Richard Cohen in the Washington Post waxes on about Barack Obama being a community organizer;

In the biographies of both presidential candidates are episodes of pure wonderment. No man can read about McCain’s time as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam and not wonder, “Could I do that?” For most of us, the answer–the truthful answer–is no.

For Obama, that episode has nothing to do with physical courage but much to do with moral commitment. At age 22–a graduate of Columbia University and already making good money as a financial researcher, he walked away to work with the unemployed and alienated in Chicago. Obama, who later went to Harvard Law School, knew precisely what a valuable commodity he was and how much money he could have made. He turned away from all that–or, at least, postponed it, and not because community organizing was the route to political success. (Just name one.) Once again, ask yourself if you would have done it.

Oh, boy… First, Obama wasn’t “already making good money as a financial researcher,” his one private sector job was as a copy editor for a newletter sweat shop notorious for paying low salaries. (He also worked for a Ralph Nader project to get Harlemites to recycle–very SWPL) And his pay in Chicago in the 1980s ($35k after 3 years) wasn’t all that bad by the standards of Chicago in the 1980s.

Obama’s less than spectacular entrance to the New York job market is linked to his less than spectacular grades at Columbia, which, I would speculate, were linked to what seems like a long-lasting depressive episode he underwent during his NYC years (1981-1985), which was perhaps linked to the death of his father in 1982. That’s a lot of links, but it fits together with the sour tone of the New York section of Dreams from My Father,. This rather monastic, asocial period wasn’t unproductive for Obama–he lost weight, stopped drinking, jogged a lot, read Nietzsche, and generally reinvented himself from the cheerful kid he had been to the ultra-ambitious, cautious, manipulative person he is now.

And, contra Cohen, being a black activist, like Obama was, is a very good entryway to being a black politician, which soon became Obama’s ambition–to be mayor of Chicago. People like Richard Cohen don’t hear about it much because black politicians who start out as black activists typically hit a glass ceiling at the level of Member of the House or mayor of a decaying city–they can win in districts gerrymandered to produce black legislators or in heavily black cities, but not at the statewide level. For example, Obama lost in the 2000 Democratic House primary to the incumbent Representative, Bobby Rush, who had been a Black Panther. On the Black Enough scale, Black Panther beat Black Activist in the eyes of black voters. In the eyes of white voters, however, the kind of black politicians created by the Voting Rights Acts’ gerrymandering to forge majority minority districts are unattractive race men.

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The Rhode Island ACLU [Email them]  has launched a lawsuit to prevent the Governor of Rhode Island from requiring state contractors to use E-Verify.[News Release: ACLU Sues Governor Over Executive Order on Immigration--Rhode Island Affiliate American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)] They have the usual boring complaints. (“However, since its launch, the E-Verify program has been riddled with significant flaws, and returns inaccurate information regarding the immigration and employment status of new hires – and particularly lawful foreign-born workers – at more than a minimal rate. Studies have also shown that the program has a substantial rate of employer abuse, leading to discrimination against potential employees perceived as ‘foreign.’”) But really, it’s about protecting illegals. While one of the plaintiffs in the suit, Rhode Island Professor Daniel Weisman, [Email him]talks about the impact of E-Verify on  “naturalized citizens and other foreign-born workers,” it would actually be better for most legal immigrants if the law were enforced, because their wages would go up.

Personally, I’m all for them, at least when it comes to anybody who wants to be our President or Vice President.

Obama has been all high-minded about the evils of negative campaigning for the last 18 months (out of the purity of the Chicago politician’s heart, no doubt, rather than out of any instinct for self-preservation). But as soon as the GOP finally comes up with somebody with comparable charisma, Democrats went into a feeding frenzy of scandal-mongering.

As well they should. A vice president could become president.

Of course, the president is president, so one might think that presidential candidates would be exposed to similar scrutiny, but it doesn’t seem to work that way.

In the New York Times, John Tierney reports:

When men and women take personality tests, some of the old Mars-Venus stereotypes keep reappearing. On average, women are more cooperative, nurturing, cautious and emotionally responsive. Men tend to be more competitive, assertive, reckless and emotionally flat. Clear differences appear in early childhood and never disappear.

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In June in Goofy in Greeley I noted that the editor of The Greeley Tribune, besides penning a smug editorial gloating about the Establishment’s success in sidetracking the immigration issue from the Presidential election, had apparently written a stunningly naïve essay, entitled with great originality Give me your tired, your poor. This gushingly welcomed Somali “refugees” to the Colorado town:

The Somalis…have come to Greeley for the opportunities it offers. Their presence, however, is not just about opportunities for them, it is also an opportunity for all of us. It is an opportunity to grow and expand our world….While the customs that come from half a world away can seem scary, they will…enrich our lives

Given the nature of the Somalis I expressed skepticism.

Now it appears the Somalis have enriched the lives of the town by forcing, with violence, the local Beef Packing firm to give them special privileges for Ramadan observance, provoking other workers to counter protests. The local media is said to be repressing the violence aspect, but more than a dozen Somalis were fired, which sounds suspicious.

The whole episode has been efficiently and thoroughly covered by Refugee Resettlement Watch (to whom a most impressed Hat-tip is proffered) with help from Jihad Watch and Always on Watch. Take that, MSM!

“They have no respect for the Spanish or white people,” said Brianna Castillo, a Swift employee of four years. “Many times we are forced to pull extra count… I don’t feel that is right.”
Castillo, who is white, said every race was represented in the protest with the exception of Somalis. Castillo said employees are frustrated by what they feel is a double standard when it comes to other races and Somalis.
“Somalis are running our plant,” Castillo said. “They are telling us what to do.”

Facing protests, Swift vows to ‘balance needs of all employees’ , By Chris Casey, The Greeley Tribune , September 6 2008

A Jihad Watch reader reported:

The Greeley P.D. SWAT Team and many police officers had to come into the plant to stop the destruction by approximately 200 angry Muslims of tables, equipment, and helmets inside the cafeteria at about 7:30 pm last night. My neighbor said that the medical department rendered treatment to one non-Muslim female worker who was assaulted during the melee.

Refugee Resettlement Watch comments

a commenter at the Tribune reported the same thing late yesterday, but that comment seems now to have been removed. Should have grabbed that comment when I first saw it.
So, if it was no big deal and they just walked off the line, then why were so many fired? Who is the paper covering for? Or, have they gone completely insane with political correctness in Greeley?

As far as The Greeley Tribune goes, the answer is definitely yes.

Refugee Resettlement Watch and Jihad Watch do a fine job discussing the stupidity of bringing in Somalis and the danger of accommodating Islamic particularism. Two further VDARE.com observations:

1) In many cases, these extremely alien imports are going to be encountering in the work place not placid guilt-indoctrinated native born Americans, but Hispanics. Hispanics will have no compunction about defending their (recently conquered )turf. Workplace confrontations will get more common.

2) The MSM can forget about trying to censor the nasty aspects of these incidents. As ALIPAC’s fine work in the Howard Industries raid showed, the Blogosphere has eyes everywhere.

Tell Tribune editor Bart Smith to be more professional.

The Refugee Resettlement Watch postings are here and here and here. A striking earler story about Somali non-assimilation in Seattle is here.

Note: the Greeley story is still developing.