Video: Katy Perry now officially Rocks

Back in August of 2011, pop singer Katy Perry found herself in some hot water when she posted a tweet that advocated praying for Israel. The venomous backlash she received was predictable but, nonetheless unwarranted. Unfortunately, Perry walked it back a bit, saying that a kid asked her to pray for him specifically.

Well, it appears that Ms. Perry may have made a very conscious decision to anger the left in the form of a pro-Military video.

This is very refreshing to see from a celebrity. Will she withstand the backlash? If she keeps this up, she's going to have a slew of conservative  fans.

***UPDATE*** Far left whack job, Naomi Wolf is calling for a boycott of Katy Perry and seems to think this video is "Propaganda for the Marines" and "glorification of violence." Uh, really?

Translation: Wolf hates the idea of people feeling good about the U.S. Military and the degree to which she fears this might do that should actually help you enjoy it a bit more.

Can a Romney loss to Obama be a good thing?

Yes, part of this is "glass half full" thinking but as I looked at it further, I began to wonder if a Romney loss to Obama would actually be a good thing. No, I'm not any less conservative than I was yesterday. Just imagine what the political climate will be in 2013 if the Republicans retain a majority in the House and get a strong majority in the Senate while still having to deal with Obama. Will the Republican establishment finally be forced into a fight - something it avoids like the plague? Here is my latest piece over at Red County:

Can Obama's Reelection be a Good Thing for Conservatives?
Ben Barrack

Conservatives are disheartened. It's becoming increasingly apparent that Mitt Romney will be the Republican nominee in the fight to defeat Barack Obama. If four years of Jimmy Carter so awakened Republican voters that they nominated Ronald Reagan, why has nearly four years of Jimmy Carter on steroids so sedated Republican voters that they've decided to nominate the equivalent of Gerald Ford as the best option for defeating him?

In large part, the establishment insists on it and, like Obama, seems disinterested in the will of the people. This establishment is so invested in Romney that it is overlooking the potential consequences of one very real possibility.

What if he loses? The establishment's credibility will have been torpedoed. Yes, at great expense, but torpedoed nonetheless.

If you thought the Tea Party was angry in 2009, just wait until 2013 if Barack Obama is sworn in for a second term after defeating Mitt Romney. For starters, conservative voters will be outraged at any Republican Senator, Congressman or Governor who helped shove Romney down their throats. Accountability could take on an entirely new meaning and those elected leaders will have their feet held to the fire like never before. Romney's name will be added to the long list of liberal Republicans who couldn't seal the deal. Any attempt by establishment elitists to point to Goldwater as evidence that conservatism can't win will be met with sardonic laughter that hopefully drives a stake through the heart of the argument.

Consider the example Fast and Furious, an operation that is not only being revealed as something akin to Watergate with murder but could very likely implicate the heads of nearly every major department and agency in the Obama Administration, to include DHS, DOJ, the FBI, and the State Department. There have been multiple reports that House Speaker John Boehner has asked Oversight Committee chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) to back off of his investigation, ostensibly because of how high it could go.

While appearing on the Fox News Channel, Judson Phillips, the founder of Tea Party Nation was visibly frustrated at the lack of interest on the part of Republican Party leadership relative to being more aggressive with Attorney General Eric Holder. Judson went on to say the following:

“What my friends in Washington tell me is that Boehner says what he learned from the 1995 government shutdown is ‘you never pick a fight with the president.’”

If Romney loses to Obama, Boehner will be forced to pick that fight.

If Judson is correct, it points to Boehner being more interested in running out the clock – with the November election representing the final whistle – than in a dogged pursuit of justice, regardless of where it leads. Avoiding a showdown could conceivably allow Attorney General Eric Holder, FBI Director Robert Mueller, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to skate – depending on their respective levels of involvement – instead of facing impeachment and removal from office for high crimes and misdemeanors.

Boehner has most certainly come across as disinterested in commenting on the scandal publicly and won't deviate from a short statement of support for what Issa's committee is doing. It would seem that Issa is wrestling with quite the Executive Branch behemoth and could use a greater show of public support from the House Speaker.

If there are any stories the establishment wants to see go away after the election, the ones about Obama's Birth Certificate, Social Security number, and Selective Service registration are at the top of the list. Such concerns are irrelevant, they say. Besides, the election is less than one year away and it's pointless to entertain the notion. The implication is that Joe Arpaio's investigation, even if it yields anything of substance, will be anti-climactic because Obama will be out of office and everyone will have moved on.

That is, unless he wins. Then what? If you thought the Birthers were loud before, just wait and see what happens if Obama is reelected.

Not only will the Birthers – who generally don't come across as avid Romney supporters – have four more years to continue their incessant drumbeat of demands for answers to their eligibility questions but the establishment that has made every attempt to ignore them will have been roundly defeated and, consequently, forced into a position of having to listen. With the wind knocked out of the establishment, its members will also be barraged with demands that they reconcile with their base (not the other way around) for supporting yet another in a long line of incredibly pathetic candidates. As much as the elites won't want to admit it, the Republican Party agenda could be set by conservative voters who were ignored by an establishment that still doesn't get it.

Tolerance will be in very short supply.

The sad prospect of Romney as the nominee is seemingly trumped only by the prospect that Obama could get a second term, which is made more likely, some believe, if Romney is nominated. Establishment, general election Republican losers like John McCain and Bob Dole have endorsed Romney, as have Governors Chris Christie and Nikki Haley. Tea Party favorites Marco Rubio and Christine O'Donnell have as well. A dangerous type of groupthink seems to have set in among Republican politicians that has generated a bizzare coalescence around a liberal candidate when the time is ripe for a conservative one.

For crying out loud, serial liar Howard Dean said the Democrats fear a face-off with Romney most over all the Republican candidates. Those of us who understand liberal tactics know that Dean means the exact opposite; that's why he said it. It'd be like a head coach proclaiming that his team fears facing his opponent's back up quarterback in an attempt to fool the other coach into starting him. Republican elites aren't as smart, apparently. They've been told by Howard Dean that their third string quaterback gives them their best chance and, by gum, they believe it.

Something else almost certain to happen after Romney's nomination; his religion will be thoroughly vetted by the liberal media. Most Americans know little to nothing about Mormonism but that is all going to change with Romney's nomination. According to a Gallup poll, 22% of Americans are hesitant about voting for a Mormon. Some argue that Mormonism is antithetical to Chrisitianity; some argue that it isn't; still others don't much care. One thing is certain. Everyone will know more about it with Romney as the Republican nominee for president. That, too, should be a good thing no matter what side you're on.

Don't lose heart, conservatives. Instead, check out Romans 8:28, which says:

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.

In 2013, the Republican elites could find themselves at the intersection of 'be careful what you wish for' and 'sleeping in the bed you made.'

I hope they're preparing for both.

More here.

Audio: Does this show that Zimmerman stopped following Trayvon?

We still do not know what ultimately happened in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. One narrative that has been put forward, however, is that George Zimmerman continued following Trayvon despite being told by Police not to do so.

This audio recording of the 911 call appears to indicate that Zimmerman ceased following Martin once he was told to stop. At the 2:13 mark, you can hear the request made by the dispatcher. You can also hear Zimmerman's response, which is "ok."



h/t Free Republic

What do George Zimmerman and Lara Logan share in common?

When CBS reporter Lara Logan was covering the 'Arab Spring' at Tahrir Square last year, she was sexually assaulted by a mob of Muslim men who fed their own anger by shouting at her during the assault, "Jew! Jew!" despite the fact Logan is not Jewish. In the case of George Zimmerman, left wing Hispanic groups are questioning his ethnicity despite the fact that his mother is Peruvian (yes, Peru is an Hispanic country). Denial of this indisputable reality does the same thing identifying Lara Logan as a Jew did for her attackers; it feeds the hate.

Both hate and ideology always seem to trump race when it suits minority groups who claim to place defense of ethnicity at the top of their agendas. The narrative has been set; George Zimmerman is an older white male who pursued a young black male and shot him in cold blood. As we know, however, narratives are more often than not, based on manufactured realities in order to reinforce a paradigm.

In the case of hatred, once it reaches a level where it has been harnessed and directed at one person, rational thought is extinguished.

Before any of this happened, George Zimmerman had identified himself as a "Hispanic" and "Democrat." In both cases, based on what they claim to champion, as well as what they've done in the past, liberal Hispanic groups would normally be siding with Zimmerman - or at least not standing against him.

Via the Daily Caller:

“The Latino community joins the African-American community and other communities in condemning George Zimmerman as what he is – a murderer and a racist,” Roberto Lovato, co-founder of the online Latino advocacy organization Presente.org, told The Daily Caller.

The group is acting on Trayvon’s behalf. Presente.org has joined with Color of Change to petition for the arrest of Martin’s murderer.

How about La Raza?

“NCLR joins allies in the civil rights community in calling for a real investigation for this grievous failure of justice,” president and CEO Janet Murguía wrote.

Uh, if an investigation hasn't been completed yet, how can she know there's been a "grievous failure of justice"?

My personal favorite is Lovato's attempt to deny a very basic fact while simultaneously calling for a full investigation. Unless I'm missing something here, Lovato is calling Peru a non-Hispanic country by suggesting that Zimmerman, whose mother is Peruvian, may not be Hispanic.

“His background is not clear,” Lovato explained. “Is he Latino? Is he white? Is he both? Who knows? It’s irrelevant. What’s relevant are his actions, his racist comments, and his cold-blooded killing of an innocent young man.”

While Lovato is correct that Zimmerman's race should be irrelevant, he takes it a step further by actually suggesting that he doesn't know if the man is Hispanic; a Birth Certificate probably wouldn't convince him. If denying a factual aspect to an individual's race helps to feed the hate for that individual, it's apparently an acceptable practice. Is that what we're saying here?

Lovato is on record as saying that Zimmerman is a "racist" (see above). That must necessarily mean that he's conceding there can be racist hispanics. This doesn't fit his paradigm or his agenda. Therefore, he must deny it in order to validate that paradigm. A better example of cognitive dissonance you will not find.

Cognitive Dissonance 
noun Psychology .
anxiety that results from simultaneously holding contradictory or otherwise incompatible attitudes, beliefs, or the like, as when one likes a person but disapproves strongly of one of his or her habits.

It didn't matter that Lara Logan was not Jewish and it doesn't matter to left wing Hispanic groups that George Zimmerman IS Hispanic. If denying a reality helps feed one's hate, it will be done.