Rush Limbaugh Christine O'Donnell: No Establishment or Separation of Church and State

The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution is in the spotlight all across the Nation today. Christine O'Donnell holds it and beams it square in the face of political Liberal ignorance. This full segment video of Rush Limbaugh explaining why Christine O'Donnell is right, as she debates Chris Coons in their campaign for the previous Senate seat held by Joe Biden, is a concise explanation of why Separation of Church and State is a myth. Be sure to listen at about 9 minutes-in as Rush quotes Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito. See the video below.

Christine O'Donnell

Many have unwittingly accepted the Liberal position that the First Amendment is about Separation of Church and State, rather than the prohibition of Congress to establish religion. A few years ago, I had this same conversation with someone near and dear to me. Proclaiming Separation of Church and State, I explained to him much of what Rush goes through in this video. After listening, seemingly intently, he said "well, that's not the way people think of it."

The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Many thanks for the video from Liberty and Tyranny, a WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot Channel

Derek Fenton Koran Burner Fired

Derek Fenton burned pages of the Koran outside the old Burlington Coat Factory location of the proposed Ground Zero mosque. Fenton was fired by the New Jersey Transit, where he has worked for the last eleven years. Please try to vote in the NYDaily News poll below. Conservatives are not winning.

Derek Fenton Koran Burner

Fenton was "ushered" from the Mosque protesters by the police for questioning but was not charged.

He said, 'This is America,'and he wanted to stand up for it, in a Tea Party kind of way," a police source said.

Another police source said Fenton described himself as a "loyal American" exercising his "right to protest."

Several neighbors in Fenton's town stood up for his right to express himself with flames.

"Good for him for burning the Koran," neighbor Jacqui Marquez, 40, said.

"Everybody's entitled to their opinion ... by firing him, they're sending a message that there's no freedom of speech. They're completely wrong for doing this."

"He's a family man," neighbor Randy McConnell, 43, said.

"He loves his kids and he loves trains. I don't agree with what he did, but he shouldn't lose his job over it. That's his right."

If Fenton was fired for burning the Koran while off-duty, his First Amendment rights probably were violated, Chris Dunn of the New York Civil Liberties Union said.

"The Supreme Court has recognized a constitutional right to burn the flag. As reprehensible as it may be, burning the Koran would be protected as well."

NYDailyNews poll - please visit and voice your outrage that a man can lose his job for expressing his First Amendment rights. Vote in Fanning the Flames. Tell the NJTransit you don't give a fig for Islam's tender sensibilities.

Posted by Maggie @ Maggie's Notebook

Media the Gatekeeper for Bloggers? The Cult of the Amateur Needs Regulating

CNN anchors discuss the disgusting nature of the Internet and the "anonymous" blogger. There's a new term for it: The Cult of the Amateur, and a suggestion that the "media," (that would be The Propaganda Squad) would watch the bloggers and take them to task for their misdeeds.

The pomposity is rank.

CNN Discussion on Regulating Bloggers (video)

Press Banned from Action at Oil Spill: First Amendment Suspended

We can send our press into the heat of Iraq and Afghanistan, but their presence in the Gulf is forbidden by the administration - it's all about their "personal safety" dontcha know. This is outrageous, as you will see in the video. Is air space still closed?

 Obama is still looking for some ass to kick. He chose the press. If you don't see it, it didn't happen. I'd love to see Anderson Cooper this pumped about the border. We could sure use some press about the Arizona and Texas problem. Cooper says "we are not the problem here," but he and others in the mainstream media have become the problem because they won't tell the stories with any sense of thoroughness or urgency. Seriously, does anyone know if the airspace over the spill has been opened?

Thanks to my sculptor friend David Lemon for the First Amendment video. Have you ever traveled the Old Bozeman Trail along the Madison River in SW Montana? David says it has been traveled for 11,000 years. He videoed it for you. Also video of the bronzing of his War Medicine piece. Awesomely beautiful. If you haven't seen this process, you must. At about 3 minutes into this video you see David in the foundry, and the bronzing is going on, and in the background you hear Rush Limbaugh. Gotta love it!








Anderson Cooper First Amendment Suspended )video)

Jeff Sessions Opening Remarks at Kagan Hearing Video

Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) listed an astounding number of violations of Federal law committed by Obama's Supreme Court nominee, Elena Kagan. I am at a loss to understand how Democrats will find this woman, who has spent her professional life in activism, with complete disdain for the U.S. Constitution, qualified for this life-time position. The fact that she will end up on the Supreme Court and my children and grandchildren will live with her lack of integrity and contempt for the Rule of Law is heartbreaking. See the video below.

Elena Kagan

Here are a few of Sessions comments (paraphrased):

Kagan has less real legal experience of any nominee in at least 50 years.

Not only has she not been a judge, she has barely practiced law, and not with the intensity and duration that I think real legal understanding occurs.

Kagan has never tried a case before a jury

She argued her first appellate case just 9 months ago. There is no substitute of being in the harness of the law, handling real cases over a period of law.

Kagan has spent her career in policy and politics, mixed with law.

Her college thesis, Socialism in New York, bemoan socialism's demise.

Her Master's thesis noted the activist tendencies of the Earl Warren court - but said it could have done a better job justifying their activism.

Kagan left law for 5 years for politics.

Kagan was central figure in the White House Clinton-Gore effort to restrict gun rights.

She was the point person for the Clinton Administration effort to block Congressional restriction on partial birth abortions - the key person to convince Clinton to change his mind from supporting restrictions to opposing legislation that would ban it.

While at Harvarvd as the Dean, she reversed existing policy, and kicked military out of recruiting offices in violation of federal law. She punished our Military and demeaned our soldiers as they fought in two wars overseas.

Kagan joined 3 other law school Deans to write a letter in response to Senator Grahams legislation to establish procedures to determine who was an enemy combatant in the war on terror. She compared this legislation, which passed 84 to 14 as fundamentally the same as the lawless actions of a dictatorship. Gr

As Solicitor General for 1 year, her short tenure was not without controversy. In her first appellate argument that speech and press guarantees of First Amendment would allow Federal Gov't to ban publications and pamphlets discussing political issues before an election. [Session reminds her of Thomas Paines Common Sense]

As Solicitor General, Kagan approved filing of a brief  to SCOTUS asking that it strike down provisions of the legal Arizona Workers Act which suspends or revokes the businesses licenses of corporations which knowingly hire illegal aliens, even though Federal law expressly prohibits such hiring. She did this even after the liberal 9th Circuit upheld the law.

There is much more. I hope you will listen to the video. If you believe Kagan should be confirmed, please ask yourself why you want a judge who will attempt to change, at least the First and Second Amendments, refuse to define an enemy combatant and abort late-term babies?


Senator Sessions Opening Remarks at Kagan Confirmation (video)

DISCLOSE Act Stifles Tea Parties: Hank Johnson DISCLOSE Makes Sure Repubs Don't Get Elected

Congress is busy today abridging your free speech. Nothing new about that. Democrat Congressman Hank Johnson (GA) says passing the bill will insure Republicans do not win elections in the Fall. Ron Paul suggests the bill should be be renamed "Stifling Grassroots Political Support and Removing Political Privacy bill. See a video below. See the update below - The DISCLOSE Act has passed in the House.

Free Speech Stifled

The Democracy is Strengthened by Casting Light on Spending in Elections (DISCLOSE) Act, otherwise known as H.R. 5175 was again considered in the House today:

The Act would force grassroots organizations to release the names of donors and members of their organizations into a publicly searchable database, and frustrate the ability of grassroots entities to communicate effectively with the public about public policy.

Sources with House GOP leadership say they expect a final vote in the House anytime between 2:45 – 3:15 p.m.

That means the vote may be over at the time this is posted.

 The administration intends to put the legislation into effect within 30 days, before the FEC can even write the new guidelines.


Remember the Citizens United decision by the Supreme Court which restored First Amendment rights to corporations, saying the government has no right to regulate free speech? The DISCLOSE Act, if implemented, is see as a first step to an end run against that Supreme Court decision. Listen to a CATO Institute podcast about this important issue here.

National Review's On The Corner announced on June 18th the vote was cancelled:

The vote that had been scheduled for Friday on the DISCLOSE Act was abruptly cancelled by Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday night. This after a rebellion by Blue Dog Democrats and the Congressional Black Caucus, according to Politico.

Blue Dogs were apparently worried about their reelection prospects given the across the board opposition by business groups, led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Federation of Independent Business. The Black Caucus was upset about the exemption granted to the NRA “and remained concerned about the bill’s potential impact on the NAACP and other 

In other words, while they were unworried about the speech of their political opponents being curtailed, they got “concerned” when they realized it might also affect some of their supporters.

We know votes are not held until Pelosi knows she has the votes to pass it, so the news is not expected to be good. What were the deals made this time?  

Both the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the ACLU are against H.R. 5175:

The right-leaning U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the left-leaning American Civil Liberties Union, normally on opposite sides of just about any debate, have both come out opposing the bill because they contend it tramples First Amendment rights. 

Remember Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) who thought the island of Guam might "tip over from over-population? He has an opinion about the DISCLOSE Act as well. Johnson says passing DISCLOSE will make sure "Republicans don't get elected."See it in the video below.

Update June 24, 2010 - 5 p.m. EDT:
Karen at The Lonely Conservative says H.R. 5175 has passed the House. Read her post on Republicans accusing Democrats of "holding a closed debate."





Hank Johnson: DISCLOSE Keeps Republicans from Winning (video)

Globalvision Guillermo Zuloaga Flees Hugo Chavez: Chavez Seizes Bank: Reuters Unabashedly Supports Chavez

Hugo Chavez still had one opposition television station, Globalvision, until he issued a warrant for owner Guillermo Zuloago's arrest and seized Banco Federal, a bank founded by a Globalvision director. See a video below.

Guillermo Zuloaga

Reuters says Globalvision is "often shrill," its reporting "one-sided," and is simply a "soap box," for Chavez' opponents. Memo to Reuters: there are no other television stations opposing the banty-rooster dictator.

Globovision's news director quit in February, raising fears among government critics about its future as an independent voice. A month later, network boss Guillermo Zuloaga was briefly held on charges that included offending the president.

Zuloaga's son is also charged. The families have fled for their lives and their freedom.

Zuloaga told reporters that the charges against him and his son - which also include insulting the president and spreading false information - are meant to intimidate him.

Here is how it works in Venezuela, unfortunately for many, many citizens who fought hard to keep this from happening:

Hugo Chavez 

The authorities would soon turn the Globovision logo red in honor of Chavez's socialist revolution, with a red beret on top, the white-bearded Silva predicted, wearing an olive green shirt and military cap similar to those worn by the president.

Chavez says he will not tolerate illegal incitement in the media, and accuses opponents of a desperate propaganda campaign against him ahead of legislative elections due in September.

Another look at how a socialist becomes a dictator, March 2009:

Caracas, Venezuela – With the plummeting price of oil, so goes the economy of Venezuela. With prices at $40 a barrel and the budget calculated on a selling price of $60, the country’s very foundations are starting to unravel prompting President Hugo Chavez to enforce harsher restrictions on food producers and retailers. Chavez, long a foe of the United States, has been seen as a socialist dictator by many other countries and this tightening of control comes as absolutely no surprise to any of them.

Reuters points out two other television stations, Venevision and Televen TV were anti-Chavez during the "coup," but have since dropped their more extreme opinions, and became more balanced. Translated: Venevision and Televen caved, followed the government line, and have been allowed to keep their so-called programming on-air. Can Reuters get any more disgraceful?

January 2010:
Military Takes Control of Major Venezuelan Cities Amid Protests - January 2010

Thousands of University students take to the streets and chant "Reform, no - democracy, yes.!"

Venezuelans protest after Hugo Chavez takes TV channel off air

January 2010

Guillermo Zuloaga Flees (video)

Al Gores Journal on Free Press and Censorship

Did you know you can read Al Gore's Journal? There's nothing there about Laurie David, but he does talk about censoring the news and he wants it to stop. It's disturbing, he says, and the behavior is "unacceptable." I agree that any kind of censorship is wrong and unAmerican, including trying to hide Climate-Gate emails, and his reported affair with Laurie David.

 Al Gore and Laurie David

See the original carbon footprint sitting in his office surround by mounds of papers - count the trees. I think I see three or four huge computer monitors - how much electricity are they pulling down?

Something else in his journal:

Access by reporters should be as unfettered as possible. This de facto form of censorship needs to stop.

Remember this, when his goons silenced filmaker and journalist, Phelim McAleer - and they did it quite rudely too. See the video below, The Inconvenient Question.




Phelim McAleer Interviews Al Gore (video)
Related and Background:
Al and Tipper Gore Separate - Update to the first news of the separation:
I heard Tipper left him for bringing copious amount of hot air into the marriage. She was forced to use an inhaler. He was cruel beyond belief, and insisted she wear green - all the time, and when she refused to let him bring the Nobel to bed with them, that did it. She filed claiming irreconcilable carbon credits.

The Montecito Mansion
Linked by Memeorandum - see what others are saying

Repeal the First Amendment Petition Video! OMGosh! Video

I grabbed this from MonkeyintheMiddle via Holger Awakens. Watch as Americans sign a petition to repeal the First Amendment.

Americans sign a petition to repeal the First Amendment (video)

Rahm Emanuel Sean Hannity: Rahm Emanuel First Amendment Overrated (video)

In the video below, Rahm Emanuel tells a reporter the First Amendment is overrated. This administration is a parasite sucking the lifeblood, which is freedom, out of our Republic. So many things have happened so quickly in the past year, we can't begin to keep up, and that is the plan of the Marxist, Communist Saul Alinsky, at whose feet Barack Obama learned the tools of organizing America into a force to destruct, and reconstruct our Nation into the highest order of socialism by:

...feel[ing] so frustrated, so defeated, so lost, so futureless in the prevailing system that they are willing to let go of the past and chance the future ~ Saul Alinsky Rules for Radicals (prologue page xix)

The disruption of the present organization is the first step toward community organization. Present arrangements [US Constitution] must be disorganized if they are to be displaced by new patterns ~ Saul Alinsky Rules for Radicals (page 116 in my trade paperback)

To make the audacious dreams of Barack Obama and Rahm Emanuel come true, they have to denigrate the First Amendment, change it, "word code" it, demolish it. We must find a way to keep track of the chaos this administration is purposefully engineering. Here is another Alinsky quote that describes the puzzling behavior of the birth, death and rebirth of health care, all within one week after the election of Republican Senator Scott Brown from Massachusetts:

Keep the pressure on, with different tactics and actions, and utilize all events of the period for your purpose. ~ Saul Alinsky, Rules for Radicals (Page 128 in my trade paperback)

Rahm Emanuel - First Amendment Overrated (video)

Tip of the Maggie Mae to David Lemon

Fox News Michael Clemente Robert Gibbs Meet Privately

You know I hate this. No meetings between Fox and Robert Gibbs. How about complete separation of news and the White House? - except for the White House Correspondents Dinner. Just love those. Apparently, Michael Clemente and Robert Gibbs met and the question is: has a truce been reached?

Michael Clemente

This report says that Fox News Channel's Senior V-P, Michael Clemente, and White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs met in Gibbs' office in Washington, D.C. "Gibbs reached out to Clemente...." Nevertheless:

A Fox source said that the marching orders are to “continue doing what we’re doing – reporting the news, asking tough questions and providing analysis/opinion on shows like O’Reilly, Beck and Hannity.”

That's good news.

A U.S. News and World Report article quotes the White House:

"They're still at it," says a senior Obama aide, who adds that White House officials don't expect to fire another shot in the battle unless FOX strikes first."

There is no indication in U.S. News and World report that a meeting between Clemente and Gibbs occurred.

Valerie Jarrett, the other half of Barack's brain was interviewed on CNN. When Campbell Brown asked Jarrett if she thought Fox News was biased, Jarrett replied,  "of course Fox is biased," but she and the other half of her brain plan to keep speaking "truth to power." Her message was hilariously mixed. When Ms. Brown rewinds the tape, she'll find she let a good opportunity go to waste, although I give her credit for asking Jarrett the "biased' question twice. Read what else Jarrett had to say here.

Iyad Awadallah is CAIR Intern: Iyad Awadallah Jim DeMint: CAIR Intern Evicted

CAIR interns are in the news today. First, we learned that a CAIR memorandum says it spent $50,000 to place two "fellows" in Congress in 2007, and now we learn that Iyad Awadallah, a Cair intern on Capitol Hill was forced to leave the US Capitol Visitors Center Congressional Auditorium "after behaving in a threatening manner..."

According to this hot post at The Jawa Report, Awadallah appeared at a conference on "Freedom of Speech and Religion" today and began to videotape the speakers. He was told the conference registration did not allow taping of any kind, or the taking of photographs. That didn't stop him.  He was removed from the building by Capitol Hill police just before Senator Jim DeMint was to speak.

According to The Jawa Report, the scheduled speakers have "been the subject of death threats by Muslims."

CAIR attacks:

The [CAIR] press release claimed that Awadallah was told by one conference participant that “we want to cut their [Muslims’] necks off.” However, Awadallah entered the auditorium during one of the sessions and never had the opportunity to speak with any of the conference attendees.

There is no information in this report about where the intern, Iyad Awadallah of Boca Raton, FL has worked or is working on Capitol Hill.  Read about the $50,000 spent to plant a Muslim intern in Congress: CAIR Buys Interns - Liberals Object.

First Amendment

By Findalis of Monkey in the Middle Wake up, America View at YouTube I find myself amazed at the poor quality of education that $41,500 a year buys at Harvard Law School. You would think that for that amount of money they would at least teach the US Constitution. But it seems not to be the case, especially with one of their most famous graduates, Barack Hussein Obama, our current President. I wonder what part of the First Amendment they did teach him or was he absent that day? For no person who has been taught the US Constitution would ever forget the words of the First Amendment:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

Yet President Obama has chosen to ignore this and is pushing for full restrictions on our right to Free Speech:

The U.N. Human Rights Council approved a U.S.-backed resolution Friday deploring attacks on religions while insisting that freedom of expression remains a basic right. The inaugural resolution sponsored by the U.S. since it joined the council in June broke a long-running deadlock between Western and Islamic countries in the wake of the publication of cartoons depicting the Muslim Prophet Muhammad. American diplomats say the measure — co-sponsored by Egypt — is part of the Obama administration's effort to reach out to Muslim countries. "The exercise of the right to freedom of opinion and expression is one of the essential foundations of a democratic society," the resolution states, urging countries to protect free speech by lifting legal restrictions, ensuring the safety of journalists, promoting literacy and preventing media concentration.

Not the sort of "outreach" the majority of Americans want. We like our Freedoms very much. Free speech is a protected right here in the US. Our own Supreme Court has affirmed the concept that "Even the most hateful and harmful speech is protected speech." (NATIONAL SOCIALIST PARTY v. SKOKIE, 432 U.S. 43 [1977]) Oh yes, we can say what we want about a religion without the fear of blasphemy laws. Oh happy day! Mr. Condell need not worry about the United States losing our Freedoms soon. Not as long as Article VI of the Constitution is the law:

"This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding. The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the members of the several state legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United States and of the several states, shall be bound by oath or affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States."

Or in layman speak:

"This Constitution will be the hightest law in the land. No law or treaty can be written or ratified that would violate this Constitution."

This whole idea of forcing Islamic blasphemy laws came about because of the riots over the Danish Muhammad Cartoons, it is only fitting that this post on Free Speech end with these cartoons. To Muslims around the world:

Feel free to riot. For that shows to us the true face and spirit of Islam. A backward cult suitable only for children and those with the intelligence of an imbecile.

The rest of us will just laugh at your ignorance and keep on speaking our mind!

A First Amendment Hero!

By Findalis of Monkey in the Middle
 

Professor Indrek Wichman
 

He looks mild-mannered, not a man who would stand up to bullies and force them to back down. But Professor Indrek Wichman of Michagan State University, has become a Hero. Now what would force this Professor of Mechanical Engineering to stand up for the First Amendment? Nothing less than a planned protest by the MSU chapter of the Muslim Students Union (MSU)

Members of the Muslim Student Association (MSA) at Michigan State University (MSU) didn’t know what they were getting into when they tried to suppress the free speech rights of Professor Indrek Wichman. On February 28, 2006 he read in the MSU student newspaper a call to protest the publication of the Muhammad cartoons. The article struck a raw nerve. He responded with the following:

Dear Moslem Association: As a professor of Mechanical Engineering here at MSU I intend to protest your protest. I am offended not by cartoons, but by more mundane things like beheadings of civilians, cowardly attacks on public buildings, suicide murders, murders of Catholic priests (the latest in Turkey!), burnings of Christian churches, the continued persecution of Coptic Christians in Egypt, the imposition of Sharia law on non-Muslims, the rapes of Scandinavian girls and women (called "whores" in your culture), the murder of film directors in Holland, and the rioting and looting in Paris France. This is what offends me, a soft-spoken person and academic, and many, many, many of my colleagues. I counsel you dissatisfied, aggressive, brutal, and uncivilized slave-trading Moslems to be very aware of this as you proceed with your infantile "protests." If you do not like the values of the West--see the 1st Amendment--you are free to leave. I hope for God's sake that most of you choose that option. Please return to your ancestral homelands and build them up yourselves instead of troubling Americans. Cordially, I. S. Wichman, Professor of Mechanical Engineering.

Some may say this reaction was a tad over-heated. But in a university environment, the more important question is: Were the statements accurate? It’s tough to argue with the validity of Professor Wichman’s factual assertions. And even tougher to demand that Wichman remain morally neutral regarding the examples of Muslim misconduct he cites.

For over three weeks Professor Wichman heard nothing about his email. But behind the scenes, the MSA had called in CAIR and had three separate meetings with the MSU provost. The MSA and CAIR both demanded that Wichman be censured, disciplined, enrolled in diversity and sensitivity training, and even “re-educated” on Islam. To his credit, the MSU Provost did not cave in to the CAIR/MSA demands.

On March 20, 2006 he wrote Wichman a letter saying that he strongly disagreed with the “intemperate tone” of his email. But he added that Wichman still had rights to free speech. From there, things got worse. The MSU Provost told Wichman that if he continued to “harass” and “intimidate” the MSU MSA - while creating a “hostile intellectual climate” - then formal charges consistent with MSU anti-discrimination policy (ADP) would be filed by MSU against him. (emphasis mine)

On April 24, 2006 Wichman realized that the issue had not quietly gone away. He began receiving telephone calls and emails from local newspapers, AP, Reuters and other national and international outlets.

CAIR and MSA, frustrated by the MSU Provost, had gone over his head and published a response, organized a press conference, and made a national/international press release. CAIR and MSA’s public call upon MSU to take “disciplinary action" against Wichman’s “Islamophobic” email was a classic example of Muslim cowardice.

Michigan’s CAIR Executive Director Mr. Dawud Walid said it was “unconscionable for a professor to use his university e-mail account to foster a hostile learning environment for Muslim students.” He added, “The University needs to take appropriate disciplinary action in this case to demonstrate through its actions that anti-Muslim bigotry will not be tolerated on campus.”

It should be noted that Mr. Walid has gone to court to argue for applying Sharia law in mid-Michigan. That serves to undercut significantly his stature as an opponent of bigotry towards minorities.

I sat down for a beer - I believe it was a Danish beer – with Indrek Wichman in April. When he said he meant to “protest the protest” of the MSA he really meant it. He helped form a conservative faculty group at MSU. The group serves to protest speech codes, invite conservative speakers to campus, and represent students and faculty whose rights are trampled by the MSU administration. Indrek Wichman is not your typical college professor.

He is a true First Amendment hero. Meanwhile, Dawud Walid is still fighting to repeal the First Amendment and keep Muslims from being offended. He wants to replace it with Sharia law so Muslims can freely beat their wives and publicly execute homosexuals.

How is it that Muslims can say the most hurtful, racially insensitive, anti-Semitic rhetoric on US campuses without the administrations of those schools saying a word no, yet one lone professor on a campus writes an e-mail in protest of the barbaric practices of Islam, he is vilified and crucified?

The behavior of the MSU in regards to Free Speech and other rights is well documented on the net. One just has to read Fousesquawk by blogger Gary Fouse to see what is happening at UC Irvine. And it is happening at every college and university in the US. What the MSU and CAIR are trying to do is first to stiffle free speech, then to impose Shar'ia Law on the US.

Their counterparts have been very successful in doing this in Europe and Great Britain. But unlike those lost lands, the US has the Free exercise of Speech firmly written into the US Constitution. And there are plenty of court cases backing the right of Free Speech. Slowly, on campuses, faculity are speaking out against the MSU. They are challenging their claims, and forcing the 1st Amendment down their throats. I wonder what has taken them so long.

Why People Are Upset With The Health Care Bill.

By Findalis of Monkey in the Middle I find it ironic and a bit strange that in the Land of the Free, elected officials would be using strong arm tactics to silence dissent. Instead of inquiring why their constituents are upset with HR 3200, and listening to their concerns, they are employing hired goons (union workers and members of ACORN) to stifle dissenting opinions. These goons are not registered in their districts, thus are not their constituents. There are valid points that the "Angry Mob" as Speaker Pelosi and other members of the Democratic leadership calls them. Points they refuse to listen to. Here are just a few of the points of contention in HR 3200 that has angered so many: (Just a listing of less then 1/2 of the 1,017 pages of the bill.)

Page 16: States that if you have insurance at the time of the bill becoming law and change, you will be required to take a similar plan. If that is not available, you will be required to take the government option! Page 22: Mandates audits of all employers that self-insure! Page 29: Admission: your health care will be rationed! Page 30: A government committee will decide what treatments and benefits you get (and, unlike an insurer, there will be no appeals process) Page 42: The "Health Choices Commissioner" will decide health benefits for you. You will have no choice. None. Page 50: All non-US citizens, illegal or not, will be provided with free healthcare services. Page 58: Every person will be issued a National ID Healthcard. Page 59: The federal government will have direct, real-time access to all individual bank accounts for electronic funds transfer. Page 65: Taxpayers will subsidize all union retiree and community organizer health plans (example: SEIU, UAW and ACORN) Page 72: All private health care plans must conform to government rules to participate in a Health care Exchange. Page 84: All private health care plans must participate in the Health care Exchange (i.e., total government control of private plans) Page 91: Government mandates linguistic infrastructure for services; translation: illegal aliens. Page 95: The Government will pay ACORN and Americorps to sign up individuals for Government-run Health Care plan. Page 102: Those eligible for Medicaid will be automatically enrolled: you have no choice in the matter. Page 124: No company can sue the government for price-fixing. No "judicial review" is permitted against the government monopoly. Put simply, private insurers will be crushed. Page 127: The AMA sold doctors out: the government will set wages. Page 145: An employer MUST auto-enroll employees into the government-run public plan. No alternatives. Page 126: Employers MUST pay health care bills for part-time employees AND their families. Page 149: Any employer with a payroll of $400K or more, who does not offer the public option, pays an 8% tax on payroll. Page 150: Any employer with a payroll of $250K-400K or more, who does not offer the public option, pays a 2 to 6% tax on payroll. Page 167: Any individual who doesn't have acceptable health care (according to the government) will be taxed 2.5% of income. Page 170: Any NON-RESIDENT alien is exempt from individual taxes (Americans will pay for them). Page 195: Officers and employees of Government Health care Bureaucracy will have access to ALL American financial and personal records. Page 203: "The tax imposed under this section shall not be treated as tax." Yes, it really says that. Page 239: Bill will reduce physician services for Medicaid. Seniors and the poor most affected. Page 241: Doctors: no matter what specialty you have, you'll all be paid the same (thanks, AMA!) Page 253: Government sets value of doctors' time, their professional judgment, etc. Page 265: Government mandates and controls productivity for private health care industries. Page 268: Government regulates rental and purchase of power-driven wheelchairs. Page 272: Cancer patients: welcome to the wonderful world of rationing! Page 280: Hospitals will be penalized for what the government deems preventable re-admissions. Page 298: Doctors: if you treat a patient during an initial admission that results in a readmission, you will be penalized by the government. Page 317: Doctors: you are now prohibited from owning and investing in health care companies! Page 318: Prohibition on hospital expansion. Hospitals cannot expand without government approval. Page 321: Hospital expansion hinges on "community" input: in other words, yet another payoff for ACORN. Page 335: Government mandates establishment of outcome-based measures: i.e., rationing. Page 341: Government has authority to disqualify Medicare Advantage Plans, HMOs, etc. Page 354: Government will restrict enrollment of SPECIAL NEEDS individuals. Page 379: More bureaucracy: Telehealth Advisory Committee (health care by phone). Page 425: More bureaucracy: Advance Care Planning Consult: Senior Citizens, assisted suicide, euthanasia? Page 425: Government will instruct and consult regarding living wills, durable powers of attorney, etc. Mandatory. Appears to lock in estate taxes ahead of time. Page 425: Government provides approved list of end-of-life resources, guiding you in death. Page 427: Government mandates program that orders end-of-life treatment; government dictates how your life ends. Page 429: Advance Care Planning Consult will be used to dictate treatment as patient's health deteriorates. This can include an ORDER for end-of-life plans. An ORDER from the GOVERNMENT. Page 430: Government will decide what level of treatments you may have at end-of-life. Page 469: Community-based Home Medical Services: more payoffs for ACORN. Page 472: Payments to Community-based organizations: more payoffs for ACORN. Page 489: Government will cover marriage and family therapy. Government intervenes in your marriage. Page 494: Government will cover mental health services: defining, creating and rationing those services.

This bill is a recipe for death and disaster. Forced Euthanasia, Rationed Health Care, and a Government control of your Medical and Financial records, with no say from you. Our "Elected Officials" seem to have forgotten that they do not hold permanent positions. They have a "Temp Job" predicated on the supposition that the constituents bosses are pleased with the job they are doing. Today the members of Congress act as if their constituents' bosses' opinions have no merit. Their hubris is beyond measure, with most, if not all of the members of Congress feeling as if their seats are safe and secure. They are not! No seat in Congress is a safe seat. Anger enough of your constituents bosses and they will discover that simple, but basic fact. The time has come for the people of the United States to take back their government. As Thomas Jefferson once wrote:

"When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty."

It is time to stop fearing our Government, but to have the Government start fearing us. It is time we tell Congress that this bill is unacceptable to the American people, that if you vote for this bill it will result in a rude awakening for you on Wednesday, November 3, 2010 when their Constituents Bosses relay the words to them:

You're Fired!

Dear Mr. President

By Findalis of Monkey in the Middle I am not going to wait for someone to snitch on me. I will snitch on myself instead. I am a middle aged white woman, a widow and mother of 2 grown daughters. I am a veteran of the US Air Force and the widow of a retired Air Force NCO. I am the citizen who attends City Hall meetings, School Board meetings, who gets involved in working and demanding good government. I am a citizen. And I am your boss. Just like the other 300 million citizens of this great nation. And I don't like your proposed bill: H.R. 3200: America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009. While there are some good points in the bill, this proposed law does nothing to correct the problems with the Health Care Industry. It forces American citizens into a single-payer plan regardless of their rights and choices. It forces a raise on taxes to Middle Class Americans to pay for this new system. And in the end, it will lead to a system of rationed Health Care that is now in effect in Great Britain, Canada and most of Europe. A system in which the survival rates for Cancer (to use just one example) are lower than the US (the quality of medicine is the same). This is not what the American people want or asked for. What we want is for our existing Health Care Providers to provide the service that they are being paid for. That preexisting conditions be covered. That screening for Cancer on a yearly basis be provided. That necessary medical exams and tests be done. No person should have to go into debt to pay for their health care if they are already paying for it through an Insurance company. And the premium costs should be regulated to insure that the average family can afford it. For those who through their own stupidity or hubris refuse to insure themselves, then they will be forced to bear the full costs of their Health Care if they become ill. It is time that people take responsibility for their actions. In the past Congress has been able to regulate the Health Care Industry. The passage of Newborns’ and Mothers’Health Protection Act of 1996 (NMHPA), signed by President Bill Clinton was a step in the right direction and was done with bi-partisan cooperation. Congress could do it again and such moves would improve the quality of Health Care in this country. I suggest that during your summer vacation you sit down and actually read this bill. Then wonder why no Member of Congress will answer the question: "Would you put yourself and your family under this plan?" I ask that of you Mr. President. If not, why? And then why should I? On a personal note. I find your tactics in trying to pass this bill unworthy of the Leader of the Free World. Having neighbor spy on neighbor, children spy on their parents, friends spy on friends is more the tactics of the Soviet Union (which locked up political dissenters in Psychiatric Hospitals for speaking out) or Nazi Germany (which sent political opponents to Concentration Camps). In the United States, dissenting political speech is protected by the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights. You don't have to agree with what is said, but you cannot prevent the words from being spoken. What your representative, and thus you said was:

"There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care. These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation. Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov."

These are the words of a dictator, not an "elected official" with a temporary position subject to the will of the people. Thank you for your time and patience. I know that you mean well with this idea, but this bill is not the right answer. Perhaps it is time to sit down, examine the issue fully, and do it right, not do it fast. Findalis Monkey in the Middle (http://findalismonkeyinthemiddle.blogspot.com/)

Concord Mills Mall: Simon Malls Attack Conservative Vendor

The Free Market Warrior is a business renting space in the Concord Mills Mall in Concord, N.C. Their lease will not renewed when it expires on July 31, 2009. Conservatism at Concord Mills Mall is racist according to at least one mall-goer. Loren Spivack is the proprietor of The Free Market Warrior. His bumper stickers and posters display messages saying: "Work Harder. Obama needs the money," "Al Qaeda's favorite days: 9/11/01 and 11/04/08," and "Impeach Obama," and "my parents chose life." Jennifer Ibanez is a recent UNCC grad and she wrote a letter to the Charlotte Observer:

Free Market Warrior,” a kiosk located adjacent to Bass Pro Shops, specializes in memorabilia embellished with pro-confederacy statements as well as those opposing both the government and President Obama. In addition, these products support ideas such as racisms, sexism, and even slavery. While freedom of speech is a Constitutional right it’s difficult not to believe that something just isn’t quite right here.

One shopper found the items sold at The Free Market Warrior "racist." The management of the kiosk cubbies told a local TV news channel that the items sold are not "neutral" enough.

Mr. Spivack says he is the only conservative vendor in the Mall, while "plenty of people are selling things with a liberal perspective, with a pro-Obama perspective." Spivack says he is careful not to sell things that personally attack a politician, and wants a fair exchange of ideas. “The material that I sell is about politics and ideas,” he told Newschannel 36. “It’s all legitimate criticism.”

The very liberal Simon Malls forced an Atlanta Tea Party to cancel a parking lot Independence Day Tea Party. Mel Simon is a high-profile Democrat donor. Spivac pointed to other stores in the Mall that sell Liberal ideology, much of it crude and offensive:

If the issue is about causing offense, he told us, the mall should police other stores. Spivack sent Newschannel 36 pictures of several t-shirts and banners from novelty stores at the mall that were so crude we’ve chosen not to share them.

We know what is sold in Malls all over the country. I couldn't shop at my local Simon Mall, Woodland Hills in Tulsa, OK without seeing the most vile messages about former President G.W. Bush - for 8 years! Spivac has lost this battle with the loss of his lease. I hope he can afford to sue, or that someone will come forward and provide counsel so that he can defend his First Amendment rights, and in doing so, protect ours at the same time. Read the entire article and view the video here.

Richard Horton is NightJack. British Blogger NightJack Loses Anonymity

A popular British blog written by a police officer using a name of his choice, rather than his real name, has been told that simply will not work, after a TimesUK journalist took him court. NightJack has been silenced and Richard Horton has been outed.

Richard Horton - NightJack

Detective constable Richard Horton wrote his popular blog under the name NightJack. According to this report, some of NightJack's columns received half-a-million readers a week. In April 2009, Horton received the Orwell Prize for political writing. The prize was a problem, however, because "the judges were unaware that he was using information about cases, some involving sex offences against children, that could be traced back to genuine prosecutions."

There was a lot of attention heading towards my blog and I was nervous that somehow, despite my efforts to remain unknown, my identity would come out. As an anonymous blogger, I was just another policing Everyman but if it came out that I worked in Lancashire, I knew that some of my writing on government policy, partner agencies, the underclass and criminal justice would be embarrassing for the Constabulary. Also, as an anonymous police blogger I was shielded from any consequences of my actions but without the protection of that anonymity, there were clearly areas where I would have to answer for breaches in the expected standards of behaviour for police officers.

Here's how Horton describes his own blog:

My name is Richard Horton and for the last 17 years, I have worked for Lancashire Constabulary. For the last 12 years or so I have been a detective. There is really no other job that I have ever wanted to do. However, for the last 18 months, I have led a double life as the author of a well known anonymous police blog called NightJack.

It all began around December 2007 when I began to read blogs for the first time. I read blogs by police officers from all over the UK. They were writing about the frustrations and the pleasures of what we all refer to as “The Job”. As I read, I began to leave comments until some of those comments were as long as the original posts. Reading and responding made me start to consider my personal feelings about “The Job”. So it was that in February 2008, I made a decision to start blogging for myself as NightJack. That decision has had consequences far beyond anything that I then imagined possible.

My head-on accounts of investigating serious crime and posts on how I believed policing should work within society seemed to strike a chord and my readership slowly grew to around 1,500 a day. I got a book offer but I turned it down because my blog was never about making money.

By January 2009, it felt like I was starting to repeat myself and looking back now, my writing had clearly taken on a harshly critical political edge so I decided to stop writing the blog. Then, unexpectedly, in February 2009 I was long listed for the Orwell Prize. In March 2009 NightJack made it on to the shortlist. I realised that what had begun as a set of personal ruminations was achieving a life of its own. I cannot deny that I was happy with the recognition, but at the same time I had the feeling that the Orwell Prize was a big, serious, very public event. Win, lose or draw, my blog was about to move out of the relatively small world of the police blogosphere and get a dose of national attention.

There's more of this interesting story, including the many offers from literary agents and publishers. Read it here. A Times "journalist," Patrick Foster, gets a few minutes of fame for identifying NightJack "by a process of deduction and detective work," because although others learned NightJack's identity by virtue of the Orwell Prize, no one was interested in giving up the secret. The attorney for Horton argued:

...thousands of regular bloggers . . . would be horrified to think that the law would do nothing to protect their anonymity if someone carried out the necessary detective work and sought to unmask them”. Mr Tomlinson said that Mr Horton wished to remain anonymous and had taken steps to preserve his anonymity.

Horton sought an injunction stop The Times from revealing his name, but the Judge said:

...the mere fact that the blogger wanted to remain anonymous did not mean that he had a “reasonable expectation” of doing so or that The Times was under an enforceable obligation to him to maintain that anonymity.

Horton said his blog was never for sale and he isn't interested in offers from the publishing world. He still holds his job, although he received a "written warning." I noticed the few comments on the article in The Times favored NightJack and one felt that Patrick Foster was out of line for pushing the issue and another saw it as one more "nail in the coffin for freedom." Horton seems regretful of his blogging venture. He regrets the attention directed toward his family and his "Constable." His blog has been deleted and he says it is slowly "falling off the edge of the Google cache." It will be interesting to see if Mr. Horton changes his mind and gives that literary agent a call.

Sakharov Widow: World Ignores Shalit Due to Anti-Semitism

By Findalis
many of the readers of this blog will recognize or remember who Andrei Sakharov was, or his widow Yelena Bonner. Or what they did for human rights and freedom in the Soviet Union. Many say that the Soviet Union would never had collapsed but for the tireless work of that remarkable couple. In the field of human rights, Yelena Bonner is not only an expert, she is one of the leading authorities. She speaks with the voice of the oppressed, having lived through the horrors of Stalinism and Soviet repression. There are very few in the world that can truly speak with such moral authority. Recently she gave a speech at the three-day Oslo Freedom Forum, a gathering in response to the Durban II conference. Here is some of that speech:

…At the age of 14, I was left without my parents. My father was executed, my mother spent 18 years in prison and exile. My grandmother raised me and my younger brother. The poet Vladimir Kornilov, who suffered the same fate, wrote: ‘And it felt that in those years we had no mothers. We had grandmothers.’ There were hundreds of thousands of such children… …Read Sakharov’s Memoirs. It’s a pity his Diaries haven’t been translated; they were published in Russia in 2006. Apparently, the West isn’t interested now in Sakharov. The West isn’t very interested in Russia either, a country that no longer has real elections, independent courts, or freedom of the press. Russia is a country where journalists, human rights activists, and migrants are killed regularly, almost daily. And extreme corruption flourishes of a kind and extent that never existed earlier in Russia or anywhere else. So what do the Western mass media discuss mainly? Gas and oil -- of which Russia has a lot. Energy is its only political trump card, and Russia uses it as an instrument of pressure and blackmail... Russia will remain the way it is now for decades, unless there is some violent upheaval. …They say people are coming together -- but in reality, they are growing apart. And that isn’t because an economic depression suddenly burst forth, and swine flu to boot. [It] began on September 11, 2001. At first, anger and horror was provoked by the terrorists who knocked down the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center and by their accomplices in London, Madrid and other cities, and by the shahids, suicide bombers who blew themselves up at public spaces like discotheques and wedding parties, whose families were rewarded $25,000 each by Saddam Hussein. Later, Bush was blamed for everything, and as always, the Jews -- that is, Israel… So it is about Israel and the Jews that I will speak... At one time, the Nobel Peace Prize was the highest moral award of our civilization. But after December 1994, when Yasser Arafat became one of the three new laureates, its ethical value was undermined. I haven’t always greeted each selection of the Nobel Committee of the Norwegian Storting with joy, but that one shocked me. And to this day, I cannot understand and accept the fact that Andrei Sakharov and Yasir Arafat, now posthumously, share membership in the club of Nobel laureates. In many of Sakharov’s publications… [he] wrote and spoke about Israel. I have a collection of citations of his writing on this topic. If it were published in Norway, then many Norwegians would be surprised at how sharply their contemporary view of Israel differs from the view of Sakharov. Here are several citations from Sakharov: … “All wars that Israel has waged have been just, forced upon it by the irresponsibility of Arab leaders.” “With all the money that has been invested in the problem of Palestinians, it would have been possible long ago to resettle them and provide them with good lives in Arab countries.” …Now, a new motif is fashionable (in fact it’s an old one): ‘Two states for two peoples.’ It sounds good. And there is no controversy in the peace-making Quartet, made up of the U.S., the UN, the EU, and Russia (some great peace-maker, with its Chechen war and its Abkhazian-Ossetian provocation). The Quartet, and the Arab countries, and the Palestinian leaders (both Hamas and Fatah) put additional demands to Israel. I will speak only of one demand: that Israel accept back the Palestinian refugees. And here a little history and demography are needed. According to the UN’s official definition, refugees are considered those who fled from violence and wars, but not their descendants who are born in another land. At one time the Palestinian refugees and the Jewish refugees from Arab countries were about equal in number -- about 700-800,000. The newly-created state Israel took in Jews (about 600,000). They were officially recognized as refugees by the UN Resolution 242, but not provided with any UN assistance. Palestinians, however, are considered refugees not only in the first generation, but in the second, third, and now even in the fourth generation. According to the UN Works and Relief Agency’s report, , the number of registered Palestinian refugees has grown from 914,000 in 1950 to more than 4.6 million in 2008, and continues to rise due to natural population growth. All these people have the rights of Palestinian refugees and are eligible to receive humanitarian aid. The entire population of Israel is about 7.5 million, of which there are about 2.5 million ethnic Arabs who call themselves Palestinians. Imagine Israel then, if another five million Arabs flood into it; Arabs would substantially outnumber the Jewish population. Thus, created next to Israel will be a Palestinian state cleansed of Jews, because in addition to the demand that Palestinian refugees return to Israel, there is also the demand that Judea and Samaria are cleansed of Jews and turned over to Palestinians – while in Gaza today there is not a single Jew already. The result is both strange and terrifying, not only because Israel will essentially be destroyed... Because the plan “two states for two peoples” is the creation of one state, ethnically cleansed of Jews, and a second one with the potential to do the same thing. A Judenrein Holy Land - the dream of Adolph Hitler come true at last. So think again, those who are still able, who has a fascist inside him today? And another question that has been a thorn for me for a long time. It’s a question for my human rights colleagues. Why doesn’t the fate of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit trouble you in the same way as the fate of the Guantanamo prisoners? You fought for and won the opportunity for the International Committee of the Red Cross, journalists, and lawyers to visit Guantanamo. You know prison conditions, the prisoners’ everyday routine, their food. You have met with prisoners subjected to torture. The result of your efforts has been a ban on torture and a law to close this prison. President Obama signed it in the first days of his coming to the White House… But during the two years Shalit has been held by terrorists, the world human rights community has done nothing for his release. Why? He is a wounded soldier, and fully falls under the protection of the Geneva Conventions. The Conventions say clearly that hostage-taking is prohibited, that representatives of the Red Cross must be allowed to see prisoners of war, especially wounded prisoners, and there is much else written in the Geneva Conventions about Shalit’s rights. The fact that representatives of the Quartet conduct negotiations with the people who are holding Shalit in an unknown location, in unknown conditions, vividly demonstrates their scorn of international rights documents and their total legal nihilism. Do human rights activists also fail to recall the fundamental international rights documents? And yet I still think (and some will find this naïve) that the first tiny, but real step toward peace must become the release of Shalit. Release - and not his exchange for 1,000 or 1,500 prisoners who are in Israeli prisons serving court sentences for real crimes. Returning to my question of why human rights activists are silent, I can find no answer except that Shalit is an Israeli soldier, Shalit is a Jew. So again, it is conscious or unconscious anti-Semitism. Again, it is fascism. Thirty-four years have passed since the day when I came to this city to represent my husband, Andrei Sakharov, at the 1975 Nobel Prize ceremony. I was in love with Norway then. The reception I received filled me with joy. Today, I feel Alarm and Hope (the title Sakharov used for his 1977 essay written at the request of the Nobel Committee). Alarm because of the anti-Semitism and anti-Israeli sentiment growing throughout Europe and even further afield. And yet, I hope that countries, their leaders, and people everywhere will recall and adopt Sakharov’s ethical credo: “In the end, the moral choice turns out to be also the most pragmatic choice."

It is time for the world to stop trying to appease the Arabs and listen to the truth. The true obstacle to peace in the region is not caused by Israel, but by the Arabs, who couldn't destroy Israel in battle and will attempt to destroy Israel through diplomatic means. And the world will let them. For it is acceptable to hate and despise the Jews. It is time for the world to listen to the voice of a woman who lived under some of the worst repression that humanity has imposed upon others. It is time to bring Gilad Shalit home.