NBA Champions Cleveland Cavaliers parade tomorrow

Photo art credit: nba.com

Something to celebrate!

From Cleveland.com: 

CLEVELAND, Ohio – The parade celebrating the Cleveland Cavaliers' NBA Championship title and historic victory over the Golden State Warriors will begin Wednesday at 11 a.m. outside Quicken Loans Arena, a city spokesman has confirmed. 

According to a news release Tuesday, the parade will begin on East 6th Street, head north to Huron Road, west to Ontario Street, south to Carnegie Avenue, then over to East 9th Street -- circling The Q and Progressive Field. The parade then will travel north to Lakeside Avenue and west to conclude on East 6th Street.  A special program honoring the Cavs will take place on St. Clair Avenue, between Malls A and B. (See the route in the viewer below.) 

The parade will feature more than 60 units, including floats, specialty vehicles and The Ohio State University Marching Band, the news release states.

Click here and scroll down for the map of the parade route. For ESPN's close look at LeBron's incredible block in the 4th quarter, click here. 

# # #

For or against gun control?

art credit: riversong.wordpress.com

Gun control is not one of the primary planks in the Tea Party platforms (those planks are limited government, fiscal responsibility, and free markets). However, Tea Party patriots may be interested in the gun control bills defeated yesterday in Congress. CNN reports:

Senators couldn't muster enough bipartisan support to pass a series of gun control measures Monday [yesterday], the latest in a long string of failed attempts at enacting tighter curbs on firearms in the United States.

Spurred by the worst mass shooting in U.S. history, senators from each party introduced the measures they said would have strengthened background checks and prevented suspected terrorists from obtaining weapons.

But tough election year politics, paired with disputes over the effectiveness of each party's ideas, proved too powerful to break the longstanding partisan gridlock that's surrounded gun issues for years.

The result was expected. A fifth option, set to be introduced and voted upon as early as Tuesday by moderate Republican Sen. Susan Collins, has generated more optimism, but still faces long odds at passage.

Sen. Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat who sponsored one of the failed measures expanding background checks, reacted angrily after his provision was defeated.

"I'm mortified by today's vote but I'm not surprised by it," Murphy said Monday evening. "The NRA has a vice-like grip on this place."

More of the report is here.

According to Sen. Murphy, the National Rifle Assoc. is once again the villain in the piece. Thomas Sowell published an excellent opinion piece at RealClearPolitics:

Surely murder is a serious subject, which ought to be examined seriously. Instead, it is almost always examined politically in the context of gun control controversies, with stock arguments on both sides that have remained the same for decades. And most of those arguments are irrelevant to the central question: Do tighter gun control laws reduce the murder rate?

That is not an esoteric question, nor one for which no empirical evidence is available. Think about it. We have 50 states, each with its own gun control laws, and many of those laws have gotten either tighter or looser over the years. There must be tons of data that could indicate whether murder rates went up or down when either of these things happened.

But have you ever heard any gun control advocate cite any such data? Tragically, gun control has become one of those fact-free issues that spawn outbursts of emotional rhetoric and mutual recriminations about the National Rifle Association or the Second Amendment.

If restrictions on gun ownership do reduce murders, we can repeal the Second Amendment, as other Constitutional Amendments have been repealed. Laws exist to protect people. People do not exist to perpetuate laws.

But if tighter restrictions on gun ownership do not reduce murders, what is the point of tighter gun control laws -- and what is the point of demonizing the National Rifle Association?

There are data not only from our 50 states but also from other countries around the world. Professor Joyce Lee Malcolm's empirical study, "Guns and Violence: The English Experience," should be eye-opening for all those who want their eyes opened, however small that number of people might be.

Professor Malcolm's book also illustrates the difference between isolated, cherry-picked facts and relevant empirical evidence.

The rest of Sowell's article is here.

# # #

Cavs won the championship!!!!!!

CAVS WON!!!!!!!

WOW!

Primary upset in Virginia

art credit: centinel2012

In case you missed it, here’s good news from last week’s primary in Virginia, from the Culpepper Star*Exponent (h/t lucianne.com)

Forbes, like Cantor, caught up in anti-establishment wave

Del. Scott W. Taylor’s upset of Rep. J. Randy Forbes, R-4th, in Tuesday’s 2nd District Republican primary is another anti-establishment thunderclap in Virginia politics, two years after Dave Brat ousted U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in the 7th District GOP primary.

“Ultimately, what it shows is the voters’ overall disgust with Congress,” said Robert D. Holsworth, a veteran political commentator, formerly at Virginia Commonwealth University.

“It shows that the traditional value of seniority means very little to the Republican base right now.”

Taylor will compete against Democratic activist Shaun D. Brown in the Republican-leaning district in November.

The full report is here.

Wonder if this will have any effect on the upcoming primary in Wisconsin, with Paul Nehlen challenging Speaker Paul “Omnibus” Ryan? Recent polls don’t look good for Nehlen, whose #DumpRyan Facebook page is here.

# # #

Safety at the RNC in Cleveland

photo credit: cleveland.com

The Republican National Convention convenes next month. Do you think downtown Cleveland will be safe? Last month, Cleveland.com reported on the Cleveland Police Dept.'s and Safety Director's plans for the July event. But it's not just about crowd control and preventing damage and violence by the expected rent-a-mobs. Mark Tapscott at Daily Caller reports on “Five Ways Political Correctness Kills Americans.” It is scary. And Clevelanders should be concerned for their safety during the RNC in July:

Political correctness in the federal government protected radical Islamic terrorist Omar Mateen in at least five ways during the months leading up to his deadly assault on a gay nightclub in Orlando, according to a national security expert.

“The fact is that the FBI did recognize Omar Mateen, twice in fact, but as a matter of official policy under the Obama administration’s politically correct ‘countering violent extremism’ policies, the institutional rules of our national security agencies as a matter of intentional design ensure that investigative clues are obscured,” Patrick Poole told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Poole is co-founder of Unconstrained Analytics, non-profit group dedicated to analyzing “evidence unconstrained by preconceptions and biases” concerning international terrorism. He has been a guest lecturer on counter-terrorism issues at the U.S. Army War College and a speaker at the Army Provost Marshal’s annual Anti-Terrorism/Force Protection conference.

PC blinds homeland defenders: Among the most controversial of the five factors Poole cited was a 2011 decision by FBI officials to remove from its counter-terrorism training materials references to all terms found objectionable by a team of Muslim experts retained by the Department of Justice. Despite congressional protests, the material was never restored.

As a result, “violent extremist” effectively became the official federal designation for individuals like Mateen, San Bernadino attackers Tashfeen Malik and Syed Rizwan Farook, Boston Marathon bombers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, and Fort Hood killer Nidal Malik Hasan, despite their shared devotion to radical Islamic movements, including ISIS and al Qaeda.

PC perverts religious tolerance: The FBI’s head-in-the-sand approach is also seen in a recently completed Department of Homeland Security report that directs federal officials there “not to use any language that might be ‘disrespectful’ to Muslims, including (but not limited to) the words ‘jihad,’ ‘sharia’ and ‘takfir.’” Poole said the policies recommended by the report are in effect throughout the federal government.

Among the federal agencies in DHS are the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency, U.S. Secret Service, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Coast Guard and the Transportation Security Administration.

PC discourages witnesses. . .

PC gives cover to terrorist allies . . .

PC hamstrings Congress. . . .

Much more from Tapscott here.

Michelle Malkin outlines the terrifying context in which the Orlando terror attack took place in her column here.

# # #

The cartoon that speaks for itself

Cartoon by Rick McKee at conservativetribune.com

# # #

Jihad attack in Orlando; media Fail

photo credit: truthrevolt.org

It’s a one-headline day. The Islamic terror attack in Orlando is horrific, and the attack is one of the few stories, IMHO, that justify wall-to-wall coverage on the media. But the TV coverage has been, what’s the word, abysmal. 

The crawl all day long on both CNN and Fox was about, not jihad, but the worst mass shooting in recent US history. The visuals all day long showed police cars and ambulances with flashing lights, and of course, President Obama’s address that failed to include the term “radical Islam” or “Islamist jihad.” Instead, our Commander-in-Chief babbled about guns and hate, all interspersed with platitudes. (Mr. Trump's statement on the Islamist terror attack is here.)

Honest coverage of this attack should focus, not on law enforcement agencies or gun control or LGBT issues, but on the military. This attack is just in another in a long line of attacks by radical Islamists, ISIS, whatever franchise name you choose. This attack, like all the others, is sanctioned by the official Islamic fatwas, declarations of war against Americans.

If jihad continues to be framed as a law enforcement problem, America will always be playing defense, and the result is predictable: there will be more and still more attacks. The attacks will never end until America recognizes that Islam has declared war against all American (and worldwide) infidels.

The TV visuals should not be images that reinforce impressions that jihad is a matter for law enforcement. The images should show ISIS training camps and previous jihad attacks, of which there is no shortage: the Boston Marathon, the Paris theater Bataclan, the San Bernardino bombers, Fort Hood, and all the others.

If America cannot name the enemy, it cannot fight the enemy. Political correctness kills. 

UPDATE Jun-13: By 9pm on Sunday evening, CNN was running a crawl describing the Orlando attack as "the worst terror attack since 9/11", while the crawl on Fox's Megyn Kelly's program was talking about gun control. 

# # #