So, the Office of Congressional Ethics joined in the Holiday Document Dump Spirit (ho, ho, ho!) on Friday and unloaded a two-year-old report on Jesse Jackson, Jr.’s cameo role in the Blago Senate seat trading scam.

The announcement is on the OCE site here, but you can read the 300-page report right here in case you missed it:

Review No 09-9812 Referral to Committee

The upshot: The toothless OCE found “probable cause” and “substantial reason to believe” that not only did Jackson conspire to trade campaign cash for the Senate appointment, but that Jackson also broke the law by using taxpayer-subsidized office resources to promote a “public campaign” for Barack Obama’s old seat. Straight from the report:

There is probable cause to believe that Representative Jackson either (1) directed a third-party, most likely Mr. Raghuveer Nayak, to offer to raise money for Governor Blagojevich in exchange for appointing Representative Jackson to the Senate seat, or (2) had knowledge that Nayak would likely make such an offer once Representative Jackson authorized him to advocate on his behalf with Governor Blagojevich. Because former Governor Blagojevich, Nayak and Mr. Rajinder Bedi have declined to cooperate with the OCE investigation, and because the OCE cannot compel their cooperation, the OCE is unable to determine whether there is a substantial reason to believe these allegations.

…There is substantial reason to believe that Representative Jackson violated federal law and rules promulgated by the Committee on House Administration concerning the proper use of the Member’s Representational Allowance. Specifically, the OCE learned from Representative Jackson and his staff that staff resources both in the Representative’s Washington, DC and Chicago, Illinois, offices were used to mount a “public campaign” to secure the Representative’s appointment to the Senate.

None of this is new news — most of the details emerged in the Chicago press and at trial — though the moldy oldy report includes a fresh, 17-page CYA letter from Jackson and his attorneys denying everything and invoking the see no corruption, hear no corruption defense.

The delayed disclosure of the 2009 OCE comes just as Blago is scheduled to be sentenced early this week following his June conviction in the pay-for-play corruption case.

And while OCE plays docu-dump reindeer games, the House Ethics Committee has decided to play more Kick the Can. Sporting its own holiday scandal muffler, the panel announced…it would have nothing to announce. It reneged on a do-something Friday deadline in Jackson’s ethics case and said it would continue to investigate:

Pursuant to House Rule XI, Clause 3(a)(8)(A) and Committee Rules 17A(b)(1)(A) and 17A(c)(1), the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Committee jointly decided on October 18, 2011 to extend the Committee’s review of the matter until December 2, 2011. In order to gather additional information necessary to complete its review, the Committee will continue to review the matter pursuant to Committee Rule 18(a). The Committee notes that the mere fact of conducting further review of a referral, and any mandatory disclosure of such further review, does not itself indicate that any violation has occurred, or reflect any judgment on behalf of the Committee.

As The Hill reports, Jackson faces a challenge from his left flank and has asked reverse Midas Touch pal Barack Obama for help. Careful what you wish for, crony:

While the committee has not set a new deadline for its decision, the delay threatens to push the committee’s findings into later this year — during what could be a tough primary battle for Jackson. The primary election is March 20.

Former Rep. Debbie Halvorson (D-Ill.) announced in early October that she would challenge Jackson for a new Chicago-based congressional district. That district is primarily composed of Jackson’s current constituents, but includes substantial areas of the Chicago suburbs more familiar with Halvorson.

Jackson’s concern over the district is significant enough that he reportedly asked President Obama for help in the 2012 race. Jackson headed then-Sen. Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign in Illinois.

And while the Ethics Committee emphasized that “conducting further review of a referral … does not itself indicate that any violation has occurred,” having the threat of Ethics Committee punishment looming over Jackson’s primary fight is disconcerting.

Halvorson has indicated she will make it a campaign issue.

As commenter Flyoverman quipped here almost a year ago: “The only ethics committee with any clout is an informed electorate.”

Or as I always like to put it: The ballot box is the ultimate sanitizer.

***

Previous/related:

Capitol Hill’s other dirty laundry

Summer of corruption: Blago verdict watch, Day 14; Update: Count 24 – lying to feds – GUILTY; deadlocked on all remaining counts against Blago and bro; mistrial declared; lone juror holdout

Summer of corruption: Blago verdict watch & Jesse Jackson, Jr. watch

The long, hot Summer of Corruption

Blago appointed Obama’s AG to probe corruption; probe found no corruption; Holder forgets the whole thing

Three are dead. Seven are wounded, some in critical condition. Keep the victims and their families in your prayers. After going on a bloody early morning rampage in Cupertino, Calif., Shareef Allman is still on the loose.

His friends and colleagues can’t believe their “peaceful” community activist friend would do such a thing.

Time for a reality check:

The Shareef Allman they know would try to stop violence, not deal it out with an assault rifle in a workplace massacre.

Sunny and kind, his tattooed boxer’s biceps as big as his personality, Allman would help people when they had trouble at work, friends said Wednesday. He was the one who stopped gang fights. And he was the one on his cable show “Real 2 Real” interviewing Jessie Jackson about hope and local street walkers about salvation.

As law enforcement launched one of the largest manhunts in South Bay history, ministers and community activists who knew him tried to shake off their tearful disbelief to urge Allman to peacefully surrender.

Absurdly to them, this 47-year-old single father, who wrote a book about overcoming domestic violence, was now a major suspect in an early morning mass murder that began at Lehigh Hanson’s Permanente Cement Plant in Cupertino and left three dead and seven wounded.

Those who knew Allman said they all had the same terrible contradiction in their minds: How could Shareef — who wrote Christmas plays for churches — have done something like this?

“He’s the one who would go out and solve the problem, not to be the problem,” said Pastor Jeff Moore II, the head of the Silicon Valley NAACP, who said Allman is a sharp-dressed, peaceful and uplifting man devoted to the South Bay black community. “He was a quiet storm and I’ve never seen him lift his hand to anyone, ever. This is not the
Shareef that we know.”

People surmised there was trouble at the quarry in Cupertino, where most of the victims were killed. But few could pinpoint exactly what it was. Over and over people kept saying: He must have snapped.

The latest on the manhunt:

Shareef Allman, 47, of San Jose remained at large late Wednesday. The search was concentrated on the border between Cupertino and Sunnyvale, where Allman was last seen. Police said they had found four weapons but believed Allman remained armed and dangerous.

Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith said Allman showed up for a scheduled 4:15 a.m. safety meeting attended by about 15 people at the Lehigh Permanente Plant, in the hills above Cupertino. He left the meeting, came back and opened fire with a rifle and handgun, she said. Smith described Allman as a disgruntled worker but did not disclose details of what preceded the shooting.

Allman was next seen in a Hewlett-Packard parking lot a mile away, where he allegedly shot an HP employee in the leg and tried to take her car. The victim was taken to a hospital, where she was listed in fair condition.

San Jose residents John Vallejos, 51, and Mark Munoz, 59, died at the quarry. Manuel Pinon, 48, of Newman, south of Modesto, died later at an area hospital. The wounded were not identified by police.

Nine law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, joined the ensuing manhunt. Sheriff’s patrol cars blocked the street leading to the plant. Helicopters flew overhead in a hard rain. Search teams at times were heard on emergency radio frequencies going door to door, sometimes roof to roof. Police cordoned off Allman’s San Jose apartment.

Some schools in the Cupertino area were locked down as word spread that the shooter remained at large.

Video of Allman with Jesse Jackson:

***

Update – Allman reportedly dead.

As if California GOP Senate candidate Carly Fiorina’s massive bailout-supporting economic advice for John McCain wasn’t bad enough (reminder from yesterday’s column: “In California, McCain’s PAC supports former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina – a celebrity name with deep pockets of her own, massive media exposure, and a checkered business record. Fiorina served as the economic adviser to McCain, who supported the $700 billion TARP bailout, the $25 billion auto bailout, a $300 billion mortgage bailout, and the first $85 billion AIG bailout.”), now comes the revelation of that she has had a long political love affair with Jesse Jackson.

It’s on tape, via Neil Stevens of RedState: “When Carly Fiorina speaks on the campaign trail here in California, running to be the Republican nominee to unseat Barbara Boxer, she tries to prohibit recording of her speeches. However somebody snuck in an audio recorder to an event yesterday, and these clips seem to show why she would do that. The real, private Carly seems to be a bit different from the public, ‘conservative’ Carly.”

Listen for yourselves as she coos about “the Reverend Jesse Jackson” and panders to gender quota-mongers at a women’s conference held last week:

Philip Klein at the American Spectator has a partial transcript (and be sure to click the link for more instances of Fiorina slobbering over Jackson):

“And I thought about something that the Reverend Jesse Jackson said to me several years ago. He very graciously came to the offices of Hewlett Packard to visit me, because we were doing some work together for his Rainbow Coalition. And he said to me, ‘You know, Carly, every game is better when everybody gets to play.’ And I thought it was such a great way of describing why everything is better when all people, regardless of color or nationality or gender, get to play. Sports are better. Business is better. Politics are better. The world is better when everybody gets to play in things that matter.”

Fiorina continues to cast herself as a “mainstream conservative.” But what exactly is “mainstream” or “conservative” about heaping praise on one of this country’s greediest and unrepentant race hustlers?

The San Jose Mercury News reports:

In a speech that became public Friday, Fiorina fondly recalled the Rev. Jesse Jackson — a controversial figure across the political spectrum but anathema to many on the right — “very graciously” visiting her at HP years ago, when the two worked together to boost diversity among Silicon Valley’s work force.

“I like to remind people that women are not a constituency — women are a majority,” Fiorina said during her Wednesday night speech in Sacramento, hosted by California Women Lead, a nonpartisan group that encourages women to seek public office. “Women are the majority of voters and we will never have a truly representative democracy unless women make up half, at least, of our elected representatives.”

At a time Fiorina is seeking to appeal to conservatives, the most reliable voters in Republican primaries, her remarks could prove costly. Critics on the right, including one of her opponents in the GOP Senate primary, argued that her speech smacked of identity politics and bristled at her ties to Jackson.

“To equate representative democracy with group power is a very dangerous and wrongheaded way of thinking,” said conservative Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, R-Irvine, who is running against Fiorina. “It’s the kind of gender and racial identity politics we fight with the left over, and it’s the kind of thinking that leads to quotas.”

Fiorina’s response?

A spokeswoman for Fiorina, Julie Soderlund, said she had nothing to apologize for. “It goes without saying that as a mainstream conservative, Carly Fiorina strongly disagrees with Jesse Jackson’s political agenda,” Soderlund said. “Her remarks were focused on the importance of women recognizing and seizing opportunities to serve in public office.”

Really? “It goes without saying?” The trust-me-I’m-a-mainstream-conservative card is hard to swallow when Fiorina has such a scant record to back her up.

There’s a disturbingly long and recent collection of Fiorina quotes endorsing Jesse Jackson. Where are the public quotes from Fiorina ever disavowing Jackson for threatening businesses that didn’t capitulate to his racial bullying?

Reminder:

Jackson has repeatedly threatened businesses and corporations, black and white, with boycotts, racially biased criticism, and (implicitly) outright violence, if they refused to enrich him or his organizations. Among the companies: Coca-Cola, Texaco, Viacom, AT&T, Boeing, and Coors. In addition, his organizations have received at least $50 million from the U.S. government.

To site some specifics: Coca-Cola was induced to award a lucrative distributorship to Jackson’s half-brother, Noah, in order to protect itself from racially based attacks by Jackson (Noah is currently serving a life sentence in prison for arranging the contract murder of three business associates); Anheuser-Busch awarded a beer distributorship to Jackson’s sons, Yusef and Jonathan, for the same reason; President Jimmy Carter directed $7 million in government funds to PUSH; President Bill Clinton sent Jackson on a junket to Africa that cost American taxpayers $42 million; Jackson opposed the merger of Viacom and CBS, and attempted to force Viacom to sell the UPN Network to Percy Sutton, in whose Inner City Broadcasting company Jackson held $1.2 million worth of shares; and Jackson opposed the merger of SBC Communications and Ameritech until Ameritech sold its cellular business to a group headed by Chester Davenport, another Jackson friend.

Jackson has received literally millions of dollars for his Citizens Education Fund as part of negotiated settlements with companies he has frivolously accused of racist employment practices.

Jackson radicalized the political agenda of Operation PUSH, moving directly into the political arena to unseat the Chicago delegates of Mayor Richard Daley at the 1972 Democratic National Convention in Miami. He began his international political career later in the decade. In 1979, with President Carter’s blessing, he went to South Africa to speak against the apartheid regime; he made a controversial visit to Palestinian terrorist Yasser Arafat; and in 1983, alleging that President Reagan’s economic policies had severely impacted blacks, he made the first of his two runs for U.S. President. Despite the revelation by the Washington Post that Jackson (in a conversation with his campaign aides) had called Jews “Hymies” and New York City “Hymietown,” he received 3.5 million votes during the primaries, enough to guarantee respect within the Democratic Party and the chance to give a major speech at the 1984 Democratic National Convention.

Fiorina believes she is best suited to offer a contrasting vision to Democrat Sen. Barbara Boxer — a feminist social engineer who panders to self-appointed liberal black leaders and treats minority conservatives who oppose Rainbow Coalition racialism with naked contempt.

She looks and sounds more like an echo, not a choice.

Priceless moments:

1) When Jesse Jackson’s eyes bulge out so far they almost fall out of their sockets.

2) MSNBC anchor Contessa Brewer’s cloying “I’m sooorrry,” which comes only after blaming the script in the monitor for the mix-up and then pretentiously asserting that of course she knows who he is because she was staring right at him.

Prompters make you say the darnedest things, eh?

Panning the crowd at Obama’s celebration rally in Chicago, the cameras found Jesse Jackson crying.

Maybe he was thinking of this.

Remember?

The Rev. Jesse Jackson issued an apology to Barack Obama Wednesday for making what he called a “crude and hurtful” remark about the Illinois senator’s recent comments directed toward some members of the black community.

According to Jackson, a Fox News microphone picked up comments he meant to deliver privately that seemed to disparage the presumptive Democratic nominee for appearing to lecture the black community on morality.

Jackson didn’t elaborate on the context of his remarks, except to say he was trying to explain that Obama was hurting his relationship with black voters by recently conducting “moral” lectures at African-American churches.

Jackson’s apology came a few hours before Fox News planned to air the remarks.

Speaking to CNN Wednesday, Jackson said he feels “very distressed” over the comments.

Example from Jack in West Va.: “As a loyal FNC viewer, I can’t understand why Fox won’t play the entire Jesse Jackson tape in order to corroborate his use of the N-word. I feel Jackson’s hypocrisy is very newsworthy!”

***

Hey, remember when Jesse Jackson called for a boycott of Seinfeld DVDs to protest Kramer actor Michael Richard’s use of the n-word? The rev-uh-rund had a conniption fit over the word and demanded that everyone refrain from using the word onstage and off.

Refresher:

In the last week, Richards has become better known for hurling the N-word at black hecklers after attempting a lynching joke during the same riff and, later, for apologizing—or trying to, anyway.

“My best friends were African-Americans,” Richards said Sunday on Jackson’s Premiere Radio Network show.

The Jackson gig was the latest in Richards’ reaching-out effort to African-American men who have run for president. Before the radio appearance, the actor was said to have placed contrite phone calls to Jackson and the Reverend Al Sharpton. There was no word if Alan Keyes, a 1996 and 2000 Republican presidential candidate, was sought out.

On his show, Jackson said he hoped the Richards “crisis” would create an opportunity.

On Monday, the civil-rights leader joined others in calling on everyone—blacks, whites, Seinfeld players, presumably included—to refrain from using the N-word, on stage and off.

“Its roots are rooted in hatred and pain and degradation,” Jackson told a Los Angeles press conference. “And whether it’s hatred toward African-Americans or whether it’s self-hatred, a concession toward it is still wrong.”

Wrong–except when he uses it himself:

JACKSON: “Barack…he’s talking down to black people…telling n—s how to behave.”

N-word for me, but not for thee, eh, Jesse?

Nuts!

***

Allahpundit has your Absolute Moral Authority update.

But, you know, it’s us meanie conservatives who are responsible for all the race-based smears.

Uh-huh.

CNN reports:

The Rev. Jesse Jackson issued an apology to Barack Obama Wednesday for making what he called a “crude and hurtful” remark about the Illinois senator’s recent comments directed toward some members of the black community.

According to Jackson, a Fox News microphone picked up comments he meant to deliver privately that seemed to disparage the presumptive Democratic nominee for appearing to lecture the black community on morality.

Jackson didn’t elaborate on the context of his remarks, except to say he was trying to explain that Obama was hurting his relationship with black voters by recently conducting “moral” lectures at African-American churches.

Jackson’s apology came a few hours before Fox News planned to air the remarks.

Speaking to CNN Wednesday, Jackson said he feels “very distressed” over the comments.

***

The NYPost reports:

In a shocking blast at Barack Obama that was caught on tape, the Rev. Jesse Jackson said, “I wanna cut his nuts out.”

He made the astonishingly vulgar remark as he accused the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee of giving moral lectures to African-Americans.

“See, Barack [has] been talking down to black people . . . I wanna cut his nuts out,” Jackson said.
His whispered comments – accompanied by his hand-miming a cutting motion – were picked up by a live mike before an interview on health care in Fox News Channel’s Chicago studio Sunday.

In an effort to blunt the controversy, Jackson apologized publicly at a news conference before the tape aired last night on Bill O’Reilly’s “The Factor” show on Fox News Channel.

“It was not a public speech or a declaration,” Jackson said at the news conference, although he admitted his language was “regretfully crude” and “hurtful.

***

Update: Apology accepted…

The Obama campaign took a measured response to the incident, contending in a statement that Obama has spoken for many years about parental responsibility as well as “jobs, justice and opportunity for all.”

“He will continue to speak out about our responsibilities to ourselves and each other, and he of course accepts Rev. Jackson’s apology,” Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton said.

A northwest suburban gun manufacturer was the focus yesterday as two high-profile Chicago clergy leaders led a demonstration outside the plant.

Revs. Jesse Jackson and Michael Pfleger, along with about 150 anti-gun violence protesters, were met by dozens of Lake Barrington residents and pro-gun enthusiasts when they arrived outside of D.S. Arms gun manufacturer.

This was the fifth anti-gun demonstration organized by Jackson and Pfleger. The previous protests were held outside of gun shop in Riverdale and Melrose Park. This time the duo wanted to up the ante.

“We do not manufacture guns in American cities. They come from places like this. Chicago is voted gun dry. We want Barrington to vote gun dry,” Jackson told supporters as pro-gun supporters countered that they had the right to exercise the Second Amendment — the right to bear arms.

D.S. Arms, a 20-year-old institution, manufactures semi-automatic assault rifles and does not sell to the public. They have about 20 clients, consisting of law enforcement and the military, said Michael Danworth, legal counsel for the company.Gun advocates sent a foul message to Jackson and his supporters.

…In addition to enlarged posters of the book cover Shakedown: Exposing the Real Jesse Jackson hanging outside the plant, cow manure was spread in the middle of the road reserved for the rally and march. The area had to be cleaned before the protest began. When asked if the D.S. had knowledge of why the manure was on the road, an attorney for the company said no, but speculated as to why it was there.

“When you have got what we see in Rev. Jackson coming out here and promoting disinformation, to us that stinks to high heaven,” Danworth told reporters.

Dang, that’s good dung-slinging.

Update 7/10 7:30am: Anti-gun Democrat lawmaker practices “Do as I say, not as I do:”

A state lawmaker who opposed a bill giving Texans stronger right to defend themselves with deadly force pulled a gun and shot a man he says was trying to steal copper wiring from a construction site, police said Monday.

Rep. Borris Miles told police he was fixing a leak on the second floor of the Houston house he’s building Sunday night when he heard a noise downstairs and saw two men trying to steal the copper. After Miles confronted the pair, one of the men threw a pocketknife at him, Houston Police spokesman Victor Senties.

Miles, a former law enforcement officer, shot the man in the left leg, police said. The wounded suspect was being treated at a Houston hospital…

Police said Miles, who is in his freshman term, is licensed to carry a concealed weapon. No charges have been filed against Miles, Senties said. Miles, a Democrat, voted against a bill that gives Texans stronger legal right to defend themselves with deadly force in their homes, vehicles, and workplaces. The so-called “castle doctrine,” passed by the Legislature this year, states that a person has no duty to retreat from an intruder before using deadly force. The law goes into effect Sept. 1.

***
The deputy mayor for education in Washington, D.C., was held up recently in broad daylight by two armed robbers:

The man in charge of fixing the District’s ailing schools might be more focused this week on another troubled aspect of the city — public safety — after he was robbed at gunpoint in broad daylight while walking home from the Metro.

Victor Reinoso, the deputy mayor for education, was walking in the 6800 block of Fifth Street NW at 7:25 p.m. Monday when he was held up by two men, police said. One man, wearing a pink shirt, pointed a black and silver handgun at Reinoso and demanded that he drop his briefcase, police said.

The second assailant picked up the briefcase and ordered, “Give me your cellphone,” which Reinoso did, according to a police report. The men then told Reinoso to hand over his wallet, and he complied.

Reinoso, 38, was not hurt.

“He was pretty lucky,” police Cmdr. Hilton Burton said, noting robberies can end in violence.

NRA head Wayne LaPierre sees a perfect illustration of Washington’s handgun ban folly:

Just how worthless is Washington, D.C.’s gun ban? It’s so bad in our nation’s capitol that a deputy mayor was recently robbed at gunpoint.

Victor Reinoso is lucky to be alive today, but do you think he’ll be speaking out about the pointlessness of D.C.’s gun ban? Not if he wants to keep his job, he won’t.

Criminals don’t care about gun laws … anymore than they care about D.C.’s complete gun ban

Ultimately, Victor Reinoso’s robbery probably won’t mean much when it comes to public policy in Washington, D.C. After all, they’ve already stuck with the ban for 30 years- what’s one more innocent victim?

You’ll recall that the city’s handgun ban was struck down by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit earlier this year. The Harvard Law Bulletin has a new overview of the looming Supreme Court showdown.

Continuing his war on gun owners, the Rev. Jesse Jackson has announced a 25-city, anti-gun protest on August 25. The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms is calling on Second Amendment supporters to counter-protest. Mark it on your calendars:

While Rev. Jesse Jackson is feverishly organizing a 25-city anti-gun protest on Tuesday, Aug. 28, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) wants gun owners to visit gun shops and shooting ranges, and contact their state and federal lawmakers on that date to demand that they support our Second Amendment rights.

Jackson’s day of national protest is timed on the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s 1963 March on Washington, D.C.

“The great hypocrisy here,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan M. Gottlieb, “is that Dr. King’s historic march was to promote and defend civil rights. What Jesse Jackson is planning is designed to crush America’s most important civil right. A right that Dr. King exercised by owning a handgun.”

Jackson wants to limit the number of firearms a person may purchase in a calendar year, place new restrictions on who is allowed to legally own a handgun, and mandate longer waiting periods.

“While Jackson and his gun-grabbing cronies want to make it more difficult, if not impossible, for average Americans to keep and bear arms,” Gottlieb said, “gun owners can exercise their Constitutional rights, and tell their lawmakers to defend the Second Amendment. They can visit a gun shop, buy a gun or ammunition, or visit a range and exercise their rights.

“Being from Chicago,” Gottlieb said, “it is astonishing that Jackson has failed to see the correlation between that city’s Draconian handgun ban and Chicago’s violent crime rate, yet he wants to lead a nationwide protest against a constitutionally-protected civil right. Rev. Jackson evidently has forgotten the question raised in Luke, Chapter 6: ‘Can the blind lead the blind’?”

“Holding law-abiding gun owners responsible for crimes they did not commit, which is what restrictive gun laws do, is like bearing false witness against thy neighbor,” Gottlieb said. “I might suggest that anybody joining in this protest remember the words of Matthew, who said ‘Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.”

The Rev. Jesse Jackson was arrested Saturday at a demonstration outside a south suburban gun shop and charged with one count of criminal trespass to property.

Jackson was arrested when he refused to move away from the entrance to Chuck’s Gun Shop in Riverdale, police said. He has protested with other community activists outside the shop in recent weeks after a 16-year-old honor student was gunned down on a city bus.

Police said the shooting was gang-related but the teen was not the intended target.

Jackson, who says the gun shop’s proximity to Chicago provides gang members and criminals easy access to firearms, has used the protests to call for stricter gun laws.

Reduced to harrassing a gun shop instead of facing down the black gangs that are terrorizing innocent, Chicago-area students and spilling their blood. Always the consummate opportunist, Jesse Jackson once again reveals what an increasingly irrelevant moral coward he has become.

Let’s stipulate: I have no love for Don Imus, Al Sharpton, or Jesse Jackson. I repeat: A pox on all their race-baiting houses.

Let’s also stipulate: The Rutgers women’s basketball team didn’t deserve to be disrespected as “nappy-headed hos.” No woman deserves that. I agree with the athletes that Imus’s misogynist mockery was “deplorable, despicable and unconscionable.” And as I noted on Fox News’s O’Reilly Factor this week, I believe top public officials and journalists who have appeared on Imus’s show should take responsibility for enabling Imus—and should disavow his longstanding invective.

But let’s take a breath now and look around. Is the Sharpton & Jackson Circus truly committed to cleaning up cultural pollution that demeans women and perpetuates racial epithets? Have you seen the Billboard Hot Rap Tracks chart this week?

The number one rap track is by a new sensation who goes by the name of “Mims.”

The “song” is “This Is Why I’m Hot.” It has topped the charts for the last 15 weeks. Here’s a taste of the lyrics that young men and women are cranking up in their cars:

This is why I’m hot
Catch me on the block
Every other day
Another bitch another drop
16 bars, 24 pop
44 songs, nigga gimme what you got…

… We into big spinners
See my pimping never dragged
Find me wit’ different women that you niggas never had
For those who say they know me know I’m focused on ma cream
Player you come between you’d better focus on the beam
I keep it so mean the way you see me lean
And when I say I’m hot my nigga dis is what I mean

Here’s the video:

Let’s move down the Billboard list, shall we? The number two rap track in the nation this week is by rappers Bow Wow and R. Kelly (yes, the same R. Kelly who was indicted five years ago on a raft of child-porn charges and is still awaiting trial). The “song” is called “I’m a Flirt” and it’s been on the charts for 12 weeks:

I’m a b pimpin
I don’t be slippin
When it come down to these hos
I don’t love em
We don’t cuff em
Man that’s just the way it goes
I pull up in the Phantom
All the ladies think handsome
Jewelry shining, I stay stuntin’
Thats why these niggas can’t stand em
I’m a chick mag-a-net
And anything fine I’m bag-gin it
And if she got a man, I don’t care
10 toes and I wanna be, cause I gotta have it

The final line:

Now the moral of the story is cuff yo chick,’ cause hey,
I’m black, fresh , and I rap, plus I’m rich, and I’m a flirt.

Al Sharpton, I am sure, is ready to call a press conference with the National Organization for Women to jointly protest this garbage and protest the radio stations and big pimpin’ music companies behind it.

Or perhaps the New Civility Squad is not convinced yet that the Billboard chart toppers I’ve highlighted are representative? Let’s proceed to number three on the Billboard rap charts this week (and on the charts for the past 13 weeks): “Go Getta” by a rapper named “Young Jeezy” with a special appearance by R. Kelly (again!). Here’s the “chorus:”

You know we trap all day
Play all night
Dis Is Da Life Of A Go Getta (Ey) Go Getta (Ey) Go Getta (Yea)
U In Da Club
U C A Bad Bitch
Point Her Out (Oh)
Yea U Damn Right Ima (Ey)
You Damn Right Ima Go Getta (Ey) Go Getta (Ey) Go Getta (Yea)

Here’s the video:

The number four song on the Billboard Rap Tracks charts is “Throw Some D’s” by “Rich Boy featuring Polow Da Don” (it’s been on the charts for 18 weeks).
Here’s the chorus:

Rich Boy sellin’ crack
F*k niggas wanna jack
Sh*t tight no slack
Just bought a Cadillac (Throw some D’s on that bitch!)
Just bought a Cadillac (Throw some D’s on that bitch!)
Just bought a Cadillac

Here’s the video:

The lyrical rap poet known as “Unk” has the number five spot with “2 Step.” On the charts for nine weeks, here’s a taste of his dope rhyme:

I See You Got It Right
Beat My Wrist Ice
Colder Than A Bud Light
Now I’m a Take My Time
Where The Gangsters At
And You Can Still Post The Wall Nigga Holla Back
Grey Goose And Yak
Blunt Filled With Kush
I’m Getting Jiggy With It
Smoking On That George Bush
Step

Here’s the video, which features children:

And at number six is “Rock Your Hips” by “Crime Mob.”

Here are the full lyrics:

Lil’ Jay, on the track,nigga, aye & you already know, its ya boi lil scrappy
we finna have the whole M-F world, rockin’in dis bitch,
look at shawty check her out. southern smokin

I like it she when she rock her hips then take it low
She grab the towel and wipe the pole
Oh oh shawty got it goin on , its just me and her
And im in my zone, check out her rack,
Shawty got a fat ass watch her throw dat shit back
They say she sweets like snacks
Betcha put her on da track everyday
Youn eatin lunch coutin muthafuckin stacks

One dumb radio/television shock jock’s insult is a drop in the ocean of barbaric filth and anti-female hatred on the radio.

Imus gets a two-week suspension. What kind of relief do we get from this deadening, coarsening, dehumanizing barrage from young, black rappers and their music industry enablers who have helped turn America into Tourette’s Nation?

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Update: Imus is out. MSNBC cancels radio simulcast.

Update: Snoop Dogg attacks critics who compare him to Imus because, as he told MTV:

“It’s a completely different scenario,” said Snoop, barking over the phone from a hotel room in L.A. “[Rappers] are not talking about no collegiate basketball girls who have made it to the next level in education and sports. We’re talking about ho’s that’s in the ‘hood that ain’t doing sh–, that’s trying to get a n—a for his money. These are two separate things. First of all, we ain’t no old-ass white men that sit up on MSNBC [the cable network home to Imus] going hard on black girls. We are rappers that have these songs coming from our minds and our souls that are relevant to what we feel. I will not let them mutha—–as say we in the same league as him.”

Translation: Only black rappers can call women hos and bitches. Only black rappers can call black people niggas. Because it’s coming from their minds and souls, *&^&)#*&@!!!!

Tens of thousands of protesters are expected to gather in Washington, D.C., this weekend for a major anti-war rally — the first of several events designed to pressure Congress to end the war in Iraq.

Hollywood stars known for their opposition to the war, including actors Susan Sarandon, Jane Fonda, Tim Robbins and Danny Glover, plan on joining the protest on the National Mall this Saturday. Speakers also include the Rev. Jesse Jackson; Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio; Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif.; and Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif.

Keep an eye out for how the MSM treats these protesters versus the tens of thousands of pro-life marchers who came last weekend.

Also keep a close watch on anti-war astroturfing. Greyhawk at Mudville Gazette has been investigating the “Appeal for Redress” group posing as a grass-roots anti-war vets organization. Read and spread the word.

Bill Ardolino, on his way to Iraq for his first embed tour, visited Kuwait’s “Not to Forget” Museum–a “timely place to be,” Bill notes, as Saddam Hussein’s date with the noose approaches.

Go check out his photos and interview.

The victims of Saddam’s atrocities deserve not to be forgotten.

Allah Pundit: “[D]on’t be surprised if there’s big breaking news this afternoon a little after 4 p.m. eastern time.”

Bob Owens hears the same.

Jules Crittenden, who reported from Kuwait and Iraq in 2003, reflects on Saddam’s impending execution:

It’s an odd thing, to be in your 40s, and yet to feel as though you’ve only just been born. Into this world of war. Saddam means a lot of things to a lot of people. To me, Saddam will always be tied to that kid in the ditch among the date palms at al-Hindiyah. A young soldier with a bullet through the side of his face, his eyes open, staring at nothing.

They were Tikritis, the Nebuchadnazzer Division of the Republican Guard, and they died for Saddam. Saddam didn’t have the decency to die for them, when he crawled out of his hole in December 2003, proclaiming himself the President of Iraq.

USA Today’s blogger Mark Memmott rounds-up MSM speculation on the execution.

Flashback: Memorial montage of the victims of the Dujail massacre

Rick Moran calls for treating this historic moment with gravity and sobriety:

I wish I could believe that hanging Saddam will make other tyrants pause and clean up their acts, hoping to avoid suffering a similar fate. But you and I know that is wishful thinking. What is more probable is that the dictators will redouble their efforts to stifle opposition thinking it will guarantee their security – at least from their own people.

But in the end, whether it’s having your neck snapped by a taut rope or dying peacefully in your bed, the criminal oppressors who cause so much human misery and suffering will all come face to face with their own mortality. And I have to believe that as the curtain rings down on their existence, the cold hand of fear will grip their failing heart as they contemplate an eternity that may include torments far surpassing those they meted out during their useless, failed existence on this planet.

The New York Times, decrying the “rush” to execution, wants the Mumia abu Jamal treatment for Saddam. Ed Morrissey puzzles over the editorial. Daniel Freedman listens to the Times’ broken record player.

Jesse Jackson is also shedding tears for Saddam.

Who will air the Saddam execution video?

The timing of Saddam’s date with the gallows was unclear, but late Thursday CBS, NBC and Fox News Channel reported that the former dictator, convicted this year in the deaths of 148 people in 1982, would be turned over by the American military to the Iraqi government within 36 hours and hanged before the start of a Muslim holiday on Sunday.

Several sources said Saddam’s execution would be videotaped by the Iraqi government, though it wasn’t clear whether it would be released to the public or broadcast.

“We will video everything,” Iraqi National Security adviser Mouffak al Rubaie told CBS News.

Judging by the Iraqi government’s release Tuesday of videotape of the hanging of 13 convicts, it could be a gruesome affair. Meetings were held Thursday in at least two network headquarters over how to handle the potentially graphic images.

ABC and CBS said they wouldn’t air the full execution if the video became available.

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Waiting for the Saddam verdict
The trial of Saddam Hussein

The Rev. Jesse Jackson said Wednesday he would lead an ecumenical delegation to the Middle East this week to meet with political and religious leaders about troubles in the region, including the kidnapping of two Fox News journalists.

Jackson, the veteran civil rights leader and head of his Chicago-based Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, said the group would leave Friday night for meetings in Syria, Lebanon and Israel. He declined to release his planned itinerary because of security concerns.

“We had been working with the Middle Eastern Council of Churches, but couldn’t get in earlier because of the bombings,” Jackson said.

He said his delegation would consist of about 10 people representing Jewish, Muslim, Roman Catholic and Protestant groups.

Jackson said his mission would have three goals: urging the extension of the cease-fire in Lebanon, arranging humanitarian aid in Lebanon and in the Israeli city of Haifa, and inquiring into several hostage situations.

He said his group is concerned about the fate of Israeli soldiers held hostage by Hezbollah, as well as by the kidnapping of Fox News correspondent Steve Centanni and cameraman Olaf Wiig, who were kidnapped Aug. 14 from their TV van near the Palestinian security services headquarters in Gaza City.

Well, I guess I have to give Jackson credit for not joining the Bob Laurence Blame Fox camp. But still, this is the race hustler who smeared Jews and NYC as “Hymies” and “Hymietown.” Color me half-enthused.

More at Inside Cable News.

I sincerely apologize to anyone who was genuinely offended by the choice of images accompanying my blog post today on the Huffington Post. It’s also important to note that I do not, nor have I ever worked for Ned Lamont’s campaign. However, at their request, I removed the image earlier today.

Unfortunately, Senator Lieberman’s campaign has used this in attempt to hurt Ned and score political points, mustering their own faux indignation in attempt to further distract from the issues important to the voters of Connecticut…

…To the extent that rightwing Republicans like Michelle Malkin are trying to harm Ned Lamont with this ginned up controversy by “defending” his opponent with these absurd charges of racism — I regret it and I invite them to take it up with the person who did it, namely me. I answer to nobody and I operate entirely on my own volition. If you have a problem with something I’ve written, you know where to find me.

Like reader Amy wrote me in an e-mail: “Comedy!”

Tom Maguire notes a defense of the blackface bungle from Hamsher’s Photoshopper, “Dark Black.” Seriously. That’s his moniker:

The comments section at that Huffington Post make it clear that most readers found the graphic to be offensive and inappropriate. But there is hidden gold! The graphic designer, “DarkBlack” (I am as serious as the day is warm), put in an appearance at 2:42 PM to defend his work. I can’t manage a permalink directly to the comment, so here we go:

As the composer of the work in question, allow me to make some broader points clearer. This will be my last word on the subject, but all are free to debate further, of course.

Lieberman has attempted to activate a voting demographic that his strategists believe will aid him in his quest.

To this end, he has imported a figure, Bill Clinton, who has standing with the American black community, and has repeatedly asserted his personal credentials as one who has worked on behalf of that community.

Yet Lieberman has engaged in race baiting (with the Lamont flyer) as a cynical attempt to game this demographic, and he has engaged in other activities which cast doubtful shadows upon this allegiance.

Thus, in my opinion, Lieberman is pretending to be something that he is not for personal gain, exactly like the vile caucasian minstrel show performers of Vaudeville.

And so my artist’s impression stands.

If we as a people run from controversial imagery, we will never stop running. Better to unearth and deal with the unpleasant than to live in fear.

Yes, go ahead: Embrace the blackface.

The Lamont campaign has condemned the Photoshop. Guess they’re still fine with Hamsher’s “bitch is dead meat” threat, though.

The Sixers Blog at NRO reports that Jesse Jackson has no problem with Dems using blackface political propaganda.

Worth noting: While the Lamont campaign stresses Hamsher is not on the payroll, she and Lamont have been stuck on each other like white on rice…or Sheehan on Jackson. An article published in the Hartford Courant today describes Lamont’s trip to do the Colbert Report. He brought a small coterie of confidantes:

Lamont arrived with an entourage: His wife, Annie; their campaign driver, Marc Bradley; a blogger, Jane Hamsher; and Bill Hillsman, the creator of his offbeat ads, one of which was played weeks earlier on `The Colbert Report.’

Hamsher has worked intimately with Lamont throughout the summer. From her blog on July 29:

“We also shot Ned’s first video blog this morning on the set of his new Hillsman commercial.”

Here it is. And here’s Hamsher directing Lamont via Flickr:

Meanwhile, Lieberman responds:

“It’s extremely offensive,” Lieberman said. “I have been the target of the ‘blogs’ on a lot of really offensive stuff, stuff I consider lies and smears, but this picture of me with Bill Clinton and me having my face blackened is offensive to people of all races and colors and just doesn’t belong.”

I’ll give an unhappy blogger at the liberal TPMCafe site the last word for now:

Jane? We have enough problems getting Lamont elected, could you please shut up? You’ve done enough. Really you have.

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Ned Lamont’s favorite nutball
Netroots vs. Rightroots: left-wingers love blackface