible policies.

Indeed, such catastrophic-coverage policies are the only kinds of policies that Mr. AOW and I can afford. Specifically, the monthly premium for Mr. AOW is nearly $500, mine nearly $200. Mr. AOW and I are close in age. Why the difference in premiums?

Mr. AOW has the dreaded pre-existing conditions, all under control and being treated successfully for well over ten years; he has never been hospitalized for any of his pre-existing conditions. Furthermore, because of the economy and Mr. AOW's age, he is unable to work enough to pay the monthly premium for his policy right now.

ObamaCare would force us into a higher priced policy! UNACCEPTABLE!

Mr. AOW lost his job of some twelve years in January 2008 because the employer-based policy was costing a business suffering a downturn which required cutting back on expenses. Said employer, therefore, laid off Mr. AOW and several others. The company then hired younger workers who opted out of the health insurance plan offered by the company.

My income and assets, pitiful as they are, precludes my husband's option of going onto Medicaid. We are faced with the situation that a divorce would solve the health-insurance problem for Mr. AOW and our financial future. Disclaimer: no divorce proceedings have been investigated or initiated.

Should ObamaCare as outlined in the above short video become law, I wonder how many others will face a situation similar to this household's.

But, But...You Mean Communism Is Really All Communist-y?

Yeah, it kind of is. This is a great video from LetFreedomRingUSA.com, which illustrates quite well how government-run anything works. There are two more great vids at the link above. Check them out! I wish it showed the servers (doctors) on food stamps, though, and then the total lack of them in favor of a hundred hosts (bureaucrats) at every restaurant.

H/T: GWP

Bwhahaha! Anti-Leftardation/Pro-Americanism in Texas

They're making Bible study mandatory in Texas public schools. Love it. I went a Catholic high school and have no idea how anyone survives in this world without some instruction in our Judeo-Christian heritage. Seriously. If you don't know about that you don't know much about history or sociology, either. It's who we are. I'm also glad that I studied morality, since few people seem to understand what it means, and mistakenly use it to refer to Islam, which does not have a single moral teaching to it its credit. Don't mess with Texas!

You know the ACLU is just on fire over this. The fact of the matter is that 'freedom of religion' is just that. It's not freedom from religion. Also, Texas can do whatever they want. They want to secede and if the US pushes them they will. So be nice to Texas.

Texas Public Schools Required to Teach Bible This Year

WHITEHOUSE, TX (KLTV) - The school year is almost here, and if literature of the Bible is not already offered in your child's school, it will be this fall.

Books are a common sight in classrooms around the nation, but the Bible is one book that is not. Come this fall, a Texas law says all public schools must offer information relating to the Bible in their curriculum.

"By the end of the year, what they begin to realize is that it is pervasive. You can't get away from it. The kids came back and were like 'It's everywhere,'" said John Keeling, the social studies chair at Whitehouse High School. Whitehouse already offers a Bible elective. "The purpose of a course like this isn't even really to get kids to believe it per say. It is just to appreciate the profound impact that it has had on our history and on our government," said Keeling.

BURT RUTAN: AGW CLIMATE SKEPTIC

ONE OF THE WORLD'S GREATEST ENGINEERS, BURT RUTAN, THINKS AGW IS BS.

NY TIMES: SAVE MEDICARE, DIE SOONER

That was the headline in the New York Times, back in February 2005:

How to Save Medicare? Die Sooner

By DANIEL ALTMAN

HOUGH Social Security's fiscal direction has taken center stage in Washington of late, Medicare's future financing problems are likely to be much worse. President Bush has asserted that the Medicare Modernization Act, which he signed in 2003, would solve some of those problems - "the logic is irrefutable," he said two months ago. Yet the Congressional Budget Office expects the law to create just $28 billion in savings during the decade after its passage, while its prescription drug benefit will add more than $400 billion in costs.

So, how can Medicare's ballooning costs be contained? One idea is to let people die earlier.

For the last few decades, the share of Medicare costs incurred by patients in their last year of life has stayed at about 28 percent, said Dr. Gail R. Wilensky, a senior fellow at Project HOPE who previously ran Medicare and Medicaid. Thus end-of-life care hasn't contributed unduly of late to Medicare's problems. But that doesn't mean it shouldn't be part of the solution. "If you take the assumption that you want to go where the money is, it's a reasonable place to look," Dr. Wilensky said.

End-of-life care may also be a useful focus because, in some cases, efforts to prolong life may end up only prolonging suffering. In such cases, reducing pain may be a better use of resources than heroic attempts to save lives.

Limiting and even denying care to elderly taxpayers who have paid into the system all of their healthy, working lives has always been part of the socialist game plan.

"Reducing pain may be a better use of resources than heroic attempts to save lives" sounds a lot like Barry Soetoro's recommendation: "maybe she would be better off not having the surgery but taking the painkillers."

Seniors are right to worry about the intentions of those who would radically restructure American health care.

WHAT'S SCARY IS, HOW LITTLE HE KNOWS

He thinks there is going to be a government sponsored "public option" that won't have all sorts of special government privileges and won't be supported by subsidies from the taxpayers.

He thinks he is qualified to determine when specific medical treatments for specific patients are unnecessary or too expensive.

He thinks surgeons are immediately paid $50,000 to amputate a foot.

His ignorance is overshadowed only by his lack of judgment, and his lack of judgment only by his arrogance.

How could anyone possibly trust the re-structuring of the 17% of GDP that comprises health care for all Americans (and resident and illegal aliens!) to someone who is so woefully misinformed, so ingnorant, and so wrong?

They can't, and they won't.

BASIC FALLACIES AND LIES OF THE LIBERAL ARGUMENT THAT USA HEALTHCARE IS WORSE THAN EUROPE'S

Liberals love to make the following argument:

"Europeans spend half what we do per year - per capita. And they live longer.
We spend twice as much - and have 46 million uninsured."

They say this to promote SOCIALSM and the takeover of 1/7th of our economy.

It's WRONG; it's based on errors, fallacies and lies.

• ERROR 1 - conflating health insurance with health care.

Every person in the USA is entitled to healthcare in a hospital regardless of his ability to pay - IT'S FEDERAL LAW. All hospitals which accept federal tax dollars for support - and almost every single one does - must treat EVERYONE.

LIBERALS ARE WRONG OR LYING WHEN THEY SAY OR IMPLY AMERICANS AREN'T GETTING HEALTHCARE.

Lack of insurance doesn't mean lack of care.

• ERROR 2 - conflating per capita/per year spending and average life-spans with efficiency of public health.

People die.

Every single one.

Sooner - or later.

This doesn't always have to do with healthcare.

(AND IT DOESN'T HAVE TO DO WITH HEALTHCARE INSURANCE COMPANIES REAPING HUGE PROFITS BY CHARGING A LOT AND DENYING CARE - AS THE LIBERALS WOULD HAVE YOU BELIEVE! THEIR PROFITS ARE ONLY ABOUT 2%!)

Length of years has a lot to do with OBESITY AND DIET. And VIOLENCE.

A group of people which has MORE fat people with bad diets who shoot at each other will have shorter life-spans than a group of people who are slimmer, eat better and shoot each other less.

(ALSO: The USA counts extreme preemies who die within months as DEATHS where in many European nations they do not; they call them failed pregnancies. This makes our nation's infant mortality rate higher and average life-span shorter.)

And a group of people which cares more about its health and is MORE NEUROTIC about its health and appearance will spend more on its healthcare OVERALL - BY PURCHASING MORE SERVICES - than a group of people who do not, OR WHO CANNOT BECAUSE THEIR HEALTHCARE IS SOCIALIZED!

WE SPEND MORE IN PART BECAUSE WE CAN!

• Error 3 - We spend more per capita per year than Europeans because of the unbridled greed of unbridled insurance companies and unbridled pharmaceuticals.
  

Liberals are essentially arguing that we spend more because a lot goes into the pockets of insurers and not to doctors and nurses or actual care.

This is a lie.

As I wrote above, insurance companies do not make very large profits. That's just a plain simple truth.

And pharma companies spend BILLIONS developing a SINGLE drug and many do not pass muster. To pay for the research which leads to life-saving and life-extending medicine, they need a high return on the drugs which do pass muster.

Killing Big Pharma would NOT kill greedy capitalists; it would be committing GENOCIDE against people who need new drugs to be developed.

We do spend more because of the GREED OF LAWYERS: we have a runaway tort system which allows lawyers to get billions each year from lawsuits against our healthcare system operators. Defensive medicine is extra expensive.

If we reined in the lawyers we'd save BILLIONS - ENOUGH TO INSURE ALMOST EVERYONE WHO WANTS INSURANCE BUT CAN'T AFFORD IT WITH VOUCHERS!

Tort reform isn't even on the list of healthcare reform,s suggested by Obama and the Democrats because the Democrat Party is owned and operated by the lawyers and the "tax-getters" - the SEIU, AFSCME and the NEA.

• Our healthcare system is great.

• Our doctors and nurses are the best.

• Our pharmaceutical industry is fantastic.

• REPEAT: Our healthcare system is great.

We mustn't let the Democrats and the vultures and parasites they represent destroy it.

IN COLORADO, OBAMA INVOKES THE GRANDMOTHER HE DISRESPECTED IN LIFE

Barack Hussein Obama hit a new low:

To sell his socialist takeover of 1/7th of the USA economy, he invoked his dead grandmother. HOT AIR"S Quotes of the day:

posted at 9:30 pm on August 15, 2009 by Allahpundit

“‘I just lost my grandmother last year. I know what it’s like to watch somebody you love, who’s aging, deteriorate and have to struggle with that,’ an impassioned Obama told a crowd as he spoke of Madelyn Payne Dunham.

He took issue with ‘the notion that somehow I ran for public office or members of Congress are in this so they can go around pulling the plug on grandma.’”

Obama invoked his grandmother's death as a way to PROVE his own "sensitivity" to death in order to repel the charge that Obamacare will lead to government rationing of care; (basically that the government will choose euthanasia over providing expensive health care to seniors - something the routinely do in Britain -- where's they're setting a $45K limit on end of life spending).

The One was IMPASSIONED according to the AP reporter.

Sadly - IF NOT sickeningly, Obama's DRAGGING HIS GRANDMOTHER OUT FROM UNDER THE BUS IS NOTHING BUT A HUGE DISGUSTING EVIL LIE.

The truth is that Obama had many chances to visit his ailing grandmother - the woman who raised him! - but never did until two days before her death, and then alone, without Michelle or his kids -- HER GREAT GRANDKIDS.

FACT - 3/22/2008:

Saturday, March 22, 2008

WHICH TROPICAL PARADISE IS OBAMA GOING TO FOR EASTER, HAWAII (WHERE HIS ONLY LIVING ANCESTOR LIVES) OR THE US VIRGIN ISLANDS?

GATEWAY:

Barack Obama is taking his family to the beach for Easter.

The Obama family is expected to go on a tropical vacation to St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Maybe Obama will make it home some other time.

He hasn't been back to see his ailing 85 year-old grandmother in over a year now. His maternal grandmother in Hawaii is the only living ancestor of the United States Senator and Democratic Party presidential candidate.

She's been too ill to travel. His grandmother suffers from severe osteoporosis that keeps her from traveling from Hawaii. But, she does come up in his campaign speeches once in a while.

Barack mentioned her when he was campaigning in his grandfather's home town in Kansas.

And, he mentioned her this week, of course.

He threw her under the bus because she once said she was afraid of black bum at a bus stop who was harassing her.

He said her remarks were just like those of his "G-damning" pastor.

Barack Obama won't be visiting his ailing grandmother this Easter.

UNBEFREAKINLIEVABLE!

What kind of man is Barack Obama, Jr.?

A very bad man.

FACT:

OBAMA TO SKIP AILING GRANDMA'S BIRTHDAY; OBAMA'S WIFE AND KIDS SKIP TRIP ALTOGETHER

NYTIMES:

October 25, 2008

Obama Arrives in Hawaii to Visit Ailing Grandmother

By JEFF ZELENY

HONOLULU -- On a whirlwind trip back to Hawaii, Senator Barack Obama spent more than an hour visiting his ailing grandmother late Thursday and is set to return to her bedside on Friday morning after arriving here on a nine-hour flight from the Midwestern battleground of the presidential campaign.

As soon as he arrived on the island of Oahu, Mr. Obama went to the Punahou Circle Apartments, where his grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, lies gravely ill. She is to turn 86 on Sunday, but aides to Mr. Obama said doctors advised him not to delay his visit.

... Mr. Obama is scheduled to be in Hawaii for only about 20 hours before returning to the mainland on Friday evening. He is to appear at three campaign rallies on Saturday in Nevada and New Mexico.

UNBELIEVABLE:

• Obama IS NOT repeat NOT staying for his Granma's birthday - perhaps her last.

UNBELIEVABLE:

• OBAMA'S WIFE MICHELLE AND HIS CHILDREN WILL NOT REPEAT NOT BE SEEING HER AT ALL.

WHAT SCUM.

A MAN WHO WOULD THROW HIS GRANDMOTHER UNDER THE BUS TO SAVE THE LIKES OF JEREMIAH WRIGHT,

AND THEN REACH DOWN A DRAG HER BACK UP ON TO THE NATIONAL STAGE WHEN IT'S CONVENIENT -

AND THEN LIE ABOUT HIS CLOSENESS TO HER IS AN EVIL MAN.

EVIL.

Disgusting. Immoral. Evil.

• GATEWAY AGREES!

Obama: The "misinformation" king

And he accuses his opponents of misinformation! Typical Leftist projection. There's a message for him at Matthew 7:5

President Obama is fond of claiming that the debate over health care has been hijacked by special interest groups and other bad guys who are deluding the public by providing misinformation. It will be interesting, then, to see how (and if) he responds to this statement by the American College of Surgeons, which accuses Obama of "getting his facts completely wrong" when discussing some of the practices of surgeons:

The American College of Surgeons is deeply disturbed over the uninformed public comments President Obama continues to make about the high-quality care provided by surgeons in the United States. When the President makes statements that are incorrect or not based in fact, we think he does a disservice to the American people at a time when they want clear, understandable facts about health care reform. We want to set the record straight.

Yesterday during a town hall meeting, President Obama got his facts completely wrong. He stated that a surgeon gets paid $50,000 for a leg amputation when, in fact, Medicare pays a surgeon between $740 and $1,140 for a leg amputation. This payment also includes the evaluation of the patient on the day of the operation plus patient follow-up care that is provided for 90 days after the operation. Private insurers pay some variation of the Medicare reimbursement for this service.

Three weeks ago, the President suggested that a surgeon's decision to remove a child's tonsils is based on the desire to make a lot of money. That remark was ill-informed and dangerous, and we were dismayed by this characterization of the work surgeons do. Surgeons make decisions about recommending operations based on what's right for the patient.

We agree with the President that the best thing for patients with diabetes is to manage the disease proactively to avoid the bad consequences that can occur, including blindness, stroke, and amputation. But as is the case for a person who has been treated for cancer and still needs to have a tumor removed, or a person who is in a terrible car crash and needs access to a trauma surgeon, there are times when even a perfectly managed diabetic patient needs a surgeon. The President's remarks are truly alarming and run the risk of damaging the all-important trust between surgeons and their patients.

We assume that the President made these mistakes unintentionally, but we would urge him to have his facts correct before making another inflammatory and incorrect statement about surgeons and surgical care.

SOURCE


Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. To keep up with attacks on free speech see TONGUE-TIED. Also, don't forget your daily roundup of pro-environment but anti-Greenie news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH . Email me (John Ray) here

Compare and Contrast - Bob Dylan Vs. Henry Louis Gates

Wandering Jew - Bob Dylan - Picked Up For Being "Suspicious and Eccentric"

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 entire body of work," Woolley said.

The incident began at 5 p.m. when a resident said a man was wandering around a low-income, predominantly minority neighborhood several blocks from the oceanfront looking at houses.
The police officer drove up to Dylan, who was wearing a blue jacket, and asked him his name. According to Woolley, the following exchange ensued:

"What is your name, sir?" the officer asked.

"Bob Dylan," Dylan said.

"OK, what are you doing here?" the officer asked.

"I'm on tour," the singer replied.

A second officer, also in his 20s, responded to assist the first officer. He, too, apparently was unfamiliar with Dylan, Woolley said.

The officers asked Dylan for identification. The singer of such classics as "Like a Rolling Stone" and "Blowin' in the Wind" said that he didn't have any ID with him, that he was just walking around looking at houses to pass some time before that night's show.

The officers asked Dylan, 68, to accompany them back to the Ocean Place Resort and Spa, where the performers were staying. Once there, tour staff vouched for Dylan.

Bob Dylan picked up by police after officer fails to recognise him

A novice policewoman picked up an "eccentric old man acting suspiciously", completely unaware that it was Bob Dylan.

The officers thanked him for his cooperation.

"He couldn't have been any nicer to them," Woolley added.

Harvard Professor - Henry Louis Gates - Arrested For Being A "Black Man In America"

Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., one of the nation's pre-eminent African-American scholars, was arrested Thursday afternoon at his home by Cambridge police investigating a possible break-in. The incident raised concerns among some Harvard faculty that Gates was a victim of racial profiling.

Gates

Police arrived at Gates’s Ware Street home near Harvard Square at 12:44 p.m. to question him. Gates, director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard, had trouble unlocking his door after it became jammed.

He was booked for disorderly conduct after “exhibiting loud and tumultuous behavior,” according to a police report. '

Gates accused the investigating officer of being a racist and told him he had "no idea who he was messing with,'' the report said.

Gates told the officer that he was being targeted because "I'm a black man in America.''

Friends of Gates said he was already in his home when police arrived. He showed his driver’s license and Harvard identification card, but was handcuffed and taken into police custody for several hours last Thursday, they said.

The police report said Gates was arrested after he yelled at the investigating officer repeatedly inside the residence then followed the officer outside, where Gates continued to upbraid him. "It was at that time that I informed Professor Gates that he was under arrest,'' the officer wrote in the report.

To me, this demonstrates the difference between a G-d-fearing man like Bob Dylan, and an egocentric man like Henry Louis Gates.

Dylan is an amazing man to me.

I read another article this morning where they mentioned that he's known for this kind of stuff. He was seen getting on a public bus to go to his concert in Belfast, etc.

An amazing lack of pretense.

You might remember the post I did on him at AB on the song and video of Blood in My Eyes. If I am not mistaken, Dylan's world-weariness is born out of "a long contemplation of God". His wandering around in middle-class neighborhoods, and using public transportation to go to concerts, betrays a sense of wonder amidst the world-weariness.

This is not a man focused on his ego. He is focused on something bigger.

Gates is the opposite.

ANTI-OBAMACARE ROUND UP

We are at a turning point in the ObamaCare debate.

AMERICAN POWER has a round up:

• Disabled Woman Assaulted at Adam Schiff Town Hall: Kimberly King Speaks Out Against 'ACORN PRO-OBAMA THUGS'

• Obama Health Care Address: Admitting Defeat, President Lashes Out Against 'Those Who Would Stand in the Way of Reform'

• Shannon Bream and Griff Jenkins on ACORN Astroturfing at Arlen Specter Town Hall: 'A Referendum on Washington'

• Earl Ofari Hutchinson Smears Concerned Citizens as 'Fist Shaking Town Hall Shock Troops'

• Senator Tom Coburn Town Hall: Obama 'Cannot Steal the Future From Its Grandchildren'

• San Francisco Tea Party Blasts ObamaCare: 'It's Shovel Ready'

• Rasmussen Reports: 54 Percent Say No Healthcare Bill Better Than Congressional Plan

• Another Staged Obama Town Hall in Montana

• Professor Caroline Heldman Clueless on Politics of Town Halls

• Constituent Backlash Follows Adam Schiff Town Hall: 'Extraordinarily Corrupt Proceeding'; 'Rally for Universal Health Care'

There's even more at the blog!

ISRAELI SELF-HATING JEW WHO BECAME A "PALESTINIAN" HAS BEEN ELECTED TO FATAH'S REVOLUTIONARY COUNCIL - OH YEAH: HE'S A SOCIALIST, TOO!

URI DAVIS:

HE LOVES KARL MARX AND A DISCREDITED 150 YEAR OLD IDEOLOGY RESPONSIBLE FOR 150 MILLION DEATHS...

OVER HIS NEARLY 4000 YEAR OLD FAITH WHICH GAVE RISE TO THE WEST, THE FREE WORLD AND THE ENLIGHTENMENT.

NOW HIS DREAM IS FULFILLED:

HE'S A BIGSHOT AT A MUSLIM TERRORIST ORGANIZATION.

WHAT A FREAKIN' SICKO - AND WHAT A GOOD LEFTIST!