Free Republic

This past month, Ruminant has been uncharacteristically silent, missing at least three column deadlines—not at all like her: and this at a time when her birth-country is so noisily scandal-ridden and patently loony that her usually effortless and knee-jerk snarkiness should have been propelling her on, of its own massive momentum, to write gleefully malicious prose, paragraph upon paragraph. But to what effect, I ask? To what effect? What can commentary add to "news" that is so transparently monstrous and mad that the only sane response is either 1) silence; or 2) going postal, in DC just for starters. Instead,...

The president’s decision to weigh in on the arrest of his Harvard law professor friend Henry Louis Gates Jr., who mouthed off to a Cambridge cop threw a grenade into his health care PR offensive and revived questions about his promises of a post-racial presidency. He tried to defuse matters with a Friday appearance in the White House briefing room, but like his predecessor, he found it impossible to say “I am sorry” or “I was wrong.” It is not surprising that the cable TV news and the Sunday talk shows continued to chew over the story. Unfortunately for the...

Less than a month after being confirmed as the nation's attorney General, Eric H. Holder Jr. called out the American people as "essentially a nation of cowards" for refusing to talk openly about race. So, thank you, professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. and President Obama, for starting the long-awaited national discussion on black and white identity - while averting our attention from the cockamamie scheme to nationalize health care. And kudos to the professor and the president for choosing Sgt. James Crowley of the Cambridge Police Department as the representative of the Caucasian-American side of this difficult and much-needed historic...

Sgt. James Crowley was having a burger and a Blue Moon beer in Tommy Doyle’s Irish Pub when his cell phone rang. The Cambridge cop spoke for a moment and hung up looking altogether amazed. “His jaw dropped,” recalled Peter Woodman, a co-owner of the Kendall Square pub and two others of the same name. “He said, ‘Jesus Christ, you'll never guess who’s going to ring me.’”

Here's a roundup of the late-night comics. The Tonight Show Conan O'Brien: Obama says the conversation went well [between he and Cambridge police officer Sgt. Jim Crowley], but there was an awkward moment when the cop arrested Obama. --snip-- The Daily Show Jon Stewart: I wasn't at the press conference last night. I also don't have all the facts, but I think it's fair to say Obama handled that question -- oh, what's the word I'm looking for? Stupidly. Late Show David Letterman: Sunday will be a big day for Sarah Palin. That's the day she plans to go on...

"On today’s Fox News Sunday, presidential press secretary Robert Gibbs admitted President Obama had been prepared to answer questions about the Henry Louis Gates arrest at his press conference last week. Bret Baier, filling in for regular host Chris Wallace, asked Gibbs, “Before Wednesday’s news conference, did you prepare [the president] for a question about Henry Gates’s arrest in Cambridge?”

Because of its proximity to Harvard University, Boston and New York City, Martha’s Vineyard is the playground of certain kind of rich intellectual. The Clintons are regulars there, as is Alan Dershowitz. On the northeast side of the island is the charming neighbourhood of Oak Bluffs whose “big, sprawling homes with large yards and gorgeous architecture” (as one real estate website put it) are the summer home of “prominent African American leaders … famous black writers, politicians, judges and artists”, people like Spike Lee and Oprah Winfrey. President Obama summers here too. It is here that Harvard Professor Henry Louis...

William Kristol of The Weekly Standard writes: A friend sends along this link, apropos my comment last night on the Special Report panel that President Obama’s instinctive identification with Professor Gates (and his willingness to attack Sergeant Crowley without knowing the facts) was as much about class as race. In a short note in the August 2007 Travel and Leisure magazine, Gates explains why Oak Bluffs on Martha’s Vineyard is his favorite place: “I started going to Oak Bluffs in 1981 and fell in love with the light. It reminded me of the light in the south of France, near...

<p>"...In achieving his goals, Gates is also trying to put an end to what he calls the One-Nigger Syndrome-the idea that the white world will make room only for one black icon at a time—be it a Nobel laureate, an army general, a Hollywood director, or a TV talk-show host...."</p>

"LAMB: At one point you had a line in there, something to the effect, "My mother despised white people." GATES: My mother hated white people. LAMB: All her life? GATES: Probably. I didn't know until -- in 1959 we were watching Mike Wallace's documentary called "The Hate that Hate Produced." It was about the Nation of Islam and I couldn't believe -- I mean, Malcolm X was talking about the white man was the devil and standing up in white people's faces and telling them off. It was great...And she loved Malcolm X and she loved what the Muslims were...

Sorry for the vanity but... This morning (7/25) while watching America’s News HQ on Fox News, 2 guests were interviewed by Kelly Wright & Jamie Colby about the Gates/Crowley confrontation. One of the guests, a female prosecutor, clearly said, “…he (meaning Gates) showed him (Crowley) his butt...” At that point, Kelly Wright cut the woman off abruptly saying, “Now, we’re not going there.” The woman looked clearly perplexed & appeared to attempt a response. Wright , scowling, simply spoke over her until the camera moved to his other guest. I don't think the woman was heard from again during the...

Watching Associated Press reports evolve, or as is all too often the case, devolve, can be a revealing exercise. Example: What happened between 8 p.m. Friday and 8 a.m. Saturday that would have caused the Associated Press and writer Nancy Benac to water down the headline and opening paragraphs of their story about the Obama-Gates-Crowley situation from this.... OBAMA RUSHES TO QUELL RACIAL UPROAR HE HELPED FIRE .... to this? (after the jump) OBAMA MOVES TO DAMPEN UPROAR OVER COMMENT ON RACE

The networks might just as well have hung out a sign this morning: non-African-American experts on policing and racial profiling need not apply. Good Morning America, the Early Show and Today had a total of six guests on the subject . . . and every one was African-American. Among the highlights: a writer from Tina Brown's Daily Beast suggested that given our incarceration rate, the USA meets the definition of a "police state." View video here.

It’s looking as if Barack Obama has very seriously blundered over Gatesgate - implying a policeman was racist for arresting the pompous and abusive Professor Henry Louis Gates. The more details that emerge, the worse Obama – and Gates – appear: Dennis O’Connor, chairman of the Cambridge Superior Officers Association, accused the president of blundering into something he knew little about. He said: “When you don’t have all the facts, your next words should be ‘I have no comment’.” Stephen Killian, the president of the Cambridge Police Patrol Officer’s Association said that Mr Obama’s comments were “disgraceful” “For this to...

President Obama told the NAACP last week that he believes there is less racial discrimination in America today than ever in our history. So it was passing strange this week to hear Mr. Obama draw a negative national racial lesson from a recent police incident involving black Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. Last week, Mr. Gates found himself locked out of his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Instead of calling a locksmith, he and his chauffeur proceeded to break into the house. When a neighbor noticed the two men forcing their way through the front door, she called the police....

The white police sergeant criticized by President Barack Obama for arresting black scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. in his Massachusetts home is a police academy expert on racial profiling. Cambridge Sgt. James Crowley has taught a class on racial profiling for five years at the Lowell Police Academy after being hand-picked for the job by former police Commissioner Ronny Watson, who is black, said Academy Director Thomas Fleming. "I have nothing but the highest respect for him as a police officer. He is very professional and he is a good role model for the young recruits in the police academy,"...

Wednesday night of this week, during U.S. President Barack Obama’s press conference, Lynn Sweet, a reporter (and Washington Bureau Chief) for the Chicago Sun-Times, asked the president a question about the July 16th arrest of Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. by officers of the Cambridge, Massachusetts police department for disorderly conduct. By now, just about everybody in America is aware of the arrest of the prominent Harvard scholar (and a professed friend of Barack Obama) and of President Obama’s declaration that the Cambridge police “acted stupidly,” this though he also admitted not knowing anything about the facts surrounding the...

O shows up at the daily WH presser.

President Obama says his choice of words unfortunately gave the impression that he was maligning against the Cambridge Police Department. Obama said, he hopes as a "consequence" that this event becomes a "teachable moment" where people spend more time "listening to each other" and to generally improve relationships between minorities and police officers. Obama said more unity is needed. Regarding this being a local issue, Obama said he felt like he needed to step in because race is still a "troubling" aspect in our society.

Chairman Obama: "Lord knows we need it right now [unity] because, over the last two days as we have discussed this issue, I don't know if you've noticed, but nobody's been paying much attention to health care."