Starting next year, Bank of America announced they’d be charging debit card customers a $5 monthly fee. The bank said it’s in response to an amendment to the Dodd-Frank bill that was pushed by Dick Durbin to limit the per-transaction fee banks charge retailers when their customers swipe debit cards (“interchange fees”). The regulation was effective October 1st.

First up for a very predictable reaction is President Obama:

President Obama slammed Bank of America’s $5 debit card card fee in an interview with ABCnews.com and Yahoo on Monday, calling the charge “not good business practice.”

“You don’t have some inherent right just to, you know, get a certain amount of profit, if your customers are being mistreated,” he said. Later, he added, “this is exactly the sort of stuff that folks are frustrated by.”

You don’t have the inherent right to get a certain amount of profit? And **who decides that?

(**the Rhetorical Question of the Day has been brought to you by AidRight Hearing Aids — when you don’t want to ask twice, make it AidRight!)

Obama’s under-taxed supporter Warren Buffett just sank $5 billion into Bank of America, so maybe the White House should see if Warren can do anything about BofA’s unseemly quest for that “certain amount of profit.”

Speaking of things that increase costs to the general public, here’s the inspiration for the so-called “Durbin fee”:

Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, said Bank of America customers who don’t want to pay a new $5 monthly debit card fee should “vote with their feet” and find a financial institution that won’t charge them for accessing their accounts.

“Get the heck out of that bank,” Durbin said Monday on the Senate floor. “Find yourself a bank or credit union that won’t gouge you for $5 a month. … What Bank of America has done is an outrage.”

Compared with the amounts of money Durbin has voted to spend and charge to taxpayers during his congressional tenure, calling $5 a month “gouging” is inviting a lightning strike from on high.

Sure, it’s up to the bank’s customers to decide if they should find another bank. The problem is that the costs of regulation will hit other banks, which will also pass the cost on to customers in one way or another. Ultimately the best solution might be to repeal the regulation, but you’d have more luck getting Durbin to lobby to build a monument to Dick Cheney than to admit the regulation was a counterproductive idea.

It’s too bad Obama, Durbin and others in government can’t look at this as an example of the real world’s reaction to their regulations and reel them back accordingly (pause for laughter). Costs to companies via regs are always passed on to consumers. Just wait until when (or if) the brunt of the health care law kicks in. “Affordable” health care will be more expensive than ever, just as the government’s “consumer protection” is bound to make banking more expensive for consumers.

Now Obama’s using the occasion to call for what sounds like some sort of fee czar or something:

Asked about the fee, Obama used the opportunity to tout the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Also established by the Dodd-Frank law, the bureau opened its doors in July but is still without a full-time director. The president nominated former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray for the position, but GOP senators are blocking any selection until the bureau is overhauled.

“This is exactly why we need this [CFPB],” the president said. “We need somebody whose sole job it is to prevent stuff like this.”

It’s bad enough now, but for a real job killer, start multiplying the layers of regulations by regulating the ways businesses can make up for the cost of the regulations that are asphyxiating their companies. Unfortunately that warning will have little influence over people who believe regulations are great job creators.

Fun fact: In 2008 and so far in the 2012 campaign, Bank of America has contributed an amount of their profits to Barack Obama that could have otherwise paid for a month of the new debit card fees for 83,440 customers.

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

When Illinois Senator Dick Durbin looks at a crowd of Tea Partying American citizens, he sees extremists and a bunch of fringe wackos who don’t speak for America. When he looks at a roomful of illegal aliens he sees the future of America, and maybe even the next US president:

(CNSNews.com) – Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.) said in a congressional hearing Tuesday that a young person who is an illegal alien in the United States today may someday become president.

“When I look around this room, I see America’s future, our doctors, our teachers, our nurses, our engineers, our scientists, our soldiers, our congressmen, our senators, and maybe our president,” Durbin said immediately after having asked all young persons in the room to stand if they were currently undocumented aliens who would be eligible to become citizens if the DREAM Act were passed.

He must also see a constitutional amendment to allow that to happen — but why should Durbin let a little piece of antiquated paper mess up his DREAM?

Video by way of CNS News:

Lots more on the DREAM Act here.

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBeremember being

Hey, whose side is this “fiscal commission” on anyway?

The chairmen of President Obama’s fiscal commission sparked a political firestorm Wednesday with the early release of a report proposing sweeping changes to Social Security, Medicare and the tax code.

The plan would reduce the deficit by nearly $4 trillion over the next decade by making dramatic spending cuts and overhauling the tax code by wiping out deductions, such as the popular tax break on mortgage interest.

Labor unions and liberal Democrats lit into the preliminary proposal, which the two chairmen touted as the first serious plan to tackle the country’s growing debt.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said it was “simply unacceptable.”
[...]
Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), a commission member, balked at the heavy emphasis on spending cuts in the plan.

Co-Chairman Erskine Bowles, a Democrat, said that about 75 percent of the proposed deficit reduction came from spending cuts and 25 percent from “the revenue side.”

When asked Wednesday afternoon whether the 75 percent-to-25 percent ratio of spending cuts to revenue increases was too titled toward reducing spending, Durbin said: “To me it is.”

The “denialcrats” were hoping for a fiscal commission whose recommendations were all “raise taxes” and/or “increase spending,” but maybe that’ll happen next as soon as the Tea Party hangover subsides.

Either way, Dick Durbin need not worry — he’s got a movie career to keep him going.

The fiscal commission’s preliminary report also recommends crap-canning the freaky “safe schools czar’s office” and to cut “voluntary” United Nations funding.

The commission was also going to propose saving money by not having a full-time private jet for the Speaker of the House, but John Boehner already took care of that.

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

GOP Sen. Jim DeMint went head to head against Democrat Sen. Dick Durbin on NBC’s “Today Show” and MSNBC this morning. DeMint noted that the “American people are very angry”. Durbin’s response? Essentially: Shut up and pay the price of Democrat majority rule.

Watch Durbin justify the massive cost of Demcare and the taxes it will impose as “the cost of having the kind of America we want to have:”

Writes Sen. DeMint: “What kind of America do we want to have? One where people are free to live their lives as they see fit, or one where Washington controls nearly every aspect of our lives?”

We know what kind of America Democrat dinosaur Sen. John Dingell wants: “The harsh fact of the matter is when you’re going to pass legislation that will cover 300 [million] American people in different ways it takes a long time to do the necessary administrative steps that have to be taken to put the legislation together to control the people.”

Yes, he said it:

Welcome to Nancy Pelosi’s vision of taking America in a “new direction”.

***

What’s happening in the Senate: Debate will continue all day on the Senate wreckonciliation “fixes,” with the GOP offering a plethora of amendments and procedural motions. GOP Sen. Judd Gregg is taking aim at the student loan nationalization power grab, via the CSM:

Senate Democrats emerged from a caucus luncheon Tuesday resolved to block any changes in the House fixes.

“This is just going to be parliamentary games,” says Sen. Claire McCaskill (D) of Missouri. “It will be death by gotcha votes – dozens of them. We have to stand up and be strong and say: Sorry, we are not going to play.”

This companion bill – the promise of which was the only way to secure passage of the unpopular Senate bill through the House – increases subsidies for low- and middle-income Americans and it adjusts funding to lower deficits. It also includes a measure that makes the federal government the exclusive provider of student loans.

Sen. Judd Gregg (R) of New Hampshire wants to focus public attention on the student loan provisions. The nationalization of the student loan industry, quasi-nationalization of the financial system, nationalization of the auto industry, and quasi-nationalization of the health industry will “drive this country down a road towards a European-style government,” he says.

The Foundry reports: “Reconciliation Bill Adds Even More Taxes.”

***

And behind closed doors, where they are no doubt assuring each other that the whole charade is meaningless: Obama to sign abortion order behind closed doors.

“Nooooooobody.”

So, er, what’s this? Why, it’s Dick “Nobody” Durbin launching an online petition to kill the filibuster and lower the threshold for cloture to a simple majority. Thunders Durbin:

It’s time to end the filibuster

The American people are sick of process blocking progress. They’re fed up with an arbitrary tradition that allows a minority of Senators to prevent popular, much-needed legislation from even coming to a vote.

Frankly, so am I.

Please sign this petition to my colleagues in the Senate, supporting the Harkin-Shaheen proposal or other similar proposals to eliminate the crippling 60-vote requirement to overcome a filibuster.

Don’t worry. “Nobody” but the nutroots are putting their names on it.

As I noted in my column today, the latest USA Today/Gallup poll shows that a majority of Americans oppose short-circuiting the legislative process through reconciliation tactics.

Breathe a bad word about Michelle Obama and you’ll be cast into the fiery bowels of hell, says Reverend Dick Durbin.

Here’s my hell-baiting Fox segment on Michelle earlier this afternoon.

Quick correction: In the segment, I mention Salon as having published criticism of Mrs. O. I meant Slate. Got my left-wing websites mixed up. My apologies and thanks to Alex Koppelman of Salon for pointing out the error.

I’m sure Salon will make sure everyone knows that they aren’t going to burn with the rest of us.

***

Update: Salon is in high dudgeon over a caption that Fox ran during my segment referring to Michelle Obama as Obama’s “baby mama.”

I did not write the caption and I was not aware of it when it ran (the Baltimore studio doesn’t have a monitor). I don’t know if the caption writer was making a lame attempt to be hip, clueless about the original etymology of the phrase, or both. But I do know that it was Michelle Obama herself who referred to Barack as her “baby’s daddy” and has used the phrase “baby daddy” to describe Barack while on the stump this year.

Here’s how she introduced him during his Senate victory speech on Nov. 2, 2004:

MICHELLE OBAMA, WIFE OF BARACK OBAMA: My baby’s daddy Barack Obama. Yeah!

BARACK OBAMA, SENATOR-ELECT, ILLINOIS: Thank you, Illinois. Thank you. Thank you, Illinois. I don’t know about you but I’m still fired up. I am fired up. Look at this crowd. Thank you, Illinois.

Let me begin by thanking all the people who have been involved in this effort from down state to upstate, city, suburb, from every community throughout the state. Let me say how grateful I am to all of you for the extraordinary privilege of standing here this evening.

Let me thank, because I will forget later on, it’s a thankless task, let me thank right now the best political staff that has been put together in this state. They are wonderful. You know who you are. You guys have been outstanding. I appreciate all of you.

Let me thank my pastor, Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr. (ph) of Trinity United Church of Christ, fellow Trinitarians out there. Let me thank all the elected officials who have stood by me through thick and through thin but most of all let me thank my family.

I am so grateful to my nephew Aber (ph), my niece Leslie (ph), my mother-in-law Marian (ph), my brother-in-law Craig Robinson, his wonderful girlfriend Kelly (ph), my sister Maya (ph), my new niece Zuhayla (ph) right there, my brother-in-law Conrad and most of all, most of all, my two precious daughters Malia (ph) Obama and Sasha (ph) Obama and the biggest star in the Obama family until the two girls grow up the love of my life Michelle Obama, give it up for Michelle. Give it up.

See here for a 2004 discussion of Obama’s comments the day after she made them. Sample:

Posted on Friday, November 05, 2004 – 03:19 pm:
You’re right Cynique, he hasn’t proved himself. I’m just going by his demeanor thus far, as well as my intuitive feeling about him–and that is how I feel about his potential at this point–I could see him as president. His wife has nothing to do with how I feel either, especially after her “my baby’s daddy” comment. She is a doll (physically), but that comment turned me off!

Posted on Friday, November 05, 2004 – 04:32 pm:
Well, I’m sure his wife’s remark didn’t turn off Obama’s black constituency; it was kind of an inside joke. Yes, Obama is very charismatic but you sounded as if you wanted to prove a point by jocking him rather than John Edwards who has, after all, served 6 years in the senate. See, Moonsigns, that how you get in trouble on this sight. LOL

Posted on Friday, November 05, 2004 – 04:55 pm:
OH FOR PITY’S SAKE Moonsigns, could you have you lips puckered against cyniques ass any tighter??

Could you be any more OBVIOUS AND DESPERATE to keep her as an ally? What a freakin joke you are.

Oh you are so right cynique, oh please don’t get mad at me cynique! give it a rest aready!!

Posted on Friday, November 05, 2004 – 06:22 pm:
Some blacks may find that “inside joke” to be “funny”, however, I’m sure not all do. To me, it’s a joke that is used only in the company of very, very close friends, not in a public arena with millions of people watching.

I have no point to prove to anyone Cynique. There are some people who seem like natural born leaders and others that just don’t. Edwards, in my opinion, just seems to lack a certain something that would propel him into being a tremendous leader. Obama on the other hand, he just seems like he has unlimited amounts of potential and the zeal to follow through–just a basic difference I feel about the men….that’s it.

Posted on Friday, November 05, 2004 – 07:36 pm:

You’re entitled to your assessment about Obama, Moonsigns. But, neither you nor I know how many blacks were offended by the comment Obama’s wife made. And, actually, I don’t see why there would be a problem since he is her “baby Daddy.” And I don’t think it is uncommon for black women, no matter what her station in life, to teasingly refer to their child’s father as their “baby daddy.” This ghetto expression has made it into the mainstream of the black idiom, at least in my part of the country which is where Obama is from. Blacks don’t always have to be on their good behavior for fear of making a bad impression on white people. Sometimes they can just “get down” and show that they haven’t lost the common touch. Jesse Jackson does this all the time, as did Chicago’s first black mayor, Harold Washington who once referred to a failing plan as being in “deep doo-doo.” Anybody offended by what Obama’s wife said, should just get over it.

Posted on Friday, November 05, 2004 – 08:36 pm:
Though you have pointed out that this “ghetto expression” has “made it into the mainstream of the black idiom” (which I agree), I don’t think it’s safe to say that all blacks accept it. You know as well as I do that not all blacks think alike and that is why I know that, while you nor I can give exact numbers as to just how many blacks were offended, I’m sure there are some out there who were. Again, there are no absolutes.

“Blacks don’t always have to be on their good behavior for fear of making a bad impression on white people.”-Cynique

I agree. Do you feel this applies to all races though?

Posted on Friday, November 05, 2004 – 09:05 pm:

I’ll be praying for Elizabeth Edwards.

As for Michelle Obama’s “baby’s daddy” comment–I was in room with black people from all over the world when she made it.

A black American couple owned the home I was in. There was a Somali model and her biracial daughter—two Ethiopian couples—two Kenyan men—a black couple from Mississippi, another black couple from Arizona, my black mother from Wash.D.C. and two black couples from Jamaica and one from Aruba, West Indies.

WE ALL LAUGHED “infectiously” when Michelle made the comment…and in that moment….they became REAL PEOPLE to us. The whole room fell in love with them even more than before.

MOON—the only kind of blacks who take offense at a MARRIED black woman calling her hubby “my baby’s daddy”….are the INSECURE ones who have something to prove to “white people”–and usually, those type of blacks wish to BE white themselves.

I find it hard to believe that anyone with any real intelligence would be offended by a Harvard Graduate–MARRIED to her “baby’s daddy”….being benevolent enough and politically astute enough to affirm the realities of so many black women who have no education, no men in their lives or their childrens’ lives and who NEEDED that bit of affirmation/recognition from a sista on high.

Very rarely are single black mothers–most of whom MAKE A WAY OUT OF NO WAY every damned day of the week….given their props.

I know MANY “ghetto women” who hold down a job, go to school, singlehandedly feed and clothe their babies….and BLACK WOMEN in America have been doing this for DECADES.

Without much praise.

I loved Michelle Obama for having the presence of mind and “cultural caring” to use HER POSITION to affirm a ghetto saying.

And I greatly admire so called “ghetto blacks” FAR MORE than I do the black middle class. I love it that OBAMA is so very “Kenyan” and regal and presents himself as a man of his people.

FOR THAT..and because I so love his wife’s grace and class, I will spend thousands to support him.

Posted on Friday, November 05, 2004 – 11:25 pm:
Well, Moonsigns, as far as I’m concerned this is much ado about nothing since, as we agree, nobody knows how widespread the disapproval was of Michelle’s remark. And who really cares about something this trivial? I think your reference to it says more about you than her. The “baby daddy” reference was no more of a faux pas than some of the things that Kerry’s wife said, or what Laura Bush might say if she could ever stop smiling like an idiot and say anything.

Posted on Saturday, November 06, 2004 – 06:55 am:
Cynique,

Beyond this discussion, Michelle’s “baby daddy” comment is not a part of my daily thought pattern. Someone had mentioned it earlier in a thread and that is why I shared my feelings about it.

Laura Bush does say too little, which can be both good and bad. Kerry’s wife said too much. I wouldn’t have minded her hubby for president, but her as the first lady….that would have been something! LOL

Posted on Saturday, November 06, 2004 – 07:53 am:
Moonsigns,

I agree with your contrast of Edwards and Obama. Though both men are unproven as leaders, Obama appears to have more innate Presidential timber.

And, actually, the smarter/better leader in the Edwards’ household is his wife Elizabeth. That chick is smarter than a MOFO!

But really, the “baby daddy” thing is just a joke…between friends.

And when I see you (and other you White people) overreact to something as trivial as that, I can’t help wondering whether you are building Obama up just so he’ll have a higher pedestal from which you can knock him down from.

PS: My wife calls me her “baby daddy” all the time as a term of endearment. And after I received positive confirmation from the DNA tests, I learned to appreciate that.

And more here.

***

From “A Brief History of baby-daddies” published in Slate Magazine two years ago:

Celebrity gossips are not known for their contributions to English letters. In tabloids, the copy is breathless, the headlines are stunningly literal, and the “hand-written” photo captions seem to toggle between “Awww!” and “Ew!” But as they zero in on celebrity mating and breeding rituals, the magpies keep breaking new linguistic ground. First they imported the British term bump, a noun used to refer to the protruding abdomen of a pregnant starlet. Then they awarded celebrity couples mash-up nicknames like “Bennifer,” “Brangelina,” and “TomKat.” Now they’ve seized upon baby-daddy and baby-mama, two useful terms that have long appeared in hip-hop and R&B lyrics, and are slowly stripping them of their emotional fangs.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines baby-daddy as “the father of a woman’s child, who is not her husband or (in most cases) her current or exclusive partner.” The baby-mama entry follows the same template with the genders reversed. But some gossip writers have been adopting the first part of the definition and ignoring the second. Salon recently called Tom Cruise “Katie Holmes’ baby-daddy,” even though the couple is engaged. And Gawker refers to Keven Federline as “Britney Spears’ baby-daddy,” even though the couple has been married for more than a year.

…These days, the terms no longer seem “chiefly African-American”—they’re everywhere, the latest bits of hip-hop lingo to gain widespread use. Baby-daddy is the new bling. Online, you can buy “Jesus is my baby-daddy” magnets, tote bags, and beer steins. There is a drink called the “babymama.” Scott Hoffman, the bassist for the glam rock band the Scissors Sisters, goes by the stage name “Babydaddy.” Some of this cultural paraphernalia retains the old, loaded sense of the term: You can, for example, download a “Salty Baby Mama” ringtone so that when people call, your phone will jangle and thrum while a woman’s voice says, “Baby, I know you hear this damn phone ringing. I’m going to beat your ass, as soon as I see you.” But just as often, the connotations are strictly biological. Baby-mama has even made inroads in Japan, where it’s being used on a Web site that appears to sell strollers.

Who knows why these terms became catchphrases? Perhaps it’s just that they’re metrically pleasing: Baby-mama and baby-daddy are undeniably fun to say. But it’s the novelty factor that explains how the words lost their negative connotations. Sure, there are many gossip writers who still use the terms in their original senses (calling dancer Carlos Leon “Madonna’s baby-daddy,” for example) because they’re useful, reducing a complex chain of possessives—Madonna’s daughter’s father—to a nice, comprehensible noun. But it seems there are also plenty of writers who just like the way the words sound and don’t care much about the stigma once attached to babydaddyhood. When news came last week that Anna Nicole Smith may be pregnant, it was no surprise that bloggers immediately began speculating about the identity of the “baby daddy.” It may be a long time before you hear a quaint, old-fashioned “Who’s the dad?”

***

Here comes the knee-jerk avalanche of hate mail:

from pearlene_scott@cox.net
to writemalkin@gmail.com
date Thu, Jun 12, 2008 at 1:35 AM
subject Michelle Obama
mailed-by cox.net

You disgusting racist slant eyed pig! How do you like the name calling? Referring to Senator Obama’s wife in your typical way is what the country expects from an ignorant racist pig like yourself. No one wants to listen to your racist rants anymore. May the nightmare that is you be gone soon.

***

from HTHS57@aol.com
to writemalkin@gmail.com
date Thu, Jun 12, 2008 at 12:53 AM
subject Michelle Obama comments
mailed-by aol.com

You are reprehensible
The impression you give is having a plastic face, a plastic mind and a plastic heart.
Your stupidity is clearly and abundantly superceded by your nasty nasty mind and heart always.
There is no one home in your body.

***

from [redacted at the request of the hate-mailer]
to writemalkin@gmail.com
date Thu, Jun 12, 2008 at 12:03 AM
subject TIP
mailed-by msn.com

I find your attacks on Mrs Obama disgusting. As someone of mixed race I wonder if your desire to take part in this behavior is due to self-loathing. Do you have issues about your own background and feel that you are somehow made “whiter” by saying these things? Believe me, to the crowd you associate with you are nothing more than the token brown girl with a cheerleader’s vocal affectation. You should be ashamed of yourself, and if you don’t have the grace to feel that way, I am ashamed for you. My tip for you is… start acting like a human being.

***

from MsNiana@aol.com
to writemalkin@gmail.com
date Wed, Jun 11, 2008 at 11:54 PM
subject Your Fox appearance
mailed-by aol.com

I have never taken the time to e-mail anyone regarding comments made in a public forum. However, your Obama Baby Mama comments have triggered something in me that NO ONE has managed to do thus far. It is degrading for a married woman, especially of her stature to be referred to this way, but of course that’s why you found pleasure in doing it. It also has a racist tone to it, which is also way you’ve found pleasure in doing it. For someone who looks like she is in need of racial tolerance, you certainly have a lot of nerve. There are many racist references that I can name when I look at you, many which your so called colleagues at Fox have already uttered behind you’re back, I’m sure. Your politics are your own, but you should be ashamed. How someone as ethnic as you obviously are can find pleasure in contributing to such low class racial speak is beyond me.

from David Medina db999us@yahoo.com
to writemalkin@gmail.com
date Thu, Jun 12, 2008 at 2:00 AM
subject tip
mailed-by yahoo.com
signed-by yahoo.com

you like like a asian clown

Let’s not let the facts get in the way!

Anne Leary:

In his video presentation to the YearlyKos convention in Chicago, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL),the second-ranking Dem leader in the Senate, appears to have violated Senate ethics rules. Dick Durbin either broke Senate ethics rules by improperly using the Senate seal on a campaign video, or he used official resources to produce the video and then his campaign used that video.

And apparently our stellar Senator Durbin has now realized this himself, as he has changed the wording on his YouTube channel after the fact. Look at the before screenshot campaign wording on the channel title “Dick Durbin for Senate” and the page says “All the latest videos from Senator Dick Durbin’s election campaign”. The url is the campaign website, not the official one, and you can see the U.S. Senate seal superimposed on the frozen video screen.

Dan Curry notes that the YouTube video has now been pulled. But the screenshot has been preserved.

And so has the pre-scrubbed Durbin YouTube channel (via Anne Leary):

I’m sure the Clean Congress Democrats will get right on the case.

***

No Agenda has more:

One might suggest that Durbin used official resources to produce the video and then his campaign used that video. However, the Ethics manual makes it clear that it should not be used for campaign or political activities:

Official resources may only be used for official purposes. This principle derives in large part from 31 U.S.C. § 1301(a), providing that official funds are to be used only for the purposes for which appropriated, as well as from statutory authorizations for allowances. 418 It is thus inappropriate to use any official resources to conduct campaign or political activities. (Senate Ethics Manual, Chapter 6, Campaign Use of Official Resources, p 153)

Notwithstanding any other provision of law, an alien who is not lawfully present in the United States shall not be eligible on the basis of residence within a State (or a political subdivision) for any postsecondary education benefit unless a citizen or national of the United States is eligible for such a benefit (in no less an amount, duration, and scope) without regard to whether the citizen or national is such a resident.

Ten states defied that federal law and offered in-state tuition to illegal aliens: California, Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, and Washington. The last time the DREAM Act champions tried to tack their scheme onto a larger immigration proposal, they snuck in language that would absolve those ten states of their law-breaking by repealing the 1996 law retroactively–and also offered a special path to green cards and citizenship for illegal alien students.

See also Kris Kobach’s analysis.

Now, Dick Durbin has announced he will stick the DREAM Act into the Senate version of the House Defense Bill HR1585. The lowdown is here. Durbin’s amendment would also welcome large numbers of illegal aliens into the military (you know, in addition to those the Pentagon has already allowed in).

The open-borders lobby couldn’t get shamnesty “comprehensively,” so they are doing it piecemeal, as I’ve warned many times. As before, it’s up to you to slay these mini-amnesty beasts.

Contact your congressman here.

Now there’s this despicable act in Boise, Idaho reportedly committed by the sons of a state Democrat legislator:

Police arrested 24-year old Michael Burkett of Boise early Sunday morning after officers with Capitol Mall Security reported spotting him vandalizing two flag polls on the grounds of the Idaho Statehouse.

The flags are memorials to soldiers who lost their lives in the war on terror.

“It’s certainly upsetting, not just to officers but for any citizen of this county who knows somebody who lost their lives in Iraq or Afghanistan,” Lt. Ron Winegar said of the ongoing investigation.

Burkett was charged with resisting arrest and Malicious Injury to Property. He and his 22-year-old brother, Tom Burkett, also charged with the vandalism, are the sons of state Sen. Michael Burkett (D) of Idaho’s 19th district.

Clayton Cramer:

Look, if Burkett’s sons were arrested doing some non-political act of vandalism, I could chalk it up to youthful stupidity. (There’s a lot of that.) If this were a political act of vandalism taken against Republican campaign signs, I wouldn’t be happy, but you know, people get carried away at the end of a campaign. But knocking over flags memorializing our fallen soldiers? This is moonbattery of the highest order–completely ineffective at changing policy, but rich in symbolism…you have to wonder how much of this irrational hatred of the United States was learned at the dinner table.

And on college campuses across the country. Remember:

Flashback – An attack on the ROTC at UNC Chapel Hill:

Flashback – Anti-military vandalism at the University of Minnesota:

Flashback – And can’t forget Santa Cruz.

Flashback – More attacks on military recruiters.

Another anti-military attack flashback: Indianapolis military memorial defaced with “peace” graffiti and anti-Bush profanities.

It is not a long journey between these people and Dick Durbin and John Kerry and Company.

Who do you want in charge in Washington? Them or us?

***

Speaking of unhinged sons of Democrat pols, remember the Milwaukee tire-slashers from the 2004 campaign?

Teddy Kennedy led the charge last night with a speech to the Center for American Progress.

Download and watch this video clip (.wmv).

Transcript:

KENNEDY: In another area of controversy, his views on issues of particular concern to women should give every woman pause, from his role in striking down the key provisions of the Family and Medical Leave Act, to his opposition to the privacy of women’s reproductive decisions.

He was unwilling to accept the constitutional right of privacy recognized by the current Supreme Court. Judge Alito’s testimony failed to resolve the very serious concerns that he’s itching to overturn Roe v. Wade. He said that he will keep an “open mind” on the issue.

But there is no comfort to those who know his record….

I know I don’t even need to write the punchline for you.

***

Related: Newsbusters’ Ken Shepherd compares the NYTimes’ obsession with Martha Burk’s crusade against the male-only Augusta National Golf Club with the paper’s silence about Kennedy’s membership in the male-only Owl Club.

***

Scott Johnson at Power Line reports on Sen. Dick Durbin’s bloviations about a possible filibuster. Leon H. at RedState ponders Democrat options.

Hugh Hewitt believes Turley. Betsy Newmark wonders why the rest of the MSM isn’t paying attention:

You would think that the rest of the media would be interested in this brouhaha. They live and die by having sources talk to them in Washington. To have a source give them a story and then deny it and basically call the reporter (which was what Turley was for this story) a liar when the source himself was the one lying is something that hits them where they live. The fact that it is the Minority Whip in the Senate just makes the story more newsworthy. But I predict that no other news sources than those with a conservative bias like the Washington Times or Fox News will revisit the story. We’ll see if the L.A. Times does since theirs was the paper in which Turley’s column first appeared. Don’t they care that something appeared in their editorial pages that was based on a lie told by a Senator who then tried to make the columnist look like he was the one lying?

Scott Johnson at Power Line adds: “This is a fascinating story, revelatory of the ways of Washington and one of Washington’s major players. How can it be that the Washington Times is eating the Washington Post’s lunch on it? I think we all know the answer, but that too is another interesting aspect of the story.”

Does Reynolds Wrap have an endorsement deal with the Democrat Party or what?

Hugh Hewitt analyzes The Durbin Effect:

The willingness to slander the servicemen and women responsible for the custody and interrogation of the detainees at Gitmo and around the globe did not begin with Durbin and it will not end with Pelosi.

True that. Kevin at MediaSlander has the latest example.

***

Update:

Some are still not satisfied with Durbin’s statement…

Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), said Mr. Durbin’s apology “was not sufficient” and contrasted the Democrat’s reaction to that of Sen. Rick Santorum, Pennsylvania Republican, who was criticized by the ADL for likening the use of the filibuster on judges to Nazi tactics.

“Senator Santorum apologized,” Mr. Foxman said. “Senator Durbin’s explanation is not an apology, and I think an apology is in order.”

Update II: National Review warns about the next Gitmo gambit.

La Shawn Barber points to this post-mortem
from Jon Ham of the John Locke Foundation.

Update III: Update to the first update. ADL statement on the Durbin apology here. Thanks to all the e-mailers.

Looks like the Console George folks are going to have to start up a separate Kleenex campaign for Dick. I haven’t seen such an odious display of insincerity since Tom Cruise pounced on Oprah’s couch.

This little skirmish is over, but the continuing assault on the military’s detention policies and practices at Gitmo and beyond continues.

Vigilance.

***

More blogger reax…

Captain’s Quarters: “Color me unimpressed. His fellow party members will now ask us all to move along. I’ll consider doing that if they now will admit that Durbin’s original statement slandered the military and debased the memories of those millions of victims that truly experienced what genocidal maniacs do with their innocent captives. If not, then they are just playing word games until they discover the right combination to climb out of the box in which Durbin has put them.”

Smash: Show’s over, folks. Move along.

Chris Short: “Perhaps you should read your speeches out loud to your staff before you read them in front of America from now on Senator Durbin.”

Will Collier: “The forced apology doesn’t mean much. The damage is done, and al-Jazeera isn’t likely to tout Dickie’s retraction with much vigor.”

Much more at Backcountry Conservative.

Ace of Spades on The Maverick John McCain’s seal of approval.

See also Hugh Hewitt for a must-read interview with a National Guardsman who served at Gitmo.

Maybe Dick Durbin should read the transcript on the Senate floor.

***

Eat these words:

I’m certainly not going to be intimidated by the right-wing message machine,” he said. “If I’m going to back off every time they decide their unhappy with my statements, then I really won’t be doing my job.

– Dick Durbin, 6/17/05

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Previous:

Durbin Watch: Daley says apologize
Durbin Watch: Read his lips
Durbin Watch: The drubbing continues
Durbin Watch: Cheney and more
Durbin Watch: History lessons
Durbin Watch: MSM reax
Gitmo vs. Cook County Jail
The treacherous Dick Durbin
Hitler, Hitler, everywhere