Read it at today’s Steve Huntley column:

Dick Durbin, one of the most powerful members of the U.S. Senate, has set his sights on the American Legislative Exchange Council. The ALEC focuses on fiscal issues in state legislatures but did support stand-your-ground laws that have been adopted by many states.

Such laws have been the focus of much controversy after the Trayvon Martin case, although Floridas statue [sic] was not a factor in the trial. Durbin wrote 300 companies and organizations that donate to ALEC asking their position on the laws. Durbin tried to frame this as a transparency issue, saying the donors may not be aware of ALECs support of the laws. Why didnt he just tell the donors of ALECs position instead of asking for their views?

Conservatives understandably see Durbin using the racial undertones of the Martin case to intimidate controversy-averse corporations and groups from donating to the ALEC, which has been effective in promoting free-market principles in state capitals. Confirming that suspicion is Durbins declaration that he will make the donor responses public in the record of a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing. In a chilling evocation of another era, Durbin asks, Do you now or have you ever supported stand-your-ground laws?

Scratch a liberal, I say more and more, and you find a fa—st, sometimes incipient, sometimes not.

Dennis Byrne says we know right away whether someone is black, white, or in-between.

Denies it says anything but that we have our eyes open — which is usually a good thing, by the way.

It’s headed “Getting the word out about health care reform” (oh?), by Francine Knowles, and it is a very good press release about how a p.r. firm puts your $35-million tax money to work FOR YOU!!!

Fleishman Hillard gets its pound of fleish as promoter of sign-ups for the “health care reform” train wreck in Illinois. Some of them carry weight at Sun-Times.

With huge head shot of front-line health care p.r. practitioner from a studio portraitist:

Whole thing reminds me of being urged (told) to do a story about a fork-bending Israeli whom Chi Daily News owner Marshall Field had seen at a party. Long time ago, but more things change . . .

Their ‘hood is no place to be if you’re a Christian, says

Father Henri Boulad, an 82-year-old Jesuit who ministers in Egypt, denounced Western support for the Muslim Brotherhood, the movement associated with ousted President Mohamed Morsi.

Their militias

sowed terror among the whole population of Egypt: killings, abductions, kidnappings, ransom demands, abductions and rape of girls forcibly married to Muslims, he said. No reaction from the West.

The West has its eyes on Muslim sensibilities.

Priests and Christians attacked and killed–including children of tender age–for the sole reason that they were Christians, Father Boulad continued. No Western denunciation appeared which might be accused of Islamophobia, which today is the crime of crimes.

As for the coup that got Western shorts in a bunch,

Faced with the Armys power grab, the West immediately cried coup détat, he added. If it had been a coup détat, it was a peoples coup, rather than military one. The Army had merely acquiesced to the will of the people. The people were fed up with a president who had betrayed, flimflammed and hoodwinked them, and they reacted with a survival reflex, calling for his departure.

Jihad Watch has the full account.

. . . it might be he.

He surprises people

Off goes the Prez-ident. Campuses beckon:

Another school year beckons, which means it’s time for President Obama to go on another college retreat. “He loves college tours,” says Ohio University’s Richard Vedder, who directs the Center for College Affordability and Productivity. “Colleges are an escape from reality. Believe me, I’ve lived in one for half a century. It’s like living in Disneyland. They’re these little isolated enclaves of nonreality.”

In general, he loves adoring, manipulable audiences, right?

It’s here: http://www.chicagonow.com/dennis-byrnes-barbershop/2013/08/eric-holder-fails-to-defend-election-policies-that-discriminate-against-me/

It’s all about Mike Madigan’s jerry-built legislative districts and Eric the Beholden (to whomever he works for, forget us the people) and his claim to be FAIR!!!

As here, in story about Koch Brothers deciding not to buy Chi Trib:

Reports of the Kochs interest in buying all the Tribunes newspapers surfaced in March, prompting protests from some who feared the brothers would use the newspapers to promote their conservative ideology.

Can you imagine a newspaper referring to someone’s liberal ideology? It happens but far less often.

Google news about “liberal ideology” in quote marks, and you get 161 results. Do it for “conservative ideology” and you get 668. Not scientific but, oh say, indicative.

For every reporter who uses the first, there are four who use the second. A fellow like Golab uses the second without hesitation He’s in a hurry and says what comes to mind. In journalistic haste, as in vino, lies veritas. I think so, anyhow.

Rehire Clifford!