Political Digest August 8, 2010

I post articles because I believe they will be of interest, not because I agree with every—or even any—opinion in them.

Monkeying around with our tax dollars by John Kass
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/ct-met-kass-0806-20100806,0,347144.column
This is funny except that it makes you sick. Excerpt: thinks. Conservative tightwads have been so blinded by the record $13.2 trillion national debt that they fail to see all the happy monkeys.
Take the Coked-Up Monkey Study, for instance. Scientific researchers will offer massive amounts of cocaine to a bunch of monkeys in a cage, under a $144,000 grant to Wake Forest University. You know exactly what will happen. The scientists will sit in their white lab coats, nodding, smoking their pipes as several beakers of colored fluids simmer on gas burners. And the monkeys will get high. Perhaps at least one prankster scientist will put on '70s disco music and do the John Travolta. The monkeys will groove, except for the lone "control" monkey, who didn't get to powder his nose. And that's when the research really begins. "Egad!" one scientist might say, scribbling notes on a pad. "Did you see what that freakin' monkey just did?" The study is officially called "The Effect of Cocaine Self-Administration on Metabotropic Glutamate Systems." But that's just jargon for "A bunch of scientists giving a bunch of monkeys as much cocaine as they want and calling it a federal jobs plan." What does getting a bunch of monkeys high on cocaine have to do with creating real jobs for out-of-work Americans? "It's actually a continuation of a job that might not still be there if it hadn't been for the stimulus funding," a Wake Forest spokesman was quoted as saying. "And it's a good job." One job? Hmmm. It sounds like a great job. But why only one? Everybody knows that coked-up monkeys stay up all night. They'll need another researcher to "soothe" the monkeys until they "crash." And two more scientists to stay up until 4 a.m. playing video games with the agitated furry critters. See? I just stimulated three more federal jobs right there. McCain and Coburn listed the Coked-Up Monkey Study at No. 28 on their list. But what about No. 20? A $677,462 federal job stimulus grant to Georgia State University to study why monkeys respond negatively to injustice. Seven different species of monkeys will be paired up to perform a simple task, like picking up a pebble and putting it into a box. And they'll receive vastly different rewards

Unemployment Benefits for Illegal Immigrants: Colorado Scandal Exposed
http://investigates.i2i.org/2010/08/05/documents-reveal-potential-widespread-fraud-at-department-of-labor/
Excerpt: “Independence Investigates” has obtained internal emails from the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment (CDLE) showing that a software control intended to prevent the payment of unemployment insurance to unqualified citizens as well as to illegal aliens was shut off in early 2009. The emails dictate that former CDLE unemployment insurance director Mike Cullen demanded “Work Order 51662” be given top priority within the department. Completion of the work order would mean various questions asked of someone filing for unemployment regarding citizenship would effectively be ignored by a computer system. The documents also show that several individuals within the department immediately raised the issue that the work order might be circumventing the law, specifically House Bill 06-1023. HB 1023 was passed in a special session of the legislature in 2006, and mandated that certain government benefits, such as unemployment insurance, be denied to illegal aliens.

Bio-Bug: Car run on human waste is launched
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/news/7929191/Bio-Bug-Car-run-on-human-waste-is-launched.html
Excerpt: This conversion technology has been used in the past but the Bio-Bug is Britain's first car to run on methane gas without its performance being reduced. The Bio-Bug has been converted by a team of British engineers to be powered by biogas, which is produced from human waste at sewage works across the country. They believe the car is a viable alternative to electric vehicles. Excrement flushed down the lavatories of just 70 homes is enough to power the car for 10,000 miles - the equivalent of one average motoring year. It can power a conventional two litre VW Beetle convertible to 114mph. Mohammed Saddiq, of sustainable energy firm GENeco, which developed the prototype, claimed that drivers "won't know the difference". He said: "Previously the gas hasn't been clean enough to fuel motor vehicles without it affecting performance. However, through using the latest technology our Bio-Bug drives like any conventional car and what's more it uses sustainable fuel. "If you were to drive the car you wouldn't know it was powered by biogas as it performs just like any conventional car. It is probably the most sustainable car around." The Bio-Bug is a conventional 2 litre VW Beetle convertible, which has been modified to run on both conventional fuel and compressed methane gas. The car is started using unleaded petrol but automatically switches to methane when the engine is "up to temperature". If the methane tank runs out the Bio-Bug reverts back to petrol. (There are too many obvious puns for this to ever survive in the American market. ["Hey, Bubba, check out my new Turdburner. It's a real piece of ----.] No mention of the price for one. I think I might know where to find a dependable fuel supply in DC. And, I can't help wondering what the exhaust smells like, though I don't think I really want to know. --Ron P. PS This wouldn't be half as much fun if it wasn't for real. RGP. You know BO will demand that Government Motors make them. ~Bob)

Internet Leaks and the Ghost of the Soviet Pilot
http://planet-iran.com/index.php/news/20906
Excerpt: Imagine you came to learn about a secret whose revelations might contribute to the debate on a major issue of public interest. Would you rush to make it public regardless of the consequences? What if the revelation could cost lives, including some on your own side? Anyone engaged in the media business has faced, or is likely to face, such a conundrum at one point or another in his or her career. I first faced it in the spring of 1973 when, as editor of Kayhan, Iran’s leading daily newspaper, I was presented with a news item about the pilot of a Soviet postal aircraft that had landed on a high road near Tabriz, in northwest Iran, and who was asking to meet some official person. The pilot told our reporter that he wanted to seek political asylum. It seemed a good story complete with the picture of the Soviet aircraft. A few moments later, the presses started rolling and the news, soon picked up by all international agencies, was out before officials could reach the pilot and talk to him. Two days later, the foreign ministry issues a statement announcing that the pilot had been interviewed and was being returned to the USSR in accordance with an agreement signed by Tehran and Moscow a few years earlier. A few months later, news came out that the pilot had been executed and more than a dozen of his friends imprisoned on charges of colluding in his abortive defection. At that point, I had a vague sensation of remorse. That turned into a full-scale sense of guilt when our foreign minister told me that publishing the news had been a mistake. He told me that dozens of Soviet citizens defected to Iran each year, often en route to the United States or Western Europe. All would be spirited out of the country before the Soviets could ask for their extradition. “If you had not put that story in the newspaper he would be out of Iran by now, allowing us to tell the Soviets that he was not here,” the minister said. Needless to say, for the past 35 years, that sense of guilt has remained with me. No story is worth a single human life. Throughout all of these years, the ghost of the Soviet pilot has returned to prevent me from repeating the mistake. The price I have had to pay for this came in the form of scoops that could have pushed my reporting career into the stratosphere. Last month, I was reminded of the Soviet pilot when an Internet website published thousands of supposedly leaked documents about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I have spent several days skimming through as many of the leaked documents as possible. Most of them offer nothing that is not already public knowledge. The combined effect of the documents is to portray the United States as a rather undisciplined behemoth often turning every which way. It is clear that the US was not designed to act as an empire with clear goals and well established methods of achieving them. However, even that was no secret.... (...) However, the latest leaks cannot be justified even with reference to freedom of information. As already noted the only new information they provide is the identity of individual Afghans who will now be targeted by Taliban thugs. Beyond that, they reveal the chaos that reigned in parts of the Bush administration and the even bigger mess produced under President Barack Obama. That, however, was no secret to anyone who reads newspapers or browses the net. (From an Iranian ex-pat English language paper printed in the UK. Taheri makes several good points. Ron P.)

The Obama administration is still sleepwalking on Iran
http://planet-iran.com/index.php/news/20899
Excerpt: I don’t for a minute think that President Obama cares about what I write, or that he’s even aware that I’ve criticized the lack of progress being made on the main items on his foreign policy “to-do” list. It is therefore just a coincidence that he held a surprise meeting with a group of journalists on Wednesday and offered a lengthy defense of the administration’s approach to Iran. You can find links to eye-witness accounts of the meeting here, but the gist of the president’s pitch was as follows: 1) Our efforts to isolate Iran are working, and the regime is under growing pressure; 2) We remain open to improved relations with Iran and would welcome the opportunity to cooperate on matters of mutual interest, such as Afghanistan; 3) All Iran has to do is accept our entirely reasonable demand that it cease all nuclear enrichment; 4) Iran isn’t making rapid progress toward a nuclear bomb, so there’s no need for precipitate (i.e., military) action, but 5) All options are still “on the table.” I don’t mean to sound like a broken record here, but the administration’s policy reminds of this famous Syd Harris cartoon depicting two scientists staring at a blackboard covered with equations, except for a spot in the middle where it says “then a miracle occurs.” One scientist says to the other: “I think you should be more explicit here in Step 2.” Exactly. (...) The basic problem is that our approach to Iran is rife with contradictions. We say we want better relations, but in the meantime we are almost certainly engaged in covert action inside Iran and we rarely miss an opportunity to remind the world that all options are still “on the table.” We’ve made it clear that we think Iran’s current government is illegitimate and ought to be replaced, and then we wonder why they don’t immediately respond when Obama says he really does want to cooperate. (I don't think the option this author puts forward will work. On the other hand, nothing we've done so far has worked, either. The gripping hand is that the author has identified some of the problems not being addressed in our current attempts. Maybe it's worth some thought. Ron P.)

Let them eat tapas: Obamas live the high life while America suffers
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/aug/6/let-them-eat-tapas/
Excerpt: The Obama family has been working hard to show their indifference to the plight of middle America. Whether it's the president's golfing fetish, private air transportation for family dog Bo to a Maine vacation, or Michelle Obama's taxpayer subsidized trip to the Spanish Riviera, the gulf between the White House leisure class and the American middle class has grown to unprecedented proportions. Everyone is entitled to some R & R, though Mrs. Obama's jaunt is her eighth holiday this summer. Tone-deaf White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs defended vacation numero ocho by saying, "The first lady is on a private trip. She is a private citizen and is the mother of a daughter on a private trip. And I think I'd leave it at that." Note to the flack: Most private citizens don't have access to $150,000 in taxpayer funds and exclusive use of a jumbo jet. The Riviera Romp coincided with a dose of bad news on the economic front. The economy shed 131,000 jobs in July, and the unemployment rate remained stuck at 9.5 percent. This is a continuing source of embarrassment for the O Force because the White House promised the almost $900 billion stimulus package would cap unemployment at 8 percent. The rate of growth in U.S. gross domestic product has declined two quarters in a row. Last week, Goldman Sachs lowered their growth projection for 2011 to 1.9 percent (below the current 2.4 percent rate), and raised projected unemployment to 10 percent. According to a new poll by longtime Democratic operative James Carville's Democracy Corps, only 41 percent of voters believe President Obama's policies helped avert a worse economic crisis, while 52 percent believe they have slowed growth and job gains. Two-thirds of the way through what Vice President Joe Biden loudly billed as "Recovery Summer," the recovery is faltering and a majority of voters sees the administration as the problem, not the solution. (Mr. Obama has played more rounds of golf so far in office than W did in four years, Mrs. Obama is on taxpayer-supported vacation jaunt #8, and nobody in the MSM has noticed? Job benefits are nice, and everybody deserves some, but this level of time off in neat places would have had the NYTimes doing dramatic editorials if it was somebody named Bush doing it. But the writer is correct, our First Family is unconscious to the max on any thought of restraint in fun and expending when it comes to their personal pleasures. But this is good as long as more people get to hear about it and realize that we have a form of the nobility now occupying the White House. And I have to admit that in my own life, this is exactly the kind of change I would hope for!--Del)

The Monument at Ground Zero
http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/08/the_monument_at_ground_zero.html
Excerpt: Let us now consider another monument, recently approved by state and local leaders to be built in lower Manhattan, a block from the hole in the ground known as "Ground Zero." Less than nine years after the 9/11 attack -- the "Day America Will Never Forget" -- state and city officials in New York have cleared the way for a proposed fifteen-story mosque, or Islamic "culture center," just paces away from the hole. While nothing has yet been built on the actual site of Ground Zero, the mosque zipped through zoning and landmark hearings untouched by city and state bureaucrats and unscathed by citizen protests. New York Mayor Richard Bloomberg and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Cuomo were both early supporters of the project. Much of official media sees nothing wrong or disrespectful about it. Words like "insensitive", "tacky," and "in poor taste" have had no place in the conversation, nor have words like "vile" and "obscene." In the minds of our current officialdom, the issue is one of America's lack of religious freedom and tolerance -- and officialdom is all about tolerance of religion, don't you know. So, here it is: To the American Left, this mosque represents a gooey dose of feel-good inclusiveness. It provides a platform for them to lecture and talk down to the public on the subject of America's perceived moral shortcomings while at the same time allowing them to act as enablers for a religion including many members who wish for the destruction of America. It's a win/win. Well, here's what that mosque will truly represent: To Islamist fanatics, it will represent a victory over what they perceive as a corrupt and complacent America. To them, America is a "weak horse"; we can be had, and official approval of this mosque just nine years after the slaughter at this particular location serves as living proof. But to us regular citizens, living in the burroughs, across the Hudson, or out here in flyover country, driving our seven-year-old cars and happy to have our families together, that mosque represents the dangerous fecklessness of the Left. It is another symptom of timidity when common sense is called for. It is the disease of the Arizona border issue spread to New York City. That mosque will stand as a testament for every modern liberal who never missed a chance to call Ronald Reagan a "warmonger" but finds Islam a "religion of peace." Additionally, if actually built, it will be a testament to shortsighted Islamic overreach. Erected as a chip-on-the-shoulder challenge to the United States, it will sooner or later be knocked flat.

Al Qaeda Responsible for Japanese Tanker Attack
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503543_162-20012890-503543.html
Didn’t get the “Islam is a religion of peace” memo. Excerpt: Ten years after the deadly attack on the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Cole in the Gulf of Aden, al Qaeda once again struck at sea with a suicide attack on a Japanese oil tanker. A UAE Coast Guard source confirmed Friday that the tanker, M. Star, was the target of a terrorist attack while passing through international waters near the Strait of Hormouz on July 28. ''UAE explosives experts who collected and examined samples found a dent on the starboard side above the water line and remains of homemade explosives on the hull," the source said. "Probably the tanker had encountered a terrorist attack from a boat loaded with explosives." On Wednesday, an al Qaeda-linked group called "Abdullah Azzam Brigades" issued an online statement claiming that M. Star was the target of a kamikaze attack orchestrated by the group. It identified the suicide bomber as Ayyub al-Taishan. The group said that he blew himself up into the tanker in the Straight of Hormouz, between the U.A.E and Oman, causing major damage to the giant ship, which was carrying two million barrels of crude oil.

“I am Muslim. Don't kill me”
http://www.brutallyhonest.org/brutally_honest/2010/08/-i-am-muslim-dont-kill-me.html
Didn’t get the memo. Excerpt: And so the proponents of the religion of peace did not... though they did kill a bunch of others, all of them on a humanitarian medical mission purposed in helping the poor: Dirk Frans, director of the International Assistance Mission, said the eight-member medical team, which also included one German, one Briton and two Afghan interpreters, was driving to Kabul from an eye clinic in northeastern Nuristan province when they were killed in Badakhshan province to the north. The group had decided to head through Badakhshan to return to the capital because they thought that would be the safest route, Frans said. "This tragedy negatively impacts our ability to continue serving the Afghan people as IAM has been doing since 1966," according to a statement released by the nonprofit Christian organization. "We hope it will not stop our work that benefits over a quarter of a million Afghans each year." Among the dead was team leader Tom Little, an optometrist from Delmar, New York who has been working in Afghanistan for more than 30 years, Frans said. Little was expelled by the Taliban government in August 2001 after the arrest of eight Christian aid workers — two Americans and six Germans — for allegedly trying to convert Afghans to Christianity. He returned to Afghanistan after the Taliban government was toppled in November 2001 by U.S.-backed forces. Provincial police chief Gen. Agha Noor Kemtuz said the victims, who had been shot, were found Friday next to three bullet-riddled four-wheel drive vehicles in Kuran Wa Munjan district. He said villagers had warned the team that the area was dangerous, but the foreigners said they were doctors and weren't afraid. He said local police said about 10 gunmen robbed them and killed them one by one. He said the two Afghan interpreters were from Bamiyan and Panjshir provinces. A third Afghan man, who had been traveling with the group, survived. "He told me he was shouting and reciting the holy Quran and saying 'I am Muslim. Don't kill me,'" Kemtuz said.

Afghan medical mission ends in death for 10
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/as_afghanistan
Excerpt: Ten members of the Christian medical team — six Americans, two Afghans, one German and a Briton — were gunned down in a gruesome slaughter that the Taliban said they carried out, alleging the volunteers were spying and trying to convert Muslims to Christianity. The gunmen spared an Afghan driver, who recited verses from the Islamic holy book Quran as he begged for his life. Team members — doctors, nurses and logistics personnel — were attacked as they were returning to Kabul after their two-week mission in the remote Parun valley of Nuristan province about 160 miles (260 kilometers) north of Kabul. They had decided to veer northward into Badakhshan province because they thought that would be the safest route back to Kabul, said Dirk Frans, director of the International Assistance Mission, which organized the team. The bullet-riddled bodies — including three women — were found Friday near three four-wheeled drive vehicles in a wooded area just off the main road that snakes through a narrow valley in the Kuran Wa Munjan district of Badakhshan, provincial police chief Gen. Agha Noor Kemtuz told The Associated Press.

Defense budget cuts to pay for teacher bailout
http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2010/08/military_teacherbailout_defensebudget_080610w/
Excerpt: A $10 billion teacher bailout bill that is on a fast track to congressional approval is paid for, in part, with a $3.3 billion cut in defense programs. The defense cuts may not cause much harm because it is money previously approved but unspent that is simply being rescinded, including $683.5 million unspent from last year’s economic stimulus package and $325 million that was supposed to pay for construction projects. However, diverting money from the defense budget to education programs would eliminate any opportunity for the Defense Department or Congress to take unobligated money from one defense program to spend on another defense program. That could be a significant loss as pressure increases to hold down the Pentagon budget. For example, the House defense appropriations subcommittee approved a $7 billion cut in the 2010 defense budget on July 27 that depended on unspent account balances for a large part of the reduction, according to Rep. Norm Dicks, the subcommittee chairman. The Senate Appropriations Committee, which won’t get around to preparing its version of the 2011 defense budget until September, has an even higher goal of reducing defense spending by $8 billion. The teacher bailout bill, HR 1586, was approved by the Senate on Thursday by a 61-39 vote. The House of Representatives plans to return from vacation to pass the bill on Tuesday.

Logic as Alien as Immigrants in Border Law
http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/542959/201008061845/Logic-As-Alien-As-Immigrants-In-Border-Law.aspx
Excerpt: Some 11 million to 15 million illegal aliens are now residing in America, most after crossing into America unlawfully. Once a federal law is arbitrarily not enforced, all sorts of bizarre paradoxes arise from that original contradiction. As proof, examine the following illogical policies and contradictions involving illegal immigration. Take, for example, profiling — the controversial questioning of those who appear likely to be illegal aliens. Apparently, American border guards have developed criteria for profiling those deemed likely to be unlawful aliens. Otherwise, how would they have arrested and deported hundreds of thousands in 2009? Yet apparently, at some arbitrary point distant from the border, those who cross illegally are not supposed to be asked about their immigration status. OK, but exactly why did procedures so radically change at, say, five, 10, 20, or is it 100 miles from the border? A border patrolman often profiles, but a nearby highway patrolman cannot? The federal government is suing Arizona for the state's efforts to enforce the federal immigration law. The lawsuit alleges that Arizona is too zealous both in enforcing immigration law and encroaching on federal jurisdiction. But wait — for years, several American cities have declared themselves sanctuary cities. City officials have even bragged that they would not allow their municipalities to enforce federal immigration statutes. So why does Washington sue a state that seeks to enhance federal immigration laws and yet ignore cities that blatantly try to erode them? Something is going very wrong in Mexico to prompt more than half a million of its citizens to cross the border illegally each year. Impoverished Mexican nationals variously cite poor economic conditions back home, government corruption, a lack of social services, and racism. In other words, it is not just the desirability of America but also the perceived undesirability of Mexico that explains one of largest mass exoduses in modern history. But why, then, would Mexican President Felipe Calderon, whose country's conditions are forcing out its own citizens, criticize the United States, which is receiving so many of them? And why, for that matter, would many of those illegal immigrants identify, if only symbolically, with the country that made them leave, whether by waving its flag or criticizing the attitudes of the Americans who took them in? (Hanson applies logic to the situation, as usual. The only real logic is that of those who are afraid to try to really deal with the problem, and therefore slide into denial/avoidance, or those who want to gain a lot of presumably partisan voters with an amnesty. Yes, it's a difficult problem to deal with fully and effectively, but that does not mean that steps cannot and should not be taken to start dealing with, like tightening the border, having ICE cooperate with local law enforcement who find illegals, and streamlining the process for repatriating illegals. The journey of a thousand miles still starts with that first step, the first hundred yards, the first mile, etc. --Del)

Serious Questions Raised About Obama Tactics in 2008 Election
http://www.aim.org/on-target-blog/serious-questions-raised-about-obama-tactics-in-2008-election/
We not only have to work to win, but especially to keep elections honest where we can. The cities are lost causes as hotbed of corrupt Democrat machines. ~Bob Excerpt: Recently AIM interviewed Gigi Gaston, director of the documentary film, “We Will Not Be Silenced.” The film documents voter intimidation and corruption by forces working for then-candidate Barack Obama at Democratic precinct caucuses and state conventions during the 2008 Presidential primary. The filmmaker is surprising in that she is a lifelong Democrat, whose grandfather was the mayor of Boston and later the governor of Massachusetts, and she is a Hollywood screenwriter. She says that after receiving a call from a former congressional investigator, she went to Texas to look into charges of voter irregularities in the Democratic caucus process to choose their presidential nominee. It was down to Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama. What she found, as described on the website for the film, was “falsified delegate counts, falsified documents, and other violations” And she describes the “disenfranchising of American citizens by the Democratic Party and the Obama campaign,” and said that the “infamous campaign of ‘change’ from Chicago encouraged and created an army to steal caucus packets, falsify documents, change results, allow unregistered people to vote, scare and intimidate Hillary supporters, stop them, threaten them, lock them out of their polling places, silence their voices, and stop their right to vote.”

Past Week’s Primaries Strongly Reflect ‘Enthusiasm Gap’ between Parties
http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/past-weeks-primaries-strongly-reflect-enthusiasm-gap-between-parties/?singlepage=true
Excerpt: Four more states held primary elections this past week: Michigan, Kansas, Missouri, and Tennessee. The storyline that emerged in many news reports was that the tea party movement had a bad night, or that Sarah Palin lost her magic endorsement touch (at least in the Kansas GOP Senate primary contest). (...) The GOP primaries this week drew turnout that was double or triple the Democratic primary turnout in the same states, and in individual House districts, the ratio of Republican primary voters to Democratic Party primary votes was at the highest level in years. And just as in 2008, the differential can not be explained away as solely a factor of more competitive primaries on the GOP side than on the Democratic side. For much of the year, the Rasmusssen polling has shown a solid lead for the GOP in the generic vote for Congress. Other surveys did not confirm this differential. One explanation offered for why Rasmussen was an outlier was that his screen was of likely voters, while other pollsters were measuring registered voters. The subset of likely votes is generally more Republican leaning than that of registered voters. In the last few weeks, other pollsters, while still using a registered voter screen, have started showing substantial leads for the Republicans in the generic vote. At the same time, President Obama’s net job approval rating has fallen into negative territory by about 5% on average. In other words, the enthusiasm gap between the voters from the two parties that was vividly on display in the primaries this week is confirmed by other measures.

Obama's Cracked Stimulus Crystal Ball
http://www.aolnews.com/opinion/article/opinion-the-july-jobs-report-highlights-obamas-cracked-stimulus-crystal-ball/19584275
Excerpt: Almost exactly 18 months ago, President Barack Obama gave a speech in Illinois that contained what has to be some of the worst predictions ever. In it, he said that as soon as the $780-plus billion stimulus plan got signed into law, "a new wave of innovation, activity and construction will be unleashed across America." He added that it "will ignite spending by businesses and consumers" and that the "goal at the heart of this plan" is "to create jobs." This week added more evidence of just how wildly far off the mark those forecasts were.

The Origins of Political Correctness
http://www.academia.org/the-origins-of-political-correctness/
Old but timely read, could be written tomorrow. Excerpt: Where does all this stuff that you’ve heard about this morning – the victim feminism, the gay rights movement, the invented statistics, the rewritten history, the lies, the demands, all the rest of it – where does it come from? For the first time in our history, Americans have to be fearful of what they say, of what they write, and of what they think. They have to be afraid of using the wrong word, a word denounced as offensive or insensitive, or racist, sexist, or homophobic. We have seen other countries, particularly in this century, where this has been the case. And we have always regarded them with a mixture of pity, and to be truthful, some amusement, because it has struck us as so strange that people would allow a situation to develop where they would be afraid of what words they used. But we now have this situation in this country. We have it primarily on college campuses, but it is spreading throughout the whole society. Were does it come from? What is it? We call it “Political Correctness.” The name originated as something of a joke, literally in a comic strip, and we tend still to think of it as only half-serious. In fact, it’s deadly serious. It is the great disease of our century, the disease that has left tens of millions of people dead in Europe, in Russia, in China, indeed around the world. It is the disease of ideology. PC is not funny. PC is deadly serious.

Tea Partiers: Do You Still Beat Your Wife?
http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/08/tea_partiers_do_you_still_beat.html
Excerpt: Here's The Narrative of the leftist establishment: Tea Partiers oppose Barack Obama because he is black. Also, they embrace white supremacy, they use racial epitaphs, and they hoist signs dripping with the vilest racial hate. That's The Narrative promoted by the mainstream media, by the NAACP, and by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The Narrative paints the Tea Party as racist. But the leftist establishment is careful not to directly come out and say such harsh things - the falsity is just too obvious. They just want to nudge The Narrative along. In so many words leftists soothingly say, "Well, Tea Partiers are not racist, but they have racist elements within them and they need to address that." Clever. There's deniability ("We didn't actually say the Tea Party is racist") and there's the call to do the impossible: keep every nut, weirdo or covert leftist from identifying somehow with the Tea Party. It's the old "Do you still beat your wife?" gambit.