Does anyone read anymore? I mean, besides tweets from Anthony Weiner?

During his otherwise excellent commentaries on race in America, Bill O’Reilly, host of the No. 1 cable news show, claimed on Tuesday night that the one person who tried to help African-Americans more than any other was … Robert F. Kennedy!

No one laughed. I guess that’s what they’re teaching these days at the John F. Kennedy School of Government. (I can’t wait to hear how Ted Kennedy helped eradicate drunk driving!)

According to O’Reilly’s Bizarro-World history, Bobby Kennedy was “the guy who was really concerned about African-Americans” and “who really DID SOMETHING. … He went in with the federal government and he cleaned out the rat’s nest that was abusing African-Americans in the South.”

Although this myth has been polished to perfection by the Kennedy PR machine (requiring all Kennedy stories to illustrate either courage or adorableness), it is simply a fact that helping blacks was not the Democrats’ priority. Even the ones who wanted to, such as Bobby and John Kennedy, couldn’t risk upsetting the segregationists, more than 90 percent of whom were Democratic.

The job of actually enforcing civil rights and desegregating Southern schools fell to Presidents Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon.

Five years after Eisenhower had shown the Democrats how its done by sending federal troops to desegregate Central High School in Little Rock, Ark., President Kennedy and brother Bobby still dragged their feet in helping James Meredith enter the University of Mississippi.

On Feb. 7, 1961, Meredith wrote a beautiful letter to the Department of Justice, describing his inability to enroll at the University of Mississippi, He wrote:

“Whenever I attempt to reason logically about this matter, it grieves me deeply to realize that an individual, especially an American, the citizen of a free democratic nation, has to clamor with such procedures in order to try to gain just a small amount of his civil and human rights, and even after suffering the embarrassments and personal humiliation of this procedure, there still seems little hope of success.”

The full letter is worth looking up. I would venture to guess there are not many college applicants of any race who write this well today. (You know why? Because Americans don’t read anymore. You watch cable news and fill your heads with nonsense history and false facts.)

In response to Meredith’s eloquent letter, Bobby Kennedy did nothing. And that’s how Bobby Kennedy “cleaned out the rat’s nest that was abusing African-Americans in the South”!

Remember: This was seven years after the Supreme Court had already handed down its decision in Brown v. Board of Education — a ruling expressly endorsed in the Republican Party platform, but not the Democratic platform, I might add.

But Democrats were in the White House, so Meredith had to take his case to the Supreme Court. Liberals were engaging in their usual massive resistance to court rulings they don’t like and neither Bobby nor John Kennedy would dare try to stop them.

You will notice that the Freedom Rides and civil rights marches all took place under Democratic presidents. It was the only way to get Democratic administrations to intervene against their fellow Democrats.

In June 1962, a federal appellate court ruled that Meredith had been denied admittance to Ole Miss because of his race and ordered the university to enroll him. (At least that’s how the two Republican judges voted; the segregationist FDR appointee dissented.) But one old segregationist on the court — who had not even sat on the case — kept issuing stays to prevent enforcement of the ruling.

Only when these illegitimate stays were appealed to the Supreme Court did Bobby Kennedy’s Justice Department finally weigh in, asking Justice Hugo Black, the circuit justice, to lift the stays — nearly two years after Meredith had written to the Department of Justice asking for its help.

Needless to say, Justice Black came down on Meredith’s side in a matter of about six seconds. The full court had already decided the school segregation issue years earlier in Brown.

But the state still would not admit Meredith to Ole Miss.

With a showdown inevitable, President Kennedy, on the counsel of his trusted attorney general, Bobby Kennedy, wrote a letter to the segregationist Democrat governor of Mississippi, Ross Barnett.

These were JFK’s stirring words on behalf of the constitutional rights of black Americans, redeemed with the blood of American patriots:

“White House, September 30, 1962

“To preserve our constitutional system, the Federal Government has an overriding responsibility to enforce the orders of the Federal Courts. Those courts have ordered that James Meredith be admitted now as a student at the University of Mississippi.”

So basically, his hands were tied. It reads like a letter from a Republican administration explaining why it’s forced to comply with a gay marriage ruling. (JFK’s weasel-word letter is also worth looking up.)

Yes, eventually the Kennedy brothers sent the National Guard to force the University of Mississippi to admit James Meredith. It wasn’t hard to figure out what to do: Eisenhower had sent in the 101st Airborne to enforce desegregation back in 1957 against a much more tenacious segregationist (and Bill Clinton pal), Gov. Orval Faubus of Arkansas.

But in the rest of the South, schools remained segregated as long as Bobby Kennedy was attorney general and either JFK or LBJ was in the White House. (LBJ on the 1964 Civil Rights Act: “I’ll have those n*ggers voting Democrat for the next 200 years.”)

Black Americans may say hosannas to Bobby Kennedy, but they would have to wait for Richard Nixon to become president to win the promise of Brown v. Board.

Within Nixon’s first two years in the White House, black students attending segregated schools in the South declined from nearly 70 percent to 18.4 percent. There was more desegregation of American public schools in Nixon’s first term than in any historical period before or since.

It was not an accident that Nixon launched his comeback in 1966 with a column denouncing Democrats for trying to “squeeze the last ounces of political juice out of the rotting fruit of racial injustice.” It’s also not an accident that James Meredith was a Republican. (You’d know all this if you had read Mugged: Racial Demagoguery from the Seventies to Obama, but you were busy watching TV.)

Crediting Bobby Kennedy for the great work he did on behalf of black Americans would be like calling Harry Reid the country’s greatest champion of the unborn. Sure, Reid says he’s pro-life, but he dare not act on it lest he upset the rest of his party. It was the same with Democrats and civil rights.

If you want to say something nice about Bobby Kennedy, remind everyone that he proudly worked for Sen. Joe McCarthy.

Ann Coulter

 

The 11-Year-Old Yemeni Girl Who Pleaded With Her Parents in Viral Video Not to Marry Her Off Is Being Called a Liar and Facing Death Threats

Aug. 1, 2013 7:53am Sharona Schwartz

 

TheBlaze reported last week about a video that had gone viral of an 11-year-old Yemeni runaway pleading with her parents not to force her into an underage marriage. Since her recording became public – with more than 8 million people having viewed the English subtitled version alone – Nada Al-Ahdal has faced death threats from Islamists, has moved into a women’s shelter for her protection and has had an on-camera confrontation with her parents who say the girl’s story is false.

“I’m better off dead. I’d rather die,” the girl said at the time, accusing her parents of plotting to marry her off for financial profit, a common practice in a country filled with child brides.

This week, a CNN crew visited Nada in the Yemeni capital Sana’a and found an emotional family drama that played out while the camera was rolling.

The network reports that Yemen’s interior ministry appointed President of the Yemen Women’s Union Ramzia Al-Eryani as her temporary legal guardian until the dispute with her family could be settled.

CNN describes the family drama as beginning when Al-Eryani took Nada’s parents and her uncle aside, saying: “If you love her, save her childhood. … You all are adults — you all know what’s best for her — but we need to protect this child.”

A reflection of the conservative society, both the girl’s parents and the women’s rights activist are seen in CNN’s report dressed in traditional Yemeni and Muslim garb, with Al-Eryani’s head covered in a hijab and wearing long sleeves in the middle of the summer and the mother covered from head to toe in a black burqa with only her eyes showing.

Nada then entered the room and was asked if her story was made up.

In tears, Nada asked the mediator Al-Eryani, “Why do you believe them and don’t believe me?”

“I don’t care about what’s best for the mom or dad or uncle,” Al-Eryani told CNN, “just what’s best for the girl.”

Nada is now facing death threats from hardline Islamists concerned her case will push forward legislation to criminalize child marriage.

In a telephone interview with Al-Hurra TV translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), her uncle, Abd Al-Salam Al-Ahdal, said that Islamist groups connected to the Muslim Brotherhood “want Nada to disappear, along with the entire problem.”

“They have threatened Nada and me more than once. They told us that our lives were in danger and that we would end up in prison,” he added.

As a result, Nada had moved into a women’s shelter for her protection. “I hope that Nada receives protection or that she leaves Yemen temporarily, until this crisis calms down,” her uncle said. While CNN reported that she had moved into a shelter, the network did not mention that Islamists had threatened her.

It’s unclear if the girl or her parents are telling the truth. What we can report is that child marriage is a real issue in Yemen, where according to Human Rights Watch more than half of all girls are married before age 18.

Al Jazeera reports that two Yemeni human rights groups “involved in the case” Seyaj and the Yemeni Women Union say part of Nada’s story is false. Al Jazeera reports that both groups say the family had been approached about a suitor for the girl and had refused.

But Yemeni children’s television personality Ziad Abdul-Jabbar who according to Al Jazeera recorded and uploaded the video of Nada insists that the girl’s account is true. He knows her, because she regularly appears on his program, which explains her confident, on-camera presence.

President of the Yemen Women’s Union Ramzia Al-Eryani was appointed as Nada’s temporary legal guardian (Screenshot: CNN)

Liesl Gerntholtz, director of the Women’s Rights Division at Human Rights Watch, tells CNN, “The consequences of child marriage are devastating and long-lasting — girls are removed from school, their education permanently disrupted, and many suffer chronic health problems as a result of having too many children too soon…It is critical that Yemen takes immediate and concrete steps to protect girls from these abuses, including setting a minimum age of marriage.”

Yemeni journalist Hind Aleryani tells CNN that child marriage is more common in poorer communities in Yemen. “There is a proverb, a Yemeni saying: ‘Marry an 8-year-old girl, she’s guaranteed,’ which means the 8-year-old girl is surely a virgin. It’s a disgusting saying and inhumane, but it’s said by everyone and it’s very well-known,” Aleryani says.

In CNN’s report, Nada tells her parents that what she mostly wants is to stay in the capital city and get a better education.

“In the countryside, there’s no English classes, there’s no computer classes…please let me stay in Sanaa and study here,” she said.

CNN reports that at the end of the meeting, her parents and uncle decided they would move in together into another relative’s house in Sana’a to try to work out the issue. The adults are seen signing and fingerprinting a document committing to the agreement.

The latest on California politics and government

July 31, 2013

Big California corporations parking $262 billion offshore

Read more here: http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2013/07/big-california-corporations-parking-262-billion-offshore.html#storylink=cpy
A dozen of California’s largest corporations are holding nearly $262 billion in foreign earnings in offshore subsidiaries to shield the money from American taxation, according to a new study by a consumer advocacy group.

The 12 are on a list of 105 publicly traded American corporations collectively holding $1.17 trillion in earnings offshore, according to the study by a coalition of state Public Interest Research Group affiliates, including CALPIRG in California.

The critical study is entitled Offshore Shell Games and the PIRG coalition says the practice is depriving federal and state governments of much-needed revenue for public services.

California’s Apple, was listed as having has the most offshore holdings of any American corporation, $82.66 billion.

Parking profits in other nations whose corporate tax rates are lower is not illegal, but has been widely criticized by liberal groups.

Read more here: http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2013/07/big-california-corporations-parking-262-billion-offshore.html#storylink=cpy

Chevron, California’s largest corporation, is holding $26.5 billion, the report says, and others from the state on the list, by size of the firm, include Hewlett-Packard, $33.4 billion; McKesson, $3.8 billion; Apple, $82.7 billion; Wells-Fargo, $1.3 billion; Intel, $17.5 billion; Safeway, $1.3 billion; Cisco Systems, $41.3 billion; Walt Disney, $566 million; Sysco, $910 million; Google, $33.3 billion; Ingram Micro, $2.1 billion; and Oracle, $20.9 billion.

Read more here: http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2013/07/big-california-corporations-parking-262-billion-offshore.html#storylink=cpy

The Color of Hope

 

Bill O’Reilly | Jul 27, 2013

My friend Charles Krauthammer, a thinking man’s pundit, believes some problems cannot be solved. Charles points to the Palestinian-Israeli situation and to the collapse of the traditional black family in America. I disagree. It is possible to change black attitudes, but it will take a dynamic person to lead the way.

The primary reason that Trayvon Martin is not alive today is that George Zimmerman feared him. Making his neighborhood watch rounds, Zimmerman saw a young man wearing clothing that unsettled him. Zimmerman profiled the teenager, and from there, things rapidly got out of control.

There is a perception in America that young black males can be trouble. According to a study out of Northeastern University, black men between the ages of 14 and 24 commit homicides at a rate 10 times that of young white and Hispanic males combined. This disturbing fact drives profiling and fear.

The reason that crime among young black males is so intense is the collapse of the traditional black family. Fifty years ago, the out-of-wedlock birth rate among African-Americans was 25 percent. Today, it is nearly 73 percent and growing, according to the Centers for Disease Control. By contrast, 29 percent of white babies and 53 percent of Hispanic children are born out of wedlock.

Single-parent situations drive poverty and often lead to unsupervised kids. Many boys growing up without fathers often feel angry and abandoned. Thus, they seek comfort in all the wrong places.

President Obama and our leaders in Washington surely understand the root of the black crime problem. So do self-appointed civil rights leaders such as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. But they rarely discuss the matter in public. That might anger their constituency and be bad for business.

When was the last time you saw a demonstration discouraging young black girls from getting pregnant outside of marriage? When was the last time the president held a press conference on the issue? When was the last time we saw the federal government put out a public service announcement encouraging children to reject drugs and violence?

Maybe Jay Z could produce a PSA. How about Lil Wayne? Kanye West? These guys make millions rapping about dubious behavior. Sometimes they glamorize it. So why don’t they lead the charge to improve things in Chicago’s South Side and other places under siege?

There was plenty of outrage in the black precincts regarding the Zimmerman verdict. Understandable. But there is little national anger about thousands of African-Americans being gunned down in the streets by out-of-control young men, the vast majority of them black.

Until the American leadership begins to encourage the return of the traditional black family, the enormous problems of black poverty and crime will continue. And the fear of young black men will continue. And the death of innocents will continue.

Maybe Jay Z can rap about that.

Glenn Beck’s Emotional Monologue on the Horrific Story He Says Is Being Swept Under the Rug Because It Doesn’t Further an ‘Agenda’

Glenn Beck confronted society’s morality on his television program Thursday evening, shocked and disgusted at the events of recent weeks.

He primarily focused on the horrific report of a 13-year-old girl who was allegedly gang raped by up to ten men in Austin, TX, before being sexually assaulted by another man after being dropped off with “nowhere to go.” Doctors said their findings were consistent with the allegations.

“Where is the outrage? Where’s Al Sharpton?” Beck said, pausing briefly with emotion. “Where’s Barack Obama? Shouldn’t the president give a speech saying something like, ‘This girl could have been my daughter, after all my daughter is just turning 14?’  …How about speeches on the dangers of letting illegals live in the shadows? How about the speeches of let’s just be good to each other? Where are the marches?”

President Barack Obama spoke several times about 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, who was shot by George Zimmerman in what a jury recently ruled was self defense. The president said Martin could’ve been his son, or even could’ve been him 35 years ago.  The issue aroused sustained national fury over the death of the 17-year-old.

But Beck said the 13-year-old girl should expect no such support.

“See, nobody really actually cares about people anymore,” Beck said. “It’s really only about politics.  It’s not about Trayvon Martin. They had to make him look like a little 13-year-old-boy…Why? Because it would help them get elected, or re-elected, or get them to cause trouble or get more trouble. But see this little 13-year-old-girl, you don’t have to doctor a picture of her…she is 13.”

He continued: “We are witnessing a society that is completely detached, and we are detached because we have an agenda. Why didn’t we tell the story of the 13-year-old-girl? Because of an agenda. The second rapist was black, the others were illegal immigrants, so we don’t tell that story. That’s not a good story, that doesn’t help us with our agenda…”

“Does anything even matter anymore? Does the truth matter? Is there such a thing as right and wrong? I don’t even recognize us anymore,” Beck said with disgust.

“We shall not grow wiser before we learn that much that we have done was very foolish.” (F.A. Hayek)