THE OTHER SHOE DROPS: A current events round-up for conservatives

Turning back the tide of information overload with a digest of the latest developments in news conservatives need to pay attention to:

† Now Is Not The Time To Talk About Race: Ann Coulter explains why “we rely on the criminal justice system to determine guilt in criminal cases and not the fervid imaginations of the race-obsessed media”:

[P]retty much all that is known with certainty is that Zimmerman called the police to report a suspicious character in his neighborhood, and shortly thereafter he shot and killed Martin.

On the basis of little else, the media conjured a Hollywood script: A "white" man was "stalking" a little black kid – who could be Obama's son! – confronted him, beat him senseless as the small black child screamed for help, and finally shot the kid dead, "just because he was black." …

It's hard to tell where the NFM's suppositions are coming from inasmuch as they simply report their version as hard fact. But all their evidence seems to come only from Martin's family and girlfriend. Can we start trying all criminal defendants based exclusively on the testimony of the victim's friends and relatives?

For his part, considering the over-the-top rhetoric about the case  by some members of the Congressional Black Caucus, Sean Hannity asks, “Why even have a trial? Let’s convict him on the house floor.”

In sharp contrast to his colleagues, Rep. Allen West (R-FL) “vehemently” condemned the $10K bounty that the New Black Panther Party put on George Zimmerman’s head:

I … call upon the US Department of Justice to prosecute their actions, clearly a hate crime. We have seen this type of abhorrent behavior from this group previously in 2008 as part of a voter intimidation action, it is reprehensible. To openly solicit for the death of an American citizen, with reward, is not in keeping with the laws of due process which governs this Constitutional Republic. However, this is to be expected when irrational voices dominate our public dialogue and are fueled by an ideological driven media. I am concerned that that the tragic death of Trayvon Martin is being hijacked by malcontents.

As Human Events notes: “There’s at least as much evidence that the NBPP is motivated by George Zimmerman’s “race or ethnicity” as that Zimmerman was motivated by Trayvon Martin’s:”

There is certainly reason to wonder if certain elements of the government are willing to protect Zimmerman from the New Black Panther Party and their bounty hunters, as neither Attorney General Eric Holder nor President Barack Obama has spoken up against them.”

If the answer to West’s challenge is that “white Hispanics” like Zimmerman cannot be targeted by hate crimes, or that people like the New Black Panther Party are inherently incapable of committing them, let’s have that out on the table, and get it codified in statute. Let's be clear that "hate crimes" are not matters of absolute justice, but rather political constructs - meaning that who commits them against whom is more important than what was actually said or done.

BTW, neither Obama nor Holder have condemned the incivility or the illegality of a Twitter page launched on March 24^th “4 Da Ppl Who Believe Zimmerman Should Be Shot Dead In The Street The Same Way.” The Daily Caller reports:

The account’s image is a photo of gun-sight crosshairs superimposed on Zimmerman’s picture. …

“We don’t comment on specific users or the status of accounts for privacy reasons,” Twitter spokesperson Rachael Horwitz told The Daily Caller. She did not indicate whether Twitter intends to take action to suspend the account, but provided TheDC with a Web address where users can report “an abusive user.”

It’s clear from the account’s tweets on Wednesday that some Twitter users are taking advantage of that option.

“All these racist motherf*ckers tryin to get me deleted like I did something wrong,” one tweet read. “Bitch zimmerman killed #TRAYVON he the one wrong.” …

George Zimmerman remains in hiding from vigilante threats. Absent a fringe element calling for retaliatory violence, the vast majority of Martin’s supporters seek only Zimmerman’s arrest and prosecution

The KillZimmerman Twitter page is still up. The lynch mob mentaility fostered by this Twitter page and the irresponsible, rabble-rousing exhortations of Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and other prominent black leaders – as well as the silence of the president and his Attorney General – has already led to the savage assault of a 15-year-old Hispanic boy in CA, who was set upon by a group of seven to 10 black teenagers aged 13 to 16, while he was walking home from school, The Associated Press reports:

[A]s many as 10 boys surrounding the victim and challenging him to a fight. The suspects then began hitting the teen while others watched.

During the beating, the teens made racially derogatory statements …

After the victim fell to the ground, the assailants kicked him multiple times in the head, knocked out several teeth and left shoe impressions on his skin, Ford said.

The victim was able to get to his feet and escape the onslaught, and will need to undergo dental surgery.

Seven boys have been arrested and may be charged with committing a hate crime; the police are looking for three others who were visible on a video that an onlooker had shot during the assault.

Editorial Note: Jonah Goldberg, editor-at-large of National Review Online, asks why Zimmerman has consistently been referred to in the media as a "white Hispanic" while President Barack Hussein Obama has never been referred to as a "white African-American president" seeing as how both men have a white parent.

† Never Mind Marxism. Will An Obama Administration Be Totalitarian?: After Samuel Wurzelbacher (AKA “Joe The Plumber”) embarrassed presidential candidate Barack Obama (he wasn’t using his middle name back then; only “racists” were) by characterizing his tax proposals  as income redistribution, three OH state employees combed state databases and leaked information about his divorce and other matters to the media. The formerly unknown citizen usuccessfully sued over what he contended was a violation of his privacy and free speech rights (related article, last item on the page). The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the district court ruling against Wurzelbacher, and dismissed his claims, The Wall Street Journal reports:

“Wurzelbacher was not deterred or chilled in the exercise of his First Amendment rights as a result of defendants’ wrongful conduct,” wrote Judge Richard Allen Griffin, who was nominated by President George W. Bush and confirmed in 2005.

The court also rejected Wurzelbacher’s privacy complaint, writing, ”Wurzelbacher does not allege that the improper database searches endangered a fundamental liberty interest. Certainly, he does not allege that he was subjected to a risk of bodily injury or that intimate information was disclosed to the public.”

Wurzelbacher, now a Republican Congressional candidate, responded to the courts’ ruling in a statement, saying: “I’m dismayed by this opinion from the court, which has just ruled that private citizens can be violated by a powerful government, because it implies nothing will happen whenever a violation is ‘insufficiently adverse’ or not worth the court’s time to pursue.”

He continued, “The irony of this court ruling is that now any citizen who stands up and challenges candidates and elected officials is subject to intimidation by the same government that is supposed to protect our individual rights.”

† Deconstructing Obama’s Cairo Speech: After President Barack Hussein Obama repeatedly asserted that a Muslim woman shrouded in a burqa, hijab or niqab is expressing her freedom, The Stiletto suggested that "[h]is wife and daughters should try wearing a burqa for a month and then tell him what they think of their “freedom.” We may soon find out, as Obama has asked his good pal Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan for advice on raising his daughters when they met at the nuclear summit in South Korea, The Daily Caller reports:

“[W]e find ourselves in frequent agreement upon a wide range of issues… [and] because he has two daughters that are a little older than mine – they’ve turned out very well, so I’m always interested in his perspective on raising girls,” Obama said.

One of Erdogan’s two daughters, Sumeyye, is entering Turkish politics via her father’s Islamist party, according to the Turkish press.

She wears Islamist-style clothes that obscure her hair and shape. …

By openly acknowledging Erdogan’s advice on child-rearing, Obama “didn’t realize what he’s saying,” said Barry Rubin, an expert on Turkish politics.

Obama likely made the error, Rubin said, “because he is so unselfconscious and is not used to having to think through his remarks.”

Still, “it is shocking that [Obama suggests] he takes child-raising advice from a radical Islamist,” whose wife dresses in black cloaks or tight headscarves when traveling in the West, said Rubin.

Overall, the White House statement about the meeting “goes beyond polite praise and good manners and practically slobbers over a repressive, pro-Iran leader whose hatred for Israel is literally hysterical,” said Rubin.

What? Obama talks without thinking? That was supposed to be his predecessor’s foible.

† 10 reasons Michelle Obama should be proud – really proud – of America: This latest installment in The Stiletto Blog’s ongoing series (previous article, last item on the page) meant to help instill the necessary pride of country in Michelle Obama’s consciousness to enable her to serve as an unofficial ambassador focuses on the residents of Glastonbury, CT – all 34,000 of them – for joining forces with Purple Heart Homes, a nonprofit group that builds or refurbishes houses for disabled veterans, to build a 2,600-square-foot, three-bedroom house for Cpl. Manny Jimenez, a 23-year-old Marine who had lost an arm, his vision and hearing in a 2010 mine explosion in Afghanistan, The New York Times reports:

In the coming weeks, an army of volunteers will apply vinyl siding and roof shingles, install sinks and light switches, paint walls and lay flooring so that by the time Corporal Jimenez receives his medical discharge from the Marine Corps – in early June, he hopes – his new house will be in turnkey condition. It will also be fully furnished, with details including a handmade wooden table in the dining room, stainless-steel appliances in the kitchen and a leather recliner in the living room.

Every stick of that furniture, as well as all the labor and nearly all the construction materials, will have been donated. On the market, the house would certainly sell for several hundreds of thousands of dollars. Corporal Jimenez will get it for $1.

Corporal Jimenez tells The Times, “It’s not just a house. It’s an acceptance” [of him].