BIG STINK: BLAGOJEVICH TEAM RESTS CASE AFTER TWO DAYS

Great news for Obama. Not only has Blagojevich decided not to testify in his trial - going back on what he has been saying ever since he was arrested - but his attorneys have decided to rest their case little more than two days into their defense. Individuals who will not take the stand include Tony Rezko, Rahm Emanuel, Valerie Jarrett, and Blagojevich himself. All along, Blago has maintained his innocence and insisted he would take the stand.

Via The Hill:

The White House appears to have avoided any major entanglement in the Blagojevich trial.

None of the officials who were expected to testify will take the stand as witnesses for the former governor's defense.

This whole episode seems more than just a little fortuitous for the White House.

More at the Chicago Tribune

OBAMA BUDDY WANTS TO NAME GAZA BOAT AUDACITY OF HOPE

Remember Rashid Khalidi, Obama's buddy from Columbia University, who wants worked for an arm of the Palestine Liberation Organization? Do you remember when the L.A. Times refused to release a video in its possession that showed Obama at a banquet with Khalidi in 2003? Yeah, that Rashid Khalidi. Now we learn that Khalidi has signed onto an appeal for funds to subsidize a boat and its crew for the purpose of breaking Israel's Gaza blockade.

The name given to the boat? Audacity of Hope.

Via the Washington Post:

Rashid Khalidi, a friend of President Obama's active in Palestinian causes, has signed an appeal for funds to send to Gaza an aid ship that would be named after the president's best-selling book, "The Audacity of Hope."

A group calling itself U.S. Boat to Gaza is seeking $370,000 in the next month to send the ship in an effort to thwart the Israeli blockade on the Palestinian enclave controlled by the militant group Hamas.

To refresh your memories on the incident before the 2008 election involving the L.A. Times suppressing the Obama / Khalidi video, click HERE.

As for the latest story, read it all.

h/t to Jawa Report

VIDEO: GLENN BECK'S DEFENSE OF SHIRLEY SHERROD

I must say, this is one of those moments when Glenn Beck shines. On July 19th, a two and a half minute video clip of then Georgia Director of Rural Development, Shirley Sherrod, surfaced on the internet. In it, she is speaking at an NAACP Awards Banquet last March and relays a story about how she didn't help a white farmer as much as she could have because of his skin color. Within hours of the video going viral, Sherrod was forced to resign her position within the USDA.

It appeared to many - myself included - that this was an open and shut case of racism. But was it? Sherrod went on CNN and explained how she was relating a twenty year old story that helped open her eyes and see things differently. Bolstering her claim was the fact that the wife of the farmer she is seen discussing in the speech publicly supports her for having helped them.

Interestingly, the NAACP, which originally supported the decision to force Sherrod out, issued a statement in the wake of these new revelations saying they were "snookered" by Andrew Breitbart and Fox News. Rather than accepting responsibility or admitting a mistake was made, the NAACP blames others for jumping to conclusions itself. It's just simply too difficult for leftwing bodies to admit making mistakes or being wrong.

A very interesting dynamic may be at work here. A black woman is rejected by a black organization and publicly shamed but the two people who most come to her defense are Glenn Beck - the left's most despised personality on Fox - and the white farmer's wife.

One last thing before watching this video segment with Beck. Regardless of Sherrod's innocence or guilt, based on its own standards set forth in the NAACP resolution, calling the Tea Party movement racist, the NAACP should have to answer for the crowd's apparent audible support of Sherrod's tale of discrimination before they knew it was a tale of enlightenment.



h/t to Hot Air

WRITERS AT JOURNOLIST WANTED TO BAN FOX NEWS

For the second day in a row, the Daily Caller has released explosive and damaging posts from liberal / independent writers who belonged to the listserv, JourNolist, started by the Washington Post's Ezra Klein. This time, we see one of them - Sarah Spitz - talking about how she'd love to see Rush Limbaugh die of a heart attack while refusing to help; she then is struck with the realization of just how much hate she's consumed with.

Via the Daily Caller

In a post to the list-serv Journolist, an online meeting place for liberal journalists, Spitz wrote that she would “Laugh loudly like a maniac and watch his eyes bug out” as Limbaugh writhed in torment.

In boasting that she would gleefully watch a man die in front of her eyes, Spitz seemed to shock even herself. “I never knew I had this much hate in me,” she wrote. “But he deserves it.”

Other posts show that these journalists spent quite a bit of time obsessing about the Tea Party movement, scheming ways to smear it and its members. Ryan Donmoyer of Bloomberg, compared "teabaggers" to "brownshirts".

Interestingly, Fox News became a target among the JourNolisters, providing a glimpse into what truly scares them.

The very existence of Fox News, meanwhile, sends Journolisters into paroxysms of rage. When Howell Raines charged that the network had a conservative bias, the members of Journolist discussed whether the federal government should shut the channel down.

“I am genuinely scared” of Fox, wrote Guardian columnist Daniel Davies, because it “shows you that a genuinely shameless and unethical media organisation *cannot* be controlled by any form of peer pressure or self-regulation, and nor can it be successfully cold-shouldered or ostracised. In order to have even a semblance of control, you need a tough legal framework.” Davies, a Brit, frequently argued the United States needed stricter libel laws.

“I agree,” said Michael Scherer of Time Magazine. Roger “Ailes understands that his job is to build a tribal identity, not a news organization. You can’t hurt Fox by saying it gets it wrong, if Ailes just uses the criticism to deepen the tribal identity.”

I'm sure none of these people would admit publicly, that they're afraid of Fox News. The reason for that is it would expose what they view as threatening. These revelations are extremely damaging to the left for a number of reasons. Many of these writers want to be portrayed and perceived as objective; these posts reveal they're anything but. More important, however, is their admissions to each other that the Tea Party and Fox News are threats to their agenda.

Conservatives often get frustrated because they feel helpless and want to know what they can actually do to fight back. These posts show that knowledge is power. They also serve as the blueprint for what people can do. Get informed, get educated, and simply get engaged. The rest will take care of itself. It's what birthed the Tea Party movement. It's a grass roots, non-violent movement that is armed with the truth. That is what the left fears most.

h/t to Free Republic