Idiocy From Jesse Jackson

I haven't blogged about the Duke lacrosse team rape allegation story because such stories (and ones such as the Aruba murder case) do not really spark my interest. But recently Jesse Jackson made a statement so absurd that deserves as much public ridicule as possible.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson said Saturday that his Rainbow/Push Coalition will pay the college tuition for a black stripper who has made rape allegations against white members of Duke University's men's lacrosse team.

And the offer stands even if it turns out she fabricated her story.

Jackson told The Associated Press Saturday that his organization is committed to making sure the 27-year-old divorced mother of two will never again "have to stoop that low to survive."

Pathetic and ridiculous. Rape is one of the most heinous crimes--one that occurs far too frequently. Fabricating false charges of rape cannot be tolerated by society. And it most certainly should not be rewarded.

Coverage Of The Illegal Immigration Protests

On Monday, I posted about a citizen journalism experiment at Powerline blog regarding the latest round of illegal immigration protests around the country. A summary of the results can be found in a follow-up Powerline post. The whole post is very interesting, but I found the following observation worthy of specific note.

International A.N.S.W.E.R. passed out thousands of mass-produced, yellow and black signs with exactly the same message. You can see them prominently displayed in our video footage from New York. Here, though, is what I think is even more interesting. At either of the two New York Times pages linked above, you can also link to the Times' own video of the New York demonstration. Take a look at it.

Look at the sea of yellow and black, International A.N.S.W.E.R. signs. They vastly outnumber all other signs and banners. They are the dominant visual image of the New York demonstration. It is inconceivable that the Times' reporters could have failed to note the prominent role played by A.N.S.W.E.R. in running the demonstration, or the dominant role played by that group in equipping the protesters with signs. Yet the organization's role was not acknowledged by the Times, or, to my knowledge, by any other newspaper. Why? The Times' reporters were obviously aware of A.N.S.W.E.R.'s prominent involvement, and thirty seconds' worth of research would have disclosed the fact that the group is an unabashedly Communist organization. It wouldn't have taken much more than that to learn that A.N.S.W.E.R.'s National Coordinator has said that illegal immigration can be the "catalyst for a broader class struggle, even possibly a revolutionary struggle."

As Glenn would say on Instapundit, read the whole thing.

Perhaps showing again how the media is falling out of touch with the thoughts of many Americans, a Zogby poll shows that the protests have had a negative impact on the cause of illegal immigration.

Good Job Growth

The Christian Science Monitor has an interesting article concerning U.S. job growth. The article focuses not on the quantity but on the quality of the new jobs being created by the U.S. economy. The short summary is that the new jobs are "good jobs"--meaning they are relatively high paying and career oriented.

The author also notes that:

This good news about the breadth of job creation comes against a backdrop of labor-market anxiety that has persisted despite the economy's solid overall footing. Competition from imported goods, the threat of outsourcing services abroad, and a controversial influx of illegal laborers are just some of the forces that make many workers worried about their future.

I think you could add the ever present "bias media coverage" to the above list.

Blogs As Citizen Journalism?

Powerline blog is trying something interesting--an experiment in citizen journalism. Today another round of pro-illegal immigration demonstrations has taken place. Powerline is collecting video and photo records of these demonstrations to see if this coverage differs from mass media coverage. I would suspect that the data collected by Powerline would be biased, but likely not any more than the MSM coverage. I, for one, will be very interested to see what they collect and decide to show.

What is perhaps more interesting is the concept. Powerline is trying the experiment because one of the groups organizing the demonstrations is a Communist organization called International A.N.S.W.E.R.

Last Wednesday, there was an A.N.S.W.E.R. meeting in Washington, D.C. at which A.N.S.W.E.R.'s National Coordinator, Brian Becker, and Juan Jose Gutierrez, Director of Latino Movement USA, spoke about illegal immigration as an aspect of the socialist movement and about the upcoming demonstrations. One of tomorrow's biggest demonstrations will take place in Washington, and A.N.S.W.E.R. and other radical organizations are expected to play a prominent role.

Unfortunately for A.N.S.W.E.R., the meeting was attended by a couple of bloggers from Vital Perspective, who taped the meeting and reported on it on their site. They shared their audiotape of the proceedings with us, and we have posted a short excerpt on Power Line Video. In this excerpt, you can hear Becker wonder whether there are undercover policemen present (he forgot about bloggers), pose a tough question to his audience, and speculate about how illegal immigrants could be the "catalyst for a broader class struggle, even possibly a revolutionary struggle."

Did you hear about this on the evening news? No? Interesting.