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It is indeed rare when I can find common cause with our illustrious Guv, Ed Rendell, however, his comments regarding President Obama’s appearance on The View today are right on:

Rendell: I think there’s got to be a little bit of dignity to the presidency.

Mika Brzezinski: What are you saying, Ed?

Willie Geist: What a horrible insult to “The View.”

Rendell: I think there are some shows. I wouldn’t put him on “Jerry Springer,” too, right? … I think the president of the United States has to go on serious shows. And “The View” is, you can make a case that it’s a serious show, but it also rocks and rolls a little bit. I’m not sure he has to go on “The View” to be open to questions.

As Jim Geraghty points out in yesterday’s Morning Jolt, since becoming President, Obama has appeared on the following programs:

The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
The Late Show with David Letterman
Taped a question-and-answer promoting Conan O’Brien’s transition to The Tonight Show
taped a promotion for George Lopez
taped a video for The Colbert Report
taped a prime-time special with Oprah
been the subject of an NBC News prime-time special
been the subject of an HBO documentary,
grilled with Food Network star Bobby Flay,
popped up in commercials during Thanksgiving football,
filled out his NCAA basketball tournament picks on ESPN,
and now gone on American Idol. (Again.)

Appearing on The View, however, is not beneath the dignity of the office, according to Katie Couric.

“It’s not beneath the President, or any politician to try to reach out to all Americans, especially when our nation is facing so many challenges. Pennsylvania’s Governor Ed Rendell said the President should stick to ’serious shows,’ but it isn’t about Whoopi’s banter or Joy’s barbs, it’s about the audience. At a time when unemployment is near 10% and consumer confidence is falling, daytime television viewers may be exactly who President Obama needs to reach.”

Yeah. Because Obama’s absence from the airwaves has been such a notable drain on the morale of the country. As James W. Ceasar writes in this week’s Weekly Standard, the longer President Obama holds office, the more he diminishes in stature. He has resorted to divisive populism:

With the peculiar magic of his presidential campaign now a faded memory, Obama is shoring up support by the cruder method of divisive appeals. Long before the current (already hugely extended) campaign season began, Obama made it a practice to target opposition symbols (“the insurance industry,” “speculators,” “a bunch of fat cat bankers on Wall Street,” the oil companies), call out and assail individual opponents (Rush Limbaugh, Mitch McConnell, John Boehner), and refer disparagingly to the Tea Party movement and Republicans in general (“this crowd”). More than a half-year before the midterm elections, he tried to revive his electoral base of “young people, African Americans, Latinos, and women” by taking a page from Al Gore’s 2000 campaign and embracing the shop-worn slogan, “I won’t stop fighting for you.”

And then there’s this piece by Democrat consultants Patrick Caddell and Doug Schoen that appeared in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal:

The president had a unique opportunity to focus on overarching issues of importance to whites and blacks. He has failed to address the critical challenges. He has not used his bully pulpit to emphasize the importance of racial unity and the common interest of poor whites and blacks who need training, job opportunities, and the possibility of realizing the American Dream. He hasn’t done enough to address youth unemployment—which in the white community is 23.2% and in the black community is 39.9%.

Mr. Obama has also cynically divided the country on class lines. He has taken to playing the populist card time and time again. He bashes Wall Street and insurance companies whenever convenient to advance his programs, yet he has been eager to accept campaign contributions and negotiate with these very same banks and corporations behind closed doors in order to advance his political agenda.

Finally, President Obama also exacerbated partisan division, and he has made it clear that he intends to demonize the Republicans and former President George W. Bush in the fall campaign. In April, the Democratic National Committee released a video in which the president directly addressed his divide-and-conquer campaign strategy, with an appeal to: “young people, African-Americans, Latinos, and women who powered our victory in 2008 [to] stand together once again.”

Ubiquitous. Common. Divisive.

Unpresidential.

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The latest ad from the Democrats does nothing but (almost) accurately explain the agenda of many Tea Party activists:

If only the GOP was truly committed to doing half of the stuff on that list, I would consider myself a Republican for life. Alas, they are far too weak to do something as awesome as repealing ObamaCare, or, dare I repeat it, abolishing the Department of Education. Just thinking about that gives me a thrill up my leg.

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Well, isn’t that interesting.

Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell predicted on Tuesday that if the president escalates America’s military involvement in Afghanistan he could very well face a primary challenger in 2012.

In an overlooked “Morning Joe” segment on Tuesday, the Pennsylvania Democrat offered his distinct brand of eccentric, conversation-driving political foresight. He couched his statement about the possibility of a primary challenge by stressing that if Obama sticks to his current plans for Afghanistan — a reduced military presence beginning in July of 2011 — there would not be political insurrection within the party.

Hillary 2012?

The outgoing Governor is looking for work after all. It’s hard to get off of the public dole he’s been living on for decades. He was an early and active Hillary supporter.

Tip to Allahpundit who adds:

Never happen. There’s no draft and no real risk of catastrophic battlefield defeat, so there’s nothing to galvanize widespread support for an insurgent peacenik Democrat. If Obama stays the course, we’re likely to just keep muddling through, and while no one’s thrilled with that idea, it ain’t enough for a Hillary 2012 campaign when progressives are already wetting themselves about losing the White House to the GOP. The racial politics would be poisonous too, of course. George Bush got reelected in 2004 while muddling through in both Afghanistan and Iraq, and yet Democrats are going to bounce the first black president after a single term for doing the same — when he’s already committed to some sort of token drawdown next summer? Not a chance.

If there were a primary challenge, it wouldn’t be on the war… but on competence. Something Hillary could credibly do. Of course the war would be a part of that, but not the main part.

Rendell must’ve heard something and dropped it by accident.

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John Barbero, the voice of the Pittsburgh Penguins, has died after a battle with cancer.

” ‘The Pittsburgh goal. Scored by No. 66. Mario …’ The way he stretched out that ‘uuuu’ with Mario’s last name, you can hear it now.”
-Mike Lange

Rest in peace, Barbero. We’ll never forget your voice.

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The term social justice is thrown around like crazy these days.  I have to be honest, until a couple of years ago, the term really didn’t mean anything to me.  There is really no definition for it and it used in so many varying ways.

Which is why I was glad to see an article by Dr. Paul Kengor on the subject recently.

Most exasperating is that many who speak the language of social justice really mean “economic justice.” Unlike traditional practitioners of social justice, whose occasional noble interests ranged from prison reform to child-labor laws, many modern practitioners seek wealth redistribution, “living wages,” progressive income taxes, and an eternally-widening net of federal government power and central planning; they are inclined to class interests rather than human rights. And, by their estimate, achieving economic justice requires collectivism. They invoke social justice not to try to resolve conventional social differences as much as class/income differences.

Kengor poses some great questions you can ask your friends when they start talking about social justice:

We need to probe deeper: What do you really mean by “social justice?” How would that translate into policy? What kind of government control and taxation do you have in mind? Do you really mean “economic justice?”

I always found clear definitions helpful when having a conversation.  Besides, how can you talk or debate about something without both parties starting off with common definitions of words and terms.

Kengor cites another article that was very enlightening about the history of social justice – well worth the read if this is a topic of interest to you.

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No excuses.

Sestak, speaking at the Pennsylvania Press Club, was asked whether he believes Speaker of the House Pelosi is a liberal or a pragmatist. Sestak describes himself as the latter.

He said he didn’t know, but also said he never looks at her voting record.

No. Never.

Even Joe Sestak admits he is a true-blue liberal, telling radio host R.J. Harris only five minutes later: “I absolutely do say I’m a progressive.”
…
“Joe Sestak criticizes Arlen Specter’s party switch, but Joe is attempting an identity switch of his own,” said Toomey Communications Director Nachama Soloveichik. “By any objective measure, Joe Sestak has one of the most fiscally liberal voting records in Congress. Only someone like Joe, who has voted with Nancy Pelosi 100% of the time, would think record deficits, trillion dollar bailouts, and massive government health care programs are fiscally conservative. Pennsylvanians know better.”

(tip to HotAir)

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Oh the hypocrisy.

Ever since Arizona passed its controversial law allowing police to check a suspect’s immigration status, the federal government had been intimating that it would file suit to stop the measure. 

Which it finally did.  (Although, in a moment of utter embarrassment, Attorney General Eric Holder testified of his intention to file suit despite his admission that he’d NEVER READ the ten page Arizona law!) 

And the results of the lawsuit?  Wholly predictable.

The Right is furious, the Left satiated, and, as always, common sense people are still out in the cold.

Fact is, the Arizona law, signed by a Republican Governor and a red-meat issue to the GOP base, is 100% meaningless.  Beyond providing fiery agenda-driven rhetoric — for both sides —, it’s just the latest futile attempt to solve America’s out-of-control illegal invader problem.

Why the hypocrisy? Because instead of focusing on the real issues, like building a border wall and cracking down on employers who hire illegals, the Administration is trying to score political points by hoping the Republican position alienates Latino voters.

If Obama and the Congress were really concerned about reigning in a state for doing its own thing — against the wishes of the federal government —perhaps a better lawsuit would be one against those who are in flagrant violation of federation immigration law. After all, these states are the biggest obstacle to sound immigration policy.

New Mexico would be a good start.

*****

After we get through the white noise of Arizona’s law being one that harasses the good illegals who have broken America’s laws to get here, or conversely, that such a measure is mandatory to protect our citizens from the invaders, it would be nice to stop and actually ask the most basic question:

How, exactly, are the police supposed to check the immigration status of people they suspect are in the country illegally? What document proving citizenship will they be seeking?

There is no national ID card, and probably about six people nationwide even know where their Social Security card is, so, for the most part, that leaves the driver’s license.

Granted, not everyone drives, but it would be a good starting place. 

Well, except for one small thing.

Several states still issue drivers licenses to illegal invaders.  States like….New Mexico, which just so happens to border Arizona.

(This practice does not comply with Federal Real ID Act requirements.  The Act mandates that, in order for a license to be recognized by the U.S. Government, states may issue licenses only after determining “proof of identity and lawful status of an applicant” and “verification of the source documents provided by an applicant.”)

So when Juan Valdez is pulled over for a traffic stop, on suspicion that he is an illegal, he will be required to prove his status as a citizen or legal immigrant.

As he whips out his license from New Mexico, Utah or Washington, or any of the eight other states that until recently issued licenses to known illegals, along with car insurance (because you can’t get car insurance without a license), a sly smile will creep across his face. There will be no deportation this night.  God Bless America!

Of course, it doesn’t stop with licenses….

Read more at Philly Mag’s Philly Post and post a comment:

http://blogs.phillymag.com/the_philly_post/2010/07/27/arizonas-immigration-law-well-intentioned-but-meaningless/

About Chris Freind:

Chris Freind is an independent columnist and investigative reporter who operates his own news bureau, www.FreindlyFireZone.com

Readers of his column, “Freindly Fire,” hail from six continents, thirty countries and all fifty states. His work has been referenced in numerous publications including The Wall Street Journal, National Review Online, foreign newspapers, and in Dick Morris’ recent bestseller “Catastrophe.”

Freind also serves as a weekly guest commentator on the Philadelphia-area talk radio show, Political Talk (WCHE 1520), and makes numerous other television and radio appearances.  He can be reached at CF@FreindlyFireZone.com

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Obama wants a new dialogue on race – well, here’s a good place to start:

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Colin McNickle of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review explains why Tom Corbett should not heed the Philadelphia Inquirer’s recommendation that he resign for doing his job:

What tees off The Inquirer is that Corbett is doing his job and, in the process, taking stands on issues it opposes.

Think health-care “reform.” Corbett joined a lawsuit filed by attorneys general of several states alleging a federal provision mandating that individuals buy health insurance or be fined is a gross violation of the Commerce Clause.

And it is. The federal government, indeed, can regulate commerce. But it can’t force commerce.

McNickle goes on to say that the Inquirer thinks that pretty much anything Corbett does is nothing but a cynical attempt to gain conservative support for November. Liberal projection at its finest; since they will do anything to get elected and retain power, they assume the same is true of the other side.

The thought never crosses their minds that maybe, just maybe, Tom Corbett and millions of other reasonable people might actually think that ObamaCare is an unconstitutional disaster waiting to happen. No, we’re just trying to protect “the rich”, or we’re “racist”, or we’re “stupid”, or in the case of politicians like Corbett, they’re just trying to gain the support of us stupid racists who vote against our own self-interest in order to protect the rich.

This morning on Fox News Sunday, high-ranking Democrat and madman Howard Dean told Chris Wallace that racists at Fox News got Shirley Sherrod fired. When Wallace pointed out that Sherrod was fired by the White House before she was ever mentioned on Fox News, Dean said that it didn’t matter. Liberalism in a nutshell: Reality doesn’t matter.

Update

Looks like the dishonest filth have succeeded in getting the meme out that Fox News is responsible for Shirley Sherrod’s firing. Today’s Post-Gazette is full of letters from good little Democrat operatives condemning Fox News for being racist and causing Sherrod to lose her job. As I said, reality doesn’t matter with these people.

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Alex, don’t you mean RAAAAAAAAAACIST?

And if everyone is a racist, there can be no meaning to the term. It is equivalent to saying someone is a living person.

And in conclusion, I am convinced that everyone is a racist except me and thee, and I am starting to wonder about thee.

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Dale, it was discussed on Journolist, and it was decided that you’re a racist.

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Moe Lane responds to this news item:

When a Bethlehem police officer is hospitalized in the line of duty, and by a car driving too fast and in the wrong direction on a one-way road, that’s news. Especially when the driver just happens to be Dino Cantelmi, the Mayor’s brother-in-law. Amazingly, there never was any account of this incident in either The Morning Call or Express Times.

Read his comments here.

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As long as a 2-1 vote carries the day in Montgomery County, it should come as no surprise to anyone that Montgomery County’s perpetual supplier of health care consulting services, CBIZ, has won the day again, this time securing a sweetheart deal that kicks back $10 to the consultant for every $75 fee per employee paid to IBC. With 3,000 county employees, you do the math.

Now I know what you are thinking: What exactly is it that a healthcare consultant does and why is one needed to manage a health care plan that the county has been on for years and why is the pay so lucrative? All good questions. Let’s turn to the Times Herald’s Keith Phucas for answers:

The Times Herald previously reported that since 2006, CBIZ officials have contributed a total of $24,463 to Matthew’s political campaign coffers, according to campaign finance reports.

During the 2007 commissioners race, company executives gave the Damsker-Hoeffel campaign $12,500.

On Feb. 12, 2008, CBIZ senior executive F. Bruce Walter gave Matthews, by then the commissioners chairman, a $1,000 campaign donation. Three months later, Walter gave $200 to Hoeffel’s campaign, according to 2008 campaign records.

I’m sure they do, you know, actual healthcare consulting stuff, too. Whatever that is.

So those of you with long memories may be saying to yourselves, “Don’t I recal that CBIZ is the company that was less than forthcoming about how they obtained those contracts and how much they were paid for the same? Wasn’t there something about producing Requests For Proposals (RFP) and complying with some Hoeffel-sponsored ordinance?” Well, you would be right. If you want to refresh your memory, you can look here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

So surely, you’re thinking, after all that fuss and stonewalling and charging for copies just a few short months ago, CBIZ must have finally produced the RFPs in question. That after the scrutiny of the press on a situation that had every appearance of Commissioners Hoeffel and Matthews engaging in pay to play, surely those aforementioned commissioners would not have the chutzpah to grant a two-year contract to CBIZ again without them complying with the original RFP request?

Errr….actually, no.

Not to worry, though. They submitted an RFP this time:

Recently, an RFP went out for a health insurance consultant, and five companies, including CBIZ, responded.

Explaining the evaluation process at Wednesday’s commissioners meeting, by G. Fred DiBona III, of DiBona Associates, admitted when questioned by Castor that he knew the firms by name that he helped county officials rank. As well, DiBona said Matthews recently hired him to assist human resources and commissioner staffers in the evaluations.

Hold up. Wait. Fred DiWHO the third? Who’s he?

He’s the consultant that was used to pick the consultant.

[DiBona] is a former employee of one of the vendors that submitted a proposal.

Castor echoed his past criticism about being kept out of the loop about professional services contractor selections.

“One of the things I thought we agreed on (in the new ordinance) was the three commissioners would get to vote on these contracts,” he said, referring to DiBona’s consultant work. “I didn’t know we were bringing you on.”

Matthews explained DiBona Associates met an exception in Ordinance 10-3 because he would not be paid more than $7,500 for his services.

DiBona also conceded the process that picked CBIZ was a “subjective determination,” and that evaluating consultant companies was not something he ordinarily does.

“It’s not a regular part of my business,” he said.

Not a regular part of his business? Well that’s a relief. At least he’s qualified to earn that $7500 fee.

So what does this all mean for the County? Bruce Castor (the “1″ vote in the perpetual “2-1″ voting pattern of the Montgomery County Commissioners) and Joe Hoeffel sum it up thusly:

The selection process was tipped in favor of CBIZ given that “The guy who is paying (DiBona) is CBIZ’s guy,” Castor said, referring to Matthews.

Hoeffel suggested possible bias was reflected in CBIZ’s high score for “Confidence of County HR/Finance Team with Vendor Capabilities,” perhaps because the company is the only health insurance consultant most of the staff had ever dealt with.

“The county staff likes CBIZ, and I think it helped (the firm),” Hoeffel said later.

And CBIZ will save the county money over the two-year $576,000 contract, by cutting the per-employee monthly rate by $2. Castor deemed it ironic that only now the consultant was revealing dollar figures for its services, something it has refused to do since December. He concluded current pricing makes the county contract worth more than $700,000 to the consultant for the same time period.

“Now you know why CBIZ didn’t want to tell us (how much it was paid),” Castor said following the meeting. “Because it looks like they’re getting a commission of $360,000 each year after contributing to the campaigns of Matthews and Hoeffel.”

Yup. Sounds like CBIZness as usual to me.

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Heh.

Everyone has different nightmares, but high on the list for just about every Congressman would be something like this:

You hold a press conference, give some brief remarks and then open the floor to questions.

But there aren’t any. Silence. Does nobody care about your bill? Do they not like you?

Rep. Patrick Murphy lived the nightmare at the White House today, holding a press conference that lasted less than two minutes. Murphy is a cosponsor of a bill the President signed into law today that aims to cut down on wasteful government spending.

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What actually happened: Andrew Breitbart put a clip from a speech made by Shirley Sherrod up on his website. In the clip, Sherrod admitted to discriminating against a poor white farmer in the past. And, actually, if you bothered to watch the entire clip put up by Breitbart, you would have seen her admit that it was wrong for her to do so, because she was supposed to be helping the poor regardless of skin color. The Obama Administration’s knee jerk reaction was to fire Sherrod, which left them with egg on their face when they bothered to watch the whole video. After the firing, Fox News started to cover the story.

What happened according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

That’s just plain wrong on so many levels.

And the Post-Gazette laughably said the following in their editorial:

The website that released the edited video is responsible for triggering the media firestorm. But the guiltiest party is an administration so insecure that it would throw a good employee to the wolves. This shameful capitulation to right-wing media must end before more reputations and careers are destroyed.

Rick Santorum, Dick Cheney, and Sarah Palin, check your voice mail. You might find a few hundred messages from the Post-Gazette apologizing for the endless dishonest attacks on your reputation. Or, not.

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Apparently using the race card is the fast track to political success in Philly’s Democrat Party.

Philly’s disgraced City Council staffer, Latrice Bryant, is testing the waters for a potential run for Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller’s 8th district seat come 2011.

Latrice Bryant’s most notable accomplishment was to invoke the race card when confronted with evidence of falsified time sheets and an inappropriate physical relationship with her boss, City Councilman Wilson Goode, Jr back in 2008.

A local Fox News journalist, Jeff Cole, uncovered the evidence and confronted both Latrice and her confident, Councilman Wilson Goode, Jr. Her reaction was to literally flip him the race card:

(more…)

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PLEASE TRY AGAIN BETWEEN THE HOURS OF 0800 AND 2000.

Due to our national economic collapse at the hands of Congress we are seeing unprecedented cuts to some areas of city services. It’s very strange to watch the schizophrenic policies of the democrats right now. Let me see if I can get some of this straight: On the national level, the federal government is spending billions of dollars they don’t have while the states and cities are going broke. The federal government is EXPANDING the ranks of the government workforce ostensibly to help stimulate the economy. Everyone knows that expanding government is a drain on the economy and government jobs are almost always make-work jobs beyond essential services. But some non-essential services are being  spared while other critical services are being attacked savagely. 

On the local and state level it’s exactly the opposite. These governments are actually CUTTING jobs, laying off or furloughing workers often in essential services like police and emergency services. They claim it’s because they are losing funding from the federal government. That begs the question: why is it the federal governments task to pay for local level, essential services? What has happened to the tax money that should be spent on these services in the first place? The short answer is that states and cities have long ago gone off the rails with their spending priorities. We pass public pools with seven kids swimming in them and four blocks away people have a fire hydrant open. Libraries get priority over fire companies in the Internet age. Only Democrats could come up with such an insanely dangerous plan. Then again we know they aren’t the party of safety and security either national or local.

No city or state politician gets elected so he can make the trains run on time (as they should). I have said repeatedly that big city mayors are more worried about national and international issues than they are about running the day-to-day operations of the city they were elected to oversee. For example our Mayor Nutter recently went to the Gulf to check out the oil leak. Why? We have an out of control murder rate here in Philly and an impending fiscal catastrophe. His time would be much better spent trying to get more businesses to relocate to the city. Unfortunately he’d have to fix a broken government, lower taxes and IMPROVE services to do that. So maybe it’s a smart thing for him to get out-of-town for a few days.

About fifteen years ago our governor “Fast” Eddy Rendell was elected mayor. At the time Philly was a fiscal basket case as is the norm. After generations of  one party (democrat ) control in Philly he was hailed by the local left-wing media much the same as Obama was by the national MSM. He was the guy who was going to clean up Philly and balance the books. He did to a large extent by gutting the city workforce and handing down contracts that destroyed the standard of living of average “Working families”. It is widely believed and circulated by the MSM that city employees are lazy fat cats and our wages and benefits are the reason the city is on the brink of insolvency. Rendell won large-scale cuts in benefits and wages thanks to a law he got passed (PICA). It gutted our collective bargaining rights (another democrat victory for the working man). Supposedly he set our fiscal house in order. Fifteen years later we are as broke as ever. In reality we have been broke all along yet Rendell was hailed as a hero for taking on the “MUNICIPAL UNIONS” and was elected Governor. Fast forward to today in New Jersey. Governor Chris Christie is being vilified for taking on the political machine there. That includes the ultra powerful teachers unions and the entrenched democrat political apparatus that has run up an eleven BILLION dollar deficit. You can’t make this stuff up.

As a point of fact Philadelphia firefighters have been on the job, working without a contract for about a year now.

Finally when John Street got elected Mayor after Ed Rendell he had an incredible crime problem. His solution? To use the police force to occupy large areas of the most crime ridden areas of Philly. Literally like an operation Fallujah. He spent millions of our surplus on forced police overtime. Often it was little more tha cops standing on corners to show a continued presence. It worked for a time. But after the money ran out the crime went right back to normal and even got worse thus proving you can take a neighborhood but the question is can you HOLD a neighborhood and for how long and at what price?

Now Mayor Nutter is gutting the Fire Department. Over three successive democrat regimes the fire department has become a favorite target. After many years of successful firefighting programs and operations they are now going to decimate our field forces. Inevitably this will lead to the undoing of everything we have achieved. The deaths, injuries and property losses will go up, it’s inevitable. The equipment and morale will erode and deteriorate. Philly will burn like Detroit, ironically something it managed to avoid during the war years of the 1960’s. Like Afghanistan in a year things will get much worse. What scares me the most is if the firefighting forces get to the level of our EMS forces. They are so short-staffed it’s scary.

The democrats made much of the way the Bush administration conducted the war in Iraq. We were told endless stories about up-armored Hum-Vees being in short supply or body armor that had to be mailed from home. We were told endlessly how it was going to be a quagmire like Viet Nam. Yet here at home, on the front lines that IS the reality. Broken and run down equipment and facilities. Staffing and budget cuts and company closures. Ambulance shortages have been the norm for twenty years. And people die and firefighters get injured needlessly.

Much like our national leaders have forsaken our military, our local leaders have forsaken our public safety. It is ironic. And tragic.

www.firstin.wordpress.com

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The Democrats and the media (what’s the difference?) are all in an uproar over the Shirley Sherrod fiasco, in which the White House fired a woman based on a clip of a video of Sherrod speaking with the NAACP. The clip didn’t show the complete context of her speech, so that means that somehow, her being fired by the White House was all Fox News’ fault. Nevermind that it wasn’t even Fox News who originally aired the video clip, Sean Hannity didn’t show it until after she was fired, and Glenn Beck defended her, saying that she should never have been fired. FOX NEWS IS RACIST, ANYWAY!

But I digress. If the Shirley Sherrod craziness should teach us anything, it’s that we shouldn’t just look at a small clip to get the complete picture, and that we need to give people a chance to explain their remarks before we do anything rash, like firing them.

Take the case of Tom Corbett for instance:

Republican gubernatorial nominee Tom Corbett says a portion of Pennsylvania’s 591,000 workers without jobs are choosing to stay unemployed. During a door-to-door tour of Elizabethtown, Lancaster County, businesses today, Corbett said “the jobs are there,” but that many people are purposely remaining unemployed in order to collect benefits.

He says he’s heard this from business owners across Pennsylvania. “One of the individuals said, ‘I can’t get workers. People don’t want to come back to work while they still have unemployment,’” he said. “They’re literally telling him, ‘I’ll come back to work when unemployment runs out.’ That’s becoming a problem.’” Corbett added, “The jobs are there. But if we keep extending unemployment, people are going to sit there and — I’ve literally had construction companies tell me, I can’t get people to come back to work until — they say, ‘I’ll come back to work when unemployment runs out.’”

Democrats are taking this quote – surprise! – OUT OF CONTEXT in order to bludgeon Corbett. Allegheny County Chief Embarrassment Executive Dan Onorato even set up a website called “Clueless Tom“, complete with a shamelessly truncated version of the Corbett quote:

In a radio interview, Republican gubernatorial nominee
Tom Corbett insulted hundreds of thousands of unemployed Pennsylvania workers, by saying the following:

“People don’t want to come back to work while they still have unemployment. They’re literally telling – I’ll come back to work when the unemployment runs out. That’s becoming a problem. The jobs are there, but if we keep extending unemployment the people are just gonna sit there and…I’ve literally had construction companies tell me, I can’t get people to come back to work, until – we’ll come back when unemployment runs out.”

Notice how the quote was edited to cut out the part about how this is what employers are telling Corbett, that it is employers who are saying that they can’t hire people since they’re getting more or comparable money in unemployment benefits?

The Democrat/Media complex has been piling on Corbett for this quote, and usually they leave out that vital part. Take a look at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s artful re-writing of the quote:

After meeting with some business owners, Mr. Corbett told a Harrisburg public radio station on July 9 that “the jobs are there,” but he said some people are intentionally staying unemployed to collect benefits. “People don’t want to come back to work while they still have unemployment” benefits, he said. “They’re literally telling [employers] ‘I’ll come back to work when the employment runs out.’ That’s becoming a problem … If we keep extending unemployment the people are going to sit there.”

Considering that the Democrats have come out so strongly against these kind of sound-byte attacks which ignore context, I expect them to sprint to Corbett’s defense immediately and correct the record! Don’t you? I wouldn’t hold my breath.

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I tried to watch the clip that Joe posted below, but everytime Chris Matthews appeared on the screen I had an urge to tell him to SHOOT the GLASS.

Seriously, dude: What is up with that hair?

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From my email inbox, minus the hyperlinks:

John –

Tea party favorite Pat Toomey has stood with Wall Street his entire career — as a derivatives trader, as a congressman, and as head of the radical Club for Growth. And Pat Toomey’s record and his actions make it clear that he’ll only continue his special-interest agenda in the Senate.

We’ve put together five facts about Pat Toomey that all Pennsylvanians should see before they make their decision this November. Can you help by spreading these far and wide?

Five facts you should know about Pat Toomey:

1) Even as the BP oil crisis raged on, he advocated for expanding offshore drilling — and in the past has said that regulating oil companies “borders on the criminal.” Tweet this. Share on Facebook.

2) He voted to allow drilling in the Great Lakes, even though the amount of oil the BP oil spill crisis has leaked into the Gulf would contaminate every drop of Lake Erie, a source of drinking water for millions. Tweet this. Share on Facebook.

3) He is running a campaign funded by special interests. He’s pulled in $851,489 from Wall Street and $54,950 in donations from the oil and gas industries — including the largest donation that Halliburton’s PAC made in May. Tweet this. Share on Facebook.

4) Under his watch, the Club for Growth spent about $10 million on a publicity campaign to privatize Social Security; Toomey lamented that it was a “pity” that Bush’s proposed privatization “couldn’t be implemented sooner.” Tweet this. Share on Facebook.

5) After making a fortune trading derivatives on Wall Street, he wrote legislation repealing key laws that kept banks and investment firms separate — spurring massive deregulation that led to the economic crash. Tweet this. Share on Facebook.

We need your help getting the word out. Will you share the truth about Pat Toomey with five friends?

http://my.democrats.org/ToomeyFacts

Pat Toomey is going to try to downplay his ultra-conservative record this election season. By sharing these facts, you can help make sure a right-wing radical doesn’t represent Pennsylvania in the U.S. Senate.

Thanks,

Brad

Brad Woodhouse
Communications Director
Democratic National Committee

HALLIBURTON!!! And “radical Club for Growth”? They make it sound like a terrorist organization.

Aside from that, I love how the DNC thinks it’s bad that Toomey advocates us drilling for our own oil and choosing what to do with our retirement funds. This email didn’t inspire me to do anything other than visit Toomey’s website and link to it here:

Toomey for Senate

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