The ‘What a Maroon’ Award

And now, ladies and gentlemen, the moment you've all been waiting for ... This week's "What A Maroon" award goes to...

REP. CHARLES RANGEL (D-NY)

It was difficult to choose this week's winner because there were so many worthy candidates, from filmmaker Oliver Stone's anti-Semitic rant to MSM pundits blaming UDSA official Shirley Sherrod firing on Fox News, even though Sherrod was axed before Fox made any mention of the infamous Breitbart video.

But none approach the good Congressman from New York for utter audacity. A House Ethics Panel has charged Rangel with 13 violations ranging from tax evasion to misuse of Congressional staff and stationary. Two things are remarkable about Rep. Rangel's situation.

One is that even some Democrat House members are calling on the veteran Congressman to step down--you have to understand how blatant these violations must be for Democrats to call for the resignation of one of their own.

Second, Rangel chairs the House Ways and Means Committee. This is the body that writes the nation's tax laws. And yet he once claimed that he didn't know he had to pay taxes on some property he owned.

For utter gall, Rep. Rangel wins hands down.

WHAT A MAROON!

In honor of the great American philosopher Bugs Bunny, who first coined the phrase, I've decided to present the "What a Maroon" award each week to the politician, organization or celebrity who makes the most sand-poundingly stupid statement of recent days.

Best and Brightest 2.0

Those of us old enough to remember the original quagmire, Vietnam, know the phrase, "Best and Brightest." It was the title of book by David Halberstam. It referred to the the "brain trust" President Kennedy collected as his advisers.

Kennedy mined the best brains of the Ivy League and industry. They knew they were the best and brightest in the country. Because they were the best and brightest, they were infallible.

That was the problem. They simply couldn't believe they could make a mistake.

The result was the tragedy of Vietnam.

Neal Gabler of the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington writes that he sees disturbing similarities between the Kennedy and Obama administration advisers.

Gabler's article is a bit long, but it's worth the read.

The Russian Navy and Somali Pirates

I'm not a great admirer of the Russians, but I do give credit where credit is due. There are times when they get things brilliantly, albeit brutally, correct.

Back in May, Somali pirates made the mistake of hijacking a Russian-flagged tanker. The Russian destroyer "Admiral Panteleev" was on antipiracy patrol in the area and responded with a commando attack on the captured tanker. They they freed the tanker crew, captured the pirates and then boarded the pirate's mothership.

The Russians then sank the pirate ship along with the pirates, all without any court proceedings or lawyers.

The Russians made a video of the incident. It's mostly in Russian, but the video is self-explanatory. I suspect it will be a long time before another Russian-flagged ship is boarded by Somali pirates.

The ‘What a Maroon’ Award

And now, ladies and gentlemen, the moment you've all been waiting for ... This week's "What A Maroon" award goes to...

THE NAACP

This once-noble and honorable organization voted this past week on a resolution condemning the Tea Party movement as racist. The resolution passed unanimously.

While ignoring the many African-Americans who have leadership positions within the Tea Party movement, as well as its providing a platform for such outspoken racists at Minister Louis Farrakhan of the Nation or Islam and Jeremiah Wright, the NAACP chose to focus on a controversial incident in which they clamed African-American Congressmen were spat upon and called the n-word by tea partiers.

“In March, respected members of the Congressional Black Caucus reported that racial epithets were hurled at them as they passed by a Washington, DC health care protest,” the NAACP’s website states. “Civil rights legend John Lewis was called the ‘n-word’ in the incident.”

The only problem is that the accusation is a total fabrication. Oh, yes, Reps. John Lewis (D-Ga.) and Andre Carson (D-Ind.) did walk past a crowd of Tea Parties. But none of the spitting or racial epithets occurred. We know this because the entire incident was recorded by various news representatives and private individuals, including those on the Congressmen’s staff. In fact, a $100,000 reward is offered to anyone who provides evidence that it actually happened.

This isn’t the 1930s when the “Big Lie” was an effective tactic because there were no readily available video recording devices. Guys, this is the 21st century. Don’t tell a lie when you’re certain to get caught.

WHAT A MAROON!

In honor of the great American philosopher Bugs Bunny, who first coined the phrase, I've decided to present the "What a Maroon" award each week to the politician, organization or celebrity who makes the most sand-poundingly stupid statement of recent days.

Opposition to President Obama is Racist

The conventional wisdom of the left is that the real reason conservatives in general and tea partiers in particular oppose President Obama isn’t because of his policies, it’s because of his race. They just don’t like an African-American in the White House and those who criticize him are racist.

Here are some examples of that race hatred of the president:

St. Louis Tea Parties Respond to NAACP Accusation of Racism

The NAACP votes to condemn the Tea Party movement calling for “all people of good will to repudiate the racism of the Tea Parties, and to stand in opposition to its drive to push our country back to the pre-civil rights era."

Among the accusations are:

•Tea party supporters have engaged in “explicitly racist behavior” and “displayed signs and posters intended to degrade people of color generally and President Barack Obama specifically.”

•Tea party activists have used racial epithets, have verbally and physicall abused black member of Congress and others, and have been charged with threatening public officials. (FYI, Andrew Breitbart of biggovernment.com has a standing $100,000 reward offered for anyone who can prove this.)

St. Louis Tea Partiers have responded:

St. Louis Tea Party Coalition Resolution
July 12, 2010

Whereas, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded to advance the position of minority groups, and

Whereas a hallmark of the NAACP has been to do the important work of identifying and exposing remaining vestiges of racism and discrimination, and

Whereas the NAACP vocally stands against the discriminatory and harmful practice of labeling people with a broad brush, and

Whereas the NAACP decided to launch their 101st National Convention with a resolution condemning the Tea Party movement and labeling millions of their fellow Americans who subscribe to the movement as “racists”, and

Whereas the “Tea Party movement” is a label applied to patriotic Americans who have expressed their political free speech in the grand tradition of all that is American, that being the spirited expression of viewpoints in a 100% peaceful manner, and

Whereas, it is a hallmark of America that we settle our disputes civilly and avoid the gutter tactic of attempting to silence opponents by inflammatory name-calling, and
Whereas the very term “racist” has diminished meaning due to its overuse by political partisans including members of the NAACP, and

Whereas, the NAACP had an opportunity to preserve some semblance of legitimacy by standing up for Ken Gladney, the victim of a vicious racist battery conducted by a black avowed communist, even labeling him an “Uncle Tom”, but chose instead to use the opportunity to mock the St. Louis Tea Party, and

Whereas, the NAACP has refused to denounce the New Black Panther’s call to murder white cops and their babies, and

Whereas, the NAACP does its entire membership a grave disservice by hypocritically engaging in the very conduct it purports to oppose,

Now therefore be it resolved that the St. Louis Tea Party condemns the NAACP for lowering itself to the dishonorable position of a partisan political attack dog organization, and,

Be it further resolved that the St. Louis Tea Party calls on similar organizations to join in unanimous condemnation of this despicable behavior, and

Be it further resolved that we demand that the NAACP withdrawal their bigoted, false and inflammatory resolution against the tea party for any further consideration, and

Be it further resolved that these organizations call on the Internal Revenue Service to evenly apply their standards and consider the tax-exempt status of the NAACP considering the degree to which they are engaging in habitual partisan political behavior.

Adopted unanimously, this day, July 12th, in the year of our Lord, 2010.

A copy of this resolution shall be sent immediately to the NAACP at: washingtonbureau@naacpnet.org

The ‘What a Maroon’ Award

And now, ladies and gentlemen, the moment you've all been waiting for ... This week's "What A Maroon" award goes to...

NASA ADMINISTRATOR CHARLES BOLDEN

I remember as a child the stunned reaction of adults as the Soviets put Sputnik into orbit and the humiliation of the failure of the United States to match the feat as the Vanguard satellite rocket kept exploding on the launch pad.

I also remember President Kennedy promising a joint session of Congress in May 25, 1961, that America would put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. That promise was kept July 20, 1969, by Neil Armstrong’s “One Small Step.”

Space was ours to explore. What was next, I wondered. A moon colony? Orbiting cities? Expeditions to Mars?

All of these were possible, as that was NASA’s mandate.

Fast forward to the present.

In keeping with the Obama Administration’s tradition of breaking news of importance to the American public overseas first, as when Secretary of State Clinton announced on Ecuadorian television that the federal government would sue the state of Arizona, Administrator Bolden, while in the Arab nation of Qatar, told Al Jazeera that his foremost mission was "to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science, math and engineering."

It seems that Administrator Bolden forgot that the space agency’s foremost mission is space.

What a Maroon!

In honor of the great American philosopher Bugs Bunny, who first coined the phrase, I've decided to present the "What a Maroon" award each week to the politician or celebrity who makes the most sand-poundingly stupid statement of recent days.